From:  Zarya bint Tala'an 
ID:  eJ8y9Xhrr96
Date:  1/13/01 at 4:16 pm
Subject:  Zarya's Journal 01.13.01 - Sorry it took so long!
 

Expeditionary Journal of Zarya bint Tala'an, Aspiring Battlemage

01.13.01

Excursion 1 - Survey of the Area Surrounding Ayan Baqur

The area around Ayan Baqur is seperated into 3 main spawn zones: Direlands Forest, Swamp and Beach. I did most of my exploring today in this region. There are two major dungeons in the area, Black Spawn Den and Halls of Motes...er, Metos. There are also a couple of points of interests with reliable static spawns.

Direlands Forest Zone:

This region is characterized by dark green *ground*, lots of rocks and bushes, uneven ground and tall conifers. In short, this area is a less-than-ideal hunting area for Battlemages. Spawns are the same as the forest areas described in the previous journal entry, though I'll go into more detail now.

Rules for this area, if you actually deign to hunt here:

1. Make sure you establish a line of sight - Too many dang rocks, trees, bushes and inclines in this area. If you find a target, establish as clear a line of sight as possible for your war spells. If you don't creatures you attract will bounce off obstacles and you'll never land anything until they're on top of you.

2. Take a note of the landmarks in your area! - This zone borders the other two zones...though the swamp zone is what you want to look out for. It's too easy to stray into a swamp in a pitched battle with 5 or 6 druges, then having that Skeleton Bone Lord Imperil/Vuln you and stick his 10-30 acid sword somewhere uncomfortable. Snow, for this patch, is the big hint that your getting to close to a swamp...all swamps are surrounded by snow.

Creatures observed in this zone:

Mid-Druges - Face it, they're everywhere in the Dires, Northern Osteth as well. Expect the same spawn as the Mid-Direlands area with the same group patterns as well.
(Frequency - High)

Shadows - Umbris groups are everywhere. They are particulary annoying in this area since they blend into the environment rather well. Make sure you don't come to close to them or you'll probably get tagged with a Life Ineptitude V.
(Frequency - Low)

Golems - Coppers are the dominant golem type, followed by Obsidians. Irons and Granites are increasingly rare. Easy to spot if you know what you're looking for, and Obsidian Golems still chase you for ever and ever. Spawn for golems in this area are in pairs, though some Obsidian spawns are single.
(Frequency - Medium)

Fragments - I saw one or two...there used to be lots of Duals and Regulars out here...I guess that has changed quite a bit. They're easy to spot due to that glow that you can see from 3 radar ranges away.
(Frequency - Rare)

Grievvers - Scrawwed/Virulent/Venemous/Harrower Grievvers spawn in this area. Scrawwed/Virulent spawn in groups of three, Venemous in pairs and Harrowers are solitaire. I actually can kill Scrawwed Grievvers pretty easily now, though a Virulent is usually mixed in their groups will send me running. They are weak to slashing, and hit pretty hard though level 5 Life protections. Easy to spot, easy to run away from.
(Frequency - Hedium/High)

Gold Waps - Classic lightning-spewing wasp. I still kill them for vitae.
(Frequency - Medium/Low)

Lugians - I'm pretty sure these things are border-spawns with the Direlands Desert (Mid Dires) Zone mesas that stick up all over the place (Ayan Baqur is on one such mesa). Basic Lugian, basic boulder, basic intelligence. Good for luring into town as well, hehe. Expect to see the same 4 Gigas/1 Lithos and solitary Extas spawns as described in the previous entry.
(Frequency - High: bordering on the desert mesa things)

Virindi Scouting Pods - Same deal as before, 2 puppets, 1 servant and 1 Tusker(Slave usually). Solitary Servants seem to have dissappeared.
(Frequency - Medium)

This region is more a place for Archers, which can fire over the obstacles on the terrain. My advice is to not waste your time here. If you still feel to weak to go on to bigger game, stick to the Dires Deserts.


Swamp Zone (stupid place that no one ever visited, and now have further incentive not to visit)

Didn't really want to go here, so I just made a quick border survey. It seems to be the same as before patch, except with some added nasties.

Creatures observed:

Mid-Druges - Druges...same kinds.

Mire Wasps - Level 6 wasps...what are they doing here?

Liches/Lich Lords - Mid-Level Undead...Liches cast level 3 attribute debuffs, level 3/4 War magic and Life magic in the form of Drains/Fester/Exhaustion. Lich Lords cast level 4 attribute debuffs, level 4/5 War Magic and the same Life magic as Liches. They have high resistance, and usually have ranged weapons. Don't bother trying to hit them, or you might end up attraacting higher undead.

Bone Things - High level Skeletons: Skeleton Bone Knights, Skeleton Bone Lords and Great Skeletons. I've earned a healthy respect for them...there's nothing like being Imperiled, slowed down and watching as a Knight slowly catches up to you, sticks, and applies his/her Acid sword to various portions of your anatomy.

Mosswarts - These things are still here as well, I wonder why. Mudlurks/Barkers/Shamans, same as their Osteth buddies. Nothing special, move along.

Scalvus - These were always here, Aste, Sata, etc. Lower level ones are easy to kill, they cast low level war/creature/life and usually wield a bow of some sort. There IS, however, at least one new scalvus as of this patch: the Ulu Scalvus from the Versayens. They wield Acid Javelins/Spears or go UA, cast level 4 magic, and are...easy to kill like all other scalvus. I've seen a few of them around, though none of the more deadly Chomu Scalvus.

As I said, a quick border survey...sorry, but Ididn't feel like dying any more than I had to, ehe.

Beach Zone

The Beach...what a crappy movie. The Beach zone is a flat area, with the exception of that little dip into the water to about thigh height. Pretty boring, though it does offer some interesting creatures to look at/pick apart. Dires Desert is still a better place to hunt, though this is a nice place to get rid of and Vitae Penalty you might have racked up.

Creatures Observed:

Mid-Druges - Troop must have spilled a gallon of Druge Spawn Paint on the Map...
(Frequency - High)

Gold Wasps - If you haven't seen them yet, you should get out(into Dereth) more.
(Frequency - Medium/Low)

Ash Gromnies - Lightning-breathing baby Gromatross. They resemble giant lizards, and are fairly quick with a fast attack rate. Don't bother draining them if you have to kill one...just War it.
(Frequency - Medium)

Grievvers - Our super-resistant buddies are here too...I guess that Druge paint was mixed with Grievver paint. Stay away from them, as usual, though this might be a place to match your skills against them due to the flat area. I killed a group of 2 Scrawwed and one Virulent late in the trip *flexes*. A Harrower standing in the water is also a purdy sight =)
(Frequency - High)

Shadows - I'm pretty sure this is just a Forest spawn bled onto the Beach.
(Frequency - Low)

Copper Golems - Coppers seem to be the only golems that spawn on the beach. Weak to acid, fairly low resistance. Shoots lightning bolts and volleys.
(Frequency - Medium)

Niffis(Sephal/Opor) - I Love these things...they resemble Giant Nautilis tipped vertically and given little wings. They're pretty easy to kill, I can bring down a Sephal down with a single Blade Vuln 5/Whirly Blade 5. Fun to watch, fun to kill.
(5k xp for a Sephal) (Frequency - Medium)

Outdoor Points of Interest:

Druge Island
I dubbed this place just west of Ayan Baqur "Druge Island" due to the irregular Druge spawns here. There are 3 Druge spawns, consisting of 4 raveners, 4 Stalkers and 4 Lurkers. Virindi, Grievvers and Copper Golems are also found here.

Iron Golem Square
A fair distance north of Ayan Baqur, there is a paved landblock that spawns 8 Iron Golems. Nice place for Low level Archers who want a decent amount of xp and a safe reliable spawn outdoors(running room). Not so great for mages...I actually got away killing them all with four Blistering Creepers, ehehe. There are forest spawns surrounding the mesa that contains the square, also an empty tower.

The White Rabbit
Level 666 Rabbit found in a cave south of AB. Don't ID it, or you'll probably die from Bunny Smite(Harm Other CCLXVII). On a similar note, don't attack it either, it does hollow damage. It drops an Orb of the Bunny Booty.
"Big Pointy Nasty Teeth!"

Dungeon Guide to the Ayan Baqur Area

Malls of Metos:
A big dungeon 2 minutes north of AB full of Golems and Undead. The hallways at the beginning house numerous Liches, and one Lich Lord. The hallway then forks, to the left and straight, a room with 5 Granite Golems. Before that room, a jump across a pit of acid to a room with mixed Granites and Irons, plus a Sturdy Iron Key Chest. To the right of the fork, there are 2 rooms with 4 and 5 Granite Golems. Before that room, another passage with a jump across an acid pit, this one leading to a room that spawns 5 Iron Golems. If you fall into the acid pit, act quickly and run straight into the secret hallways. In those halls, there are lots of Revenants. Beyond the 5 Iron room, there is a hall and a ramp leading to a chamber with 5 Revenants, which leads into another hallway/ramp that is semi-blocked by 3 Revenants. At the end of that hallway, there are 2 rooms connected by a ramp/hallway that spawn 4 and 5 Obsidian Golems. The lower room also houses a racial Sturdy Iron Key Chest. Keep going, turn the 180 degree hallway and you reach a safe buff point. Further along, the halway is lined with War and Life Magic traps, not to mention lots and lots and lots of Revenants. If you manage to get past all that, there is a final room that spawns 6 Obsidian Golems and has a pit at the end. The pit leads to a hallway UNDER the Obsidian Golems, so its a nice place to drain if you actually make it there, heh...the hallway then leads to an exit portal.

Nice place to bring Mid-High Level followers on a day when you can't figure out what to do. Iron Golem rooms are camped by Archers and Melees with acid weapons. Granite rooms are good xp from levels 20-25 if you like staring at dimly lit walls all day.
4 minute spawn rate for the entire dungeon.
Level 15 Restriction.

Black Spawn Den (The Tuskerbalabala Vault)

A dungeon full of Tuskers, Virindi and Druges Southeast of AB. Perhaps the biggest waste of time for mages of any level, since Melees pretty much own this place. It is, however a convenient place to test your viablilty against Tuskers, corpse recovery is simple due to the sheer over-campedness of this place. Many Og and Life Spec mages in their low levels (20-40) frequent this place, since they can just drain, run because their War Magic sucks(*cough cough*) and still get expecience because they know some Melee will kill it for them. First Floor is pure Tusker Slaves, about 20 of them. Then there are two ramps leading down: First Leads to a large chamber that spawns roughly 20 Tusker Gaurds, then leads into a racial Sturdy Iron Key Chest gaurded by 3 Tusker Gaurds, 1 Virindi Servant, and a Virindi Master. Second ramp leads to a large Hub with 3 other hallways leading to it, gaurded by 8 Gaurds and one Virindi Servant. The hallways to left and right lead to passages that are mirror-images of each other, each containing about 25 Gaurds. The hallway to the front connects to the mid-point of the same passages. At the both passages meet at another level, which has 10 tusker gaurds, and leads to a long chamber that has alcoves for tuskers on both sides...about 15 tuskers, plus one gaurding the bottom of the next ramp. At the bottom of the ramp there are about 30 druges, both Raveners and Stalkers, 2 Virindi (Master and Servant) and a SIK Chest. Beyond the SIK chest there are locked doors leading up to perches along the sides of the druge room...5 or 10 druges spawn on either perch though, so its not completely safe. If you run past the locked doors, there is a long ramp leading up to the exit portal. Sounds like a lot of Tuskers/XP? Not really, considering that melees will kill 90% of the spawn, and a High level Melee, like Sword of Smack (Sword of Truth) with his 430 Sword Skill, 290 Strength and Bandit Rapier will kill 85% of what melees take. Then add the 20 or so Mages that are running around skimming from the Melees, and you get perhaps 0.5% of the spawn to yourself...not much, maybe 200-300k an hour.

Owned by Melees, stubbornly camped by those mages who like to waste their time thinking its phat xp and everyone else will go away someday, and ultimately laggy due to all the people/loot/monsters running around (not the loot, it just lies there). Place sucks, if you want Tuskers, go hunt on the Obsidian Plains.
20 minute spawn rate for the entire dungeon, used to be 2 minutes...that was cool, hehe.
Level 20 Restriction.


Excursion 2 - Outer Obsidian Plains

*spams for BH Portal*

Alright, so I'm here. For those who don't know what this place is, it is the old playground for high level players of all types before the introduction of Aerlinthe, and still the playground for high level melees who are too lazy/poor/gimped to go to Aerlinthe. The Obsidian Plains gets its name from the vast sea of volcanic glass surrounding a crater full of giant mushrooms with a magical fountain in the centre. It doesn't look lke glass, but I don't think people would appreciate the glare of reflected sunlight during daytime hunting (a reflected night sky would be pretty awesome though).

Usually the portal to BH you spam for is actually a portal to Small Black Hill. Black hill is actually a monster inhabited portion of the Obsidian Plains. I wouldn't suggest going through the BH portal though, the lag generated by your system recognizing and rendering all the monsters/objects/corpses is usually enough to kill you before you realize it. Instead, I head to the Small Hill Base and run south. I Turned right when I saw the Sho Roadside portal, and I came upon a swamp area. To the North, the *town* of Weijou could be seen.

Weijou
A large three-story Sho building. It, along with Teth, used to be frequented by higher levels taking advantage of the 125% sell rates before the addition of Ayan Baqur. Higher levels still come here to sell, though the lack of a Jewler is a turn off for shopping here. Weijou has 3 merchants: a Healer, a Blacksmith, and an Archmage which happens to sell Lifestone Recall spells. A major problem with Weijou was that it was an ideal perch and a close refuge overlooking a Direlands swamp spawn, so low level characters of all trades came here to level and camp the shops. The result was a single landblock with 70+ players in it...lag skyrockets for players who just arrive in the surrounding landblocks, people with slow computers and even hunters on the Obsidian Plains in the vicinity of the settlement. There is also a convenient cliff face that high level monsters from the Obsidian Plains fall from and get themselves caught trying to get up the cliff. Melees would have high level monsters that had a 30% melee defense bonus due to them moving, and basically be able to kill them at little risk...of course if a monster happened to fall from up above and land on you, you'd die. I've seen players crushed by anything from a falling Gold Wasp to a Falling Diamond Golem. Then there's the archers...they could hit, but maybe 33% of the time due to the jerkyness of monsters trying to climb cliffs. However, apparent futility will not stop the most determined/idiotic archer/marks(wo)man from trying to kill that phat thing that give phat xp and maybe phat |3wt as well. Result was anywhere from 50 to 1000 arrows lining the bottom of the cliff, another bonus for your computer to recognize and render. Final result of all this was UNGODLY LAG!

Then it changed. First step was sticky melee back in...January? Tuskers/Golems/Virindi Puppets would stick to whatever hit them and crush them in a single blow. That reduced the lag by maybe 10%...better than nothing. The big change, however was the direlands spawn changes by Troop. Suddenly, Bone Skeletons and Ulu Scalvus appeared to wipe out all the people who weren't supposed to be there in the first place. A calculated move by Troop? Unforseen side-effect?? Who cares, the lag is gone! BWAHAHA!

Obsidian Plains (Outer Portion)

I ran past the swamp and turned left when I came across the Lifestone, then headed south to the next inlet to the Outer Plains Zone. I buffed, then headed in. My initial intent on coming here was to test out my ability to tank groups of Tuskers solo, something impossible to do in BSD. First spawn I ran into consisted of 4 gaurds. I proceeded to vuln one, then drain, then kill. 4 tuskers? Kinda iffy, I would place myself at being able to tank 3 tuskers, though not efficiently. At 200 base magic skill, resistance is too frequent. I was, however taking the hits rather well, enough to easliy compensate though drain health for a few drains until I had to finish the Tusker with war. With level 5 Item Protections and level 5 Life protections, damage on hands was 2-8 (I wear plate gaunts, so you can hear the *ping* sound), damage on upper/lower body was 5-13, with crits up to 26. If you are in a robe, I wouldn't suggest tanking more than one tusker at a time. With this data, I predict that I will be a Tusker Incinerating Dynamo at level 35 or 36, which means I will be able to tank indefinite amounts of Tuskers, as long as my buffs hold.

Very uplifting results, now to go do something I planned on doing the next day, but couldn't wait ;p


Exscursion 3 - Neydisa Castle to The Essense of Strife (Northern Osteth)

I recently collected a set of Level 6 War Scrolls to feed to the Essense of Strife located Norwest of Neydisa Castle. I planned to do this at a later date, but I learned that you could give the scrolls at any time and learn. I got a ride to New Subway (Jungle Shadows), and shortly thereafer arrived at Neydisa Castle.

Observations on the run to the Essense of Strife

Before I start on this run, I must say that only having 135 run skill sucks. Must raise it some time.

Departing from Neydisa Castle, the spawn seems the same as before patch. Low level Banderlings, Mites (AIYEE!), Limestone/Wood Golems, Mattekars, Low level Tuskers and Monougas. After about 5 minutes of running, I started noticing some changes. The previous spawn of Druge Lurkers and Stalkers was still there, but solitary Raveners have appeared. Iron Golems are now here more frequently along with Granite and Copper Golems. The big change here was the addition of Banderling Strikers/Berzerkers...hmm. Must be an unpleasant surprise for those low-mid levels hunting out here before patch. Picked up about 11 Argenory (White) Plants, and arrived at the Essense of Strife.

I approached the NPC, gave it the scrolls, and was rewarded with the cool new level 7 War spells, added directly to my spellbook. Recalled, restocked, logged off.

This concludes my Journal installment for today.

Zarya bint Tala'an

 

Q & A / Discussion of Journal 3

Question:

I was wondering how being a battle mage is, most people seem to think the OG is a little bit superior due to it being "complete" at 26? Is it rewarding to have war spec'd now that war 7's out? Maybe you should next right an article/essay about the pros and cons of being a battle mage and how you went about leveling and such...

Answer:

Contrary to popular belief, the Og is NOT *complete* at 26... True, it does get its last school of magic, but it doesn't suddenly go out and "own" everything. I would say an Og is complete magic skill-wise when it gets 330 in Life/Creature and 300 in War, about level 60ish.

As Og says, it depends completely on your playing style...I'm one of those psycho powergamers (or powerchatters), so the Battlemage fits my preferences.

If you want an essay and opinions on Og vs. Battlemage, just take a look at the WE board, or this board, and draw your own conclusions. Perhaps I will write that essay when I have nothing better to write while I'm leveling on Tuskers, hehe.

Commentary:

Great post again. One comment though:P
Just so some dont get the wrong idea, if a OG mage is skimming and running and not finishing with war, because of *sucky* war magic, its the player not the template. I have had no problems finishing tuskers since I gained war at lv 26 and even before getting war,I could finish with life, though god did it suck.
-Dark Sacrifice lv 45 OG Mage

RE: Great post again. One comment though:P - Just a feeble attempt at humor...
The way you play depends on one thing...you. Don't blame it on your template, the devs, the game or random acts of God, if there's something wrong, its YOUR fault. My statement was a *compressed* version of these observations:

d00d X took these following steps:
1) He wanted to be powerful and "own" things
2) He looked on the boards and said woah, Og is |33t!
3) He rolled up an Og after a few questions(usually already answered in all the Og essays)
4) He sat behind a wall all day, macroed or got himself twinked
5) When he got War Magic, he had no experience tanking, was too scared to tank, distributed his xp poorly or any combination of these.
6) d00d X quickly turns into skimmer/gimp X, and either he quits because "this template sucks," or is locked into a vicious cycle of skimming, which usually produces those extremely rude people that suddenly appear and try to take your Umbris, skim your tuskers out on the middle of the plains, or use [you] as a meatshield on Aerlinthe.
-Zarya bint Tala'an

RE: Great post again. One comment though:P - Agreed, the spec creature and life is...
Agreed, the spec creature and life is to make up for the problems with war. It's a broken skill, you shouldn't need crutches for it, but...

The whole notion of speced creature/life mages having weak war skills is rubbish...for -most- players. They have better war skills than mages who only trained all their magic schools or those who only speced one. You roughly make up almost half the spec difference by experience savings from speced creature and life. Add a yield and your war skill is higher than a speced war mage. This holds up until extremely high levels 60-70+. The whole focus of speced creature/life is war. Specing creature and life makes you a better war mage for the first 60-70 levels of the game than one who speced war.

War/life speced mages are more powerful, after levels 60-70(depending on how you spend your exp), but for the majority, specing life and creature makes for a better mage.

Don't take my word for it though, download splitpea, run the numbers, and do some basic math.

That being said, numbers and splitpea shouldn't decide the mage you make. I'm making a speced war/life mage on WE and I will never go much past level 70, but just want to, so I am. Play what you will enjoy.
-Og the One Eye

RE: Agreed, the spec creature and life is...
Well said Og, fact of the matter is I am having fun and after 2 gimped characters finally feel that I have one made that is viable for as long as I wanna play him.

BTW, enjoy your posts, this is my first mage and coming to this board and reading posts by you and others have helped alot!
-Dark Sacrifice lv 45 og mage; Godan lv 57 gimped xbow/ua "bah, 10self/10focus is plenty!"

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