Even if I change my mind, I won't be back to where I have internet access before the deletion is completed. I spent all of yesterday thinking about it and almost did, but an Imm talked me out of it. I'm just REALLY tired of Mergen. No title, no tat... I don't get it. I don't feel like burning through the last 17 deaths I have left in me to finally die. It's gotten to the point where it's no longer fun to play, so that to me says it's time to go. I started doing really stupid stuff just for ####s and giggles. I was real impressed with how tough Mergen was. Nexus druids are way more powerful than Outlander druids. Vanguard is seriously underated. Mostly I felt like a lot of what I did was unappreciated. I played Mergen like NO other player in my life. He was quite possibly the strongest char I've ever had and will have one of the worst PK records I've had in a LONG time. ALL Mergan wanted to do was to make a spot of the Arailian desert a forest or field permanent. That was the goal I had set out.

Lots of you were my friends, some of you were cool challengers, most of the people I fought I found to be... find a tacftul word... unwilling to step outside your comfort zone and see what your class could really do. Boring.

I rolled Mergen up to check out a Yean druid because I was really inspired and what not one day. It was fun... cool religion. Lots of interaction. Real good Imm. Probably going to be pissed at me for deleting. Oh well.

Also I wanted to see some of the new druid changes. LOTS of cool stuff. Good work to whoever did it. I'll have to make another one that isn't a yean druid to see the shape changes.
I'm not going down the list, say what you want. I'll be gone for a week or so.

PS Druis are NOT that strong, it's just that most of you have NO ####ING clue how to fight one. Finally some of you did and I started daying a lot. Oethipius is a good example.

Anyhow, say something if you want. I'll get around to responding when I get back from vacation.

Very nice character. I enjoyed battling against you basically my whole life from 30's on up. Once we both got to hero you became a big challenge and huge pain in my ass. From what I recall, I won't be disappointed one of the Forts main spotter's is gone. So, other than putting you to sleep, how about some recomendations? Any tips would be appreciated. Thx.

Yeah, I'd call them and tell them where you were if I couldn't bring you down because a Mummy just simply needs to die. Mummies and liches were one of the types of characters that I'd gang under just about any circumstance. I was surprisingly good at finding people without a condor form.

Full army will definitely improve your odds.

Sans army I'll just say the counters to everything you have.

Heroes feast cures poison and crimson scourge, but it costs 100 to 150 mana, maybe even 200. So if you DO get them to sleep, you have the timing down perfect with the sleep/forget stuff. So instead of PWK, try energy drain to suck the mana out. If you can get them to where they'll drop to 200 mana there's a fairly good chance that they won't get off the prayer because it's probably still at 75%. Then they have to decide if they want to cancel the blindness and get herbs, go for the heroes feast, or mend wounds and hope they survive. They might decide to go treeform and wait it out since treeform doesn't drain mana (at least last time I used it it didn't) and it's possible to be completely undetectable by all except rangers standing beside you (piercing gaze still can see it). If you get them below 100 mana, that's the only trick a druid has to survive the scourge. I remember with Grecken, Satebos had a near incurable blindness. But since then, the timer for heroes feast has been shortened, so it will be harder to find the druid and re-engage (which was a good way for him to kill Grecken).

Sans sleep, if you come out guns blazing they are just going to run away. So before you plant the forget, try to do something else to waste some time to get them to overextend themselves. Try a scourge, but as I'm sure you noticed, decompose is a FAST prayer so they'll get off about two for every one of your spells. And it can and WILL unspeak you under the right circumstances. If a druid EVER finds you unprepped under those circumstances, just get ready to die because you won't be able to react in time. I NEVER fought you prepared to kill undead. Every fight we had was spur of the moment off the top of my head.

BUT to be honest, I had herbal regeneration, which most high level druids will PROBABLY have because under a new moon, it simply rocks. No amount of poison and diseases and bleeding will beat a 4 to 6 curative herb pumped regen without a malison on it. Though healing curse shuts it down completely. The good news is that it's impossible to get the super powered decompose AND the super powered herbal regen at the same time, but a hero human druid can get close. Also if a druid has full curative herbs, they have no defense and rely on hit and run if you are putting out any kind of damage. Typically on the waxing and full moon a druid will have fewer defensive minded herbs. On the waning and new you'll see less offensive minded stuff.

Under a full moon, I'd simply try bashing the druid's skull in with damage because the healing they can do won't be as good and it will cost more mana to get back to 100%. Under a waning and new moon it's quite possible that you simply can't put out enough damage and I'd go for a shaman-esque kill. (Our fight in Udgaard was an example of such. If I could have stopped all the dirt kicking, you would have died or teleported). If you find that they lack a lot of str gear and a single weaken or what not drops a weapon, losing parry against an army can kill a druid.

Druids can get lots of edges to resist the damage of an army. I had one which took off a bit of damage. Your zombies did Mangles and demolishes and after the edge it was rarely more than a massacre. But I was surprised at the number of druids I spoke to that didn't have that edge on their list. (It's not any of the great cycle stuff). But ghouls you can relatively always have on you and against a druid, there's almost no edge that can stop what they do. The improved undead parry edge doesn't affect ghouls. So its always a plus to have a ghoul.

That's about all I can really come up with. I've never actually died to a druid before except as a druid because I've played so many of them. As undead I'm PRETTY sure you're immune to thornheart, and I'm almost positive spores is a waste of time. So if you see them trying that stuff, take that opportunity to slap on a malediction. Primordial vengeance is bad. I have a log of it permalagging a conjurer for about four or five rounds. If a python or shambling mound is constricting or smothering you, you might not be able to move at all. So consider being VERY conservative against that set up, unless you have an army. ESPECIALLY under a waxing moon when those moves are going to be more prevalent and the druid's undead killing ability drastically improves. Quird was MUCH better at killing mummies than I was, so when he finally kicks the bucket, you can as him some tips that would probably be better than mine.

That's about all I can offer. Conservative druids are hard to kill, so good luck, as most druids are VERY conservative. I was bat #### crazy as Mergen and would run into a fight I knew I'd lose just to see how long it would take. Be VERY careful with these type of characters as they will find subtle weaknesses that you simply won't see.

If another MF responds here, Imms delete it. I'm saving this for one of the most interesting Imm's I've interacted with. Seriously dedicated and awesome. Gave me full empowerment on the first run. I DIDN'T have to come back, but I did because it was just that much fun. Yean, I'm sorry I was an ass, I love the time we spent and what we did together. Please folks, leave this for Yean and other Mergen related Imms to comment.

And just so you know, I gave you empowerment to 35 on the first run :p Subsequent increases were based off follow up conversations.

I will say Mergen had a very interesting goal. I wanted to do something about the dew collecting machine when I got back from India & Thailand. You did a good job playing with the handicaps (loss of forms), and make the first hero druid of the religion.

On the other hand, you seemed to be playing drunk 3/4 of the time. All those multiple weird ooc prays and notes you sent ruined the char for me some. Next time you're drunk, please don't log in ;)

Quird has been a thorn in my side for awhile (like calling the Hunt on me when I'm fighting a villager...or worse, primordial vengeance) so I figured you would be nasty as well. Then you tried to attack me in Galadon and nearly died from me just auto-attacking back (I didn't want a flag if you fled/returned). Sadly you died to the mummy though as you tried to run out of Galadon....

Anyways, balls of steel for doing that.

I didn't get to see a whole of the character but it seemed like you were always in the middle of something.

I'd be interested in discussing the class with you if you care to.

robertodom79 at gmail dot com

Really enjoyed discovering all the druidic quirks with you, and felt you really gave up a lot not shapeshifting. That you still were so beastly in fights definetly means you'll kick 3 times more ass with the shifting options. Although I imagine verdant lord and herbal focus helped you out plenty. Having the extra herb really does make quite a difference!

Together, we weren't just unstoppable in pk but a damn good exploring team. So much bad luck exploring recently though, it always seems to be my partners who suffer instead of me. Hope you learned some neat stuff. I've learned so much with this character I'm having to keep big piles of notes to keep up! See you around, and I agree that a Nexus druid would probably kick waaaay more ass. Especially with initiate of the desert, the island has a fair sized desert playground and it's extra maledictions screw ragers in long raids. Also, this is my first druid and you really did help a lot by explaining some things. There's bits and pieces I've had to figure out solo but you filled in such huge gaps I can't thank you enough. Have a good one next time.

Jesus... I thought you might be an Imm as tight as your RP is. You taught me a LOT about the druid class and I spent 600 hours as one single druid char beforehand. Though I will admit there were things you said that I had counters to that made you think. Quird was my FAVORITE char to hang out with. Yean even made a comment about how often I mentioned you. Hell, if you want so share druid notes, shoot me a line at stuart_ferguson25@yahoo.com. I seriouly know a lot of druid stuff. You asked me to come to the huntress and I asked you what the #### did you ask me to do that for? "I wanted to see how fast you could run." That moment you and I were best buds. If you had been behind me on even a third of my kamikazi runs, I wouldn't have died and the opposition would have fallen as dust. Sometimes I felt like you were the superior druid and often times you were. I'm just happy that the wisdom I passed on to you was recieved. You will be one DEADLY druid. It was you and your interactions with me that helped me to hang out so long. I can't praise your char enough. Some Imm should give you Imm xp just for the praise I give. Your char is awesome. I hope to see your calibur often in the fields.

Seriously. This is the BEST rp'd char I've interacted with in a while. Give him my left over con. Give him some xp, give him my title of THE verdant lord, not Apprentice Gardener. This char is awesome and trust me, I know awesome char's when I've seen them. I fought Istendil and Zorsaul and I was there for Llorenthos and Mynyar. Quird is A+ material.

Handicapped yourself with being unable to utilize all your communes though. Which isnt bad.

You were a little more restrained though then with Grecken :-p!

Grecken was THE most conservative player I've EVER played. Mergen was the complete opposite. Go in, stir up some stuff, get someone killed and hope it wasn't me.

Yes, you died less. But we also got to run together more. Bad yean.

Just form what you did twice in front of me recently.

It was fun, Always keep my guard up more when you were around.. Well druids in general but yeah. All good things I remember about you.

Think we both had respect for each other after, I didn't let my guards kill you link dead out of range, and you didn't finish me when my computer froze up on me.

See you around

I wouldn't have done that craziness if I hadn't lost interest. Those lieutenants are a little bit too strong for a druid to deal with. Believe it or not, I had stoneskin AND shield for both of those. Didn't seem to help much. If you carried around an army of zombies AND lieutenants, I wouldn't even set foot in town and would have walked off from where ever you walked in.

```

The good:
You were willing to throw down at any point which is awesome. You were fairly dependable. Your rp when it was in full swing was really cool and interesting.

The bad:
I was considering uninducting near the end for you seeming to go kamikaze like you did. The only reason I didn't is that you tended to take at least one person with you if you went down.

But dont feel being suicidal should get you removed from the cabal. Running rampant in galadon is often fun. And often dangerous given scenarios.

I felt the same way, which is why he stayed. :) I was also being leaned on to thin the ranks though too by Jasthrean.

I hear ya. Just use your best judgment I guess. Though jasthrean I still think Jasthrean is a tool who needs to step up his activity. Else need more active Amaranthe or Lyristeon to really make the cabal glow properly.

I didn't interact with you much, but I enjoyed our one low-level spat. You were scary fast and aggressive I was surprised I managed to kill you. Although I do wonder why you attacked me; were you a Nexan yet? Your thornheart got me a few ticks later. GLWYN.

Strengthen removes one of your big weaknesses (hp).

Your regen improves.

You have beastcall, windwalk (both important) chamo (msasively useful), deadfall and supersecret power that's very nifty. You can pretty much prey on weak enemies.

You don't really give much up that druid powers can't replace.

Nexus gets dam redux and in theory has to hunt the force in power, plus is less suited to wilderness, which could mean less wilderness time. And you aren't in the wilds when you are defending your cabal.

Disclaimer: I've played druids in both cabals and I'm not making an argument that one or the other is better in general here.

>Strengthen removes one of your big weaknesses (hp).

Out of curiousity, how many HP do you think strengthen is?

I don't think I've ever seen more than about an extra 100 hp come out of it total, and that's the very high end.

Which isn't bad, but in terms of being able to take a beating, pales badly in comparison to Vanguard.

Windwalk is roughly useless for a druid. The rest of the power set is pretty solid, though, and I agree with you about the home cabal terrain (up to a point).

13 places you can conceivably place it..so at the high end, you can have:

12 x 13 = 166 hp.

Rings, necks and such cant be strenghtened. Weapons dont give health. I would say you can get about 50 hp from strenghten, aswell as some damage and hit roll.

You can't be serious. Recently? If so, I'm missing out a LOT when I played my outlander (besides the super secret thing).

13:
Ring
Ring
Neck
Neck
Head
Face
Torso
Arm
Hands
Legs
Feet
Body
Waist

Certain necks can be strengthened. I seem to recall strenghtening a ring, but I'm not sure.

Strengthen depends on material, not slot, from what I recall (maybe besides rings). Never seen a strengthen do + dam + hit though.

Don't think you can strengthen weapons, but haven't tried.

Nep is right, 100-110 is like max on high end. I have spent a lot of time in the cabal and always as a druid so I could strengthen every slot except rings and 10hp is the max I've ever gotten on an item.

You can strengthen weapons and it gives hit/dam but no hps.

I know 100% I strengthened hide of the yeti for 12 hp on my last outty (3 months ago or so).

You can get 12 hp if you're really lucky, but you're right in that you can't strengthen every slot. In practical terms I don't think even druids or someone with access to one can typically strengthen even every available slot -- usually I end up with some things I can't strengthen but that are good enough that I still want to wear them.

Dunno. I felt like I got about an extra 150hp or so, permanently. Which makes a big difference.

Windwalk was nice because it seemed less dispellable than flight.

Had fun with you on eastern/the couple of times we set up traps in growth. Was a blast, Although your play style didn't mesh with mine, as I tend to be a bit more conservative than you seemed to be! Hope to see you back in a druid soon!

Hakdu!

I'm usually MUCH more conservative. But that's a trend I'm trying to break. My last char was a crash test dummy, this one was the epitome of crash test dummy. My next one will probably be a silent drop in the pond while I think up another cool role. I might even go back to my roots and role up a herald, put a little shine back on my RP (cause I think it's starting to slip). But I'm on a one druid per year limit. It would have to be one seriously kickass role to put me back in a druid skin anytime soon. I have a total of 900 hours in just two druids.

You were nuts. Nuts I say!

Like Daevryn I was impressed by your sheer bloodthirstiness. But you seemed a little too reckless at times. I figured it was just the character's role-play. Kudos for following Yean and giving up condor. I'm not sure I could handle that on a druid.

Yeah... crashtest dummy. The sad part is is that if I had one and a half people back me up in my crazy attacks, like a group of two to run in and play clean up, a LOT more damage would have been done and we probably could have ended up with Gzurweeg's whip. I get the feeling that that happened a lot though, cause I'd start counting the bodies after I died.

And I think I'm not the only one that was just a little bit put off by all the prays you threw up. Some were random, some were bitching, very few were IC or about something appropriate to pray about. Your IC speak also felt a little bordering on ooc to me when I'd watch you.

Other than that, man you would throw down and I really respected that. When you logged in I knew there was going to be a fight somewhere. You took your various deaths pretty well, though at the end you were starting to lose it a little. I don't think any Tribunal were trying to #### you over with confiscate. In fact, I think it was the opposite, but you treated them like they were. Maybe that was IC actually but...I dunno.

Good luck on your next.

But definitely a good possibility at late nights. I was pretty intoxicated the night Yean empowered me and when Jasthrean inducted me. I died a lot because of it. I also take Klonopin in the morning, and that makes it real hard to type sometimes. But a lot of what you talked about is the reasons I lost interest in Mergen. I felt my role slipping but I tried to keep on trucking. I'll try to keep that stuff down in the future.

Yeah, that was my other goal. To push myself and see just what I could survive. My next druid will be very very deadly because of all the cool things I learned.

Welp gotta go. Be back in four five or six days.

I always thought this was a Myth....

Will miss Desert Priest.

Was Khain first friend in West.