The Forge

I decided to continue my adventure last night (Friday, 27th).

About half an hour into it, a Balron toe dropped. It was a successful hunt, able to solo Hell Guardians and take on a Balron and demon simultaneously. After about an hour total, Toastie showed up and assisted me in finishing a Balron I was engaged with. Upon slaying that beast, I came away with a Balron finger. Second drop in an hour total of hunting, nearly unheard of.

Toastie along with Missle, both MoMz guild adventurers, and I hunted for almost another hour, at which point Toastie herself received a balron toe. Three piece drops in less than two hours. Not a bad start to kick off the Balron Hunters’ return….

To my delight I had acquired two Demon Gems ( 16ac, Req LVL 104+  DEX 100+, Bonus STR +6  CON +6  INT +6  DEX +6, Resist Cut 4%  Pierce 4%  Mind 4%  Poison 10%).

Balrons disease often, nearly every other successful hit. Because of this, any regeneration tactics are out, just accept the fact you’re going to be diseased while you’re engaged with a Balron. Their disease isn’t as bad as a wyvern’s poison, nowhere near. While a wyvern will poison for about 100 damage a tic, Balron disease is only 40 damage (no resistances).

You should be able to survive that without any issues, so the only thing is the Balron’s sword. Cut damage, and at 58% it was hitting at a solid 100. It was then I decided in favor of the Gems, which brought me up to 66%, and brought the damage to an average 90, which was better. I could go as high as 70%, possibly 75% with some new gear, but I didn’t want to sacrifice too many hit points and other orbs just for the resistance.

An hour in the late afternoon proved fruitless, I was accompanied by Big Bruva, and it was entertaining. A bloody spiked plate and a starlight robe were found, discarded among some crumbling ruins.

Later that evening I returned. A balron hide presented itself. I hunted for two hours that day (Thursday, 16th), not to unhappy with my find.

Over a year since I formed the Balron Hunters on Heroes Server, I warily enter the dark realm of Hell, Talazar’s dominion.

Originally, level 100. My only maxed combat skill was bows and I wielded a fearsome Cursestriker.

Now, level 106. Maxed bows, unarmed and small blades. I’ve mastered Critical Hit, Double Attack, Dodge and Block. I wield a Dagger of Destiny, with a quick switch to the godsend Rough Cedar Bow, for luring and assisting in parties.

I prefer to hunt alone, much like I do in the rest of the game. I do this so I don’t feel responsible for others, in case they die. I can control all my behaviors: when engage, pursue, flee, etc. It’s frustrating when someone is running in circles, and all they need to do is stand still long enough for a couple solid hits which would have me grab aggro. Instead, I can’t assist, and they end up dying. Frustrating.

Group hunts are beneficial, and of course, much more entertaining.

The purpose of Balron Hunters was to, well, hunt Balrons. When slaying the great beasts you can occassionally salvage a piece of them. These pieces are used to make some very tough armor, favored by str/dex fighters, especially when pursuing dragons.

Balron Pieces and Armor, featured on Dragoneers

These pieces, and that armor, are what I seek. Through (expensive) trading, I’ve acquired my own cape, two pairs of boots, and gloves. I’m currently borrowing the torso armor and a belt. I’m crafted (for myself and others) about two full sets.

http://forums.pixelminegames.com/index.php?showtopic=2580&hl=

Yeah. A couple days of intense coding (maybe too quickly) has pushed this project to the point where I can unveil it. It doesn’t have all the features, but enough to be useful. The content needs an overhaul, so that’s being done now.

It goes live the 27th, after the Community Council meeting.

Getting a wereskin can be simple. It can also take some sneaky manuevers.

Wereskins are torso-armor pieces which changes your avatar (your character’s icon in game) from being a orc, elf or human into a rat, dog, cat, bear, wolf, warg, cow, dairy cow, deer or bunny. These are not masks (which are available in the AE Store), and do not expire after a hour. Wereskins are actual armor pieces.

The wereskinnable beasts are (for the most part) non-aggressive mobiles. They must be killed, and then a special knife is used on them to create the wereskin item. The killing is where the trickiness comes in. Some mobs, such as the dogs, cats and dairy cows, are usually flagged as town NPCs, so killing one makes you temp status (the blinking gray, signifying you’re a criminal).

For high-level players it’s not an issue to take a few bruises and sit at the body, allowing yourself time to do the skinning. Some players don’t like going into criminal status. For a lower level player it’s no good time having the town guards chase you about. To get one of these highly desired wereskins, the cat, dog, dairy cow, you most likely will want to team up with someone who’s not afraid to get his hands dirty…or his status tempy.

This early afternoon a small party consisting of myself, two DNM officers and a fellow adventure sought our the Sand Wurms, one of the many steps to get access to Dragon Lands. 350 wurm (of the 1000 required) kills later and we decided to take a break in the challenge before us.

I can only feel that this is the calm before the storm which is dragon hunting. This was the easy, even pleasant grind compared to what awaits me in the draconian caves and fields. We were rewarded with only a single item, a soothsayer’s amulet, during our rampage, thoughdragon hunting was what was really desired by all, and now we’re almost one step closer.

I am becoming quite the troll hunter. It is slow but steady small blades experience as well as frost troll blood, runes, and frost equipment. While none of these are extremely valuable, one of the private but main reasons I’m hunting Frost Trolls is to replace my Fellstrike Bow.

Over the weekend, I did just that. Collecting about 300 frost troll blood between the beginning of the quest and that drop, I finally found myself with a new Fellstrike. Oh the epic dancing which took place.

The Wrath of the Storm was the name of my Fellstrike when I was on Heroes Server. A long-lost Templar, Dark Mage, was in need of some assistance and I logged on my H-alt….to find the Fellstrike I thought I had lost, or leased out and forgot, in his bank.

Now I am two. Had I not left that bow on H, I probably would not have been hunting frost trolls for this long. Just incase you’re wondering, yes, the Wrath and I have been happily reunited.

So, after my retirement as the Reporter I was visited by a second wind of enthusiasm for Ashen Empire fan-driven projects. FujiQ announced a poll which took opinions on which elements would be developed next by the Pixel Mine/Iron Will Games staff. Two of these items (Spawn Map) and(Quest Log) were ones that I was both interested in and had drawn up initial designs for.

Immediately I realized if I didn’t act now, my opportunity would be lost. So, I dug in and gave the Quest Log a permanent home at the Heroes Inn (heroesinn.com/questlog), made a decent template for the whole thing.

Up until now myself and King Zanketo had been using the admin system I set up (which did have a good color scheme, yay), but now I needed some way of importing that into this new layout as well as integrating the Heroes Inn accounts into this Quest log and giving access to the admin features to those who needed it. It was a bit tricky, but it all was accomplished and today we set about increasing the Quest Log Team, who will build and maintain this tool for everyone.

So this is just an update saying progressing is being made and I (hope) to have a lot of the features out this week, for a little public viewing.

Today I officially retired from my AE Reporter position. I’m taking a step back, out of the community for a bit. I thank those of you who read my reports, this won’t be the end of the blog, simply my association with the AE Reporting.