New Spot for Fist
I decided to make a change the other day. I had been using mage to hunt the island and recalling to sell when he is full. This was not optimal so I decided to move Fist to the island. He would hold items, using drop muleing, so mage can hunt several cycles before selling.
Mage has had another problem that hurt his hunting time. I end up finding savable items that need to go back to Lin. I have been saving them up and then taking them when I'm too full. This puts me at burden faster and takes time away as I travel to Lin. With Fist I can hold a lot of items before taking them to Lin.
So the first step is to get Fist to the island. The last time I went to the island I went though a dungeon. I was following others so I'm not sure how to repeat it. Checking the map I saw where the two portals come from. Tracing back the portal lines I saw that the D-note place is in the south Direlands. More exact it is S/E of AB.
I put on my full protection gear and started running. Up and down hills and valleys, avoiding most fights, I arrived at the undead city where the emissary is based. I ran over to the LS and set my new base. I was lucky in that someone was giving her a D-note so I got a free ride.
Last time I was on the island it was not a successful trip. This is over 10 levels later and I now have better protection. I also have put a lot into melee defense so I did not expect to get hit much.
The major problem with my full protection setup is lack of Armor VI. This was to prove unfortunate later. I had a few battles and found I can hit Bandies very hard and Drudges were falling nicely as well. I'm not going to try Golems for a while. I found a safe spot and noted the coordinates for future use.
I logged Mage and did a hunt. Got to the spot, dropped the items and logged Fist to pick them up. Now I can hunt longer without the excessive burden I had been carrying.
Island Problems
I logged Fist in the next day to do a little island hunting. I had a little problem drawing them out but was not doing too bad. Then I was in a battle and had 147 hit points left. Ouch, Ouch, Lifestone. I had no idea what had gone wrong. I'm figuring it is my armor. I have a few pieces with no protection to elements. I'm counting on melee defense and shield with my level VI life items to keep me alive.
I'm figuring that Turbines non-random number generator got stuck on something bad to me. I brushed it off as a one-time thing and paid the D-note for a trip back. I got the body as it was away from the spawns. Killed the vit in a few battles and making sure it was always a one-on-one battle.
I'm fighting a Drudge and see a spawn right next to me. I learned that I have much more trouble with two so I decide to run a bit, dragging my target and fighting it alone. I took a few steps and was hit for over 100 points. I have 47hp but with my speed that should be the only hit. Wrong, I'm dead. With imperil and Lighting Vuln I find death can be instance.
Ok, I'm a bit pissed but learning. I get a call from Fu'Leng who is on his way to get the Electrical stone. Fu'Leng is a new vassal. He was 33 when he swore to me. With a party of 20 only about 5 of them made it into the vault. Most had recalled but a few had died. I had gotten a stone but was following so I'm not up on the route. I told him I had a body to recover but would help after that.
I figured getting the body would not be a problem. I could not have been more wrong. The body fell close to three spawns. Every time I got close to it I had Drudges, Bandies and Malus. I can kill each one if I don't get to much bad luck but cannot fight two as the de-buffs start adding up.
I drew a few and have battles. Either more join in and I have to run or I get them about dead and they run. In any case I was not reducing the spawns any. I get a message from Fu'Leng, they had got enough people to get going.
I'm getting frustrated at my inability to get the body. Plain truth was I needed a drawing spell and a way to de-buff the monsters. After drawing them I was taking to long to make the kill. That made the timer kick in and they would run back. After a half hour of this I swallowed my pride and logged in Mage.
Now Mage has no problem drawing or killing fast. Even the few times I was low in hit points I was able to switch to a bandy and drain back to full. My skills are so high enough that even with de-buffs I'm effective. It took about 10 minutes to clear the body and let me log Fist to get it.
Body Recovery from hell
As soon as I got the body I got a message from Fu'Leng. He had died right by the lighting stone. He was not to upset as he only dropped death items. Still I felt bad about not being able to help so I said we should go get the body.
The best way for me was to run from AB to the vault. Fu'Leng is LS'ed to Awric so that was out. Fu'Leng said he as tied to a BSD close to the vault. In hindsight I knew better. The only BSD close to the Lighting Vault is on the other side of the Direland Plains.
I met him in Awric and powered up. Headed in then took the portal outside. Cleared a few Tuskers and Vinnie. Fu'Leng run by saying "This way" then ran out over the Plains. At this point I wanted to type "stop" but it was to late. All I could do was follow him.
It was a big mess. There was so much chasing him that I did not have room to get in front. I was in a mob of Tuskers, Vinnie and Golems. I ran at an angle trying to get around the mob. Then I started taking a lot of damage. The change I did not see was Fu'Leng was dead and I was now the main point of interest.
With Imperil VI and Blunt VI on me fighting a Tusker was not an option. There were no clear spots to be found. I always had a Tusker chasing me and large groups of Orange no matter which way I turned. As I shook one Tusker another two latched on to me. Mostly I have several monsters chasing but the Tuskers were all that can keep up. I knew there was only one ending to this if things did not change.
I hit 7 which was grabs wand, of course I stopped running when I did this. Then started taping 7 hoping to port out before I was killed. I lucked out. I took a lot of damage but lived. Again my higher than normal hit points saved me.
Now the hard part, recovering Fu'Leng's body. No death items this time. An ill replaceable item had dropped. I cannot live on the plains let alone keep a under 40lv player alive. I needed help. I don't call on Elder much but this was one of those times. Quren a long time vassal of Cliff Bowmans was on. Bleu Sky overheard the vassal tells and he joined in. The family super mage Heideggar joined us with Elder and one other player.
At first all I did was try to stay alive. Everyone was having that problem. I tried to keep close to the green dots but things would get bad I would have to run. I saw a message about Fu'Leng dieing again. After a while I lost track of the number of times I saw that message.
The main group had moved out onto the plains and found two of Fu'Leng's bodies. I finally got free and was picking my way between spawns trying to get to the coordinates. Never saw so many Diamond Golems in my life. It took a bit but I found them.
Heideggar headed back to BSD to buff Fu'Leng and recover bodies there. Elder noted all the trash where we were at and said to be ready for spawns. We were lucky that the spawns were spaced and we had little trouble clearing them. Heideggar and Fu'Leng arrived and the last two bodies were recovered.
Fu'Leng was ready to forget that last one but I would not let him. Fu'Leng made a portal back to BSD so we could figure out our next step. I pointed out that running across the plains was not a good idea. Elder said he had a better way. By this time we were down to 4 people. Elder, Fu'Leng and a fighter mage who's name I neglected to write down.
I made a portal to Awric and then we took a portal to the desert. Elder give us coordinates and we started to run. In the hills I lost the party but met up with Fu'Leng who had fell behind. The hills give us a little trouble and at one point I did not see a way down.
I put on my jumping gear and jumped. I guess it was not needed because I took 1 point of damage. Got Fu'Leng to jump and we headed to the portal. There we met back up with Elder. I had never been in this place. Full of Vinnie, Drudges and in places Scarecrows. The second mage in the party had to put on armor, as a robe was not effective against Scarecrows.
We killed a lot of stuff and got to a bunch of portals. Call it a subway from hell as the monsters were not very nice. We found the portal Elder had been looking for and did the run though the swamp. In the Vault I told Elder I could take it for here with the other two. I knew Elder had other things he needed to do.
Before he left he buffed us up with level VII spells. Man I'm looking forward to getting them. I figure the next 5 levels of xp is going into item.
Fu'Leng knew the way so I just had to fight. Never in much trouble until the final room. By this time I was had a few de-buffs on and an Astrrian hit me hard twice in a row. I quickly ran into the hall, took a swig of healing Elixer and hit the healing kits.
I ran back and finished it off. Fu'leng got his body and a stone. Hell of a day.
Now them's some de-buffs
In hindsight it was funny but at the time I did not think so. I toss a de-buff on a bandy while at the edge of the sea. The stupid thing stood still while his partner charged. From off the hills 5 more decided to defend the cowardly Bandy.
I figured I would keep draining until most of them ran back up the hill. At this point all of them started tossing de-buffs on me. They came so fast and often that all I could see was the de-buffs. The spells totally hid Mage and the Bandies. This went on for about 5 seconds.
The good thing was while being de-buffed I was not taking damage. In time it all went as planned and I ended up killing three of the six before they all ran away. A passing mage by the name of Og II helped out with heals and stamina/mana infusions. Unexpected and a big help. Goes to prove there are still good helpful mages around.
New Plans
With Fist getting killed so easy I have three plans now. First I need to find the armor pieces that have no protection and replacing them with ones that do. Problem there is I really like the Creature spells on my armor. Right now I have Endurance VI, Strength VI, Magic Resistance VI and Rejuvenation VI.
The Rejuvenation VI are from leggings and I'm sure that is the main weakness. When fighting one or two Bandies I should be able to lose that spell. So I will be looking for better leggings, high al with good protection. Of course I know there are other pieces that will get me in trouble but replacing the spells will be much harder.
Second plan is to keep pouring points into Melee defense. I'm at 360 with +27% now but apparently that is not enough. At two million a point it will be slow but in time I will have the defense I need.
Lastly I'm adding Mana and Mana Conversion. My plan is to use items spells to make up for my weakness until I can replace them.
All this is costly and I still have Mage to keep working. I'm in luck there. I have good loyalty and Balash, his patron, has 150 loyalty. This means I can make points with Mage and have a lot of that pass up to Fist. With work I should be able to build both at the same time.
Changes in Column
Have a few changes in the works. I hope to have pictures and color. I also will get a better idea on the readership and some welcome feedback. This will involve a change of website for the column and the current thinking is http://www.tip.it/wizard/ac. Subjections and comments are welcome.
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