Well, this is the first journal after the Rollback, but I'll try to keep it short.
I'm so glad I didn't log in the middle of a spawn...well, back to level 38, time to catch up.
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01.22.01
Well, this is the first journal after the Rollback, but I'll try
to keep it short.
I'm so glad I didn't log in the middle of a spawn...well, back to
level 38, time to catch up.
I've seen a few posts concerning my equipment, especially the GSA.
zero gravity wrote:
Apologies if you posted this in one of your jounal entries - you state you started and played this template from lvl 1 -without macroing- did you twink at all/money/armor? It looks like from screen shots you have with your armor but just guessing - apologies if you have not -
Alright, I'll try to get though this question as cleanly as possible.
First of all, I did start at level 1, with my suit of armor and some starting funds for my initial components. I did not macro the character, I don't even have the macro program on my system. The extent of my twinking was while hunting with my friends and researching spells, which comprizes about 1% of my time playing, if even that. Oh yeah, I have 4 vassals, 2 of them are mules and 2 are characters that I picked up after level 30. They are both ~level 20 now...I'm not sure if that would be considered twinking, but some people like to nitpick. The set of GSA I put together with my main character by killing frags and shadows on my own, I actually didn't don the set until about level 20. Before that, I ran out in a Matty Coat and leggings because I couldn't carry GSA without creating too much burden...face it, you're not going to be tanking anything at lower levels, you're going to be running. I didn't get a complete set of explorer items, just the Wand of Frost and Necklace of Focus. The rest of my equipment I found off Golems I killed, heck I didn't get my Endurance II ring until about level 30, my Item II staff until level 35, and I just got a Life II staff yesterday...I had one earlier, but the Rollback ate it =(
Here are some suggestions for those having trouble with Armor and Generating Funds:
1. Get a patron. Any patron will most likely give you a Mattekar Coat and decent leggings. There's probably a 3-4 damage difference between that and a suit of GSA at early levels. At higher levels, a robe will suffice...in fact, most mages run around in robes tanking Tuskers. A patron would most probably also supply funds for components.
2. Sell stuff you don't need. Motes, Guts and Keys sell well, usually for a D note or more each. You should run into plenty of these as you hunt, so no real need to pick up every single piece of loot you run into. Usually one of these items will restock your comps easily.
3. Most of the useful items you can get are from the things you kill. Blue wasps drop Gold Letters for Explorer items, and low level Golems have a tendancy to drop low level jewlery. You're not really in a huge rush to get these things, so you'll probably have a functional set of level 2 items by the time you *really* need it (~level 35, when you start casting level 6 Item/Life).
I hope that helps. I can feel all the flames coming now by all those grief posters.
Excursion 1: Obsidian Plains, Once Again
I decided to use the new path I puzzled out a few days ago. The
spawns were the exact same, though the content of the spawns
changed (fewer Tuskers here, more Tuskers there, etc.). Did well
for myself, with no major difficulties. There was absolutely no
one there, so I spent the majority of my time actually killing
Tuskers and not running around looking for them. I used the
experience to raise my Item Enchantment enough to cast level 6s.
Excursion 2: Hunting Party!
Sometimes, leveling becomes extremely tedious, especially on
weekends with the huge server loads and bad lag. A group of my
friends were going hunting on the Plains and invited me, so I
jumped at the opportunity at something different. The party
consisted of 2 Mages and 2 Melees, and we cleaned up pretty well,
with the Mages playing the support role (imp/vuln/heal/revit),
and the Melees hacking and bashing everything to bits. Got lots
of loot and cash for comps, so I don't need to go look for funds
for the next few days :)
I also made a record for my personal Spell Economy :P
Excursion 3: More Leveling on the Plains
With my boredom temporarily relieved, I went off on my now main
route to compensate for lost time caused by the Rollback. Feeling
particularly brave, I explored beyond the west side of the
Obsidian Crater rim to try to extend my leveling course a bit.
There are a lot of Tuskers out there, at least at the time
I was there. The spawns were so numerous and think I had to run
though some in order to find another clear buffing area. I also
found some pretty interesting things, like a building with a
fountain and a portal to the Heartland, and some big crystal
things:
My explorations ended when I decided to recall with Imperil VI,
Bludgeon VI, Lightning Vuln V, Weakness/Slowness/Clumsiness/Life/War/Vulnerability
V, Defenselessness IV, and about 30 odds and ends chasing me.
Interlude: An Outing With my Fiancé
Yeah, that's right, I have a fiancé...online, at least. I'll
keep his name confidential just in case he gets embarassed/angry
at me ;p. I decided to drag him out with me for the night to do
something nice. Since the game doesn't have the *tech* for most
things you do on a date and does not have a 'Mature' rating, we
had to settle for long conversations while going out to kill
stuff (how romantic). He picked me up in Mayoi and summoned Small
Black Hill, where we would start out.
First off, here is my fashion-unconscious fiancé:
Not much to look at, but he's a really great guy ;p
We headed out onto the Plains using my old route, and killed
Umbris and Tuskers as we idly chatted and moved along. Then
something caught my eye...I've done the Explorer Quests, but this
one must have been in that hidden Ø 3x+r4 |33t d00dz"
section of the information booklet. I guess this poor young woman
didn't quite make it:
After travelling a ways along the old route, we turned into the
new route and continued to kill and converse. We made it to the
deep plains, set up camp on a tall mushroom, enjoyed the night
sky, and chatted though the night:
By sunrise, we ran out of things to talk about, so we rebuffed
and decided to kill more stuff. We navigated/blasted our way
though the spawns to the centre of the Plains, where there was a
fountain of magic in the middle of 3 lines of large crystals.
Before Aerlinthe, people used to refer to this place as being one
of the nastiest places on Dereth, however, its not too great. 6
Tusker Gaurds, 3 Virindi Masters, 3 Virindi Puppets and 1 Virindi
Servant Gaurd the fountain. The Servant is on a 30 second spawn,
just enough for screenshots. We worked out a simple plan: Kill
the Tuskers, then lure out Virindi and kill them off. Didn't work
out quite that way though, the Tuskers went as planned, but when
we vulned one of the Masters, about 7 of the Virindi came after
us. Still pretty simple though, blew apart the Virindi, got a few
peas, and took some screenshots.
We stood around until our buffs were about to drop, recalled to
sell our loot in Ayan Baqur, then stood around the Mayoi tavern
sorting though allegiance things.
Excursion 4: Tumeidon Minion Camp
Remembering all the debuffs on me during the previous excursion,
I decided that it would be in my best interests to learn Life
Magic Dispells. With the help of some Life Magic buffs provided
by a friendly shopper at the Master Archmage, I learned all my
dispells within 20 minutes.
Restocked on comps, and headed out. I started at Plains BSD once
again, and navigated my way to the Tumeidon Minion Camp, since I
was feeling lazy and wanted a nice static spawn. The Minion Camp
has a simple layout, four 3 minute spawns of 5 Tusker Gaurds, 3
Druge Raveners, 3 Tumeidon Hollow Minions, and a single Virindi (3
Servants and 1 Master). A nice place to look for masks/guts/xp.
I couldn't get the last Tusker into the pic, sorry =\
The areas between the spawns are clear, so its easy to find a
spot to rest and buff. Sounds like good xp? Maybe. However, 2 of
the spawns are situated closely to high, scalable pillars, and
therefore camped 24/7 by twinkers, and the rest are usually
occupied by some high level melee/mage finishing off his/her
level. To my surprise and good fortune, there was no one
occupying the 2 un-perched spawns, so I had a steady flow of xp
coming in for a couple of hours, got my level and recalled to log.
Well, that's it, I'm too tired to write anymore ;p
Zarya's Journals:
01.11.01 - Introduction, First Journal
01.12.01 - Hunting in the Mid Direlands
01.13.01 - Analysis of the Ayan Baqur Region, Plus Some Other Stuff
01.14.01 - Lazy Sunday Edition
01.15.01 - | h4x +u5|<3rZ!
01.16.01 - Armor and Chat
01.17.01 - Late Post, Crappy Pic
01.18.01 - Pretty Pictures and Dev Chat
01.19.01 - Not Really a Journal