Thursday 3/16/06

[Erudite]

Gates of Kryta, American District 1, for the next plot mission. Maybe we'll actually get through a mission+bonus in one run tonight. :lowrazz:

From what I hear (and what GravenStone has also said), we'll be fighting undead tonight. I'll try to be on early to respec Destrid with smiting prayers (double-damage versus the beasties) and some condition-removal skills.

[Raveneye]

I should be on about 9:00pm. I will also check to see if I've gained any recent skills that help against undead. I hate fighting them as a sword weilder because two of my most used attacks cause Bleeding, which undead are immune to.

[GravenStone]

Just respeced to emphasize Curses and Blood magic. Death magic tends to lose its punch with undead since they don't leave corpses to exploit.

[Erudite]

So maybe it's just me, but do the solutions to the bonus missions just continue to get more and more obtuse? "Get the pig to follow you, lead it to the boy, go get the sacred text from a corner of the zone you'd have no other reason to go to, bring it back - and do all of this before you accidentally trigger the cut scene leading to the end of the mission." Sheesh.

All in all, not too bad of a night though. The straightforward part of the mission wasn't too bad. Some of the fights were pretty hairy, especially with 4-5 of those drakes at a time. And the one near-wipe on the bonus run was very close. If I hadn't managed to get that mesmer NPC back upright, I don't think Raveneye and I would have had enough damage output to take down the boss. Probably not a lot of fun for GravenStone to float around in top-down view waiting for us to finish that. :*

I hope the level 12 NPCs are much sturdier than the level 10 ones we're using (or we get some more LoW-lifes to run with), because right now they're little more than speedbumps if they happen to get aggro.

[Raveneye]

I agree, the level 10 henchies are more like pets than anything, though that Enchanter was just what we needed to finish off that boss mob that nearly wiped us. It was kind of comical, I'd Lifetap him (he gets -2 regen, I get +2 regen) and then he'd Lifetap me, so we basically traded off health continously never getting anywhere until we got that little extra oomph from the Chanter. Those phantom things at the end of the bonus were a pain mostly because I was at -36% death penalty at that point. :smile:

I'm starting to wonder if we shouldn't just bite the bullet and look up the solutions to the Bonus missions prior to each outing. The plot missions are straightforward enough that we don't need "hints", but each Bonus is becoming more and more obtuse as time goes on, we've had to replay the last three or for, sometimes more than once, and it's cutting into our advancement rate. This one even had incorrect IN GAME info, as the guy said the shipwreck was SouthWest of town when it's actual location was NorthEast (though they may have just done that so you wouldn't backtrack the way you came looking for it). I'm good either way though, if you guys don't want spoilers I'm perfectly fine with it.

The only time we seem to run into trouble is when we're all targetting something different. That happened a few times last night. We could solve that by having one person designated as target caller for the initial couple of targets, as we need to take down named and healer/necro/mesmer types first. After that we can mop up as we see fit. If we have a strategy for each big group to dismantle them from the top down, we'll have an easier time of it.

[noptov52]

I got to level 8 with a little playing yesterday. The game is enjoyable except having to use henchmen is annoying, but what is even worse is the pathfinding. Getting where you want to go should not be so hard, its honestly enough to make me stop playing at times.

In other news: "twink me?"... if ya'll have any spare armor and/or weps (preferably an axe) I'd love to have some. I'm sure Sweeman (Monk/necro) would be greatly appreciative of any monkly items as well. I do have a small amount of gold (~800), but I've been hesitant to buy anything as I don't know the market value for... anything.

[Raveneye]

In other news: "twink me?"... if ya'll have any spare armor and/or weps (preferably an axe) I'd love to have some.


Awww crap! I just vendored off a bunch of axe upgrades (a haft and two heads) and a rune with +1 Axe Mastery the other day because I didn't have a use for them. :frown:

I'll keep my eyes open over the weekend for any really nice purple/gold axes that pop out of chests, as well as upgrades and runes.

[Erudite]

In other news: "twink me?"... if ya'll have any spare armor and/or weps (preferably an axe) I'd love to have some.

I think I only have a hammer and some bows I'm saving for some alts, although I may have some runes you might be able to use.

All armor is crafted/customized. It's not useful to anybody but the person that obtains it. Figure out what craftable materials you need to make armor for your primary class (Guildwiki is a good reference site) and let us know. I rarely sell craft materials, so I've got lots stashed away. If I don't need it for future upgrades, you're welcome to it.

[GravenStone]

I grabbed a gold axe last night on the mission. I think it's mostly plus health, and maybe a bonus to armor - will have to double check. Spiked axe of Fortitude, 5-26 damage (8 mastery), +18% damage while hexed, +25 health.

Got on this morning and ground it out to ding 17. Only 11k now to reach 18 :evileye: . Along the way, I picked up a purple scimitar that you might like Raveneye. Cruel Scimitar of Shelter, 13-18 damage (9 sword), +14% damage while hexed, deep wound duration on foe increased 33%, +5 armor vs. physical attacks.

I also finished that undead invasion quest out of Beetletun. Lost count of the number of deaths, but ended up at -60 modifier. :eek2: Fortunately, the final wave waited around for me to slowly pick them off one by one, as they killed me over and over and over...

I've been using spoiler sites all along, although I primarily focus on using them to ensure I get all the quests available in any given area. Even knowing what we do now about last night's secondary, it was a handful because those smoke phantoms are nasty, and spawning in threes... The near TPW was my own fault, since I ventured up that hill just as that group wiped the friendly NPCs that were up there. They aggroed me, and the rest is history.

[Erudite]

I also finished that undead invasion quest out of Beetletun. Lost count of the number of deaths, but ended up at -60 modifier.

That's how I ended up finishing Althea's Ashes - death zerging. That's when I learned that 60% was the biggest penalty you could accrue. Brutal.

I will generally look at a spoiler if we don't finish the bonus one week and have to go back for it the next week. I guess it would be nice to have an idea of what to do, anyway. Last night's bordered on ridiculous.

[Erudite]

I also finished that undead invasion quest out of Beetletun. Lost count of the number of deaths, but ended up at -60 modifier. Fortunately, the final wave waited around for me to slowly pick them off one by one, as they killed me over and over and over...

I did this tonight, in much the same fashion. This is a seriously difficult quest. The final wave includes a few of those smoke phantoms we had trouble with on the bonus mission on Thursday, a 17th level cleric, a 17th level necrid horseman, an 18th level bone dragon, and several more "smaller" undead - skeletal monks, skeletal archers, ghouls, wraiths.

I had very little difficulty with the first few waves. They consisted of four to six higher level things (hellhounds and the like), with a horde of level 1-3 skeletons and zombies. Those smaller things got blasted down almost immediately by my smiting AoE skill, leaving just the bigger things up. The last wave, though - blech.

I'm poor now, having spent over a platinum on new armor in Beetletun. I should sell some dye or crafting materials or something.

Also, my N/R made it to level 8 and triggered Searing, so he's hanging out in Ascalon City now with his snuggly little wolf pet and a few different bows Destrid was tired of carrying around.

[GravenStone]

I'm poor now, having spent over a platinum on new armor in Beetletun. I should sell some dye or crafting materials or something.

That's how I made my money, managed to score two black dyes that sold for like 6 plat each. Of course, with handing down cash to my minions, I have like 8 plat left but hope that's enough to get me through to 20th with the upgrades along the way.

As far as game progress, I wandered through the new zone past Beetletun (Coastal something orother) and found the player town at the far side. Looks to be the last storyline mission in this arc and probably opens up the next region. The town itself is a dead end and I think might have had one fairly trivial quest in it.

I respecced back to Death/Blood magicks. There is nothing like having 6-7 Bone Horrors following you around to let you plow through groups of 10-12 critters. Of course, the first couple groups as you build that army of minions can be ... painful.

[Erudite]

Yeesh. We're into Kryta now. Time for a new thread to lawd our non-mission progress...