Tue Jun 30 11:53:29 2009

At 9 o'clock PM, Day of Thunder, 17th of the Month of the Great Evil
on the Theran calendar Bezuku perished, never to return.

Blame wands. I couldn't find any of them. Which is almost funny in that the human a-p I rolled just before this one had the easiest aura and shield locations ever. Though I'll probably delete that one soon too.

Anyway. A-p without wands is a mess. The generic spots I did find (wands and scrolls) were a nuisance enough in difficulty to get or ever being in. I'll also never be so cautious a player to only fight when I know I'll win. Not a good combination for an a-p!

Toodles.

And you ditched me both times because people were after your ASS. Which, I don't blame you for.

Fun being on the same side (kinda).

>I'll also never be so cautious a
>player to only fight when I know I'll win. Not a good
>combination for an a-p!

Well... it's not a good combination for your "classic" build a giant weapon and delete when I lose it A-P.

On the other hand, a guy who just threw down constantly probably wouldn't build a super weapon, but he might get more kills than the first guy and he'd certainly get controls faster.

Maybe if you adjust your expectations it could be for you.

My goal wasn't to get a huge weapon the standard way. I could never do that. I'm a terrible prepper and too gung-ho to just go in and fight (and die a bit too much!).

I woulda loved to have been a poor-man's Kharghurln.

I just think aura and shield is necessary to fight tough, equally talented players.

Anyway, my expectations were rational as I lost more than enough weapons between this a-p and my human one. I just grew tired of the great wand search of '09 (and waiting on a Scion induct).

Whenever I play an AP I get to about your level - 37 - and start to think, "you know, this would be so much easier if I were playing a warrior."

D-something.. that scarab duergar shaman from a few years ago, played aggressive fire APs that only used stoneskin and (IMO) did very well with them (obviously not Cabdru levels of power). But I was never able to replicate that.

And whilst I think he was skilled, it's not the same game today.

For example, back then, you could bash down dexy classes. Now they dodge axes well.

Assuming that you are saying Drucyrus could not replicate his success today.

That said, I'm not convinced I an disprove you, either (like I said, I get frustrated with APs ~37, delete, and roll a warrior). And there are not many Drucyrus-types left. Everyone wants to be Cabdru and never die.

You could not just wield axes and "bash down dexy classes" back then, either. Take it from someone that played a couple axe spec warriors. You always had to start being clever ~35 (unless you're farming newer players).

And yes, that's how he got a lot of his kills without wands. Bloodlusted, and permalagged them with bash until they died. Now you can't do that as easily as an ap. I did play a fire ap and bloodlust then bash worked rather well (which is different to the axe spec warrior). Until i died to a maran trigger-using axe spec warrior who kept catching me with dash before I could quaff.

Also, he couldn't replicate it after. He did make some attempts. One, for example, when I was playing Sossaphrin.

He himself also said that making pk's in hero range was prohibitively difficult because people kept coming to each other's rescue. Victoria was partly rolled to take up that challenge. In fact, I think I tangled with another one of his ap's as my druid too.

He is a skilled player, and one I greatly admire (since I don't really have issues with what he did re his two characters -- he just referred one to the cabal imm, which to me feels reasonable). But if he were to succeed today, he'd have to use different tactics.

Drycyrus was Amberions archenemy, though not 0.01% as skilled though. ^^ But man! Did I have A LOT of fun fighting him!

But I rolled Victoria partly because Drucyrus reckoned an ap couldn't prosper in the hero range. (That's also why I went into hero range pre-controls.)

In most cases, throwing yourself down constantly may get you more kills compared with a conservative style guy. But specifically for a wandless AP it probably just means getting more deaths, losing eq and thus even less chances to kill anyone.

It would mean more deaths to be sure.

But, I've also seen people die to the more aggressive style of A-P that would never die to the kinds of A-Ps you and I are more known for playing. It's a lot harder to kill someone who's pretty sure they can't beat you and really, really is trying to to fight you, vs. someone you've maybe killed before and think you can kill again.

As a middle-level wandless AP you will be outdamaged by virtually any fighter class because your defenses probably suck (APs don't tank while ranking unless you have a good perma with a healer) and your spells probably suck even more (unless you are a levelsitting drow for 100 hours). And if you can't use your magic effectively and your defesnes suck the only hope for you is luck and very good eq.
While your luck (or lack of) is always with you, the gear is easy to lose. And if you are naked things only get worse.
A while back you could still do well with axes, but now they don't do enough damage to stand against pincer/flurry/kotegaeshi/cranial/bash/whatever else.
If we drop ganging from consideration, as a solo wandless AP your primary targets are classes weaker than you, like those power-ranking shifters. But they don't really look for a fight with you and usually walk in a group (with at least one fighter who will own you alone).