Tue Dec 15 08:17:09 2009

At 9 o'clock PM, Day of the Moon, 35th of the Month of the Heat
on the Theran calendar Ustul perished, never to return.

Race:	human
Class:	thief
Level:	48
Alignment:	Evil
Ethos:	Chaotic
Cabal:	BATTLE, the BattleRagers, Haters of Magic
Age:	40
Hours:	160

I believe the record was 2-0 in your favor. You were a fun opponent, I almost had you a few times but you were always able to slip into the shadows at the last minute, which is how you killed me twice trying to get you foged haha.

Very well played villager, very good job of using the tools you had to maximum effect.

Well, this was only a matter of time. I took a week off to see if I could get back into the char, and found myself with no desire to log back in. Since I only have a few hours each week to play, it's not worth it to play a char that is more a chore than fun. Ah well...

I played this char mostly solo, including solo ranking up pretty much to 42 (think I had a group for 3-4 levels in the 30s). Partly due to 1-2 hours a night to play just a couple days a week which makes it hard to find a group and part due to the fact that there were rarely people with which to group (mainly mages/enemeis). If I had it to do again, I definitely would not have ranked into hero range when I did. Once there, I felt useless and found it hard to find foes to surprise, as thieves do best. It was fun taking it slow though and all the mid level fights.

A few goodbyes, as I am horrible with names:

BATTLE
Dins - Man, you were a blast to be around. Always made me chuckle. Missed having your presence around.

Growwlis - Thanks a ton for helping me rank in the 40s. You were a solid presence in the village.

Sarux - Same goes for you, but in the mid ranks. You seemed to share similar play times, or at least you were often on when I was. It made it a bit easier to retrieve/level in the 30s with you at my side. Although, still not a fan of poisoner thieves :P

Ioram - Man, you went balls out whenever I saw you. Of course, it seemed like more often than not I was seeing your corpse :P It might be fun for you to try a class that can hide, and pick the right time to strike. That's one of my favorite things about thieves.

Matren - Wow, you flew up through the ranks and were always willing to lead the charge. A pity that I fell sooooo quickly in our raid on Empire. Entwine at inners = death sentence for me. Hindsight, I should have sat below and let you all have the fun, waiting for them to flee :P

Yean – Loved our interactions. Thank you VERY much for everything that you do :P

Thror – I believe it was you as an Immortal over CB the time that we got a lecture for dying trying to retrieve (if not, I apologize). It left a sour taste in my mouth, especially since we had killed one of three defenders, a set of centurions and would have gotten away except for the fact that a fourth Imperial logged on. You said we should use strategy, and we did try to do so by splitting them up. Perhaps in your eyes we deserved the lecture, and that is fine, however when the only interactions are negative it just makes me wonder why I am in the cabal. It would have been nice to get some props or hear you give it to others, at some point just to boost my morale (of course, you might have only seen the few deaths I had).

Rest of the village: I know there are a ton I am missing out on, feel free to comment and I will respond!

EMPIRE
Irwien – Our first meeting was one of the most amusing fights I had. Was working on steal, no weapons wielded when you came up and tripped me. Somehow, fled through the cheapshots and trips, wielded weapons and ended up killing you. You were always willing to go in a fight.

Wuuble – Man you seemed to be everywhere. That fight with Thrym was hilarious. No powers, no way I can retrieve with you around and you fell for it. Of course, I then died at Cents immediately after as another Imperial logged on. *sigh*

Other imperials: forgetting a ton of you, I know. We had some good fights, and some really lopsided ones. All except for the last death (entwined at inners during a raid) I came back to my corpse nearly full and that was definitely unexpected but welcomed. Thanks for that, and I tried to do the same in turn.

NEXUS
Rhyaldrin – Sorry about stealing your prep bag shortly before you deleted. However, I knew that if I left you with one flail, I was dead. The only reason I survived the first time you had me entwined was due to robbing all your spare weapons before hand. You were definitely a tough matchup for me.

Omsomqua – Heh, pincer much? :P A whirl or weaponbreak would have turned some of our fights in your favor. As it was, straight damage when I had vuln exploiting weapons ended up in my favor.

SCION
Majheg – Man you are tough. We had some good fights, and I got lucky taking out your familiar that one fight. Critical hit trumps damage reduction on familiars and parting block took care of the rest.

OTHERS
Lirad – You always seemed to find me. We had some great fights, and if vulture had pounce when near death, you definitely would have gotten me a few times :P Thanks for laying off that last time we saw each other and focusing on the Imperials. A rager without the head and with three imperials in range + you flying about is rough.

Thoughts on the build:
Went thug up to earclap, which I never ended up using in a fight. It might have helped win some fights, but since I had hide, I could pick fights that I would not need earclap to win. That and having to remove weapons and fight barehanded, just never saw the need to use it. Parting block and payment of the coward were by far my two favorite skills. Parting block did not land as often as I would have liked, but when it did it often meant I got a kill.

For the second path I went up to acrobatics in city ties (once I had devious versatility). Of course, I got acrobatics not long before deleting, so I did not get to fully test it out. It seemed to fire often though as I got help spamming it up. The stealing skills were meh to me. I never perfected steal and the only time I put them to use was with Rhyaldrin stealing all his spare weapons so I didn’t get entwined. Overall I probably would have gotten more use from some other skills. Oh well though.

Once I hit hero range, it became much harder to land kills. Between people always seeming to fly, to having ABS. My 700 hps with gear just didn’t cut it anymore :P With as few hours as I have, it just isn’t worth it to play a char that cannot seem to accomplish anything. Oh well, on to other things!

Thanks everyone for making the character enjoyable! Feel free to post your thoughts and I’ll try to respond.

Ustul, aka Verdelyeb, Satrian, Sirrion, and lots of others here and there.

Solid - definitely had fun with you as Sarux, and you're right about poisoner thieves ;) I had thief envy...

A hearty "BAH!" to whoever gave you crap over CB, considering you were one of the more die-hard and scary villagers during my time.

Good luck with the next.

Torak

~

Hahahaha...Wow, I had completely forgotten that name :P Of course, I have a hard enough time remembering my own char names

but I was secretly quite glad and have played very few females since that time :P

-----Abernyte

nt

Liked fighting you a lot. I never knew where you were but it was usually where I least expected it. Those backstabs doing 60% of my health really smarted too.

Good luck your next.

Heh, and you managed to twice catch me in a retrieval :P

And just think if I had mithril weapons for those backstabs! I did enjoy fighting you, knowing that I either had to pour the damage on quickly, or end up with no strength and bleeding. You definitely made me want to play another dagger spec. Thanks for the fun fights!

Ustul

I don't usually think a badass is an imm, but in your case I did. I figured you had to be snooping me to find me. I would teleport, not even know where I was at and get backstabbed by you. Fortunately they always made me wimpy and I could teleport again.

Good job and good luck on your next.

Pen

Heh, I credit Luck for that :P Thus Ustul became a true believer in Luck as the same thing seemed to happen VERY often. I seemed to have extrodinary good fortune finding people I was hunting for, including random people sitting at Market Square without protections/fly.

The problem with thieves is if they were flying, I had to rely on backstab with a hope of parting block. It got me quite a few kills, but plenty got away because I could not keep them around. Next time, I think I would drop the city ties path and take up blackjack in hopes to knock them out and wait out fly (especially with discern spell).

Hey no probs, Ustul was a good char from the few interactions we had. Was going to MageSlayer you but seems like our hours don't overlap well at all. Anyway, thought you let you know you were up there. Glwyn!

Is it somehow related to Solace?

sirrion the juggernaut of battle. Were they the fire giant who revealed at the end he was also a shadow?

Yea, more Shadow spy than anything and never ended up doing much with it. He was my second caballed char way back in the day (first being an AP in Masters who couldn't find my own cabal....). It's amazing thinking about all the changes coming from warriors back in the day with no weapon specs to now. And all the hours spent playing :P

>Thror – I believe it was you as an Immortal over CB the time
>that we got a lecture for dying trying to retrieve (if not, I
>apologize). It left a sour taste in my mouth, especially
>since we had killed one of three defenders, a set of
>centurions and would have gotten away except for the fact that
>a fourth Imperial logged on. You said we should use strategy,
>and we did try to do so by splitting them up. Perhaps in your
>eyes we deserved the lecture, and that is fine, however when
>the only interactions are negative it just makes me wonder why
>I am in the cabal. It would have been nice to get some props
>or hear you give it to others, at some point just to boost my
>morale (of course, you might have only seen the few deaths I
>had).


It was me. I've seen so much recklessness out of battle, it's hard not to comment at times. You have to remember, Battle is about mastering the Art of War now. Not running head first into your own death.

You were a very, very good thief. I saw quite a few of your kills and thought highly of your ability to PK. This is exactly why I felt Battle (predictably) walked into a situation which was heavily in the favor of the enemy. I was hoping you, or another villager would plan out a more appropriate strategic approach to retrieving.

You guys literally walked in, one at a time and got beat down and stripped of all of your armor...each and every one of you. That's much more of a defeat on morale then the few words I had to offer.

You had the right idea about sending the younger villagers in first to clear the Centurions. Unfortunately, the hero-ranged ragers went in and got a beatdown at the Cents before they were cleared out.

That's not smart (nor strategy) given the odds. Several other immortals commented the same while watching the incident.

Good job with the next character. He was definately a solid villager.

>You were a very, very good thief. I saw quite a few of your
>kills and thought highly of your ability to PK.

>Good job with the next character. He was definately a solid
>villager.

Just curious since I'm sticking up for my buddy here - but why not didn't this ever translate into any loving for him? Just seems like another case of the "great!" comments on his goodbye thread but he got nothing but complaints like your intervention while alive.

He's probably too nice to admit it but I think he should have got something...at least a "good job" every once in awhile considering he had more mage kills than almost everyone (by my guess). He probably would have age-died this character if there was any interaction at all.

I can't tell you how many 'attaboys' I give battle. I am positive I gave this character at "least" three.

It's rediculous how often I praise people in the cabal. On the same note, I am also very blunt when I feel Battle has done something borderline stupid (see my previous post).

While this may not always equate to a quest skill, or a shiny new title - it tends to be sufficient.

Heck, I started a Battle specific quest last night and got a total of 0 people show up for it. Can't blame a guy for trying.

Yea, I know that I got some "attaboys", it was just going from that to a lecture that lasted through ghost state combined with a rough time landing kills in the hero ranks that spoiled my interest in the char. Especially as in that particular instance I thought I was doing what a BattleRager should. Split the forces, kill one of the three and strike while they were still reeling. We likely would have made it out fine, had not a fourth Imperial logged in.

Not saying that in your eyes I did not deserve the lecture, as I did die when you explicitly said not to die :) I just did not see what else I could have done, as I would have felt cowardly if I had remained hidden until I killed all three (would have been hard to seal the kills on all three), or waited for them to log.

I do want to say thank you for all that you do for the Cabal. I'm sure that I'll make a return char for the Village at some point :P

Because a lot of people get wrapped around the duallity of it. It's a band of prideful warriors who show courage and ferocity in battle.

And while I am by nature a concervative player, I feel a lot of pressure from in that cabal to fight against overwhelming odds.

It's most frustrating when I hear this from characters who can hide and move about with realative ease. Here I am a duergar warrior who if he even peeks on the Eastern is going to die a horrible and overwhelming death, to Empire,Scion, Nexun, Outlander, Fortress gank. Just because I have a thief or assassin scout/defender doing small hit and run attacks against these guys.

What else can I do other than try to make a token appearance then run off to hide while the raids finish or what ever.

Change the name from Battlerager to something else if you don't want warriors wading into battle and swinging about in furry.

I personally think "Resistance" for Berserkers and Berserkers only should scale and they get a form of Ehren Soul skill. For every enemy engaging him past the first he get's tougher and harder to lag.

If you think that free resistance, spellbane, deathblow and haste on a stick is not enough...Granted ragers can die terrible deaths but it's just a price for amazing powers and not gatherinf preps.

They are mediocre in my opinion.

are you ####ing serious? Speaking strictly about the powers themselves, villager powers are the ####ing BEST for running around and killing lots of people. Other cabal powers are really good, too, but aren't focused as purely on landing successful pks.

Now, when you look at what you have to give up to get them, it's much more balanced. No q teleport, q return or heal heal is a hefty price to pay.

szdfvasdv

nt

But yes, village powers are the ####.

Each cabal has a give-and-take with their power.

Ragers can't use magic (the worst give) but get the equivalent to stoneskin/detect i/cure blind + spellbane (which is the best power, by far).

Scions get a charmie that scales by level, an ability to pump out multiple charmies that steal and do transmuter spells, an ability to nearly double their health. Not to mention an ability to summon a creature that defiles any natural area (which means rangers/druids etc get shafted). They give up: 1) Have very few allies in the cabal (low cabal numbers).

Empire gets the best powers if you get Emp or one of the 4 council seats. They, on the other hand, get hunted by every cabal in the game to an extent.

Most of the time, just looking at it from a straight powergamer aspect, the villager is LAST on my list almost 99% of the time.

And I know you were pretty much arguing this, just wanted to expand.

>Because a lot of people get wrapped around the duallity of
>it. It's a band of prideful warriors who show courage and
>ferocity in battle.
>

You will be surprised..courage does not equate to stupid. No Battle imm or leader is going to encourage a suicidal retrieval against bad odds or anything like that. Now if you can't handle your own fights on a normal day, yes there might be a problem there.

>And while I am by nature a concervative player, I feel a lot
>of pressure from in that cabal to fight against overwhelming
>odds.
>

I understand this pressure..I've played suicidal elf battle bard that lost half her con by rank 40. So I tried to stop doing that with Yean. (Tried, because by nature I am not a conservative player :p) Part of the thrill of being a zerker is to dive in headfirst with the probability of emerging victorious..so if you're the conservative type I don't think you'll enjoy the auto DBs of zerkers very much. Have you tried a defender, perhaps? You might actually enjoy that. It's fine to lean a little on the conservative side with them too, as long as you're not neglecting cabal duties or running away from every single fight that comes your way (why join a pk heavy cabal then?).

>It's most frustrating when I hear this from characters who can
>hide and move about with realative ease. Here I am a duergar
>warrior who if he even peeks on the Eastern is going to die a
>horrible and overwhelming death, to Empire,Scion, Nexun,
>Outlander, Fortress gank. Just because I have a thief or
>assassin scout/defender doing small hit and run attacks
>against these guys.
>
>What else can I do other than try to make a token appearance
>then run off to hide while the raids finish or what ever.
>

If you know you are going to die a horrible death on eastern..why even bother peeking? It doesn't make sense. One important thing you need to learn as a rager early on..is when to retreat and how to escape and disappear fast.

>Change the name from Battlerager to something else if you
>don't want warriors wading into battle and swinging about in
>furry.

Change the name...what?

>
>I personally think "Resistance" for Berserkers and Berserkers
>only should scale and they get a form of Ehren Soul skill. For
>every enemy engaging him past the first he get's tougher and
>harder to lag.
>

This sounds like a free legacy for Berserkers. No thanks.

The problem that I see here with this is that sometimes Imms are not consistent on what they want out of people. They tell us to retreat and pick your battle wisely, as we should...from reading in the war room. THen, when a route is occuring and someone dies but the rest get the heck outta dodge, they chastise everyone because the one died. I think that stinks of talking from both sides.

Anyway, I try not to take the random immortal comment, which seems to typically be more negative...personally.

In my circumstances.

Hey, didnt get to interact a WHOLE lot but you were a fun person to have around when our playing times interacted and from what I could see you were doing fine. Cya in the fields.

I liked you and you were always willing to tussle with folks. Now you up and delete!! Punk!! Anyway, I honestly was looking forward to some of the things we were going to be able to do...but alas, i'm out one Kingpin!

GLWYN