Wed Apr 5 20:26:09 2023

At 10 o'clock AM, Day of the Sun, 6th of the Month of Futility
on the Theran calendar Faramond perished, never to return.

I posted a lot of this on Discord already, but I like to write my thoughts here so I can look back in a few years and see how wrong I was about everything.

Faramond was kind of a throw-away character, because I knew I needed to have the experience of playing a warrior to more effectively counter them, but also knew the experience of playing a warrior would not be my cup of tea. I figured perhaps my experience as a goblin would translate a bit, though (it really didn't much). So I came up with a ridiculous enough character concept for this to be fun and keep my interest from an RP perspective and crossed my fingers.

I had only played one warrior since weapon specs have been a thing, back in 2004ish, and had never played Tribunal. Neither appealed to me. After this character, I at least have solid confirmation that neither are for me. Warriors are just prep-dependent to a degree that is off-putting. Like having to quaf potions just to rank properly is dumb. And with no hides or detects, you are a sitting duck who can't see anyone unless you are super diligent with those potions (or know gear to give you perma-detect which I do not).

With my previous characters, I felt like there were power spikes here and there, but in general they kept up with other classes in power. With the warrior, I felt ok at around level 30, and it was all downhill from here. The main reason being, you get your second weapon spec at 40 but that only adds versatility. You have nothing new or more powerful that a warrior who took that spec first wouldn't have. So you really need those legacies and edges to bring it all home. So from level 38-hero really sucks.

I wanted to power through to hero, but there was basically no pathway to do that. The PK range for me was all evil all the time, with a few people in particular who were going to find me no matter where I tried to rank, and were likely going to kill me reliably if found. And playing a level 44 warrior for a length of time long enough for that PK range to change just did not sound like a bit of fun, hence the delete.

Tribunal was a weird cabal experience after having a couple Fort characters. Fort feels good and natural. You have a lot of people working toward the same goal, so the cabal channel is mostly calling out where people are or RP related to camaraderie. Tribunal, by its very nature, is a more mixed group with less camaraderie. And at least for the time I was in, not really much in the way of RP happens on cabal chat. It was very disjointed. Lots of people using cabal chat to talk to people they were grouped with for item gathering or whatever. It just made me feel like I wasn't part of anything cohesive. And I always thought Tribunal would be a boring cabal where you sat in your guild on duty most of the time, and then had people whine at you whenever you actually did your job. Now I can confirm that is exactly the case. Not to my taste and I doubt I will do another Tribunal character.

Sorry, this is all quite negative.

As usual, the people you meet make all the difference even if the experience of playing a character mechanically isn't for you. And this is no exception. I met some really great characters in my time as Faramond. Basically, if I ever talked to you more than once, count yourself among them, because I only sought interaction from people I enjoyed even on an enemy level.

Finally, some specific apologies to Yvcalla and Viera. There was one night I was playing and hating everything about the game, and you tried to interact with me. I said things that were verging on OOC and probably broke immersion, which is something I personally hate and never try to do myself. So I can own up to it, and I hope you can forgive me for the slips. You both seem like awesome characters. I just felt really beaten down as Faramond.

Tribunal at the moment is extremely fun and sees a great number of PK wins and PK losses (with quite respectful looting policy, now that Nygara is gone) but not if you are a goodie, with most Tribunals being evil/neutral and a strong alliance with Empire. So I am not surprised that you felt isolated or even ostracized.

Faramond added good flavor to Cabal, but from observation (and maybe because of what I just described above) seemed to do things on his own.

***

One observational note: you seem to be contrarian in your approach to making successful PK characters. Non-romantic elf bard, animist elf ranger, storm warrior in Tribunal, goblin - you are playing CF on hard mode. So if you enjoy this, great, but all of these are mechanically difficult to implement. If you want success in PK, etc., you should try one of the more prevalent / tested builds/ideas.

I certainly can't argue with any of that. My next character is likely to be a build more in line with meta expectations, but honestly I am not 100% solid on what I want to do next. I do play the game for different reasons primarily than a lot of folks seem to, so for example even though Grungelglut was hard mode for sure, it's the most fun I have had playing the game since my return. But then I get frustrated if I am killed all the time, so I clearly need to find a better balance.

Anyway, thank you for your comments are I agree with your assessment aside from Tribunal being fun. LOL!

Loved the char and hope you come back with a next one.

No worries about it, I was actually a bit sad you were frustrated and tried to hint that I was rooting for you to get strong. Sorry you felt beaten down on Faramond, I did think you'd eventually get into the swing of things at hero.

Re: OOC: it wasn't that bad. The bitterness thing sort of came through but it wasn't OOC, some guy getting beaten up could IC talk like that too. And the paranoid RP also fit right in. Anyway, you ate a #### death with invis-sleep from me and didn't send a single upset tell and I thought that was quite sporting. You also roleplayed enough obviously in-character that nothing from you felt like the player bleeding through.

Yeah fortunately Faramond had a distinctive was of speaking, so keeping thing "IC" was easily accomplished, but that night I should have just quit out earlier because I was just super frustrated with the character. I do not understand how people play effective warriors. I was a sitting duck for everyone all the time.

But anyway, thanks for the replies and encouragement, and all your taunts and effort you put in. Great character! I wish I could have stuck in there and grown enough to give you a real challenge, but I just couldn't. Next time! Probably. Okay probably not.

It can be lonely, being a goody in the tribunal, you will be sorely missed! Faramond felt very real, just your way of talking and emoting had a way of bringing the game to life. Very sad to see you go, especially since I just gave you my pants.

Hi Ilise! Being a goodie in Tribunal was really not a huge issue for me, because I had RP reasons to always see the honor in each person, etc. I actually got along with most people well, even though I kept making missteps since I had never played a Tribunal before. The biggest challenge was the whole "orderly" schtick meant that the Empire was constantly in cooperation, and I didn't want to fight shoulder to shoulder with them.

Anyway, thank you for your kind words and I really enjoyed our interactions, even though they were often brief. And of course, thank you for those stylish leather pants. I always find it super funny when giants and normal sized folks can just swap gear like that.

Enjoyed the brief time I knew you. Sorry Yoomar got you in ayr'trinil.

Faramond was an awesome character and it breaks my heart to see him go. I learned so much from my adventures with him, and just know that he will be missed greatly. But GLWN, and I am excited to see you return!

Had it not been for you, I would have probably deleted this character pre-40, because I ran out of steam early on. But then it became a goal for me to accomplish certain things for you, and added longevity to the character. Our interactions were definitely the high points of this character's life.