north pk

[Eol]

I've been playing darkside exclusively lately. I've had my gripes about darkside through the years but in some ways part of the vibe over here is the best its ever been even if Davor says they are all weenies.

I was there for the big fight described above - Jaster's sign on couldn't have been worse for humans. I don't use discord so I don't know how much of these sort of things is coordinated. Seemed like one of those moments in PK where humans were probably thinking of leaving, maybe half were north, half were south and they weren't going to be able to regroup. Trolls definitely had the momentum. The PK went on awhile but it mostly to my recollection was dusty and I don't think I've ever seen a troll group leave if they have a group of humans "cornered" Kajin and outnumber them. They will clear everything small, set blocks, and go after it. Humans honestly had some good moments but yeah - trolls had too many to capitalize. There was definitely a point where trolls switched all their crit people to blockers but humans didn't have enough to go after them.

I've been around for some slaughters and some stagnants. I think I've only seen 2 herald groups show up and I sort of felt the vibe trolls talk about. The question of what are they really here for. I have seen at least a few days where the number of humans PKing greatly outnumbers the troll who list. Having only 5 trolls on does happen in some central time evenings and trolls gripe/the mood deteriorates. Now an Immortal would probably say - if every person who signed on/off/rented right had waited 5 minutes longer they might have had 10 people and maybe its some people renting angry - I don't know. I like darkside, but its inconsistent and its also affected by AFKing and what not.

I want to throw out a few thoughts about Kajin and those areas. So having a Lancer I've seen more of the discussions about that area. Trolls hate Kajin and sometimes I feel like their hate is more in line with what Kajin started with than what it is now.

-Kajin is aggressively aggro himself. ie. he will sometimes attack rather than assisting. He's a high level. That's probably his most potent trait. It was not present originally.
-All of his mobs originally had gladiuses/tarnished swords which are 5d6 and are probably the strongest mob weapon in the game that isn't on an smob. His followers now use a much weaker sword. There were literally trolls in dodge dying to 1 bash at him originally. The mobs may also have been downed in level.
-I think he originally had 5 mobs and is down to 4... He also had 2-3 floating mobs that roamed - they are gone.
-Sergeants heavy club now hits for 4d6 instead of 6d6. I'm pretty sure they number of them have been downed by 1-2 - I no longer care enough about the game to keep detailed lists of these things.
-There are fewer soldiers.

I'm not saying its not strong - I'm just saying it isn't what it was when it began. As it changed through the years my hope was it was something that would be slightly layered - something where people didn't just run straight to Kajin or more important, straight in. Something where humans could try and do what trolls do - move people back and forth on mobs. I also hoped to create other opportunities dusty ie. the small sergeant patrol near the woods though that never really caught on (and the sergeant is always naked).

But that's all an aside. Numbers are variable. People may or may not move between sides. Certain things don't ..shift/move people well. Herald groups are probably going to keep their members. A darkside group that is actively trying to bottle people Kajin probably isn't going to talk amongst themselves and say - some of you rent. They are going for a clean sweep. Trolls will often continue to stay on when a fade is on - its like being on drugs jokingly. Its just so much more potent. Trolls PK is either a vial burn fest,...sitting weary d e of Commander trying to get a tick in wondering if you hit the humans Commie should you even chase them to dusty or being with a fade and just running people down. I imagine its like being a Warder and having your Sedai sign on. You're gonna run with it while it lasts.

[Ominas]

Great post. Concise, well said, and informative. I appreciate your lack of sarcasm (ie posting silliness with no substance). I wasn’t aware of some of that. I’m still fairly new to the north. Comparatively. Interesting about the mobs.

I agree. Numbers will always swing. That’s never been and never going to be my gripe, personally.

My only gripe is mentality.

[szeth]

Not really complaining, and i still intend to do raiding when i can.

For those who think trolls are scared of raiding do not seem to understand how quickly it often becomes a deathtrap. And this is just an example, and not always the case, but I have seen this quite a few times in my time here.

Amino and myself raid tear, fight arjuna for a bit (well played sir) and i even get crit and have to run from trying to fight him patrol. Soon after more show up and we run to mobs at hidden. We realize we have no chance and decide we should run, step out the room and see...

*Kendall* is standing here.
*Lisennet* is standing here.
*Lisennet* is surrounded by a shimmering white aura!
*Evangaline* is standing here.
*Evangaline* is surrounded by a shimmering white aura!
*Lyam* is standing here.
*Arjuna* is standing here.

Which does not include Larkin and Kimi.

Once again I am not trying to complain, I survived and even had some fun. However it does seem when trolls raid the most often scenarios are either nothing but resting moves and tracking people, maybe see someone who immediatly runs into a city at healthy. Or the above seems to happen.

I do not think anything will change about this but I did want to show an example of what raiders face and why they are less than eager at times.

Good fight guys, really was impressed you guys hit a door, even if we got super lucky and left it right as you were going in. We would have died so badly otherwise

[kendall]

The post above by szeth does show the difference in perception without the other side perspective. In this instance I was gap hitting scout looking for pk and noone came out. Arjuna narred he was on Amino TT. I stayed north hoping that pk would start in the traditional zones for ls/ds pk. The nar changed to 2 ds so I started to head tear as arjuna seemed outnumbered and there were no ds north. By the time we arrived tear more ls converged on the area without any coordination beforehand.
Raiding comes with risks however lots of ds choose to raid South rather than pk North when ls hit scouts. This happens on both sides. Ls groups smob or quest while ignoring ds looking for pk. This forces ds to raid for pk then get steamrolled by these quest or smob groups. Ls hit scout and often get steamrolled by ds groups or get no pk and hear over narrs there are ds South despite willing ls pkers in the North. The scout mobs were a great addition for people announcing they want pk but recently they seem to be ignored quite a bit even when the website shows there are numbers on each side. Situations like above would happen less if there was pk in the North instead of chasing the pk in other areas of the map.

[Rig]

it's almost as if a large number of the people who go at it play their lightsiders more now.

Guilty as charged!

As Davor said, there's been a big shift in mentality on both sides. Numbers/Ganks/whatever don't have anything to do with it. People just don't want to take risk and die. I die on my LS alts nonstop pking outnumbered/even numbers/whatever the firetruck. It's fun.

This is a good example of the current mentality of the #risktakingDS.

"We don't hit Kajin unless we know we are gonna get a kill/kills because there is no point otherwise"
+
"Playing DS recently and watched a few trolls flee off kajin at batt and run a whole zone or more away"

That's crazy to me, and it's hilarious. It's basically refusing to take any sort of initiative to keep pk going. All because you could 'possibly' die??? Lol. It's text gear on a text game. firetruck it. Few times I've lead group pk on DS recently is people refusing to move south of keep unless pk is blight or legit running from dusty-blight/keep without saying a word at batt/beat when we're like same numbers. Wild my guys.

[Jaster]

There will always be a time when you feel the side you are on is getting romped, ganked, smobbed, or the shaft. A lot of this has to do with what your characters, goals, wants, or needs are in the game. Anyways, there seems to be a debate or issue with on one recent PK session. All of which was just happenstance with a series of rippling effects.

Firstly, I logged on to trolls saying humans smashing them. I said ok, follow me GK and we will smash back. They grouped on me quickly and we hit you guys 4n elbow. Apparently Valkner and Nev went in to mend. Bad timing. You guys broke or chose to flee during the fight. We picked off Corath and then Hellen while you guys regrouped Ragan. We then hit you guys ragan and picked off Kellam also getting some of you low. Shortly after we got dusty and you guys were FD and regrouped and came out to Kajin. As I was lookin for Kajin you were not there and noticed your tracks towards fence. You guys were at a few sergs. At this point you had 3 master warders(I'll play along with you and downplay warders in pk ), 2 fcs, a 2 -3 non master pugs. Your FCs chose to target me instead of lower trolls perhaps by your leadership. We broke you there and got nevirha solo. We put a pouding on her and that's when Valkner decided to try and save her(Kudos for the RP and relationship saving skills). Valkner sacrificed himself by dusty caves hopefully giving Nev time to run waste. When Valk died she was gap going to waste when I decided to try and catch her. 4 trolls were with me and we chased on leaving 5 other trolls dusty. We caught nev and killed her by LF. During this you were smart and hit the trolls that were dusty. If I was terrible on DP management we would never had made it back in time. During this 1-2 people logged in and worked their way dusty. I think maybe Monsoon who was Ld most of it anyways because of connection being dung. We just got back in time and then you guys were holed up Kajin. 2 master warders, 1 fc, 2 non master pugs with Kajin smob. We hit and were losing, again, I was the target of weaving and was beaten(I believe Davor missed a bash on me which could have killed me?). Anyways Khaster tried to join the frey but we killed him 2n. We then chose to rehit with a lot of batt beat and crit trolls. FC did not seem to be coordinated or given direction on the low trolls to target. You should have been spiking the beat and crit trolls playing the roll of attrition. Not our fault. Warders kept fleeing off at kajin and coming back into the room and only getting engaged on 1 PC. I did not see Davor or Ominas go below wounded at this point. You guys did not effectively try to utilize multibash in this scenario which would have been huge to win or kill some of us. Eventually the Full dodge Suern died campsite, lyam died, you guys wvd and went for a break to home and we killed Alivan gap. The numbers never purely line up throughout the session on all the names involved but the situations to take advantage of the numbers or character you had were there. Instead of people bitching about it they can reevaluate the actual session in totality on how it got that way. Sometimes DS gets the romp and sometimes LS does. In this session LS got romped. Nothing more and nothing less. Pointing the finger is quite stupid at this point as you all do it and we all do it. Nod your head and just get your ass out and try to pk or whatever makes ya happy.

P.S. No one texted me to set up this massive debacle for LS. I got done with work and logged on at my typical time and pked. Set your clock and you will know in the future when I am coming

[Fermin]

I think being AFK with triggers should trigger imms randomly dumping like 5-10 preds in your room...

Terrible for the game, maybe others would disagree but I find having unresponsive people online worse for morale then having fewer people, messes with using numbers for any kind of planning, etc. I think that this strategy has had a huge detrimental effect on N pk.

[isabel]

.

[Ominas]

Edit: I was told I was being too mean. Have a great day team!

[Jaster]

Edit: I was told I was being too mean. Have a great day team!

Guy, we all know what happened. We were there. You’re literally echoing what has already been said, and been clarified, while adding nothing. No one has complained. Do they not teach reading comprehension in the states?

Ps. No one is worried about you logging or not logging.

No worries, I saw it. Seems some of you don't clearly know what happened due to misrepresented facts. I didn't really echo anyone's points said as I gave you a run down of the session from my POV only. I would beg to differ and say I added quite a lot to how the PK went down from my POV and areas you guys failed to lead or communicate and act. Quite frankly, you and others downplay the warder character consistently and its absurd. For the sake of the post I played along with your guys view of such a weak character vs some odds. Davor, I know your clearly don't believe the weak warder mish mosh so I exclude you from it. If you utilized some reading comprehension from wherever you have been taught Ominas, perhaps you could come away with takeways on how you could have won the battle or done things differently in that session with a different result. I was merely providing you with education material since you are new to the "north". At the end of the day I stated quite obviously that LS romps DS and DS romps LS. Forgive my PS joke as it was purely satire to say the least. I could care less what anyone thinks if I log on or not. I log on and play the game, which is the point of it.