Fist de Yuma - October 5, 2004

Helping Others Our allegiance focuses on two things; having fun and helping others. Many times one will conflict with the other, but mostly they go hand in hand. You may be going out of your way to help someone, but it might very well lead to an adventure you would have missed otherwise. I'm not talking about just the known fun stuff. Body recovery is important, and almost always fun, but there are other ways to help people. Keeping an ear open to the needs of others is important if you want to be a helper. This means you must be pro-active. Look for ways to help others. Last week I did pincers with seven of my players. My other three players are slightly off cycle. That is ok, because even seven is too many. While turning them in, I met a nice guy named Iash. While talking, I learned that he needed help doing the Mut Pincer. Iash is a 93lv mage, and even Fist de Mage, at 166 level, has trouble doing that one. In fact, I camp Fist there to help Fist de Mage and Fist's Armorer get by the last room. I told him to meet me at the Plateau. I quickly loaded up Fist, buffed, and ran to the meeting point. His friend, Arcshamen, an 83lv Crossbowman, also joined us. The first thing I showed them was the Warrior Pincer. That did not take us very long. Then I showed them my run to the Mut dungeon. I cannot say I did a great job in leading them to the dungeon, as we overran it, and had to backtrack. I showed them the two parts where a mage and/or archer can get into trouble. This is the very start and the pincer room. The start is about as hard as the main room, but you can draw a few at a time if you're smart. This may not have been Turbines intent, but it looks like a brilliant placement of Olthoi. Play smart, and it is easy; get careless, and you'll leave a body. My intent was to have them kill as much as possible, and only keep Fist as a safety net. When we hit the main room, I got a polite hint that they would rather me be active for that battle. (g) The three of us quickly cleared it. As they knew where the next pincers were, there was no need for me to go with them. As it turns out, they are fans of the column. It is always nice to meet my readers, and even more fun when we can adventure together for a bit. Coral adventures I found that I had collected a lot of steel keys, and had no rings to put them on. A quick trip to Maggies showed I needed Coral Golem hearts to make the key rings. I figured I would take a quick jog over to Aerlinthe, and kill a few Corals with Fist de Mage. When I hit the island, I saw something new. There was a jetty going out over the bay. It had been some time since I had gone to Aerlinthe. I knew there were updates, but I have no idea what changes are in place. I tend to look at Internet helper sites sparingly. It is more fun to discover the new things on my own. As I buffed, I noted someone running from the main pillars. I also saw his health drop. He was a bit far away, so I did not see what he was fighting. I paused the buff and tossed him a heal. I guess I was not all that fast, as he had mostly healed himself before I got to him. I headed to the pillars, and quickly killed all the Coral Golems, along with assorted other monsters. I had not found a heart. I recalled back to the start for another run. As I left the hill, I got a glimpse of a portal at the end of the jetty. The name of the dungeon seemed ideal for what I was trying to do, "Coral Tunnels". I was thinking this was a mistake as I entered the dungeon. All I saw were undead. I saw a door, so I killed a few undead to clear the way and entered the passage. That led to a ramp. I got to the top and saw it wrapped around and led back to the room I just left. At the top there was a ledge with a few more undead and a switch. I killed the undead, and hit the switch. In the main room, there is a room or small house. It looks something like the house in Martine's dungeon. Inside that room was another door. The room has window openings, so I could see the open door when I entered the main room. I rushed through, and got into another passage, just as the door closed. A handful of undead chased me, but most of them were trapped when the door closed. I was able to collect three triangles in all that, but I did not have any keys. I followed the passage until I found a pit. There were a few Coral Golems inside of it. I jumped in and cleared it. I saw a passage leading out of the pit. I followed that to a down ramp that circled around to another ramp leading down. There were a lot of Coral Golems along the way, but they are no danger to Mage. Mage was clearly overpowered for this dungeon. Nothing could land spells on him. The melee hits were mostly for 1's and 2's. At most I had to heal from time to time. The Coral Golems fell with two spells, and everything else died with one spell. I finally got to a passage that was different. This had a lava look, and sure enough, I ran into Lava Golems. I also ran into Obsidian Golems. A few Obsidian Golems were nice enough to drop hearts for me. That solved the triangles problem. At the bottom of the lava part was a maze. I found a ramp leading up to a lot more Coral Golems. There I started to get lucky, and collected three Coral Golem hearts. I explored it a lot, but feel I missed something. I understand there are dungeons with no reason for being, except to level or provide a place to hunt, but those are fortunately rare. So, I'm sure there is more to this place than just a few mazes filled with Golems. I did not see anything at Maggies as to what this dungeon is about, but I did not search very hard. I'll keep my ear open, and talk to some people. This could be a dungeon that is just there, or there may be a real quest here. Meanwhile, I have my key rings. Letters hey Fist, I have read your column and taken some nice tips from your writing. In particular, using another toon to push XP to a mule, especially one that is set up for salvaging. I have taken on a similar project and I am please with the results thus far. Thanks for the tip! I have been playing AC for a year and some change, and I have a few characters in their 40's, and one in his 50's. I play a lot, and I often hunt solo, since I am one of the lowest level players in my monarchy. I am cool with that, and most of the time I prefer it. I saw that two people disagreed with your assessment of "XP hogs" and I thought I would share one newbie's view of XP hogging, especially since I am that jerk that never joins the fellowship. I agree with you that there are some folks who take powerlevelling to the extreme and act like you are committing some sort of crime by not doing it yourself, or by not helping them to max their toons out. For some, the attitude is that, if you aren't helping them, you are somehow hurting them. I hunt a lot, and try to level a lot, but I don't do the things that other low level players do, like use buff bots or expect to be twinked by a patron, or anybody else. This is my choice, and it doesn't hurt anyone. In fact, I would think that my patron would love having a vassal like me since I am pretty much self-sufficient. The behavior of folks in the fellowships I have been in has left me with disdain for fellows in general. I have turned off accepting fellowships because I don't like feeling that I am dragging down the group thanks to my lack of high level buffs, or just because I don't want to follow 5 other dudes around the bottom floor of the olthoi arcade trying to kill the dozen or so otlhoi servants that live there. Instead, I would rather take on the hundreds of drones on the floor above, even though they are worth 1000 less XP apiece. they're worth 25% less XP, but there are like 5 times as many bugs, so it works out better for me. I don't measure my XP take by the hour, I just hunt where I can and get what I can get. So while I have yet to hunt places where the supply of monsters is limited, and the presence of white players is frowned upon, I find hunting to be less infuriating without fellowing. I would imagine that if I was to get into a place with one running fellowship, where I was inhibiting the precious flow of XP, I would just hunt someplace else to save myself from the whining and crying. Anyway, I thought you might want to hear from one of the jerks who never joins the fellowship :-) ~Chris http://acnewb.blogspot.com Thanks for the letter Chris. Each person is an individual, with individual needs and wants. While most of the time it is better for someone to join a fellow, there are a lot of exceptions to that rule. You clearly fall into that category. I would never refer to you as a jerk, but I'm getting that you are just joking there. (g) If more players played like you, a lot of the problems AC has would be eliminated. People that play games are mostly those who want to win. Whereas, there is no winners of losers in AC, many perceive leveling as winning. They lose focus on the fun things, and stop seeing what a great game this is. I do a lot of leveling, and playing. This is because I enjoy both, and get a kick out of setting and achieving goals. Those of us who are long time AC players have learned to balance the leveling and playing. I'm not sure if many of us could go the hard-core route you are going, so I admire you for that. The one thing we have going for us, as long time AC players, is the knowledge that the real jerks will move on, and start spoiling some other game with their antics. Non-AC stuff The fix to the tire on the mountain bike seems to be holding up. Still, I'm going to get another tube and carry it with me. I have had some long walks out of the desert before, and they are never fun. I'm taking the route toward the Fortuna Mine this month, and turning around about halfway there. The full trip is 21 miles, through some of the hardest terrain you can imagine. The parts I'm riding now are somewhat tame, but challenging nevertheless. When I started making that ride, I would hit the dirt (sand?) about a mile from home. Now it is over three miles. After hitting the trail, I am riding four miles in before I turn around. The total trip is 14 miles, and takes me about an hour and a half. I'm fairly tired when done. Until I get into better shape, and start shedding pounds, this will remain a very hard ride. My two goals are; to get less than 200 pounds, and ride to the Fortuna Mine, by my 55th birthday, March 15. I'll likely make the ride to the mine well before March, but I'm doubtful about losing the weight. When I started riding, I weighted 225 pounds. I'm currently at 220 pounds. The last time I started riding, I lost weight easily. This time I'm not seeing the weight loss, but I am losing inches. That may mean I'm replacing fat with muscle, but I would rather see the weight go off period. After I make the Fortuna Mine ride, I have a ride that I have tried two times, and failed in both. This is a passage through the mountains. I found on a map, and it is not used much. After a rain, it is hard to even find the trail. To make this run, I'll need help. Riding it alone is not smart. I did that once, and got myself into a touch of danger. I might write that up someday, but it is too long a story for here. This time I hope to have one or two people with me, either on bikes or ATC's, and a truck waiting on the other side to pick us up. The key to this is improved communications. Between the new com devices, and cell phones, keeping in touch with several different groups is possible today. The first two times, I had no way to communicate, which lead to failure, and a small threat. If I don't lose the weight, this trip will be very hard. Each extra pound that I have to drag up the climbs are going to take energy I have a hard time sparing. Of course, one answer is to eat less, but I have a hard time doing that. (g) - Fist de Yuma