Long Stretch Before Janurary Patch Day

Maaeel''s heart quickened and an evil grin spread across his face as the familiar purple swirl coalesced. Someone dared to be using HIS portal in Linvak this usurper would pay for such a bold transgression. As he backed off a few paces he barked orders for the twin healers to root the trespasser to the spot. Vines exploded from the ground binding the portal traveler to the spot. Confused the so called transgressor called out for peace. Maaeel yelled a second command and four warriors bravely fired arrows, chucks and spells at the now trapped Tumerok. Maaeels giggled uncontrollably as he closed allowing his sword to finish the job. "he wanted peace? I think he will rest in peace now!". Triumphant cheers erupted from the crowd of twenty, some heckling at the severe lack of prowess their latest enemy displayed. Others voiced disappointment for not getting their blows in on time. They all patted themselves on the back for defeating the lone level 30 Tumerok healer who was taking a portal tour to find his bearings. Maaeel absorbed the words of admiration of his flock, "surely" he thought, "this is yet another great victory for another great leader of men!"

A late introduction:

I have decided to name names. It will make it much easier for me to continue writing if I use the names of the people involved. So, a quick introduction is in order. My ''main'' character is Grasp; she is a level 37 Defender on Leafcull under Empath''s Monarchy. Eeriest Elk is my Tumerok, level 17. He is transitioning between a healer, zealot, and invoker; in short, a very messed up young Tonk. My son''s character is a Lugian named Connor, level 12. Connor will only speak when I''m at the keyboard, otherwise he tends to run around a lot and die swimming.

Grasp was my main lady axe-wielder from AC1, also on Leafcull and in the Silver Citadel monarchy. Eeriest Elk was an old four-school mage who was in TSC, but later moved to Guardians of Fire. I''m quite fond of these two and probably will continue using their names into the next century, willing them to my children''s children. And now, back to the journal. Oh, and pleased to meet cha''!

I logged in Grasp and inquired about my guild''s excursion to the Mage Academy. I was disappointed to hear that it had departed and been completed long ago. In checking, I found that I had misread the starting time, thinking it was PST when it was EST. Ah well, what is a player to do? I found myself in a quandary over what to do. I would try out some of the Linvak vaults, although I''m not sure about the level limits and I understand the xp for going through them is going to be increased as of the next patch. I give a shout out and find that one of my vassals has hit level 30 and is hunting around the beach near the Sanctuary. This gives me a destination and something fun to do. I end up taking a long time, due to real life events. Eventually I swim down a few waterfalls and reach the beach. As far as prowess goes, I think he is doing much better than I did when I was level 30. He was taking on all comers, solo, on that stretch of beach. If you haven''t been around that area, there are your typical Moarsmen and Burun, Reeshan, Myrmidon and Ruruck. We worked our way down the beach a stretch, Tex using a flail and I with a sword. It wasn''t until we reached one particular spot where we had any trouble. Our method was fairly simple. Tex would engage and I would hit them once with Interpose (this is a stunning effect). Then I would use heals and vigor restoration while he went through them like a daemon. The earlier real-life problem cropped up at a bad time and my vassal ended up being pummeled to death while my head was turned from the screen.

A bit chagrined, I apologized, but my hearty vassal would have none of it. I would have probably insisted, if not for the fact I was set upon by two Reeshan, myself. As I battled, I found that the spawn at this point of the island was fairly quick. I would drop one just after another spawned and at times one of the nearby creatures would stroll over for a few hits as well. I was doing quite well. Defenders are great at tanking. I started getting fancy and it got me into trouble. My vigor dropped to below 140. Now I faced a decision, should I run and get clear? Or should I stay and die? This isn''t the simple solution you would think it was. For one thing, the denizens of that beach are closely packed and running would mean getting a train going. Second, Tex was running towards me and being a defender, he could restore my vigor quite quickly. Finally, I really hate running from stuff I know I can kill. So with a bloody sword in a sweaty grip, I stood my ground. I dropped a Reeshan only to have a Myrmidon take its place. Two Myrmidons can hit fairly hard. I was evading and that was all that was keeping me from the lifestone. Gradually, the momentum switched to the Burun. My health was dropping slowly, but surely. I knew that death was coming. I dug my heels in and focused on dropping the Myrmidon. If I was going to die alone on that distant beach, I was going to take my antagonist with me. I saw my health drop below 100. Just a few more hits and he was dead as well. Another flurry and it was all but over. It was at this point that a ring of blue surrounded me, restoring my vigor well above the halfway point. With flying fingers I hit the laying-on-hands skill as on the screen Grasp dodged one more time. Following that spell up with a vigor restore, I was back up to full fighting form from the edge of death. It''s good to have a Defender like Tex watching your back.

Poor Tonk, dead Tonk:

I logged in Elk. He is in Cavendo after an abortive attempt to get the potions from Drudges. Hanging around 80% vitae, he is a rather pathetic thing. I started untraining the healer tree, mostly because being a healer solo sucks. I head off the Drudge Citadel ring and quickly get stomped by Gloom drudges. I then decide to portal to Shoushi and complete the Three Kingdoms quest to increase my vigor. It''s a running quest and pretty simple. My main hurdle was the fact I had no clue where the glowing figure that starts you on the quest is. I use the map and find the Three Kingdom forts near Shoushi proper, and I remember it was to the west a bit. I deftly dodge the Thornling''s blowguns. Man, I hate the tone those things make, a single tone followed by the spit wad smacking you in the face for twenty damage. After receiving the quest, I start hobbling along to the first kingdom stop.

I begin to contemplate the future for Elk. I hear a lot of good things about Ferals, they can solo fight well. Still, it seems everyone is a Feral. Maybe a Zealot then, they are not as common and some of the skills in their tree are intriguing. I click on the Melee Master skill and train it. I follow that with Tail Stance and move my way up the tree. Just as soon as I do it, I have buyer''s remorse. I have a Melee in Grasp who can tank and get into the person''s face tightly. Maybe I should look at Missle or maybe an Invoker. The Missile would be fun to have; I did enjoy using Grasp as an archer early on. I hear that Hive Master is very poor, yet there is always that monthly patch tweak to get them back up to speed. Still, I don''t know.

Back in vitae:

Trying to find a creature to solo on Linvak is quite a challenge at level 37. Let me amend that, finding a creature to solo that has decent xp on Linvak is the challenge. The creature that is the most fun has to be the Gurog''s. They taunt you verbally and smack you high into the air at times. I had tried to solo a Lackey and he just edged me out damage-wise. My wandering soul took me around Linvak searching for a group or creature or sight to see. In speaking with the leader of our Guild, Empath, I found he was setting up for an Icefire run and Leilia needed to kill undead for their bones. I got directions and had to print out the Linvak portal map on AC-maps. It turns out Leilia is on the Lodrog, the forsaken quest, to get a device that makes you invisible to the undead. In reading about it later, I find that it''s one of the long string of quests to take out the mage academy. Shi and Leilia are already well into the quest. I''m too low of a level at this point, so I''m tagging along for the heck of it.

Things are going well. The revenants in AC2 have this ungainly hopping motion that really doesn''t look like something an undead would do, or maybe it''s just the fact that I am tainted by Evil Dead movies. The tact is simple, find an undead, lure it away from other critters and kill. Between the three of us, they were falling well before anyone could even get hit. Then an odd chain of events happened. We had to move to a better location, after killing all the undead around Lodrog. We headed to Linvak Tukal (or Lagvak Tukal nowadays). Then we hit the Thusik ringway and ran to the hunting locale. I can''t recall how my first death occurred. I headed back to the general area and asked for a loc. I got one and started running there. Turns out I was still a good distance away. I was watching the coordinates on the radar more than the red dots, and as I hit the spot that matched their location, I had three large shreths on me. Back to the lifestone, recall and run. This time I use the blue lifestone protection very seriously and make a straight line to the location. I make it to them just as the blue halo goes away.

They are going to head across county to another nearby undead spawn. Next, the surreal happens. I see Shi running past me with a shreth following him. I have done the totem quest and it''s pretty easy to outrun them. Boom! Shi and Leilia are gone from sight and the Shreth is pounding me on. Back to the Lifestone (vitae count 90%). I head back to the last known location. Along the way, something kills my vigor. I mean, it drops to ten instantly. Various creatures are firing at me for 200+ a hit, and me with no vigor to heal, it''s back to the LS with all due haste. My two companions, no doubt getting tired of me leaving corpses, decide to head back to the original hunting grounds. This is about the time the fellowship chat decides to go offline. By the time I figure this out, I have died again (vitae count 80%). I''m getting fairly disgusted at my piss-poor performance now. Thank Turbine I didn''t have to go recover all those corpses.

In heading back to Lodrog, I spot a banderling. It''s been a while since I killed these, but I figure I could get rid of some vitae. I can''t (vitae count 75%). Now I''m fit to be tied. Leilia meets up with me and we begin hunting. I stay back and play healer. First kill I''m back up to 82 vitae. The next kill I''m up to 87. I decide to join in on the next kill. I charge in with blade drawn..... and quickly get owned by the undead. I log off and decide never to play AC2 again.

Tyrants and Golden weapons:

I log back in a few hours later. Raskal and Serafina are planning a trip to through the Weapons of the Golden Age quest. I have an amulet already. So it''s just a quick run to get the shard to mend it. This could be a lot more dangerous if it wasn''t for the fact that archers use this as a major perch point. Next is to run to the dungeon. It''s open air, which means you run straight inside, no portal. We meet up with Andy and Shadow and begin our decent. The Gurogs die at a good pace, and we make our way downstairs quickly. As we near the final gauntlet, one of our party dies, followed by myself. I make a dash for the dungeon in the hopes that I can get down to the bottom under lifestone protection. Just before the final spiral down, the blue halo gives out. Luck is with me because there is a group after ours working its way down. I got the sword last time, this time I get the flail. After the quest, we start hunting around the area. A lugian that had been along for the quest suggests we head to the Tyrants for some more experience. I haven''t seen a tyrant since beta, so I decide to come along for the ride. Tyrants are fun to watch and they can dish out a lot of damage. Their artificial intelligence has been mapped out by players and exploited. This is due to a few flaws in the AI that I''m sure will be addressed in the future. To kill a tyrant, you need to get it stuck on the landscape then have an archer fire from a long distance away. If no one closes on it, the AI doesn''t use the various magical abilities to kill that it has. I got hit and killed by one of its abilities after I had left the radar range. When I came back, I hear that no melee should approach it. I decided to be a melee. I charged and started on its flank. I was actually hitting and doing some damage. The crowd far below kept asking why it wasn''t attacking me. Then it noticed me and I barely got away with a 52 health. Tyrants are really good for losing vitae. I was almost back up full after two of them. Raskal, Level 40, longed for the days of level 37 when you could lose vitae so much quicker.

Camping PK scum:

I headed for the portal, intent on leaving the Tyrants and establishing my lifestone back at Stoneshadow. As I hit the portal, I noticed tactician walls all around me and before I could hit a key, turrets had killed me. Ah, PvP at its finest, camping portals for glory and pk points... I contacted my guild leader and told him where the tactician was. By the time we got to that location, the coward had fled, or hopefully got owned. Empath, our guildleader, had some shadows trouble getting to us. So we went to avenge him. Our group buffed up and headed into the group of portal campers lead by the Monarch Mael. As I joined in the initial skirmish, I found I couldn''t cast a heal or vigor restore. Without these two skills, a Defender doesn''t have much chance. I did almost nail a healer before Mael, himself, cut me down. I recalled and was slaughtered again. The next recall, I ran through the throng and was able to get clear. Being low on health, I tried to cast heal and found my character stopping mid-animation and standing stick straight up and down, unable to cast. Every spell I tried did this. Only after attacking a Banderling did I find my skills working again.

I worked my way around, wondering if my guild was going to come back for another go, when the before-mentioned healer came running at me with some of her comrades. I moved to get out of line of site, only to be tangled, then hacked to death by three of her courageous guildmates. All in all, I''m not too impressed with KvK. Having a large guild camping a portal and killing anyone who exits just doesn''t strike me as fair or a good time. My patron, Caerie, who is one of the more skilled PK''rs in our guild, believes that Melee is out of balance Pk-wise. Her lethal combination that will score over 1000 health off a mob, barely does over 100 on a feral who took her down in a few hits. I, myself, will be steering clear of KvK portals until I can bash the walls away.

Wither Healer:

I finally got my Tonk up to level 21. I decided, for the time being, to follow the healer line a bit further. Unfortunately, it continues to leave a bad taste in my mouth. I understand that a healer can take down a Tyrant solo. I have yet to see this. The more I try to hunt, the more I''m thinking I need to change to a different class. My thought was to make a team player, someone that would be required on a run. My defender is a tank and a healer and a melee. The Defender trades in raw power for amazing stamina. I know that bezerkers can do much more damage over time, but they die quick as well. The trick with a ''zerk is to kill before death. While hunting a tyrant, I stood back and kept filling a mage up with vigor for the kill. Decent support. In effect I HAVE a healer with my Defender. Maybe I need to unlearn the healer tree and go with invoker. Gah! Why isn''t this game locking me into one path that I can''t divert from??!!! Oh? That''s the beauty of this game? Ah I see. So I want an ugly game... heh.

''Zerker:
I have a wonderful four-year-old son. He has autism and doesn''t talk more then a few words. We have been making some great headway in getting him to talk, but still he is a good two years behind ''typical'' kids his age. He loves AC2. I made him a rather large lugian. I outfitted him as a fighter, and clear out the screen (using the / key on the numeric keypad). His favorite activity is to swim in the water and die. That and exploring every single stairway there is in a town.

I was tooling around the house when I noticed that he''d gotten bored and left the computer running. When I brought up the UI, I find that he not only has four quests going, but he is in a fellowship in the Cragstone Excavation. I hop in the seat and start killing drudges to aid the party. The group does well and we get the blueprints. My son''s Lugian is very close to level 14 now. I decide to clear out some of the quests he has gotten and end up at level 14. One more level and he can dual-wield weapons. This should make the dillos he tends to hunt fall even quicker. This Lugian of his has much better luck then my Tumerok does. I go on the warder quest and join up with a gung-ho bunch. We go all the way through the quest in fairly short order. The quest leader, Mercedes, has people stationed at the various points for quick quests, sending one person to the next point when possible. After turning in the illuminated drudge manuscript, I get the familiar glow and can now dual wield. The seven skill points saved up makes it all the sweeter. He may still die swimming but at least he can kill a Scowl Drudge.

Choo choo:

My guild had an impromptu get together the other night. It was in a Lugian town on Linvak and it involved a lot of standing around while waiting for other people to go someplace and/or do something. Fairly boring stuff. As we were waiting, the typical music was played with the various dancing. Yawn! Well, someone started doing the /gokart and soon a lot of us where putt-putting around. Someone had the idea to use the /follow command and we made a train. It was just one of those goofy things about AC2 that really brings a smile to your face.

Empty slot:

My account has one empty slot on Leafcull. I''m trying to figure out what kind of character to get. I''m leaning towards a human mage.

Thanks for reading and I enjoy the e-mails, sorry if I haven''t responded.