Teamwork
I've met some very nice people in EVL these days. The FFA attitude that started there has been stopped. People respect others and there is few if any conflicts.
People fellow up and go hunt. Mages team with melees to make both more effective. There is a lot of fun for everyone, great xp and loot as well.
I teamed with a Life/Archer named Scrumpy. I first saw him fighting using his own imperils. It looked kind of hard for him but he made it work. Pull out wand, land spell, a drain to get back health, switch to bow and kill with 1 to 2 arrows. Of course where he would get into trouble was with fighting a mob.
After I joined the fellow we teamed up. I would use the ";" key to select each monster in turn, then toss an imperil. Doing this we could get a group of 5 in little time, effort or danger. Scrumpy waited until my imperil hit and would then kill. Most of the time it only took 1 arrow. As fast as I could land imperils the EV's died. Really worked well.
Later Scrumpy had to leave. I was hunting and hit a spot of lag. Now normally lag is disconcerting but not dangerous. This time was different. I was frozen but the monsters were not. I had double buffs so I was not taking big damage. Even with hits of 2 and 3 they were adding up fast.
I tried logging off but no go. I was about resolved to another lag death when Scrumpy shows up. He pulled out his wand and hit me with heals. Then he proceeded to imperil and kill my attackers. Needless to say I was very grateful.
I know people think I hate archers. Nothing could be further from the truth. What I hate are grief players. For a long time the Archer class was home to grief players. It was the one class that seemed to outclass all the others, including mage. Later they hit the wall. This made most of the grief players move to another class. The improvements in archery have brought them back but players like Scrumpy should not be confused with them. He is a great player who knows what he is doing.
In fact most archers I know walk on eggshells. Everyone groans when they pull out the bow. They are careful not to hit others targets and pass on a lot of monsters because they are not sure if they are engaged or not. The rotten apples really stand out because they can really ruin a lot of peoples day. Nevertheless we have to be sure to blame the moron behind the bow, not the class itself.
Stupid naming
I was playing my Xbow player in HG and spotted an archer hunting the same place I was. Just to see I checked her stats. She was around 10lv. What caught my eye was the name. With players being ban for offensive names I was sure people had learned not to take chances. The name is "Hot Box".
On a male player this might have gotten a pass, though doubtful. On a female player it is sure to be deleted as soon as an admin see it. Recent deletes such as GoldenGirl and ZipperDuty have proven that any reference to sex can be banned. I warned "Hot Box" not to put to much time and effort into the player.
I got your typical kid return. "I have not done anything wrong." "It is only a game." "There is nothing wrong with my name."
Well he (I'm sure it is a he) has been warned. If he puts a lot of time into it he will learn the lessens of many others who tried to get a name by the filter.
In EVL today I ran into Hemorrhoid, a 56lv Life/Archer. He put much to much time and effort into a player that will be deleted in time. I asked him if he was worried but he felt the name was no problem.
All I can say is these people are either very ignorant or very stupid.
House
After hunting in EVL for a bit with mage I got a tell from someone saying houses had been opened. I quickly logged Fist who had been camping a house in the far north. Unlike housing complexes in more accessible places I had not seen dozens of campers at this one.
I found that the item needed was a swamp stone. The house is for Mage as he has a purpose for getting it. When he dies he can drop his helm, gants and shoes, at times all three. Getting the body back required buying some junk to cover the missing armor. I figure putting a few sets of those in the house chest will let me drop the tons of death items I have been carrying.
If Turbine gets the account recall done Fist will use it as well. With creature skill he has dropped his creature armor and donned some heavy, expensive high al armor. One piece is worth 30k. I doubt that I'll ever hold on to it when I die. Having a set of armor I have quick access to will help a lot.
So the race was on. I logged back Mage and asked if anyone in the hall had a swamp stone. No one did. I then decided to head to the Subway and buy one.
As I hit the subway I could hear the greedy people trying to take advantage. My intent was to buy one for an M note, an outrages amount but I was in a hurry. The first spam I saw wanted 5 M notes for one! I'm guessing someone got angry about the greed and announced that swamps stones were being dropped. Of course it was not the players who grabbed them up but the greedy mules. I later heard someone was trying to trade one for a Diamond Shield!
I was willing to pay but not be cheated. I announced that I was paying an M mote for a swamp stone a few times. I got a tell from someone in the corner and got the stone.
I then ported back to Lin to pop a gem to the northern mage shop. It was still a long run but I did not know a closer route. There appears to be one that I will track down. The run is very nasty, with Grivvers and Shadows being in abundance.
I hit the complex and found that someone called Dark Bow had taken my house. Fortunately there were a few houses opened still. It was not the house I wanted but it is a house. Later Dark Bow sold or gave the house to someone else.
It was a good thing I had timed it right. When I logged Fist back he had been ported to the LS. If kicked from a house now you end up at your LS when you log. If I had been a little late in logging Fist I would not have known I needed a swamp stone.
Within half an hour all the houses in that complex were sold. I knew of three in an obscure spot that might still be undiscovered. I decided to head over there to see if they were available to alliance members. All three were unsold but less than a minute later two people ran up. Before anyone on the board could get to me the last one was sold.
Tactics revisited
It was pointed out to me that selecting a monster for retargeting can be done with the "p" key. During testing I found this did work well. The only problem was when there are other monsters around and you have a player that auto select works with. This it is only an archer problem I think. When you lose contact with the monster and there are other monsters within range, you automatically select one of the others. This will cost you the ability to use the "p".
Several people sent me letters saying my estimate of the magic defense of VEs was too high. I did not do a thorough testing but what I did do left me wondering how they do it. What I did was try to leave out the yield and go directly to Blade Vuln and blast. Every attempt to land a Blade without the yield resulted in a resist. Hell I'm getting resists on the yield. With 372 Life and 375 Creature I was well above where the others say they have little problem with. Again this was a small test and could have been bad luck.
A better way to attack a pod
I got a letter from Dave Zoller. (aka Tim Hunter, Archmage/Archer Uber-Gimp of Frostfell)
He has a way to clear a pod that is superior to the one I pointed out in the last column. The idea is to use a war spell, turn and run. This will tag the VE and give you time to clear before the de-buffs hit. He recommends you tag each VE before actually setting up to kill them. The reason is replacement spawns.
After you have cleared a group of VE's something will replace them. If you're waiting for the last group of bodies to dissolve you might get caught in the re-spawn. There is nothing worse than trying to pick up Sing keys and having a Chaos wisp and/or Ziffer spawn on top of you.
When I tested this I found it worked well. Strangely the one spell I hate the most seems to have greater range and hits anyway. Bafflement I can still fight with but would rather not. I ended up using his and mine off and on. My way is faster overall because you have the option of sliding and killing the VE without running. It has much more danger but if at the end of a hunt and need to kill quick, faster. If nothing else it is a change of pace. Lastly the terrain can block a lot of spells. It may not be possible to use War without getting to close in many cases.
Xbow PPL
One thing I'm using a lot is archer tactics on HG with my xbow player. With hit points in the 30's and stock armor playing well is important. Someone saw him in Holtburg and give me a very nice xbow so I'm not stuck with a stock one any more.
While in Hebian-to I was using hit and run tactics to kill stuff that I could not face. I put a lot into speed so I can keep separations between the monsters and me. Only problem with that tactic is people may not understand and try to help.
After one person killed what I was fighting I asked him politely not do that. He explained that he saw me running and thought I was in trouble. I said no, just using hit and run tactics. Someone else said something very strange. "I never run, I stand and fight."
Well, if you fight very weak stuff or have massive buffs you can do that. A good example was my next fight. A Luggie was spawning at one spot. There was a rock close by and still within range of the Lugie. I was shooting a bolt and would run behind the rock. After the Lugie tossed his boulder I would run back and put another bolt into him.
At 15 to 20 points a hit, when I hit, we are not talking about a fast battle here. But of course an 8lv trying to take down a Lugie is expected to need time.
The next Lugie to spawn was a few feet further back. This made me miss a lot more. I just needed to be patience and whittle him down. Instead I tried to move closer and slide to avoid the boulders. If you have ever tried this it does work. Nevertheless you will take a hit from time to time. With my hit points I only needed one.
As I hit the LS I got an insult from the "stand and fight" guy. He was just standing around the LS with his buddies. It was late and I was pissed from messing up my slide and dieing. "You try to take down a Lugie at 8lv you ass." Was my response.
I have to learn to ignore guys like that but some days it sooo hard. Guess he got the idea because I never heard from him after that.
In any case here is lesson. Archers can have good melee defense because they can put points into quick instead of strength. I have seen many 100 quick archers. Even with this melee D they get hit far to often. It is thought that using a bow will lower your melee d. There is no proof but that is the current thought. Because of that and the lack of a shield archers must be ready to use hit and run. Here is the tactics I use.
First shot has a good chance of missing, especially at lower levels. The range is long so until your skill gets higher you may miss a lot. Next you have to hit the left or right arrow to stop the second shot. If you don't that shot will almost always miss. The exception on this is sitting golems. They take a bit to stand so it is the third shot that will always miss.
After waiting a second you can start shooting again. Fast moving small monsters might he hard to hit until face to face with them. In time better skill will fix this. Next will take training. Shoot until the point where you can run without taking a hit. Different monsters will need different points. If their fast leave early, if slow you can hold longer. Remember that after you start running the monster will have back shots so try to not get hit.
If you're faster than the monsters it gets easy. Run until you have a little distance, turn and fire. Sometimes your target will not chase long but his buddies will. Not to worry as with damage you'll be able to pick him out of the crowd.
After the monster returns to spawn point, if you have not killed it first, you can reset up and do it again. The second time his buddies will not join in. Again you will need training to know the next part. Keep hitting and running until the health is down enough to take a chance on standing in to fight.
When you think you can kill it before you die you can keep firing for the entire run up. Remember that a few missed shots and a bad crit will send you to the LS in a hurry. You can kill it without ever taking a single hit but it will take more time.
If you can outrun the monsters and they don't have magic or a range weapon, you can kill anything you can hit this way. There is little danger. Of course you'll run into monsters who can out run you often enough. I die a lot that way. Also spells will get you from time to time, especially if there is lag.
Misunderstandings
A lot of times things happen that appear to be one thing and are really something else. For this reason it behooves us to wait and see. This happened to an Elder this week.
An Elder died in EVL and another player volunteered to get his items. I'm guessing they were teamed for a while and had built some trust. A few seconds after he was given permission he logged. They waited a long while for him to come back but he never did.
So they hit the Elder and VN boards to get information on the looter. A lot of people piled on condemning his actions. He name was trash.
Later on the full story was found out. After getting permission to loot the body he was booted. I'm guessing IP problems as he could not get on. Thinking the body had been looted the Elder never looked for it.
The actions of another player restored his good name. He had noted the body for a while. When the body was gone a pile of stuff had replaced it. He looted the DI's and posted to our board the truth in the matter.
There is a lot of slime out there and we have to beware. At the same time withhold judgment until you have all the facts.
Pincer Scams
So far I have only been bitten once by a pincer scam. The person was smart, so smart that I was the only one in the fellow who caught it. The rest did not believe me. I have a decal plug in that shows that shows me the xp I get. It is nice for tracking monster xp.
What happened was I got over a million xp from each person turning in a pincer. One person returned way under a million. I point out that the person turned in the wrong pincer. There was a claim of innocent and everyone said I was mistaken. I let it drop but I knew this person would have to live what they did.
The second scam is more blatant and the grief players hang out hoping to play this one a lot. A classic example is Connacht on MT. He joined as a seventh saying he had one to turn in. He claimed to be lagging and started running against the wall as everyone turned in their pincer. He also was somehow able to type messages on his lag problems while running against the wall.
Of course after everyone turned one in he logged. This was a determined group. They were going wait until he re-logged and was proven to be a grief player. Connacht was quite surprised to see the group waiting for him when he logged back. Then his excuse was he did turn it in but he guess's that the lag made it get eaten. I'm guessing Connacht is concerned for his reputation and trying to lie his way out of this. He did not figure on people being smarter than him. Not sure why, my cat is smarter.
The only good that came of it was Connacht getting well known and was dropped from his alliance. What is really pathetic is he is still lying and about it. As this was the third or forth time he did it the lies were getting old. I guess he has a 'William Clinton" complex. I wonder if that will be came a medical term someday?
Fist rule number one for people joining a pincer fellow. The unknown person turns in first. No if and or buts, they go first. This rule has saved many a group from grief. Generally the grief player will quickly log when asked to do this. Remember to check the xp to be sure it was the right pincer as well.
Grief questers
I never ran into this myself. The only reason we know it happened was the moron bagged about it. Many a quest has failed because of stupid players. They would push the group, disobey the leader and create havoc during the quest.
Most of the players who do this are just stupid. In this case it was deliberate. After making a relatively easy quest into a nightmare of death and misery Speed' UA bragged that he did it on purpose. A word to the wise, never quest with Speed' UA.
Hell Spawn
While hunting in North ML I fell into the middle of the worst spawn I have ever been in. Not one spawn really but a whole bunch. To the Northwest was a pod of four Virindi's. That is four VEs and 12 Observers. To the Southwest was another pod of two. They were a hidden surprise that pop'ed up in as I took on the first group.
Mixed in with the Virindi four pod was a group of three or four Vapor Golems. To the East were four more Vapor golems. South and West were groups of Hea. North had some pigs. Pigs are not a danger alone but they are never alone. I have probably taken more overall damage from the Pigs than any other monsters on ML.
First up was the Virindi. I came in from the South and fired a Yield on one. He was in a little dip so tossing a War spell was not an option. I took off running and was lit up with de-buffs. I mean a lot. Sounded like a chainsaw.
The VE chased me along with one Observer. Normally this is ideal. I can quickly kill the VE and the Observer will die with him. I stopped and turned to face the VE. I'm hit not once but twice by fireballs. With fire vuln on me they hurt. Off to my right comes the hidden pod of VE and his three observers. I'm off to the races, dodging and weaving and one spell from death. I was lucky only one of the groups attacked me, not both.
I return and track down the hidden pod. I'm so full of de-buffs that I did something I don't do much of, hit a dispel gem. I should have cut and pasted it because it covered over the expanded screen with what it cleared.
I moved back and cleared the pod of two Virindi. Looking for some room I killed off the Pigs and moved south. This let me circle around to a higher elevation and clearer shots at the Virindi. I decided to clear the East group of Vapors next.
The problem with Vapor golems is they are so darn hard to see. Most of the time this is not a problem because of radar. The problem comes when there are more than one. Sometimes the radar will not show monsters. I could see the Vapor but not how many, radar showed one.
Normally a Vapor will not reach me. I can side step their spells so, other than de-buffs, nothing hits me. One is very simple and no danger. This time I got two resists as it came up. I hit it as it reached me and it dropped at my feet. Blast, I take a good shot from a hidden Vapor.
It seems there was not one Vapor but three on top of me. All four had charged as a group and I had thought I killed the only one. From somewhere another one had joined the fray. I had no idea how many I was fighting but knew it was more than one. I'm healing and draining for all my worth. Fortunately I had a full mana bar at the start of battle. Also a 293 mana conversion does not hurt.
I kill one and two started chain casting on me. You have to really love that random number generator. At one point I'm at 4 hit points as I land a heal. I get the cold blast on one and now only had to face two. With a cold vuln and two drains most Vapors will drop with a single cold VII blast.
I got enough ahead in health to do stam to mana, I was at 15 mana at this point. With recovered mana I was able to finish off the last two, close, too close. In total there were five of them. Where the fifth one came from I never did find out, maybe from the group up the hill. I had to delay the battle a bit at this point to rebuff.
I took a deep breath and move towards the Virindi. From the West comes a Ziffer. Like I really needed that. Yield, Blade Vuln, Blade, dead Ziffer.
I recover mana and head up the hill. After the first two battles killing the next three groups was relatively simple. After my yield two VE's charged. The Observers held back and tossed War. As the landscape prevented War spells, if not close up, I did not have to worry about that. Both VE's died quick.
After killing the last VE I moved forward and killed the final three Vapors one at a time. Again they tried to War me, which did not work. The one I vuln would be the only one to charge.
I killed an Armored Tusker that spawned to the Northwest and just needed to clear the Hea to start looting. At last something my magic defense works on. I have forgot it was possible to resist a spell. I had cleared two groups of Hea's and was battling the last when a looter barged his way in. Total loot from all that killing was only two Sik's, one of which the looter got.
Overconfident.
I got this story in the mail the other day. After my big battle it seemed to fit.
I had started today out being 2 million away from lvl 66. I am a dagger char on Solclaim, I sometimes call myself a BDB (Battle Dagger Bear). My magic skills have never been the best. Guess thats what you get when you start out with 35 focus and 10 self. Still, I am happy with where they are at.
I went on the Eviscerator Skill quest, got into a fellow with 6 others and got 8.4 million in xp. Not too shabby at all :)
I had over 10 million in unused xp so I put half into my focus and self and the rest I was able to put one point each into creature, life and item. After I had done that, I made the run out to the creature essence and got Gertarhs Blessing as my first lvl VII spell. At the lifestone Red the Ripper gave me some lvl VII buffs and I was all set to see if I could actually cast it. Fizzle, fizzle, fizzle, fizzle (you get the picture) but finally I got this message "You cast Gertarhs Blessing on yourself". I was on top of the world.
Being in Ayan, I quickly applied the rest of my buffs, got my bandit fire and regular bandit all buffed, I was ready to rock and roll. The BDB of Solclaim was going to hunt. I went east towards the Panoptician Vault, met up with a Virindi Master, 3 swipes and he was toast. Found some Tuskers and they were quickly dispatched to a fiery grave. Then I spotted a white mass lying on the ground, I clicked on it and discovered I had found a Diamond Golem.
I quickly whipped out my focusing stone and imperiled the Golem (rare occasion for me). Feeling even more confident, I whip out my bandit dagger, and start wailing on the golem. He started wailing back. I shrugged off the life magic ineptitude vi, but did take notice to the blud vuln VI (more then one I might add). I started to get a bit worried when I got hit for 108 points of shock wave damage. No problem, I ate some pizzas, healed and was back in business. Or so I thought. After a couple of 90 damage shock waves, I was standing at the lifestone wondering what the heck was I thinking. :)
I was able to recover my body with the help of another player (same diamond had gotten him as well), but it taught me a valuable lesson, even BDBs can be killed by overconfidence.
Dave :)
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