Thursday 6/1

[Erudite]

Let's try Thirsty River (http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Thirsty_River_%28Mission%29) this week. It's the harder of the remaining two (some say harder than Elona Reach), so again a good challenge for us.

Assuming Raveneye (and Gravenstone, if he is back online by then) haven't made it to the mission location, let's plan on meeting in Augery Rock at 9pm EST again. We'll travel out that way and give the mission a try. If we're lucky enough to get through it quickly, we may have time to retry the bonus in Elona Reach.

Edit - just realizing that each of the three Ascension missions has elite skills that can be captured. Check the mission summary in the Wiki for your boss and remember to load your Signets. It's the same elite skill in every Ascension mission, so no harm in missing them in Elona Reach.

[Raveneye]

I should be on at 9:00pm and ready to rumble. I do not have Thirsty River on my map, so we'll need to walk there from Augury Rock.

[Erudite]

Woohoo!

With Onnie nowhere to be found last night, Raveneye and I (as Seoman) set out from Destiny's Gorge to make our way down to Thirsty River. We made it with very little mishap, dodging the hydras near the teleporters and beating up on some mushy desert griffons on the way. I love those things - soft and wealthy. ;)

I marked the outpost for Seoman, then got Destrid. We keyed up, loaded our signets, and set about running the mission. And crikey, we rocked it! :lowrazz:

Mission plus bonus completed with very little difficulty. We lost Lina (the NPC protector monk) twice, but she accounted for our only casualties. I nabbed Ether Renewal, my elite elementalist skill. Poor Raveneye got screwed, though, as the last boss we had to kill was the warrior boss and the immediate ending cutscene prevented him from using his signet. Too bad, too, as Warrior's Endurance looks like a handy little skill to have. We'll have to run the mission at least once more for Zyll, though, and the same elite skills can be captured in all three Ascension missions, so he'll get it soon.

On to Dunes of Despair next week!

[Lycos]

Last night I logged in to play my monk. For lunch I read some tactical recommendations about henchmen. It said to take less henchmen. Less? Mmmmmmm. So, last night I tried it. I took the Archer and the Warrior. It worked out very nicely. The Archer added some nice dps, but did not gain aggro over the warrior. I healed a lot when I eventually got aggro. If I died during a mission. The other characters had their rezzes ready and I got back in the fight again. See, usually when I took the stupid mage along in my party they wasted their rezzes on him all the time because he would die on every other fight.

Also, I read that with less henchmen, I got better loot and xp. I don't have a comparison to make, but I like to think that it is true.

The next experiment is to try just taking the warrior unless the final battle looks like I need more.

Oh, and Lorna dinged level 9!

[Raveneye]

We rocked that Thirsty River mission like a squad of Special Forces commandos. The timing was everything, as the NPC teams have stationary priests that will rez all fallen team members at 2 minute intervals, so the trick is to either rush in and kill the priest prior to the 2 minute mark, or try not to kill too many of the outlying troops while sneaking in to gank the priest right afte rthe two minute mark. I really enjoyed how the arenas got progressively harder by adding a second , then third team (with their own priests) each time. We had near perfect timing on the priest kills, and we kept a tight focus on targets killing the most dangerous NPCs first. That was a damn good mission, only marred by my inability to snag my first elite skill. Oh well, I'll see it again soon enough.

After selling and salvaging post-Mission, I logged in my Mesmer/Ranger alt and ran the second Ascalon mission with him. Looks like he'll be seeing a lot more action in the future since EQ2 seems to be a no go for me with the video issues now. I cancelled my EQ2 account last night. It's weird not having a monthly game payment of any kind...

[Raveneye]

Also, I read that with less henchmen, I got better loot and xp. I don't have a comparison to make, but I like to think that it is true.

The next experiment is to try just taking the warrior unless the final battle looks like I need more.

That is defintely true. XP is divided among all party members, NPCs and PCs, so less is more. Loot is the same way, not just the cash drop splits, but the amount of drops that are "reserved" for you. If you go solo, you'll notice that nearly everything drops something, if you add a couple of henchies, that scales back (even though mobs still "drop" loot, the loot that would go to the henchies is never displayed, so it seems like less loot is dropping).

I've found that in early missions it's better to only take what you need to take. In your case a melee is pretty much a neccessity, but after that you can experiment with adding in one support guy or going with the duo. Later on, missions become impossible to complete without the full compliment of henchies (or at least a couple of real live people helping out).

Orion, the fire mage, is next to useless in the early missions. He really shines later on though when you start seeing tightly knit groups of 5 or 6 mobs in missions and explorable areas, as he's good with the AoE spells. I'd only think about adding him when your group size expands to 6 people.

[GravenStone]

Last night I logged in to play my monk. For lunch I read some tactical recommendations about henchmen. It said to take less henchmen. Less? Mmmmmmm. So, last night I tried it. I took the Archer and the Warrior. It worked out very nicely. The Archer added some nice dps, but did not gain aggro over the warrior. I healed a lot when I eventually got aggro. If I died during a mission. The other characters had their rezzes ready and I got back in the fight again. See, usually when I took the stupid mage along in my party they wasted their rezzes on him all the time because he would die on every other fight.

Also, I read that with less henchmen, I got better loot and xp. I don't have a comparison to make, but I like to think that it is true.

The next experiment is to try just taking the warrior unless the final battle looks like I need more.

Oh, and Lorna dinged level 9!

Raveneye pretty much covered what I was going to say regarding exp vs. group size. Basically, take the fewest number of henchies you need if you're going for the loot. Although frqnkly you don't look to the individual kills for exp (typically) but rather the mission rewards.

I hope to have *stable* satellite access next Wednesday, so I will ideally be back for next Thursday's session.

[Raveneye]

I hope to have *stable* satellite access next Wednesday, so I will ideally be back for next Thursday's session.

Hehe, just in time to spend a couple of week's catching up on missions, as I'll be on the old "family vacation" starting next Wednesday and continuing through Saturday the 17th. I'll be in my dad's condo in Tampa, which has no internet access and no PC to play games on. :crazy: :frown:

Poor Erudite will have done the Ascension missions like 3 times each by the time we're all through them. :lowlol:

[Erudite]

Hehe, just in time to spend a couple of week's catching up on missions, as I'll be on the old "family vacation" starting next Wednesday and continuing through Saturday the 17th. I'll be in my dad's condo in Tampa, which has no internet access and no PC to play games on. :crazy: :frown:

Poor Erudite will have done the Ascension missions like 3 times each by the time we're all through them. :lowlol:

Works out okay, since we'll need a tank with you gone and Seoman needs to do them anyway. ;)

I've got some extra cash laying around (and can farm up some more fairly quickly if necessary) - let's see about getting the voting done and a guild hall in place before your vacation starts, eh? I wanna have the chance to paste Onnie's little green lepramesmer in a duel sometime. :twisted:

[Lycos]

Although frankly you don't look to the individual kills for exp (typically) but rather the mission rewards.

In catching up to you guys, I'll take any advantage I can get! :D

11 more levels to go!

[Raveneye]

I've got some extra cash laying around (and can farm up some more fairly quickly if necessary) - let's see about getting the voting done and a guild hall in place before your vacation starts, eh? I wanna have the chance to paste Onnie's little green lepramesmer in a duel sometime. :twisted:

I can scare up a couple of extra plat over the weekend, and I'll get some screens of the more impressive locales to put in a voting thread.

[Prescient]

Prophecies arrived in the mail today and I made my Elementalist in Tyria.

Tyren Mistral

[Onnie]

Woohoo!

With Onnie nowhere to be found last night,

Look at this! Jist lookie at yerselves!
(grumbles) "OH ONNIE WENT AHEAD AND ACENSED ON US" :--> "Woohoo! Onnie nowhere to be found"

I see how ya's all are. (sticks out tongue) Actually I got Erudite a nice Fire staff this morning. It's the first collector that had anything worth a dang that I really went after. Except for my boots.

Going after some of my signets today. Got a nice spiffy one that recharges all my signets for me that I'm going to try to capture. Can't pass that one up. Also a nice area signet incoming that saps all the foes around the target for energy. I'm hoping these signets will REALLY help us on the Dragon Bonus portion of Ascention.

Just reading fighting the wench makes me shiver.

I'm in, currently, the 15k armor area and no I can't afford it. Don't know where the heck the farmers are getting juice like that but I'm almost wondering if should just go flat out Obsidian. Even though I might have to re-acsend the gear once I can afford it (i.e. just do what Xellany has on already,) that's better than dropping 15k for each piece twice if Obsidian is better stuff.

Though maybe we should talk about it before any of us go hauling off and buying equipment that is around that much of a pop price. If anyone in the meantime wants anything from the collector in Snake Passage, just look up what he has and let me know. I don't mind jaw hunting and he's right across from the Foot Print (yes I have the war camp on map already) so it's easy for me to get there.

Oh, a little hehe haha here guys. The War Camp has Melo and Ravens/Erudite's fav. dressed chicky in it for mage-ing duty. You get to sign up Cynn. Also there's a necro chick for Graven. Even Better....

ADAN IS THERE for the ARCHER! (ahem) Master Nate? err Master of all Rangers Nate-who? :mrgreen:

--Onnie

[Erudite]

Even Better....

ADAN IS THERE for the ARCHER! (ahem) Master Nate? err Master of all Rangers Nate-who? :mrgreen:

NOOOOO!!! They can't take away leather chick! They just can't! :lowsad:

[Lycos]

I got Lorna to level 10 last night! :D

[Raveneye]

I got Lorna to level 10 last night! :D

I did the same with Cade Keeneye (Mesmer/Ranger alt). How many of the missions have you completed? Cade is at Nolani Academy.

[attriel]

knemo is up to 12th and stuck at ... uh ... maybe nolani ... yah. i got through the bonus but gota bit mobbed during the real mission part :o

couldn't find a group, either

Ecah (is that how i spelled her name? i cannae remember) is up to 17. factions levels faster and has WAAAY better money, i swear!!!

[GravenStone]

Ecah (is that how i spelled her name? i cannae remember) is up to 17. factions levels faster and has WAAAY better money, i swear!!!

Yeah, until you get to the first armor vendor on the mainland and find he's charging 1.5 plat a piece. Yeeouchies!! If you can hold off buying upgrades on the newbie isle, you may be able to afford most of an upgrade set once you're on the mainland. The saving grace is that it seems like the collector reward pieces remain comparable in AC to the purchaseable bits within the same region. A very nice improvement over Prophecies.

Unless the satellite guys call today for an impromptu install (mentioned as a slight possiblity when I scheduled), I'm still a couple days out from getting back online in earnest. Have I mentioned lately how much dial-up sucks? No, well there ya go...

[Kiir]

Yeah, until you get to the first armor vendor on the mainland and find he's charging 1.5 plat a piece. Yeeouchies!! If you can hold off buying upgrades on the newbie isle, you may be able to afford most of an upgrade set once you're on the mainland. The saving grace is that it seems like the collector reward pieces remain comparable in AC to the purchaseable bits within the same region. A very nice improvement over Prophecies.



honestly the 1.5plat a piece isn't a problem, it is the rares needed to make the armour when Talia got to the mainland she had enough to upgrade everything if she hadn't had to buy the various materials to do it with, that made the cost per piece closer to 3+ plat.

[Onnie]

What materials are you needing? Lots of us have a TON of materials we'd just love to have a Garage sale on!

That's right, as the GRAND OPENING EVENT for the WIZARD ISLE GUILD HALL ALL in stock Materials taking up bank space are FREE to guild members who vote wisely. This is a one time offer as LoW opens the doors in Guild Wars! :goodie!: Don't miss this excellent chance to help your guildie friend wanting and waiting to help you! :mrgreen:

--Onnie