Posted by The Arcane on December 20, 1999 at 11:10:16:
In Reply to: What does rank have to do with anything? [text] posted by Awestruck on December 20, 1999 at 08:17:24:
Few factors here... 1) 80% of heroes were never in Matraien's range. He sat at 45 as a human muter who lucked out and got his form early. Had he gotten it at 51, sure he'd have been very successful, but probably not *quite* so many kills. 2) Unlike most air majors of today (hint, hint), Matraien used halt person, as in flyto;revert;c 'halt' victim... when you have 7-9 levels on them, that makes a huge difference when it comes to saving against that. 3) An extra 150hp or so makes a difference. 4) Air majors prey upon lower ranks more easily since they can catch them ranking--heroes don't go ranking. But yes, Matraien has been by far the most fearsome air major we've seen. I wouldn't put him on a level with Istendil, though. And I don't think Ihlrath even deserves mention in that category. Sure, he's very skilled and all, but a chimp could win force duels with Andaren's tattoo and healing weapons. That, and his "RP" justification for repeat-killing naked people (including non-evils) was far too thin. Ihlrath was far from his best character, from a PK and certainly a roleplay perspective.