Fun! This was my best character since Maemar! I don’t get to play CF much these days, so I’m thankful for the chance to really come back in swinging with Dungard, and have a good 2 or 3 month go of it. Unfortunately I no longer have the time to play. I started really playing Dungy in November, knowing that I’d have November and December to really put some time in while things at work are slower. When January came on the horizon I thought I’d be able to still get on a decent amount, but it just wasn’t possible. Every time I have gotten on in January I’ve been interrupted by some RL thing about 20 minutes after sign on - which contributed to a fair number of deaths.

Right now I get up at 6a.m to try to spend some time with my 6 month old son before I start my day. I leave my house about 8a.m, drop the boy off at daycare. Then go to train for the upcoming TKD Nationals that are being held in my home-state, at Detroit’s Ford Field. I get done training about 11:00, shower, and am at my desk working by 11:30 (where I also eat lunch.) I power my way through as much desk stuff (including constant phone calls/emails) as I can before I start meeting with clients around 3:00, a process which doesn’t end until 9-10:00p.m. Then I go home, where my wife (who has to get up at 5) is waiting for the only chance she has to really see her husband. I eat dinner, and completely wiped out, I go to bed. This is basically what I do Monday - Saturday. On Sunday I try to go to church, spend time with the fam, and play some music. Oh yea! Music! I also try to get out and play a couple songs at the bar every week - which requires practice time squeezed in wherever I can find it. Short story long, I just don’t have any time to log on until August…

ANYHOW!!!!

The build, my thoughts etc.

Dungard was really a role based character. I wasn’t really intending to play CF when I came up with him. I was chatting with a friend after reading some of my old Heas logs, and I was like, “Dwarves are so much fun!” I sorta got this bug in my head about a bar room brawling dwarf (h2h spec) who grabbed whatever improvised weapon he could find (hour past midnight.) I wrote the role without rolling the character, read it, thought it was really funny, and decided to just play it. One thing lead to another, and along came Dungard.

Sidenote: I’m really bummed the continued story of Dungard’s contest-winning role didn’t get played out. The next entry was going to be about how Marshall BloodFist became a paper pusher, spills ale on his papers, then pounds out his frustration on an orc… oh well.

So anyhow, I didn’t really pick h2h or hour for their strengths, I picked them because they fit the role, then I just filled in around them as best I could. I took mace as my second spec, and was not at ALL disappointed. I’d take it again in a heart beat, and in fact I have an idea for a really strong build for the future involving mace, but that is neither here nor there. For my second legacy I took Greeting the Avalanche. My thought was that I would wear a mark of the crusader and Dern gear, wield an exotic, and be able to bash most anything to death.

This didn’t really work out most of the time. Evade and new dexiness stuff has really dealt a bad hand to that type of character. It will still work, but not nearly as often as it used to. This being my first warrior since they lost haste, and my first character since dex changes I really didn’t have a good feel for what fighting with a warrior is like. Consequently I ate a good 30 deaths. 30 deaths I would NOT eat again now. I guess I just didn’t realize what a difference haste made, and how quickly things can go wrong when you don’t land melee attacks the same, and directed attacks can be evaded. It was just a different formula that I wasn’t figuring out right, and when the fight was close the net result was me losing.

So when the original idea didn’t work as expected, and I wasn’t a Maran yet, and I had eaten like 30 PK deaths, and a bunch of mob deaths and my con was down to the teens already, I was just about ready to give up. But, because I really liked my role I decided to stick it out, try some new strategy and keep on trucking. I’m proud of myself for sucking it up (I’ve never had a character with 30 PK deaths) and things really started to turn around for me.

I won the role contest and got a couple h2h/brawling edges and Whispers. Eventually I took all the regen edges and along with whispers, regeneration was just insane. A lot of times I’d leave somewhere hurt, and by the time I walked to safe place to rest I was already healed up. Coupled with “Battle Tested” my regen time, even on the 1400hp I had was only a few ticks for full health. I could regen as much as 110hp a tick while standing, and as much as 240hp the FIRST tick sleeping. While not always this high, it was consistent enough. Add this to the dragonslayer edge, and I could kill all the dragons in the dragon tower in about 20 minutes.

I also got a lot smarter about using the full range of my spec skills. Boneshatter + vital was great, because I could play the timing. First I’d drop boneshatter down, then I'd wait for a command that lags my opponent two rounds - vital (one round lag for me) - wield exotics - bash. As long as the bash wasn’t evaded or missed, that usually meant death for anything but dagger specs. High dex dagger specs gave me the most trouble, and after having tried EVERYTHING against them, I finally figured out that the best thing I could do was prep like crazy and bash.

FWIW, this is my 3rd h2h spec at hero… and I just really felt like it was underpowered compared to what it used to be. (even after the tone down) I didn’t master ironhands until very near the end of my 250ish hours, and that was with A LOT of ironhands tanking. I think that could use some looking at. *shrug* All in all, I probably won’t be back to h2h again. Mace, yes- Hours, yes - Avalanche, yes - Whispers, yes - H2H, no.

Goodbyes to follow…

I don't care what anyone says, you were a dude to be reckoned with, and I always had to uber prep to save myself....strong fights, stronger will.....when that little #### looted you from under me, I was soo pissed, anyhow, more when I'm gone...Keep them coming

Ig

I'm still kicking myself over that fight - not so much cuz of the loot, but because I had every opportunity to swing that the other way - but I foolishly miscounted the lag on your flurry. Oh well!

Past Chars heroes that I can remember: Irchunma, Ansellius, Valmascus, Sewlon, Sewlindon, Warborf, Faelmort, Maemar, Waeldyn, Wuntarro, Faotaebul, Jaegrudai, Heas, Len, Sensel, Dutaelmian, Dargmart, and like 15 more that I’ll remember after I hit the “post” button.

Just wanted to say that the old Warborf/Kamba period of the game when I played Karnavex were some of my favorite in my many years of CF. You two oozed fun and gamesmanship. I dont think any of my chars interacted with Dungard but thanks for what you bring to our small game. Later bro and I'll see you in the fields.

Wow, I really appreciate that! Those days were the golden era of CF for me too. This is actually the most consistant fun I've had since then.

See you in the fields!

What did you think of the brawling edges? Did you use them much in pvp combat. Oh and did you see an increase in your h2h melee damage after having them?

Cheers,

NMTW

I had all the brawling moves at 100%, and I had versatile pummeller and <something> brawler that would make knee and elbow possibly land twice. The combination was nice because it *almost negated bad pummels. However , pummel didn't seem to do even Dungard as many favors as it did Heas - not sure why. I wonder if h2h got another, smaller tone down, or everything else has just slowly gotten toned up? Whateve.

Never noticed additional damage on my punches. Also, Heas seemed to punch steady ***dems whereas Dungard was doing get to get MANGLES. I geared them pretty much the same. Go fig.

Immortal:

Kastellyn: Thanks for all your interactions! It was really hard to grab you at first, and hard to grab you toward the end there - I really felt like the Kastellyn/Dungard/Legend part of my story was left as but a shadow of what it could have been. Probably my biggest disappointment with this character. The training session with Xarturo (or whoever) and the time that you and Cezar and I chatted are two high points of this character.

I had a blast coming up with my title and last name, and I hope you appreciated the role entry about the BloodFist Clan starring Kastellyn. So what’s the deal, could I have been a tatted follower?

Ysal: Thanks for the chat at the end, and your continuing interactions throughout my life. Bummer that you came out with your religion after I’d started praying to Kasty. It would have been really cool to follow a dwarf god. If I ever roll another dwarf, you can bet I’ll be showin’ up in yer shrine der, yer immortal fargress!

Baernika: Haha! I LOVED the way I got to play Dungard around you, and I don’t know if you were just role playing, or if you were role playing off my role playing - but telling me to watch my mouth was priceless. I really liked that Dungard/Baernika was sorta like a drunken sailor having to talk to the pope. Shifting from foot to foot, afraid to talk because you might swear, and wondering if the holy person is going to smell the ale on your breath. Classic!

Thanks for the crack at Marshall. I TRULY thought I’d be able to keep it up, but as time has gone on it’s become obvious that I can’t. Very sorry to let you down.

Braemir: Always fun talking to you! Thanks for the support and occasional pep talk. Good luck in imm land.

Llorenz: AAAAAAAAAARRRRGH!!!! I don’t know if YOU know how many times you duoed right before I was about to get the jump on you - or how many times you UNdoed just as I was walking away from my computer. (Like that time on forest road.) It was always frustrating to fight you because your gear did so much. I don’t know how many times getting “fear” put on me saved you. Or how many times that the pincer staff lagged me clear through to your next neuro. And off course there is the time your gear PWK’d me. I really think you didn’t get enough credit for how scary you were because you had to live in the time of Ravon. In my opinion you are 10X the character that Ravon is. Very, very good job - way better than I will probably ever do. GOOD LUCK!

Fortress:

This is my 4th leader char in the Fort. The preceding three were much, much tougher to get past in terms of induction. I believe I was the 2nd or 3rd person ever to be in the Maran Cabal. Back in those days Shokai had to induct you, and that was only done after quite a bit of being watched. I maintained that attitude for a long time, and my interviews were ridiculously tough. Dungy was much, much easier going about it. I figured, hey, I’m busy - other people are busy - not everyone has the time to go through a long induction process. Just let them play and have fun with it. I had a lot more plans for things I wanted to do to further the education of squires, I just never got around to it before RL took over. Maybe next time.

Darascus: My #1 partner. Man, when you logged on I always knew there was about to be bloodshed. Together we were pretty much unstoppable. I thought your RP was a little to standoffish to be fun for me - but if it was fun for you I’m glad. Keep on trucking, player, you da man.

Laellana: Had a blast teaching you to be more dwarfy. I could never tell if you were losing link or just quiet. What gives? Keep on a’truckin’!

Pesawwkt: You were awesome! I guess I already said my goodbyes on your BF post, but YOU said something about me pissing you off and that you’d wait for me to delete. Out with it! :-) Waaaait a minute……… I think I might know… something you said when I was deleting, am I crazy???

Nolyek: Send me an email man - sorry I never got around to you. vigil@plymouthtkd.com. Wish you didn’t delete.

Kelteon: I was always rooting for you! You were kind of like the 3rd string special ed kid of the Fortress. The one that always drops the ball, but no one kicks off the team. You cringe every time they take the field, but inside you are pulling for the day they score a touchdown.

Angaarn: I’m bummed we never got to play more. I was really looking forward to avalanche bash + cheapshot. You are the brightest of those I inducted, I’m really rooting for you to do well.

Kilthig/Donnagal: You bastards! Why did you go and delete leaving me the lone dwarf in the fort?! I have to say, when you guys gave up and both kinda said that dwarves weren’t that great anymore as warriors - it was really hard for me to stick it out. I hope I showed that a dwarf warrior can still hold his own in this day and age.

Battle:

Cezar: Too bad you were evil! I could never bring myself to dislike you. You were a very tough opponent, and a very lucky one too. You and Werzidian always managed to evade critical things at critical times. Well played, and very deserving of drillmaster. Best of luck!

Yevandr: Not a fan of the choices you made as a Villager, or the choices you made for the Village. I can’t BELIEVE you never got the smack down for killing the tara’bal and hunting mages inside the fortress. I mentioned it to Yean at one point, who said she had never witnessed it, but if she did she wouldn’t tolerate it.

Harol: Good, fun fights! Glad I finally repaid the ass kickings you gave me there at the end!

Philisringa: My favorite villager! Inmo a throwback to the glory days of the Village. Thanks for being a trooper!

Doriach: I wanted one more fight with you. Sucks that all I had to do to own you was bash, I know. I wanted to show you that I could beat you with out it too. Oh well. Keep your head up, camper.

Scion:

Sousidan: Great fights, great fun. Thanks for all the battles.

Chririkaw: You were like, impossible to beat in the 40s, then impossible to lose to at hero. I have to admit, I was thrilled when you deleted. Invokers make everything hard. :(

Zanadir: You and I had a fun (and long) relationship. I really enjoyed our interactions both on and off the battlefield. Well played character,. Good luck!

Igbah: You and I are friends in RL, but there were certainly no holds barred between Iggy and Dung. Lots of fighting, lots of looting - I loved it all. I’ll have more to say when you delete.

Empire:

Zridv: My arch nemesis through the 40s, then never around at hero. :( We had some great fights. I really feel like you gave up on going toe to toe with me too soon. I think you still could have held your own just fine, even after I got avalanche. Man, if you have that log where I killed your two groupmates on Kiadanah, then you chased me into Arkham and died at the healer I’d love to see it. That was fun!

I think I probably used 50 teleport potions and spent way too much time on water for a dwarf just because of you. :)

Chirkaw: Thanks for being a stand up thief. Though you were a challenge, you made a deliberate effort to not be frustrating to the players behind the people you were fighting. Thank you.

Outlander:

Werzidian: You tough bastard! Dagger specs were very hard for Dungy. You are another who seemed to evade a lot. Very well played, very tough. Good luck!

Throkk: Fun, fun fights! Wish we had more. I liked your RP, but unfortunately for our interactions, Dungy just didn’t have much to say to a fire giant who hated dwarves, lived in the woods, and didn’t frequent bars and pubs.

Nexus:

Iltch: Wow! You are the best thief I have ever seen. I personally don’t like the Nexus cabal, or the RP it creates though - so that really put a strain on our relationship. Way to be a bad ass.

I’m sure I’m forgetting a whole bunch of people, especially from the early ranking days (where I had some of the best interactions.) By all means, reply and I’ll reply back.

You were a really fun enemy, and it's a shame we never got to tangle at hero. Here's to hoping you come back with another.

Paddy

Yea man! Do you realize that we rolled at EXACTLY the same time? We were in the great portal together, and our #### talking relationship started right then! I don't know if you realize that "Padraig" is how the Irish and Germans say, "Patrick" - hence my calling you "Patty." Who know that that dwarf/duergar posturing would carry on until Dungy's dying day!

Yevandr: Not a fan of the choices you made as a Villager, or the choices you made for the Village. I can’t BELIEVE you never got the smack down for killing the tara’bal and hunting mages inside the fortress. I mentioned it to Yean at one point, who said she had never witnessed it, but if she did she wouldn’t tolerate it.

You should damn well know that villagers, and especially berserkers, are hunters who go after their prey where ever they hide. I never struck the fortress unless a mage was inside, all they had to do was leave the area and so did I. So blame the mages for hiding in the fort if you didn't want me knocking on the door. Now maybe if I was doing it to try and draw people back to the fortress or to take the orb then there would have been a problem but as far as I am concerned there is no difference between cracking a guild vs a cabal, except with the cabal everyone else logged on comes back to help your victim.


We had some fun fights and I liked dungard, I normally let villagers handle their own business but you were so damn effective at smashing the tar out of some of my kin that I just had to step in now and then. Now that your gone though thats one less person to stand in my way as I try to kill darascus. When your done kickin butt in RL come back and give a villager a try.

>...except with the cabal everyone else logged on comes back to help your victim.


Let's be careful with throwing that word around.

;)


j/k Yev

We'll have to agree to disaggree on Battle killing outers, but yea, fun fights. I think one of my better moments was killing you on the Open Sea (as you were guarding the 3 on Kiadanah) then going in, killing Aritu, Doriach and Anamanue - then getting killed by Pissudin. Woah! Bloodshed!

>Darascus: My #1 partner. Man, when you logged on I always knew there was about to be bloodshed. Together we were pretty much unstoppable. I thought your RP was a little to standoffish to be fun for me - but if it was fun for you I’m glad. Keep on trucking, player, you da man.


I can't say I didn't see this coming, but it sure sucks regardless. Dungard was great right from the beginning, and I wish I could have jived more with the roleplay you were putting off, but unfortunately Darascus is a bit of a square in that regard (intentionally).

Goodbye, and good luck with whatever you do.

Kastellyn: Thanks for all your interactions! It was really hard to grab you at first, and hard to grab you toward the end there - I really felt like the Kastellyn/Dungard/Legend part of my story was left as but a shadow of what it could have been. Probably my biggest disappointment with this character. The training session with Xarturo (or whoever) and the time that you and Cezar and I chatted are two high points of this character.

I had a blast coming up with my title and last name, and I hope you appreciated the role entry about the BloodFist Clan starring Kastellyn. So what’s the deal, could I have been a tatted follower?


You caught me at a really good time: Christmas break. We didn't go anywhere this year, so I had plenty of time to MUD every day. Fast forward to January...not so much. So we sure did end up missing each other towards the end.

You would have been given the tattoo the next time I saw you, following the posting of your bard tale. I just never saw you. Just a combination of both of our times not meshing as well as they did in the middle.

All in all, you were a great character. Loved the role, loved the RP, it was obvious to me you enjoyed the character. You were also pretty damn effective, especially against evil villagers. I loved watching you wade into two or three of them at a time. Never afraid to take on bad odds and lay the smack down.

Sorry your time ran out; I feel that way as well sometimes. It's hard to make time for the things you enjoy (besides family) - the me time - but it's really, really important. Good luck with the tournament, and we'll see you again at some point in the Fields!

Kastellyn the Devourer of Magic, Lord of Legends

*** Email me your testimonials or two-line blurbs. Help our marketing efforts! ***

Get Kastellyn's tat has been on my list for so long now. It hurts to know I was so close. Oh well, what can you do? Maybe I'll slip you an Abe Lincoln and get on the fast track next time ;)

I got pretty excited when you showed up at Kasty's shrine that day and I found out more about you. I knew that there would be some good fighting, interaction, and maybe a little competition in the future. I thought Dungard was awesome, and I think we had some great battles that went both ways. I always wanted to ask what your thoughts were on the hour past midnight choice? I had that legacy choice planned out before I met you and thought it a funny coincidence that we had those similarities. Well done!

You did get me a little excited that time you came and saved that invoker, Ahnia?, outside the village. I had her set up for the kill and wham here you come. Then about 30 minutes later she's killing people with Ravon. I thought about complaining more about it to you, but, figured what the heck. I just used it as a rp opportunity since there was a bit of rivalry between the two characters. I can't blame you for it at all. But, was I frustrated! *grins*

I think at the time I thought Ahnia was a goody. Oh well. Dungard wasn't big on ganging people unnecessarily (apart from a few times when someone happened upon us on the way to a cabal raid) but he would always jump in to save a dying lightwalker.

Hour past midnight... I think it works well in conjunction with other well chosen legacies or specs. As a dwarf it provided me with a lot of good melee, and was easily the best thing in my arsenal for fighting mobs. Better defense than my hands or maces, but probably not as good as a defensive spec choice. Better offense than my hands, but inferior to maces. I might take it again, but I'd use it a little differently. FWIW, I think the payoff is lower for a high dex race.

>Throkk: Fun, fun fights! Wish we had more. I liked your RP,
>but unfortunately for our interactions, Dungy just didn’t have
>much to say to a fire giant who hated dwarves, lived in the
>woods, and didn’t frequent bars and pubs.

Yeah, I mostly just came up with some deriding banter, but I still caught the dwarven vibe from you just fine. You were always up for a fight, which was super cool. Thanks for the fun! I seem to recall a good fight which started in Udgaard and ended in Galadon I think, both of us fled more than once, healed up a bit and went back into the fray.
Great fun.

I remember Heas being a cool guy too, way back then. Keep trucking and make those fun chars.

Heh, well I time my characters poorly, always have, but this
thing of me trying not to mess up a player took over half of
what a thief is built for off the table ya know? Next thief
is gonna be more thiefy, and so will end up seeming cruel
to the players... since I can't bring myself to be that way
at least it will be a long time form now. *rofl*
Some good fights, I'll admit though the first time I ran
into the superbash I was surprised and didn't even notice
what was happening until too far into the fight. :)
Then it was just... uh oh! Get ready to head back to the corpse.
Hah!
Good luck with the next.

I really enjoyed Dungard. This role was excellent. I read it and thought, now there's a guy I wanna mess with some. What came next? A restrung wide bronze belt as a filthy dwarven loincloth, and a series of random interactions with me as a plump dwarven woman. Man what a blast I had with Dungard. GLWYN

I always just assumed you were Ysal! Hah! Well thank you very much for all the divine xp and attention. I actually don't have a clue who you are -- shows how involved I've been lately.

That first interaction with the dwarf woman was hysterical, surprising and fun. Much thanks!

Thanks, and I hope I do well also. I had a great time running around with you when we took down Masha, we would have made an incredibly deadly trio.. Darascus you and I. Thanks for the vote of confidence see you in the fields.

Shame neither of us could really make much happen with it. Was fun trying to ambush you after you were done getting your potions though heheh.

G'luck with your next.

Yea, I always wanted to fight with you more. Just never seemed to work out where I could meet you on equal turf. I was always hurt from fighting mobs at the afformentioned location - or you were ranking with people on kiadana. Oh well :(

I enjoyed the interactions we did have. Much respect!

n/t

asdf

But honestly you were one of two warriors who bashed me that well. It wasn't lethal for me but you made me worry few times.

asdf

>>>Braemir: Always fun talking to you! Thanks for the support and occasional pep talk. Good luck in imm land.<<<

Bah, going to miss talking with ya you dwarven Bastard. I think you did pretty well considering the limited ability I have to observe people :) . You were a good presence in the Fortress. As far as pep talks go, apparently its what I do :P

Dungard you ol sumbabitch, I remember fighting warborf tooth and nail with one of my anti-paladins. You were one of my 3 pk deaths to fortress after I got to hero, you ended something like a 80 pk killing spree when you beat me down in the fortress. You had a great build for fighting transmuters, I know it seems like our fights were onesided they really were not. There were plenty of times you beat me down solid without any help from darascus. I really enjoyed having you around for an enemy, a classic character that would have become a legend if you had just stuck around longer. I look forward to you returning to this game we all love and hate.

Llorenz

We had a lot of really good fights through the years. You were a tough bugger to fight thats for sure. You could tear me up way too fast, and add to that a very good lagging ability, and I wasn't having much fun. I like to fight good fights, but I must say, I don't consider getting bashed to death "fun." I will say that some of my best fights were with you one on one and neither of us fell. I hope things slow down for you in the future so we can split the "role contest" again. Later man.

Instead of Chirikaw. And yes, dwarf hth spec maran is not easy to kill as a voker. Resist magic and undispellable flight and a ton of hp make it hard. When you were with Darascus, it got doubly rough since greeting could really sour my day.

I always got you and that imperial thief confused. :)