Elle

Deep, deep below Menhirs, a Man'ari, the Eredar servants of the legion was held captive. Finding a warlock fool enough to pick up a book, an anchor for her to reach out the rest of the Doldrums, her plan for freedom was pushed into action. Many who have spoken or dealt with the demoness have seen her as foolish, stupid, a minor inconvenience. But, now, two resident mages of the Doldrums lie in her clutches and other powers want artifacts buried with her. Is it by design of sheer dumb luck that now people stand ready to brave the depths of a prison for one of the most powerful of the Legion's servants? Either way, many goals and loyalties now converge on this place, so far below Menhirs. Date/Time Sunday 10/14 8pm ST. Starting Point: Island of Menhirs.

I am curious about everyone's opinions on the forums and discord. Do you prefer one of the other? Why? Are the Forums pretty? Do you think discord being more active then the forums is good/bad for the server? ect.

I should've mentinoed this sooner. But, if you are comparing a tabletop RPG homebrew(which our RPG system is) to retail wow, slap yourself. They are completely different beasts. If you want to compare power, do it with another tabletop RPG like DnD, Pathfinder, Microlite, ect.

I've never hit over 302 on a pyroblast crit. With 9 wp and 8 ing and all my gear built around that one spell. Molten blast, when ti does crit, I can get 400. But, my chance is terribly low as I am not optimized for it. That said, yes we do have more utility, but most of them are pointless to take in the current combat. Amplify magic is the msot useful I've seen that fits my character. That said, It took three turns for the last hunter I saw to be able to drop that. In the same time, I do half his damage. Since a pyroblast is an autocrit and it is doing 302 on a crit, I'm not likely to see higher.

When I am playing a mage, with almost 5k XP and the best gear I can get, and a hunter with 3k drops a 600 crit like its nothing jsutbecuase of a OP buff, it makes me feel like all my work is pointless. I put so much into make a good mage, and any lower tier melee of hunter can out do me by double what my biggest crit is with my build. It ruins the class fantasy. Even if it is harmless in PvP, the fact PvE is still that unbalanced is wrong. And no, in classic tabletops like DnD, the mage starts out weak and almost worthless. In higher levels the spell caster out DPs and utilities in combat most melee/ranged based classes and builds.

A lot of what I'm going to say is in Dascombe's document on another thread, or things I openly say in Discord. There are a lot of problems here, and to be fair and honest, it isn't the server alone why the pop is dead. We're in a part of the year that RP server akin to Shores shut down or go dead. But, the problems here are not staff alone. Even though I may be repeating myself for the 100th time, I'm going to put it down here on the forums so publicly people know my opinions and my stance. Staff So, there is a big issue with staff. Namely, three I count as active(and visible about it) and the rest, I'm not even sure do anything. Varen, Antiotch and Hawk are the only three I see online in any capacity. Anti is the only one DMing as far as I can tell. Varen is the only one doing coding and stuff and Hawk the only one who does Helper shit. I know there are people doing decorating and building for the server and future aswell. And I do apprciate they are, when the amount of people who may ever see the work is so low. But, that being said people like Axis, Vrahn, Skippy, Loth, ect. I see them in the discord. MAYBE see them make a post or two, and then silence. I do not see them on. Nor do I hear about them doing anything. If staff are on vacation from the server for whatever reason, cool. I understand. I get it. Hell, having other interests or doing something else while the server is kept alive by the 8ish diehard(and a couple of those are staff) who don't want to go stick their dicks or heads into RPH like servers... Or make their own, its kinda sad. And they should be replaced by people capable and willing to put the time in. Because, even if they are kept and others simply hired, it'd be a mess if they wanted to come back like nothing has changed. That being said, I'm nto advocating for people to be removed or fired. If people are working in the shadows, atleast poke your head in the light. Let us know what you are doing and shit. It takes maybe a minute to drop a quick announcement. Point two, Storylines. The current 'storylines' are shit, guys. And please, I am not insulting anyone in particular. I'm not calling ANYONE a bad DM here. But, we have a bunch of big threats that the current pop can not handle without some magical ally of equal power appearing out the ass. And even then, we have what? Sortoras: Eletric Scourge Bugaloo. Kolai: Evil Troll Empire Strikes Again, and Old God: Survival Horror and How to Facedesk. They are bland and overdone, to begin with. Each one controls an entire Island, and each one is unbeatable currently. I do not mind losing, I do not mind having to actually overcome something. But, when the solution is 'keep hitting the bad guys until they are all dead', my brain wants to just check out. I can predict what is going to happen with each, because they are literally the same thing I've seen the past ten years, just scaled down a tad. What I enjoy the most, especially now as a player, is having to use my brain. Not minmaxing and killing. I know he may not have been the best, but Ragulation was my favorite DM because he did things that required some critical thinking and creativity and it was smaller scale things, that still had impact. It made the setting and world feel alive from the NPC side. It made me want to explore and find hidden things. His Shard(Blood of Opej'Nor) storyline was brilliant aswell, in the sense that, I wasn't racing against the clock to kill a BBEG(Big Bad Evil Guy) and I wasn't trying to save the world. I was hunting artifacts. Solving problems and puzzle and figuring out what the fuck this magical shards were and they did. It was a breathe of fresh air. It made me want to do things on my own revolving magical artifacts and making things. I want more of that, and less 'OH NO A FACELESS ONE HAHAHA'. I mean, sure, there should be one BBEG running around, but it should be a slow turning thing. Allowing players to pursue minor shit and get tougher to handle it, without a steamroll from a lazily designed boss. Point Three, LOOT. FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, STOP BEING POMPOUS JACKASSES AND GIVE ME SOME FUCKING LOOT. All caps and angry to sink the importance in. But, seriously guys. Loot from just executing mobs? If that? Like, I am not asking for when I kill a raptor to get the SWORD OF A THOUSAND TRUTHS. But, give me something for my time. 'You slew the bandits! And find a 100 silver on them.' Or, 'You defeat the soldier who was driven insane and find his armor/sword is in good shape 'gives uncommon cosmetic item'. Even if it is far below my current level, something for my time is better then 'that was fun rp, huh?' Because, yea. The RP may be fun. And it may be the main reason I am here, but eventually that alone begins to ring hollow and at the end of the day we are in an RPG. And that is still a game. Just because my selfless paladin may charge in to beat the bad guy up with no expectation of reward does not mean the player is not looking for a reward. Do not make all encounters and events to the level of the party. It is okay to throw some low level trash bandits at players. Or build up some big bad necromancer, only for them to stomp him to dust and get low tier loot. THAT IS FINE. But, what it does is make things feel real, players feel like the work they have put in has paid off. It makes the world feel alive and believable and it feels rewarding, even if it is disappointing in the challenge area. I'm totally cool with the challenge feeling empty sometimes. Not all the time, but come on guys. I don't get loot or XP from events? It feels hollow. Thats really my big gripes on staff. Its a lot and wordy, I know, but I feel I am making good points that others can and will agree with. Players If you think staff are the sole reason for the shit status of the server, you are severely mistaken. There is a large blame that can be pointed on players. As a whole and some individually. For the sake of people not getting offended and butthurt, I will be focusing on the blanket points. Attitude. Attitude, fucks sake. We players have so much attitude. I could write a research paper on the cause and effect of player's attitudes. But, as a whole, RPers need to change it. We yell and scream when anyone outside our group of friends does something awesome or gets some good loot. We scream nepo, we whine. We talk shit. A damn good example here is Tordala/Menhirs. When an influx of new players hit, a lot of them looked at the people on Menhirs, saw all the shit they had and screamed nepo. But, as someone who was around to observe the events that gave them an entire island, it was anything but. They got fucked hard by staff and the only reason they over came, be it easily or not, was because players banded together and out muscled and out smarted the NPCs in control for the most part. They got the power needed. Tordala got its allies, through a character not even elven. But, nobody cared. Nobody wanted to listen. It was a 'D-DM! T-Those players have stuff I do not!' There was always some reason they got nepo. Seriously, grow a pair. Put some ranks in maturity people. I want Elle to have a bunch of shit, but I'm not screaming cause others put in the time to get it when I wasn't even on the server. I know, that is harsh. But, its an attitude we, as players, have held true to across my ten years in the private wow rp scene. We need to lose it. Calm down, have some patience. Be happy when a fellow Rper succeeds and all that rainbow lovey-dovey shit. Competing OOC only makes shit hostile, especially for newcomers. And I for one, would enjoy new blood to sed-... ROLEPLAY with. Everyone is different and is here to have fun. If your not, I'll point your ass to the door. And if it was up to me, I'd kick it out. Because, no matter if you hate their RP, or their guts, don't make the environment hostile for others. I am sure I suffer for this and some of my friends do aswell, but we should try to atleast tolerate some stupid shit. Not just for the sake of people we see as bad or shitty RPers, but for the good RPers who will poke their head in and just see that one guy getting torn to shreds. A little preachy, I know. But, its how I feel. I can be harsher and point out specific names. But, I don't want to throw people under the buss publically, because all that does is make me a hypocrite and create a hostile discussion environment right now. I save my shit talking for my buddies and do my best to smile and nod at the people I can't stand. For the sake of the new blood. RPG System I'm not that far down this rabbit hole. I can tolerate a shit RPG system if the above wasn't a problem. But, this does need some heavy change. MAINLY in the combat balance. Hunters and warriors can drop a 600 damage crit. FUCK OFF. If you are going to let two classes do it, atleast let every class do it. But, seriously. A focus on balancing each class needs to be made. And, I do not mean that each class should be able to easily beat any other. Or, be on equal footing. A defended mage will destroy warriors if not dealt with. A hunter will be ineffective against a plate wearing enemy. Ect, ect. Magic is a huge thing in WoW, so I'm not saying 'Magic users should be super powerful!' But, come on. As a mage, I should not be out DPS'd by a lower tier warrior or hunter. Other then XP, I'll leave this to more skilled and dedicated people. Last point, Experience. Why in all that is logical and fun. Would the only way to get XP be a cap of 45 a day you spend productivity on? Do you want to bend me over and hammer me every day? Like, I can understand spending prod on XP. And capping that at 45. I really can, it gives you a confirmed amount of XP to cover 'training' a day. But, if I jsut killed the Old God, I think I'd get some XP outta that shit. I'm not asking for XP to be given for every NPC I kill. But, it should be given for events. Example, I am a rogue in a group going through a dungeon. We clear it. All the NPCs are dead. I also, picked eight locks and disabled 10 traps. After the event is over, the DM hands out XP. The part gets a 50xp for killing NPCs, 5xp for the roleplay, and then extra XP for other shit. I get another 20xp for the locks and traps. Total pay out is 75xp. I got 1.5 days worth of login xp for that event and it took us 4 hours of being online and active. This should be a thing. Sure, it changes the balance drastically. The people who can make every event will quickly outdo the people who can't. Thats... kinda fine, if you realize that the DM does have discretion on you joining. Is it a planned event or spontaneous? Did that character just run across the island to join in without knowing shit was going on? Are they Horde in an Alliance event? This also feeds back into players. If you know there is a player who is playing to win, be the best and being a shithead by making every event for the sole reason of OOC motivation? Dms should tell him no. Or, hell. CAP THAT XP TOO. You can go 'but, this is still a problem or, that isn't a solution!' Well, when you treat people like whiny, grabbing children... this is what you get. Put your boot down on shitheads who are playing to win, if you don't want that behavior. But, don't punish everyone by taking away an entire reward system from the equation. All you do is make your entire RPG hollow if the loot is non-existent and shit, and my XP is capped to 45 per account per 24 hours. One last thing. You can keep prod tied to the account. But, please, remove the 45xp cap from being tied to the account aswell. I don't care if I only get 32 extra xp a day to put on another toon and no prod for professions. If I want two combat characters that is my fucking choice. Stop shoehorning me into what you think I should be doing. Thats a dick move. Back in ye ole' tabletop days, it was not uncommon for a player to have multiple characters and the party be three players but six characters. Sure, I can't play both at one time here, but atleast let me have some effectiveness in playing more then one if I wish. Alright, I'm done. This is long winded and a gold star to anyone who read all of it and took their time to understand my points. I would like to hammer home, I am not -blaming- or -pointing fingers- at any one in particular. All 'insults' or aggressive language is directed at a mystical target who doesn't exist. And if you -feel- insulted by what I said, perhaps you should take some time and think if what I said rang true about your attitude or ideas and if I have any merit. That said, I only want to see this server thrive and have fun like I once did again. Nothing more, nothing less.

Considering the vipers are huge... Yes, they can bite through mail easily. You are not going to wear a ton of padding, you' keep it fitted to your body and only as thick as needed. A normal snake may not have fangs long enough to break the shin through mail and the padding under it. But, a giant fantasy wow viper? Yes. Just be glad your character doesn't die from the poison without an antidote.

Just so you know, from one player to another. I was not happy with the death either. It was, well, rather pathetic and did not offer any real RP, compared to his life. He may have deserved it in the end, sure, but his absolute unwillingness to fight cheapened anything of it for me. However, I'm doing my absolute best to keep IC and OOC separate with this character. I'm sorry that my character did nothing to stop it, but just like Royce was in no IC condition to fight, let alone stop it, she was not in the mental state of mind to do so either. Ehk became the unjustified outlet for all her anger and frustration at many other characters. She saw this troll, she barely knew, other then what other people told her. He came into her home and made threats. When asked to leave, he insulted her and one of her friends. She snapped. I'm not defending her actions, they were immoral in my eyes. Just thought, since there was no major OOC dramafest around Ehk's death, I would let you know my thoughts on it as a player and why my character did what she did. At least a brief summary, anyways. I have no problem wounding a character. Killing one, I'm not willing to do unless there is no reason or way my character can stop it. As shitty as the death was, it was one of those situations. Someone else handled it, and that was out of my hands to stop IC.