I suddenly recall why I stopped hosting in the forest

I've never seen a host with summoned phantoms in the forest that wants to have fair duels. That's like a unicorn sighting to me. If they want duels, they will be alone (and even then it's maybe 5% of the time, the rest is that they either just entered or their summons got killed). Otherwise, 99% of the time it will be a gankfest where a sole FH goes up against at least 2 other players, sometimes all the way up to a 4v1 or worse. Expecting a random FH to read your mind that you about having a fair duel when you are standing there with a bunch of phantoms is just not reasonable. Moreover, it's their forest. There are plenty of other neutral sites if you want to host PvP matches, but the whole point of the forest covenant is to kill forest trespassers. How they do it is their business, and they are justified in not wanting to risk death just because you may or may not want a duel. I mean you can't even just blunder into the forest, you have to get the crest or get by the hydra to even be in there. On my FH toon who probably has 300+ invasions under his belt, I won't gank a noob or someone clearly going for Sif, but both of these are so uncommon that I can literally remember every single time I've encountered them. There were 4: 3 noobs milling around near the stairs, 1 guy who was running to Sif. That's it.

I'm shutting up about that now >_> I don't mean to offend

I hosted in the forest a couple of weeks back. Hosting FAIR duels. It was really hard to get that across.

For a long time I was there myself but kept getting interrupted during 1v1. Since I see tons of white summon signs on the ground I figure I might as well include someone else.

I'll clear the forest of the NPCs. Drop some prisms to make a circle. and i'll stand back. when someone invades, i'll stay away and turn my back on them. the white or red phantom will take his/her place in the circle.

But the invader(s) will STILL single me out and try to chase me down and kill me.

I am so grateful when I invade somewhere (usually in the kilin) where someone is hosting proper duels. Its not exactly exciting being the host. So invaders need to recognize that an appreciate the fact someone is doing this. They have nothing to lose anyways. Fight a fair duel, if you win, great you get souls. If you die, no biggie, wait for the next match.

And I'm sure it's not people on this forum. So I guess my rant is for nothing. But maybe those people who aren't registered on this forum but still read it and understand that not everyone human in the forest is a threat.

the forest is described as a place with no law where the fastest gets the pray. expect players to do everything they can think of to kill you. also forest invaders often will duel but so many times the host ends up flasking or summoning mid fight that most invaders just go for the kill.

EDIT: to the guy above me ^^ i hate when people dont even try to recognize what your doing. i try to have fun in this game but people treat it like deathmatch most of the time. even tho the game allows for a more mmo type gameplay.

most of the "fun" players i've met have been reds... fh's have been okay, some wait for allies, a few duel, a good number bs fish. nowadays if i host in the forest if things get bad (i.e multiple hostiles with only myself) i'll run to sif turn around before the sword, wave and initiate the boss fight, then warp out. and try looking for duels in a couple of hours after (hopefully) the current crop of people go elsewhere. speaking of fun players there was this egghead red once who showed up and comboed gestures into a dance and then gave me eye of death (i was gl'ing at the time) then we stood around and had a fist fight or... fist v.s maggot fight anyway. he even dueled the blues that showed up.

I have a serious question. Which came first, the ganking or the forest hunters being ****?

Wade, it's like asking which came first, the chicken or the egg...Though that doesn't properly apply because that question actually has an answer.

In regards to you summoning while going to the boss, go right ahead. For PvP, summoning a phantom in the forest is a no no, but if you're going for the boss my view is always survive by any means. You're not there to PvP. However, know in the forest most people you summon will be farmers who expect to PvP, so they may crystal out. They may also taunt spirits that they kill, which could end up getting you sent hate mail. But again, if you're going for the boss just try and rush for Sif as fast as possible.

I think the problem of the forest goes back to the Dragon Head glitch. When the game first came out, the forest cov was the first pvp cov encountered by all the new players. Not having an upper restriction wasn't an issue because everyone was at a similar sl. The forest was the place to be. When people discovered the dragon head glitch, they began powering up to ridiculous sl's and some decided it would be grand to take advantage of the no limit invasions and noob pound. All these SL 40's were getting crushed by 712's who brought a bud. They all wore the heavy gear and flipped because they were the only ones who could at the time.

I think that's where the stigma for giant's armor/masks come from too. If we all had gotten to those levels organically and simultaneously, the community may have embraced those armor pieces. However, people have come to asociate that gear with those early game griefers.

i dont get why people ***** about the forest hunters always ganging up people that go to the forest, tha is how that cove works, you are trespassing on their turf youre supposed to get gangbaged its what the devs intended. farmers on the other hand is cheap, i hate the forest last time i checked it out i got raped byt 3v1's every time, once the host had 2 sunbros and a dw, WTF? really ? do you suck that much that you need all that help?

By design the forest is supposed to be a very treacherous place, where a host is expected to be invaded by multiple players at once. The disparity in the sl's where the host/phantom are higher than the invaders is intended to be offset by the lower lvl hunters being able to swarm. Spawn camping and ganking however is not an intended game design. Neither is dueling as far as the forest is concerned. Part of the roleplay is the hunters are hunting players intending to reach Sif. Anything really outside of that is imposing. Invaders should not expect a duel, they should expect a host questing. Hosts should really be actively progressing, not hanging around. From did not intend whack a mole for the forest. Any other area is fine to host and wait, with the exception of a place like Dark Anor, because no other areas have triggered invasions en masse.