Dear fellows of the 5D business society, I propose to open a PK oriented branch within our honorable guild. I know that some of you already run PK and pvp toons, and that you asked me about it several times and I am curious about your opinions. Up to now, I wasn't sure, if that really fits into our thieving guild, but my mind has changed. Perhaps, you have already read the long discussion about the uneven distribution of risk to tamers and their overpoweredness. Well, this riskless playstyle lead to a situation where 90% of encounters outside on the field and in the dungeons have been with tamers hunting with 2 dragons and 1 mare. You know yourself, that these marks are mostly worth nothing but trouble. You perhaps get a platin coin or some wands, but that's about it. Apart from big events like champ spawns, harrowers or holiday events, there aren't many worthy marks out there in dungeons and hot spots. Everybody is hauling masses of gold (which cant be stolen effectively) in and risking nothing. That was all fine with me, until recently people started to use second and third accounts, calling in their reds and trackers to hunt me when doing a successful steal. In the last two days, I had several such very lame encounters, even with RP toons from known RP guilds calling in their reds disregarding any RP conventions. On the other side, if you stalked out of town enough, you probably exactly know where tamers are farming what and with which tactic. You know their recall spots and their weaknesses. This is why I propose, to open up a PK branch. Let's use this knowledge for precise strikes. Let's bring back some Felucca to this shard. I propose that you still use your thieves and search for marks, but any time you encounter a tamer or other type of power gold farmer (3-client users for example) out there, use our network, call in the others, and let's stomp these suckers. We have the intelligence, but no way to harvest that knowledge. I propose, we change that now. Because, to be honest, I sense your frustration about the thieving situation right now (I have the feeling there aren't many active thieves left... and even fewer enjoying that gameplay), and we should change something about it. Apart from that, we would also be able to attend IDOCs with some force behind us. I remember several occasions where we really would have needed some firepower. I want to know your opinions. What do you think? If you guys are against it, that's no problem. Then I will create another guild or hand out ass whippings solo. But I think, all that knowledge and scouting within our guild can be put to pretty good use here.
Oh one more crucial detail: I don't propose to use the same worn-out PK template any PK guild is using. This way, you could simply join other PKs. My suggestion is to use alternative but still very effective PK templates with stealth, poison dexxing and certain roguish magery tactics I won't explain yet. Or even utilize stealing via the mugger template, meaning, that you provoke being attacked first by stealing e.g. crucial pvp or escape regs, and then crushing your enemy in retaliation. But these details are certainly open to discussion.
I like your ideas, especially about using alternative PK templates. The stealth poison dexxer sounds especially interesting to me. For members of the guild who have no experience in PKing (like me), would you be willing to help train us a bit or would that take up too much time and/or money? I want to join your crusade but I'm also definitely going to need some pointers.
Finally! Moses, lead us to the promise land! I want in. I don't have a lot of resources but i have a stun mage, mugger, and a ton of thieve/tracker characters. And a thirst for red hot tamer blood
I'm in 100%. I was making a new rogue anyway, and could use some direction in his template. Stealth poisoner seems good to me Regarding templates, if you want to keep with the theme of "alternative" templates, you could consider requiring templates to have 2 (or other #) rogue skills. And Alice, I'd be happy to practice with you anytime. I have mages/dexxers I can use depending on your preference.
I'm starting a char that fits this branch perfectly. I'll contact you in few days, when his skills are up. P.S. Considering the enthusiasm I see here I hope there will be enough potential victims left.
Okay, more than two weeks have passed and I only heard possitive opinions considering this suggestion! Some were even that enthusiastic that I fear a bit, that the thief side of 5D might come short due to high activity of the enforcer branch. Anyway, I talked with some of you guys in private and here are the results: 1. 5D will form a PvP/PK branch known as enforcers. I will mark these members with the respective guild titles. 2. In order to prevent 5D to become a standard PK guild with everyday mounted mage PKs, enforcers have to have stealth skills. That means Hide and Stealth are a must. We will form a stealth squad of Assassins and strike undetected from the shadows. The other skill points can be distributed according to your game style. I suggest Fencer/Poisoners, nox mages, archers, and standard eval mages. But in principle even cooks and beggars are welcome, as long as they can throw purple pots and spam wands. I wont exclude people that want to have fun as long as they are stealthers. 3. The idea is to use our thieves as scouts. Get out of the cities with your thieves. Mark safe recall spots and track players. That's how I find people to steal stuff from. And as I mentioned already, right now 95% of players you find are dragon/mare tamers. I'd say these are our primary marks, because they run with minimal loot, nearly have no risk, and the most worthwhile stuff is their collected gold pile, which we will take from their cold corpses. Dexxers can be dealt with the thief way IMO, and I have some respect for the few PvM dexxers out there. 4. I hope we are also able to attend some IDOCs. There is already an offer to join a new IDOC force with our group and I hope, once we are a bit more established and got our toons ready, we try that out too. How to proceed from now on: So, gents, let's get it rolling. PM me which of your enforcer toons needs to join 5D and I will try to get you on the stone as soon as possible. If you already have enforcer toons in the guild, just tell me your names and templates and I will provide some guild titles to these toons. Additionally, I will set up a rune library for 5D with all important spots. It will take a while, and will probably be functional after the upcoming Scavenger hunt on the first September. I hope this will be a good foundation to start thieving tours and meet with your fellow enforcers. I already picked one of my houses for that purpose. It is one screen away from a moongate and should be perfect for the job (I hope). PS: Somebody mentioned that it would be cool to have a uniform enforcer look. Any suggeestions on that? Just post some pictures if you have ideas. Perhaps the shadow colored (hue 1175) clothes of the Grand Visor of Chaos? Tunics, skirts, boots are staying above armor. Or some of the other BOD cloth colors. I always liked the deep purple of hue 1158. Well, that's just a detail.
I was gone for a while after this started. Any activity on this front? If a decision uniforms are all the are holding us back, I am personally partial to bone helmets and gloves (although bone armor can cause trouble with stealthing) )
Okay people. The whole idea didn't take off back then. I hoped for people to organize some groups and have some fun together killing tamers. And then, the tamer problem was a bit solved by re-activation of skill loss to tames. Still, everywhere I go, there are tamers. So let's kick some dragon poopers. If anybody is still interested in this, I am heading full force into that branch now. Join #5D in IRC and let's do some stealth ninja runs soon!
