Fri Sep 11 13:57:32 2009

At 11 o'clock AM, Day of Deception, 2nd of the Month of the Sun
on the Theran calendar Ibikso perished, never to return.

Well, this in many ways was an experimental character. It was not my primary character but rather something that I would play to break up the pace of my main character. He had a role but it was never papered, so it never got much attention.

I have a few thoughts and a few goodbyes. Most of you probably don't remember me and have no idea of who Ibikso was.

Transmuters: extremely potent and fun class. It can be entirely support or it can be deadly on its own. That said, without reliable bash protection until control translucence, it is EXTREMLY VULNERABLE AND FRAGILE. Also, without knowing easy damage wand locations, levels 1-20 are just an unpleasant hassle. But then I'm spoiled! The dominant strategy appears to be to rush to level 36 until you get duo, then spam practice all spells, then the game begins. I think it's unfortunate that the class is not exactly viable until mid-to-late game. That said, duo is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Wands: I never found any but then I did not look much. The thought of looking for wands was daunting to me. I knew a few places here and there, but I just did not have the desire to comb through. That said, had I really focused on this character with role, etc., I'm sure that would have been attainable. The problem with wands that I see is not that they are hard to find but that they really prevent any casual mage playing. At least from my view.

Fortress: Interesting Cabal. I really did not know what to expect, though I knew I liked Arrna. A couple of things differentiate the Cabal from others in my perspective. One, abundance of bards/healers who will mend you wounds REALLY makes a huge difference in raiding and general enjoyment of the game. Two, I was part of a big cooperation effort and really saw Fortress working together. It was a sight to behold and mountains were turned. (I find that evils/neutrals don't really know how to play with healers and other support classes. Fortress does.) Three, there are no real powers until full Acolyte/Maran. Strange, but I guess that works.

In many aspects, Fortress is, like the Scions, a power-gaming cabal. There was little "grooming" in the Fortress that I saw and, though people were helpful, it was a strange kind of help and came, very often, with "arrogant elf RP". (I do not have specific examples in mind, but that's just a gut feeling that I got from my experience.) Fortress was filled with many strong personallities and they all kind of did their own thing in the name of the light.

Playing a goodie: I never took full advantage of request, so I may completely be missing this aspect of it, but I did not love playing a goodie like I thought I would. I had a ton of enemies and very few allies. Other than that one time we gained 3 levels in 20 minutes by scoring 2500/skeleton, it was relatively hard to find groups. I found RP-restrictions too restrictive not because I wanted to PK and do nasty things, but I found playing a goodie a bit too tiresome. I've certainly gained a lot more respect for people who stick it out.

Goodbyes:

Arrna: Great leader.

Balten/Lorn: Thanks for the interviews and the induction. Great RP, nice conversations.

Frorania: Very strong character.

Kzard/Dup: Thanks for the staves.

Ilrek: Enjoyed running around with you.

Jhaeros/Jip and the rest of the 30s level sitting gang - I had fun fighting you though a lot of fights were very one sided. (I don't blame you for sticking around the mid-levels and agree with Daevryn that in many ways that's how the game is played. It's not my style, but it certainly works and adds a lot to the game.)

There are a few people I'm forgetting, if so, speak up and I'll post.


Again, thank you to the Immortals for running this wonderful game. I will be back!

Vythigor

P.S.: These are just my views and impressions that I thought I'd share.

I think we dabbled once or twice, but primarily the reason for sitting around that rank is it is incredibly easy to GET to that rank, but ridiculously hard to get past it. No ranking opportunities.

Few cabalmates, fewer allies, lots of enemies. (if you take role seriously and any magic be frowned upon).

Even worse as a dwarf or duergar, rule out outlander, and all outlander wannabes

I did find ranking to be pretty sparse with Ibikso, even as a very sought after class.

That you remember me means that at least I've been a nuisance, although I wish I could be upgraded to at least a passing concern. I will take your mention of me as a compliment. I don't get many.

Lately the ranking climate has been ugly until just before I'm ready to get some sleep. I'm hoping to scratch my way up to level 42 this weekend.

I think you got me on Eastern. I thought you were pretty effective AND sneaky!

>I think it's
>unfortunate that the class is not exactly viable until
>mid-to-late game.

For what it's worth, there are a number of low-mid level transmuters (let's say under 30th) with heavily positive PK ratios and low Gank-O-Meters. Historically, there are usually a couple of these around at about any time.

> I find that evils/neutrals
>don't really know how to play with healers and other support
>classes. Fortress does.)

Generally, I think the opposite is more true (despite Fortress having typically many more support-capable characters), but the current incarnation of Fortress may well be an exception to that.

Fair enough, my experience in CF is just very spotty. In fact, I'd say I have a fair amount of hero experience and horrible pre-hero underexperience. I am sure that was reflected in Ibikso's playstyle. I just could not compete with anything with bash, though soften/disrupt flesh at level 28 or so is quite potent if used correctly.

Interesting point re evils/neutrals. I just felt with Vythigor that evils/neutral relied on the healer too much and did not understand when to go all out and when to pull back. With this Fortress group, the goodies just new exactly the limits and powers of healing and support classes thus making this easier.

...healers are incompetent, whereas evil healers are assumed to be on the ####ing ball 24/7.

Makes for some interesting roleplay decisions.

I liked you, sorry we didn't get to "train" more. I had a few ideas for getting some gear to knock our stats down, but ended up just saying "#### it" when Lorn just healed us while fighting, haha.

Good luck with your next, and I hope you can jump back on the Goodie side of things with something a little more enjoyable for you (so long as it isn't too restrictive!).

- Merothmos

I would be willing to entertain an argument that squire powers are fairly useless unless you're a communer, but I think scribe powers are awesome. Really awesome.

Favor of the sun was great, but that was it. (And I could be completely ignorant on this subject as I was too embarassed to ask ICly, but it's protection vs. evil and what else?) I hope I don't come off as a complete doof but was there anything else besides the favor of the sun that Scribes got?

It is not prot vs evil.

I would say exactly the opposite. Shamen/Paladins already have what Mantle gives them, for FAR cheaper.

Did you mean the opposite, and that they are useless as a communer, and useful to everyone else?

I am curious about favor now though. Didn't know it gave anything other than the obvious stackable/group dam redux. Still doesn't seem on the level of every other caballed characters powers, pre-hero.

For what it's worth, when I play a Fort communer, I use mantle instead of protection when I can. There are reasons why it's to your advantage.

That's vague. Unless you're talking about the detect evil effect, which those classes also get already. Harder to dispel? Longer duration? I'm kind of drawing a blank. Or just, "I know I'm going to primarily be using this later on once I'm a maran, so I might as well use it now and get the skill% up."

Pretty sure protection and mantle have close to the same duration. But mantle is like 150 mana, protection is like.. 5. Since pretty much all communers need to conserve mana any way they can, that seems like a no-brainer (unless I'm fighting a dispeller).

nt

Anyways, liked your char, again!