| First off, I have been having a lot of fun with
my 28th level Axe Warrior lately. Part of the reason for this is just
starting to get out to the dires. The first time I went, I was so
frustrated that a 20th level mage could blast Drudge Stalkers, and
I at 25th couldn't do more than ten damage before they killed me,
really pissed me off. I swore I wasnt going back to the dires until
30th level. Well, a friend convinced me to rally the group, and we
would hit a dungeon and see how things went. Mages need blockers at
least in a dungeon. |
| Unhappy with your fighter? Get AWAY from the open.
Do NOT expect to have fun fighting with a group of mages and archers
when the creatures are dead before they even get to you. You want
to have fun with your fighter? Go to a dungeon. Or a place where the
spawn sites are close enough that other monsters come in when the
fighting starts. |
| Anyway, I did go back to the Dires. But this time
I went with a brand new SUPER axe. An Axe of Coordination given to
me by a new friend (level 38) who invited me into his alliance, and
my alliance voted, and rejected the idea. He gave me the axe AFTER
I told him "I'm sorry, the vote was no." What a guy huh? I will spare
his name here because I know 200 clueless newbies will immmediatly
start msging him saying "plz give me k00l stuf two." I'll spare him
that. He gave me an axe with coordination self FIVE and blood drinker
4 on it. |
| Hmm, suddenly, I CAN hit drudge ravenors and Stalkers.
Suddenly, I AM part of the team. Suddenly, I do get looting rights
some times. |
| The other thing I take note of is this. With a
37% burden, I run faster than anyone in our group. It doesn't matter
if they have a run of 200, and mine is 150, I still am leading the
pack on the long run out there. Finally! Something strength is good
for. The crossbowwomen and men are at 97% burden, some more. The mages
have all portaled out, and the archer is loaded with arrows, and has
put all his points into coordination, not Strength. Strength affects
burden, and burden affects a lot of things. |
|
Like how much treasure you can carry. I can go into this little
dungeon I know about, with a 37% burden, and come out with a 137%
burden, and limp my way to town. Loaded with chain mail girths,
shamshirs, arrows, crappy yag bows, and other stuff I don't plan
on keeping for vassals. When I sell I get betweem 15 and 20k. Lets
see an archer do that. Or a mage.
|
| Which brings up another point. If you think that
money is worthless in this game, you are not playing it the way I
and my friends are. I just came back from the dires with 100k of blood
driker 3 bows and axes and swords and some heavy ass armor for those
of my alliance that do not have matty coats yet. I spent probably
20k in mana stones before I left, and another 20k on mana stones while
there. One of my mages said "I'm always broke" I was puzzled by this.
"Components cost an arm and a leg. I just stoched up and it cost me
8k." |
| 8k to stock up on weapons. Because thats what he
is doing. |
| Another reason I am having a blast with my fighter
for once. I look at all the downtime mages have. What a pain in the
smurf. My god. Rest here, cast blood drinker, rest some more, switch
weapons from wand, rest, ready, go, attack, kill some things, mage
says "Anyone got an orange taper?" and then they rest some more and
futz around and then go buy more components and I think... |
| "I could never play a mage." |
| My life consist of kill, loot, heal if needed,
run to town sell, talk with friends, sell loot, buy mana stones. Go
out again. I get a good new weapon every now and then, I get mana
stones all the time, and I have a simple, not too complex game. Its
very stress free. Being a mage is so much more complex, and so many
more things to do that would get SOOOO tedious SOOOO fast. |
| You want that power level ability? You take it.
Its not for me. I'd rather go hunt on my own, hunt weaker things,
and not have to speand half my online time doing inventory management.There
really IS a price to pay for that power. |
| I do think that Mages are far more powerful than
a warrior, and a level 20 bowman and mage can do fine in the dires.
A level 30 warrior with a regular blood drinker 3 axe will not. |
| If you want to be a warrior and hit things in the
dires, you need something that casts coordinate self on you. And you
need a weapon that has heart seeker 5 or a natural +10% to attack
skill. Whatever. It doesn't take blood seeker 3 to succeed in the
dires. It take heart seeker 3. And for some reason, that spell is
much more rare on magical weapons. And THATS why warriors are so frustrated.
Blood drinker 6 on somehting does NOTHING if you can't score a hit.
A simple fix for this would just to fix the goddamn crappy treasure
algorithm, and when at it, make it release more Heart Seeker weapons,
or even better, non magical weapons that have +10% to +20% to hit.
That would fix a lot of problems right there. And oh my god, don't
get me started on the crappy treasure system. Oh man does that make
my blood boil. All I want is a nice even distribution of treasure.
You shouldn't be able to get more off a mudlurk mosswart than a Tumorock
Officer. |
| Think about the dungeons in the dires right now.
If somone were to fix the treasure that tumorocks give out, wouldn't
you explore those dungeons? We took 8 level 20+ people into a tumurock
dungeon and we left after an hour because no matter how deep were
going to go, it was still tumorock treasure. You want to fix Camping?
Make every monster give out some loot worth its time to kill. Why
would you go fight THESE monsters when THOSE monsters give better
loot? And THOSE monsters give better exp points, but THESE monsters
are tougher? |
| too late - you got me started... |
| One other rant that I have to get off my chest. |
| Why are there so many exploit places in the game?
It seems wherever the best monsters are - there is a mage exploit
spot to take advantage of it. |
| Go to the Matty cave and watch the level ten mages
level up on speed by killing matty's in pit. I know its just a game,
but you know, it just seems cruel shooting things over and over and
over that can't get to you and howl their frustration. Warriors stand
out in the corridor and fight toe to toe with one to eight matties
at a time. Mages stand on the lip of a pit and shoot things in complete
safety. |
|
Who designed this room? One of the programmers who wanted a spot
to power level once the game went public? Its a disgrace.
|
| Went up to Arwic, found some guys standing on some
stones up above head height. Hey look, some Olthoi spawn not ten feet
from them. Hey look, they can shoot at OLTHOI and not get hit because
they are on a platform. The olthoi scrabble at the bottom of these
rocks and try to reach the mages, but it is to no avail. Twentieth
level mages and lower, using an exploit to level. Again. Went to the
dires. A friend said "Have you seen the tusker slave and Verindi spot?"
No I said. He took me there and sure enough, there's a spot right
around fort Tethana where level 128 and up monsters spawn. And sure
enough, not fiteen yards away is the mage exploit spot. |
| Mages run up this slope, draw the monsters to them,
the monsters slide a little to the right, off the slope, and can't
climb this other part of the hill. So verinidi masters float 20 feet
away from mages as they blast the crap out of them with spells and
the verindi seem to forget that THEY ARE FLOATING and can't seem to
fly past this little exploit spot. |
| Very, very frustrating. |
| It seems everywhere I go, where there is a good
monster to take on, there is an exploit spot. How about someone take
a look at this? |
| Thats today's rant. |
| Ranter aka Druss
|