Fist de Yuma - December 24, 2002

PK Thoughts It is well known that I disapprove of looting. I'm at a distinct disadvantage when I PK (rarely I admit) because I'll never loot. I understand that is my stand and there is no demand that others follow my example. There are different types of looters. Some are far less of a problem than others. The ones who take the most abuse on the boards is The Arwic Mafia. Their stand on looting is to always loot but if an item of value falls they return it. The tactics of TAM is universally condemned. They are mostly melee that use exotic templates. They will always depend on outside buffs and are totally made for PK. They use gang tactics and will use a gem whenever someone de-buffs them. Now Elder is generally at war with them. Many of us don't like them. I myself dislike a few of them but for the most part I respect what they are trying to do. I don't think the problem children will last long in TAM but that remains to be seen. I hold The Arwic Mafia in high regard but I'll kill him on sight. (Or try to as least.) I don't quite understand what the fuss is about over geming. Many of the PK's on MT used chains and macros to get their levels. Some have overwhelming stats and skills. There is no way to a normal melee player can defeat one of them. Only with the use of gang tactics and not letting mages one shot them with spells can they exist. With a level VII vuln a player is in great danger of being killed with a single spell. A melee player will have a hard time avoiding that spell if he wants to keep any pressure on the mage he/she is fighting. Only by using a gem to dispel the vuln can they keep hitting rather than run. The accepted way to defeat this is avoiding the spells or running. Yes there are ways to avoid the spells. It requires a fast computer with broadband connection along with a lot of training. For someone like me even having time to click a dispel gem is problematic. There are a lot of players out there who live in places where broadband is only a dream. (I have been told that my troubles in this regard are more from people using gear but that is not proven.) So why is the only tactic that gives these players any chance at all so despised? It is hard to figure out the mindset of some people. We live in strange times when a person can state that an illegal act, such as fast casting, is a skill but using a legitimate item like a gem is bad. The next thing they will say is Healing is not allowed. PK update Leave it to the kids to mess up the one good thing I liked about The Arwic Mafia. One of them dropped a good weapon the other day. The victor, rather than do as they did and return it, decided to rub TAM nose in it. They posted on the boards about how nice the item was and how they were going to give it to someone with that skill. The peanut gallery chinned in to make it worse of course. (If you understand the peanut gallery you're old as me and I'm ancient.) So of course the actions of a handful of lamers affect everyone. The Monarch posted on their board that all members must loot and can only return items if the Monarch agrees to let it be returned. I'm guessing that TAM will still return good items that drop, just be delayed a bit. Remember their monarch tracked me down to return my Katar. Returning good items that escapes the DI's is one way to keep PK from getting out of hand. Looting is still bad in my mind but this makes it worse. I got a feeling that when I have a good set of PK armor I'll have to take Mage PK. He is more powerful but the TAM tactics are especially effective against anyone without melee defense and shield. Again I'll need to have a good teammate. When I take Fist PK I have to also take Jr. Jr supplies the buffs and holds the items and excess DI's. Mage can be more effective and not need as much support. Mage can also be no drop without decreasing his skill level. Debates I have a lot of debates. I can respect a good debater even if I disagree with them. For every good debater I run across twenty bad ones. An example of bad debaters; Cursing, This shows you have no grasp of the debate subject. Personal attacks, This shows you have no rebuttal and or no grasp of the debate subject. Call for censorship, Shows fear that the other side would even get heard. Saying I'm wrong with nothing as to why, Shows laziness or and inability to articulate their point. Many debate tactics are more for the audience than the debater. There are many of these such as Straw Men. "Joe is the worse PK in the world and he will use gems." "Gogo the moron is a known thief and he uses gems all the time." Therefore anyone who uses gems is a bad PK and a thief. NOT. This type of statement plays on the emotions of the audience. They know these examples have nothing to do with the debate. It also might get an inexperienced debater on the defensive. This is effective in winning an audience but does little to advance knowledge on the subject matter. In a scored debate it will net you zero, no matter how much clapping it draws. Another useless debate tactic is personal experience. This is hard go get beyond. "I have PK'ed for years and don't mind being looted." Good for you, so what? "I never have trouble getting cash to cover Death Items." Good for you but you are not everyone. "I have never dropped a good item when I die." Good, glad you have been so lucky but it means nothing as others have. Most of the time I get stuff like this; "You are a moron." "You have no idea what you are talking about." "Don't write about PK ever again." And these are the nice ones. Others are far worse and are quickly locked or deleted by mods. Let me get one thing very clear. Saying I'm wrong means nothing. I explain why I think I'm right and expect you to say why I'm wrong. If I agree with you I'll be the first to admit I was wrong. Long time readers know that as I have admitted mistakes in the past. Saying I'm wrong without anything to back it up is a waste of cyberspace. I wrote that PK archers have it made at a high level. One of the most effective weapons against them is the Deadly Hollow. Even very high melee attack skills, 450+, cannot hit an Archer who has a base melee defense of 340 or more with a Hollow Weapon. (340+60 points in buffs * 1.27 = 508 effective or 58 points above the 450 skill.) Clearly there needs to be attack buffs on the Hollow Weapon to be effective. Everyone who said I was wrong missed the point completely. All of them said they use other weapons on Archers. If they use other weapons then how am I wrong? It only proves my point. This kind of sloppily thinking is very frustrating because so many fall in line with them. Most of those who pile on do not even read what I wrote. I cannot tell you how many people condemn me and later admit they did not read the essay. There was one debater on the boards who had a good criticism of my words. I felt he mistook a generalization for blanket coverage but his criticism was good. I can tend to say things such as, "PK's have chained or macro'ed their levels." Or, "Leftists have no sense of humor." The PK is generally true but will not cover every PK. It might not even cover the majority of them though I expect it does. What is covered is the majority of the players who dominate the PK scene. For the Leftists that was more personal experience as there are no fact to back it up. My personal experience in this case is quite broad but there might be a leftist what can laugh off something somewhere. I did not see Al Gore on TV the other day might but I heard he was funny. This debater's only mistake was his refusal to write me so we could debate. He wanted and open forum. This is understandable except that the subject matter was not AC related and it was on an AC board. I clearly post my e-mail address for all to see. If you want to debate or just talk I'm always open for it. Just be willing to debate and have your ducks in line. Life and AC People fall for scams in AC all the time. People in real life also fall for scams. In AC it might cost you an item or at worst your entire account. Being that this is a game there is nothing that cannot be replaced in time thou the experience is painful. In real life this can be devastating to your life and property. The rules in life are the same as the rules in AC. To begin with if it is too good to be true it is likely not. No one is going to give you 5% of 40 million dollars for the use of your bank account. There is an old scam with a violin. An old gentleman leaves a violin as a deposit for a room as there is a mix up and he does not have the cash. Another person sees the transaction and offers to appraise the violin. O wonders of wonders it is a highly valued piece of work. The person is a collector and offers $10,000 dollars for the violin if the Hotel owner can require legal ownership. The old man returns with the money but it is his last dime. The Hotel owner, out of the kindness of his heart, offers to buy the violin. "O no, not my prized instrument!" After much haggling the Hotel owner gains ownership of a 25 dollar violin for several hundred dollars. Of course the collector never returns. Here are some examples I got of scams from the Bizarre news letter. In 1872, veteran prospectors Philip Arnold and John Slack bought $35,000 worth of diamonds in Europe and scattered them on land in Wyoming. They managed to convince the Bank of San Francisco they had discovered a diamond field and made $700,000. Starting in 1921, Oscar Merril Hartzell began a scam selling fake shares in the estate of Sir Francis Drake. He contacted as many families as he could find with the surname Drake and was eventually accused of defrauding 270,000 people. The hoax netted him over $2,000,000. When J. Bam Morrison arrived at Wetumka, Oklahoma in 1950, he claimed to be the advance publicity man for Bohn's United Circus, which, he maintained, was due to hit town in three weeks. He allegedly sold advertising space to local traders... for a circus that didn't exist. By forging signatures, James Addison Reavis was able to claim he was the legal owner of 17,000 square miles of Arizona. The enterprise raked in $300,000 a year until he was arrested in 1895 and he was sentenced to six years in prison. Joseph Weill, who inspired the movie "The Sting," rented abandoned banks and convinced businessmen that he had set up a genuine bank. He waited for them to deposit large sums of money before shutting down and moving on to the next town. This, plus some of his other scams, earned him over $6,000,000. So beware. If you find that you fall for scams in AC, you could well be the type who is targeted in real life as well. Hacks in AC Most hacks in AC are nothing of the sort. I read about one time it was a hack. A guy read up on the owner and deducted his password. It was a pure example of old time hacking. I hated the moron who killed off an important player from that server and would love to see him in jail. Most hacks are from people who are careless. Some come from downloading back door programs. Others come from being tricked into inputting their password at a site. There was one that pretended to be MS and got a few accounts. These do happen but most so-called hacks are from people giving away their password. I was reading where one person had access to over 15 accounts, including the Monarch's! People try to give me their password all the time. In very few cases and only for special one-time purposes do I accept one. It still is a constant surprise to me that so many people expose their accounts get such risks. The big thief that occurred this week on MT involved a guy who thought he was talking to one person and in fact was taking to a thief with a similar name. He gave out his password and somehow that got the password of another person. Both accounts were stripped and in one case players deleted. If you have ever given out your password to someone, for any reason, no matter how trusted, go change that password right now! Never, ever give out your account information to anyone for any reason. Jeff knows my stand. He is one of the most trusted people I know. He is my brother. He cannot get my password. Hacking update This guy was incredulity careless. Not only did he leave a trail of his activity but went to the VN board to brag about how he got the accounts. Some smart people tracked him close enough that the thief cracked. He returned much of what he stole. I'm sure that several people know who is he in real life. Parents were informed in one case. We live in a strange world with arbitrary government rules. Something that is past on today might be the example to show the press tomorrow. People have gone to jail for a long time for simply looking at stuff on the Internet. If someone wants to make a name for themselves the next game hacker might be the target. This hacking risky and not worth it. Grow up or you might find yourself married to Buba. Strange loot When I heard stories about the strange loot people are getting this patch. I rushed out to my favorite hunting spots to try my luck. While I did find a few items that were better than normal it was nothing to shout about. My first try was Aerfalle. I had hunted there for a few days looking for UA and Sword weapons. The loot seemed about normal except for the lack of really bad junk that would pop up before. The next hunt was north ML. I did find a 5 - 15 Lightning Dirk that I'll pass to a vassal but other than that nothing much. I'm not sure if this is a change or just good luck but I also got four sings. Normal is less than one an hour. With no really great luck I decided to head Jr over and get a Tusk in the Rampager dungeon. Being that I need black dye I was also checking the bodies. If not for the seeds I would never have been checking as Tuskers don't drop anything worth picking up. I saw an Amuli coat on one. I check it and saw it was al 205. That in itself would make it worth picking up. Then I saw the value was only 2.6k. Now it is one outstanding PK Coat. Then I saw the workmanship on it. Level two craftsmanship! This means I have a great chance of tinkering it all 10 times. Ok, 205 + 200 for tinkering makes 405. Add 220 for the imp VII gives 625. Double for banes and I'll have armor 1250. I think that will work. How to get Tinker work done There are a lot of people who have made tinker mules or put trade skills on their main players. They are willing to take the time to help others. Most of the time this is not a hassle because it takes little time. There are those who tend to forget that the player is not parked there all day for their convenience. This is very typical. "Fist, you got a second." "Sure." "I need some armor Tinkered." "Happy to" "Just a sec, I'll go get it." 10 minutes later you are still waiting for them. Before asking for work have everything you need on you. If a player can spend the time to work on your gear you can at least not make him wait. Another one is, "Fist can you tinker a weapon for me." "Sure" "What is your skill?" 502 without brilliance." "Sec, let me check if that is good enough" 10 minutes later you are still waiting. Get the general skills you need beforehand. Lastly is just general wasting of time. This is not as bad but more bothersome. This was the one that got me writing this. I was about to log and someone asked if there was an Alchemist around. I said I was and he wanted something dyed. Ok, that's cooking but I have that as well. We had to do it one at a time as the mule is a little overburden. I dye one and then the other. He started buffing. I could not give him the last item back until he stopped. He had given me two dyes for one item. I expected he might need one more item done. He stopped buffing long enough for me to give him the item. I was about to log before he asked so this was a delay. I was short on buffs and did not want to have to log Mage in to buff him again. So I was in a hurry. Besides I really don't expect players to delay me this way. I ask him, "Anything else?" Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. "Anything else?" Wait, wait, wait, wait. He is still buffing and cannot stop for one second to say yes or no. Finally I just logged. So lastly remember that trade mules depend on buffs. If you waste time they have to spend more time and expense to rebuff the mule. Most are not as lucky as I am and cannot duel log. This means they have to pay a buff bot or get someone to do it for them. Wasting the time of players or Tradespersons also makes it harder for others to get their work done. Be ready, don't do anything to delay the process and know what you want. Lastly, when you are done move away. There is nothing worse that several people crowding the player. I have no idea who gave me want. And never, ever run between or through people doing trade work, it will look like you are trying to steal. Dark days for mages There was a time when Mages ruled. The most deadly monsters, with the best loot and greatest xp rewards, were all spell tossers and drainers. A mage had little trouble defeating them while every melee had push the edge of their abilities. With monsters that drain it took a melee several minutes to take down one while a mage was vuln and blast, next. Even in death mages had the advantage. They generally died well away from the spawn and had little trouble recovering. A melee on the other hand almost always died in range of the entire spawn. Additionally mages dropped very little and melee dropped a lot. This advantage increased after VII spells were put in and stat buffs were extended. When all spell times increased it helped everyone so that was a wash. So while a melee struggled to maintain a cash flow and was hard pressed for good items mages were rich in cash and items. About the only limit to a mage was how much he could carry. When comps were lowered in weight a mage could carry more than many melee's. (Low level mages were hard to make and rather costly. This is about high level mages.) That has changed a lot these days. I feel it is balanced as the imbalances occur at different places for different classes. In the Dires and on Aerfalle mages are still the best. On north ML it might be a wash. Exec's can be taken down by Melee's if they have a phantom weapon. Mages have a hard time with Salvage pig/dogs where Melee can eat them up. Melees are ruling Tuskers islands. With the new loot changes there is at least a chance of grabbing some thing great there now. Of course no one goes to Tusker islands for loot, it is pure xp that draws people. With fellows hitting 15 million and hour people can level faster than ever before. Whereas a few Mages are welcome most players understand that the xp pure hour will generally fall when you add a mage to the fellow. Also mages are getting kicked around quite a bit by the big Tuskers. Where mages have lost most of there advantage is with buffs. There was a time when teaming with a mage meant far more power than at any other time. Melees were generally two or more levels behind the mage with spell. With mages tossing buffs the melees could gain 10 points on everything and have better protects. Buff bots have erased the mage's advantage with buffs. I'm lucky that I have had the time to make so many different players. I have a mage to fight the bad spell-casting monsters. I have a melee to take on the hardest melee monsters and an archer for a balanced attack. I hope that people understand that teamwork is still the best way to go. One hour at a time hunting might gain you a lot of xp but it is not the way to adventure. Remember that the leveling might be a way to a goal but never should be the goal. Adventure and fun should always be in the forefront. Gaerlan is very hard on mages. There might be a mage or two who have gotten a kill on him in the 80+ but I don't know of any. Besides that if a mage is trying to get the kill on that quest they are not doing their job. So mages don't rule everywhere now. Nevertheless it is good that we have better balance. The title of this is Dark Days for Mages but it is not really dark days, they just don't rule everywhere anymore. Turbine is to be applauded for the work they have done. Second or this is this third thoughts. Something happened today that makes me think my decision to make Mage into a BM may have been hasty. We had a small group taking on Gaerlan today. I was in full support mode, my normal job when questing. In battle we had Moby Dick to de-buff the monsters so I had the fellow screen up. When anyone dropped health I would fire off a heal. My second job was as the de-buffer when we hit the boss monster. This is the second quest in the game that really requires an Og to be really effective. Even with 408 Creature I was playing hell to land the yield. Of course after the yield it was over. From there I also lowered all his attack and defense as well as imperil and vulns. I also found out that I'm missing some de-buffs such as sword inept. I always felt that was a PK spell and never worried about getting it. Live and learn. After that it was back to keeping people alive. As some players were hit very hard my watching their health was key to our success. My biggest frustration is being resisted with War when I'm hunting. At 80 million a point raising War is rather hard. Still it can be done and a buffed 400 is not out of the question. The only question now is if I don't make Mage into a BM in a few days what do I do? Spec mana conversion might be useful now. I'll need to find some data on how much over my current 315 I can really use. The spec'ing magic defense is still there but it would mean dropping Armor Tinkering. In any case I'll be getting the gems I need for stuff but I'll wait before I use them. Meanwhile Fist's Armorer is 28lv and getting close to hitting the big leveling spots. I need to find a Guard/Slave dungeon in the new island. So far I have refused to hit the BSD pits. To bad BM was the best way to go with Armor Tinkering. If I had made him an Archer his levels would be flowing. Still I like playing Mages a lot more than Archer and fun better than work.