Fist de Yuma - April 15, 2003

This and that This might be a short column this week. I have spent a lot of time on a story I'm writing and the debate list. If you would like to see the story you'll have to wait until it is published or donate. The people who donate get copies of my stories as they are being written. The debate list is becoming very active. I need more people who can debate the right of center view because most on the list are left of center. They are good debaters and Ben and I need help. (grin) Subjects this week are, Economic Freedom, War in Iraq, Minimum Wage and several other topics. The link to join is at the bottom of the column. I took a lot of heat on the VN General board on what some assumed to be politics last week. It was not politics but a plea to stop putting my brother in danger. Agree or disagree about the war, putting our troops in danger by prolonging the war is not in anyone's interest. I'm all for free speech. I don't believe free speech includes blocking shipping terminals, shouting down anyone who disagrees with you, blocking streets or vandalizing buildings. Olthoi North Well things sure have changed in Olthoi North. The Olthoi Warriors are not only darn hard to hit but now have much greater attack skills to boot. I first noted this when I took Jr out hunting there. He had a lot more trouble landing the Life de-buffs and he was being hit more often. I admit that the hits were not enough to worry him but before the patch he was almost never hit. Deadeye is another story. I headed out with him the other day. Up to three of them he was ok. Any more than that and I had to be careful. The deadly hitting power of the bow had me clearing fast but I'd be in trouble if he missed a heal. Bow is a very powerful weapon. I was shocked to one-shot an Olthoi Warrior. It only happened once but it happened. Maybe it had been vuln'd or damaged by someone else but I did not see anyone their. I'm hitting a lot less so adding to bow will be a priory. At eleven million for coordination and eight for bow that is not easy. Before the patch getting overloaded with loot was not a problem. Now I'd not dare fight with a yellow pack. Even with high AL, well-buffed armor getting hit was not fun. The xp is fair for solo hunting. I think if I did not loot I could make it higher. I was pulling down about 4 million an hour. The loot did not include any keepers but I had enough cash items to gain 10 plats. This was on top of around 18 material items. Between buffing time and having to leave from being overweight I'm making around 2.5 million a trip. With the time it takes to render the material and sell off it will be a long time before his levels are up there. Still it is a lot more fun than shooting Tuskers for hours on end. Eylsa favor My weapon mule needed a Focus ring. I have him up to 500 buffed and plan to get much higher over time. An added 5 points to focus would be a big help. I have five players who can do the quest but I hoped one of the first three would get the ring. The last two are mages and, with no melee defense, have a little harder time with hollows. First up was Fist de Yuma. To make it interesting I decided to try and do the quest in a single hour. This meant no wasting time. I started in the desert town. First step is just running. At the dungeon I saw there might be a problem with a fast run. There were a few Hollows dead and I had to wait for the one with the letter to spawn. This meant there was someone or some group in front. If it was a group I was sure to catch them. Sure enough I caught a group of three at Holtburg. They only needed one more letter so I had to wait for them and one more spawn to get mine. I as hoping my knowledge of the quest would let me pass them at the temple. I stated into the temple and saw a few bodies. I had hopes they were lost because I ran into live Bandies. I ran by them without a thought of battle. I know the route well so there was no delay. When I hit a part where you can jump down instead of using the passage I saw bodies. Darn they were still ahead of me. I got to the end and they had just started getting the orb. To save on my buffs I logged off and logged in Mage. After talking with people for a while I logged him off and logged Fist back. They still had one more to go so I logged off again and started reading mail. When I logged back I was alone. I quickly killed all the Hollows and got the orb. A fast portal back to Holtburg got me going to the next section. I ran past someone and got the letter and uniform. A fast portal back to town got that part done. I love portal recall. A quick lifestone recall to Nanto with a short run got me back to the desert and the key to the fort. I ran through the dungeon without battle. I saw a few bodies so I knew the other group was still in front. I ignored the Hollows in the fort and just opened the door. With high melee defense there was no way they could hit me and, at 600 points a kill, not worth the one or two swings it took to kill them. Inside I just ran past everything to the end. The group was killing at the end. I though I would have to logged off and wait again when I saw the body of the Hollow with the letter. Just for grins I check it and it had the note! The group asked me how you get the letter. I pointed out the name of the Hollow body and told them to kill and loot that one. It seems they did not know which one had the letter. I kind of felt bad as I did jump across them but it was not deliberate. A fast portal back to town and I had a ring. Of course it was a minor Armor, the worst you can get. I ported to the mansion. While talking I mentioned what I was doing and how I got the wrong ring. Another Elder said he would trade that one for a Focus ring! MS said she had a ring as well if I needed it. The Elder who wanted to trade found he did not have a Focus after all but I told him to keep the Armor ring. I did not need it, as I had one already and have no need for another one. MS gave me the one she had so Fist's mule Four has his Focus ring. It is nice to know I can do the quest in less than an hour. I might do it with Jr next just to stock up. VoD I had been doing VoD off and on. Mostly I had been joining small groups that did not do much better than a solo trip to the plains would have. Given that the melee/archers get the loot there was not much reason to go there. Moby Dick had been running some Elder groups through it and it was reputed to be drawing as much as twenty million an hour. I felt that might be an exaggeration but wanted to give it a try. When I logged Sunday night Moby was on. I asked him if he was running a fellow and he was. There was also a vacancy. I quickly buffed up and ran there. Finding the group was an adventure in it self. I was running through all sorts of nasty stuff to get where they were hunting. After joining the fellow I saw why it was so successful. First was Moby's leadership. He never stopped. I'm sure we left a lot of unlooted bodies on the ground as we quickly chased him from spawn to spawn. The second was also because of Moby's leadership. The fellow had a good mix of melee, archers and mages. We had far fewer mages than most fellows have. Each had a job to do. I was not told my job but it was obvious. Yield and blast. With the second highest War in the fellow and the highest Creature it was a natural. I also provided back up heals in the really hard battles and substituted for Moby when he was running from the Lifestone. (grin) There were two people assigned to just healing. With Moby leading the charge he needed a lot of heals. To begin with we did do over twenty million an hour. With buffing and some waiting for people who died it dropped to around sixteen. That is still four million an hour better than the best I had ever seen. Moby said they normally do a lot better. My god. The melees and archers supplied attack power with MS and I adding in blasts. There were a few deaths. Notable Bookworm (aka Duri) and Moby. We need to get Bookworm a desktop timer. Two times he ran out of buffs and was killed. Moby's deaths came from odd events. The first was when fighting some Bandies. Somehow a Lugie had snuck up in back of him. A 160 point hit on his backside brought him within danger of dieing and the next swing did him in. Those hollow maces can hurt. The second was when fighting a group of Virindi. A saw two of then stop and one fire off a blade spell. The spell swept past me and blasted Moby to smithereens. It turned out that the spell I saw was not one but two. Both Virindi had fired off a spell. I only saw one from my angle. I've been on the receiving end of things like that so I knew the feeling. With only three buffs I ended up with around 35 million points. That included running to VoD, buffing and an early exit. Given that my lowest cost is 60+ million for a skill this is something I need to do more often. Wrecking Crew I do have a plan for later. I have two vassals, Abin is a 101 BM and Winter Raven is a mid 70lv archer. Both are smart and can play as a team. I have a feeling with a few more levels they can be a wrecking crew of unsurpassed power. My current plan is Fist de Yuma to team with them but that might change to Fist de Yuma Jr. It will depend on if we hit plains or VoD. I think plains first to get our teamwork down but then VoD. Adding a few in like MS and some good melees and we will dominate. Warning on house trades I'm not sure about other servers but in MT there is a guy who spends his time waiting for a house to come on the market. He had a pack of all the house items that might be needed. When any house is release he will show up in minutes. After buying the house he will sell it and wait for another. We found this out the other day. One Elder was giving his house to another. They had all the required items at first. The buyer had given away some cash to a needy Elder and missed being below the purchase price of the house. After it was dropped lag or some bug prevented him for buying the house. When it finally opened he was missing a hand full of cash. Another Elder gave him the cash he needed. All this happened in less than five minutes. As he was trying to buy the house the speculator rushed up and grabbed the house. He was told that the house was not abandoned as he showed up. They told him it was being given to someone and there was a short delay. The speculator did not care. He got the house. He looted all the items without a word. He squelched all the Elders that were trying to make him show some honor. The next day he sold it. Now many called this speculator a thief. I don't go that far. Instead I'll say he has no honor. Given that dishonor is as bad a thief label he is gone as far as the MT alliances are concerned. I have a feeling this is not his main player. This player is likely logged where he can hit portals fast and profit from any error others might make. I heard some talk of having people abandoning houses in far off places and then buy them back as soon as the speculator shows up. Risky but I can understand their feelings.