Well, when I started up on Vargal I had high hopes. Battle had just been purged, and I figured I'd go with a goodie berserker. I had been a complete newbie when the last few goodie ragers had been around, so I decided I'd give the freshly purged Village a taste of what the Good Guys are made of.

For the record; this was my first Hero.

I had a great time playing Vargal from rank 1 all the way to 50, but once I hit hero, something changed. My playing times dropped off because of lack of motivation to play Vargal, and the dwindling numbers in Battle didn't help at all. As time went on, I started to enjoy playing less and less, and tonight just clinched it. It had nothing to do with my death to Blitzenturt, but rather just the fact that I had only found about three fights total. First with Gjourriec, then with Caelestis (as he decided to charge out of Galadon to attack me), and then finally with Blitzenturt in which I died. I don't even think I killed anyone once I heroed. All my big time enemies for my playing time either changed their playing time or con died (Dregvoshan). However, the final straw was when I came on to find Thror on, who I had designed Vargal's role around. When I got to his shrine, I was given the silent treatment. Which is always fun, knowing your patron IMM is around, but doesn't want to have #### all to do with you.

Bah. I guess I'll just get on with the goodbyes.

Immortals:

Battle IMMs - I never once saw or heard from any of you. Positive or negative. Nothing. Not even when I tried to get your attention. Thanks for the silent treatment?

Vynmylak - Thanks for giving me my last name! You made me want to play those last 10 hours. You're a great IMM from what I've seen.

Battle:

Jinroh - You're a good leader, and your leadership is probably the only good thing to have come since the purge. Hopefully you can get the numbers back up.. But from what I saw that doesn't look hopeful. Good luck man.

Adgrizn - The last few days were probably the last fun I had with Vargal. Keep on trucking man, someone has to.

Ayik - You always had your head on your shoulders and giving people input, whether over cb or in the War Room. You saved a few of us a few times.

Hamashor - Dude! Without you I might not have ever heroed. I have to give you big thank yous for that.

Ranak - That one time our times meshed I had fun despite dying a few times. You seemed like a great berserker. I hope you come back to Battle.

Olofo - My favourite Battle Bard. You were always entertaining, especially when combined with Hamashor. A few times I was just looking at the screen laughing not knowing whether or not to say something.

Elijsie - You got to see my delete, sort of. As with a lot of the Villagers, our times just didn't seem to mesh once I heroed. However, when I did get to see you around I was happy that you were.. I hope you hero soon man, I couldn't believe that I had heroed before the person I initially talked to about joining the Village.

Iborenn, Krodren - Thought I disdain to group you two together because I'm sure you both have very different, and most likely good, reasons that I hardly ever saw either of you. Iborenn, keep on going. You're going to be needed.

Non-heros: Guys, you need to tough it all out and get to hero. Battle needs you now more than ever.

Empire:

Blitzenturt - I was hoping I'd get you eventually.. However, this time you just destroyed me. With cutoff and distance working the way they're supposed to now, you're going to be a tough emperor if you get it.

Laes - I got you when you were trying to re-raid. Thats about the only thing I can think of to make myself feel I did OK in PK as Vargal.

Scion:

Dregvoshan - You just seemed to be everywhere Vargal wanted to be, so we got a good number of fights. However, you seemed to be attached to Kungkruk for awhile. Not that that is a something I'm complaining about, a shaman by himself isn't exactly a killing machine. You did good.

Zavin - The annoying Scion invoker who got me a few times but I could never get back. Blah. You made me absolutely HATE seeing (Barrier).

Kungkruk - Uhh. We fought. Thats about all there was to it. I tried to get you to talk once, but you said nothing in reply.

Thats about everyone I can think of for the time being. If I missed you, you can reply in the classic battlefield fashion.

- Vargal

Well Vargal, we ran together when we were younger in a fashion that some would find odd. I mean, I would see you on Eastern and just wait around in a wilderness area - I knew some Scion bastard would eventually show up . After we ate the low Scion ranks, we both joined the Village and things got... tense. I started trying to help the cabal on a whole.. etc etc. That time I bitched at you - it was half frustration over the Village and half trying to get you to say something! I think you played a semi-silent character, one who sat in the background on the cb while you went out and hit people in the fscking head. That's fine and all... but don't be surprised if the Imm's don't notice that. 'course, I wasn't around to see what Thror did/didn't do so I can't really say I'm sure on that. Whatever, good first hero.. hope your not as jaded as I was on the Village

I say play a few other characters, come back and kick some ass. It's the formula that always worked for me.

I either didn't hear you or was doing something else at the time that prevented me from responding. Normally *I* have that same problem--I'll send enemies tells on not hear back. I pretty much make it a point to respond when I can, although you may not like the response you get, at least IC.

That being said, you played a berserker well. I (IC) never wanted to fight you alone, which was exactly my OOC feeling as well =P. Unfortunately rager warrior berserkers tend to eat non-rager warriors alive, so there was little alternative for me other than to bring backup when we had to fight (hence the Dreg angle). "But Kungkruk, you are a sissy to fight with others. You should have gathered aura/shield/stoneskin/protection/haste, and then went to fight him one on one!" Yes...or I could have just brought a friend and not wasted an hour of play time =P.

Again, well done and good luck on your next.

I really wanted to see you hit 51. I don't know why, it just seemed important. Maybe I'm psychic, and somehow I knew you'd never had a hero.

Which, by the way, I find remarkable. You did really well in the upper ranks (at least from what I could see) and seemed very competent, which is impressive if it was your first time up there.

Your comments to other people are almost more interesting to me than the comments to me, though... regarding Blitzenturt, if I'd known polearm was screwed up the way it was, I'd have left it at 1%... unfortunately, I practiced it way up (don't know if I ever mastered it, but it was around 95%)... and cutoff/distance worked just fine against me as a result. How ironic. And regarding Olofo... I definitely don't want to jinx anything, but I haven't seen his deletion thread or anything, so I assume he's still playing. But if I ever do see that thread, I'm going to have a lot to say. The interactions you're talking about between him and I had me rolling around on the floor most of the time, too.

Anyway, good first hero, man.

Bah another one bites the dust. I wanted ot talk more but you seemed to get out of dodge. Lets just say Fate has cursed me with gaining my last title. Good luck with your next. Jinroh and I will hold down the fort for now I suppose.

The path of a berserker is a rough one, and you stuck to it, very well. As a newbie in the fact that this is your first hero, you did great, I have no regrets, you shouldn't either.

I will say that now I feel bad about egging you on tonight about going out and killing someone, as a player at least. Jinroh expects some kind of results, so that was his way of egging you on to greatness. Now I feel partially responsible for egging you on to deletion, , sorry.

I do hope the village picks up a little in numbers again. I was enjoying logging on and seeing a bunch of other villagers. Does Jinroh just stink, because it seems I'm scaring all the hero villagers into deletion, heh.

Good luck with your next and thank you for giving a villager a whirl, it is, as I have always said, one of the most difficult pathes someone can take in this mud. The highs are the highest and damn are the lows low.

Jinroh stink? Heh, no. Don't even start to think that. You're a great leader, and it's not you that makes people delete (though I do wish you would have commented on the things you said to Hamashor). I think right now, Battle's going through a period I've never seen the like of in years of CF. A highly active leader, but waves of characters powering up to hero and becoming frustrated and deleting in droves. Is it because of the complete lack of imm presence? Maybe. People seem to be expressing that in their farewells. If so, it's unfortunate.

I used to see him all the time and now I virtually never do, so either his hours shifted, my hours shifted (or both, but not in the same way), or he isn't as active as he was once. (Admittedly I'm not either, so that could also explain why I haven't seen him much.)

The problem to me seems to be that where I once saw Jinroh, Janakt et al, I'm now seeing Adgrizn on his own, often for apparently very long periods of time. It's hard for one player to make a cabal a force to be reckoned with as opposed to being just one player who is dangerous in pk that everyone can avoid as they wish. I think that if there were a few running around again, village would potentially boom as quickly as Jinroh chose. As it is, I get the impression that a lot of players don't want to play villagers when villagers are on the wrong side of the pendulum swing, which is understandable but not too good for the game.

Is he on 10 hours every single day? Not as far as I can tell, no. But I see him on every few days, which is more than I can say for -- for example -- Lariya or Yanacek, to name two other pretty high profile cabal leaders of recent. Jinroh's on, slugging it out, dropping corpses (his own and others) all over the place. And MOST importantly, he interviews applicants. At least, in my experience. I've never had a problem getting him to talk to me, ever. With multiple characters now.

If you want to know my playing times so you can see me more to make you feel good, here they are, but know that my playing times shift constantly because of work and school.

I usually play, depending on my work schedule (which is hectic) from 10 pm to 2 or 3 am central game time, or from 12 noon to 5 pm central game time, or variances inbetween. On my days off, it could be anywhere from 8 am to 1 pm central game time to 8 am to 8 pm central game time. It all varies for me. Good luck finding me. Its usually 3 hours a day.

I think it's a combination of:

- Lack of Imm presence
- Lack of 'high morale' characters (Only Jinroh now)
- Lack of direction and RP involving the Village.

I sure remember with my first character under Drahkul's rule, it was non-stop fun (until I started getting 24/7 ganked by Nexans..).

As I said, your leadership was the best thing to come from the Battle purge. As a clarafication of what I said last night (after having been awake for a good 36 hours):

Basically what frustrated me the absolute most was my poor choice of legacies. Fist was absolutely great against MOBs, however against players it was utterly useless- either for having my strength dropped or just regular disarm. As a rule, I think I tried to wear atleast +10 strength, which should be enough to cover for a boneshatter/angelswing.. Even with 21 strength, I dropped a 17 poung axe in my off-hand. And once my strength was down, dual wielding axes became impossible- so in hindsight, I could probably have chosen a better legacy for a berserker. Whether it was cry of thunder or trapping or crashing of waves or SOMETHING that may have had a positive affect to fights instead of a null affect.

Fires of adversity I chose partly because it was my role and partly because whenever I was fighting invokers, I was fighting hurt before I could thirst.. It was good logic in my head atleast. However, I didn't notice anything worth while come of the legacy. I guess it's just not a great choice for a storm giant.

So don't feel bad about your comment over cb last night. I would have gone and fought Blitz (despite knowing he had sanc/prot/stoneskin and haste) and gotten myself killed. Because thats what I did against Blitz. I loved fighting him, because I knew he'd fight me alone. Gjourriec would too. Much respect to the both of them by the way. I also would have deleted last night at some point no matter what after my lack of getting Thror's attention.