Auberean Irregular (issue 13) Popcak rec
It was a subtle plan, head to the lost wish region of Osteth, meet up with said vassal and help them defeating the drudges, shreth and skeletons. Eeriest Elk arrived and headed to an area near the hunting grounds. It was an ancient fortress that was now overrun. Picking a hill top that was clear of danger he sat back and relaxed, the warm sun lulled him into slumber.
An Undead Shreath interrupted his repose with an angry swipe of its maggot infested paw. The Eerie one rolled with the hit the best he could, and struggled to his feet for a brief sprint. The shreath gave chase but proved no match for the Tonks Harpoon. The last manifestation of his siesta clouded mind snapped away into full consciousness. Something was wrong. He had felt this way before it was on Luminari. The cursed Shreath had poisoned him! He quickly searched his pack, no antidote remained, he recalled the ingredients, one of them should be resting on the corpse at his feet. With a sense of urgency bordering on panic he searched the Shreath but no undead slime was there. 'Curse the luck'! He shouted to the smokey breeze.
He looked about for the empowered drudges and shreths, there was naught but skeletons mounted, or reedsharks. He hefted his harpoon, noting its weight seemed heavier. The poison coursing through his veins was starting to enact its cruel revenge. Over the next rise there was one of the sickening drudges. It died before it took more then two steps. This one had one part of the antidote. "Now to find another of the undead Shreath" he intoned. Over the hills and valleys of the charred stricken land he hunted, Skeleton after Drudge populated the area, nary a shreth to be found. The poison started to weaken his stride and even his vision was blurring. "Not like this, not now" he bemoaned. This was not a noble warrior's death, this was a frantic search for a forlorn cure.
He could sense the steely jaws of death waiting for a ripe juicy bite of his vitality. Finally over a rise there stood a shreth. Through the poisoned haze he willed his arm to launch the harpoon followed by another. The shreth bounded towards him only to fall at his feet. A search later pulled the slime from the creature and Elk proceeded to make the potion needed to stave off death. As his arm started to raise the toxic mixure to his mouth the sickening laughter that had been in the back of his mind overwhelmed him and the lifestone on Omishan accepted his life.
At least this renewal broke the poisons hold upon him. Feeling the nausea subside he started the ritual drumming to recall that last portal. This time he would choose a better spot to rest. Like a nice safe treehouse! It was the exact moment as he was mid strumming the mystical rhythms and thinking that thought that the moarsemen attacked.
Popcak recap:
I logged in Grasp (human defender level 43) to find that Popcak was standing within earshot (read-shot?). With a hearty "hello," he explained about crashing the other night during the Dillo quest. When I asked if he wanted to finish it up, he jumped at the chance. We worked our way through some Eli, dillos and Shreths to the Banderling spawning point I know. In fact, the same one we had been to the night before. We arrived just as a Lugian was logging out, this left the spawn totally to us. Quite a boon! With a round of buffs and a few arrows we had the remaining Thrashers under Popcak's belt. It was very nice to be able to help him out with the quest I wrangled him into doing.
Ch-ch-ch-cha-Changes!
Well another round of possible tweaks in April is looming, the major of which is with the Feral Intendant, a specialized tree of the Tumerok Melee. The part in question is the gateway skill, or the first skill in the tree, required to move up the tree. Currently the skill is 'Iron Pincers.' This skill increases the user's base damage and decreases his or her natural armor. As it works now, it will stack with 'Leader of the Pack' which increases the user`s run and attack speed and decreases base damage. It also stacks with 'Lumbering Might' which increases the user`s natural armor and maximum health and decreases run and attack speeds. These skills could be balanced out to negate the negative effects. I read a detailed account of just how it should be done.
On March 18th this will all change and you will no longer be able to stack them. From a pragmatic point of view, it means your gateway skill becomes null and void depending upon which branch of the tree you take. The new change being debated is to change the gateway skill. One idea is to create a new skill called 'Poacher' that gives you a weapon buff with bonuses for certain creatures, namely; Reedsharks, Beetles, and Shreths. The negative on this approach is that after level 12 you're not going to be fighting many reedsharks or beetles. This could be changed by adding level 40+ beetles and reedsharks into the game.
The other suggestion is to take a very popular FI (Feral Intendant) skill, 'Reap' and make that the gateway skill. This is a very powerful melee attack that drains some of the target's health and gives it to the user. This is a vampiric drain that provides 200% of the damage back into a Feral. This skill has allowed Ferals to become the uber critters they are. This further is the reason why most Ferals have Beetles as pets. The plan is to change the reset timer on Reap and lower the amount you can gain back to 100%. In order to survive an attack you will have to hit harder than the creature on you and dodge quite a bit.
The bottom line is the Feral is going to be taken down a notch or two. While I see them still being near the top of the food chain, Zealots might be the way of the future.
Makes you wonder what changes can be coming your way soon.
Sy Black, have pet, will travel:
My Vassal, Sy Black, has been spending a lot of time on Omishan, learnining the in's and out's of AC2. He got to his mid 20's and inquired if he should take Paragon. Checking, I found out that he didn't have his Grandmastery up to 50 yet. I suggested he hold off on Paragon till then. In looking around the various skill trees, he wondered what skill would get him a pet. This, of course, is the Ranger tree. Next thing I know, there is a swirl of green arcane symbols and a lasher appears. We trotted off hunting moarsmen. The more he fought the better he liked his 'dog.' As he was in combat I got to thinking, the Ranger has Dual Wield capabilities. Sure enough, he was using twin blades a bit later. This made a rather middle-of-the-road human melee with mage buffs into a rather interesting character.
Wrong Glyph:
My patron, Caerie, has hit level 50 and as such has started up a Lugian melee to try some of the other side of things. She announced that she was forming a party to do the Drudge Citadel and wanted some adventurers to join in with her. The only one on my account that is ready for such an adventure is Connor, my son's 'zerker. I made sure he wasn't around and logged him in. I needed to secure a Glyph and was told the fastest way is to head to Rithwic and do the Watchman's Journal quest. My son and I had teamed up behind the keyboard to get him a mount, so with 50 gold less in my pouch we rode off into the dank, humid, misty realm known as the Drudge Citadel region along the Cavendo portal ring. It lived up to the hype in all the travel brochures; 'Come visit the Drudge Citadel, see interesting sites! Find exotic treasures! Meet interesting Drudges, and Kill them! I recall in Beta this vault was daunting, mostly due to the lag for the final portion of it. The mounts have made the journey to the vault much easier. You always used to be able to reach the bridge near the spine fort with cautious ease; now it's faster. What you do at this point is where it's interesting.
My first journey through in Beta, we stormed the fort with a level 40 Lugian leading the way. He cut a swath and we followed in his wake. This turned out to be one of many methods there are for reaching the vault. Let's outline the methods:
Brute force: You get a group with a couple of higher level ringers, fight your way across the bridge and up the hill to the fort. In the courtyard you slay the drudges and make your way up the spine path. At the huge skull you again kill the drudges and make your way into the vault proper. Inside, you kill the one remaining mystic and enter the dungeon.
Force and Finesse: You and your group fight your way across the bridge and up the hill to the fort. At the fort you skirt the denizins inside by following the inner court wall to your left as you pass through the gate, this leads up a steep but climbable area that puts you a stone's throw from the vault entrance, go inside and kill the one remaining mystic and enter the dungeon.
Finesse: You head around, bypassing the bridge by going between the stream and the wood pole fort south of you. You make your way all the way around the backside and head up to the ledge with the waterfall, cross the fall and come up next to the Dungeon entrance and kill the one remaining mystic and enter the dungeon.
Oh, if you did the Rithwic Watcher's Journal quest to get the Drudge Citadel glyph, you were wrong! The Watcher gives out the Mad Crone and Prosper glyph. So now your son's Lugian 'zerker has ridden all that way for NOTHING! Recall and log out. At least that's what I did. Talk about embarrassing! I didn't even think to look at the glyphs so I'm left standing at the entrance and let the party down (who actually did fine without my aid). I should have let my five-year-old play him!
9k the easy way:
Sy Black and I were on the shores of the Vesayan Isles, hunting Burun on behalf of the Moarsmen. This shows you the dirty underhanded dealings that really go on behind the scenes of AC2. You see, the Moarsmen Chief has a dying curse that he puts on you to help kill the Burun. Seems they don't want to sully their dainty flippers. Not only is their Chief willing to die to force you to kill the Burun, he curses you as well! Imagine that Ronald McDonald wants you to eat more Filet-o-fish sandwiches, so he attacks you and dies; with his dying breath, he curses you to eat so many sandwiches in a day. Am I the only one who sees the logical flaw in this? Moaronald McChief is DEAD and doesn't care about anything anymore! Is there some motivation from beyond the grave to see Filet-o-Burun sandwiches eaten? I think not! While I'm thinking of it, why do the Mimbu and Sclavi have such animosity towards each other? They come from the same breeding stock!
But, I digress. Sy and myself finish off the last Burun, Sy levels (woot!) and then we head off to Ikares. It seems a member of my guild (Isamear) was looking for 9000xp to get out of the hell that is level 18. He is a Tonk Zealot and has some nifty new hand blades, but he needs one more level to use them. The Broken Totem quest is quite an easy run for Grasp, my defender. So I offer to run the quest to offset some of the leveling blues. Sy, of course, agrees to come along with Doggie and twin blades in tow.
The quest is a pretty easy affair now due to two things, mounts and the portal not being tie able. The first is obvious, you have to run to the Dungeon and mounts get you there that much faster. The second isn't as obvious, so I shall endeavor to elucidate. In the past, if you wanted the run-buff afforded you via this quest you would have to either opt to Lifestone in Ikeras (a long run from Linvak) or just do the full run both directions. Even with mounts, the ride back just seems a pain in the tukus. You couldn't just portal recall because then you're only at the top of the dungeon and have to ride back to the portal anyway, and the Linvak LS is too precious to loose that often. With the upcoming Ikeras recall spell, this portion will become moot as well. We recalled and ran back to the Totem, I turned in the gem and Isamear leveled.
What of da Tonk?
Elk has been sidelined as of late, mining wood and iron for armor. I really would like to get his abilities to tier 8 so he can make himself some nice armor. I only log him in to craft and mine at the moment. Don't worry - he is enjoying it.
Back in Linvak:
I had a Stoneshadow glyph burning a hole in my pack. I wandered over to the vault and dove into the entrance. The first Gurog I ran into used his 50-calibre machine gun to take me down. A quick ask around found no one ready to do that particular vault. After the March patch, I'll try it again. I was thinking of getting a dillo egg and timing myself when a call went out over the 'a' line. Tiny the Great was doing the Lodrogs quest, time was ticking down and he hadn't gotten the Conscript bone yet. Having failed that particular quest one time because of the same predicament, I headed out to the Thusik ring way to hunt one down. I contacted the party in question and laid out my subtle plan. While he finished off the Revenants in the Ossuary, I would find and kill Conscript Revenants until I successfully found a bone. He would then hightail his lugian bottom over to me while I held open the corpse, insuring it would not decay. Yeah, I can see the irony in not letting undead corpses decay.
I avoided the Ridge dillos and took out the Banderlings and Revenants in my own deft style. I was near one of the altars when I lured two Conscripts to me. I was close to the water on a crevice that ended at a ledge; good things these aren't Gurogs or else I would have been sent flying. Well, the first one toppled quickly and I moved on to the second, which had the bone needed. I contacted Tiny and told him I would hold the corpse open until he arrived or a spawn killed me. I meant it as a joke; obviously the Ridge Dillo that spawned didn't appreciate my keen sense of humor. I did not know if I would loose the open corpse by going into combat mode. Seeing as how the other corpse had vanished, I just couldn't take the chance. So I went into full defense mode and kept my heals and vigor restores coming. Over all I was able to keep up the pace. The Dillo must have been pretty frustrated by the time Tiny arrived. I told him to take the bone first, which he did. Then we both had a good time killing the Dillo.
At my current level I have two skill points awaiting a third. I am LS (Life Stoned) near Lodrogs tower. So I trained LS summoning and sent him off to turn in 'dem bones.' While leaving he mentioned that Swift was also in need of a conscript bone. Seeing as I was already all gussied up I figured why not, and the very next Conscript I found dropped a bone.
Seems as though sometime luck runs with me after all.
-EE
