ratspike is my dagger tank. he is cool cuz he is an exceptional tank. nom has a dagger tank as well and i like calling them "the dagger twins" cuz for a while they both used dirks and superior shields (yeah, the shield with the level 4 sword buff... it was a step up from the explorer buckler he was using previously). we want to hunt our daggers with one of opti's low level chars, a battle mage i think, but to do that we both have to be 32.
a few nights ago, nom and i made a couple of trips to the scalavs citadel. contrary to my usual playstyle, we got some level 7 buffs and went *NUTS*. we made it all the way to the bottom and put on like 6 levels (rat started at 24, and hit 30 before the trip was thru) he died once. with that rather large piece of the level 32 goal out of the way (another motivator for 32 was the 12th skill credit i'd need for life magic) so last nite i decided to hunt alone, using just my item and jewelry buffs.
i tried the lugain cit for one buff, and it was ok. i have hunted probably a dozen characters there from 15th to 30th level, so while it's great fun with a friend, it's just not that great alone. i also tried to solo the scalavus citadel, and while i could take on two of the big guys at once, i couldn't kill them quickly enough to go too far in.
it was then that i decided to hit the arcade. i was using the quiddity dagger that pandy gave me when she cleaned out all her mules and trying to get enough XP to double tap with it. i had baned everything, popped a lugian gem of acid protection, and i was ready to go to work on the bugs when i found that they had trouble hitting me. in time i was on the drone floor, casually stomping bugs. i ran out of stamina potions a while ago. and i was making big progress even tho my banes had gone and i was sort of chatting with opti and keeping my stamina up by fizzling out revit1 with my explorer life wand.
i was getting ready to recall out so i could focus on chatting, when a bunch of young dudes came thru and added me to their fellowship. normally i say "no thanks" because dudes in the arcade are buffed to hell and back and just roll down to the worker floor and camp the 12 bugs that live down there rather than trying to work their way around the arcade. well, these guys were all lower than me, and couldn't stay together too well. so i went on, killing away on the different floors, including the worker floor, with this dude named "pleasure toy" tagging along. i gave the central part a try, and rat's not quite ready to solo there just yet.
well the XP came pouring in, and i kept tossing it into my coord, quick, dagger, and focus skills. before i knew it, i had killed tons of bugs, hit 32nd, trained life magic, and pushed my dagger up high enough to double tap with my quiddy.
so now ratspike has sex appeal. he can cast his own protects (yeah they're just level 3's for now, but that's gonna change real soon) and when he hit's 40th he'll dump lore for creature magic and be 3 schooled. his dagger and meleeD are pretty high for a dude in his low 30's and not getting hit by level 40 something olthoi is really nice. what's funny to note is that he doesn't get touched by most drones or servants, but if he goes to the arcade central, he has issues with the workers. so he either eats olthoi for beakfast, or becomes breakfast himself. i figure he needs better buffs, time to get critter :-)
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
recycled posts
i am recycling some of my big posts from other boards here in an attempt to fill this page with some content. i won't include the replies and stuff, but i will include links to the boards here if you want to read the flames that ensue from my posts.
the children of hope board (aka CH and PH)
solclaim survivors
the children of hope board (aka CH and PH)
solclaim survivors
RECYCLED: lugs and bugs and death
another recycle from the survivors board about hunting with nom
last night was a classic example of hunting with me and nomadic.
nomadic and i were hunting our new dagger toons (ramy, l23 and ratspike, l21) at the hills citadel last night. in true chis and nom fashion, ratspike (chris) ran off at the speed of light, unbuffed in his explorer society armor, and ramy (nomadic) got killed in the worst possible spot.
it seems that the Wasteland Rat Association of Dereth was having it's annual banquet in the area surrounding the hills cit portal, and they were serving Braised Dagger Toon as the main course.
so while ramy was getting buffed to recover her corpse, ratspike finished the run to the cit, tied to the portal, and tried to sneak back to ramy's corpse. ratspike stood no chace against a single wasteland rat, let alone the dozen or more in the surrounding area (along with raveners, and some 70+ undead). so he outran the stuff that was chasing him and snuck past the rats, "metal gear solid" style, and was able to get to ramy's corpse unliquified.
with the corpse problem taken care of, ramy was free to run like hell to the cit. once they two joined up at the front of the cit, they set about killing all the luggies.
true to form, the actual dungeon crawl was not nearly as scary as the run to the dungeon. after one hour, one death (ratspike), a couple of levels, and a few close calls, ramy and ratspike we ready to head back to rith to sell and resupply.
it was at this point that we were asked by a young axer named dante the wanderer (possibly one of wels' extended family, the wanderers) to help him recover his corpse just outside of nanto. dante was a very new player, on his third day of playing AC, and was glad to have our assitance.
upon arriving on the scene, we discovered that the corpse was camped by grievvers (the level 50+ variety). ramy and ratspike took turns leading the spiders away from the corpse, and we actually managed to kill one. dante got his stuff back, and was eager to join us on our next suicide mission.
what better way to teach a young player about death and glory, than to visit the olthoi arcade?
so we set off for ML, showing dante how to outfit himself to hunt bugs. we made good progress thru the first two floors and were fighting drones within minutes. i checked the fellowships vital signs, and everyone is low on health, so i start yealling in fellow ship chat to heal. dante is healing like a madman but litterally cannot land a heal to save his life. i told him to run, and i ran after him to try to heal him, but he was dead before i could get to him..
so ramy and ratspike are not only surrounded now, but also separated. they are trying to break thru the wall of bugs that searates them, but being daggers, both toons are great survivors but decidedly lacking in the damage department, especially without an axer. every bug on the floor has taken a number and is waiting in line to come wail on us, and i end up biting it not long after.
now ramy is alone on the drone floor, and i am hustling dante back to the arcade. no time to sell, no time to rearm, just get back down to help ramy.
the fellowship chat went like this:
ramy: guys, i am hating life down here.
rat: ok, we need to get down to ramy, so don't stop to kill anything unless it's blocking the way.
dante: ok
ramy: a little help...
rat: use the gems i gave you to get your protects up
ramy: are you there god? it's me... ramy.
so we get back down to ramy who is valiantly fighting all the drones on the floor, plus all the harvesters and gardeners that dante and i dragged with us. it was a green acid bloodbath.
and just like before date fails all his heal attempts and runs upstairs... i run after him, hoping to heal but he gets clipped by a gardener half way to the exit portal. ramy clears a path and is able to join me and we clear the second corpse and grab all dant'es gear.
it is now appearant that dante's healing skill *sucks*. he had poured a ton of xp into it, i gave him some treated kits, and he still can't land one, so i decide we need to get him a healing buff like a raeta's necklace, and possibly some counseling for his "perfomance anxiety". i get all of dante's corpses, but not before dropping half of dante's death items on my new corpse, and i think ramy died as well. it turns out we are too powerful for the raeta's quest (or so we heard) so i just gave dante the raeta's necklace that my archer wears.
at this point each corpse recovery attempt has resulted in at least one new corpse, so it is time to change tactics.
so i log ratspike out, and log janus in. she drops some uber level 5 buffage on ramy and dante and accompanies them to the arcade, imperiling bugs back to the stoneage and healing and revitalizing the melees as they lay waste to everything. we have all the corpses cleared and recovered in like 3 minutes, and finally, justice has been served.
afterwards, while we are hanging out at the rith LS goofing around with emotes, dante tells us that he learned a lot, and that was the most fun he has had playing so far. obviously he needs to get out more
the moral of the story:
for a good time: call ramy.
last night was a classic example of hunting with me and nomadic.
nomadic and i were hunting our new dagger toons (ramy, l23 and ratspike, l21) at the hills citadel last night. in true chis and nom fashion, ratspike (chris) ran off at the speed of light, unbuffed in his explorer society armor, and ramy (nomadic) got killed in the worst possible spot.
it seems that the Wasteland Rat Association of Dereth was having it's annual banquet in the area surrounding the hills cit portal, and they were serving Braised Dagger Toon as the main course.
so while ramy was getting buffed to recover her corpse, ratspike finished the run to the cit, tied to the portal, and tried to sneak back to ramy's corpse. ratspike stood no chace against a single wasteland rat, let alone the dozen or more in the surrounding area (along with raveners, and some 70+ undead). so he outran the stuff that was chasing him and snuck past the rats, "metal gear solid" style, and was able to get to ramy's corpse unliquified.
with the corpse problem taken care of, ramy was free to run like hell to the cit. once they two joined up at the front of the cit, they set about killing all the luggies.
true to form, the actual dungeon crawl was not nearly as scary as the run to the dungeon. after one hour, one death (ratspike), a couple of levels, and a few close calls, ramy and ratspike we ready to head back to rith to sell and resupply.
it was at this point that we were asked by a young axer named dante the wanderer (possibly one of wels' extended family, the wanderers) to help him recover his corpse just outside of nanto. dante was a very new player, on his third day of playing AC, and was glad to have our assitance.
upon arriving on the scene, we discovered that the corpse was camped by grievvers (the level 50+ variety). ramy and ratspike took turns leading the spiders away from the corpse, and we actually managed to kill one. dante got his stuff back, and was eager to join us on our next suicide mission.
what better way to teach a young player about death and glory, than to visit the olthoi arcade?
so we set off for ML, showing dante how to outfit himself to hunt bugs. we made good progress thru the first two floors and were fighting drones within minutes. i checked the fellowships vital signs, and everyone is low on health, so i start yealling in fellow ship chat to heal. dante is healing like a madman but litterally cannot land a heal to save his life. i told him to run, and i ran after him to try to heal him, but he was dead before i could get to him..
so ramy and ratspike are not only surrounded now, but also separated. they are trying to break thru the wall of bugs that searates them, but being daggers, both toons are great survivors but decidedly lacking in the damage department, especially without an axer. every bug on the floor has taken a number and is waiting in line to come wail on us, and i end up biting it not long after.
now ramy is alone on the drone floor, and i am hustling dante back to the arcade. no time to sell, no time to rearm, just get back down to help ramy.
the fellowship chat went like this:
ramy: guys, i am hating life down here.
rat: ok, we need to get down to ramy, so don't stop to kill anything unless it's blocking the way.
dante: ok
ramy: a little help...
rat: use the gems i gave you to get your protects up
ramy: are you there god? it's me... ramy.
so we get back down to ramy who is valiantly fighting all the drones on the floor, plus all the harvesters and gardeners that dante and i dragged with us. it was a green acid bloodbath.
and just like before date fails all his heal attempts and runs upstairs... i run after him, hoping to heal but he gets clipped by a gardener half way to the exit portal. ramy clears a path and is able to join me and we clear the second corpse and grab all dant'es gear.
it is now appearant that dante's healing skill *sucks*. he had poured a ton of xp into it, i gave him some treated kits, and he still can't land one, so i decide we need to get him a healing buff like a raeta's necklace, and possibly some counseling for his "perfomance anxiety". i get all of dante's corpses, but not before dropping half of dante's death items on my new corpse, and i think ramy died as well. it turns out we are too powerful for the raeta's quest (or so we heard) so i just gave dante the raeta's necklace that my archer wears.
at this point each corpse recovery attempt has resulted in at least one new corpse, so it is time to change tactics.
so i log ratspike out, and log janus in. she drops some uber level 5 buffage on ramy and dante and accompanies them to the arcade, imperiling bugs back to the stoneage and healing and revitalizing the melees as they lay waste to everything. we have all the corpses cleared and recovered in like 3 minutes, and finally, justice has been served.
afterwards, while we are hanging out at the rith LS goofing around with emotes, dante tells us that he learned a lot, and that was the most fun he has had playing so far. obviously he needs to get out more
the moral of the story:
for a good time: call ramy.
RECYCLED: the neffy-poo
here are some excerpts from some posts about my girlfriend's nephew playing some on my account... a mistake i do not intend to duplicate.
pandy's nephew stayed with us this weekend and he played a bunch of my characters. we discussed at length the protocol for playing my characters (I.E. not doing anything embarassing or stupid), but it would appear that i may not have gotten thru.
he is young and can't believe none of my characters are over 50th, so he took it upon himself to powerlevel as many of them as possible, in order to save me from some sort of imaginary consequence. i think he is under the impression that if you don't max a character out in the shortest possible time something bad happen to them, or maybe that it will happen to me, i'm not sure.
maybe he thinks the newb police will come and put me in AC jail for failing to hit 50th level in the required 12 hour period. it is true that i have been summoned to testify before the newb court in the past, about why my 3 40th level characters are currently living in phyntos menace grinding their way to 90th, but after explaining the fact that i actually like to play a variety of characters, they granted me special permission to just play the game. i had a really good lawyer tho who found a loophole for me.
regardless of the reason why, he doesn't know how to do anything without hitting a buffbot first (including visit the marketplace), so my apologies if he cleaned everyone out of comps or if he drove you crazy begging for buffs or anything else, please let me know so i can make amends (and then go throttle him )
it was really cute watching him try to hunt my characters in thier ususal hunting grounds and get them killed, even when they were uber buffed:
the conversation went like this:
nephew: don't be a gimp, you should get level 7's from a bot so you can get bigtime XP.
chris: i could, but i'd rather learn to play my characters with their own buffs, that way i actually learn how to play them.
nephew: whatever, newb, i have a level 73 UA on my server i am a better player than you. let me show you how it's done.
[tusker liberator kills you so swiftly even the lifestone shudders]
chris: wow, you are really good, i usually hunt for 20 minutes or so before i get waffled like that, but you got your face pushed in within seconds. and to think i have been wasting all these hours hunting at my level when i can just go to alphus lassel and get killed within minutes, thanks for the tip.
nephew: you're so funny. i wouldn't have gotten killed but i kept fizzling these level 7's cuz your mage stinks.
chris: funny, he cast levels 5's just fine, plus he has bolts for all 7 damage types and the vulns to go with them, that seems to be more effective than fizzling crushing shame over and over and getting eaten by tuskers. of course i am not l33t, so i wouldn't know.
nephew: laugh it up, you're gonna need those level 7's to hunt in VOD.
chris: wow, dying a gory death in VOD, that would prove your leetness once and for all. maybe you can get him killed somewhere really nasty so you need my whole allegiance to help you recover the corpse. once you get out of the hospital you could laugh in my face.
nephew: *after* i get out of the hospital?
chris: yeah, cuz if you get one of my characters killed by doing something stupid like that, i'm gonna break every bone in your puny little body. TWICE.
pandy's nephew stayed with us this weekend and he played a bunch of my characters. we discussed at length the protocol for playing my characters (I.E. not doing anything embarassing or stupid), but it would appear that i may not have gotten thru.
he is young and can't believe none of my characters are over 50th, so he took it upon himself to powerlevel as many of them as possible, in order to save me from some sort of imaginary consequence. i think he is under the impression that if you don't max a character out in the shortest possible time something bad happen to them, or maybe that it will happen to me, i'm not sure.
maybe he thinks the newb police will come and put me in AC jail for failing to hit 50th level in the required 12 hour period. it is true that i have been summoned to testify before the newb court in the past, about why my 3 40th level characters are currently living in phyntos menace grinding their way to 90th, but after explaining the fact that i actually like to play a variety of characters, they granted me special permission to just play the game. i had a really good lawyer tho who found a loophole for me.
regardless of the reason why, he doesn't know how to do anything without hitting a buffbot first (including visit the marketplace), so my apologies if he cleaned everyone out of comps or if he drove you crazy begging for buffs or anything else, please let me know so i can make amends (and then go throttle him )
it was really cute watching him try to hunt my characters in thier ususal hunting grounds and get them killed, even when they were uber buffed:
the conversation went like this:
nephew: don't be a gimp, you should get level 7's from a bot so you can get bigtime XP.
chris: i could, but i'd rather learn to play my characters with their own buffs, that way i actually learn how to play them.
nephew: whatever, newb, i have a level 73 UA on my server i am a better player than you. let me show you how it's done.
[tusker liberator kills you so swiftly even the lifestone shudders]
chris: wow, you are really good, i usually hunt for 20 minutes or so before i get waffled like that, but you got your face pushed in within seconds. and to think i have been wasting all these hours hunting at my level when i can just go to alphus lassel and get killed within minutes, thanks for the tip.
nephew: you're so funny. i wouldn't have gotten killed but i kept fizzling these level 7's cuz your mage stinks.
chris: funny, he cast levels 5's just fine, plus he has bolts for all 7 damage types and the vulns to go with them, that seems to be more effective than fizzling crushing shame over and over and getting eaten by tuskers. of course i am not l33t, so i wouldn't know.
nephew: laugh it up, you're gonna need those level 7's to hunt in VOD.
chris: wow, dying a gory death in VOD, that would prove your leetness once and for all. maybe you can get him killed somewhere really nasty so you need my whole allegiance to help you recover the corpse. once you get out of the hospital you could laugh in my face.
nephew: *after* i get out of the hospital?
chris: yeah, cuz if you get one of my characters killed by doing something stupid like that, i'm gonna break every bone in your puny little body. TWICE.
RECYCLED: fun with bugs
another recycle from the survivors board about the 40+ olthoi armor quest
everyone took pity on naihanchi who lost his armor in a tragic mountain climbing accident, and took him to get a set of 40+ olthoi armor.
hagan the hardy, shu tzu, opti and goldenthorn went. naihanchi was the guest of honor but was unable to affect a single bug with either spells or harsh language. so all he did was heal people and revitalize them, and on one occasion walk into the wrong room and drag a second olthoi brood queen over to the group while they had their hands full with the first one. as if fighting one wasn't challenging enough
it went somethng like this:
hagan: what was that blur that flew by us?
shu: i think it was naihanchi, he is certainly in a hurry
hagan: where's the fire naihanchi?
naihachi: b-b-bug... B-B-BUG!
shu: don't be silly there are bugs all over the... OMFGWTFBBQ!!!
hagan: eek! it's another queen!
[combat ensues]
shu: nai, if you're not terribly busy watching us get pounded on BY TWO QUEENS, do you think you could imperil something?
olthoi brood matron resists your spell
olthoi brood matron resists your spell
olthoi eviscerator resists your spell
olthoi eviscerator resists your spell
olthoi egg resists your spell
ugly olthoi step child resists your spell
you cast imperil other V on hagan the hardy
naihanchi: w00t! i landed one! pheer meh!
hagan: oh yeah... i'm afraid... every time i walk into a dungeon with you.
just kidding, a good time was had by all and naihachi looks dead sexy in his new armor
thanks again guys!
everyone took pity on naihanchi who lost his armor in a tragic mountain climbing accident, and took him to get a set of 40+ olthoi armor.
hagan the hardy, shu tzu, opti and goldenthorn went. naihanchi was the guest of honor but was unable to affect a single bug with either spells or harsh language. so all he did was heal people and revitalize them, and on one occasion walk into the wrong room and drag a second olthoi brood queen over to the group while they had their hands full with the first one. as if fighting one wasn't challenging enough
it went somethng like this:
hagan: what was that blur that flew by us?
shu: i think it was naihanchi, he is certainly in a hurry
hagan: where's the fire naihanchi?
naihachi: b-b-bug... B-B-BUG!
shu: don't be silly there are bugs all over the... OMFGWTFBBQ!!!
hagan: eek! it's another queen!
[combat ensues]
shu: nai, if you're not terribly busy watching us get pounded on BY TWO QUEENS, do you think you could imperil something?
olthoi brood matron resists your spell
olthoi brood matron resists your spell
olthoi eviscerator resists your spell
olthoi eviscerator resists your spell
olthoi egg resists your spell
ugly olthoi step child resists your spell
you cast imperil other V on hagan the hardy
naihanchi: w00t! i landed one! pheer meh!
hagan: oh yeah... i'm afraid... every time i walk into a dungeon with you.
just kidding, a good time was had by all and naihachi looks dead sexy in his new armor
thanks again guys!
RECYCLED: playing the no war OG mage
this post is recycled from the survivor boards. it is an update to this vn boards post on a template called the "martyr mage". i should mention that the no war OG stuff below is by me, but the martyr mage guide on the vn thing is not by me.
also known as the martyr mage, the vitamancer, or the war cleric, the no-war OG is a very challenging, and in my opinion, one of the funnest mage templates to play.
is life without war magic the life for me?
if your chief complaint about playing a mage is fluid management (keeping your health, stamina and mana at usable levels), or you are still cheesed about the great nerfing of all drains, then this is not the template for you.
if you are looking for the ultimate in challenging templates, you are bored with blowing things to bits with your battle mage, or wish there was someone to provide support for your hunting expeditions, this template might be worth checking out.
why on earth would i do this to a mage?
1)to learn the intricacies of fluid management: playing a no war og for 30 levels is like getting a doctorate degree and a blackbelt in fluid management. once you get the hang of the no-war og, keeping your fluids topped off on your battle mage or war caster will seem like child's play.
2)because sucking the life out of monsters and spitting it back at them is gross... but surprisingly fun.
3)after taking so long to kill monsters, using war magic again will make you feel like a god.
so what do i do?
there are only two hard fast rules for rolling your no war OG:
first you need to spec life magic. it is your first line of offense, and your first line of defense, so you want your life magic skill to be as high as possible. you will use protects to keep you from sustaining damage, drains to weaken your enemy and recover your fluids, and lifebolts to kill your enemies.
second, don't take war magic. if you take war magic, you can't really call yourself a no war OG. if you think a mage isn't a mage without war magic, this is not the template for you.
what about attributes?
that is a matter of preference, but you will generally want to max out focus and self and favor endurance over strength. the higher your health, the more damage you can do with lifebolts and drains, and stamina will serve as the reserve for both health and mana.
here are some good starting examples:
balanced: 40 str, 50 end, 10 cor, 20 quick, 100 foc, 100 self
aggressive: 30 str, 70 end, 10 cor, 10 quick, 100 foc, 100 self
extreme: 10 str, 100 end, 10 cor, 10 quick, 100 foc, 100 self
for my no-war OG, i went with 100's for endurance, focus and self.
as you decide between strength and endurance you are essentially choosing between armor and firepower. more endurance means more health and stamina, harder hitting lifebolts, higher capacity for draining, and more reserves to be converted to mana. more strength means armor and possibly the ability to melee. armor will help protect you, but so will your life protects. you may want to get a set of lighter armor and then bane it to make up the difference in AL. also, losing health just a fact of life for the no-war og. if you get hit, just drain it back, that ought to teach them not to hit you.
ok, what skills should i take?
to be a no war OG, the only skill you must have is life magic. spec'ing creature is worth considering for a number reasons, but your main one will be magic yield, since having your lifebolts and drains resisted will get you killed quickly.
not taking war magic leaves you in a unique position. you are a mage, with all the assets and liabilities that go with it, but you have an extra 16 credits at creation. with those extra credits you could do one of the following:
1) specialize a bunch of other mage stuff: like critter, manaC, magicD, or lore
2) train a bunch of other not-exactly-mage stuff (attributes permitting): like lockpick, meleeD, or even a weapon. note: you will probably end up with a high endurance and focus, so armor tinkering and/or alchemy (trade health and mana potions) might be nifty choices.
for my no-war OG, i chose to specialize life magic, creature magic and manaC, and now that she's in her 30's she has enough credits to specialize magic defense (after dumping lore) with her protects and banes at level5 she really only gets chewed up by war spells and chain casters, so MagicD is her next line of defense.
just how does a mage with no war magic kill stuff?
naturally, drains and lifebolts are going to be your primary weapons. you will use lifebolt (martyr's hecatomb) for your ranged attacks, and drains at short range, or when you are getting mobbed. there are a few basic rules to keep in mind with these tools:
life bolt basics:
1) lifebolt dumps a quarter of your current health into a bolt and deals a percentage of damage based on the amount of health drained from you.
2) the more health you have, the more damage your lifebolt will deal. lifebolts as less than half health are both dangerous and ineffective.
3) the higher the level of the bolt, the more damage you will deal.
4) you lose the health the instant you fire the bolt. if the bolt is resisted or misses, you still lose the health.
5) damage is based on your health at the moment you fire the bolt, so if you get clobbered during your wind up, you aren't going to do as much damage.
drain basics:
1) drains deal damage to a target, up to a certain limit, then return a percentage back to you.
2) the amount of damage a drian does is limited by the health the drain returns to you.
3) the less health you have, the more damage you will deal.
4) the less health your victim has, the less damage you will deal, and the less you will get back. i call this this the law of diminishing returns.
5) drain health I drains a maximum of 30 health returns 200% of the health you drained (to a limit of 60), so it will return a lot more than you drained.
6) drain health III drains a maximum of 75 health and returns 133% of the health drained (to a limit of 100), so it will do a lot more damage than drain I, use this drain to knock enemy's down and give you a little back.
7) the range on drains is short. the effective range for drain I is essentially melee range. this is the drain to use when you are getting pounded in a mob. the animation is fast and the health return is high for such a small amount of mana.
generally, you will start your attack with a lifebolt, then drain to recover health, then bolt again. if it's still alive, then drain again and lifebolt. use drain3 when your target is at relatively high health, and drain1 when you or the target are getting low on health. at a certain pnt drain wil stop returning anything and you are just spamming you will finish your target with a lifebolt. you will want to drain for stamina and/or mana during the attack sequence. you can use stam2man and stam2health to level off to be ready for your next target.
the returns for draining mana directly will vary based on the creatures you are fighting. magic based creatures like undead, virindi and dolls are good sources of mana. melee oriented creatures like lugians and drudges are good for stamina, but not good for mana. use drains as your primary means of recovering health and mana, and keep stamina as a reserve.
when it comes to fluids, don't be obsessive about keeping them maxed. thanks to lifebolts your health is usually going to be at 50-75%, and your other fluids are going to go up and down as your fight progresses. keep a few health/stamina/mana potions (not too many due to burden) in case you are completely empty and need to recall quickly or you get hit suddenly for a lot of damage.
so what do i hunt?
in general, you will want to hunt all the things mages normally hunt, or you will want to support a group of fellows.
if you are supporting a group, you will want to toss imperils/vulns around, and heal/revitalize your fellows. You will use drains primarily to keep yourself functional. in this mode, if you are not taking loads of damage, your primary concern will be to keep enough mana to keep casting. if you are fighting creatures that you can't drain for mana, then use stamina and health drains to keep your fluids up, then stam2mana and health2mana. if you are also supporting a war caster, you may need infuse mana, which will compound your mana issues. this may not sound like much help to a group, but if your melees and war casters don't have to pause their attack sequences to heal, down potions, or restore mana, they will kill much faster. also, if you are draining the enemy and replenishing your fellows, their supplies of potions and heal kits will last longer. supporting a group of melees is the best way to help out against stuff you are going to have trouble killing, like olthoi.
if you are hunting solo, you will want to hunt the usual mage fare, golems, drudges, and stuff out in the open. you may find you level faster supporting groups of melees, but soloing dungeons with relatively fast spawns will really help you learn to to manage your fluids in the heat of battle. this is imortant becuse you will need to keep yourself afloat to support others.
how difficult is this template to play?
this template is very hard to play in the beginning, and may need some help getting to 15th level. once you can cast level 3's reliably, you are ready to solo. there is an old technique called wall-licking where you crawl thru dungeons and drain/harm creatures to death thru walls and doors. this may help you some as you get your numbers up to a playable level, or you may want to find a melee to buddy with. once you are at 80 health you should be life bolting for around 20pts of damage with full health. low diff endurance and health jewelry will also help you. raeta's necklace, and anything with life giver is big plus for low level no-war OGs.
what items will i need?
well, health and endurance are just as important to you as focus/self and mana, so look for gear that will bump these attributes. life magic buffs are also nice. rending wands will not help you, and don't waste your time with war wands. i have heard that high spellcraft wands come in handy for fighting drain resistant creatures, but i have found them to be far too slow in their windups and get resisted way too often. i don't really play with too many items on my mages, and janus is still in her low 30's and is just getting to the point where she can use different items. the only item she can't live without is her raishalra's collar.
is there anything i shouldn't do?
this template offers you a tremendous amount of flexibility in your skill selections, so while your possibilities are endless, here are a couple of moves that i considered to be mistakes with janus:
1) war wands, i gave janus a whole suite of explorer wands, and they were resisted by just about everything over 15th level. later i trained lore and tried to get her skill up to use 100 dif wands and found that it was a complete waste for me. the only war wand that i would be intersted in for janus is the weeping wand, since it has nice buffs and a very high level war spell to use in dire situations agains stuff you can't drain.
2) healing, i took the healing skill with janus and found that it didn't fit with her playstyle. naihanchi, my other mage, has war and he uses healing to great effect since he kills so much quicker in comparison. for janus, it was just something you do once everything is dead. she almost never used it during an actual fight.
3) casting heal self in combat, this spell is great to use after a fight, or on other people, but to restore yourself in battle you will want to rely on drains and low level stam2health. the exception to this rule would be when facing a missiler or spell caster that you can't get close enough to drain, then you will use heal self to recover health for your lifebolts.
4) casting harm, at the very low levels, before you put points in to endurance, you will find that hrm1 does more damage than lifebolt as a killing blow. this is pretty much the only time that will be the case. the combination of drains and lifebolts will pretty much always be more effective.
where can i read more on the no war OG?
the martyr mage guide was a big help to me as i figured out how to play janus:
http://vnboards.ign.com/AC_Magic_Shop/b5145/56311757/p1
here are some variations on the no war OG theme:
hwa rang is spec'd creature and life magic and trained in UA, healing, item, manaC and meleeD. i call him the kickboxing OG. hwa uses imperils and vulns to soften up enemies, and even debuffs creatures that he has trouble hitting. he can yield creatures thanks to his high critter skill, so he is able to land spells on creatures that would normall resist him. while imping big groups he uses drains keep himself going until he switch to melee mode. because he is also a melee, he is a lot tougher than a "real" mage, so he does better against things that mages don't like to fight, like bugs.
moy fa kuen will (soon) be spec'd life magic and axe, and trained creature item, manaC, and meleeD. he is one credit shy of specing axe, and should be essentially complete at 40th level. he uses imperils and vulns to knock enemies down very quickly, and drains stamina mostly since swinging that big axe wears him down pretty fast. he does most of his draining on the last creature standing.
hwa is an OG first and a melee second, and since UA doesn't do much damage, he uses imperils and vulns a lot more. thanks to using an axe, moy can kill faster, especially if he has imperiled a target. he does not often use vulns unless he is fighting a creature that is significantly above his level.
for both toons, if they cannot hit a creature with their weapons, they still have the option of using lifebolts and drains to kill with. both of these guys are not as powerful as a pure mage or a pure tank of the same level, but are a lot more versatile.
note: both hwa and moy do have the heal skill, but really only use it while they have their shields up and their weapons in their hands. they both drain when they have their wands up.
i would like to try a life/archer or OG crossbow template to see what that would be like, but the templates i have tried thus far have not been effective. i also have a life/dagger tank, but again i have have not found a template that has worked well for me just yet.
also known as the martyr mage, the vitamancer, or the war cleric, the no-war OG is a very challenging, and in my opinion, one of the funnest mage templates to play.
is life without war magic the life for me?
if your chief complaint about playing a mage is fluid management (keeping your health, stamina and mana at usable levels), or you are still cheesed about the great nerfing of all drains, then this is not the template for you.
if you are looking for the ultimate in challenging templates, you are bored with blowing things to bits with your battle mage, or wish there was someone to provide support for your hunting expeditions, this template might be worth checking out.
why on earth would i do this to a mage?
1)to learn the intricacies of fluid management: playing a no war og for 30 levels is like getting a doctorate degree and a blackbelt in fluid management. once you get the hang of the no-war og, keeping your fluids topped off on your battle mage or war caster will seem like child's play.
2)because sucking the life out of monsters and spitting it back at them is gross... but surprisingly fun.
3)after taking so long to kill monsters, using war magic again will make you feel like a god.
so what do i do?
there are only two hard fast rules for rolling your no war OG:
first you need to spec life magic. it is your first line of offense, and your first line of defense, so you want your life magic skill to be as high as possible. you will use protects to keep you from sustaining damage, drains to weaken your enemy and recover your fluids, and lifebolts to kill your enemies.
second, don't take war magic. if you take war magic, you can't really call yourself a no war OG. if you think a mage isn't a mage without war magic, this is not the template for you.
what about attributes?
that is a matter of preference, but you will generally want to max out focus and self and favor endurance over strength. the higher your health, the more damage you can do with lifebolts and drains, and stamina will serve as the reserve for both health and mana.
here are some good starting examples:
balanced: 40 str, 50 end, 10 cor, 20 quick, 100 foc, 100 self
aggressive: 30 str, 70 end, 10 cor, 10 quick, 100 foc, 100 self
extreme: 10 str, 100 end, 10 cor, 10 quick, 100 foc, 100 self
for my no-war OG, i went with 100's for endurance, focus and self.
as you decide between strength and endurance you are essentially choosing between armor and firepower. more endurance means more health and stamina, harder hitting lifebolts, higher capacity for draining, and more reserves to be converted to mana. more strength means armor and possibly the ability to melee. armor will help protect you, but so will your life protects. you may want to get a set of lighter armor and then bane it to make up the difference in AL. also, losing health just a fact of life for the no-war og. if you get hit, just drain it back, that ought to teach them not to hit you.
ok, what skills should i take?
to be a no war OG, the only skill you must have is life magic. spec'ing creature is worth considering for a number reasons, but your main one will be magic yield, since having your lifebolts and drains resisted will get you killed quickly.
not taking war magic leaves you in a unique position. you are a mage, with all the assets and liabilities that go with it, but you have an extra 16 credits at creation. with those extra credits you could do one of the following:
1) specialize a bunch of other mage stuff: like critter, manaC, magicD, or lore
2) train a bunch of other not-exactly-mage stuff (attributes permitting): like lockpick, meleeD, or even a weapon. note: you will probably end up with a high endurance and focus, so armor tinkering and/or alchemy (trade health and mana potions) might be nifty choices.
for my no-war OG, i chose to specialize life magic, creature magic and manaC, and now that she's in her 30's she has enough credits to specialize magic defense (after dumping lore) with her protects and banes at level5 she really only gets chewed up by war spells and chain casters, so MagicD is her next line of defense.
just how does a mage with no war magic kill stuff?
naturally, drains and lifebolts are going to be your primary weapons. you will use lifebolt (martyr's hecatomb) for your ranged attacks, and drains at short range, or when you are getting mobbed. there are a few basic rules to keep in mind with these tools:
life bolt basics:
1) lifebolt dumps a quarter of your current health into a bolt and deals a percentage of damage based on the amount of health drained from you.
2) the more health you have, the more damage your lifebolt will deal. lifebolts as less than half health are both dangerous and ineffective.
3) the higher the level of the bolt, the more damage you will deal.
4) you lose the health the instant you fire the bolt. if the bolt is resisted or misses, you still lose the health.
5) damage is based on your health at the moment you fire the bolt, so if you get clobbered during your wind up, you aren't going to do as much damage.
drain basics:
1) drains deal damage to a target, up to a certain limit, then return a percentage back to you.
2) the amount of damage a drian does is limited by the health the drain returns to you.
3) the less health you have, the more damage you will deal.
4) the less health your victim has, the less damage you will deal, and the less you will get back. i call this this the law of diminishing returns.
5) drain health I drains a maximum of 30 health returns 200% of the health you drained (to a limit of 60), so it will return a lot more than you drained.
6) drain health III drains a maximum of 75 health and returns 133% of the health drained (to a limit of 100), so it will do a lot more damage than drain I, use this drain to knock enemy's down and give you a little back.
7) the range on drains is short. the effective range for drain I is essentially melee range. this is the drain to use when you are getting pounded in a mob. the animation is fast and the health return is high for such a small amount of mana.
generally, you will start your attack with a lifebolt, then drain to recover health, then bolt again. if it's still alive, then drain again and lifebolt. use drain3 when your target is at relatively high health, and drain1 when you or the target are getting low on health. at a certain pnt drain wil stop returning anything and you are just spamming you will finish your target with a lifebolt. you will want to drain for stamina and/or mana during the attack sequence. you can use stam2man and stam2health to level off to be ready for your next target.
the returns for draining mana directly will vary based on the creatures you are fighting. magic based creatures like undead, virindi and dolls are good sources of mana. melee oriented creatures like lugians and drudges are good for stamina, but not good for mana. use drains as your primary means of recovering health and mana, and keep stamina as a reserve.
when it comes to fluids, don't be obsessive about keeping them maxed. thanks to lifebolts your health is usually going to be at 50-75%, and your other fluids are going to go up and down as your fight progresses. keep a few health/stamina/mana potions (not too many due to burden) in case you are completely empty and need to recall quickly or you get hit suddenly for a lot of damage.
so what do i hunt?
in general, you will want to hunt all the things mages normally hunt, or you will want to support a group of fellows.
if you are supporting a group, you will want to toss imperils/vulns around, and heal/revitalize your fellows. You will use drains primarily to keep yourself functional. in this mode, if you are not taking loads of damage, your primary concern will be to keep enough mana to keep casting. if you are fighting creatures that you can't drain for mana, then use stamina and health drains to keep your fluids up, then stam2mana and health2mana. if you are also supporting a war caster, you may need infuse mana, which will compound your mana issues. this may not sound like much help to a group, but if your melees and war casters don't have to pause their attack sequences to heal, down potions, or restore mana, they will kill much faster. also, if you are draining the enemy and replenishing your fellows, their supplies of potions and heal kits will last longer. supporting a group of melees is the best way to help out against stuff you are going to have trouble killing, like olthoi.
if you are hunting solo, you will want to hunt the usual mage fare, golems, drudges, and stuff out in the open. you may find you level faster supporting groups of melees, but soloing dungeons with relatively fast spawns will really help you learn to to manage your fluids in the heat of battle. this is imortant becuse you will need to keep yourself afloat to support others.
how difficult is this template to play?
this template is very hard to play in the beginning, and may need some help getting to 15th level. once you can cast level 3's reliably, you are ready to solo. there is an old technique called wall-licking where you crawl thru dungeons and drain/harm creatures to death thru walls and doors. this may help you some as you get your numbers up to a playable level, or you may want to find a melee to buddy with. once you are at 80 health you should be life bolting for around 20pts of damage with full health. low diff endurance and health jewelry will also help you. raeta's necklace, and anything with life giver is big plus for low level no-war OGs.
what items will i need?
well, health and endurance are just as important to you as focus/self and mana, so look for gear that will bump these attributes. life magic buffs are also nice. rending wands will not help you, and don't waste your time with war wands. i have heard that high spellcraft wands come in handy for fighting drain resistant creatures, but i have found them to be far too slow in their windups and get resisted way too often. i don't really play with too many items on my mages, and janus is still in her low 30's and is just getting to the point where she can use different items. the only item she can't live without is her raishalra's collar.
is there anything i shouldn't do?
this template offers you a tremendous amount of flexibility in your skill selections, so while your possibilities are endless, here are a couple of moves that i considered to be mistakes with janus:
1) war wands, i gave janus a whole suite of explorer wands, and they were resisted by just about everything over 15th level. later i trained lore and tried to get her skill up to use 100 dif wands and found that it was a complete waste for me. the only war wand that i would be intersted in for janus is the weeping wand, since it has nice buffs and a very high level war spell to use in dire situations agains stuff you can't drain.
2) healing, i took the healing skill with janus and found that it didn't fit with her playstyle. naihanchi, my other mage, has war and he uses healing to great effect since he kills so much quicker in comparison. for janus, it was just something you do once everything is dead. she almost never used it during an actual fight.
3) casting heal self in combat, this spell is great to use after a fight, or on other people, but to restore yourself in battle you will want to rely on drains and low level stam2health. the exception to this rule would be when facing a missiler or spell caster that you can't get close enough to drain, then you will use heal self to recover health for your lifebolts.
4) casting harm, at the very low levels, before you put points in to endurance, you will find that hrm1 does more damage than lifebolt as a killing blow. this is pretty much the only time that will be the case. the combination of drains and lifebolts will pretty much always be more effective.
where can i read more on the no war OG?
the martyr mage guide was a big help to me as i figured out how to play janus:
http://vnboards.ign.com/AC_Magic_Shop/b5145/56311757/p1
here are some variations on the no war OG theme:
hwa rang is spec'd creature and life magic and trained in UA, healing, item, manaC and meleeD. i call him the kickboxing OG. hwa uses imperils and vulns to soften up enemies, and even debuffs creatures that he has trouble hitting. he can yield creatures thanks to his high critter skill, so he is able to land spells on creatures that would normall resist him. while imping big groups he uses drains keep himself going until he switch to melee mode. because he is also a melee, he is a lot tougher than a "real" mage, so he does better against things that mages don't like to fight, like bugs.
moy fa kuen will (soon) be spec'd life magic and axe, and trained creature item, manaC, and meleeD. he is one credit shy of specing axe, and should be essentially complete at 40th level. he uses imperils and vulns to knock enemies down very quickly, and drains stamina mostly since swinging that big axe wears him down pretty fast. he does most of his draining on the last creature standing.
hwa is an OG first and a melee second, and since UA doesn't do much damage, he uses imperils and vulns a lot more. thanks to using an axe, moy can kill faster, especially if he has imperiled a target. he does not often use vulns unless he is fighting a creature that is significantly above his level.
for both toons, if they cannot hit a creature with their weapons, they still have the option of using lifebolts and drains to kill with. both of these guys are not as powerful as a pure mage or a pure tank of the same level, but are a lot more versatile.
note: both hwa and moy do have the heal skill, but really only use it while they have their shields up and their weapons in their hands. they both drain when they have their wands up.
i would like to try a life/archer or OG crossbow template to see what that would be like, but the templates i have tried thus far have not been effective. i also have a life/dagger tank, but again i have have not found a template that has worked well for me just yet.
RECYCLED: why chris hates everone who is not PH
recycled from the PH boards, it's interesting to note that as a result of this post, laris bloodsong caught wind of her vassal's behaviour and i believe he got booted from his monarchy. i felt bad for the dude, but the irony is pretty funny, he bashes my clan cuz they're so small, and because the clan is so small, my little rant was overheard by his monarch and he got busted. what's even more ironic is i considered joining laris's clan not long after this incident when nom and i were looking for a new home. i ended up with opti's crew largely due to this conversation :-)
my friend tom just started playing AC, and we just wrapped up his first pincer run. we are hanging out by the lifestone and i am gettng ready to goto bed, cuz it's like 2am.
then this guy comes up and starts pimping us. which is fine, until he smack talks me, the way i am treating my vassal, and the clan i belong to.
i think if you look up the word crass in the dictionary, there is a picture of someone sitting there trashtalking your patron.
here is the transcript with some of the unrelated stuff cut out:
[open: tonishiki and ki' lin standing at the rithwic lifestone]
Seventh Cents says, "wacha doin?"
You say, "i'm getting ready to log, ki' is gonna go hunt some more and earn his patron some xp"
Tonishiki -)
Seventh Cents says, "lol"
Seventh Cents says, "that is not the way a clan should be ran"
Seventh Cents says, "is this person new?"
Ki' lin says, "thanx i need it"
Ki' lin says, "yes"
Seventh Cents says, "ahh"
Ki' lin says, "i am"
Seventh Cents says, "unless you are gettin a ton of help, you may just be in the wrong clan "
Seventh Cents says, "your not buffed"
Seventh Cents says, "hmm"
Seventh Cents says, "hold on, lemme find all my spells"
You say, "buffing the hellout of new payers in't the best wat to learn to play."
Seventh Cents says, "LOL"
Seventh Cents says, "of course not"
Seventh Cents says, "we only have the best quests every 2 days"
Seventh Cents says, "and our leader was a marine :O"
Ki' lin says, "a marine? huh?"
Seventh Cents says, "no, im just saying it tells you she is a very good leader"
Seventh Cents says, "for being a marine"
Seventh Cents says, "we have 4000 members"
You say, "how do you get 20 marines into a volkswagen?"
Ki' lin says, "tell there is beer inside"
Seventh Cents says, "and the best help"
You say, "tell them it's a bunker "
Seventh Cents says, "...."
Seventh Cents says, "bein a noobalator?"
Ki' lin says, "?"
Seventh Cents says, "well.. you could scare a whole army doin that"
You say, "sorry, we're both army vets "
Seventh Cents is casting Regeneration (Boquar Zhapaj)
[spell fizzles]
Seventh Cents says, "eesh"
Seventh Cents says, "forgot to buff myself ..."
Ki' lin says, "buffing will be cool, when i've learned to play without..."
Seventh Cents says, "heh"
Seventh Cents says, "i honestly use buffs to make the bots for the mansio"
Seventh Cents says, "n"
Seventh Cents says, "btw, you should get some armor that helps "
Seventh Cents says, "i supply my vassals with armor, but i dont spoil them"
Seventh Cents says, "*cricket* *cricket*"
[Allegiance] Tonishiki says, "what he is dong is called pimping"
Seventh Cents says, "ton, is that your main?"
[Allegiance] Ki' lin says, "i got that"
[Allegiance] Tonishiki says, "trying to hijack someone's vassals"
You say, "naihanchi"
Seventh Cents says, "that is your main? naihanchi?"
You say, "he's 40th"
Seventh Cents says, "lvl 40 eh?"
Seventh Cents says, "ahh.. the good ole times"
[Allegiance] Ki' lin says, "he can keep trying, i stick with those i know are doing ME good..."
Seventh Cents ) this is an xp chain bot and a buff bot
Seventh Cents says, "i mean xp chain toon, and going to be a bot"
Seventh Cents says, "just to help out granny she has 44 bots"
Seventh Cents says, "erm.."
Seventh Cents says, "4"
Seventh Cents says, "lol"
You say, "chaining must suck now that all the hand up XP has been nerfed "
Seventh Cents says, "are you experienced with vassals?"
[Allegiance] Ki' lin says, "i'm learning, not powergaming yesterday..."
Seventh Cents says, "hmm"
You say, "a bit"
Seventh Cents says, "my guy looks alot better without that bandana on.."
Ki' lin tells you, """"
Seventh Cents says, "toki, clan quiz, on a scale of 1-10, what is your clan rated?"
Seventh Cents says, "and, how long've you been playin?"
Seventh Cents says, "... so silent"
You say, "i'd give ita 10, i've been playing 9 months"
Seventh Cents says, "not bad, what does your clan do often?"
Seventh Cents says, "and does it have a mansion?"
You say, "yeah"
Seventh Cents says, "how many members?"
Seventh Cents says, "hehe, i made a bow toon and got him to level 42 in 1 day :O"
You say, "a couple hundred, thos not that many active"
Seventh Cents says, "hehe"
Ki' lin says, "bigger doesn't mean better"
Seventh Cents says, "you should come to my clan if you want and if you are on alot, give it a week or so, you get to do so many things"
Seventh Cents says, "tomorrow we are doing aer"
Seventh Cents says, "for the staff, the robe, and alot of xp"
You say, "BTW, i didn't show you the mansion yet"
Seventh Cents says, "hmm"
Ki' lin says, "I'M READY"
Seventh Cents says, "may i come to see it?"
[exit ki and tonishiki to the mansion. in an effort prove his clan does have a mansion and shut seventh cents up, tonishiki responds to the @tell from seventh cents. this act of temporary insanity was brought about by sudden exposure to excessive ghei-ness. meanwhile, seventh cents has now signed on as drudge killer, a lvl 54 mage, thereby proving that he is higher level than naihanchi, and therefore a better player. afterall, XP chains include only the smartest palyers amon their ranks.]
You say, "i always get lost here"
Ki' lin says, "what's this"
You say, "this is all stuff the clan has collected"
Drudge killer tells you, "ok, comming"
Drudge killer tells you, "sorry, my run is only 356 base"
Ki' lin says, "cool sword"
You say, "check out the sword onthe wall"
You say, "click on it and hit e"
Drudge killer tells you, "and this toon is only 54"
Ki' lin says, "i want one"
Drudge killer tells you, "well.. if you'd like an active clan around the clock that is always open.. please tell me"
Drudge killer tells you, "i am acepting vassals right now"
You say, "chrisha has a thing for dolphins"
You say, "so there are fish on lots of things around here "
Drudge killer says, "you have no bots?"
You say, "don't need them"
Ki' lin says, "what's witht the bots stuff"
Drudge killer says, "what.. do you guys do?"
You say, "this is the party room.. with all the lights"
You say, "hang on, i'm lost again"
[ki and tonishiki down in the dungeon, out of earshot from seventh cents/drudge killer]
You say, "double click the portal"
Drudge killer tells you, "um.."
Drudge killer tells you, "could ya stop ignoring me?"
You tell Drudge killer, "sorry, we're in the dungeon :-0"
Ki' lin says, "simple yet elegant, i like"
You say, "there are chests here to stash stuff... naihanchi has access to them"
Drudge killer tells you, "your vassal doesn't know how to respond.."
Ki' lin says, "cool, how do u get access"
Drudge killer tells you, "would you like to think of relocating?"
Drudge killer tells you, "im just being honest, your clan looks like its disbanded"
You say, "no, i'm happy with this clan."
You tell Drudge killer, "no we're just small."
Drudge killer tells you, "and the matinence hasn"
You tell Drudge killer, "i can get helpif i need it."
Drudge killer tells you, "hasn't been paind"
Drudge killer tells you, "paid*"
Drudge killer tells you, "in under 30 days.. you will lose ya alligence"
Drudge killer tells you, "unless somone pays it...."
Ki' lin says, "why would i want to leave? Just because someone else says so, i think not..."
You say, "yeah, he's a tool"
Drudge killer tells you, "you sure that you dont want to check out ours?"
Drudge killer tells you, "its basicly right now the best rated on solclaim"
Drudge killer tells you, "4500 members"
You tell Drudge killer, "yeah i'm sure."
Ki' lin says, "what's with the couch"
Drudge killer tells you, "and if you need help, BANG ya got it "
You tell Drudge killer, "see, i can name all the active members, i've talked to them, and we're friends"
[Allegiance] Ki' lin says, "it says evil couch?"
You tell Drudge killer, "ki is my firend, we were inthe army together."
Drudge killer tells you, "you should teach him how to use bots at the marketplace.. and how to use the trade bots.."
You tell Drudge killer, "we are all friends. why would i want to be part of clan with 4500 peopel that i don't know?"
Drudge killer tells you, "it takes time to meed them all"
You tell Drudge killer, "iknow the monarch IRL."
Ki' lin gives you Velvet Pants.
You tell Drudge killer, "she's asleep in the room right next to me."
Drudge killer tells you, "wow.. thats great.. i know every damn person almost in my clan.."
Drudge killer tells you, "haha dont think of anything now "
You tell Drudge killer, "same the allegience officers."
[Allegiance] Ki' lin says, "whats up?"
You tell Drudge killer, "that's what's great about small clans. we have other clans that we do quests with and stuff."
Drudge killer tells you, "then you are a dependent clan.."
[Allegiance] Tonishiki says, "i'm schooling this guy on fun and friendship."
[Allegiance] Ki' lin says, "cool"
Drudge killer tells you, "if you are not self suficiant... you will never be a real clan"
You tell Drudge killer, "and we do just fine."
You tell Drudge killer, "what is a "real clan" chaining and buff bots?"
[that person is unavailable]
Seventh Cents tells you, "no, a real clan is a clan that is self suficiant.."
You tell Seventh Cents, "if youask me it's a family."
You tell Seventh Cents, "and no i'm not intersted in leaving my family."
seventh cents then stops talking after that. maybe he's run out of bullcrap to sling.
my friend tom just started playing AC, and we just wrapped up his first pincer run. we are hanging out by the lifestone and i am gettng ready to goto bed, cuz it's like 2am.
then this guy comes up and starts pimping us. which is fine, until he smack talks me, the way i am treating my vassal, and the clan i belong to.
i think if you look up the word crass in the dictionary, there is a picture of someone sitting there trashtalking your patron.
here is the transcript with some of the unrelated stuff cut out:
[open: tonishiki and ki' lin standing at the rithwic lifestone]
Seventh Cents says, "wacha doin?"
You say, "i'm getting ready to log, ki' is gonna go hunt some more and earn his patron some xp"
Tonishiki -)
Seventh Cents says, "lol"
Seventh Cents says, "that is not the way a clan should be ran"
Seventh Cents says, "is this person new?"
Ki' lin says, "thanx i need it"
Ki' lin says, "yes"
Seventh Cents says, "ahh"
Ki' lin says, "i am"
Seventh Cents says, "unless you are gettin a ton of help, you may just be in the wrong clan "
Seventh Cents says, "your not buffed"
Seventh Cents says, "hmm"
Seventh Cents says, "hold on, lemme find all my spells"
You say, "buffing the hellout of new payers in't the best wat to learn to play."
Seventh Cents says, "LOL"
Seventh Cents says, "of course not"
Seventh Cents says, "we only have the best quests every 2 days"
Seventh Cents says, "and our leader was a marine :O"
Ki' lin says, "a marine? huh?"
Seventh Cents says, "no, im just saying it tells you she is a very good leader"
Seventh Cents says, "for being a marine"
Seventh Cents says, "we have 4000 members"
You say, "how do you get 20 marines into a volkswagen?"
Ki' lin says, "tell there is beer inside"
Seventh Cents says, "and the best help"
You say, "tell them it's a bunker "
Seventh Cents says, "...."
Seventh Cents says, "bein a noobalator?"
Ki' lin says, "?"
Seventh Cents says, "well.. you could scare a whole army doin that"
You say, "sorry, we're both army vets "
Seventh Cents is casting Regeneration (Boquar Zhapaj)
[spell fizzles]
Seventh Cents says, "eesh"
Seventh Cents says, "forgot to buff myself ..."
Ki' lin says, "buffing will be cool, when i've learned to play without..."
Seventh Cents says, "heh"
Seventh Cents says, "i honestly use buffs to make the bots for the mansio"
Seventh Cents says, "n"
Seventh Cents says, "btw, you should get some armor that helps "
Seventh Cents says, "i supply my vassals with armor, but i dont spoil them"
Seventh Cents says, "*cricket* *cricket*"
[Allegiance] Tonishiki says, "what he is dong is called pimping"
Seventh Cents says, "ton, is that your main?"
[Allegiance] Ki' lin says, "i got that"
[Allegiance] Tonishiki says, "trying to hijack someone's vassals"
You say, "naihanchi"
Seventh Cents says, "that is your main? naihanchi?"
You say, "he's 40th"
Seventh Cents says, "lvl 40 eh?"
Seventh Cents says, "ahh.. the good ole times"
[Allegiance] Ki' lin says, "he can keep trying, i stick with those i know are doing ME good..."
Seventh Cents ) this is an xp chain bot and a buff bot
Seventh Cents says, "i mean xp chain toon, and going to be a bot"
Seventh Cents says, "just to help out granny she has 44 bots"
Seventh Cents says, "erm.."
Seventh Cents says, "4"
Seventh Cents says, "lol"
You say, "chaining must suck now that all the hand up XP has been nerfed "
Seventh Cents says, "are you experienced with vassals?"
[Allegiance] Ki' lin says, "i'm learning, not powergaming yesterday..."
Seventh Cents says, "hmm"
You say, "a bit"
Seventh Cents says, "my guy looks alot better without that bandana on.."
Ki' lin tells you, """"
Seventh Cents says, "toki, clan quiz, on a scale of 1-10, what is your clan rated?"
Seventh Cents says, "and, how long've you been playin?"
Seventh Cents says, "... so silent"
You say, "i'd give ita 10, i've been playing 9 months"
Seventh Cents says, "not bad, what does your clan do often?"
Seventh Cents says, "and does it have a mansion?"
You say, "yeah"
Seventh Cents says, "how many members?"
Seventh Cents says, "hehe, i made a bow toon and got him to level 42 in 1 day :O"
You say, "a couple hundred, thos not that many active"
Seventh Cents says, "hehe"
Ki' lin says, "bigger doesn't mean better"
Seventh Cents says, "you should come to my clan if you want and if you are on alot, give it a week or so, you get to do so many things"
Seventh Cents says, "tomorrow we are doing aer"
Seventh Cents says, "for the staff, the robe, and alot of xp"
You say, "BTW, i didn't show you the mansion yet"
Seventh Cents says, "hmm"
Ki' lin says, "I'M READY"
Seventh Cents says, "may i come to see it?"
[exit ki and tonishiki to the mansion. in an effort prove his clan does have a mansion and shut seventh cents up, tonishiki responds to the @tell from seventh cents. this act of temporary insanity was brought about by sudden exposure to excessive ghei-ness. meanwhile, seventh cents has now signed on as drudge killer, a lvl 54 mage, thereby proving that he is higher level than naihanchi, and therefore a better player. afterall, XP chains include only the smartest palyers amon their ranks.]
You say, "i always get lost here"
Ki' lin says, "what's this"
You say, "this is all stuff the clan has collected"
Drudge killer tells you, "ok, comming"
Drudge killer tells you, "sorry, my run is only 356 base"
Ki' lin says, "cool sword"
You say, "check out the sword onthe wall"
You say, "click on it and hit e"
Drudge killer tells you, "and this toon is only 54"
Ki' lin says, "i want one"
Drudge killer tells you, "well.. if you'd like an active clan around the clock that is always open.. please tell me"
Drudge killer tells you, "i am acepting vassals right now"
You say, "chrisha has a thing for dolphins"
You say, "so there are fish on lots of things around here "
Drudge killer says, "you have no bots?"
You say, "don't need them"
Ki' lin says, "what's witht the bots stuff"
Drudge killer says, "what.. do you guys do?"
You say, "this is the party room.. with all the lights"
You say, "hang on, i'm lost again"
[ki and tonishiki down in the dungeon, out of earshot from seventh cents/drudge killer]
You say, "double click the portal"
Drudge killer tells you, "um.."
Drudge killer tells you, "could ya stop ignoring me?"
You tell Drudge killer, "sorry, we're in the dungeon :-0"
Ki' lin says, "simple yet elegant, i like"
You say, "there are chests here to stash stuff... naihanchi has access to them"
Drudge killer tells you, "your vassal doesn't know how to respond.."
Ki' lin says, "cool, how do u get access"
Drudge killer tells you, "would you like to think of relocating?"
Drudge killer tells you, "im just being honest, your clan looks like its disbanded"
You say, "no, i'm happy with this clan."
You tell Drudge killer, "no we're just small."
Drudge killer tells you, "and the matinence hasn"
You tell Drudge killer, "i can get helpif i need it."
Drudge killer tells you, "hasn't been paind"
Drudge killer tells you, "paid*"
Drudge killer tells you, "in under 30 days.. you will lose ya alligence"
Drudge killer tells you, "unless somone pays it...."
Ki' lin says, "why would i want to leave? Just because someone else says so, i think not..."
You say, "yeah, he's a tool"
Drudge killer tells you, "you sure that you dont want to check out ours?"
Drudge killer tells you, "its basicly right now the best rated on solclaim"
Drudge killer tells you, "4500 members"
You tell Drudge killer, "yeah i'm sure."
Ki' lin says, "what's with the couch"
Drudge killer tells you, "and if you need help, BANG ya got it "
You tell Drudge killer, "see, i can name all the active members, i've talked to them, and we're friends"
[Allegiance] Ki' lin says, "it says evil couch?"
You tell Drudge killer, "ki is my firend, we were inthe army together."
Drudge killer tells you, "you should teach him how to use bots at the marketplace.. and how to use the trade bots.."
You tell Drudge killer, "we are all friends. why would i want to be part of clan with 4500 peopel that i don't know?"
Drudge killer tells you, "it takes time to meed them all"
You tell Drudge killer, "iknow the monarch IRL."
Ki' lin gives you Velvet Pants.
You tell Drudge killer, "she's asleep in the room right next to me."
Drudge killer tells you, "wow.. thats great.. i know every damn person almost in my clan.."
Drudge killer tells you, "haha dont think of anything now "
You tell Drudge killer, "same the allegience officers."
[Allegiance] Ki' lin says, "whats up?"
You tell Drudge killer, "that's what's great about small clans. we have other clans that we do quests with and stuff."
Drudge killer tells you, "then you are a dependent clan.."
[Allegiance] Tonishiki says, "i'm schooling this guy on fun and friendship."
[Allegiance] Ki' lin says, "cool"
Drudge killer tells you, "if you are not self suficiant... you will never be a real clan"
You tell Drudge killer, "and we do just fine."
You tell Drudge killer, "what is a "real clan" chaining and buff bots?"
[that person is unavailable]
Seventh Cents tells you, "no, a real clan is a clan that is self suficiant.."
You tell Seventh Cents, "if youask me it's a family."
You tell Seventh Cents, "and no i'm not intersted in leaving my family."
seventh cents then stops talking after that. maybe he's run out of bullcrap to sling.
RECYCLED: hwa rang's olthoi armor
yet another recycled post, this one from the PH boards about the lesser olthoi armor quest:
or... why you should only do quests with your family.
yesterday i got my first, rather painful lesson in coordinating quests with people outside of PH.
i was hanging around rithwic in my chinsy blue amuli armor when this newb swordie chick samed scrapy-doo asks me about getting the "red and white armor you have to be 20th level to get"
the prospect of getting new armor (anything above the al130 crap that hwa is wearing) was quite appealing, so i looked up the various armor quests on maggie's and i figured she was probably talking about the lesser olthoi armor. me being the sucker that i am with a soft spot in my head for swordie chicks, i say sure we can do that.
so hwa rang is 30th, and the quest is 20+ so i figured it might be tough, what with it being olthoi, but doable all the same.
just to be safe, i went to the market place and got some lvl7 buffs and we decided to go for it.
level 20+ my maybe 10 level 20's could do this quest. we did fine against the nymphs and the workers, but the matron straight kicked my ass. .. course i did something dumb, and dropped my shield to throw an imp or something on her, and i got drop kicked all the way back to the rithwic lifestone.
so we rearm, and this time i get my armor baned. so we go for it again, and again it's the same story, chew thru nymphs and get waffled by the matron
so i'm down one corpse, scrappy's down two. so i look in IRC and see stormy is on and ask him to give us a hand. here's where things take a turn for the worse.
stormy is good enough to meet us in arwic to begin the quest. i hook up with him a few minutes later and we wait for scrapy... and wait... and wait. all the while this dude is bugging me about needing my blue sollerets. over and over again, it's "i ned blu shos"
finally i tell him, "fine i'll give them to you when i get my olthoi armor."
scrapy can't get to arwic (which i lern after asking like 5 times), so i meet her at the market place and summon arwic for her. we are running *FROM THE DAMN MEETING HALL DROP* and she gets lost.
so finally, after keeping stormy waiting for like 30 mins (thanks again for your patience ) we all set off, me stormy, scrapy, and the blue shoes guy.
so we make for the first and oly portal in the journey, and me and stormy and blushoesguy are waiting for scrapy AGAIN. after a couple of minutes, i get a tell saying that she went into the wrong damn portal so i'm like "forget scrapy... let's roll."
somewhere on the run to the brood hive blueshoesguy disappears, and i get a tell from scrapy... i apologize for ditching her and tell her i'll give her her stuff back if she permits me. i have to buff at the entrance cuz the 7's i had ran out waiting fro scrapy, and we work our way down to the matron... this being my 3rd trip down.
when we get to the matron, stormy *destroys* her. i get my 3 pieces and we head down to the next one, just as my buffs are up. stormy lays waste to the matron and most of the brood, but she drops a piece i already had. while i'm buffing, the matron spawns and before i can pause nerfus and get my shield up, i'm dead again.
so i /permit stormy so he can recover my stuff and, having wasted enough of his time, we call it a day. i give scrapy her stuff and tell her we can give it another shot later on, perhaps when pandy can give us a hand.
*you'd think i'd have learned my lesson, but *no*
so a couple of hours later i sweet talk pandy into taking us. again, i have to personally escort scrapy to arwic. pandy is kind enough to buff us and escort us down. scrapy makes it this time without getting lost, and we are soon on out way down again. pandy is very particular about us not getting too deep into anything, and while we have loads of bugs to kill, she takes on most of the particularly nasty ones, and in the end we get scrapy her first 3 pieces, and head on to the two queens.
on the way to the queens, scrapy is asking how long it's gonna take and then has to go but pandy helped me thru to the end (who am i kidding, she killed everything and i healed/revitalized/infused her occasionally)
on the plus side, the armor is a big help for hwa, who's current hunting ground is the halls of methos (good draining for an OG, bad place to be with crappy armor)
the moral of the story? people who aren't PH just suck.
in the future (distant future now that i know what a pain it is) i'd like to do the run with my sword/axe guy. does anyone have some guys they'd like to get armor for? perhaps we can ge the big group necessary and do it the right way, rather than the wrong way like i did :-)
or... why you should only do quests with your family.
yesterday i got my first, rather painful lesson in coordinating quests with people outside of PH.
i was hanging around rithwic in my chinsy blue amuli armor when this newb swordie chick samed scrapy-doo asks me about getting the "red and white armor you have to be 20th level to get"
the prospect of getting new armor (anything above the al130 crap that hwa is wearing) was quite appealing, so i looked up the various armor quests on maggie's and i figured she was probably talking about the lesser olthoi armor. me being the sucker that i am with a soft spot in my head for swordie chicks, i say sure we can do that.
so hwa rang is 30th, and the quest is 20+ so i figured it might be tough, what with it being olthoi, but doable all the same.
just to be safe, i went to the market place and got some lvl7 buffs and we decided to go for it.
level 20+ my maybe 10 level 20's could do this quest. we did fine against the nymphs and the workers, but the matron straight kicked my ass. .. course i did something dumb, and dropped my shield to throw an imp or something on her, and i got drop kicked all the way back to the rithwic lifestone.
so we rearm, and this time i get my armor baned. so we go for it again, and again it's the same story, chew thru nymphs and get waffled by the matron
so i'm down one corpse, scrappy's down two. so i look in IRC and see stormy is on and ask him to give us a hand. here's where things take a turn for the worse.
stormy is good enough to meet us in arwic to begin the quest. i hook up with him a few minutes later and we wait for scrapy... and wait... and wait. all the while this dude is bugging me about needing my blue sollerets. over and over again, it's "i ned blu shos"
finally i tell him, "fine i'll give them to you when i get my olthoi armor."
scrapy can't get to arwic (which i lern after asking like 5 times), so i meet her at the market place and summon arwic for her. we are running *FROM THE DAMN MEETING HALL DROP* and she gets lost.
so finally, after keeping stormy waiting for like 30 mins (thanks again for your patience ) we all set off, me stormy, scrapy, and the blue shoes guy.
so we make for the first and oly portal in the journey, and me and stormy and blushoesguy are waiting for scrapy AGAIN. after a couple of minutes, i get a tell saying that she went into the wrong damn portal so i'm like "forget scrapy... let's roll."
somewhere on the run to the brood hive blueshoesguy disappears, and i get a tell from scrapy... i apologize for ditching her and tell her i'll give her her stuff back if she permits me. i have to buff at the entrance cuz the 7's i had ran out waiting fro scrapy, and we work our way down to the matron... this being my 3rd trip down.
when we get to the matron, stormy *destroys* her. i get my 3 pieces and we head down to the next one, just as my buffs are up. stormy lays waste to the matron and most of the brood, but she drops a piece i already had. while i'm buffing, the matron spawns and before i can pause nerfus and get my shield up, i'm dead again.
so i /permit stormy so he can recover my stuff and, having wasted enough of his time, we call it a day. i give scrapy her stuff and tell her we can give it another shot later on, perhaps when pandy can give us a hand.
*you'd think i'd have learned my lesson, but *no*
so a couple of hours later i sweet talk pandy into taking us. again, i have to personally escort scrapy to arwic. pandy is kind enough to buff us and escort us down. scrapy makes it this time without getting lost, and we are soon on out way down again. pandy is very particular about us not getting too deep into anything, and while we have loads of bugs to kill, she takes on most of the particularly nasty ones, and in the end we get scrapy her first 3 pieces, and head on to the two queens.
on the way to the queens, scrapy is asking how long it's gonna take and then has to go but pandy helped me thru to the end (who am i kidding, she killed everything and i healed/revitalized/infused her occasionally)
on the plus side, the armor is a big help for hwa, who's current hunting ground is the halls of methos (good draining for an OG, bad place to be with crappy armor)
the moral of the story? people who aren't PH just suck.
in the future (distant future now that i know what a pain it is) i'd like to do the run with my sword/axe guy. does anyone have some guys they'd like to get armor for? perhaps we can ge the big group necessary and do it the right way, rather than the wrong way like i did :-)
RECYCLED: n00b account of first AC game
this one is from the PH board and is about a year old. it is an account of my first time playing AC, with pandy as my monarch:
i played AC for the first time this weekend. this was my first time playing any MMORPG, unless you count muds, and in all it was a good time. i guess i spent about 7 hours playing and/or getting set up. this sounds like a lot of time, but not when you break it down:
5-5:30 pm, try to load game on aging desktop computer:
loading game: 5 min.
signing up for accounts: 10 min
downloading patches: left to buy potato chips after 15 minutes.
6-7:30pm, beat on old desktop to get AC to work:
rearranging PCI cards so scavenged 3DFX card will fit in PC: 10 min
talking dirty to 3DFX card to let PC boot: 10 min
talking dirty to windows 2000 to load video drivers: 10 min
talking dirty to the internet to locate win2k drivers: 10 min
talking dirty to driverguide.com to download only living copy of win2k video driver on planet earth: 10 min
climbing to top of water tower with desktop PC in order to hurl it to it's death after video drivers fialed to load: 10 min
stand off with police: 20 min
7:30-8 pm, try to load game on laptop computer:
loading game: 5 min
sgning in with created accounts: 5 min
downloading patches: 25 freaking min
8-9pm, create new character:
build character from stock template: 5 min
run around in circles figuring out controls: 10 min
run around training thing doing stupid missions: 45 min
9pm-12am, play actual AC:
game time before first death: 15 min
total number of deaths: 14
time spent running from monsters: 1 hour
time spent running back to where i died: 1 hour
time spent waiting for girfriend's powerful character to come protect me: 30 minutes
number of deaths while waiting: 2
number of deaths while being actively protected by girlfriend: 4
time spend fighting to keep up with girlfriend's character who runs at mach jesus: 30 minutes
time spent on guided tour of girfriend's home town: 30 minutes
number of deaths on guided tour: 1
i played AC for the first time this weekend. this was my first time playing any MMORPG, unless you count muds, and in all it was a good time. i guess i spent about 7 hours playing and/or getting set up. this sounds like a lot of time, but not when you break it down:
5-5:30 pm, try to load game on aging desktop computer:
loading game: 5 min.
signing up for accounts: 10 min
downloading patches: left to buy potato chips after 15 minutes.
6-7:30pm, beat on old desktop to get AC to work:
rearranging PCI cards so scavenged 3DFX card will fit in PC: 10 min
talking dirty to 3DFX card to let PC boot: 10 min
talking dirty to windows 2000 to load video drivers: 10 min
talking dirty to the internet to locate win2k drivers: 10 min
talking dirty to driverguide.com to download only living copy of win2k video driver on planet earth: 10 min
climbing to top of water tower with desktop PC in order to hurl it to it's death after video drivers fialed to load: 10 min
stand off with police: 20 min
7:30-8 pm, try to load game on laptop computer:
loading game: 5 min
sgning in with created accounts: 5 min
downloading patches: 25 freaking min
8-9pm, create new character:
build character from stock template: 5 min
run around in circles figuring out controls: 10 min
run around training thing doing stupid missions: 45 min
9pm-12am, play actual AC:
game time before first death: 15 min
total number of deaths: 14
time spent running from monsters: 1 hour
time spent running back to where i died: 1 hour
time spent waiting for girfriend's powerful character to come protect me: 30 minutes
number of deaths while waiting: 2
number of deaths while being actively protected by girlfriend: 4
time spend fighting to keep up with girlfriend's character who runs at mach jesus: 30 minutes
time spent on guided tour of girfriend's home town: 30 minutes
number of deaths on guided tour: 1
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
new blog
ok, this started off as just a post on my regular blog, but i decided to break it off into it's own separate one. here's hoping that i can continue to post here with some frequency.
i really shouldn't do this. i have a hundred other projects that are only half finished, creating a new website, however minimal, is not something i should be doing, but look at me, posting away, coding a new template and stuff. i have a DnD blog with like two posts in it... well, playing AC is easier than getting a DnD game together, just cuz i don't know anyone local to here that plays (and isn't completely nuts) plus i have been out of the system and they went and changed it, so AC is the wave of the future, at least until dungeons and dragons online comes out :-)
i really shouldn't do this. i have a hundred other projects that are only half finished, creating a new website, however minimal, is not something i should be doing, but look at me, posting away, coding a new template and stuff. i have a DnD blog with like two posts in it... well, playing AC is easier than getting a DnD game together, just cuz i don't know anyone local to here that plays (and isn't completely nuts) plus i have been out of the system and they went and changed it, so AC is the wave of the future, at least until dungeons and dragons online comes out :-)
first post w00t!
my descent into MOG addiction is now total. i am so hopelessly addicted to AC there is no hope for me. if it were possible for me to quit doing things like eating and sleeping all i would do is play AC. i resisted playing these games fro so long becuse i knew this would happen. not only have i become hopelessly addicted, but i have spread the disease to others. my friend nomadic is playing it too now, thanks to me and my corrupting influence.
my girlfriend, pandy, is to blame. she got me hooked. she doesn't play much anymore either. i was hoping that getting nom hooked would help ease the addiction, but i had no such luck. nom and i are now hopelessly hooked.
the game is populated by all types, but there are a large number of "powerlevellers" who sacrifice gameplay, learning, and even socialization (the three things i think make the game worthwhile) so that they can max their characters out in the shortest possible time. these guys get powerful spells from toehr people in order to fight far beyond their level, and even use programs to hunt for them, called macros, so they don't actually have to play the game to level up. these players are usually young (like teenagers) and they end up not learning much about the game that way. these guys are easy to spot, they have very high level characters with mismatched armor (why put together something that makes you look cool? being 100th level is cool enough), and they act like retards in game, talking trash and stuff like that. they also don't know their asses from a hole in the ground when it comes to playing the game, since they rely on buffs and tiems from other people.
normally i just snicker at people like this. they don't bother me, even if they are actively trash talking me. i will meet someone in their 20's or 30's, hunt with them for an hour or two, and then when i see them again in a week they are twice my level, which is fine, i just accept that i am a more avid role payer as opposed to a power gamer. i also like to play a large variety of characters, so while one person may have a level 70 something sword character after a year of playing, i have 4 characters that are 40th. i also reroll characters that suck, so many of the ones i have are on their third, or in the case of my archer, their 7th iteration.
since i started playing AC, i had been in pandora the hopeful's monarchy, the children of hope. they were a small clan, mostly inactive, and they had been playing for years, so they were mostly characters over 60th, far beyond any of my characters. so i got used to hunting and questing alone, without any assistance. pandy gave me some gear to get started with, but i pretty much was on my own, so i had top learn to take things at my level, and to play wisely since i couldn't get much help if i got myself in to trouble.
now that pandy doesn't play so much, i joined the monarchy of one of her friends, opti silmara. opti is great, and her clan is way more active than PH, which is lots of fun. the people are friendly, and her clan has lots of very high level people. before joining her clan, i talked to her about the fact that i am not a power leveller and if there are not many low level characters in her clan, i won't be of much help on quests and stuff. she said it would be cool and there would be a place there for me, and for nom, so i agreed to join.
opti helped me get a cottage (which is a nice status symbol) and has been great to nom. she even offered to make me part of the honor guard, something like the inner circle, for her group. i turned the honor guard down (which i think she might have been a little cheesed about) because asside from being the monarch's boyfriend, i was just another soldier in CH. there are more people with better qualifications to be leaders in that group.
with all that said, the issue of my level has come up a few times. i have made jokes about it, and played it off, but it's always there, to the point that opti appointed someone to help me get another 6 levels to the magical 50th mark on my highest character. it's not like gaining levels is bad in my mid, it's just that i want to earn my levels the right way, by actually playing the game. i suppose it's time i got somebody up to 50th, and i agreed to do it, but i would have rather made it there myself, and if i was going to need asssitance, i'd rather it came from somebody i know, like my patron who is a real life friend of mine, not some random guy from france.
so it looks ike it's time to break down and take a little assistance from somebody to hit the big time.
it's not like i'm selling my soul, i just want to stay self sufficient as much as possible, even if it means being a perpetual newb.
my girlfriend, pandy, is to blame. she got me hooked. she doesn't play much anymore either. i was hoping that getting nom hooked would help ease the addiction, but i had no such luck. nom and i are now hopelessly hooked.
the game is populated by all types, but there are a large number of "powerlevellers" who sacrifice gameplay, learning, and even socialization (the three things i think make the game worthwhile) so that they can max their characters out in the shortest possible time. these guys get powerful spells from toehr people in order to fight far beyond their level, and even use programs to hunt for them, called macros, so they don't actually have to play the game to level up. these players are usually young (like teenagers) and they end up not learning much about the game that way. these guys are easy to spot, they have very high level characters with mismatched armor (why put together something that makes you look cool? being 100th level is cool enough), and they act like retards in game, talking trash and stuff like that. they also don't know their asses from a hole in the ground when it comes to playing the game, since they rely on buffs and tiems from other people.
normally i just snicker at people like this. they don't bother me, even if they are actively trash talking me. i will meet someone in their 20's or 30's, hunt with them for an hour or two, and then when i see them again in a week they are twice my level, which is fine, i just accept that i am a more avid role payer as opposed to a power gamer. i also like to play a large variety of characters, so while one person may have a level 70 something sword character after a year of playing, i have 4 characters that are 40th. i also reroll characters that suck, so many of the ones i have are on their third, or in the case of my archer, their 7th iteration.
since i started playing AC, i had been in pandora the hopeful's monarchy, the children of hope. they were a small clan, mostly inactive, and they had been playing for years, so they were mostly characters over 60th, far beyond any of my characters. so i got used to hunting and questing alone, without any assistance. pandy gave me some gear to get started with, but i pretty much was on my own, so i had top learn to take things at my level, and to play wisely since i couldn't get much help if i got myself in to trouble.
now that pandy doesn't play so much, i joined the monarchy of one of her friends, opti silmara. opti is great, and her clan is way more active than PH, which is lots of fun. the people are friendly, and her clan has lots of very high level people. before joining her clan, i talked to her about the fact that i am not a power leveller and if there are not many low level characters in her clan, i won't be of much help on quests and stuff. she said it would be cool and there would be a place there for me, and for nom, so i agreed to join.
opti helped me get a cottage (which is a nice status symbol) and has been great to nom. she even offered to make me part of the honor guard, something like the inner circle, for her group. i turned the honor guard down (which i think she might have been a little cheesed about) because asside from being the monarch's boyfriend, i was just another soldier in CH. there are more people with better qualifications to be leaders in that group.
with all that said, the issue of my level has come up a few times. i have made jokes about it, and played it off, but it's always there, to the point that opti appointed someone to help me get another 6 levels to the magical 50th mark on my highest character. it's not like gaining levels is bad in my mid, it's just that i want to earn my levels the right way, by actually playing the game. i suppose it's time i got somebody up to 50th, and i agreed to do it, but i would have rather made it there myself, and if i was going to need asssitance, i'd rather it came from somebody i know, like my patron who is a real life friend of mine, not some random guy from france.
so it looks ike it's time to break down and take a little assistance from somebody to hit the big time.
it's not like i'm selling my soul, i just want to stay self sufficient as much as possible, even if it means being a perpetual newb.
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