So I am writing this post early because I've had a good week so far and just reached -6 qp to rank. A big thanks goes to all of the northern pkers ive been with over this timespan. Trik and Corath specifically who have selflessly tossed scalps my way when they could of used. Now there have been plenty of people who have been generous but I felt I've gotten the most support from these 2. I also want to thank Alayla and my clanmates for pushing me to actually do this.

Now I know I still have to wait for the imms to rank me or quest me but just reaching this goal is great. The thing is I never really cared before I started this journey and the more I thought about the goal the more I wanted it. I read over my beginning posts and it reminds me of how much fun it was to start pking all the time. The rush of back and forth action and now I appreciate the pk that lasts hours of each side winning then losing then winning back. 

I really can't wait to get the flag and be able to use a mob for fun and whatever!! I will probably write one last post once I get ranked up so until then I will be finishing off some smob information and pk locations terms.

Upon looking back at my last weeks performance I can't help but get it into my head that I can do that again and just knock this out in one more week. I feel like I have been on this journey for a long time now. 14 weeks now, that what 3.5 months....sheesh. So the week actually started off like gangbusters. Corath and I spent most of the day Monday taking care of business. 4 scalps the first day. Things are looking up for the rest of the week. Tuesday I didnt get to pk much but got lucky and was able to take home a head. And then the rest of the week was sort of up and down. The pk swings are rough if you arent used to them. So anyway, I believe Monday and Tuesday were death free. Weds thru Friday I think I had 5 deaths and the common denominator for all of them was horsebashing. In fact I have started keeping track of how I die and 10 of my last 11 deaths involved a horse bash to me in some manner. Thats crazy right? The thing is, I dont remember getting horse bashed at all the first 10 weeks and now the last few is rampant.

Anyway, its a feature of the game so you roll with the punches. If I let it get under my skin I will just angrier and angrier and that not how I am. Alayla tossed out a theory that DS is horsebashing me on purpose cause they know it annoys me...I chuckled at this but who knows.

End of the week tally is I am 58 tnr and started 88 tnr so 30 qps this week. Not bad, compared to last week sucky but above average for me the first 11 weeks.

We will see how next week pans out. My question now is how long am I going to have to wait once I reach master qps. Should I mail them now since its pretty much going to happen in the next 3-4 weeks? 

I dont know. Any masters out there wanna mudmail me the procedure once you reach master qps?

2n - stands for 2 north of Fal Dara

4e -  stand for 4 east of 2n

campsite -  is 2n2e all north of Fal Dara. Usually where Kajin is around

pit - Stand for pit trap which is 2 west 3 north of campsite

Tower -  usually stands for the Lightside tower all north of Burnt

Burnt - this is located 2 north, 2 west, 2 north, 1 west of Fal Dara

6w -  stand for the choke thats 6 west from Burnt

Neon - is the choke all east 1 north of 2n

Commy - stand for the the light side support in watchtower which is 4 east, 2 north, 1 up of neon

S ancient -  stands for light side support (1 ancient) all east of neon

S shiv - stands for dark side support (1 shivering) 2 north 1 east of commy entrance

choke - this choke is winding and is all east, all north, all east, 3 north from commy entrance

N shiv - dark side support (1 shivering) 2 north all east of choke

N ancient -  light side support (1 ancient) all north, all west, all north of choke

Split - this choke is 1 east, 1 north, 2 east from N ancient

ASAW - this choke is 1 north of split or all south all west Gap

MT - this choke is all east 4 north of asaw

Bush - this choke is 2 north of MT

OTG - this choke is 7 north of Bush

PTG - this choke is 9 north of bush or 2 east, 2 south of Orch Ent

Orch ent -  this choke is 2 north 2 west of PTG or 4 south of Downer

Downer - this is a room that is 4 north of Orch ent

shoulder - this room is all north all east 1 north downer

culhook - this is a group of rooms in a zig zag formation starting 2 south of shoulder and continuing until you reach 1 south 1 east of downer

neck - this choke is 1 west and 1 north of shoulder

allw elbow (hand?) - this room is all west from elbow or 1 north 1 west 1 north from neck

Rock - 3 west from elbow or 2 east from all west elbow

elbow - This room is all west all south from gatekeep

rottendoor - This room is in stedding and loads AS pair some boots. Is 1d,1n,2w,1u,3n,all east downer or 1n,1e,3s,all e sted heart

well - this room is in orchard and is 4 west, 1 south from orch ent in blight

X or Xroads - this room is 1 south, 2 west from well or 6 west 2 south from orch ent in blight

Moldy - This room is 5 south from X or 1e,3n,2w,7n from DF choke

DF choke - this room is all N, all W, all N, 1s,1e Shady or All E, all N, 1s,1e from camp ent

camp - Camp entrance is located all N, all E, 1 N, 5 west from shady

Rolling - This room is 1 West of Shady or 7 west from 6w

Shady - this room is 6 west from 6w

Sward - This room is 5 S, 2 west from 6w or 1N, 1E, 1N from 2n stout

2n stout -  This location is 1S,1W,1S from sward and 1E,1S,1E from fd fade

fd fade - This room is 1w,1n,1w of 2n stout

Dog - this stands for the western gate of Fal Dara

Malk -  this stands for the Northern gate of Fal Dara

 I went into this week determined to make up for last weeks performance. The added effort sure paid off. Monday started off well, ended up killing 2-3 with Petra which netted me 2 heads and then later that day got another 2 scalps. Actually all week was very good to me pk wise. I think I got 2-3 heads/scalps everyday. I had a few really close calls and some just complete flukey kills. Heck just today I was pking Turg 1v1 dusty. It was a blast, he started beating me staight up so I found a mob or 2 which then got him low which he then found the new mobs winding. I hit him, he hit me we were both beat/crit. The some of his buddies showed up to finish the job and I was able to get into FD with 8hps, Turg then came right in after me and rip I think to gate defenses :( Felt bad about the way that ended but he knew the risks of coming in.

Something else i want to mention is the increased amount of horse bashing I am seeing. Heck just today I got stuck in a horse bash loop twice in two seperate pk session with different people. This has also happened to me maybe 3 other times this week. 5 times in 1 week seems high to me even with me pking more. I guess its a valid tactic, I mean, anything to kill the other races? I just know that a few times pking vs fades and dls if the shadow was targeted they would bellow basically "If you target my horse again I am leaving." So its ok for DS to bash target our horses with no other escape hatch (fading/porting) but we cant do it? Seem somewhat hypocritical but I guess thats just life on the mud sometimes. My last 3 rips have actually been to horse bash.....

All that being said it was a good week. Started at 158 tnr and am now 88 tnr. I hope this good luck streak continues until I reach my goal.

Stay tuned for next weeks progress.

So after the previous week of hitting my goal of 30 qps I was pretty optimistic going into this week. I wasnt too busy on Monday so I got to play a bunch. It was actually pretty fun! I think I had a good 3.5 hrs of steady pk...back and forth with barely anyone ripping. The only people that actually rip'd were on LS so no chance at scalps. Zangief had DS pretty organized and kept the troops in order.

Tuesday was just awful. On 2 seperate occasions Id cleared blight except for patty, hang around Orchard, Stedding, SG north of keep but could never get the 2-3 DS that were around to fight....even at their patties. It was horrible, just horrible. On the 2nd occasion it was me and 3 other blight with 2-3 not willing to fight at patties. 2 LS went into keep to stir things up and the trolls didnt even really chase inside. The gates locked so myself and another ran backdoor to help the other 2 get out. They finally made it to the back entrance with a trolloc in tow. We downed the trolloc fairly easy as he dl'd back into the group of us 2x. But this was really the only actual "fighting" we had in over 2 hours. It was mind numbing and I was done with it, the group gave me the scalp and we started heading back. I got to orchard entrance when I was asked to help pop sk real quick since DS doesnt want to fight and we killed the only active DS'r there was. Sk died quickly and I left the 2 people at the smob wanting to end this horrible pk attempt. I started running west from RC and ran into a group of 4 trollocs and a fade. Where the hell did these guys come from?

I quickly narrate on....group w/ fade. I had not mounted back on my horse yet so when I fled I left her behind. East flee, of course. I knew my 2 buds were coming fairly quickly behind me so decided to try and grab the horse(i didnt have a vial and was sort of low personal mvs already.) I got back to room but couldnt get on horse, flee again, west this time. I could run this time but I dont think id even make stedding with the moves I have. I will have to get my horse. I head back east and am able to mount the horse but where are my friends. They should be at least here by now. I get bashed...pain train coming. I flee and get an east flee again. I wait in this room so that I can dl past choke room. Flee once hit and the dl didnt work. Somehow I was 1s of choke, wait to get engaged to flee past choke again...Problem is I got bashed from flee lag....where the hell are my friends. I am barely alive and get my flee but getting bashed messed my spams up and I got engaged at choke. I watched time tic away and them my friends run past room and see narrate to come west(dont you think im trying?)

Anyway I get bashed again and rip. It was all very very frustrating. From being bored out of my mind for almost 2 hrs trying to start pk to basically getting "ganked" and riping in around 1 minute. I was seriously pissed. I lost my kit(which was my last one), I lost the scalp and I was fairly mad at my friends. I mean not 5 minutes earlier I was going to rent being 3 qps higher and still kitted. The swings on this game are just brutal. I couldnt even look back over the log of it as I quit out and closed zmud before I sent one of my friends a mean tell that would of been more or less a tempter tantrum.

The thing is I wasnt really even mad at them. I was mad at DS for basically not pking or doing anything for 2 hrs and then a fade logs on and 4 trollocs NOW decide they can pk...such bullshit.

Wednesday was more bad luck for me, Zangief was back and just plain tought to pk against with Malf. I did have some fun with Zeeb some in camp but a DS group materialized again and I headed out before I got smashed.

The rest of the week was just crap. DS had numbers and Zangief spurring them on! I usually logged on right after some decent pk happened and got caught a few times when attempting to stay in low.

All in all a crappy week. I think 4-5 rips, cruddy pk, tons of gear and the only qps I got for the week were completing the Hawking statue quest. I sure hope next week is better. Started 168 tnr and am now 158 tnr.

       So after reading Alora's post on the normal forums it made me think about what I think is "fair" in a situation like this. I can see where Alora is complaining however had it actually not been Alora in this situation I think it would of gone down differently. I think the fact that Alora is a known eq hoarder and character trader plays into what happened greatly.

I know I have personally been in dozens and dozens of rare/unique equipment kills and almost all of them were split in the manner that I considered the proper way. For me no matter who loots the equipment or scalps the corpse the leader of the group or the main leaders of the battle decide who gets what. They take charge of the battle they should decide the spoils. Often times they dont care but its still on them to divy it out or lotto or whatever they choose really. The reason for this usually breaks down to if I think the leader did well and was fair in the scalps/equipment I will always follow them again in battle. If I felt jipped or left out, I will say so and not follow them anymore. 

Of course I usually give people second chances hence why I still follow Brendan and Alts in battle eventhough I think I rip 80% of the time when doing so. But for me its clear, the leader should decide. Fair or unfair its their decision.

So finally back from my work trips and kids soccer tournaments and various other things that keep me busy. So started my pking again. I switched back to combo as I was just getting destroyed in abs. I mean I did ok but there is such a huge different between the 2 setups its unreal. So now im combo and able to stay in fights a lot longer and dodge a bash here and there and generally be annoying to others from time to time.

Its fun to play because in my opinion I can be more risky and thats the fun of it. You can chase solo and even if you get hit with a few and eat a bash you can usually survive. Anyway, Monday and Tuesday went fairly well and I managed to get a couple scalps those days. Didnt play much on wednesday. Thursday was very frustrating for me because of 2 rips I had. 1 to ss and 1 to ds.

The SS rip I really just blame myself. My inner dialogue even told me it was a bad idea but I stuck around and died because of. Basically the senario was. 4 LS vs 4 SS+mob. LS lost and pretty much the entire group of ls died. I got away luckily and ran past wagon on accident(overspammed by 2) I went back but was blocked. Fled off and looped around quarry up to Baerlon. Got into Baerlon no problem. Horsed hagg'd on the way but I remounted a few rooms away. As I sat in Baerlon I think to myself "what the hell am I doing, they can easily come in and kill me trapped in here." So after 2 tics I decide yes leaving is a good idea, but i decided to late. They all came into baerlon and well, end of story.

The DS rip later that day was very frustrating on many levels. Basically was sitting ragan allowing the other pkers to have fun hoping more would show. But the ds didnt leave patty and when they did it was to go inside. So I started clearing blight while a couple ls went into RK to find the trollocs. One of the trollocs locked the gate which means we either need another key or the LS had to run out back entrance. So I run back entrance with another LS person and wait to see if the others make it. Finally they both make it and the one trolloc who was actively chasing them unluckily ran into us and died in short order. We ran back 1w GK and sat a few with nobody coming out. This PK session has lasted approx 45 mins now with really nothing materializing and the only trolloc I really ran into just got unlucky. So time to go, as we are leaving one of our members says...hey lets pop sk since the only pking trolloc just rip. I hesitated cause I had the scalp and usually run straight in cause I tend to rip with scalps on me.(I think maybe 40qps now lost that way since ive started) But knowing how the last 45 minutes have gone and how easy sk is i said yes. SK was a breeze btw. I tell the 2 LS left later enjoy the smob eq and head off and run right into a DS group of 4 with one being  a fade.

I ran into them right after the dismount room so when they engaged me I wasnt mounted and knew i was in trouble. I narrated on....group! Thinking my 2 LS people would pop in quick, I could flee off and mount and we can PK at last. I got bashed...with 4 on me, in combo it hurt some. I fled off and tried to dl reenter to ride my horse. Got engaged...ugh. I flee off again and got a west flee I am out if i spam west but the problem is...im at strong mvs now w/ no vial and horseless. I wont even make stedding. I had to go back for the horse and I was thinking by this time my people would be on. So I enter 3 east commands and run through room towing my horse along and ride...yes! So where are the other 2. At this time I get engaged by the group, I think I think I narrate something like "quick or where are you" get a flee to square and this is where the weird part happened.

I know from square I have 3 bad flees so I engaed there and then all the sudden im 1s square. Thats actually the room I want to be in but I didnt hit flee. I always keep my auto at 0 so im a bit confused here, I eat another bash. I flee and dl to west to get past square but somehow im back on square before it looks like the flee goes through and im 1s square again and get a you cant go that way message. Only 1 on me and i flee and then see my 2 people wiz by. I narrate dont leave me but my pleas are too late, they got past and were in safer lands already. I ate a final bash and it was over.

Very frustrating way to go. From waiting near 50 minutes for something to happen and nothing, planning on just going home  to helping a friend real quick to beat down in what was like 45 seconds. I think the upsetting part of it was I dont mind ripping at all when I am actively looking for pk and taking risks but i had already checked out and planning on renting and then rip suddenly is just ugh...it tears your heart out.

Anyway long post this week, was fairly succesful as I gave myself a quota this week and aang kindly gave me the last scalp today to help me reach it. Started the week at 199 and am now at 168 to master. Lets hope next has less frustration and more scalps :)

So not much has happened the last 2 weeks. I was out of town for most of it for work so not a lot got done. This week is shaping up to be the same though with catchup time with work. Ill try and sneak on a few times and get my tnr to under 200. I think I am sitting at 206 tnr now. My qp output has really taken a dive the last few weeks. Need to work on that.

Sorry for the boring post, just updating you all on my progress.

On a side note Mythras has something working on the downlow so you all can be excited that something is in the works. I wont say anymore then that until things get finalized. Also I was happy to see almost 50 people online today which was a nice change from the previous weeks. Keep promoting everyone and vote on top mud sites.

So I log on this morning to a tell of "wanna hit Moridin, only dser just got killed."

So this is such a loaded question but that being said I agreed to go. Why not right? well...I did rip last 2 times ive tried so not a good track record. Anyway, fast forward 15 minutes of getting a group and then fast forward us walking up without getting flocked/ravened or ratted. So we are at the gatesofnight trying to gameplan this out. 

boom - the gates are picked

we make a mad dash in - 2 mobs, and 6 pcs. We are past the gates....we come upon the well instantly "Dreaguard says - your my bitch!!!!" The leader commands us all to flee and regroup, we just werent prepared for this. Funny thing is we regroup and I notice a few things missing. We are now minus 1 pc and 2 mobs. UGH!!

So we are just rooms away from Shadar deciding what the plan is and licking our wounds. Baal walks on by...oh shiz...now its going to be interesting. We stand up and make for the gates, we need to hurry. We made it...the 3 we lost will be remembered. *holds 3 fingers to the sky*

So now what? We still have a group lets do something. We ponder smobs we can hit in the north and one of our group suggest we take this party west. So we do. We take on the stronghold with reckless abandon and slay dreadguards and trollocs and fades. It was a bloody mess. And then we say him....Maeltor...one big mothertrucker of a fade. I have to admit I was a little worried but we flung ourselves at him and dispatched him with more ease then I figured we would.

We have slain the beast and need to get out of the stronghold before the hoards figure out whats going on and throw themselves at us. We have been made, they know we are in here. I swear I can hear the cackles from outside the gates running towards us. Luckily our leader kept his cool and setup a trap inside the gates themselves for one unlucky trolloc. He died with barely a fight in him. We then left and reeq'd our fallen. Overall it was a failed mission turned around. It was fun and I am glad I finally made it home after a Moridin attempt.

I really couldnt find too much time to PK this week but I did happen across a few scalps. Pking with people who dont need the scalps really helps but with all the new BGS and Gaidin around during my time it can be trying. Nothing too much to report this last week. PK'd some, smob'd some, worked on some game mechanics. The usual. Since I dont usually mention names Id like to mention a few people I have pk'd with recently that I think really have the right way of it. First off Corath, Theid, Zappa and Hackett all lead in battle and try to take care of group. They often get kills but taking care of their team is usually first. They are often very generous in the divy of loot as well. My thanks. I also want to mention Brendan who I usually end up pking with and I usually die with but when I dont he is generous as well and usually trys to help get some eq back.

Some honorable mentions should be Varina, Meidien, Sorana, Elyse. All of these people give in one way or another in PK without asking for anything in return normally. 

Anyway, am currently at 219 to next rank. Lets see if I can get something going this week since next week I will be in Charlotte and Raleigh NC.