January News and Pictures

 

It's 10PM, and do you know where you characters are leveling? (A Doc Feelgood Editorial)

The Great Decal Drought, following the January 04 patch, has swept the streets of Dereth clean of players. Friday night Zelta sought out fellow levelers in Phantos Menace, Tusker Pits and Tusker Holding, and found all three totally abandoned... totally! This is a condition the Feelgood Clan has never seen before, ever.

The moral: Turbine needs to recognize that while macroing may be a "third party thing", it is now essential to enjoying the game for a majority of AC 1 players. Turbine either needs to "join" these macro designers and make informing them of what is changing in patches a standard policy, or they need to change the spell system so that macroing is no longer valuable. Changing the spell system would mean "nerfing" "other" spells (such as Cold Protect Other), and reinvorating magical jewelry so that wearing jewelry can once again offer characters as much protections as buffs (as it did back in the 99-01 time frame when, for instance, Similacra Helms and Shields were highly valued.)

The other advantage of reinvigorating magic jewelry would be to cut out all the time wasted on buffing. Cutting out all this time wasted on buffing would be a good thing for the game. An alternate choice that would be good for the game is some kind of "buff all" command that does all buffs instantaneously. Once again, this would cut out a part of the game that has become tedious for no reason, and that would be a good thing.

-- Doc Feelgood

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.

 

January News and Pictures

 

Time to visit a Lady

Monarchy members pause on the steps of Chalcimere Fortress before heading through the portal to Aerlinthe Isle which is opened by the Emissary who lives there. On this quest we have: Franky Johnnie (84), Crazy Marcus (89), Syko Mage (87), Embers Mage (67), Dracool (71), Archmage Ares (69), Castoff (60) and Thunderbolt (125).

This quest is long and complex, but the first part is a sunny run around the cove which is the center of Aerlinthe Isle. Monsters love this cove as much as heroes do, so the run is always a exciting time. This time was no exception, and there were some deaths taken.

"Hot Magma Burned My Flesh..."

Hot magma, and hot and cold running monsters are features of Alerinth dungeons. The eye candy is plentiful in these dungeon, but not spectacular.

This scene is from the first dungeon we enter, Aerlinthe Resevoir, and we come back to see it again.
When we finished in Aerlinthe Resevoir, we hot footed it to Tenkardunn Foundry. On the way we passed through some of the wierd vegetation which is distinctive of Alerinth Isle.
There's plenty to fight in these dungeons, but they are old, and Inflation has taken it's toll, so these monsters which were "uber" at the time of the dungeon's creation are now "average".
The party stands ready to exit Tenkardunn Foundry.

 

Back to Aerlinthe Resevoir, then on to Aerfalle's Keep. This is Lady Aerfalle's lair, and the portal to it is only opened by killing the right undead monster in the Undead Town on Aerlinth Cove. But that monster will only appear when the "proper paperwork has been filled out" in dungeons one and two... and in Alerinth Cauldra (Mnt. Tenkarrdun). This quest is complex!

But, we made it.... well, most of us made it. There were some more deaths and untimely logouts in the process of getting the portal opened.

The Final Room

This last dungeon is medium-sized, but trappy. The party makes it to the final room, and.... there she is ... clothed in the finest Red of Fire Vulnerability... Lady Aerfalle!

Crazy Marcus Goes Global

Crazy gets the kill, and all of Dereth on WintersEbb gets the message. After the Global Message, Crazy continuues to get bad-mouthing from Lady Aerfalle.

"She's as mouthy as a poor PK loser." comments Franky Johnnie.

 

This is the same moment, viewed from the eyes of the "Lady Killer", himself.

ALL HAIL CRAZY MARCUS

(and congratulations, Crazy)
   

Zero to Fifty in Twenty Four hours

The rerolled Manual Labor (Doc's "Materials Assistant") makes Level 50 in 24 hours of game play (three days real time). Congratulations to Manual!
Leveling from 5 to 25 took place in Olthoi Arcade and Matron Hive (Nanto) as part of a fortuitous fellowship of six new rolls. The highlight of the fellowship was an attempt on the Matron Queen, but as freshly-scrubbed, low twenties characters, she was beyond the fellowship's capabilities.

After 25 Manual moved to Phantos Menace. He found the inside a bit too chaotic for easy solo leveling (although it was fine when he was in a fellow inside.). So, he spent much of his time sniping the wasps on the outside protecting the entrance.

"These are perfect targets for archers and mages." says Manual, "Better than Tuskers or Undead, because they don't gang pursue when one is disturbed -- just the disturbed one comes to play.

"I also noticed that if they are blocked from getting to prey for only about ten seconds, they lose interest, and stay uninterested until you get real close."

Manual died just once, but it was a doozy. He dropped next to the building, lost his coat and legs, and found his body was being covered by a Pyreal Golem, as well as the wasps!

Fortunately, he could perch on the building, and his spec'd Magic Resistance let him stay on the edge dealing out death until he put everything down, and collected his stuff.

   
   

 

To Journey where no clansperson has gone before...

Jazzi crosses Tusker Island Channel, and heads south. Her goal: to go as far south as possible.

"No member of the clan has been further south than Bobo's Waterfall Dungeon. I aim to put the rest of West Tusker Island on the 'clan explored' map." says Jazzi.
"The hill spine of Tusker Island continues south beyond the waterfall. The spawn gets a little tougher, compared to the north part of the island. Devastators and Obsidian Chitticks start showing up."
This is the place: you can't get further south than this on Tusker Islands. (16S, 92E, looking north).
This is the "wiggle through" point on the otherwise uncrossable Riptide Channel. You can wiggle through here, (9.2S, 92.4E) and those taking the fast path to Tusker Lacuna dungeon (100+) do come through here.
"Here I am taking a field specimen: an Obsidian Chittik (135)."

 

Kylee Kesh takes the Max Mage Damage Title

Banderling Heirophants once again show their weakness for mages. Kylee Kesh shocks one for 1,001 points of electric damage. This surpasses Thunderbolt's record of 951 points, also made against a Heirophant, in Oct 03.

Congrats to Kylee for passing the melennial damage mark for mages.

Darkcrsystal takes the Max Melee Damage Title

VOD Obliterators oblige the monarchy again in the quest for max damage. Here Darkcrystal fries 3,483 points out of an Obliderator using a Critical Blow sword. This heftily surpasses the 1,197 point record made by Alextium made last month on a Sarcophagus.

The Great Feelgood Clan Pincer and Tusk Turn in

The Feelgood Clan has been saving up pincers and tusks for a rainy day. The announcement of a nerfed XP passup system means Monsoon Season has arrived. The Clan spent a couple days collecting the last round of pincers and tusks before Patch Day, and were about to do the great turn in when Turbine decided to use MLKing's Birthday as transition-to-new-datacenter day.

The clan cooled there heels for a day, then on 20 Jan did the turn in. Here Gentleman, Big Al Kaeda and Olf are gathered to start the turn in process. The turning in involved 13 characters and took most of the day. The results are tabulated at the bottom of the Clan Photo section.

In summary, each member advanced one level, a total of 338 million was gained, and of that total, 98 million was passup XP.

"While I'm impressed with the numbers." says Doc, "The passup XP seems very skimpy. I wonder if Turbine didn't rush the implementation of their new XP system, a bit, and we [the clan] have suffered?"

Decanter Time

Star Dust, Darkcrystal, Heikakrachi, Mr. Warlock, and Zelta head out to get some more Mana Decanters from the Fathomless Chasm dungeon. The quest went smoothly for this party, but lying around us were the corpses from groups that had a rougher go at it.

Tusker Island Wilderness Hunt

Amazing Grace (70) and The Master (74) do a little Tusker Island Hunting. They are hunting for the ferocious Reedshark Reaper, and have a good time dropping those, as well as other prey in the Tusker Island West wilderness near the Crossover Channel.

 

 

WE server goes down

WE server is down from 19 Jan through 21 Jan for changeover from Microsoft data center to Turbine data center. The first of a series of shutdowns.

January Meeting

Darkcrystal (126) calls a series of monarchy meetings to discuss buff bots, language while PKing, and leadership while he's in the hospital. Attending this session are Alcetus (27), Ramoth Wyrmmoghter (63), Egor the Great (83), Doc Feelgood (93), Hue Jass (126), Aethra (51), Aresol (126), Al-Sweetpea (91), and Kylee Kesh (120).

Doc Imbues Armor

In another tinkering first for the Feelgood Clan, Doc tinkers up some imbued armor, modeled here by Yongsan (73). Armor imbueing is one of those 33% success processes, so there's no planning on color matches beforehand. This will bring Doc's dyeing skills back to the fore -- Youngsan's coat was dyed white after the successful imbue to match the leggings.

What's that in Franky Johnnie's hand?

"It's an axe." says Franky Johnnie. "I switched from Staff to Axe.

"I was never seeing 325-wield staff weapons in loot, and I envied the 30+ damage ratings I saw on the dozens of 325-wield axes I recovered from loot. My best staves are rated 15.

"So, I switched. I 'forgot' my Staff specialization, which gave me back skill credits and XP. I learned Axe, and then Specialized in it, and put all those XP points from staff back into it. The process took six spare skill credits, a visit to the Temple of Forgetfulness, and a visit to the Temple of Specialization -- two weeks real time.

"So far, I'm real happy with the change. Axe Rocks!"

(Egor the Great and Franky (83) are working Assailers in Tusker Holding -- headed to get Assailer Tusks.)

 

Yongsan follows Olf into Phantos Menace

"This is great! It's like popping M&M's." says Yongsan of hunting in Phantos Menace dungeon. The 'Menace is the clan's newest discovery as a leveling spot. The wasps are good for 20K XP a pop, and they go down to one or two arrows or two or three swings of a properly equipped archer/melee.

The main "gotcha" is you need hefty Magic Resistance, or you spend all your time healing. Mages have this inherently, so a lot of mages work here. Feelgood clan archers and melees invest in magic resistance, so they thrive here, too.

 

Quest to Caul Island

Franky Johnnie (82), Darkcrystal (126), Kylee Kesh (116), Star dust (126), and Sarla (96) head to Aerbax's Holding on Caul Island to collect Bracelets of Dark Essence.

The journey starts with a run to the center of the Obsidian Plain, and a hop into Singularity Bore dungeon. There you must kill the Guardian of Singularity, which flags you to use a portal to Caul Island. (There are a couple of other ways to Caul Island, but this was the most convenient for this group.)
The dropout to Caul Island lands you at the top of a giant "Ski Slope". Franky was ready to start "waxing his boards", but the party had to move on... a different way.

Getting there is....

Getting from the dropout to the dungeon was more than half the fun. Caul Island is a giant spoked wheel: to get from Point A to Point B, you always ending up running through the center, and always end up running by a spawn so thick it makes Tusker Island spawn look sparse.

The Melee Quartet....

 

... versus the Virindi Tabernacle Choir

On the way to the back of Aerbax's Holding, the party ran into this "Virindi Choir." No, the party couldn't hear a pin drop, but they heard a rousing chorus of Joy to the Singularity before the members all dropped dead of Rapture (and flame damage).

   

Bobo Redux

Sarla (97), Mr. Arrow (83), Star dust (126), Kylee Kesh (116), Egor the great (82), Thunderbolt' (124), Fears Return (80), and Zelta (80) head for a visit to Bobo. On the way they must deal with many obstacles, including Mowen, here. On this expedition Star dust got the kill, and the three fingered monkey paw.

Yongsan betters her own damage record

Yongsan hot-foots a Valley of Death (VOD) Tusker Obliterator for 832 points of Fire Damage. In so doing she surpasses her previous record of 437 on a Drudge Seraph in VOD set earlier this month.

 

Shoo... Shoo... Shoo..

The Master turns Olf onto a new leveling dungeon: Phantos Menace, near Stonehold. Phantos Menace has been updated, and it is now populated mostly with White Phantos wasps -- worth 20K XP a pop.

The spawn is fast and copious, and the leveling fellowships are very productive, often 12M an hour.

Magic resistant melees do best here because the wasps are "flighty" and tend to move off quickly -- this means war spell and missile types need to pick their targets carefully.

Monarchy explores Olthoi Chasm

Several monarchy quests have headed into the new Olthoi Chasm dungeon west of Lytelthorpe. Here Franky Johnnie and Egor the Great are dealing with Armored Skeletons.

 

A little deeper in Zelta enounters Tormenter skeletons, Phantasm undead and Olthoi Mutilators. Yes, it gets to be a spooky place.

Rescue time

... and sometimes someone gets caught. The Master (69) got dropped on a run to Tusker Holding, and found his corpse was in the center of classic West Tusker Island spawn, which included a pack of nasty Reedshark Reapers (125). Yongsan (72) and Sarla (92) helped him get his body back.

Good luck comes to Zelta and Olf

Kill... check. Kill... check. Kill.. check. <sigh> Olf had been working "Soultrapper Center" (the bottom of Mosswart Hideout dungeon) for better than two buff cycles looking for Life Magic Ruined Amulets for Zelta and Fermi. The Soultrappers were being terminally stingy, and he was getting frustrated.

In comes Lillemus (48), and when she hears what Olf is looking for she says, "Oh. I have plenty of those!" and offers to outfit Olf's Sunstone Gauntlets.

Olf's jaw drops, and when he searches his pack he realizes he doesn't have any unequipped guantlets with him!

"Can you wait a couple minutes?" he hurriedly asks and then he rushes off to Martine's Retreat to do a quick Harker Beheading.

"Sure." says Lillemus when he returns, "And I can do another set, if you like."

Olf rings Zelta on her cell phone, and soon the clan has a set of gauntlets for both Fermi and Zelta, and is really happy they ran into Lillemus.

Thanks Lillemus! (of the Ironlady clan)
   

 

 
Monarchy members gather in front of the mansion: Doc Feelgood (93), Manual Labor (23), Al-Sweetpea (90), Star dust (126), Last tinkered by (71), Uuf-Da (24), Darkcrystal (126), and The Master (71).