Fist de Yuma - March 26, 2002

Rambling Thoughts I put up a general discussion message for this column on the General VN board. I knew I would get your juvenile flames but was pleased that that was few and far between. Actual help is important. For one I found I was misspelling Lightning with Lighting. Being that both are real words only having it pointed out will allow me to fix it. Someone pointed out that I never edit the column to repair errors. While it would not be that hard to do I tend to start writing the next column soon after posting. Going back to fix minor errors would distract from that flow. There is also the fact that people who have donated to me get a personal copy sent to them. Hate to have different versions floating about. Some have said I have gotten very negative and only print rants. I believe this is more selective memory than fact. Two column this month had no opinion pieces at all and most of the last was adventure stories. I guess when I write opinion pieces they stand out more. In the middle of the month, while waiting for the next patch, the hunts tend to be repeats of stuff I have done over and over again. Writing about repeated trips to North ML to kill Vapors and Virindi would get old very fast. Epic battles with five or more Vapors are now old hat. Very exciting the first time but now I expect to win and I'm surer of my abilities. So on those weeks I'm more likely to write what is on my mind than adventure stories. There is one that hurt because I cannot be sure if it is true or not. Of course everything is to the eye of the beholder so one view will always be different than another. The accusation is that I'm arrogant. Holding a strong opinion is not arrogant. There are a lot of words in my thesaurus for arrogant. Holding a strong opinion or taking a stand is not one of them. In my mind being arrogant is thinking you're better than everyone else. I have a column for which I daily thank this site. This lets me get my view out, become well known and in the last year receive a little cash. I don't think that makes me better than others. It makes me lucky. There are many with more talent and drive than me who are not as well known. All I can say to them is keep at it the rewards will come. This is not my first column. I had computer column in some newsletters. The title of that column was "The Rambling Programmer." It was full of technical stories on how I solved a computer or programming problem. I also have had a few poems and other small stories that were picked up by newsletters and the internet. The column got started because I was printing a weekly called "Day in the Life of Fist de Yuma" on the boards. This was when AC was young and not many were writing columns. I was not the first but was one of the first. I might be the hardest working. It is not another example of being arrogant as there is no weekly column on AC who has over two years of consistent work. A lot of the problem with perception is my fault. Sometimes it is hard to be exact which lets people assume things into my writing that I never meant. I hate chains because they hurt the game. I don't hate chain members because they take advantage of a chain. It is only smart to use the tools available. It could even be that Turbine wants everyone to join a chain. The content seems to be geared towards them. I feel Turbine needs to take a stand and remove chains or tell us that we will be left behind of we don't. That looks like another charge at the windmill but I have to make a go of it. I'll even state that there is one advantage of chains. Successful chains have a hammer hovering above the grief players. Treat people like trash and you're removed from the chain. This is not just a threat as there daily examples of people being kicked. Of course there are grief chains, fortunately not on MT. A admit I have a problem with Archers. I admit that for the most part my problem is unwarranted. That is something I'll have to work on. It does not mean I hate Archers. It just means I tend to be touchier than I should be. This is based on a lot of bad experiences. Mostly I try and avoid hunting around them. Having my melee sufferer with monster after monster that can be easily overcome by a much lower level mage I would like to see fixed. I don't want that frustration given to mages in revenge. In this opinion I seem to be in the minatory. I think it would be better to lower the armor class and regeneration rate of many monsters than create monsters mages cannot fight. Most seem to think having monsters some classes cannot fight is a good thing. We will have to agree to disagree. A good example of doing it right is Pyreal Golems. Many might be surprised I say this as I hate the things with a passion. A 390 magic resistance is darn hard but not impossible. I have my mage up to 389 Life and expect to exceed 390 tomorrow. The armor of the Golem is not all that low but a melee can fight it. I don't much like the Life draining but at least it tends to drain mana more than health. When I can finally land an Imperil on one they will drop fast. Where they did it right and wrong is the high level Drudge. A group of us came across one the other day. With five of us pounding in it, two of which were high levels, we could not touch it. I was a touch de-buffed but had 418 UA. I was hitting around one in 15 blows. The only reason we got it was running it out of stamina. One good thing is even though it will take outrages skill in time I will be able to fight one. Hard to overcome their melee defense but the fact I was hitting 1 in 15 shows it can be done. The same cannot be said for a VE. VE's can have every de-buff in the book on it and a melee is still going to do very little damage. A mage has little trouble taking one down. The above Drudge I was fighting with Mage at a far lower level than the lowest melee in that battle. That was before they lowered the magic defense on them. What I'm trying to say, and not really doing a good job of it, is every monster should be defeat able by every class at some point. That point may be very high but it should be something that is not impossible. In time it should be even worthwhile. Making more monsters that only one class can fight is not helping or fun. I hated running from a battle in the Holding because a VE showed up. The battle was hard, and with the addiction of the VE, became impossible. I would rather see those fixed rather than new monsters, such as the Crystal Golem, that another class cannot fight. (I know there is a way but it is making a mage a melee.) There was on interesting post. They guy said he wanted to hear more about low levels. Long time readers will remember that I did not start out a high level. I remember the story of running for my life, unsuccessfully, from a pack of 2lv wasps. I died so much I lost all my wands. I have a 12lv BM on Solclaim. I have a player on all the servers but the BM is the one I think I want to play. In any case if you would like to read about low level adventures drop me a note. Not saying I will but a little push cannot help. So the bottom line is the feedback is worth the abuse. It also lets me know where I need to clarify a thought. Sing Weapon for Fist. I was in the mage shop of Lin and saw a group of Elders. They were getting ready for the Sing weapon quest. When I join a group like this I tend to go into support mode. It is their quest and taking over and demanding to be the leader is not something I prefer to do. The problem with that is sometimes it would be better if I did. This was one of those. They knew they wanted to do the quest but were unsure of all the steps. I knew this one very well but did not query the players about their knowledge. Instead I followed their lead. One of the group had the tie to the Mosswart hideout so that saved a long run. I pointed out their need for the Tattered Virindi Cloat. They said they were getting the Essence first then the Cloak. I still had my Tattered Virindi Cloak from my last attempt. Late month you needed the item dropped by the Mosswart in Zaikhal. That is the one where I turned it in to the wrong NPC. With a good size group of melee's, 8+, two of which were high level, Fist and Bleu Sky, we had little trouble in the first part. We sweep the Mosswarts aside and slaughter the Shadows. Because we charged down the ramp we did not have to tend with the Shadows coming out of the back room. The last room had the Tuskers and Hollow falling very fast. Then going lowest to highest we had people use the chest. We had a small problem of the chest not spawning the Essence a few times but got over that with only a few wasted keys. I then I crashed to the desktop twice. Two died, one of which did not get the Essence. Seems the Hollow could do a little damage if given half a chance. From there we decided to split up. Half would to with me to Zaikhal and the other half would head out to get a Cloak. Naturally I assumed the people going with me had a Cloak already. I waited and no one was showing up. I figured I would see of I could run the end without fighting. Other than one spot where I got blocked, this was easy. I got the weapon and then ran back to the town to wait for people. After a short while two people showed up. One was 39lv and the other 49. I though the 49lv, with a lot of luck, could get his weapon upgraded but it would be iffy at best. As it disappears on death and there is a one month wait between getting one, I felt they might be better waiting. The 49lv agreed but the 39lv wanted the weapon. We were game to help him and the three of us headed out. The problem with running through a place is it is easy to get trapped or lag and get lost. With a little luck the 39lv and I got to the end. I told him to hit the portal and I ran back looking for the 49lv. He had lagged out and had to port. So I got to where you get the weapon and told him to turn in the Cloak. LOL he did not have one. A little confusion. Well he learned how to get there and that was something. After this I found the other group had quit for lunch. I was close to the portal, which finally showed up on ACE, so I decided to do Holding. I ran to the Darby portal. That got me close to the one that takes you near to the Holding. I buffed up and ported to the island. Exit was safe, something that is not always the case. On the run I took a little damage as the lower plains were packed with Chaos Wisps. Seemed like I had lightning bolts and drains from two or three Wisps going at me the entire way. This is another monsters my mage loves to kill but Fist must run from. The Holding did not have a lot of people in it. Guess this was an off time. My problem was I had no idea how to get to the end. Moving along the wall to avoid traps I battled a bunch of Tuskers. Finally I started to meet people. I asked them how to get to the end but never got an answer. They were far to busy leveling to talk. I started running into Hollows and found that Fist did not do all that much more damage on the than Jr. I guess UA will never be a powerhouse for attack. Like I have said, the strength of UA is defense. One mage told me to keep going south. That was all the knowledge I needed to reach the end. With over 425 melee defense I only take damage from Virindi and only EV's were a worry. One time a VE showed up while I was fighting three Hollows. I did the smart thing and just ran. After that I decided to just keep running and only fighting if trapped. With my speed getting trapped was not likely. My only worry was dragging a bunch to the end and having a VE with them. I found the end and did have a few chasers. Fortunately they were far enough behind that moving along the wall had them trapped away from the room. They soon faded away. I got my weapon upgraded and ported out. I met up with Bleu Sky's group back at Lin. They had had no luck getting a Cloak. I joined them to show where I got mine. Someone made a portal to DOC and we ran from there. To my surprise there were no Mosswart Witches there. We killed everything in the grove trying to force a spawn. The lower levels moved to the house to rebuff and Sky and I kept killing. A Witch spawned and Sky got the Cloak. We killed a bunch of them after that but no Cloaks. Then they stopped spawning. Some of the stuff there was nasty but with five melee even the worst could be defeated. A high level Drudge showed up that I could not hit much with a 418 plus 28% UA skill. It was not hurting us much so we all kept hacking at it. After a long time it ran out of stamina and died quick. I'm wondering what my non-debuffed 430 UA would have done. Going to have to give that a shot sometime. After an hour of killing stuff I had to start dinner. I'm not sure where they are on the quest now. I'll have to ask Sky. I hope he and I can do the weapon and upgrade this week. My idea I had an idea while reading the boards. The thread was about Melee defense being useless at high levels. Where I agree that Drain and War make it far less useful than I would like. Not getting hit is far better than being hit for less in my book. The problem is very few monsters at high level depend entirely on Melee. They Drain, Vuln and War. Melee defense is useless then. I can see where a higher Magic defense would more than help but cannot see not taking Melee defense or even not spec'ing it if a melee. Hard hitters combined with Vulns can do a lot of damage. A mage would be in big trouble without drain to overcome the big hits. Many on the other side point to melee templates that don't even take melee defense. They point out that good armor with double buffing will lower damage to almost nothing anyway. Spec'ing magic defense seems to be the template of the month these days. With chains they can get them past the hard lower and mid levels in a few weeks. With drains and War I agree that a high level melee, especially one without Life and low Focus and Self starts, has a big problem. A few drains, a vuln and a war will take out most any melee. The chance of resisting the magic is far lower than an equal level mage. To put this into perspective my melee has 215 magic defense and has spent 275 million points on it. My mage has 231 magic defense and has spent 96 million points. My tests show a mage gains about 30 points over a melee on average. It really is far worse as a melee soon learns that adding to magic defense is quite useless where a mage can see a difference. So the melee will not waste points on magic defense until very high levels. Turbines answer has been to lower the magic abilities of many monsters. This has increased the effectiveness of Magic D for mages while not doing that much for melee. It matters not to a melee if they almost resisted while a lower level mage is resisting. Then it hit me. Add a percentage of Melee defense to Magic defense! I'm not sure if this is possible but it would sure be ideal. This would help melee's without making a mage's overpowering. Hell one point of Magic defense for every 10 points of Melee defense would put a Melee on par with a mage easy. This makes spec'ing Melee defense even more important. Of course I'm talking about base melee defense, not buffed. It might be even better if you restricted it to Spec'd melee. That would remove mages completely. Like I said, this may not be something they can do. I'm going to purpose this to Turbine and cross my fingers. Turbine's response I was surprised that Turbine responded to a letter I posted on the VN developer board right after I posted. I disagree with them but at least they are aware of the problem. I fear their answer will be far off the mark. Their feeling that putting this small addiction to magic defense would be unbalancing makes me wonder. Here is Devs (Todd Berkebile) response; Melee Defense has no relation to Magic Defense nor do I think it would make sense to create such an artificial relationship. Also, this would make many monsters completely untouchable to mages and would severely nerf the Magic Defense skill. However, I understand exactly where you are coming from in making this suggestion. To that all I can say at this point is "be patient". One of my goals is to maintain the value of existing skills while still providing play style alternatives that dont force everyone to be a life mage. My Counter The fact that very few mages have melee defense, and it is very low if they do, makes me wonder how they think this would make mages untouchable. Spec'ing magic defense would add as much and that had not made mages untouchable. As far as being patient, we have waited over two years now, how much longer? New computer arrives I was a bit worried when I got my tracking number from United Micro. Hitting the Federal Express website showed a three pound package. A letter to United Micro got me a second number that had the computer and not the software box. I took apart my computer room on Thursday night. My wife had me put her new computer, my old server, in the guest room. She needs to take business stuff off her old one. That one is going to her family. I got up early so I could greet the FE guy. Otherwise they would not deliver. My wife works four ten-hour days so she had Friday off. She had a doctor appointment and then was shopping with her sister. So I sat by the door all day and no FE guy. At 6pm I called the 800 number and was told it had been delivered. I had them call Yuma to confirm that report. I cannot be sure but it seems they lied to the main office as the computer was still at the their building. Yuma has a lot of people in the winter. We call them snowbirds. About this time they all leave to fly north as it is a touch hot for them in the summer. This increases the shipping load in and out of Yuma. The FE people were overwhelmed and decided to skip the outer parts of Yuma that day. Their intent was to deliver on Saturday, something they're not suppose to do. Having been caught in a lie they put the computer in a personal car and drove it to me. I finally got it at 8pm. I understood their problem but a simple phone call would have prevented me from wasting my day. Installing the Network I got the computer set up and it looks great. About the only drawback is the fan is like a small Jet plane in my Den. Having a top of the line video card really helps the looks. I loaded Sygate and was happy to have the internet working right off. I figured hours of tweeking it. I registered Windows to get rid of the nagging messages and started the download of AC. I did not have the computers linked but I figured that would be an easy fix. It took a while to download but AC looks great. Having full video is really different. No lag or flickering. I was really happy. Now to get the computers linked. Humm, no matter what I did the computers would not link. Window XP is a bit different from Win 98se but not hard to figure out. I reinstalled Sygate and got the computers linked but lost internet. Then I saw that one was version 4 and the other 3.5. The 3.5 was on my old computer. It seems I download the file from their website and later they sent me the CD. The CD had a different version. After installing Sygate off the CD on the old computer I lost the link and internet. It is now 3am and I'm not a happy camper. There had been two icons on the new computer's network setup but I never thought anything about it. I figured it was two functions. One had a red X and said it was unplugged. This will happen if there is a break in the cord or the plug is dirty. As I had internet and a link at different points I discounted that error message. I removed Sygate and decided to install Windows internet sharing on the older computer. Windows XP Pro had it installed already. That had me going to the guest room and trying to weg open the CD drive. The Windows 98se disk was in that drive. Most CD drives will let you force them open, not this one. I dug up a cord and plugged it in, hit the open drive, grabbed the CD and turned off the computer. I got the Windows internet sharing installed but it still did not work. Finally I decided to reinstall the network card drivers. I went to that section and saw two cards. Aaaa. It seems there is a built in network card on the upgraded motherboard. I had ordered a network card because the original motherboard did not have one. So now I had two. Checking the ports in back of the computer I moved my network cable to the other slot. Everything came up! It is tempting to reinstall Sygate but now that it is all working I don't want to fool with it. I'll remove the second network card later. For now I'm up and running and it is great! Quibble Quest Ok, I know I'm misspelling Quibble. To get it right I would have to load up a website with the proper spelling. You know what quest I'm talking about. I was getting a pincer with Fist. With the new computer I can see things in a whole new light. Things look a lot better and there is no hesitation. I have all my Decel plug ins working, something I had not been able to do with the old computer. I got a call from Zakir, Maddie new UA. Zakir is a "Fist" template. He is in the mid 60's now, just as it really starts to shine. I have mine at 69 so only 6 more levels to Creature. Zakir wanted to do the Quibble quest. I was not so sure the two of us could do it but I was willing to give it a shot. I got the pincers and ran over to Redspire. I logged Jr and fellowed with him so he gets half the XP. By the time I was done Zakir had Balash ready. Balash had a tie to the first part. We ported to the mansion and picked up a few more people. Then the word got out and more and more started pouring in. By the time we left we had around 15 to 20 people. This is where the power of my new computer really showed. Before this many people had me in lag hell. Not I had a little flicker at most. Because of people coming in after we had buffed I only had 13 minutes left on my buffs when we left. I felt that was enough as the first part was not that hard. I forget about the VI buffers. We had to wait a little time after getting there for Zakir and a few others to rebuff. Still we finished it off in about 10 minutes. Imperil from me and slashing swords from the rest cleared it in no time. I only took one hit from an Augmented Olthoi. I saw this time that there are some Virindi up above that were draining. That is why I thought the Olthoi were draining me last time. It is an entire different show with a better computer. We ported back to the mansion and waited a bit while Balash ran to the second part. Getting him to tie was better that running a large pack through the dires. Mars-hill was going to get the last one but we already had a person with that tie. Second part was not bad because of the Melee power. I was not useless but not as effective as I had hoped. The white golems resisted my 388 Life skills with ease. Even with a horde of melee attacking them it took a long time to kill one. If I finally got a imperil to land they dropped in seconds. Mostly I only landed after someone called for Brilliance to be tossed on me. That helped a lot so I guess I'm getting there. Going to keep adding to Life until I have over 400 skill. I tried a few Wars to see what element worked. Almost everything I tried did 0 damage. I think I got 27 points with a Spike. As proven with Elder and I a melee can solo this quest with speed and maneuver and defeating a handful of them. A mage is out of luck. Fortunately the reward is nothing a mage needs. The magic resistance of monsters is really getting out of hand. At this point the hybrid Life/Melee's will never have the skill to land on these. Trained only mages are in big trouble. I don't know what Turbine has planned with these but I'm guessing it is to give the extreme template chain members a challenge. I guess the rest of us can just join a chain or keep chasing the numbers. We all got the item and ported out. We regrouped at the mansion again. I'm not sure who but someone buffed me. The "other" spells get a boost from the spell economy as they are used less. This buffed my Life to 395. I told the group that this last part I was not sure of the route. They still elected to follow me. I lucked out and picked the right way. With my buffed skills I landed a bit better so we sweep the defenses aside with little trouble. We hit the Troves and got the Ingot. I got one of those "Almost" weapons from the Trove. A Katar, +13% melee +10% UA, 1-4 base. With that base it is a vender item. O'well, it was also worth 13k. We got a look at the 9999 level hollow. Other than one person hitting the wrong button and getting killed it is worth the view. We ported out. Some were off to get the ingot exchanges while the rest logged off. Let me tell you a little about this group. We had two powerful melee's, Balash and Mar-hill. The rest were from a low of 45 with most in the 50's and 60's. I'm not sure who but someone was landing Imperils other than me. No one ran ahead. Not one lagged behind. Everyone worked together. Because of this we had no deaths and finished each part in under a buff. With Elder only quests this is the norm. When a group of players work together they can do about anything. Elysa's Favor Next up for Zakir and I was Elysa's Favor. I had repeated the quest with Jr and Fist but with Mage it is better to team. So when Zakir said he wanted to do it I felt it was a great way to get Mage another Ring. Still want more Focus rings. When Jr gets 75 the ring slots will be free. Fist could also use one for quests he can drop a protection on. First part was smooth and to my surprise I was given the key and could enter the portal. From there on all I needed to do was help Zakir. I did not need any of the items so it would get us out of each part sooner. Both of us are long time players and know the portal system well. It was fun to see who could get to a place faster as we both had different routes and ties. At Holtburg we met two guys who were doing the quest. It seems their patron had bugged out on them or something, I did not dig into the story. They asked if they could join up with us. I messaged Zakir and it was ok with him. So Wiry and Wong Fei-yong joined us for the next part. They were not very well prepared and one had a bad template for this. Wong Fei-yong is a sword and Wiry is an Archer with no melee defense. We got to the end without mishap and waited out the spawns. Wiry thought he could use a perch but found they could hit him anyway. I parked at one spot and just imperiled. Poor Zakir was running around trying to keep the 2w's out of trouble. Like most of the young standing in one spot seems impossible. We got the orb and ported out. Zakir ran to the farmhouse. I thought the 2w's need to do it as well but they had already done it. I told them to go ahead with the next part, it was easy. I of course meant the Farmhouse but they were off into the passage under the fort. We got the last parts turned in and I was getting confusing messages from the 2w's. I finally figured out what happened. Fortunately they had not moved from the start and were very happy to see the two of us port in. The ambush at the fort was not a lot of fun. I spent most of it imperiling and healing. Zakir got it all clear and we hit the trap door. We picked up one other person just before the ambush who was a little help, did not get his name. With me imperiling everything that moved we got to the end quickly. The new person got the letter and we settled in. It seems I got a WI flag at this point. Zakir did his best to protect me but I almost died twice. I hate to be where it is a race to see what happens first, Heal Self VII or the hit that kills me. The 2w's were driving Zakir crazy by this time. Many of the things that attacked me they had drawn over and one time he was saving them and not protecting me. We all got the letter ok and ported out. The 2w's were very grateful. Two good kids. Being young is not a fault, just something you have to outlive, hopefully. Both Zakir and I got Endurance Rings. Useful but darn it, I want focus. Elysa's Favor again I have been building up my Archer as I said in the last column. He is 39lv and it is amazing how hard bow hits now. I'm still debating on Creature at 55 or Life at 75. Creature is very useful but without Life buffing is such a pain. Also an Archer cannot use a Diamond Shield so getting all the protections is a pain. I guess it will depend on if I can pick up some usable double protections items. There is also the promise of a fix so we don't all have to be Life mages. I'm not holding my breath on that one. At this point I'm leaning towards Life. With a 245 base melee defense and 234 bow he is not bad. With buffs from Mage his is overpowering. I felt he could solo Elysa's Favor with little trouble. I emptied his arrows on a mule and fletched up some deadly Frost and Lightning. I knew I would need the Lightning for the Bandies. First part was simple. Hollows did not hit him and he could kill them with one to three arrows. The bandies were a little more trouble but they still did not inflict any damage. About all I worried about was the end. There is a lot there and some are stronger. I got a tell from Balash using co-vassal. Deadeye is sworn to Fist until I find a better patron for him. Mostly I find a good vassal to put him under. Balash had got a Focus ring on the last quest but gave it to Maskman. Maskman had got bit by a bug and could not finish the quest. I told Balash that he would only need to do the last part to get a ring. He really did not need one but agreed to help me. I had little trouble with the ambush. Simple when you can run up a ramp and the kill them from the wall. Balash came sailing over the wall a few minutes later and we started down. I guess I did not need to worry. I was still not getting hit and killing quickly. Of course with Balash ripping through them like a chainsaw I did not get the best taste of it. We got the letter and ported back to turn them in. I got another Endurance and Balash got the Armor. He gave me the ring as his is filled with a protection item. O'well. I should be about up for doing it again with Jr and Fist. I might take a while but I'll get a focus ring for all four of my players someday. The 2w's ride again. I logged on Mage to do another hunt on North ML. I had spent all my notes earlier and need to raise some cash. I need four more million points to get my next point of Life and wanted to be sure I got it by the next quest. I had already hunted twice that day and was a bit burnt so a distraction was not a problem. I got a tell from Wiry. He wanted to go to see Linvik Tukal with Wong Fei-Yong. One of them had died quickly and they were a bit frustrated. This would give me an excuse not to level and just go have fun with Fist. I told them to meet me at the portal. It would take me about 10 minutes with buffing to get there. They misunderstood and ended up waiting at Qbar for me. I loaded Fist and headed to Awric. Fist is a great template for this, high melee defense and Missile. I had put very few points into Missile and felt this was a good time to start adding more. I had saved up 13 million points, needing 2 million more for a point of Magic defense. I put it all into Missile. With buffs I hit 292. From Awric I went into Awric Mine and moved town to the Old Mine portal. I buffed up and ran to the portal entrance to Linvik Tukal. The two of them started the run from Qbar and I just killed the Lugies for fun. I found that the Lugies would mostly miss with the rocks. Even when they hit me it was not for much so I knew my armor was holding. I was almost one shot by a hollow rock at the end there once. I did not want to repeat that. They got there and we started forward. I told them to hold back from anything Blue or with a hollow anything. The laughed but I think they understood. We did well until we hit one pack of Blues. They did not have Hollow weapons so Wong Fei-Yong charged in to help. He made the error of not watching his side. There was a Lugie tossing rocks there and he needed to maneuver so his shield would catch the blunt of the damage. Just as he killed the one he was fighting he was one-shot with a rock. To say the least he was shocked. Full health to dead, been there, done that. You have to watch them rocks. I had seen many a player one-shot with one if their shield was down. Outside one day I was one shot with a hollow. The Lugie trash talked me as I was sent reeling to the lifestone. I was to busy fighting to warn him even if I had seen what he was doing. I told Wong I would pick him up at the start after I got Wiry into the Fortress. After that Wiry got the idea that it was not really safe to get to close. As an archer he was in triple trouble. To hit he would be able to be hit. He had no melee defense so if they charged he was in big trouble. With no shield he was going to take max damage from any hollow. He played it smart and stayed back. He even helped a bit as the Lugies were tossing rocks at the wall, trying to hit him, instead of trying to hit me. After a really epic battle at the end, a 10 stamina elixir battle, we had it clear we got into the Fortress. I found the exit in the fortress and ran to the portal where Wong was. I rebuffed and put some VII spells on Wong's sword. I also banned his shield. A good thing I did as he almost died in one battle at the very end. By this time he was shaking in his boots. Having been scarred like that a time or two I understood. It is funny how the game can affect you. Watching Jeffs hands shake after a battle is a trip. Both Jeff and I are Marines. We passed through the hell of boot camp and sundry other hair-raising situations. Now we have a game that leaves us shaken, literally. So I understood what Wong was going through. We lucked out at his body. As we got close there were Lugies missing. At his body it was clear. At first I thought we had moved so fast that it was still clear from when we passed over it. Later I remembered the long battle at the end and knew that was impossible. In any case I was grateful, as Wong was able to recover his body without a fight. We quickly caught up with two other guys. With their help we quickly moved to the end. About halfway into this I found out that Wong did not have healing. Even small battles were a danger to him. After each battle I had to heal him. I got Wong to the Fortress at last. These are two fun guys. I'm not a fan of their templates but each to their own. If you meet Wiry or Wong Fie-Youg on MT sometime say "Hi". They're two fun guys to be around.