Tue Feb 26 10:18:50 2013

At 4 o'clock PM, Day of the Moon, 21st of the Month of the Sun
on the Theran calendar Aulrathdien perished, never to return.

As most of the world seems to have been aware, this was me. After the last round of misfit character edges it was bound to be either this or gnome warrior, except I could remember a couple tough gnome warriors and I couldn't remember any decent wood-elf ones.

At one point Aulrathdien was 0-2 and I wasn't sure I would be able to make the combo playable. Then he just caught fire. I did have a lot more close calls than I think people realize -- bleeding, among other things, always had my number and I survived it with less than 100 HP so many times.

The furor over wood-elf edges and the number of people who broke character to complain about them is unreal to me. Honestly I think they're decent but for any combo I think one or more of arial, elf, or d-elf warrior is still better, without even getting into the halfies. I'm not planning to touch them; if you think they're really good, take a run at it and see if you can do better than I did.

The other thing that really surprised me was how bad a number of the players who are very vocal/confident in mechanics discussions are at theorycrafting. I remember one post talking about how great Natural Weapon Specialization is in which the poster underestimated Aulrathdien's damroll at that point by 40 points. I mean, no kidding you attribute a lot of damage to an edge if your math is that far off. I also really felt like people could agree that the character was tough but no one really understood why. C'est la vie.

I got my extra legacy at level 40, which was Fluid Deceptions; at that point my whole plan for the full build of the character went out the window and I adjusted as best I could. A big part of my original plan was that riposte was where the bulk of his damage would come from and feinting was really counterproductive for that. I think it turned out all right. Iunna did kind of a cool interaction for handing it out which made me feel retroactively a little bad about just giving people prizes directly when I run RCs.

I assume at some point someone will pick up the PBF is anyone is interested in the role, but in brief, Aulrathdien believed that the power of magic in the world was meant to have a big ebb and flow like the seasons. He thought magic was overdue to die out almost entirely and then resurge into a new age of legends, and believed that mages needed to largely die out for that to happen. He considered wood-elves to be the "good" elves and good/high elves to have somewhat fallen from grace for love of magic. He thought of himself as the wood-elf version of a paladin or honorable knight, except being (despite what he might think) neutral and not good he had kind of a ####ish take on it. So, for example, he thought a one-on-one fight was totally honorable even if he had to surprise you or wake you up and bash you to get it.

I did level solo the whole way without any kind of special assistance or solo-exp-gain factor. I don't think I'll ever do that again.

I planned to keep going longer than I actually did, but lately I haven't had the kind of quality play time I would really like to do it right and decided it was time to give it up.

This was my first Thror character, and I have to say I see why Thror has the fans he does. Every interaction was memorable and just great.

What else... 95% of the people I interacted with were really cool. I was very pleasantly surprised. I had lots and lots of cool characters as allies and as enemies in my run. I'll try to respond to anyone who has a comment or question.

I'm sure there's a lot that I've forgotten but I'll leave it there for now.

n/t

I'm pretty sure I ate a few, but this character lasted about a year despite his small number of hours so I'm not as clear on the details offhand as you might think.

I mean, I love Q, Khaso and Muuloc too, but man, me <3 some Thror RP interactions.

PS While this was painfully obviously you (not because of the over-rewarding, because you were an under-the-radar badass that hardly ever played and didn't power to hero) or about 2 other long forgotten IMMs, I never got the negative vibe from people talking about you. Other than Jerry, people didn't seem to be bent out of shape (until the RC win, which, to be honest...I got Enigma as a level 20 fire giant...that's a little grosser).

Giving you a "keep doing what your doing" speach. XD At which point I said that you could be mage slayer if you kept it up. Which happened not too long after.

I figured it was a vet playing this character but I didn't expect it to be you. You were a class act. ^_^

Just remember, Stoneback!

Hey, thanks! I was a fan of yours.

You need to suck more, just to throw the nep-spotters off track.

What an interestingly unique character.

I had this pegged for a Twist character. That goes to show how poor of a judge of character I really am. I have never really found myself capable of labeling a Nepenthe character so kudos for keeping me guessing.

It was very clear that this character was played by a veteran player. There was an experience and a wisdom that was obvious. Playing down a notch also seemed to be a part of the playstyle, though there were some memorable risks which I can appreciate as an observing imm.

What made it difficult to me as an Imm was to see such a developed character come and completely OWN his objective to become a Noldarian. It took the control away but it was also unexpectedly refreshing. It also made me instinctively make the goal of becoming tattooed, apprenticed and given the title of a Noldar even more trying (which is really the MO of the Thror religion).

Such a great job. This character was really worthwhile and I'm proud to say that a Thror follower was in fact Nepenthe.

I felt a ton of mutual respect for Aulrath, and definitely a good amount of admiration on my end. I thought you played the aloof wood elf a little better than me, which was cool to see on the outside.

Also, thanks a bunch for teaching me the things you did about what we could both use.

Good job all around. Sorry I didn't name you DM, but from Cain's RP perspective it just made sense.

Hope our paths cross again soon!
Treebeard/Cainargen

No hard feelings on DM. IC, I got the Commander I wanted.

Note to future elf axemen: Grime weapons means no pincer in the Rites for you.

The limitation of Grime Weapons in the Rites has always driven me nuts. Having played both a trapping character and a HPM character that participated in the rites I felt kind of cheated both times because I couldn't use my character's strengths to their fullest for one of the most important series of battles in that character's life.

Pretty sure Nimbus's axe is 20+ lbs.

Ahh

I'd have to go back and check my logs. But, when you're used to wielding 45-50 lb axes it doesn't compare. It's still a pretty badass axe. What's really nice for a trapping char is the one-horned helm laying around the arena.

Plus, that still doesn't solve the exotic issue ;>

So is the shield and bard instrument.

at least they did for me with firhindil. just ask a few days in advance.

the only restriction was that i had to return it after rites were over

I don't really give a flying #### who the player was. I really enjoyed the interactions with this char, especially during the rites. Stellar and consistent RP, and wickedly competent PK. I still lament catering to my impatience and taking the fight to you in the wilderness. I should have waited. Well played, and thanks for being kind about my incompetence leading a team in the rites.

Kiraltor

Honestly, I think you outled me in that section of the Rites. Group vs. group is not my strong point.

Crafted, tongni, and a couple of the Team Evil peeps are really, really good at it. Part of the reason they frustrate me at times

Deleted before the rematch eh?!?! Was a tasty combo you had, interested to see the Pbf

nt

But this guy was a solid all around char the times I got to see him while Commander, both in the RP and the PK.

So well done, sorry I didn't see more of you in the village when I was there, all I ever saw was a guy on the cabal list who just racked up kills pretty quietly and quickly.

Nepenthe plays interesting characters. He's good, really good.

He also knows the exact mechanics of how new wood elf edges + ehren edges + sword spec edges + space legacy all not only interact but how they optimize. The answer is brutally.

I feel like he played down a notch purposefully. Which was still horribly rough.

My only question is wtc did he take speed flurry?

Mages don't typically parry well. Speed flurry shines against them.

I really appreciated that your edict to not level gave me a good reason to do what I really wanted to do anyway. The midlevels have always been the best part of the game for me.

I kept the sword you gave me until I deleted, too.

Third time summons Drok

Didn't you solo rank to 51? If so and considering you we're around when I deleted Jutley I figured you'd have had a lot more hours then that.

We had mostly different play times but the few we were on together I had fun. I am sure there is a goos story behind this character.