There are a lot of people who say cheaters don't hurt anyone. Well that was just disproved today. Some lowlife's found out how to use a bug. This bug let them have a lot of the new scarabs. Some were sold on e-bay for real money.
Well this is costing me a days hunting and not letting me play for another day. It costs me a long run to get two hides converted. It is costing my vassal a days tweeking by another vassal. It is costing everyone who played yesterday everything they did. If someone died and recovered after the rollback time they will lose all the dropped items. Old Time Mage is in real risk of this.
The people who cheated will not be punished. The ones who sold on e-bay will even be rewarded. Cheaters hurt everyone.
Camping bodies
While hunting on the island I found a body of Old Time Mage. I sent him a message. He said he was getting another body and would be there as soon as he could. The body was in a bad spot. The spawn was Bandies, Malus Shreth's and Drudges. Not just at the spot he died but all around him.
That meant he would have to fight to the body and hold off fast spawns while trying to loot. I have had to do that before and it is not fun, especially with vit and possibly less armor.
I said I would hold the spot for as long as I could. It was a while before he got there. I had to leave to sell off once before he got to the island. I met him at the edge while buffing. I saw he was wearing different armor than the body showed. We moved slowly, taking each spawn one at a time.
I held off two Drudges while he looted his body. Old Time Mage then tried to work off his vit, big mistake. First thing he attacked was the Drudge spawn. Three 103 level monsters were a little too much for him. I tired to help by attacking one. If he was not PK I would have shot heals at him.
I was hoping he would run but if he thought of it, it was to late. The body was in about the same place as the other one. Old Time Mage sent me a tell saying he had over 100 hp when he was blasted. Drudges are nothing to mess with.
It was too late for me so I could only wish him luck as I logged.
Vassal helping
Most of my vassals are very independent people. They come to me already between 30 and 60 and have few needs. Others come in their mid teens but ask to level on their own. Maddie is a good example. A total newbe I tend to put under vassals who can spend more time with them than I can.
I have one very new player who joined me because of his brother. Yoshi Kikuchi was at 14lv and sent me a message asking for recommendations on hunting spots. In the low twenties I hunted in Old Mines. There was no Citadel back then. I felt with my help he could hunt there.
I told him to meet me in Awric and ran Mage there. Fist de Muya had logged on so I asked him if he wanted to go. He had a lot of vit, typical of Muya, and thought it was a great idea. It took a bit to get us together as Muya thought we were going to the Citadel.
I tried to get them to remember the route as it is easy to get lost in the Awric Mine. Muya said he had hunted the mine before but was surprised when we got to the Old Mine portal. "How did I miss this?" he said.
I had them both buffed up with armor, blunt, piercing and blade. I buffed there for defense and attack and buffed their weapons with level VI spells.
Not much xp or me but a lot of fun. As long as I had my protections are up there was no danger. With imperils the lugies fell fast. Because most go to the Citadel Old Mine is not much more hunted then when I was there.
Not much changes. When I hunted Old Mine where was generally a mage hiding behind a door draining lugies. This one started screaming, leave my lugies along. I said, "Humm, he is not even in the room."
One Archer showed up and started following us. I sent a message to the fellowship that I was changing to Lighting Vuln as he was using normal arrows.
A bit after we got there Maddie showed up for support. She buffed weapons and watched their backs. In about an hour Yoshi had 15lv and Muya was free of vit. Now can the hard part, getting Yoshi back.
The problem with Old Mine is it's location. Lot of lugies, Shadows, Ash G's and other nastys. The closest town is Qbar.
We were debated this and Yoshi asked what he should do with the xp he had made. I said add it to Item so he can learn recall. I buffed him up got his item to 126, more than enough. We gave him the comps needed and shortly after he ported out.
Now the fun begins. It is not nice to laugh at a vassal in trouble but Fist de Muya had us rolling on the floor. First we got a message saying he had died. I was worried he had died in Old Mine but he had ported back to the Islands.
Muya said, "There is a Moarsman on the island. It got lucky, I will got it." Fist de Muya dies. "I was at burden, I'll drop some stuff on the body and get it." Fist de Muya dies. "It got an acid blast on me, I got it weaker now." Fist de Muya dies.
I wish we had recorded the list of tells between us because we were having a fine conversion at Muya's expense. We like Muya because of his great attitude and he is just plain fun to be around. In the end I logged Cliff Bowman to get his bodies.
Island hunting
The island can be pure adrenaline at times. I use to hunt the beaches and stay safely in deep water. Now I'm stronger and heading inland. The problem with this is body recovery can be more than a problem. Also people hunting with me may not be as strong.
I have stood in dead spots between spawns with a mass of dots 360 degrees around me. Great hunting and at times scary as hell.
How I get into trouble is when a spawn in back of me decides to join in the fun. I can take three or four bandies with little trouble. If things work out right I can take a Drudge spawn but that has more danger.
I'm finding unarmed weapons on the Drudges and some level VI items. So I'm hunting them where before I would go around. Drudges have a smarter AL and can get you into trouble.
I found that I can use the trees to advantage. If I can get close enough for drains I can let a tree absorb the initial blast of spells and thrown weapons. This is working well but I found a problem with it. It got me killed before I found it.
I'm close behind a tree fighting a Drudge. The Drudge charges and we are in close combat. Drudges are good spell tossers and bad fighters, more so than Bandies. Their weakness is low hit points. One or two blasts of fire after a level VI Vuln will kill them. That weakness can also be a strength when fighting a mob of them.
When fighting three Bandies I know that I can get very low in health and switch to a bandie for a quick drain. I get 74 points with a level 1 drain. That means two quick drains can generally bring be to full health. I then switch back to the battle.
This does not work with Drudges so I have to be ready to use heal. While battling behind the tree I was facing the one so I had little worry. I was taking a lot more damage than normal but discounted it as I knew I was going to kill the Drudge quick. I already had a fire Vuln and yield on it.
I tossed the Fireball and got a resist. Another one did 160 points of damage and the next one killed it. To my surprise the Drudge was still standing there even though I had got it's death message. That was when I discovered I was facing more than one.
The tree had screened the fact that fact from me. I landed a yield and got a health drain and added a heal. I did a stam to mana and drained stamina from the Drudge. Fire Vuln and a fireball dropped the Drudge. Dab-blasted there were three of them. Very low on health let one quick blast kill me.
Team hunting
My vassal Thorin Darkblade sent me a tell asking if I was hunting on the island. If Mage is hunting he is on the island as it is the best place for him. He wanted to team up with me. I'm all for it even though I have to change my play a lot. A fighter and a Mage can do much more damage together than apart. After my de-buffs a good fighter can kill a bandie with one to two swings.
A big change for me when teamed with a fighter is mana management. When solo I'm getting stamina drains and generally end each battle with as much mana/stamina/health as I started with. When teaming I will take damage and use mana. I have to get it back with spells.
Another disadvantage is buffing. It is a good idea to buff the fighter as well, especially if they are a bit weaker than you. Darkblade is 45lv, the lowest level allowed on the island. This will take one to two minutes more per buffing cycle.
We were in the center of a large group of spawns and got into trouble. My desk timer went off so I knew I had to find a safe spot for re-buffing. We were in the middle of a battle with 5 or 6 bandies at the time. A mage and fighter can do that. That many I cannot fight alone.
We had killed all but one and I was about out of mana. The Bandie must have got a crit in on him because he died. I had to run with no mana.
I got to the beach and recovered mana and headed back up the hill to find Darkblades body. The same Bandy that killed Darkblade was there. I decided to finish it off. The problem was three fold. It had an imperil on it but that does me no good. I had to yield and vuln it before I killed it. It was also at less than half health so I could not drain it.
Those two things plus what I over looked in the excitement. I have about one to two minutes of buffs left after my timer goes off. I had totally forget about it. Without out buffs I'm not going to last long.
So shortly after Darkblade hit the LS I joined him. I'm also missing my Mattie robe again. Not sure if the Bandie leveled but he deserved to. Darkblade was trying to get a portal back while I did have mine, unfortunately it is untieable so I could not help Darkblade.
For some reason I keep forgetting that I can get a robe in the mage shop at AB. That would make recovery much easier for me. Maybe a note on the monitor or something.
I ported back and buffed my underclothes. This is not the best armor and my setup is for Bandies, not Drudges. I'm going to have to remember to add lighting bane to my underclothes only buff.
While buffing a fighter I had seen but never met came up and said hi. R A D A N C E need a lore buff to put on some of his protection items. I understand that need. Fist de Yuma plays close the edge and a bit of vit can really mess you up.
I proposed that we team up for body recovery. R A D A N C E is one of the smarter fighters that know the value of mage and fighter teamwork.
I was not totally sure where my body was. I decided to run up the hill and then across until I found it. That worked but had the unfortunate backlash of getting the spawns stirred up. My screen was more orange than black as I ran passed the body.
R A D A N C E was able to stop at the body as everything else was chasing me. I was able to work my way around the spawns and get close to the body. R A D A N C E was in battle that I found out later he lost. A single Drudge stayed with me when I ran and I turned to face it.
I was sure I could quickly kill a Drudge and recovery the body. What I did not count on was resists. With my vit and a little luck the Drudge was having a good time pounding no me. I knew I was going to die and decided dying in portal was better. I almost made it out but one last spell got me in the portal.
I messaged R A D A N C E that I had died in portal so not to worry about a second body. I ported back and started buffing. Let me tell you, buffing with 10% vit is painful.
R A D A N C E found me and I got some buffs on him, with a lot of fizzles. We headed over to the bodies and tip-toed around the spawns. My body was in a dead zone so I finally got my robe back. R A D A N C E recovered and now we needed to work off vit.
With my de-buffs and R A D A N C E's melee we killed fast. Took a single buffing cycle to clear our vit. Darkblade finally got back and got his body. We remade the fellowship so he could get into it. As Darkblade is under 50lv the points were going to be split more for R A D A N C E but we could kill more.
We got Darkblades body with a little work and started killing more. While teaming with a fighter I don't have to yield them. My yield is so the war skill, which is over 20 points below my life and creature, will hit. I can toss imperil and lighting vuln and the fighter will kill it in seconds.
While fighting a few Bandies a Drudge attacked my back. I knew the best way to live was to finish up de-buffing the bandies and turn on the drudge. This left me with little mana. The Drudge chain casted on me. I saw my only chance was a quick portal. As I ported out I saw Darkblade had finished off the bandies and was attacking the Drudge. I hit the LS with 20 hp, 19 stamina and 4 mana.
A few seconds later Darkblade joined me at the LS. He said he had ran but the Drudge got a back shot on him.
I ported back and found his body. Darkblade was having trouble getting a portal so it was taking time. I had to split a lot of peas to keep myself in comps. A few other people had died in about the some spot. It is a great hunting spot and others were finding that out.
By the time Darkblade got there we had a mob of players killing everything so his recovery was easy. He said he was getting out of there before he died again. I was beat and had RL stuff that could not be put off any more. I ported out and was about to log.
I got the message "Your fellow Thorin Darkblade had died". I said I thought he had left. He said he wanted to see that a Coral Golem looked like. Well I knew that the spot is camped by mages so his recovery would be easy.
Fame
I'm kind of a levelheaded guy. I know that fame is means nothing. I kind of laugh at actors that think playing a part makes them an expert on the subject. An actress players a farmers wife in a movie and the next month she in is in front of Congress testifying on a farm bill.
With that in mind I try to not let this column go to my head. There are much better player than me in the game. I'm average at best. I do have the advantage of time and I'm smart enough to read and learn from others. I admire those that figure out the quests and use their experiences to follow them.
So when players like Konil come up to me and ask for an autograph I don't let it be more than it is. Fame is nice and I would be lying if I said I did not like it. I have a good wife that keeps my feet on the ground. "What good it the column, you don't get paid", she will tell me.
Of course the game can get me into a lot of trouble. My brother-in-law just returned from a tour overseas. (Marine) I let him play and he let me ride his ATC. We had an important PK problem and I'm a scout for them. I was wanted to get back and was a bit irritated at not being able to play all day.
I was just started playing when my wife can into my den. She wanted to use the internet to enter a contest. "Are you going to play all night." She said in an intolerant voice. "Yes I am", I snapped back. Hell I'm on trouble now. She stormed out and for two days I was dirt.
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