This is really just something I've been observing lately, and is just posted for conversational purposes.

Some characters/players just have the ability to lead. If they're on, I would put my money on their side winning without hesitation at up to three-to-one odds. If they're not on, no matter how many other people are on for their side or cabal, I wouldn't usually give them more then even money. (Note, this equation ignores the existance of crazy solo killers with the innate ability to just wipe the floor with their enemies while wearing two balator practice weapons, a ratskin cloak and a opal ring, ala Amora/Istendil/Zorszual/Gareth type characters, since those are few and far between.) I'm talking about the characters that can take one or two allies of moderate skill, and just by their direction those three can clean out a dozen enemies without dying, or even being close. Where afterwords, the victims are left going "What the hell happened? God, we all suck!" - because the number crunching says they probably should have won easily. Occasionally those sorts of leaders will be pitted against each other, which makes for lots of fun.

My question is, does anyone KNOW that they're one of those players, or know that they have played one of those characters? (I don't think it's necessarly 100% thing, it takes the right combo of player AND character). Has anyone felt like they played a character like that, but can't duplicate it again? Have any of you been around one of those characters, either on your side or against you, and known it? I think it's much easier to observe these things from the imm standpoint, so I was curious what the rest of you saw. I think there are two of these characters alive on CF at this moment, possibly a third slightly lesser one. Who have you guys seen in the past that you think was this sort of character?

Anyway, just curious.

Aarn

those characters where you just "mesh" with like ONE other character? I'd usually consider Rhuean to have been my best shot at hitting our "Leading" characters, but both Janroth and Straklaw had me rolling my eyes because with Janroth, if Theerkla was on...we wiped the floor with up to three ragers *AT* the Destructor. We could then take that same match-up, add in *ANY* other Nexus member...leave Theerkla or I unbonded even, and that third person would *ALWAYS* die. Straklaw was more of a class match-up, that he could grab any random healer, and most invokers, and go beat on anyone.

I think the main difference is both of those characters had very little to "add" to their group. Janroth was really only good at tanking, and well, orcs are just awesome in going after groups, if you can live long enough (IE: + healer/invoker). Rhuean, by contrast, (in my opinion) was one of the first successful dagger specs which gave me an advantage as people didn't know how to fight them well, and it helped me negate many enemies quickly, while using my defender skills and legacies to help my groupmates.

If I had to pick one for me it was probably Boldereth and maybe Beltantis, though he was something of a loner.

I wouldn't classify my other chars as leaders really, mostly loners who could kick some ass in groups when required.

> (Note, this equation ignores the existance of crazy solo killers with the innate ability to just wipe the floor with their enemies while wearing two balator practice weapons, a ratskin cloak and a opal ring, ala Amora/Istendil/Zorszual/Gareth type characters, since those are few and far between.)

This is a joke right? Do you play the same game as the rest of us? Heh.

There's one person in that list that definately shouldn't be there and I think you (should) be able to guess which one.

Please enlighten me.

gave her 99% damage reduction. Any props she was or should be given should take this into consideration. I think anyone would be bad ass exploiting a damage reduction bug that made them take block scratches from everything.

1) It wasn't 99%.

2) To this day, I don't consider the way it worked a bug. It was something that was rebalanced a fair bit, but at the time as far as I remember, it was working as it was intended.

It was enough to turn massacres to scratches. I apologize for my percentage being wrong. Although a scratch is 1 to 4 and a massacre is about 100 or so, close enough.

If you want to split hairs about comparing "rebalancing" to a bug, then you got me there. It was a massive rebalance of the skill that nerfed to the point where now, the effect is almost negliable to slightly useful depending on herbs numbers/sets. I'll lump this into when fire seeds did oblits to unspeaks on each seed for about 2 days, except this went on for weeks.

If it wasn't overpowered and a bug why:

A) Was it removed?
B) Were falcons and wolverines removed?
C) Was sunray downgraded?

Given A, B & C and the fact every other char of hers has been no where near the level of lethality Amora was, I'm inclined to disagree with you're putting her side by side with Istendil and Zorszaul.

- And having certain tattoos don't equate with PK talent. If that tat is what 'broke' her char, my point stands. Aarn's statement didn't specify the chars in question had a very potent tattoo. Amora couldn't whoop a bunch of people with 'an opal ring and a broom', especially since I slew her last char and another one back to back and wasn't really overly impressed with either of them.

Is that even on her best days, she died a lot.

I think that was a big part of her high kill numbers, honestly. People would always think they could kill her (because they could and probably had yesterday) and wouldn't avoid her the way a high kill / very low death character always is.

It wasn't the least bit odd to see Amora log on for a couple hours, kill twelve people and die three times over the course of it.

Whether Amora deserved her reputation as a killer based on skill or a bug or whatever, is irrelevent. If you re-read what I wrote, I think it should be clear. That character kicked lots of ass by herself. Simple as that.

Aarn

(Note, this equation ignores the existance of crazy solo killers with the innate ability to just wipe the floor with their enemies while wearing two balator practice weapons, a ratskin cloak and a opal ring, ala Amora/Istendil/Zorszual/Gareth type characters, since those are few and far between.)

- Without slating her personally I think merely when you evaluate 'legends of the game' you should use some degree of relational logic, whether you find having a 'lucky bug' irrelevant or not, this is a competitive game.

Aarn, you did not sing the praises of Death_claw's characters in your post. Therefore, he will reply to you forever.

Death_Claw: It's your opinion. Aarn has a different one. Get over yourself.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

Get over yourself.

Ditto. Yet another baseless insult from Valg when he gets frustrated by not being able to A) comprehend the argument and B) answer it.

If you can't answer why its a good or bad idea to give accolades to bugged chars then why reply at all? If you get all pissy about stuff like this don't break the game balance structure so badly in the future. This is a competitive game so obviously fairness matters, I wasn't aware saying someone didn't desserve to be placed in the top 4 players ever category when they had significant mechanical advantages was controversial enough to invoke the wrath of the whiney Valg.

Honestly Valg, I was quite civil and childish posts like this from you makes me wonder why you're an Admin at all. If you can't answer the argument or join in the discussion you take a stupid pot shot from the immunity of administration. Nep and Aarn are a lot classier then that, in fact every other imm is.

Call me back when you're off your period.

It was posted on the bug forum I believe, the druids herbs were combining the 3 off-phases of the moon instead of the actual phase. Therefore, Amora was at her strongest during a new moon because she got the benefits of waxing, full, and waning when she should have been at her weakest. I hit her with a cloud giant warrior right after she cast plant growth and she was lagged throughout the entire combat, but it was a new moon and she had 3 or 4 defensive herbs and my cloud sword spec with a 47 dam roll was doing injures to her. I asked her later what preps she used and she said just defensive herbs. I deleted and made a druid, a couple days after I got empowered, they fixed the bug.

asdf

blaaaaa

I dont think ive ever played one of those except for maybe a ranger and thief. Mahar and Adgento.

Jubair was definately in the solo killer category and in the second one. Even though he kicked my ass all over the place wearing two maran weapons and charred bracers, i respected him a lot. He was in my opinion a unique character and so is his player's skill. Since him i dont really think ive seen a maran match him, not only in pk skill but in sheer drive and the total disregard for tribunal or anything else that would have gotten in his way.

I typed out a long babbling book of different things I noticed about 'leaders' and how they manage to get various players to actually do something, some do it carrot/stick style, the more effective ones seem to do it like the banks of a river, guiding but leaving room for some movement. but I just removed all that because the real reason for the post is that I've been sitting on my duff 'CF-wise' (IRL I've been crazy-busy hehe) and waiting around for something to tell me to leave off, or 'OOOHHH roll this/try this'!

So you have now given me a goal. This one will probably be much harder than 'get a character to 25th level.' my first goal. Wow that was a long time ago.

I'm going to try to figure out how to play a 'leader' type character.
This will be more difficult for me than many others as I've never had that natural arrogance that presumes I know more about what I am doing than the next guy and they should listen to me. I've always stayed low-key. Never tried to push a group in a certain direction, well okay unless it was role related. hehe I think Nimelerion tried to push for retrieving, but he just had to.

Well Now I have to sort out a role, desc, race/class combo etc..
If I figure it out it won't be from any natural ability, I'll have to learn it step by step - Which means probably 30 characters or more. hehe- but I'll be able to explain how it happens because of learning it, not being able to do it naturally.

Wish me luck.
-Baj

For Trib, I'd say Onirakoth. Most Outlanders were afraid to be anywhere near the Tree whenever he came knocking. He turned out to be not a very trustworthy leader, but he got the job done constantly and could raid and retrieve like a son of a lich.

asdf

I would personally put Tjok up there for Outlander. When he logged on, everyone was scared to even step foot into the wilds. His presence inspired the entire cabal to go out and retrieve/raid/slaughter, and he was the first leader I've seen retired from his position because he was carrying the whole cabal (may have been others, but I've only been playing four years).

Later, Qing, who turned out to be Tjok, did a lot of the same thing, though to a lesser degree.

But I'm biased because I'm a huge fan of his work.

I might support the Tjok one.

Many times when he was about, I would say to myself *I am glad I am a shaman*. Especially a dwarf.

As a shaman, especially at hero ranks, there is no way I feared Tjok unless he had double numbers on me and his friends could lock me down. Probably an unfair assessment of him though, as shamans are almost designed from the get-go to rape rangers.

enough health/protection/healing to make ambush no real threat, a single sup to take away camo/ambush and turn them into specless warriors with a heal skill, another sup to take away the heal skill.


but, I remember from how hard he was hitting through sanc and prot ethos that I was glad I wasn't a warrior or mage against him.

Also, being the law-junky that I am, I don't really have a basis to know what he did for outlander. For that matter, most of my outlander opinions were formed by outlanders telling me that all tribunals were cowards who stayed in their city...5 minutes after I solo raided and took the fetish.

Was probably my only character to rally the troops well enough.

Astillian killed more of his on groups then enemies.

Played with him back in the day. He was definately one of those leader types.

I also remember how scary raiding shadow was.. with it all dark in there and stuff. I'd never go raid them unless Fortcour was there to lead it, otherwise we normally died.

...Rome...

Heheh, I loved Fortcour. If my memory isn't too hazy, I was in Knights under him with my first char, and I knew *SO* little as to what was going on, I just declared myself his bodyguard, followed him around everywhere, and threw myself in front of anything that attacked him. Aaah, the good old days when my tactics were entirely "rescue fortcour"! (or Tallanvor...I can't remember which one I did this to entirely, but they were both pretty awesome)

I vaguely remember you.. or at least I think I do. I remember him having a bodyguard who followed those tactics.

I was playing a cleric at the time named Pious... I would use gate; shadowbane; shadowbane; shadowbane; word; word; word; ... run to pick up the stuff out of my corpse.

I remember shadow was SOO scary. With Fade all of them were unseen, and they loved to hide in our cabal after a raid and wait for us to forget about them.. then BAM I'm running for my corpse again. (This was back when assassins could assassinate without stalking)

Those were the days.


...Rome...

I think Odrirg had the potential to be something like this.

He was definately surrounded by some quality players, like to think he had some believable authority, do to maybe his strength of convictions. And after a while I actually started to learn how to use a Shaman in certain situations.

But, I don't think his personality let him do this. He was an ornery cuss and somewhat of a loner due to his past and philosophy, and being a dwarf, and I (and odrirg)agreed completely with Velk that Odrirg should not ever be provost, he was more about getting pissed off and running off at a criminal alone than organizing a coherent hit-squad.


I think, though, that he's the closes I've come to what you describe. As my playtime has dwindled, and my skills become rusty, I figure it's as close as I will come.


That said. The first char that popped into my head when reading your post was Nerylana.

That was a bard so kickass that the Village had to make her co-commander. I remember seeing her log on and completely shift things power wise.

Because as Nerylana's enemy, I had a totally different picture. I saw her as the villager that would never fight me without backup and would sit in the village for extended period of time until others logged on. I believe I was playing Emeris (vulture lion) at the time.

That's not to say she was a bad character. It's just interesting that we can have such different views of the same character.

I do know for a fact that that char spent *ALOT* of time sitting working songs for alot of her life, but alot of chars spend time perfecting pk skills, and once she got going at hero, I know I witnessed (from both sides, first as a lawman, then as Sehvoor) her and her damned bard songs, with a few battle backups, tear into groups that were much larger.


I think what you refer to touches one of the points of Aarn's post. As morts, each of us only have a very limited fraction of a view of most other pc's. If A character is utterly kickass 10% of the time, and utterly worthless 10% of the time, and above average 80% of the time, I am sure there will be players who come away completely convinced that the char was worthless, and other players who come away completely convinced that the char was the end-all-be-all, and many others who are convinced the char was good, but nothing overly great.

Which is why I think imm opinions of chars have the POTENTIAL to be more valid. On one hand, if they choose, they can see much more about a char than any other char can. On the other hand, they do so much work and there are so many pc's that I'm sure many pc's get overlooked.


A few examples.
I remember watching a scribe/acolyte healer change gradually and try to make the change to squire maran. Some imm must have not been paying attention to the long, logical change, and veto'ed it. The healer deleted the details I know come from the somewhat acid deletion post he posted on official. The next day, the deletion post is gone, and the char is back, and is a squire, so my guess was that some imm who knew what was going on rectified the situation.

Also, I got the impression that some imms caught glimpses of my Necro Malzhaalohn being so sunny and cheerful and friendly, and came to the conclusion that I was just HORRIBLE at being evil because they didn't bother to read through my role enough to catch WHY I was acting that way.

On the other hand. Alot of goodie chars that were around with Odrirg were convinced that Odrirg should have been turned neut, and they might not have been TOOO far wrong, but because Odrirg had a detailed role and reasons and thoughts and motivations, He was able to continue with his God's blessings.


All of which is a long way to say, I'm more interested in who the *IMMS* think were the kind of leader characters in the past, than in who the players think were.

To me, it makes sense that an evil could choose to pursue a nefarious course whilst presenting themselves as a nice guy. (e.g. to get goodies to get them their lich items).

I have always had issues with evil characters being expected to be abrasive or mass-murdering.

I thought Maalhazon was an excellent character. Never knew you played him though.

I credit you for what you're saying. Take Nerylana for example. Nerybear fit the 10 10 80 mold pretty closely. Her roleplay was solid through and through. However, as far as leading, she had plenty of ragers working behind her back. She also led a few groups to their utter doom. The lower ten percent was the 5-on-1 rager vs. other gangings that started to ensue. The top ten percent was the 1-on-1 incredible PK fights and the 5-on-5 group fights. But, that's not to say that she didn't get hit like a puck on ice. I once said to the wolverine commander, loborguz (sp), that Nerylana had told me there was no use in a corpse, excusing fleeing from combat. He just laughed and said "She'd know, hers are everywhere." She was definitely always willing to fight but not many people other than the player and the collection of immortals that watched would see the whole collage.

Anyhow, I'll say one thing about this Aarn question. I personally can tell without having ever interacted with a character if they fit this profile, by what other characters say IC. "Keep an eye out for this person in the realms" is a clear indicator that they can turn the tides. I mean, how many people had triggers to highlight when Zorszaul would log on? How many probably left it in their trigger file? Finally, PBF is the best thing to happen to these official forums since moderation. I can skip pretty close to everything beside role and immortal comments and be happy reading through it. It just is unfortunate to see decent characters with tons of comments and outstanding characters with maybe one. Eventually though, the characters deleting with 400 hours will typically have comments that reflect fairly well on their potency in PK, RP, or both.

Jugynheim. I read your thing about Nerylana and remember playing through the Sylvan/Battle war as Ralicazin. Jugynheim would sign on and we would all just become organized and then would beat the hell out of the Village. Nerylana con died not very long after that, if I remember right. I know she kept coming after us and kept dying.

There are some leaders that just seem to feel familiar when they charge forward. They have to be that cool mix of relaxed/stern that gets you going but doesn't make you feel driven to your doom. Even when you lose.

Gerylanst gets mad thumbs up for this kinda feel. I know he's alive still so I'm fearing his age-death madly but get a good look at his technique before he dies. Its subtly awesome.

That done, he's outlived three of my chars. Time to die, Gery. *yawn*




Yhorian.

'' I think it's much easier to observe these things from the imm standpoint,...''

Agreed, it's not always obvious the impact a fellow character or even your character has on the game/cabal. You can only go on the impact they had on your personal character. Having played Icthaen, I can safely say that Iramath made me feel more 'invicible' when I was on with him than any other character to date. A character that brims with confidence like that can only make you yourself feel better, just like in real life. Anyway, on to my question!!

Since you guys get to see the grand scope of things, who do you are think are some of the best leaders or leader-type characters in the past few years? Iramath/Restraal/Balrahd were already mentionned, but there must be more and I want reasons!!!! If I can enter a vote, it's for Tjok, I only knew him from a distance but when I saw him on I would think 'outlanders must be doing fine, Tjok is guarding da shizzzzziit.'

Thanks in advance for any input!

Balrahd I think is better at making the people with him feel like they are capable of winning. Whereas with Dev, he's just the man when it comes to the mechanics of directing players with him. He's also the only one I've seen that can being leading a group of 5+ (8 is the most I've seen) and become a steamroller of death instead of a blundering cluster#### that most groups that size become.

I'm sorry. I'm sure he had some skill, but the Sylvan powers
were so out of control when mixed especially with a Shaman
that he was just a personal powerhouse and others if they
were with him just added to the gang. Doesn't take a whole
lot to say "Hey, let's go chameleon at the falconer's backyard,
put up wall of thorns, wait as long as we need to for an
Imperial to come through, then summon and insect swarm them."

A monkey could have won with Delanan's skill/power setup. Not
saying he's a monkey, but his setup was so powerful to trap a
person that it's hard to differentiate leadership from just
having sick skills.

- Kazadan

Yeah. Dev will be remembered as the guy that could exploit the broken combo at the time the most, to me.

He had an ability to keep a large group from turning to crap, like I've seen most do, despite anyone's skills/spells/sups. Disagree all you want, I'm just telling you what I saw.

Well, since someone so kindly pointed out I was the topic of discussion.

While Delanan was undoubtedly a powerful character, I never sat in wall of thorns. Other shamans did, but I was too impatient to sit in a wall and hope someone came by. I would highly doubt if WoT was featured in 1/3rd of my PKs. That's like (old) rot - lame-o.

Outside a wall of thorns, a Sylvan shaman was not that unspeakably deathful. Since 75% of our fights were against Master, it mostly involved us raiding them, where insects would fail indoors like 75% of the time. Shaman isn't even a terribly good class for mage fighting - I was actually pretty useless against (smart) invokers and such, so a lot of the time my primary function actually was to lead, tell people what to do, and then spam dispel.

It was a powerful character, but mostly due to its survivability. For kill power I'd take a necro any day.

Maybe against Masters it would be a little different, but
Imperials... well I only played Imperials around then and
I distinctly remember being summoned to the falconer's
backyard a bazillion times while walking back to the
Palace. I remember waiting for long periods of time thinking
"naah they won't still be there" and sure enough, you all
were. I remember also the plant growth/wall of thorns/gang at the
large crossroads. Took awhile before I guess it was the Imms
saying "yeah you guys shouldn't do that" because it was way
too powerful. Beyond that, if I wasn't walking by and just
summoned into a wall of thorns, I recall walking into Kiac's
snare. Give it a moment or two and all the Sylvans would be
there, wall of thorns would sprout around me, insect swarm and
swat! Suppose that isn't related to Shaman powers really but
just added to the frustration.

All in all that was years ago and even though I don't remember
things crystal clear I remember it well enough. I had many-a-
character whipped just because I couldn't stand hiding in a
hole, sitting with my thumb up my ass, and moving around would
inevitably mean I would run into the old "Sylvan Deathsquad".

- Kazadan

My second character was a sylvan under Eshlina as a mort.

Back then, I had Zero idea how to pk, or maybe less than zero.

After playing a few semi-successful rangers, shamans, invokers, warriors, and shifters...

It pains me to think of all the corpses I missed out on because I just didn't know how to use Wot and Insects when they were around. I firmly believe that, with what I know now of pk, even one of those sylvan powers would more than double my kill count.

And coming from someone who doesn't pk well like me, that's saying I am really glad those things aren't still about, because if *I* could use them to that effect, I shiver at those who would really put them to full use, probably on me *chuckle*

Wall sitting was definitely effective (though it depends on who you're up against), but it was too boring for me to do much. Even back when I still had the attention span for mudding, if I wasn't actually moving around and doing stuff in the game I got really bored and wanted to log off, so sitting in a wall for 30 minutes hoping someone wandered into the area wasn't my cup of tea.

As far as Sylvan death squads go we were pretty harmless. Mendeiron and Pikel, now that was a nasty crew (cough cough).

>Beyond that, if I wasn't walking by and just
>summoned into a wall of thorns, I recall walking into Kiac's
>snare

Nivek

I feel that two of my characters, Kungkruk (Lyristeon had one of my all-time favorite comments about myself and Zytanesis wrecking a maran crew of six or seven at the Fort) & Restraal, fall into this category. I think it takes a combination of player + character + other allied characters + enemy characters to work correctly. Other characters I've had couldn't get a stone to roll downhill.

For example, Restraal's crew would generally clean the floor with any empire/village/outlander/tribunal/maran crew. Once Iramath came into power, maran toughened up about five-fold whenever he was around. Fights I would have been confident going into 2v5 became unwinnable.

I think Iramath is definitely an example. Agorinth was another I remember who seemed to have this ability.

I definitely thought Restraal and Iramath fit in this category.

I didn't watch Kungkruk much, but it's also harder for a chaos guy to organize things and all that, I think. Or at least it should be.

Actually, I found that 'chaotic' characters in a group were almost self-organizing.

With Kung, it basically went along these lines:

"Do what you should be doing in this group, or we are going to brutally murder you."

f

For example, even a newbie thief can run in and out jacking people.

I'm not sure I buy the premise to begin with that there are "great leaders". At least, as far as group tactics are concerned. There are characters who know tactics very well and try to share that knowledge with those around them, but there is just too much autonomy for each individual character for there to be one guy who somehow "makes everyone better" by virtue of his leadership skills. He can coach them before hand, he can draw up a game plan, but if his supporting cast sucks then it's all going to fall apart once the fighting starts.

That said, I think there are some characters who, through sheer power, manage to make groups succeed that would have otherwise failed. Lariya comes to mind. Having someone like this around at least raises the confidence level of that person's allies, even if it doesn't make them any "better".

I mean, I saw what a sorry mess the Fort was before Iramath came around. Everyone kept trying to dirt kick me while I was immune, bash me while immune, keep trying to disarm me when I had a cursed weap, let me sit and heal my group, etc etc.

After he became captain, his groups seemed to get wise quick to how to fight and win. If he's leading his group into exactly the right tactics to win difficult fights consistently, then I say he was a pretty good leader.

So how did Iramath make these groups better? They couldn't figure out on their own not to dirt kick someone who's immune, he told them, then they magically became better players? That's what I was getting at in the original post. You can tell people what to do and what not to do, but that only goes so far. You have no control over them once the fighting starts, and if they suck, having had one or two little coaching sessions probably isn't going to change that.

See, but I've also watched characters who are very skilled on their own, but don't have the ability to substantially organize their side to do great things. In fact I think this is far more common... I see it a lot with goodies. The one guy that sucks it up against bad odds and keeps trying to retrieve, but dies because he's up against a horde and the rest of his cabal mates are either ghosts (because they went in seperately too), or off somewhere else doing their own thing.

I can say with confidence that there are characters whos pk ratios may not even be that great (although they're usually not bad either), but when given some moderately-skilled allies to work with, they're much stronger then the sum of the groups parts would indicate.

I can't say WHY these characters have the ability to get people to listen to them, then do the right thing, but I'm pretty sure it works.

Aarn

In that they try to 'micro manage' when they really shouldn't be.

As Jaeiin in Outlanders I knew my place, I was the one who made people want to be an outlander and happy.

Then there was this druid, who insisted on telling everyone what action they will be doing in a raid. Despite the fact we all knew our own strengths better, they'd insist on 'ordering' what people should do.

It made me want to do the opposite. Not only because of my characters chaoticness, but also because of the arrogance that came across in a druid giving anything similar to orders.

It's a fine line, and I think everyone - imms and players both - could point to characters that tried to lead, and just made things worse. Sometimes they just don't have the credibility to be telling people what to do, or they're overshadowed by someone else who's better at it, or they micro-manage like you said, and just piss everyone off... or the worst, they'll organize people and lead everyone to their doom. That can sometimes be good for a laugh though.

In that you need the right kind of character, a balance of people skills and hard-attitude, and sometimes just pure luck. You're not about to shine if there are so many arrogant people in your cabal that you've just had no luck swaying.

All in all, I've never played one of these inspirational 'leader' types. But I know I have the talents to become something similar if put into the right character. I'm not saying you have to be a Zulgh tatted pk monster from day one, but your cloud giant healer better have a role orientated towards being a strong person in game. Personally, I like sitting behind the leader. I like the idea that they'd be nothing without my inspiration giving chars behind them


Yhorian.

PS - Just encase you need the ol' list, I'll throw up some char names.

Srinlete, Ritur, Jaeiin, Optomkiptum, Yurrike, Huroomhaur (did that mino tattoo have a power?), Yhorian.

See, I think several of your characters had the potential to be one of those leaders. Opto was awesome, but the character himself didn't seem to have the role to grab people and organize them. I can see it now. "I demand you all quit ####ing around and follow me!" Ritur also, was kind of a "behind-the-sceens" guy, but I bet if Ritur had stepped forward and taken charge, people would have followed him. It just wasn't part of the character to do that though (correct me if I'm wrong) which is fine. Srinlete seemed like he could have been there, but alas, now we'll never know.

Aarn

I have never thought myself a leader so much as a good right hand man but have played under and against some that I thought stood out. In each case these chars gave me the feeling when they logged on that the odds just shifted greatly and the other team was doomed, even if I was part of the other team. All of these chars should have had a special (Leadership) flag in their string. These are in no order.

Aiekooso - Not a leader of any sect but when he logged in he took charge and got things going. When he logged on we were going to get get our item back regardless of odds.

Halisstra/Urden/Lokilith - All of these lead long enough to see some really bad odds but from my char's eyes it never seemed to faze them. They each did an excellent job rousting the troops and making a comeback. They each also seemed to have that leadership aura about them.

Drahkul - There have been a lot of battle leaders I have served under and many were much better killers but Drahkul stood out as leading during a down time. He seemed to have great confidence about him, enough that I could see not only myself but others at the time gravitate to him. If he was on were were going to win or make team B pay like hell.

Bidefahl/Johan - Never played under them but only as foes. They were both the backbone of the Fort for a long time and stood out. More than once there would be five of us against four or five of them and we always tried to take out either Johan/Bidefahl because we knew the goodies would scatter if either went down. That was the mark of leadership and all their foes understood it.


I am sure I am forgetting a few but these truely shined to me.

>This is really just something I've been observing lately, and
>is just posted for conversational purposes.
>

>My question is, does anyone KNOW that they're one of those
>players, or know that they have played one of those
>characters?

Yes. Used to be a case where discussing the general status of cabal wars it was obvious as to who was the cause of things. These also tended to be named players repeating the same ability.
Case in point, (without ass kissing) I'd consider Abernyte to one of those players. He's got the patience to coral muppets and generally the self motivation to care.

> Has anyone
>felt like they played a character like that, but can't
>duplicate it again?

It tends to depend on the characters around you, do they respond to you or do they take it personally.

Most of his characters too. (except when he leads anyone up against scarab revenants, damn that would get ugly fast)

Heh, Heh hah hah.

Of course he did whip my ass in about three rounds in the Inn while I was napping.

Q

couple times
ugh