I've been on a hiatus for 2 years or so, and I know some things have changed. While this may seem a bit whiny, (and it probably is), it's only because I'm voicing my opinion about changes I don't like. And I would genuinely like to see discussion on what the playerbase on one hand, and the immortals on the other hand view as the correct etiquette or set of unwritten rules related to these things is. So, here's two things that come to mind, I might add others later:

1) Cabal defense. Is it necessary to defend your cabal. How I remember it, it used to be basicly a requirement of defending your cabal no matter what odds. Back in the day of PK ratios instead of the kill/death counts of these days, PK ratio 100% used to be practically impossible to achieve since every once in a while you would run into a 6 man raid and die defending. These days it seems that even in raids where it's 1 on 1 or w/e, the typical strategy is to strike the enmy outer. I can remember many times 6 or 7 years ago, when I would run for my cabal, just hoping the inner dies before I get there, since the chance of defending succesfully was much smaller than the chance of dying (yet sometimes I did succeed, yay).

So my questions/oppinions for discussion related to 1):
Is it ok to opt for striking the outer instead of defending your inner? I think it's a pretty dumbass policy to make defending irrelevant, when your cabal item is supposed to be important for your cabal. You are not supposed to let the enemy grab your item without a fight, no matter what. In my oppinion.

2) Ragers ganging. Throughout the years there have been innumerable stances on ragers ganging, ranging from no rager gangs in any circumstance being allowed to rager gangs being openly condoned. So questions:

Is it ok for ragers to gang, and in what circumstances. Ok to jump into others fights? Ok to attack after other rager flees? Ok to outright gang down? It would be nice to know just to know what to expect.

It's only my take on those things. Take it with grant of salt.

1) You defend at Inners if you have reasonable chances to prolong the raid/kill some of attackers/make them run without high chances to die. Otherwise you defend at their outers - trying to whittle it down while raiders busy with your Inner. It's the most reasonable way to go I think. But it sure depends on role. It can be annoying for raiding party but dying to 6 men gank is stupid and helps your cabal in no way. Also if raiders have those numbers nothing prevents them from leaving 1-2 people to defend their cabal. Btw its not how I play my chars. Usually I do try to defend inside my Palace if I can get there in time/is in condition to fight. But I always think I have a way to escape at least.

2) It depends on village leadership. As player who almost always is on opposite side to village my rule is simple. Expect to be ganked at any moment. Better be safe than sorrow

If there is hardly any chance of you stopping the attackers from taking your item *and* hardly any chance of killing one of the attackers, then attacking the attackers' outer guardian seems perfectly viable. Especially if they don't have anybody who can heal it. If they do, then you're kind of screwed either way.

Also, if there's a member of your cabal who has no opposition from the attacking cabal (i.e. he can just go get your item back as soon as they place it) then that removes much of the reason for your showing up to put in a token defense (and, in all odds, die).

I gotta say, though, I typically feel guilty about not responding. So I go in and try to put up a token defense. And, occasionally, I die. It's a pretty meaningless gesture, so I should probably try to force myself not to do it.

"I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor, dumb bastard die for his country."

When I played Macaca I defended at The Destructor every damn time and I was con-dead in less than 200 hours. Over the course of this character it became clearer and clearer that Thror (who had recently returned) was coming from a mindset like the one from 'Patton' I quoted above.

Being a 'student of war' does not mean throwing your life away when the odds are totally stacked against you. It means risking your life when you've got a good chance of killing the other guy or driving him off.

In my experience a lone Arial scout who stands at the Destructor vs. two invokers and an AP with lightning-control is just going to make Thror mad. He'd be better off going for a hurl throat at their outer than ending up a corpse in at the Shrine.

Protecting or retrieving the Cabal item should be anyone's priority, but when the odds are super-heavily stacked against you there's no shame (from what I've taken away from Thror's lessons) in living to fight another day.


As for the Ragers ganging:
It shouldn't ever happen unless:
1. The Village is defending.
2. The Village is retrieving.
3. The Village is taking your item.
4. You are a Lich/Mummy.
5. You are a decked AP with tons of charges. (There hasn't been one bad-ass enough in a really long time to warrant a gang.)
6. You attack a group of Villagers.

Obviously it doesn't always work out this way, and sometimes even the best intentioned Villager will have autoassist on and get involved, so don't automatically assume it's douchebaggery (even though sometimes it is just that.)

Spot on. Great response ye wee lil' bastird.

Only 9,999 to go.

7. The Village doesn't think imms are watching.

nt