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Never, ever...
Nov. 13th, 2006 10:18 amThe strike force I was training up for was a farce. First, not everyone made 35 in time -- so we spent three hours grinding arachnos missions in Warburg to get them the last few bubbles. This was not efficient -- we weren't good enough to handle the stuff we were facing and kept having team wipes -- but eventually we made it, and started the strike force...
Only to discover that unlike trials, strike forces have a fixed level of opposition, and we were a bunch of 35s and 36s facing 40s, even harder than the 38s that had been giving us so much trouble in Warburg.
So we decided to reform with half of us playing our higher level characters -- Aci and Black and Blue Sue. We had a third high-level person, but they quit after the first mission, leaving us with two 36s. This proved to be good enough -- 36s aren't anywhere near as gimped against 40s as 35s, and we had four people who could be effective.
The farce came in the last mission. Counting the levelling up, we'd been going for almost six hours, so when Sue suggested we stealth, we went along with it... and again and again, we kept getting our butts kicked. I died twice during the stealthing phase, once when we gave up and decided to fight through at least to the crystal caves, and once during the fight against the AV.
EVERYONE died against the AV, because he kept running away and Tar Patch didn't seem to slow him down, and of course no one in CoV (pre-41) has immobilizes... everyone died except Sue, that is, who then proceeded to solo him while ignoring the vast swarms of enemies we'd stealthed past that he kept running back to.
"I keep this toon ready to take out the freedom force at all times, Archus. You got nothing!"
So, we 'won', and got out badges and temp powers, but...
Aaaanyway, after that I played a bunch of FF12, and decided to install Neverwinter Nights 2. I had to let it download its 85 meg patch overnight, but it installed without incident and seems to run pretty well, as long as I keep the camera pointed mostly straight down (giving a perspective like the first NWN). I turned off shadows (I always do this when given the option, since I don't like shadows anyway) but I was able to keep all the other detail-related stuff turned up.
The game's more DnD-y than the first one was, which is... okay, it's good. No more permanent summon monster pets making you into your own team, no more combat familiars, and no more being effectively solo since they give you teammates right away.
The crafting system looks kind of byzantine, but I don't have any crafting skills anyway... I'm playing a paladin/sorcerer/planning for eldritch knight, and none of those classes (a) use int or (b) get any skill points worth mentioning.
Unfortunately, a pre-prestige eldritch knight is kind of gimpy (Yay for paladins without armor! Yay for only 1st level spells at character level 5!) so the games been really hard. I've been muddling through, although a couple times only one party member survived at a sliver of health...
Only to discover that unlike trials, strike forces have a fixed level of opposition, and we were a bunch of 35s and 36s facing 40s, even harder than the 38s that had been giving us so much trouble in Warburg.
So we decided to reform with half of us playing our higher level characters -- Aci and Black and Blue Sue. We had a third high-level person, but they quit after the first mission, leaving us with two 36s. This proved to be good enough -- 36s aren't anywhere near as gimped against 40s as 35s, and we had four people who could be effective.
The farce came in the last mission. Counting the levelling up, we'd been going for almost six hours, so when Sue suggested we stealth, we went along with it... and again and again, we kept getting our butts kicked. I died twice during the stealthing phase, once when we gave up and decided to fight through at least to the crystal caves, and once during the fight against the AV.
EVERYONE died against the AV, because he kept running away and Tar Patch didn't seem to slow him down, and of course no one in CoV (pre-41) has immobilizes... everyone died except Sue, that is, who then proceeded to solo him while ignoring the vast swarms of enemies we'd stealthed past that he kept running back to.
"I keep this toon ready to take out the freedom force at all times, Archus. You got nothing!"
So, we 'won', and got out badges and temp powers, but...
Aaaanyway, after that I played a bunch of FF12, and decided to install Neverwinter Nights 2. I had to let it download its 85 meg patch overnight, but it installed without incident and seems to run pretty well, as long as I keep the camera pointed mostly straight down (giving a perspective like the first NWN). I turned off shadows (I always do this when given the option, since I don't like shadows anyway) but I was able to keep all the other detail-related stuff turned up.
The game's more DnD-y than the first one was, which is... okay, it's good. No more permanent summon monster pets making you into your own team, no more combat familiars, and no more being effectively solo since they give you teammates right away.
The crafting system looks kind of byzantine, but I don't have any crafting skills anyway... I'm playing a paladin/sorcerer/planning for eldritch knight, and none of those classes (a) use int or (b) get any skill points worth mentioning.
Unfortunately, a pre-prestige eldritch knight is kind of gimpy (Yay for paladins without armor! Yay for only 1st level spells at character level 5!) so the games been really hard. I've been muddling through, although a couple times only one party member survived at a sliver of health...
