"I've always enjoyed playing solo"

I am on my way to meet Plexor at a location in Varmint Woods. The sky is green and I am running in the grass among the trees. Suddenly a tree grabs me in my neck and pushes me into the river. Wet and cold I hear a laughter coming from the tree. Then he takes off the tree form and shows himself. Of course it's Plexor. Who else!

We sit down in the grass and I ask him my first question. "It's almost a year and a half since you joined The Red Brotherhood. What made you join TRB back then ?" "I've always been a solo player and apart from a very brief spell in an organization, I was soloing my way happily through both rubi-ka and the shadowlands. I was killing Unredeemed in Scheol when I met two guys, Oppopji and Reshertr, at the temple. After a bit of a chat they invited me to join TRB. They seemed like good people so I accepted, and i've been here ever since".

"You decided to chose adventurer as a profession, why was that ?" "Because I've always enjoyed playing solo, it seemed an obvious choice after I did a bit of research. With the mix of damage, heals, shields etc I still believe it's the best profession to play if you like to do things alone sometimes."

Plexor the junkie

"You are known for being a damage junkie by our members. Is it very important for you to deal as much damage as possible? What is your AR selfbuffed and how much +damage modifiers you think you have?"

"Me, damage junkie? Hehe ok yea it's true, the more the better as far as i'm concerned. The way I see it, the more damage I can do the faster I can kill and the better I can keep aggro off others, which increases the chances of success, whether it's a guild raid or soloing in Inferno. I've got to admit it's also a good feeling to do a huge raid with sixty people and have your name at the top of the damate reports at the end, it makes people remember me, and I think it also helps promote TRB.

My AR's not as good as it could be, it's 2399 selfbuffed at the moment, rising to 2,464 with Frenzy of Fur running and 2,500 when Glory runs from my axes, which is a lot of the time. I need a few more Alien levels and some Pande items to get it where I want. I won't do any more damage though, as my axes are capped at 2400 MBS, but it'll increase my chance to hit. In full damage setup I have +592 Fire damage modifiers from equipment, perks and nanos, with another +61 when Frenzy of Fur is running." A breiflab runs away. Not very interested in letting Plexor demonstrate this.

Tough time

"It seems like the guild went a bit downhill after Synelle left, how did you experience that period ? Did you ever consider leaving trb at that point ?"

"I actually joined right after Synelle left, along with most of the other high levels like Orakor and Renoz. Reshertr was President when I joined, and he did a great job of keeping the morale of TRB up, and although the Org was going through a pretty tough time, it still had the great feeling it does now, with people helping each other and having fun. In particular Oppo took me under his wing a bit and gave me lots of advices. The tough thing was we couldn't do any raids etc, and at times I did consider leaving to join a bigger Org, but I couldn't bring myself to leave the people in TRB."

It never ceases to amaze me...

"During the last month of the year that passed, it seems the guild woke up again. The race to hit level 220 started, TRB got a new city, the first inferno key quest was completed, Fleet Admiral was defeated and a lot events was done and history was written. What do you think happened which made TRB wake up from "hibernation" ?"

"It was a combination of things I think. We got a bit of a levelling competition going, which meant quite a few people reached high level quite fast, and of course the more high levels you have the easier it is to be successful at raids and attract and keep new members. I'd have to say that the main thing that woke up TRB was Strombanni joining. Having a pretty high level Doc suddenly meant we could do things as an Org that we couldn't manage before. But mainly he put a huge amount of time, enthusiasm and money into building TRB and getting a city, along with the help of many others in TRB. It never ceases to amaze me how much time Strom has put into helping people, from doing small quests, arranging Org raids, to the auctions of items worth hundreds and hundreds of millions of credits."

Plexor has reached enlightenment

"Then it happened. Thousands of players got the message the whole guild has been waiting for. "Plexor has reached enlightenment". This was a huge step for the guild, but how was it for you at that time ? Do you still remember it well ? Was it important being the first member to ding 220 ? What was your motivation ?"

"That was a moment I don't think i'll ever forget. Reaching 220 took a massive amount of time, but I loved doing Hecklers so I enjoyed getting there. It was at Phatmos in Inferno, and Strom and Checker were both in the team. I was so nervous that i'd die right before I dinged because my hands were shaking with excitement, but I managed to survive. Because we had a race going, and Strom kept on jumping ahead of me, it gave a real motivation to reach 220. Being the first in the history of TRB to reach 220 felt pretty special too. Once I hit 220 Strom seemed to lose his motivation to level, I had to nag him like hell to keep going if I remember right". Plexor laughs. Then he tells me a lot of tips on how to be a good golf player, and about his many secret golf spots in Varmint Woods. I'm sitting there noding and thinking of how many golf balls you need to fill up Inner Sanctum.

The biggest challenge

"What do you think is the number one challenge for TRB and what will be the most important things to focus on in the future ?"

"I think the biggest challenge and the most important thing to focus on is keeping the special feeling of TRB going no matter whether we keep on growing or not. It's a great Org to be in, and we need to work hard to keep it that way. Sometimes people who have become a key part of the Org and that you have built a good relationship with leave, which is always a hard time, but life goes on. One thing i've noticed though is people rarely leave to join another Org, it's usually because they are leaving Rubi-Ka, so we must be doing something right." He smiles with a pleased look on his face.

"Thanks, any last words ?"

"Just to say that it's great to see some peole who have taken a break coming back again. We've done some great things together in the past and had a lot of fun, and i'm sure there's even better times ahead as long as we stick together. Oh, and did anyone ever tell you Checker's a gimp?"

He grins and changing form into a parrot. Then he's gone.

S & S