Working on 138

Mr. Baba. Click for larger View

Baba spent some time recently studying his stats and the requirements to equip a Pained Panther. He has been thinking of pursuing going to the Crypt of Home, so he thought he should get familiar with who drops what there as well. He is within fairly easy range of equipping a Pained Panther without being over equipped now. To stay out of OE he would need to have Skill of Viking running. To equip it all he needs is 131 wrangle, his skill of Viking, and Rhinoman Leather jacket, the combination of which will bring his 2 hand Edged skill up to the required 1001.

It was time again to fence loot, so Baba met up with Babaente an NT to transfer the loot bags to Tireen, a trader. Tireen dutifully went to the Newland City traders shop and proceeded to feed the loot to the terminal. While there a passing player noticed and commented on her Solar Powered Backpack. Then Tireen split the proceedings with Baba and Babaente.

Once Baba had his bags back, it was time to head out to Perpetual Wastelands again. On the way across PW from Mort, he swerved North just past the two level 105 Cyborg dynas to scout out the area north of there which he had never really looked at. There were quite a few 140+ mantise type mobs with a few lower level ones at around 120-130. He did not find what he was looking for. He had heard some players refer to hunting scorpiods in PW, but so far he has not located any scorpiods in PW. From an area just east of the Mantis hive he proceeded east towards the Main Borg base. Before he got there he found a lone Cyborg Colonel way out in the middle of no where. Baba figured he must have been trained there, away from the small base that is north of the base with the Helipad.

Stranded Colonel in the middle of PW, Click for larger view.

When Baba arrived at the PW dunes site, he touched down and buffed up. He did a quick face palm when he realized he had not brought an experience boost stim. He still has some left over from the anniversary celebration, but they were in his bank. Without the extra experience, it was doubtful he will hit 138 tonight.

He went to work on the Borg on the main dune. Now that they are less of a threat, and give less experience, he does not have to try hard to avoid pulling several. He can handle two or three rather safely now. Tonight he was experimenting with some added alpha attacks. He moved the ring of eternal darkness and the weeping flesh ring to his social tab, so he could place hot buttons for them on his hot bars. The added damage from the weeping flesh was welcome and worth the effort. The Eternal darkness was somewhat flaky. The first few times it worked great, but then after a while it would lock up and not return when it should have. Baba had to go back and see if something else he was casting is conflicting with it.

Baba dings 137 by himself in Perpetual Wastelands, click for larger view.

By this time it was getting late and Baba was starting to think about logging off. By now he had cleared the main dune section and moved down to the ‘pinch’ section. The ‘pinch’ is where section of small dunes between the Helipad and the large dunes. Along with being a great place to level, like many popular leveling spots or dungeons, Perpetual Wastelands also attracts it’s share of undesirables. One of them showed up next and trained practically all the Borg in the North East sector of PW on to Baba.

Baba had been there for about a quarter of an hour taking Borg down in ones and twos when he notices something odd in the distance. Back on the main dune he could make out what looked like a bunch of Borg all standing still together in a clump. A few minutes later he noticed it was moving towards him. It turned out to be a level 126 NT using their yalm to aggro Borg on the ground and collect them into one huge kite. The NT trained the Borg on to Baba, so Baba had no choice but to make a run for it north. Once he had left the main dunes behind, the NT pulled the kite/train back to the dunes section. After Baba was sure he was safe he jumped into his yalm and flew back. Back at the Dunes he watched as the NT flew around the entire North east corner of PW collecting more and more Borg in his kite until he had collected just about every Borg there.

Once all the Borg were in the kite the NT dropped out of his yalm and started running circles on the Helipad while nuking them standard NT kite style.

It is a petition-able offense to deliberately train a group of monsters on you. This evening Baba was too tired and just did not feel like staying up another 45 to 90 minutes that it sometimes takes to get any action from a petition. If there is one consistent criticism we have of AO, it is that reporting harassment is a huge hassle in it self. One has to read the help file on the obscure petition command, then create the petition, and then respond to the auto followups and then wait 45 minutes to an hour for a ARK to show up. After that it could be a while the ARK can make a decision or find someone who can take whatever action it is that needs to be taken. It was late and Baba had been thinking of logging off just before this whole scene erupted. He had managed to fill several bags with loot that included a number of great Miy’s armor pieces and he had managed to bring his experience bar to about 70%. He decided to log off while looking forward to more closely inspecting the new Miy’s pieces soon.

The Miy’s Man

The well dressed Borg Hunter in Perpetual Wastelands, click for larger view.

Earlier in the week Baba had made a trip out to Perpetual Wastelands Borg Dunes, only to find it occupied by several higher level toons.  There was a title 5 fixer kiting the Borg in mass out on the main dune.  Baba is not sure why high levels hunt Borg here, as it must not be very good experience.  The best guess is they are farming Miy’s armor for alts, however often these toons don’t bother to loot the corpses.

Baba went south west a little to the town area and started hunting the slightly lower level Borg in that region.  He netted quite a few nice Miy’s pieces which he will be saving for his alts.  He had not trouble with these Borg and could easily kite several at a time with not difficulty.  The trouble he ran into was in the area near where the main road bends westward to go to the bridge.

Target rich Perpetual Wastelands dunes, click for larger view

There is a cliff to the south and Baba had spotted a single Borg down at the base.  He hopped down there to take out the Borg only to find that there were about 5 Borg there and a couple of high level mantises.  He managed to run out of the ravine and up the hill towards the road.  In the process he lost the mantises and the Borg by themselves was manageable.

The next evening when he returned to the dunes area, there was another title 5 Fixer out on the main dune area.  Baba went to the area next to the Helipad, but after he had killed a few Borg, the Fixer rolled in and kitted away all the Borg.

Since about half of Baba’s bags were full from the night before, he choose to go back to Newland city to sort out his loot and sell it.  After he competed this (including meeting up with Tireen who fenced the items at the trader shop) he returned to the dunes to find the Fixer gone.

There was still a problem.  The fixer had left a tigntly packed group of Borg on the main dune.  Baba had never seen so many Borg in such a small area.  Baba tried to slowly approach to just aggro one, but he had to high tail it when the whole pack turned on him.  They stopped chasing him by the time he was just a few hundred yards from the canyon to the north.

At this this dispersed the Borg knot, and when he returned he was able to start kiting them in ones and twos.  He did this for about an hour and decided to log off after his anniversary experience boost wore off.

Ohtizz leveling near central outpost in Newland Dessert, click for larger view

Ohtizz our adventurer put in a few hours this week.  He leveled up to 24 in the wilderness around the outpost in the center of Newland Dessert.  He experimented with several different sets of pistols and in the end decided to stick with the upgraded starter weapons for now.  The Electrocutiums did slightly better damage, but were painfully slow.

It is just psychologically unacceptable to get killed while waiting for you weapon to shoot.  Also the lack of any special, makes combat with them a single button push of boredom.  At least with the Surge pistols, if he pays attention, it pays off with additional damage from every Fling Shot.  After hitting 24 he headed back to the subway.

OHtizz almost outhealed Euenides's damage, but not quite, click for larger view

We found him at 24 to be somewhat less powerfull than our NT had been, but better than Baba as a baby enforcer had been.  His damage is about the same as Baba’s then, but his self healing gives him an edge over the enforcer at that level.  The NT definitely out damages both of them.  Our NT could easily solo Eumedies,  Virgil Aneid and Infectors.  Ohtizz had a run in with Eumenides  at the entrance to the stairwell to the deep subway.

It turned out to be a fairly long battle.  As long has his nano lasted, Ohtizz was able to out heal the damage of the mob.  Ohtizz’s damage was too weak, and was not enough to beat the mob before Ohtizz’s nano ran out.  Once his nano ran out, he could no longer use his first aid stims, and since his damage was slower than the the mobs, the mob beat him.  At the end both had just a sliver of health left.