Tue Apr 21 23:44:37 2009

At 1 o'clock AM, Day of Deception, 9th of the Month of the Battle
on the Theran calendar Noldarus perished, never to return.

Race:	gnome
Class:	shapeshifter
Level:	51
Alignment:	Neutral
Ethos:	Neutral
Cabal:	NEXUS, Nexus, Seekers of Balance
Age:	203
Hours:	142

Was a somewhat fun character to play. I am relatively noobish in my abilities, even though I've played for a few years, so if I came across as horrible, it was justified. I think.

Anyway, forms were alright, mongoose and dire wolf. I didn't kill much, but then again I do not really know how to. First hero shifter, and mage in general.

My only gripe, and I know I am not alone, is the sleek system. Maybe I just am totally horrible and really don't know where to look, but I found none of my three. I'd like to think I looked in some thirty locations or so, to no avail. People showed me IC. I knew some locations from other chars I played. Oh well, I knew uniques and that made up for it, I think I was just more conservative for it since I didn't want to lose the precious few shinies I knew how to find.

Sorry to anyone that relied on me to be good, I wasn't. Happy to let all you drive spec warriors kill me too.

Also, snare is OP. I bet all my sleeks were in snares.

Snaaaaaaaaaaaake Snaaaaaaaaaaake

It's a
badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, mushroom, mushroom.

badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, mushroom, mushroom.

badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, mushroom, mushroom.

badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, it's a snake. Snake, snake, oooh, it's a snake.


Dude, weren't you the Foo? Why'd you abandon me? You were going to teach me all the secrets of Nexus, and you just quit. You are a horrible cfer, and a horrible human being. Noob.

MUSHROOM MUSHROOM BOBO MUSHROOM MUSHROOM

I wouldn't worry.

I spent the majority of my life searching for sleeks to no avail, and I've been playing a lot longer. Other people had really sweet, easily gatherable locations.

I guess we can just put it down to the RNG and leave it at that. You can't win them all. I do stand by the fact that there are still enough limited wands to easily gather and throw up protections if need be.

I found 2 of mine with my last mage. One was easy to find, but not in a place "on a list".

If you do more than look on places where vets point you, you do stand a good chance of finding wands. Even if you don't find sleeks, you'll:
a) probably find alternatives,
b) probably get detect artifact at hero.

>I found 2 of mine with my last mage. One was easy to find,
>but not in a place "on a list".
>
>If you do more than look on places where vets point you, you
>do stand a good chance of finding wands. Even if you don't
>find sleeks, you'll:
>a) probably find alternatives,
>b) probably get detect artifact at hero.


c) There's a chance you'll get screwed in the long run anyway, or run out of ideas to look.

d) You'll say '#### it' and delete. 30+ locations is enough to drive any man insane from the tedium.

After a while you realize it's easier to fight Ragers using assassinate even taking into account the presence of Village assassins and duergar.

Or you decide that rolling the next warrior combo that is as cheap or cheaper than theirs is easier, prep up and pray you get lucky. Or roll a binder thief and pray they don't outmelee you with a single weapon.

And that all of that is easier than playing a mage. You might play one for the novelty of shaking things up, but you already know you're disadvantaged from the get-go.




Bard Repertoire Clarifications:
http://forums.carrionfields.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=6&topic_id=23735&mesg_id=23735&page=

Well, the thing is, I died a fair bit. I died in hard locations. I died in easy locations. I wouldn't be surprised if I had more mob deaths than pdeaths. Some were teleport. Some were stupidity. But it isn't like I didn't explore a lot. I had maybe 8-9 edges I think? It sure as heck wasn't my pk prowess that got me those.

I went places I knew. I went places suggested to me by chars I considered both good and bad in terms of ability. And heroing was not what kept me from getting detect artifact immediately. Guess what was.

I'm not going to hijack my own thread with some spiel about detect artifact, though.

In truth, what turned me off to the char was not my personal issue with wands, because as I said, I knew enough to have ABS most of the time. It was really being unable to talk while in form, aside from to a few other Nexans in the maybe four or five times I bonded with someone in however many hours I was in the cabal. I suck bad enough at pk, and apparently exploring since I died so much, that rp is the final possible reason for me to be playing. And I just didn't feel like I could rp enough in form.

All of that aside, I still did have some fun with the char. I learned more about mages, especially shifters. I learned more places to lowbie/midbie explore and rank with 'softer' chars. All was not in vain.

Maybe I was lucky, but I found aura and shield without looking (and not in the old locations either).

You probably were.

I had similar experiences to him, checking 30+ locations (most of which confirmed) and a load of other places that I suspected might hold them.

I would not be at all surprised if all three of my sleeks were in area explores or on mobs that could not be killed without a posse of allies.

ROFL. Seriously, I'm not joking.

Yeah, I know you aren't. I did some serious searching in major cities, to no avail obviously. I mean, not on the sleek front at least. Though I did find other things that can be quite useful to other chars I might play. And things that were useful to Noldarus.

I found mine outside of cities, but neither was in a high end area. Both made sense to be located where they were, and in both cases I found them simply by going to get other stuff from where they were. As in, they were packed in with other items.

I guess your luck was just a lot better than mine was. I'm not completely turned off to the idea of playing another mage, though. Like I said, I am fortunate enough to know other wand locations that I can get by most of the time. Also, it probably won't be a shifter. I still can't get around not being able to talk to my group. Really hinders RP, at least for me.

I checked mobs in Hamsah, Seantryn, Udgaard, Galadon etc

I don't think it is...

Anyways, I found one of my wands (non-black) in an area explore (mobs in the 35-51 range, but to get to it, mobs in the 35-40 range). I was dumbfounded that I found it there, and it certainly isn't newbie friendly at all.

Yeah. It was especially horrible showing other mages locations in return for them showing me, and literally watching them find an aura and shield. Or a barrier. And me, looking in all the same spots as them, not finding a damn thing anywhere. Lowbie areas, hard areas, it didn't matter.

It didn't stop me from playing. I just was more conservative. The uniques I know others knows, so when I got the wand, I wasn't just going to throw it away needlessly.

I did a fair bit of exploring, but mostly solo. There weren't really any Nexans around very often. And on top of that, none seem interested in exploring. Log on, pk. Log on, bond, pk. Not my style I guess.

Also didn't help I played like 2 hours a week the last month or month and a half. New char beats this one hands down. Oddly, it is not a mage.