Thu Apr 14 23:54:04 2011

At 10 o'clock PM, Day of the Bull, 1st of the Month of the Dark Shades
on the Theran calendar Jerohk perished, never to return.

Race:	storm
Class:	paladin
Level:	51
Alignment:	Good
Ethos:	Orderly
Cabal:	FORTRESS, the Fortress of Light
Age:	353
Hours:	341

Happened to Ghrim too.

Double-posting them. Nothing too major.

...and then again when they quit after saying their goodbyes and whatnot.

So some con deaths (on lower level shorter lived chars who don't get the 30 minute grace period) won't have 2, but others will.

Might just want to double check it's not something with rot, as I believe that is how he died when it posted the first time. In any case, not really a big deal I suppose.

*sigh* Only an Acolyte would con-die at the hands of one of the Eternal Star's bouncers. Ah well, it's amazing how well you can tank as a paladin prepped up, and how horribly you do when you forget to keep communes up.

Probably going to be lazy and avoid trying to remember everyone over the past year, and let anyone else post. I rolled up Jerohk mostly since I hadn't been on Team Good in a while, and figure I could manage half-respectable as a healer. I'm also horrible for trying EVERYTHING that seems rare at the same time, so I went for a semi-non-pacifistic Acolyte as a Champion Paladin who follows Rayihn. On the bright side, I feel I was a good Acolyte, Cardinal in the sense of leading people, and gave Champions a good run. On the downside, I was a horrible cabal leader for inducting (sorry everyone), horrible Rayihn priest, and was something of a jack-of-all trades in PK fights.

Rayihn: Thanks for empowering me, the way I envisioned Jerohk made it hard for me to come up with tangible goals for him, though I feel I succeeded in SOME degree in spreading his knowledge/wisdom to let those pass it on to others and so on. Rayihn's religion is HARD.

Imm during ghost time - Hopefully you heard my pray. Little stuff like that's always awesome, though I never really thought or figure Jerohk would have expected to be going to Hell, so wasn't 100% sure how to react, though I think how I did is generally in Jerohk's way.

Whoever's in charge of Gameplay w/ Champions & Monks....I think only one other person (Magnis? Pre-purge) seemed to have played a Champion pretty significantly. He's actually part of who inspired me. Firstly, have some of their skills been tweaked up lately? Some of them seemed much more reliable in the last month or two. Secondly, would anyone want my feedback on the dedication?

Rot-happy shamans: You know who you are, you're all douche-bags. Yes, I know you have the power, but seriously...flee/rot/word isn't fun-stick at all. If you're going spam-rot, I don't have any desire to sit around for 24 hrs gameplay every time I run into you, so I'm just going to avoid you. Hence, if you want a PK fight, you might avoid it.

Otherwise, was a challenging character, but fun overall. I hope I didn't disappoint anyone too horribly as Cardinal, and will see everyone around soon enough. Kids and weddings make CF-time hard :(

You were a very well respected presence in Fort and I thought you were a model Acolyte. Very well played on all accounts. I'm sorry that our conflicting times didn't match up better, because I would have really liked to interact with you more than I did. Kudos, all the way around.

Nae-nae

It was very much noticeable that you were not a Maran, and I do not just mean the abilities, but your general outlook on things too. Yet so much PK you've been in. I liked you, you definitely weren't boring.

Thanks, I figured a paladin should be on the "front lines" where he can sort to speak, and it's the only way to really tell how Champion would do. Not that it's not a perfectly valid way to play, but I personally feel a few too many Scribe/Acolyte roles lean a little far into the happy hippy non-violent side. It's a world that people raise the dead, steal souls, demons and devils run amok...yeah, even the protector/healers are gonna have to get their hands dirty.

I liked hanging with Faeshu, though I do wonder if there's times you might have wished you had a few more handy combat skills :P

The only thing more crazy than a militant acolyte is a militant pickpocket thief acolyte wannabe. Seriously though, you handled yourself very well in any situation.

As for champion skills... you never looked too weak, especially in PvE, though I bet it was frustrating for you to be vulnerable to simple tactic of dirt/disarm. I remember that I wanted to take you on a trip for spiderhands preps, but never actually got around to doing it. Alas.

I had a great time working on polearm skills with you and comparing techniques. You had a lot more willingness to stick it out then I did though.

Always nice to hang with you though.

I'd have entirely forgotten to name you, though it was fun to run around w/ another Champion. One of these days, I think I'd like to try a human or elf, and see how they stack up to storm. Especially having a broader weapon list right now.

If it makes you feel any better, probably half my deaths involved something about Champions that made me want to throw the keyboard through a wall. On the flip side, I also know of more than a few people who commented about how frustratingly nuisance I was as a Champion w/ my virtue set as well. I also really wonder what a fortitude Champion might be like.

Thanks!

Ugh, so I wrote a whole big deal, then lost it to a posting error. This one'll probably be more concise.

Bat - Never found it to be damaging enough or reliable enough malediction to USE it in combat. Similarly, the auto-retaliation defense was USEFUL, but not QUITE effective enough for me to trust me life to it if I could get other means to prevent disarm, etc.

Fend - Champion's bread and butter. Chance to land a free attack on everyone targetting you, w/ improved defense against them for a few rounds, and feint. If you're spamming it, you're an insane tank. I feel like its success had gone up in the last month or two, when I con-died I could target the Prelate in the Palace and take all of Council down at once w/ just the area attacks.

Maneuver - SUCH a niche skill. Make you king in aggro areas (Oh, you're gonna PK me in the maus? Let me knock you into those seven zombies that room over). You can also use it to knock your buddies a room away if they're held, permalagged, etc. As various Imperials learned, I'm just plain evil with it and used it for some DIRTY, DIRTY tricks.

Marshal - Such an odd 4-skills-in-1 ability.

Marshal regroup - Group retreat on a paladin! YAY! Always nice to have, very reliable.

Marshal forefront - I had call of the martyr, which was more effective for me, but chance at distracting any mob attacking a groupmate. Not always reliable at 100%, and the retaliation against those trying to get past it really seemed against the point. If I want to rescue someone, do I really care if I have a CHANCE at hitting them when they try to attack the person again? I never had much luck with using marshal to keep people rescued. Also, groupmates aren't used to the echo, so I'd rescue people w/ marshal, only to have them flee thinking they were still getting beat on.

Marshal rally - Oh, how I love/hate thee. Admittedly, the helpfile states more suited to elf/human stats, but it's 30 mana a use (success or fail), has an affect measured in ROUNDS, and I think also is more/less successful based on enemy's level(maybe PK stats). I do think it may have gotten improved near the end of Jerohk's life as well. After all those downside, it does do sickening things to your combat abilities, and I *THINK* even moreso if you're against really tough enemies.

Marshal phalanx - Definately useful. Improved defense, chance to defend your groupmates against attacks as well. Still, only lasts X rounds, so you're having to renew it all the time, and fend is just that ridiculously good.

Polearm/Staff skills - You pretty much get the "Stunning Charge" and "Crushing Pugil" edges when you dedicate, and though helpfile says it's not as good as warrior specalists, your distance/spin abilities are pretty dang good.

Downsides as Champion: I was Charity/Temperance, so when the essences were up, I had decreased physical and sup offense, and I had pretty low offensive power most times. Biggest issue was disarming meant death. Just horrible. 2) NO lagging. I even kept a shield handy in case I was ganking someone down and trying to lag them. Even 2-handers and shield deds have an option. 3) Getting lagged is bad in all sorts of ways.

Upsides - No-one uses polearms and staffs, so from lvl 40 on I don't think I ever had to use a weapon less than avg 28. Typically I had four different avg 28 weapons of different attack types, and two weapons above avg 30. People also don't tend to have polearm skill, so they don't parry so well (though you only get 3 attacks by default).

Honestly, I'd be REALLY tempted to see what a Fortitude Champion could do. I think that could get somewhat, especially if they were solidly geared.

Also, if an Imm happens to chime in - from the helpfiles, I'd always assumed chr and morale were important for Champions & used ferver, inspiring crusade, hope oils, etc as much as possible. Am I correct in that guess, or was that mostly a waste of time? :P

.

As I told you when you were a ghost, I really liked the character. There was a real sense of down-to-Earth decency and consideration that came across in your actions that got to the heart of what it means to be an Acolyte IMO.

Along those lines re: basic decency, for whatever reason, your response to me when I said it'd been a long time since I saw you stuck in my mind. You responded that the little ones at the Loch had been keeping you busy. Something about this "family guy" that came to the Fortress to due his duty just kind of made me smile.

It's hard to imagine you playing anything but a Fortie, but then if I recall correctly, you're also the guy that played Baltherias.

Hah, invokers are so much fun to run with, especially when you're a tanking character. You get to carry the big shield, while you have somebody w/ a rocket launcher around.

Actually, the little ones bit came around as a semi-IC/OOC comment in that I have a 10mo old now, and that was the majority of what had started to drop my hours as he got older and I have to spend more time making sure he doesn't stuff random things in his mouth. Jerohk's philosophy was originally designed around the idea that one person could accomplish X, but if you focused on teaching others & support, your accomplishments get multiplied by the others, so he was sorta a Fort family guy, too. And Aco-wise, yeah...doesn't do much good to sit at home and let the Empire come waltzing to the Loch. May as well put a stop to them beforehand!

You're right about Baltherias. I actually don't think I've had a goodie in years. Of course, these days I seem to only manage one really noticable character a year. I'll probably skulk around for 2-3 months without anything noticable, then show up in the late-nights again!

Thwrerrorip and Truhukk both thought you rocked it.
you didn't disappoint other than maybe a few pledges
for a while when you were logging in less. Other than
that awesome job. VERY well done.