Wednesday, June 7, 2017

History of Arawn (Part 5)

The Arawn server has a rich history that has been crafted over many years by clans and players that have slipped into legend. In this post I will tell about the course of events that started at the beginning of the game, which led us to where we are in the present day. This is Part 1 of the history of Arawn.

Table of Contents:

Update 4: Dragonfire (May 6, 2013 to March 17, 2015)

In the weeks before the Dragonfire Update, BadaBing had formulated a plan. Legolas15 and Goodies were beta testing the new update and knew what was coming, so they came up with a plan on how to use that knowledge to their advantage. Because they knew about the new target lock system, and the importance of Dragonlord gear, they knew that it was more important than ever to gear up the clan and be at an appropriate level. So their plan was to level slowly, concentrate on Dragonlord bosses, and pool all Dragonlord drops into a bank where clan members could be geared in sets. Previously, BadaBing did not have a bank, so this type of thinking was revolutionary for the the clan. The plan also revolved around timing bosses and camping them, because the Dragonlord bosses spawn on a semi-predictable schedule. The goal was that by denying Uskoci access to Dragonlord gear, BadaBing would not need to share Mordris like they had to share Aggragoth in the past.



Uskoci took a different route, because they had no advance knowledge of what was coming, having no members beta testing. In update 3, being at a high level was most important, and that was how BadaBing came to power so quickly. They decided that they would not focus on doing bosses, and concentrate on leveling up as much as possible. Uskoci were able to control the first Firbolg room, leveling in shifts to try and deny BadaBing members from leveling higher. Their higher levels would end up working against them on Dragonlord bosses, because of target lock.

Eventually, Uskoci decided to start working on Dragonlord bosses. They used Facebook to organize their strategies, maps, levels, and other information. Using this info, Uskoci was able to get the first six star Sreng which boosted clan morale. However, after that Uskoci had lost a six star King to BadaBings well organized team, which caused them to think that they needed to level up more. Uskoci then abandoned Dragonlord bosses for a time in favor of leveling higher, which left the Dragonlord bosses to be taken by BadaBing. Once Uskoci started working on Dragonlord bosses again, BadaBing was already well geared with Dragonlord giving them the advantage of divine damage bonuses, as well as being at a good level for the target lock.

There were many battles waged over Dragonlord bosses, and BadaBing had the upper hand thanks to the efforts of tireless clan members who would take shifts and camp around the clock. Using the messaging app Glassboard, BadaBing could summon reinforcements at will to fight any battle. Using their upgraded gear and battle tactics developed by Phurious, BadaBing was able to take down Hrungnir and Mordris without any outside help. Uskoci was starting to tire, and BadaBing was starting to rise again due to seeking out recruits from Uskoci, and gaining new members through the feeder clan BadaRTC. However, cracks were starting to show in BadaBing's clan.


As chieftain, Goodies depended on his generals to undertake certain duties: KrazyKatz handled DKP tallies, Phurious handled battle tactics and led raids, and Legolas15 handled the Dragonlord bank. However, in June 2013, Phurious and KrazyKatz started talking with Uskoci about a negotiated deal to share event bosses without consulting Goodies. On June 27, in a fit of rage Goodies relinquished control of chieftain and gave it to Phurious, while demoting himself to recruit.

Phurious' first act as chieftain was to take control of the bank from Legolas15. For a month, things seemed to remain unchanged. Uskoci was getting stronger by gaining more Dragonlord gear, but they did so slowly because their efforts were stymied by BadaBing. Both clans started to resort to dirty tactics such as resetting bosses and "over bolasing". The first documented instance of this was at a Snorri lock battle between Uskoci and BadaBing. Sanchez from Uskoci was frustrated that BadaBing had taken the lock and he pulled trolls on top of them to try and kill BadaBing. After this, some members of BadaBing would interfere with Uskoci bosses and point to this instance as justification for their actions. Two of the main perpetrators of boss tampering for BadaBing were Wretched and Asceliral, however others did join in as well when Crankz91 started tampering with BadaBing's bosses.

There were also many clan battles in the arena, and trash talking between certain members of the clans, making the environment in Arawn very hostile. BadaBing would try to kill any member of Uskoci in the arena, preventing them from completing their daily quest. In time, this frustrated Crankz91 from clan Uskoci. He was in the arena much of the time battling BadaBing either on his own or with a group. Despite taking on multiple BadaBing members at a time, Crankz91 would yell "Bring Bada! I need more Bada!" It was because of this that for a long time Crankz91 was number one in PVP deaths on Arawn, and Legolas15 was number one in PVP kills.

As Uskoci did more Dragonlord bosses, they started to accumulate gear and were close to getting a full ranger set. As the most active ranger, Crankz91 was given the gear but he decided not to use it until he had a full set. This caused BadaBing to wonder what was going on, because they knew Uskoci had been getting Dragonlord quest items. BadaBing would taunt Crankz for still using Frozen Armor, but despite that he held off on using the Dragonlord armor until he revealed his full set.

In July and August, many BadaBing clan members started to tire of the clan wars, and stopped camping. Only a small minority of the clan were camping Dragonlord bosses, trying to keep Uskoci at bay. This led to a split in the clan that caused animosity between clan members, because some clan members would openly criticize others for not camping. In one such case, Smellyunder demoted himself to "Recruit" clan rank in protest to those criticisms. During another argument a few days later between Smelly and Bellatrix about camping, Bella kicked Smelly from the clan. When he was reinvited, Bella left the clan but continued to help BadaBing with camping. At one Snorri spawn, a blue ritual crown dropped to Asceliral. Instead of giving it to the bank, in protest to how BadaBing was treating his friend Bellatrix, he gave it to her for her mage weapon. Asceliral was booted from BadaBing for giving Dragonlord quest items to a non-clan member, but continued to help BadaBing camp along with Bellatrix.



At the end of August 2013, Uskoci was still fighting, but they were growing weary. The structure of Uskoci was rule by committee, and drops were distributed based on a discussion among the generals. This didn't always work though, because some times they could not reach an agreement. This strain was compounded by the fatigue they were feeling of always having to fight BadaBing. Eventually, PrincessEVE decided to leave the clan, which started the ball rolling for others to leave as well. Vinci and James143 left to create a new clan named TheCoup. It was during this time that Phurious reached out to Vinci about merging clans and they were able to reach an agreement. Phurious then spoke with the leaders of BadaBing about this to get them on board with the plan. For the most part they seemed receptive.

However, this plan was leaked to members that were still friends with Bellatrix and Asceliral and they wanted an opportunity to debate the issue because they had reservations about how this would affect the clan. This was especially concering to them since former Uskoci member Jintoro joining BadaBing caused some deep concern to some members already. They also thought it was unfair to merge with their former enemies, while keeping their friends Bellatrix and Asceliral shut out. Events would later reveal that this information was leaked by a BadaBing General named Wretched as a plan to grab power over the clan.

The night of August 29, 2013 before a Hrungnir battle, a handful of BadaBing members staged a sit-in protest in the arena, refusing to go to Hrungnir. This led to a heated discussion about merging with Uskoci, and how matters in the clan should be handled democratically by voting. The end result was that Phurious left the clan, along with members loyal to him, and the clan bank that only he had access to.

What came out of this was a new clan named Resurgence. This was a merger of Uskoci and certain BadaBing members with Phurious as chieftain. Wretched took over as BadaBing chief, but was never able to mount a resistance at this time. After a few weeks of settling in, Resurgence started doing end game bosses once again.

Once many of the core members had left Uskoci, there was no strong leadership left. Tomo had become inactive, so he promoted Sanchez to chieftain. Sanchez tried to impose his will upon the clan, changing many time honored rules. This made many Uskoci members realize that this was no longer the same clan that they joined, and they were upset by it. Eventually, most people left Uskoci to join Resurgence. The process of their transition was facilitated by Iv. Not all Uskoci joined Resurgence, as some joined BadaBing or stayed clanless, because they felt what happened with BadaBing's bank was morally wrong.

In the following months, the remaining BadaBing members took to the forums to decry the "stealing of the clan bank." BadaBing maintained that it was their bank and had no right being taken to Resurgence. Resurgence players said that former BadaBing players were in Resurgence, and that they had a right to take it. This led to a negative image for Resurgence that persists to this day.

In retalliation, BadaBing planned to resort to "Plan Z", which meant that BadaBing would ensure that no one would be able to do any end game bosses because they would use underhanded methods to make sure it didn't happen. They never followed through on this threat.


Resurgence was challenged many times after this by a combination of players from Braves, BadaBing, Chosen, ABC, and many other clans. In time, many of these people left for Rhiannon, or Crom which dealt a large blow to the resistance. During the end of 2014, members of Chosen and Braves merged to form clan Blaze, using Braves as their feeder clan. Chosen, Uskoci, Serenity and BadaBing still had a few members, but existed as shadows of their former selves.

In the Summer of 2014, the leader of clan Varvari, Gadinka, decided to declare war on Resurgence and caused trouble in the arena for Resurgence members that entered. it led to a lot of arena battles over Killain. During this time, Lonkar of Resurgence would stay in the arena protecting clan members. After a while, he changed his tactics from protecting the arena, to killing anyone he didn't like. Lonkar made quite a name for himself as someone to be feared in the arena.


Going into the Destiny Engine Update on December 8, 2014, the main clans on Arawn were Resurgence and Blaze. Blaze is headed by Westwend, and is made up of characters mostly in the level 160 to 180 range. They are in the position that Uskoci was in previously where they are fighting against Resurgence to gear their clan with Dragonlord armor.

After not gaining much traction at lock battles, a frustrated Blaze clan took to using tactics such as resetting bosses, ruining experience elixir leveling, end game boss tampering, and trash talking on the forums to further their goals. Two of their members, Greeen and xNathanx joined Resurgence to gain their Dragonlord gear, and then immediately went back to Blaze when they were geared up. In xNathanx's case, he had also borrowed a Necromancer bow from a Resurgence clanmate, and then took it with him when he left the clan.

Blaze started to challenge Resurgence at Dragonlord bosses as well, but struggled to make a sustained, unified effort to push for bosses. At the end of v4, the dirty tactics settled down and competition became more friendly, but there continued to be animosity between a few members of the opposing clans which would spark heated arguments on the forums and at bosses.

Resurgence continues to follow the plan set up by BadaBing at the beginning of the Dragonfire Update, including camping and timing Dragonlord bosses. Many of the tactics developed then persist in the clan to this day.



Notable Personalities
  • Phurious, Vinci, Nightingale, Smellyunder, KrazyKatz, Bellatrix, Asceliral, Goodies, Wretched, HellraiserPK, Crankz91, Legolas15, Warlord666, PrincessEVE, LordDoctor, Squidly, Elrond99, Winded, Carona, Nueee, Gabee, Lonkar, Westwend, LadyJade, Adrol, Kashi, Iv, Sanchez, Connie, James143, Jintoro, Lashy, gadinka, BigDiesel379
Trivia:
  • The RTC in BadaRTC stood for "Recruit Training Clan". The concept was developed by Squidly, and the name was thought up by Viscious. 
  • "Over bolasing" means casting a very high skilled bolas so the other clan couldn't bolas again until it expired. The same principle applies to Grasping Roots as well.
  • While Crankz91 was hiding his Dragonlord gear from BadaBing, he would show his clan members what he had at the dock in Lir's Reach, and in Fingal's Cave as well.
  • DKP (Dragon Kill Points) is a standard way in many MMORPGs for clans to fairly gear clan members based on participation.
  • Glassboard had many glitches, causing BadaBing to lose spawns. This led them to try many other messaging apps.
  • Uskoci was able to get 7 full Dragonlord armor sets before entering Resurgence, and never bought any Dragonlord drops on the black market. Everything they got was earned.

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