A big triple decker sandwich of an update! Yum!

So as you all know I have taken a renewed interest in the Arena and PvP. Well I am happy to inform you all that I've been teaming up with the Unholy Trio which consists of Sabrina Frostshard; The Master of Ymir and the only woman to have thoroughly thawed my heart like a chicken in the sink. The soft spoken Southern Belle Autumn Fireblade whose quirky charming ways leaves her opponents dazzled before they feel the burn! Of course we can't forget my tia Cassandra Dragonheart; "The Queen of D!" Woman wonder! the Healer with a fiery passion! and me the tasty lovable blueberry stud muffin that I guess is the glue that keeps us all stuck together like a fly to a flytrap! :D

All my horrible descriptions aside we have been having so much fun doing Practice PvP matches getting up our team's confidence individually and as a team! We were confident enough to go to ranked for the first time ever as a team and we won our match! Sadly however, we lost our second one but do not fret my children for I have seen the light. The light is us building up more confidence especially for Autumn (A.K.A. Lady Blade) and Sabrina (A.K.A my sweetheart Alura). Now after Cass and Autumn (So hard to not just say Heather hehe) went to bed me and Sabrina decided to do our own "NightOwl" edition of PvP we fought some good teams and only had one bad apple or as my tia calls them "Arena Trolls".  Speaking of while we PvPed I got the chat with these fine ladies and it was so fun to banter back and forth and Cass giving tips I even noticed Autumn got into calling me Tio. You should hear it it's so cute hehehe.

I don't remember cause by the time I went off to bed it was already morning but I do believe we didn't lose a single match as a Balance/Ice duo. We Coordinated through the telephone and I must say I believe last night we were in sync the only team that had us on our knees was a Double Balance team but we eventually prevailed. All in all both me and Sabrina made PvP Veteran and I passed the 400 Arena Ticket mark.

Sabrina might say she is only doing this for the pets but I strongly disagree she had a spark a moment I believed she felt comfortable in her environment I asked her as well and she openly admitted she felt "secure" as Sabrina. I told her it was all about confidence overall that she needed and she did strut in her own ability to win the match.

I myself am more comfortable with my own skills and I am coming into my own play style which is defensive (Shields and Debuffs) and Small attacks. I utilize my new play style today against a Veteran Sorcerer as well
Removing debuffs from myself while shielding and doing small amounts of damage. He in the end Judged me after he had put up a feint on me but thankfully I have 30% resist to Balance and he wasn't able to take me out. I subsequently Healed with a Helping hands that hit for a Critical then a Critical Sprite the following turn. By turn 3 after the judge any damage he had done was healed off.

Pips wasted and open to attack I judged him back no blades no traps only Gargan for 2,704 to get me the win. He was a kind person and even asked me advice. apparently he and a other likes Timothy Lighttalon at our 2 v.s. 2 matches thought I was a PvP Warlord. I am not it's taken me months of practice PvP before I truly became confident in myself and in turn try to help my friends be confident.

As far as pets go your pet loving Sorcerer has put them on halt for the time being. I haven't lost interest just at the present moment crafting, farming, and PvP have taken up a considerable amount of my time. I do have good news though I recently hatched a new Nightwalker (1) pet my 6th-7th one. It's parents both have Pain giver and my Nightwalker had Health gift but check out it's mother's stats pretty sweet huh? I will train up to Adult to see if I can pass down talents.

As for crafting I have been a busy dog and for hmm 3-4 days I've completed the required crafted items for the Celestian Observatory! Yay me! I have already begun to gather more reagents and craft more items for the house itself. All that I need now is faster cool down times and more gold hehe.

As for my recent post only being about PvP I apologize I haven't got any complaints yet but I do know quite a few of y'all like my Lore posts about various creatures in the Spiral and I promise to make another soon I was thinking of Ravens but of course I'll write about anything you guys would have suggested to me.

Until next time your friend,
Alric Ravensinger

The Arena: PvP -Should I use this? Please don't call me that!

So recently I made a post about my initial views on PvP or Player versus Player and how they have ultimately changed over the months. This post however was inspired by a friend's comment on that previous post y'all know her as Paige MoonShade. Here is what she posted. 

 I know exactly was Paige is talking about in fact it's what deterred me away from PvP in the first place -- bad sportsmanship. Now I know sometimes people get in the moment it's only natural and we are flawed however intentional slandering is quite common in the Arena.Which why it makes people stray away from it. I am here to say like many other before me this isn't what PvP is about there are good people like Diana Wildheart, Kevin Battleblood, Fallon, and Cassandra Dragonheart who are gems they are great practitioners of good sportsmanship and even have provided advice for teams whether they have lost or won.

 They though do not tolerate bad sportsmanship from other players who bash I've witnessed this first hand and it's unfortunate to see people actual people bhave in such a manner. A prime example was the recent Arena commentary party at Sir Winterbreeze's house the attitude was extremely potent with negativity and many people were booted I myself during a match had a nasty Life wizard who was just utterly rude.

  This also brings me to another point of Paige's comment I have seen people bash others for using certain spells. There is no set way to play PvP nor should there be a set way it takes away from the the fun of it all to adapt and overcome a player or team with strategy and teamwork. Yes I would say using a bolt to break storm shields is an effective way but you might ALSO use a Lightning bats spell despite one saying oh you use that you noob the point is it's the way of the game, a person's style, and shouldn't be frowned at. But we use certain spells cause they give us a certain advantage and that's never a bad thing.

   I myself usually don't pack many Ras or Judgements cause I rather use smaller attacks or I can use my Power Nova with hits for a modest 782 damage without blades and further helps my team by casting weakness. I had a person whisper to me that I shouldn't be using Nova cause Ra is better. yes Ra does do significant damage and can be Gargantuan however it's not just about me hitting the other team hard. It's also about supporting my team anyway I can say a teammate has only 1,200 life left I would Ra do nice damage but kill no one and a opposing player hits my teammate with a Storm Lord for 1300 damage (No blades). My friend is now knocked out and no longer can help his teammates and further cripples us. Now if I had cast a Nova I can bet he would of survived and been able to heal himself or further support while a player healed us.

 Now the rank business I can care less as well it makes no difference no Warlord ever became one by winning every battle. If you look at any player there will be loses all the time. It doesn't mean you are any worse cause your only a Commander or Knight. It just means they have fought and played more to get that rank. Don't get me wrong every Warlord out there deserves their rank it shows they lost and overcame many battles but don't for a second think your too good. I've seen a few PvP matches where a Veteran or Sergeant took out a Warlord with ease.

 Just keep in mind wizards like Paige said people exist on the other side of those avatars. Everyone has there way to play the game let them do it and who knows YOU might learn something.

Until next time your friend,
Alric Ravensinger

                  

The Arena: PvP - Before and After.

Honestly 6 months ago I wouldn't of even dared to post anything whatsoever about PvP. Shockingly mostly to myself I find that oh man look I am. My initial PvP experiences weren't in the least bit positive for me I lost more matches than I won and higher ranks then and now would gloat, foul mouth, and over all be big jerks. It seems like for most people when your winning your code of conduct or morals towards other peoples goes out the door. However I found there is a silver lining to this Pvp stuff and my attitude towards it as a whole as vastly changed.

So before I had met my dearest Cassandra Dragonheart, Alura Hexcaster, and Kevin Battleblood I had been a Grandmaster for some time I had already grown a hatred towards the activity for the simple fact of poor manners. I won't lie to you now and say I'm some sort of saint I am far from it however there is a time and place for everything besides this was a kid's game. It seemed however that these people lacked any sort of conduct to maintain while in the Arena and I hate to put you Warlords on the spot but it was mostly you and Commanders who gave me most grief.

As time passed I met Cassandra and Alura both you I might add hated PvP as much as I did and for the exact same reasons. I admit I was happy to share my disdain with others about them sadly I now regret my original hate. I was content hanging out in the Spiral with my friends and Mercenaries as it seemed none of them Pvped I feft like I was at home with the haters. However, I had at this time already became friends with my bro Kevin Battleblood and Missy A.K.A Scarlet Deathblood. Kevin tried to show me you can't judge a book by it's cover. I being me though although it "lightened" my mood about it was too stubborn to allow reason into my silly head.

Then next thing I know Cassandra Dragonheart is Pvping and loving it. I was in utter shock and although I wouldn't admit it then it put a strain in our relationship as close friends cause I felt sort of a betrayal but again it was me being stubborn and readers I'll have you know this ridiculous stubbornness lasted months where I'd only see Cass every once in awhile or at Merc events. I also didn't like her friend Nathaniel Earthweaver for the same reasons and cause quite honestly I felt put aside cause I didn't Pvp.

Months passed again and Cassandra, Missy, and Kevin slowly eased me into an acceptance of Pvp with Cassandra leading the "team". I admit I was extremely scared. At a snail's pace Cass showed me how enjoyable PvP could be while Kevin showed me basic strategies and sort of guidelines for Pvp I have them here as I remember them.

• Nothing in Pvp is set. Ways to play are always changing like how people change and adapt.
• Just because you lose doesn't mean that your any worse than your opponent and likewise it doesn't mean he is better than you.
• All in all it's suppose to be fun; go into the arena to have fun and leave the arena having had fun.
• Be respectful don't knock or berate people cause they use Treasures or your losing etc.

I try to go into the arena as such although I am not a perfect human being and sometimes I get caught in the moment and winning over fun overrides and it will frustrate me when I lose.

One main thing I have taken from PvP is the importance of Teamwork and Coordination. I being a sorcerer know all about this and have witnessed as very recently as at last night's Pvp party that a team that doesn't coordinate and have teamwork utterly fails. As a sorcerer I am extremely versatile and can easily switch from attacking to support however if there is no communication between the team the plan fails. I have also tasted the fruits of great teamwork it was at a Pvp party and it was Kevin, Fallon, and 2 other players and Me, Diana Wildheart, Kelsey Fireheart, and 1 other player we all communicated to great effect we took out Fallon and their healer then the other player Kevin was the last one standing.

At first I didn't like that we were up against Kevin and Fallon who both are good at PvP and have cohesion as they Pvp together many times as a team. I didn't wanna give up though and knew although it was a daunting task if we worked as a team we would at least give them a fight. Kevin definitely put up a great fight but we implemented great teamwork Melting kevin's attempt to Frost giant us so he couldn't get a free turn to build up pips, low heal, or resurrect a fallen teammate. We also managed to Entangle him so he couldn't heal with Tree or something like Unicorn. (I consider this luck that his pig didn't activate to remove the Entangle :P ).

We pulled off the win but it also struck me hey this is exactly what Kevin was talking about. Kevin as many of you know is an experienced Pvper like Fallon and he lost to what most of you would consider a "less experienced team" this doesn't mean Kevin or Fallon are any worse than us or that we are better than them. It was just good teamwork and draw of the cards that helped us pull through to a win. In fact I've adopted my own little thing for the PvP it's " Anticipation and Coordination" although that directly goes into the battle aspect of Pvp it still means have fun and just be respectful to fellow players. That brings me to the Pvp party last night I had never seen such behavior at these parties before. It was so negative and vulgar I voiced it out loud and through whispers to Cassandra Dragonheart.

I made me feel like when I had first entered the Arena more than a year ago. It hasn't however diluted that I rather enjoy Pvp now and will continue to refine and adapt and have fun with my friends. I even took up some PvP on my Pyromancer Alexander Ghostflame and although I lost I managed to hold my own for an hour against a Life Knight player while I was a private. I also did a match (and hope for more in the future) with my dear Alura on her death Alt Tasha Spellwraith it was a ranked 2 v.s. 2 match and through Coordination and teamwork took out a Fire/Ice team both I believe were Knight or possibly Commanders.

Before I was shut out from the concept of Pvp and now I am open to it and enjoy it. I ain't no die-hard Pvper and I enjoy Pvping against friends instead of random people but I have fun with my friends and I learn as a player of the game and as an individual. In fact if it wasn't for these Pvp parties I don't think I would of became friends with Fallon, Diana, Kelsey, and the many other people who names escape me at this very moment Lol.

I also must give a big shout out to the "Arena Commentaries" hosted on Kevin's Livestream page (Link) and the Pvp parties hosted by PVP party forum they have allowed me to learn so much about Pvp and it's funny to hear my tia snort or Fallon's dogs bark in the background Bloopers make for the best entertainment. I hope you all enjoyed this and if you hesitant towards Pvp don't be get a group of friends and do it together it's a slow process though don't expect to win every match and try always to have fun.

Until next time your friend,
Alric Ravensinger