Tactics
I was fighting in EVL the other day with Jr and discovered that many have never learned the basics of fighting. The next day while hunting I found that many mages have never learned some of the tricks of the trade. While I'm not an expert I have picked up a few tactics along the way.
When in EVL there many times you'll be attacked from the rear while fighting. If you have 350+ melee d this might not be a problem. For those that don't and are living with level IV protects there is a trick to help.
It is easy really, just back up. You may have to move left or right a touch, depending on where the wall is. As you back up the one your fighting will move forward and the one on your back will pivot in place until it's in front. Don't start swinging immediately. There is generally a short time where what your fighting holds in place. If you hit swing you'll move forward and have to do it again. This would be a good time to take swig of stamina elixir and heal.
When fighting in a fellow it does not matter who gets the kill. With xp and loot sharing there is no difference if you swing or stand there. Because of this two people in fellow attacking different monsters is not as efficient than both attacking the same one.
The reason for this is there is a melee bonus to player and monster for attacking each other. There is also a melee penalty for being attacked from the rear. The best way to fight is while facing each other and the monster in the middle. This way one always has the back shot. If that is not possible then both attacking the same monster from the front will work. One player will hit more than the other. Both attacking the same monster will also kill it faster thereby leaving fewer monsters to damage you.
Before the new fellow rules this trick was only used by grief players to steal kills. In BDC the lamers would wait for the Noble to be fighting someone before attacking. Even if late into the fight he would generally get the kill. With new fellow rules we can use this to advantage.
Fighting Virindi E's is very profitable. The loot dropped is good to fair and a single Yellow Jewelry will pay for a hunt. The big advantage is the three Observers who die with them. They drop Sing keys and Yellow Jewelry. If you have lock pick the Sing keys are golden. The Yellow Jewelry is worth 15k in xp and a pyreal pea worth 50k. The Stillness gems and treated healing kits are a nice bonus.
The problem is they tend to group up a lot. Trying to fight one VE will have you fighting dozens of Observers and VEs. A quick death is generally the result.
VE's are not easy to fight and Observers are a lot better melee target than mage. So how do you fight them? The answer is surprisingly simple.
The first step is to get some running room. Track out a path that is a clear run from the Virindi Pod. When there are three or four VE's, not uncommon, having one on Sixth Sense helps here. If you don't have 6s then try to remember were the one you're targeting is in relation to the others.
First a word on who should be hunting them. Og's with enough skill to yield, vuln and blast without many resists is key. The ability to dispel de-buffs or using gems is important here. BM should have high enough skill to Vuln and blast. I'm guessing skills around 360 War/Life for BM and 360 Creature and 345 War for Ogs. Four schools mages will have a hard time here. Getting high enough skill will take a lot of xp.
Target the VE and toss your yield. BM's will go direct to Blade Vuln. As soon at the spell goes off, turn and run. You have tracked a clear path so you know were to run. You'll be light up with literality dozens of de-buffs as soon as your spell goes off. War spells will be tracking in from several directions. Being slow or lagging here is pure death.
The VE's and Observers will chase for a bit and then return to the spawn point. Now knowing which is which is important. If you have Sixth Sense just click on the same one to select it. If not be careful to pick the same one as before. If you pick the wrong one at this point, run and start over.
You undoubtedly have your Self and Focus de-buffed. Also Imperil, Blade, Fire and Bludgeoning Vuln is common. Get rid of these de-buffs with dispel or a gem. The Focus and Self de-buff might have you being resisted or fizzling at a bad spot. The imperil and Vuln's will get you killed later. I have many a death from trying to fight a Vapor golem after fighting a Virindi. An Armored Tusker will also enjoy taking advantage of Imperil and Bludgeoning Vuln.
For an Og what you do next depends on if the Yield landed or not. Trying to repeat the yield or land a Blade Vuln is the next step. If you have the right VE only it will react to the attack. The rest will ignore you. If you're lucky it will charge you. You can land a yield and Blade Vuln before it gets to you. It moves slow so you can fire a Blade spell while it is moving and not have the spell fly backwards.
If you're using VII's, and if you hunt these you better, a single Vuln and War will kill it. When it dies three Observers will also die. The problem here is you cannot loot the bodies. You have to let them rot before getting the loot. Again Sixth Sense will help you pick out the Taper peas, Scarab peas and Sing keys from the trash.
Using this I have finished off pods of 30+ Virindi single-handedly. After a while you look forward to seeing groups that big.
The only draw back to all this is other people. You're still fighting the pod when Observers start to rot. Suddenly hordes of players will start running to your loot. Most out there will respect your battle and move on. The few that don't will create a lot of stress.
Stupid move on my part.
I was hunting a pod of Virindi when a few Observers rotted and dropped keys. As soon as this happened an archer and mage ran over. I expected the worst and reacted poorly because of it.
I ran into the pod and grabbed the keys. Meanwhile the mage and archer engaged the remaining Virindi. In hindsight they just saw some Virindi and did not know I was fighting them.
The mage died and the archer was on the run. More Observers rotted and two Sing keys fell. I ran over and grabbed one. The archer started shouting at me that those were his keys. I bitched back about them pouching my pod.
I stopped a second after that and cooled down. At this point I realized I where I had grabbed the key was away from where I had killed. Also the timing was wrong. I had stolen their key. I also got the idea that they had no idea I was hunting here.
I quickly apologized and helped the archer clear some Vapor golems around the mages body. The next step was to carve the key and give it to him. I did that but he understood it was an error and gave it back.
Lesson learned is to find out what is going on before reacting.
Power without knowledge
The below was taken off the VN boards. It has a good story on fighting a Diamond Lord but also shows the results of letting someone get to a good level without the knowledge to play it.
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So anyway, I was using Demandred, lvl 64 mage tonight. I was supporting Arahzel and Luscious Lex, who had spotted a Diamond Lord out near Singular Obsidian Repository.
After a number of deaths at the blades of Virindi Executors and an Inquisitor, it was time for recoveries (I never died, luckily)
Rahz got back out there first, and what did she find at the portal drop...but a Diamond Lord. She engaged it in battle, while Lex and I joined in by portalling from Tou Tou.
Now, I was completely un-buffed...no protects, no banes on my robe...so I fell back and cast heals/stamina as needed.
The battle raged on for a good while...
And then...he came.
Vampire Mage...level 44 Og.
He stood there watching the heated battle for a few minutes...it was tough, the Lord was giving Lex and Rahz a good beating. I was healing as fast as I could, stopping only to regain mana.
What happened over this time is a bit fuzzy, as I was working hard to keep people alive, but if memory serves, Rahz fell to the golem, leaving only Lex to fight it. It was about this time that Vamp decided to spam...for a portal.
He wanted someone to summon a portal that he could tie to, so he could get back out there if he died.
There I am, healing Lex like a madman, while Lex is battling furiously with a Diamond Lord...and hes spamming us for a portal.
I asked him to PLEASE help us...his reply?
"Ill cast heals if u summon for me"
LOL!
I couldnt believe it! This guy was offering to heal AFTER we summoned...I even told him I had the tie and wasnt stopping fighting to summon...so he let me die
But, theres more to the story! We all regrouped with the reinforcements there, and the guy was asking to be in the fellow. Also, after the Diamond Lord was dead, he starts looting the kills! Fortunately Diomed looted and handed me the shield, because this guy just....
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From other sources I found that Vampire Mage grabbed a random portal and did not know where he was. This is something only a very new player would do. He was afraid to fight anything before getting a tie, so he let them die.
After his actions he was very stupid to ask to be in the fellow. Then to start looting the kills he refused to help with was beyond all thought process.
I cannot be sure Vampire Mage is the products of an xp chain, but he sure acts like it.
I want but...
I want to be rich but don't have time to work 80 hours a week, pushing myself to the limit, while spending nothing in search of the dream. That does not mean I will rob a bank.
I would like to run the 4 minute mile but don't have time to train for it. That does not mean I will run on a short track and call it a mile.
I would like to publish a book but I have not written it yet. That does not mean I will have someone else write it and put my name on top.
For some reason people think that telling me they don't have time to play AC much means they can cheat their way to the top. Xp chains and macroing do work, so does hex editing and "trainers" in other games.
A lot of people don't have time to play much. They play when they can and enjoy it when they do. They take each step that I have taken. They do it on their one time. Skipping those steps and jumping to high level does not add to your game. In many cases it lowers the overall game itself.
At this point Turbine is letting people cheat. Turbine has bent over backwards to not push people around. Instead they change the game so cheating is harder to do. A lot of things we took for as part of the game has been messed up because of cheaters.
Turbine will fix the xp chain exploits in time. I'm sure the fix will affect all of us in a negative way. Meanwhile don't give me lame excuses.
Grief play
Turbine/MS has refused to take a stand against grief play. They really should. There are people out there that are only thrilled if they are causing others grief. There is no room for them and they needed to be weeded out.
A good example is a player named Caecus. This guy saw a group doing the island quest and started following it. There was no way to shake him or anyway to keep him from following the questers. In the end 5 hours of work were stolen from them. What did Caecus have to say for himself?
Caecus says, "im not a dumb ass "
Caecus says, "just a mean ass"
Caecus says, "i could care les about my reputation"
Caecus tells you, "i am gonna jump tohers quests"
The guy spends 100% of his time in game causing grief for others. He is not there to play the game, he is there to upset people. If Turbine does not do something to weed this type of player out everyone will lose.
Turbine has an out if they don't want to change policy. He has done something to let him portal anywhere he wants. Hacking into the game is something they can ban for. The ability to portal anywhere makes it imposable to shake him when questing. This guy needs to be deleted, like yesterday.
What are the feelings of others who have had contact with this slime?
Dirk Digler
the really depressing part is that for most of us, this was the first time ever going on the quest.... I have worked for 2 years in this game to go on the quest... waited until I was "big" enough that I could survive under my own power and help on the quest... (ie not just tag along) and for it to end in such disappointment is just unbelievable to me.....
I do want to publicly thank William the Bat for the expert tour of the quest... the time that he took to show us through the quest almost allows the same ppl to go by ourselves.... A great leader for anyone's team and a very unselfish player al around....
Probe
He followed us till we got to the first dungeon then he left. When it was time to kill the behemoth somehow he found us and followed us from there. We thought nothing about it.
We had planned for Tars to get the kill along with the scroll and others got some of the other things. He was there for all these discussions.
Ive played this game since beta and have met some pricks in my time but never someone as blatant as this. Most of the times before that I had gotten upset I realized that my anger was due to the wrong timing or a misunderstanding. This, however, is just plain wrong. No excuse whatsoever.
Hatred
There is a guy who some think deleted Animal. He was a former owner of the account. There is no proof whatsoever that he did this.
For some reason people have started sending him hate mail. The crime of breaking into the account and deleting one of the best players on that server should have great punishment. Nevertheless you must have proof that you have to right person.
From the letter I read this was done a smart, if immoral, hacker. Sending someone hate mail for something they did not do is uncalled for. Wise up.
More quest jumping x2
Because Turbine repeated its error of making a quest with several errors more conflict has been created. Like the island quest they made it a long draw out affair that any group can jump. To make up for Turbines mess up MT has created scheduling boards to keep conflicts to a minimum.
Of course having a schedule will not prevent products of xp chains from doing their thing. In fact it gives them an advantage of planning their exploit.
Paraduck is a member of a very successful xp chain. He is a typical result. First he let a group turn in bells for the queen quest. Then he tried to beat them to the Queen.
It is a very strange thing to do as he had already done the quest and could not use the head. The thought is he is saving them up to turn in after 3 months. Not sure if that will work but it makes sense, in a twisted way.
His attempt to profit at the expense of that quest was thwarted when he died.
Not to be discouraged he checked the boards and saw another group was going to start in 20 minutes. He got a few high levels from his chain and started the quest. Of course the group that was scheduled was not pleased.
Getting a group of 9 70+ people together for a quest is not easy. It takes planning, time and effort.
Thinking it was an honest mistake they tried to work something out. Of course as it was not a mistake compromise was not forthcoming.
The other group then decided not to let Paraduck profit from this. I'm not judging them, as I understand their frustrating and anger. I personally would not have done this but that is me.
What they did was follow the quest jumpers into the Hive and kill the Queen. Paraduck stole the head anyway, which created even more hatred. As the head can only be used by the person who killed the Queen it is doubly stupid to steal it.
Not sure what the answer to this is. Caecus is only a few weeks old. Using an exploit and hex editor was able to level enough to steal the lady quest. Paraduck made high level with little work, but a lot of grief. Unless Turbine/MS takes a stand and stops the chains and exploits the game has a poor future.
The right way
I had my nephews over this weekend. They had a great time playing their PPL's. After they left I logged and found myself on a different server. I decided to take a look at the Fist in HG.
The HG Fist is my first non UA Fist. He was an experiment in Crossbow. Of course when he was made Crossbow was less than perfect. In fact I found him almost unplayable.
With the changes to Crossbow it was not only playable but fun. He was 4lv and near the hall in Hebien-to. I worked him a little and got him to 5lv.
I headed over to a small outpost where I could get some packs. While there I noted a portal to Greenspire. I decided to see how I could do there.
Now this is a player with stock Yogi armor and crossbow. I'm sure I could have found someone glad to have me as a vassal and got great armor and a god like crossbow. Knowing I likely would not be back to that server in months I did not want to do that.
Now I can state with assurance that a 5lv crossbow player does not belong on DMI. Using hit and run tactics I was able to get a few kills.
I tried to kill a one Aun. With repeated attempts I found that there is a 12% limit in vit at 5lv. I must have died 7 or 8 times in that one battle. Never did kill him as he healed up faster than I could do damage.
While trying to take down a Bandit I met up with a 5lv mage. We created a fellow to hunt with. While not very powerful we were much better as a team than apart. We took some Mosswart Shamans with only one death on his part and two on mine.
At the end we both made 7th level. Not one time did we try to get others to buff us. A passing melee tossed BD V on my bow and that really helped for a while. That was it for buffs.
Strangely I would pass a 10 level begging for buffs each time I ran out of the portal after a death. He had a body up on a hill.
I felt sorry for him and engaged and cleared it for him. Why a 5lv had to clear a spawn for a 10lv I have no idea. I guess he felt he could not play without buffs and I knew better.
I had a great time. I hear over and over that the game is only fun at high levels. That is total bull. I hear people say they don't have time to play and therefore need xp chains and macros. That is again total bull. Play the game to have fun. High level is something that should be earned, not given.
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