Rishis

Which country do you come from?

Germany

How long have you been playing Age of Conan?

Ever since November 2009. It was an early Christmas present.

Which class do you like playing the most?

My absolute favourite class is the Bear Shaman, which is my main. To me it is the most versatile one and a perfect group supporting class. But I have them all and most of them have their very own appeal to me.

On which server do you usually play?

Nowadays I play on Crom only. Coming from a roleplaying background, I used to have most of my characters on Hyrkania until the merge.

What is your preferred play-style (soloing, raiding, PvP, mini-games ...)

As raid leader of my guild, I guess I will have to say raiding. ;) But I do enjoy soloing as well. I always had at least one character not known to anyone else so that I could be able to enjoy the game every once in a while on my own; without feeling guilty about not helping out my guildies at the same time. And PvP / minis can be very enjoyable as well. However, I only PvP in presets with friends as I usually am not a great fan of the attitude that seems to be part of the 'fun' for some PvP focused players.

Are you member of a guild (or even a guild leader)? If yes, care to shortly introduce your guild?

On Hyrkania I used to be founder, guild leader and raid leader of the Cavaliers of the Sun, a light RP and PvE guild. But ever since the merge with Crom and since the focus shifted more and more towards PvE only, I gave away guild lead there. Our old raid alliance merged into Crimson Cavaliers and became a fully raid and group focussed guild in which we by now clear T4 on a regular basis. But I would never consider us a hardcore raiding guild at all. We always kept the Hyrkanian spirit. And those that have been there, will know what I mean. To us raiding is and always has been more of a team effort than about lots of individuals performing on max level in a constant competition, like I have experienced it in a lot of pugs and some other groups. I was always of the opinion that you can teach a new raider the fights and you can help him improve his performance or get better gear, but the one thing he will not learn anymore if he doesn't meet the requirements right from the start is team spirit, kindness and manners. So the only way to get excluded from my raids is by showing a bad attitude.

If I would have to sum up what we stand for, I guess it is ok to by now call us a casual raiding guild and raid alliance, that aims to see all the raid and game content without taking things too serious. We take our time to get there and we enjoy the trip on the way. We can have equally as much fun wiping in silly ways while learning a new fight as we do rushing through a raid instances, that we know very well, simply because we do it together and a lot of us have known each other for a very long time now. At least for me, raiding has never been about the instances as much as about the players I do raid with, and the same applies to me for my guild and in that regard raiding clearly is my favorite part of the game.

What was your most epic, funny or special moment while playing Age of Conan?

When I started building up our raid group in 2010 we went to Yakmar for one of the very first times. I had a DT called Almira set up as main tank. Everyone was ready to go and in position, so I asked him to start the fight. he charged in and at the same time by accident hit his hotkey for his totem of origin an got ported to Khemi mid charge having started the fight. When we realised what had happend we all had to laugh so hard that there was no way of not wiping. But it was one of the most fun moments I ever had in a raid and it is still a running gag without our alliance.

Do you have a fan site/blog/wiki related to Age of Conan?

I fear not. I dedicate most of my free time taking care of our own forum and raid planner updating posts there and setting up our raids.

Anything else you want to share with your fellow players?

Hmm.. really just to enjoy the game and to never forget that there is a real person behind each character!

Thank's Rishis for allowing us to get to know you better!