Level 14 Blood Mage, Satia – Taking her Evening corpse walk
A huge thank you to Raskolnikov, 18 Monk who is a good friend of mine (both from EQ2 and WoW) who helped me out this weekend with my blood mage. Beside a few random people sending me group and guild invites I don’t know a whole lot of the community yet (which is fine by me). We had a lot of fun smushing things and working together while I learned how to group. Yes, I say learned how to group because Vanguard is unlike any of the other MMO’s I’ve played in that aspect. You basically get to keep two targets at once. One, is your defensive target. This could be you if you’re solo, or it could be your tank, or whomever is getting hit. I have the F keys to target my group members for this target, as well as the Q key to shuffle through the nearest allies incase someone is dying close by.
Then you also have your target that you’re killing. You can also change this target throughout the fight and not lose your defensive target. So where’s the issues come into play? Well you have to remember to constantly change that defensive target if there’s more then just you around. If you’re a blood mage especially, you have to make sure you always have a defensive target (other wise you’ll heal yourself by default) and then you also need a mob targeted — because the majority of your heals come from some sort of siphon effect on the mob. I have two pure heals, one small and one large. The rest are all siphons or heals that require me to have blood points saved up.
I managed to get my blood mage from 10-14 (and almost 15) all yesterday. Kojan is a pretty awful place to quest, as I keep hearing about. The quests run out at about level 20 or so, and even then they’re sparse. So it’s suggested I head to Qualia or Thestra to do my leveling. Soon as I figure out how / where to go to travel around I’ll do that. Level 14 meant a whole lot of new skills and spells, 10 in fact. I rip living organs out of creatures. Brains and hearts so far. Then I use these into symbiotic particles for two new spells, one is a 15 second charm and the other is a 15 minute cure for poisons and diseases. Another interesting concept that I enjoy a lot. Gives the healer class a lot of dynamism.
I also decided to drop outfitting, after getting my reaping and skinning to 120 or so, I decided it wasn’t for me. Mainly because I never make my own gear anyhow (the exception being EQ2 and mastercrafted gear) the only reason I liked the idea was because of bags, which are going for 2-3s on the broker and are just easier to buy.
So I switched to artificing. We’ll see how that goes. I got my lumber jacking and quarrying to 100 so I’m at least on the next tier. I’ll do work orders to grind the levels I need (or so I keep telling myself). The bugs are still everywhere, but the game is still enjoyable at least from my perspective. My EQ2 account is open incase I get the urge to play, I’ve shut down my WoW account for now though, I enjoy that game, a lot, but only in short little bursts before something with a little more depth to it catches my attention.
Which reminds me, I really need to work on some more diplomacy, sitting at 50 and haven’t budged.
Whats worse is blowing a heal (like lay on hands)that’s meant for yourself and forgetting you have a defensive target, healing them, and dieing, and then watch the other person die since you aren’t tanking for them anymore. :)
Thanks for noting all this about offensive and defensive targets. This is something I’m going to have to look at the next time I’m grouped up; I’ve more or less ignored it to date.
Being a druid, and therefore a nuker, I haven’t had to worry about it yet much. Pick a mob and start blasting has been my group experience. Still, last thing I want to do is cast buffs on the wrong guy somehow.
The problem with Kojan are two:
1- it was the last continent made, so they don’t had time for finishing and polishing there (Thestra is more finished and polished);
2- it is an archipelago… so you need swimm or get a boat to find the content, because the content is sprawned all vover diferent isles… believe me, there are isles there with level 40 mobs…
With relation to grind all 3 spheres, each sphere demand a lot of time. You really cannot advance all spheres at same time and mantain the grind pace with someone that is advancing only one sphere. So, the players need decide if they want to stay behind everyone or try only one sphere for mantain level near friends. Eventually the player community will split at adventurers, crafters and diplomats. Is uppose that most harversters will be adventurers, the adventurers can go where the crafters with low level at adventuring can go.
But remember that the spheres are interdependent. So the 3 communities will need intereact and trade. My advices here:
1- only the drops from named boss mobs can compare with a player made item; while you quit crafting, it is a good idea go look for things the crafters are making; I am sure you can find very good gear being made by outfitters (cloth) and artificers (wood weapons and jewelry) and that items are very good;
2- don’t quit harvesting, that can be a good money maker at higher levels; an adventurer can go where an crafter cannot go and can harvest tier 4 resources; so it is a good idea advance harversting to tier 4;
3- diplomacy is the most incomplete sphere until now; the parley game is very fun, but they will implanting next two months the class system (300 skill for get a class) and the merchant system (the best way to get money); aparently some places have the writ system implanted (embassies); however, all the pieces not present at the moment need high skill diplomacy (200 up, 300 up for classes), so you can advance it for now and wait the next two month when they implant the high diplomacy;
4- maybe be time for you find a good guild; a good guild will have some division of labor; one player cannot shine at same time as adventurer, crafter and diplomat, so diferent players can work it sharing diferent tasks; and a good guild have all incentive for treat the crafters and diplomats very well, crafters make very good gear and diplomats open dungeons and control the commerce; I am currently making plate armor for my friends at DwarvenHolt guild, they bring me the ore and dust, I make the armor, I get extra ore and dust for craft items for sell, and everyone that look at a DwarvenHolt player will see my armor; soon I will start to make iron armor, but my objective is MYTHRIL armor; and DwarvenHolt guild is planing start to build Khazad-Dum (a player city) soon… and while not so dwarvish, we plan dominate the seas too (ok, soon some ships from our artificers…).
Geregor Bedstone
dwarf
cleric 19/ armorsmith 20