Fri Aug 11 19:48:20 2006

At 8 o'clock AM, Day of the Great Gods, 19th of the Month of the Long Shadows
on the Theran calendar Dolza perished, never to return.

Race:	cloud
Class:	warrior
Level:	51
Alignment:	Neutral
Ethos:	Neutral
Cabal:	BATTLE, the BattleRagers, Haters of Magic
Age:	419
Hours:	452

Dolza will stick out in my mind as a good counterexample to the theory that a good cabal member makes a good leader.

As commander? Bleh.

But as a Rager? Great, solid job. Very well played.

Heh, and I will totally admit that I suck as a Village Leader. I am a very independent player and quite anti-social. Leading the Village forced me to be the complete opposite of how I normally play and I know that I am just not vocal enough to lead the village the way it should be. Being Commander was a lot of time commitment and responsibility, things my schedule did not really allow me all the time, so I did what I thought was best for the village and stood down allowing Iasolar to lead. Thanks for the opportunity to lead Kasty, it was a great learning experience. And thanks for all the headbutts Ordason, heh, I needed a lot of guidance in leading the village because apparently, my experience in finding my way into the village was not the norm and when I treated applicants the way I was treated, you slapped me around silly. Was good stuff. At least I learned some of the rules the hard way and other seasoned villagers learned from my mistakes because they didn't know the exact rules either, eg. the bracelet of charms bit. At least it finally got a magic flag as it should have had from the beginning.

I wasn't entirely sure how I was performing as a villager since I got absolutely no immteraction after I stepped down as Commander. I always tried to fight alone, didn't loot and I tried to be a very independent cloud giant. My characters are loners and quiet by nature when I play and I know this bled through in this character as well. I wasn't sure how this would be taken in the village. At least now I know that I wasn't half bad as a villager berserker. Thanks for the feedback.

My only regret about Dolza was the timing when I joined the village. There were next to no villagers in it and I am not the sort to mass induct throwing game balance out the window. Those that I did induct, just didn't seem to show regularly. The Fort and Outlander were in huge numbers during my leaderhsip and Empire and Scion were almost non-existent. I was bored to death for about two-hundred hours of my life, fighting Zilopza and Gondrak over and over again, although I did enjoy those battles. I had to do something to give the village some purpose and something to do so I declared war on the Fortress (which a lot of people seemed to enjoy) and then the tribunal. At least blood finally got to be shed, albeit for only a brief time. Those were fun times I will say.

My personal experience with a warrior and battle? Well...it took a LOT of getting used to. I had never played a warrior before and I found out quickly that weapon organization is the cornerstone of playing them. Once I figured that out, in time I actually became pretty good with Dolza and learned how to use my specs and legacies fairly well. I know I must be rager #1 that Aarn is referring to in this post...

http://forums.carrionfields.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=6&topic_id=11504&mesg_id=11535&page=

I sucked as I came up in the levels with Dolza but I gradually got used to him and finally learned how to use him properly at hero. I think that was why my PK ratio improved dramatically at hero. It was actually more difficult to kill at the hero levels with enemies always being prepped and in numbers, but I finally figured out what a warrior and villager can do and that more than made up for the difficult PK range.

Death blow and ragers are not overpowered. After finally playing one, I see now what they are all about and they have some glaring weaknesses. I killed less with Dolza than any of my characters and died about ten times more frequently. They are damn tough to play and I have much new found respect for them. I know if I make another one, I will do much, much better.

I have been around for a long, long time and I have met so many people that farewells would be too lengthy. Post a farewell and I will respond.

But here are a few that really stick out in my mind...

Kruuank/Ulzammon: You were a great opponent and I really liked your attitude OOC. We had some great battles. I know I pissed you off and almost made you delete with Ulzammon but I am glad you stayed around. Perhaps our paths will cross again one day if I have time to play.

Mhardat: I despised you. Your tactics were entirely one dimensional, though I can't really blame you. Dolza had your number and the only way you would be killing me was with rot. The time I killed you in the dale cemetery when you tried to recall after being entwined and finding the area cursed gave me so much satisfaction, you have no idea, heh.

Gondrak/Zilopza: I really enjoyed our battles. I was in my learning curve when we fought and I gradually improved from all of our fighting. Soon I was able to lay a beating on both of you individually. Then both of you had to go and IMMort, bah! I thought the two con you both took off me in your tag teams of me would come back to haunt me. Guess they didn't, heh.

Razmorthin: One mean assed conjurer. You put necros to shame in the sheer number of charmies you toted around. I knew we would have some good battles but the time that really got to me was when I was retrieving the head from the empire and got blinded by a defending necro. I manged to kill the necro while blinded and was quite hurt. On the last hour of my blindness, while waiting for it to wear off, you came in and finished me off. Talk about good timing on your part. Good battle nevertheless.

Kragathian: We were two war-torn, grumpy old veterans at the end there. I didn't know who was going to go first. I believe I did induct you way back when. Was great sharing the Village with you all those years. A pity my time to play became less and less. I wanted to age die or con die Dolza. Ah well, good luck on your next.

Bah, I'm tired and there are too many names to remember. Thanks everyone for giving me something to do this passed year in my few and far between spare moments.

Dolza

> At least now I know that I
>wasn't half bad as a villager berserker. Thanks for the
>feedback.

I'd say you were half-bad early on. A year ago I wouldn't have had anything good to say about Dolza.

But, you know, I think you did really get better about it over time and grow into it, and that's really all we can fairly expect of anyone.

I loved to hate you. You were the only neutral Hrugald attacked on sight, and it gave me an interesting RP twist just throwing myself at you blindly. Dolza started an rp trend in the village, and I think Dolza did it well, but the echos in midrankers were just annoying. I then had Vranth and fought along side you and saw a different side. Very ornery character, prone to pissing people off, but you did your thing, and didnt give a #### about the consequences. Props for that.

-Larcat

You were the second most favorite shaman I enjoyed fighting (Mhardat being the first). Your dwarven roleplay was excellent and I knew we would come to blows eventually. Diplomacy with the Fort was wearing thin as you all continued to fight the evil villagers at the giant because you had nothing else to do with the Empire and Scion being in such small numbers at the time. It was inevitable that the Fort and Village would have some friction. I was all for it and declared war. That raid of the Fort with Varthas was one of the most memorable experiences I had with Dolza. I had never had as much fun as that raid. You were the only one to get out in the nick of time there. Good stuff. You are right that I did what I wanted without caring for the consequences. Getting villagers into the fray was what I wanted to do to try and make things more interesting and fun for everyone. Hrugald epitomized the dwarven priest in my eyes and I thought you pulled him off well. Thanks for the battles.

Dolza

Well to start, I guess it was funny enough how we got thrown into the fray. (Commander/Drillmaster) heh.. being the only two to show up for the Rites. I wasn't prepared for much leadership either in the early part and was more or less right with you just pushing along. Agreed, that the fights were a bit sparse for a bit, but I think that had a lot to do with play times for a bit. Tribunal war was just a bit stupid imho. And I think it took the morale out of what little ragers we had left, but I stood by you in it. Umm... the rest of the time I think we had some fun kicking some tails around and towards my end you sort of disappeared along with the rest of the crowd. Had fun and glad you enjoyed the character as I did. Luck on whatever comes next.
BattleScout

It was fun though. I enjoyed your company as well. The fights were way too sparse though. I tried a villager expecting balls to the wall and fighting everywhere. Instead, all I had at the beginning was interview after interview and almost no mixing it up. The few villagers we did have, a bunch were evil and were always fighting the Fort since Empire and Scion were no shows. It was tough for me to just stand by watching my villagers getting whomped by paladins and shamen of the Fort and doing nothing about it. Almost all the evil villagers at the time wanted to war with the Fort and when the Fort came in and Faltern sacrificed our item in a misunderstanding, that was enough grounds for war in my eyes. It was very brief but fun. Your death at the destructor by a vindicator was enough to declare war on the tribunal. We needed something to do badly and for the vindicator to come and strike the destructor, well, Dolza would not stand for that. He felt that all other cabals should keep their affairs out of the village. Besides, I play to fight, not trapse around the village playing tiddly winks. I was a berserker and loved fighting and I got almost nothing for two hundred hours. This was part of the reason I stepped down. I didn't want to make any more policies and have other villagers asking me to fight these people or those people and of course time was an issue as well. I thought you were a good Drillmaster and was sad to see you go. Luck on your present character.

Dolza

asdf

Had hoped to get into BATTLE with Ghimvhall to fight alongside you, but alas, it wasn't in the cards.

Hope you have more time to play in the future.