Bad week
It started with a rush to get the column done, which in hindsight did not turn out to bad. The next day I got up early to post the column and was greeted with a nice field of purple instead of imagines on my screen.
A bad monitor is something I cannot repair. Attempts to get one repaired in the past never worked out so I knew I was going to have to pay out some big bucks.
Not the greatest of eyes I need a good 21-inch monitor to be comfortable. Usually I will use the internet to get the best price on anything I buy. Having just changed IPs my portable was not setup for it. I grabbed a catalog from PC Connection and started looking.
Ended up picking a Sony G520. Had a Sony before and was happy with it. I also liked the 85mz refresh rate and the 21 dot pitch. The price was well over my budget but a monitor is not something to go cheap on. I remember when PC Connection had five dollar shipping for everything, not now. Shipping was almost two hundred dollars itself.
The need to get the column in was pushing me to do this fast. I knew it was a mistake to order this without talking it over with my wife. A formality as I knew she would agree to it but we have a deal to talk over stuff. I'm trying to make it as a writer so my income is restricted to my Marine retirement, not very much, and my wife's pay. Old debts take up a lot of that.
On the good side the monitor has a much better image that what I had. Bad side was the wife had me in the doghouse for two days.
Next bad news was the breaking of my island tie. I've been expecting this with each patch but it is still painful. I'm hoping my IP and computer can keep up with the island quest so I can get the scroll for it.
New Lugies
I decided to head out to see the new Lugie fort. This has been in the works for a long time and I was looking forward to it. Everything Fist fights tosses spells in my face and de-buffs me. This makes Lugies and Olthoi the best thing for a melee to fight.
I heard tales that the Lugies hate mages. Hollow weapons and instant targeting of mages were some of what I heard. Hollow weapons I knew they would have, instant targeting is probably a legend.
I headed to Awric, took the Awric Mine to Old Mine and then over a hill to the fort. Had a few battles around it but never saw an entrance.
I saw three Extras below a hill. Ran out and started pounding on one. I have missile d and it was about 190 with a few buffs. Might as well not had it as they never missed. Hollow rocks hurt when you depend on al 97 imp VI leather armor.
I ran up the hill, healed and then did the old run around them until they drop the rocks thing. They dropped the rocks and I re-engaged them. As soon as I did Supra-sword showed up and attacked one. He did not see me working them and jumped the battle. After a small bit of being pissed we decided it was a misunderstanding and joined up to find the entrance.
We found it but had to take a big jump off the hill. I put on my jump VI shoes and blunt protection before jumping. I took about 100 less points of damage than Supra-sword did.
The inside was not as good as I thought it would be. Not bad, just I was ready for something spectacular. Did a little exploring and decided there was nothing really here for me. At the exit I met a vassal of a vassal. With no leggings I got the idea he needed help. A large group was with him for support, I did not check to see if they were Elders or not.
After buffing his weapon I decided to tag alone and help out. Got to the main room where the commander spawns. I found I could fight here for xp if I wanted. The Extra's are over level 100 and on a fast spawn.
Supra-Sword said there are three places outside that had a commander. When all of them are killed the one their spawns. My grand vassal had died four times there trying to get the armor. I was asked if I would be willing to help out. Supra-Sword had two of the locations camped and need someone for the third. I agreed to help and was given the coordinates.
I took the castle exit and that was nice. Needed more time to explore it. Found the exit and then ran over the hills until I found the Lugie camp. Turned out to be the weakest one of the three. Still it was camped by a few 60+ and a 90lv fighter. After a few battles I sent a tell to Supra-Sword. The fighters were killing the commander with no need for me. Ported out and called it a night.
C-Note Fort
The fastest and cheapest way to get to the island is the Chalicmere Fortress. It is also the most dangerous. From Baishi you head south until you see a ridgeline. Follow the ridge until you see a tower. At the tower is a drunk. Give him Saki and he makes a portal to the Accursed hall.
Take the portal on the left and you come out under some steps. Climb steps and buff. Jump over the wall. Go north and be ready to run fast. Lot of nasties will be tossing spells at you. The fortress is at 17.4S 57.4 W
The first time I headed out there I only put imp in my armor. Got overwhelmed by five bandies and was killed before I could portal away. Mostly I just run and eat the de-buffs. Only spells I really hate are slow, weakness and clumsy. Slow makes it hard to get away from the mobs chasing me. Weakness and clumsy hurt when I get to the fortress.
Getting into the fortress is a pain. The door is guarded by different groups of nasties and two Diamond Golems. I have been killed by those two a lot in the past. It is still not a sure thing. With a level VI voln and shock wave I take over 100 damage.
If fighting two there is a chance they both will toss shockwave at once. I have to do a de-buff and run when fighting two. Even fighting one is chancy as two fast shockwaves well do me on. Mostly I can kill them before that happens.
The door is locked so unless you have good lock picking skill that is not the way in.
The walls are guarded with Diamond Golems and Undead. The undead seems to stay in the towers so you can just ignore them. At the edges of two corners is a ledge you can jump to with moderate skills. This is where the Weakness and Clumsy are such a pain.
As a mage with GSA I'm always at burden. Working on Strength but even with 215 I'm overweight. After stocking I'm lucky not to be at 150 burden. Right now I'm under 110 so I can make the jump but not sure what I will be able to do when I stock up next. I found at 120 burden I cannot make the jump. Guess I'm going to have to stay low on comps and split peas early.
To jump to the south side you must kill three Diamond golems. The two guarding the gate will attack you if you had not cleared them first. The north side is a bit better I find. Still you have to kill two Golems before jumping up there. This not a big danger as they never leave the ledge. Dodge the spells and eat the de-buffs. Of course if your not a mage this is a major pain. From the ledge you jump to the wall. From there you can clear the Diamond golem and Obsidian golem.
In the center of the fort is an Undead. Give him a C-note and, after a time, he makes a portal to Aerlinthe Isle. Lot of times I'm draining the Obsidian and Diamond golem while waiting for the Undead to toss the portal. Made it to the island that time with 87 hit points. Imperil VI, Blunt vuln VI, Weakness VI, Life inept VI and War inept VI. Needless to say I sat for a while.
Another trick is to get to the walkway and just stand there a while. You will get a few de-buffs but in time they all get bored and just stop. At that point you can jump down and give the undead the note without fighting.
Dieing on the Island
You can see that it is a long fight just to get to the island. It takes one to three buffs. This means I need to raise a lot of cash there. Before I could hunt and just pick up good stuff. When I was tired I would grab everything and cash it for one to two d-notes.
Now I need each trip to count. Going to try to get three to four d-notes out of each trip. I'm also hunting Malus's a lot for peas. Replacing stock that way is very cost effective.
So with that in mind I headed out on my first hunt. First I checked out the Corals Golems. Felt with all the ties gone it might be good hunting. For one buff it was outstanding. Coral after Coral. I think I got 500k or more on that one buffing cycle. I buffed up again and found it very different.
A horde of player and descended on the place. One was a fool kid who thinks being a foul month makes him a man. I had run into Vortec several times on the boards. He thinks a debate winner is who can curse the most. He asked me if I was Fist de Yuma. (I was playing Fist de Mage) I knew if I said yes he would start cursing at me. I said yes and of course he did. I told him he was too predicable.
Vortec is Moodblade's friend. What Moodblade has yet to learn is Vortec is not a friend of Moodblade. He is dragging down that fine monarch with his actions, vassals and mouth. Time will tell what the results will be on this.
In any case I decided to move away from the little kid and hunt elsewhere. I hit my old hunting spot and killed a Bandie and Malus. I put a cold vuln on a Malus and was about to hit the frost key when I was tossed to the desktop.
Took a few minutes to get back in and of course I was at the LS. Another long run and big battle later I recovered my body. About this time I was getting a bunch of messages from people who wanted to talk. I was trying to fight and talk and that does not work.
After killing a drudge I saw several more moving up from the hill. Between the lag and my typing I did not see I was at 4 hit points. The lag hid the lighting bolts that had been hitting me. I did not know I had damage. If I was not typing I might have saw it faster and tossed a heal. As was I had tossed a yield on the lead drudge. There was nothing I could do but wait for the spell to slowly be tossed before trying a heal or drain. Before that happened the drudge made it to me and with one swipe sent me back to the LS.
Dam, two trips and I had barely got enough loot to cover the c-notes, let alone the comps. Another long run and fight got my body. I target a Malus and two run up. I killed one and a fighter runs up and starts hitting the other one. I kill it and say, "Why?" He said, "I did not know you were fighting it." I said, "It was right in my face." Then I got a bunch of, "I'm not some lamer, don't say I am. Don't call me names unless you know me." I did not say a thing but he kept this up for several minutes.
Finally I had enough, a bad week and now this guy running on. I type, "Go away child." And logged for the night.
When honorable people do dishonorable things.
A bad week just keeps getting worse. At least this hunt I did well. Picked up a new lighting weapon off a drudge. It is better than the one Fist uses. After selling I picked up 3 d-notes and another c-note to get back on the island.
I would like to thank Voodoo Master for helping me sell off. He held some of the heaver items so I could get a d-note. I was to heavy to get 55k in pyreal without dumping some items.
Only thing that messed it all up was the actions of Gismare's Rage. From what I hear from others he is well respected. I'm guessing he had a hard night and decided to take it out on me.
I was hunting in my favored spot. I could see a guy in a mattie robe hunting up the beach a bit. I had cleared out the beach and was moving up the hill. I drew and killed a few Drudges and was close to leaving.
After I put a yield on a drudge a bandy ran over and attacked me. I put Yield and Light voln on it and was doing a stam to mana. Suddenly the guy in the mattie is there shooting lighting at the bandy I was fighting. Of course I was upset.
It seems that this bandy was part of a spawn he was hunting. He felt he owned that bandy, even though it had attacked me. To punish me for stealing "his" bandy he leached it. Like I said, he has a good reputation so I'm guessing this was just a bad day. Why he felt he had to curse me out for his actions I never could figure out.
What made it worse he posted it on the boards. His friends preceded to add there cursing into it. Most thought I had leached him. I'm still trying to figure that one out.
The really funny part was his saying I must be a very poor mage to have to yield a bandy. The reason it is funny is he is a 82lv mage and in the post a Bandy a resists him. Anyone who knows templates knows that an Og mage leads with Yield. I can fight without it but a yield makes it a sure thing. I'm not going to say he has a poor template because at 82lv a bandy will resist his voln. Hell even with 337 life skill and a yield VI on a bandy I get resisted.
It all came down to his perception. He felt I had drew "his" bandy. All the time someone will attack a spawn I'm hunting. It is upsetting but understandable. Someone off to the side has no idea your hunting that spawn. I have never run over to take revenge on a perceived affront. At the same time if someone leaches one I'm in melee with I feel I have to right to complain.
I did do one thing wrong. I called him a grief player and apologue to him for it. His response was more insults, threats and pigheadness. He said that the reason I was attacked was I got too close to the spawn and should have known better. In fact I was barely in radar range of it. He feels that everyone know how great and honorable he is so he turned down an offer to print his response here. He then proceeds to call my readers names.
I'm hoping after a night sleep he will be a little more reasonable. Somehow I doubt it. My main hope is to never see him again. This is the closest I have ever come to quitting the game. Between getting leached and then accused of doing what he did was a little much. Then all his friends cursing at me on the boards had me fuming. In the end most thought it was a misunderstanding, which it was. The problem I had was even if I had done exactly what he thought I did, he was wrong.
I only saw one thing. I was attacked by a bandy from out of the trees. Some guy ran off the water, over the beach and up the hill to attack it. I took the damage. I spent the mana and comps to de-buff it. I got 0 xp and 0 loot. All I got was a mouth full of hate and a day wasted.
More Lugies
After that I logged Fist and went to test out the new weapon. It has speed killer and BDV on it. This means I don't need to worry about the buffs falling. I still buff it because I like Defender, Heart Seeker and Blood Drinker VI. Nice to know that if buffs drop I'm still in the game.
When your pissed there is nothing like wiping out a hundred or so Luges. Well maybe the same number of Olthoi . Strangely with all the lugies there people still had to jump my battle, especially when I was fighting Extras. I keep saying, "There are a lot of lugies, there is no reason to leach." This worked for a while. The 40lv fighters there could not fight the Extras so leaching was their answer. I solved this by running deeper in. I was there to work off stress, not gain it.
Acid pit
Got a call from a desperate player who was very glad I was on. This was about 6am so he was not expecting me. He had lagged into the acid pit at Metros. He did not know about the hidden hall in the north wall so he died.
I logged mage and met him. He made a portal. I buffed him for acid and put acid bane on his lower cloths. Still he had over 100 damage from the jump and run to the hall. After I healed him up I recharged mana and healed him as he looted the body. Nice guy, I was glad to help him.
Body Recovery
Speaking of recoveries I got to test out the new consent command. I was hunting in the Lugie fort and got a call from Bleu Sky. His vassal had two bodies. One was in the frost vault and the other in the Lugie Fortress. They were headed to the frost.
I told him I was already at the fortress and would start looking for Trog's body. I almost missed it. It was in a side branch room. I cleared it of lugies and was waiting. Trog was trying to give me permission to loot the body. I had consent on so he just needed to get his end. It took a while to figure out the syntax but he got it.
Trog had lost some nice stuff, level V most of it. Need to get him some more death items. I ported to the hall and got him his stuff back.
This new command will be a life saver. Lot of the bad quests had to be done at less that full power. If death might mean the loss of a valued items you will tend to leave them on a mule. Now I can do the island quest without fear. Just have to be sure to have someone with permission to loot the body.
Body Recovery, team effort.
Reading the boards I saw a note about body recovery. Quickly logged in Mage and headed to the spot the team was gathering. The below post told the story much better than I ever could.
Another worried citizen of Dereth began to pace the sands of Mayoi.. Askil was plagued with terrible visions of Tumeroks coming at him from all angles.. "Oh what will I ever do? I lost my good death items and I dont know how I will ever recover from this crushing blow"... *key Underdog music*
HERE WE COME TO SAVE THE DAYYYYY
I, the fair Enchanthia put the MTBRT signal into the air in Ayan Baqar to be answered by the daring Ronusmc!
Could we do this? Could we possibly?
The word reached residents of Dereth far and wide..... Wicked Mage heard it as he was learning his GIMPSELF7 spell and answered, Ibn Ghon was busy hunting down and exterminating the ROACHES of Dereth yet answered, Fist de Mage was far away on the island of Aerlienthe but heard there was a call for help and responded, Kyrre even came taking time out of her busy hunting schedule as she heeded the call.. The Morningthaw Body Recovery Team was on the case!
We all met at the Mayoi LS to find poor poor Askil pacing back and forth.. "I lost my armor, I lost my items, I lost my good pack drudge!"
Ronusmc and Wicked Mage took control of the situation... Kyrre slapped Askil back into reality.. "SNAP OUT OF IT MAN! WERE HERE NOW.. YOUR ITEMS ARE AS GOOD AS RETURNED"
We all began our rituals to prepare us for battle.. Fist, Wicked and Askil were a blur of magespeak, while the "simple folk" such as Ibn Ghon, Kyrre, Ronusmc and myself prepared by placing our armor, clothing, jewlery and weapons on.. We all looked at one another.. "IT IS TIME", Wicked replied to our silent question... Askil took a deep breath, uttered "Roiga Thiloi" and we were off...
As we stepped through the portal immediately we were under siege as Tumeroks of all hierarchy began attacking...
The courtyard was awash with their blood in a matter of seconds as the MTBRT sprung into action!
As we looked around at the carnage and lifeless Tumerok bodies, we smiled knowing it was a job well done....
Fist de Mage loudly declared subway was open and we went our separate ways.. knowing that we WILL be brought together again.. at another time, another place... forever keeping the citizens of Dereth safe from non-recoverable items!
Firestorm
I was in the meeting hall helping out Liquid-Smack. More on that later. He lagged out and I was talking with Liquid's vassal Nappa Feresun.
There was a call for help. Seems the Crator had clamed another victim. Also the same person needed buffing for his weapon.
I logged mage and asked Nappa if he wanted to go kill Infernals. At 39lv he was not going to be doing it on his own but should do ok with me. I buffed up and tossed a load of buffs on Nappa. Someone opened a portal and we were off.
I helped clear the way around the tower and buffed up the guy getting his weapon. I then ran down to do battle. I would target the Infernal and toss imperil and cold vuln. Nappa would then finish it off with his cold sword.
After clearing most of the Crater Nappa asked about sword infusion. I was not sure that thought the Firestorm would drop it. I felt there were not enough fire monsters so the Firestorm was likely dead. A short time later I was proven wrong.
I should have lead with Yield but was use to leading with imperil. The imperil landed along with the cold vuln. While after several resists to my fireball I tried to get my yield in. No luck. Nappa was killed by the Firestorm and I had to run. I kept returning and trying to and a yield. With a 338 skill it would not land.
I was very close to death several times. Firestorm was hitting me hard. The magna golems were nasty as well. At least I could kill the magna golems.
Nappa got back and I buffed him up. I'm guessing my de-buffs were still in effect because this time it was very different. I tried a Yield with the typical success, none that is. It charged and Nappa started pounding it. It only got a few steps before falling. Nappa got his infusion and the Crater was safe again.
Liquid-Smack returns
I got a strange message from my vassal Liquid-Smack a while ago. It was a good-by that sounded like he was quitting. This week he returned. I'm guessing he had a very hard day and decided to take a break.
The problem was no armor and 40% vit. His other players were in similar shape. After he lagged out his vassal and me were clearing the Crater. I got back to the hall and he was still there. I was able to re-equip him so part one was done.
Problem was my wife was sick so my play time was limited. I saw Fu' Leng was in the hall. Aaa just the person to help. I introduced them and Fu' Leng said he had a great spot to work off vit. I saw Liquid-Smack was on the next day. Clear of vit and having fun again.
Obsidians
My vassal Toromada is hunting Revenants. Being an archer with fire arrows he is picking them off very well. The new gems and healing kits are needed by Mage and Fist respectively. Fist has lock pick so we figured having him hunt Obsidians and making the keys was a good division of labor.
Metros is a good place to hunt Obsidians. There are two big rooms with them. Actually there are three, getting to that in a second. Logged Sunday morning to go hunt them.
I ran by the undead and killed the Revenants when I had to. They are camped a lot so I only had one fight I think. I hit the room with the Obsidians and decided to run though the room to the next hall. Then fight them in the hall. Big mistake.
It seem the hall leads directly to another room with obsidians. Instead of fighting five, I'm fighting five in front and three in back. Only the restricted space kept me alive. Lot of healing elixirs and kits later I had it clear. No hearts.
Running between the two rooms was keeping me busy. As long as I killed them as they spawn I never had to face more than 3 at a time. Three is still a hell of a battle at times. The times are when they start chain casting. Drain is the biggest pain.
If all three start draining I'm under healing point quick. I find that even at a spot I should heal easy if I'm in combat mode I fail a lot. Dropping out of combat mode is the best way, but oooo I hate doing that. Several times I was at 20 hit points or so. Only my good stock of healing elixirs kept me alive. I spent a lot of them this morning.
Toromada showed up for a while and healed me in battle. This worked well until one decided to chain cast shockwave at him. After he got back I gave him two keys I had carved and he headed to turn in the triangles. Our worst fears were realized. We only got 2 gems for the unlocked triangles now. Still they are worth a lot to us. Toromada said he had 19 triangles so I have to get a lot of keys.
The big problem was buffing. To buff I had to pull out my shadow claw with the fire stone and kill the Revenant in the hall. Putting on my buffing gear also took time. I have to remove my blade VI bracelet, Magic resistance VI helm and acid V necklace. Them put on my lore V wand, V Amulet, Focus VI hat and Self VI bracelet.
I toss the 4 spells and then reverse the process. All this lets the Obsidian rooms fill up. After one buff I hit the main room and all five where there. As I killed one two more from the other room attacked me. I killed two when they started chain casting on me. I was hit hard and took off running. I noted as I disengaged and started towards the hall I had one hit point left! Still I was sure I was ok. Dogging they would not hit me with spells. I had disengaged but even so I'm not hit much in combat. What I did count on was drain.
"Obsidian golem drain you for 1 point of damage." Dag blasted. Ran back over to Metros expecting to have a hard battle to recover the body. Someone else had cleared it just before I go there. Took a bit to work off the vit. Despite being a very had to kill monsters they are only 62lv. That means I only get 4 to 5k a pop. Had to kill three to clear one point of vit.
At the end I go nine keys made. It was typical Turbine non-random number generator. Get none for 3 spawns and then got two hearts off two kills. My lock pick buffs to over 290 so carving the keys has never failed.
Cheaters again
Gear cheaters are causing a lot of grief these days. A PK cheating with gear has a huge advantage over the non-cheating PK. It does not end there. There're reports of massive lag around gear cheaters. For PK it will boil down to having to be a cheater or go white. If the lag issue is true then we all will suffer for it.
For those who don't know Gear is a program that slows down a part of AC. It makes AC think you have a very slow computer and returns more information. The results is a massive speed up of the player. As everything speeds up this may not be a problem with PvM except in cases where many are completing against a monster spawn.
I'm not in contact with Turbine or MS so I don't know what steps they are taking. I don't even know if there is anything they can do about it. All I do know is that these cheaters are causing a lot of troubles. If banning an account caught using Gear is all they can do, please do it now.
I got a letter from someone about the portals at the bottom of the subway. It seems that several servers did not have the problem until my column came out. I'm sorry that happened. I was worried it might give the grief players ideas. I felt that they would learn it in time and the warning needed to go out.
The good news was a lot of these slimballs were given a three-day ban. I'm hoping the second offence is three months.
Leveling
For the record Fist made 78lv and Mage made 64. I'm pouring points into Magic resistance for Fist and Strength for Mage. Turbine has stated it will lower the magic skill of the monsters to make MR more effective. I'm at about a buffed 210 with Fist now and getting 220 will be my effective limit.
Mage needs more strength for two reasons. The jump to the c-notes spot means I have to get under burden. I already strong for a mage at 180 raw but still at burden after a strength VI buffing.
Without my island tie I need to carry more loot back to AB. Before I could do a single buffing cycle and go sell. Now I have to be out much longer and still be able to run. I'm also having problems selling if to full of stuff. With a lot of loot I have to pass some of it to other players to be able to hold 55k in pyreal.
Without help I have to get c-notes and then cash them in for d-notes later. I'm figuring 190 is his effective limit. After that I will add to Magic Resistance as well.
Hypocrisy?
This is the first column that I have admitted having an island tie. Some have said this was cheating. As Turbine has killed it they must have thought so as well. If it was a cheat it gave me an advantage in leveling and loot but got a great one. The fact that the island is still packed with people shows that the ties were not all that bad.
I never felt it was cheating. I guess that is why I don't feel like a hypocrite. If you feel it was cheating I'm guessing your disappointed that I used it. My major problem is my dialup connection and somewhat older computer makes the island quest a slow motion nightmare. Getting the scroll will he hard. It might only be possible if I'm escorted there and given it.
I really want the scroll but not enough to take advantage of people that way. If DSL ever comes to Yuma and I sell a book, I might be able to do the quest. Until then I'll take the c-note fortress and eat the de-buffs.
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