The Doc Feelgood Monarchy on Wintersebb Home Page

Darkcrystal Monarchy Members

Here are some members of the Dark Crystal Monarchy

	Darkcrystal is the monarch. A long time player and good quester.		Doc Feelgood is a dagger-artisan lady who is as handy with a cook pot, alembic and tinker toys as she with a dagger. She explores, and contributes to AC Explorer in a big way.
	Star dust is a long time monarchy member and a good quest organizer.		Hue Jass is a long time monarchy member, and particularly interested in PK.
	Alextium and Flenop are characters for all seasons, and fascinated with getting into Portal Space.		Crazy Marcus lives up to his name. Watch him adventure, and watch him as Message Board moderator, and now Vice Darkcrystal, and Lady Aerfelle Killer.
	Magedragon is a powerful mage, PKer and Explorer. Check out Magedragon's Leap to see one of the places he's been.

Other monarchy members

I'm Hellowman	Egor the Great	The Dude of Dereth
Kylee Kesh	Magic Tinkerer	Biohazard
Orphen	Apin	Je Gwe
Aresol	Rabid Owl	The Master
Al-Sweetpea	Slarti
Blade of Kiros	Bob the Nailer	Heikakrachi
Guilder	Wiggle Puppy	Turin' Holstlan

Doc's Maxims

Doc Feelgood's and Gentleman's Tinkering Skills Doc and Gentleman are both Tinkers, and, after perusing Caerthalion's Tinkering Calculator (see Handy Links ), these are the Tinkering Capabilties of Doc and Gentleman. The following table shows the number of times Doc and Gent can tinker an item with +95% chance of success. (once you drop below 95, the decline is rapid, typically to 85% for the next tinker). The columns list the number of tinkers based on the bag of salvage having workmanship of 4. (Higher workmanship brings only slight inmprovements to the success rate.) For Magic Item Tinkering (Imbueing) the max success rate is 33%, and imbueing can be done only once to an item. In the Magic Item Field you see the base chance of success.
Character / Tinker skill	buffed skill (with Focus Stone in hand)	working on W4 item (with Focus Stone in hand)	working on W6 item	working on W8 item
Doc Feelgood		number of tinkers with 95% success
Armor (Steel)	420 (433)	5 (6)	4 (4)	3 (3)
Item (Linen)	463 (476)	6 (7)	5 (5)	4 (4)
Magic Item (Sunstone)	468 (493)	(33.3%)	(33.0%)	(31.7%)
Weapon (Iron)	420 (433)	6 (6)	4 (4)	3 (3)

Gentleman
Armor	382 (394)	5 (5)	3 (3)	2 (2)
Item	425 (438)	6 (6)	4 (4)	3 (3)
Magic Item	424 (449)	(33.2%)	(32.5%)	(26.7%)
Weapon	406 (418)	5 (5)	3 (4)	2 (3)

Conclusions: For the first two or three tinkers, either Doc or Gentleman can tinker equally successfully. An item's workmanship has a big effect on how many times it can be tinkered "safely". For instance, Gentleman's chance of imbueing an item drop to "remote" if the item is a W8 item, but he has full chance of success on a W4 item. And if that item is successfully imbued, it can then safely take several more tinkers by either Doc or Gentleman I hope you find this table helpful. Doc and Gentleman are both available for Tinkering, and would love to get salvage materials in return for their help.

Escape with a Tusker Island Portal Gem

Having a "Near Death Experience"? Need to get out of a situation real fast? Carry Tusker Island Portal Gems. Double clicking a tusker island portal gem activates recall faster than a recall spell does, and you don't have to have a wand in hand to use one.

Ruined Amulet Shortlist

If you have a set of Sunstone Gaunlets from Martine's Retreat and you want to install a Ruined Amulet, here is a partial list of creatures and the amulets they drop. (Maggie's has a full list. Check Handy Links)

Amulet for: --- Creature
Unarmed --- Brutish Monogua
Axe --- Banderling Berserker
Bow --- Banderling Striker
XBow --- Scrawed Griever
Dagger --- Virulent Griever
Staff --- Lich Lord
Mace --- Drudge Ravener
Life Magic --- Mosswart Soultrapper
Creature Magic --- Mosswart Fanatic
War Magic --- Mosswart Idolator

These creatures are 40's to 50's level, and most spawn around Glendon Wood area. Check west and north for monoguas and grievers and south and east for undead. Here are some tips for other, species specific, spawn sites:

Hunt "Mage" Mosswarts on Vesyan Isles. The dungeons Mosswart Hideout, Idol Spawning Grounds and Rumby's Hideaway are all thick with them.
The back of BSD, Blackclaw Raiders and Obsidian Singularity Repository are a few of many dungeons thick with Drudge Raveners.
Lich Lords are thick in Serac Vault; mixed in with Revenants and Dark Revenants.
Griever Valley, northnortheast of Stonehold, is thick with Scrawed and Virulent Griever.
Banderling Strikers spawn just south of the mansion, and further southwest.
Banderling Berserkers are hard to find these days -- haven't seen one in wilderness for months. I did find a group of them hiding out in Asugar Temple dungeon, NW of Holtberg (part of the Elysia's Favor quest).
Since October 03 patch, Brutish Mongoguas spawn in a wide swath between Glendon Woods and the Lost Wish Mountains north of "Subway".

Harbinger Quest Shortlist

To enter the dungeon you need an item. Which item you hand in determines which skill you will pick up a point of competance in. Here is a short list of items. Check Maggies Harbinger Quest description ( Handy Links) for a full list.

Axe -- Rendeth Shreth hide
Bow -- Drudge Bloodletter charm
Creature -- Murk Drudge charm
Crossbow -- Banderling Predator Scalp
Dagger -- Banderling Scalper Bone Ring
Fletching -- Banderling Slayer Scalp
Life -- Drudge Cabalist charm
Mace -- Primeveal Skeleton Charm
Magic Defense -- Peerless Drudge Charm
Mana Conversion -- Essence of Phantasm
Melee Defense -- Telumiat Hollow Minion [something]
Spear -- Gauloth Shreth Hide
Staff -- Gloom Drudge Charm
Sword -- Olthoi Mutilator Head
UA -- Reaper Reedshark [something]
War -- Banderling Aggressor Scalp

You can hand in an item for a skill you are not trained or specialized in. That will get you in the dungeon, but you will pick up no skill enhancement when you complete the quest.

The tokens for less important skills, such as cooking and monster assessment, drop from lower level creatures. If you just want a token, any token, hack away on gangs of these lower level types.

Facing War Magic? Use Trees

There's no reason to take war magic (or missiles) on the chin. Dodge, or use terrain to your advantage.

Olf (35th) is a tree lover. Here he is standing behind one waiting for three Dark Magus (150th) to drain down their mana by splashing war spells off a convenient tree.

XP Chain Report

There is a site describing how XP is passed up.

To summarize what that site says:

There is a cap on leadership at 163, but that's an adjusted figure. Base leadership is adjusted positively for number of vassals and how long they have been vassals (up to 240 playing hours)
XP comes in two forms: that earned directly by the vassal, and that which is passed up to the vassal from lower down the chain. "Direct" XP does not have a loyalty cap. "Passed up" xp has a loyalty cap of about 200, and when you reach that cap, about 93% of the passed up XP will be passed up to the patron, if they are at their Leadership cap.

Based on these calculations, my people, as listed, are overinvested in Leadership.

If you are operating with a Leadership 6/7 and Self 6/7 buffs, you get a 40-50 point bonus to Leadership, so the "right amount" for base Leadership would be about 130-120. (Sweetpea's buffs are 6/7's)

For Loyalty, the passup XP "right amount" is 160-150 base. For direct XP there is no cap, and higher Loyalty can bring more passup.

Tips on Character naming

Character names are "first impressions" on Dereth, so pick your names with care. Names flavor how your character relates to others. Here are some considerations:

o Does the name say what others can expect of your character? A character with a name such as Screw-n00bs will have a harder time cooperating with other characters than someone with a name such as Good Sam.

o Can other people type the name easily? A name such as 0100100 01110 is not going to be easily typed up in an @tell.

o Take advantage of connotations. Fermi was named after a scientist (it's also short and easy to type); Washington, a president; and Franky Johnnie, a folk song. Doc Feelgood is also a connotation name.

Doc's personal experience is that the "sweet" names produce a lot of spontaneous cooperation -- Sunbeam, Sunshine and Jazzi are examples.

Monsters with Nametags: A Doc Feelgood Editorial

As you work popular hunting spots, you will find a vocal minority of Heroes who complain loudly about other Heroes "stealing their kills". This, in Doc's opinion, is a form of begging, and these people should be treated as beggars.

The vicious rumors are not true: There is nothing in the scoring system that penalizes having multiple players attack the same monster. Quite the contrary, there are many good reasons to "gang bang" a monster:

Monsters do full damage whether they are healthy or near death. The quicker monsters are finished off, the less damage the party takes.
Some monsters, particularly the newer ones, have very fast regen rates. Inflicting lots of damage quickly makes these monsters die a lot faster.
Monsters are weaker when attacked from the rear. For-and-Aft attacking increases damage rate, and, when a monster is turning from one attacker to another, the monster is not doing damage.
Multiple attackers on a single monster lets each attacker specialize and do what they can do best: Mages vul and heal, archers arch, and tanks tank, and blockers block. Attacking tactics become much more interesting when you can do more than simply face a monster and swing at it.

Don't let "kill steal complainers" lessen your enjoyment of Asheron's Call. Cooperate with these people if you can, but always keep in mind that when they are complaining they are begging. (Doc has even experienced these people whining that that people were "stealing their dungeon!" (trying to claim the whole dungeon... now that's ambition in a beggar!)

When you run don't fight. When you fight don't run

When you are running you are going somewhere to get XP, loot, or something of value. If you dally along the way, fighting, you are subtracting from your time at the destination. Also, if you die, or get overloaded with loot, you are subtracting from time at your destination. When you run, don't fight.

If you're going to fight at your destination, prepare for death or loot overload by lifestoning, or using or tying to a nearby portal. This way when death or overburden happens, you can recover quickly. When you fight, don't run.

Collecting loot builds stamina

Always end your battles feeling tired... a "yellow bar" (stamina bar) that's nothing but a stub? Take time to loot that body you just killed. Examining a body takes time, and that time lets all your bars recover, in particular, your stamina bar.

When fighting as part of a team, make a fellowship and set the open bodies option to share. That way you don't have to be fussy about which bodies you and your teammates examine while you're recovering stamina.

Other tips to help with stamina problems:

Wielding a big shield sucks stamina. If you're fighting many small, weak enemies, try not equipping your shield.
Each enemy attack sucks stamina. Move the battle so only a few enemies are attacking at one time.
Life mages can throw Revitalize which adds stamina
Life mage can also throw Rejuvenate to grow back stamina faster.
Be at peace between battles. All bars recover faster at peace, and even faster when crouched or lying down.

Don't like the monster mix? Log off for five minutes.

It's been a bad day....

You were running along in the wilderness and you got dropped right at the feet of an "Ultrahugealisk" that you have no hope of killing.
You are working random wilderness spawn from a perch, and nothing tempting is coming up.

... and no one is around to help sort out the problem.

In this case try logging out for five or ten minutes, and logging back in. If there is no hero active in a particular area of Dereth for five minutes, the area resets. When you log back in, the random spawn points will select new monsters from their random list. The Ultrahugealisk may be replaced by something more manageable.

Note that this only works if the area is empty. If someone else is in the area, there will be no reset. But, in that case, go find that person and ask for help.

When Solo muling, put your stuff in a pack

Many heroes run across Dereth constantly clicking the [ key. The [ or ] keys cycle you through all useable objects on your radar, and this can bring up many interesting things. What you don't want is a wandering hero to [ your stuff, and decide to come over and pick it up while your switching characters. Putting stuff in a pack doesn't stop the wanderer from seeing the pack, but he or she will realize this a muling object, not a corpse dissolving or loose treasure. And, the hero must open the pack before seeing what the treasure specifics are, which takes time.

Putting your stuff in a pack when muling won't stop a dedicated thief from stealing, but it will protect your stuff from honorable or semi-honorable scavengers who are just passing by.

When team fighting, attack fore and aft

Monsters have a front side and a back side, and the back side defenses are weaker. (Ironically, symmetric-looking Fragments have dramatically weaker back sides) If heroes position themselves fore and aft, one will always be taking advantage of the back side weakness. Also, when the monster changes opponents, the time it takes to turn around is time the monster is not swinging at any hero.

Big Al Kaeda and Man of Godest demonstrating "Fore-and-Aft" on a Diamond Golem.

Take advantage of "Monster Fixation"

Monsters deal with team attacks in different ways. Some switch enemies quickly, others "fixate" on a single enemy and don't switch. Undead-class monsters and Reedshark-class monsters fixate. Use this to your advantage. Determine which hero the undead has fixated on, and let that hero stay on radar, but safe -- behind a nearby wall is perfect. Let the other team members rush up behind the fixated undead and start whacking away.

This 55th level Lich Lord is trying to get to a mage inside a tower. El Badasso, our 18th level hero, is working him from behind. The mage inside attracted the Lich Lord's attention with an Imperil, and the Lord came running. Now he is Draining the Lich Lord of mana and stamina. The meleer outside is taking advantage of "backside weakness" and the mage's debuff to hit a target he normally can't touch.

Use "Zeroth Level" magic to your advantage.

Did you know you can cast spells just by picking up a mastery wand? Holding a Life Mastery 1 wand, for instance, will let you cast first level Life spells, albeit with a lot of fizzles. But when you can master a Life 3 or Life 4 wand, you can cast first level spells reliably. Three valuable first level Life spells are Stamina to Mana, Stamina to Health and Heal Self.

Suggestions for Smooth questing

1. Make sure there is good communication between quest members. At a minimum this means forming a fellowship at the start of the quest.

2. A quest member, often the quest leader, should research the quest before beginning the quest. Are all the essentials for the quest in place? If not, is getting essentials a quest that must be conducted first? For instance, to do the Focus Stone quest, a skull is needed that is obtained by completing the Three Towers quest. Don't start organizing a Focus Stone quest if you don't have a skull, organize a Three Towers quest.

3. "Chalk talk" the quest before you begin. This can be done by chatting as the quest is organized, or, by describing the quest on the message board. (The message board description can also point to a "walkthrough" posted on some other board.)

4. Help on body recovery as quickly as you can -- either collect items from a corpse or help the person get back to their body. In Doc's eyes, no quest is complete until all the bodies are recovered... even if the quest objectives have not been reached.

4a. There are exceptions to 4, such as bodies that are lost on the Phase Space dungeon (Invoker quest) or the Fathomless Chasm dungeon (Mana Containers quest) where it's almost inevitable that all members won't complete, and corpse recovery will just generate more corpses. If this quest is one of these cases, make sure this is well known to all members before the quest starts.

5. Stay tight, be patient, and turn Share Fellowship Corpse Looting in your personal options to "on" so looting can be conducted quickly and efficiently by all members of your fellowship.

If you're going to Salvage, what should you salvage?

If you are salvaging to acquire Tinkering materials, the following are the only materials that can be used in Tinkering (July 03 patch). (Items with asterisks are highly valued.)

Weapon Tinkering

*Granite - Improve Damage Variance (from 5-15 to 6-15)
*Iron - Increase Damage (Melee Weapons)
Mahogany Increase Damage Modifier (Missile Weapons)
Oak - Improve Speed (good for XBows)
Velvet - Increase Attack Modifier (no good for missile)
Brass - Increase Defense Modifier
Weapon Rending (adds a Vul spell equivalent to your attack, not stackable with a spell-cast Vul. Can also be put on a wand.)
**White Sapphire - Bludgeon Rend
*Black Garnet - Pierce Rend
*Imperial Topaz - Slash Rend
*Emerald - Acid Rend
**Red Garnet - Fire Rend
*Aquamarine - Frost Rend
*Jet - Lightning Rend

Armor Tinkering (only steel is of real value in armor tinkering section. The rest of the tinks are the equivilent of banes, and banes alone will take you to the max value these can have.)

**Steel - Armor level
Bronze - Slashing
Alabaster - Piercing
Marble - Bludgeoning
Armadillo hide - Acid
Wool - Cold
Ceramic - Fire
Reedshark hide - Electrical
Armor imbuing (33% max chance) (These appear to be worthlessly small, although in the Dec 03 patch there was a change to give them somewhat more value.)
Yellow Topaz - Missile Defense +1
Peridot - Melee Defense +1
Zircon - Magic Defense +1

Item Tinkering

Linen - Reduce Burden (good for XBow, Armor)
Gold - Increase Value (good for death items)
Pine - Decrease Value (good for items you don't want to drop on death)
Ebony - Heritage requirement to Gharu'ndim
Teak - to Aluvian
Porcelain - to Sho
Silver - melee requirement converted to missile missile requirement
Copper - missile to melee
Silk - replace rank requirement with arcane lore equal to spell craft

Magic Item Tinkering

Weapon Imbueing (33% Max chance, only one per weapon)

*Sunstone - Armor Rend (reduces target armor)
*Fire Opal - Crippling Blow (increases crit hit damage)
*Black Opal - Critical Strike (increases chance of crit hit)
Jewelry Imbueing (33.33% Max Chance, +25 Arcane Lore, +25 Spellcraft) (These won't layer with other "minors", such as Elysia's Favor.) Because imbueing adds to ALore, and the jewelry's existing spells are the same as buff spells, select low ALore jewelry -- pieces which hold only Level One or Level Two spells.
Lavender jade - Minor Mana Gain
Red Jade - Minor Health Gain
Citrine - Minor Stamina Gain
Carnelian - Minor Strength
Rose Quartz - Minor Quick
Bloodstone - Minor Endurance
Smokey Quartz - Minor Coordination
Agate - Minor Focus
Lapis Lazuli - Minor Self
Malachite - Warrior's Vigor (moderate health)
Hematite - Warrior's Vitality (moderate stamina)
Azurite - Wizard's Intellect (moderate mana)
Normal Magic Item Tinkering
Opal - add 1% of Mana Conversion to a wand (useful)
Moonstone - add 250 to total Mana of a magic item (not so useful)

Miscellaneous (Basic) Tinkering

Ivory - drop "no drop" weapons, such as Hollow weapons, Gaerlan and Martine robes so they can be stored.
Leather - Retained (can't be sold or salvaged)

Other materials can be salvaged, but they can't be used in Tinkering.

Don't salvage high value/burden ratio items, such as wands, just sell them. Salvage plentiful low value/burden ratio items, such as gold and silver armor and heavy weapons. Salvage them to reduce their burden, and extract their value. (A bag of salvage is always 100 burden; a full bag of gold salvage will be worth about 20K.)

Each item salvaged will net you about two units of salvage if you have untrained tinkering skills. Your tinkering skill affects your salvage yield. Doc, with an average of 400 in tinkering skills, can get 5 or 6 units of salvage from an item.

Don't be a "Subway Gimp", learn the portal backbone

Can't find a subway 'bot? Don't spam, run! If you know the portal backbones, you can run to any "civilized" city in Dereth in just a few minutes.

Learn the intercity portals by heart. You will see more, enjoy Dereth more, and cut down on subway spam.

Here is Doc's Backbone Portals Table

House hunting tip:

1. Find the community(ies) you want a house in.

2. Right click on the crystals of the houses of the community. Check "if maintenance has not been paid" on any of the houses...

3. Put the owners of houses who's maintenance has not been paid on your friends list. Watch for activity.

4. If you see no activity, keep an eye on it using the @house available command. At some point it may open up. (However, it may not -- anyone, not just the owner, can pay maintenance on a house.)

5. If the owner is active, talk with him or her, and see if they would like to sell their house to you.

Tips on places to loot

The most productive looting places are places where lots of other heroes are killing, and most are killing for XP, or a quest item. They will leave tons of loot behind. It's fine for you to be killing in these places, too, but when you're between spawns, be picking things up. A rich find is a place where "combat macros" are being used. Macroing characters stay put, distract monsters, and rarely pick up loot.

Register at LS real close to a town (the LS in the valley east of Zaikhal, and the LS north Ayan Baqur are two good choices), then use LS Recall and Portal Recall to collect and off-load loot quickly.

Here are some specific places to be hunting:

First on the list: Popular Olthoi dungeons: Lair of Evisorator (50+), the Lightning Propylaeum (50+), the OHN's (30+), and the beginner Lairs on Marea Lassal (1+).

Second on the list: the Hall of Metos's, Anywhere in a Hall is good, but Revenant Rooms, when others are killing for XP, are the best of all. (Almost as good as Olthoi loot). Nexus is also a good source of Revenant loot.

Third on the list: OPBSD (Black Spawn Den, Obsidian Plains). Tusker Loot, left around inside the dungeon, is valuable, but heavy, armor (good for salvage). Loot left outside the dungeon on the nearby Plains is varied, and more interesting.

Note: this is now a history page. I have not been active here since Jan 04.

News and Pictures

Max Damage

News and Pictures

Darkcrystal Monarchy Members

Other monarchy members

Doc's Maxims

Doc Feelgood's and Gentleman's Tinkering Skills

Suggestions for Smooth questing

The new home for the Darkcrystal monarchy: beachfront property