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[Asheron's Call] Nov. 2, 1999 -- Jan. 31, 2017

2456733

Posts

  • ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    edited April 2010
    I remember when "2-handed weapons no way no how the engine can't do it" was the answer to why we had 1-handed quarterstaves. Finally got that fixed, huh? :P

    Shadowfire on
    WiiU: Windrunner ; Guild Wars 2: Shadowfire.3940 ; PSN: Bradcopter
  • citizen059citizen059 hello my name is citizen I'm from the InternetRegistered User regular
    edited April 2010
    I'm thinking about hitting up the 14 day trial just to check out the shadows + 2 handers. Can't justify paying for an MMO to go any longer than that. :P

    citizen059 on
  • DirtyDirtyVagrantDirtyDirtyVagrant Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Seg wrote: »
    So how many of the characters in those Wallpapers are currently active parts of the Storyline?

    See if I can name them all.

    From the left: Martine. Some lady. Nuhimidra. Asheron. Elysa Strathelar. Thorsten Cragstone. The lady Aerfalle. And I'm guessing Oswald on that last one.

    A couple of them are dead. A couple of them are bosses. A few of them have disappeared. The blonde lady is Elysa Strathelar, the queen of the humans (called Isparians in the game), and as far as I know she is still active in the game.

    The game has (had) an incredibly involved story. The amount of story development WoW does in an expansion pack?, AC did on a month-to-month basis.

    I still play this game from time to time on Leafcull. If anyone is interested in playing let me know here. I'm level 140ish.

    Also
    KiTA wrote:
    2 Handed is um, gross. No shield, so you're inherently squishy as hell.

    I would point out to everyone that your survivability is almost entirely dependent on your melee defense skill. If you get it high enough, nothing will ever hit you in the first place.

    DirtyDirtyVagrant on
  • ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    edited April 2010
    My highest character was 60... I started playing back in beta phase 1, but was always in that whole "explorer" group. I always preferred to spend my time wandering around the map than hunting.

    And AC let me do it. Holy shit was it glorious.


    I still have my characters on Thistledown, I believe. I had a crossbow spec, a longsword spec, a dagger spec (Gertarh's Dagger FTW), and a couple mules. I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss the game from time to time, but my wife and I just started playing LOTRO, and she would kill me if I resubbed to AC. ;-)

    Shadowfire on
    WiiU: Windrunner ; Guild Wars 2: Shadowfire.3940 ; PSN: Bradcopter
  • citizen059citizen059 hello my name is citizen I'm from the InternetRegistered User regular
    edited April 2010
    The Sho woman in the wallpapers is Ben Ten (no aliens involved).
    AC Wiki wrote:
    Ben Ten is a hero of Early Dereth who protected the Sho people from the dangers of their new world. Originally, little was known about Ben Ten by the people of Dereth - even her gender was a mystery for some time. (Official) rumors of Ben Ten included that she was the first Sho to arrive in Dereth, and that she was the legendary Sho here Koji, sent to Dereth by Jojii. Ben Ten disappeared from the public eye prior to Portal Year 10 (the launch of the game), and was not heard from for several years.


    In the beginning of the Favored Sons story arc Ben Ten's influence returned to Dereth. She apparently had a small following of students over the years. These students began to show up in various towns in Dereth, in an effort to learn what corruption was behind the recent arrival of the Tanada clan of Nanjou Shou-Jen and to investigate the disappearance of Asheron, locate him, and return him to Dereth.


    In the previous story arc Ben Ten has partnered with Harlune to form the Celestial Hand. Recent patch articles and in game text and NPC speech hint that Ben Ten may in fact be Yalain, and not the Sho she was thought to be.


    And the man to the left of Elysa is not Thorsten; it is their son, Borelean.
    AC Wiki wrote:
    Borelean Stathelar is the son of Elysa Strathelar and Thorsten Cragstone, conceived on Dereth and born after the death of the Olthoi Queen. He is the Prince of New Aluvia, Black Knight of the Whispering Blade, and a student of both Oswald and Asheron Realaidain.

    As a character in the story, Borelean was first introduced during the Elements of Revenge arc. Though just a child, he helped turn Martine against Gaerlan. He later appeared During The War of Blood and Shadow at approximately age 17 as the mysterious Black Knight of the Whispering Blade. He appeared again several months later as himself, Prince Borelean Strathelar. In both appearances as an adult, Borelean wore black Noble Armor with a black Heaume, and wielded the Shield of the Strathelar Elite and the rare sword Guardian of Pwyll.

    citizen059 on
  • Phoenix-DPhoenix-D Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    The thing that bugs me most about AC is that it isn't the MMO other MMORPGs copied. Imagine if WoW had ripped off AC instead of Everquest?

    AC isn't much interest to me now, though. The heart of the game for me was the low-level fucking about, and right now you get to level 40 by farting. :P

    Phoenix-D on
  • DirtyDirtyVagrantDirtyDirtyVagrant Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Only if you use the buffbots...which are really hard not to use because it's the difference between being level 40 in two weeks or level 40 in 2 hours.

    DirtyDirtyVagrant on
  • ComahawkComahawk Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    I am so tempted to play again! The only thing really stopping me is the lack of other players.

    Comahawk on
  • Shorn Scrotum ManShorn Scrotum Man Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    So, I am weak willed and activated my account.

    Only problem is I can't actually get to the point where I can play. I click to log in as a character, the UI loads up but I don't get any portal graphics. I just sit at a black screen for about 2 minutes and then it tells me my connection has been lost. Woooo

    So far I've set it to run with XP compatibility, as admin, I've given it a custom port that I've forwarded. The damn thing should be working.

    Shorn Scrotum Man on
    steam_sig.png
  • Blood DriveBlood Drive Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    I played again a little earlier this year when the patch after 2-handers came out. They implemented a leveling hub you can jump to with an item once your around level 15 or so. The hub is absolutely fantastic. It give you quests for each portal like the green mire grave or the colier mines and asks you to bring back an item from there. Once you grab the goodie and give it to the quest guy it gives you a ton of xp. You really can go from 15 to 50 by just doing those quests. The trick is you can't run past everything. You just have to kill everything on the way or you end up being a little short on xp to hit the next quest. They really need to add about 2-3 more of those hubs.

    2 handers are freaking awesome. I don't use buff bots, but my 2 hand guy with the right pro's was smashing bugs in all the usual places and doing it at a much faster rate than anything else i ever played. Yah your squishy as hell and you have to know how to make health/stamina rations, but its a fantastic way to play.


    But the population levels are so SMALL. They really need to cram the servers together, I just don't understand why Turbine hasn't done that yet. The world is simply to large to be so underpopulated.

    Blood Drive on
  • ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    edited April 2010
    But the population levels are so SMALL. They really need to cram the servers together, I just don't understand why Turbine hasn't done that yet. The world is simply to large to be so underpopulated.

    Maybe concern about names? Server merging will fuck a lot of people up who have the same names, particularly with how long the game's been going.

    Also, I'd be sad if Thistledown ever stopped appearing as a server. We made a name for ourselves in that BZ resurrection story. ;-)

    Shadowfire on
    WiiU: Windrunner ; Guild Wars 2: Shadowfire.3940 ; PSN: Bradcopter
  • DirtyDirtyVagrantDirtyDirtyVagrant Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Nobody plays on LC, do they?

    That's my luck.

    DirtyDirtyVagrant on
  • Blood DriveBlood Drive Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Shadowfire wrote: »
    But the population levels are so SMALL. They really need to cram the servers together, I just don't understand why Turbine hasn't done that yet. The world is simply to large to be so underpopulated.

    Maybe concern about names? Server merging will fuck a lot of people up who have the same names, particularly with how long the game's been going.

    Also, I'd be sad if Thistledown ever stopped appearing as a server. We made a name for ourselves in that BZ resurrection story. ;-)

    Thistledown was my server long before the epic that was the release of BZ and still is. But the utter emptiness of the server or any other is jarring. It is nice to level in though. Yes the name thing would be extremely difficult, but if they haven't merged them by now anyways, there probably going to stay this way until Turbine itself folds. I can't see how they have enough subs to keep dedicated programmers and make a profit. If this was under EA it would have been axed 5 years ago. Then again I play for about a month or two every year so im sure grateful AC is still running.

    Blood Drive on
  • KiTAKiTA Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    I played again a little earlier this year when the patch after 2-handers came out. They implemented a leveling hub you can jump to with an item once your around level 15 or so. The hub is absolutely fantastic. It give you quests for each portal like the green mire grave or the colier mines and asks you to bring back an item from there. Once you grab the goodie and give it to the quest guy it gives you a ton of xp. You really can go from 15 to 50 by just doing those quests. The trick is you can't run past everything. You just have to kill everything on the way or you end up being a little short on xp to hit the next quest. They really need to add about 2-3 more of those hubs.

    After you hit 50, you don't NEED the hubs -- you can go do the hollowed lugians or Olthoi Arcades or whatnot using L7/L8 buffs and go from 50 to level cap in a week or two.

    KiTA on
  • KiTAKiTA Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Shadowfire wrote: »
    But the population levels are so SMALL. They really need to cram the servers together, I just don't understand why Turbine hasn't done that yet. The world is simply to large to be so underpopulated.

    Maybe concern about names? Server merging will fuck a lot of people up who have the same names, particularly with how long the game's been going.

    Also, I'd be sad if Thistledown ever stopped appearing as a server. We made a name for ourselves in that BZ resurrection story. ;-)

    Thistledown was my server long before the epic that was the release of BZ and still is. But the utter emptiness of the server or any other is jarring. It is nice to level in though. Yes the name thing would be extremely difficult, but if they haven't merged them by now anyways, there probably going to stay this way until Turbine itself folds. I can't see how they have enough subs to keep dedicated programmers and make a profit. If this was under EA it would have been axed 5 years ago. Then again I play for about a month or two every year so im sure grateful AC is still running.

    I don't think they have dedicated programmers. Most of the updates I've seen have been mostly content updates that don't require coding -- map packs and the like. From installing the Latest expansion client to most current patch, it was only 70 megs. Most of the dungeons download as needed.

    I think they have a few of the LOTRO programmers working with them, or have intern programmers or AC diehards from the other projects working on it in their spare time. Not sure. Given how dog-ass slow the patches were running, well, it can't use up THAT much bandwidth.

    KiTA on
  • Blood DriveBlood Drive Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    KiTA wrote: »
    I played again a little earlier this year when the patch after 2-handers came out. They implemented a leveling hub you can jump to with an item once your around level 15 or so. The hub is absolutely fantastic. It give you quests for each portal like the green mire grave or the colier mines and asks you to bring back an item from there. Once you grab the goodie and give it to the quest guy it gives you a ton of xp. You really can go from 15 to 50 by just doing those quests. The trick is you can't run past everything. You just have to kill everything on the way or you end up being a little short on xp to hit the next quest. They really need to add about 2-3 more of those hubs.

    After you hit 50, you don't NEED the hubs -- you can go do the hollowed lugians or Olthoi Arcades or whatnot using L7/L8 buffs and go from 50 to level cap in a week or two.

    Oh I agree that you can grind grind grind just fine. I think I capped out at about 70 before I stopped last time. I was in the low level fiuns without the buffs and doing decently. I just prefer the convention of having something to do besides grind. Yes there are tons and tons of quests, but it is a pain in the ass to figure out where to go if you have no clue how the game works. Doing it through the hub was tons of fun becuase I hadn't actually been to 90% of those places. I loved figuring them out and being lost inside them. This is a good thing.

    Blood Drive on
  • Blood DriveBlood Drive Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    KiTA wrote: »

    I don't think they have dedicated programmers. Most of the updates I've seen have been mostly content updates that don't require coding -- map packs and the like. From installing the Latest expansion client to most current patch, it was only 70 megs. Most of the dungeons download as needed.

    I think they have a few of the LOTRO programmers working with them, or have intern programmers or AC diehards from the other projects working on it in their spare time. Not sure. Given how dog-ass slow the patches were running, well, it can't use up THAT much bandwidth.

    If the numbers on some of the utilities are right there are only around 2000 people max logged in. Thats being super generous. While im sure theres tons of extra accounts and thats obviously not going to be representive of the accounts that log in total all day long, your still looking at what 3000-4000 accounts total? Its just a good thing that turbine wants to keep there original IP rolling. I just don't see 50000 a month doing more than keeping the lights on, let alone paying for administration and a few salaries. So maybe its like you said, alot of moonlighting. Helps that the support staff itself can be used through out all of Turbines games not just AC.

    Jeesh though, 10 years? All the servers could probably run on one damn box at this point if they really wanted em too. I wonder how much bandwidth costs them, housing the hardware is the cheap part.

    Blood Drive on
  • SegSeg Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    They let the subscription numbers for AC2 go even lower then that before giving up and shutting the servers down.

    Seg on
  • BikkstahBikkstah Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    This game is a lot more elitist than I remember. I played for a year or two when it first came out. When I played, you didn't need buffs and banes (which I still don't quite know what those mean) to run around and kill stuff. I did the starter dungeon and some quests out of my starter city (Viamontian city), then used the teleporter orb to go to the portal quest hub place. I tried every portal for level 10 and they were full of monsters that one shot'd me over and over until all my gear and cash was gone. When I asked how to not get one shot by monsters in general chat, I was treated like an asshole.

    No wonder why no one stayed around for this game.

    Bikkstah on
  • DirtyDirtyVagrantDirtyDirtyVagrant Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Yeah, that's the thing. After everyone started using the buffbots, turbine changed the spawns do that the creatures would be about 30 levels higher on average.

    It used to be that you had to wander really far away from town to see anything higher than level 10.

    As for their attitudes, I don't know what to say. I get reamed from time to time too every time I say something about UCMers (people who use bot programs to level their characters while they're away from the game) or buffbots.

    The entire basis for their argument seems to be "WELL THE GAME IS HARD IF WE DONT DO IT SO STFU."

    *shrug* What I wouldn't give to have 3-4 guys to play a purist game with. Just running around, surviving by our own means. Which wouldnt be hard today compared to how it was before.

    You can find magic weapons on drudge trash now (levels 2-5). Used to be that the absolute lowest enemies you could find that shit on were golems and the undead (15-20), and it was rare.

    The game really is a shell of its former self.

    DirtyDirtyVagrant on
  • ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    edited April 2010
    You could get magic items from mobs lower than that... it was all random. It just wasn't as powerful as it is now. I remember pretty clearly getting my characters decked out in magical gear by the time they were level 10, and that was around launch. Not all of it was awesome (studded hauberk with deception mastery FTW), but the magic was there.

    Shadowfire on
    WiiU: Windrunner ; Guild Wars 2: Shadowfire.3940 ; PSN: Bradcopter
  • citizen059citizen059 hello my name is citizen I'm from the InternetRegistered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Yeah, the game is a LOT different now than it was in the early days. I played it for nearly 5 years after launch, so I saw the transition and doing a "nostalgia" run now isn't so big a shock.

    Still, it is true that the game is a shell of what it used to be. It really is too bad. I wish they would go the DDO route with it; having it split between free/paid might bring some life back to it.

    citizen059 on
  • DirtyDirtyVagrantDirtyDirtyVagrant Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Shadowfire wrote: »
    You could get magic items from mobs lower than that... it was all random. It just wasn't as powerful as it is now. I remember pretty clearly getting my characters decked out in magical gear by the time they were level 10, and that was around launch. Not all of it was awesome (studded hauberk with deception mastery FTW), but the magic was there.

    Right, but the quality of the items is much higher now. Where before if it had deception mastery 1 you were like WHOA MAGIC ITEM. Magic items were so rare that I remember my first one to this day. It was a silver warhammer, and it was given to me by a level 11 guy in the beta, which was the highest level character I had seen at that point. He was wearing a whole suit of platemail armor and his axe sparked lightning. At that point, I couldn't afford equipment, so I sold the hammer (because I was a sword user anyway) and bought up some chain armor and a broadsword.

    And then I promptly wandered into the wilderness and lost it to some hunter shreth.

    I was talking more about elemental bonuses anyway. Nobody I know ever actually used the magic on their magic weapons, because nobody I knew had the forethought to take Arcane Lore.

    Elemental weapons were really rare back in the day, and even if you found one it would be crappy compared to the stuff in the loot table today. You'd find a sword and it'd be 5-10 or 6-12 damage. Nowadays you find 8-16 and 9-18 or better on stuff, with elemental bonuses and magic.

    9-18 damage on a weapon is on par with the peerless atlan weapons, which used to be THE SHIT. They've effectively almost doubled the damage potential of lower level characters with gear upgrades.

    the Peerless atlan weapons I mentioned used to be (for a month or two), basically the best weapons in the game, and they were still heavily sought after for a long time after that. You had to make them yourself by looting small flecks of metal from golems (motes of 'pyreal', which was basically the golem's brain). The motes were approximately a 1/75 drop off limestone and sandstone golems (level 15 and 17), and around a 1/50 drop off anything higher than that. EVERYONE is looking for these things, so the golem spawns are...quite camped.

    You needed 16 pieces of this metal. And then you had to find an alchemist that you trusted to combine them into an ingot. And then you had to travel clear up to the north side of the map to the crater village and purchase a glyph to imprint on to the ingot (which cost a lot of money for the time), and then, when you finally had everything together, combining the glyph and the ingot turned out to be a skill check (a moderately high one at that), and failure resulted in an inferior weapon.

    Now, you can pick up weapons of the same quality of drudges inside of the first fifteen minutes of the game.

    DirtyDirtyVagrant on
  • Blood DriveBlood Drive Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    The weapon upgrades are not really that bad of a thing. Theirs tiers of weapon loot now based on skill level that make the whole 9-18 damage thing seem quaint. You don't have people doing cheap shit like specing into dagger for a cost of 4 points and out-damaging the dude who spent 16 points in sword. Yes things changed, and the game has always had a bit of a monty haul problem after the first 2 years. But really its been for the better. I don't really remember fondly killing drudges for hours just to bump up to level 8 because a reedshark would tear me a new asshole. Then again i can't go back to the wonder and the excitement of figuring shit out, like realising that your armor was weak to piercing, fixing it, then mauling the damn sharks.
    So many things in the game ive never seen or experienced though becuase I just can't stand the grind. People keep saying you can get max level inside a week or two, but I just can't seem to find those places. Or its because im simply unwilling to use macro combat programs. Part of the game was always exploration, checking out new things and what not. I don't just like sitting in a prime camping spot for hours on end.
    God I would love to see a goddamn actual built in quest journal. But with the shear amount of stuff in the game now, that's never ever going to happen.


    *looks back at the post I was supposedly responding too*
    What was i saying?
    In any case, the newbie experience while fantastic, is a very short part of the game now. Its setup to actually prep you for the later game by making sure you can actually fight in it. For the love of all thats good you can get to 50 inside a day or two now with out any buffs. Let alone if you actually hit up a buff bot. Then your just nigh invincible for a long long time.

    Blood Drive on
  • BikkstahBikkstah Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    I really enjoy the total customization, and that's why I wanted to give it a try. It's more simple in that aspect, but it's really over complicated with all the buffs and portals. Not having a quest log is killer. I was doing some quest from my starter town last night and forgot what I came to the dungeon for.

    Bikkstah on
  • citizen059citizen059 hello my name is citizen I'm from the InternetRegistered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Asheron's Call has ALWAYS had a quest log.

    It's called, "a notebook". You keep it next to your keyboard, and use a pen (or optionally, a pencil) to take notes in it. ;-)

    At least, that's how we used to do it. When we were doing it old-school.

    I remember actually finding some of my old notes a couple of years ago, with locations and info written in. Brought a smile, for sure.

    citizen059 on
  • BikkstahBikkstah Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Yep, I remember having diagrams on the wall above my desk with portals routes and grid coords to out-in-nowhere portals.

    Reminds of me of Everquest before the map addons. I used to have a binder full of hand-drawn maps with spawn points and stuff.

    Bikkstah on
  • Fartacus_the_MightyFartacus_the_Mighty Brought to you by the letter A.Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Wait, you mean the whole "everyone rolls sho/aluvian because they get the best weapon specs for free" thing has been fixed? Because that was kind of a big issue back in the day (especially on Darktide/PvP). It would mean I could, for instance, use an awesome looking Sword of Lost Light/Hope and not feel gimped.

    I'd probably still playing AC now if certain circumstances had not conspired to get my account banned, and thus my dudes erased.

    Regarding these buff-bots, are these Turbine-placed NPCs, or players using macro programs? Because I remember them putting in some buff NPCs during some holiday events.

    Fartacus_the_Mighty on
  • ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    edited April 2010
    The weapon upgrades are not really that bad of a thing. Theirs tiers of weapon loot now based on skill level that make the whole 9-18 damage thing seem quaint. You don't have people doing cheap shit like specing into dagger for a cost of 4 points and out-damaging the dude who spent 16 points in sword. Yes things changed, and the game has always had a bit of a monty haul problem after the first 2 years. But really its been for the better. I don't really remember fondly killing drudges for hours just to bump up to level 8 because a reedshark would tear me a new asshole. Then again i can't go back to the wonder and the excitement of figuring shit out, like realising that your armor was weak to piercing, fixing it, then mauling the damn sharks.

    I had a dagger spec... Gertarh's Dagger made the damage ridiculous. Sure, swords had a higher damage potential, but no weapon in the game could compare with 8-9 as a base. I also found out Gertarh was being "assassinated" in a new update and bought 4 packs full of daggers from him. I made a shitload of money after that. :lol:

    Shadowfire on
    WiiU: Windrunner ; Guild Wars 2: Shadowfire.3940 ; PSN: Bradcopter
  • ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    edited April 2010
    citizen059 wrote: »
    Asheron's Call has ALWAYS had a quest log.

    It's called, "a notebook". You keep it next to your keyboard, and use a pen (or optionally, a pencil) to take notes in it. ;-)

    At least, that's how we used to do it. When we were doing it old-school.

    I remember actually finding some of my old notes a couple of years ago, with locations and info written in. Brought a smile, for sure.

    I still have several pages of portal locations and quest notes tucked inside the fold out map-card that came with the game. :^:

    Shadowfire on
    WiiU: Windrunner ; Guild Wars 2: Shadowfire.3940 ; PSN: Bradcopter
  • Blood DriveBlood Drive Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Wait, you mean the whole "everyone rolls sho/aluvian because they get the best weapon specs for free" thing has been fixed? Because that was kind of a big issue back in the day (especially on Darktide/PvP). It would mean I could, for instance, use an awesome looking Sword of Lost Light/Hope and not feel gimped.

    I'd probably still playing AC now if certain circumstances had not conspired to get my account banned, and thus my dudes erased.

    Regarding these buff-bots, are these Turbine-placed NPCs, or players using macro programs? Because I remember them putting in some buff NPCs during some holiday events.

    Oh very much has the weapon spec cost discrepancy been fixed. Unless your a red dot, then its unarmed or sword. The buff bots are all player bots siting in the marketplace, or outside a major town depending on your server.

    Blood Drive on
  • Fartacus_the_MightyFartacus_the_Mighty Brought to you by the letter A.Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Wait, you mean the whole "everyone rolls sho/aluvian because they get the best weapon specs for free" thing has been fixed? Because that was kind of a big issue back in the day (especially on Darktide/PvP). It would mean I could, for instance, use an awesome looking Sword of Lost Light/Hope and not feel gimped.

    I'd probably still playing AC now if certain circumstances had not conspired to get my account banned, and thus my dudes erased.

    Regarding these buff-bots, are these Turbine-placed NPCs, or players using macro programs? Because I remember them putting in some buff NPCs during some holiday events.

    Oh very much has the weapon spec cost discrepancy been fixed. Unless your a red dot, then its unarmed or sword. The buff bots are all player bots siting in the marketplace, or outside a major town depending on your server.

    Wow, they must've buffed sword by a lot then. I remember swords being rather low in DPS compared with UA/dagger because of their relatively shitty attack speed.

    Fartacus_the_Mighty on
  • Blood DriveBlood Drive Registered User regular
    edited April 2010

    Wow, they must've buffed sword by a lot then. I remember swords being rather low in DPS compared with UA/dagger because of their relatively shitty attack speed.

    This is an older article, it dosn't have 2 hand damage in it. But it shows how much things have changed
    http://www.serpentor.org/snowangel/asheron/melee_faq.html
    Relevant information in the spoiler.
    ===========================
    --what's the best weapon?--
    ===========================

    Firstly, there is no best weapon. If you mean which does the most damage, then the answer is sword. If you mean which does the most bludgeoning damage, then the answer is mace. If you mean which has equal access to all damage types equally, then the answer is UA. The point is, you want to know what makes the weapons different so you can choose which is right for you. That's what we'll talk about in this section.

    First of all, the skill credits required to train and specialize melee weapons differs. Use this handy chart:

    Sword 8 + 8 = 16
    Mace 6 + 6 = 12
    Axe 6 + 6 = 12
    Spear 4 + 4 = 8
    UA 0 + 6 = 6 (Sho)
    Staff 0 + 4 = 4 (Gharu)
    Dagger 0 + 4 = 4 (Aluv)

    Then lets consider the average damage done by each weapon to a Target Drudge during a one-minute period by a L120'ish character with pretty decent equipment:

    Sword: 3800(100%)
    Mace: 3683(96.9%)
    Bow: 3601(94.7%)
    Axe: 3554(93.5%)
    Atlatl: 3435(90.4%)
    Xbow: 3137(82.6%)
    Spear: 3064(80.6%)
    UA: 3058(80.5%)
    Staff: 2631(69.2%)
    Dagger: 2571(67.7%)

    This lists how much damage each weapon does a percentage of the damage a Sword does. So two very similar characters, similarly equiped, one specialized in mace and one in sword, the mace character will do only 97% of the damage the sword character does.

    Now, what makes each weapon special?

    Sword - strongest slashing and elemental attacks. Many entertaining quest weapons. High frequency of swords dropped in random loot. Weapons aren't too heavy, allowing many different ones to be carried. Double-striking quest weapons available. Chief drawback is no bludgeon attack.

    Mace - strongest bludgeon attack. No slashing attack except from one (maybe more in the future) quest weapon. Weapons are quite heavy. Some interesting quests.

    Axe - second best slashing and bludgeon attacks. No piercing attack (except for really terrible pickaxes and one quest weapon). Some interesting quests.

    Spear - strong piercing attack. No bludgeon attack. Heavy weapons. Few quests.

    UA - Damage is based on skill and on strength (other weapons have damage based solely on strength), making it harder to reach full damage potential. Has equal access to all seven damage types. Loot weapons have an extra +5% melee d bonus, and many quest weapons do also. Able to switch weapons mid-swing, without breaking stance. Swings slightly faster than other weapons on fastest swing setting. Weapons are very light. Few real quests.

    Staff - strong bludgeon attacks. No piercing attacks at all, and slashing only from mediocre quest weapons.

    Dagger - Dagger skill is based on Coord + Quick, rather than Coord + Str, for every other weapon. Dagger damage is based on Coord rather than Str. Weapons are very light. Tripple-striking quest weapons are available. No access to bludgeoning damage.

    Basically, all melee weapons work the same except UA and Dagger. No character would ever need more than one melee skill specialized. Choose the one that's right for you considering your template's skill credits needs, and lets get swinging!



    2 handers are monsters at damage, even though each blow is less powerfull than a sword stroke. Getting 2 attacks in every swing wildly increases damage. Things drop so fast its not funny. Of course not having a shield means your an archer with no range.

    Blood Drive on
  • Fartacus_the_MightyFartacus_the_Mighty Brought to you by the letter A.Registered User regular
    edited April 2010

    Wow, they must've buffed sword by a lot then. I remember swords being rather low in DPS compared with UA/dagger because of their relatively shitty attack speed.

    This is an older article, it dosn't have 2 hand damage in it. But it shows how much things have changed
    http://www.serpentor.org/snowangel/asheron/melee_faq.html
    Relevant information in the spoiler.
    ===========================
    --what's the best weapon?--
    ===========================

    Firstly, there is no best weapon. If you mean which does the most damage, then the answer is sword. If you mean which does the most bludgeoning damage, then the answer is mace. If you mean which has equal access to all damage types equally, then the answer is UA. The point is, you want to know what makes the weapons different so you can choose which is right for you. That's what we'll talk about in this section.

    First of all, the skill credits required to train and specialize melee weapons differs. Use this handy chart:

    Sword 8 + 8 = 16
    Mace 6 + 6 = 12
    Axe 6 + 6 = 12
    Spear 4 + 4 = 8
    UA 0 + 6 = 6 (Sho)
    Staff 0 + 4 = 4 (Gharu)
    Dagger 0 + 4 = 4 (Aluv)

    Then lets consider the average damage done by each weapon to a Target Drudge during a one-minute period by a L120'ish character with pretty decent equipment:

    Sword: 3800(100%)
    Mace: 3683(96.9%)
    Bow: 3601(94.7%)
    Axe: 3554(93.5%)
    Atlatl: 3435(90.4%)
    Xbow: 3137(82.6%)
    Spear: 3064(80.6%)
    UA: 3058(80.5%)
    Staff: 2631(69.2%)
    Dagger: 2571(67.7%)

    This lists how much damage each weapon does a percentage of the damage a Sword does. So two very similar characters, similarly equiped, one specialized in mace and one in sword, the mace character will do only 97% of the damage the sword character does.

    Now, what makes each weapon special?

    Sword - strongest slashing and elemental attacks. Many entertaining quest weapons. High frequency of swords dropped in random loot. Weapons aren't too heavy, allowing many different ones to be carried. Double-striking quest weapons available. Chief drawback is no bludgeon attack.

    Mace - strongest bludgeon attack. No slashing attack except from one (maybe more in the future) quest weapon. Weapons are quite heavy. Some interesting quests.

    Axe - second best slashing and bludgeon attacks. No piercing attack (except for really terrible pickaxes and one quest weapon). Some interesting quests.

    Spear - strong piercing attack. No bludgeon attack. Heavy weapons. Few quests.

    UA - Damage is based on skill and on strength (other weapons have damage based solely on strength), making it harder to reach full damage potential. Has equal access to all seven damage types. Loot weapons have an extra +5% melee d bonus, and many quest weapons do also. Able to switch weapons mid-swing, without breaking stance. Swings slightly faster than other weapons on fastest swing setting. Weapons are very light. Few real quests.

    Staff - strong bludgeon attacks. No piercing attacks at all, and slashing only from mediocre quest weapons.

    Dagger - Dagger skill is based on Coord + Quick, rather than Coord + Str, for every other weapon. Dagger damage is based on Coord rather than Str. Weapons are very light. Tripple-striking quest weapons are available. No access to bludgeoning damage.

    Basically, all melee weapons work the same except UA and Dagger. No character would ever need more than one melee skill specialized. Choose the one that's right for you considering your template's skill credits needs, and lets get swinging!



    2 handers are monsters at damage, even though each blow is less powerfull than a sword stroke. Getting 2 attacks in every swing wildly increases damage. Things drop so fast its not funny. Of course not having a shield means your an archer with no range.

    That's awesome, though I am slightly saddened that Dagger has been pushed to the bottom of the pile. It makes sense, of course, but I have fond memories of my quick/coord/melee d/dagger/run toon on Darktide. He could neither be run from or beaten in melee because of the complimentary stat focus. Also, that guide fails to mention how awesomely absurd one looks while using a dagger with a massive tower shield.

    Fartacus_the_Mighty on
  • DirtyDirtyVagrantDirtyDirtyVagrant Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    I don't see any possible way to reach 275 in a week.

    You'd have to average something like 1.13 billion experience per hour, playing 24 hours a day for that entire week. That's the equivalent of leveling from 1 to 95 every hour in terms of experience required.

    And in two weeks...552 million per hour is still an unreasonable expectation. You'd have to have a full card of vassals working tirelessly to pass up experience, and they'd all have to reach 140+ probably inside of day 2 or 3 for it to work out in the end. (I've been playing for a month or more of game time and I'm only 141, and I have a reasonable depth of knowledge about leveling spots)

    DirtyDirtyVagrant on
  • KiTAKiTA Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    I don't see any possible way to reach 275 in a week.

    You'd have to average something like 1.13 billion experience per hour, playing 24 hours a day for that entire week. That's the equivalent of leveling from 1 to 95 every hour in terms of experience required.

    And in two weeks...552 million per hour is still an unreasonable expectation. You'd have to have a full card of vassals working tirelessly to pass up experience, and they'd all have to reach 140+ probably inside of day 2 or 3 for it to work out in the end. (I've been playing for a month or more of game time and I'm only 141, and I have a reasonable depth of knowledge about leveling spots)

    I have heard that once you break L140, some VERY crazy places unlock. But I don't know.

    Trying to find a Decal plugin that helps plan XP spending.

    KiTA on
  • DirtyDirtyVagrantDirtyDirtyVagrant Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Only places I know of are the Dark Isle, Claude's Mind, and possibly the Colosseum, but I'm pretty sure you can't earn 1bill/hour in any of those places.

    e: Keeping in mind that I, personally, am over level 140 and I do not know of any such place.

    DirtyDirtyVagrant on
  • Blood DriveBlood Drive Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    I don't see any possible way to reach 275 in a week.

    You'd have to average something like 1.13 billion experience per hour, playing 24 hours a day for that entire week. That's the equivalent of leveling from 1 to 95 every hour in terms of experience required.

    And in two weeks...552 million per hour is still an unreasonable expectation. You'd have to have a full card of vassals working tirelessly to pass up experience, and they'd all have to reach 140+ probably inside of day 2 or 3 for it to work out in the end. (I've been playing for a month or more of game time and I'm only 141, and I have a reasonable depth of knowledge about leveling spots)

    Neither do I. Thats always been a problem though, people bragging and bragging and bragging about some of these spots and I have yet to find a single spot that lives up to the premise. I suppose if i had a buff bot 24/7 and had a recall spot, with all of my points dumped into an attack skill I could see some of these claims. Still seems ludicrous. Then again I can't play the same character for more than a week or two at the same time before rerollitis claims me again.

    Blood Drive on
  • KiTAKiTA Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    I don't see any possible way to reach 275 in a week.

    You'd have to average something like 1.13 billion experience per hour, playing 24 hours a day for that entire week. That's the equivalent of leveling from 1 to 95 every hour in terms of experience required.

    And in two weeks...552 million per hour is still an unreasonable expectation. You'd have to have a full card of vassals working tirelessly to pass up experience, and they'd all have to reach 140+ probably inside of day 2 or 3 for it to work out in the end. (I've been playing for a month or more of game time and I'm only 141, and I have a reasonable depth of knowledge about leveling spots)

    Neither do I. Thats always been a problem though, people bragging and bragging and bragging about some of these spots and I have yet to find a single spot that lives up to the premise. I suppose if i had a buff bot 24/7 and had a recall spot, with all of my points dumped into an attack skill I could see some of these claims. Still seems ludicrous. Then again I can't play the same character for more than a week or two at the same time before rerollitis claims me again.

    Yeah, I'll never reroll. I have my characters, they were all born in years and decades past, and I'll never let them go. I have a few of them still in old allegiances (my WOW allegiance, for example) that don't exist in AC, another sworn to a vassal that I... think I might know on AIM, maybe... Sigh.

    Glad they have respecing in nowadays. Some of those old characters are... bleh.

    KiTA on
  • citizen059citizen059 hello my name is citizen I'm from the InternetRegistered User regular
    edited April 2010
    KiTA wrote: »
    I don't see any possible way to reach 275 in a week.

    You'd have to average something like 1.13 billion experience per hour, playing 24 hours a day for that entire week. That's the equivalent of leveling from 1 to 95 every hour in terms of experience required.

    And in two weeks...552 million per hour is still an unreasonable expectation. You'd have to have a full card of vassals working tirelessly to pass up experience, and they'd all have to reach 140+ probably inside of day 2 or 3 for it to work out in the end. (I've been playing for a month or more of game time and I'm only 141, and I have a reasonable depth of knowledge about leveling spots)

    Neither do I. Thats always been a problem though, people bragging and bragging and bragging about some of these spots and I have yet to find a single spot that lives up to the premise. I suppose if i had a buff bot 24/7 and had a recall spot, with all of my points dumped into an attack skill I could see some of these claims. Still seems ludicrous. Then again I can't play the same character for more than a week or two at the same time before rerollitis claims me again.

    Yeah, I'll never reroll. I have my characters, they were all born in years and decades past, and I'll never let them go. I have a few of them still in old allegiances (my WOW allegiance, for example) that don't exist in AC, another sworn to a vassal that I... think I might know on AIM, maybe... Sigh.

    Glad they have respecing in nowadays. Some of those old characters are... bleh.

    I know, right? I had Run spec'd on my first character.

    I mean, Run.

    citizen059 on
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