Best... World Quest... Ever...

World Quest has a (well deserved) reputation for being boring. It is, however, a great quest for when you're watching T.V., chatting, doing chores, or mentally incapacitated.

It's in this last category that I found myself doing what turned out to be the best World Quest ever.

So there I was, about half-way through WQ, talking to my girlfriend on the phone (actually, it was more like a series of mumbles and cryptic grunts, interspersed with the occasional protest, "No, no, I'm not *yawn* tired enough for *exhausted sigh* sleep yet...") when I'm dropping down to an unsafe checkpoint and for a brief split-second I see a red-name, accompanied by the faction name "Nefarious", flash by.

That wakes me up a bit. "Nefarious" is Sanctuary's Leviathan (appologies to non-philosophy geeks for that reference). They rule supreme and get to cherry-pick from the top players on the server. Sure, there are a few high-level crazies and suicidal hold-outs that who haven't joined the Dark-Side yet (shout out to Regicide, yo!), but overall the majority of the highest-of-highs are in Nefarious, which means anybody who's in the faction can probably whoop my butt, easy.

I realize I've done 3 things wrong at this point: first, I've overshot the checkpoint by quite a bit; second, I'm in wolf form; and third, I'm wearing my mana-regeneration Tome instead of my DEX/VIT Tome. The smart thing to do would be to fly away, remedy #2 and #3, and then try again.

But where's the fun in that?

I run over and get the checkpoint (yay me!), and then try to flee. I press the "Fly" button, but of course it doesn't respond because I've been paralyzed. I then hear that sound that Clerics make just before they obliterate something. I don't even get to see the first hit when it happens, because I'm watching my life bar. It's only after the second one hits that I realize the first hit triggered my charm right away.

******* deals 5736 damage
******* deals 2854 damage

Now, if you reverse the order of those two hits, I'm dead, so the only reason I'm alive at this point is because of a tactical mistake by my adversary. Lucky me.

Several potions/genie skills/powders (I don't remember exactly, I was mashing at them pretty wildly) later I manage to get into tiger form and onto my max-speed Israfel. I'm away, and hit my Wind Force speed boost, which quickly puts me out of range of my attacker. He gives chase, so I hit it a second time, and he's off the screen.

Story over.

Or, at least, the story should be over at this point. I've had dozens of encounters similar to this one, with the exception that this guy did way more damage than any of the others did. What usually happens is that they give chase, I humour them for a bit while my genie recharges, then I hit Wind Force and watch them go bye-bye. At that point they realize they're not going to catch me and they give up. So, based on previous experience, I fly in a straight line for a minute or so, telling my girlfriend what just happened, and then I start to circle back towards my next checkpoint.

And right away, he reappears on my radar, still giving chase.

Huh? That's surprising. I continue to circle around, and he continues to follow. He starts to get close and I have to hit Wind Force again. He keeps following me. I explain my surprise to my girlfriend. She shouts the following message of support in world chat:

Purra_Pearl: GO! GO! GO! PK WarrenWolfy!

(Supposedly, 3 people then PM her asking for coordinates, but I digress...)

At this point I have to admit I genuinely admire the guy. I send him a message:

WarrenWolfy: I admire your dedication

He responds with silent pursuit. I have several options to end this. I could call it a night ("Boo!"), or fly to a safe-zone and teleport ("Double Boo!"), or I could even just turn off PK mode ("Triple-Flaming-Mega Boo!"). But no, he's showing me the honour of putting up a good pursuit, so the least I can do is put up a good flight.

I'm approaching the next, non-safe-zone WQ checkpoint. I manage to get in two more Wind Forces before I get there, which gives me just enough time to get the checkpoint, get back in the air, and start to fly away before the next paralyze-WHAM!-WHAM! combo hits. I use my Solid Shield to get through this salvo, and manage my escape just a bit too late to avoid another charm tick.

As you can see, my second escape finally breaks my pursuer's silence. It's been my experience that when a higher-level fails to ambush me, they usually resort to taunts to try to goad me into a "fair" fight. However, I'm not a mob, so aggro skills don't work on me.

The next WQ checkpoint takes me through a safezone, so we each get an opportunity to check out the other. He's at least level 90 and his equipment is heavily tweaked, while I'm level 77 and am wearing a collection of cheap bargain gears that I use to get me by until I finally get around to leveling up (because, you know, I've only been playing a year, which means I'm a slacker, basically).

*******: lol
*******: you have to be the *******t barb I have ever seen
WarrenWolfy: lol
*******: fight me
WarrenWolfy: I'm a coward, I admit it
WarrenWolfy: I don't think I would stand much of a chance
WarrenWolfy: You almost 2-hit me already
WarrenWolfy: I admire your dedication though

He circles ominously around me, waiting. I see a slight opening, hit Wind Force again, and make a clean getaway. He's right behind me.

I think I've built up enough of a lead, because he eventually drops off my radar, but then to my shock suddenly he's in front of me! Paralyze-WHAM!-WHAM! He gets me down to about 1/4 health, and I thank the Nien Beast for my few remaining Crispy Pies. I'm guessing he must have used a teleport stone to jump ahead, which just reenforces my admiration of his dedication. I'm really hurting, but my genie/pots/powders haven't failed me, at least not yet.

I limp in to Dragon's End. There's a crowd of people watching as I fly in and grab the checkpoint, get another Paralyze-WHAM!-WHAM! combo to the back of my head, and then limp away. No doubt they too are doing WQ, and I'm sure they're thinking, "WTF was that?!" I pity them, actually. The brief glimpse we give them of do-or-die-WQ-dedication/mad-pursuit-PK-attempt is probably the only interesting moment of their entire WQ.

You may have noticed from the screen shot my genie is getting dangerously close to empty at this point. But I'm resolved: I'm either going to finish this WQ right now, without resorting to teleports or turning off PK mode, or else die trying.

I soon realize that my pursuer is now burning through his aerogear stamina, because I'm only able to stay ahead while spamming Wind Force continuously. He's not content with just following anymore, he's determined to hunt me down and finish me off.

I've managed to stay alive all the way from Sumor Camp to Village of the Dreaming Cloud, but my Genie is nearly empty. I don't know if it will last for the rest of WQ, and I'm sure that if it runs out I won't survive, so I decided I have to take things to the ground. My adversary doesn't notice me switch to wolf form and mount my max-speed Panther, and so he stays up in the air. I make a break towards Dreamweaver Port, and he quickly drops off my radar.

I'm a bit of an idiot sometimes. This is one of those times. The speed of my Panther quickly outpaces his wings, so when I come to the edge of a lake and see some lovely Steel Alloy just sitting there, I decided to mine it and see if I've lost him. About half-way through mining it, a green dot appears, moving very quickly, and it flies DIRECTLY over me. *Gulp!* I don't dare move, knowing it will give me away, and I finish mining as he flies right off the radar. Ha! I've finally lost him!

Nope. As I start running around the lake the green dot quickly re-emerges, coming right back at me. In fact, we run right past each other, both on land mounts now. Perhaps my skills at the Snake Island Dungeon Race are what give me the edge (did you know you can cut the corners at the race checkpoints by standing just barely inside the smaller flags and waiting? Give it a try, you'll see it gives you a huge advantage), because by the time he's off his mount and ready to attack I'm already out of range.

It soon becomes clear to me that land racing might just be the one thing that I'm better at than him. As I pull into Dreamweaver Port I stop to grab some Hsuin Iron that's sitting inside the safezone. The sight of my casual farming seems to set him off once and for all:

*******: you are such a <censored>
*******: i cant even kill you dumb ****
*******: your a barb
WarrenWolfy: oh, I'm sure you can kill me
*******: i wanted to see how long it took you to fight me and send me runnin
*******: but you never figured it out
WarrenWolfy: Guess I'm outsmarted then
*******: <censored> off. you waist 30 min of my time. and dont even stop and fight
*******: get the <censored> out of PK
WarrenWolfy: Are you kidding? This has been the best World Quest ever!
*******: i fight someone if they follow me period
*******: well man. i though you would eventually att me
*******: and most likely kick my ****.
*******: i have a 77 barb
*******: and it kills this charicter
*******: lol
*******: the only time i knocked your health down
*******: is when i critted
WarrenWolfy: True, the 5.7k hit was impressive
WarrenWolfy: But the pile of 4k hits are pretty scary too
*******: yes, but phys damage does the same to me...
*******: exept i dont have a ton of HP

I should point out at this point that while my defensive skills are all maxed, my offensive ones are not. I don't like dying, and I figure the most important role I have in any party is simply to not die. One day, when Spirit points flow as freely as grains of sand, I'll actually level my attack skills, but in the meantime I can assure you that my pursuer's evaluation of my attacking capabilities are much too generous and kind.

WarrenWolfy: Well, I guess you might be right
*******: i have never killed a barb to make it more clear
*******: i just cant believe you ran from a cleric for so long, without getting
*******: pissed and squooshing me
WarrenWolfy: Nah, why would I get pissed?
WarrenWolfy: If it bothered me, I'd turn off PK
*******: well, because i gaved your charm like 5 ticks, and wasted a ton of your genie

Ultimately, he's right, but I really don't mind. I know a lot of people get really upset if another player has the nerve to "cost" them anything, be it coins, time, charm-ticks, genie-stamina, repair-costs, etc... Just looking around the forums it's pretty clear a lot of people feel that the GMs should nuke any player that does anything to any other player without first filling out a consent form in triplicate.

But, ultimately, it's the chaos and unpredictability of other players that makes multi-player gaming special. The fact that some other random player wanted me dead so badly, and was willing to dedicate half-an-hour of his life towards trying, is, in my opinion, pretty darn fun.

In the end he decided he'd had enough and left. He'd pursued me for a full 1/2 of a World Quest and come very close to killing me at least 3 time, so I didn't want to argue with him, or point out that he'd also wasted plenty of resources trying to kill me.

Because, you know what? Despite the trash-talking I still respected his dedication to his craft. And even if he had succeeded, I still would have felt that this had been the Best World Quest Ever.