Crisbin was born in Timaran to two half-elven parents who ran a very successful haberdashery. The worksmanship of their products wasn't the highest quality but somehow the two hat-makers were very adept sales- people. In the evenings while the parents made the next day's hats, they would exchange stories and sing songs. Crisbin would sit on the floor sewing random ribbons together and listen to their tales. The stories would tell of great heroes past who accomplished feats of courage and bravery. Crisbin's favorite was about the dwarf warrior Trogm who did not need to rely on a rare sword or shield to vanquish his foes. As Crisbin grew older, he began to invent stories himself. First about Trogm, then about his own future exploits.
Description:
A tall, lithe figure, Crisbin carries himself as if each step might be a punch line. His bright brown eyes reflect the light and shimmer with a quick wit. Two sparkling rows of white teeth flash mischievously behind a pair of thin pinkish lips. His hands are delicate, yet firm. When he speaks, the birds stop to listen.
I'm eager for feedback from the player on how bard PK + cabal was, seeing as how Crisbin was pretty much the first bard to stick it out long enough to make this feedback valid.
You really stuck it out man. There wasn't much left for you to cover. Unfortunate the way this all rippled out, but I'd love to hear your take on your experience.
Crisbin lived through a lot and served well as the 6th Keepermaster. Not to mention first Bard in cabal in a loonnngg time in AR's history!
I let this sit for so long because I deleted with a really bad taste in my mouth and wanted to let that cool off before posting. Some of those things really grind my gears so I'll really just mention what it was like being a bard.
Bards were so weak in 1v1 pvp until the addition of concord hymn. The songs were just too expensive to be worth it. Concord hymn makes them quite viable 1v1 now.
My go-to bard suggestion is that they should at the very least get a one handed shaft weapon. When fighting warrior classes and other rogues, they just get straight up boned by their extremely limited weapon and combat style selection. It might be the most limited in the game. If you sit in defensive style wielding a segment, you will never be disadvantaged against a bard.
Devils dance was quite lethal when it landed and annoyed the hell out of people as well. Dirt was another bard strength and finisher, but with the lag remove it is no longer as effective. Uppercut is far too unreliable as a lag skill to be worth using.
The song selection is great. A lot of tools to use without being overpowering. I tended to play the attrition bard, maximizing AC and using concord hymn to act more like a healer. It would be interesting to see how a pure hit/dam bard would do.
The haggle was fantastic and often allowed me to post a profit at the end of a long gambling session given the variety of Keeper shops.
I won't go into a diatribe on Keepers, but I will say I don't think they have a place in this game; that they are a detriment and should be closed.
With the player base being where it is at, Keepers officially don't have much of a purpose.
As a suggestion,
Remove Keepers, give Warlords the gambled items and stop them from having any magical armor. Let them serve the purpose of balancing if the issue arises.
BTW -
As Tuston, Crisbin - you bastard. As Faelon, Ergorian, you are a bad bad man. I dug you on this character and you always did what you needed to. Good job holmes.
although I will probably never make a keeper again if i play again, been about 1 week and I haven't even logged in so thats not a good sign, but I do feel keepers have a place here. Generally most players make legions because u don't really have to rp more available eq and you can kill who you want without a reason. Usually knights suck, not sure why but Knights seem to attract noobs and then keepers give higher echelon players the opportunity to play without worrying about eq and rare hunting. So basically keepers give legion a purpose when knights aren't doing much. warlords is a difficult cabal for an unskilled player because they will lose a lot and no one wants to log in with a 30% win rate its embarrassing so I think warlords will be more of a stand alone cabal. Maybe your experience was different than mine Ergorion but you seem to have had a few keepers, I always said if Hrimoyan was more involved in the game it would help the cabal tremendously do you agree?
Ergorion certainly has a good point about bards. From what I have seen they are very situational and they do best in group fights. Morgolta was able to destroy Crisbin 1 on 1 before Concord Hymn was added. There's not a whole lot of strategy involved with a bard, honestly... They're definitely a jack of all trades, but a master of none.
But putting aside the game balance factors (which I might discuss again in a new post elsewhere)... Crisbin as a character stuck it out longer than any bard I can think of in the past two years or so. Cen was from before the time bards could PK freely, Khonorhik didn't stick around very long, neither did Rinzy. I can't really remember who all played a bard within the last couple years and who did it before or after they could freely PK, but... None of the Legion bards were ridiculously scary or long-lived, and of course bards can't join Justice...
Crisbin was definitely a good character, so props to Ergorion for sticking with him for as long as he did.
"There's not a whole lot of strategy involved with a bard, honestly..."
I can't take your post seriously when you say something like that. I liked Crisbin, but it seemed to me that the player was dead set on proving bards were weak instead of being creative with his battle strategies and giving himself a chance to win. There are obviously some reasons to give this class a review, but I haven't seen anyone come close to maximizing its potential.
I always had a hard time against crisbin, even with the right spell protection I woujld get him to quite a few then it seems like i stopped doing damage. I am surprised to hear that he didn't do as well as he could have because he always destroyed me.
Did not like this char. A few incidents occured with this bard that left a sour taste in my mouth. Compared to the other Keepermasteres, Crisbin comes in dead last when it comes to how he represented the cabal.. imo
I thought you did a pretty good job on the PK side of things, though.
On Kyrsztak....100+ mental saves and about 85 maledictive saves, you still managed to land all your songs with ease. I have faced shamans with mastered spells that didn't land their shit at all.
Devil's dance was maledictive? I would think that since it made your body do something like dancing unwillingly that it is mental. Like Misdirection/Vertigo.
You had nothing on me at all, Devil's dance annoyed me a little bit, but that was about it. So I'm willing to say that bards kind of suck against ninjas.
I don't think I ever fought Mikoos when I had the hang of bards. I'm pretty sure all our fights were when I was a wet noodle. There was a big difference pre- and post-concord hymn.
I fought Crisbin a lot. He was all about trying to trick and outsmart the other player. Initially, he was no challenge at all. After concord hymns it got a lot harder, and with the mental and wood vuln combined with things like devils dance and black widow it got a lot harder. I normally would just reflex smash all the black widows and finish the fight but there were some really close fights at times. I did die a couple of times to Crisbin, but they were all ganks, filled with devils dance stopping me from effectively escaping. Good show, especially at the end, although the last time we fought was seriously lame. Wonder how many kills you cost me by throwing g yourself at the path haha.
To clarify what I meant by bards not being a whole lot of strategy, I did play one during a brawl once... It seemed like much of what they had was stuff which started outside fights (many, if not most of their songs and skills don't work in the middle of combat), and a limited number of options inside a fight. Dirt kick, uncanny, uppercut, that was about it from what I saw in terms of obvious skills. Lure doesn't work in combat. Lullaby means the player has to be following you (whether lured or otherwise) or in your group. Emancipation only works outside combat. The list probably goes on...
There are a good amount of songs that work in combat. The lag on some of them (vertigo especially) is two rounds which sucks, though there is a way to deal with that.
The main reason I hardly ever used songs like vertigo or paranoia is that their duration is so freaking short. Anyone can run off a 3 tick song in moments. Devil's Dance and weak of mind and body both had slightly longer duration which made them more desirable to use.
Bards definitely require some prep before fighting as well. Birth of Phoenix is dope if you have the time to raise the phoenix well. Some times I was too lazy to bother with it which may have cost some fights.
I honestly thought I did a pretty good job of trying out different bard tactics. By the time I really wanted to try hit/dam with concord hymn I was already down like 7 or 8 con so I had to waste potentially 8 damroll to make up for that but with the attrition bard that con gear wasn't as much a detriment.
Just to make sure we're clear, Keepers are not going away. Just because we have the Warlords back does not mean at all that we are retiring the Keepers. They are a natural fit for the upcoming monks, and later the druids. The lack of equipment on a monk is basically normal and a druid will not be as eq-dependent as warriors and rangers either. Keepers are a little ahead of their time and it is to their detriment that those classes needed to be closed, but I think it would be very short-sighted of us to close up shop before they've been re-opened.
And before anyone says it I know, you are thinking it, we've been saying monks will be back forever and they're not! I have a few other fish to fry, and I am not sure when exactly can I get going on them, thanks to you guys submitting over 300 bugs, but I am working through everything as fast as I can do with sanity intact
Just because monks and Druids will be able to become keepers in the future doesn't change the fundamental fact that keepers as a cabal have a detrimental impact on cabal warfare.
I think Keepers would be useful if there were a higher player base. Right now, I think they don't really serve that much of a purpose as most battles are really just one and one for the most part.
we were just talking among imms about how Crisbin killing Mkatos with lullaby/lure/spiders was one of the sickest burns in the history of AR. I came to the HoE to make sure this guy was in it
[reply to Ergorion]
[reply to uzume]
[reply to beia]
[reply to Nadrin]
[reply to Ozaru]
[reply to Ceridwel]
Crisbin lived through a lot and served well as the 6th Keepermaster. Not to mention first Bard in cabal in a loonnngg time in AR's history!
[reply to Hrimoyan]
You rock, man.
[reply to Nors]
Bards were so weak in 1v1 pvp until the addition of concord hymn. The songs were just too expensive to be worth it. Concord hymn makes them quite viable 1v1 now.
My go-to bard suggestion is that they should at the very least get a one handed shaft weapon. When fighting warrior classes and other rogues, they just get straight up boned by their extremely limited weapon and combat style selection. It might be the most limited in the game. If you sit in defensive style wielding a segment, you will never be disadvantaged against a bard.
Devils dance was quite lethal when it landed and annoyed the hell out of people as well. Dirt was another bard strength and finisher, but with the lag remove it is no longer as effective. Uppercut is far too unreliable as a lag skill to be worth using.
The song selection is great. A lot of tools to use without being overpowering. I tended to play the attrition bard, maximizing AC and using concord hymn to act more like a healer. It would be interesting to see how a pure hit/dam bard would do.
The haggle was fantastic and often allowed me to post a profit at the end of a long gambling session given the variety of Keeper shops.
I won't go into a diatribe on Keepers, but I will say I don't think they have a place in this game; that they are a detriment and should be closed.
[reply to Ergorion]
As a suggestion,
Remove Keepers, give Warlords the gambled items and stop them from having any magical armor. Let them serve the purpose of balancing if the issue arises.
BTW -
As Tuston, Crisbin - you bastard. As Faelon, Ergorian, you are a bad bad man. I dug you on this character and you always did what you needed to. Good job holmes.
[reply to Faelon]
As Mummy,
...seconded. You always did your duty.
[reply to Mummy]
[reply to Ozaru]
[reply to Faelon]
In Battlefield - keeper discussion.
[reply to Faelon]
But putting aside the game balance factors (which I might discuss again in a new post elsewhere)... Crisbin as a character stuck it out longer than any bard I can think of in the past two years or so. Cen was from before the time bards could PK freely, Khonorhik didn't stick around very long, neither did Rinzy. I can't really remember who all played a bard within the last couple years and who did it before or after they could freely PK, but... None of the Legion bards were ridiculously scary or long-lived, and of course bards can't join Justice...
Crisbin was definitely a good character, so props to Ergorion for sticking with him for as long as he did.
[reply to BlackWidow]
I can't take your post seriously when you say something like that. I liked Crisbin, but it seemed to me that the player was dead set on proving bards were weak instead of being creative with his battle strategies and giving himself a chance to win. There are obviously some reasons to give this class a review, but I haven't seen anyone come close to maximizing its potential.
[reply to Olyn]
[reply to Ozaru]
I thought you did a pretty good job on the PK side of things, though.
Good luck with the next
[reply to Xenyar]
[reply to Ergorion]
[reply to Ergorion]
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[reply to Mikoos]
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[reply to BlackWidow]
The main reason I hardly ever used songs like vertigo or paranoia is that their duration is so freaking short. Anyone can run off a 3 tick song in moments. Devil's Dance and weak of mind and body both had slightly longer duration which made them more desirable to use.
Bards definitely require some prep before fighting as well. Birth of Phoenix is dope if you have the time to raise the phoenix well. Some times I was too lazy to bother with it which may have cost some fights.
I honestly thought I did a pretty good job of trying out different bard tactics. By the time I really wanted to try hit/dam with concord hymn I was already down like 7 or 8 con so I had to waste potentially 8 damroll to make up for that but with the attrition bard that con gear wasn't as much a detriment.
[reply to Ergorion]
That said, bards do blow a big one
[reply to Kato]
[reply to Nycticora]
And before anyone says it I know, you are thinking it, we've been saying monks will be back forever and they're not! I have a few other fish to fry, and I am not sure when exactly can I get going on them, thanks to you guys submitting over 300 bugs, but I am working through everything as fast as I can do with sanity intact
[reply to Davairus]
[reply to Ergorion]
I think Keepers would be useful if there were a higher player base. Right now, I think they don't really serve that much of a purpose as most battles are really just one and one for the most part.
[reply to Faelon]
1) Please do not hijack peoples' graveyard posts with negativity totally unrelated to the character and its legacy.
2) If you have complaints about the game, there are specific avenues with which you can use to report them.
3) If you have complaints about the community, you should leave.
4) I will delete your bullsh!t all. Day. Long. from these forums whenever I see it.
Love,
Ceridwel
[reply to Ceridwel]
[reply to Ozaru]
[reply to Ergorion]
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[reply to Kornhole]
[reply to Nycticora]
Ergorion 
0 , 0 , 0 . If we want to mythologize is as just me, I'll take it. Nadrin 0 , 0 , 0 . haha right Nycticora 
0 , 0 , 0 . lullaby/lure/spiders was the difference between kill and no kill and we all know it Nycticora 
0 , 0 , 0 . plus it was just plain RUDE
[reply to Nadrin]