Baba Beats Babyface

Babaoroody came out this past Saturday afternoon to roll a few single missions from Newland City. His objective was simply to get back into the swing of things as we have been spending more time with our Nanotechnitian and Trader lately.  Before rolling the missions at the terminals across from the Bronto Burger stand in Newland City, he took some time to sort through all the loot/party favors he received recently from the 8th Anniversary AO celebrations.  He filed away most of the novelty and social items into his bank, and just kept the experience boosting items with him in a backpack so he can have them ready for use anytime he hooks up with a good team.

Mission spot at Milky Way Omni Base, click for full view

He rolled two missions, one in the very southernmost part of Stret East Bank, and the other in the middle of an Omni base in Milky Way.  The first mission involved a mix of snakes and cyborgs and went by in a flash.  Having gotten used to team missions, single person missions now seem like just a warm up exercise.  The second mission involved more cyborgs, humans, and several Babyface type mobs.  The incongruity of the foreboding look of this mob with the humorous baby talk type audio coming from this mob had Baba chuckling all through the mission.  Baba had been wiped a few times by very high level Babyfaces, so at first it was taken very cautiously, but after about the second one, it was clear these were lower levels and quite easy to knock over.

Flying from Harry’s at Lush Fields, over the inner waterway, Baba enjoyed turning on the AO music which always is a big enhancement to the experience of viewing Rubi-Ka’s lush landscapes.  The outdoors, open spaces music that plays when transversing long distances in AO is very soothing and really adds to the enjoyment of the moment.

Baba beats up on Babyface, click for better view

Once Baba completed both missions he headed back to Newland to sort through his loot, starting a couple of bags for monster parts.  He had one interesting drop from the missions, a personal grid beacon which Baba plans on sending over to Tireen, or trader.  It will be a while before she levels up high enough to equip it, but it will be waiting for her. He’s glad he found it as it prompted him to look it up at Auno.org and there he spotted ‘Walk the Grid’ which is better and which Tireen should be able to equip fairly soon.

His loot included several different cool sounding projectile type weapons, which unfortunately did not turn up on his handy loot only weapons list, so they most likely will be shopfood.

While sorting loot, he made a quick side trip to a backyard in order to buy 4 more backpacks, mainly to serve as bank storage items.

Baba also took some time to think about what his short term goals should be.  He reviewed his current equipment, including armor an implants, back item and weapon.  He definitely wants to step up from his Panther to a Pained Panther, and hopes to snag a team going to Crypt of Home for this.  Although it seems he is over the 110 level entrance cap, he can still get in with an Engineer warp.  Either that, or pony up a several million credits.

Armor wise, he seems to be doing ok, with Miy’s drops of Borgs.  In another 10-15 levels he may be in the range for a higher quality Alby back item.  Eventually, after maybe 20-30 more levels, he may in range to equip a Black Clan Tank Armor, a friend donated.  At this point, implants are his biggest question mark.  Getting implants over Ql 125 is much more involved than getting implants under QL 125 was.  Previously one can shop for store bought implant components when looking for under QL 125 implants.  Over 125 is another story. The highest basic implants stores carry are 125.  To get basic implants over 125 requires finding finished implants in missions and as drops from mobs and then having a tradeskiller strip them and then combine them with the appropriate clusters which are available in stores in Qualities over 125.  For Baba, the process of designing the desired implant set is a formidable undertaking.  Add to this the great effort required to collect the needed parts, and QL 125+ implants become a very daunting expedition.

There does not seem to be a good rule of thumb out there for determining of often one should upgrade implants.  It seems to be more of ‘do it as often as you can stand’ type thing, as the benefits have to be weighed against the costs in time and credits.  Baba does not have the credits to buy a set quite a few levels above his current level.  His best bet we think is to make do with his current ones and in another 10 or so levels start thinking about putting together a set from what he can find and getting it bumped up some.

Baba then decided to update his equipment configuration at Auno.org.  He swapped back in a Notum Ring of Three, that he had replaced for a while with a Ring of Haste.  The Ring of Haste is useful when kiting Borgs in Perpetual Wastelands as it gives 100 run speed, but for missions the Notum Ring is better for the added damage and extra ACs.  After making an up to date equipment configuration, he decided to look back through some of his equipment setups all the way back to day one.  We decided to dedicate a separate permanent page to Baba’s equipment configurations as they display a rather complete time-line of his progress.

Double Flags of Righteousness at Dawn

Goodbye to Rhinoman Cockpit Oasis, click for larger version

As Babaente and Tireen, ascended in their shiny silver Yalmahas into the clear blue Rubi-Ka sky and the Rhinoman cockpit oasis recedes from view below, they shared a warm feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment.

They said their goodbyes to this mission location, a lonely desert setting on the fringe of the Newland Desert, just past a huge ridge wall and an acid river.  They probably would not be returning to this place again now that they both had completed their quests for their 250 token boards.

They had chosen to limit their token board missions to Newland Desert so as to limit travel time and take advantage of Newland City’s neutral status, although out in the desert Tireen has to keep a wide distance from any Watchers and other clan sided guards.

Babaente gets her Dawn token board, click for larger view

One really nice feature is that when one first gets the new token board, epaulets appear over the toon’s  shoulders showing the symbol for that particular board.  It would be awesome if the epaulets stayed visible for a few days so one could walk around Rubi-Ka cities to show off. Unfortunately, they vanish as soon as your toon zones.

Babaente was awarded her “Dawn” token board, in the middle, not the end of a mission.  How?  She got her 250th token as a Clan Bravery Award when looting a mission mob.  View the larger version of the picture to see that the mini-map shows an uncompleted level.  This is something to keep in mind when running team missions for token boards.  Looting of mobs needs to be rotated or some agreement needs to be made about how the bravery awards are taken.  If an omni player loots the mob, it will be an Omni award and if a clan player loots, then it appears as a Clan award.

Tireen nets her Double Flags of Righteousness token board, click for larger view.

Since Babaente and Tireen have been teaming as a result of ‘dual-boxing’, it was too much trouble to try and switch back and forth on looting, and normally we have Babaente do all the looting.  As a result she got her 250th token about 2 missions before Tireen.

When Tireen finally collected token number 250, she got a much more impressive token board title “Double Flags of Righteousness.“  Besides the mind-numbing grind that missions can become, this stint has been somewhat profitable for them. Since they had been pulling missions in the 55-60 range, they had come across 2 Grid Armor Mark I instruction disks, fairly valuable finds for title 3 toons.

The 250 token board is the highest level board title 3 froobs can hold.  It gives substantial buffs to the holder.  Here is the breakdown:

Max Health      +500
Max Nano        +500
Add all Off.    25
Add all Def.    35
% Add Exp.      6
Add Damage      10 (Proj., Melee, Energy, Chem., Rad., Cold, Fire, Poison)

It’s hard to think of any loot items that title 3 toons have a reasonable chance of acquiring that offer comparable  or better benefits.

Here is a quick cheat sheet outlining title levels, and token boards:

Title        Levels          Token Boards
1            1-14            10 tokens
2            15-49           30 and 60 tokens
3            50-99           120 and 250 tokens
4            100-149         400 and 1000 tokens
5            150-189
6            190-200
7            205-220

One minor gotcha, is that token boards are for sided players only. Neutrals have no token boards other than Cyborg token boards that are dropped by mid level Cyborgs.  For title 5 and above, there are additional token boards, but the requirements for each are very specific and different quests.

Our pair are now itching to get out in the open, and for Babaente to get back into practice kiting.  Because the levels can fly by pretty fast while NT kiting, our pair need to make sure they stop some time in this short run to title 5 (level 100) that they again run a like number of team missions AGAIN in order to pick up the next token board, which requires 400 tokens. They also will need to make sure they get through Biomare/Foreman’s dungeon as it is level locked to 100 and below.

Mort Crater, the circle track of DOOM, click for larger view

Babaoroody was prodded by Babaente, out of his title 4 rut, to make 3 passes through the Sentinels base small building with Babaente tagging along.  They are looking for a Ring of Haste to drop from an level 115-ish Entwined soldier, but this week end they cleaned out the static dungeon 3 times, but came up dry in regards to a Ring of Haste.  The ring is a no drop item, but it adds +100 run speed, so it definitely would be a bonus for Babaente when kiting.

It was fun lumbering around and popping Challenger and Mongo nanos when any of the Sentinels mobs put up a decent fight.  Pumped up with the increased size of a Challenger nano, adjusting the camera became a bit of a problem in the tight quarters of a mission setting.  In third person view, the only way to see a fallen mob is to have Baba sit.

It brings us to Baba and why aren’t we leveling him?  After getting past the midway point of title 5, the options seem to have narrowed significantly.  It’s either team missions or PW Borg pickup teams.  While solo kiting PW Borgs is still an option, the experience is slow glowing when you have to kite and kill them one at a time.

We have nothing but admiration and wonder for froobs who have made it all the way to 200, and a ton more if they are ‘pure’ froobs.

Babaente and Tireen are really excited about getting out in the wild again for some fast kite leveling, but first, they will be sorting through and marketing thier loot from this last run of token missions.  Once that is done, they will be out scouting for a nice kiting area suitable for a 71 level NT.