Mon Feb 28 13:41:05 2011

At 5 o'clock PM, Day of Thunder, 17th of the Month of the Frost Giant
on the Theran calendar Xligro perished, never to return.

Race:	felar
Class:	assassin
Level:	35
Alignment:	Evil
Ethos:	Chaotic
Cabal:	SCION, the Scions of Eternal Night
Age:	57
Hours:	300

Although I really hated the name, there were several things I enjoyed about this character. It was my first wildly (by my standards) pk-successful character and my first quasi-Scion.

I say quasi-Scion because, from the start, I had no intention of being the mook that every Battle, Imperial, and Maran-wannabe came looking to gank down, and so I did everything in my power to hide my association to the cabal though I became fairly proficient at killing its enemies. This naturally led to a heart to heart with the Archmage, but as a chaotic-evil it was all about me, and I was not in the least bit interested in outing myself to the armies of opposition without any potential of personal gain. I fully expected to be uninducted at that point, and I was ok with it. As a Lyristeon follower, I did not -need- anyone, and I was more than happy to lie, cheat, manipulate and deceive people in order to get what I wanted out of life. That was just fine, since there was no Scion presence to speak of during my logins. I admit I was disheartened to see that I couldn't get a last name or a crappy title during 300 hours, but no one likes watching someone trying to perfect assassinate.

The breaker for me was hitting distension before perfecting assassinate. That combined by the negative vibe I was getting from the powers above led to me suiciding on Mredenkral this Monday morning.


Several people stand out in this character's life:

Ebele: I really enjoyed the relationship we developed as we tried to help each other out with our problems. I have enshrined that wonderful bit of roleplay on QHCF. It was a golden moment.

Mexzi: Every villain needs a bit of humanity, and your attentions injected possibility and complexity. As I said on QHCF, I was really interested in seeing what would happen if we became star-crossed lovers.

Mredenkral: I know you thought I was picking on you, but as a Scion I felt an obligation to pick off the occasional Village Berserker, and there were so damned many of you anyway.

Zelacian: My partner in crime. I don't know what your -real- plans are, but I kept waiting for you to betray me for the charges you knew I was worth. I really enjoyed working with you.

Pyogyor: One of three 'real' pk deaths, and a gentleman to boot. Respect.

Szetekha: I love your attitude. When you told me not to take it easy on you, because you wanted to learn, I made it a point to still pk you some, but I did what I could afterwards to help you learn how to improve. And for God's sake, man, type NOFOLLOW PLAYER!

Neltouda: Thank you for the conversation and maybe the roleplay in the Inn with Ebele regarding Mexzi.

For everyone else, I will try to respond if you comment.

I hope I was able to guide you to at least a couple of mage kills, even if you were a Scion.

The problem with Xligro from my standpoint (and Sivyh's I would imagine) is that you were so damned good at doing what you do that by the time people get into hero range they're on Assassin Red-Alert all the time. They've had to deal with your constant presence since level 32 or so and they're panicky. Very nice work.

Good luck with the next one. Xligro was great from my POV.

I really enjoyed our conversations and coordination: I tried to steer you towards people that other parties wanted dead, and a few times it worked out.

This was my third assassin, and I capitalized on what I had learned with the previous two: master your weapons and defenses early, and try to master assassinate before you rank up if you want to use it in the hero range. When you do hit hero range, you seldom have the luxury of getting more than five stalks on someone. Even hitting 36 really alters the pk pool, and when you miss your assassinate, you want to have a chance at escaping.

Flee on partials and misses and don't pk in any situations until after 100%. Then you don't have to worry about distention.

I was too sensitive; I did not want to be branded a one-trick pony, even if it was my preferred opener.

I think nobody in Fort knew you were a Scion. Instead you got a reputation of "neutral who really likes to assassinate and nothing else". I had no idea you were also killing people by other means.

Well, all's well that ends well. One riddle solved.
Good luck with your next.

So yes, I did avoid you despite the brief taunting you gave me.

As for using assassinate, of course I did. I tried to take to heart the lengthy discussion held a few years ago entitled "Playing to Win." Assassinate was not the only tool I had, but a very effective tool to be used when I was sure to be out-prepped or out-gunned.

Have a nice day.

This is screwed up. I loved talking to you every moment. We started our relationship because I wanted something. I was willing to work with you at any given time.

That time was AWESOME. I totally wasn't trying to do anything but actually help you out and contradict both the bouncer & the figure. The IMMs do some crazy cool ####.


GLWYN

You were quite sneaky, I was never on the other end of your blade but I remember being on for like an hour and doing a who and seeing you above me in the who list and thinking to myself wtf I didn't even know he was around. I was disappointed though with your usefulness to be honest, when I first saw you I was like cool a lowbie to retrieve when the odds are not in my favor. Then you wouldn't retrieve cause you didn't want them to know you were a scion.

That one time where the village took the scepter and it was 5 or 6 vs me I was like cool Xligro will go get it back he only has a couple against him with invoker shields slap on a stoneskin and shield and he'll rock em with kote/kan and you refused to even make an attempt. That sort of irked me since I was almost always up against terrible odds and you were no help.

n/t

And I know I ticked you (and some/all immortals) off because my attitude was, "Why should I attempt to retrieve and blow my cover, just so we can hold the Scepter for two minutes? If I do that, I will never be able to stalk anyone again." And frankly, I was disappointed in how the Scion powers lacked any synergy with the class.

I knew that I would only get nightfist and nightwalker, but I had no idea they would bring me out of hiding. That extra +5 damroll was not quite enough to counter deathblow, so most login sessions I never even tested to see if I (there was very seldom any we) had cabal powers or not.

So sort of strange you expected more specific powers.

Oh and yes, non-mages are allowed. Someone has to do the dishes.

He clearly stated "I knew that I would only get nightfist and nightwalker"

"And frankly, I was disappointed in how the Scion powers lacked any synergy with the class."

That's saying the class was a bad match with the powers, right?

He wasn't so much saying he thought the powers sucked, because he knew what he would get ahead of time. He was saying that it sucked that he couldn't call either power and stay hidden, so most of the time he didn't even use them.

You make it look easy.

I had hoped that in this character's life there would be something significant enough that I would be granted the Gaping Maw, whether it was making assassinate look like a God-Mode skill or tripping over my own feet walking down Eastern.

Thanks.