Fri Aug 14 15:26:12 2009

At 7 o'clock PM, Day of Freedom, 11th of the Month of Futility
on the Theran calendar Khiiral perished, never to return.

This guy went into the 35-40 rank really strong, resilient when it counted damn lucky. I think i was at 23 con with no trainin into it at that point. PKing opportunity seemed fairly limited and confined this time around and i found myself having to take alot more risks.

A couple of people really seemed to just have my number, and even with cranial mastered it seemed to fail at the worst times to let them escape.

Hitting the fourty-two to fourty-three rank was absolutely deadily. I dont know what the hell happened but all allies absolutely dissapeared and i was left against outlanders, dozens of nexuns, and dozens of Imperials. It was at the point that I just couldnt find anyone to rank with in one of the worst spots for a warrior and just got repeatedly mowed down by groups of two and threes of a variety of cabals (usually mixxed together). I kept getting rained-out for work and the con just started falling in the handfulls each day. I think i went from 24 con down to my 12 in a week because i got stuck in this terrible clinch.

I always tried to hold my head up high through his entire life, Except for one situation with the nexuns (I was full looted five minutes before they started raiding, manage to keep four of the things) and they go ahead and take two of them when they get me and they couldnt even use one of them.
Man did that ever piss me off.

He got fulled/to near-full looted most times he died, especially when concerning that imperial squad that was going around for a bit( it felt so good to get two of those bastards to delete over me killing them) but for the most part i just always tried to get back on the horse and keep trucking.


I attribute this massive 12con loss week to one thing, and one thing only. Choosing to do hand to hand spec on my second choice. Never had a chance to use them and the skills failed constantly. I kept kicking myself for never going spear and utilizing the defense/impale aspect of it.

A few shout-outs i suppose:

Kyaltaru- Its not that i blamed you for every thing your minions did, but god damn it annoyed me to the fullest extent how you tried to come off this angelic clean-slate character. You've found yourself to be really well off, hell you stand toe to toe with some of the strongest and do really well, and yet you would always call in two-three other fricking cabals to come aid you raid until you were at least double our numbers, and you would never come other then that, raid situations that kind of thing. Yes sometimes you would come by yourself to mingle with one of our players, but who remembers something that insignificant when there was never a chance for you to be at risk.

Kohrzchek?- You played even more conservative then me, as far as i am concerned your a big ass ####. The worst is you always felt the need to jump into an existing fight, spam lag until someone ended up dead. Would run like a fricking girl any other time. Or you would keep my weapons just because you have a vulnerability to them.

Slorinek- Your a complete douche. Always jumping me when i am trying to reraid against two-three others already. Or just the repetitive stalking, some nights it would be i get caught by an assassination of yours at 2am, go to sleep, wake up the next morning and boom your back on my tail before i can even rearmor.

Malakhi- I think your a good leader, maybe a little soft compared to some others, its ashame everything started falling apart for me once you got commander because i was hoping with a little more time we could of synced each others playing styles and cut the head of ridiculous amount of nexuns.

Over the last couple of Battle characters i have had, the most amazing realization that i have had is how everyone seemed to have this terrible stereotype of Battle Characters. Its even worse then the whole wrathing paladin knights thing going on.

It almost seems like a no win situation to be accepted, because its either everyone is running away from you with things like, oh its just because you have deathblow, or wait until i have (X). Or they are calling you a coward and #### because you are not willing to stick around and be a punching bag when for example with slorineck you have two broken wrists, and shoulder, and are far from having any dex or strength to do anything in combat or wield anything.

Or there is the whole screaming about parity (even to the extent of striking at someone who is fighting a mob(ranking or with orcs trying to charm it), when they come back with any numbers from 2-5 people, and you get full-looted.

then they talk about how great they are.

Not to mention, i absolutely love the current nexun trait. We no longer have fourty-fifty players, so rather then come with five-six of our own constantly, we're going to come at you with a mixxed group of tribunal/imperials/scions. Even the occassional fortress member against some of our evil aligned battle chars. And being a dwarf there is always the outlanders hunting you greatness.

So that is the conclusion of my rant. No ranking partners for a week, rank fourty-three death spot, and 12 con loss packs this character in.

To bad, i was hoping to make something out of it.

Or when i would come to fight your younger cabalmates, you would grab my weapon and just be a major pain in the ass.

#1, it's not what it used to be. I've had it on two dwarf warrior heroes and leaders (Dungard and Heas) and probably would not take it again. It did okay for Heas who could make use of haste preps, but now that those aren't an option I just feel like it lacks the right oomph. There are still scenarios I might consider taking it - but I would *always* take it first if I'm planning to take it at all. You will be MISERABLE without having ironhands up in the 90s if you are trying to go through the lvl 40-50 era.

>This guy went into the 35-40 rank really strong, resilient
>when it counted damn lucky. I think i was at 23 con with no
>trainin into it at that point. PKing opportunity seemed fairly
>limited and confined this time around and i found myself
>having to take alot more risks.

>Hitting the fourty-two to fourty-three rank was absolutely
>deadily.

>It almost seems like a no win situation to be accepted,
>because its either everyone is running away from you with
>things like, oh its just because you have deathblow, or wait
>until i have (X).

You did fine in the rager's sweet spot.
At middle ranks you have significant advantage over your foes. Resistance, deathblow, spellbane and as a dwarf you can be often overgeared for those ranks (crazy dwarf eq).
While many of your foes are crippled and wait until (X) where X is:
- getting their important highlevel skills/spells
- some cool songs for bards
- practicing for invokers
- final forms
- finding sleeks
- etc

Once you advance to where your foes actually got X and now they are ready to fight you back... you quickly lose con and delete while blaming them for cowardice/ganging/whatever.
I find it rather hypocritical.

And as for fighting you when you were fighting others..Yeah.

I'm really not going to go out of my way to jump a dwarf zerker with two maces on in straight up combat. Sorry. That said, I did beat you like a red headed stepchild in melee.

Tip: Cranial isnt the answer off the bat. Lets try backhand for damage, or drum, or boneshatter to get my stats down. ####. Anything but trying to lag someone who is hitting you 3 times a round and making you drop your ####.

And I didn't really like you either, it seemed to me that if you knew I was on, you'd run to the village and quit, and relog in about 10 minutes later. That sort of #### is just queer.

My opinion of you was further soured by you chasing after me repeatedly trying to cranial me while I fought a fiend.

All in all, I thought you were a piss-poor rager.

-Slorinek

Now who will I have to face down the enemy hordes (or 1-2 conservative powerhouses) with?

I can understand why you deleted, though. Things have been pretty discouraging for the last several weeks - in some ways worse than I've ever experienced before with prior characters. But then pushing through times like these is how you get your name on the Pillar

> But then pushing through times like these is how you get your
>name on the Pillar

While this is declared...
To actually get on the Pillar you should do exactly opposite.

Short guide how to get on the Pillar:
-------------------------------------

Not pushing through rough times but surviving them and saving your con.
Nobody gets on the Pillar by burning all his con in a week or two (while not getting that many kills). PK ratio matters for the Pillar (along with other things, of course).

I recommend login less during those times and try to be selective with your logins so you would have indirect allies. This is harder for evil ragers but as a good/neutral rager logging in fort hours works best. Even being alone, you don't have many that hunt you, plus your enemies are busy with staying alive instead of raiding the Village. And if you are raided by evil cabals, your item will return back when the Fort will raid them.

When things become better show up again consistently. You will have your share of fun, get some kills plus everybody will remember your longevity and the fact that you didn't delete during rough times (how exactly you survived them doesn't matter at this point).

Does being so cynical physically hurt? It looks painful from here.

He really doesn't know jack when it comes to playing ragers and getting on the pillar in particular. The only thing he said that's even in the same ballpark as the truth is that you won't get on the pillar by burning all your con in a week or two while not getting many kills. But the way to avoid that is to play better, not to avoid playing. I know that because almost every rager on the pillar, including my own, live long enough to go through both good times and bad, and they play through them both. I did it with Vershelt for example, and so did most of the others. I mention Vershelt only because he was a warrior and obviously couldn't hide or camo. You just have to learn how to avoid dying when there's no point to it, and picking off enemies when you can. I'm still learning, nobody is perfect at it. But not logging on will only make you get noticed for being a pansy.

And be realistic.
Aside from general stuff that you need to get on the pillar like being a solid rager (RP wise, PK wise) when you are greatly overwhelmed by your enemies as a rager you basically have following options:
1) stay online without powers but not to try to defend/retrieve (because it's nearly impossible). In this case everybody (including immortals) will bitch at you for being cowardly. Plus it's harder to get good PK ratio as a powerless rager (regardless how deathful are Graatch's ragers, they aren't gonna do well without powers too).
2) stay online and try to retrieve repeatedly. You will burn your con in a week and not going to the Pillar.
3) try once (or twice), die and then stay online without further attempts. close to (1). Not going on the pillar.
4) logout without trying. Makes you look bad.
5) logout after trying and dying once. Sometimes you get lucky and actually retrieve because your enemies are far (in this case you better quit before they raid and kill you again).
6) Not to play during bad times or login sporadically (to reduce con losing ratio during those times). This is actually working well too but it's easier to be noticed/frowned upon to.

If you want to be on the pillar then your favorite option is (5). Because you show courage but not burn your con quickly. Plus many will feell pity for you and not going to blame you for a quit after a death.
Overall, this option is less damaging to your reputation and con then others and that is exactly the option many has taken.

Of course, you may get lucky so ragers are almost never in bad sutiation during your lifespan. In this case you just do your general stuff (with powers) and can afford dying (seldom) without powers.

Just an example. I will pick the most deathful rager:
Djabree.
He was very solid rager and was about for a while. He is also a kickass player. Many (including me) think that he deserved being on the pillar. No question here.
But underlying mechanics are:
# of logins with their cabal item 175
# of logins without their cabal item 31
# of logouts with their cabal item 173
# of logouts without their cabal item 9
# of times they lost their cabal item 25
# of times they retrieved their cabal item 26

This is some pretty rediculous misinformation.

Unless you're going to elaborate.

Let's just take a simple test.

Who is more likely to know what does and does not work, what is and what is not good, for knowing the way to play a rager who will get onto the pillar?

(A) Two guys who have multiple characters on the pillar, and one of whom is part of the actual decision process; or,

(B) A guy who has played one or two battleragers, ever, and has no one on the pillar.

I leave the rest as an exercise to the audience.

Let us pick one of those multiple dude's chars on the pillar. The most bold one:
Vershelt

No doubt, he was an amazing roleplayer and stunning pkiller.
However, with stats like this:
# of logins with their cabal item 227
# of logins without their cabal item 24
# of logouts with their cabal item 216
# of logouts without their cabal item 7
# of times they lost their cabal item 8
# of times they retrieved their cabal item 12
# of times they took another cabal item 196

He is not a right person to talk about playing an underdog powerless rager during rough times.

...considering I did the village rewrite and in particular the pillar.

90% of the names on the pillar were "etched" in place by me. Part of that decision process included BoltThrower, Intronan and Kastellyn. I can't speak for the other 10% as I wasn't around in the past few years but I can gaurantee that none of the people on the pillar were derived from the statistical misinformation you're spitting out.

A prime example is people from the Battle/Sylvan War. Battle got butchered during this time and members from that War ended up on the Pillar.

Creon was my first and he died often to the new shifters coming to raid against him. He made it to the pillar, IMO, because I didn't back down from fights and I tried my best to RP the goals of the village even then I did end up con-dieing in basically a week from when they sweet forms came out. Like the wolverine and yeti.

Guenrayn made it on there and he also I think went the con-death route. I tried to lead by example, I did raid against bad odds to retrieve. I remember a few times using tactics to raid against great numbers nad being rewarded for it. I think some things Dwoggurd is saying are somewhat true. At the same point, I don't think dying a lot necessarily would keep you from the pillar. I think it is going to depend on how that happened and what you did about it/reacted to it. If you just grabbed gear and quit out instead of finishing gearing and trying to tough it out again, yeah, I don't htink you will get noticed in a good way.

Just my .02.

I haven't played in a long time so I don't know the current state of affairs, but I know I agree that the majority of people on the pillar were worthy of that respect. It's a strange thing to think about what attributes make up the ultimate villager. I've played a slew of them and it's still hard for me to describe it. For me, being a rager meant you were never content and you were always looking for the next epic fight. As Baldur, I had to constantly fight Zharradam's displacer beast and Arolin by myself and it was a blast. Nothing but respect and blood flying from both sides. I remember one time I logged on and there was another bard in the village sitting at the shrine who was just having a hard time fighting the slew of masters who were around at the time and was ready to delete because he had been full looted. I talked to him for a bit and knew that he was on the cusp of losing it. So instead of letting him logoff feeling like he did, I gave him everything I was wearing and told him to go to his hut and come back refreshed. This was probably the best suit I had ever gotten with Baldur, but to me, he was literally my brother and I'd rather walk out with Grime's stuff knowing he didn't delete then keep that suit. Later I had Tobeldest and as Thror mentioned, we were getting slaughtered by Sylvan during the great war, and I burned through a crazy amount of con scouting out the snares in dwarf forest, but I loved every moment of it. You ask me if I'd rather have a full suit of unique items and a full village with no one to fight or a set of red dragon gear and only one or two other villagers to fight through the hard times and it's a no-brainer. I always felt like without the odds stacked against you, you weren't really experiencing the full range of the village and without a bit of stupid confidence, you weren't playing a rager right. You had to think that regardless of the situation, you could spin it into a situation that was at least salvageable. You could take odds that weren't in your favor and instead of waiting for them to raid, you could go take their item and laugh at them in the process. With all that being said, to me, the ultimate villager is one who can take a bad situation and turn it into a good situation even if death is an inevitably. These are the people that can rally the village and deserve to be on the Pillar.

-thinnie

NT

The underlying mechanics of the cabal are set up so that you're completely gimped by playing when you're not in power. Losing/dying/getting conraped because you are at such a severe disadvantage is zero fun and playing it out will #### you up.

I really don't blame ragers for logging out once their item is taken, especially when they have very little chance of taking it back without dying a bajillion times.

You notice this effect with every cabal, because honestly? playing when you're not in power is NOT FUN MKAY. Its just most obvious in battle, simply because battle is the cabal hit hardest by having no powers.

I'm not saying you guys wanted it to be like that, but the cabal mechanics are set up such that when you don't have the cabal item and you're a villager, you're pretty much the easiest meat in the game at hero range. Nobody likes being easy meat. Its even worse being easy meat not because you're a terrible player, but because game mechanics completely screw you unless you have certain conditions fulfilled to make your life easier.

Severe pk/pve disadvantage = no fun = less logging on.

Nobody is saying villagers are logging off because they're pussies, they're saying villagers are logging off because getting your ass kicked up and down thera is no fun and nobody plays CF to have no fun - its a job, not a game.

If you simply discouraged ganking and multi-killing more (e.g. minus edge points), people probably wouldn't make the life of the underdog quite so hard.

It's bloody annoying if people won't attempt a raid until they have a group which can not only guarantee taking your item with half their numbers, but can almost guarantee they kill you too if you show up.

What happened to people attempting a raid that would require more than walking in, taking said item, and walking out?

Also, some of the log ins are getting crazy. One cabal in particular regularly has the same multiple heroes log in within half an hour of each other, and that's on week-ends, when I can't see time zone being an explanation.

I see your point.

But, I've never seen the pillar mind you, I think the argument against you is b/c there are players(who have characters on the pillar) that disagree with how -you say- to get on the pillar.

And to be honest, they're right on that. Your method will backfire. They'll notice a character doing something like that and a few may squeak onto the pillar(players that could have done it cleanly anyways), but most will be remembered for exactly what anyone would think of a character like that.

You can play a character completely clean right now and STILL be accused of selectively logging in/logging out. Imagine if you intended to do it, there'd be no way not to taint the hell out of that character.

Alas, we'll see if someone uses Dwogg's Thesis On How To Get On The Pillar. It was a fascinating read.

From Taelina's pbf
# of logins with their cabal item 190
# of logins without their cabal item 23
# of logouts with their cabal item 193
# of logouts without their cabal item 4
# of times they lost their cabal item 12
# of times they retrieved their cabal item 24
# of times they took another cabal item 125

Looking at statistic I did not deserve pillar too. Though I've always played at the same time, I was evil rager (so I could kill Fort bitches too ) and spent about 200-250 hours as one of two hero pk ragers.

Though people rarely tried to raid me, even if they did, they usualy failed

I think you'll have to try hard to find statistics that deviate alot, I looked at 10 or so ragers and they all had about 10-15% logins without cabal item, and very few logouts without...

>dozens of nexuns,

We only have 22 members right now. Dozens implies 24, 36, or more.

It's hard to count exactly how many when you're under fantasia half the time

Flee; sing lullaby

flee; sing lullaby

Flee; sing lullaby

At least I'm getting to test how well I know thera blind!

Except the last time it didn't work out so well....

Could we at least be able to call cabal powers from fantasy land to at least have half a chance??

Stop whining about bards. You are such one trick pony yourself.

lash
entwine
pummel
!
!
!

It will get you kills against some classes. But not others.

And its worked against most classes so far. Except you bards!

As to why he would use the word dozens.

You see:

22 members multiplied by a factor of Douches and Hypocrites would definately make it seems like it was dozens.


This is not even taking to account the ganging/ganking factor of this cabal since we can argue all cabals do that. Nor is it factoring in the 'gay' that the nexus cabal naturally emits.

All in all, i think the term dozens of nexuns is reasonable, if not at the least understandable.

n/t

>22 members multiplied by a factor of Douches and Hypocrites
>would definately make it seems like it was dozens.

It's probably one less since you deleted your Nexun.

And here's a PSA for everyone: anonymous posting is possible on this forum so you can answer goodbyes and #### without having to have a separate handle for each character. It's not so you can be a douchebag, and I won't hesitate to out people who are.

We *should* take into account the ganging/ganking factor of this cabal because this cabal in particular is *set up* to gang, it's primary power and "flavor" being the bond, which means nexuns are encouraged to double team people.

>We *should* take into account the ganging/ganking factor of
>this cabal because this cabal in particular is *set up* to
>gang, it's primary power and "flavor" being the bond, which
>means nexuns are encouraged to double team people.

I shouldn't really fall for this, but people do not take into account certain things about nexus:
-nexuns should only really hunt those in power (ok ok, and villagers).
-being bonded is great, but depending on the combo, someone can fly thru at least one, mebbi both, of the bonded pair - trust me, it's a death sentence to a warrior who's bonded with an a/b/s mage. At the very least, you can make both of them recall.
-I generally(obviously not always) see only 2 nexuns hunting together rather than other "gank squads" out there. Sorry, no threesomes in a bond.
-a bonded pair loses vanguard. In some cases (hell, prolly for a lot of cases) that's not the best thing to do.
-vanguard is really the only PK related power when a nexun is alone. Please consider the powers of other cabals.
-nexuns usually do not have many allies
-you know how hard it is to find someone to bond with, esp. pre-hero?
-Finally, nexuns prolly have the toughest imm(s) to "impress." Well, depending who's the latest scion imm.

Not attacking you here, but I really think people have a skewed view of the cabal.

I pretty much agree with this.

I'd further like to add that if someone really wants to play a loner Nexun, rolling with only Vanguard is pretty viable. I've done it more than once.

vanguard is a kickass power. And probably is better than all maran powers combined.

nt

I would also like to add that in my experience with Nexus, I've done some crazy stuff against some big odds. Generally speaking you don't see a lot of other cabals trying that, and that has to do with the nature of the Nexus cabal dogma. I'm not saying that other people in other cabals aren't chance takers, but that conservative player type that likes to sit on an AP weapon or a fat set is never going to be a good Nexun. I honestly think you either have to be a newb and you don't know what you're getting yourself into or a crazy player to put yourself in Nexus.

I've played nexans and i don't agree.

Back then, I did a lot of fighting against the odds. For example, I am confident I bonded less than 5 times in my life with my last.

However, these days, I'm regularly getting attacked by groups of nexans that outnumber me (and the rest of my cabal).

I'm also getting attacked by a nexan when trying to retrieve against a cabal that outnumbers me 4 to 1.

With Nererial, I went to raid the village, and fought the nexuns instead, because they brought SIX people to raid against once villager, and I thought that was just too cheap.

Honestly, to me, nexus isn't really that different from other cabals.

Bear in mind, going against "crazy odds" isn't crazy at all if your class is set up for it, like a bard is.

~

>absolutely dissapeared and i was left against outlanders,
>dozens of nexuns, and dozens of Imperials.

Outlanders are role bound to go after you anyway, but it probably didn't help that I sent a note to the entire cabal egging them on. Mostly because you looted Laugash's bloodstone rings.

Kyaltaru- Its not that i blamed you for every thing your minions did, but god damn it annoyed me to the fullest extent how you to come off this angelic clean-slate character. You've found yourself to be really well off, hell you stand toe to toe with some of the strongest and do really well, and yet you would always call in two-three other fricking cabals to come aid you raid until you were at least double our numbers, and you would never come other then that, raid situations that kind of thing. Yes sometimes you would come by yourself to mingle with one of our players, but who remembers something that insignificant when there was never a chance for you to be at risk.

Ummm...

I have only raided with people other than Nexus ONCE that I can recall ever. A few times the Outlanders jumped me when Delalken called them but you weren't even around then. Other then that, I got the head with Tarleton and Hanstian once and never again with another cabal. So for you to say "always call two-three other fricking cabals to come aid" is beyond me. I don't know if there's any way the IMM's can check that, but I'm sure they can reassure you.

And as for you saying I came once with Lornis that day? I have no idea if you got me confused or something, but me and Lornis hate each other IC and he NEVER raided with me EVER. If you have some logs, by all means post them, but dude I never came with anyone but Nexus and I go there all alone to fight people one on one at the destructor even regularly. It sounds like you want me to solo raid like I'm some beast or something which I totally am not.

As for you getting looted, I am leading the Isle. I can't tell them all not to loot you, that's busting into peoples roles and not my place. If they want to loot you, that's their business. When you died and got those few things taken, they were all desirable and the one thing that the Nexun couldn't use I got back for you and was heading back to the village until you starting non stop whining at me. Anyone who fights me knows I leave everything even when I need stuff sometimes, there are a few exceptions.. but I was even going out of my way to give that ring back and had to deal with you still bitching at me about gear, that's distasteful man.

You can't blame me for anything Nexuns do really. If they want to jump you, figure a way around it. It's like you expected one on one fights against everyone in a cabal who's main power is BOND. Like an assassin is going to fight you straight up with maces and walk away just fine and dandy from it?

Your comments at me are a bunch of lies or really distorted somethings and I was always cool when dealing with you. But at a certain point of bitching, especially over gear, I'm going to stop giving you respect.

-Kyaltaru Tel'dethian

All of my enemies that I've come up through the ranks with are baleeeting!

You were my first assassinate attempt and success when you and Rockah were raiding the Imperial Palace for the magician head.

Oh well. Good luck with your next.

Hope you have more fun with your next!

...that 'Had your number'.

Well, I'm not really sure what you want me to do. I never brought two to three people to fight and half the time it was me and Kyaltaru against you and another villager, and we'd have to raid to basically seal the kill on you.

A lot of those times, both you and the other villager could harm me and I was the only person that could harm you.

I found it amazing that you got SOOOO mad when I looted the best warrior-only ring in the game from you. Nexus needs warriors and seems to have more of them than anything, so I figured that bloodstone ring would make one of them very happy. Dying/getting looted sucks, but it happens, and seeing as how I killed you at the Big D, I didn't really feel all that bad about it as that was pretty much all I took(maybe a smidge).

I too have been caught in what I like to call 'Rager Hell', stuck in hero range without full powers (aka lvl 51 or at least 48) and a ton of enemies, so I feel for you.

Good luck with your next one, and keep on keeping on. The game ebbs and flows. There may seem like a ton of Nexus now but I rolled this character when the Village routinely had 5-7 heroes on and at least 5-7 more villagers split from 20-40.

Tough rank to sit at! I know. I liked your char and I enjoyed the fact you said your mind and stuck to your opinions. Hand specs aren't that bad!

Awww... dammit! I was gonna get you eventually!