Fri Jun 11 14:39:39 2010

At 5 o'clock PM, Day of the Bull, 8th of the Month of the Dragon
on the Theran calendar Molo perished, never to return.

Edited to add some more cabal shoutouts.


This was a very mixed up character for me. Actually I'd rate him as one of the worst warriors I've ever had, but he really did shine in some situations. I found myself just raging hard early on, probably due to some serious RL stress at the time, but I turned it around and had some fun. I even wrote a role entry that joked about me getting so pissed about a certain thief's constant mangling of me due largely to scary progging gear. If only I had been a cookie-cutter sword spec, I could have been an absolute nightmare.

Ckath - Cool character. Ballsy. Sometimes I thought you got in a little over your head, but usually it turned out alright in the end. Hope you last a long time.

Pophris - Always liked the vibe I got from you. I felt like your hand was involved in many things where your name was never mentioned.

Other Imperials - I met many of you over the course of the character, so don't be offended by me not tossing out specific names. With few exceptions I thought there were lots of good players, and lots of effort to make things happen for the cabal. Don't drop the ball!

Villagers - You guys really made Molo feel like a paper tiger. This was one of the reasons I say this was probably my worst warrior ever. Usually I fare much better against villagers. It was just the build. I expected much better tanking from using Hour Past Midnight. I could almost do as well dual wielding axes, it seemed like. I still think rager powers should be relevant to who they are fighting, but it will never change. All that being said, you guys were all cool to me and it was a pleasure getting my ass handed to me by you.

Outlanders - I grew intensely irritated by you guys. I know there has been a lot of talk about mass-logins and stuff, and while I don't know about that, I will say that your playtimes definitely synched up often. You all were mostly cool when ya killed me, and for that I am grateful.

Scions - Wow. Talk about an unholy trifecta of awesome quest power goodness. Between insect swarm, fiendish devils and blackfire novas, I don't know how anyone can win Tough foes to be sure.

And for the most important shoutout...

CHARLEE!!!

Man you really made the game more fun for me. And that's not only due to the gold and gambling prizes. You play a thief like I envision one being played...you probably don't personally ever have to lift a finger, but you can upset the balance of the game anytime you want. Good luck and keep truckin'.

(Read on if you want, though it's more just my musings than anything useful)

Blade Powers - Blade of the Codex, for Vitality, could really use a buff to the HP benefit. I was also thinking it would be cool if the power had a shorter timer and you could use it in combat for some kind of effect. If you call it for strength, maybe you get a round of bigger, more damaging strikes. If you call it for agility, maybe you autofeint for a tick or just start dodging like crazy. Not sure on the vitality one. Shove - got me killed the two times I tried to do something with it. Really, it's a terrible ability now. Imperial training was good (at least the offensive part) for me. The defensive aspect is worthless for a giant. I can see how it would really push a dagger spec over the top in deadliness...which, to be honest, I don't know if it's a good idea. Tactics was cool.

The Empire's Inners are a joke. I mean they don't even compare to any of the others. If I fight the watcher I am taking a huge risk, with having pretty much every affect I have stripped, taking massive damage from light of heaven, wrath, etc. It's really ridiculous. Throw in that the Fortress has immense damage nullifying potential, due to paladins, healers, bards, etc, and it is one of the scariest places to raid, period. Toss in the fact that you often have opportunistic outlanders squatting outside and it's crazy. Then take the Archmage...every time I fought him I was completely ####ed up for something like 15 to 20 hours, where if anyone had fought me I would have been easy to kill due to weaken, soften, blind, slow, malisons, etc. It's nuts man!! And those ####ing thieving winged nightwalkers can eat my balls. How in the hell does that seem balanced in any way, shape, or form? Everyone has such a huge home-field advantage EXCEPT the Empire. Now mind you I've never had an imperial hero, and before having one I thought the Empire was a lot scarier. It's really not. I'm ranting! Sorry!

Kastellyn - Never saw or heard from you, though I did try to get in contact a few times. I just don't like camping at a shrine. I figure if a character has been around long enough, prayed a few times, and goes and does their job their Imm will eventually get around to them...but, in this instance I guess RL was kicking your butt too much.

Feel free to throw up a response and I will get to ya.

>The Empire's Inners are a joke. I mean they don't even compare
>to any of the others.

It depends a lot on what your character is. For some of my characters Empire has been the hardest cabal to raid by far.

The biggest (but not only) factors in determining that being:

1) Is this character a good tank

and

2) Does this character throw area damage

1) Is this character a good tank
and

2) Does this character throw area damage


Okay I have only played the bard lately but seriously I never saw anyone with problems raiding empire (i remember 2 lvl 30ish paladins taking down the inners, and i know of no imperials at that level that can take out inners) I do remember having to run from solo raiders because they could take all of the damage the inners were giving them and still do enough damage to kill me (not just paladins com wrath either) I personally believe they should be able to do something else or atleast live a bit longer or something....

and what class cant tank the empires inners... i have seen rangers, thieves and all shiffters do just fine, and every paladin ever rolled does great also.. i guess a lvl 30 unempowered healer or possibly a necro would have problems at the inner but other than that I have seen nothing like the mass carnage that the watcher can make...or 4 of us raiding scion emperor, warmaster, me and another warrior and it taking like 3 tries.. (gt im out blind, poison, softened plague, will return)


oh and p.s. I really dont like you molo hahahahhaha, but I said it all in my goodbye thread

>and what class cant tank the empires inners... i have seen
>rangers, thieves and all shiffters do just fine, and every
>paladin ever rolled does great also.. i guess a lvl 30
>unempowered healer or possibly a necro would have problems at
>the inner but other than that I have seen nothing like the
>mass carnage that the watcher can make...or 4 of us raiding
>scion emperor, warmaster, me and another warrior and it taking
>like 3 tries.. (gt im out blind, poison, softened plague, will
>return)
>
>


I can tell you that, for example, a cloud giant ranger has big problems soloing the empire inners. Also, part of the imperial inners' strength is the inability to chip away at them through hit 'n runs. Meaning, if you leave the palace to heal, whatever imperial you've killed will repop before you get back. Whereas, if you leave the battlerager village (for example) to heal, the destructor is still going to be half dead when you come back to finish it off. Honestly, I think Fortress is easiest to raid because it's so freaking hard to defend. But that's just my anecdotal opinion.

All that said, the worst, by far, is a Rager retrieving from the Grinning Skull Village with opposition. Followed by Rager retrieving from Empire with opposition. Followed by solo retrieving from Outlander with opposition. All of those really require you to man up.

Honestly, I think Fortress is easiest to raid because it's so freaking hard to defend.

The Fortress is not hard to defend whatsoever. If there is an invoker defending it instantly becomes scary as ####. If there are any outlanders on you have to consider the possibility that they will be there. The inner is a nightmare. Sanc'ing classes are always prevalent there. If there is even one person to defend against you, he probably has out of range support against you. The list goes on. Let's just stop pretending it's so easy because there have been lots of unskilled fort players in the past. It is a nightmare.

And quite possibly the most annoying thing are the two shooting galleries to the east and west of the watcher. For balance's sake, those need to be relocated somewhere else in the cabal. Getting caught bouncing between the watcher and people in those rooms is retarded.


Edited to add:

OH HOW COULD I FORGET - any Maran can instantly gate to the outer or the inner guardian. How is that in any way indicative of a cabal being hard to defend, or un-scary to raid/retrieve from?

OK, I'll restate:

The Fortress is easiest to raid because it's so freaking hard to defend ... against summoning and/or black circle.

>OH HOW COULD I FORGET - any Maran can instantly gate to the
>outer or the inner guardian. How is that in any way indicative
>of a cabal being hard to defend, or un-scary to raid/retrieve
>from?

Any one Maran can do that, yes.

Basically what makes Fort impossible to defend is a summoner, if one is present.

But how is that different from any other cabal, barring Battle?

I also get what you are saying about any ONE Maran being able to gate. Sure, that seems like a bad idea if the aggressors are a group of people. Therefore it's more effective if the Fortress is already in an advantageous position, which I'm not sure is very balanced.

>But how is that different from any other cabal, barring
>Battle?

A couple things:

1) The walk from where you were summoned back to the Fort inner is both longer and less predictable than with any other cabal.

2) Because it's a bigger cabal, it's harder (and slower) to take the tactic of running to where someone was summoned to take the fight to the summoner(s) and their allies that way. Players of equal skill can run to the appropriate place in any other cabal much faster.

3) Not always relevant, but Fortress is the main cabal that has to deal with black circle in their raids, since Empire doesn't raid themselves or generally Tribunal, chameleon makes that problematic with Outlander, Battle is summonproof. (Scion can potentially struggle with it too, but generally speaking, I would says Forsaken Portal is a much stronger raid defense power than Cry of Deliverance.)

Unless the Fort are dramatically more skilled than the Empire (or other factors make the fight so skewed as to not be a fight), defending against a group containing a Black is not possible.

Deny Summoning from conjurer goodies (albeit they seem rare these days) or just plain summoning them inside first (via shaman/paladin) are both valid tactics and common. Black Circle has a pretty significant cast time where if they get summoned into a side room of the Watcher and cursed with a single wrath/damnation, they can be screwed.

That cabal is also one of the most annoying to get your corpse from considering you need to flee past the Watcher some times to get your things which mean they'll just kill you again.

Forsaken Portal is just so bleh, having all your inventory stolen by hiding mobs is just horrible. Losing all your weapons/preps is such a pain in the ass.

Empire and Tribunal are probably the two easiest to raid against by far.

>Deny Summoning from conjurer goodies (albeit they seem rare
>these days)

I knew someone would bring that up.

Frankly, to use deny summoning (especially on more than one person) and not get anyone killed specifically because of deny summoning requires the Fort players to be a lot better than the Empire players.

> or just plain summoning them inside first (via
>shaman/paladin) are both valid tactics and common.

Sure, that works. Assuming the Black isn't high enough for PotD or is terrible.

You can't realistically win that summoning war given anything remotely near equal player skill.

> Assuming the Black isn't high enough for PotD or is terrible.

You know, PotD has *never* worked on my last three characters I had it with. Not once, and I had a bunch of paladins summoning me with all of them.

Since you are the one who controls whether mutual summoning is possible. Let them drain their mana trying.

That's true/fair. (As long as only temperance paladins are defending.)

You still can outplay CS at the Watcher, but I'll readily concede that requires a higher standard of play.

A couple things:

>1) The walk from where you were summoned back to the Fort inner is both longer and less predictable than with any other cabal.

Well first off since I condied behn, I don't remember every having someone who could summon a hero other than damgril and they went out pretty quick as did the last dreadlord

and second every maran can just cry to the person that got summoned.

>2) Because it's a bigger cabal, it's harder (and slower) to take the tactic of running to where someone was summoned to take the fight to the summoner

It's also harder to track people if you dont have summon, and they can just flee to the two rooms of death to the east and west...

>3) Not always relevant, but Fortress is the main cabal that has to deal with black circle in their raids,

what about nexus? oh yeah for the entire war there has been no hero summoning class hehehehe....
not really revelant when there is no summoning class in empire and hasn't been for awhile cept for a very few...

>Unless the Fort are dramatically more skilled than the Empire (or other factors make the fight so skewed as to not be a fight), defending against a group containing a Black is not possible.

I guess the main thing is even if you kill everyone off it is very hard even with a bard to take the watcher down in a single go... and it takes some time even with molo ckath and adamar it took us two tries with no defenders...

Empires inners can be killed from the time it takes to get from hamash to the palace (maybe a bit longer but not by much) and they dont defend worth a crap... I got killed as a bard with imeprial defense by a distorted paladin because he could just com warth me to death faster than I could heal and not worry about the guardians at all, and both of the big fort warriors one of which just immed could come in direct to me and bash me to death never getting below covered...and i dont think you can say that about anyone at the watcher... getting hit for oblits through anthem and getting everything dispelled just rocks chars compared to the empires dirtkick or trip once every five rounds... oh well just my two cents

>and second every maran can just cry to the person that got
>summoned.

No, they can't -- and given the failure rate of cry, it's not necessarily a good idea for even the one person who can do that to do it.

And the huge lag and mana cost associated with it. I never used it, not once that I can remember, in all my marans, because you generally arrive lagged out of your mind if it even works at all.

I'll add that empire inners do more than just dirt kick and disarm. Play a 2h Paladin and tell me that getting kot'd during a raid doesn't royally suck.

Scion is small. Village is no-summon. Outlanders have camo. Tribunal has access to guilds and is also small. Empire has black circle and advanced warning via centurions.

Fortress you're standing out in the open like 20 rooms away from the front of the cabal. You will get summoned and ganked hard. I can't tell you how many times I've gone there with a gang and just summoned-killed everyone who is defending before even attacking the outer guardian, then strolled through it without any issues at all.

The core of your complaint stems from the fact that you guys didn't have a lot of summoners, especially those that can detect hidden. Well, summon is really the counter to sanctuary on the evil side of the picture. If your gang doesn't have summon you're going to stand a disadvantage against paladin/healer heavy cabals because you can't break their group up.

Agree with your assessment of yourself. You were ragey and a little douchey on the newbie channel at the beginning of this character, but you got a lot better as the character matured. This character would have been a real stand out if you'd kept the temper down a little bit, so I look forward to seeing what you do next.

I think you guys are a little too uh...what's the right description... "primary school teacher'ish"...on the newbie channel. I get that you have to curtail some conversations that get out of hand, but generally I give out lots of good, elaborately-detailed advice to people who seek it there. However, I was banned because I said something about Ouli's negative title over it. I didn't even do it in a caustic manner...I was trying to get some talk going.

In retrospect, that wasn't the place to do it. I don't even remember what Ouli's title was now, but I thought it was pretty distasteful (and ooc'ish), and it was only going to make the player say "#### you guys." But, I apologize for bringing it up there.

Your comments about Ouli's title were obviously out of line and I would have kicked , but there were a lot of times before that when your comments either came across as very jaded (not exactly the type of attitude that's going to want to make newbies think this is a game worth playing) or just too off-topic.

Yes, sometimes the things you said were funny, but I think everyone would do well to not adopt the mindset that Newbie Channel is some sort of "live" replacement for the forums. A lot of people that could contribute helpful answers to newbiechannel turn it off because there is too much extraneous chatter on it. The newbie channel is not there to provide some sort of OOC dialogue between players and the staff or amongst players. It is there to help people that are actually new to the game to learn how to play so you can eventually loot their ragesteel later. Save your wit for the forums, where it can live forever (or until some new technological catastrophe strikes CF!)

What, no shout out?

I'll echo what Rayihn said since I was probably the focus of much of that early rage. You really seemed to mellow out later on. Thanks for not cleaning me out on the multiple opportunities you had to do so.

Also, for someone who was upset with my use of progging gear, you seemed to get pretty good mileage out of the wand of orcus and dark rod of conquest. Just sayin.

Anyway...whatever success I had against you was probably just bad luck on your part, given the nature of your build. Basically unless I had an orb of travel or extreme damage reduction, trying to garrotte you was a huge risk. Probably even with an orb, since you had the potential to just lag me out with bash.

Oh maaaan I hated you so bad. I was getting more pissed every day as I was coming into the hero range, because at the time there were ####loads of enemies and you guys were relentless as ####. It was often me getting bounced around between you, Matedzuta, and the twenty paladins and healers and warriors running around killing everyone. I was pissed at the utter futility of it. I mean, even if a guy could beat me solo he was more likely to bring a healer or some other buddy just to reduce my chance to absolute zero.

I was getting extremely irritated at the unsportsmanlike atmosphere prevalent in the game. What drove me over the edge for a minute was when I finally reached hero, had a really good set, and you killed me solo like 3 or 4 times. I mean there was not a god damned thing I could do to stop you and it just felt soooo completely wrong. At one point I deleted. But, I came back, spammed the #### out of all my weapons until I mastered every one, and then starting rocking some people. I finally got you. And then got you again and again. You were always a class act, even when you were pwning me on a daily basis. You took deaths very well too. All in all you play a great Maran thief. It was the overall situation, and not you specifically, that caused me to rage. For that I apologize.

> I finally got you. And then got you again and again.

Yeah. Kudos on doing all the right stuff, but the two deaths at centurions were really my fault for putting myself in that situation to begin with. I knew I didn't have a chance to retrieve, but hoped I could at least wax the centurions and potentially cost you guys some donations. It was really stupid. Smart thief doesn't expose himself to that sort of risk. Ageryn the retard does.

That's the problem with retrieving from Empire. Without a muter, air form, druid or ghost scouting for me I have no way to know whether you're sitting five rooms away waiting for me to attack. Given I can't word from combat and have no bash protection, getting caught at centurions is a death sentence.

Since you guys were also grouped, meaning I had no chance to take you out even if I did find you out and about somewhere, my choices were: quit, sit around doing nothing, or try to take out the cents and hope you weren't camped there waiting for me. I gambled and lost. Thing is, fort guys who don't take that gamble end up getting called wusses if they wait for all the opposition to log off before retrieving.

Love me some Fort conjurers.

>Pophris - Always liked the vibe I got from you. I felt like
>your hand was involved in many things where your name was
>never mentioned.

I really liked Molo. When I saw you in action you were dealing out more damage than you were taking, you were smart about when to fight and when to run, and fun things tended to happen when I logged in and you were already awake.

>The Empire's Inners are a joke.

I never used to think that was true, but after playing my first Imperial and watching other people fight them, I've learned how better to attack them. They are now what I would consider the least scary.

Hey man. We had some good fights. Some very close ones down to the wire and then some that were just horribly lop-sided for me. Good job from what I saw and its unfortunate you are gone. As for the "same playing times" thing. I could say the same thing about Imperials from time to time. Honestly.

Good luck though with whatever.

...when you are a summoning class with chamo.

Just saying

nt

Man I hate to see my War Master delete. You were on, or came on for about half my sessions. When we were on together few things gave us trouble, which I guess was to be expected. I had you penned in for the next Emperor so I was a little suprised to see this. I never saw the negative side of this char I have heard others mention. You always seemed well roleplayed and willing to mix it up at any time. Without you to follow around and "make quick" perhaps I'll get back to some better solo hunting. In all I just wanted to say well played and good luck with your next.

A suprise to say the least.


You were the one character that my current one has been scratching my head on how I was going to be able to stand up to. This will out me to you, so please keep it to yourself, but when I died to you recently I was totally not baiting you to the spirit knight, I just knew you weren't going to give me that chance to do just that and used going near there to be able to renew a key buff. Didn't expect you to call in help when you were calling me out how you were and probably should have just backed off, but have been trying to take more risks and paid for it.

Empire will miss you, and I think I will in a way as well as being a guy that I really wasn't sure I had an answer for yet.

GLWYN