A problem I have.
I really hate being in the Citadel. Leveling up Jr. requires I be there until 30 when OHN opens up for me. I have tried off hours and late nights. I keep finding two types of players there that make me mad. It is not their fault it is mine.
When I see a high level killing everything in sight I know I'm in the Citadel for a while longer and I get mad. They have the right to be there and if they want poor XP and loot it is there business, not mine. Still I end up making an ass of myself trying to get them to leave.
Afterwards I feel bad but somehow I still do it again the next time. The other players that make me mad are the Leaches that cannot fight there. Them I'm a little better with them. I say; "Please don't leach" or "Please don't attack my target." Most of the time that's all it takes. Strangely it is the high levels who are the worse leaches.
A 45lv was there tonight jumping into my battles. With my buffs I was killing as fast as he was and at times faster. He said he was there to clear vit. It would take a long time to clear any vit in the Citadel but it is a ligament reason, if he would just not leach me.
I'll be so happy to hit 30 so I can go to OHN. I know there are leaches there but most of them stay on the upper levels. With my buffs I'll quickly move down and have some big fights. Meanwhile I'm going to work on not typing my thoughts out. Most of the time it just makes me look like an ass and does not fix the problem.
Quibble quest part I, South.
I saw on the boards we had the Quibble quest going on at 5:30. I was still cooking dinner so I hoped it left late. It was well after 6 before they did. I was using Deadeye Fist for this. Jr. would do it but is not set up with protection or a weapons for it.
I made the fellow and we had about 10 people. The Drudge had been spotted around the Lin Citadel. We made the short run there.
We spent some time running around trying to find the Drudge without any luck. Slowly people started dropping out as it did not go as smooth as they were use to. Elder quests are well led with experienced leaders. This quest can fail even with the best of leadership if you cannot find the random spawn.
I hit the boards and made a post asking if anyone had seen the spawn. One said a Black Claw spawn was close to his LS. The LS was on the beach well west of Mayoi. We ran there and ended up with about five people left. Only one with me. Him and I explored around, me almost getting killed.
I ran into a Shadow LT and attacked it. I did not see the Shadow and other LT near it. One would be hard, two and a Shadow was to much. With 9hp I was running for my life. Dogging and weaving I made it clear. I was on a ridgeline with only one route down. I was lucky to find it.
The funny thing was all three Shadows got trapped on hill sides trying to get back to the their spawn. The Shadow I killed in a face-to-face battle. The two LT's I killed by going back to the ridge and shooting down on them.
By this time there are only three of us left. Murron found a spawn about 25 clicks from me. Bang was running from Mayoi. We both started towards Murrion's coodi. Of course Bang found another spawn soon after. We spend an hour looking and find two in less than a minute.
I was close to Murron's spawn but in hindsight should have gone to Bangs. Murron is a 33lv mage and Bang was a 25. Where Murron was going to have little trouble killing the Claw, Bang was going to have a lot of work.
I got to Murron and helped him kill the Claw. We got in and told Bang to kill his and join us. Watching his stats in the fellowship window told the story. He would go down to 3 mana and then slowly get it back. At full health, stamina and mana then mana drops fast. Health drops, mana back up with stamina going down. Mana and health dropping fast. Then a set of bubbles told us he did it.
I waited while both of them buffed. We head out. Knowing we only had to keep doing north kept us from being lost. They would imperil and I would shoot holes in them. Only problem I had was the Drudges cheated. I think one hacked the program to find my missing protection. Soon all the Drudges were firing acid at me. Murron covered me with a spell to fix that.
Got to the end fast. I even killed the Claw without knowing it. It looks like a normal Drudge. I was wondering why it took so long to die. I got my half.
Murron and Bang started buffing. I told them to move in back of me as they were buffing on a spawn spot. Murron got right in back of me but Bang was left front against the wall.
At re-spawn I killed the one next to the door and lagged a bit. I could not select the Claw who was fighting Bang. Next thing I knew Bang was on the ground. With lag I did not see him killed, he just appeared on the ground. I killed the Drudge and Murron got his half. We were a little pissed but Bang said he had south pieces already. He was going so he could get the northern pieces. I got his stuff and met him in Lin.
I can see that these two are going to be to be future greats in Elder. Both stuck with it even though it was not going as expected. Both worked well in teamwork with Deadeye. I expect to be hearing a lot about these two later.
Pulled on this one
It is hard to take sides when both are right and both are wrong. The one I feel sorry for is taking all the flack. Lot of hatred because of this but the only one who did the right thing is the one taking all the heat.
It started out a while back. Royal Assasain lost a Mattie robe. How he lost it is unimportant other than it was not stolen. Someone found the robe and was not honorable. It was clearly marked as being owned by Royal Assasain. Instead of returning it he sold it on E-bay.
Dark-Drifter paid good money for it and I imagine he was a little pissed to find it was stolen. Again the inscription on the robe made it will known that this was a stolen robe and the owner was Royal Assasain. Again it was not stolen but Dark-Drifter had no way of knowing that.
While in AB Dark Drifter overheard Royal Assasain saying he was leaving the game. He stupidly decided to get him to clear the inscription. Of course Royal Assasain was happy to do that, not. He got the robe and logged.
Here is where it gets strange. Royal Assasain need to mule the robe. He asked a good friend to help him. Holy Killer knew that Royal Assasain had stole the robe from Dark Drifter. By this time the inscription had been removed. Royal Assasain was his friend but Holy Killer could have no part of a theft. He returned the robe to Dark Drifter.
Royal Assasain did not help his case any. He told three different stories including a tale about his account getting hacked. He did not want to admit he sole the robe so he made up stories how the robe was stolen from him.
The end result is the only honorable person in this is taking all the flack. Holy Killer did the right thing, as he knew it. Royal Assasain did steal the robe but it was his robe. Dark Drifter paid good money for the robe but he had to think he had stolen goods. A big mess.
So everyone is sending tells to Holy Killer and giving him grief. People get the whole story before going after someone. The only honorable person is this mess is Holy Killer.
Quibble Part II, North
I was running late. Wife did some shopping and I had to help put stuff away. I was sure the quest was started but hoped to catch up with it. I lucked out, they were running late and still in town.
The plan was to take the mountain short cut and head northwest. Had one person lag out just after we took the portal. We left one of his friends to guard the spot and moved forward. The guy logged back and caught up with us a bit later.
We hit a spot with a few monsters. I was trying to keep people from fighting stuff. The idea for this quest is to search not hunt. Someone saw a Shadow and took a pot shot at it. He did not see the two LT's with it.
We had a lot of people so we could take them on but anyone attacked had a good chance of dieing. LT's are a pain at times. I'm shooting a fire arrow at it and hitting for 50 to 60 a shot. Hit kept draining people and healing. After four hits it was still at full health, frustrating.
We had one person die before we took them down. While waiting for him to get back and recover we spotted the Black Claw Drudge. I said to wait for the guy who died to get back before attacking. Someone attacked and we had no choice but to finish the battle
I sent a fellowship tell, "What part of wait until XXXX gets here did you not understand." To my embarrassment I was told he had arrived and I had missed seeing him. Ooops.
We buffed up and headed out. We had mostly Archers and Mages in the group. One archer took out a weapon and shield, which gave us two Melees'. I set the formation. Two Melees in front, Archers in back of them and Mages bring up the rear.
A Mage was assigned to keep watch on each Melee for heals. This worked well and we had no deaths. A few people ran ahead but for the most part the group stayed together. The problem with a big group is keeping formations. Smaller ones know they have to hold the lines.
We got to the main room and set the line up lowest to highest. Bang, who had died the day before, got it first.
It was going well when someone, not in our party, ran a bunch of Drudges into the room. This had happened several times. I'm not sure if the guy was hunting over his head or drawing them to us. We had one death from this but it was someone who had got his piece.
After that people got a bit scarred and started porting out. Not a big problem as the 30 to 33 level people were the ones left. That is one of the reasons we try to have the line lowest to highest.
Everyone got their half and we only had two deaths, both recovered.
Jr hit OHN
Finally I got out of the Citadel. It was hard but for the last few hours I held my tongue, or fingers as the case may be. I even was able to work with a high level that was there for healing kits. I said to let me kill and he could have the kits.
When the FFA mob hit I just said the hell with it and beat on anything in range. It increased my XP flow as with my buffs I'm hitting as hard as a high level.
After leveling to 30 I headed back to Lin and had my mage buff me for Olthoi. It takes one less spell than the Citadel. For Lugies I needed, Blunt, Blade and Piercing. For Olthoi I only need Piercing and Acid.
My buffed melee was around 280. That meant I was being hit more often than not. With protections and a well buffed shield I was taking 0 damage from the hits. The problem came if they got around the shield. With low hit points from the 10-endurance start I could not take a lot of damage.
This was not a problem most of the time. I know how to keep Olthoi in front. I only had two times where I took a bunch of damage.
The first was when I was in the cubby before the last room. I had about 10 trying to get at me but only 4 at a time could do it. An Archer came around the corner and started firing into the pack. Of course the one I was fighting joined the group that chased the archer away.
I'm dragged out of my nice safe spot where 6 or 7 Soldiers could get back shots on me. I quickly disengaged the one I was fighting and ran forward to a corner. This let me keep then in front. Turning around and trying to get back to the cubby would not have worked.
This is something all the new players need to know. It is much better to run forward than try to turn around. Even if you have to head to the rear it is better to run forward, past the monster and then circle around to go where you want. By turning you expose your back and have much lower melee defense. If you run forward the monster has to turn to hit you. At best he will get one shot on you, mostly they don't even get that.
This is especially important when fighting war-casting monsters. If you try and turn a war spell has a good chance of hitting you. Running forward will prevent this. After you're past them starting zig-zaging. Zig-zags should be done every few seconds. All it takes is a hitting the left or right key while running. Any spells cast after that has should miss.
The second time was a program bug. I took the left side passage after the flood room. After an elbow there is a cubby right in front. About 15 to 20 Soldiers will attack you there. The door for the cubby was open but for some reason I could not get in. I tried to click the open space to see it the door was closed but showing open.
That did not work and I was down under half my hit points before I even could turn to fight. With my back to the invisible force shield I killed two to open a space. Then I took the passage to the end where there was an open cubby.
I was smart enough to buff my healing. I was able to heal with about 1/3 of my hit points left. A few stamina drinks and I was ready to fight.
This is another technique new players need to know. When surrounded you need to create a hole to run through. Find a spot where there is one monster between you and where you need to go. Kill that monster and run over the body. You have to be fast as they will close the gap in a hurry. This means you must have your finger ready to hit run as soon as the body drops.
It is best that the hole lets your run forward without any turns. The reason for this is lag. With a lot of monsters the computers have a hard time keeping track. You are never really sure of where you are or where your going. By making it a straight line you have some assurance your going in the right direction.
Stamina is my big problem there. I have about 165 and that will drop fast with the quick Olthoi attack. I carry over 100 elixirs to keep me going.
Made 33lv quickly. I'm averaging about 300k a buff. Most of that is going into combat stats with a heavy lean towards Melee defense. At this time it is 303 buffed and defender VII on my weapon. Still getting hit but I'm close to getting above their melee attack.
Fighting with level VII
Fighting with level VII spells is a little different than before. I can here some going Daaa. No I'm talking about a major change in the way I fight some monsters. It took a little bit of work before I found this because it is not obvious at first.
For Bandies there is not much change, just faster. De-buff, two drains and lighting blast. Nine times out of ten that will do it. For a sure kill drain three times instead of two.
The change comes in with Sheths and Drudges. Sheths were never a problem unless surprised by a group of them. I use to do Cold Vuln and Frost blast. As this worked with level VI spells it seemed a waste to do it with level VII's. I was switching to my de-buffed bar to take them out. This led to me being on the wrong bar if attacked by something else.
I did a test and found that with a single drain I could take out a Sheth with a level VII spell. Now I can walk up to a group of 5 and have little trouble taking them down fast. Drain, blast, dead. Drain, blast, dead. So simple I was looking forward to finding Sheths mobs to take down.
I found the same worked with rats and wasps. I use to do a piercing vuln and blast. Now I do a drain and blast.
Where I use to have a lot of trouble was Drudges. With level VI spell I had a hard time taking a group out fast enough. With the time it took to vuln and blast twice they were doing a lot of damage and de-buffs. A level VI Vuln and Fireball would take one out one-third of the time. Between that and resists I ended up running from most Drudge mobs.
With level VII that all changed. Now a single Vuln and blast would take one out. For distance work that was outstanding. Close up I was able to fight more than every before. Only danger was a war/life/focus/self de-buffs that took these options away. Some days Drudges will lead with all these spells and I avoid them. Other days they are more intent on melee'ing me.
What I found today was an even faster way to kill them. It is the same as with the Sheths. Two drains and a Fireball will take one out. Even one drain will work most of the time but with Drudges I like to be sure.
Of course the above only works if you have the skill to land spells on them. I'm getting very few resists with 332 War and 348 Life. If you remember these numbers being higher I'm not using my focus stone. I hate that 50-point mana drop. I have 400 mana after buffs now and need every bit of it.
The only time I'm using my focus stone is fighting the big guys such as Augmented Drudges Golems and Silver Tuskers. Speaking if Silver Tuskers I had a great battle against them the other day.
There is a little bay I fight in. It has a passage between two mountains that lead to the big bay. This passage is full of some very nastily stuff and get worse as you go further in. The mountains have a lot of monster groups on them.
When you attack one they all tend to jump off the mountain and then spend a lot of time trying to run back up. As I got close to the hill a Silver Tusker fell off the hill and attacked me. I engage it, hoping it was not a super resistance one. From the first I had no trouble landing a spell.
Of course as soon as I attack it the four others jumped off the hill to help out. My old BSD skills took over. Drain, Drain, Fire Vuln, Drain, Fireball. About the only difference was these hit a lot harder. I think what kept it from being really dangerous was I only had to fight three at a time. Mostly I was only fighting two. The rest of the time they would turn and try to run up the hill. Still taking out five Silver Tuskers in a single battle had me feeling ecstatic.
Adventure
So much is made of the bad players in the game. The good ones greatly outnumber the bad but the bad makes better press. Below is an example of just how good people can be.
Hi there Fist,
I know you like stories of outright kindness, so I thought Id send along mine..
I recently started hunting on the plains near the BSD with my level 42 gimp UA. Ive become somewhat addicted to Altered Drudges and the great loot they seem to enjoy dropping. I was hunting Altereds this afternoon when someone ran up to me and asked if I could help them get a corpse. I forgot to write down his name, something the sage. Being the nice guy I am, I said sure, and he supplied the coords and suggested I ran through the spawn while he grabbed his stuff. This being my second day hunting on the plains, I had no idea whether this would work or not; it usually had in the Dires.
The mob surrounding his corpse was larger then I had expected, with nearly a dozen tuskers, their virindi escorts, two diamond golems, a few groups of grievvers, and a shadow family or two. Needless to say, I was kind of nervous about running through it. Still, I wasnt about to say no to this guy, and none of my high level friends were online to help out, so I set out at full tilt through the spawns. I ran through, got hit by a single war spell, and flew right out the other end. I saw my friend leaning down to pick up a few items, but noticed that many of the creatures chasing me were beginning to turn back towards him. Thats what I did the stupid thing, I turned and charged back in. With monsters coming at me from all sides, I couldnt move, and the tuskers behind me beat me to death while the virindi drained my stamina. I died.
Arriving back at my lifestone, I cursed silently as I noted that on top of my five master robes, Id also dropped my Hauberk. Shortly thereafter my friend arrived back at the lifestone as well, smitten by one of the Diamond golems. I had no idea what to do. Even without vit, tuskers, umbris, and diamonds take me a while to kill, not to mention the virinidi (I think there was at least one executor there). I didnt exactly look forward to running through the spawn, and I knew I couldnt survive long enough to loot my corpse. On top of that, my friend now had two corpses in the area, one half looted.
I was commenting out loud on our predicament at the lifestone when a level 39 mage, Og of Krunch, asked me the coords for my corpse, as well as my friends. He suggested he could uber-buff, take out the spawns, and grab our corpses. He seemed fairly confident, and I knew his patron and monarch, so I @permitted him and waiting around for a bit. He told me he was having trouble with the spawn, and said he would call in additional help. Shortly thereafter he arrived back at the LS, with 5% vit. He ran back off, again.
By this time Id recalled back to the plains. Without my hauberk I was pretty much useless, but I could buff my shirt and shield and tank tuskers. I ran around for a bit, looking for the mage, and eventually found myself being chased by a number of tuskers and a virindi master, who was nice enough to Bludgeon Vuln VI me. I died again. 10%, and totally out of robes and DIs.
Og of Krunch called in a level 70+ sword fighter, Kiai Zanshin, and I thought we were doing fairly well, working our way through the spawns towards my corpse. Without warning, Og of Krunch died to an augmented (God, I hate those!) Hed now died twice. Kiai Zanshin and I continued to work our way towards the spawn, while Og of Krunch ran back. Og of Krunch arrived back on the scene, and was instantly killed by another augmented. He was at 12%. Kiai Zanshins buffs began to drop, and we ended up running. Dead Kiai Zanshin. 5%. Dead me. 15%.
This went on for about an hour. We never got even close to my corpse. What was really great, though, was that both the mage and the sword figher stuck at it. Neither of them gave up, even after I thought for sure that they would. In the end, the Kiai Zanshin died twice more, and Og of Krunch was killed twice, as well. I died three more times.
Needless to say, I was ticked. I recalled back to my Lifestone and went afk to get something to eat and simmer down. I returned 15 minutes later to find Og of Krunch and Kiai Zanshin still at is, along with Vortex. With Vortex and Kiai Zanshin distracting the spawns, I ran in and grabbed my corpse with the hauberk, and shortly afterwards recovered my other two corpses. The fellow whos corpse I was originally after had logged, and Im not sure if he got his items back. I can only hope he did.
Thanks to the amazing dedication of these three people, who I did not know before, I was able to regain possession of all my armor and death items, and left the scene with an annoying, but not crippling, 16% vitae. Thank you so much Og of Krunch, Kiai Zanshin and Vortex! Its people like this that make AC worth playing!
Anyway.. that was my adventure.. Hope you enjoyed reading about it, I didnt exactly enjoy having it :)
- Tahishan,
Follower of "The Awakening"
Morningthaw
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