Getting up from my sneaking position I rose to see my armor dirty again. While I couldn't say I have not gotten my armor dirty before, today was especially bad. After being sent to death many times than I could count I should expect my protection to tatter with dirt.
Haha.
That was another one of Dereth's many quirks, death. How many people of Ispar could say they have died once in a day and lived to tell the tale, let alone 3 times in an hour. Ah, funny indeed.
Fully risen and dusted off I now had a chance to get a full survey of my surroundings. To my dismay there was nothing on the plains. "Something's wrong here...I can feel it...." I said rather dramatically. After a few jumps down I hit the ground. Searching for my body today would be a difficult task, I had no idea where I had fallin. If my memory serves I had been jumped by a Monouga and to sent the lifestone but I do not know where, I had no time to recollect my surroundings.
I got up and after a few moments of searching I sighted the site of my corpse. From my better judgment I had determined it was around point five clicks away, so I set off running. After a few steps I felt a wave of exhaustion form within my body. "Ugghh....no not this soon.". My elemental energys were tireing and I knew soon my protections would be gone. I recomposed after some rest and continued to run towards my body.
After arriving I started to loot my corpse. It was the usual of things taken from me. My steel shoes, some Pyreals and an orb. I took every possession of mine and jumped to the conclusion that it was time to find a good place for recuperating my energys for another round of hunting. "Oops.". I said, I had dazed off. Feeling a little stupid I got up and trotted a few feet down the mountain.
Not a moment later a purple mist had appeared in front of me, a little over 10 feet away. I knew there was no way for escape and started to prepare for battle. As soon as I could pull my wand out of my pack three Drudges had materialized, two Stalkers and one Ravener. Ah it was time to show these beast who was the king of this hill.
For a moment the Drudge had a look of confusion on it's face. After all it had been just teleported away from it's home and it probably had no clue as to what had happened. He spent around five seconds looking around before he found me standing in front of him. Very soon after he let loose a growl and his partners shot to attention, prepared to attack. How could they have known about humans? As far as Dereth's finest schollars could tell, no information could be sent back to through the portals. So how was it then that this furry creature had known to prepare for me? I would have to get some of this information back to Dereth's finest, however for now it was time show these Drudge a trick or too.
Determined to get the first shot in I let loose a spell that weakened the fur of the right Stalker to slashing. Prepared to fire off a blade made of energy, I let loose my fury and released. Waiting for the blade to land I didn't remember to keep myself protected and was hit dead in my side by a boulder-type blow. Ugh. I had forgotten that my protections would fall, and they must have just moments before. Falling to the ground I gasped for breath. The Drudge Ravener had landed a spell, I should have known better.
The blow had hurt me too much. I didn't think this would be too good of a battle in my favor, and I had thoughts of making a run for it. As soon as I could I got to my feet I threw another war spell, to throw them off guard, and ran. While I was not as fast as my Dagger welding brethren I was skilled in the ways of moving my stubs decently fast. After around three minutes of running one of the Stalkers tired of chasing and ran back to his previous position. I continued to run for what must have been another five minutes or so. It was starting to get really tireing and every minute the Drudges would get closer and closer. I didn't want to go out without a fight so I decided it would be better to save my energy for a close battle then to run like a coward. From the position I was in I jumped forward and did a complete one-hundred and eighty degree turn to fire a blade at the remaining Stalker. If Cragstone willed this should be the beast I had weakened only moments before. As my shot closed in on it's target I saw it dissipate. "Damn!". He had resisted me. Only a heart beat later I had hitten the floor hard and heard a snap. Either I had twisted something or I must have broken something. With a sharp pain in my left side I cringed and instinctively shielded myself.
While writhing in pain on the ground I had enough self control to notice my, now, predators were not doing anything. I called upon the wonders to cast a healing spell, followed up by using my wand to push myself up so I could see my attackers. When I rose I realized that they had not broken off their assault, they were just resting. It turns out that my blade had indeed pierced the hide of that creature and he had been stunned for a moment. Taking advantage of the situation I let loose another blade. Before it could contact with the critter I had been hit again in my back by another Shockwave Bolt. My head shot back and my body lunged forward, it broke a bone. I had been ambushed. There was another Drudge behind me waiting to attack. Determined not to fall this time I casted another healing spell. Due to my now limited mental energys I was only able to heal myself to the point where I could stand.
Ready for the final blow the Drudge Ravener ran from behind to my front. He lifted it's spear and pierced me in the shoulder. Blood spewing out of my mouth and shoulder I knew I had lost. Looking up I saw the Rav lifting his spear for the final blow. Knowing this was my end I flinched and closed my eyes. "BOOM!". What was that? I opened my eyes to see that the Ravener in front me had been hit square in the eye and fell to the ground. I spun around to see an archer. It held a Composite Bow with it's left hand and reached back to get an arrow from it's quiver with the right. Putting the arrow in it's mouth then pulling back it's bow it was preparing to strike again. Taking the arrow out of it's mouth and setting it up the archer yelled, "MOVE!!". A women! After almost a moments too long hesitation I immediately dropped to the ground and turned my head to see an arrow pierce the skull of the Stalker, dead in the forehead. Talk about marksmanship! With his fellows defeated the last Ravener leap forward to try and disable the archer. Not ready to take another one so quickly the archer was taking by surprise and almost lost her footing. With it's claw, the remaining beast lunged forward slashing away her mask and revealing her face.
With her head slashed and a little dazed the Archer tried to steady herself. Ready for another blow the critter lunged forward again. Determined not to be hit this time she shifted and the Drudge overshot to fall over her right shoulder. Doing a complete turn around she fired a now prepared arrow into the Drudge's back. With a growl the Drudge spit out green blood and perished on the ground.
In awe and surprise, I rose up above the ground ready to see more beasts appear from the shadows, but there were none. Surveying the land I realized that not a single thing remained save me and the archer. I let out a sigh and let myself relax. Instinctively I started to walk forward to thank this stranger like I would any other. After a few steps I realized she had tensed up. Before I could even register it, she had done another complete turn around with an arrow in her bow, ready to attack me. I immediately got into an aggressive stance. "It's ok, I am human..one of the good guys." I said. She did not move a muscle.
I stared into her brown eyes. What was going on here?
Before I could finish the thought..she let loose her arrow...
When we last left Batman..uh..I mean Saviors Hand
Last time we left Saviors hand he had taken his skill credits and gotten the elusive Creature Magic. Contrary to many peoples choices I decided to go with Creature instead of Item, mainly due to the fact that I wanted to do something new.
With the experience I had saved up from levels 18-20 I had raised my creature to 132 base. With a level IV on I knew I could keep casting IV's if I had made sure to always keep it going.
Not sure where to hunt next I thought of my different options. Do to my playing style I had chosen the Lugian Citadel. And not a non crowded one like Lin, oh no...I was going to Qual's
NOTE for the strategy section the text will be white and if you wish to read it just highlight it. This is done for people who want to figure it out on their own, not read the material, or just for the heck of it.
The Lugian Citadel Part 1
"Why the most camped of them all Savior?"
Well to be honest at level 20 you cannot take many lugians at a time. They hit too hard through your protections and just cause havoc. So to counter this I thought that at the camped Citadel there would be other one of two things. 1. Less lugians due to more people hunting and killing them, or. 2. If there was a lot of lugians around you would have more people to ask upon help.
After lifestoneing and running to the Citadel I arrived and started to cast my protections. From here I developed a strategy. When you portal in there shouldbe three paths. One above, left and right. Right will take you to a surface portal, above will lead you to a lot of lugians but usually more camped. And the left is the least safest them, but full. I turned Left and from this point you should reach another left turn that you have to take.
Around this corner are two Obeloth Lugians and there are three strategy you can use here.
1. Stay behind that corner and vuln then scoot out and fire, do this repeatedly
2. Fire away standing in front of them and vuln then fire away.
3. Be a drain mage, which is very much in your power, and drain away then finish off with a war when low enough.
For complete safety and non-cheesyness sake I say went with option 1.
After dispatching these lugians head straight, soon you should encounter a spot where you go left, skip this up and go straight. Soon you will have to turn right, and into another room. Here there are three Obeloth Lugians and you have the following techniques.
1.Shoot and scoot like above, there is a corner you can do like the above.
2. Run inside and just fire away without worry (not recommended)
3. Run inside the room and circle around the lugians until they switch to normal arm weapons such as axes. After they switch run to a safe spot and take them on one of one if possible.
4. Be a cheezy drain mage and take from afar. Then finish off with a war.
I usually choose number 1 or 3. They seem to the better options.
After dispatching the furry huge blue things go to your left into a new hallway. [NOTE] REMEMBER this hallway if you decide to do what I did. This will become your new buffing hall where you retreat without fear of death, unless someone drags along some luggs with them that is. At the end of this hall are two Lithos Lugians. Again here are the methods you can use to save your hide.
1. Shoot and scoot like all the above, however this one is pretty limited due to the fact that you have such a distance that your bolt needs to travel, so I do not recommend this one.
2. Stay behind a little corner and drain away until you can get close to killing one, however in this case they WILL come after you. So still be prepared for a battle.
3. {recommended} Stay back to where they can't see you, but you still them, and fire off a vuln, from there shoot of a bolt and try to kill that lug as soon as possible. If done fast enough you should only have to deal with one, which is quite manageable.
While I am at it I should discuss something I had not before:
Mana Management
As all mages know Mana is our life, without it we have nothing. So we gotta make sure we have a good solid steady amount. To start out here are some of the basics for any good solid beginning mage to know.
Health: Your life of course. Make sure to keep this good and full. One of the early mages misconceptions is that you need to keep yourself at around half life, no pun intended, or above at all times. I think may be due to the fact that most new mages have already been melee characters and are used to having to heal. Just remember this, you heal will always work at any health amount as long as you do not fizzle. That said I still like to keep this at half or above at all times just for safety sake.
Stamina: Your mana battery, without Stamina you have only a finite amount of mana. Stamina is usually used in the spell Stamina to Mana which after a while can give you a very good mana battery. Stamina is also your friend because those of us mages with Melee Defense or high coordination will benefit from 1 stamina or above to help with evades.
Mana: Your spell pool, always keep this as full as possible. To do this make sure to do frequent Stamina to Mana's and use the correct spells when trying to kill an enemy.
Healing
My stance to healing is this: "Don't use Heal Self unless necessary, it's not worth it."
"Why? It's a good spell. What do you want me to do, die?"
Hehe, no. I want you to use your mana better. There is a much better spell for you called Drain Health I.
"Drain Health, that spell stinks. Shoot why not use Heal Self?"
Well it costs too much mana, does not hurt your enemies and gets you nowhere.
For the average Heal Self III, which is the spell you SHOULD be casting at this level, costs around 30 mana with no mana conversion. now let's say it restores around 30 points of your health if you are lucky ok? Following me? Now for the following example I am using my toons stats with the template of Health/Stamina/Mana
I have 140/160/175 or so.
Now a lugian and his buddy are ganging up on me, for informational purposes let's say they are Lithos. One of them critical hits me for 15 point and then his buddy for 10. So that puts me at...
115/157/175
What would you do at this point? Let's say we heal. Using the Heal Self method. Now let's say our Mana conversion does kick in and only costs around 21 mana. So that would but us at
140/155/154
Now since the animation usually takes a great deal of time you most likly get hit again and it will put you at the same as the above, just with 154 mana. So what do you do? Heal again. This sorta gets you nowhere after a while you have to run while healing and then start attacking again with low mana, which means more stamina to manas. Not too comfortable. Take into account this does not always happen like this, but routinely does.
Now let's use Drain Health.
Same as above with the hits in terms of damage so no change there, ok? So you cast DH and it normally only costs around 10 man without mana conversion, let's say it kicks in and you have to use around 4-6 mana for it. Now since it takes 1/4 of the targets health and a normal lug has around 160 health or so that gives you 40 health back, much more than you even needed, and in the process you just took a portion of hits health away you don't have to kill with a bolt later. If he hits you again do it again, this time 120/4 is 30 health, still enough to satisfy you. Also in the whole process you really start beef up your life skill if you do it religiously. Another advantage is it has a faster animation than Heal Self.
There are disadvantages though, first of all if your target is low on health anyways like 30 or so, enough to finish him off in one blow you have nothing to drain from. Even 40 is bad, 40/4 is 10. About 6 mana a drain and you are getting to where you are with HS except worse. Also if you really need that big health fast then HS may be your only option.
However in my opinion DH is better than HS in most battle circumstances.
Mana out of air
I will not go into too much detail here because I am sure there are many and other better post about it on the internet but I can tell you soon you will be able to pull it off at minimal amounts.
Vuln/War VS. War/War
Here is a tricky one. but here I can definitely say the first would better in this situation. Lugs have too much health to take just 'warring' until dead. Vuln/War is your best option.
Remember to use Lugians like a Rubber Band.
If you run low on health, DH, if you run low on Stamina, Drain Stamina. If you need mana, Stamina to Mana, STM from here on out, and then Drain Stamina. Lugians are your battery in this case, as long as they are healthy and have everything you need it should be easy, but as you weaken them you really can't take their supply anymore, so as soon as you are full on the 'big three' make sure to finish them quick, or you will have nothing to turn to for drains.
Anyways back to the story.
The Lugian Citadel Part 2
After dispatching those two lugians turn around and go back into the room that had three Obeloths in it, go back into the hallway you came in from and follow the hallway until you can go right. In this new hallway should be two Obeloth Lugians, dispatch them using these techniques.
1.[I took this] Shoot and scoot. It's not too bad here and you can kill them pretty quick if you avoid their rocks.
2. Sit there and Drain away.
After those are dead keep going down the hallway, and two more lithos will be there, because of the place they are in only one real technique is possible and that is just firing away . After these bad boys are gone it should be time to rest. Head back to the 'Buffing hall' to buff up to kill those same lugians again.
After doing this till level 23 or so I was tired of it and realized that now the people were not helping me, but just getting in my way. From here on you should switch to another Citadel. I recommend Lin because it is usually the least camped, however the longest run too. I used the same run as above except at the end I would extent it by going up the stairs and fighting most of the lugians up there. Some strategies up there are...
1. To just fireaway, and hiding in the corners. I liked the corner technique except at sometimes it could be come scary. Usually by this time your buffs are running low and if they trap you, you could be buffing in mid battle or die and this can cause real problems. So if you do this make sure to be careful.
When reaching level 27 or so it's time to call this place a quits. If you want even earlier, but I recommend if you do to find someplace in the mean time before going to the next place I am talking about.
Dungeon of Corpses
Ok I won't go into too much detail here but I will say this is not a place to Creature first Bm's or probably any BM at all. At least in my opinion. The front is camped with drain mages, the back is not safe and not too great on exp. Ther is no real good place to buff without worrying about getting hit, and the spawns are slow. After a few hundred K I left this place for the up and coming Og's and Drain Mages.
Gredaline Consulate
I am almost hesitant to give this place away because it is very uncamped on my server and I don't want a million people around, but I am a nice guy and want to make sure everyone has a good experience like me.
Now I won't reveal it's location but if you are determined you can easily find your way. Hint it's by a popular town.
.
After arriving buff up and prepare for the great experience of hunting here.That's all for this time. If you want to [please do!!!!!!!!!] give me some comments please post or preferably email me with some. My email address is worf228@hotmail.com
P.S. I would really like some feedback on how you like or dislike this. Feedback is incredibly appreciated.