Fist de Yuma - July 29, 2003

This and That Jeff is home! He arrived last Friday. I still have not seen him as his wife had first dibs. I figure to see him this week. For those new to the column Jeff is my brother. He is a Staff NCO in the Marines and has been baking in the desert for months. He is finally back and will be playing his BM again. Today after the hot-fix he wants to do the Mage Armor upgrade as his first quest in a while. I figure we can solo it if we have to but I hope to raise an army for it. (grin) That way I can take Fist's Armorer and get his upgraded as well. Everyone who wants to celebrate Jeff's return put Jeff Sailor Bane on your friends list and look for him to log on. We need Melees and Archers but anyone who would like to come is welcome. Cycling Some long time readers know I ride a mountain bike and use to ride a street bike. Age has slowed me down but I follow the main races with great interest. The main race in cycling is the Tour de France. If you have no interest in cycling skip to the next section. Lance Armstrong just won his fifth Tour de France in a row! I was worried that the hatred of Americans in general and Lance in particular might inspire some nut to do something. It never happened and in hindsight was unlikely to happen. It was a close fought victory. After taking a good lead in the first mountain stage he had his lead was cut in the first individual time trial. Lance had never lost a time trial in the tour during his first four victories. Given that the tour is won and lost in the mountains and time trials his losing one was a big worry. There was one more time trial ahead and if he lost that one he could lose the tour! He was dropped in the first big mountain stage after the time trial but was able to recover enough to make the damage minimal. Nevertheless there were more mountains to come and he was in big danger. Lance drops people, not the other way around! The next big mountain stage completely reversed Lances fortunes. He dropped the German and it was the German who had to push and minimize the damage. So it came down to the last time trial. With a lead of less than two minutes Lance was in danger of losing if things went as they had in the first trial. It was a rainy day and the streets were slick. Several riders had fallen at the end were there we some tricking turns. The first time checks showed them even. The second had Lance slightly ahead! Desperate to gain time the German had to push and his luck ran out. He crashed in a turn and the race was over. Lance slowed and made sure he did not crash but still took forth, slightly ahead of the German. Lance had won the tour. The margin of victory was just over one minute. Lance is now the second to win five tours in a row and the fifth to win five total. Can he win an unprecedented sixth? We will know next year. The Slot I have been asked several times how to get to The Slot. Here is the reply I made on the TD board on it. The Slot is easy to get to. It uses to be a well-traveled route when everyone was doing the Virindi Amulet quest. The starting place most take is the north rim portal. This is a Lifestone and portal exit north of the plains. You can get there by going to Aerfalle and taking the portal directly in back of you. Take the portal where you exit. That will drop you at the Direlands Lifestone. You can also take the exit in the Caul dungeon to get there. From the Direland Lifestone go south until you hit the river. I have a set route I take but there are many so find what works for you. From the river move to 52.52s 65.85w. You will know it by the big mushrooms going up the center. It is a great spot for 80+ mages. Good xp and loot. Melee would have a harder time without Mage support. An Archer does well but with a Mage they rocks. Great Olthoi Raid I was hunting Fist's Armorer in the Slot. I was looking for material and of course new weapons to use the material on. The new stuff is exciting but will require a lot of boring hunts before I have them set. I'll be lucky if I'm done in six months. About halfway into the hunt I got a worldwide message about Olthoi Swarming in Eastham. I quickly ported to the mansion, logged off FA, logged my main account and loaded up Fist. While buffing I sent an allegiance wide message. Then it was a fast run to Eastham. I figured it would be crowded as school is out for the summer and there are a lot of people playing at noon. I quickly formed up a fellow with other members of my allegiance and waited word on the event. A member of my allegiance sent me a message saying there was a portal in Nanto that lead to Asheron's island! That is my Lifestone tie so me, Bleu Sky, Soul Riper and Illi met there. We got directions to a dungeon that required a lag filled, nightmare run across the island. We got close and stopped to clear the chasers. We quickly found the dungeon but it had a level restriction. We started looking for another one but Soul Riper got lag trapped and had to log. I found a ledge and it wound around the mountain until I got to the top. There we found Asheron's castle. Inside the castle I found a lot of other players. I was re-buffing to do a little more exploring when someone asked for help with a body recover. Of course I had to volunteer. I found his body a little ways down the path and cleared around it. This was not easy as people kept running by trailing more into me. It was not their fault, as they had no other option. I got his body but somehow an Olthoi got into the castle and killed him again. I had to wait for him to run back. Finally he got back and I gave him his armor. I took a portal that let me go into Asheron's room. Asheron gave me a book that was interesting but there is not much of hint about what to do next. I logged to write up what happened and hoped things started moving soon. Victory! The details of this adventure are in my VN column so I'll just give you and overview. (Column at http://acvault.ign.com/features/columns/fistdeyuma/07-25-2003.shtm) After the above I logged for a while. When I got back there was word of an 80+ dungeon on Asheron's Island. I got there and, after a lot of work, got in. I grouped and got to the end after a lot of wondering around. It is a maze and filled with nasty Olthoi. At the end we waited for the Matron but she never showed. The word from Turbine is that something is broken. They will have a hot fix Monday (and now Tuesday) so we will see her more often. Meanwhile there is a 10 or more hour wait before she shows. I logged for the night. Fortunately I was thinking a bit. I almost logged in the cave but decided to move up the passage a bit. That could well have saved my life. When I logged the next morning I was surprised to see there was no one camping the cave. In fact it was filled with Olthoi including the Matron! I was buffed but only had about 11 minutes left. This would have to be quick. I was thinking I could clear the guards and advance on the Matron. My thought was she was like the Young Queen and not able to get into the smaller passage. Turbine was not that nice. After clearing a few guards the Matron was on me. I killed two more and decided to move back up the passage. This dropped all but the Matron and one guard. I killed the guard. Now it was me and her. Despite a 486 UA skill and a +24% weapon I was missing more than hitting. I was using the Olthoi slayer I got from Gaerlan. I have found that it works better overall than an AR weapon but some have debated me on that issue. After a minute or so I checked her health. It was at 88%, and then it jumped to 95% and 100%. It was clear that I could not going to take the Matron as a pure melee. Pulling my drum was going to be dangerous. I was being hit even with 464 melee defense and a +24%. The shield kept the damage low enough that I was in no danger but how well would I do without the plus and shield? I pulled the Drum and my first attempt was a resist. I expected this and was thinking I would have to heal several times before landing the spell, if I could land it at all. I lucked out and landed it on the third try. It was a resist, a fizzle and success. I was down about half health when I got my weapon and shield back. With Imperil VII on her I was doubling my damage. First check showed her at 44% and she died soon after. Of course I was overjoyed! It is not often someone can do a first in the game any more. I'm sure that many will be soloing the Matron later but I have little doubt that I was the first. Of course I'll be the first to admit it was pure luck to find her there. Most firsts require a lot of luck. Strangely I did not see an announcement of my victory. As I had seen other victory's announced it was puzzling. Nevertheless many of my alliance were following the battle with messages sent via my vassals. Immature People One of the things I dislike about AC is the immature people who think they dominate it. Mostly it is kids who have more time than sense but, sadly, they are not always kids. So I label them as immature. It is also not fair to the mature kids who are the in the majority to get the immature stigma. So let's label them as immature and leave it at that. They abuse the system to get a high level player and think they are Gods for doing it. Most are rather stupid as well as immature. Immaturity can be cured but many of these seem terminal. When I hit Asheron's castle several of them were there. They cursed, make rude remarks about having sex with their mothers and generally created a poor atmosphere for everyone around them. Given that they can hide behind their computer screen these cowards think they are immune to the consequences for their action. It may be true in the short run but I have a strong belief in Karma. They will pay for their actions somehow, someday, we all do. This is why I have stopped posting names. It is not up to me to punish them. Meanwhile I squelch and ignored them when I can. Being someone people know the kiddies think insulting me will bring them greater fame. All it really gets them is the distain of those that don't admire stupidity. Several people sent me a tell on how embarrassed they were over the actions of the kiddies. At times you have to doubt their sanity. One of them posted that I must be a weak newby because I had to imperil the Matron to beat her. Another bragged about how he had killed her with three spells. Given that I'm 16 points below the maximum possible UA and 11 point below maximum strength calling me a newbe only showed how ignorant they are. There are those in this world who feel if they cannot be great no one can. If cheating and exploiting will not gain them an edge then insults and put downs might work. Replying in kind only pulls us down to their level, thus, making them succeed. All we can really do is ignore then. I really feel sorry for them at times. Asheron's Island hunting Sunday afternoon I decided to go hunting with Fist's Armorer on Asheron's island. I figured it would he hard but with my armor and good protection it should be productive and fun. I headed west along the water until it turned north. I followed the beach a bit and then started straight north. I went up a hill until I hit the harder swarms. It was hard finding a clear spot but I finally found one, stopped and cleared my chasers. I decided to move forward up the hill to try and clear a spawn. I imperiled a Guard and got the Guard, two Warriors and a Mutilaor Olthoi. The Guard fell and I turned to the Mutilaor. I had to do a bunch of healing before I could try a spell. One attempt was resisted and I was below 100 hit points again. I did several heals and I tried another vuln which was resisted again. Now it was a desperate battle. I was spending more time healing than attacking. It was like three heals to each offensive attempt. I tried another bludgeoning vulnerability and was pounded with several critical hits. My attempt to heal started with 68 points of health but I died before I landed. One more critical hit was all it took. Recovery was a nightmare to say the least. I found it hard to even find a spot to plan. The spawns had closed up and there was no place close to my body that did not have a force I could not handle. Finally I discovered a clear a spot way up the mountain. Slowly, with a few times of being chased off, I was able to work my way to the body. The main luck factor was the body itself was far enough away from the spawns to be recovered safely, if I could clear the chasers without attracting attention from all the spawns. I would say it took me about 20 minutes to work my way to the body. I fought and killed a few Olthoi, including a few of the deadly Mutilaor's but it was far too dangerous to keep at it. I decided to take him back to the mansion and try my luck with Fist de Yuma Jr. I logged Jr and Fist to move the armor to Jr. Like Mage and FA, Jr and Fist have to share armor. With two computers it is not too hard but a pain nevertheless. Jr ran to the same spot FA died in and pulled his drum to attempt an Imperil. This was to draw more than to land the spell. I was surprised to land an Imperil VI with only 364 Life skills! It seemed I was able to land more often than not. I'm not sure if it is because I'm using a lower level spell but it was a welcome surprise. I even was able to imperil and one hit a Mutilaor with a full power blow. Most were protracted battles but if I could land the imperil it was over quick. Even if I was resisted, even if I drew a lot of Olthoi, I was never in any danger at all. It might take him a little longer to kill than a mage, if the mage is not resisted, but it was almost easy for Jr to fight there. Fist de Mage might do well there as he would not be resisted but I expect my main person for Asheron's Island was will be Jr. That might change if I have success with Deadeye Fist but I expect without a shield he will not have it very easy. It is nice to have a spot where Fist de Yuma Jr can fight at will and not worry about de-buffs and vulns. With FA holding The Slot, Deadeye doing Olthoi North, Fist de Yuma doing the Olthoi caves and Mage doing VoD the game's fun has opened up a lot for me.