Mon Aug 22 20:21:05 2016

At 11 o'clock PM, Day of Thunder, 10th of the Month of the Dark Shades
on the Theran calendar Balgrum perished, never to return.

So, after a solid year, Balgrum is gone. This character was a crazy idea that I didn't really have a plan for when I started. I knew I wanted to play a communer, but had no idea how empowerment worked, and was almost detered by the feedback and warnings about empowerment. My experience? Empowerment can be tricky, it does require patience. But by no means should that deter you from playing a great class. IMHO Shaman is easily one of the MOST survivable classes in the game. It is SUPER newbie friendly in terms of just surviving and escaping. It took me at least 200 hours to learn to PK as a shaman, chasing, and which of my supplications could actually effectively kill people. This is going to be a really long commentary, complete with goodbyes, my experience, and a critique of the Seraphs Wing shaman path, which I think seems a little incomplete, or complete with a few useless supplications.

This was only my second hero'd character here at CF, and I don't really know what possessed me to play a pacifist shaman, although the strange combo really helped me to come up with some great RP and focus on that side of the game more. On a side note, I totally appreciate any constructive criticism, tips, etc, since I am rather new here still and definitely haven't got it all figured out yet.

Big thanks to Avderlain for the empowerment, and encouragement. I know our interactions were minimal, and perhaps our playtimes didn't match much, but I am glad I stuck it out. Thanks to the immortal staff for setting up great interactions, watching epic battles and rewarding the people involved accordingly. There were two or three great battle royals I experienced as Balgrum that will probably live on in my memory for a long time to come. Hoping some of the Scarabs may have logged them because I forgot!

Goodbyes follow,

Fortress:

Gulrom - You were awesome man, you helped me gather good gear and knew my knowledge of items in CF was minimal, this helped a ton. You were also just a great friend to Balgrum in his early years, and who can't love a freakin' dwarf!

Arrashaw - Super solid presence for fort, an awesome prophet, and seems like our playtimes matched up pretty well. You helped me nail those last 9 ranks and are just all around one of the best RP'd Felars I have interacted with.

Ailianiakk - man, you are great, love your orphanage fund, and seems to me like you have just really been trying to create some great RP opprotunities for interaction. You talked me out of deleting twice, and were just like one of Balgrums best friends. So glad I got to guide you on your path, STOKED you finally got Acolyte! Carry the torch man!

Selina - You were great to group with, loved your RP, loved your success in PK, and most of all loved you showing me some obscure items and how to find them!

Sirelas - you are a freakin' BEAST! When you joined the fort, and got Marshall all the sudden I knew we were gonna be alright, and a dangerous cabal! You have been super solid, have a great build, and I LOVE your RP! honorary dwarf! Thanks for teaching me how to access ST. I know I want to explore that place a ton more... i've barely scratched the surface.

Xisaer - Oh man, did I wish you were around for ages before your time. Assassins were a constant threat to me because I didn't really know how to avoid them, but man, with you around at similar playtimes, I just felt untouchable. You are one badass Maran! So glad you got captain, I knew it was coming!

Wriennen - Loved having you around when you were online! Everyone loves a bard, and you were just tons of fun!

Herald:

Renize - Oh man, Balgrum just loved you! You were such a huge influence on him, and helped me to really develop my RP. I didn't really know where I was going before interacting with you, and daph and whildur, but it sure started to make sense. Thanks for the celestial exhibition, that was certainly a turning point for Balgrum.

Daphadee - Another super solid herald and great influence for Balgrum. I just couldn't help wanting to sit around the Inn and get drunk and chat with you all.

Whildur - Great adventures, your RP is incredible and how you manage to rhyme even the simplest of responses to people just fires me up! Always loved travelling to exotic locals with you, really wanted to finish those dragons and kill Tiamat! I always felt invicible with you around!

Deithivesra - Only got to interact a few times, but man, that story you had me tell you at the Inn, was epic. I logged it, and will post it up on QHCF eventually. I actually edited it, and used it as a role entry, which I think landed me a third place RC contest win. Thanks for inspiring that. Sad to see you deleted before accomplishing your goals... a herald lich would have been interesting.

Scarab:

Malchazzar - Man you are one tough cookie. So many times we've nearly had one another and got away. Really appreciate the RP interactions we've had, and loved that there was more to you than just a murderous dark-elf badass.

Garagrath - Super classy badass duergar, had me constantly on my toes. Loved our interactions, and knew if you were on there was a strong chance we were going to be brawling. You were never afraid to bring it, even against the odds.

Tjajeh - Not much RP interaction from you, but you were there for alot of the brawls with scarab and that made the fights tough, and fun. Kudos!

Undaraxyl - scary mummy.. I was trying for a while to feel you out in PK and the one time we locked up, I made the mistake of fighting on your terms underwater... which was dumb! Great kill, and super classy. Seemed like you had some killer RP and appreciated the conversations afterwards. I think CF better watch out for you!

Empire:

This one is hard, Balgrum lived a long life, and the turnover rate in the empire in that time has been huge, I will probably leave a bunch of people out here, and for that I am sorry, but rest assured if we fought, or interacted.. it was appreciated!

Tiiga - Pre-Anathema you were my nemesis. I never knew if you were around and you always showed up when I was half-dead, unaware or unprepared. I think I lost a good 3-5 con points to you. Man, I HATED you. Then you got Anathema'd and well, things got worse! Now your just killing everyone! There is nothing more scary than a skilled assassinate assassin with 100% proficiency. If you had stalked me, it was damn near guaranteed I would die. I HATE your RP or lack of communication, but I suppose thats sort of par for the course with assassins. Either way, my most deadly enemy for sure. Your three times over full loots were a bit harsh and nearly had me deleting several times.

Darvodaris - Awesome before emperor awesome after. Super classy, Loved all my interactions with the 5 or so emperors I lived through, all made a great attempt to RP and Balgrum was all about understanding his opponents.

Dcrui - Ballsy, and you keep getting tougher and tougher. Those damn cranials man... ugh. Not a huge fan of the way our last fight went down, but meh - it was time to go before I suffered a total meltdown.

Muuksube - Tough as ####in nails, great emperor, LOVE your take on the duergar RP. Classy for the most part, and super deadly. That malice on a character with less than 10 con is.. well, totally deterant to a fight. Glad to see you get emperor, you deserved it, even if I couldn't dream of killing you!

Khormand - Man you just kept going, even after dying over and over again. I hope you learned a ton, and I loved that you never gave up. Way to go.

Keilheil - Classy and dangerous. Was totally going to try to talk you out of deleting.. Empire needed a strong AP and dreadlord. Bummed when you offed yourself.

Obscurica - Empire Healer is dangerous.. you have the chance to really change the game up for Empire and should be near invincible. I found a good little strategy for dealing with you, but I wish you weren't so timid. I think you have a lot of room for growth with this character, and I hope you stick it out!

Golthazar - You were a beast and I always feared fighting you. Super classy, and glad I got to RP with you a bit late in life, and drink some ale!

Nexus:

Koelegh - Loved travelling with you and you really seem like you know your invoker well! Stoked I got to see some places and kill some baddies I had never killed before. Bummed Nexus always seems so down and out... my previous I went nexus gave it a go.. and just couldn't play it due to always being outmatched and outnumbered by the village. Kudos to you man.

Tribunal:

Selionar - You were such a great friend to Balgrum. Took me exploring when I was young, got me some great gear, and just always had fun adventuring. Bummed I don't see you around much, but understand how life is. Kudos on Provost.

Congee - Loved your gnominess. You were a good friend to Balgrum, and always stoked you thought of me for that super awesome dwarven relic! Glad your provincial and are pretty active. Hope to see you around with my next!

Peveuh - Had some great RP with you and wish you would have stuck it out. Your backstory and role was great. See you in the fields.

Probably forgetting a ton of folks, but this is getting long, and I still have to flesh out my Seraphs Wing rant. See subpost coming soon.

And many thanks for your kind words, I certainly don't think I am doing anything special. *sheepish* You were an excellently RPd dwarf and I will miss having you around, besides there was some exploring I was hoping to do with you. Though I don't miss so much you charging a snared enemy a couple of times before I (and anyone else) were ready!

Best of luck on your next, really looking forward to it.

The Snowy Courtyard
A mantle of well packed snow cloaks the frozen ground, gleaming brightly in the sunlight. Many tracks lead in all directions. Chill mountain winds swirl about, trapped by the massive walls of the fortress. The courtyard continues to the north, east and west. The massive silver gates of the fortress rise to the south.


(Invis) (White Aura) Preaching the ideals of redemption, Balgrum Brightbeard meanders through.

I was starting to like our conversations as I grew within my own skin. You will be missed as one to learn from even from the other side of the path.

I will say two things. You, for the most part were the quintessential Acolyte/Cardinal. Your greeness showed through a lot, but you learned and moved past it, which was impressive. Great job. Learning to be a good acolyte is a tough tough thing. I've never pulled it off.

My only criticism, and its really a minor thing was you were such a gear whore. I talked you out of Deleting after Tiiga fulled you that time, and you did a great job coming back. But man, every other conversation was about what piece of gear you needed/should get. It was very hard for Sirelas as a Maran, to keep hearing you ask about going to get this piece of gear or that piece of gear. When the war was out there to be fought. To be fair I don't think you really did it when there were threats, but man tone it down a little bit next time. Let it flow.

All in all, one of the best Cardinals in a while. Great job.

>I will say two things. You, for the most part were the
>quintessential Acolyte/Cardinal. Your greeness showed through
>a lot, but you learned and moved past it, which was
>impressive. Great job. Learning to be a good acolyte is a
>tough tough thing. I've never pulled it off.
>
>My only criticism, and its really a minor thing was you were
>such a gear whore. I talked you out of Deleting after Tiiga
>fulled you that time, and you did a great job coming back.
>But man, every other conversation was about what piece of gear
>you needed/should get. It was very hard for Sirelas as a
>Maran, to keep hearing you ask about going to get this piece
>of gear or that piece of gear. When the war was out there to
>be fought. To be fair I don't think you really did it when
>there were threats, but man tone it down a little bit next
>time. Let it flow.
>
>All in all, one of the best Cardinals in a while. Great job.


One of the cruxes of playing at work with no alts meant that when there weren't tough foes about, I had little else to do except RP with folks, and adventure around for gear. My limited knowledge of items made wanting to go kill tough #### and get a look at the ID's from stuff I hadn't seen a big priority. Some people have argued in the past that gear doesn't necissarily make you better, but I can tell you for sure that Balgrum with good gear was 100% more effective than Balgrum in #### gear. That could be due to the gap between my skills as a player and those of you that have been playing for 20 years, but gear sure seemed to compensate a lot. Sorry if it annoyed you

Yeah, gear matters a whole lot. I like to get nice things and talk about it, so it wouldn't bother me.

Yeah and that's appreciated by all of us who don't know where all the great stuff is, nothing like having a folder full of logged trips or conversations to go back through to keep me as a player excited to come back for more. Gear matters a lot and its fun to hit eq and see how awesome you look!

I never saw the dwarf step out of character, which at least for me is right up there on the short list of things I appreciate most about other players... CF is a MUD not MUSH, right, so going and getting gear or pking or thinking about deletion are all things you can figure out how to talk about in an IC way, like the Cardinal did at least while I was around, and ultimately it just adds to the engagement.

Loved Balgrum. We interacted many times earlier in your life when we were both seeking Avderlain. I was very happy to see that you got empowered. Good char and glad you stuck it out. GLWYN

>Loved Balgrum. We interacted many times earlier in your life
>when we were both seeking Avderlain. I was very happy to see
>that you got empowered. Good char and glad you stuck it out.
>GLWYN

Oh Battle. Well, I never interacted a ton with folks from Battle, but Ild I definitely did, and how could I forget! I Loved your poems, super inspiring and inspired me to try and do some creative writing/sculptures as well. Ild was just awesome, such a creative concept villager thief of mercy

I would also like to shoutout Kalvin, as I interacted with him quite a bit and we shared our dwarfy roots, he helped me out a bit, and would randomly show up with some great weapon or something for me!

So, I wanted to point out a few things that I found sort of... useless with the Seraphs Wing path. If I were to do another lightwalker shaman, I would not pick this path, as I found only two of the supplications to be moderately useful.. perhaps three if you take soldier of the light/dispel evil buff into account.

Biggest issue, is the shadowbane supplication, and the elysian shower supplication. Both I found to be near completely useless. Demonfire is far better in literally every situation I had and could dream up, namely because both supplications are 2 rounds of lag, for inferior damage (elysian shower FAR inferior damage). Neither to my knowledge produce any side effects or useful maledictions (see emblaze, which to my eyes was identical to shadowbane, except you get the searing armor effect which is like immolate.) Which made the 2 round lag worth it from time to time with emblaze. Elysian shower was just a joke in my opinion... dealing decimates or mutilates at best, with random damage types so you never knew if you were going to hit a vuln or a resistance. Best I ever saw was 3 bolts one cast, and couldn't compete at all with demonfire. I would see it much more useful if it was an area affect spell, that did comparable damage to emblaze/shadowbane.

Celestial choir. I did manage to find some interesting uses for this, but all in all it's pretty buggy, and I couldn't think of a way you would want to use this if you weren't in the fortress.. This supplication got me booted from the Inn twice (see bugboard post..) Even though I was inside the inn and never fought anyone outside the brawling room. If someone happened to walk by angels that were not in my party, or under my control, the bouncers would just start attacking me. The angels could be 100 rooms away and they would still attack me, and kick me out. In front of the fortress, the angels can only roam two rooms, which makes them really useful, because you can control the place of engagement, to make sure they help you, or at least make retrieval more of a pain. Most other places I would use them, they just wander off aimlessly, and chances of them wandering in on my opponent were slim. I think this spell could be much more useful, with a 2 room wander instead of wander dictated by area size. All in all, this was the supplication I wanted to try the most, so it is why I took this path. Not totally disappointed... but not exactly super useful either.

The archons choir path I found much more useful, and could see a tribunal shaman with that path ROCKING. Holy justice is amazing when fighting a criminal. undispellable sanctuary from majesty also incredible against opponents who dispel. Virtually every spell in that arsenal had a certifiable good use. And I will add that it's very possible I wasn't able to find, or dream up a great use for the above mentioned skills of the seraphs wing, but I think I tried them out pretty liberally in different situations, and just wasn't impressed.

I have a coworker who also used to play World of Warcraft in the good old days of vanilla WoW, and we frequently get to talking about why it is we liked it so much back then and don't like it as much any more.

One thing that often comes up is how boring it gets when every class plays exactly the same with the same abilities just reskinned. I liked my rogue and frost mage - they totally destroyed certain characters and I had to run every time I saw a select few others. Something I like about CF is that it has that old school feel. There are combos that are particularly strong when it comes to warrior builds, shaman paths, etc., even just picking race-class combos, and there are combos that clearly suck (i.e., my gnome warrior when I didn't have any idea how to get stone skin regularly without dying horribly to paralysis after eating it). Seraph's wing doesn't seem very good to me having not played it and you probably convinced me not to give it a try but I like the idea that someone more creative could come along and figure out a way to make it totally shine... and if that doesn't happen and it's just more of an RP choice its not like shamans terribly need their paths to be competitive plus you get to be remembered for having it .

Thank you for everything. a perfect cardinal who showed everyone a path to peace this character will live with me in life inspirational! Well done my cardinal

Really liked to see you online because I knew if our paths crossed, you'd be up for a fight. I think we both ended up dead atleast once. A shame to see you go, but again, hope to see a new reincarnation in the hero range soon. Good luck with your next. You're doing really good considering your short history in CF.