I wanted to throw a few comments out about this characters build. Alot of people thought I was nutso using daggers with a giant. I had read somewhere that some dagger skills such as stab and underhand were based on strength. So, I thought I'd give it a shot, but, I needed a way to use them and not totally screw myself with the poor defense they would offer. I decided to pair daggers with maces and use HPM and Balance. Basically, I used the exotic in the main hand to provide myself with some type of defense and used my offhand to maeldict with maces and daggers.

I actually found it to work quite well. I don't know my pk stats but I think I did quite well. Any imms able to fill this in for me since the PBF isn't working?? I do want to say that warriors were a pretty tough fight for me. This was an excellent build for mage fighting though. As for the skills, certain dagger skills I didn't even bother to try to use in pk. I was surprised to find that hurl was very reliable. Stab was also reliable and did do some significant damage. With the Cuendillar dagger I would get Oblits on stuff with no protections. Underhand was decent, but, I didn't use it too often. Artery was iffy and it got worse against higher dex races so I scrapped using that. Hamstring I didn't even bother with.

The one thing that surprised me was how unreliable boneshatter was! Hurl and stab were far more reliable than boneshatter. I have no idea why... My basic tactic set with Manno was to open with a hurl and then boneshatter, which would give pretty significant stat reduction in 3 rounds, and then either stab or cranial. The only problem was that boneshatter never ever landed on the first try.

If I were to do this build again, I would pick a storm giant to minimize the vulns and take advantage of that nice goodie only rager gear(one of which is an exotic). I almost did, but, changed my mind because I had a role in mind that didn't really fit the storm giant race. Also, because I really wanted to see what the 25 str would do with those dagger skills. The vulns for storm giants are nasty and tough to get around, especially since holy weapons are so damn common in the game.

Lastly, a few good byes

Daevryn: Thanks for the chat. I wish we could have done more, I think I was getting really close to accomplishing that first goal. I tried visiting your shrine a few times to see how close I actually was but you weren't around. I even asked Thror, but, didn't get an exact number from him.

Thror: We interacted a few times. Thanks for that. Its nice that you are a presence and throw out those contests and quests. I never did well in any of the contests.

Knac: Your a cool commander. I think your doing an excellent job. Maybe I'll be back in your village sometime soon. You're also a bad ass.

We fought a few times and I thought you were classy. I didn't think you were particularly deadly the first time we fought. My character is still kicking--albeit very rarely because work has me out of town almost all the time--so I won't name my name. Maybe you remember breaking into my guild in Udgaard, attacking me, NOT HITTING ME AT ALL!!!, and then fleeing out when you realized I was AFK. We talked very briefly when you said essentially, "Whoa, realized you were AFK and decided that would be a ####ty way to die." Thanks for being a cool player and doing that.

So then we arranged for a fight in the dwarf forest not long after. I expected to wape the walls with you, but you landed a boneshatter on the first try (I don't care what you say, you landed it on me every time) and my dex went to crap. Then you proceeded to abuse me. I was feeling pretty cocky going into it, since you couldn't hit me before, and had 8 levels on me. So much for that!

Take it easy.

I attacked you and another rager, and you fled pretty quickly. So I was feeling kind of smug, and thinking it was because you thought I was pretty tough. Then I killed that rager and went for you (me still at around 85% hp), and you knocked me down to about 30% in a couple of rounds, hardly taking a scratched. So I ran off like a wimp and after reflecting, realised that you were actually doing what rbw's should, and not piling in on someone else's fight.

So well done, basically!

Hey thanks. Who was your character? Or is he still alive and kicking? Taking on two ragers like that and killing one is a big V in my book.

nt

>The one thing that surprised me was how unreliable boneshatter
>was! Hurl and stab were far more reliable than boneshatter. I
>have no idea why... My basic tactic set with Manno was to open
>with a hurl and then boneshatter, which would give pretty
>significant stat reduction in 3 rounds, and then either stab
>or cranial. The only problem was that boneshatter never ever
>landed on the first try.

If I told you what the success rate on boneshatter was, you probably wouldn't believe me. :)

>Daevryn: Thanks for the chat. I wish we could have done more,
>I think I was getting really close to accomplishing that first
>goal. I tried visiting your shrine a few times to see how
>close I actually was but you weren't around. I even asked
>Thror, but, didn't get an exact number from him.

For what it's worth, I was keeping an eye on you and started trying to catch you as you were getting close, but our times just didn't seem to line up at that point.

Is the success rate of boneshatter based on anything besides skill?

Unfortunately, my last mace spec only got boneshatter into the low 80s, but I know I failed 6-7 times in a row before landing it (on NPCs) sometimes.

PS: That's no selective memory either. I thought it was missing so much more than say jab or doublethrust at the same skill percent that I made a trigger to count the misses and echo the number every time I hit.

It's definitely mostly skill based, and it's a lot more effective at high skill than low skill.

arrglebarrgle

I had real scorn for you for most of your life. You were the epitome of the crappy behavior that several villagers exhibited for a while there. Mostly until you heroed. I don't recall if you were one of the giants who used the town healers while you were applicants, but if so, that's just blech. But more spefically, sitting in the village and not fighting except for at the giant when you are a giant berserker warrior is just pitiful and sad. And I've played plenty of giant berserkers, I know exactly what you had and what you faced, and you were doing exactly what you accuse others of doing. It was pretty awful. And this was before I was high priestess or empress, and sometimes even when I didn't have the codex.

Once you got to hero you were somewhat better, at least about coming out to fight, so ok.

Your fighting was fine most of the time, maces are always going to cause trouble for a shaman, and the dagger helped because bleeding messes with a shaman's mana regen. You didn't think a few steps ahead though and that was why you had some trouble, at least in the first half of your life. You got better at that too, which will help you if you play another.

I have to say you were a real thorn in my side for much of his life. I even wrote a role entry about you. It basically came down to the fact that the first few times we fought I did chase you and got over extended and died. I never used a town healer with Manno, which is also why I died. During the lower ranks fighting you near the Village was simply a matter of survival for me. Knacnar used to feed me gold coins every time you were around so I could keep healing the poison/plague in the village. Lastly, if we had the codex, then I stayed put in the Village.

I can definately understand your point, but, please look at it from my stand point. In the lower ranks if we fought a far distance from the village, I might make you retreat at first, but, I would be plagued and poisoned (don't forget cloud giant vulns) and you would heal yourself rather quickly and return. It was basically game over at that point because I would be half dead and out of moves. My whole role entry was based on this very topic. Dying to you because you essentially could easily wear me down. Now, as I got into the hero ranks and got my second spec and legacies, this became less of an issue and I was willing to tussel other places.

So, I apologize if that left a bad taste in your mouth. Sometimes some characters just have your number and you have to do what you can to change that. No one likes to die repeatedly, especially to the same stuff over and over again.

You did very well as a presence in the Village. I'm not quite sure what Melelmememememememememememememem is talking about considering each time I watched you, I saw calculated risks without the stupidity of walking into a well placed bait/trap.

You had some pretty epic fights against Koch and defended well against some pretty significant odds. I didn't once see you use a town healer although I understand that some clarification (and perhaps hard-coding) needs to be made on this topic.

An overall good character. It's really a shame to see some of the finer players deleting rather than living out the age of their characters. I'm interested in what kinds of incentives we can place for characters help see more longevity.

I've got a few thoughts for the immortals to discuss about this.

Anyhow - great job and good luck on the next.

Thanks, as far as deleting I think I felt I had taken this character as far as it was going to go. I tried the giant dagger thing and think I am ready for something a bit more serious. Maybe I'll give another Thror follower a shot and hope there isn't another p-file purge!

I think it would be a great idea to start rewarding characters for longevity. Maybe a small skill set that is directly tied to the # of hours a character has lived. Or even just rewarding them by handing out more edges, legacies and quest skills. In fact, I'd love to see more quest skills in the game. I think they add awesome uniqueness and flavor to the game, despite never having had one. I just know that when I see a character who has something unique like that its a motivator to me, because I'd like that kind of perk for a character I've dumped 300 hours into.

As it is right now it seems that 90% of the cool stuff is handed out via role contest and for me, I never really do well in the role contests, so I'm kind of stuck in that pool that never gets the extra perks. When playing Bartis it would have been great to have been given somthing unique for him, like the backfist skill or something along those lines.

I really hope you do start rewarding longer lived characters more. It it makes them a little tougher, so what. Longer lived, more experienced heros should be a little tougher than younger characters, even at hero.

Small boons for longevity would definately be a great way to keep characters around longer. Also I think sometimes character plans don't meet reality once you reach hero ranks. I know right now I have a character I really like however I don't like the build I created and it constantly has me wanting to try something else.

Yeah, you know what, #### you. You don't post on this guy's thread and then you decide to by way of taking a shot at me? Yeah, very professional.

As for you Manno, yeah, I know what it's like, I've played the cloud giant berserker many times. And beaten shamans with them many times. Not saying it's easy, but it's also not a reason literally to not leave the village.

Also, running out of moves is why bloodthirst lets you walk. Many times there's a path home. Many times not. But that's part of being a giant rbw. It's not supposed to be easy every time. Nobody is suggesting (contrary to what thror says) that you walk into elaborate traps all the time. But not coming out at all? Bad form. Like I said, you got better at hero.

What you, personally, can manage in terms of getting back to the Village from far away while thirsting is an order of magnitude better than what I've seen anyone else in the last five years or so manage. I've seen you survive situations this way that everyone else I've seen in similar situations died.

In that sense, it's probably not fair to hold other Battle berserkers up to the standard of what you can manage because in that specialized area of Battle survival, for whatever reason, no one is in your league.

I can totally out maneveur graatch as a villager, and I can do it without having to argue about what out maneveuring is. and argueing the definition of is, and the definiton of out, and the definition of villager.

:P

Way better than 99% of the playerbase.

Course, you could take your own advice some times :) (Typical Nepenthe comment on game balance skill: "I haven't died to that in some time").

Tee Hee.

>What you, personally, can manage in terms of getting back to
>the Village from far away while thirsting is an order of
>magnitude better than what I've seen anyone else in the last
>five years or so manage.

And not to mention not really fitting with the spirit and RP of the bloodthirst power. Using Bloodthirst's lack of movement drain to run away from a fight just feels icky to me when I do it. Not that I've never done it, but it shouldn't be a normal, recommended course of action, imho. Should be a slap on the wrist when it happens, or the skill should be updated if it is intended to be more of a tactical power and less of a enraged one.


Hutto, the Sleepy Nitpicker


'Sorry, I'm not 72323slhlst. Or however you say Elite'
-Vynmylak

Woah Ragesaurus. How did I take a shot at you? By making light of one of your character's name? I didn't realize you were so touchy. I'll lighten up on you in the future.

I'm not sure how you could misconstrue that as a lack of professionalism but the fact remains that Manno wasn't a bad character (or player) because he didn't stand toe to toe with you. That might work for you, it didn't for him.

I've been on vacation, so sue me (literally) for not having a chance to respond to his death-thread sooner. I felt like a response to your underhanded remark contradicting your perspective was appropriate given other people felt like this was a good character.

I wonder how it is Graatch and Elhe can come from two different perspectives and arrive at the same conclusion.

Graatch is doing what Nepenthe accuses Elhe of doing: Yelling at people who aren't the 'tough but not quite tough enough to beat me, but they suicidally die trying' type.

Pretty sure that just because something has been done before and is possible doesn't make it even remotely likely.

>Yeah, you know what, #### you. You don't post on this guy's
>thread and then you decide to by way of taking a shot at me?
>Yeah, very professional.
>
>As for you Manno, yeah, I know what it's like, I've played the
>cloud giant berserker many times. And beaten shamans with them
>many times. Not saying it's easy, but it's also not a reason
>literally to not leave the village.
>
>Also, running out of moves is why bloodthirst lets you walk.
>Many times there's a path home. Many times not. But that's
>part of being a giant rbw. It's not supposed to be easy every
>time. Nobody is suggesting (contrary to what thror says) that
>you walk into elaborate traps all the time. But not coming
>out at all? Bad form. Like I said, you got better at hero.

I feel the same way.

I don't like being called a ####. I've never play my characters like that. I want to win, and I like to fight. This game is a game of strategy and tactics. One move can make or break a fight for you but the kicker is you don't get but a split second to think about it. You do what you need to do.

As for you Graatch, saying I sat in the village. I did it when one of two things happened. We had the Codex or you came looking for a fight and sat at the far end of the ruins. When you sit at the far end of the ruins that tells me you are trying to get me away from the village, where you can over-extend me. To me it was a game of cat and mouse. I was willing to fight, but, on my grounds, not yours.

I am well aware of the abilities bloodthirst gives. Yet, if I thirst right away in a fight, most people don't stay and fight. And if I did it every time, just so I could fight you away from the village, then this thread would be about how I couldn't go into a fight without Bloodthirsting.

Though, mostly I was trolling Graatch. :o

I really enjoyed your character. You were tough, knowledgable, and always ready for action.

Come back to the village - we can use strong players like yourself.

Thanks, congrats on DM. I'm sure you'll do great!

All the elder Villagers are deleting on me!

I liked you - you had a badassery (sp?) about you that made me appreciate your character. Not to mention you were active and quite handy with the going abouts of the cabal.

As for pk, you were up there with Droma (is that fine admins? Delete if it isn't - it may be in game information).

Make another Villager! Good luck with your next!