Sun Feb 22 15:03:01 2015

At 4 o'clock PM, Day of Thunder, 10th of the Month of the Sun
on the Theran calendar Magner perished, never to return.

I wanted to kill you.

You were a tough fight for me, because regardless of the +18 str I run around with you could still make me drop my weapons in 3 rounds. Hurl+artery+boneshatter..

And every time we fought, evade never favored me enough to let me avoid one.

Well played, tough cookie and I couldn't kill you (not for lack of effort trying).

Well, I know you didn't break the lot a bunch, but I always tense when I see a villager in town. I know there is nothing normally holding them back.

We didn't RP a bunch, but the one time that sticks out is when we acknowledged each other as the firsts of our religions. It was nothing major, but it stuck out in my head everytime I say you.


Anyway GLWYN!

Yeah, unlike some of my past characters I just didn't want to be wanted for the most part with this one. The only time I would do it is when I thought I had a fairly decent chance of getting the kill and thought no one was watching.

For most of the characters life it just could turn to empire o'clock at any moment and make life difficult navigating the map. I felt that was sound strategy and fit well with the Enclave bit.

Was it you that knew I had committed a crime but couldn't find the evidence that time? You let me know that but didn't flag me. If it was, that was cool.

Thanks for the tournament entertainment! I wasn't sure if you were going to make it through, but you were amazingly tough! I had a story line planned to interact with you, but my time has dropped so much...well, great job all around!

So much fun when people go out of their way to do those things. Hope you keep them up.

Magner was a lot of fun, but, like I said on qhcf – I’ve just lost my steam. Log ins aren’t that fun anymore and I don’t feel as invested in the character. I kept hoping something would rekindle it for me but nothing did. Dagger/mace berserker was a build I have always wanted to play but never got around to it before the strength mace changes went in. I originally wanted to try something a bit dexier but thought boneshatter wasn’t going to be as effective since I was going Whirlwind. In hindsight it was probably a wash since I lost out on the higher dex and all the benefits that go along with that. I did however, get great mileage out of gates and normally rocked a pretty good damroll.

For those who care, Magner’s (condensed) role was that he was born male, turned female by magic trickery and joined the Village. The role concept was actually something I used before – well more than a decade ago, and I didn’t think anyone would mind since I wrote a new role for Magner and only recycled the gender concept. Personally, I think that initial role (not so much updates) was one of the best I’ve ever written. I thought it contained a quality, entertaining story and explained all the aspects of the character (sphere and weapon choice, etc). I thought for sure I would win a role contest with it and never did. That was very disappointing. I would love to hear some feedback on it.

There were some times of extreme frustration with this character rooted in having skills miss all the time. It was hard to hold my tongue at times, and it was one of the reasons why I emailed the imms. I was just looking for advice but I guess that isn’t the way to go about it. I didn’t really want to post it on the boards for fear of looking like a whiner or something.

I did eventually speak to Verathi in game about it and he explained that it was rooted in my racial maxes. Considering this carefully, I can understand how that would be for the dagger spec. I’m a guy that once played a giant dagger spec to hero and didn’t do too bad with it. I want to say I kept a positive ratio. Manno was that char’s name. With that character I learned Hamstring was definitely dex dependent but I remember being surprised that hurl and artery worked fairly well. Artery would miss occasionally, but hurl worked so well I started to wonder if there was a strength component. I’ll have to see if I have logs to look back but I don’t even recall having trouble against dexy characters. With Magner I most certainly did. This leads me to wonder that instead of being based on your dexterity, which I figured 22 dex would do well, it’s a dex comparison, hence my troubles against all dexy characters. Perhaps the imms can confirm this theory?

What did trouble me and really added to my frustration was that my mace skills missed quite a bit too. Boneshatter was decent but drum and cranial missed quite often. I once knocked out 3 shifters out of form consecutively and missed all three follow up cranials. Drum was very frustrating. I saw Liantae make a comment on it. The logs that got posted show it quite a bit. I just don’t know. I thought that skill was strength based and you would think that a 23 str would hit fairly often. Add evade and parry anything on top of that and the frustrations got even worse. I fought Jarlduz with two different 24 dex characters and in 21 drums he only missed me twice. I missed a great deal more than that with Magner. Heck, I started going back through my logs and found I missed 4 out of 14 against dexy characters before I just gave up looking. I know these could be misleading numbers but the trend I experienced with the character seemed to support them. Perhaps the imms would be kind enough to discuss this as well?

Other than the dexy character woes, the build was solid. It was very good for mage killing. I can see what made Malakhi such a powerhouse now.

Some Goodbyes –

Verathi – Thank you very much. Thank you. I know that at times I wasn’t representing the Enclave the best with some of my blunders and it felt I was getting more that way at the end with my divestment from the character. I hope there were times I did represent it well and I shined. It’s a very cool concept and very challenging to play. I couldn’t imagine being Victory and trying it . You are a tremendous imm. I learned a great deal from you about quite a few aspects of the game. I just loved our talks because you always had some great feedback for me. I really think it helps when you take the time to tell people where they are doing well and where they are lacking and you did this quite often for me. I highly recommend others to give you a shot.

Ysal – I know you hated duergar and I really only saw you during the rites and when you granted me. I hope you at least liked this character as a battle imm and not as the racist Ysal. I just got to know – why didn’t you let me induct people? I just wonder because that’s two leader characters in a row who were told not to induct…
Aoirse – You were the guy I most looked forward to seeing log on. Yeah, we died some horrible (and idiotic) deaths together but we also tore some stuff up. We were both sphere pride and so I had to RP some irritation over losing the Rites but it worked out very well. I was happy to be your DM so thank you for that opportunity. I hope you were pleased with how I executed my duties there. We made a pretty good team I thought and Magner considered you a dear friend and comrade. I’ll be interested to see who you pick for my replacement!
Heaghul – You’re one hell of a defender. Thanks for all the stoles and patches! I’m just wondering when you’ll hero? Quite a quality character.

Ishki – You’re so entertaining. It’s too bad your times have fallen off lately. I really enjoyed the way the relationship developed between the two characters. We’re not supposed to like each other but underneath all the bravado and deep in a place either would barely admit to themselves I think each character truly did like and admire the other. Hope you start making it back more.

Serrkal – You’re a great partner to PK with. You’re quite aggressive and that’s fun to play with. You seem to be doing well. I think our times just didn’t match up fairly well. I should have come down on you hard for calling a different plan than I had called and then getting upset with me for not following it that time at the palace but I liked you too much. It was a break in character for me but truthfully your plan was the better one but I had already been mentally set on the plan I said and didn’t notice you called something different in how fast things happened. I think it was the same for you after we discussed it. I don’t bring it up as a negative.

Marintok – Absolutely well done and I’ve so much respect for you. You’ve seem to won that from the majority – if not all – of the playerbase. It’s been so much fun to see you not only been such a trooper and wonderful competitor (enemy) but to have seen you get so much better and tougher with this character. So well done. Mad props.

Xeneth – Huge congrats for making emperor. I remember being the reason why you lost your first War Mastership . Thanks for treating with us. It helped make the character a bit more bearable at times. The few times I went on CF tilt were in empire power hours and I’d log off thinking WTF did I just do all that for? Sigil and pummel looks nasty. Good luck going forward and hope you keep the throne!

Altariel – A great enemy and very strong. You had my number most times and are in with all those dexy characters I had so much trouble with. You were always cool and respectable about it though so thanks for that.

Trekberg – Chief! Man I loved to see an orc who decided not to harass the Village for once. You’re so awesome and fun to play around. Keep it up!

Lilyth – Damnit did you ever have my number. You would always show up at the worst times. That one time that you killed me in the underdark was one of the most frustrating moments of this characters life. I missed two hamstrings and two drums on you while bloodthirsting. Anyhow, I don’t mean to demean your praise by bringing that up. You’re a spectacularly played character and so very tough and always a respectful player. That first time you killed me outside of the orc Village was all RP! Orc Lover

Hoysepis – Man you are the vulture! I was always nervous when you were around if I got injured. Great enemy to have! Glad I got you that time. It was a goal I had set with Verathi to accomplish!

Tovyn – Yeah I did seem to catch you at the worst times quite a bit. But you were always cool and classy about it and so much fun to RP with! Thanks for that. Guess Magner went off and found a hobby now!

Leata – We fought since the beginning of the characters life. Great times and great competition. You had the upper hand in the lower ranks but I started to win the majority of battles later on I think. Still you are wonderful character.

I know I’m missing a bunch of you but I’m running out of steam. Please write and I’ll respond!

I can't really speak to the skills failing for certain, I just told you what I thought it was. I've had 21, 23, and 24 dex dagger specs and I'm not sure I'd take it on anything less than a 24.

I remember seeing you drop by and thinking "hrm, an out of sphere duergar, but hey I just showed up so lets see where this goes". Whenever you blundered, I wasn't too upset as I half expected a duergar to blunder some just didn't want to see any mistakes twice. The only real "negative" thing I can say is you tended to go lone wolf, which is cool except when I want to see you playing the part of drillmistress. Small exception aside, I enjoyed interacting with you on Verathi and others.

I remember watching a few fights, specifically one with Liantae where I was impressed simply by how you moved through all the areas to try to lose them. That is kind of when I knew you were familiar with battle.

At some point (no promise on exactly when), I'll likely add a reference to you into the shrine in some fashion. If you'd like to work on it yourself, shoot me an email.

I think this is awesome, and a very fitting way for someone to have that last little bit of involvement in CF lore.

Yeah, I might like that. Thanks again!

Great all-around, especially with that turnaround when you went from an easy frag to WhyAmIWalkingToMyCorpseAgain stage. I confess, I mostly gave up on trying to fight you after losing (badly) having sanc, mantle, stone skin, aura up and having to word (or I died) like three-four rounds in. Maybe there's a saves threshold after which shaman just does nothing. I feel I could easily kill some people, but do absolutely nothing to the others. And you were at the top of the "others" list towards the end.

Hope a new char will rekindle your spirits, do something with trickery this time, I find it helps after the dull of Battle. Like a non-shifter mage or shaman/druid or even a thief. Probably not a warrior or paladin or shifter as that plays far too similar. Anyhow, awesome job, enjoyed our chats.

P.S. Made a token effort in ST, backed off after figuring you were maledicted from fighting X in case you were wondering.

I will look to see if I can find that log. I can't remember if I was maledicted or not. I just know that it was my first time back there after attacking one of the big guy mages and so it was hard for me to move around.

As far as the other fights I did have pretty high saves and a high strength and light weapons helped a bunch too. I can also say just being hero seemed to make one hell of a difference. I ate some NASTY withers from you and Reegun pre-hero. So nasty. Shiver.

Good times.

Couldn't beat you even though I tried. That time you killed me was funny and annoying at the same time. I was slightly hurt in the scarab temple. Meant to type r for rest and instead typed rr which is my alias for quaf recall. Recalled unexpectedly and saw you near. Knew it was a risk but tried to get barrier up and something to help me avoid permalag. Failed with the latter and you killed me.

Everything I tried failed to get results. I couldn't get enough dan redux to outdamage you and sleep failing was dangerous too. Couple of times I had hope but one I didn't use the right prep and another you spell baned my unholy prof and the damage from that meant I was no longer in with a chance.

Thanks for being a stand out rager!

D-elf AP sounds like crazy hard mode but you do it well. I can imagine small slip ups are easy to make. I was kind of surprised I actually did get you that time. It was one of those stare at the screen did that just happen moments for me. Highlight no doubt as I'm sure not many have managed that.

Thanks for the rest of the fights. Yeah, I did pump out a bunch of damage that would have been hard to keep up with. I knew you were playing it cautious with me (as you should) but were still willing to give it a fight. This sounds dumb, but I was kind of hoping you might get me to sleep and we'd be able to duke it out to the end. It would be a huge dice roll but I thought I would be able to survive the initial vault and be able to poultice and bloodthirst before dying and let the gamble happen! It would have been fun at least.

Well done with the character though. I'm interested to see how far you get with it!

Ysal, as you noted, HATES duergar.
Me though, I loved Mags. On the Induct thing, normally I prefer the commander only induct, and if there is an active one I am good with that. When commander hours drop off of if there is none, then there are plenty of times I let the Drillmaster's induct.
Sorry you lost steam, because I would have loved for you to stick around, guess those plans will need to go on hold =0p
You were an all-round kick-ass drillmaster, and it really was a close decision on the Commander position, the finalists, despite a small showing, were all good. I think you would have made an excellent commander also.

If you hadn't been such a smelly arsed duergar you might have seen me more, but Ysal isn't the huggy type. I did watch you quite a bit though and was always impressed, you handed out ass-kickings and took them with equal aplomb. Unlike many villagers who will scuttle back to the village when the head is gone, you were often just as dangerous to the unwary with no battle powers.

No to rub salt in the wounds, but I am pretty sure there would have been a pillar spot for you if you had gone to the the end of your con/age. Can't give a better compliment than that.

No salt at all! It is enough knowing that this was that kind of character. I knew that I might be missing out on some things with the delete but it was just time. I nearly deleted last week but decided to try and give it a few more log ins. Especially to try a new fighting tactic against those damn dexy people. It just didn't brighten things up though.

I understand about the induction. It was just curiosity. It makes sense to do it that way though and not a problem for me. There is an expectation among applicants that the Drillmaster can induct so I tried to be clear about that and do my best to drill them and in return offer the best recommendation they can get.

One of my favorite people in the game, I am sure most of my deaths have been to you and the commander but I enjoyed every one of them. And I think I have learned quite a bit fighting against you, you made me change my entire play style which ended being for the good I hope.

And you were never afriad to mix it up, witht he head or without you were there to fight and I liked that. Atleast towards the end it seemed we were closely matched, all of our last fights I would have said they were a coin flip.

That time i killed you at the destructor and the time I killed you both when you were raiding, and then a few days ago when me and the otter took you both out in the village....well those were highlights of this char so far.I think it says something when 90% of my pavorite pk fights involved your char.

You were great to talk to also (though it only seemed to happen after one of us died, I personally call that ghost RP) The little quips and tidbits we threw back and forth at each other were hilarious, made me laugh quite a bit sitting at the keyboard.

Great char and sorry you lost interest, good luck with your next.

Marintok

Thanks, Magner. I'm gonna miss you.

I remember you had some way out of the way places to heal up and while I tried to make it to you everytime....we had more than one conversation that went like this...

Magner: Could use a patch
Heaghul: Aye, where ya be?
Magner: End of the rainbow bridge, through the hinge-less chest, down to the third level of the craven witch and all south to the lint dealer.
**Awkward pause**
Heaghul: Um...ya gonna die?

Anyway, sorry I haven't been around much lately. RL and such. Far as not making hero yet, I have reasons that I'll share when I'm gone.

GLWYN!

I could tell you played for a while and this was not your first rager.

You probably would have been commander if you were older during the rites.

Well done overall and was real fun to have someone to run with.

Hope the peace with empire did not take the fun out of your character.

Was happy to see you get drillmistress at my recommendation.

Also was happy to see you win that arena tourney.

GLWYN

Aoirse Heron

P.S. You will be missed. Excellent character.

Nope, I wanted that peace with Empire. And I'm very happy things turned out the way they did. I don't regret not being Commander or anything. I'm pleased you are and are enjoying it! Can't wait to hear all about the journey when Aoirse is done.

Loved our fights... very megamind like... You would win some, and I would almost win others... Great character. Good RP'n with you.

GLWYN

Wonderful back and forth fights. Thanks for them!

You were awesome I am really sorry to see this.

IC I respected you a lot OOC you made me wish I was in battle. Well played!

All the best!

I just wish you would have waited a moment or two more that time you and Khal got me in Veran. I might have bagged the mummy then!

lots of great fights and good talks. Empire bards are scary as hell and you are doing a great job of upholding that reputation.

I had a lot of fun RPing with you and fighting, even though most fights were a bit onesided. I can't believe how much you missed hitting me with drum compared to Jarlduz! Why was that?

Anyway, awesome RP! Great work! Shame to see you go already!

Wow did you ever have my number! But you were so awesome. I just wanted to get you once! It never happened. You outlanders were tough because you seemed to just have my number and I couldn't actively hunt you for revenge!

I talked a bit about the misses in my goodbye.

But, man, I can't say enough about Liantae. Keep it up!