September 17, 2014

Into Sharpwind Mines

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Around level 20 you’ll run into your first dungeon in ArcheAge, though it may be earlier / later depending on how much ‘stuff’ you do while leveling. My paladin obtained the quests for this zone at 22, which is a pretty comfortable level. The game does a good job of getting you used to dungeons from the get go – they have one daily quest players can do that requires mentoring or being a mentor to the dungeon. That means ideally your first time through you’re with a player who has been there before, and who is higher level than you. I don’t know if all dungeons are the same, but this one consisted of three players. It was myself at 22, and two others, level 20 and 36. Unfortunately I did not get the mentor quest completed because the 36 had already completed theirs for the day, but it was still a good run.

Loot is a bit weird, it’s not NBG (need before greed) but a simple roll / pass concept. I imagine this may be frustrating to some players but because everyone can all use anything (even if it’s not optimal) it doesn’t bother me too much. If I want something I’ll roll on it, if I don’t, I decline. It may also encourage players to talk to one another and find communities to play with so that you’re less likely to run into the sort of player who simply rolls on everything and doesn’t discuss whether or not they’re willing to trade an item to someone who can use it.

That being said, I won the neat scepter below. No one in the group could use it, we were two tank-esc characters and a melee dps. The gear is also bind on equip, which means technically I could sell it but I’m not sure if I will bother. I may just save it and pass it to an alt. I love the fact that it has three sockets, though I have not come across one of the items that goes into those sockets yet.

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The dungeon was pretty short and simple, which I think is great for an introduction. Because there’s no way (that I know of) to double tap to dodge out of the way I do find it a bit difficult to avoid creature attacks, and it can be frustrating to move out of the danger zones on the ground, but I managed to survive (my two party mates each died on the final encounter). This dungeon is also where you’ll find your first cloak if you didn’t happen to get one in a founders / starter pack. In a game where dungeons are NOT the main point of the game (I still consider PvP / Trade / Politics to be the point) I think the very simplified PvE themepark content is wonderful so far.

As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

Nomadic Gamer