Fist de Yuma - May 14, 2002

Very big EGO's, very small minds I once watched an immoral politician on TV. He condemned a list of things the opposition party had. There were ten items on the list. The next thing he was asked was what he thought his greatest accomplishments were. The then proceeded to list eight of the ten items he just condemned as his greatest accomplishments. Now I expected that from him, what I did not expect the host not pointing out this contradiction. I never watched that show again. This came to mind as I read a statement by Stay Puff. This EGOmaniac said the reason he was jumping the Island quest was not to be a total griefer but to force Turbine to change the quest. In other words like the politician everything bad is someone else fault and everything good only happens because of him. What is truly sad is they both believed what they said. Of course Turbine had this change planned months ago. Stay Puff just decided to take credit and announce himself as a hero. In case you have not read about it there are changes coming on the quest. I will not go into details as it is still posted on the website. The main change is the reward will be a group one. There will be 12 keys dropping and a timer on picking up one. This means a 12-person group can get everyone the island recall scroll in one trip. Thanks very much Turbine. You have listened to the players again and made a change that will increase the enjoyment for everyone. Ooops, stupid error I started a hunting on North ML and doing well. I had a Sing key in the first buff. As I had gone blank in my last three trips this was a welcome change. A guy came by and stopped to talk. As we were talking three Vapor Golems spawn about six feet in back of us. Now I have been fighting Vapors in greater numbers so I was not worried. I quickly selected one and started my de-buffing routine. The routine for three vapors goes like this; Cold vuln, blast, blast. That should kill one. Then I switch to next, drain, Cold Vuln, drain and blast. Unless there is a very low hit than I'll not need a second blast. The last one is vuln and blast or two drain vuln and blast, depending on how badly I was hurt. Now I knew I have fire vuln on me from a Virindi I had just fought, also imperil VI and possibility Bludgeoning VI. With a VII protects and drains I that is not a big danger as they seldom chain cast fire. So I figured at most I would need a few more drains. By the time I had my first vuln was on I was under 100 health. I'm being beaten pillar to post and draining for my life. I killed one and had 2 hit points as I hit heal. I was lucky and got the heal in before I was hit again. The guy was trying to heal me but a kit is kind of slow. From two hit points it was not likely he could have had a successful heal anyway. He was to low a level to try and fight one. With a lot of drains and luck I killed the second one. With low heath and 5 mana I hit cold blast with a prayer on my lips. Thank God for a 302 mana conversion. The spell fired, and the golem dropped at my feet. After one more adventure in getting my ass kicked I decided to check my buffs. Well great balls of fire, half my buffs were missing! I checked my banes and found I had blade, acid and piercing but not Bludgeoning! For outside hunts I only use Bludgeoning. Humm, this sure looks like something I would use in EVL. Sure enough when I had clicked my buffing setup on Nerfur Buffus I had clicked EVL and not my outside buffing setup. How I lived fighting three Vapor golems, fire vuln VI, imperil VI on me, no bludgeoning bane and no fire protection I'll never know. It is said that angels protect fools. I must have had a horde of them laughing their heads off over me. Old friends return. Into my second hour of hunting on North ML when I got a tell from an old friend. Ur III dated back to the early 2000 months. He left the game early last year with his wife Sissy. Before he left he traded me my Pre-GSA. This set of armor is responsible for much of my success. After a time playing other games he and Sissy have returned to AC. Both Sissy and Ur have been social players for most of there AC life. This means they are more into it for fun than leveling. They are 51lv with more playing time and experience than 90% of the player base. We talked a while and I figured if there is one quest they would love to go on it would be the Pincer quests. I met them in Nanto after restocking. We ran to the plateau and then took the river route to EVL. Being archers and not having spec'd melee I felt we should have a few melees along to help. Wuyung was on and I invited him. His vassal Hot Sauce was on and in EVL already. After we arrived outside of EVL I buffed up and put the necessary buffs and protects on them. Wuyung and Hot Sauce lead the way down. I would fire off an imperil and the Olthoi would drop. It was about that fast. Archer/melee/mage combo that can work as a team is not only fun but all so powerful. Even at a spot where six or seven EV's attacked us it was over in 20 seconds or so. Never broke a sweat. We got them the pincer and I got to check if my timer was up. I'm going to have to start writing down the dates. From there Ur, Sissy and I moved to the Grotto. I felt we could do this without the melees and was right. Imperil and an arrow or two was all it took. We got the pincers and I lead them to Redspire. After this was all over we talked some more. Sissy asked if I had room for two old times. LOL two old friends are always welcome. As Ur III had leveled after turning in the pincer we rearranged things so he swore to Fist de Mage. The day started out as kind of dull and I did not think I had anything to write about. Now I have two more of my old friends in the family. It does not get any better than this. Very fast quest. I had started doing the armor quest with mage the other day. I had stopped right after getting the first note because someone needed my help. With a lot of vassals this is common. I'm always happy to drop a quest to have an adventure. I can always pick the quest back up later. I decided I did not need to run around finding the notes as the reward for them are not worth the time. For my 20lv mage I might do it. Of course he cannot to the other parts of the quest but the xp for what he can do will be worth it. From there I ran to the tower guarded by the Tommies. A short battle left a field of Tommie bodies and me with the key. That got me the ability to get the wax paper. I did /lifestone to get to AB and took the portal. I got the wax paper and ported to the subway. I hit the portal to the city and quickly ran through to the tome. I find that I have a good talent for learning a place. After doing it a few times I have little trouble remembering the route. I always thought others could do the same but over time I find that is not true with everyone. We all have things we are good at. What you have to remember is there is always someone better and others with a different talent this is just as valuable. In other words understand what you are good at, use it and be proud of it, but don't let it go to your head. From the tome I took the passage to the hidden dungeon. I had been going on a minimum of buffs up until then. With only a handful of Mosswarts and Drudges I only needed my Crop to clear the way. I did a full buff, which takes three minutes. I have a 30 minute timer on my desk to keep track of when I need to rebuff. I generally have a minute or so after it starts beeping to rebuff. Knowing the route, knowing what I have fight and what I can run past and knowing where the darn switch is made all the difference. There are only a few places you really have to fight when doing this solo. With a group you might have to clear the way a bit more. The only error I made was a turn into a dead end. I had to kill four Liches and three Granite golem to get back out. At the end I did have to fight. There are a lot of Golem and Liches and I was even taking a touch of damage. I would say that battle took two minutes. I got my impression and ported to my lifestone. As I hit the ls I glanced at my timer, 13 minutes left. This meant I did the quest in 14 minutes, not counting the three minutes of buffing. That is a big difference from the few days before when I did know the route. On my first attempt I took over and hour and a half to do it. The below comments are intended to be about the very last part of this quest. The other parts are easy and the city is more frustrating than fun. Having a guide, either paper or person, is a good idea for all but the last part. Someone sent me a letter saying how much he liked this quest. The monsters are fairly strong but not over powering. The hardest part is finding your way through the mazes and the fast spawns. A powerful player can solo this. There are continuous fights and a lot of frustration with the maze but a sense of accomplishment when done. A mid-level group can do this and feel they have done something. Sadly I think most of the players doing this quest will have a guide. With a guide most of the fights can be avoided. As I proved there would be little trouble doing this quest in under 20 minutes. I encourage those who want to do this quest to try it without a guide. It is not really hard and a lot of fun. If you have a guide you will lose a lot of the feel of this quest. Archer tactics I hope to get my Melee defense to the point where I can face the big hitters but it will take a while. With 330 melee d (buffed with V's) I'm still being hit and hit hard. I wish I could bane as banes are an Archers shield. By the time I had put banes on my armor I would have little time to hunt. I'm also trying to play Deadeye as a no buff player. What this meant is I have to play him smart. He is currently hunting in OHN. There are better places but without buffs he is not quite ready for them. Even in OHN I have to make sure I don't face more than three at a time. Because of the way OHN is built it is easy to cut down on numbers. I cringe when I see Archers making basic mistakes there. I see two base errors, they fight in the center of the hall or fight in a cubby. The center of the hall is pure death. When I see archer bodies they are almost always in the center of a hall. Fighting there lets the maximum number of Olthoi hit you. There are very few Archer who can face that and none that should be fighting in OHN. The second error is mostly done by former melees. I did it once. That was all it took to show me a cubby is not for an Archer. While it does cut down on numbers somewhat it is a pure death trap. Instead of facing six or seven attackers as in the hall you face 5. Five is enough to kill most archers and there is no way to run out of a cubby. So how to you cut down on the numbers. The answer is corners. I have a picture I need to post somewhere that shows how to works. As soon as you see the rush of Olthoi turn and run to the corner. Get close to the wall and a foot or two away from the edge. If you do it right the Olthoi will line up and you only have to face one at a time. As there is a melee bonus against what you're fighting this may mean fewer hits. If you don't do it almost right you will end up facing two or maybe three. Try sliding closer to the wall and take out the edge Olthoi first. If you cannot face three run to the next corner. There are a lot of corners in OHN. There is one thing to be aware of. An Archer can clear Olthoi very fast. It takes two to four arrows. This means you can clear a section and the next before worrying about back spawns. Back spawns are deadly to an Archer. If you hit a section that is already clear you have no idea when it will re-spawn. As you fight the next section it spawns and you have a horde of Olthoi at your back. The only thing you can do if this happens is run. So if a section is clear be very aware that it could spawn at just the wrong time. Radar awareness is important for all classes but Archers most of all. Deadeye in the Grotto. I knew that Deadeye's melee defense was not enough to face a lot of upgraded Olthoi. I was hoping with a little careful play I could fight in the Grotto. Killing one there is over twice the xp of a Soldier. Most of them are in single places and I know I can fight one. I was doing well. Someone had cleared quite a bit of it but I found enough to make me happy. The worst that happened was facing three. I don't think I can do four as I was lucky to kill three. After a time I found myself near the pincer room. There is no way I can clear that room but with a little work I might trick out the one that had the pincer. This was working for a while. I had just killed one that I felt had a good chance to have the pincer on it. Before I could loot two Olthoi came up in back of me. I was beat up fairly good before I got one. Two from the room rushed up the hall and two more from outside got the sense. I did the smart thing and ran. What I did not count on was while I was trying to get the pincer Olthoi the entire dungeon has reset. The bottom of the Grotto has a lot of Olthoi. I was running through twists and turns, hoping to shake a few of them off and get back to the pincer. As I shook one two more attached themselves. I ran into a dead end room with a handful of Olthoi in it. I got back out but I now had that group added to the chase. At one point I had 4 hit points. I found a corner, drank some elixirs and healed. I used that corner to clear my chase group. I attempted to go back to the pincer room but no dice. I had drawn to much stuff out of their rooms. The one time I tried to rush it I ended up running for my life again. In the end I had to leave the pincer for another day. I'll be adding to Melee defense, coodi and Bow for a few levels and then go back. Oh, I could have mage buff the hell out of him and solo it but that would be a step back. I'll either go with a group or wait until I'm strong enough to do it alone. New Bow I picked up the parts for the new bow a while back. This is one frustrating nerve racking quest. I have seen a guy with 289 string the bow, I have seen a guy with 350 fail. I had 325 and decided to give it a shot. My two weeks were up so if I failed I would try to get another one. It broke. The good news is the bug that prevents the Queen quest from being completed has left the guy with the bow on constant spawn. Of course the people looking for the skill credit are not so happy with this. It will be fixed with the next patch, whenever that will be. I headed to the Plateau and got a tell from Annunaki the sad. She was looking to do something. I did not want to suggest she help me with my quest as I felt it would be rather boring for her. She disagreed with me and wanted to help. With a nice set of buffs from her we set out on a round around the plateau. I figured we would circle the edge. If we did not find the bow guy we would start crossing until we did. Along the way we killed anything that crossed our path. This let me add three points of bow skill. We failed to find the bow guy and were almost back at the start. I saw a Alter and felt we could have some fun. The first few monsters were nothing bad. There was nothing a mage and archer could not bring down with little danger. A high level wisp almost did us in but their vulnerability to piercing had me putting it down. I had heard of a black breath and that was want I was looking for. At last a Black Breath spawns. I'm hitting for around 2 damage, not good. It was hitting me for 50+, really not good. I spent most of the battle running. Annunaki got in an imperil and I hit for 10. That got me standing there a little longer than I should. Bam, off to the Lin lifestone. Annunaki said she found the right attack and put it down with two spells. I said I was running back. I hit the Plateau and saw Mrs Uzi buffing. I said Hi and in our conversation mentioned the bow guy. She said she would keep and eye out of it. I ran back and recovered my body. Mrs Uzi sent me a tell right as I got there saying she had the bow guy on radar. We were off to the races. I got there and started my battle. I did not see Mrs Uzi or Annunaki the sad there yet. I had the bow guy dead with a little trouble but the companions were giving me fits. I thing there was a double spawn of some of them. Mrs Uzi and Annunaki showed up to save me from another trip to the LS. I got the bow parts and a key. I told Mrs Uzi got grab a key and Annunaki got one. I told them I knew where the chest was and the three of use headed off. With a 105 4 school and a 61lv BM I knew this was not going to be hard. The Tommies never knew what hit them. We swept them aside and I unlocked the chest. At that point I noted I had another key on me. When I got the bow weeks ago I never used the key. Annunaki used her key and I found that Mrs Uzi did not have one. It seems her video was bad and she could not see the keys on the ground. Mrs Uzi said that was one of the best times she had had. A lot of people find that team play is a whole new experience. Far to many are shown a dungeon and taught to solo. They never learn the true joy of team play. With Mrs Uzi leaving the game soon, hopefully a short time, I was glad we had a chance to adventure together. After that Annunaki needed to log and Mrs Uzi headed to EVL. I'll keep the bow until I have 350 skill. With the Queen quest being fixed soon it will not be as easy to find the bow guy.