Almost had a Perfect Rare Encounter Run-Waterworks Slayers

Earlier in the week, I was running around the Waterworks Slayer are with Crawlller (Level 4 Ranger), one of my characters on my premium (FTP) account.  I was having a good time taking out the kobolds when I noticed that I was three for three with rare encounters.  I had come across Dhulokk (the troglodyte caster), Yiley (the Tunnelworm shaman), and Crumble (rust monster).  Although I didn’t across Ecru in the Gnastooth side of Waterworks, I knew there was still a chance of getting him on the Tunnelworm side.

Now, the only explorer area in which I have encountered all of the possible rares in a single run is Korthos Island.   So when I came across the rust monster and then came across Har-har (the Gnasthooth shaman) I started to wonder if I would get lucky and find all 6 rare encounters.  So after I took out Har-har I ran over to where the troll resides and got past his guarding slimes and opened up the door that leads to his room and…was disappointed to only find a bunch of kobolds .  Dejected, I ran back to the main tunnel to check Ecru’s second hiding spot to see if I could get 5 out of 6 rares and sure enough the great spider was there.  So I was so close to getting all of the rares in a single run.  Even though I didn’t get all of the rares in this run, I had already encountered the troll previously so I did still wind up getting experience for completing slayers for all rare encounters.

Crawlller the slayer of great spiders.

Almost had them all in a single run!!!

I’m hoping that in a future update that the Steamtunnels in the Marketplace will get an overhaul like the Waterworks did way back when.  I think it would be fun to see other hidden bosses in the sewers surrounding Shan-to-kor, maybe coming across some hobgoblins and more trogs or something.  Maybe I can get lucky and find all of the rare encounters for that area…if it ever happens.

Crawlller wondering if the Steamtunnels will every be as “adventurous” as the Waterworks sewers.

Thanks for reading everybody and happy questing!!

Wishing Hirelings had Ranged Weapons…

During my afternoon run yesterday, I brought on Hamllin to take on the second quest of the Phairlan Carnival series, Partycrashers.  I didn’t have a whole lot of time after I did my normal character maintenance so I didn’t put the quest up for LFM and decided to get two hirelings: a rogue and a cleric.  Now if you aren’t familiar with the quest Partycrashers, in the beginning half of the quest you have to move through a series of barriers that are actually controlled by various “Marks of Shadow”.  Some of the Marks of Shadow are suspended high in the air, such as the very first one you come across, that require them to be ranged to be destroyed.

Hamllin hitting the first Mark of Shadows with his bow.

Well, there is one particular area where you pass a trapped arch that locks you inside a room that spawns randomly generated illusionary spike traps.  There is a Mark of Shadow in the room and when you hit it, it creates numerous other Marks.  These other Marks mask/hide the true Mark and you have to destroy each mark one at a time in hopes of destroying the real Mark to move on.  While you are doing this, the illusionary spikes keep randomly spawning.  Well, I was in this room just ranging away when I failed one of my saves against these spikes and became nothing more than skewered fighter . 

What really got to me though was that my hirelings didn’t have a way to attack the Marks of Shadow that were in the air.  I was hoping that one of the Marks that were at ground level was going to be the right one but my luck wasn’t there (of course).  So I tried to have my hirelings attack the ones suspended in the air.  Well the rogue just stood around, apparently not having a way to attack the suspended Marks, I guess she didn’t have a ranged weapon, and the cleric pelted the closest one she could find with searing light.  However, when the cleric finished destroying the Mark she was working on she stopped casting and wouldn’t attack any of the other Marks.  And of course, the Mark she was working on wasn’t the real one either.

So I decided to call it a loss because I was already short on time and didn’t have enough time to recall, rebuff, and start the quest over.  I just wish the go old hirelings had some range capabilities, that would have helped me out there, but oh well.  I’ll get back into Partycrashers and get it done.

Thanks for reading everybody and now get back to taking out the Maleficient Cabal!!  Happy Hunting!!

Strangeness in A Small Problem

I don’t know if I imagined this or not, but I’m pretty sure this actually occurred the other day when I was taking Hamllin through the quest A Small Problem on elite.  Hamllin is currently a level 7 fighter and he still needs to run the Phiarlan Carnival Series.  The first quest in this chain is A Small Problem which is handed out by Glitter Underhill.  The main premise of the quest is to recruit the giant Brawnpits into a play.  To do this Brawnpits wants you to earn his trust and then you need to escort Brawnpits back to the caravan keeping him safe from the myriad of tieflings. 

Well in this case, I entered the quest on elite and summoned forth the cleric hireling, Flower.  When Flower joined the group, I then had her summon her spider who proceeded to web things left and right.

Hamllin attacking a restless wolf that was webbed by Flower’s summoned spider.

Now web has a distinct sound when it captures a creature and when a creature breaks its entanglement.  Well I continued on throughout the forest area doing Brawnpits bidding when I was traveling up the Slithering Pass to collect his earth elementals.  With those earth elementals, a group of restless spiders also reside.  Now, keep in mind that I had Flower and her spider following in tow.  As I was fighting the earth elementals, I heard the distinct sound of the web from her spider going off.  I thought to myself “interesting that the spider caught an earth elemental..” but it wasn’t an earth elemental that was stuck.  It turned out that one of the restless spiders was stuck in the web…  As I went up to it, the web broke.  I just thought that this was extremely strange and haven’t heard of a spider being stuck in a web before.  I wasn’t quick enough to get a screenshot of it but I’m wondering if the “restlessness” of these spiders makes them “webbable”.  Not sure on that one. 

Who knows, maybe I’m seeing things….lol, thanks for reading everybody and happy hunting!!

PS-Hm, I just realized that I had recorded this via Xfire when I looked at my imbedded screenshot.  I’ll see if I can get a screenshot from that video of the spider being webbed and include it in this blog post.

Restless spider stuck in a web.

Same restless spider breaking from the web.

Having a fun time in The Tide Turns on Epic Normal

This past weekend, I logged on with Wapoyei (Level 22 Cleric/Exalted Angel) who needed to complete the Tide Turns on epic difficulty to complete the Sentinels of Stormreach chain.  I saw that another guildie was on, Okhamel, and asked him if he wanted to join me.  He switched characters to Friedrice (Level 22 Ranger/Shiradi Champion) and we started to gather our buffs on board the guild airship.  As we were buffing up, I decided I needed to get Wapoyei a new weapon.  He had been using +1 Holy Burst Heavy Mace of Pure Good with a Festival Icy Burst recipe applied for years now.  The weapon was a minimum level 12 and has sustained a fair amount of permanent damage over time.  So, I went to the Auction House and picked up a +2 Sun’s Fury Morningstar of Ghostbane.  The morningstar was an epic level, minimum level 22.  So after I picked that weapon up, Friedrice and I entered the quest.

Wapoyei and Friedrice taking care of the Blood Tide Pirates.

We moved through the quest fairly quickly.  I brought out my Onyx Panther and a Rogue/Shadowdancer hireling and Friedrice brought out a Favored Soul/Exalted angel hireling.  Friedrice was using paralyzing shot from his Arcane Archer enhancements to act as some crowd control while I was surprisingly happy to see my Destruction’s going off on the myriad of casters that would appear.  I was fairly certain I would have some problems with my Destruction spell since Wapoyei isn’t really a DC based cleric/caster.  He is more of a melee /healer based character, so seeing the pumpkin head appear over the enemy spell casters was quite refreshing.  I was able to knock a few of the archers with Destruction as well.

Nice cozy space for the accountant of the Sentinel Tower.

Wapoyei is a Radiant Servant and his healing aura was all he needed to keep everybody up and healed, so I had no problems keeping folks healed.  After we made it past the rats and the internal pipeworks of the Sentinel Tower, we were able to successfully lock the pirates in the northern and southern wings to get that additional optional experience and then headed to the top of the tower.  During this whole time, the hirelings were doing ok although I did have some problems with my rogue/shadowdancer  hireling with respect to actually disabling the boxes.  For some reason he refused to come to the box to disable the various traps.  It took me a number of times to get him into position to finally disable the trap.  But eventually I did and with that being the only issue with the hirelings, I was ok with that.

Watching the fire elemental moving to free his brethren from the Crimson Moon.

Now one of the most interesting aspects of this quest is watching the Crimson Moon and seeing the fire elemental float toward the attractive airship and destroy it.  I just think the animation and graphics are nicely done 🙂.

Wapoyei admiring the Crimson Moon.

The end fight with Captain Tew went really well and then the second fight with Ratty went well too.  I did wonder why the ogre magi chose to disguise himself as rat and not a parrot?  I mean come on, all pirates have parrots, not rats..geesh.

Preparing to fight Ratty Tatty here…

Box in Ahraatz-ri.

It was a fun run and I was glad to get it knocked out.  We got over 30,000k experience for it , enough for Friedrice to hit level 23 🙂.  Now it looks like Wapoyei needs to start on the VONs now.

Thanks for reading everybody and happy hunting!!

Review of Runs made during the weekend Feb 21 to Feb 23

Well this past weekend was dominated by my runs with Erdrique as he moved through some of the lower level quests in the Marketplace and Harbor.  However, my weekend runs started with Containment on Friday morning prior to work.  I was scheduled to take Containment (Level 2 Cleric) into the Cerulean Hills for the first time to do some explorers, slayers, and rare encounters.  After taking Containment exploring throughout the Hills for about 20 minutes I logged out to head to work.  After work, I logged back on with Erdrique and knocked out the next quest in the chain of the Catacombs: The Patriarch’s Crypt.  I had to log Erdrique out shortly after that to make dinner and to spend some time with my wife.  I logged back on Friday night with Erdrique and finished up the Catacombs (finally, lol, seemed to drag on forever) and took Where there’s Smoke, The Sacred Helm, Red Fang, some Waterworks slayers and the firs quest of the Waterworks chain: The Kobold’s Den: Clan Gnashtooth.  I ran into some difficulties in Where there’s Smoke with some of the orcs and actually got killed by one of the poison traps in Redfang.  Nothing like a good dose of poison to humble you.  After I completed those runs I got a little tired of running some of the lower level quests and decided to work on some inventory management.  I think I came up with a new system that I think might work for me concerning inventory but it will take some time to get set up.  But once it is set up, I think it will make my life so much easier…we’ll see.  After that, I logged out for the night.

Containment exploring the Cerulean Hills. 

Erdrique working through the Lower Cathedral in the Catacombs.

Erdrique confronting Marguerite.

Erdrique taking on the undead in Dryden’s chamber.

It is so convenient to see Bile’s stinger in such a nice little sack :P.

Erdrique fighting the orcs invading Nash’s Farmstand.

Erdrique looking for the Sacred Helm.

Erdrique causing a slaughter in Waterworks.

I logged back on Saturday night where I grouped with Okhamel.  Okhamel hadn’t started to work on Waterworks yet, so we tackled The Kobold’s Den: Clan Gnashtooth and The Kobold’s Den: Rescuing Arlos.  I then suggested that we run the first two quests of the Assault on Splinterskull chain because those quests are also level 3 and I didn’t want to move past them while we were continuing our elite bravery bonus streak.  So we then tackled the Tangleroot explorer area as well as First Strike and The Hobgoblin’s Captives.  After that, I had gained enough experience to hit level 5 (I had that level banked and was forced to level) and spent a chunk of time upgrading my gear via Cannith Crafting and purchases from the Auction house.  Once I got that done, we headed off to Kobold Assault and had a fun time laying waste to kobold masses and their trog leader .  Okhamel and I then logged out for the night.

Erdrique and Okhamel wandering through the sewers of the Waterworks.

Erdrique exploring the clan Gnashtooth Lair.

Erdrique scanning the prisons that are holding Arlos.

Erdrique and Okhamel exploring Tangleroot.

Erdrique moving through Splinterskull.

Erdrique and Okhamel looking for the prisoners.

Erdrique and Okhamel taking on the numerous kobolds in Kobold Assault.

On Sunday night, I did a change of pace compared to Friday and Saturday.  I was scheduled to bring in Wapoyei (Level 22 Cleric/Exalted Angel) and to finish up the Sentinel Series on Epic Normal.  Okhamel was on once again, patiently waiting for me, and he logged out and back on with Friedrice (Level 22 Ranger/Shiradi Champion) and we headed into the quest, The Tide Turns.  We had a good time in the Sentinel Tower taking on Captain Tew and his Blood Tide pirates.  We didn’t suffer any unusual issues or problems, which is always a good thing.  When we finished, Friedrice received enough experience to level.  At that point it was midnight on a Sunday and I needed to call it a night to get some sleep for work on Monday.

Wapoyei watching the fire elemental moving to destroy the Crimson Moon.

Not a bad weekend at all, got Erdrique another level and am slowly making my way through his druid life.  Also knocked out another epic quest which felt good.  I hope everybody else had a good weekend and thank you for reading!!  Happy Hunting everybody!!

Some more questions for Basil and his experiements

Awhile ago I wrote about one of my quest runs through Redfang the Unruled.  Well, on Friday I took Erdrique through this particular quest once again.  If you aren’t aware of this particular quest, it is in the Marketplace close to the Rusty Nail Tavern.  The quest giver is Basil Tallbarrow.  Basil flags you down and tells you he needs some help to eliminate one of his experiments, a monstrous spider named Redfang.  OK no problem.  Evidently Basil’s lab is located down in his sub-basement.  Well first off, it would have been nice if he told you about the rest of experiments down there.  Coming across other monstrosities such as Venom, Bile, Tarnish, and Goliath is an unpleasant surprise.  However, what really is questionable, is where are those glass spider eggs coming from?  As you venture further and further into the sub-basement you come across more and more of these glass spider eggs.  But you don’t come across any adult glass spiders.  So how did the eggs get there?

I’m guessing that the myriad of Basil’s lab assistants, who all seem to be hanging lifeless from the ceiling by way, must have gathered these eggs for future experiments.  Now how they got dispersed throughout the sub-basement, on top of crates and across the floor I have no idea.  Perhaps the gargoyle Goliath was having some fun and just placing the forgotten eggs wherever he could find a spot, lol.

\Erdrique eyeing the dead assistants hanging from the ceiling…this doesn’t bode well.

In either case, the presence of the glass spiders eggs as well as the presence of these other experiments lead one to believe that Basil will need our help once again.

Another question, ever notice that Bile’s and Venom’s stinger just fall in such a nice wrapped up bag?

Thanks for reading everybody.  Now go have some fun slaying spiders in the Marketplace!!  Happy Hunting!!

Review of the Runs Made During the Weekend Feb 17 to Feb 20

The quests I was able to tackle last week ranged from The Jungle of Khyber on Epic Normal to runs in the Harbor.  The week started with my morning slayer run prior to work.  I was scheduled to take Kanndar into the wilds of Three Barrel Cove.  The last time I was in Three Barrel Cove, I realized that Kanndar didn’t have an underwater action item, so I crafted him a set and finished finding all of the explorer zones, as he was only missing the elusive bounty explorer point.  Now he just needs a few rare encounters to complete the zone.  Shortly after finding the last explorer point and trying to hunt down some rares in Three Barrel Cove, I needed to log out to head to work.  I then came back home after work for my mid-afternoon run and logged on Erdrique to take on the next quest of the Catacombs, The Crypt of Gerard Dryden.  I had a fun time running through the crypt in wolf form, alongside with my animal companion and my hyena from Nature’s Ally II.  It was fun watching all of the skeletons and ghouls/ghasts being knocked down with my own trip and my hyena spanning trip as well.  After I took Erdrique through the crypt I logged out to make dinner.  I logged back on with Rimuldar for my Monday night run at around 9 pm or so.  I was also logged into my weekly digital PnP game, so I was multitasking .  I noticed that Friedrice and Steelonyx were both on and I told them I planned on taking Rimuldar through the Jungle of Khyber on epic normal.  They joined me, understanding that my attention was also being diverted, and we took on Veil’s forces as well as the Inevitable.  We had a good time, I suffered one death but besides that we didn’t have any hiccups.  By the time Rimuldar completed the run he had earned over 150 k experience .  Nice indeed, needed to get one run on VON 3 before the experience point change goes into affect.  At that point I needed to log out of both games and call it a night to go to bed.

Kanndar looking around Three Barrel Cove.

Erdrique and his pack taking on the denizens in the Crypt of Gerard Dryden.
 Rimuldar and gang taking on the Inevitable. 

On Tuesday, I was scheduled to bring on Harrgon and I took him into Tangleroot Gorge for my morning slayer run.  Harrgon was having a good time testing out his upgraded sword taking on the hobgoblins, trogs, spiders, and wolves inside Tangleroot.  After gathering a few kills, I logged out to head to work.  I didn’t get a chance to log back on until later on Tuesday night at around 10 pm when I brought on Containment, my level 2 Cleric, on my premium account.  Containment has just started to make his way through the Harbor.  On Tuesday, he made his through the Baudry Cartamon’s quest string on normal.  He completed all three quests: Protect Baudry’s Interests, Stop Hazadill’s Shipment, and Retrieve the Stolen Goods.  After I completed the story arc, I had to log out for the night.

Harrgon working his way through Tangleroot Gorge.

Containment works to clean Baudry’s warehouse of kobolds.

Containment looking forward to breaking some crates.

Containment works on looking for the stolen goods.

On Wednesday, I brought on Cantlin and took him into Three Barrel Cove for the morning slayer runs.  He only needed a few more rare encounters, which he located .  So now Cantlin is completed with that explorer area and will be looking forward to tackling Searing Heights next.  I then logged to head to work and logged back on at around 5:30 pm or so for my mid-afternoon run.  I logged back on with Erdrique who took on the next quest in the Catacombs arc: Setting the Wards: The Lower Cathedral.  I then logged out to spend the hump day night with my wife for date night . 

Cantlin glad he finished his explorer runs in Three Barrel Cove and looking over the Cove.

On Thursday, I was scheduled to bring on Larrs and to run him through the Ruins of Gianthold (Heroic).  I always like taking my halfing into the Gianthold and beating up on some giants .  After some fun in Gianthold, I had to log to go to work.  I didn’t get home until late on Thursday so I didn’t make a midday run but I did log back on on Thursday night.  I logged on with Stoorage, another character on my premium account, and started to take on Assault on Splinterskull on elite.  Stoorage ran through First Strike and The Hobgoblin’s Captives.  I had also spent a good amount of time upgrading his gear prior to those runs.

Larrs enjoying his travels through Gianthold.

Stoorage assaulting Splinterskull.

Stoorage fighting a slayer as he tries to rescue some captives.

Overall, the week’s runs were pretty varied and diverse.  I also spent some time upgrading some of my character’s gear as well and missed some of my mid-day runs because of meetings at work that went long.  Thanks for reading everybody and happy hunting!!!

Summon Nature’s Ally II-Hyena and Trip

Erdrique is currently working on his druid life and is currently level 4.  One of the things he has been having fun with (besides shape change) is questing around with his hyena from the Summon Nature’s Ally II spell.  When a druid casts this spell, he can summon either a large black widow spider or a hyena.  The vast majority of the time I summon the hyena and run along side with him in wolf form, as well as with my wolf animal companion (who I have named Fang ).  Typically, between my hyena and and myself in wolf form, the various monsters we face spend more time on the ground than they do standing up. 

Erdrique’s hyena taking down some skeletons in the Catacombs with trip.

Skeleton archers can’t even stand to the tripping assault .

I noticed that my hyena tends to spam his trip attacks quite a bit and it makes me giggle to turn the tables on the mobs in various quests especially considering how much time my various characters have spent laying on their backsides due to being tripped by the myriad of four legged canines in the game.  Applying that same punishment with my own summons and by using wolf form as been quite fun . 

I’m looking forward to my next set of animal forms and hope that they and my future Nature Ally summons are just as fun!!  Thanks for reading everybody and happy hunting!!

Hazadill’s Warehouse

Earlier in the week, I logged on a character from my free-to-play account (actually my premium account), Containment, and took him into the Stormreach Harbor to hit up the Baudry Cartamon Story Arc.  After I completed the first quest, Protect Baudry’s Interest, I advanced to the second part of the story arc and ran to Harmon Taft to start the next quest, Stop Hazadill’s Shipment.  As I was getting ready to enter the quest, I noticed something on the quest entrance, which is the door to Hazadill’s warehouse.

Containment getting ready to smash some crates when he notices this strange mark on Hazadill’s door.

Now I haven’t noticed this mark before and I have run this string a hundreds, if not thousands, of times in the past.  The mark was done with what appears to be red paint and looks like a skull to me.  Just thought this was interesting, as Hazadill appears to be linked to smuggling and working with the pirates of Three Barrel Cove.  Looks like somebody has marked his property as knowing this fact.

Also made me realize that there are always new things that to be seen when questing, which makes going through these quests fun and interesting, no matter how old they are .

Thanks for reading everybody!!  Now get back to the Harbor and level those lowbies .  Happy Hunting!!

Results for this Season’s Risia Ice Games

Well the Risia and Midwinter Ice Games ended this past Tuesday morning.  I haven’t tried the Midwinter Festival Ice Games yet but I have participated in the Risia Ice Jumps a number of times.  For some reason, I just have one favorite character to do the jumping, Kolll.  Not entirely sure why but I usually log him in when I feel like putting my “mad” Mario skills to the test .  I have always enjoyed the Risia Ice Games and like the jumps.  Although I do admit, the jumps can get quite frustrating with any little lag hickup, making the easiest slide a simple fall.  Unfortunately this happens to me more than I would like but not enough for me to stop gathering those purple coins!!

I didn’t really enter the Risia Ice Games until late last week or so.  Overall I turned in 39 purple coins, 145 blue coins, and 203 white coins (well that is what I had gathered to turn in).  My turn in rewards were:

Winter Motes: 1,672
Winter Recipe 1: 13
Winter Recipe 3: 14
Winter Recipe 16: 6
Winter Recipe 6: 16
Winter Recipe 8: 7
Winter Recipe 7: 2
Winter Recipe 15: 11
Winter Recipe 2: 9
Winter Recipe 4: 3
Winter Recipe 11: 2
Winter Recipe 9: 6
Winter Recipe 10: 2
Winter Recipe 13: 2
Winter Recipe 20: 3
Winter Recipe 5: 1
Winter Recipe 19: 1
Winter Recipe 12: 1
Winter Recipe 14: 2
Winter Recipe 17: 1
Winter Recipe 18: 1
Scroll of Ice Storm: 3
Wand of Ice Storm: 2
Candy Cane: 6
Lumps of Coal: 60
Scroll of Snowballswarm: 5
Scroll of Frostlance: 2
Scroll of Cone of Cold: 1
Wand of Niac’s Ray: 2
Festival Twig: 1
Icy chill shield potions: 9
Trinket: 1
Icy Resist Fire Potion: 16
Scroll of Niac’s Cold Ray: 10
Frostbite Potions: 7
Scroll of Otiluke’s Freezing Sphere: 1
Icy Haste Potions: 7
Icy Fire Protection Potions: 5
Icy Superior Freeze Potions: 8
Icy Feather Falling Potions: 4
Wand of Niac’s Cold Ray 3^rd: 11
Scroll of Polar Ray: 4
Icy Jump Potions: 10
Wand of Cone of Cold: 11
Wand of Niac’s Cold Ray 5^th: 11

Sorry about the order of the recipes, that was just the way they were arranged in pack and I was too lazy to organize them numerically .  In any case, I received enough to make recipes to make one weapon upgraded to Festival Icy Burst so I took Harrgon’s greatsword and applied the recipe to it.

Harrgon upgraded his greatsword with Festival Icy Burst .

Since I did all of my turns in with Erdrique, he was the one who received the Trinket so I crafted a Power V trinket for him to use for now while he levels through the Harbor and Market. 

Overall, not a bad Risia Ice Games.  I look forward to next year!!  Thanks for reading everybody and happy hunting!!