Lytha's Blog

Look at this:

(Canthan skin colour, Elonian hair colour black, Canthan haircut, and the cutest Tyrian face)

Also, I'm in love with Vabbian armor.

Looks like this new ranger has some goals, because I won't waste the make over tokens on anyone whom I don't play.


First, she actually needs to do Nolani and Althea's Ashes though.


-------------

Finished the Ascalon area and done some quests in Traveler's Vale/Iron Horse Mine.

Observations:

• Huh, interrupting with a bow sucks. I can only interrupt stuff with activation times of about 2 seconds reliably so far. (Yes, I suck, too). The problem is that I attack happily with my two attack skills, then I notice something going on that I want to interrupt - and the babe queues the distracting shot up for after all the other attacks. Ouchies.
• Everyone switching to my target sucks as well, especially if there's a Stefan or Little Tom or Pet around.
• Damage output in comparison with domination mesmering is hard to compare, but it gives me the gut feeling that it sucks.
• Been using flatbow with Read the Wind now. The other bows did suck in different ways. Yes, even Recurve Bows didn't strike my fancy even though I give every Jin and Margrid one (the furry doesn't ever get used so he can keep whatever random crap he came with.)
• Point Blank Shot's recharge time and damage don't suck, but it sucks to watch her run around on the battle field to get a shot into the target.
• Alesia sucks, but that's nothing new.
• I ran into two Dolyak Riders (& company) in the Iron Horse Mine just now. I already dread the bonus of Frost Gate now.
• Well, now some good points: I did Althea's Ashes from Grendich Courthouse at level 12, and while Alesia sucked and Stefan died a couple of times, the ranger was perfectly safe at all times.
• Also, I then moved with the slightly DP heavy team into Dragon's Gullet and cartographed it, killing a bunch of hydras and stuff; and again, the ranger neither died nor was ever in danger. Alesia hated it though, but that's why I am a R/Mo with Resurrect (I only use skills as they become available during skill quests or skill capturing, so I am out of luck concerning Rebirth or stuff yet.)

I think I'll get the MOX as soon as I am at LA and turn it into either a decent monk, or into an orders provider. It could also be a splinter weapon provider. Decent monk would be the wisest option though - I just hate Miss Bald Blonde "I use Healing Breeze against Shatter Enchantment mobs".

Also, given that Borlis Pass is the next mission, I am wondering and worrying what a person who actually relies on the usage of the weapon does with these missions in which you're carrying random crap as bundles around. Here in Borlis Pass, it shouldn't really matter - but I've never played an attacker in time critical missions like Arborstone or Boreas Seabed.

And finally, there's of course the option to rush to LA instead of failing in Frost Gate. I don't like that option though.

-------------

Yeah, okay. Deldrimor Bowl and Griffon's Mouth remain, then I'm done with the Northern Shiverpeaks.

• Recurve Bows don't suck. With Read the Wind and a recurve bow, I can interrupt by far more easily than with the flatbow and Read the Wind. The problem is that I now have a not yet customized 10-15 dmg recurve bow, while the flatbow is a customized 11-18 dmg. This small and pathetic difference does make a significant difference when actually attacking something.
• I've the feeling that I contribute about 33-50% to each kill. Killing mobs one by one sucks though in comparison to typical mesmer habits of calling something and hexing the rest of the mob.
• Still using the same skillbar as in the Breach: Penetrating Shot, Distracting Shot, Point Blank Shot, Read the Wind, Lightning Reflexes, Troll Unguent, Comfort Animal, Resurrect. I put the points into Expertise until I rarely saw these annoying "not enough energy" messages anymore; now I put some points into marksmanship.
• Upgraded most of the armor to Northern Shiverpeak collector standard. Except the boots, because I didn't find enough seeds yet.
• Frost Gate bonus went strangely well. It's possible that here, unconditional damages dealt are more effective than reactive damages + interrupts. Alesia died a couple of times while I was exploring the village in the southeast though. Well done!
  Also, I myself had to run away at one and a half points here. I try to make a point and stand and tank stuff, because I clearly have more armor than the caster henchs do; however, Alesia usually also gets attacked and she has these inefficient crap skills that make her run out of energy so fast. So, when I was tanking in these 1.5 spots, I noticed that she wouldn't heal me no longer, so I ran away a bit.

Oh! And I have a plan for missions in which I'll spend most of the time being useless because I have to carry some random crap and/or chamberpots around: Go beastmastery there. That's still rangerish and I can direct the stupid cat with its control panel. Another reason to keep Comfort Animal on the skillbar for now, so that the cat can level up some more.

------------

On the way to Bergen Hot Springs, Alesia performed really admirably. With that, I mean that she died over and over again, until the henchs had run out of res signets and until I had grown bored with having to resurrect her.

Might have been my fault for not bringing Throw Dirt (for the tengu warriors that all went for Alesia, I mean)? But where would I fit Throw Dirt onto my bar? I still need to level the cat, so I can't just dump it, and with only 2 normal attacking skills, I already feel quite naked and useless.

Alright then, MOX it is. I am not sure how to turn a useless dervish into a useful "monk" though. He could go prot/smite and lack energy management. Or he could go orders and provide some bad extra healing (and some extra enchantments to shatter, which might be problematic or useful, as then Alesia's healing breeze won't be the only enchantment to entertain the enchantment-shattering mobs).

I guess I'll try both.

And no, he won't run a normal dervish build at all; I don't want a level 20 to run the game for me. Not while I experiment with a class I never really learned much about.

... he could also spam spirits and steamroll the place. Hrm.


... and where do you get Rebirth, anyway? Fisherman's Haven or somewhere in the middle of nowhere in the Maguma Jungle?

-----------


"Dwayna's Healer" - I am sure that I could've picked better enchantments to feed the MOX, but it worked anyway. I just finished D'Alessio, and I had left Alesia at home. MOX did the healing through Avatar of Dwayna plus Infuse Health (I wasn't sure if the avatar still had a downtime or not, so I brought Infuse just for the case that there was a downtime.)

With the power of 4 offensive henchs, me dealing an astonishing ~150-200 damages per each ettin-type foe (Read the Wind, 13-25 15^50% dmg customized recurve bow, Penetrating + Point Blank), and the mad golem running around in the front lines (I guess he was eager to give the foes a taste of his flash enchantments, even though he's wielding a staff instead of his scythe), the killing was done speedily and it was fun.

A lot safer than with Alesia, too: nobody died or ever got close to dieing. That's a novel thing to experience after 16 levels in the lousy company of Alesia.

That MOX build might even work nicely in the Maguuma Jungle; though he needs some better self healing there, when they shatter all his enchantments and thus heal my party.

Still a survivor. I didn't mention yet that I am going for it in the hard way. (So, messing around with the healer seems like an excellent idea.)

One more observation: Playing ranger does not go well with testing new hero builds. When I do the latter, I tend to stare mostly at their skillbars to see if there are any problems. This meant that I missed a bunch of nibbles, animate minions, earth quakes, phantom pains, and even healing signets.

I should head towards nasty western Kryta next to upgrade at least some armor pieces to the new AR level. I mean, I got a bunch of collectables now, just waiting to be turned into a bunch of new socks.

Oh, and the chamberpot carrying in this mission was done nicely old school: defend Dorian first, then clear the path, then go and fetch the item and carry it all the way to the table.


------------

IMPORTANT Note:

Don't visit Verata with 2 warrior henchmen, a pet, no protector monk or rit, while wearing an amazing mix of AL 31-37 collector armor garbage pieces. Yeah, I am slowly beginning to appreciate armor now.

I seemed to remember that my survivor mesmers did just that, but it's possible that they had a Tahlkora at that point (and most certainly not 2 warrior henchmen, heck, not even one of these aggro multipliers).

Anyway, I didn't die. But that was thanks to the guildhall button in the end, because I thought it would still be a good idea to try and hug the southern edge of the map a tiny bit more. Those two mobs that Thom and Stefan had accumulated and who had sent Alesia into a state of 60% DP so quickly also thought that it was a good idea that I was wallhugging there and made a beeline towards me. Meep!

I'll call it a complete wallhug for now. That was a bit too close for my taste though.


That's the 2nd massive fail of this character, not counting the amazing trip to Bergen Hotsprings or all these failed interrupts. First fail was the encounter with 2 Dolyak Riders in the Iron Horse Mine.


----------------

I got Concussion Shot now. Now failing at interrupting will hurt my energy pool quite a lot.

Wandering through Stingray Strand, I was wondering if I shouldn't just upgrade at least some armor pieces by the means of the armor crafter there; but then I decided against it. This is probably foolish, because at the moment, I seem to be the yummiest target in the middle of lvl 15 henchmen.

I could only upgrade the boots to Krytan collector standard yet, because it turns out that I had quite a lot of collectables indeed, but not enough of the sorts that the armor collectors wanted. I've still hopes for the remaining collectors in Talmark Wilderness and Majesty Rest though - and if they fail me as well, I'll just skip them and work harder on the collectables in the Maguuma Jungle. If I recall them more or less correctly, then they weren't that hard to please.

Oh, and if there's more armor collectors in Twin Serpent Lakes, they're out of luck. I won't travel there yet; Twin Serpent Lakes is strongly connected to "past Hablion's death" in my mind.

Sure, you could say the same for anything taking place westward from the Temple of Ages, but I get around these quests (and their implication of "we're working against the white mantle now!") by not reading what the NPCs actually say.

Plotwise, I am a goon of the white mantle right now.

Anyway, I was thinking a bit about "how the plot of Prophecies could've been better". One thing would have helped for sure: if the chosen wouldn't just be called "Chosen Villager", but have names and perhaps a little quest involved or two. Then whatever happens to them in the Jungle would've had some impact on the player, contrary to how it was done in the game.


--------------

Uhm... I am not there yet, but Bloodstone Fen Bonus? With henchs and MOX? Ouchies.

Perhaps MOX will really run some sort of Alesia/Lina hybrid for that specific mission and be set to avoid combat. But... can I solo those moss scarabs?

Huh. All I know is that I definitely want to finish all the Prophecies missions properly this time. The title mess of Nefertari is giving me a headache, because she's doing everything and hasn't finished much yet. So, the ranger is supposed to be the complete contrast for that.