The Auberean Irregular (issue 14) The La
The last Fetterguard:
Death awaits me. It hovers and lingers for my choice. Do I die by the sword or starvation? This pocket under the ruins of Shoushi will be my last stand or my grave. How I envy my dead Fetterguard companions. It is a curse to have survived. I do not lament being one of the final defenders; I knew this was my calling. I have no wife or children, my parents and siblings have long since gone missing or died. I hope any kin I have left are safely in the sanctuaries. I hear the patrol of Drudges overhead. They come more frequently. They must know I'm here. If they hope to gain secrets from me they are mistaken. Even if I knew them, I would cut my own throat before telling. We knowingly kept ourselves ignorant of all but the defense of the people.
What a battle that was! Never have I been with finer stalwart companions. Wave after wave of Drudges fell to our bows, axes and blades. The mages boosted our strengths and visited vast destructions on the nemesis race. Any who died took five Drudges with them. That wouldn't have been enough. Tens of thousands came as the ocean against the shore. Never in my life did I consider they had the numbers that showed that day. Soon a mound had grown of their tangled bodies as we held the line. Their fury was beyond any I had seen. Our resolve was greater. As the final wards sealed the entryway, those of us who remained alive shouted on high as the magic flared and the steel rang on. We had not anticipated what happened next, the ground heaving so violently. I remember the deep rumbling followed by the deafening noise as I was thrown so high into the air. The blackness hit and I have no way of knowing how long I was insensible. It was dark and bodies were strewn as far as the eye could see. I had no caution left as I yelled for my comrades only to be unanswered. All night I searched the changed landscape, frozen ripples of earth, not unlike those in a pond when a rock is dropped. As morning broke, I spotted a small patrol of Drudges. Using a borrowed axe, I cleaved through them like a madman. When the rage left me I stared down at the dismembered, mutilated corpses and I started to realize that I was alone, the last Isparian on Dereth.
That was seven days ago. It sounds like such a short time but it has been an eternity of fights, fleeing, foraging and hiding. The patrols here have become more frequent; I haven't been able to venture outside for three days. The rain allowed me some water but there is little else. Why should I survive? For what purpose or cause? I am a Fetterguard with nothing left to guard. I need to cross the bridge and head to east to Cavendo. Maybe some Tumeroks survived as well.
Leveling on Linvak:
It was a rather unremarkable change to level 44. I mostly hunted mountain dillo's in the chasm, with a few hunts above ground as well. Two places I'd like to talk about that are some fine xp for solo hunting. The Ossuary; this is a linear dungeon with undead. If you have done Lodrog's quest and have some rattles, I suggest you use them to explore this place. Its one of the most interesting and eerie dungeons I have been in. The ambiance is dramatic with magenta flames burning from sconces and webs dangling down from the rafters. One word of caution; there is a Gurog lurking near the end and the rattles don't work on him.
Another place is the Banderling Delve. I went there for one of the caches and that was a fairly straight-out slaughter run. The other night I spotted it on my handy dandy map and decided to head into it. Like the Ossuary, it's about 10k a kill. That isn't near the output of Shreths and dillo's but they die much quicker. I think if you did an xp over time study, you would find that some of the solo critters are more efficient. This is just a guess on my part; I'm not a min max kinda guy. I just like to play for the entertainment of it.
Hither and fro:
I find myself heading to Osteth often these days. I am very grateful that the recall to the capitals is coming. I think I can navigate my way from Linvak Tukal to Cragstone asleep. The mounts have made it much easier. It's quite easy to make Crag in under the 15min mount time allotted. The occasional portal to Ikeras is nice. I'm not the kind of guy to spend 20 minutes asking for a portal. I'll ask once to my guild, then saddle up and go.
Most of my trips are to either help out with incursions or mount quests. Sometimes I welcome old friends into a new world. Those kind of trips are a bit of a mixed emotion for me. I want people to enjoy this game as much as I do. I don't want to come off like a cheerleader though. I feel people would like to attain a level quickly. I also feel that any boosting in levels too quickly robs them of some elements of the game. Showing people around, pointing out some quests, answering questions and trying to bridge some of the early gaps in knowledge of the game are good. Taking over their characters isn't good at all. I think most players just want to know that there is a support system there for them, a relationship, if you will, with their guild that will allow for the occasional helping hand.
Bestowed Advice (soapbox):
You're busy tinkering away on some project out in the front yard, and the local busybody casually strolls over to see what it is you're up to. A casual greeting is thrown out, a bit of small talk ensues. Then suddenly it comes. Advice bestowed upon you. "You really should back off those screws 5/8's before you assemble the next part." Is this good advice? Maybe. How does he know this information? He probably made the same error before. So, at some point you must decide if it's more important for people to learn for themselves or blindly trust another's words.
First off, let's exclude parents and kids from this discussion; to me that falls under an entirely different category. Parents have a lot invested into their kids and a deep responsibility that precludes them from this issue. A neighbor, casual acquaintance or someone you know doesn't fall into that category.
Unasked for advice is grating and annoying. Those that give it are pompous busybodies who rob discovery and self-improvement from a process. There is a way to interject your knowledge without being the above-mentioned boorish person, though. Asking a simple question: "Would you mind a suggestion?" That simple question can avoid a lot of bitterness and resentment. In AC2, there isn't one path to glory or uberness as the vernacular seems to be. In this early stage there are still a lot of things to be uncovered and learned. With some of the wholesale changes being made, what works well today won't be the best way tomorrow. Just because you made mistakes doesn't give you the right or authority to interpose your gained wisdom on others. This is where the term "pearls before swine" came from. Also, consider that people spend time on their characters and have personally invested into them. Ridiculing their choices isn't a great way to earn respect and friendship. Free advice is worth every penny.
Following the Leader:
I have now gone on many Mage Academy trips. I have gone with many different groups. In my experience, there is a lot to be said for a knowledgeable leader and able followers. When you're with a group and go off on your own, you become a liability. I have been in fellowships where the defacto leader will issue assignments to people in the group, only to be ignored and this causes much havoc to the party. Things like running ahead, luring creatures onto a buffing party, and hitting an important portal way too soon can make others treat you with disdain. My guild, for the most part, is very good at running quests. When one person leads, the rest of us follow. We are also good at improvising when it comes time, and knowing when that time has occurred. A good leader knows the quest/dungeon well or knows tactics for exploring. A good follower will take limited initiative, always deferring to the leader for the good of the party.
Shoes of Heroes:
My timer never seems to coincide with my guild's. I was getting close to the level 45. The boots quest can be a good run if you have enough people or powerful enough players. Someone was forming a group and decided to run the portal circuit to drum up more people. While he was away, people started showing up and ended up forming their own group. Both of us had six people; not enough to make it through without tight teamwork, and seeing as we were all strangers, that prospect seemed unlikely. We decided to tag team it, both going in and helping the other fellowship. It wasn't my idea; at this stage I'm a soldier following orders. From the start it was a tad confusing, some people followed the main group, others held back, someone got lost, others took a wrong portal. When I got to the Silent City I figured I was near the back, so I headed inside. There were only one or two others in there. Slowly they matriculated inside. Before the last of the group had entered, some of the earlier arrivals started heading down. This split the group fairly well and caused a lot of confusion. Due to sheer numbers we brought down the first boss and headed out to the next phase. What our group didn't realize was the second group needed to kill the boss themselves to become flagged. Two of their party had failed the 2nd part of the quest earlier and they had exited with us as well. This put our two groups at odds.
The second group somehow prevailed and got through. We all re-assembled at the bell tower. This dungeon is a gauntlet of creatures. Our combined might made the trip to the portal. At this point the second group held back. This left four others and me in the final room. We died quickly. The second group also suffered deaths. This pattern continued for two runs through each. Some of the people in our group left. This put our number down to three. So we remaining battered, vitae-ridden three warriors joined forces with the first group. This did a number of things. It made us a more complete group and it gave us the communication to coordinate. I decided to hang back and heal this time. As a unit we made it to the hallway with the final portal when some in our group chose to make a dash. This plugged up the hallway for the rest of us and made the fighting much harder.
As I entered the final chamber there was a battle already going on. The main boss had not made it over but it's guardians were there. I got away from the perchers up top and started in on heals. I started going through the fellow list and hitting people with heals and restoring my vigor as I went. A tactician was present and set up some turrets and walls. A lugian melee was also taking chunks out of the big guy. Despite my efforts at heals, everyone slowly died out. This left me and one other Defender. With one guy left, healing wasn't a problem anymore. But a defender doesn't have that big damage output, so it was a slow whittling down. When he got low enough I jumped in and we finally got that kill. I wish I had thought to take a screen shot of 'the last two.' This allowed the rest of the fellowship to make it through to the end without having to kill the bosses.
Patch day!
Well it's the day of the Event again. This time the U.S.A. starting the liberation of Iraq trumped our AC2 event. For me it overshadowed the joy of a new Event. Being a thinking kind of Defender I had Grasp LS in Ikeras and log out in Cragstone. I figured this would be the quickest way to get the continental recalls going. Little did I know, lurking in the code written back in beta was an error that would thwart my carefully planned idea. At least Ikeras recall worked. The debate is now if portal recall is worth the two points to train.
The crafting cost going down for purifying is nice for the crafty types. I personally am enjoying the new defender animation and the Invoker timer adjustment. I did a reset on my Tonk and Human mage. With the Tumerok I dropped the Minor summoning in exchange for Paragon. I also moved some xp around. With my mage I was able to get fireball with the xp bonus and I revised my xp distribution to allow for a bit more defensive buffs.
As usual there are the same kind of negative posts on the AC2 boards, talking of the mass exodus that is going on, which I don't see. The servers were at the highest level I have seen in quite a while. Leafcull was at 740 when I logged in. The window-resizing bug was interesting. I'm amazed at the heat that generated. Yeah, I cannot stand a game where I have to resize two windows. I mean it must have taken me an hour per window to get it just to the right area for my anal retentiveness (<-Sarcasm). Maybe it's just that I work in an industry where a lot of issues revolve around people. People are about as complex of a system as you can get. If you need some proof of this go to any high school and listen to the daily soap opera that goes on there. In order to get anything done, you have to have a relationship with the system and the people running it. If you ignore one of these two elements you will get nothing done. The more successful people at getting things done are the ones who can establish a relationship with both of these items that is self-sustaining. How does this relate to AC2? This is a complex computer program with amazing amounts of elements requiring information being sent, received and interpreted in nanoseconds. On top of that, Turbine has decided to add and subtract things in this complex organism on a tight timetable. Anyone who has dealt seriously with project management knows how fraught with problems this situation can be. The live team is not the same as the design team; they are still building their relationships with the code, the game, the customers and time.
Pick up a book on Chaos Theory sometime.
-EE
