We had a lot of fun during Gobbo night this past weekend. And, although I could spend this time going on about how 24 goblins bashing on a ram is all about Order can take, I won't. Sorry if the title fooled you. I'm sure Boots has that covered. And I wouldn't want to read all about it again if I were someone who dropped by.
I have been spending most of my time on an old project: finishing up all the quests in the game and getting as many Tome of Knowledge unlocks as I possibly can. I'm friends with a player that once asked for my assistance in finishing up a PQ. He's quite the competent little Magus so I stood (and stand) ready to help qhenever he asks. He then admited he was trying to go through every single PQ in the game. I found it odd, at the time, but the idea stuck with me. Guess I have him to thank for this.
During my travels I have found some interesting/disturbing things.
For instance: did you know there's a small cove in The Blighted Isle (or is it Chrace) that has nothing but rank 9 Champions and Heroes? (I know you knew, Tru.) And there's nothing there. Nothing. I killed them all and inspected the place thoroughly.
I also discovered another interesting/disturbing bug in WAR. I completed an unlock (kill 100 spites, something easily accomplished in a PQ in Ostland, otherwise known as Cheeseland) and this unlock was supposed to reward me with a Bestial Token. It didn't so I filed an appeal. Imagine my disbelief when, upon answering my appeal, the CSR informed me that I indeed had a Bestial Token in my backpack and asked me if I could please go through it again. The thing was there, only it was invisible. HA! Invisible currency! I wish that was a first.
I also came across a curious mob called The Herald. What does it do, I wondered. It did nothing but vainly try and kill me so I killed it back and got a title. And a scrap of paper. The whole thing sounded familiar but I can't place it. Oh well, mustn't be anything important, I'm sure.
The night ended with me accidentaly roaming into Order territory and getting shot to grisly death by camp guards. I'll continue roaming the wilds for unlocks. Specially because there's one about Wolf habitat in The Blighted Isle I can't seem to find. I now hold a personal grudge against a fairly useless piece of trivia over PvE in a PvP game. Hurray for me.
I have decided Badunion is not a man but an entire legion.
It's the only explanation.
When I was a toddler I used to think that if I strained myself when going to the bathroom my heart may come out with the undesirables and I'd die. Although there's a bottom (*snicker*) of truth to this, I eventually learned otherwise. My point being, people evolve and better themselves. There's always room for growth and one may literally learn something new every day.
Take yesterday. Yesterday, after a weekend of leveling Drquinn, Medicine Gobbo in T1, I went back to my main in T4 and, after an embarrassingly bad run through Altdorf, we were convinced - by the last of a short line of Blackguards to inspire me - to give ToVL a go. So I grabbed my Magus and off we went.
Upon finishing the quest to open the door, Chioko, for it was he, gathered us up and whispered:
'I have a secret, you know...'
'Oh really,' we all said. 'Pray tell, oh wise Chico, what is this fabulous secret you hold?'
'Well', he said coyly, 'I know how we can manipulate what mobs we get in the fifth boss fight.'
'Why, Chico! This is wonderful news!' We all nodded approvingly and carried him on our shoulders until we got to the third boss.
'Now,' he said knowingly, 'we need to kill honored dead. You will notice they have different names like "Honored Curate" and "Honored Champion". The 10 honored dead we kill now will be the ones we'll have to fight when we get to the fifth boss.'
'OOOOOH!' was the response we all agreed upon. Because it kind of made sense. In a way. So we killed every single champion and two adepts. They seem to be the easiest ones to deal with. We were really excited about this. We all had our share of bad memories regarding the fifth boss. It is an annoying fight with a lot of randomness and the ability to control what mobs you get makes it a LOT more manageable. But if you knew about this you might have noticed a slight contradiction. Maybe not a contradiction, maybe more of an inconsistency, an untruth. A fail. We'll get to it shortly.
Dextrose killed by Aeo and company.
I've gotten much better since. Honest!
During the third boss I also learned something useful for a healer. It seems that he puts up a curse on people that makes them deal less damage and healers are supposed to cleanse it. I never knew. Honestly. But in this honesty I must also place the blame on Lil. Yes, you read me. He was the first healer I ever ran ToVL with and I never heard of this curse then. I never cleansed it (I don't even know if I can) but we never needed to to down it. Oh well. It doesn't matter. At least now I know. And I still look up to him. I think I always will.
You see, we were so excited with this third boss thing we even wiped once or twice but after we did kill it and breezed through the 4th one (which is still the same boss) we get to the 5th boss (which is still the same boss) and guess what mobs we find? Yes. Three Curates and two Occultists. Exactly the ones we didn't kill. Oh... right... So, I guess he can only use the mobs we didn't bash to a dusty pile. That kind of makes sense. More sense.
So real life's been a bit shitty lately. This internship is gobbling up most of my time. Even now I'm typing very slowly as to not make much noise and call attention to myself. The work itself is certainly not up my creek: organizing credit applications for people qho can´t afford them. Why someone that makes 600€ a month takes out a 10.000€ loan to pay 3.000€ worth of credit card debt is beyond me. And I'm helping this. And I hate it.
It's the same thing country-wise. So our international debt is paying paid off by some entity that's gonna charge us the same amount plus 6% interest? So, if we couldn't pay our debts before why would we pay them this time? What's the point? Greedy bastards, the lot of them.
Anyways. On to happier topics.
I've got nothing. I've been playing WAR on an almost daily basis. Just had a ToVL run yesterday. Managed to take a relatively green group up to the 7th boss. I rocked some awesome comebacks on near wipes in trash mobs but I was getting a bit bitchy and testy when we got to the 5th one. Seriously, what's with that? What's with the annoying bosses that are just annoying for the sake of being annoying?
I get most bosses. The first one tests your ability to kockdown. Always a handy skill to have. The second tests my individual ability to kite, regardless of lag. The third tests, for a healer, their HoTs effectiveness and for everyone, tests their spatial awareness and reflexes in jumping out of bombs. The 4th boss tests how well you work in a team and how well you can keep an eye and assist your fellow team-mates.
Now the 5th boss tests... your luck in NPC pathing, your luck in the mobs you get, your luck with parrying, your absolute luck with critical heals. Even if you know your place, your rotation, your duty, even if you know the sure-fire route to PvE victory, WAR weaves a bit of its PvP soul into it, adding a scent of unpredictability. I think that's why they keep the dungeon buggy. So it's always different, always novel in a weird non-agreeable way. Like when the 5th boss drops from the world and takes a stroll around the third boss' turf (he is, in fact the 3rd, 4th and 5th boss so I guess he's entitled).
And if by some miracle only one person dies and you make it to the sixth boss you then have to cope with the most horrendously boring PvE encounter ever designed. I wouldn't even mind having to heal thrice as much if it would take a third of the time to down them. Then when we're 20% of one scorpion's health away from winning I get swallowed by the world and I get a bit more testy.
By the time you get to the 7th boss you've seen enough of egyptian themed mobs to poke your eyes out. Getting all the aura colors right and fleeing the running mobs and not bumping into clouds can be a bit overwhelmind, seeing as all you've been doing for the last 10-30 minutes of your life has been banging on scorpions and jumping up and down on pillars.
If by some weird twist of fate you get to the 8th boss (after you've dealt with the bird staircase of doom) be prepared to learn his speech by heart because groups tend to get a bit wipey before getting its working down pat.
Well this turned out a bit like a short guide to ToVL which wasn't my intention at all. I've got so much stuff I want to share and so little time to do it in. Weird that it was ToVL what I ended up blabbing about. I don't particularly enjoy doing it past the third boss and I don't really need to do it anymore, not in my main anyway (which is the only one geared well enough for it).
I wanted to talk about my Little Big Planet adventures or my Tribulations with Phoenix Wright. Maybe finally write up a review of ME, ME2, DA or DA2. Or even talk about that inspiring city siege the other day when we turned things around so astoundingly that we were called 'unfair'.
But I write unscripted as silly as that may seem, and I don't have enough time to purge all my thoughts to keyboard.
Oh well. Here's an unrelated thingy that always cheers me up.
Oh WAR, how you broke my heart. All the fond memories, and all the wasted potential. I loved you WAR. Deep inside, I still do. I will find myself staring out my window thinking about all the cool times we had together. The strolls on the beach, the picnics on the hills, the wipes in the last boss in ToVL, those Darkpromise boots you didn't want to get for me... We were an item, WAR, we were a thing. But I felt like you didn't care. Like my feelings didn't matter to you. I loved you and you played with me when I should've been the one playing you.
Seriously now, I was looking through my screenshots and all these feelings came rushing back. WAR had this flavour, see. It left a gritty flavor on your tongue, like you'd actueally been riding on the back of a Cold One in the dirt for hours. There would be dozens of us, defying the laws of real men; dozens of us occupying the same coordinates, keeping our Orcs quiet while we laid an ambush behind a rock or inside a tent. We would be so patient, so generous with our time. And, sure enough, they'd start pouring from the hillside or across the bridge, ripe and ready for us to deploy our forces on their flanks and rear. It's a wonderful feeling, seeing enemy characters you know are controlled by real people run for their lifes or giving in to the inevitability of your supremacy.
Hi Hun! ^_^
But that (PvP) wasn't everything I loved. I even loved the PvE, Maker forgive me. Running dungeons was easy and most times rewarding. I liked kiting the 2nd ToVL boss. I was good at it. And the other bosses were entertaining if not entirely bug-free. It was a good change of pace; we would have this scripted encounters to test builds and tactics for more unscripted ones.
But who am I kidding, PvP was what WAR was all about. The yells and screams of tanks and healers alike succumbing to the unrelenting bombing of a Wizard-centric Warband; the throngs of half dead characters spawning on healers in the back lines of a keep take. These things I haven't seen since. These things, this frenetic pace, this sense of urgency, that whatever it is you can contribute with you better do it quick, I miss. I'm not saying there aren't other games out there that can provide similar feelings and adventures but WAR was it for me. It was my first, my one and only. The game that made me feel like I had something to tell the world. And now it's little more than a painful reminder of happier times.
You learned to respect some names, some groups in the battlefield and you learned to disregard others. You knew who was who not because of trolling or other forms of epeen stroking but through their skill and efficiency. At least that was true for me. I was never into that whole forum thing.
Ah, WAR... If only you'd listened to us. If only you'd done it sooner. I feel like coming back, I really, genuinely do. But the part where I said WAR broke my heart was no joke. It's somewhat disheartening loading up a character you've spent years loving to find it's near to useless. I couldn't play a rr75ish healer against... anything without dying a gruesome death within the first few seconds of an encounter.
I don't know what the future holds for WAR and for me. I just miss it's epicness, the feeling of hundreds of people focusing on one goal, one ideal, one sentence: "Red is dead."
Oh, so there's something big happening today? Hmmm....
I'm more interested in sharing my experiences of yesterday, concerning PvE and crafting.
I managed to piggyback on a Darkening Deeps run. Darkening deeps (DD) is a level 23ish dungeon that, like any other dungeon, I'm willing to bet, circles around the "kill or be wiped" motto and not much else. You go up a ramp, you kill some things, you roundhouse kick a few shrines, you go down a ramp, you kill more things, scissor kick more shrines, rinse, repeat, loot, wipe, res, wipe, "getting late", "was fun", "maybe some other time."
As with the rest of the game, I was not disappointed but neither was I pleasantly surprised. I was playing the part of main healer, doing my best to look as competent as possible while still hearing a faint voice in the back of my head whispering you don't really know what you're doing, do you?
Spider bosses.
Fuckin hate them.
But, then again, healing is healing. How much of a learning curve can you possibly get? You have some spells that restore hit points gradually over time and others focused on burst. Some are cast instantly, others take longer. Apply them when needed, no real big secret there. Most challenging thing is deciding where what is needed and when (if that even made any sense).
When we got to a spider boss (read caption) we wiped. Mainly because there was more to it than "apply HoT; hold; apply HoT". And then we wiped again for other reasons I was too tipsy to remember. And then my soul vitality was down to 25%.
In the days of old, ships leaving port for far-off uncharted lands would often employ a portuguese sailor for they possesed a unique skil not found on any other kind. The art of desenrascanço. This ancient skill is no more no less than the ability to make do and pull through any situation using whatever meager means at your disposal. It is a skill that has permeated the entire world, as seen here, and a skill I have resorted to many times in my gaming career.
When I respawned outside the dungeon I was in the middle of nowhere, forsaken amidst a horde of annoyed goblin-like creatures. I needed to find a healer but it was clear that none of the goblins were inclined to help me in any way other than relieve me of my health. I jumped up and down the road for a while and ended up soul recalling back to Argent Glade. I couldn't find a healer there either, mostly because I was getting stressed that everyone was waiting for the main healer to come back so I ported to Sanctum. Surprise, couldn't find one there either. I went outside and crossed the bridge, remembering that time I fell off the bridge and died only to respawn 10 meters away. No healer there either. Fine, I thought, I'll just make do.
I wish I could tell you that we fought the good fight, and the spider let us be. I wish I could tell you that, but Telara is no fairy-tale world. Well... actually it is but hey, that's how the quote goes. We wiped again, our lack of AoE making me pull every single ad and being setback into forever.
More like Pigkilla
We called it quits and I decided to craft a little before turning in. Crafting, for me, is a slow process. I went with Butchering, Outfitting and Runecrafting. The thing is, I lack the patience to specifically hunt down certain mobs to skin them. Some people though, as shown above, seem to have all the time in the world and all the willingness in the world and make it their futile mission to erradicate the pig genus from the shard.
I can't do that. I can't be that leet or that no-lifer. I just can't bring myself to lose hours of my life tracking down virtual pigs and ending their fictional existence. I do want to be a master crafter and I don't wanna spend all my money in the auction house.
