So after that rousing guild gathering I was off to gain top level and play with the boys and girls. It didn’t take long throw a dash of insomnia and dab of being pretty antisocial. I recall evening after class I would get cafeteria “take-out” so that I could eat in my room while on a Darkness Falls raid or later on an Avalon raid. They were good times I was pretty avid about learning the ropes of the game. I would excitedly chat with other group members who sometimes were higher level and established myself as a rather curious sometimes annoying yet pretty competent player. I mean I know we aren’t talking using tons of neurons to play a mmo properly but it was always important to me that I was filling my specific role above average. Also after that little guild event I had taken to dueling on a daily basis. Which inadvertently prepared me for RVR or realm versus realm, pretty much the end game for a MMO like DAOC. Warhammer did a better job of incorporating the concept into the game from the beginning however I digress. I managed to make a name for myself in the dueling arena. You see there were daily statistics on Camelotherald of who gained the most RPs (realm points from RVR) who won the most duels etc. Which starting out I managed to stay pretty consecutively in the top 20 to 25 for dueling win loss ratio.
I finally hit 50 and completed all of the class epic quests to get my mercenary armor. At the time
I regarded as some really neat looking gear up until the expansion that I feel ultimately ruined the game I kept a piece or two of the armor because of the ascetics. I reached the top level well before a couple of my friends who had started at least a year or so before I had. I believe it took me a couple months to get there. Xandryll the ever ardent Paladin was the next to reach 50. We had talked here and there about Emerical’s weekly RVR group which as we saw was legendary. We both went on an outing with them, with my first showing far outshining my comrade. Our outings consisted of forming up at one of our border keeps then running about our lands and border lands finding other groups to engage. With our respective impressions, mine seemed to be the prevalent of the two. I killed some high ranking Lurikeen Ranger named Raad Maad. At the time I had no idea who the hell this guy was nor did I think it was anything of note. However I suppose Emerical’s team thought otherwise. I had impressed the right people and had earned a, for the most part, guaranteed spot as Laralyn’s Main assist. I would meet Raad later on and I suppose that first outing all of his tricks were not up because he proceeded to single me out and beat the crap out of me. I suppose I had made an impression on him as well, find that noob and kill him the next time you see him. I suppose my group had also done their homework on me because they knew I was pretty high on the weekly dueling charts and I had a bit of reverence with some of the members. I believe one conversation after I had already established myself as a reliable group member went along the lines of “It’s the mighty Shinobhi!” kind of strange at the time to have any sort of following or renown yet flattering none the less. I used to duel before we would go out roaming the borderlands and did fairly well. I would say dueling took up 40% of my time with 50% in RVR and the rest in Raiding (such an awful invention) and chatting with folks I dueled, each 5% respectively. This group became pretty important to me in terms of gameplay and the mmo social aspects. We chatted frequently between outings and it would turn out I had made a pretty good impression on a couple members while leveling. Yet I digress once again I mean to at least give a brief description of every member as I remember them. First off Laralyn she was the best armsman on the server and great at group tactics. I was her main assist and we took apart many groups together. Frescia was our main cleric she was a great healer and always by Laralyn’s side. Brudan was another armsman he was also quite good and did an awesome job of protecting our healers. His wife was Miranda was a Paladin she was one of the best I had seen and the melee in the group was always full on endurance when she was around. Nixana was one of our other clerics between her and Frescia we survived a lot of battles that most other groups would have died to. Bleyn, Nixana’s husband was a Cabalist he and his emerald simulacrum would terrorize the enemy with his assortment of dots. Neres was our Ministrel and provided the speed for our outings, he always had some off the wall hilarious comment to keep things lively. Blemsloggle was one of our scouts who was good at providing intel from stealth and launching some really good ambushes. His alternate, which it took me a while to realize they were the same person, was a mercenary and would come to be my competition for the most part. A really fun rivalry that made us both better. Aldaron another ranger who always kept things interesting with his military terms slung around regarding the amount of arrows he had left or the enemy. Mizerath was another one of our clerics and just like the other was damned good. Syenna was our Sorceress and was excellent and hitting groups with a mez that would allow us to cut off all their vital members before they could respond. Zernahk would later replace Neres. We would often duel when I switched to Paladin which prove long and drawn out. Warukah a fire Wizard who could nuke with the best of them. Pelinian which if memory recalls was Warukah's alt, a Friar who could lay down some impressive damage while also healing. Zernahk who would later replace Neres as our main Minstrel.And last but not least Emerical our resident Earth theurgist who provided us with PBT which basically amounted to giving us a nice shield against attacks. And also earth pet spamming extraordinaire.
I could go on and on about stories of RVR and Raiding, and of course dueling yet to spare a hodgepodge of seemingly boring accounts of my most memorable and exciting moments which I doubt would be as such to anyone actually reading this blog I’ll end the DAOC chapter with this; The game was great the mechanics were solid and to this day it was favorite mmo with my fondest memories. Yet it all went to complete and udder shite when through efforts to keep the game fun and fresh they decided to release more content in the form of Trials of Atlantis. Yeah it was neat and all the armor graphics were nice but it awarded such abilities that allowed for one particular class, runemasters, to solo entire groups. So like a decent amount of other I said screw this and went on to a new mmo, Star Wars Galaxies. The friends I made in the core RVR group would prove to be lifelong, for the most part; most of us have met in real life and stay in contact through forums. Forums I might add which we had some excellent RP stories on. I had a fairly decent stint into fan fiction dramatizing our RVR outings. There would be a Dark Prophecy(not sure if I ever said the name of our guild) reunion in World of Warcraft and a brief one in Warhammer Online yet RL the insatiable epic mob would consume us all leaving little time for gaming. I’ll end with a picture of some of the group just before Brudan and Miranda stopped playing to pursue Star Wars Galaxies on a more regular basis.
From left to right; Brudan, Miranda, Emerical, Bleyn, Laralyn, and Nixana.
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