Tue Nov 10 14:26:56 2009

At 6 o'clock AM, Day of Deception, 2nd of the Month of the Winter Wolf
on the Theran calendar Maldaris perished, never to return.

Wow! So many things to say with this character. This was my first Scion and first serious evil align char ever.

On being Evil:
I was very unused to how to treat other evils. With goodies I had a set formula, kill evils, ignore neutrals, be nice to goodies, kill neutrals who are actinv evil, etc. With Maldaris, basically he wanted to kill everybody who was not a Scion, Herald, or a mage class or at least someone interested in using magic or researching it. Oh, and everyone was an enemy. I had too few allies.

On being Scion:
Invokers don't really fare all that well alone (despite what my very occasional Cerunnir-type log might suggest). I had very few allies nearly all the time and seldom had the Scepter. My BIGGEST headache by far was Outlander. That cabal is an absolute terror to retrieve from. Bergelmir, Baldrien, Tinalill, Yaniyule can all attest. Also, there are too many of them.

On wands:
My goodness did I have the EASIEST wand locations ever. One of the very compelling reasons I did not want to lose this char was ABS on a stick. Which leads us to the next question...

How the Hell do you CON-die a 7-path Arial Scion Invoker with easy solo-able sleek ABS?
I played too much like a warrior, and too little like a Mage. I found a recent post by PK God Shapa on that Other Forum a good breakdown (esp. after Marcus clarified it into a 2x2 matrix). A good invoker is tight aggressive. I was very aggressive (I play CF to PK) but not careful enough.

On invokers:
I spent 175 hours getting 7 masteries. I spent 100~ hours enjoying the fruits of my labour. A reminder to all future invokers: Please treasure your invoker more than I treasured mine.
Also, damage output was very lackluster. The main killing tool is quicksand but it is very predictable, and EVERYONE knew you were going to use it to seal a kill. Everyone also knew you had earthbind scrolls (albiet in scarce supply) and was ready for that, too.
Low levels are an absolute chore. From the spamming and the constant deaths, I think I reached hero range with 11 CON. I am not sure about the exact figure.
Suggestion: Remove the spamming requirement. Make all invokers 7 pathers. They are not all that strong unless in a group. Maledicts (shaman energy drain x2, plague, blind, famish, necro/AP sleep etc, druid everything) screw them. The nasty part about an invoker is how he is the hardest class to lag, can deal damage your entire group cannot avoid, and has so much dam redux that it is pointless to target him in a group... then you have him pumping DEVAS every round that your entire group suffers with no chance of avoidance. That's what an invoker's good at, and I understand why that might cause IMMs to not want to make them strong solo (they'd be even stronger in groups).
It was funny how many times I got away from a fight thinking, if only I was a warrior, if only I was a shifter, etc, that guy was so dead... Damage output is pathetic when a warrior can deal twice as much to a character with poor melee defense.
On the good side, if I actually DIDN'T want to kill anyone and just wanted to survive... Invokers are pretty good. But since you can't explore much solo there's really nothing to do there.

Friends:

Derogker - the player didn't like Derogker's player, but the character obviously had good reason to cooperate considering the paucity of Scions during my playtimes. Hope you can relax and not be so angry at all the other players all the time. Pretty much everyone you hated I found was pretty nice (from a player-to-player perspective).

Kalisda - I didn't get to meet you much, but a bard is an absolute godsend to Scion.

Frismund - You are a powerhouse. Play more and thin out the outlander ranks.

Bezzilan - You weren't a friend, but Maldaris spares Heralds because he reckons they are part of the pursuit of knowledge which includes some Magic which he is absolutely crazy about. Otherwise he found you annoying. As a player I like Heralds, and I don't think I can do a better job than you as a Herald.

Enemies:

OUTLANDER - Too many of you.

Tangni - ARGH I hated fighting you. You had ABS on a stick (like me) and virtually unfettered harassing capacity. You would just harass, harass, harass until I was worn down. Of course I could have gone and hid and backed down...

Druids - Bergelmir in particular - Seriously overpowered. I think you guys accounted for many of my deaths. I can't think of anything I can do that can give you pause except catch you with a portal and druk'trar up. I HAD to deal damage quickly or you'd maledict me to hell and back. Primordial vengeance can sleep, lag, maledict, etc. I even remember getting lagged 6 rounds by tree vines pulling me down. Add telluric surge lag, entangle movement reduction, pets, the Hunt, plaguing Thorns, birdform, bearform rake + pounce, pets who lag in addition to damage, spores, thornheart... So many times I was thinking if only I was a bloody 60 damroll warrior...

Yaniyule - Good shaman, aggressive and probably killed lots.

Tinalill - Good shaman, defensive and just about impossible to kill, but I suspect your kill count would be far less than Yaniyule who gets killed more but kills more.

Warriors - Didn't really have trouble with you guys, except Malakhi. Instances of dying to warriors I know I could clearly have prevented if I were more conservative. ABS and unlaggable pretty much made all warriors just... run away. I didn't get many kills by having 80% dam redux on tap.

FORTRESS - Thanks for being nice and leaving my items nearly all the time despite the large numbers of lowbies who would have benefited from the items. Grampa Humbert would've been proud.

Dupmasione - You are a God. I've never seen a paladin this incredibly tough. Goodness knows what would've happened if your third virtue was Retribution instead of Faith. You have to post that log of you wading into 5 enemies and killing Derogker someday.

BATTLE - I can't remember the individuals offhand, but you guys were great. Malakhi was an absolute class act. I haven't met villagers who I particularly hate with this char or any of my previous ones.

IMMS:

Thanks for a great game, and thanks for the echoes in the end. I didn't ever pray for Twist because Maldaris was obsessed with magic and not God-worship. He saw Twist as the embodiment of Magic rather than a figure that needed veneration. I figured I would try to do Magic-ky things until Twist decided that I was worthy of a tattoo... because I am still darned curious about what that tattoo does.

Mergulla: Thanks for the chance at a con quest! Pity I had no allies to go get the required item with... You were being particularly nice with that choice of con quest item. On nearly any of my goodie chars it would have been incredibly easy to get.

I don't think I have anything else to say, so I'll just say goodbye for now and list my past chars:

Benvale
Lene
Arilyn
Calcifer
Elsworth
Lyrathuriel
Lysander
Kiel
Lothari
Adalanthal
Olaf
Lyriana
Humbert
Elenia
Maldaris

I neglected to mention Scion Powers:

They.
Are.
SICK.

For that reason I was never unhappy about not getting nice imm rewards, exp, quests, etc. I figured those powers alone made me incredibly overpowered as it is, compared to an invoker in (shudder) Empire. Yeah, Scion powers are far, far and beyond the best powers for an invoker. Not even Outlander leader with insects and quicksand beats the sheer utility offered by nightwalker (for getting wands and taking blows), beckon (anti-hide, extra melee), forsaken (INCREDIBLY powerful, just about the only thing that would drive Dupmasione off...), despoil (DOUBLE your hp... what's not to like?).

Thanks Scion for all the powers!

Yeah, we did only get a few times to run together which was sad given how strong an invoker can be in a group. And usually you were off doing your own thing or there were little people to hunt when we were on together. I'll share some thoughts when I'm gone, but lets just say a bard may be good for scions, but being a scion bard is something different entirely.

Liked Maldaris, sure you'll be back with something equally good when you want to.

I liked Kalisda even though you seemed too grumpy at first. After a while in hero range I found that I sympathised, it wasn't easy to be a non-powerhouse in Scion due to few allies. Quite stressful logging on. It was so bad that when I teleport, I pretty much expect trouble wherever it was I teleported, especially when air shifters or druids are around.

>Everyone also knew you
>had earthbind scrolls (albeit in scarce supply) and was ready
>for that, too.

Why use the scroll instead of the wand? Higher level?

What about dispel magic, for enemies whose flight is able to be dispelled? Good idea, bad idea?

>It was funny how many times I got away from a fight thinking,
>if only I was a warrior, if only I was a shifter, etc, that
>guy was so dead... Damage output is pathetic when a warrior
>can deal twice as much to a character with poor melee defense.

I haven't had a hero invoker, but they strike me as being kind of similar to shield paladins. Only without summon, and with more utility stuff like quicksand, grease, immolate, etc.

Ooo Isildur! You must play an invoker One of my favourite players.

Quick breakdown of Invoker:
You don't seal kills well at all. You seal kills better than a shield pally because of Quicksand. Use it, but remember that everyone expects you to use it.
Scroll is level 51. The only wand I know is level 25 or so...
Invokers are different from shield pallies in that they cannot recover and heal up and go back and fight like shield pallies can. Basically you have health bar, mana bar, and you burn those two and hope the enemy dies. If not, get out and heal up and try again.
A shield pally is different. He fights, runs, heals, fights, tries to get a tick of mana, heals, etc... Invokers don't really do well that way.
Invokers work insanely well in groups. Your spells cannot be avoided, they deal huge damage, you can avalanche/web/grease etc in addition to pure damage, and you have too much hp/redux to target.
Dispel magic is the weapon of choice to drop people into quicksand. Web also drops arials into quicksand if you spam it until it entangles their wings.
You use earthbind only when their flight is Commune, Cabal Power, or they are a Cloud Giant etc.

It was fun having you around. And sometimes things would go really well and sometimes it would be a clusterf**k. I have never been "awesome" in group on group action. I have a much better understanding what tools are at my disposal and in group on group actions, I always expect something out of others and it never pans out. When I know what I have and what I can do, I can much better judge battles. Anyway, I have interacted with a few others and you have been a great player. GLWN.

So sorry! You're definitely worth a mention. Absolute powerhouse, and one of the few who would log in when I was around. I agree with you about the group fighting thing from my experience as a good align warrior in Fortress (cause allies screw up all the time and warriors do very well solo). As a support class it's quite different however. Invoker can deal big damage to a large number of people, and shield allies, and are seldom ever targeted because they are not laggable and take ages to kill.

You know its funny but a week or so ago when you, the new Chancellor,and Kalisda were logged on and had taken the fetish, everyone seemed more concerned about the conjurer.

I however was more concerned about you. A/B/S shielded invokers, with scion powers...it's like throwing yourself at a brick wall.

Invokers are often tough fights for me. Echoes doesn't do much to stop your damage, but then dispel and ice needles would kill me quickly enough. My fiends are generally only good distractions unless your really wounded. Add your damageredux and there wasn't much i could do against you other then annoy you.

It was just luck i managed to sleep both you and Derogker that time you came to retrieve. I knew you two would come, even though there were four of us logged on. Two went hunting in dreams while Bergelmir and I stayed at the tree to defend. Derogker got the fiend and along with Bergelmir it sealed his fate that day, of course you got away.

All in All, you were a really tough foe. Oh and there really aren't that many of us most days, its just that there are too few of everyone else. :'(

GLWYN.

Bards aren't a good matchup for invokers yeah... it was fun fighting you, pity there were too few of everyone else compared to outlanders You're a good and capable bard, good luck to outlander enemies!

Yeah, I'm sure lots of people find him annoying. You try and preach no killing to a world of murderers! It's never going to work, but while it's a bit masochistic it's still pretty fun. I liked when we traveled, and was glad to show you a thing or two, and vice versa.

As for heralds, thanks for the compliment. I wish more people would take the little time out of their routine and participate in events. People who play hundreds and hundreds of hours on a char don't seem to feel capable of taking one hour out to be part of something. Not sure why, but I've seen it now from both sides. You should play one!

Good luck next time around.

We had a good miss trust or trust thing going. After that last kill you got on me I had my eye out for you to return the favor. We didn't fight that much though. And seeing how much you disliked the Outlanders I can't see why we didn't at least work together more. Oh well. Looks like you had fun and GLWN

Heh I knew you were after me after the last kill Maldaris had role reasons to dislike the law, though it was impractical to get Wanted all the time because of the drawbacks without outlander powers to counter it.

You are cool.

It is quite rare I can find anyone to fight me at all - most people just flee and teleport immidiately unless they are liches, 100+ damroll antipaladins, or in group of 3. You were one rare exception. Which is why in many of our fights I stayed for as long as I could. And there were several fights where I had less then 100 hp left at the end.
Keep rolling!

As for the class itself. I played pretty succesful non-Scion invoker and I assure you that the class if very strong. I could take groups of 2-4 people ALONE. Without despoil, portal, etc. The key is NOT to play mage as you would play warrior. Which means for each serious fight you need careful planning and preparation. It is pretty easy to make someone run with fully prepared invoker. But it is much harder to seal the kill if you are not planning at least two steps ahead of your enemy.

Druids and invokers are pretty similiar, in fact. Both classes have TONS of options and need to choose careful which ones to use in which fight.

I won't get into details as I simply have no time for that, but trust me, in many fights against me you could do A LOT better if you've chosen right spell in the right time. Or at least I would have to change my tactics completely. If you have logs, just read through them and try to figure our.

And as for your player's identity - it was nice to have you as an enemy after having you as a friend for such a long time.

GLWYN!

But you do just as much teleport away before murder lag is out as anyone else. At least from my point of view.

I have logs of fighting you and beating you at the Tree, without the item, in your terrain, one on one. I'm just not going to do it during full moons which frankly is suicide at the tree.

You can usually pick your fights much more than anyone else, you do see more people just leaving, because you just hide and prepare and ambush. I think what you say here is extremely unfair and you should reconsider putting this kind of thing up on the board while you are still alive.

Also, it is quite condescending to put up the "I'm quite satisfied" about killing him title on your post. You should try to evaluate situations from others points of view before putting this kind of self propaganda up.

My two cents.

As a character with a lot of power to pick your fights and not be surprised, you have to expect that a disproportionate amount of your enemies are going to clear out if they can as you attack, because they know that you're ready to go and they probably aren't.

I am not going to start flame wars. So this will be my last comment on this matter

1) Let's be honest. You take no risk whatsoever fighting me during any other moon then full. My chances to kill you (while you word when lower then half of hp) are at the very least slim. So no real heroism here.

2) The time you spoke about I was without Fetish (three of you took it before). And, which is more important, I had 30+ hours rot on me. I could stay there but most probably it would end up with myself dying of rot. Which is a VERY stupid way to die in my book. So I decided to get clear. If not rot, I would stay and fight more.

3) Again, I sincerely hope that is it not a bug, but the way you heal up your familiar from writhing to perfect health in one tick is just stupid. If Imms think it is fine, I don't mind. But I did make a mistake of trying to kill it. Which turned the fight your way. Lesson learned.

4) I put whatever I want. Don't teach me how to play my chars.

5) I am very well satisfied on killing him. I kinda wanted to be his last death and it took me quite some time and preparation to accomplish it. Yes, it was an ambush. Yes, he was not expecting to die there. Which mean I outsmarted him. And well, bite me!, but I am damn satisfied.

My two cents. See ya on the fields!

Let me just clear some things up. First of all, my familiar does not heal up from agony to perfect, well, ever. If there a bug regarding it I have no idea how to "exploit" it. What happened in the Battle cabal was frankly a fluke of which I have no idea how I exploited it. And is probably the game saved the condition of my familiar then I fought with it, and when I released and recalled, it was back to that condition. The Destructor did quite the number on it in a short period of time, but who knows. Every time my familiar comes back, it is at similar health it left at.

As for everything else, the fact of the matter is I don't fit into your bloated "those who only fight me" definition and I fight you one on one. And I know there are many others that fight you that also don't fit into that definition either. So it is frankly very unfair and pretty low for you to say "no one fights you but super powered characters" when in reality, there are a lot of players out there giving you a good run one on one.

But hey your boat, float it how you will and good luck.

You suck. I thought you suck only in game, but wow... you suck in RL too.

Coming from someone who plays in an allied cabal, as well.

Having played many evil conjurers, your #1 point is definitely not true. The fact that you think it is and that you use it as some sort of justification makes you very lame.

n/t

Hello bob. Nice work on assassination yourself. Good luck.

I didn't see a ton of this character, but what I did see, I liked.

But, man, how did you manage to con die a Scionvoker even after having played previous hero invokers?

Glad you liked the char

I don't know how I managed to con-die a scion invoker, but I think it was the frequent deaths/mobdeaths pre hero (think I reached hero with 11 con) and the boredom that made me take risks while pking at hero. You know, being used to a warrior's kill-sealing ability and not getting any kills for hours of active pk-hunting does make one a bit reckless I know the mechanics of invoker pking etc, and did pull off a few nice stunts (earth ripple, earthbind, webs etc) but somehow just made the dumbest choices and took poor risk calculations. Hope my next invoker will be better...

I have a quick question to you.

Did you use orbs from Galadon's guild in your practice?
How do you think, they help in practice or just increasing %1 of spell mastery?

For some reason, when I use them, I am learning spells WORSE than without them. Or so it seems.

I believe they reduce mana cost by 1 or something. They're not really worth using. Use a tome instead... if you don't know what a tome is, try looking in shops in magic-ky areas or ask in game

Good, thank you. Will look for it!

I think our hours didn't match up very well. You were a generally solid presence but also not a very "loud" presence. I wanted to title you but there wasn't enough of you that really spoke out to me to come up with something cool to give you. Wish you'd come for a con quest a little earlier, I looked and saw the 2 deaths left and cringed. If I'd managed to catch you on I probably would have given you a placeholder con but....oh well. Learn something for next time I guess?

Good luck on your next. Back to good now??

I'd love to try another Scion sometime that won't suck as much, but I have some nasty time constraints right now! Some lowbies for now

I'm glad you liked the char, I felt it was rather bad. I liked being a quiet presence in Scion, considering the insanely good powers and how strong some of my allies were it didn't feel right to steal the thunder from chars as strong as those.

I wish you had been around more when I was around. Invoker shields on a alligator with a/b/s is pretty darn sick! Anyway, good job and I hope to see you again soon in some fun form. Try something else new!

I didn't get to spend much time with Humbert before you age (con?) died, but you are still the measuring stick for Maran, and I just don't see anyone matching you in the near (or possibly far) future.

As Maldaris, you were competent, (perhaps too) ballsy, and a solid presence. You're a great asset to the game. Good luck with the next!

I think Dup's definitely more of the pillar of strength Maran type than Humbert was. Humbert was a guerilla-style (I know, giant guerillas sneaking in the mountains right?) run in bash bash flurry and kill quickly, but die easily sort. Dupmasione on the other hand was an absolute powerhouse that could steamroll most things, even if he couldn't always land the kill.

Thanks for the nice comments... When I made Maldaris I was pretty sure nothing to stand up to him one on one with full preps. I think Dupmasione could, considering that Maldaris needed to have 1400 hp, aura shield barrier stoneskin protection resist_wrath (grazes from defiance), shield of electricity for the extra damage, and using everything in his arsenal to beat Dup (who is unprepped). Dupmasione can just flee and return, hit and run, etc. Mana doesn't last forever, nor do protections...

Also another odd thing about Dup which made the hit-and-run possible for you (a good invoker using Immolation will never let an enemy be able to recover easily) was that Immolation seemed to NEVER get the burning effect on you. That made you troublesome because you'd be regening and healing after fleeing. Immolation would prevent resting and deal minor damage (goes through mantle) for six hours or so which totally nukes hit-and-run types.

Though not as deadly! I had your number for quite some time, then you seemed to have figured it out and got me there in the chasm. (Though was VERY distracted by son who was doing something at the time so I'll blame that. heh)

Keep up the kickass chars!

My old char's wife!

Hey how did you know it was me I found Arrna difficult until I figured out how to handle her... basically despoil/ABS and cast away! Nothing to keep you from running, except an earthbind scroll into quicksand (but then I would have had to keep shield of flames up against Stun). It was a lot better with Humbert I reckon because of the easier transition from lowbie pk to hero pk. Basically you've been pking all your life for your range (from 11 to 51), so you get kind of used to owning everyone, having high %s, good gear, etc. Maldaris on the other hand got to hero like a wet dog from the rain, 11 con, crap gear, no Scion membership (no despoil).

Loved Arrna, please play another char

I'm not sure if I can play another regular char in hero range for the foreseeable future due to time constraints.

... After fighting you as Jaina a few times. But I read your posts on QHCF and then was I like, yepp, as I suspected! But the hunch was vague.

I hope you return soon though. I do have a char going actually. A little experiment to try some new things. Everything but the class is new for me. So it'll be interesting.

We made a damn good team, and I thoroughly enjoyed the pwning that would ensue when we where both on. You'll be missed.


GLWYN

You were definitely a competent shaman, and I respect that. Perhaps we didn't really see the same side of certain enemies you were unhappy with. Good luck with continuing the Scion work!

nt