(Deleted) Bandali the Grand Master of Larceny

Level ? ? ?
Alignment: ? Ethos: ?
Age: ? Hours Played: ?

Hey all, this was me. It’s my first cabal character so hopefully nobody was too disappointed.

First things first, I want to thank Dav for letting me into Warlords in the first place. A thief in Warlords is obviously a weird fit and was probably a terrible choice for my first cabal character. I’m glad you saw enough promise or interest or whatever it was that made you say yes to let me in. Second things second, thanks to the community at large. Aside from one or two exceptions, everybody was super nice to Bandali. Basically everybody accepted my oddities as a low play time player and didn’t set me back too far or be too annoyed when I lost ingloriously or didn’t have time to fight despite the big “Fight Me” banner Warlords represents.

I kept hanging onto this character despite it being past time to delete because I really, really liked his backstory (and also because I feared I would never get a thief into Warlords ever again.. Which is probably true). I had the idea to tie off the Baron Zero demon story-arc ages ago and honestly it probably took me far too long to do it. But I knew some of the characters from that event were still active (it helps if 2 are Immortal now…) so I figured why not! I also really liked the idea that there are these super witch entities out there that were using the Legion black masses as a conduit between realms for their own purposes. It played and I wish I would have explored the story more.

So why didn’t I? Honestly, from a feedback perspective, I found playing a class that was being heavily modified with regularity as a low play time player with a character in a cabal very difficult. I felt a pressure to fight whenever I logged in but the class was changing underneath me the whole time. That’s just how the sausage is made, it isn’t a criticism, but it was hard. I would log in and really just needed to playtest skill changes or train new ones but felt like I was letting people and the cabal down if I didn’t take fights instead. So I’d just jump in there with no idea what I was doing, playtesting new skills in live PVP. It also tied to my goals a bit. I’ve long considered Warlords the proving-ground and battle balance mechanism for the game for melee classes and always thought how odd it was that rogue classes weren’t represented because of the nature of the cabal. I was hoping I could provide that test cast for Dav. I started with the idea “if I can RP a thief into Warlords I wonder if alacrity and forms could actually be viable as a head-to-head fighter”. But then I coincidentally time-synced with the whole Burroughs experience and alacrity was getting nerfed left and right changing the core premise of my thief Warlord. Also, the more I learned the mechanics, the more difficult it felt. Rogue classes have skills based on the weapon type triangle instead of the combat style triangle. But rogue classes are the dex races rather than strength. So it makes this really weird catch-22. You can’t use your skills without weapon type advantage so prioritize that one. But combat style superiority and concentration trash dodge and increase damage so if you ignore that you’re hosed. Plus combat style skills feel stronger than weapon type skills. And forms proc more only on combat style advantage not weapon type.

I thought long and hard about holding onto this character indefinitely until thieves get reworked but ultimately decided that was selfish as a cabal character. Can’t take the slot forever, you know?

Anyway, I don’t want to sound whiny. I made a sub-optimal choice and I knew it. I just wanted to give some feedback. I do think things are a little out-of-whack and would love to discuss in detail if Dav interested.

But more importantly I had an absolute blast playing this character. I learned an absolute ton about the game. Highly encourage anybody looking to learn PVP to make a Warlord even if you get wrecked.

Big shout out to the Warlords who encouraged me. But even more to the Consortium who took interest in me. I was interviewed twice and it was fun. And especially to Foggledonk who probably had no idea why this quasit was coming at him with a backstory vendetta from 1.5 years ago. He rolled with it, played with it, and god damn it if he didn’t condescendingly encourage me and even help equip me to try to kill him, which I never did. You bastard of a bastard gnome….

Tons of fun. Would recommend. The Baron is cooler than all of you. Praise be the Baron.

Bandali

This class chooses the terms of engagement so you're in an uphill battle if trying to get them onto full parity with warriors/monks. It isn't the right thing to do, because they're being given the tools to get the jump. Burroughs simply used the full kit - tripwires, ambushing players while they are busy, invis potions, etc. i.e. patience and ganks. Backstabs alone is a massive opener. A lot of the disparity between you guys was pretty much from him just using cunning and stealth things that a Warlord is more or less forbidden to use. So the outcome is pretty expected, to an extent.

I dont know how I feel about the general complaint that the class was being rug-pulled while you're playing it. Youre just making it sound like its all nerfs. Not the case. I actually made is so successful sidestep increase your dodge % for a little bit and other stuff like that. Yes I did make envenom require vials, as was reasonable to do for such a powerful buff.

Although this said, I can see the issue with feeling if you get weapon type advantage the warrior just ignores it and smashes your dodge with concentrate attacks+hobbles.. Blind fighting pretty much negating dirt kick, shutting down the thiefs entire offense hard (at least that rubs out faster) , and concentrate taking care of the thieves dodge, yeah thats a lot. So why not just flip the tables. shadows have their disciplines, bards have brawl for a wild style. I think I would feel OK with a thief having an automatic skill (no work needed) that halves the combat style penalties while they have weapon type advantage. That would mitigate the perceived catch-22. It would make it so the warrior can still handle the thief well but now they need to change to their segment weapon (i.e. forced into more finesse) instead of just blasting through sidesteps with dual wielded axes.

If only you didnt go Warlord, quasit thief can cause so much mischief with doppelganger

I loved this guy: his backstory, that weird neck scab, his one-sided vendetta against Foggledonk. Thank you for challenging our notions of what a cabal char can look like. Big fun!