Piles of bodies
I was in Lin after a hunt, selling and restocking, when I got a tell. An Elder member asked for my help. Seems him and a few others left a pile of bodies outside of AB. I quickly finished off my stocking and left muling for later.
One of them had a tie. I had to buff him as they were all at 10 to 15% vit from their adventure. It seems they ported into a mess and were all wiped out. They ported back to recover and were wiped out again. The guy with the portal had tied to the inside so they ported into a trap.
After buffing up I entered the portal. I could see why they had trouble. I was attacked by six Bandies as soon as I came out of portal. Maulers and Manglers I don't mind fighting but the other ones tend to be drain happy. For some reason their Life skills are far higher than their Creature skills. I can resist a lot of the creature de-buffs but drains are another matter.
It was not an easy fight. It takes a lighting Vuln, two drains and a lighting blast to take one down. With all six pounding on me there was some danger. Fortunately they did not drain or use much war. If they did it might have ended different.
As the last one dropped I messaged them to come get the bodies. Seconds later four more Bandies spawn. This one was harder. You would think fighting four would be better than six but this time they got drain happy. I was at a full 236 hit points, I was at 56 hit points. I was a bit surprised as I did not see a single war spell. Actually I was lucky that one did not toss a war as I was within range of death for one.
After the battle I scrolled up to see what the problem was. All four drained me at the same time.
One dropped from a lighting bolt and a few drains off another got my health back. It was a bit of a sticky situation. Another aid was one of the guys getting his body. He grappled his wand and started infusing me with mana. That was a big help. I like quick thinking players.
So they all got their bodies and decided to make a fast run to AB before there was a re-spawn. I did not blame them.
Frustration
I have hunted the north dires. I have hunted the south dires. I have hunted north of AB. I have hunted east of AB, I have hunted south of AB. I have hunted the north plains. I have hunted the northeast plains. I have hunted the west plains. I have hunted the plains Crator. After all that someone told me they saw Diamond Lords on the South plains.
I mean literally I have spent at least 12 hours hunting Diamond Lords and not found a single one. My bad luck cannot last forever.
On the up side I have made a lot of xp and some very good loot. I found that Augmented Tommies are dropping great loot. Funny that 245 Drudges that are melee impossible and darn hard for mages drops crap and a 90lv two spells and dead monster drops level VI stuff. You never know.
Only thing I have seen that disturbed me was Hollows on the plains. They seemed to be few and far between but hate to see them at all.
Finally I took a break from Lord hunting and did the island. There is nothing like taking the Vapors around the Castle to clear your head. I thought I had made some great loot but after burning four plats I lost money. Found a nice BP and some leggings but I'm low on cash.
The plains
I have found a good route up to the plains. Going south from the South Dires portal with a bit of zig zaging East and West gets you to the river. West from there you will find a passage with giant mushrooms. That passage will have spots where you can go up to the plains or straight to the crater.
The Plains are broken up with canyons. This makes island land blocks. Some are hard to get on and off of and others are confusing. I had ACE tracking my movements one time and I was going in a circle trying to find the route off the block. There is a block in the West Plains that has a narrow path off of it. The path looks like a dead end at one point but over a hill is the right path. I had missed that one several times.
The crater is nowhere near as bad as it was. Use to be so filled with monsters that all you could do was run. Now there is room to hunt. Of course you will find some of the nastiest stuff in the game there. Still for a high level mage it is not how hard the monster is that is a danger, it is fighting too many of them.
The East Plains had the only crowding I found. To me crowding is finding more than two other hunters in the general area. I also found two Drudges that had been leveled a lot. I guess having the BSD tie close by make it a busy place. After that experience I was glad I had been hunting the harder to get to places. Be nice if the Diamond Lords where there as well.
Next hunt will require a run over the center of the plains to the South side. We will see.
South West Plains
Well it is official, the Diamond Lord are hiding from me. There are very few places I have not hunted them. I have found not a one. Balash is logging on to 2 million points a day or more because of all the hunting I'm doing. I went from needing 20 million points to level to 5 million.
To get to the Southwest plains I intended to use the north/south canyon in the center of the north plains. I would travel to the Crater and cross over to the South. Somehow I missed the passage, having kids asking me questions while playing did not help. So I decided to follow the river around the plains until I got to the south.
One thing I noted was the new spawns have made the Lighting Stone a breeze. The outside of that use to be a nightmare. Now it is almost empty.
I did kill a new monster. Not sure of the level of a Mosswart Lord but they died fast. Not much in the way of loot.
After a little run I found a path up to the South/West plains. I'm getting the idea that there is a Vinindi Convention going on. I was finding spots with 5 or 6 spawns of Virindi E's. Of course attacking one brought all of them at you. I must have killed 30 or more of them. To bad the loot is not all that good on them.
The Inquisitors were rare but I did kill five of them. No head so far. Something different I have seen are elemental monsters. I have killed a lot of Infernos and Astyrrian's. Infernos I have seen but Astyrrians are new.
I did not have ACE on at the time so I cannot be sure of my route but because of two landmarks I'm sure of where I was. There is a portal and a tusker camp marked on ACE that I saw. I covered all of the blocks in the Southwest plains. This means only one large block in the South is left.
Getting the Diamond Shield is a goal that is beginning to fade. After 16 hours of hunting one I'm about ready to call it quits. Not totally as I still have that one block to explore but getting discouraged.
My next hunt is to run to the D-note portal and go north to the plains. Seems like the quickest route.
Island hunt
It was late at night and I wanted to go hunt the island. I'm building magic D (200), Health (210) and Stamina (290) up. All cost under a million, which by my standards is cheap. Being late on a weeknight I was hoping the Corals would be not be camped.
I only found one person there and he left soon after I got there. It is strange how I keep finding the same people there. Many of them are very high level (90+) but I never see them anywhere but the Coral camp. I had it alone for half and hour. Corals are great xp, don't de-buff and have limited attacks. You can buff for Acid and Bludgeoning and be done.
Right after my re-buff several people showed up. I moved away from them and started in on two Corals. An Archer ran up, imperiled one and switched to bow. I did want to kill both but figured he had a right to one. I healed him and moved on.
Later I was vuln'd one and a Wasp joined in. Wasps tend to chain case cold and I was not buffed for it. I switched to the Wasp and blasted it. As I did the Archer ran up and started shooting at the Coral. I was a little ticked. I asked him, "Why are you leaching my battle?" He replied, "You were fighting the other one. And I imperiled this one." As there was only one Coral this was a little strange, he must have meant the Wasp. Later I found that an alliance thinks the Coral camp belongs to them and will leach anyone who tries to hunt there. Very lame.
So I let them have their way and moved on. I killed a bunch of Bandies and Drudges while moving to the Vapor golems. On a hill I ran into a fast spawning group of Bandies. I killed a bunch but never had time to loot. Finally I cleared the spawn and moved forward to loot. As I did five Bandies decided to rush me.
In every battle before this it was a long-range battle. I was sliding out of the way of spells and only their missile shots were hitting me. This was different. If you will think about it I never added the missing buffs. I was only protected from Acid and Bludgeoning.
This battle started bad. I was quickly down in hit points and desperately trying to drain back. With no buffs for Fire and Cold I was taking 90+ points a shot. With five of them one was always hitting me with spells. It was over quick, very stupid of me.
One nice thing about the Ladies robe and the Staff is I don't drop my helm, boots or Gants any more. Of course the bad thing is being no give I cannot let anyone loot my body. In any case I buffed up at AB and ported back to the island.
Recovery was not that hard. This time I was fully buffed and ready for them. If all five had rushed me again I still would have won. As it was only one or two at a time would attack.
South Center Plains
After a trip into Sylsfear I was south of the plains. Only pausing to kill the few Umbris or Bandies I moved quickly to the river and then a canyon north. I saw on the map that two canyons joined and lead north. At the joining I found three Diamond Golems
I did not want to get to close so I was not sure if there was a Lord with them or not. I have found a lot of Diamond groups with no Lord. I'm not sure if this is because someone killed the Lord, if the Lord will spawn later or a normal spawn of Diamond Golems.
My buffs were about to drop so I figured to buff up and hope a Lord was there or would show as I buffed. I have changed my buffing pattern a bit. I use to toss my life protects and then buff my armor. I was finding that the life protects would drop before the Item spells. For this reason I'm changing to do the Item first then the Life. The problem with change is old habits can grab you.
As soon as I finished my Item buffs I vuln'd all three Diamonds. Sliding most of the returning War spells missed but the one that hit did 96 damage. Oops, forgot the Life spells. One Diamond charged and I finished him off before he could hit me. I then retreated and applied the Life spells. The other two dropped fast and there was no Lord.
A short way passed the joining the slope let me climb up to the plains. I did a lot of killing including three more spawns of Diamond Golems, no Lord.
As my last buffing cycle was applied I saw on the map I was close to the Plains Mansion. With a portal to this house it will be prime property. A way to hunt the plains without giving up a good portal will be great. Having a place you can power level vassals will make an alliance stronger. I would not approve of doing that but it is my choice. I know whoever gets that Mansion will be doing it. The key is a safe place to run to.
If whoever gets it keep it open to all it will be an asset. Of course that will make the South plains as bad as the Eastern plains.
In any case after three more hours of hunting I'm again skunked. Not a splotch of Pink anywhere. Still have to explore towards the Crater and one more land block to go.
Really sad
I was not on top of this one as I did not know Elders were involved. There was a note on the board that someone scammed another player out of 95 keys and M-notes. After getting the keys/notes the scammer said the item was on another mule. He logged and never came back. He then squelched the victim.
The problem was the thief was in Elder. His patron was a new Elder under Mar-Hill and he brought the thief with him. Being a friend his misplaced loyalty got him kicked out of Elder. I'm guessing he is young because his excuses were worst than the crime.
What happened was they denied that they had stolen the keys/notes. To prove this they were going to let Elder log the account. First they were going to move the stolen items off the account. This was admitted. Their mistake was using another Elder who knew about the thief to help them mule. The third party kept the items and returned them to the victim.
Of course they screamed to hi-heaven about being stolen from. This where they admitted they were muling the items so Elder would not see them.
In the end it worked out. These two people, who have no idea what honor is, are gone. The victim has most of what was stolen return to him.
Old Friend Returns
My first vassal was The Saint. I met him in LOD when he was far too young to be there. (19lv) He saw me play and asked to me my vassal. We had a lot of great adventures together. Any old readers will know his story.
The Saint wanted to try some new stuff, mostly in the PK department. Elder has some rules that prevent some of the free-for-all revenge stuff. Also I was doing a lot on other severs, learning stuff and making new friends. We grew apart a bit.
He left once, found he had been lied to, return and after a time left again. I saw him off and on for a few months and he disappeared. I always missed him.
I got a letter the other day. He had left AC for RL stuff and was coming back. I'm guessing he had been playing a bit as his new ppl is IBN Saint, a 33lv Og mage. I'm so happy to have by oldest friend back. He is a great player and I expect we will be doing a lot together. A perfect partner to Fist de Yuma Jr.
Island Quest
This is a quest that tests both players and teams. Cool heads and teamwork are key. Having people who have done the quest a few times together is a big help. Our normal group got jumped so we moved it to late Sunday night. I had a lot of RL stuff going on so I knew I was going to be beat. As long as we had our good group and did not move too fast I was sure I would be ok. When tired you have to move a little slower. Also the lag was bad that night. When lagging you have to watch other players to be sure they are not locked out.
Our quest leader, William the Bat, had a RL problem and could not be with us. We had a new leader who is reputed to be an expert on the quest. I admit we took different routes that were faster. The problem was we moved much to fast.
Mages need a short time after every battle to recover mana and dispel de-buffs. Every time I tried that I would find myself alone. The beginning battles spot are good examples.
In the other quests after the run we would regroup. Not this time, I was on the slab preparing while everyone else charged in. After the second run I stopped to do battle with the Diamond Golems. The leader did not even stop and lead the group though the portal. I cannot do that as with lag I have to slowly move into the passage. If I don't I'll miss it and end up on the edge.
After they did that I had to run passed the golems. I was lucky that they all ran to the cliff edge and left me an opening. At that point we waited for some who had died on the run to get back. I said we needed to slow down, it was not a race. The Crippler agreed with me.
It started to remind me of the Marines, hurry up and wait. After charging through we would them wait a while for reasons I did not know. Never had long waits on the quest before.
At the end I tried to recover mana and lagged a bit. The group was gone. As they were going a different route I was totally lost. I had to port out.
A guy who had died was at the start. I helped him on the run. I had his name down on a paper but we had family over. The kids scattered my notes and I cannot find it. He had a great idea that somehow I never thought of. Simple really, at the start of a hard quest give everyone permission to loot your body. If everyone does that losing a body is not a problem.
Of course out main problem was not normal deaths on this quest. The server was booting people to the desktop a number of times. Twice next to Relic town people would just start running up the hill and be killed.
Of course that would also lead bones to us. Killing them was a problem as people were still running back after the deaths. If we killed the watchman by mistake the quest was over. Several times we would stand there and heal, hoping the Bone would leave. Not to be and we had to kill it but none of them were the Watchman.
The battle at Relic town was ok with no one charging up the hill. I was in my normal lag fest here. I really cannot move far off the beach without lagging from all the monsters. When the portal is made it is hard to move up the hill and click on the portal.
Inside we buffed up and I again asked them to try and slow down a bit. If we hit the magic trap we needed a little time to re-buff.
Sure enough I hit the ceiling and had my buffs dispelled. Rizean did the same. We started to re-buff and most of the party ran ahead. I was more than pissed. Two fighters stayed back to help but it was nick and tuck for a while. The fighters could not hit the Bones well and needed imperils.
We caught up with the group at the gate. They stopped to do a full rebuffs. I was a bit mystified on this. We did a full buff at the start and that was only a few minutes before. The end battle only takes 5 or 6 minutes. So I stood there for 5 minutes while they re-buffed. Hurry up and wait. If they were planning on rebuffing why rush the first part?
At the last section my lack of sleep was catching up. After dispatching a lot of stuff I started moving forward. I missed watching my radar. Nightmare Wisps are deadly and hard to see. I ran up against it and was almost dead before I realized it. I hit heal and saw my health drop to 4 just as the heal hit. I had added 10 point of health over the last two days. I was very glad I did.
The last part was normal. Most of the group will fight the Plasma Golem and Bones while one or two will rush the lady. This may seem greedy but it actually works well. After the Lady is killed all but a few monsters disappear.
We headed to the chest room and I forgot about the magic trap. No biggie as the two monsters were dead. At least I though it was no biggie. While there talking one spawned and blasted me for all but 26 hit points. I ran out of the room. Have to remember to rebuff or leave. Like I said I was tired.
When on quests I don't loot. This makes quests very costly for mages. When I restocked it cost me 250k in comps. I had just built up a few notes.
News group tales
This first one follows the pile of bodies theme.
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Had in interesting side trip the other day..
Wife asked me if I wanted to go hollow hunting. Mainly because she doesnt have lockpick and Janos does. (only 199 base)
*unnamed* gave us a ride to the Tormiddean (sp?) fortress. I had equipped all my gear before, so I set for action when we arrived. I hopped out side tied off and began the wait while my wife and *unnamed* started buffing.
We finally set out and begin the massacre of Drudges. We head down a ramp that opened into a large room. At the entrance way to the room was two Drudge ravenors seemingly frozen in time and a single Virindi frozen in the middle of the room..
Not knowing any better I ran up and promptly dropped the unmoving ravenor. Immediately Drudges came from the far corners of the world in a futile attempt to avenge their brother. Somehow they ended up joining him instead.
Somewhere in the middle of the fight the Tuskers joined in and met a similar fate.
All this time the Virindi stood still. Ah I thought a free one. I had been to the walled portals before and had seen monsters get stuck in time, allowing you all the time in the world to beat and wail on them until they died without so much as turning around to face their death. I assumed that this was one of those monsters.
I two shotted him with my Ravenous Katar.. was kinda surpirsed that he dropped so fast.. but Oh well. That's when I noticed that Solitis hollow minnions came running from the far corners of the room and that we were surrounded. We dropped the ones blocking our return and then set up a wall at the entrance way. we dropped each Hollow minion in turn.
It was a little spooky but not a real challenge. That was the dangerous part...
We set out to go forward, coming to another room with another Virindi set in the middle of the room. I toed into the room and awoke the Tuskers and drudges. We quickly dispatched them. The Virindi sat still in the room. I ran up to him and back hoping to draw his attention so that we could either draw him or the hollows that may be present into the entrance way where we could guard our back and have a safety block that people could heal behind. No luck, nobody came forward. So we walked up to him and again I two shotted him. This time the Solitis came pouring in and fast. We ended up unorganized and having to tank them in the middle of the room. I wasnt really concerned; my 320+ buffed melee defense was kicking in great. So I set to work..
I always attack low and on maximum speed with my ravenous katar. I didnt really pay attention that I was evading 4 swings to my one. Until I noticed that I was alone.. My wife and *unnamed* had already been returned to the pretty blue stone. So I did a full power jump which caused the Hollows to shift around just enough for me to force my way to a corner.. This was probably a mistake. As soon as I did this I stopped evading. Even though I was in the corner I was now registering 5 hits for each of my swings. Pretty soon I had to heal. My life force was down to 60 health from 172.
I step out of combat mode apply a peerless bandage, I'm up to 120, I apply another, Im up to 120 again. I apply another Im up to 120 again. They kept nailing me so fast and furious that even though I was getting decent heals in the 60 point range every time. By the time I finished they had eaten what I healed.
So I figured that I had to go with 120 and hoped that stepping back into combat would stop their onslaught in time to save enough health to drop one before they had me down to low again. It didnt matter, I started swinging with 80 health, and fought until I was down to 30, applied a bandage to get back to 60.. ugg. I tried another failed, and extinguished my kit. I nailed the 9 / 1 combo which is my wand followed by portal recall. Eyeballs furiously glued to my remaining health as it plummets. I utter the magic words and then the tell tale .. "Ummph" and materialize at the lifestone with the message, "your actions have dispelled the Lifestones magic". I check the lifestone for a corpse and the dungeon entrance just encase my magic had sent my corpse flying to either. No luck.
So the three of us go charging through the dungeon hopping to beat the re-spawn and finish the fight we lost before getting into any more.. Again no luck, we ended up plunging into the depths of the first room as it re-spawned and quickly spent some quality time with the Gem of Humility. this trip only the wife and I arrive at the entrance. We burn a couple points of vit on the Drudges we can gather on the first floor. Then set out to picking our way back to our corpses. Along the way we see the corpse of *unamed* looks like he left before we arrived.. Me and the wife take the lesson and begin treating everything like Baelzorian himself. Carefully keeping our health full, and luring the smallest groups possible. We recover our second bodies and begin to work our way towards the our first.
As we get to the entrance way to the room of death, we clear off all the little critters, except the hollows. we try to lure just a few of them by darting into the room and back out. The Virindi awoke at that point and came charging forth. We dropped in the hall and all the hollows came running forth. We pulled back into the hall and watched all the hollows except the ones we were fighting peel off and return to their posts. As we dropped them all the hollows would return and just a few would stay. However sometimes the one we were fighting would drag us into the main room and attempt to block us in.
We continued with this strategy for a little while until the room above us re-spawned and we ended up fighting both groups at once. We both immediately portal recalled before the fight could turn for worse.
By this time the Patron or friends of *unamed* show up and began buffing for the fight. Although me and the wife had learned our lesson about charging forth these fellows must have skipped that day in class and begin destroying everything on the way to our bodies. We of course join in the fray but are feeling pretty wary of the way things are going..
We arrived at our collective mass grave. One of them says something to the effect of "hold on watch this" and tosses an imperil on the Virindi. The tuskers and hollows immediate rush forth out of the room and one shot him.
Me and the wife pulled back just a little and began working trough the mess, starting with the Tuskers and finishing with the hollows the other High level does the same thing. Near the end of the fight me and the wife get dragged to the center of the room but to our pleasant surprise, the last had been dropped.
We both rush to our body and recover our death items. Look around for *unnamed* to find that he was gone already, tried to send him a tell but he was logged. The high level reveals that he recovered before he left us, while he retrieves the corpse of the high level that put on the "show" for us.
We all recalled out together, Janos to the top of the dungeon, the wife back to AB to get a tie back to some other dungeon. Janos had immensely enjoyed himself. The xp wasnt that good, but he hasnt had that much fun in a long time.
I havent seen a key yet, but the trip was so fun that I think Ill go back anyway just to keep looking.
Janos/Gallon al-Guthridge.
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Loot is so strange a times. I have had days where I get great stuff. Other days everything is for the vender.
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Last night the wife and I got off to a late start so we decide to head out to the Lugian Camp where the Blade of the Heart spawns.
Its nothing exciting but its a very steady bit of killing if we dont expect to be on for long. We arrive and as usual, no one else is around. To cut to the chase, we killed, and killed and killed.
On the last Tiatus I kill before moving outside the sand pit to buff, I loot a magical pair of plate leggings. I drag them out and check to make sure they are worth dragging back. 1762 B. U. good, not great; 9,706p value, okay worth taking back; AL 182 very nice, not uber but very nice; Endurance III (yawn), Impen VI, Pierce Bane III...IMPEN WHAT? Lets see, quick math. 382 AL running. Okay, thats a keeper! Difficulty 275 ARRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!
We are winding down to sell off and call it a night. I kill my last tiatus of the night and loot a pair of chain leggings. I take a quick peek and find 1082 B. U. and a value of 6,396p. I stuff them in the pack and we leave.
I get back to town and sort the loot and finally get down to these air weight daaaaark green chain leggings. AL 116, good for chain but nothing to write home about; Impen VI. Oh dear, factor the weight and these are also very nice. Scroll down to requirements...Difficulty 59, okay, I can do that standing on my head AND rank 8 ARRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!
I thought about trying to find someone to offer...well anything for them, just to see that they dont rot in a shop but then I got a green chain dump (I am SOOOOO glad they fixed that). Tonight they go back to the bit bucket. What a shame.
NasierLeafcull
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