I can see now why turbine thinks mages are over powered. I was with three alliance members, all fighters, while they did a little pk hunting. They did really well until they met a prepared mage.
They were in Eastham and had a few kills down. They chased off Sigma Darkfist who ported out. Then they rested and rebuffed a little ways outside of town. They waited to try and spring a surprise by charging back into town.
Well Sigma Darkfist did not know this. He spent that time buffing himself for every possible attack. A 47lv mage can do that. It must have taken a while because he has to buff his GSA, helm, glove and shoes as well. I don't know for sure he did but the results said he did.
Our three fighters charged back and attacked Sigma Darkfist. First to fall was Balash, a 58lv fighter. Not sure how much damage Balash was doing but Sigma Darkfist was draining it back. A de-buff and a fire ball sent Balash to the ground.
Sigma Darkfist then had time to type, "One down and two to go" in battle! Shamrock was attacking along with Mortok. Mortok was de-buffed and Sigma Darkfist got a heal in. Mortok is mid 40's and Shamrock is 60.
While Shamrock was hitting Sigma Darkfist with his sword Sigma Darkfist targeted Mortok and blasted him. Shamrock then switched to an acid sword, his other must not have been doing much damage. One on one was no contest, drain, drain, fire voln, fire blast, dead Shamrock. All this while typing taunting messages. I will give this to Shamrock. It was clear he was losing but he never thought to run.
A truly skillful fighter. My mage might have been able to what he did, but never while typing at the same time.
So here is a skillful 47lv mage taking down a mid 40lv a 59lv and a 60lv fighter. So for PK a strong life mage is king, if well buffed and has time to prepare. What turbine forgets with its mage nerf's is that such power comes at great cost in time and pyreal. All Shamrock need do to was avoid being killed for a few minutes and he would have forced Sigma Darkfist to run. On top of that PK is only little part of AC. Lastly the most of the nerf's to mages don't even effect PK. Hard to figure their thought process.
So getting back to the pk fight. After it was over, all three fighters had praise for Sigma Darkfist. Of course there are the lamers in the pack that will get their shots in. A non-pk was standing there saying how bad the fighters were. I'm not giving his name so I will call him Perfect Mouth. Manly because I never saw him be a FIGHTER. He was quite full of himself and loved tossing taints at the three defeated fighters. To bad he was such a lame Fighter and not a Perfect Fighter.
What really made me mad at this NOT PERFECT FIGHTER was his contempt of Pew the Motted, his monarch. When I told him his actions were tossing dirt in Pews good name he said he did not care for Pew the Motted at all. He was only there because of his patron.
Very sad. I am proud to be a member of Elder. All our members are proud to be member of Elder. I have met Pew the Motted and he is an outstanding fighter. His alliance is an honorable one. Then the NOT-PERFECT-FIGHTER who I will call Perfect Month has to put down something he should be proud of.
Of course he was bragging about having played on Darktide so I see where he gets it.
Honorable Alliances
I have seen some outstanding alliances over the passed year. I feel I'm part of the best but that is Elder pride showing. Ever so often I get reminded that other alliances are led by people just as good as Elder.
I was showing the game to family during Thanksgiving. We had about 25 to 30 people over. My wife has a big family. I had some stuff I needed to mule before I could fight anything. I ran over to Lin to put the stuff on a mule. I had 2 keys, a nice BP and a good electrical axe to mule.
When the mule logged a player named Mardan followed me to the drop and grabbed it all. Then gave me a Wave emote and tried to steal someone's pack. I saw he was in Babylon Darkside's alliance. I posted the thief on COD and got a fast response from Ryo-Ohki.
He ran over to my hall and give me 5 keys to make up for the thief. It seems that this Mardan hates Darkside. He sneaks into the alliance when someone is AFK or cons someone. Then he steals and taunts others to toss dirt on Darkside.
Darkside contacted me apologizing for this. It is truly not his fault and after hearing the story I would not have wanted compensation. To bad there are people like Mardan around. If you see that name show up on your vassal list, break it fast. Ryo-Ohki also recovered the BP and give it to one of our members.
Cliff Bowman rides again
I'm still not sure of the status of Jarad but decided to break Cliff Bowman and swear him to The Saint. I have heard he did not sell but has not been back. I really hope he comes back. Been working ways to keep him under Fist in case he can.
After transferring to The Saint I felt it was time to earn my keep. First I started poring points into loyalty for a bit. Cliff Bowman fights in the Mayoi Citadel as an unarmed mostly. I can use a bow well but it is hard not to be tossing arrows into other peoples battles.
Of course that does not stop almost every other bow-user into thinking I'm their personal shield. I ask them nicely to not shoot into my battles. I'm sure they understand that does not mean all of them, just the ones I'm personally fighting. For that I get lip and they continue to steal from me.
So after that I run next to them and stop fighting. If they want my lugies that bad I will be happy to bring it to them. Sometimes they win, sometimes they lose. In time they are gone because they understand I will not be used.
Then there are the fighters. I'm fighting a G and an L in on my back. Fighter see fight. He/she has two choices, take the free one on my back or take the one that might return more points. (Back shots on a G is worth more than fighting an L head up.) 9 out of 10 will take the leeching shots.
Then there are the really greedy ones. I'm fighting an L and there is one on my back. I have taken the L as we both got to the G at the same time and I felt it was better to just fight the L. Fighter kills G. He has two choices. Attack one on my back or loot G. Guess which one they choice.
I have abandoned a lot of lugies by staying in the fight and not looting. Most of the time some lamer comes along and loots them while I'm fighting. So I guess I can see the thought process. I guess I think different than these kids.
Strange night in Citadel
When I started in I noted there were not a lot of people. A lot of places that are normally empty had lugies waiting.
At one point there is a T after a ramp. The right goes to a room the left leads to the jumping room. Going up the ramp I was surprised to see a train of lugies traveling across the T. I mean a mass of them, 15 to 20, all headed to the room.
I attacked a tail end one and about three more turned to fight me. From the room I could hear the roar of the battle. Soon a fighter was running out of the room with the mob on his tail. Of course a few stopped to play with me. I did not panic. I saw that if I killed the one I was fighting I had a clear run to the ramp.
That was what I did. Then ran to the first corner and a little back. I sucked some stamina potions and waited for them to line up. It worked fine and I would have been able to fight them one or two at a time. A bunch of fighters showed up do I did not get to. O'well no need to be greedy.
I needed 550k to level so it was going to be a long night. I spent most of it in the jumping room. Finally got my fighting abilities to the point where I can do that. There were a lot of leeches showing up but for the most part we worked together. Most were respecting others battles and did not try to steal.
After I did what I came for I was ready to leave. I had leveled and made The Saint a lot of points. On my way out I saw Dalkar Willowwood fighting a few lugies. I had been side by side with him earlier and he is a good smart fighter. We could get the lugies set up so the two of use could handle them.
I targeted one he was not fighting and started swinging. Just as I did Dalkar Willowwood typed, "Incoming." From both sides of the hallway a stream of Lugei, L's and G's were rushing to our battle. I was trapped and took a lot of damage in the first few seconds. Grateful I had spec'd healing then. I ran to a corner and hit my stamina potions (1 on the quick bar) and the heal buttons. (3 for heal 2 for self) From well below half my points I healed to close to full.
Then I turned my attention to the battle. There were a few G's and a lot of L's. I will mostly attack the L's when it is this way. When not being hit from the back stamina is the biggest problem, not hit points. I can kill an L a lot faster than a G. After taking down 4 or 5 L's I turned to the G's.
Dalkar Willowwood was in a worse position than I was. He was trapped against the wall. I could hear him sucking down potions. I was hoping it was stamina and not heal. I could not see him as he was covered with lugies.
After taking down mine I started getting back shots on his. I downed two of them and Dalkar Willowwood got the rest. As the last one fell I noted my stamina had dropped to 0. We stepped back and surveyed the damage. It was a carpet of lugies. All we could say was 'Wow".
I did meet an archer that thinks like I do there. He ran by a short battle and did not do what 90% of his class will do. He saw a lugie up the hall and attacked it and not ours. After saying goodbye to Dalkar Willowwood I was headed out. I saw the archer in a mob of L's.
I ran over and tried to get a few of them to switch to me. Lugies are stupid and slow to switch. It is why bow-users can leech so well. Does not work as well with Olthoi or Tuskers who switch fast. He got one and I got one but it was not enough. He fell dead at my feet and I was left with the last four. After clearing them I sent the archer a message. I guarded and kept it clear until he got back to the body.
All in all a good night. Some my typical heartburn with leeches but met some great fighters and one good archer.
The biggest waste of time I have ever done
With all four stones, and breaking a stone one day, I am set on getting four claws. Damien Daring is getting motes and Fist de Mage is picking up a few. I decided to go to Metros and pick up some.
Fighting four Granite golems at a time is not all that fun. The spells I can resist about 30 percent of the time. The rest do from 10 to 30 damage. When they chain cast I can have problems keeping healed. On top of that the xp is not much for me. Damien came by and was imperiling them for a while. That cut down on the time to kill them.
Finally I got enough for a bar and I had a bar on a mule. I was also about out of healing kits. I ported back to AB and caught Blinks mule to Subway. I ran to Lin and Killean combined the bar for me. Then I ran back to the subway hoping to get a ride to the Crator.
I did not get a ride to Crater but I did get a ride to a castle close by. The one where the guy made the mattie robe. Ran to the Crater from there. Killed the flamias and flames and got in.
I cashed a C note and an L notes to get what I needed to make a claw. I then buffed up to 369 unarmed skill. The dam golem hands me a useless piece of junk. I knew it was possible but did not really expect it would happen. I gave it to the mask maker after I got back to AB.
This was not fun. After all that work there should be zero chance of failure at that skill. I can see how some people leave the game after something like that. I will go back to get more motes. In a bit I guess I will be trying it again.
Vassals
I have some of the best vassals going. Been lucky that way. The following was written by Damien Daring.
Cliff,
This weekend was memorable in many ways. I'll start at the beginning and just work it from there. As you know I've been hunting DoC recently. It is a good place as Ive told you for all types no matter if melee, mage, or archer. Well ever since Thursday night it has been camped worse than BSD. I mean no lie some of the rudest most mean people around. Not only was it full but they were camping specific spots, standing right next to where the high exp monsters were spawning and killing them within seconds, so there was no chance for anyone else to get the kill. The mages were doing the usual, draining and letting someone else finish the monster off. I swear to you I thought I was playing EQ again.
So I said the heck with this and went hunting at Metos, figuring to get you some motes - what a vassal I am . After 2 1/2 hrs of killing golems not a single mote. But, I did make 200K which I used 150 of to buy you the 3 motes I gave you the other day. While in there I was also being nice to the lower level characters, just hanging back and letting them get the kills while I buffed and healed them. Some of them were very appreciative of that and one also made mention that they loved reading your column. Well you know that guy got every buff I could lay on him . After all, the honor of the House of Elder was at stake.
The next day after hunting DoC really early in the morning and earning about 300K exp and 150K in money, a friend of mine, Drake Elfrin asked me to help him retrieve bodies on the island. I said sure no problem. Met up with Drake in GW and we ported to the island. We are there for a few minutes when BLINK, my cable modem goes down.
At that point I said the heck with it and fell asleep knowing that it would take a few hours for the modem to come back up. When I woke up the modem finally was back up and I log in. I was glad, I hadnt died but here I am in an area I had no knowledge of. So I do the stupid thing, I went exploring.
Here is where I made a true error in judgement. I went out without knowing what the monsters. I met up with a female adventurer named Kaat and was chatting with her. Along that time a shallows devourer came up and I took him out in short order. I think it was level 59 and I thought hey no problem. Kaat starts buffing herself and along comes another so I rush to take it on so she can finish. Here is where I made my error, I thought since the first one didnt do much to me that it would be no problem and I wasnt paying attention to my health bar. Imagine my surprise after 5 bites I was down to 10 health, oh damn I thought Im not tied here and Drake isnt on.
Sure enough next bite and its lifestone time for me. I sent a tell to Kaat yelling OUCH and laughing about it. She said she was sorry and felt bad because she just stood there. I told her no sweat, I knew the risks and didnt mind and that I would have to find a portal back. Kaat went out of her way for me on this. She asked me if I could meet her in Teth. I told her I was in AB but I could try for a Teth portal, she said dont worry about it for me to meet her at the Subway. So I go to Bashi and then use Blink-Mule for the Subway. Sure enough 6 minutes later there is Kaat opening a portal for us to go to the island.
We go back and there is an 89th level Cursed Wisp that has decided he wants to eat me. I run and run and it gets me down to 4 hp. Im "thinking great here we go again." While this is going on Kaat is fighting off 3 shallows near my corpse. I get into the area where you can portal into the cave where the wisp cant follow. Then I start getting in my whacks, I start draining the sucker, some of my drains are repelled but Im getting enough in to weaken it. I get it down to 15% health and Im at full, so I go up and finish it off with my buffed frost atlan.
During this fight Kaat came back to make sure I was ok. We both laughed at the situation, went to my corpse and got my stuff so I was feeling good about myself. We both had to go buy comps at that point so we bid each other farewell.
Went and got comps then came back to the island. Being a fighter mage has its advantages as Ive heard that war mages have been having problems with the monsters and their resistances. Now I dont know what they are fighting but the monsters I came across resisted drains but not vuls. So Id vul them to draw them and then take them on. The moarsmen are acidic creatures so I buffed for them. Did the same to the island armadillos, they are tough as well but they dont do well with vuls. Got a spine which I gave to my friend Drake Elfrin, he is going to see if it can be incorporated into the SoCS. Also got a hide which I had made into the full shirt which is AL 130 and BU of 900, so it is a bit heavier than the mattie coat and offers 10AL more in armor.
Took another portal which I told you about to the Lugian Excavation last night. BIG MISTAKE!!!!! I buffed myself and went in, no big deal Ive been there before. I got through the traps without setting them off and Im thinking GREAT, Ill vul the Extas and get the easier kills.....DUH.....they resisted every vul I threw at them. So Im getting pounded, I heal and run......I pull my wand to portal out and BAMM Im at the lifestone minus my best armor, a coord 4 ring and 2 master robes.
Ok Im thinking no big deal Ill just go back. Take the portal to Bashi and run my arse off. I finally get back there and buff up as much as I can. Well I made it to the first room and died again. Shit, Im thinking to myself, another 20K run. No biggie, Ill do it and get out. I do the run again and get my second body no problem. I go in and for some reason I cant find the first body and its only been 25 minutes since I died. Now Im a bit worried, there arent enough people in here for me just to run around endlessly, cause if I do that I know Ill die again.
So I make the fateful decision and lifestone portal out saying goodbye to some of my best stuff. Oh well easy come easy go. Im thinking ok now Im at 10% vitae what can I do, ahhhhh someone opens a portal up to BSD. Tie to that then log out. I go back in this morning to my mule and get my mattie coat, knowing that I can buff it almost as well as my old armor was and quickly work off 5% of the vitae before I have to come back into work. That's my weekend.
Scott "Damien Daring"
P.S. Dont forget I have another sliver for you
Newsgroup tales.
We have heard from this team before. Nasier and his wife are at it again.
This weekend, the wife and I decided to see how we fared versus the bugs and I have a few observations to share from the gimped vs. more optimal character perspective.
First was the switch from Lug to Bug hunting gear. At first I was having a problem with proper buffs. Since I needed acid and piercing, I was going to have to give up a buff. The obvious choice was endurance. My piercing protection and endurance III take up the same space and if all goes well, I wouldnt need it. As I dug into my bag of gear, something wonderful happened. I was looking at two roughly equal rapiers. Both would need two item spells cast on them and both had an attack bonus but one had a spell I had never given thought of before. Coordination III (why is it, every time I need to make my equipment "click" it is one of the items Kat gave me?). So, now buffed with Coord III, Endurance IV, Strength V, Quickness IV, Armor IV, Invulnerability IV, Piercing Protection IV and Acid Protection IV, I deemed myself ready.
The wife and I chose the Lair of Death. If something goes wrong, recovery should be easy. We enter and check the nymph room to the right, nothing. We come back up and start down. As we reach the bottom level, we here the sound of an Olthoi portaling in behind us. The game is afoot.
As the rapier bit deep into the carapace two things struck me. The first is that a full power piercing attack is an outstanding boon to a swordman. I was doing slightly more damage with a 7-13 BD IV rapier than I was with a 7-14 BD VI takuba and the criticals were around 20 points better. The other thing that struck me is how much of a difference +16% to attack skill (+5% and cast HS IV) makes. Not only did I critical more often than I used to (with around 15 points more sword skill), I couldnt seem to miss a worker. I moved around the corner to wait for my old friend the soldier to appear. Sure enough, he did and the acid protection V shirt did exactly what I hoped it would do. In the end, I had a claw and had only lost 12 health. The wife and I moved out into the big room before the noble room, we moved down to test ourselves against the noble. As is usual, the room was already occupied by the low talent camper type.
We moved back up and the lower soldier came in. As we began to fight, we heard a chittering sound coming down the ramp. The two workers had returned to the big room and heard our fight. A test!
Final score; three dead bugs and a total of 40 missing health between us.
We wandered the halls, making sure the previous fights were the result of skill and not good fortune.
So, my findings were as follows; Rapiers are far superior for bugs if the user is reasonably strong (200 for me). One point less base damage and two levels less Blood Drinker still yielded more damage.
Next stop OHN
Nasier/Wen Tzu
Leafcull
Following Barra and Nasiers victory in the Lair of Death they become bold and decide to track the enemy to its lair. The journey takes them into the snow-covered hills above the bandit castle. A reeking hole filled with Olthoi and the screams of the dying. A perfect place to put their prowess to the test.
They don their armor and protective clothing, loading mana as needed and begin to weave magic on to their weapons. With a nod, they descend into the hole.
The entrance was a bad omen. Nasier managed to get himself seriously wedged and it took a few minutes to work free.
At last they stood in the entryway of the nest, the sounds of the chattering Olthoi coming from everywhere.
"Ready?"
"Um, not really but lets do this."
Nasier took the lead and they found the source of the sound at the second hallway. One woman was holding back a good-sized group of Olthoi, workers by the look of them. No doubt she was praying that help would arrive soon. We were the instruments of her gods.
Barra took one her left side and Nasier stood to her right. Shoulder to shoulder they held strong through the onslaught until the floor was carpeted in slime and pieces of broken caprice.
Down the hallway they continued and Nasier explained to her the loose rules of conduct regarding our fellow nest invaders. The Olthoi did not allow the small luxuries that warring with Lugians afforded. Often one person was the difference between a strong shield wall and being enveloped so humans, even those with exceedingly poor manners should be assisted and protected when it was possible.
As they wandered the halls, the found small groups of Olthoi to destroy and other humans, also trying to take the war to the Olthoi.
The longer they hunted around the top two floors, it became evident that more fools now hunted Olthoi. A warrior, who could not best a worker in single combat, a bowman who only attacked Olthoi that others were fighting, another bowman who seemed only to run about being persued by Olthoi. Nasier shook his head. Had these poor specimens been the among the first Isparians to Dereth, we would still be the thralls of the Olthoi.
Barra and Nasier saw a ramp leading further down at the end of the hallway. This would make it the third floor they had descended into the earth and death at this point would be ill advised. The moved forward with caution. As they reached the bottom of the ramp, they saw a man holding back four or five soldiers alone. They ran forward to bolster his defense.
As they fought, the horror grew. More soldiers from the surrounding area sensed the vibration of conflict and came to the aid of their kin. The four quickly grew to eight, then ten and they started to pour in from above. Soon, three stood against more than they could count in the surging purple mass. As each insect fell, two more took its place. The jostling of the melee broke the line. Each hero was enveloped and on his or her own to live or die. Their new brother in arms cried out "My buffs are gone!" Nasier responded, "As are mine but if we run, we all die." On they pressed, were it not for the bottles filled with the enchanted yellow liquid that gives the body energy, each would have fallen from the sheer exhaustion of the ordeal.
After what seemed like years of thrusting his sword into a purple mass Nasier started to see the tunnel walls around him. He looked around and saw the swordman had but two Olthoi left but Barra was still hidden behind a mass of purple bodies. "Barra, you okay?" Her only reply was "No!" Nasier willed his body forward and began the process of thrusting the now thousand pound sword into the Olthoi. The swordsman won free and joined in and in a matter of a few minutes there was just a lone solider, scurrying up to them, late to the battle. The three of them turned and dispatched him quickly.
They bound their wounds and gutted the Olthoi and took anything of value. With a nod and a smile the swordsman ran off. Nasiers backpack was heavy with war gear and gems recovered from the Olthoi and Barra was not far behind. They made for the surface, fighting off skirmishers the whole time.
They recalled to their lifestone in the quiet mountain town of Zaikhal, covered in slime, small fragments of carapace, dirt and large amounts of their own blood.
As they approached the town proper, the crier said "Blessed poet, what happened to you two?" Nasier turned and winked at Barra and quipped to the crier "I think we just passed the acid test."
Nasier/Wen Tzu
Leafcull
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