Personal and Ebon-Auberean Irregular 16

I know I usually start these columns with a story inside the world of Dereth. A lot has been going on lately. It's an interesting time in the world today. A few paragraphs down, I explain my own interesting times a bit more. This, however, is something that came to me at 1:30AM after a particularly long week. I knew a family; they had a daughter named Jill. I never had the pleasure of meeting her but I had heard a lot about her. Jill died at the age of 13 from cancer. She had complained about stomach aches and the doctors never took the time to find out why until she collapsed at church one day. Inside her stomach was a tumor the size of a football. It had grown for such a long time that even with an operation and various therapies there was not much hope for her. Jill may not have understood completely what was happening to her. She needed a wig as she lost her hair and loved life enough to keep joy and laughter in her heart.

She got very sick one day and her family was around her at the hospital. She woke up and asked the doctors to take out the IV and remove all the equipment monitoring her. They complied, much to the confusion of her family. Then for the next few hours, she talked and laughed and joked just like she wasn't sick at all. It was a surreal moment of joy, laughter and family. Jill then gave her love to her family and told them she was tired and needed to rest. She closed her eyes for the final time then. Feeling the loss of someone I never met may not sound all that rational. Still, hearing the story from her brother and sisters touched my heart in a way that I regret never having the opportunity to meet Jill face to face. Still, some part of me knows some part of her. There are so many important things around us and so many friends, family and those yet to meet, and you never know when that final moment will be and you will be separated. Yet it's one experience that links us all together, our mortality. Thank you for reading this indulgence of mine.

The Quest for Ebon Pyreals:
I had finally decided to go for the pyreals. This time out I started counting Gurogs. After one hundred, the 2nd pyreal came. The third one was lying on the ground unattended. The fourth and fifth came within the next ten or so and the sixth was given to me by a hunting partner. With that final piece in hand I was ready to rock. The ride to the Fetterghost Malga Dresovan was brisk with little danger. I had to kill a few mobs hanging around her, and then I got the quest. I had long since gotten the fire opal from the ossuary and a sword scroll, so the next ride was to the armory. I actually had been here before. A fellow player from ac2.warcry suggested this would be a better place to hunt for Lodrog's bones, and it was. I recently got all three bones in under 5 minutes. This means that Lodrog's is no longer the challenge it was and the ossuary is going to become a much quieter place.

The fight to the weapons golem (gear knight) was straight forward. Grasp, my level 46 defender, can fight a good sized group of them without trouble. While the defender class doesn't put a lot of damage out, they can dish out and survive in a steady manner until the last foe drops. I turned in the fire opal then turned in the scroll. Opened the recipe, dumped in six ebon pyreals and viola! I had a Linvak Soulbound sword which looks like a giant meat cleaver. Dang. I should have gotten the flail. Next there was a shard with lore that had been my main goal. It spoke of the Fetterguard and the final days of Dereth before we went to the shelters. It also inspired my 'the last fetterguard' stories.

Lore Gap:
We know how the kings fell and who was behind it. We know now who was behind the Gurog, Burun and Drudge's rise to power. We still need to uncover what happened between the kings battle and the migration into the shelters. We know that Bael'Zharon returned and the final battle tore up Dereth (the shattering) into three continents and that the pact between Lugian, Tumerok and Derethian (Isparian) lead them to settle on each of the three continents. The degree of contact and interaction between the groups is not known. We have a bit of information lore-wise but not nearly enough yet.

Too real a life:
I recently had a few setbacks. At my niece's wedding there was a portion of the reception that my daughter was to take part in. My five year old was keeping her busy in one of the back rooms of the church we were in, so I ran off to get her. In bounding up one of the small set of steps I tore my calf muscle. I didn't know it at the time and assumed it was a strain. After the pain subsided, I was able to walk and dance with limitations. The next week at work I took it easy and was feeling much better. Then midweek I decided to try stretching a bit - big mistake. I re-tore it open and the resulting trauma caused massive bruising along my lower leg. My sister (ex-nurse) kept bugging me to get it checked so I finally called in to the doctor and explained what happened to the nurse there. She sent me to the ER. It turns out a calf muscle tear makes you a prime candidate for blood clots, the bad kind. So my leg gets splinted and I head home for three weeks of no walking on it. This would make work difficult if not for the fact that I got laid off the same day. At least it was a temporary lay-off for four weeks. I was thinking of volunteering at my kids' schools and doing some work around the house, but that isn't going to happen now. Sitting around is a pain in the neck. My Brother-in-law died this morning; he leaves a wife and four kids. He had pneumonia and refused to get medical help. I guess that's our three pieces of bad news.

Back to the game:
With a Bond spawn group I was able to get my Human Mage to level 25 and got Explosion. This has to be the coolest looking spell there is. I took him through the Prosper vault and got the Cragstone re-call. Sy Black was online with his alt character and was trying for the Prosper Mount. The recent changes in the game allow a fellowship to get the mounts. We went out and got creamed a few times, until we figured out a plan. My mage can take a bit of pounding and can dish out some decent damage as well. Sy's character can really pour on the damage as well. So he would hold back and I would start with a flame bolt and follow that up with combustion. Then we would attack and when it got below ½, I hit it with explosion. All in all this worked to the point that we had few deaths and got our saddles.

I'm glad I finally got explosion but all in all I'm not that happy with Fahrenheit. It's a rather banal character to play. Not enough magic for support and the offensive spells just don't have that oomph I thought they would.

Viable characters:
There are a lot of changes in characters and skills going on. As of late I have been pondering what the viable characters for the various races are. So here is my list such as it is.

Human:
Defender-This is one class that just works. It's not over-powered, you can solo and group play. If you are heading into a nasty area, you put a defender in to keep your healer and sage alive and your survivability has just gone way up. This is all at the cost of offensive power.

Archers can solo but keep in mind a couple of things. They need to have the right equipment and they need to know how to play an archer. Most are hybrid with mage skills and enchanter. I have seen some missile defenders, but they are a minority.

Tumeroks:
Invoker- 'The' pet class with some devastating spells as well. Can solo and dishes out over 1000 damage in a second.

Feral intendent- Can solo even with the recent nerf. It's considered one of the best hunters in the game. The Beetle seems the most chosen route but I have seen shreth and reedshark ferals doing well solo.

Claw Bearers I'm told, have the ability to solo. Not having witnessed one of them I can't really comment further. Although their stun and ice wall are said to be very effective.

Lugian:
Melee/sage- this hybrid can solo and does it quite well. The healing prowess of the sage makes for solo and group play. Like any hybrid though, your skills get spread out very thin.

Elementalist- Another pet class that does well solo, I have seen quite a few high level lugian elementals running around to feel it's quite the class.

Tactician-This one is slow starting for sure. It's the ultimate camper. Setting up near a spawn and maintaining your walls and turrets may look slovenly but it's quite a run around.

That's eight character styles. Out of the seemingly endless skills out there, I would think there should be more. Come on Turbine, keep rolling out the fixes.

Infantile prattling:
Ken Troop is moving on to other projects at Turbine. This has lead to various postings about the demise of AC2. Has anyone else detected a pattern here? Turbine makes an announcement, we get a few 'thanks for the info' or 'have you considered' or 'this could be bad because...' then it comes the inevitable 'Turbine has ruined this game' or my favorite, 'I'm canceling all 30 of my accounts.' I like a good rant as well as the next guy. In my opinion a rant has to be based upon something that's true and relatable. On the bright side, I am seeing less and less flames. I'm not 100% sure what the underlying reason behind the lessening of the flaming. I'm just enjoying the trend while it lasts.

Role Playing Game?
I once wrote a soapbox on AC1 that put forth the idea that everyone who logs in is assuming a role and therefore role playing. I'd like to first state that I am in no set opinion on the subject. The original soap box was a stream of ideas, which makes this next stream non-hypocritical as the last.

The largest amount of Role play (RP) I currently see is when someone says 'Hail' for a greeting or 'well met'. Of all the players I encounter, only my Vassal, Tex, seems to uphold the RP tradition, and even he will talk out of character (OOC) some of the time. How do you get someone to stay in character, if you're a company like Turbine? Do you put in speech filters? Do you have word police?

At the simplistic level, when you role play you restrict your speech to words and phrases that reflect your settings. Take the following recruitment sentence:
"Anyone doing MA?" - Translated it means "If anyone is going to do the Rythrean's Bane quest please let me know so I may participate." The MA refers to the dungeon name the New Mage Academy.

From a role playing aspect, using lore, we know that Rythrean is an ancient undead and one of the trio known as 'The firstborn.' Further we know that they are the power behind the nemesis races as well. Rythrean used the promise of the mage academy to lure Dereth's most promising wizards of Yalain, and then duped them into becoming servants of the Firstborn. When you first gain the quest, this bit of lore is given as your reasons for doing the quest (it's not just for armor and xp). "The proliferation of the undead has gone unchecked too long. We cannot stop it entirely yet, but if it is not thwarted, the enemy could become too many. The Fiend Rytheran, one of the ancient Firstborn, dwells in his Mage Academy beneath these lands. If he is slain, it will slow the undead's spread."

So a role playing version of "Anyone doing MA?" would be something akin to this:
"Any wishing to route the fiend Rythrean contact me!"
Instead of "I am going to explore the mage academy. Anyone else interested?"
how about, "Rythrean must be stopped! Who is with me?"

For me the hardest part of RP is withholding knowledge. If I have knowledge of something and I know that my character doesn't have any way of knowing it, not using that has always been a difficulty for me. Should your character know all you know? Perhaps your one character has first hand knowledge and your second has heard such stories. It would be plausible to say that such rumors fly around the various lifestones.

Tonk speak:
Xuta = Tribe
Wharu = Olthoi
Atua ngamaru = Virindi
Aun = distinguishes the lizard-like Tonk from the apparently extinct Hea tonk. The Hea having been 'altered' by the Virindi to look more human.
Tah = chieftain
Nua = veteran warrior
Awa = warrior
Itea = archer
Ona = scout
Aua = elder shaman (literally spirit [au] companion [ua])
Auri = shaman (literally spirit [au] summoner [ri])
Rea = hunter
Khe = drum-speaker
Ura = merchant
Puh = outcast or rebel (literally "closed-mouth")

Lugian speak:
I'm unaware of any...

It would be nice if Turbine could put out a Lugian/Tonk to Isparian dictionary to help some of us out.

-EE