Lots of Little Victories

No one big thing to start the week's blogging. My weekend was a series of little adventures and victories...

Victory #1 - Finally training Targeting

I'm still making head-way in EVE Online but I didn't play much last week.  I just logged in to do skill training.  My training finally moved out of the learning enhancement skills to more tangible benefits like targeting.  Within the next 24 hours I'll be able to select four targets simultaneously which will definitely help speed up salvaging.  It won't speed up my combat to a noticeable degree, however.  Doing level 1 missions in a cruiser vaporizes everything quickly.

Victory #2 - Almost level 40 and got last minion

In Wizard101, I started making a more concentrated effort at gaining a couple of levels versus my casual romp.  I'm desperate to get another training point so that I can purchase Meteor from the Fire School of Magic.  Fire is my tertiary magic.  It was selected to gain a DOT (Fire Elf) and another AOE (Meteor).  The only way to get the training point needed is hit level 40 which will grant me another one or finish the Blue Oysters quest from Explorer Zeke.  Sitting at level 38 I had decided to finish Zeke's quest as fast as possible.  Unfortunately, I ran into a zone that was inaccessible for me.  With no idea what would trigger an unlock, my only choice was to simply continue moving through the content.  *Sheds a tear*  I really want that spell.

While playing on Saturday I realized that I was missing my second and final minion (combat pet) spell card.  A search through the forums revealed that it was achievable by level 38 and I was half way through level 39.  I went back to my trainer in Krokosphinx.  As expected, I had a quest available.  Hmm, not sure why the game content didn't alert me in some way.  I don't get a new skill from that trainer until level 42 so there was no reason for me to go all the way back to that world to see her.  If I hadn't recalled reading that I'd have two pets in a forum post several weeks ago, I wouldn't have realized anything was missing. 

Completing the quest for my final minion was one of those "run me all over the universe" quests.  I was glad to be done with it and ecstatic about my new combat pet, the Elemental Specter.  At four PIPs to cast, the pet isn't worth using unless I'm doing a boss fight or up against 3+ mobs at once.  It is cool though.  The spell card randomly spawns a Spector from either Ice, Fire or Storm school of magic.  The randomness has no negative impact as a Balance Wizard.  My tri-school damage buff/blades is for Ice, Fire and Storm, and my percentage damage buffs are universal so it's all good. 

Victory #3 - Helped a friend unlock his next world and had a blast

Sunday evening I ran into Ronan, who with his insane leveling pace was doing the instances to unlock the fourth world, Mooshu.  I mean dang, Capn John and I are still in Mooshu.  I offered to come help him if he was up for some duo combat.  I remember having a tough and long fight, soloing through Counterweight West.  Capn John had joined me for Big Ben and we'd had a long night because I kept losing power as a result of a rainstorm.  i didn't know if Ronan was planning to do both that evening so I offered to at least join him where ever he was at that time.

I don't group all that often in W101.  The opportunity to do so with friends is always fun.  Your play style changes in a group.  In a group you get to play your class versus the jack-of-all-trades required to solo.  Ronan and I were making quick work of our opponents.  We defeated them two and three at a time and raced up to the tower for the next fight.

As a Balance Wizard I can act as secondary healer.  The opportunity rarely presents itself since I don't group much.  I keep my self-only heal available and my one and only heal-over-time (HOT) in short supply in my main deck and a couple in my Treasure deck.  Our speedy progress through the instance derailed when Ronan was being focus-fired and I hadn't noticed he was low on health.  Unlike other games, you can only see player and mobs stats while selecting cards.  It's a very short window in which you need to check mob health, your own, what's in your hand, what cards other players have selected and their targets, then plan your own selection.  In short, not a lot of time to review everything.  I had been glimpsing at Ronan 's stats occasionally but they were being clipped by the display of what card he had selected to play next.  As a result, I hadn't notice  he'd dropped to less than 1K health.  We hadn't been hit that much so he must have started the fight at less than 100%.

At the point at which he realized he was in trouble and asked if I had a HOT available, the only one in my hand was a tiny 300HP over three rounds.  I cast the HOT on him when it was my turn.  For the next round I discarded cards until my bigger HOT appeared which consumed 3PIPs, all I had left and cast it oh him.  Ronan slowly regained some health but luck was not on our side.  He was hit in the next round and died.  I admit to being surprised by the turn of events.

Fuk!  I didn't have the quest for this tower, Ronan did.  I wasn't sure what would happen if I just finished of the mobs with him being dead. I told him to stay put and let me resurrect him.  The only way to resurrect is to heal.  I was going to have to build up PIPs to re-apply the DOTS on him again.  With no shields on me or in my hand to cast on myself, my only choice was to stand there and soak up the damage passing turns to regen PIPs. The plan worked and two turns later Ronan was alive, but barely.

Sometimes luck is a cruel master.  It must have been out having drinks with Murphy's Law because no sooner than I'd revived Ronan , he was dead again.  He hadn't cast anything on the remaining boss but was singled out for death all the same.  Aww shit!  I had less than 1K health now myself and no way in hell I could soak up damage building up PIPs to revive him a third time.  I had to kill the final mob and quickly.  If the instance reset so be it.  I didn't have any other options.  Once again, I advised Ronin to stay there so he'd be present for the kill.

Victory #4 - W101 maybe for kids but it's hella-fun and has some heart-stopping moments

The turn of events had been a huge WTF moment in a situation that we'd been coasting through.  We'd been chatting and cracking jokes.  I used my new pet when there were three mobs, was calling him Baby and congratulating Baby on all his big hits.  I had Capn John messaging me in game and in Skype, when the fight had suddenly imploded. I didn't have time now for alt-tabbing out to Skype anymore.   I sent Capn a short message in Skype saying, "cant talk here now he's dying."  Followed by, "OMFG he just died!"

*Breathe*  I took a deep breath and looked through my hand.  I had discarded many damage cards stacking heals on Ronan.  All I had now were high PIP spells without the PIPs to cast them and no shields either.  Bloody hell, my Treasure deck was also empty from the mad discard to get all those heal cards in play.  Oh shit, I was going to have to pass turns to get PIPs to fight.  This was going to be close.  While I'm taking damage and praying for bonus PIPs I'm thinking, "I'm going to hate myself if this death resets his instance."

The gods of PIPs shined on me and I got bonus PIPs back to back.  I saw a message from Capn go by but I didn't have time to read it.  After I killed the boss I heard the successful quest completion music and knew that Ronan would get credit for the kill.  He released at that point to resurrect and ported back to me once he'd regained health.  We both breathed a sigh of relief and headed up the spiral stairs for the next encounter.

Victory #5 - Cultivating friends via blogging and taking time to meet each other in-game pays off big time.

While AOE is great when there are multiple mobs, you immediately become the aggro magnet.  Re-directing that aggro to give someone a break isn't possible if you're unable to do DPS because you're applying HOTs.  We were managing better but Ronan was being focus-fired again.  I'd just applied a low heal HOT when a body appeared out of thin air and joined combat.  Ronan screamed, "WTF?"  I yipped with glee at telltale green garb of Capn John's healer, John Lifesinger! He had assumed we must be in big trouble since I stopped talking.  He jumped on his healer and using the Friends List was able to port to me.  WOOT! A friend to the rescue and perfect timing. 

With a real healer, I could help kill things more quickly and can spare the PIPs to bust out my Spectral minion again for added DPS and buffs.  John helped us race through the final encounter in Counterweight West.  I'll skip over the gory details of the graphics bugs we had with the final boss, where for me, everyone's body was in the floor and all I could see were talking hats.  Suffice it to say that targeting things was difficult but we were successful.  Now Ronan only needed to defeat the Big Ben encounter to unlock Mooshu.

We all left and Ronan went to turn in his quest.  I popped back to my dorm room so I could run to the fairgrounds and refill my potions.  I asked Ronan if he was going to attempt Big Ben that evening.  He replied, "yes."  I thought I remembered it being much harder than the one we'd just completed but double-checked with Capn, who say it was considerably harder and like 15 floors of combat.  He reminded me that it was the one we were doing when I kept losing power.  Ugh, that one.  I told Ronan I'd go with him.  I didn't know how he'd do it solo without it taking a very long time.  He didn't want me to come if it was inconvenient since I'd just helped him.  It wasn't late in my time zone so I had plenty of time for it and joined him.

I re-arranged my largest deck and filled it with the maximum amount of cards.  I explicitly added more healing and shields.  I split my Treasure deck half heals and half damage.  I had also put away my vanity pet for the rare drop Pixie bet I'd looted off a boss that adds a healing card to your stack.  It's a heal that can be used on any player so would be very beneficial for this group, if it would show up in my hand.  *Smile*

We moved through the Big Ben instance at a fast pace.  By now I knew Ronan's approach and applied my blades to him first.  At this point he also knew that I would put damage buffs on him and waited for them before using his AOE spell.  With my blades on him, his own buffs and debuffs on the mobs, he was able to start two-shooting through encounters by casting just AOE.  This made things move very quickly.  Sahweet!

We were in the middle of a fight when someone joined us wearing all green.  We instinctively knew this time it was John without even looking.  A round of "Hey", "Hi" and "Hey there" was exchanged and we kept on fighting.  Things went smoothly.  The three of us and my pet rocked-knots and before we knew it, Ronan had Mooshu unlocked. 

I was ready for a break as was John.  Ronin of course raced head-long to his new home in the fourth world of W101.  Last thing I heard from him was how beautiful it looked. Marleybone was my favorite zone but it had been perpetual nighttime so I said, "Yes, Mooshu is very pretty.  Welcome back to the light." And I logged off.

Comments

[Winged Nazgul]

Thanks again for the help last night.

But it's Ronan with an A not like a masterless samurai. :P

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

LOL. You're welcome RonAn. I think I found all the mistakes. No search and replace in Typepad. I almost hate to ask but what level are you now?

[Winged Nazgul]

Currently 37. Trying for 38 tonight.

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

You're sick - just sick. :-P Only 1 level behind me?? Geez, I feel like a slow-poke now. LOL

I want to farm Jade Oni. Please look me up if you get the quest to go there. I swear by all that's W101 sacred someone is gonna give me a damn uncommon weapon! I can't believe I haven't found a single staff or cool weapon yet! Seriously, like WTF!

[Winged Nazgul]

Yeah, I'm not too lucky with boss drops either. I'll be sure to let you in on any Jade Oni attempts - that boss sounds pretty hard.

Took the day off from work today so was able to put some time into leveling. 38 now and doubt I'll be able to get further tonight.

[Capn John]

My son's Wizard has an awesome Polearm-style Staff waiting for him at level 40. Pity he's only 36 at the moment :(

I think I put it in the Chest in his Dorm...oh, I'll have to go to a Vendor and click it (to equip it in the dressing room) to see if it look's as cool as it should. I'll send you a pic tonight.

I would have done all of Big Ben with you that night, except I remembered that a Two Wizard team usually only spawns 2 Mobs per floor (except for Boss floors) while a Three Wizard team spawns FOUR Mobs, so if I'd come along for the ride it probably would have taken a lot longer. IIRC correctly I had to break for dinner at that point, but I logged in as soon as I could afterwards, and when I joined you was amazed to see you were already on Spike the Crusher. And on the next floor was Malistair, Meowiarty and their henchmen. So you guys really tore up Big Ben :)

And Ronan has already passed my Life Wizard! Damn, man! You're a leveling machine!

Of course I've been playing my Death Wizard, who's less than a bubble from 33, and working on Knight's Court. Soon, it will be Counterweight Towers and Big Ben time for him.

Sometimes I cannot believe how much fun I'm having with this "kiddies" game :P

[Winged Nazgul]

Same here, Capn.

If KingsIsle made some tweaks to make this game more adult-friendly, they could have a mainstream hit on their hands.

[Winged Nazgul]

Oh BTW, I talked about this on my blog yesterday:

http://wingednazgul.blogspot.com/2009/01/im-not-dead-yet.html

Yes, I went up 3 levels in one day in W101. I couldn't help it. One quest led to another and before I knew it, I was 38.

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

@Capn - Man, I think I'd like to trade my luck for getting rare pets for the weapons. I don't even care about the stats it's just nice to have something cool to run around with. I've bothered really farming them though because you change items so quickly. Once I hit max level, I will spend some time farming what's appropriate for that level.

@Ronan - WOW, just wow. I'm so jealous. I wish I had the patience to go back and do a Death Mage. I'm having a ton of fun but not enough to re-do content when there's still unseen adventures ahead of me.

I also agree that if they would just do a few things here and there for adults this could be mainstream. Something that should be simple based on their existing mechanics would an adult server. You could port to a restricted server (existing ruleset) to play with your kids or port to an adult server for unfiltered chat, trading items, etc.

[Melf_Himself]

I have to admit these W101 stories very much make me want to try it! I may just look into downloading that client soon...

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

It's not going to be for everyone but you have nothing to lose by trying other than time. :-) I would think this game would appeal to the COV/COH crowd too as they're clearly okay with running around in a game that feels like you're an active part of a cartoon. You have to like those graphics and the slower, but considerably more strategic play of a turn-based card game. I'm sure it doesn't hurt if you like card games too. I happen to fit the bill for this appealing to an adult of that nature.

Come on board, it doesn't bite and is only an "un-install" away if you don't like it. :-)