|
|
Expeditionary Journal of Zarya bint
Tala'an, Aspiring Battlemage
01.17.01
Whee, questions...I like questions, as long as they're reasonably
phrased ;p
Jamboozi wrote:
First off like many others I found your battlemage journals very usefull and helped me to decide to start a battlemage. I was looking at your post about lvl's 1-20 and decided it looked rather week compared to your other posts. You seem like a very experienced lvler yet the spots you use seem like spots i took my first character too. Are these the spots you would recomend or are there better ones that you can think of? I mean no offense it just seems that someone like you can do better then the beaches and the middle of the desert for lvling spots.
First off, fix your grammar...not an insult, this post was pretty
easy to understand, just one day you might write something that's
totally unintelligible and will end up being rather embarrasing...its
also easier on me...I get irked by some of the silliest things.
There are some universal truths about mages, and one is that they
all suck before level 20. At earlier levels, they flee, die a
lot, run out of mana a lot, sit around getting stamina a lot. It
doesn't matter what template you take, how skilled you are, or
who your main is. Unless you have a twinky pal, you suffer from
this.
Here are some pretty reasonable principles about low level mages
that we can narrow down hunting areas from:
1. You are made out of tissue paper - You have no shield, no
Melee Defense and usually no run skill. If something stupid
catches you, you're pretty much dead.
2. Quality, not quantity. You want to get as much xp for mana and
time as possible. You are not designed for more than a few
creatures at a time.
3. Your magic sucks. Whatever template you take, the creatures
you hunt have a pretty high chance of resisting you multiple
times, and then sending you back to the lifestone.
4. You are completely dependent on components, so you want to
stay close to a town.
Now, we can narrow down some possibilities from these conclusions:
Levels 1-10
Dungeons are out of the question. They provide little running
room and yield little xp per creature.
Areas immediately surrounding the starter towns:
Druges and shreth and red wasps, usually. Some dungeons with lots
of the same inside. This includes rivers. Breaks principle 2.
Low Level Desert:
Same as starter towns, except with Rust Gromnies and some
skeletons. Possibility of finding something you can't tackle yet,
like a Sandstone Golem or a Skeleton Captain. Breaks Principle 2.
Heartland
Hearland spawns are generally found in swarms, typically Hunter
Shreth and Reedsharks, and the area is quite a distance from
towns. Breaks 1, 2 and 4.
Northern Forest
Lots of stuff to kill. Easy to find Wood Golems, which is good,
but unfortunately there are lots of Mites and Banderlings all
over the place. Breaks 1 and 2.
Beaches
There are a lot of towns on beaches. Beaches have their share of
stupid things, like gromnies, but what offsets this is the
presence of the #1 Breakfast of Champions: Golems. Relatively non-resistant,
excellent xp relative to everything else, and most of all - slow.
This makes the Beaches an obvious choice for any mage...any
character at all, in fact. I favor the Mayoi beach because
components are cheap at the Master Archmage, and Linvak spawns
leach onto the beach, so I can occasionally test my viability
against a Lugian or a Sandstone Golem.
Levels 10-20
Southern Rim of the Lost Wish Range:
Lots of mage fodder here, Monougas and Golems especially. Arwic
is closeby for comps. However, this area has lots of Mites and
Mattekars...fast runners and frequent/hard hitters.
Linvak Range, Sho Side:
Access points are Mayoi, Lin and Baishi. I believe this to be the
*easier* side of the Linvaks, though it does have its share of
pains. Choice targets include Lugians, low level Golems, and
Armoredillos. Drawbacks are that there are lots of nasty fast
things, like Shadows, Gromnies, Zefirs, Ursins, Mattekars and
Mountain Rats. There are also the *new* spawns, which include
higher level Golems that you have no chance of landing a spell on.
Linvak Range, Qualaba'r Side:
Access point is Qualaba'r, duh. This is the more difficult region
of the Linvaks, and it provides the same creatures to kill.
However spawn frequency for higher level creatures is increased
quite a bit, especially Ash Gromnies.
Northern Osteth Forests/Mountains:
Access points are Plateau, Stonehold Neydisa and Bandit Castle.
Used to be an OK place with lots of Wood Golems and Monougas to
kill, but now there's Mid-Banderlings and Mid-Druges there.
Dungeons:
Face it, most level 10-20 dungeons are camped to the hilt, or
unsuitable for low level mages. Lugian Citadel, Metos, Murk
Warrens Lugian Mine, the Pit are all high density dungeons more
suited to Melee. Older dungeons, like Trialos, Rocky Crypt, Golem
Burial Ground and enclosed areas like Walled portals are camped
to oblivion. Low level mages need plenty of space to function
well.
Desert:
This is my choice. No Shadows or anything super annoying/deadly
to a mage out here, like Ash Gromnies or Iron Golems or Mid-Druges.
Choice bits are frequently found here, Sandstone Golems and Sandy/Stoney
Dillos are the main source of xp. Everthing else, like Rust
Gromnies, Red Wasps, Skeletons and Shreth are a joke and present
no real danger. Access points are Khabayyan, Tufa, Al-Jalima,
Samsur, Uziz, Al-Araqs and Zhaikal.
Any further questions/comments on this subject? Feel free to post!
Excursions 1 and 2 - Obsidian Plains...again...
Got a ride to BSD this time, so I figured I would go backwards
along my route. Buffed all prots inside BSD, and stepped out the
portal. Outside there were 2 Virindi, Master and Puppet and 2
Obsidian Golem, so I ran like crazy down the slope to the
beginning of my route. Unfortunatley I picked up a Bludgeon Vuln
VI from the master, so I was shut down for about 20 minutes...once
that went away, I rebuffed and started my numbercrunching. Things
were uneventful for the whole portion of the first trip, ran out
of comps so I recalled to restock.
In Mayoi, I decided to learn all my Life and Item VIs for future
use.
With comps replenished I got a ride to Disaster Maze(DM) this
time, and made my way to Small Hill base. I ran though the portal
to get the location tie in case of death, and ran to the edge of
the swamp/river. Buffed full life pros, though not armor imp/banes.
Ran past the swamp, picking up an Imperil Other V from a Bone
Lord and then got chased a little ways by an Ulu Scalvus...I also
heard 3 death messages, courtesy of Ulu Scalvus...seems some
people don't know when to give up and go somewhere else.
Arriving at the first leg of my route, I decided it was time to
buff with Life VIs...didn't fizzle much, so buffing went quickly.
Twinkers populated the first area, though not as many as last
night...still enough to give me meager xp for the first 15
minutes though. Also came across a group killing a swarm of stuff
so they could get at a Steel Chest. On the middle portion of the
route, things got quiet once again and I had a pretty goodly sum
of xp generated. As I continued along my route, I found the last
portion of my route blocked...hmm...guess no one was around long
enough for the spawn to change...oh well, backtracked a bit and
found the place where spawns were beginning to replenish
themselves and started killing Tuskers again. Actually, most of
the spawns had changed...places where I expected Tuskers had
something else, like Grievvers, while other places had more
Tuskers than I expected, causing me to flee. I got hungry midway
through my leveling, so I went to a safe spot that I had used
often before and went afk to grab a snack...when I came back I
was standing by the lifestone...apparently someone dragged some
Obsidian Golems into me. Recalled to BH and got rid of vitae
while working my way along the route to my body, picked it up and
continued on my way. I guess one major advantage of establishing
a stable hunting route is that you can always find your body.
Finished leveling and recalled...spent the rest of my time
chatting, heh.
Notes/Observations:
Steel Chests always spawn by Virindi Masters...or is it the other
way around? Whenever I saw a Steel Chest, there was always a
Master right beside it. So, if you're having trouble finding one
(which I doubt since they're all over the place), look for
Virindi Masters. Works the other way around as well...looking for
masks? Find some chests! =P
God Mode works on Tuskers. Yeah, I know, its stupid...but its fun!
I spent 30 minutes endlessly amusing myself by God Moding Tuskers
for the last bit of my level. Simple things amuse me, I guess.
You can level really fast if you don't chat ;p
Hmm...what to write on now...
Well, since I'm out of my low levels:
Zarya's Guide to Tanking Tuskers for Lower Levels (Junior Varsity)
Part 1 - Are you ready?
Alright, so you've been hunting in the Dires for a while, your
tongue is sore from licking a wall, or you feel you're ready to
step out of that handy-dandy macro. You've heard all this cool
stuff about Tuskers, and now you want to try them out.
Suggested Requirements:
You have at least 210 buffed skill while hunting in both War and
Life Magic
You can cast level 5 Life Pros and Item Imp/Banes
You are prepared to have your arse kicked
What to buff:
Level 5+ Armor and Bludgeoning Protection Self
Level 5+ Item enchantments on Gloves/Robe, Gloves/Coat/Leggings...Underbuffing
(Imp/Bane Clothing) is optional.
Where to go:
Best place to go would probably be the Direlands. Find yourself a
single Tusker Slave, and attract it.
A BSD is also an OK option, since it would be convenient to get
your body if you die, since the place is always camped.
Obsidian Plains...this would probably be the last option if
you're just wanting to test your validity against Tuskers, if you
attract a Tusker, usually more follow up behind it. Also not a
very nice place if you die in a nasty spot and have to recover
your body.
How to tank a single Tusker in a few easy steps:
1. Attract the Tusker with a Fire Vuln, 4+ preferred
2. When the Tusker is close enough, start draining its Health
3. Drain Stamina and cast Stamina to Mana as needed
4. When the Tusker gets to ~100hp (a 20 point drain), smoke it
with a Fire bolt
Very similar to tanking Golems and Druges in the Dires.
Now analyze your performance:
How much did it resist?
I find an acceptable resistance level would be 1 out of 5. Any
more, and you tend to start eating more damage than you cen
replace, and have difficulty finishing off the target.
How much did it hit you for?
My formula for acceptable damage is a maximum critical hit worth
20% of your health. Any more, and you might be in trouble while
winding up and trying to finish off the Tusker.
How much time did it take?
Actually, this is a question meant only for people who can't
handle multiple Tusker damage for too long. Were you comfortable
with the single Tusker, did you finish it with a hair of health
left? Usually, 20 seconds is a good killing time for a Tusker.
Did you die or have to run?
If you did either of these with the single Tusker, you are
definitely not ready for tanking Tuskers.
Look over your results and imagine 3 trying to tank 3 Tuskers. If
you feel that you can manage that, you are ready for tanking
Tuskers.
Part 2 - Hunting Tuskers
Suggested hunting area, Outer Obsidian Plains: Here, there's less
of a chance that you will be swarmed and unable to escape more
Tuskers than you can handle, or get killed by the antics of other
players.
Rules for hunting:
1. Walk softly. There is no such thing as being too careful on
the plains. 95% of the creatures on the plains are capable of
messing you up quite thoroughly, and are more than willing to to
so.
2. Run away a lot. Doesn't sound very epic or skillful, neither
is getting killed over and over again because you're too stupid
to run away. Even veteran players run, a good part of being a
veteran is knowing when you're in over your head and having the
sense to live and fight another day. If you attracted somthing
other than a Tusker, run. If there's 10 Tuskers heading for you,
run. Feel like a chew toy? Run. If you feel uncomfortable or
unready in any way, run. You are not a coward, you are SMART.
3. Watch out for other players. Respect their territory. If you
see another player close by, don't be rude and start to attract
things. Chances are, the player is targeting the same group of
creatures, or unbuffed/debuffed and waiting around. On a similar
note, look out for people who don't have any regard for other
players and attract things close to you while you are buffing,
chatting or busy killing something.
4. Notice the spawns around you. I mean notice EVERYTHING. Be
paranoid and make sure that sparkle you thought you saw isn't an
Altered Druge or an Obsidian Golem. Did something just pop up on
the radar and disappear again? Stay 50 feet away from that place!
As I stated in rule #1, there is no such thing as being too
careful on the Plains.
5. Make sure you have enough mana! Nothing quite as irritating as
having to run away from a battle you should have won if you had
adequate mana. A waste of time and effort.
6. Tusker awareness range is huge. I estimate the awareness/reinforcement
range for Tuskers is an entire Radar radius. With this in mind,
Plus the fact that there are usually Tuskers that are invisible
around your target, always expect to be swarmed by four or more
tuskers.
Basic techniques for hunting: Most of these techniques should be
second nature to you if you have previous experience tanking
Golems/Druges.
1. If you're tanking multiple adversaries, kill quickly. No point
in replenishing stamina while you're getting critted every third
hit. Do that, and you're forced to retreat and waste your buffs.
2. The last target is your replenisher. If you've tanked multiple
Druges or Golems, you should be in the habit of stretching out
the last target and refilling your mana/stamina with it. Same
thing applies to Tuskers.
3. You are really only in danger when you're trying to finish off
a target. You're generally in no danger while you're draining the
target, since you are constantly replenishing your health. An
exception to this rule is if you get resisted multiple times and
are getting the daylights beaten out of you.
4. Camera Manipulation. Use your number pad to change your camera
angles, pan and zoom in on a group or a suspected spawn to see
what it is actually there without coming close to it. See some
Virindi? Did something just blip on your radar? Been here before
and know that there's gonna be Tuksers there? Check it out. This
is much more effective than standing around and searching for an
emoting Tusker using your next target keys.
5. Thin out groups of Tuskers. Bite off more than you can chew?
Let them chase you out a ways. Tusker interest range is about one
Radar diameter. Once you get that far away, they'll hit you once
or twice then go back to wherever they came from. Tusker interest
range increases tenfold if you've actually affected the Tusker in
some negative fashion, and as long as you keep hitting one, it
will stay interested in smacking you around. You can amost always
reduce large groups of Tuskers to managable portions easily in
this fashion. Just make sure you don't trip over any other spawns
while running away from another.
I still use all these rules/techniques at my level. To be honest,
the rules never change, though your capacity to tank will.
Well, that's it for today. I'm going to bed.
Zarya bint Tala'an
Q & A / Discussion of Journal 7:
Commentary:
RE: Journal
Nice post again sir!!!! I hit a new tusker tanking record, 6 guards and 3 slaves at once. Was a frigen blast!!!!! Since i don't know god mode, I just use a simple tactic that was very successfull. First off, know the spawns in the area your hunting, where you can and cannot run.Vuln guard, blast it 'till dead, now you have 5 g and 3 s left. Stam to mana, drain stam on any tusker. Now its just a matter of using one primary target and use the rest for resources(stam/health when it gets low). Vuln your "target tusker", drain health, drain health, stam to mana, drain stam, drain health, war bolt.. Dead Tusker.
At any point your health gets too low for your taiste, pick a full health tusker drain and go back to "target tusker" (same goes for stam btw).. Simply rinse and repeat this, guards first of course. If you get nervous or health just drops too low, go into flight mode. Use your select creature button to find a full health tusker. As the game works for me, tuskers chasing you will start "ice skating". When the full health tusker now selected starts to "skate" to you, throw a drain health. Full health, continue process.
When you get down to the slaves, it gets more tricky. Your stam is dropping like a rock this whole time, 5 guards and 3 slaves playing pin the fist on the mage is overwhelming. Chances are most of the slaves are running low on stam, you can get about 12 or so mana from these suckers with mana drain 1 if you just need a bit to finish the job.
Only other tip I'd give is a simple fact sometimes overlooked while fighting. The fewer baddies hitting you, the less damage you take and less stam drained. Kill them as quick as possible, finish up and then chug a beer or two, rebuff and do it again!!!!!
-Blitzkrieger