A lot going on in real life this week so I'm starting late. That means I will have even less time to proof it so please forgive the errors.
First an apology for some of last week's column. I was in a very bad mood with the down time and not tolerant, to say the least. Perfect Chaos may or my not turn out to be a grief player. He was too low to tell. He was killing everything that came near him, without regard to others. My following him for a few minutes was to show him how such actions hurt others. I guess I made my point badly.
On the plus side I got as many letters praising my stand against grief player as criticism for the column. Still this is not a rant column, it is my story as it unfolds. If I had let the column sit for a few days the Perfect Chaos story would have been removed.
I only did it once
I got a very strange tell when I logged the other day. It started with "You're a very bad man." It slowly got worst with cursing. After a time I had to squelch him. He claimed I had him removed from the alliance. This was strange, as I had no complaints about any Elder. In fact if an Elder does something I disagree with I talk to them, not their patron.
Then I got what he was talking about. He was kicked from his alliance for making portals in the subway, not Elder's alliance. One of the stories by other people last week had that. Sadly his was the least of the problem. After making the portals he stopped and apologized. He was someone who followed others. A lot of people get into trouble by following bad examples.
What he did not understand was actions have consequences. He did a despicable act. That was why he was removed from his alliance. I had no part other than to bring his actions to the attention of his alliance.
The only action we can take against grief players is to ignore them. Try to treat them like they are not there. A thief get no trades and cannot belong to an alliance. We don't talk to them, we don't hunt with them, we don't help their recover bodies.
There is no role-playing of thieves or grief players. If there was a direct action we could take against them then I would say you could role play such. As is there are no consequences to actions other than let them play alone. As their only fun in the game is to destroy the fun of others, they will leave.
Teaching to Fish
There is a vassal of a vassal who seems very young. He is about one of the smartest kids I have seen in a while. His writing is articulate and precise. The problem is he expects people to do things for him. I have always been for letting people learn on their own as much as possible.
Take Toromada and Jeff Sailor Bane for example. Both have started a Battlemage. Jeff is dieing repeatedly on the beaches of Hebian-to. I had to run Jr over to help him get two bodies when he had dropped all his armor one day. He is 11lv and learning to be a mage. (The running joke in my house is he will want to beat on the monsters with his wand.)
Toromada's BM is around 20 now. He has two high level players. He has never played a mage so he has played the BM without help from day one. He could have easily got people in the alliance to power level him if he wanted. He understood that a mage was totally different from his Og Archer or melee. Learning the ropes over time was the best way to play. He is also having a great time doing it.
The vassal was very insistence that we help him. He had a lot of well thought out arguments on why we should. I was always nice and responded on how he had to learn on his own. At 26lv he could surely do what Jeff was doing at 11lv. He seemed very angry at me.
The next day I had quite a surprise. He praised me for it! He said he had learned his level IV spells and did the hunts I subjected. He had a great time. Like I said his is very smart. I'm guessing he is in an environment where he gets over help. You are not helping someone if you do it for him.
The people who spend the day power leveling vassals at the tusker camps are not helping their vassals. They are stealing the new player experience. It is a hard concept for them to understand. Most never did the new player fun as they were powered when they started. Things that come too easy are not valued.
Og vs. BM debate
I place, in pure power of mages, BM number one and Og a close second. As I get higher in level (75 now) I'm getting close to where yield is seldom used. Still I have spent double the points on War over Life to get War to within 19 points of my Life skill level. That is over 60 million points for a base 271 vs. 28 million for 290 Life.
The debate started with my old friend Zethgryn posting an essay on the VN board. I recommend you go read it at;
http://vnboards.ign.com/message.asp?topic=15643953&start=15647632
War is the key killer but Life is what sets it up. Regardless of the template Life is the key skill. As both BM and Og have spec'd Life lets look at spec'd War vs. Creature first.
A high creature let's you buff with little pre-buffing. I start my buffing with Creature VI followed by Creature VII. At that point I'm ready to start buffing. Someday far in the future I'll have enough skill to start with Creature VII. A BM will mostly stop putting points into Creature when it hits 250 to 260. At that point you have a buffed skill in the 320's and can toss VII's with few fizzles.
With a 260 creature he can hit a VI creature with few fizzles. That gives him around 300 creature skill. A lot more fizzles later he will have self and focus buffed to be in the 320's. He may even have to buff VI self and focus before buffing self/focus with VII's. So buffing will be a lot harder for a BM. Advantage Og but buffing is not combat.
After 60 and up to 70 or so a BM rules. He can Vuln and blast far better than any other player in the game. An Og is a spell behind as he must toss Yield before Vuln and blasting. On Og at that point will also fizzle VII's a lot and will have to use VI's for much longer. After 70 an Og has high enough War to start leaving yield behind. For all but the hardest monsters they are equal at that point.
One advantage an Og has is the ability to dispel. A BM gets this but with far more fizzles. That is not a problem except in combat. I have dispelled de-buffs in combat but not too often. The mana cost is outrages. If you don't get really lucky in mana conversion you can find yourself out of mana. So dispelling is not a big deal.
Another advantage to an Og is skills. I have Lore, Leadership and expect to pick up Lockpick at 90. (After much debate I feel that is a better skill for me.) A BM will have 5 skill points at 75. An Og has 11, a big difference. Still side skills are not all that important so the advantage is slight.
My long term goal for War is 300. This will cost me 482 million more points. If I has spec'd war it would cost less than what I have already spent to get it to 271. To me this is key. Getting a War spell to land can mean the difference between living and dieing.
When de-buffed the Og's ability to yield can be a savior. This effectively buffs your skills 40+ points vs. that monster. Still there are few monsters that can resist a high level BM even if the War is de-buffed. An Og on the other hand has a big problem with a War inept.
I liked one comparison between the two mages. Someone said an Og and BM is like an Life/Archer vs. a Melee. Against one very hard target a Life/Archer is better. Against several lesser monsters the melee is king. Same with an Og vs. a BM. An Og can de-buff a monster to kitten status given time. Against several monsters the vuln and blast is king.
Teaching the C-note and other adventures
Jeff is having a hard time with pyreal. A melee on the island can expect to die a lot. At 50k a pop it was costing him more than he was making. He asked me to teach him the c-note route.
While in the hall I saw Rizean. Rizean is a Battlemage that went over that key level 50 a few weeks ago. With all the work he had done with Rizean we had not talked much. I invited him to go with us.
I always thought that melee's would have too hard a time doing the c-note route to be worth it. I had been involved in some grand battles helping people recover bodies out of there. Diamond golems are hard for a melee to take down. Fighting two at the gate is almost impossible for all but the strongest melee players.
Then I read about a tactic you could use. After some testing it found it sound and was sure a melee could get to the Island with little trouble, though full of de-buffs.
A few points about this. You of course must be able to jump. You also must be light enough that weakness VI will not kill your jump. Blunt protection is a must. The Diamond Golems hit hard and toss shockwave VI. They also de-buff with imperil and blunt Vuln VI. This means if you have anything less than V's in blunt and armor protection you can be one hit, especially if they get around the shield.
The idea is not to fight. First you jump to the ledge. Now if you're the only one it is easy from there. After tossing spells at you for a bit they all calm down and go to sleep. You can give the note to the undead and go on your way.
If there are others around this will not work. The good thing is they might pay the passage for you. The note is not a biggie but taking the one dangerous step away is. To give the note to the undead you have to stop. This is the one time you can take a lot of damage.
Here are the steps to take to get the portal if the monsters are active. After jumping into the fortress you may have a clean shot at the undead. If so you can skip step one and give him the note now.
Step one. Run north, the building sticks out and you can behind it. Heal quickly and slide. There is a Diamond golem on the wall that it not adverse to sending a shockwave VI at you.
Step two. The inside Diamond might chase you but an Obsidian will. As it gets close you will have a clean shot at the undead. Run to him, give him the note and run back.
Step Three. Repeat your first hide, heal and run to get to the portal. It is really simpler than it sounds. As long as you keep running you should take little damage. Of course you will have to wait out the de-buffs but since Turbine shortened up the time on those it is not the pain it was.
As this was a teaching exercise we had to do every step. First we ran to Baishi from Lin. Not a hard run for us. Then I showed Jeff where to get sake. A short run south got us to the drunk. Someone had given him a drink so we just took the portal.
We took the left hand portal and then buffed up for the run. We headed north and slightly east until we found the merchant and the Life Stone. Both of them used the LS. A few clicks north is the fortress.
We killed the two Diamond golems outside but a melee can and should skip that step. I jumped into the fortress with Jeff on my heals. I showed him how to run around and do the hide and heal. Rizean was having trouble with the jump, he had a bugged buff it turned out.
There is a bug that can be nasty at times. You toss a spell. The movement goes, the sound go and everything looks ok. The problem is nothing happens. The spell does not go off and there is no mana loss. Of course if your tossing a bunch of spells you will think you have a buff and move on to the next one.
Only when you have your head handed to you do you know something is wrong. In this case Rizean was missing Jump Mastery. Jeff was safely away and I stayed behind to help Rizean. He finally got his jump buff on and we took the portal.
It was good timing as both Rizean and Jeff were instance booted. I waited a little bit while Rizean's and Jeff's logged back in. We ran to my starting spot.
We started out slow, taking down Bandies and Drudges. I found that I did things a little different than Rizean. I used fire on Drudges and he used cold. About equal in damage but if we are vulning it is good to be on the same page. Mostly I was imperiling so Jeff could slice them up.
After a re-buff I was ready for something harder. I knew some of the bad stuff spawned on the hill. Silver Tuskers, Augmented Drudges and other nasty stuff are up there.
It was really exciting to be surrounded by 5 or 6 Silver Tuskers. Augmented Drudges are a pain with their high magic resistance. I was putting yield and imperil on them so the other two could take them out. It got really exciting while fighting the Vinindi Observer. (I swear that is the name but I could not find an Observer in the monster database.)
A Nightmare Wisp started chain draining me. I had been killed once before by a Nightmare Wisp on the quest. I was frozen in lag while it chained drained and then harmed me to death. As I could not see it I did my beat feet move. I also type a fellow tell of "Retreat".
From there we moved to the bay and killed a bunch of Wasps and Drudges. I like killing Greater Bones now. They die easy to two spells. Rizean said he hates them because of the de-buffs. He cannot dispel level VI de-buffs yet.
At first my plan was to move to the Corals but changed my mind. We were not after xp but adventure. I said, "Have you two seen the Lava fields?" Rizean had but not Jeff.
I hate doing the run through that most parties do. I would rather kill what is in my way than try to run passed them. We did ok until about 6 Wasps jumped me. I was down to 30hp before I was able to break loose. I quickly healed up and got back to help take them out.
We hit the Laval fields with a wake of destruction behind us.
If you have never seen the Lava fields it is a very strange place, very foggy. The fog does a good job of hiding two of the hardest monsters in the game, Vapor and Plasma Golems.
As we stepped into the fog two orange dot appeared right next to me. I could see them on my radar but not see them in the fog. I retreated out of the fog and turned to fight. It was Vapor golems. A quick imperil and cold Vuln made them easy prey for Rizean and Jeff. I froze one while they killed the other.
We killed a lot in there but had one really exciting battle. Rizean was vuln'ing some Silver Tuskers. I saw an orange dot appear on the hill. I try to keep one eye on that screen at all times. I quickly click and on the dot, a Plasma golem. I could see that Rizean was concentrating on the Tuskers.
I did a yield and cold vuln on it as it charged down the hill. Jeff and Rizean were hip deep in Tuskers. A few drains and a cold blast took it out. What I did not know was that orange dot was two dots. With the fog I was not aware of the second Plasma Golem until I heard the sound of it hitting me.
I tried a quick drain on it and was resisted. That is bad news. It seems that if a monster is able to resist the first spell it get a magic resistance boost. After several tries I got a yield to land. Jeff was attacking it by this time but missing. Rizean had dispatched the last Tusker and landed a cold blast to finish it off. Not a little sweat over that one. Rizean said he missed the Plasma's completely.
Before we know it we had cleared the Plasmas, Hellfires, Vapors, Tuskers and Augmented Drudges. Buffs were about to drop so Rizean and I decided to head back to the hall. Jeff wanted to keep fighting, crazy boy. I buffed him for everything so he could make the run out of the bay.
After we got back to the hall Rizean and I remembered that Jeff had all the loot.
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It is always good to have another view. What one sees another sees in a different way. This is Rizeans point of view.
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Island threesome - A bit Odd
Foreword
I was having a rather Blah weekend and had a very bad day on the Island. I was in general in a bad mode by the time Saturday night rolled around. So I went out and rented Crouch Tiger, Hidden Dragon. This was probably the single best movie I have every seen. It also deeply touched home with me due to some recent loses in my family and other emotional events. I was now too upset to sleep though no longer in a bad mood just an odd mode and wanted to be around people, even virtual ones one do. So I log on and see that Fist De Mage is on and I rarely get to talk to Fist. So I start to type a message and he logs! Dang it! I said aloud "Dang it, I wanted to talk to fist" and sure enough one of his mules pipes up. He informs me that him and Jeff are about to got to the island and ask if I want to come along. Moments latter off we go!
Island threesome - A bit Odd
We're going the way of the C note fort. I had never been this way before and figured I had better learn this route as the D note guy is breaking me. We run out to the Madman and there is a portal wait on us so we hoped on through. We get to the accursed halls portal area, buff up, jump the wall, take a short trip through the dires and before ya know it were there. Fist, tells us were gonna leave the diamonds alone cause we have a melee with us. He shows us the jumps and about the time he gets over the diamond from around front takes a liking to Jeff and I. At this point Im not sure if Jeff is running from it or is in the sticky melee attack dance of death. Either way I vuled it and bolt it and that was that. Now on to the jumps which Jeff made the first time. I however missed and missed and missed. So I cast Jump and Cord on my self and still miss!?! I checked my debuffs and had a few vuls, nothing else. Huh? So I check my jump skill and its no where near where it should be. Come to find out the jump mastery had just not gone off. So I recast it and make it with ease. So off to the Island for a mere C note! As soon as I exit the portal Im looking at my desktop, sigh.
I get back in and head down to the water south of the drop off where Jeff and Fist are waiting. We get fellowshipped and buff up. At this point we head down the beach which is not something I normal do. I mainly hang out near the drop off as I find there is enough in that area to keep me busy and you will also see me hunting corals a good bit and anything else along the coral area.
A short time latter we come to a stopping point and start grinding the beasties into little bits. Fist and I were tossing Imperials faster than Jeff could kill. I tossed a few vuls and bolts into the fray and healed Jeff from time to time. After we cleared the near by beach we went ahead and rebuffed.
As we started moving inland; something I had never done, I immediately noticed it was FLAT! I really hate hunting on hills as unless you move your view. A lot of times you end up looking at the ground and get a poor ideal of what is going on around you. Secondly when fighting on slopes I find I get hit in the head and feet more often. So we start moving inland and at first it was bandies and Drudges, which we tear apart. I notice Fist is tossing Imperial 7 and I am not. I just not there yet and a about half the time one of us has already imperial the creature by the time the other has. Fist noticed this too as he told me to just start bolting and he would Imperial and Vul for Jeff and I.
Now it starts to get interesting. Fist notice an Vinny Observer and comments he had never seen one in this area before. It's behind a hill and I am trying to angle my self to get a war on it. No luck, grrrr. At some point we get frustrated and run up the hill on it. At this point the ground its self comes alive. I am not even sure if I killed the Observer or someone else does, however I do notice a Firestorm has taken kindly to me, Vul, Bolt and it is dead. That is the power of a Battlemage.
We retreat to a more fightable position and clear all the baddies that followed. We continued on Fists path and come up on a very heavily spawned area. Lot of stuff was there to include White Wasp a.k.a. Demon Spawns. The only thing I hate worse than white wasp is Wisp; Jeff on the other hand seems to like the wasp.
Fist and I start clearing the wasp one at a time and we slowly work our way through the entire spawn and near the end it broke out in to a large-scale battle. We move on down and hit the bay beach and the area I am familiar with. We came out opposite of the end of the bay entry near the four coral spawn point with the light post. We move down the beach clearing Drudges, Embers, a few skeleton thingys and sigh more wasp. Afterwards Jeff was busy looting the area as Fist and I went through our buff rituals, lol. Rebuffed and ready to go Fist ask us do we want to go somewhere really scary? We are like sure! So we head off to the Lava Field! We work out way there, by passing a few parts to get there.
So we are standing before the Lava field and I see a Hellfire. Last time I ran into one of these was on the island quest. I couldnt touch it, apparently it has leveled a few times. Before Fist and Jeff jumped in I said wait I want to try the Hellfire. Fist was said he would yield it for me. I said no I want to go it alone. With that I cast vul and got it on my first try. Then about four frost bolts latter I landed it and it was dead. Got some congratulations from Jeff and Fist said well done. I was very pleased with my toon.
Then we got it on! First came another Hellfire then followed up by a couple of Vapors; which I must say were surprisingly easy for me. We killed numerous embers and continued through the lava field. I am standing almost on the other side of the field and see two Silver tuskers and vul one and at the exact moment I notice the two plasmas moving in to beat my face in. I figure I had better deal with the Silvers quick.
I got lucky and dropped the first Silver with one bolt, no drains or any thing else. Second Silver took a little more work. Now, I turn and see Fist fighting an almost dead Plasma and Jeff fighting one nearly full of life. Not sure if he was not hitting it very often or hitting it for very little damage. I decided the best thing was for me to just kill it.
By this point I had feeble mind on myself and let Fist know, but he was still busy with the first. Somehow I did manage to land the vul after a few tries and manage to land a bolt after a few tries, it good thing one bolt killed it. That said and done buffs were running low and it was now a good two hours latter. Fist was ready to call it a night but I was looking to hit relic town until I saw the clock! Sigh, my how time flies when youre having fun. Jeff on the other decided to hit the beach again. Fist buffed him before we took off.
Fist and I talk for a good hour in our meet hall about various hunting pros and cons and discussed our two styles. Fist seems to always go for the creatures weakness while I on the other hand will use spells they are not weak to but are not strong to. For example I use frost on drudges while he uses fire. At range frost vul and bolt will one shot them and close range drain and bolt will kill them, so it work equally well for me which means one less spell I need on my menu because frost takes out shreths too.
Again the same with Silver Tuskers I use piercing on them which also works almost as equally well as fire and piercing is good against Fire Wisp also. Bandies I will agree that Lighting is by far the best and is what I normally use against them but in a pinch two frost bolts and a vul takes them down.
I have my menu very slim lined to work with this train of thinking. My first four spells are Frost Bolt/Frost Vul, Second Spell/Secondary Vul, which is dependent up on what I am hunting, or if Im in support more. If support mode I will fill it with Imperial and Heal other. My next five are drain health, drain stam, drain mana or revitalize self; dependent up on what Im hunting, stam to mana, and finish off with heal six. Off of the hot keys I have my extra war spells, magic yield one for drawing and harm six. If I am using drain mana I will also leave revitalize on my menu, not hotkey though. After talking about Hunting tactics, and other miscellaneous game topic we called it a night.
Rizean lvl 55 Battlemage - House of Elder - MT
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Newsgroup Tales
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Want a place to hunt without spending a fortune or waiting out de-buffs, try Vesayan.
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I havent spent much time down in the Vesayan Islands SE of Mayoi. I went down there a few months ago with Xero Prime and Gunthar the Punisher to collect Idol gems for our bandit swords. Once the bandit hilt was gained, Id really kind of blown it off.
Recently Id seen some screen shots of the Cathedral and heard people talking about how the furthest Vesayan Islands are a lot like hunting on Aerlinthe as far as great loot and experience. I always liked the islands as the landscape, foliage, and local fauna are unique in Dereth. My interest was peaked by some of these new screen shots and tales of terrific loot.
Gunthar the Punisher usually hunts the NW Dires out past Fort Tethana. Ive been wheening myself away from the OHN and hunting the Dires more, but I spent a lot of time out there in my 20s and 30s. Basically, we were both tired of the Dires and wanted to mix it up a bit.
Gunthar and I had been to Aerlinthe with Xero and we had liked fighting there. Unfortunately, Im a gimped-beyond-gimpiness no-magic-having standard template blade master. Last time we went to Aerlinthe, I burned two D notes going back for body recovery. I managed to break even on the trip, but the thought of fighting at Aerlinthe without the benefit of using Xero Prime as my meat shield didnt seem that appealing.
The Cathedral it is, we decided. Gunthar and I hooked up down in the Vesayans and started working our way East. Its gratifying to work your way through MOBs of mosswart clingers and putrid moarsemen. Theyre a challenging fight, but not too challenging. Theyre nice, easy targets who cant do much damage as long as your protections are up to snuff.
We got as far as the abandoned building guarded by the Ulu Sclavi and Dark Leeches. I hadnt gone up against Dark Leeches or Magus before, neither had Gunthar. I pulled out my BDVI, SKIII flaming samshir while Gunthar stuck with his bandit sword. The Dark Leeches pack a little bit of a sting, but they werent really much worse than fighting a Revenant.
We exited the temple ruin and took a peek out back. Dark Magus! Cool, I read theyre not too bad to fight with fire weapons. I had plenty of healing potions and kits, so I thought this would be fun!
Im used to evading undead melee attack (Melee Defense about 285 buffed) while needing to guard against Flame, Lighting, Whirling Blade, and Force Bolt. Ive got my protection package put together about right, I realize I need to take off my Armor Self V shirt to put on my Fire Protection IV shirt. I equip the Fire Protection IV shirt and put my Greater Celdon Breastplate of Flame back on.
We move to engage the Dark Magus. He throws some spells, I duck. He casts again and hits me with a volley. I heal. He charges with his Frost Weapon drawn... I scream like a little girl two or three times while he sends me skittering back to the lifestone. GSC of Fire combined with no Armor Self V shirt and no Frost Protection IV necklace (I had my Acid Prot IV on, instead) meant that I was effectively at Armor Level 0 for a frost attack.
"Damn, this is going to be a long run," I thought to myself. There were plenty of Shallows Devourers and Island Armoredillos to clean off the vitae. Once that was accomplished, it wasnt too bad of a sprint to get back to old jungle ruin. Upon returning, I found Gunthar the Punisher happily hacking away at Dark Leeches and Sclavi. Not being completely stupid (although members of my allegiance would argue feverishly about this point), I equipped my Cold Protection IV necklace and went to evaluate the situation.
My body had fallen perfectly; I was just inside the auto-attack range for the two Dark Magus and the Dark Leech at the spawn point near my corpse. I began drawing the group and heading back inside the ruined building, but they would return to the spawn point before we could do too much damage. We were also having a bit of a time keeping the ruin clear. Ulu and Sata Sclavus would respawn along with the four Dark Leeches inside the ruin while we were battling the group from near my body.
I decided to do a grab-and-run until I got all of my stuff. The items on the corpse were all death items, 4 or 5 master robes, an obsidian ring, and a portal gem. I didnt want to give up 280,000p in death items if I didnt have to, so I went and grabbed it piecemeal. Grabbing one or two items at a time, the Magus did some damage. As soon as Id get past the Sclavus spawning point, theyd peel off and go back to their spawn. Id heal, collect a few more items, and so on.
I got my death items easily enough while Gunthar the Punisher gleefully killed the Leeches and Sclavi. Vitae was gone, death items were safely tucked back into my death item backpack. Gunthar said, "Its getting kind of late. Do you want me to portal us home?" "Wait, I want to whack a Magus," I replied. Gunthar and I had just finished whacking the Leeches and Sclavi again, so I took off my armor.
I had never used my Atlan tool before, Id heard they tend to break at bad times. I decided to give it a shot anyway. Taking off my crimson armor with gold veins, I removed the Major Smoldering Stone essence from each of my 4 pieces of Celdon armor without breaking the tool. I re-infused them with the Major Shivering Stone essence and equipped my blue armor with purple veins. "Lets go get the Magus," I said.
Gunthar the Punisher and I went back to where my corpse had previously lain and the Dark Leech and 2 Dark Magus charged right at us. I started in on the closest Magus while Gunthar quickly dispatched the Dark Leech. He started the second Magus, I joined him as soon as I finished the first. My thirst for vengeance now satiated, Gunthar summoned a portal for the Arwic Subway and away we went.
Our little expedition netted us a quick 600,000 x.p. each and bags full of nice loot. The architecture and landscapes on the scarier islands are really cool looking and the variety of creatures are quite enjoyable to fight.
If youre too cheap to burn D Notes to head to Aerlinthe, I heartily recommend the Vesayans for your next hunting trip. Gunthar the Punisher and I were at the temple ruin for at least an hour, we never saw anybody on that island the whole time we were there. Its probably because were idiots and we ran past a bunch of cool stuff just so I could die screaming, but we still had a good time!
Ben-Li Sung, Blade Master Xero Prime Monarchy Morningthaw
Providing the creatures of Dereth with nutrients since 12/16/99!!!
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Toromada is working his BM more these days. This is a story I have wanted to work into the column for a while now. Toromada is an Og archer, one of the most powerful templates in the game.
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Hi all,
You know sometimes believe it or not, corpse recoveries are a lot of fun. I was at the fortress last night and taking on diamonds when I get up on the ledge to pick up some loot. This was at the area where there is a building right by the ledge, so I thought I was safe from the diamond on the other side, whoops wrong thought. Somehow that shiny bastard made his way across that narrow ledge and as soon as I realized he was there it was too late. I tried to jump and the bastard caught me in mid-air with a full shot, and sent me crashing into the lifestone.
I appear at the lifestone and Im pissed, so I buff up to go get my revenge, I spot a couple Bandy Thrashers and use them to work off some of my vitae. By the time I get back to the fortress there is a full spawn, now Im thinking that my body since I was in the air when I was killed should be on the ground...but no Turbine has to make my life difficult. It is hanging off the edge with the diamond standing on it walking back and forth as if to crush what is left of my corpse.
Needless to say I was not a happy camper about this situation. Ive still got 3% vitae, and Im not sure of my ability to throw 6s in vuls/imps esp since Mr. Diamond says Ill help you out with life inept 6. I go out a bit and open up on him with 5s, he resists, I persist and finally land the two spells I want. I pull out my bow and start hammering.....damn this is tough without level 6 debuffs on him, Im hitting for about 65 points less a shot.
The golem then flips me the finger....actually he healed himself but it looked like he flipped me off, so I run to the corner and jump up. This frustrates the golem cause Im so close it wants to hit me and tries but cant reach me. This provides me the opening I need to keep shooting at full accuracy and finally he falls. Unfortunately I had two more to kill before I could recover.
Huma asked if I needed help and I said thanks but naaaahhhhhhh. I was having too much fun, I kill the final golem and my buffs start to drop so I recover my corpse. Someone gave a C-note and the portal opened so I made a break for it......not realizing that the golem I thought someone killed on the ground level wasnt dead, it had just been outside and now it was running at my arse full bore, I made it into the portal just as it swung. I was watching my heath praying it didnt hit me, and I survived...YIPPIE FOR ME.
I went to take a long soak in the ocean, after a battle and recovery like that my armor was stinking of sweat and I wanted to let all the debuffs wear off before I went hunting. There is something wrong when I can lie down in the water for 6 minutes and not die but I wont complain to Turbine about it.
I hunted some last night and this morning focusing on the Bandie side of the beach. Ive discovered that I can make about 200,000+ a buff cycle, it depends on what I focus on. If I go after Shreths then it will be less because it takes the same amount of arrows to kill them as it does the Bandies.
Picked up a nice set of sword mastery gaunts, only IVs and aluvian only but I should be able to trade them down the road, I also pulled a sweet Yumi, a 113% +6 attack, which should also pick up at least a few keys for those beginning archers. Talk to you later.
Toromada
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The gem is left me rolling.
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Sometime you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug. Some days, youre both.
Last night was one of those. I was messing around with my newbie, Bsing with Zakamoto as he does one of his deep dires runs.
"Nothing usual."
"You know they wont attack one of us : )"
"Just as I said that, I spotted a Director."
"Need backup?"
"Nah, just the one."
I go about my business of low level killing.
"Steel Chest?"
"I thought those only spawned on the OP. Maybe the virindi invaders are dragging them behind them."
"It looks like."
"If the wife wasnt absorbed in a game of Q3TA, this would be cause for a field trip. Where is it?"
"In the little valley before the entrance to the wagon wheels in the south dires."
"Wow, I could be there in under two minutes."
I turn to the wife. "Do you want risk free scrolls for Kepura to learn her level sevens?"
"Grunt"
"Steel Chest spotted within a minute of our lifestone."
"Heck yea."
I scramble servants to dump the largest container of keys onto Barra and we set off. Somehow, we blow by Zakamoto, we come back and clear a few shadows so Zakamoto can sell some of the less valuable junk to the roaming blacksmith and set out to find the Virindi. Barra spots the chest and we break out the marshmallows.
Suddenly, it started to rain tuskers and virindi (it amuses me when the spawn is in mid-air). I dove in and my rapier dispatched the master in one blow...hmm, I had hear rapiers sucked *shrug*. A guard clipped me in the butt...for zero damage. Ooooo, today is a very good day. I pushed my rapier almost through him and blood fountained forth as I rolled my wrist then ripped the blade out of the beast. Barra easily felled it with a half-hearted blow from her sickle. Yea, rapiers definately suck, gotta give this thing to the next town crier I see.
While waiting for the chest, we widened our zone of death. We finished a chest pull as Zakamoto came back with war spells hot on his tail.
"Shadows"
"Okay, I need to buff."
Zakamoto was filling them with arrows as I got ready to touch up the spells on my blade. The shadows were content to stand there and get shot. I turned to the wife.
"Wanna imperil to speed this up?"
"Sure"
The imperil went off and the shadows took this very personally. One charged each of us. Oh well, I can kill an umbris with an unbuffed rapier...it just takes a while. They fell, we looted and life was good. Back to the chest.
More virindi, more monkeys and assorted dires trash died. Then the shadows returned. No worries says I. I do a run by and I get an Umbris and a Pan. *shrug* Still within my limits and it shouldnt be long before I get some help, Barra and Zak will make quick work of the other one. I would whack a little, heal a lot and generally just play the melee version of drain mana, that is, eat the war and heal. I was a full health, took a drain, went to heal and was blasted back to the lifestone.
Hruh?
"How did you manage that?"
"I dont know, I had around 150 health when the war hit and I wasnt vulned."
I scroll up and found the answer. I wasnt *just* drained. I was drained by the umbris, the pan, and the umbris again so fast it looked like one spell.
Oh well, some days youre the windshield, some days youre the bug. Some fine days you are both.
Nasier
Leafcull
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I never have days like this. With so much greed in the this I really refreshing.
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Well last night was without doubt the best night of my lvl 39 dagger guys life!
Starts off that my monarchy (Super Helix on FF) had organized a major fire stone quest, so I go to the meeting point near Hebian-to and practice my buffs and start checking comps. Then as I am talking to a guild friend and helping another to mule a strange "voice" is heard :
"reality distorts as if under great pressure"
We all stood around saying oh there must be a raid going on somewhere ( at this point we didn't know that it is a local message! ), then all of a sudden a group of between 8-12 dolls spawn ( all between lvl 30 - 40). It appeared that only a few of us were buffed and the rest of our group were mules, so into the throng of dolls I ran with my teeth clenched and my dagger held high! I am so glad that my gerties was fully buffed with Vs and so I made short work of 5 dolls 1 & 2 hitting them and took a few chunks out of others. After about 30 seconds the dolls were all gone and we healed and started to loot the corpses. I got a total of 4 Quiddy ingots from the 5 corpses ( one of my guildmates looted the first doll I killed and took the quiddy with my permission). One of the funniest things was my Monarch Super Helix was logged in as his mule ( level 7 ) and was killed which caused a bit of a laugh. After a few minutes of "wow did you see that" conversations I portalled to the subway with my new found treasure. I at this point did not know of the real value of the ingots until I heard someone spam:
"12 Smalls for a Quiddy Ingot"
Jesus I thought that much? Being a poor lvl 39 dagger the highlight of my young life was obtaining my MSA all on my own, so I do not have any shards on my character so I said to myself what the hell and so I shouted "Quiddy Ingots for trade @tell", next thing I know I have a screen full of yellow @tells offering me anything from 200K in pys to 3 full un-inscribed Post GSA for 3 ingots, I managed to get a deal which was 3 Post GSA and an Oswalds dagger ( the lightning one ) for two quiddy ingots. So I was so happy and immediately messaged my top vassal and met him in the subway and issued him his own set of "regulation" GSA, my second top vassal then received my own MSA, the third vassal received a mix of Mattie Coat and MSC bottom. I then gave my patron one quiddy ingot to say thank you for supporting my Dagger guy over his 39 levels. I now have one ingot left and am sporting my new GSA ( I know some think it is rubbish but I always wanted some from first seeing it! just because). I have a spare set of post GSA for my second vassal when he hits 35 ( he is currently 27 ) as a bit of an incentive.
Then I returned to the Hebian-to mule spot and went on the fire stone quest and got me a nice fire stone and my top vassal also got his too.
Overall what a great night!!
I was so happy to be able to help so many people in such a short time, and I still have 1 ingot left to either trade or make into a quiddy dagger I am still undecided on which course of action to take, I may go for the dagger just for fun!
I will go now and thank you for reading my happy tale!
Sith Darkblade - LVL 39 Dagger Sporting his new GSA and some very happy vassals and patron!
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