f13.net

Now that Im back from the holiday weekend (baseball and cookouts ftw!), I findally drug myself to the mesa.  Quick questions on the 3 ascension quests; i feel like Im missing something obvious, but do you really just have to wander in the 3 directions indicated in a group until your find the tests?  First ones I've seen that didn't give me a log entry nor waypoints of any kind. 

I did the extra 15 point attribute quest by ruthlessly sacrificing my henchies to the sand giants (who are mean) and did the easy kill 10 minotaurs quests earlier today.  The 4 skills those earned were not much to get excited about.  Im going to attempt my first ascension test tonight; hopefully not with random chuckleheads.  You chuckleheads are much nicer and all.

Xilren

Although I am not in the guild anymore, I want to help out.  I was thinking if we had 2 or 3 people who needed the ascenion we can do it as a group.  In a week, I'll need to do it with my Elmo.

I just finished my Ascension yesterday. The only ways I'm aware of for finding the quest areas are wandering around in the zones or having someone who's been there before guide you - and it's generally not a particularly short or easy journey to any of the tests.

The tests themselves are giant flaming pains in the ass if you have to group with random idiots. It's not that the objectives are all that hard, per se, so long as you approach them with a modicum of tactics and control. Problem being, random idiots are rarely strong on tactics and seem to resist taking orders as if "let the ranger pull" was the equivalent command to "give me your firstborn to sacrifice by the full moon's light to the Great Old Ones".

Elona Reach was by far the worst, in my experience, because its structure simply induces panic in half the people I had the misfortune of grouping with.

Well, managed to run my ass to one of the 3 areas hidden in the wilderness last night..Elona's Reacharound.  Tried running to the Dunes one and those fucking Sand Wurms at the teleporter made me hate.  Continuing Knockdown cycles prevented me from even just running past the damn things to activate the teleporter. Ugh.

Going to give ER the old college try at lunchtime.  I predict death and sadness.

Xilren

I'd be glad to help anyone who needs it. Just let me know when.

1 down; 2 to go.  All told, the Elona's Reach wasn't bad at all; completed it second try with pure henchies.

Have attempted the River one with just henchies, and can make it to the 3rd stage with 3 teams, but the boss healer plus priest just defies me.

Going to try to hop on around 10.30p est today.  In other news, got a major air magic rune up for grabs, like 3 different minor ranger runes, 1 minor soul reaping and i bought a double adrenaline sword im itching to try too :)

Can I finally dump all these freaking collectable parts im lugging about, or is there any gear actually worth getting?  Ive got like 2 bags full of crap.

Xilren

The generic armor pieces you can get from the collectors in the Ascension-related overworld zones are on the quality level of the crafted armor you'll get at the next crafter, and he's not too much farther along from where you are. Problem is, they lack the little enchantments you get from the 'special' crafted armor. Doesn't help my E/Me much, but my warrior seriously hearts the special warrior armor.

I managed to get through the Ascension stuff as a level 16-18 with the armor from the Henge of Denravi. Unless you're really hurting for a few more armor points, my opinion would be to dump the crap.

2 down, 1 to go.  Unfortunately, just trying to GET to the Dunes mission area is kicking my ass repeatadley.  If it's not the sand elementals, its the sand wurms ripping my henchies a new one.  Even tried just running past crap with healing and sprint skils and still got tagged with Pin Downs and Hamstrings and toasted within sight of the zone line.  That was try #9-12 this morning. The narrow spots with multi groups...ugh.

I may pay some ascended joker just to TP me to the area at lunch today lest I hemmorage.

Xilren

About this "special" armor... what's special about it?  I bought some stuff at the Forge, right after the Ascension and all that, and it seems about the same as previous stuff but with more points.  Are you referring to a different area?

I'm referring to the 'specialized' armor as opposed to the generic armor: "aeromancer's vest" instead of "elementalist's vest", etc. Some of the specialized versions have good enchantments (esp. the warrior stuff). I'm not aware of any canonical name for it, so I just made something up.

It sounded good at the time.

Ahh I see.  Good, was worried that I was missing out on something there.

Whoo, I ascended yesterday.

Yay me.

Even better, I didn't realise that Ascendance skips you up to level 20 immeadiately, so now I'm that too.

For any rangers coming up to the mirror fight, the trick is to carry as many nature rituals as possible and no defence skills whatsoever. The mirror will send the first thirty seconds casting nature rituals, during which time you get to tear him up. Dumbass.

In other news, they spilt the European 'districts' out by language. Which suddenly makes pickup groups a breeze since suddenly everyone understands what the fuck everyone else is saying. All this meant that ascendance for instance was completed in a rather more relaxed afternoon than I was expecting.

Congrats.

I was already 20 by the time I Ascended :( I missed out on free exps!

Heh, just Ascended myself and I've been lvl 20 so long I think i've earned 5 mor skill points from exp level ups.

On the whole, the only quest which I couldn't do without henchies was the River one, and that might be because I was tackling the boss in the wrong order in the 3 someome (don't know, the healer boss plus preist would still be tough without intelligence driving some timely interrupts).

Btw, I think the mirror guy cheats; the only healing skill i loaded out was a monk primary signet, which my tooltip said would heal a whopping 14 hp. I loaded it as sucker bait and it worked, but when he used it it healed him a good 1/4 bar of health which either means he somehow have access to monk primary stats (divine) or he was cheating his glowing skull ass off.  Still killed him, but was annoyed.

On to the dragon's lair...

Xilren

The mirror has max level in all abilities. He doesn't cheat, you just need to not have healing skills in your bar.

Well, ready for ascension here, but not making it far with just henchmen--anyone interested in logging in and helping me finish it off sometime this week? :)

If you ascend from a lower level do you also get Skill Points for each level you missed as well?

Add Krakrok Boatbeater to your friends list. I can probably help you pass Elona and Thirty River because I have a smite monk.

Sure, add Sugarpie Honeybunch to your friends list.  My playtime is pretty sporatic - playing contractor to a kitchen remodel plus children being out of school in a few days does not enable me to catass.

Man and I thought EQ was bad when it came to tactics. 15 tries on Elona's so far today, and not once did a group of "real" people make it past the first boss mob. 4 times with henchmen at least I ran out of time, not died to stupidity.