It takes a lot of hard work to get your name in this column in a negative way. I try to show the fun side of the game. You have to be someone who gets true joy in making others experience in the game a bad one to make it twice.
Most people that are this way get bored with slamming others and move on. Some get true joy in being a total ass and make it to very high levels. Raidon is one of these.
I wrote about how he leached me several times and had the excuse of working off vit for doing it. Then he bragged about how strong he was. I'm still trying to figure out why someone who thinks he is strong needs to leach someone 20 levels below him when he has vit.
I logged on today and close by was the leach Raidon. Typical of someone of his intellect he started out with my possible sexual preferences. My wife would be surprised if true. He then said how everyone was praising him and slamming me. Of course all I heard was how dead on I was about Raidon. I guess we run in different circles, thank God.
When I first met him I thought his age was about 17. The more he sent me tells the lower that appraisal got. Now I figure him to be about 14. He may be older but mentally 14 is giving him more than he deserves. You can always tell who the little kids are, they use words like Gay and Fag a lot. I don't know how this became in insult but seem prevalent amount the young and stupid. The funny thing is this insult has no effect on people my age, it is meaningless.
I was trying to have a peaceful hunt and had to endure his constant tells on how he was working off vit and it was his right to steal xp, how he would do it again and so on and so forth. If it keeps up I will be forced to squelch him. So sad that guys like Raidon are in the game. His patron and monarch are honorable people. I'm at a loss as to why he is still in the alliance.
Murdock Vdk/Vandros put it best in a post on COD. People like this can be found any place with high xp and low danger.
Then there are people who I seem to have misjudged. I wrote about Professor X a while back. I have not run into him since but I keep hearing about him. All of has been good. So we both must have been having a bad day when we met. He has helped a lot of people including some in Elder.
Camping Three Towers
My vassal Menelaus asked me if I wanted to go on the three towers quest with him. I did this quest with Mortok once and it is great, very good loot and not much danger at my level.
We ran from the South Dirland portal with the usual stuff chasing us. Only problem was when Menelaus lagged out just as we turned north. I saw there was a problem right away and chased after him. He ran against a mountain for a while and then logged.
Took him a little bit to get back and we headed over to the towers. We had a friend of his with us at that point but he died just as we got into the towers. Nothing we could do at that point.
Another fighter joined us and the three of quickly ran though the quest and killed the undead at the end. I decided to camp here for a while. Every five hours or so I log back on and get another key. I have eight of them at this point.
The second time I logged on I had 6 Liches on me. Seems a few people got killed right at the door and left the Liches in the room. I was ready for combat but it still was a hard battle. The problem is the taking of damage before I can get out of download.
The good thing is the bad ass undead stays at the end of the room until you attack it. With it in the battle the outcome might have been different.
The surprising thing about this quest is the number of bodies in the room every time I log in. I mean there are two to three clusters of bodies every time. It is a great quest and outstanding loot but not a walkover.
I got a tell while playing Mage from Mortok. Him Balash and Hu-ni II were going to meet Fist in three towers. He said the third tower is not spawning. I guess someone by-passed part of it again. Not sure if I should just cash the keys I have or stay and collect them. If I stay I can give some to my vassals when they arrive.
There is some risk. Liches in the room will not be a problem as no one is going to be drawing them. The bad ass undead is no easy kill. My last kill of him left me with 20 hit points out of 217, let me tell you, I was worried. If I die there will be no way to recover.
Vassals come to Three Towers
I was playing mage when Pantine said he, Mortok and one of Maddie's players would be going to three towers again, it was fixed now. I had nine keys by then and about due to log and get the tenths. They about got to the start so I logged Fist.
Fist killed the Lich and got his last key. There were a lot of people getting keys so I stayed to help them kill it. A few people showed up every few minutes. Our group said they got there and were ready to start. Then "Dam, two Umbris spawned."
I asked if they got in ok and said all but Maddie's player. A bit later they all got there and got their keys. Mortok went outside to help Maddie and I decided to go help kill the Umbris's.
I hit the portal and ran to the tower. Inside was the group of undead, two Umbris, a Pan, Lt and Shadow. I was quickly down to 50 hit points and running. Mortok and Maddie's other got in the portal ok while everything chased me.
I grabbed my Life IV orb and got to heal range. Then started drawing the shadows. I killed the Pan and tried to get the two Umbris' apart. No luck and the two chased me close to two crossbow players next to the second tower. I stopped and fought both while the crossbow players pored quarries into them.
I must have ran them out of mana in the other fights because other than a few spells they were mostly melee. An Umbris, a bad monster with mana, without it they are dead meat to a good melee defense. A few heals from the spells they did toss and both were dead. I was glad for the crossbow's helping but they must have missed a lot as I got looting rights on both.
We waited for others in this group to show up. The first lich was taking his sweet time in showing. It took about half an hour before the next group could start in. I know I could solo it but why take the risk.
The leader of this group knew the place well and it was smooth running. We met up with Pantine and the others at the main lich. After everyone got a key we took the portal to cash out.
In the chest room there are four chests. Two are worthless. One is an armor chest and the other a magic item chest. A lot of mixing between the two but that is now it mostly is. I was told that every five hours or so the chests mix up.
I used 5 keys on the armor chest (20 pulls). My goal was coordi VI gaunts. My new setup needs them. My great vassal Menelaus gave me some Unarmed VI solls so the Coordi VI gaunts are all I need to finish up my magic setup.
After getting a few items worth saving and a whole lot of items just to sell, I switched chests. The magic chest did no better for me. We did got some nice items but nothing I don't already have. Thought I had a nice item for Maddie but she said I had already given her one.
Body Recovery
While we were cashing our keys I got a tell from Thorin Darkblade. He had been trying to make a trade for some leggings he had. He said he made a good deal and was happy. Soon after the person he made the deal with sent me a tell. He was very happy with my vassal, as I am.
Later Illbreed sent me another tell saying he had died on the island and needed some help. Maddie told me that Illbreed was a thief. I discussed this with Illbreed and he admitted he was made some mistakes and was reformed. I believe in giving people a second and even third chances. Maddie said I'm too nice.
We finished up with the chests and I logged Mage to go help Illbreed. He wanted to go though the C-note spot. Last time I went there I died three times, twice as Fist and once as Mage.
As we approached the fort I buffed him and myself up for fighting a Diamond golems. I de-buffed one and had it almost dead when it headed back out of range. Two more were outside and I de-buffed one. Both attacked me and were doing major damage.
I was draining ok but the damage was quickly falling behind the return. I took the better part of valor and did a Fist move, I ran. Only Mage is nowhere near as fast as Fist so they were catching. I knew I was going to take a hit or shockwave and, with 30hp, going to die. I hit lifestone recall.
I was sure I was going to die and my best bet was to die in portal so I would not have to run back to get the body. That was the way it went.
Illbreed said with everything chasing me he got to the island.
I met up with him on the island taking my safer route and we searched for his body. Tim the Pesky was with him as we met. Illbreeds body was just outside of range of the beach monsters so recovery was easy. We killed a few bandies to clear our vit.
Illbreed said that he saw Tim the Pesky die. I had missed the message. Illbreed said he though he had lagged out. I was rebuffing and Illbreed searched for Tim's body. Illbreed was being chased by a horde of monsters by the time I was done buffing.
I helped him stay alive and Illbreed thanked me and logged. About that time Tim showed up. We both searched. A short while later I saw Tim running down the hillside with about 20 dots after him. He broke contact and told me he found the body but it was a bit camped, I'll say.
I said I will try to draw and let him recover. We headed up a mountain and I saw his body. Not being the fastest mage on the island I was taking a bit of damage. I hoped I had most of them after me and ran down the mountain.
Tim said he was in a safe spot but could not get to the body. I went around the side I had ran down and was getting close. I saw the 6 monkeys he said were guarding his body and was going to try a wall of cold to clear them. I figured I could send 5 or 6 of them and it might do enough damage.
As I was getting set five bandies spawned right next to me. It was a good thing I was buffed for bandies or I was dead quick. As it was I had no option but to port. I told Tim what had happened. Later he said he had killed all the bandies to get his body.
True honor.
It is easy to be honorable when people are watching. It is not so easy when no one is watching. That is the true test of honor. Fist de Muya has proven to be honorable beyond approach.
I was telling Maddie in a vassal tell about needing coodi VI gaunts. Fist de Muya said he had a set. Now Muya is in the low 20's so this was a bit improbable. He said he found them on the ground in the subway one day. He also said he was searching for the owner.
He had a body on the new island and Cliff Bowman was helping him recover. He gave Cliff Bowman the Gaunts. He also said he had a line on the owner and wanted to know if he should keep it up. As much as I wanted them I said to follow the leads. I was hoping it was a dead end.
A day later Muya got a hold of me. To his surprise the owner was someone he knew. To my surprise it was an old friend. Now it could have been some slimeball looter or a leach. No, it has to be an old friend. To make this even more surprising his main was the only person on Cliff Bowman's friends list.
The bow mastery V gloves that Cliff Bowman uses came from Lock. We had also hunted and done body recovery together.
I gave Cameronlock a tell saying I had his gaunts. I was to meet him in the subway to return them. While in the subway I got disconnected. Internet was dead and a call to tech support got it back up.
I got back and Cameronlock was not on. I was feeling bad as I was sure he thought I was avoiding him. I was relieved that he logged on a few minutes later and we met up. I was crying as I handed him the Gaunts. It seemed that he had died in the subway and thought he had looted the body. Somehow the Gaunts had not been looted. He was lucky that an honorable person like Fist de Muya found them.
Hunting the Island
My Archer did not spec melee. For an Archer with life this is not a big problem. For one without Life it is. I'm sure I'm going to kill a mule on my second account and make a new Archer in the near future. It will be after I get both my computers working with AC.
I know the power of an Archer with a mage. My work with Ur III and Sassy proved the power of Life magic and Bow at high levels. Ibn made a new melee a while back. I used Mage to help him with a few levels. Ibn used an untrained bow to kill lugies at 2lv. I buffed him and de-buffed the lugies.
Meanwhile I will still be using Cliff Bowman. While not Uber and possibility not even viable after 50lv I'm being stubborn. He has his uses.
Bal's Bowman is my vassal Balash's Archer. He had a body on the island. While only a few levels lower than me he lacks my melee skill. I put a lot of points into it and have some nice buffing items.
Bal had died and needed help. We would go a little ways and Bal would die. I told him to run when attacked by things he could not fight. Balash is known as crazy but not stupid, he started running.
I was doing a search for his body, not knowing it was a long ways off. I found another body hidden behind some trees. I send a message to the owner who was grateful. Later I got a message saying he would never have found it without our help.
I think Bal must have died 5 or 6 times before we found his body. A surprise spawn almost added to that number after he recovered the body we had been searching for. Island is a great place but if you have under a 230 melee, don't try it.
String the Bow
I have been putting points into my Bow skill for a few days now. I got it to 204 raw. I felt ready to try and string my bow.
I had all the best items for the bow including a handle. Elder's cook was in the hall so I asked him to oil my guts. Well there is always a chance of failure and his over 300 skill did. He had two guts and I had some on my second account mules.
I logged the mules and got one of my guts. Elder oiled it and give it to Cliff Bowman. I got a family mage to buff me to 264 and gave it the old college try, snap. Well I knew it was going to be hard. Someone else had a gut and I re-logged my mules and found two more.
Elder oiled the guts and I gave it one last try. Success! I now have my bow. A test on the island showed it to be slightly more effective than my old bow. The key for me is that it is no drop. There is always the fear that a death will drop my bow. Without it recovery would be problematic.
Dropping my Mattie
While on the island I was half way up a hill. I had killed a few bandies and a Wasp. I saw two drudges and since there was nothing else close decided to kill them. The problems with drudges, other than de-buffs, is that they don't have the hit point reserve of a bandy. If I got into trouble fighting more than one I cannot get healthy with a few drains.
I hit a pocket of lag and they took advantage of that to chain cast on me. I came out of lag with 6 hit points. With a bandie a few drains might have saved me. With a drudge it I did not get enough to last the next spell.
I carry a lot of death items. It is light stuff worth about 6k apiece. As the Mattie robe is worth 4k this mostly works. Not this time. Among the 6 items I dropped was my robe.
Now I had a problem because I had muled my other robe. If I had been thinking at all I would have got one at the mage tent and saved me a lot of trouble.
I was not defenseless. I have a shirt and pants that I buff under the robe. This is why I can fight 4 bandies or two Coral Golems at a time.
The spot was of course now full of monsters. Spawns are a bit strange in the island. Sometimes you kill everything and nothing comes back. Other times something else, worse or lesser, comes back. There are some spots where you can kill stuff all day and never run out. I was not really sure what this spot was going to do.
It would have been nice to have some help. It was 2am my time and few people were the island. I was going to have to do this myself.
First was a spawn of Bandies. They worried me because they hit hard and toss bad de-buffs. I was lucky with the de-buffs and cleared them. Next was the group of Drudges. I was able to draw one at a time and with a fire de-buff and fireball took then out.
I finally got close to the body. Close by were 4 or 5 monkeys. This was a problem. They hit me very hard even with double buffs. With single buffs I was not going to be able to fight them all. Monkeys have a strange attack AL. If I attack one all will join in. Any Monkey from 360 degrees around will join in as well. Sometimes you can be very far away and they run to attack you. Other times you can be very close and they just stand there.
With my beat feet mode ready I edged closer to the body. I got right next to it and clicked to open it. When did that I automatically scooted a step closer to the Monkeys. I was lucky, no reaction. I looted the robe and 5 death items and ran back to the beach.
Of course as soon as I got there several people I knew ran by with a cheery "Hi Fist."
Damien Daring does BSD
I will not say I have the best vassals in the game. That is only because I don't know other patrons vassals. I will say a patron could not be prouder than me. Damien has been hunting the plains BSD for a bit and he sent me this story.
Well last night I made it to 51st level, but it wasnt easy. I was hunting outside of BSD when I decided to take on an altered drudge. Now one on one with them Im ok with, but I didnt notice the one that spawned behind me until it was too late. He hit me with a spell in the back and I was left kissing the lifestone.
I ported back and rebuffed myself. I went outside and got lucky, someone had killed the drudges. I recovered with little trouble, then decided to stay outside and work off the vitae. I had worked off 1% when I took on a Slave, which I can handle even with the vitae, but when his friend Mr. Obsidian Golem decided to help I was a dead Daring.
So....once again I portal back and recover, only having to beat up the golem to get my body. Now Im working with a 9% vitae, so I decide to hunt inside BSD for a bit. I go inside and rebuff life and weapon and start hunting. BSD over the weekend was packed, so finding something to kill was tough. I go in and down the ramp leading to the dead end. Not a single tusker to be seen but lo and behold there was a Virindi Master. I decided that I wanted him, so I went in and faced him.
Thats when the Servant decided to re-spawn. In my weakened condition they finished me off quickly. Im thinking this sucks Ive now got to work off a 14% vitae. At this point I cant throw my 6th level spells so I know I have to be careful. Once again I buff everything I can and start working off the vitae.
I got lucky, there were two Slaves on the first level that wanted to play with me. Since I am so low it takes me a while and I had to stop to heal twice, which I never have to do with my 6s going but in the end I had two dead tuskers in front of me. I kept doing this till I got to about 6% down and felt I could take on a Guard without too much trouble.
I was down at the bottom of the ramp and there was a person surrounded by Guards. Being smart I ran behind one to draw it off into a corner, but for some reason four came with me to the corner. The guy who was a mage portaled out, not that I blame him he still had 5 Guards on him even after I drew some off and I could hear he was getting pounded hard.
So here I am with 9 Guards who are debating which one is going to use my forearm as a toothpick. I just keep swinging, it is taking a lot of time though cause I am missing a lot. On top of that I have to keep stopping to take a couple stamina elixirs and heal myself occasionally. But, help arrived, Sure Shot took down a couple guards with her mighty bow and a fighter was working around hitting free Guards while I kept fighting not daring to hope that I would still live this fight through.
At the end the floor was awash in red fur and I was in the corner with my weapon at the ready. I thanked them both for saving me, they said no problem and smiled at me. I staggered away up the ramp to the portal where I might lie down for a few minutes and rest.
NewsGroup Tales
I got so mad at leaches that I sometime forget that you get more done by being nice that being as angry. Peter Duniho teaches me a lesson.
Apparently not, in at least one case, and despite me having gotten off on the wrong foot.
I try to be polite, honest. Especially in the game. I realize not everyone here will believe that, but its a constant battle for me. I do TRY to be nice, but often my temper gets the best of me.
Anyway, this archer was following me around in the Lost Gardens. Waited for me to engage a Shadow, then started plugging away. He did this for all five Shadows that spawn down there. Finally, after he did it on a sixth (fresh spawn), I had to say something.
Of course, by then I wasnt exactly interested in a nice chat, so I expressed myself rudely. Said something along the lines of "are you going to be leeching the whole time youre here?"
No answer. Just keeps leeching.
Unfortunately, Shadows dont switch targets much. With Lugians, its simple...just stop attacking, they go kill the archer. But once a Shadow got it in his mind that I was his target, no amount of passiveness would convince it that the archer was a greater threat. Sigh...
This guy wasnt that great an archer though, as it turns out. Maybe for his level he was fine, but he was quite a bit lower than me in level. This may also have had something to do with me not being able to get a Shadow to switch to him. :) Anyway, I just took all the kills.
I dont recall if I said anything more, but before too long, the archer disappeared. A melee guy returned in his place. L50, and I cant even remember if he was Sword or Axe. Oh well. Anyway, same tactic. Follow me
around, wait for me to engage, then start whacking. Of course, hed usually go around behind to get the free back shots -- especially effective against shield-wielding Shadows, for getting looting rights.
Again, I forget exactly what I said. But it was something like "do you leech with all of your characters, or just these two?" Again, not exactly the nicest thing to say, but it was pretty clear what he was doing. Except this time he was actually beating me for looting rights, on Shadows that I didnt get a good head-start with, or a lucky critical.
However, I was able to stay ahead of the game...I dont know if he had a more laggy connection, or just isnt that good at maneuvering, but I was able to beat him to most of the Shadows, and out-maneuver him to get to a Shadow he couldnt get to in time, so wound up still getting more than half of the kills.
He said something, a little later, along the lines of "is there something wrong with me hunting slivers?" I replied "No, just something wrong with you always attacking the Shadow Ive already engaged".
His reply was pretty lame, stated that he didnt mean to, that the Shadow was at full Health when he auto-targeted (the Shadows arent close enough or fast enough spawn for accidental targeting to occur more than once or twice...certainly doesnt explain the pattern of behavior). BUT, he did catch on to the fact that his tactics werent doing him any good. In my reply, I suggested that sharing the Shadows would work a lot better.
Much to my surprise, he started doing exactly that! When the two singles upstairs would spawn, he would take the one on the right, I would take the one on the left. The three in the big room, wed each take one above, and then it was a free-for-all for the third one below. The children all spawn in pairs, except one, so those were easy to share as well.
Eventually, some other people did start showing up, and it became a little less organized, but we still did okay. And most important, no one was getting bent out of shape about any "kill stealing".
Wow...
If one can lead off with a snide comment or two like the ones I used, and still get things to work out, imagine what can happen if youre just polite all the time.
(Names have been left out to protect the guilty :) ).
Pete
p.s. Yeah, I realize there are some grief players that will never change their ways, but its clear that not all leeches (or other negatively behaving players) are terminally so.
______
The old island is Mages play ground but I'm seeing more melee there. After this post by Der Gestiefelet Kater I can see why.
Well, this was educational.
Made 45 yesterday in the Plains BSD, then fought until my buffs were up, then recalled to Ayan for good. Set up camp in Claudes tent and learned every level5 life protection for Self and Other that I didnt have yet.
Gathered up Sibby and headed off to see the madman in Baishi and made an uneventful run to the C-Note emissary. That castle looks wickedly good. Nice work Turbine.
O my, I never knew there could be so many diamond golems in such a small place. We jumped the walls as any no-neck girl with half a brain would, instead of storming the front gates.
Sibby bribed the undead babe with a C-note (while some Obsidian and Diamond golems that live inside the walls kept pounding on her back) and off we went. Spent 15 minutes chatting in the water, waiting for the crippling debuffs to go away (I could go off on a tangential rant here but Ill spare yall from that).
Then we buffed up for good. I provided her with a bunch of protects and she healed me after the health to mana transfers.
I love Mana Conversion. Buffs to 185 right now and I can get off a level 5 anywhere between 2-3 mana up to the full cost.
The first two buff cycles went well. Killed a few red banderlings and Altereds. Found two pieces that are worth keeping: Armor VI pants (diff 272 -- ouch) and a 490BU SL105 shield.
Bandies are dumb and have no melee defense to speak of. At 312 skill, with HS5 on my SRA (with the BD6 and Def6 rubies), they barely ever evaded me. Sibby used her Gerties and I didnt see her miss much either.
It was the third buff cycle when things went wrong. I forgot to cast Cold protection on me, then compounded the mistake by running up to a huge cluster to try and pull out a few. These things refuse to play if you try to lure them with missile weapons. They just throw more sh*t back at you.
Thats when the lag hit. Lost 4 robes right at the edge of the spawn, no biggie. Island can have them. At that point never having Portal Tie paid off, since I just recalled right to the landing platform. (It was not easy to survive without Tie. Since I cant enter random portals, I was cut off from the cheap supplies in Baishi and had to pay Ayan prices for my kits, comps and charges)
This recall was the big mistake, that I learned from dearly. I pretty much operate on a slim margin when it comes to equipment. With the vitae I can't equip my level 5 wands or my 289 Melee Defense Impen6 shield. Lacking the Impen on the shield (and me not paying attention) was my downfall, as I died twice again, in the water this time so recovery was easy. Ended the day with 10 vitae, which is not bad; a buttload of expensive but useless loot and hopefully a bit wiser.
Henceforth, I will work off every last bit of vitae around Ayan before going back for a body, and double-check that I cast every protection I need. Most notably: Frost, Fire and Ligthning.
That place was fun. We hooked up a level 50-something fighter named Charly the Mad, owner of 10 vitae points on his own right. Apparently that didnt cripple him too bad since when we started to work on the same bandie, he ended up with the looting rights in almost all instances.
Of which he only claimed every third kill (seeing that there were 3 of us there).
Cant wait to go back. That place is wicked fun. Need to do something about that nasty ol vit first though. Fortunately, there are a bunch of Shreths near the drop-off and unlike the humanoid monsters, they are more than eager to come and play on the first sign of provocation, and even with my reduced skills they are
not much of a threat.
kat/CG
O-
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