Changing and Changes

The warm breath issues forth from my lips, discernible in the dissipated too quickly. It is followed by the ache of inhaling the bitter dry air. There was no snow on the rocky brown earth and little vegetation it is, in fact too cold to snow. The wind slashes through my armor chilling my very core. Here within sight of the coast it comes from across the ocean mocking the sun overhead by stealing whatever warmth it promised. This was the desert island of Linvak, ancestral home of the Lugian usurped by the Gurog. It''s a cold rock covered land with some of the more ferocious beasts I have seen.

The unfamiliar weight of a sword in my right hand and a shield in my left I move and flex relentlessly to ward off the arctic chill. All around me is a group of hale and hardy warriors. Lugian tacticians building walls and turrets, Human Alchemists with their potions at the ready, Tumerok wielding hand knives and various mages of various skills and knowledge. We are all gathered against one foe, the Stony Armoredillo. Back in the vaults that once housed us Derethians I heard tale of the ''dillos'' that had once been feared. Over time that fear lessened as our ancestors learned to deal with them, soon they were less then a footnote although prized for their spines and thick leather coat. This creature is nothing like those told of the Silver age of Dereth. The archers begin luring the beast closer and I change my grip, heft my shield and close to engage. It stands a head taller then me. I witness an archer crumple dead to his knees from the cone of cold spewed from the rolling beast. My first few blows are ineffectual, then I find the hole in its defenses and score a deep wound. With a start the Dillo shudders to face me and with a bellow It snaps down hard. My confidence is shaken by the sheer damage this singular assault has done. Before I can react another hit nearly does me in. My patron has trained me well and that training is tested, drawing from the well of vigor inside me I summon forth a healing spell of ''bring peace''. This staves off death and gives me respite to break off my attack. I wind through the prong of people all hacking upon the, now doomed, beast and head behind the safety of a lugian wall. I recover quickly and I''m please at surviving my first encounter in this incarnation. It is more suited to my way of fighting.

Greetings from the future land of Auberean. Last night I succeeded in making it to level 30. It was both triumphant and disappointing. I feel my skills where not in balance with my peers. The creatures where getting the better of me in too many situations and I find the lack of skill choices too limiting. I started off as a human missle character. This actually served me quite well until around level 24. It was at this point when the need for good defense became apparent. In the Human Magical tree there is a spell called Encase it is high up the tree and costs a lot of skill points to achieve. This in turn grants you heal spells, vigor restore, and regeneration spells with a good duration. In order to get these needed commodities I had to sacrifice my Ranger skills for the time being and relinquish my pet Lasher Britney (I miss you Britney). After gaining the spells I noted that still my defense was lacking and fighting in close quarters meant closer and closer fights. It was on one particular outing on the Vesyan isles that I noted the potential that seemed to fill the need I was feeling. A female human warrior was doing quite well tanking a Serene Mossman. Even though this creature was well beyond most of my peer to solo, here she was holding her own to an impressive degree. I contemplated then finally decided to go melee. This meant un-training all of my current skills and re-training in a different tree. Something that I didn''t want to do when I started out the game. Go figure..

Well, this now became an interesting test of the AC2 skill system. Could I keep my skills in balanced to the point where I could successfully switch classes? I started with the lesser used or needed missle skills. Fire Arrow on down. Because I am spending a lot of time in fellow on Linvak I knew I could get by with only the basic bow attack and point blank skill if needed. So I started paring down until I got sufficient points to train the melee tree back up. Now I was a triple tree character, talk about jack of all trades, I was a magical defense, melee skilled archer. Not a very viable template, way too thin a spread to be considered for normal play.

So I started with the simplest ways of regaining the skill points un-training summon portal. Everyone on Dereth has the skill recall lifestone at birth. For an additional credit you can train portal recall, for two points you can learn summon portal and for an another two you can summon a portal to your Lifestone. Because you don''t put experience into these skills you can instantly un-train them. This means that if you keep two skill points in reserve you can switch between the summon spells almost at will. I had summoned portal''s to aid people in getting to Linvak. I myself had the ability to portal to Linvak due to an old friend, now my patron.

I quickly grabbed up a handful of skill points and started applying them to the Human Melee Tree. There is a set of three overall skills that aid you in utilizing the various skills. Melee Master, Melee Grandmaster and Melee Paragon. I was able to train up to the grandmaster and top both of these skills off at intensity 50. This in and of itself would allow me to transition to Melee. As I pared back my skills on the missle tree I was left with less and less options for fighting. Fighting was needed because you have to un-earn the xp put into any given skill. Once the skill is untrained the xp and the skill points are refunded to your general pool. It just takes time and quite a bit of effort. I had already decided to specialize in the Human Defender tree. It would replace my mage skills with more powerful versions of those spells. In training them I could begin to un-untrain my mage tree. Finally when the Defender skill "shield wall" was mine I placed my bow into a pack and pulled out my sword and a shield. With a few skills remaining to move over two I was ready to try out my melee prowess, as documented in the first section of this posting.

I had last left off in the Omnishan town of Zu, which is built on the remains of beloved Tou tou. I had fought the beaches there with Arduin Greymane, Tark and Thyrion for quite awhile. Arduin found a Burun encampment that was quite a swim away. There we had quickly grouped to fight the Browerk, Ruruk and Reeshan Burun. The Burun are the enemy of the Tumerok and despoilers of the land, they are slimy evil creatures that come in very different size and shapes, all dirty and wicked. This particular island has a sand dune that allows an avenue of escape. There is also a nearby isle that can be swum too in a true emergency. Using our bows (I hadn''t switched at this point) we would lure them and run back away until only one came to us. Then in a flurry of arrows we would bring it down. Usually one of our party would have such damage done they would resort to running a circle pattern while the rest of us would try to either kill it or grab its attention, with four archers the odds where in our favor by a considerable margin. Still we would find ourselves swimming back every so often.

I moved over to the Sanctuary on Vesyan isle, its rather spooky seeing the cathedral there reminding me of adventures now considered 10 generations ago. Here we fought Burun and Mossmen. These creatures are all huge in comparison to their old Dereth counterparts It takes a good-sized group to handle the spawn rate. I had worked my way up to level 25 now and solo hunting was still perilous on Omnishan, It was really designed for either groups or level 30+. A group dynamic is the fastest way to understand the potential of this game. Each race has different skill sets that function for individual and group. Everyone has a role that adds to the group when utilized in the right way. As always the more you know about your character the better you are at functioning in a group. Around this time I still had a lifestone on Osteth for two reasons; The Prosper vault and the Drudge citadel.

I logged in at Cavendo one evening to find that a group was heading to the Prosper vault. I was able to trade a Tou tou vault glyph for a prosper glyph and off we ran. The area around Prosper is some of the worst lag in AC2. I''m not sure why that is but its annoying. I reduced my graphics to bare minimum and helped kill our way to the entrance. We made it inside and the one goal from End of Beta that I didn''t achieve was done. I was feeling pretty good about myself so I headed to the Ghost of Rashan and accepted the drudge-killing quest. On the list the Murk Drudge live in only two spots. So I headed off to the Drudge citadel. This Vault is my favorite so far. You portal in and immediately know something is wrong indeed. The sky is dark even during the day and a dank mist covers the area. You have to work your way through the ruins of forts and carefully pick and kill your way along a large circular path. I found the lower path is easier for a solo. The canyon gives way to the remains of a large citadel. Through the narrow gateway there is the over run ruins of what must have been a great city. You then make your way to a tower-to-tower bridge. This is where it starts to get fun. You have to clear the area. Drudges pour out from all over. From there your assault takes you up a narrow path to the entrance of the citadel, but not the Vault. Now you have to cross a battlefield to an immense skeleton that maybe a gromnitross. It''s so huge that your actually running up through the spinal column tract of the backbone. At the top you see more drudges then you wanted to see and the Vault itself. We couldn''t clear it so we made a run for the vault and as luck would have it we made it in. Once inside our superior numbers made all the difference and soon the vault revealed its secrets to us.

I should note at this point that leaving the vault is death. The drudges are all waiting for another round and everyone leaves at various intervals.

With the last of the Quests done with, I changed my lifestone to Omnishan at the Sanctuary. While talking to a friend I found that they had reached Linvak. I arranged to meet at their lifestone and get a portal in return. Even at this point I have no clue where I am hunting in so far as its name goes. It''s a high desert town made of Lugian hewn stone houses and walls. The one accessible building opens to a plain that reminds me of Teth, save for the ocean inlet that forms a bay. Here there is spawns of Stony Armordillos, Floating Flayers, and Gurog. Even with two full fellowships we find ourselves being torn apart at times. It''s truly a series of epic battles and surprises. Just when you feel you have a good idea of what all the skills available do you find yourself seeing something you never saw before.

Well, I''m now well on my way hunting with my Patron and learning the ropes as a level 30 Melee Human Defender on Linvak. Unlearning the final vestiges of my old career and doing the quests on Omnishan on the side and still having a blast. My Quest points are among the highest I''ve seen. I still need to get my PK points going though to unlock the special kingdom skills that those points bring.

Thanks for reading. I look forward to reading any comments.