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Expeditionary Journal of Zarya bint
Tala'an, Aspiring Battlemage
01.12.01
First Hunting Excursion - Accursed Halls to Chalcimere Fortress
and surrounding area
Accursed Halls staging point was camped by archers as usual,
taking potshots at Druges and Grievvers. Also of note is that
there was an Umbris spawn closeby, close enough to attract with
missile fire. Early portions of the trip presented poor hunting
opportunities, most of the area around Accursed Halls occupied by
Banderling Berzerker/Strikers, Grievvers and Virindi/Tusker
Scouting Pods. Traveling northwards towards the fortress, I
noticed some groups of umbris, more frequent than yesterday. Took
down groups of Druges and Golems as opportunities presented
themselves, and as spawns became more frequent.
Oh, and I've added Gold Wasps to my quarry list...reasons? One
vuln plus one or two Shockwaves will give you an easy 3k xp...good
for vitae and those dry periods when you can't find anything else.
Approching Chalcimere Fortress, I noticed many agitated groups of
creatures, most likey stirred up by passing characters making
their Island trips...*dreams about corals*...someday. Comparing
the spawns before and after patch, I also noticed that no more
Fragments spawn in the Mid-Dires area...pre-patch, they spawned
rather frequently, even an occasional Dual. Killed more Druges
and Golems, without a single mote/key/gut.
For those who don't know, Chalcimere Fortress is situated north
of the Accursed Halls Staging point, and is the Home of Falahda
the Emmissary, who will open a portal to Aerlinthe for a paltry C
note...everyone has heard of Aerlinthe...I hope. Castle contains
A few Obsidian Golems, a few Diamond Golems, some random high
Undead (Horrible Mu-Miyahs, Revenants and Dark Revenants). It is
at the mouth of an ancient floodplain, which is now a really flat
expanse of desert and a haven for archers and mages.
Observations about spawns in this area:
Principle Spawns:
Mid Druges - Packs of 3 Lurkers or a pack of 2 Raveners and 1
Stalker...single druge *latecomer* spawns quickly after the first
druge in a pack is killed.
(2/3.2/4.2k xp for lurks/stalks/ravs respectively) (Frequency -
High)
Golems - Granite/Copper/Iron Golems in pairs or sometimes alone.
First pair of golems is usually quickly replaced by another pair,
so stick around and wait for the second spawn spawn, it usually
only takes a few seconds for another pair to appear, but don't
wait for a third ;p
(2.9/3.2/4.5k xp for copper/granite/irons respectively) (Frequency
- High)
Obsidian Golems - New arrival to this area, don't expect to be
effective against these until you surpass 250 magic skill. Be
careful not to rouse them, or they follow around you for 5 miles...those
familiar with the Obsidian plains should sympathize with this...Imagine
one of those golems harrying a low level mage for 5 minutes, ugh.
(6k xp) (Frequency - Medium/Low)
Gold Wasps - Come individually or in trios, just like all other
wasps. Easy kills, easy xp.
(3k xp) (Frequency - Medium)
Malus Shreth - They are now pretty rare, I only spotted one or
two, I suppose their buddies told them about that cool vacation
spot off the northeast coast. They're out of the ordinary for
shreth...I expected to kill them easily, but they seem to have
rather decent magic resistance...got resisted about 40% of the
time with 215 skill. They spawn one at a time.
(5.5k xp) (Frequency - Rare)
Banderling Berzerker/Strikers - Annoying as hell for anyone, and
spawn in two ways: A lone Berzerker, or a pack of 3 strikers and
3 berzerkers. Lone Berzerkers are hard to kill for low-level
mages, due to high resistance and high attack rate, groups are
deadly to low-level mages...Strikers cast Imperil/Bludgeon
Vuln/Weakness/Clumsiness/Slowness IV on you while Berzerkers
chase you down and beat you silly.
(7k? each...haven't killed many) (Frequency - Mid/High)
Virindi/Tusker Scouting Pods - Another new arrival - I've
observed 2 spawn types: A single Servant, and a Servant, Puppet
and Tusker Slave. Don't get too close, or you might catch a level
5 war spell in the face...or worse, Bludgeon Vuln 4. Tuskers are
well...Tuskers. Slaves are tankable with moderate difficulty at
medium levels, though not really worth the effort, since they
chase you forever if you actually try to land something on them
and have to run.
(3k/4k for Virindi Puppet/Servant, 10k for Tusker Slave) (Frequency
- Medium/High)
Shadows - Another creature type that has stuck around after the
patch, however it seems that the spawns with twin Panumbris are
now gone. These things are pretty much impossible for a low/mid
level mage to handle due to their magic resistance. I avoid 'em
like the plague.
(3k/6k/12k/24k Shadow/Shadow Lt/Panumbris Shadow/Umbris Shadow) (Frequency
- Low/Medium)
Scrawed/Virulent Greivvers - Not new, however the spawn frequency
has been drastically increased. Super-high resistance and super-high
hits, for a low/mid-level anyways. Fortunatley, they have some
sort of wierd AI that gives them a 3 second attention span...I
think they should give greivver AI to Olthoi *evil laughter*. All
greivvers cast magic, though the ones you'll find out here only
cast level 2/3.
(Frequency - High/Medium)
Silver Rats - Annoying squeaky things that make your war magic
fly backwards. They don't hit hard as long as you're buffed...if
not, expect to die in 2 seconds or less if in a robe. I usually
avoid them, they're not worth the xp and they stopped dropping
SIKs a few patches ago.
(2k per vermin) (Frequency - Medium/Low)
Tumeroks & Druge Slaves - Most of these are gone now, I saw
maybe 1 or two groups out there. Not even worth your time.
(Frequency - Rare)
People (High Levels/Medium Levels/Lost n00bs) - You'll find one
or two mid-high levels sitting on top of the tent south of
Chalcimere Fortress, preparing to head out, BMW'ing (!@#$%^&*ing,
Moaning, Whining) about the vitae they have from that Stupid
(XP varies on level) (Frequency - High/Low depending on where you
are)
I spent about an hour out here, then decided to head back to
Accursed Halls...on they way back, something interesting happened
when I was taking down a Granite Golem:
You cast Bludgeoning Vulnerability Other IV on Granite Golem
You smash Granite Golem for 121 points with Shock Wave V
You smash Granite Golem for 113 points with Shock Wave V
Diamond Golem casts Imperil Other VI on you
Granite Golem crushes you for 97 points of bludgeoning damage!
You flatten Granite Golem's body with the force of your assault!
Note to self: Don't agitate Golems too close to Chalcimere, their
Diamond buddies might decide to come have some fun! Deciding it
was rather futile to stay any longer with Imperil VI on me, and
not really wanting to try to tank that angry Diamond Golem
rushing towards me, I recalled back to Mayoi to sell and restock
on components.
Second Hunting Excursion - Accursed Halls to Ayan Baqur
Feeling confident with my ability to survive out in the new
Direlands, I decided to make the run to Ayan Baqur from the
Accursed Halls Staging Point. As always, I used full life
protections in order to be prepared for whatever I ran into.
First portion of the run of the run was uneventful, with the
exact same spawns described in the First Excursion. Killed some
stuff, kept going southwest. Ayan Baqur or bust!
As I neared the field of giant flowers, which is a large field of
big flowers hugging the upper rim of the skull on the in-game
map, the spawns started to change. Umbris were more frequent (I
also notice that the dual Panumbris groups are gone this patch as
well), perhaps more frequent than they had been before patch.
Copper/Granite/Iron spawns stayed the same as the Mid-Dires area,
and Obsidian Golems became far more frequent, even appearing in
pairs. Scrawed Grievvers were replaced by Harrower Grivvers,
Malus Shreth were more frequently encountered, and Virindi as
well.
Two new types of monsters were encountered in the flower area:
Dire Ursins - Big Saber-Tooth Tiger Bear Hamster things. About
the same resistance as a Malus Shreth, and they hit harder. They
have a chance to drop Scalps as well, which produce Ursin Helms.
A good source of spell component funds if you can get one. They
spawn individually, so no need to worry about reinforcements
unless another spawns beside it.
(5k xp each) (Frequency - Medium/Low)
Lugians - That's right, our favorite rock-tossing giant smurfs
have come to the direlands in force! They spawn all over the
place now, in one of three formations: A group of 4 gigas and 1
Lithos, a solitary Extas, or a pair of Extas. Lithos are melee
creatures, so they come right at you, but Gigas and Extas toss
boulders that have a 220 yard range (based on strength 100).
Gigas and Lithos are easy to kill, though I suspect Extas have
the same resistance as an Obsidian Golem. Gigas drop keys, though
rarely, and Extas have a fairly high drop rate.
(2.8k/3.2k/8k Lithos/Gigas/Extas Respectively) (Frequency - High)
My first encounter with the Lugians in the dires was pretty funny
actually. I spotted a Gigas Lugian on the edge of my radar and
vulned it. I dodged the rock it threw, then turned my attention
an a Lithos that was charging my position...and nearly spit out
the orange juice I was drinking as 11 boulders flew in from the
wild blue yonder and beat me to an inch of my life. Good thing
that Lithos was there to drain... After I got my health back, I
found out that it was actually 3 groups of 5 lugians clumped
together...killed those, got some nice xp...no keys...darn. After
some wandering in the general direction of AB and killing more
Lugians/Druges/Golems/Wasps, I enountered a lone Extas standing
beside a giant flower, probably trying to pick it for his
girlfriend...assuming of course that it was a "He."
Feeling lucky, I decided to try and kill it...
You say, "Cruath Quafeth"
Extas Lugian resists your spell
You say, "Cruath Quafeth"
Extas Lugian resists your spell
You say, "Cruath Quafeth"
Extas Lugian resists your spell
You say, "Cruath Quafeth"
Extas Lugian resists your spell
You say, "Cruath Quafeth"
Extas Lugian resists your spell
You say, "Cruath Quafeth"
Extas Lugian resists your spell
You say, "Cruath Quafeth"
Extas Lugian resists your spell
You say, "Cruath Quafeth"
Extas Lugian resists your spell
You say, "Zojak Quasith"
Extas Lugian resists your spell
You say, "Zojak Quasith"
Extas Lugian resists your spell
Hmm...just lucky, I bet.
You say, "Zojak Quasith"
Extas Lugian resists your spell
Nope, guess not. Put that on my avoid/ignore list.
Slowly continuing on my way, I killed lots and lots of Lugians/Druges/Golems/Wasps,
then I got hit by a lag spike and died(I need a war spell like
that). Recall. Remove Vitae. Retrieve body. Now where was I...
Eventually, I came to the end of the flower field and came upon a
moderately forested area. Grievvers and Virindi became even more
frequent, as did Obsidian Golems and Shreth. My regular quarry
lowered in frequency and became hard to get at. Most of the time
in this area, I had some sort of stupid debuff, such as
Bludgeoning Vulnerability Other IV or Life Magic Ineptitude Other
V. Places to buff are few and far inbetween, though its easy to
travel though as long as you keep running and strafing to avoid
nasty monsters and their nastier war magic.
New Creature encountered in this area:
Tusker Gaurd - A slightly more powerful version of the Tusker
Slave, sometimes seen in this area replacing the Slave in a
Virindi Scouting Pod. I wouldn't suggest trying to kill one at
mid/low levels, though it is possible, I suppose.
(13k xp a pop) (Frequency - Low)
A few minutes of running and the landscape changed to a swampy
area. Recalling that Undead were supposedly now gathering in
swamps, I stuck to the high ground. Even so, I was tagged with
Imperil V and Weakness V by a Skeleton Bone Lord. Luckily, there
was no pusuit, and I passed though the region and onto the beach
quickly.
New Creatures encountered in this area:
High Skeletons - Like all undead, they make your life miserable
by debuffing the snot out of you. Mainland varieties of High
Skeletons include Skeleton Bone Knights, Skeleton Bone Lords and
Great Skeletons. They are characterized by their tale-tell acid
weapons, a 10-30 sword, or some sort of +21234123122% mod Yumi.
More often than not, they also come equipped with al 200 shields
when in melee mode, which make them tedious to kill for melees...however,
armor doesn't affect magical damage, so who cares, right?
Unfortunately, Skeleton Bone Knights/Lords cast War/Life Inepts,
Weakness/Slowness/Clumsiness, Acid Bolt, and Imperil/Acid Vuln.
Great Skeletons only cast level 6 attribute debuffs. Hunting of
these is not suggested.
(8k/10k/12k for Knights/Lords/Greats Respectively) (Frequency -
Unknown at this time, assumed High/Medium like before patch)
Finally, the home stretch on the Jouney to Ayan Baqur, the
relatively safe beach. Some changes include: no more low level
Skeletons, Sandy Armoredillos, Sandstone Golems and Red Wasps ;p.
Those irritating underwater Bone Knight/Lords seem to be gone as
well. Jade Gromnies have been replaced by Ash Gromnies, and Gold
wasps are more frequent. The beach area is bordered by a forest
area, so expect the forest spawns discussed previously mixed in
with the beach spawn.
New Creature encountered in this area:
Ash Gromnie - A level 30 Gromnie with lightning breath...bane to
low-mid level hunters in the Linvak range, and minor niusanse out
here...don't lose your buffs though, they can hit an unarmored
individual for over 70 points with their lightning breath.
(1.8k per unit) (Frequency - High)
Running along the beach presented no problems. I stopped by at
the local metos just in case I died and had to recall to last
portal, then ran the rest of the way to Ayan Baqur, home of
beggars, thieves, merchant campers, good sell prices, and
everybody's best friend, lag.
Thus ends my journal for today. Hope you enjoyed reading it, if
you think its good, make noise by posting comments/sugestions/questions
here :)
Q&A / Discussion of Journal 2:
Question:
Why did you start with 100 Str?Answer:
There are two lines of reasoning that lead to this decision:
1. Process of elimination:
a) Health/Stamina may be raised in 2 ways same reasoning which produces 10 endurance melees
b) Run may be raised in two ways, and I'm never going to be using any combative skills that require quickness.
c)Coordination...I'm not going to be taking a missile attack ever, and that would be the only reason for a mage to have more than 10 Coord.
2. Str = Longer hunting periods for a mage:
a) Mages in general suffer from overburden, most mages pull off about 120 burden in GSA and a full comp load and will do fairly well with that. However comps will run out fairly quickly, and a mage will spend maybe 2 hours on the field at the most...unless he/she is rich and can afford buckets of peas.
b) Peas...to be able to afford peas, you will have to be able to stay on the field longer, carry more/higher quality loot than you can find on a shorter trip.
c) Platinum scarabs...I figured some sort of obscenely expensive spell components would be required for level 7 spells, so I optimized myself to make the most money in order to sustain the burn rate of the constant practice of level 7 spells.
d) I believe efficiency is the name of the game with the Battle Mage: Get the most bang for your component and mana buck. I just extend the idea of efficiency to the ability to stay out on the field longer, thus decreasing wasted time travelling, selling buying comps once or twice per time a mage with higher strength would.
I hope that made some sort of sense, I'm really tired, lol.