Last night a team of brave warriors made their way through Despise, Shame and (most of) Destard using only NPC bought gear. It took a lot of team work, strategy, patience and communication. We met in Moonglow after realizing Britain Bank was too populated and confusing for those interested. The initial team included Annachrist, Jamkul, Jesse, Poppa, umber and myself. We got to despise wearing only leather armor (except Jamkul, who was wearing plate) and upon entering, umber sadly decide to leave. So we were down to 5 already.
We made our way pretty easily through Despise 2, with the exception of brave Poppa, who decided to join us only have 29 strength. He soon thereafter called it a night as well, and we were down to 4. When we got to the Ogre Lords, things got more interesting. Annachrist went ahead a slayed several with just her bow, while the rest of us helped rez Jamkul who suffered a serious KO from the Orge Lords. Once we re-grouped, we cleaned out that level with ease.
I'll tell you what the most difficult aspect of this event was: coordinating as a team. Seriously, when we started, there was so much confusion and I felt that our rhythm as a unit was quite off - as in, no one had clearly defined roles. I think in large part it's because we are so used to being able to do everything at once on this shard. When you take away the awesomeness of our gear, however, things change drastically.
Our next stop was Shame, where, after a miscommunication on my part, we started on level 2. Easy, right? Well let me tell you: with 125 HP and 40 resists, 3 air elements can seriously ruin your day! Do you remember the last time you were scared of 3 air elements? With 4 other people around!? We got to the first bridge on level 2 of Shame, and I was on point with Annachrist, and I was hit with an explosion, ebolt and lighting, That was it. Lights out for Crozius. Fortunately, the team really held together and we mopped up the mess. And then cleared out the copper element room with ease.
At this point, Vara showed up, wearing chainmail. She was a very welcome addition to our team and proved to be invaluable through the rest of the night. So the 5 of us: Annachirst, Jamkul, Jesse, Vara and Crozius made our way to Shame level 3.
Things got pretty hectic here. We took the west pathway from the teleporter and got to the open area where poison elements were aplenty. By this point, I think we had really begun to work as a team. We took things slowly, trying to draw one poison element at a time, being judicious about the use of our special attacks (due to low mana, no mana leach and no mana regen) to slow their progress towards us. Most of us, at this point, were sticking with bows. Someone even used an offensive energy bolt. Seriously, I couldn't believe my eyes. I think that that e-bolt was one of the most exciting things of the night! When was the last time anyone cast that spell because they NEEDED to?!
We successfully cleared the big poison element room with only a few deaths (I think Jesse and someone else) and we thought we would try to tackle the mage fort located on the other side of the dungeon. Upon making our way there, chaos broke out. Four or five poison elements, along with several mages stormed our location. Confusion ensued. Arrows were flying, lightening was striking, flamestrikes were hitting, and everyone but me and Ananchrist died. This was terrifying. Anna fled to the entrance of level 3, taking a few poison elements with her, and I went the other direction, also taking 1-2 with me. I can't speak for how Anna survived, but I know I had to run, focus on paralyzing strike with my bow, heal, run back, paralyzing strike.
At one point, I was fighting off the last poison element, when another spawned behind me. It was so close to lights out, but I escaped with 2 carefully placed paralyzing blows. Anna and I regrouped and found Jesse, so we revived her. I believe that Anna found Jamkul and Vera and rezed them. From there, we finished the level and decided on Destard.
I have attached some pictures our of Destard adventure below:
- Remember having to cast Night Sight?
- Crozius Isengrim_8-25_20.22.jpg (245.88 KiB) Viewed 4525 times
Here, we stopped to to reflect on the evening so far. We talked about how critical team work had been to this point. Someone (can't remember if it was Jesse or Anna) had been using provocation to really help us out here in Destard. Jesse had taken the role of healer. Jamkul and Vera worked incredibly as an offensive unit. I know for sure that Jamkul saved me at least 2 times from certain death, and Vera, somehow saved me with 0% health. While in Destard 1, I think we only had 2 deaths.
After successfully clearing our Destard 1, we tried our hand at level 2.
- Remember having to cast Night Sight?
- Crozius Isengrim_8-25_20.22.jpg (245.88 KiB) Viewed 4525 times
We were doing great! We managed to slay 2 shadow wyrms without a single death. (more attachments in next post)
For the record, without good gear, shadow wyrms fire breath hits for about 40 damage, and their bite about 70. So, you can drop pretty fast when they get ahold of you.
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