Questing - LFG

[Raveneye]

Halfway through 9th now and closing in on 10th. I've got a couple of quests in my log that would be a LOT easier with a partner or group. While much of this game's PvE content seems to be soloable, there are some areas filled with Charr that seem to require a group and there seem to be folks that dissapear off to bigger, more rewarding adventure areas with groups.

Anyone still playing or looking to get back into it that would want to set up a night and time for some adventuring?

[Erudite]

I'm still playing, although I've just been screwing around lately. I'm close to 9th level, but still have to do some quests to acquire some of the post-Searing Ascalon City elementalist and monk spells. A trip to Piken Square is in order, and the only time I tried it (with three NPCs) I got close but didn't quite make it.

The only nights that are out for me are Sundays and Wednesdays. Any night starting around 8:30EST works for me, and I'm usually okay up until around midnight. After that, work the next day drags too much. :*

[Tulenyre]

My time is completely erratic untill Rena' moves into the house, then I can probably setup a static Game Time once/twice a week.

[Raveneye]

Cool. I'm not sure what the operational condition of my PC will be tonight (see daily thread), but how does Thursday night around 9:00pm EST sound for some groupage?

I've got Piken Square on my map now. Did the trip solo with the NPC Ranger guy that you meet after completing the "Into the Breech" quest. We should be able to get you there as a duo, with maybe an NPC healer along for help.

[Erudite]

Thursday sounds fine for me. I'll work on getting to Piken Square again tonight. I don't think I've done the "Into the Breech" quest, so maybe I'll check that out as well.

[Raveneye]

Cool. If you can't get to Piken Square, we can always do it together on Thursday. I really need more Char hides anyway to turn in for the rare component for my upgraded warrior armor. The upgraded stuff has a base armor of 50 and additional stats vs. various damage types. I've even got like 600gp stashed away.

I really need to auction off the red and blue dyes I've found. Oh, and I have a purple bow with nice damage and the unlockable item effects of "Poisoner's String" and "Marksman's Grip" too. I'll try to remember to hand it to you when we group so that you can unlock those as well.

[Erudite]

If tanned hides are what you need for your armor, I've got a few of them. Three, maybe? Two iron ingots, too, but I actually need those to make the pyromancer helm.

Accomplished a lot tonight in just a few hours - finished the Ascalon City monk quests (and since I was halfway out Regent Valley for that anyway, I popped into Fort Ranik to open that teleport on my map), and discovered that my henchmen there were level 6 instead of the level 3 version in AC. That made getting to Piken Square much easier. That's been opened for me as well, and I walked the lost supply caravan back from the middle of the Breach. Finally, I finished the AC elementalist quests as well. Oh, and upgraded the last two pieces of my newbie armor to the second level pyromancer armor - 30 AC, plus another 15 versus fire magic, and some of them have +1 energy regen as well.

I'm almost halfway through level 9 now, and it seems like there are still lots of quests around AC that I can do.

[Raveneye]

I need plain old looted Char Hides which I then turn in to the materials crafter to get Fur Squares. My advanced armor takes iron and fur to craft. I got enough battling Char last night to get boots and gauntlets upgraded.

I have a bunch of quests out of Piken Square to do, sounds like many of the same ones as you. Maybe that should be our group outing location for Thursday?

[Erudite]

Piken Square sounds good to me. I was planning on moving there anyway, as most of the things around Ascalon City aren't giving me experience anymore. I still have lots of AC quests to do, but I think I'll be able to do most of them in small chunks of time here and there.

[Erudite]

I picked up a Charr hide last night for you, Raveneye, while goofing off waiting for LOST to start. Just one, though.

Still 9pm EST tonight, right?

What quests do you have in mind?

And, will anybody else be joining us? We may have to take some henchmen if not.

[Raveneye]

9pm EST should still work for me.

I have a ton of quests out of Piken Square including the quests to find and bring back Old Mac, the quest to find Althea, the quest to gather crests from fallen soldiers, and others. All would be far easier in cooperative mode with another person. I think we should be OK with just a monk henchman along for the ride.

Thanks for the charr hide! I gathered another 2 myself last night pre-LOST. I need 20 total, so only 17 more to go. :smile:

As an alternative, we could try doing one of the plot missions tonight if you want. I have two currently "flashing" on my map, one at Fort Ranik and the other at the Great Northern Wall. I'm not sure if they are cooperative missions or PvP.

[Erudite]

We kicked furry Charr butt last night. ;)

[Raveneye]

We kicked furry Charr butt last night. ;)

Indeed! :D Between the missions, the bonus awards and the plain old killing I think we racked up well over 5,000xp each last night. I picked up enough Charr hides to craft my 70AC Ascalon Leggings (thanks for giving me your hides by the way!) and only need 9 more to complete the Chest armor and finish the set.

Seems the combo of Elementalist/Monk and Warrior/Necro gives us a wide enough range of skills to handle just about anything. I only wish my ranged skills were better. I may have to swap out the AE necro DoT I have for something with a little more ranged punch.

I should also start looking for a better sword. The one I have is nice, 10-14 damage plus 20% customization damage bonus and a 25% damage bonus vs. Charr, but I'm sure there are better ones. I need to find out what "MAX Damage" means as I see people selling weapons with it in town for 1K-3K gold.

[Erudite]

I have to say, we make a funny looking pair. You, the big hulking dark brute, and me, the small scrawny pony-tailed twerp.

Can you use a bow? Not as a regular weapon, obviously, but you should be able to carry one around for when we need some ranged damage. At least the armor bonus against fire from my pyromancer stuff lets me stand in against those Stalker's cinder arrows pretty well so I can blast back at them.

[Raveneye]

I can use bows, and was using that Poisoner's/Marksman bow last night when doing ranged. Unfortunately, even with that bow I still only hit for like 8 damage, and only every other shot. Warriors are simply gimped on long range combat. I'm pretty sure there is a necro spell I can swap in that does more damage at range.

I've got a bunch of "vs. Charr" bonuses on my armor, and my shield has a nice +10 vs. Elemental as well, so I laugh in the face of Charr Firecallers and Elemental Arrows from the ranged guys. :smile:

[Erudite]

Haven't played since Thursday (SOE made a very bad judgement call, and tried to mollify the playerbase by offering double-exp all weekend, so I spent my playing time in Norrath), but I should be back to GW on Tuesday.

Are we advancing more plot missions again this Thursday?

[Raveneye]

Are we advancing more plot missions again this Thursday?

I'd like to do that again if we can get some "flashing" on the map. I played some over the weekend, but I only gained about 1/4 of a level in XP. Mostly I've been trying to open up new map areas in hopes of uncovering more missions.

[Erudite]

In poking around the GW forums (I don't have the link at work - I'll try to remember to post it from home), it looks like we have to do the mission we just opened on Thursday related to the captured soldiers. Once that's done, the next plot mission will be there for us.

[Raveneye]

Sounds like the plan then. We can meet at Frontier gate and crank out that rescue mission in hopes of opening up further locales.

I was on some yesterday and found the Temple of Serenity, a new location for me. No quests there for me though, only the middle part of a quest out of Ascalon City.

I have a bunch of quests out of Frontier Gate and Diessa (sp?) Lowlands currently. I think I'm done with all Ascalon and Piken's Square quests except for Althea's Ashes. I'm still level 11, as exploring and minor questing has not advanced me very much.

[Erudite]

I think I'm done with all Ascalon and Piken's Square quests except for Althea's Ashes.

I still have quite a few, especially in and around Ascalon City. Serenity Temple was a good place for me - quite a few quests to unlock skills for both elementalist and monk.

I was on last night for about 90 minutes, running through some of the quests (and finding a few more), and crossed over into 11th level. That gave me enough points to push Energy Storage to 9, giving me over 60 points in my energy pool now.

[Raveneye]

Most of my Warrior and Necro skill quests centered on Ascalon City and the Sanitorium. I think I've completed most of not all of the quests available out of those places. Most of the quests in my list now deal with the zones leading up to the Shiverpeak crossover. Stuff that's in Diessa Lowlands usually out of Piken Square. I also have the quests out of Frontier Gate yet to complete.

I tried to get to Althea's Ashes (in Diessa Lowlands) myself last night, and had a rough time of it. I took a healer NPC, but all she did was aggro extra mobs and get herself killed quickly. I may have to try again with a second warrior NPC or a Ranger, as the groups are too large for me to take on solo. Yak's Crossing and the Courthouse are the last "player areas" I think I need to add for this segment of the map.

[Erudite]

Yak's Crossing and the Courthouse are the last "player areas" I think I need to add for this segment of the map.

I haven't been to either place yet.

I unlocked Fireball the other day. It seems to be a decent AoE direct damage spell that I'll add to my skillset before we venture out. It should complement my AoE dot for helping eliminate those overhead groups of archers we have been encountering.

9pm in Frontier gate is what I'm planning. American District 2? Anybody else that wants to join us is welcome!

[Raveneye]

9pm in Frontier gate is what I'm planning. American District 2? Anybody else that wants to join us is welcome!

Sounds like a plan. See you there!

I unlocked a necro spell the other day that allows me to drain 65hp from any corpse. It's great in those groups of Charr and other mobs since when each one falls I can instantly gain back 65hp to use fighting the next one. The only place it doesn't work is with elementals, as they apparently do not leave corpses.

[Erudite]

I have more quests left in this map area than I thought - one or two still in Ascalon City and at least three now in Piken Square, including Althea's Ashes. I had the day off and crossed over into level 12 this afternoon.

[Raveneye]

I have more quests left in this map area than I thought - one or two still in Ascalon City and at least three now in Piken Square, including Althea's Ashes. I had the day off and crossed over into level 12 this afternoon.

WOOHOO! Congrats on 12! :mrgreen:

I have a bunch of quests out of Piken apparently, mostly dealing with Diessa Lowlands. I also have several out of Frontier Gate. In addition, I need to open up the Courthouse and Yak's Crossing locations, so I assume there will be a few quests in each as well. That's going to be my focus between now and Thursday. If you see me on in the meantime and want to team up for some minor quest completion, I'm all for it!

[Raveneye]

Still haven't discovered Courthouse or Yak's, but I did nail a pair of difficult quests out of Piken last night. I found Althea's Ghost for 2000xp and killed the Charr warband for Fires of the North for another 1000xp. Now I need to find Althea's Ashes in the Flame Corridor (I had thought the ghost quest was the ashes one) and still have a handful of quests out of Frontier Gate.

Apparently we can redo the mission we did last week and try for the bonus if we like. I don't think we get the 1000xp for the plot mission, but we'd get xp for the bonus.

[Erudite]

Apparently we can redo the mission we did last week and try for the bonus if we like. I don't think we get the 1000xp for the plot mission, but we'd get xp for the bonus.

Really? I kind of figured once we were done with a plot mission we wouldn't be able to go back and do it, so I peaked at a spoiler to see what we did wrong. Oops.

[Raveneye]

Really? I kind of figured once we were done with a plot mission we wouldn't be able to go back and do it, so I peaked at a spoiler to see what we did wrong. Oops.

That's OK, I was going to peek myself so we didn't screw it up again. :biggrin:

[Erudite]

I may be a few minutes late tomorrow evening. We have a school thing for the kids that will last until 8ish, and then we have to get them home and into bed. It *shouldn't* present too much of a problem, but one never knows with kids. :|

[Raveneye]

No problem, having little demons, er, children of my own I know the routine all too well. I've got lots to keep me busy while I wait.

If we want to do that bonus mission again, we apparently only have to follow those guys with the big flame thingy a little ways before they open a gate to another area. I think we saw the gate last time, but we'd already slaughtered the flame keepers before they could open it. Doh. Once we get the completion animation for the bouns, we should be able to simply travel back to town and abort the rest of the mission since we already solved the plot part.

[Raveneye]

Well, since LOST was a repeat last night, I played. I dinged 13th and completed a couple of quests, and I FINALLY found the Courthouse location. There's a Skills merchant there, as well as the normal henchmen, merchant, bank and a single NPC that had no quests for me.

I should be on around 9:00pm tonight. If you're running late I may try to push through to Yak's Crossing using henchmen. I tried it last night and got my ass handed to me by multiple hydras.

[Erudite]

Sounds good. I don't anticipate being late, but it's possible.

I'm still level 12. I haven't played since the weekend, so I haven't gotten anything accomplished in-game in the past few days. I'll have to find the Courthouse, though. The skill merchant there might have something useful to me.

We're planning on running the last plot mission to the bonus part, and then taking on the next one this evening?

[Raveneye]

Sounds good. I don't anticipate being late, but it's possible.

I'm still level 12. I haven't played since the weekend, so I haven't gotten anything accomplished in-game in the past few days. I'll have to find the Courthouse, though. The skill merchant there might have something useful to me.

We're planning on running the last plot mission to the bonus part, and then taking on the next one this evening?

I wonder if I can form a party, then zap us there via map travel and it will be added to your map? Sounds like that would be too easy to work.

That's the plan for tonight, bonus mission from the previous plot one, then on to the Academy plot/bonus missions. Hopefully if we complete them all you'll ding 13th.

[Raveneye]

ONE MORE THING:
Stop by Simon the Scribe in Ascalon City and get the Cities of Ascalon quest. Apparently one of the three markers for this is in the middle of the "Ruins" Mission we'll be doing tonight. The other two are quick and easy pickups from the territories outside Fort Ranik and Nolani Academy.

[Erudite]

Plot mission #4, plus bonuses for #3 and #4, done for us. Yay.

I spent a few minutes looking around Yak's Bend after we got there last night. It looks like there are lots of quests there, including some that unlock more skills (at least for elementalist and monk - I'm assuming for warrior and necro as well). Also, there's a skill merchant there. The armor crafter there doesn't list any upgrades for me, which kinda sucks because I currently fold up like a cheap dinner napkin when things start hitting me.

Since it seems we're going to be spending some time in and around the Shiverpeaks now, I plan on spending my play time this weekend/next week finishing up the assortment of quests I still have in and around Ascalon/Piken Square. It's a hefty list - I have six quests still in my log book and I think a few more still to pick up - but it will definitely push me over to 13 and go a long way towards 14 as well.

[Raveneye]

I currently fold up like a cheap dinner napkin when things start hitting me.

I noticed that. :smile: My plan to hire the fighter henchman to keep stuff off you did not work, as he simply followed me around like a boot licking sycophant the entire time and attacked whatever I attacked. I wanted a tank, not a pet! Then it dawned on me what the problem was. I was the LEADER. If we'd made you group leader and had you hire the fighter, he would have attacked whatever you targeted, leaving me to attack something else, thereby taking at least two critters off your back at all times. Pretty simple strategy and tactics in retrospect, sorry I didn't realize it sooner and prevent one or more ignoble deaths. :*

We did good in clearing out the missions though, that was fun. We may have had overkill on the Nolani Academy missions, between the healer and fighter henchies, plus Rurik and the guards (whom I had no clue would follow us) we made short work of practically everything. Watching you lug that Tome around was entertaining though, that thing was nearly bigger than you. :lowlol:

My plan is the same as yours, finish up all available Ascalon territory quests not including those in Yak's Bend, then make sorties out of Yak's after that. I'm halfway through 13th thanks to last night, so I should be able to cap 14th by finishing things up. The next plot advancement mission should put us in the Shiverpeaks fighting the dwarves there. If you need a hand with any of the sub-quests, let me know!

[Erudite]

My plan to hire the fighter henchman to keep stuff off you did not work, as he simply followed me around like a boot licking sycophant the entire time and attacked whatever I attacked.

Actually, I was okay once we picked up the henchmen. I attribute it to two things - things died faster (so extra mobs didn't have as much free time to snack on the non-tanks), and the true monk pulled a lot of the aggro from the extras (she spent a lot of time healing herself instead of us, which worked out okay since it gave us time to deal with everything else).

Rurik was irritating. Watching him charge down the hill into the plaza filled with Charr after blowing the horn, I'm thinking "Crap. This won't be fun." We did okay there, though.

We did good in clearing out the missions though, that was fun. We may have had overkill on the Nolani Academy missions, between the healer and fighter henchies, plus Rurik and the guards (whom I had no clue would follow us) we made short work of practically everything.

Funny you should say this. I generally read the guides after we finish the missions, as I like to see how our strategies compare, and the guide for the Nolani Academy mission explicitly says do NOT open the gate unless you want to die. When you opened the gate the first time through and the stream of red dots filled my map, that's exactly what I thought would happen. We handled it, though. :D

[Raveneye]

Yup, I thought the same thing. I totally missed the "back exit" the first time through, so when I saw the lever I though "Duh, pull lever, open gate", the word SNEAK in the mission objective apparently did not register with me. :* I saw that mass of red and yelled OH ****!! :lowlol: I was amazed at how well we handled it. I think we got a break from some pathing issues since we stayed up on the ramparts. I had assumed we'd be facing higher level Charr and some Hydras, since that's what I fought in the areas around the Academy the night before, hence the overkill.

Prince Rurik needs a royal ass-kicking. I have no idea when we were supposed to stop and attempt to find the bonus, as the idiot never slowed down the entire mission. I suppose had we not opened the gates we might have found the bonus mission guy prior to triggering the prince's wild rampage...

Good catch on the healer henchie, I wondered why I rarely saw a heal from her, guess she was too busy taunting the mobs and healing herself. :rotflmao: Perhaps we should stick to that combo for future missions, we could have you be leader, direct the fighter henchman with targeting, and let the healer aggro any remaining mobs.

Did you notice that we got less "loot drops" when we had the henchmen? I couldn't tell. I did seem to notice more "blue and purple" items dropping in both missions last night though.

[Erudite]

Did you notice that we got less "loot drops" when we had the henchmen? I couldn't tell. I did seem to notice more "blue and purple" items dropping in both missions last night though.

When I solo using the henchmen, I notice a lot less loot dropping. Not so much in the missions, but then I usually fill up pretty quickly and have to salvage things to free up inventory space.

I did salvage an upgrade rune that I can actually use last night - minor earth magic (+1 to earth magic). I still have that ranger one a salvaged last week, too (+1 to marksmanship, I think).

Looks like we'll need new keys in the Shiverpeaks - the vendors in Yak's are selling iron keys instead of Ascalon ones.

[Raveneye]

OK, I found that they do take up a share of gold, xp and dropped loot. I found this out reading GuildWiki http://www.guildwiki.org/wiki/Henchmen

GuildWiki seems to be a pretty impressive compilation of info on the game. I'm learning all sorts of useful stuff about damage, combat, materials and weapons/armor upgrades and other playabilty issues. They also seem to have a comprehensive list of collectors and items, and links to some fantastic maps. I haven't looked at many quest/mission spoilers, only the ones we already completed, but those were pretty well written too.

[Erudite]

I ran three quests tonight, pushing me over into level 13. I have five left in the Ascalon area, assuming I've found them all (and I think I have). They're all longish, involving trips into Diessa Lowlands.

[Raveneye]

There is one quest worth 2000xp that is easy to miss. Outside of Ascalon City is Witness Raistin, in the camp of the Ambassador. He gives a low level entry quest, but later on has a 2000xp very easy "run around" quest. Problem is, that quest only becomes active AFTER you finish both the quests for the Scribe in Ascalon City (Counting the Fallen and Cities of Ascalon). His quest involves running back and forth to the scribe, and requires 5 Parchment, which can be created for 20 wood and 100gold at the artisan outside the Sanitorium.

Check the prices on the rare materials collector. Sometimes Parchment and Leather and the other items the artisan can make will reach prices of 180-200gp. Subtract 100go from those and you have the BUY price. Since wood is only worth 5gp, 4 wood and 20gp to make a parchment worth 80gp in essense doubles your money. Prices fluctuate though, so check before you craft. You can also make 170-210gp each selling back fur squares created by giving the collector in Ascalon 4 Charr Hides. I upgraded my armor in Yak's Bend, so I no longer need Charr Hides myself.

[Raveneye]

Yesterday I finished Althea's Ashes, the last Ascalon-based quest I had. Now I'm in Yak's with all the quests from there in my log and ready to rumble. I noticed my group max size has increased to 6 now. Guess that's a hint that I'll need more henchmen if I want to continue to "solo".

[Erudite]

I plan to knock out some quests tonight, although I doubt I'll get through all the Ascalon content. Tomorrow is LOST night, though, so not much playtime then. Plus the experience grind on the push to 70 in EQ1 is wearing thin, so a break is needed. Luckily, Guild Wars is there. :tongue1:

[Erudite]

I actually got through quite a bit last night. The only Ascalon quest I have left, at least that I have found, is Althea's Ashes. I found the Courthouse last night, so it's a pretty short walk from there (with the higher level NPCs) to the Flame Temple Shrine to finish that up. Also, I think the Courthouse was the last Ascalon outpost I hadn't yet unlocked.

If the 2000xp from Althea's Ashes doesn't push me over to level 14, it'll leave me very close.

On to Shiverpeaks... :lowrazz:

[Raveneye]

Be careful who you choose to take with you on the Ashes quest. I discovered, much to my dismay, that Orion the Elementalist likes to use his Firestorm spell on groups near the Temple. This is all well and good, until one of the group of Charr decided to run away back towards the temple, and Stephan the ignorant Warrior decided to run after him, thereby aggroing everyone in the Temple and bringing home a serious ass-kicking to the group. :grr:

I busted 14th on the quest prior to Ashes (the parchment one). I'm about 3000xp into 14th now, and hanging at Yak's with all the Shiverpeaks stuff on my to-do list. Won't play tonight due to LOST, but I'm all about trying some misc. Yak's quests tomorrow. I don't think I have another blinking mission icon yet...

[Erudite]

Be careful who you choose to take with you on the Ashes quest. I discovered, much to my dismay, that Orion the Elementalist likes to use his Firestorm spell on groups near the Temple. This is all well and good, until one of the group of Charr decided to run away back towards the temple, and Stephan the ignorant Warrior decided to run after him, thereby aggroing everyone in the Temple and bringing home a serious ass-kicking to the group. :grr:

I never take Orion, being an elementalist myself. Always the fighter, archer, and monk. The monk dies a lot, though, and I keep forgetting to swap out the Ressurection signet (which only refreshes with a moral boost) with my spell (which refreshes normally, but brings characters back wounded and with minimal energy).

I may get on for a short while tonight after LOST to try to finish out that last quest. We'll see.

[Erudite]

Althea's Ashes was tough. Very tough. So tough, in fact, that I discovered that you can't take yourself into death penalty beyond 60%. Deaths after you're at 60% penalty have no more effects. :lowrazz:

I don't know if the Charr types near the ashes are random and I got a bad draw, or if they're always the same, but I had a pair of shaman up top and one was off to the right where Stephen the blockheaded warrior couldn't seem to find a path. Nonetheless, with a respawn gate right there, it was just a matter of picking one target at a time and beating it down, and hoping it died before my party did despite the shaman's heals. With some patience, this (admittedly cheesy) strategy eventually cleared enough Charr that I could send my three henchmen on suicide missions to occupy the Charr while I ran to the Altar and grabbed the ashes...and died. Still, enough to finish the quest, which pushed me over into 14.

I'm ready for Yak's Bend tomorrow.

[Raveneye]

Haha! Don't feel bad, I resorted to much the same strategy, except I only incurred one death (15%) as I went around clearing out the various groups of Charr. Then I cleared one group on the top of the altar, pulled the second, and Stephan got a little frisky and aggro'd the other two groups, so I made the suicide run to click the ashes before I died a second time and thus ended my quest as well. :smile:

See you tonight in Yak's Bend around 9:00pm. Seems like we need to clear out a couple of the missions from the main guy in camp before we can head through the pass to get the blinky plot mission.