Death
Death is common in the game but sometimes it is a little too common. I started a new ppl in FF. It is a test that I feel will be very nice in the long run. Spec'd Life. Only problem is I started with an endurance of 10. For the first 10 levels I will be adding to endurance, health and stamina.
Low health leads to some interesting battles. First battle with a drudge prowler ended in a death with the prowler at half health. As soon as I got out of portal I attacked it again. Being low level I ended the battle clear of vit.
A lot of battles are going this way. After dying I run back and attack the same monster before it has a chance to heal. I'm sure anyone watching my battle with the Reedshark would have called it comic relief.
I attacked the Reedshark after getting rid of the pup and a few drudges. I got it down to half when it got a good shot in and sent me to the LS. Ran back and attacked again. Got it down a few more points and a Mosswart jumped me from the rear, back to LS. Run back, get body, kill Mosswart. Attack Reedshark, with vit not hitting as much, Reedshark is down to half again, gets big hit, LS.
To make a long story short, 6 deaths to kill one Adult Reedshark. But it was enough points to clear the vit.
On Fist de Yuma of FF.
I was looking for a strong mage for some tweeking. Felt that 10 endurance was too big a hurdle to get over. After working him to 3lv I felt I might do ok without tweeking. I was in the tavern in Hebian-to and saw a 65lv mage buffing people in his alliance. I also saw he was at least 3 down in this alliance tree.
I watched the interaction of the players for a while and it seemed like a good alliance. After a half-hour or so I approached the mage about joining his alliance. He directed me to a vassal of his, Vector X. He is a 52lv Archer. The funny thing for me is they had no idea who I am. I figured it must be a great alliance if they were willing to help a 3lv-nobody fighter like me.
Victor X supplied me with a little armor and weapons. Nothing I would not have given a new player. He also kept in touch with me over the night. After a trip to the Nest he returned with some stuff I could use. I think I'm going to enjoy this relationship. Now if he can just find me an acid weapon I might suffer less than 6 deaths fighting Reedsharks.
Deaths II
The next day I was playing Fist de Yuma on Solclaim. I'm hunting the beaches around Eastham. Only problem with Eastham is lack of some stuff I need, fleching gear and such. For this I go up the beach to Awric.
Cannot remember what I needed in Awric now but I was headed up the beach to a portal in a small fort. I had no problems getting there. A short distance away was a shadow child.
I got out my broad head arrows and set up to take it on. I need to do a run for some Frog heads soon. Hit for good damage and it ran up. It healed itself and I hit it some more. It drained me and was back to full health again. A few blasts and I was dead.
Darn, hate that. Of course my bow was on the body. Good thing was it was far enough away that I would not have to fight the shadow to get the bow back. Ran back, recovered the bow and set up again. This time I was going to do a shoot and scoot. Only problem was the shadow was a bit persistent.
I finally got enough damage to it that I felt I could stand. It was close but it fell. On the body I found one of the keys for the quest. Need to get some people together for that.
I headed over to the fort to take the portal to Awric. Just in front of the fort, at the edge of the grass, I went into lag and was nipped to death by a Shark.
It was a bit of a problem for two reasons. My bow and legging were on the body. Without my bow clearing a spawn site is hard. Without legging fighting Gimmies and Sharks are much harder. Of course I was as far from the spot as I could be. I buffed up my fire weapon and headed out.
I ran back to the fort, encountering a few things and clearing a bit if vit. One spot is thick with wasps. Without my bow I hate fighting wasps. I ran though it but got two Gimmies on me and almost died fighting them. No lower armor is not fun.
I got to the body but it was camped by two Water Golems, a Mud and three Sharks. I figured that I could slowly clear them one at a time. Ever time I engaged one others joined it. Finally got a Water alone and about killed it when it chain casted on me. Back to LS.
Now a while before my wife asked me to do something and I was only 1 minute to my destination. I was going to be in big trouble as I was over half and hour late. The run back was about the same as before, even fighting the two Gimnies.
I was hoping someone would have stopped by to clear some of the mess but typically no one did. Every time I started on one monster two more would join in. I got smart and ran as soon as this happened. Finally got one of the Sharks dead, then the other two.
Killing the golems was a bit harder. Attacking one meant being attacked by all the others. So I felt the best way was to attack one and run. After they were strung out a bit I could take on one. Using that I got two Waters and the Mud. Problem with doing this is it is slow. I was going to have to hurry or they would re-spawn.
I got it clear enough to make a run for the body. Got it open and looted my bow and leggings. Two Sharks and a Gimnie then ran me off. Got my legging on and buffed the bow up. But it was not needed as now that I had cleared most of it, 4 people show up and clear the rest. I recovered my last body. First body was gone. One of the four must have looted the bit of pyreal still on it. Good thing I got the leggings and bow before running. The guy standing next to my last body must have been disappointed when I ran up to loot it.
I finished up my shopping in Awic and killed a Bandlering to clear the last point of vit.
Hunting the Direlands
I have built up a bit of a cash reserve so I could hunt something other than Olthoi for Fist de Yuma and Tuskers for Fist de Mage.
Fist de Mage started out first. Buffing for everything is a pain but needed. It means seven protection spells and seven bane spell, plus armor. Found some drudges that fell quickly. Loot was poor so I decided to avoid them. I saw a Granite golem and sent a shock wave followed by a blunt voln. That did good damage.
I found out then that Golems acted the same way as on the beaches of Eastham. Now I was dealing with two Granites and two Copper golems. One more shock wave finished off the Granite. Next one fell quickly.
I healed up and recharged my mana with Stamina to Mana, Revit. Then a few acid blasts killed the Coppers. I really enjoy being a mage, other than the long buffing cycle. With the buffs I take little damage and toss powerful blasts. I have good War skill (250 buffed) but still using IV spells. I should be using V's but fear resists and mana management. I have learned VI spells but feel I will need close to 300 skill to make them useful.
I hunted a bit, not finding anything worth fighting. Close to the swamp I saw some Grievver. I had heard they are bad news for Mages. As my timer only had 1 minute on it I decided to toss a Blade spell at one and port out. To my surprise I did 60 points of damage. If I had know I would have stayed to fight it.
Next it was Fist de Yuma's turn. I had just got a lighting protection VI item so my main worry was fixed. Had to drop down on blunt protection from V to IV but most things are tossing lighting at me these days.
I hunted close to the shore, exploring an island near AB. Found a group of Lords and Knights. I find that taking them 1 at a time I have little problem. The bad thing is de-buffs and little loot.
Going south a bit I found a Skilly that was a bit different. I think it was a Greater. This one was not an easy fight. Took me over a minute. I had to heal three times, mostly because of it draining me. It had ok loot. Nothing I would want but showed potential. De-buffed to hell I ported back and sold off.
I hoped my better magic resistance would help me out but did not resist a single spell. Healing skill is over 250 but I still have to heal early if I want it to work. Guess it will never be easy.
So I now am hunting the Direland and hope to pick up better items. Ever since I stopped camping Nobles my loot pickups have been poor. This should help it and I'm looking forward to fighting my first Umbris Shadow.
Hunting with a vassal.
Sadly Jarad has sold his player. Good news is I think an alliance member got it and will save it for him. As he is one of the best players in the game I hope to see him back in a few months. Like The Saint he is in college now. That will take up a lot of time if he wants to do well.
Meanwhile his vassal Pantine was without an active patron. He has asked me earlier if I would take him. I was waiting until the sale went though before doing it. Pantine is now under Fist de Mage.
As Zane's fighter Jalan is not on much now I need a new fighter to team with. Pantine seemed made to order. I found him to be brave to a fault at times. After we both get to 45 the island will be our home. For this we need training. I let him lead out and he headed into the Direlands.
We did well and I was able to adjust my spell bar to better support him. Having my War and de-buffs on one bar and heal and rejuv on another was not working. We were hunting shadows but we were not having much luck finding them.
Going over a hill we ran into some grivers and other stuff. Pantine attacked and I shot him some heals. I was low on mana so I switched to my other bar for Stamina to mana and Rejuv. Then switched back and hit heal. The spell did not go off. The screen showed him with a lot of hit points but a griver one shot him for it before the heal spell went off.
They all attacked me so I did the smart thing and ported. That was when I thought I should have got the coordinates. Lucky that Pantine had actracker going. The body was about where I thought it was so we would have found it anyway. We had to clear it before he could get the body.
This time some of the wasps jumped in and he had to run. I started firing war spells to cleared it but to late to save Pantine. I messaged him that I would keep it clear until he got there. Very quickly he got back and recovered the two bodies.
My timer was going off so I started my buffing. I was about halfway done when I saw Pantine running over the hill with a pack of orange dots behind him. It seemed that in running over there a pack of shadows latched on to him. After I started buffing they caught up and he was running in circles waiting for me to get done. Teach me to focus on buffing and not look at what is going on.
The Umbris attacked me and the other shadows headed back to the spawn point. Well I was going to fight my first Umbris. Being in total surprise it took me a second to figure out how I was going to fight it. As I was being damaged my Tusker training took over.
Drain, drain, drain. I'm back to full health. Drain stamina S2M and I'm feeling good. Fire volu, fire blast. It starts healing itself and draining me so I go back to draining. Pantine is right by me swing like mad. In a surprisingly short time it fell. Loot sucked but I had killed my first Umbris.
I finished my buffing and now was full of confidence. I saw a group of shadows just at the edge of the radar screen. I toss a fire volu on the Umbris but it was out of range. We moved closer but it was too close. All three charged us.
I'm draining like mad but with three of them I was falling behind. A war blast by one and I was back at AB. Pantine was able to get away and was camping my body. So much for being unbeatable.
I started buffing back up and get a tell from someone. I did not know the name it was long with a Z. It turned out that this was an OG mage rolled up by an old friend. I'm bad at names but if you read the column it is the guy I almost broke with Elder to join.
He asked if I would like some help in getting my body back. I told him I was ok but welcomed him coming. He started buffing. I give him the coordinates and he told me he would catch up. I recovered my body and with Pantine and Z's help we killed the shadows.
At this point I was running out of comps. I already spend a C note to get a few tapers and did not want to pay the AB prices. Z said he would hunt with my vassal while I stocked up.
I did a quick run to Mayoi and stocked up. Find that I use different stuff hunting with someone rather than solo. Heal other tapers were different so I needed to have 200 green rather than 100. Some other stuff was increased as well. Glad I started with 60 strength. I'm still running with burden at 149 strength. I have a strength IV item that puts me in the upper 90's for burden.
I got back and found that Pantine agreed with my assessment of Z, a really great player. Timing was good as Z was running out of comps just as I got back. Man burn is such a pain. Please Turbine, triple the cost of comps if you want but lower burn rate so we can stay in the field.
Z left and we started hunting Shadows again. Only Pantine forgot that his buffs were out. Even with my shooting him heals he died quickly to three Shadows. They all turned on me and I knew better than to try and fight them.
After porting out I messaged Pantine and he sent me the coordinates. I rushed back but Pantine died again before I got there. As I got on site I saw a fighter fighting a Umbris. I rushed up and hit the Umbris with fire vuln and started hitting the fighter with heals. Low on mana I switched to my other bar and did a s2m. I was slow low I had to drink two potions to have enough mana to do it.
I got back to him and was shocked to see he was at 10% health. Heal, heal, heal and he was ok. That was very close. With the Umbris dead Pantine was able to recover his bodies. The fighter (Tareb) asked me if I was the same person as Fist de Yuma. I said yes and he said he had heard of me from his brother.
We talked a while and I glanced at the clock on my desk. Holly S* it is 2am. That is how you know you are having a great time. Time will pass without you having any idea.
Next up, I'm taking Pantine to the Nest. At 34lv he would not last there but I will park Mage outside. With level VI buffs and Fist de Yuma at his side he will do ok.
Hunting with vassal II
I planned on an early hunt with Pantine. Told him at 7pm I needed to do some errands and would be back in an hour. Well wife had other ideas and it was 2am before I got back on. Pantine was still on.
Plan was for Mage to be outside of the Nest and Fist de Yuma to escorting him. Pantine asked if he could bring a friend. As I was going to have problems keeping him alive I was happy to have more. The friend is a 40+ Axeman (named Liquid-?????) with Life magic. Very powerful later but for now a lack of healing is hurting him. In fact after seeing him I'm changing my plans for Fist de Yuma (FF). He was to get item at 9, mana conversion at 20 and healing at 40. I will not get healing at 20 and mana conversion at 40.
After buffing up we headed down. No problems at all with three good fighters. We got our line broke once but fast work by me and Pantine save Liquid. He was sure he was going to die.
What I did was watch for more than one attacker on Pantine. If there was I would switch and hit one until it switched to me. With 333 melee, +27% melee bonus from weapon, plus 200+al armor and a 300+ shield, I can fight a bunch. I don't even fear back attacks any more. With three people I did not have stamina worry.
For the first few trips we went until Mage's buffs ran out. Then they wanted to see the bottom. Obeying my instructions we did ok. It is easy to get overrun if you don't do draws. At the beginning of the last room we met up with two more fighters. I had a plan. I would rush to the corner and after all of then attacked me they would join in. Well only 2 chased me and the rest attacked them.
I was trapped in the corner. When I got free I saw portal bubbles. Both of them had ported out. I ported back to the start and logged Mage for rebuffs. Now they were getting the feel of the Nest and it was going smooth. We made it all the way to the bottom with little trouble. Then we ported back and did it again.
On the last trip Liquid was buffing and ported out. I knew he must have hit the wrong button. Pantine and I were both close to leveling so we fought to the bottom. He leveled halfway there and I level while fighting the last bug left.
Then we ported back to pick up Liquid and did it once more. Pantine is not sure he can live in the Nest without me but loved it. He did not spec melee so it is a bit low for now. Of course the Nest is a great place to build melee skills.
Stories
I'm lucky enough to have a place to put my stories. I started by posting to the MS newsgroup. Others are doing that now and I'm posting the best of them for your enjoyment.
Kliza's story
I have a tale of our adventure last night to the underground city and the dungeons below.
I went in by myself and well, didnt do too well, I died in the Crystal room.
So I knew two people who wanted to go through with me, Praxeus, Spike (Cant remember his whole name, sorry). Since I have been there before that made me the guide. A lot of good that was, I just found out last
night there was a LS "IN" the city, Ha Ive been running from Khayyaban every time I died, what a dope!
Anyway after we hit the LS we continued on our tour and headed down. We get to the first door and yes none of us can pick a lock. So we wait, and wait, and wait. Finally someone comes and we hear that beautiful "clicking" sound. We all rush in.
Now this is why I was the guide, so that I can help them wander around looking for the next portal. Those stupid green walls all look a like. We look for the wagon and listen for the flies. A quick jump
down and we were into the next portal. Great, more green walls, I placed a leather breast plate on the ground as a marker, man wouldnt you know it I must have passed that thing six or 7 times before I found
the right hall.
We get down to where the Jell-O Jigglers (Knaths) are hanging out and we dispatch them with great ease and head to the Nodules room. Nodules are everywhere, and oh theres my body from before. So while I gather my belongings Praxeus and Spike start gathering Nodules. I start picking Nodules up now, for the first time. Now while I am stuffing my pockets, the Jell-O Jigglers come back in full force. With my arms
full I guess I wasnt able to lift my shield, because a fiery streak heads right for my head and bang! Im back doing the LS dance, but at least Im IN the city.
So I work my way back down to the locked door again and I wait, and wait, and wait.
Meanwhile another spawn of Jigglers show up downstairs and I hear Praxeus yell "OMG". I thought he died, no it was much worse. he hit the wrong hot key and portal himself back out, hahaha. I bet he had
the reddest face, you just couldnt see it with that dumb drudge mask on.
So he ends up meeting me and about 15-20 other people waiting for the one lockpicker within Derth to open the door. He opens up the door and there was much rejoicing. We make our way back down to Spike who spent the time collecting Nodules and loot from the Jigglers. I collect my corpse, again, and we all portaled out.
Spike had collected so many Nodules that on his way to Teth he just dropped them randomly behind him, he then had many new friends.
I spent the rest of the night getting rid of my vitae.
And Praxeus. hes still reorganizing his hot keys.
Kliza - Level 19 - Sword Melee - Morningthaw
Nasier/Wen Tzu Story
Wednesday night, the search for a mask turned into quite an interesting adventure. I wanted a skull mask and Wen Tzu and Barra went in search of the raw materials.
I remembered the skeleton tower outside Samsur, I opened a portal to the Abandoned Mine and we were on our way. We emerged in Samsur and headed out to the tower knowing that the tower and the area surrounding it were rich with skeletons. As we arrived, we found someone else had the same idea.
As we mopped up the meager remains of the areas inhabitants, the wife noticed a small crypt entrance in the distance. "Hmmm, I wonder what that is." "Entrance to the Desert Mine." "Whats in it?" "Skeletons I hear. I have never been inside."
So we run over and kill the skeletons outside and make entrance. We begin to explore the passages counter clockwise from the right. The right passage and the middle passage are both littered with skeletons and at the end of each we find a captain guarding a modest treasure. We take the left passage and at the end find a beginning.
A shaft, falling down into blackness with a warning sign not to go any further. I tell Barra "Ok, wait up here. I will jump down."
I draw my bow and jump down............. and find myself nose to nose with three liches.
This would be no big problem except for two things. One, I just took a solid hit on landing. Two, with my bow drawn, healing will take a few moments. I told my wife to stay put. She is yelling at me to portal
out. Nah, I think Ill be ok. Then all three liches cast as one. Down to 19 health, this is looking grim. I drop the bow and drink a healing potion just as another spell hits me. That was close, quaff another
potion and start using bandages. Eventually, I am able to heal faster than they can cast. I nock another greater frogcrotch arrow and let it fly, and another. One Lich down. The remaining two blast me. Ok, back
to healing. Finally, I get ahead of them again. Nock an arrow and release, I repeat this motion until both Liches lie dead. I bind my wounds and search the bodies, keeping a wary eye on the skeleton warriors and captain behind the grate ahead. Nothing remarkable on the Liches, I search the two chests. One has some gems and a wand, the other is locked. Could it be? Looking at the lock, I see this is indeed
a chest that can be opened with one of the sturdy iron keys. I note the location for future reference.
I decide to press on and see the rest of the dungeon. I tell Barra that I dont see an exit, I may have to meet her back in town. I kill the skeleton warriors and their captain, taking some minor injuries due to
the massed bow fire. I explore further and find the lower levels to be rather large. I explore each corridor to the end, finding minor resistance. I come back up to the first room after the liches to explore the last corridor.
I wander down the passages, seeing the bones of many a fallen warrior on small shrines. I come into an open area and am greeted by a mass of skeleton warriors and three captains. I am thinking that after the
Liches, this is a bit anti-climactic. Suddenly one of the captains throws his arms wide and summons a whirling blade out of nothingness! This was no captain but a skeleton lord!
*OHSHIT*
Ok, deep breath. You have felled Bone Lords, you are okay if you dont panic. The Lords lesser brethren continue to attack with a flurry of blows but I focus my mind on the Issha, the one shot to save my life. The greater blunt arrow catches the Lord in the face, he wavers but does not fall. I nock another arrow and release it. It arcs over the lords shield and shatters him. I stop for a moment to bind my wounds before dispatching the lesser skeletons. I find the lord guarded a pair of chests with treasure. Not a great reward for my daring but it is enough to buy arrows. I explore the area and find a ramp up. It leads to the other side of a locked door we had found earlier. I open it just as Barra rounds the corner.
"Hey you. Want to see the bottom?"
"The only thing I want to see the bottom of is a beer stein. Here is your damn skull, by the way."
Nasier/Wen Tzu
Leafcull
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