Fencer Archive

Yesterday I had some of the most fun I've had in my nine months in this game. Played a cool gig in Eisley cantina (current template: Blademaster/Master Entertainer - mandoviol for teh win), went on a giant sand beetle hunt (carnage), started working my way up polearms (quite a shock after being speed capped since May) and of course I did what fencers do best: dueled.

First up an overt reb lurking around the med centre. It was a surprise not to see him red, as he was a member of a guild (recently disbanded) that was warring us. I'm not sure what his template was, as he was wearing a Combat Medic tag, carrying a scythe and shouting that he could train Master Brawler. Buffed but not armoured versus me, unbuffed (but with my synthsteak and vagnerian) in my Tusken suit.

This was a good fight. He slapped a poison and a knockdown on me but I was able to get back up, warcry and heal. I then dropped all the states and went to work with my vibrobutterkife. He then warcried and healed himself. I did the same and we're back to where we started. This time, though, I managed to land the lunge and he was still dizzy and unable to get back up. Scatter shiak for incap with all three bars white.

Later, after poking some womp rats for polearms XP, I hooked up with my Master Carbineer guildmate, all buffed up and ready for action. I wanted to try out my new /polearmStun1 attack so we dueled. After a while he got bored of watching me standing there tickling him every five seconds and put me straight down. I got back up, healed, switched to my gaffi, dizzy, lunge, cho mok, cho mok, cho mok. Incapped.

While all this was going on my gurrcat was licking its paws 25m or so away. Suddenly he decided to come and join the fight. As soon as my guildmate got back up he starting attacking the cat. This upset me and I had to dizzy/lunge him a second time. He got up and muttered something about going one-on-one without pets so we dueled again. Same story: dizzy, lunge and beat through the buffs. Only one problem: it was his third incap. Oops.

Next fight was with a random newbie who joined our group to get polearms training. All buffed up in his wookiee fur. We prodded each other with our sticks for a bit before it became clear that I couldn't get through his buffs with my LVA and I had to heal myself. "Hey no healing," he cried. Then "I win, I win" as I did it again. Now I'll agree to any rules you like before a fight begins but it dismays me when people try to change them in the middle of a bout. I switched to my stun baton and started beating some manners into him. Afterwards he proclaimed that he had "rocked [me] three times" and was the real winner. We agreed to duel again with no heals. Of course I won easily. Blademaster against polearms 2 is hardly a fair fight but the important thing was that it was a lot of fun. And he needs to learn what it's like to be unable to stand up sooner or later.

After that we were bumming around for a bit when another imperial chap shows up. Again I don't know the template but he had spitting rawl so I assume TKM plus other stuff. "Hey furry, friendly duel?" he proposed. I accepted and selected my vibroblade to try to work through his composite and buffs without nuking my own HAM. I had to be especially careful in my tux, which doesn't have any BE bonuses.

I basically couldn't land anything on him whereas he was able to dizzy me and knock me down. Luckily I was able to get up and drink some brandy. Warcry, heal, switch to stun baton. This was more like it. I was immediately able to land the dizzy and lunge and he never got back up. I couldn't do anything against the health buffs so I spammed scatter shiak, mixing in a dizzy every so often to keep him down. I finally mind incapped him with all my HAM bars pretty low. Rather than heal myself I started typing /endduel, at which point he force of willed back up and knocked me over. I suppose the smart thing would have been to continue typing but what I actually did was bash the escape key to get out of chat and try to hit my heal key. No such luck. I was out for the count and then amazingly he dealt the deathblow. So much for a "friendly" fight.

I lay there for ten minutes while my pals rustled up a doctor to revive me. As the chap meditated the passersby made it plain what they thought of his conduct.

We had some other ad hoc fights going on but those were the most memorable. Although all I "achieved" in six hours' play was harvesting 2k of meat and getting some Novice Brawler boxes, the duels were a huge amount of fun. Which is what the game is about right?