Hello Hibernia ;]

I first started playing DAoC several months before SI was released. I played until ToA came out and cos I did not enjoy that, I moved to Star Wars Galaxies. Stopped playing MMOs shortly afterwards and maybe a year later I returned to DAoC, this time with Catacombs and enjoyed my time (with all the Catacomb instances and task dungeons - as a PvE fan!). Stopped playing again for school, work, everything etc, and returned once again to DAoC (this time to freeshards) about 2 years ago.

I found Uthgard in April 2008, and played on Uthgard and several other freeshards last year.

All my game time has been spent on Albion, except several 'game sessions' on Midgard .. but never enjoyed it as much .. had a level 24 toon for Thid.

As I am returning AGAIN, I thought I would go for Hibernia, now that I am much maturer *giggle* and believe that it could be a "weaker" realm. Well.. that's an unfair belief, but I read one thread in this area of the forum (the Hibernia section) and he seemed to not think Hibernia was doing very well. Since that as a little over a month ago, maybe it's accurate information.

Anyway, I have done my research and I am fairly sure that I want to try Hibernia regardless of their dominance / lack of dominance. If they are a "weaker realm" then that is a positive I think, as it leaves more Albs and Mids for me hehe.

DAoC is currently downloading (now on 35% .. some 2200MB to go) and I should have patched it / be ready to play by tomorrow evening. I am looking forward to getting on Hibernia and meeting you all.

I am planning (and looking forward) to create a Ranger and will be speccing it for RvR. Before now, I have never been keen on RvR. In fact, when I first played DAoC, my computer was not good enough / quick enough to run during the busy RvR times, and would crash or leave me lagging like crazy in the middle of everything. Not very good ;] I used to enjoy playing PvE toons, like Necromancer and Friar, but whilst I am sure I will enjoy PvE this time, I think my attitude has changed to RvR and playing a stealther will at least let me 'break into RvR at my own pace' :]

Thanks for reading my story. I wrote it hoping to catch your eyes and maybe get to know some of my fellow realm players, but also to spend time waiting for the download (of which unfortunately is now only on 37%)!

Will anyone be keen on grouping with a Ranger this week? (After groups, but not PL. Thank you, but I will save PL until I can't be bothered to level ;])

Thanks again! Care to share any information about yourself? The toons you have? The guild(s) you are in? The Albs to watch out for ;]?

- Ragadas

Well, let me be the first to welcome you to Hibernia and congratulate you on joining the best realm at long last!

About realm balance... I can't really talk about lvl50 RvR since I don't have one yet, but we do have DF from time to time and the BGs seem pretty even as well. IMO there's no realm that clearly dominates Uthgard (again sub lvl50).

Dunno about your choice of class, since I don't like stealthers a whole lot, but I guess Rangers are one of the better solo classes on here, thanks to their self buffs if that's your thing. Especially melee-rangers seem to be very popular as of late..

Anyway, gl and have fun, fellow Hibby.

PS: I don't think PLing is too well received on Uthgard.

The choice of class is between a healer (is the Albion Cleric Hibernia alternative a Druid?) and a stealther. I used to have a scout in thid on live and enjoyed playing full stealth groups or full scout groups :] Scouts were also great for soloing in RvR, picking out casters etc and 'Bang' ;]

^^ In my opinion ^^

Sorry if you felt any offence from my realm balance assessment. I did not mean any :S

And thank you halp for the welcome to Hibernia. I hope I fit in ;]

What classes do you have? Levels? :]

Ragadas

Worst choice possible for a first toon, but i guess its only my opinion....

XPing a ranger last forver. You wont get invites in groups 40+ at all, since any bm will overdmg you by twofold. You will hardly be able to join smallgroups to raid hard mobs for items. Therefore youll be running in rvr without a decent template. Untill youll spec some pd, mos, pain, purge2 and ip2, youll mostlikely loose every single fight in endgamervr, so your only way to play will be to add, leech, stealthzerg(low rps) or chaindeaths.

If i was you, i would start of with a more usefull toon, which you could join HL/Prince/Beli/mega etc raids, or at least have a easy time xping/farmin solo. Examples: Bard, Druid, Warden, Hero, BM, Eld, Ench, Menta(full support). You can also start hibernias farmchar No1, an animist!

But, focuspull ench or def bm/hero would be of more use in later rvr, so you could actually use those chars to have fun aswell.

And then, when youll have some decent items, cash for sc, ect, start your ranger and make him an alchimist, to keep him buffed with potions.

PS. Buffbots are forbidden on this server, so as long as you dont want to be completely outdmged in rvr, get enough buffpots.

Thank you Satz for the realism. I prefer hearing it in a down-to-earth / harsh way.

In that case I might begin with a 'BM'. That is a BladeMaster? A dual-weilding fighter that wears light armour but has many positional melee styles?

Would you discourage a healer as a first class?

Thanks again Satz. Hope to hear back from you soon! ;]

Ragadas

Going with a blademaster is a nice choice...

The only difference is, that i would probably go weap/shield instead of cd/weap, because blocking defines how long youll be able to fight in case you end up xping solo, and blocking is really worth it. In the end having a full shieldspec or a bispec for different purposes as tank in mobraids or DD in rvr or def in rvr etc...

The greatest advantage about doing a pierce-BM would be that you can actually use all your drops for you ranger(same weapons, same armor, simmilar juwelery).

Endspec should have 42 shield, something inbetween 39 und 50 celtic dual, something around 34 and 44 weapon and some parry just in case. Remember, the higher you spec cd, the bigger the chance for a successful dual hit. The higher you spec in weapon, the higher your dmg and the better your chance for defense-penetration. 42 shield-stun is a neccessity for tanks. Parry is more or less useless. Speccing CD at low levels is of very low use aswell, since you wont be able to hit with both weapons quite well untill something around lvl 20, so just keep it as a backup, or split, speccing weapon, shield and cd all 3 at 2/3 of your level untill you get higher.

Nothing bad about starting with a healer, but you might end up xping solo through several levels anyway. happens to all classes. druids/bards are always welcome for groups, but groups arent always available or might be full already. In that case id rather start a druid going 2/3 nurture and regrowth. If it comes to solo, youll have enough buffs to fight yellow mobs without any problems.