Emeraldwind Chronicle - Development of A War Machine! Part 10

Dark Majesty has arrived and in due fashion I’ve explored it to the best of my human ability and will give what I think a capable War Mage can do on that new isle of Marae Lassel. Be warned, this journal might have a tad more pictures than normal simply because of the amount of things new to the isle that are neat to look at (I’m a picture freak!). Anyhow, enjoy, since this will be one of the last journals I write for a long, long time. (But as you’ll soon discover, maybe not that long)

Template Definition

Strength - 60
Endurance - 50
Coordination - 10
Quickness - 10
Focus - 100
Self - 100
Specialize: War Magic, Mana Conversion
Train: Item (my choice) or Creature or Arcane/Healing
Post Skills: (choices are yours but these were mine) Life @ 16, Arcane @ 26, Creature @ 60

As I've always said, the important thing is to specialize War Magic and Mana Conversion. This chronicle follows my choice of Item magic at the start, Life at level 16, Arcane at level 26, and Creature magic at level 60. I know I do this every journal but I just want to make sure that anyone who might start in the middle of the journals and read knows what the template is about and knows how I decided to play my template. Enjoy!

Getting to Marae Lassel isn’t that big of a chore as one might think. It’s not a Veseyan, Aerlinthe, or Singularity Caul. In fact, since the island is made for levels 1 to 70 (I’ll explain), it should be very easy to get to. Getting to the island is a snap. Simply drop into one of the newbie towns and take a portal located near the Advocate buildings. My first stop was actually Rithwic since I had logged out there. That portal takes you to Greenspire. Greenspire is a rather neat town, with a towering lighthouse styled building with floating advocate towers on it, and a few houses scattered neatly below. Marae Lassel is big, with a lot of open space, so these towns are almost a last Hurrah before you venture into the wilds… and wild they can be…

You will notice a number of cosmetic changes when exploring. First, there’s the dusk lilys, with a picture provide below:

All I can say is that I wish we could pick these up and use them for something. Very very nice looking plant, even if it doesn’t do anything. However, it should be treated like a tree… you can’t run over it, you can’t run through it, and it blocks shots (read: War Magic), so be careful. You’ll also notice a change in some of the grass and landscape itself. The trees have changed a bit as well. Also, there are now neat little features to the landscape that weren’t previously there. Expanding on the tribal aspect of Marae Lassel, heads have been added into the landscape here and there symbolizing something:

Who put them there? Well, that leads us to our next section… the other inhabitants of the island. 

Tumeroks got love… well, some of them did. Turbine has a way of making the Asheron’s Call back story come out and take a hold of you. For anyone who wants to find out that backstory themselves, don’t read this next section. But for those who don’t care, continue reading. **SPOILER** There are two Tumerok tribes – the Aun and the Hea. When Tummies first came to Dereth, they landed on Marae Lassel. They all were like the Aun are. However, they didn’t have a central leader and bickering began, splitting the tumeroks into the two tribes we have now. The virindi approached the Hea and offered them power, weapons, and the ability to move away from Marae Lassel and settle wherever they chose. The Hea took that opportunity and formed an alliance with the Virindi. In that light, they cut off their tails and changed themselves. They now look like the Tumeroks we are used to. However, the Aun didn’t want that. They rebelled against the Virindi. When the Hea and Aun lived on the same island, they kept each other’s numbers in check with constant fighting. Now, however, with Hea moving to Dereth, no one fought them there. All creations by the virindi would not fight them because of the alliance and Tumeroks already hunted and killed many of the other fauna now on Dereth. Their numbers grew and grew but back on the original island of their arrival, the Aun continued fighting with the Hea. … but the Aun also did something else… they helped to stop an Olthoi invasion, much like the one on Dereth that the Isparians destroyed. So there were more than one Olthoi Queen in Auberean… could there be more somewhere else? **SPOILER ENDED**

You will find the new villages on the eastern plains and the northern plateau of Marae Lassel. The Hea village is in the plains. There you will find normal Tumeroks, whoms chief is significantly shorter than anyone else… and drinks… quite a bit. The lore and general atmosphere of the village is outstanding, with people muttering in the background here and there, and general Tumerok-ish answers coming when another NPC is asked a question. The other village, the Aun, is on the plateau. There you can only enter if the gatekeeper lets you. New faction quests help you side with either the Hea or Aun, so watch your actions in the wilds… some things can make you not able to do other things if you mess up. The Aun are the tumeroks with the face lift. They look very very appealing and it fits with their habitat. One of the first things you’ll notice when you enter the village is that of the Elder and the spirit fire in the hut behind him. Sometimes, if you stand around long enough waiting, the Elder will do a dance with his drum, and actually play some music. It’s amazing and very atmospheric. The spirit fire also has hallucination styled images coming out of it. I’ve seen Olthoi heads, Tumerok Heads, and Sirulaan Heads (more on those later).

As you can see, the fire itself is also very very impressive. Let’s hope we get more of these types of things into the game soon. 

Hunting is what we all want to know about… and there is PLENTY of it in Marae Lassel. In fact, I now have a routine. The island is sectioned off into what “age” groups can be here. Melee and Mage both can have a good time on the island, depending on where they are. Where you first drop off, anyone can hunt there, though it’s only good for low levels. On the northern plateau, near the Aun village, Mages and Archers will have an easier time hunting. The loot is good, the experience is good, and it’s simply easier for them to kill the things around there. Be warned, however, I’ve found that you need almost 320+ magic skill to even touch a lot of the things on the plateau so even though it can be good, you will get resisted… a lot. Further up the plateau are Olthoi… there are several new breeds. Legionaries are tougher Soliders… and they are tougher… I got trapped in a dungeon with them… they do not play. Eviscerators are also new and do slashing damage, perhaps even bludgeoning. Brood Nobles only spawn when the Queen Quest is active… when they do, you better run… they do not play… and they use bludgeoning attacks as well as standard Olthoi fare. The northern area is mostly reserved for Melees, though I have been up there and hunted a bit here and there. The problem lies in how fast things can attack you up there… wind up times + fizzles = dead mage if you’re not good enough.

There have also been new tuskers added and these can be found anywhere. The problem? Drain proof. That and 350+ magic skill needed to take them down. And they hit HARD! So don’t look to take them down anytime soon…

The plains is the area that a mage will enjoy. Vapor Golems in packs of 3… usually 3 or 4 packs really close to each other. The problem with the area out there is that Chaos wisps and Azeal Zefirs like to come out of no where… the Zefirs chase you for 20 minutes… (almost literally)… the Chaos wisps don’t need to chase… they chain cast Drain Health and Enfeeble 5 and 6 until you’re dead enough to blow on and pass away. But between those, you can do some good hunting in this area. Truth be told, the only thing you’ll be able to reliably hit by this time (level 48-50) is the vapor golems… everything else has too high of a magic defense…

Buffing for the island… is actually rather simple. I find that, with mage armor, I only need to protect against physical damage. Like always, I throw on every protection spell but when I bane, I only Impen all my armor and then Pierce, Slashing, and Bludgeoning Bane my coat, girth, and leggings, and bludgeoning bane my sollerets. Now, if I’m going to go play with some Eviscerators, it’s good to throw a Slashing and Piercing on your sollerets as well. But not much else is needed for my set up. There aren’t a lot of enemies who use elemental attacks. The ones who do are the human bandits running around and they are easy enough to avoid (simply stay away from the campfires). I think that any additional buffing is overkill but that’s my personal opinion. If you don’t have a set of Mage Armor (shame on you!), I would suggest perhaps Baning for all physicals and if you’re going to the northern areas, tossing on an Acid Bane as well. Olthoi can get nasty up there sometimes.

Quests were a focus with Dark Majesty… and they have not failed to deliver them. That screenshot above is what Marae Lassel looks like when the Queen Quest is active. Olthoi… olthoi… everywhere… it’s scary beyond reason. There is also a quest…. To… GET A SKILL CREDIT!!!! THANK YOU TURBINE!!! I’ve been juggling my character well lately… I know what she’ll be like by level 55, 60, and beyond. But, wait, Turbine threw me a curve ball. Now I can get Creature magic at level 55 instead of 60. How? Well, there is an Aun named Ralirea… he randomly spawns out in the wilds but when you find him, kill him, and take his totem. Give said totem to the chief of the Hea tribe and he will grant you your credit. This is possibly the greatest quest of all time. So will I try to find that Aun? You bet you I will. But if I don’t, I’m not going to cry about it. I will still build my character as I normally would. Beyond these two quests, there are quests to get new mattekar robes, a new dress that not only looks really good but is also one of the best clothing items in the game, as well as get new “living weapons”, and a host of others. But I will leave all of those for you to find out.

Level 50 feels weird… but I’m so glad I made it. 5 or 10 more levels to go, depending on what happens with the skill credit quest. That might not seem like a long way until you realize that level 55 to 60 is the same amount of experience as level 1 to 45 was for me… then it puts it all into perspective. What are my stats looking like now? Remember, I build my character differently than you will build yours, so take all these with a grain of salt.

What you see here is that I have effectively stopped raising my Strength. Mage Armor provides a Strength 6 buff for you, so I don’t see a real reason to raise the Attribute anymore. I can keep all of my components on me along with all the other junk I have and even loot I collect and don’t have to run back to town for an hour or two. I’m still raising my Endurance, however, as I have a goal that I want to get it too by level 55. And, as always, Focus and Self are raised. This setup, buffed, is with my Mage Armor, Focus 5, and Self 5.

Here is the fighting buff. Since I use a Staff of Clarity, which provides War 6, and Mage Armor, which provides a stackable +10 to my War Magic, I come out with a 319 buffed skill. So this set up involves Mana Conversion Mastery 6, War Magic Mastery 6, Focus 5, Self 5, +10 War Magic, +10 Item Magic.

Here is the buffs I have when I’m buffing myself. It involves my Quiddity Orb. Basically the same as my Staff of Clarity – Life Mastery 6, Item Mastery 5, Mana Conversion 6, +10 War, +10 Item, Focus 5, Self 5, Arcane 5.

So, as you can see, my numbers are getting up there. My goals, which are written down, pertain to getting Creature at 60 but since that plan is changing, they have been all but thrown out of the window. But my goals before the Skill Credit Quests were as follows: Endurance 160, Focus and Self 215, Mana Conversion 235, War Magic 267, Arcane Lore 295, Life Magic 240, Item Magic 230, Health 165, Stamina 245. Will I get these numbers now? Probably not but they’re still numbers I want to shoot for simply because they were the original projected numbers that I would acquire.

What else is there to know? Not much else for right now. I’m fighting, working hard, and trying to get to 55 so I can get Creature (this journal was written in two parts… this part was written at level 51 and I, as of this morning, got my skill credit). Until such time as I get that magic school, I won’t be writing anymore journals… but once I get that magic school, you will see the true power of a War Mage. Until then, happen hunting all!