Shattered Kingdoms

<3.

Without treading into "necros aren't worth playing" territory, I would presume that Surrit had a good score not because of a low death-count (He died a reasonable number of times) but because of his high kill-count. In general, necromancers' sheer damage output + ability to lock down opponents with bash allowed them to rack up a lot of kills on unprepared players, yet there were always ways to mitigate that damage if you were prepared (and weren't an MR barb). As ardith correctly points out, that's the reason why my K/D ratio against "veteran players" was probably equal or lower on Surrit than any other character I played, even though Surrit did get a lot of kills.

To that end however, my guess is that Ardith probably incorrectly views that K/D ratio is the main metric of your "PK score", when it's just as likely that it's something like "kills-deaths" which is a whole different measurement. Tolene only died 3 times in PK over 3 years according to him, but the cost of maintaining that precious KDA comes at never fighting unless victory is guaranteed, so you have a much lower kill score. While I'm sure that Tolene probably -won- a lot of fights, I've a feeling that she landed very few kills, because you can't bash someone when you're loading them full of arrows from 3 rooms away while they're fighting bounty NPCs. Slayne died his fair share of times, but he was still feared throughout Pyrathia because you never knew if he was just about to come around the corner and bring the pain. With Tolene, a simple glance at the who list could answer your question for you. I remember a log of Slayne where he went by himself into the Sith'a'niel inn, stood in the front row with a burning spear, and just melted some warlock's face off 1v3. After he killed the warlock, he got stunned, but the tick passed and when the paladin was trying to Bolt of Glory him to kill him, his intimidate kicked in and he recalled out. That sort of reckless and ballsy attitude is what I think earned his respect across the game, and if the current hero implementation somehow quantifies and rewards that, awesome.

While I'm certain that's true, I view that more as a side-effect of the timing than anything else. If you had made this code-change back when Antiira was active, or when Syn was playing Ealuriel, I'd wager that you would have seen similar results.

I killed Atreidan, which was basically Tolene version 1.

You mean a rogue and swashbuckler killed him and you're taking credit for things you never did.

Now, now, that sort of thinking won't get you a hero flag.

I imagine that great victories in CRS are more important to your "PK" score than anything else, but I am sure that killing other characters plays a part in the calculation too. It is not surprising that a pre-nerf necromancer that could easily solo a CRS raid would have a high PK score. Being able to land kills with 10+ bashing pets and order all bash probably didn't hurt either.

Based on the comments on another side, it is definitely not a metric of skill which Ardith has already pointed out. =)

The PK score and how it affects who gets hero doesn't even bother me as much as the leadership component. That part of the calculation actually encourages the worst sort of meta-gaming and behavior that is damaging to the game as a whole, and if there were to be changes to the system then it should start with removing or altering the weight/value of the leadership score.

I'm not sure why people are so hung up on this Hero flag.

It doesn't make you any better or worse at PK
It doesn't make you any better or worse at RP.
It doesn't make you any better or worse at leading a cabal/tribunal/religion.
And it doesn't make you any better or worse at using the mentor system to aid fellow players.

Completely agree, the same thing could be said about loyalty tokens.

The hero flag has one benefit that is a HUGE advantage, especially if you play a melee character: you do not suffer age penalties. How much better do you think Tolene would have been, if she didn't have to deal with a lower strength and dexterity as she aged?

Loyalty tokens: another cancer to the game.

And honestly, as a caster it's pretty sweet to not have to worry about hunger/thirst. Not so much for the convenience as much as for the weight in food you don't have to carry around.