Correction
Last week I had an error and a misinformation. Animal is on FF not LC. The account seemed to be hit by a hacker who used some simple techniques to find the password. It is recommended that everyone use hard to find passwords. Don't use the same password between accounts. Don't use real words for a password and in your question to recover passwords ask one that no one but you knows the answer to.
Got to laugh
One of my new vassals was ready to hilt his first sword. He had no idea how to get to the place where he could do it. He had the gem but that was about it. I logged his Patron Fist de Yuma Jr to take him.
We ran to the Mountain Shortcut near Awric and then to the portal to Bandit castle. There was fog in the mountains so I missed the pass but I found the Island portal after a little backtracking.
We got over two bridges without mishap and were running along the beach of the third island. A Wisp drained me a few times and I said, "I hate Wisps." The said, "I hates all Wisps", just as the Wisp killed him.
I got his stuff and ported back to Lin. This time I had Mage buff us both for run and protection. With them it was a lot faster and safer. Took us about 15 minutes to get to the town. He went to turn in his gem and I got, "Oo Nooo". He had left the gem on a mule.
Is the battle against thieves and grief players worth it?
I would say yes. Shorty Portman has not logged in months. Many of the key grief players on our server are gone. Most professional thieves now use mules as the word gets spread fast.
Many thieves are leaving our server or quitting all together. No one will trade with them or give them the time of day. They are without alliances, other than the xp whores or know thief alliances.
Many find that getting a buff is impossible. "I don't buff thieves", can be heard throughout the land. Many people have gotten back their items as thieves try to reform their reputation.
So, yes, it is worth the time and effort to combat thieves and grief players.
What will fix Melee
There is little doubt that melee at high levels is in trouble. The best fighters with maxed skills are useless without magic. Item is of course mandatory for a fighter but it is getting so you need Life as well.
Fist de Yuma has a raw item of around 240. For someone that started with 30/10 focus/self that is outstanding. His mana conversion is a raw 202. With buffs I'm just at where I can toss VII spells. Even with level VII buffs on my weapon and level VI protects, any battle worth fighting is a long drawn out affair.
This problem is mainly because of one spell, drain. Before I go further I want to say that this is not a call to take drain away from mages. Mages need drain, no if ands or buts about it. If they removed drain most mages would quit the game, me included.
That said melee's need some way to protect from that spell. An average melee fighting a draining monster has no chance to kill until the monster runs out of mana. Fortunately most monsters who drain do run out of mana after a time. Meanwhile the melee is sucking down stamina potions and healing. A failed heal might mean running or death.
A melee battle with any good monsters takes time. You can take half their hit points and two drains later your hurting and their healthy. A melee cannot let his health fall to far, especially if fighting more than one. If he does a war spell will cut them down.
Even with all level VI protection drain can bring you to the point where a war can finish you. I have had a lot of deaths from several monsters draining at once and a war getting you right after they do. There is no protection to this. Also several drains will but you below the healing point. After that it is potions and prayer.
Many, especially mages, say that magic defense is the answer. Fist de Yuma has put 16 million points into magic defense. This gives him a base of 181. With luck I will sometimes resist a spell, not often. Even monsters with weak skills seem to have no trouble when it comes to drain. Fighters start with low self and focus. Trying to raise magic defense to the point where it is useful is very costly and maybe imposable.
Simple logic will tell you that magic defense will never he useful for a melee. If the magic ability of monsters was lowered to the point a melee could resist them, the monsters would be unable to damage a mage at all. As mages are already the strongest class this will not happen.
If logic does not move you maybe math will. To toss a level VI spell with a good shot to not fizzle you need 280+ skill. How many melee's do you know that have that kind of Magic D? My mage with level VII buffs is below that.
So the answer is not magic defense. So what can fix this problem? Like most things the subjection may be too hard to do. Also I'm sure that Turbine is not waiting for me to fix their problem, even if they thought it was a problem. Nevertheless I'll give it a shot.
We need a spell that reduces the monsters ability to drain. It should only work on a melee so the best place to put it is on the shield. It should be an item spell but only work with shields. Making it a quest item or something added to the treasure system would not work as well. The reason for that is people have great shields, such as a diamond shield, and giving them up would be unfair.
This may not be doable but I hope it is. I know they can reduce the damage from drains as there are several monsters who are not drainable. It is done as part of their general setup so a spell may not be possible. If it is Turbine should do it, and soon.
Everyone I know who has a high level fighter is making a BM or OG. With half the xp of Fist, Mage can kill faster than Fist ever could or ever will. That will not change but at least I could go into battle knowing I won't be healing the monster every time it tosses a level I drain spell at me.
Life scrolls
I have a lot of scrolls. Most are for creature scrolls for Jr and Fist when they get creature. Fist is 90 now and gets Creature at 100. Jr is 50 and gets Creature at 80. In any case it will be a while. Meanwhile I have no room on the mules.
I felt I could get Jr his life spells. I cannot use them but it would clear up some room on the mules. I read that that the best way to get to the spot was from the South Dire portal. This may be true but if so I sure took the wrong way.
Jr was going to use the South Dire portal but at the time he was 49 and could not go into the Bore Portal. So I headed over to the Drunk to get to walled portals.
I see a lot of people on the wall so I was sure I could jump over. Well with a fairly good jump skill I did not come close. I have a few hundred thousand points free so I dumped them into jump, no go. I got a level VI jump buff from a mage there and that got me close. After a lot of attempts I finally made it over the wall. This was with a 360 jump skill!
The run from there was quick and easy. A straight shot south for a few clicks. A lot of your typical nasty stuff chasing me but Jr is tossing VI Life buffs now so I was in no real danger. Once there I cleared a few things on the north side and advanced inside the pillars.
To the south was some Tuskers and I was hoping I was outside of their range. As soon as I stepped up they charged. I could take Tuskers with little problem but two Bandies joined in and that was more than I could handle.
I took off running only to attract a horde of other stuff, including an Umbris. I shook free, killed one Bandy and had to rebuff.
Moving back I saw that something thing I killed had been replaced with a Destroyer. I had buffed a slashing weapon so I charged in to battle. After a long fight it fell. Just as killed it a Bane spawns in its place.
I battled the Bane to a standstill but no better. The Bane retreated and I healed up and got ready to reengage. Before I could take a step another Bane spawns next to the first.
Now I'm pissed. The scroll place is in the center of three bad spawns, Tuskers, Bandies and Banes. No way I was going to get my scrolls turned in this way. I decided to log Mage to take them out.
In hindsight Fist would been a better choice. Mainly because he could jump the walled portals and Mage cannot.
Rat in a maze
I logged mage and, after buffing, ported to the Island, took the North Dires portal and then the South Dires portal. I headed into the hills thinking I had a simple and short run, how wrong I was.
The hills between where I was and where I was going are a maze of canyons, mountains, passes, dead ends, and cycles. I would get in a pass going Northwest, only to have it curve around and have me going South. Ridgelines would dead end in steep drops that I did not dare try to jump. I backtracked to many times to count.
Slowly I made progress. I'm kind of wish I had ACExplorer going so I could see my route. It was twisted to say the least. Finally I came out of the hills, very close to my goal. Made the Life scroll place only to be pissed again.
The spawns had changed and a mule could have cashed in scrolls there. I logged Jr and he got the scrolls turned in. Not all he needs but it did free up space on the mules.
NewsGroup Tales
A couple of weeks ago, Quip, Gunthar the Punisher, and I went to the Incunabula Vault to get our Major Stinging Stones. When Turbine announced that they were nerfing the perches, I thought it was a good excuse to whip through there while we still had macro lamers to thin the ranks for us. I hunted Olthoi voraciously from levels 40 to 50 at the OHN. The novelty of killing bugs had worn off and taking advantage of the macroers seemed like a good idea.
The quest went surprisingly well. I had the only fatality (which isnt unusual) when I failed to notice my Armor Self V shirt had run out of juice. Other than that, the quest was uneventful. Gunthar lagged out and accidentally hit the exit portal before grabbing his stone, but he doesnt wear his GSA or use his Peerless Atlan sword at all. We tried to make a second trip down, but it got to be late in the evening and Gunthar still doesnt have his stone.
Once we completed that little adventure, I had but one stone left to obtain to complete my set of Major Atlan stones, the Major Sparking Stone. I wear my GS Celdon armor as my main suit, and I was very interested in getting the Major Sparking Stone for hunting on Aerlinthe. It would be the ideal infusion for taking on mixed spawns of Maulers, Manglers, and Altereds by providing Above Average protection against Cold and Fire attacks and Unparalelled protection against lightning attacks. I also thought infusing my Peerless Claw with lightning would be nice for those pesky Lugians that are breeding like rats out in the Dires.
I mentioned to Quip last week that Id been playing my secondary characters a lot more lately because I had targets and quests for them to achieve but not for Ben-Li Sung. "Lets get your Lightning Stone," Quip replied. After checking our schedules, Thursday evening sounded good for everybody.
I started out the evening by logging on with Min the Merchant, my 27th level Alchemist/Cook/Fletcher who also enjoys shredding scores of Lithos Lugians with his BDIV katar. I really enjoy having a trade character that can kick the stuffing out of creatures and earn his own experience. Hes a vassal of Gunthar so we all get bonus xp when I hunt with Min. Anyway, I put Min to work whipping up a large batch of Hearty Healing Carols Carrot Cheese Soup and a sizable amount of Hearty Mana Fish Noodles.
When Gunthar logged on, we dished up the food and split it amongst the three of us. Gunthar helped retrieve Ben-Lis BDVI Acid Broadsword from my mule and off we went.
I discovered what Id hoped was a nice little shortcut to the Amperehelion Vault via Aerlinthe. We went to Baishi and then hit the Drunken Madmans tower. It took us a while to get there because I wasnt paying attention to where I was running and we had to backtrack across the mountains. Gunthar, always the respectful vassal, comments, "Do you have any idea where in the hell youre going, Magellan?" With his encouragement, I managed to get us back to the madmans tower.
Having paid the price of a cup of saki, we jumped the wall outside the Accursed Halls and ran north to the C Note Emissarys castle. Gunthar and I had made this trip a few times previously, but Quip had only been to Aerlinthe via the D Note Emissary in the South Dires. I have no idea why he had a problem, but it was histerically funny to see a 46th level 4-school mage who couldnt jump over the edge of the wall at the Accursed Halls. It took Quip quite a while, but he finally managed to make it over the lip of the catwalk he was on and join us for the run to the Emissarys Castle.
Since I have the highest jump skill of the three of us (and Im the most used to dying all of the time), I volunteered to jump the wall and open the gate for Quip and Gunthar. I jumped the wall and ran into a hallway that usually provides some protection. I must have been Imperiled and Bludgeon Vulned because a Diamond Golem smacked me through a wall and one-shot me. Oh well, thats the quick way to clear the debuffs I guess. I sprint back from the lifestone near the merchants tent and hop right back over the wall. A couple of Obsidian Golems follow me into the hallway where my body is and I have to drop them before I can grab my master robes.
After recovering my stuff, I "/f" Quip and Gunthar and ask them if theyre ready for me to open the gate. I run out, open the gates to the emissary castle, and run back into my hallway. A Diamond Golem runs right into the hallway with me and I think Im going to be hemmed in. Luck is with me, I manage to slip around him and head back out into the courtyard. We didnt even have to burn the C Note, some other players came in when I opened the gate and paid the emissary the C Note for the portal.
We arrive on Aerlinthe and Quip mentions that he needs to rebuff. Rather than stand on the landing zone at Aerlinthe, I suggest we move on to my "shortcut." We take the exit portal on the Aerlinthe landing zone to the North Dires and then hop into the Obsidian Rim portal thats right there after the first jump. Checking for spawns, we see that the coast is clear and we all lifestone while Gunthar and Quip proceed to rebuff.
From the Obsidian Rim lifestone to the Amperehelion Vault is only about an eight click run to the Southwest. We take off heading SW and fortune smiles on us with very friendly spawns. We ran into some Dire Ursuin, a couple of Extas Lugians, and a Malus Shreth. They all proved useful for clearing up my Vitae Penalty from the mishap at the Emissarys Castle.
The terrain out there is very much like near Weijhou. We went up and down several hills working our way toward the very edge of the Obsidian Plain. Unfortunately for Gunthar, there is a valley out that direction that has no usable entrance or exit. I remember seeing it mentioned on AC Explorer, but I didnt think wed come across it during our run. I got to the edge and decided that wed better find a way around that valley below. The walls on the other side looked just as steep and impassible as the ones we couldnt climb down. I backtracked to the East a ways and found a way down while Quip ran beside me.
I stopped where we needed to jump down and waited for Gunthar to show up. "Umm... he jumped down back there," Quip informed me. Quip and I worked our way around hoping to meet Gunthar while he confirmed that there was, in fact, no way out of the valley he jumped into. We were only a half a click away from each other, and Gunthar had to recall back to the Obsidian Rim lifestone to get out of the sinkhole he jumped into. I informed Gunthar of our coordinates and Quip and I looked about as we waited for Gunthars return.
The area was quite beautiful and surprisingly free of creatures and spawns considering where we were. "Oh crap," Gunthar messaged us, "I fell into the damned thing again!" I suggested that Quip might want to lifestone recall and run back with Gunthar so he couldnt go for the hat trick. Quip recalled and then asked Gunthar where he was. Gunthar had already ran half way to meet us so Quip ended up running back alone. I told Gunthar his bad luck was fates way of paying him back for his Magellan crack at me back in Baishi. Quip arrived shortly after Gunthar and we proceeded SW along the swampy waterway that borders the Obsidian Plain.
As we advanced toward the Amperehelion Vault, the creature spawns became more frequent. We ran into Tusker Guards and Virindi Servants. We ran across pairs of Obsidian Golems and the occasional Diamond Golem. We ran into a fair number of Gold Wasps. We carved up our foes as we plowed ahead toward the vault. I must say its nice having a solid mage fighting along side of you when having to dispatch Diamond Golems. Soloing a Diamond Golem is not high on my list of things to do. As we neared the vault, the spawns got fairly thick and we ran into greater concentrations of Shadows and Golems.
Finally, the vault was in sight. The entrance portal is marked by an ancient windmill. We were hesitant to go right in, because there were a pair of Dual Fragments within sight of us. As we worked our way toward them with visions of small shards dancing in our heads, we noted a very large amount of Umbris and Panumbris shadows milling about. All at once, a lone Virindi cast a War spell at Gunthar or Quip. Unsheathing my Bandit Yaoji, I vowed to rebuke this Virindi upstart for its insolence. When I targeted it and clicked attack, I noticed then that it was an Executor.
To my credit, my sword skill is high enough that I actually hit the Executor... for two points per strike. As the Executor prepared to cast another war spell at me at point blank range, I decided that whatever was in the vault was preferable to the Executor from which I was now standing across. I made a beeline for the Amperehelion Vault entrance portal, all the while the "hummmm" of the Virindi Executor right on my tail. Into the entrance I ran. To my thanks, Gunthar and Quip both followed quickly behind me.
Now standing inside the Amperehelion Vault, Gunthar announces that 1AM is a little late to be entering the Vault. We all have to be to work bright and early, after all. Quip is 2 hours behind us, being a California native, while Gunthar and I live in Nebraska. Conceding that sleep sounded better than recovering bodies at 3:30AM, we decided to log and continue our quest for the Major Sparking Stone another
time.
Part II
Last Thursday, my journey to the Amperehelion Vault with Quip and Gunthar the Punisher took longer than expected. Quip, Gunthar, and I logged out at the vaults entrance and scheduled a time to log back in and finish the quest. Sunday evening was that time.
Ben-Li Sung has a long-standing tradition of annoying Gunthar the Punisher to no end by picking really silly fellowship names. As you may deduce from Gunthars name, he is a Kill-Them-All-And-Let-God-Sort-Them-Out kind of guy. Last Thursday, Gunthar created the fellowship and recruited Quip before I got the chance. We ended up running out to the Amperehelion Vault as the "Deathmarch" fellowship. Ooh, very ominous sounding.
As soon as I logged in with Ben-Li Sung Sunday evening, I wasted no time. I immediately created our fellowship and recruited Gunthar the Punisher. "Nice name, ass!" was his immediate response. I then recruited Quip, who groaned immediately upon seeing our fellowship name, and we were ready to continue our quest for the Major Sparking Stone. It was going to be a fearsome evening for the Amperehelion Vaults guardians as they faced the wrath of the Bananarama Boys fellowship!
Gunthar was a pretty good sport about it. I asked for a Heart Seeker VI on my BDVI acid sword. He buffed my blade and I told him, "Thanks a lot, man. You are my Venus!" When Quip chimed in with, "Whats your desire?" Gunthar did not immediately log off. He did threaten it, however. As we headed into the vault, I typed:
/e hums Cruel, Cruel Summer...
Gunthar really endures a lot when hunting with me. I just get a kick out of his reaction when the text box flares up with, "Gunthar the Punisher has been recruited into the Steel Magnolias Fellowship." I was pretty proud of that one, too. Hey, we may get in over our heads and end up kissing the lifestone more often than not, but we ALWAYS have fun!
If the above anecdotes seem a little bit like filler, its because they are. What happens when 46th level 4-school mage teams up with two 54th level swordsmen with acid blades to do the Amperehelion Vault? They totally blow it up, apparently.
There are only four types of creatures in the entire Amperehelion Vault: Ash Gromnies, Statics, Scintillas, and Astyrrians. The Ash Gromnies we were 2-hitting, the Statics (4th level lightning elementals) we were one-hitting. Apparently the Statics exist simply to interfere with auto-targetting to make getting at the Scintillas and Astyrrians a little harder. It didnt seem to help them though.
The Scintillas were all over the place. Theyre the 48th level lightning elementals that cast Lightning Vulnerability and throw Lightning Bolt spells as well as using a lightning melee attack. If Quip didnt bother to cast Acid Vulnerability V or VI, it took 5 or 6 swings to bring one of these down. Theyre not particularly strong casters because we resisted most all of their spells. If Quip cast Acid Vulnerability, the Scintillas died in two swings.
The Astyrrians are a little more difficult to tackle. Had we faced 3 or 4 of those in the same room, it would have been interesting. There were only 3 or 4 in the entire Vault that we ran into, however. I normally carry the "Wi" flag for our group, however Gunthar seemed to want to take that responsibility Sunday evening. He complained about getting his health drained a few times and the Astyrrians could land their spells on us. With one or two per room, however, it was still no contest. Quip would Acid Vuln and blast while Gunthar and I "swung for the fences" with our acid blades.
We were hitting Astyrrians for 20-25 points per hit before the vuln and 45 to 65 after the vuln. I dont remember missing an Astyrrian with a sword swing, but they fell so quickly its hard to be sure. Gunthar and I are both around 310 to 315 with our sword skill and we had HSVI on both of our acid blades. Quip never commented on their magic resistance, but I dont recall hearing him miss an Acid Vulnerability either. He probably got frustrated because he shot a number of acid bolts over the floor of where the Astyrrians had been standing before Gunthar and I killed them.
The vault itself is interesting from a design standpoint. There is a short hallway that leads from the entrance to a jump that represents the point-of-no-return. You have to jump down to enter the Vault and you cant jump back up to get to the exit. There is an exit portal right by the entrance if you happen to pop into the Amperehelion Vault to seek shelter or rebuff while hunting outside. There are some nice electrical effects used in some of the rooms to dress the place up, otherwise its mostly wood and stone textures.
There are several square chambers that are interconnected with multiple hallways. You generally just travel downward, enter the square chamber, and whack the Statics and Scintillas. Rinse and repeat. As you get lower, a couple of Astyrrians pop up now and then. You whack them and keep going downward. The bottom level has a maze-like quality with a number of criss-crossing hallways and switchbacks. We just kind of kept wandering around until we found a hallway with a bridge that led us to the final pit.
At the top of the pit was one last Astyrrian, which was quickly dispatched. We jumped down and had to fight 3 or 4 Ash Gromnies. There sat the Major Sparking Stone on the floor with some other miscellaneous gems. I landed on a ledge and then some boxes. I told Quip and Gunthar that I wished I had at least taken some falling damage so I felt like Id earned the stone. The most danger I had been in was during a fight in one of the lower square chambers with two Astyrrians, three or four Scintillas, and a number of Statics. We had carved through their ranks and I had been chopped down from 180 to 123 hit points.
After the adventurous run wed had to get there, the Amperehelion Vault was anticlimactic. Quip, Gunthar, and I always have a good time when the three of us hunt together, and it was nice to get my final Major Stone. Still, we had been very well prepared for this hunt and wed blown through the entire vault in about twenty minutes. This particular vault should be moved to somewhere more accessible or the dungeon should be rebalanced to provide more of a challenge. A few Altered Drudges here and there would have spiced things up while keeping with the lightning theme.
At the bottom of the pit where we picked up the stone is a hallway which presumably leads to the exit portal. We never went down it. Quip summoned Small Black Hill and I took a screen shot of the three of us side by side with my GSC imbued with lightning essence.
Because we finished so quickly, we thought it might be fun to go back to the Incunabula Vault and get Gunthar the Stinging Stone that hed missed out on. We were half of the way down the vault and Gunthar had to log off for the night. He still doesnt have his Stinging Stone. Hopefully well get a chance to get Gunthar his Stinging and Shivering Stones soon and Ill have something else to write about.
Until then, Ill just keep thinking up really wussy names for our fellowships.
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Ben-Li Sung, Blademaster
Quips Personal Blocking Dummy
Morningthaw
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