All I can say is that I had a lot of fun with Sananto, but in the end it got too frustrating for me to be spending the sheer amount of time I had been on him so I figured it would just be better to end him. Had a bad roll going with Sananto getting some bad breaks and making some bad decisions and I figured I’d just have more of it coming! I’ve needed another retirement from CF, so this should get me there!

This was the first real melee class I’ve ever played as a primary character, and the only BattleRager I’ve ever rolled up and the first warrior I’ve played to hero. I’m a chronic mage player over the last 10+ years and needed a change.

First thing: I play a horrible warrior. I don’t have the right strategies, mindset or reactions for it. I spent some extra time in the mid ranks trying to learn the class a little and had some success. By the time I got to the 40+ realm I was completely lost!

Second thing: I need to learn more about warrior builds. I thought a human sword / hand defender would be a decent sort. At lower levels when I could control a lot of the fight through lagging and deal enough relative damage to beat people down before they could regroup, I was effective. At higher levels when lagging becomes very difficult and protections and higher damage skills / spells made fights drag out, I suffered. The lack of the ability to sufficiently lag and maledict with my specs, along with my average human attributes, made it very tough to finish fights and it just was a matter of time until my opponents could either find a way to beat me, gang me or loop in for a scavenger kill. When fighting other melee classes, I was fodder for most “quick” classes and dagger specs in particular. Against mages I could generally always win the first round but couldn’t hang on to them to keep them from retreating and coming back at me. Bards in general sucked – I don’t know that there is a single skill / spell / commune / song that can make a difference like nocturne does.

I thought that with Striking / Fires I could last through some tough fights and be able to keep improving so that I could stick with the enemies that would just loop back, but I was disappointed. Fires was great for melee fighting and saved my ass more than once. Striking was a hideous disappointment for me, and I can’t say that I noticed it helping at all with this character. I remember fighting Aldonius for what must have been a week in-game and it only fired once or twice. There were other occasions where it did fire more than that but I never noticed any significant difference. Then again, I’m not that observant!

Goodbyes:

Imms:

Kasty, Ysal, Yean: I thought you guys did a nice job in heading up this cabal. You’re active and a good group. I didn’t interact with any of your much personally, but I appreciated the little bit I did get. Sorry for disappointing as I got into the upper ranks. Thanks for the Mage Slayer title, though I will tell you that the moment I received the title it was the curse of death for my PK’ing. Until I got into the mid 40 ranks, nearly any mage that saw me come into the area with that title would immediately teleport or word (some exceptions, of course). Prior to the title a good number would try to fight.

Baerinika: I only tried praying to you twice. I wanted to do more with this character before seeking you out but was never really able to get where I wanted.

Battle:

Gohlyrr: From fighting against you with Tumarellen, I knew you were tough. Thought you were a good leader and I appreciate you pushing me to hero.

Yevandr: Another good character, well skilled and gutsy. Your pummeling was fearsome. Liked having you around.

Harol: You were bad ass, ballsy and fun to be around. I thought you always gave the Village confidence. When we sparred, I knew I would go fast. Your dex plus maledicts essentially made it impossible for me.

Cezar: Another strong character that came up and hero’d with Sananto. Keep up the good fighting.

Behrious: You set Sananto on the right track early in his life. Much appreciated.

Others: There were a ton of you, and I really enjoyed everyone who was in the cabal. It’s a tough role to play, but I think you guys do it well!

Nexus:

Aldonius: You were one of my favorite characters. You had tons of class and were a great adversary. We had a number of good fights (I only count the one-on-ones…raids suck.) and I think you were the only one to get a kill out of them when you finally caught me sleeping in the settlement with a impaling after that epic fight that lasted FOREVER in the Elemental Tower. It’s ironic that I only figured out one of your legacies recently after I had been basing an entire strategy on something that it covered off for you (I’m such a warrior noob!). Some fights went your way, some mine. Always enjoyed them.

Kiraan: Also liked you with the Nexus. You were a fun character to fight against and a challenge as well. Druids aren’t someone you fight every day.

Iltch: Annoying bastard, but I guess that’s what thieves are. Hated how you would never try to fight unless you had help, and I hated that somehow you escaped that time in Tar Valon (I honestly think God was looking after you that day, and that’s where Sananto’s string of bad breaks began…). Good little thief.

Krakac, Boggligz, Yrillbink, Jenjo, Krengar, etc…: Never had much success against Nexans, I guess, and you all had some degree of success against me. Having spent 500+ hours in Nexus as Tumarellen, I like the cabal and it’s good to see some momentum still there.

Scion:

Llorenz: Good enemy, we had some decent fights. You play a mean trannie and if you landed the right spell it was really tough to hold you off, especially when you had the Scepter.

Ravon: I’m not sure that you can be beaten outside of a brain dead error coupled with a lot of luck and a gang. My first experience with you was having you bust into the Village with Harol and I at the Shrine. Next thing I know, my ISP dies for the next 6 hours and when I can get back online I’m naked at my pit. Beyond that, I tried to pretty much avoid you!

Others: Scions and Imperials were the worst scavenger killers I had to deal with. Frustrating!!!

Empire:

Arkuss: Thought you were really cool. We had an odd friendship where you never knew if we were going to be fighting along side each other or against each other because it could literally change from hour to hour. Definitely one of the more interesting and dynamic characters Sananto met and interacted with.

Outlander:

Ambra: Hell, I don’t know that you were an Outlander, but I think you were. You were like a distant ally, never there directly but always in the background. Not sure how much you were tearing up to get distended to the degree you were in your 20’s.

Maran:

Gwevfeldr: The life of a BattleRager can be very trying. There are the shameless gangs, the taunts, the rotten matchups and the constraints of the cabal that you can’t do much about except endure. Because of this, lots of people can piss you off OOC by the stuff they pull in-game, but you just learn to let it slide. I was able to do this for everyone except for you. I won’t discuss what you did because it’s not fair to your character, but the act reaked of immature OOC vengeance and I can not understand how a Maran elf, even a mean one, could have been justified doing that sort of thing. Because of that, I never really held much regard for you. Other than that, you seemed to be skilled player.

Pesawwt: Was good interacting with you, especially around religion.

Others: There were several of you I had good discussions with around religion that helped flesh out Sananto. Thanks!

There were lots of others that I interacted with and I can’t hope to get them all in this note! If you have anything to say, just drop a line and I’ll respond!

See you in the Fields in the future – hopefully next round that I come on has a little more to offer than Sananto, though I really liked this character and wouldn’t take him back for anything!

Trestar