Mon Oct 21 20:55:28 2013

At 1 o'clock AM, Day of the Sun, 13th of the Month of the Heat
on the Theran calendar Amkichi perished, never to return.

Apparently this was a caballed character though.

I don't think Merf could have influenced this one way or the other.

I started the character with the thought in mind that I needed something more independently powerful than a Shadow, but still wanted to spend time being Dawn-lite to my allies. This is why my PK's numbered in the single digits over time, I was politicially savvy in the cabal and a psychotic bitch to everyone outside of it.

Unfortunately when you have the role of being the Doting Wife of the Empire in mind, you can't really play that role when you come to hate virtually all but a handful of your cabalmates. When that hatred starts to overtake the snowballed Fortress cabal, you quickly lose the motivation to play.

Empire, as it stands, doesn't really deserve to win against Fortress in any capacity, and I don't think that Merf was a factor one way or the other in that regard.

1) You have an odd mix of newbies, obvious veterans who are clearly trying out what would otherwise be a game changing class for the very first time against well-established paladin wrath spammers and gear hoarders, (that means Merf and the one dark-elf healer I had to latch on to were both woefully ineffectual because they didn't understand their actual limits) and useless solo hunter-killer loner-types that would have been infinitely better off uncaballed and levelsitting at 35. I specifically utterly loathed Sintaero, Finley and Gharzal.

Finley got his just desserts in time and was only as skilled as Merf, so they were both completely out of their league in this environment. It would have been simple enough for Finley to leech enough kills at 51 to start snowballing, but he pissed off some Imm enough to have said Imm give me a guildmaster quest to knock him out of Dread Lord. I honestly should have just demanded to Merf that he give me Blood Reckoning so I could full sac Finley and/or give him the demotion he deserved. I would have won easily given how poorly geared and utterly unskilled Finley was, so getting anathema or knocked back to oath wouldn't have been a factor for me. Instead I elected to let him tarnish his own image with his complete lack of credibility as a leader... not sure that was the right choice, but he did a spectacular job of making it look like he should never be anywhere near Dread Lord again as any character. Ever. (At the time he laid on the straw that broke the camel's back for his credibility as a leader in Empire, the healer Citizen had already dragged me into Thar-Acacia with a newbie Blade to level and he was demanding why we weren't gathering cabal items. Ordering people to do the impossible, whether they schemed it to be the case or not prior to your order, is an excellent way to lose your credibility and soon after your actual authority.)

2) On top of this, the Shadow sect being wholly ineffective through no fault of their own since this isn't the type of war that sect is designed win. Drond and I did have a blast giving goodies their just desserts though, poisoning their prog gear and having me send it back to them as a gesture of 'mercy'. It was the only real way we could indirectly get back at a cabal who, never was particularly threatening, could not reasonably be killed. In most cases I could freely give them the middle finger and take the Codex back under my own power even with them spamming heals.

3) Any Blades that happened to make it to hero were usually, but not always, new. The ones who were actual veterans didn't actually ask me for help either, chances are I could have helped get some very key pieces of gear to gradually turn fights around. I helped the newbies because Outlander would mercilessly full sac them in front of my eyes and then summon gank them upon their unghosting, from chameleon just because they happened to be near a ranking area right that second.

4) More than once, I started to play so infrequently that I would log in naked and not remember why. I'm certain that more than one individual full sacced me, probably because I would have done the same to them given half the chance, but since all my time was tied up in getting exploration XP, futile attempts to level and cabal wars, I didn't really have the time to really sit down and gear to close to 1000 HP. I was regularly fighting within the neighborhood of only 700, not nearly enough HP to survive the beatings I was taking long enough for a souped up devil to kill paladins through sanc, prot vs. evil and stone skin. I did try conjuring a mors-gravis demon unbound once or twice, but for a demon that is supposed to be fighting communers anyway, that holy vulnerability makes no sense at all so it would get two rounded before the paladin realized it bashed him.

5) I died more to mobs than to any given player at all. Fortress managed to miraculously pin me at 46. I could not get any further, everyone in Empire was either too scared to level up or would grow impatient levelling even at 2k a pop in Thar-Acacia unable to be reached by any Fortress or Rager dudes. Yet they'd throw fits, get bored, get inattentive, get sleepy, or have to log off. Once I hit 51 I would have changed my plan from taking Planar Abductor to getting Banisher and laughing at Pamalynn's servitors getting dismissed, he'd have been too stupid to try the same to me and my devil would have been way more effective in a group battle, but ultimately I grew too disgusted with the majority of my cabalmates to care.

So, to sum up, it's really no wonder Fortress is rolling over everyone, most of Empire are playing solo hunter-killers when you need a single skilled bard and 2 skilled healers. The shaman revamp may or may not mix things up, but I suspect it's just going to get Baerinika to empower more shamans to roll Empire even harder because of it's complete disunity. Empire had the numbers but had the wrong classes and everyone pretty much hated each other to the point me and a fricking healer were the backbone of the entire cabal.

Because of this, I pretty much was treated in cabal fights like I had triple the kill count I actually did. I don't really blame them, it's really kind of sad that I was the biggest threat to Fortress' life for a mere seventy hours, without the HP totals to actually live up to that. Still, Ragers and Ruknubuk would pick some spectacularly idiotic ways to fight me and die horribly, completely underestimating my familiar that had both warded and warrior familiar as well as oozeshield. (quit bashing oozeshielded mobs or walking facefirst into cents guys) As a lowbie, I was hunted exclusively by no less than four different applicants at the same time on top of Sintaero who somehow managed to join the empire out of sheer boredom despite being an obvious Scion or uncaballed assassinate monkey to be, to the point I had to two-round a felar and full sac her in the mage warehouse because she would not leave me the hell alone.

The Imms liked my RP, but this was not a pleasant experience overall outside of dealing with Drond, Merf, the healer, and Gedunthos. I quit playing entirely two days before the shaman revamp rolled out.

Empire is actually doing just fine right now. It just needed a hero presence, which it has between all the shadows + Soviatos + Gharzal + blades.

I don't think there's any healers or bards but when you've got a lot of offensive power defense is less necessary.

Not sure what you mean by that seeing as I age-died while still the Dread Lord, and I'll treat your entire post as your opinion and try not to be as nasty in my response as you did in your post especially considering Finley lived a rich full life within the parameters of CF and as I mentioned in his goodbye thread there are ALWAYS going to be some haters out there, so no hard feelings, your plate has been set and waiting.

I am a bit suprised there was a plot to oust me, but also kinda honored at the same time. So thank youfor letting me know that, Finley as a character would have been thrilled, as a player I am ecstatic my character meant that much to anyone.

As for doing the impossible - not quite. There was absolutely NO outlanders on at the time and I and a Blade had already brought the Huntress down to convulsing on our own without interference. You and the healer blatantly disregarded my admittadly non-offensive tells over CB that clearly indicated I was headed to the Tree to raid and instead decided to completely ignore me and go to Thar Acacia instead.

At the time I didn't completely realize I couldnt ORDER you or anyone else outside of my sect to do anythinmg and made a mistake in overstepping my authority but please do me a favor and don't lie about the circumstances trying to make me look bad after the fact. Impossible? With a healer, an anti-paladin, a conjurer (you) and a couple blades and NO defenders? It would have taken us all of two minutes to take the fetish.

I remember the event clearly because it was right after that when I found out you were Merf's lover or whatever and I was told that you could get away with doing things anyone else would be made anathema for. I mentally shrugged my shoulders and decided with that same person's advice to send a mean note and call it a day because there was nothing else to be done, soon after that I never saw you again and honestly didn't give you a thought outside of how potent having a conjurer and necromancer (gharzal) would be for taking cabal items.

Anyways Kudos on a forgettable character and reminding me why I loved Finley as a character. Damnit! I was trying not to be nasty

I was in fact surprised to get 2 rounded when I hit your familiar, but such is the life of an Orc. For how tough a few of us are making it look right now the class is still very vulnerable to dieing very fast (often in the lag caused by your own skills).

I think you did ok as a conjurer, some of your comments about the challenges of fighting fort seem a little off. As an evil conjurer you had all the tools to single handily run over them, you didn't need any allies if you used the class to its potential. Though in all honesty being trib or empire significantly neuters your ability to ambush people which is the way you make an unstoppable conjurer.

I always was curious about making centurion based gaunt traps, did that work or will they stop a gaunt from dropping prey?

and apparently their attempts at ranking were interrupted by orders to go raid. Same experience with my imperial conjurer.

I'm familiar enough with Empire politics and law to make legitimate excuses the superiors who respect me would accept in order not to raid/retrieve, even as a lowly Arcane. Quite frequently I can just tell them 'You can make me raid now, or you can let me gain levels and kill twice as many people later by not interrupting me. Take your pick.' But there are other excuses and political schemes depending on your character to use to avoid that problem.

My problem was not really being ordered to raid in lieu of levelling, that was a very small part of it and the one person who tried it age-died shortly before he would have lost his Council seat for overstepping his authority anyway.

My problem was Fortress locking down every single legitimate ranking area during the periods of time I could actually have a legitimate hero level group, and vice versa (no groups around when Fortress was leaving me alone)

n/t

Centurions don't create a noexit room.

Still, since it's not realistic to expect someone who just succumbed to a gaunt to pay the centurions, I just do/did the same as a summon trap, centurions outside an outdoor room, gaunt to the outdoor room a target that is unlikely/unable to word or let the devil damn them. The imms are less likely to nerf the latter than they are the former, and honestly gaunts are trash unless you take Planar Abductor anyway, their HP totals are so low that their superior melee rarely matters on a target with large HP totals or damage reduction.

I'm well aware that I could roll over fort solo. I can't do it permanently stuck at level 46 between a 24/7 presence of Fortress coupled with impatient or incompetent allies. I was totally okay with being the gear bitch for new and veteran players, but quite frequently the offer was never taken advantage of. A stronger Empire would have treated an arcane such as me like crap but most certainly would have abused my damage reduction against some tougher mobs.

I autoed because I hated my allies and have RL problems going down, not solely because I gave up against Fortress. Between scrambling to find work (with preferably a higher wage, insurance is expensive and I require it to stay alive due to genetic illness) and a new place to live, I didn't have the patience to keep waiting for that magic login where I'd get a chance to gain 4 levels uninterrupted.

nt