Old friend returns
Those that have been reading this for a while will remember Maddie. Maddie left the game many months ago. It was a clean break, all item given away including GSA leggings and a Virindi Amulet.
I was in total shock to see the Maddie show up in the hall the other day. Maddie is back! Swore all the ones he will play back into family.
It is awkward trying to keep gender straight. Maddie is a woman ppl but the person behind it is a man and his others are male ppl's. I'll go with "him" from now on to keep it straight. Maddie was created to see how different females were treated. He said it was an eye opener.
He wanted to try a UA. I'm not sure if hilted was in before Maddie left. It not he may decide that sword is better. I gave him the choice of hard or easy, of course he chooses hard. So another person starts the "Fist" template. 100, 10, 100, 50, 60, 10. Spec Life, UA, Melee; train Lore; Healing at 7; Item at 20; MC at 40; Creature at 80.
First thing was getting armor on all his players. That drained me about everything I have saved up. Going to have to do a lot of island hunts and re-supply.
Maddie created the new UA and I met him at Nanto. Got him outfitted with a good luggie hunting outfit. We ran from there to Awric and took Awric Mine to Old mine.
Old Mine had more people there than normal. Lot of people are using it to give restarts a leg up. I hope they are not taking new players there. New players need to work up on their own to learn how to play. In two hours the new UA was 15. We then headed to the Citadel.
That evening I gave him a few buffs and he got to 18. The next morning he made 20 and is now on his own. With the template you can fight well after 20. Before getting item it is a bit hard.
He sent me this letter on his last buff. I told him to build item but forgot to give him one other bit of advice.
Maddie's letter
So, Im in the Citadel taking full advantage of your lvl 7 buffs. Gigas are dropping like nothing, and Im not taking any damage at all. I look at decal to see how much time I have left, and I see its about 5 min or so.
I decide to start fighting my way to the entrance when I remember that I just learned ls recall. Cool, I think, Ill just go all the way back to the octagon room (with the 6 gigas, past the sik chest room), and then recall out.
So, I get back there, kill everything, my buffs drop, so I get ready to port. As I pull the wand, I here WHOOOSH, WHOOOSH. Stuff is spawning again. No biggie, Im gone. I cast ls recall.... "You dont have enough Mana for this spell." What the hell? I havent cast anything, so I should have full mana. I do. But my full mana is only 34 at this point.
Uh oh. So, here I am in a room full of gigas, no buffs and a useless wand in my hand. I also couldnt be farther from the entrance if I tried. Now what? I run like a crazy person. All the while spending my unearned xp on mana! Click click click, Im running and spending.
Ok, so now I have 50 max mana, but.... I still only have 34 actual mana. Luckily I had looted a mana potion before, I just had to find it now. Im running, digging through my pack, and taking big damage. Found it! Drink it down and mash the ls recall hot key like 8 times. I port, and end up at the Lin ls with 7 hp :P
Jason
Cowards
I have met a lot of different people in the game. They very in personality from pure grief players to pure joy to be around. Most people are in the high end toward joy. They play the game for fun, are smart and match me in thought process. We are playing the same game so we have that in common. I have a wide variance of interests so I can generally have a good time with most anyone.
There are those in the game that fall towards the grief player. One in this group is the coward. These are people who will not risk death. I'm not talking about smart play where you protect yourself as best you can. I'm not talking about those that fight somewhat below their level, though there are some in that group. What I'm talking about is people who take no risk whatsoever.
Now normally a coward is not a big deal. Some clear weak dungeons and force lower players to go to other places. Those are a pain and will create stress. Then there those that do things that get others killed so they can fight while hiding.
I met one of these every day. When I recall to my life stone I can count on finding people standing on the tent near there. They are low levels who want to kill big stuff without danger. They draw monsters to the tent and kill them in complete safety. Of course the people using the life stone and those that need to use the merchant are not so happy with their choice of hunting style. For this reason I have to fully buff before hitting ls recall. Of course if I die I go to the LS with no buffs and in a weaken condition.
Some of these have no idea how much of a danger they are. Others could care less. I even found a member of my alliance there the other day while clearing vit from the island quest. The problem is there is nothing we can do about this. If you die at that LS quickly running to the tent is about all you can do. Otherwise the coward will get you killed as soon as the LS protection expires.
Cowards part II
We were doing the Island quest. (story below) Rizean had died and I had narrowly escaped a trap. When we hit the LS we were charged by some Bandies the tent cowards had drawn. I had 35hp and Rizean was lacking all buffs.
After dispatching the Bandie I asked the people on the tent to please stop drawing monsters to the LS. Of course they continued to draw.
I did not get the name of this guy but he was a real piece of work. He not only was drawing monsters to the tent but would circle the castle and draw stuff on people trying to get in the fortress.
Rizean and I were in a hurry to get back as there were several bodies in Bone town, including Rizean's. As the last two mages left we had to get there and help. Our idea was to jump into the fortress, pay the note, and get to the island without fighting.
Rizean got in ok but I picked up a weakness de-buff and missed the jump. I had not seen any Diamond golems before I started my run up. This moron had run over to the Diamond golems and ran them to the jump spot.
I had to fight the Diamond golem before I could dispel the de-buffs and try the jump again. While fighting it this stupid ass ran a bunch of Drudges over to me. Rizean blasted them off me from atop the wall so it only slowed us down a bit.
Dangers
I have one problem when I'm hunting. Not sure if there is anything that can be done about it. It is not anyone's fault, other than Turbine making it this way.
I hunt on the beach of the inner bay of the island a lot. I like to hunt there because of the Wasps and is flat. I can kill Wasps for 10k in points and they drop feathers that my mules can cash for 1k of xp. Lot of Bones that drop with two spells and both of the above drop peas. With careful hunting I can clear the hard stuff of Wisps, Firestorms and Drudges.
Where the problem comes in are the runners. They might be running to the other side of the bay for Coral hunting or questers going to Bone town. They try to outrun the monsters rather than fight. As there are a whole lot of them this is not easy or safe.
When they come running by the screen is full of monsters after them. The monsters that have chased for a while stop and attack me. The ones that keep chasing will stop in time and come back. They join in the attack on me. In no time at all I'm covered with monsters.
If I'm lucky I can get by but several times I have had to cut my hunt short by porting out. Again not anyone's fault as this is the best and maybe only way to get to the other side without spending to much time. Still if you're in a large group doing the quest and see a lone person fighting on the beach, it might be a good idea to stop the group and clear it before moving on.
Looting on the island
This is a recent problem that developed. I think two things are causing it. There are a lot more people in the island these days and Decal.
I love Decal and use it a lot. I would have it on all the time if not for a subway bug. If I have decal running when I hit the sub I lock up. If I can stutter through the crowd before locking up I can log off and on to fix it. I hope this is fixed but meanwhile I keep it off. (Got a hint from William the Bat and fixed it.)
I'm hunting on a hill with a lot of monsters. Many monsters will not leave their spawn site. I kill them and then have to battle the spawns around them to loot. Sometimes this takes many battles before it is safe to get close.
As the bodies rot I see a horde of player start moving towards me. I had not activated decal so I'm guessing there was loot that rang Sixth Sense's alarm. I'm in battle with several Bandies, Drudges and Sheths and people are running by me to the loot. Seconds later they are running back with de-buffs lighting them up.
As it was to dangerous for a 75lv to go there I was not worried they would have time to get much of my loot. I'm lax on this anyway. If they can get it before I do I can always kill more. Where the problem comes in is they don't stop to kill what is chasing them.
I'm having a hard battle and after the rabbits run by what is chasing them joins in on me. So far this has not done me any big damage. I never did get the loot as my buffs dropped. I see this becoming a problem if it happens to someone a little less protected than me.
Taking people to the Island
I was in the hall as was asked if I had Syfear. I use to have that tie but broke it when I got the Bore tie. I told him that I didn't but could show him the way. Him and his friend join me on a little adventure.
Both players were archers one being in the upper 40's the other in the low 60's.
I alt'ed out and checked ACE for the coordinates. We then ran to Awric and took the Al-jama portal. A bit of a run got us to Syfear. We buffed up and I showed them the way through the maze. As you really only have to follow the right hand wall, skipping one passage, it is not hard.
Shadow battle was easy but I warned them that this was not always the case. Seen a lot of players die in that hallway. We took the exit and one archer LS'd there. We did a short jog to the undead who had just made the portal.
They thanked me and I thought that would be the end of it. I headed up the hill to do a little hunting. They were moving along the beach.
I got into a battle when I saw they had moved off the beach and were in some battles on the hills. Archers hit hard but without a shield can be hit even harder. After an Imperil IV and Cold IV a Bandie can inflict a lot of damage if you lack a shield. I will many times bane my shield, this time I only put Imp VII in it.
I saw the 60+ archer drop and heard the 45+ screaming. I hit the Sheth which caused it to switch to me. A Sheth has to be very lucky to hit me over my melee D. I then switched to the Bandie that was beating on him. The Bandie refused to switch. The archer took off running and broke a Fist rule. "If you start running, don't stop."
He stopped a few feet away and tried to heal. Bang dead. I finished off the Bandie and Sheth, looted their bodies and met them in Hebin-to. They both lasted about 6 minutes on the island. The Island is a very dangerous place. Don't take it lightly.
The Cursed Quest
This is without a doubt the hardest quest in the game. It is long, requiring several quests. I really admire the people who first worked this out. It is also the lamest quest there is. It required a strong group of people to take up to five hours to complete. Then it rewards just one person for the group effort.
I really believe that there needs to be a group reward for this quest. I understand that a mass of people can escort weak players to the end. Maybe a limit on the number of rewards but one is ridicules.
The quest had been planned for a week. The Crippler was set to get the loot with me getting it on our third trip. We understood that new teams for the quest don't do well but we had a strong group and felt confident.
It started late as there was a problem with the timing. We ended up with nine people, all but two in there 50/60's. The two were Fist de Mage at 76 and William the Bat at 72. We had about a 50/50 split between mages and fighters.
We started out with a run through the center bay, which is a hard run for anyone. We ran around the lava flow, going up over the hills and back down. I prefer going through the lava flow but I understand not wanting a load of de-buffs.
We started forward after regrouping for the first quest. Now this took us five hours so my memory is a jumble. I may get some stuff out of sequence.
We had to clear some Bones, Bandies, Drudges and Diamond Golems to get into the first dungeon. I was trying to imperil rather than kill. There were several times I got away from the group and had to start blasting what I had imperiled.
That was a bad sign. It showed we were not working well as a team. I pointed out on one of our stops we needed to stop working as individuals and start being a team.
There was one big problem that I need to solve before we head out again. The next patch might help but I'm guessing I'll have to use Decal. The problem is spell timing. I use all level VII spells. This leaves me with a 30 minutes buff cycle. Most were using level VI spells. What would happen is I would either have to re-buff when they do or they would have to stop in the middle of their second buff to let me buff.
I think the answer is to pay the cost and re-buff when they do and not worry about the longer buff cycle. Mainly this will mean breaking up some peas while on the quest. I might also think of limiting my buffs a bit.
We moved out quickly after getting inside. We had a lot of power and the monsters were sweep aside. William was leading and know the route well. For the most part I just followed. I targeted and imperiled everything I saw.
Somewhere in the middle of this we exited one dungeon and ran over a ridgeline to another one. Had to clear the entrance of Diamond Golems as well.
I knew there was a Olthoi dungeon on the island but this was the first time I had been there. We even ran into a few Nobles. The fighters killed them so fast I could not get a spell off.
We got to a drop off and were told to jump to a wall so as to not hit a portal. Not a sure thing as the portal was sideways and filled most of the room. William jumped up and closed the door so there would not be any danger.
William at this point asked who had the bar. Bar? They had the Bellows but no Bar. Seems there is a part we skipped as William thought it was done. So we sat and talked while William and Rizean did that part of the quest. This took some time as they also had to repeat what we had done.
After this was finished we moved forward again. We were taking heat damage in places and being drained from afar a lot. Plasma and Vapor Golems were hard to see in the red glow.
We came to a hall that William called the hall of death. Lot of nasty stuff. This was proven true as we lost one player at this point. The Crippler got his stuff.
We cleared a room with some ramps that required a jump to an opening in the wall. We completed that part and came to a big jump. Everyone buffed for bludgeoning and I also buffed for jump. I did a short jump but still hit the wall for 24. I thought I died as I hit the end. I was in portal space and came out on the island. I had not died, just landed on a portal. Still took 124 damage from that landing, a total of only 72 in all because of protections reducing damage.
Then we ran to the Crater part of the island. A nasty run but a safe spot after we get there. We waited for the Golem to spawn. The idea was to start buffing after is showed up.
It was good timing as my timer was beeping for rebuffs as the Golem spawned. I have a 2 to 3 minute leeway on my buffs so I was still protected as I started to re-buff.
I'm not going to say his name because he seemed to be truly sorry for what he did. I'll just refer to him as Bonehead. As we started to buff I could here, "Twang, Twang, Twang..." One of the non-elder archers had started to fire at the Golem.
Of course it charged and of course the archer had to run. I landed an imperil, a cold de-buff and one war blast. William, un-buffed at this point, battled it. The other mages were on a VI buffing cycle so were unable to help and the fighters had wands in hand. Somehow we had no casualties.
Now the hard part. I knew this was going to be hard but it was a lot harder than it had to be. Bone town is full of high magic resistance hard fast hitters. A load of Bones from Cursed to Relic, Diamond Golems, Augmented Drudges and Silver Tuskers awaited us.
We cleared the lower section ok. I was all for letting the mages draw with imperil at this point. Instead the group charged forward. Every time I had charge that hill I go into lag hell. This was no different.
I found myself totally surrounded by Bones and Tuskers. I knew I had to find a way out of this trap as fighting would only have one end. Every time I thought I was out the lag sucked me back in. Somehow lag had me headed into town instead of out of it. Then I found myself in a room with the exit blocked by Bones and Tuskers.
I tried to run through, no go. I tried to jump over them to get out of the room, no go. I ran into the room and along the wall, hopping the entrance would clear and let me run out, no go. Instead the room filled with Bones and I was trapped against the wall.
Only one out, LS recall. Just before I got out I saw Rizeans death message. I hit the portal with 35 hp and was dam glad to have made it. Of course the tent cowards almost got me killed and Rizean came even closer to dieing.
A full half the party was dead and the only two mages left were Rizean and I. We got back after some problem with the campers. The run was nasty but Rizean and I made it with no trouble. I did see a body as we ran through the Lava flow.
We got to the others and found we were down to five, William the Bat, The Crippler, Rizean, Me and the Monarch of Bonehead.
It turned out that the body I saw was Bonehead's. We decided to recovery his body first the finish the quest. The Laval flow was a major battle but we had the power to make it without any big danger. The Crippler took a major hit but that was the only close call.
We rebuffed at the edge of bone town and started working our way up the hill. Rizean and I were drawing with imperil. We left a field of bodies in our wake. Up the hill we started to get overwhelmed again and I quickly retreated down the hill. There we fought them off, hoping one was the watchman.
When the last one dropped we had no message. Then we got the message that The Crippler had killed the Watchman. Way to go Crip! It was back up the hill in the middle of town. Now it was just a run to the portal.
We cleared the first part with no trouble. We had trouble with the trap, hitting it with everyone. This meant we needed to rebuff in a hurry.
Then we had a major miscommunications. I was sure that William said to re-buff. I know I'm wrong as William and the other two fighters took off down a ramp while Rizean and I started to re-buff. William had opened a gate with a switch and we all needed to get on the other side before doing anything.
Seeing William and the other fighters head down the ramp made me think I should follow them. A Bone showing up convinced me. I ran to the fighters and thought Rizean was in back of me.
I'm not sure why but Rizean missed the gate. He then tried to run back and hit the switch to open it. Un-buffed he did not make it. There is a switch on out side of the wall but Rizean did not know that. William could see the writing on the wall and wanted to call it. I think he should have expressed it in those words but instead said things like, 'I don't think we can keep up with the spawn rate."
We were too tired at this point to pick up on the hint. While they battled off Diamond golems spawning on both sides of us and some trying to hit us through the wall I frantically buffed. Not easy with Diamond golems tossing de-buffs on me. I would break from buffing to imperil bones and golems and then go back to it.
Finally I was done and we were ready to try to move forward. I had dispelled the creature de-buffs but knew I did not have time to dispel the life ones. I should have poped a gem and cleared it all but forgot I even had some on me.
At the next hallway we engaged a Diamond golem. Someone grunted from a big hit. I imperiled the diamond and saw I was the one grunting. I was down to 70 or so hit points. I hit heal and if it had hit before the next blow might have been ok.
With imperil and bludgeoning VI de-buffs I was open to major damage. The first big hit was for 92 in my boots. What is strange is the boots are al 135, Imp IV bludgeoning V. This should have given me good protection from blunt damage. I did not expect that big a hit on my feet. The final blow for over 70 was not recorded as to where it hit. All I know was I was dead.
I saw Rizean on the tent so I ran over there to cheer on the three left. Their job at this point was to recover our bodies and get the hell out. I was so shaken I had forget to give anyone permission to loot my body. I corrected that error after a minute or so.
Saw the death message of The Crippler and Bonehead's monarch. The Crippler was killed trying to portal he took a 90+ hit in the legs. Pulling a wand takes away that all important shield.
William said he used my death item wand to port out with. He came close to dieing but did get my death items and helm back.
Overall we learned a lot on this quest. William has said that most new groups die on their first trip. I was hoping we would be an exception. I think if we had not lost so many people in bone town it would have been different. Be two weeks before we can do it again.
Williams take
They never REALLY believe how hard it is until the bodies start hitting the floor in the Keep.
Oh, sure, people have died on this quest, after all, with the imperils and vulns flying, someones gonna die.
But they still dont really believe.
The first hint is the relic town, when two dozen or so fire wielding skeletons come flooding from the ruins, and corpses start to litter the beach.
But we fell back, and regrouped, and recovered the corpses, and tried again. With high hopes we slew the Watchman, and ran for the ephemeral gateway to the Ladys Keep.
We started into the keep bravely, enchantments wrapping us in cotton. The door guards dead, we entered... But the warrior guide had never learned to jump the dispel trap properly, and couldnt show the others how to do it. They bravely went on, with some hurried rebuffing.
One of the members got caught on the wrong side of a closing door. He ran for the switch, not realizing there was another switch where the others had begun to do battle with the diamond golems within. He was the first casualty.
Battle was joined, and the three warriors bravely held off wave after wave of diamond golems as the last remaining mage franticly rebuffed. The guide suggested a strategic retreat, but the others still didnt believe. Not really. Maybe they hadnt heard him over the crushing blows of the diamond golems and the rattling of the relics bones.
Starting in toward the inner parts of the keep, one of the golems delivered a shattering blow that broke the remaining mage, leaving the three warriors without magical support. The three warriors gamely regrouped, and two of them held off the guardians while the guide recovered what he could of the fallen mages gear.
"Recall!" The guide cried, knowing the small remaining force was no match for the Ladys minions. The warriors only chance was to hope they could cast the spells before the diamond golems crushed them.
Only one made it out alive.
Tending his wounds, the guide wonders; do they believe it now?
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"Ok, guys, who has the sluice gate bar?"
"Warning: this is the hallway of DEATH!"
"Nobody attack the behemoth until everyone is done buffing."
"Lets see if we can lure some more relics down."
"Ok, heres the plan: we go up, get Rizeans corpse, and recall outta here!"
"Respawn any second now..."
"Recall!"
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Just a note: for a new groups first try, getting to the keep at all is an accomplishment. Hopefully people learned a lot, and will do better next time. Knowing what to expect is a huge help, and it takes practice to develop the teamwork this difficult quest requires.
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Balash has been know as the Crazy Gharu' Swords man for as long as I have know him. Until I read this I did not know how he got the nickname.
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The Crazy Gharu Swordman nickname and how Crazy is born!!!
During my low level 40 I was hunting in BSD (Before the nerfed spawn rate. TUSKER FOR EVERYONE) with my 2 best friends Deadshot and Tiger Lily. I was killed once, depth into the BSD, at that time, I know nothing about Death items, so I have lost a great Amuli Coat and some protection. I run back to the BSD and try to recover alone, I end up at the LS again courtesy of Mr Big Bob (Eye blink to Rajah) Meanwhile, I have burnt 1 point of vitea, so I was with 9 % vitea and naked, all my armor was on my 2 corpses. Tiger Lily and Deadshot where waiting for me at the entrance, I rush in, and ..............
Virindi master cast Bludgeoning Vulnerability VI on you
OH GOSH ......
Someone has draw the master up there.....
And a tons of Monkeys.......
Both Tiger Lily and Deadshot, in their Bananas looking armor (Pre Patch GSA) start attacking the monkeys and the master, and yelling at me to flee..... Remember, I was at 9% vitea, naked and with Bludg vuln VI on me. I do like I always do, I didn't listen to them I want to save them...
We killed at least 12 tuskers and the master, and I WAS ALIVE.....
Both of them was so surprised to see me alive that they though I had fled and come back, when I told them I never fled, they laugh so hard, that the tuskers that heard them flee in terror. Then Deadshot said he will start calling me the crazy gharu swordman. From that day on when I enter the Lin MH, many where calling me the crazy gharu swordman, and laugh. Since that time, I have keep that nickname, and gain 2 others, gentleman Killer and The vassal Eater. I know where I get the Gentleman Killer, but I still wonder where I get the Vassal Eater....
Crazy is born.....
One day, I hunted on aerlinth, and recalled with 175% burden (when I need to recall and I am on aerlinth and I usually pick everything on the ground until my backpack is full), I was LS in Mayoi, I decide to run to Lin and being lazy, I decided to take a shortcut, the road is too boring for me, so I pass by the mountains. All was well, and I really enjoy the beautiful nature I saw. When suddenly, I pass near a Linvak Ursin, it most have been a female and I pass too close to her children, because the Ursin chased me for 2 minutes, when it first hit me for 135 of damage, ouchy!!!!! I try to evade it, but too late, another hit, I was back at the ls......
I decided to sell before trying to find my body. It was the January 1st, and after 2 hours of research, no success. I had to log and have New Year dinner. I though that body was lost forever. When I log back the day after, Rokru (not sure of the spelling) give me a bracelet and ask me to read the inscription. I just do it, and I read That Linvak Ursin really want you.
I laugh, then Rok logged a mule and give me all the stuff I had lost, he tells me that he, Twyllah and someone else have take turn to guard my corpse to recover the stuff on it. That is why I love the House of Elder, friendship and taking care of each other. They all promise they will never told that story, until I say then can, because it's a great story and a funny one. Imagine my surprise when in the November patch, they give us Pack doll, and one of that doll is a Linvak Ursin, I trade my Olthoi for that Ursin, and name it Crazy, since that day, Crazy never left me, unless someone Catnapp it.
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This fits in with the cowards part. The question in the new group was hunting spots. Someone said that a high level in a low place was not a problem. This was in response to that.
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I disagree. Level plays an important role in how hard a creature is for you. Tuskers provide the most xp per buff cycle with least buffing possible. This brings people into a BSD who are the worst type. Even a meleer without any magics can live there and over time will come to a point where he can 1 or 2 hit a Guard. So he goes around the BSD and clears it out in about 15minutes and everyone else there is left without anything to kill. They could go on to another spot but I see fault on the part of this "camper." He has a right to play his game but he is hurting other peoples ability to have fun as well.
Basically what Im saying is if you are hunting so far under your abilities to 1 or 2 hit the creatures you are fighting (more melee talk here cause mages get to a point where all they can do is one/two hit) then you are going to thin the creatures down so that those around you will suffer in growth. Even if you only "attack" what you are able to and never jump anyone elses kill you are still "over-killing" in my view and causing others to level more slowly and gaining at others expense.
Im all for a brave person continuing in a less than uber template. I wouldnt do it but more power to them. But once they drag their gimpy self up to a level where what they are hunting is no longer challenging, then please, get out of the pool and let the kiddies play. You dont have to hog the shallow end your entire life.
Epsilon the Enchanter
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