Baba Heads Out to Sentinels

Baba waves HI from Newland City

Babaoroody, a level 131 froob enforcer, sat in his apartment with his eyes closed listening to the synthetic sea shore audio that always soothed him. Yes, it was definitely time to shake up these old and many times fractured bones and get them back into action. Somethings in RL had required his absence from Rubi-Ka, and he knew all to well how much he had probably forgotten. The cool down times for all his nanos, the best moves and combos in combat would all come back, but he really did not want to embarrass himself in front of others while re-learning them so he was trying to think of an appropriate venue to take this outing.

There was a time when his reflexes placed him as a serious contender, and his strength and stamina were solid. Years of battles, small and large, quick and fast or drawn out endurance marathons had taken their toll. There was not one part of his body that did not display the curious scar designs left there by fate and his many foes, most of which were deceased, and a few who still lived, but now carried signs of Baba’s work on their bodies. The battlefield favors the young. What does the Enforcer do when they leave youth behind? There is always treachery and experience that can be leveraged to defeat the young and fast.

When the steel apartment door slammed shut behind him, he let his musings fade out and he concentrated on navigating his 6 foot plus hulk in the direction of the grid entrance just outside of Newland City. He exited the city through the west gate and noted there were seven or eight guards on duty, twice the normal number. As he passed the shiny upscale flyer lot on the lake to his right and the Battle Station terminal on his left, he took in the group of 16 or so toons waiting to take part in BS. (Battle Station).

Sentinels (click for larger view)

He made his way in the grid to the Sentinels exit and found himself suddenly deafened by one of those howling dust storms Mort is know for. Through the dust he could just make out 3 buildings, graduated in size much like the items in the house of the 3 little bears.

For those with out Grid access yet, Sentinels is in the Mort region and can be found just down the hill a bit from the outpost that sits near the northeast rim of the largest Mort crater.

Baba started with the smallest brown building. Inside it is laid out like a typical brown interior mission and featured level 115ish Rhinomen, Medusas, Entwined soldiers, and Bileswarms.

The second Entwined soldier he came across dropped a +100 run-speed Ring of Haste. Baba could not pick it up because he was already wearing one he had gotten off a Medusa months ago. Babaente, Baba’s NT alt would love to have one, so she hopped in her yalm and tried to make it there from Newland City before the corpse faded.

Ring of Haste, +100 run speed, NODROP

She might have made it, via the grid, but when she got to the Sentinels exit, it would not accept her. She had forgotten that the Sentinels grid exit has one of the highest computer literacy requirements on the planet of 461. She tried to fly from Meetemedere to Sentinels, but she was only half way there when Baba reported that the soldier had vanished. Even though she was disappointed, she now knew where to go to try and find her own Ring of Haste once she can handle level 115 mobs.

Baba finished clearing out the first building and proceeded to the next, which was the middle sized building. It held 140ish Aquans, Grunts, Human NPC’s and Penpods. By now Baba was pretty much re-acquainted with his hot bar layout and combos, so he had not trouble with any of these mobs.

After clearing the middle sized building out, Baba entered the final and tallest building houses which housed 150ish Cyborgs and Humans.

Baba at Sentinels (click for larger version)

These mobs definitely meant business and Baba had to start using his Challenger and Mongo nanos to finish these mobs off. By the time he was finished he had accomplished what he had set off to do when he had marched out of his Apartment back in Newland City, and that was to re-familiarize himself with all his old moves and nanos. He came away with roughly 2 bags of loot plus change. The loot included several Miy’s armor pieces. He was also glad he had found a location for Babaente and future alts to look for the very useful Ring of Haste.

Doublesun Token Board, last of the token only boards.

On the trip back to Newland City, he thought about what to do next. He checked his token bar and realized he had forgotten that he had already filled it to the Double Sun level. While there are several levels left to go, these are special levels that require completing high level quests or raids, rather than merely collecting tokens. Auno.org’s page on token boards lists the higher boards and each boards page gives information on what is required to obtain them.

As he entered his Newland Apartment he thought about perhaps making his next outing to Perpetual Wastelands Borgs.

Secret Varmint Woods kiting spot revealed

30-50 Kiting Site, Varmint Woods

Monday evening Tireen and Babaente ran several more team missions.  The only bit of loot of note was another web cloak which Babaente now sports. Now both of Babaoroody’s alts are using web cloaks as back items.  Even Baba used one when he was in his 50ish levels.  At that point, it seems to be a fairly common drop for mobs of that level and Baba and none of his alts have so far found as loot or as store bought items any better back items for their level.  They still have Exarch robes as a far off gleam in their eye, but until then the web cloaks will have to do.

During the missions, Tireen leveled up again and Babaente was very close to leveling, so they logged on Tuesday morning and went back to their Varmint Woods kiting spot.  After several kites, it became obvious that Babaente was no longer getting experience here, so we will reveal it now.  The spot is located at a small ruin in the woods just north east of Majestic Bridge (Bully Bridge as some call it.)  There is a small band of 30-50 level Rhinomen there (8-10), that have a fairly fast respawn rate and while Babaente was under level 49 and Tireen was under level 45, they gave good experience points.  The Rhinomen are good kite fodder, as they are melee fighters, and do not have very high run speeds.  No, it is not an uber kiting spot like SW Mines, but if you know of a better one with 30-50 level mobs that is NOT infested with numerous other higher level mobs, please let us know.

Now they are scouting around for another kiting spot with 50-60 mobs.  They found a mixed group of human hunter types and mutants at the western most point of the river, on the north bank.  While getting buffed up, Babaente noticed there were also Blubbags in the same range in the hills a little further east.  She took on one of the blubbags first thinking it would be enough to level, but after killing it, she still needed more points to level.  She tried nuking a bunch of the hunters and mutants, but only one mutant and two hunters ended up chasing her.  The mutant and one of the hunters dropped very quickly, but the last hunter, started casting roots and run speed debuffs.  If there had been more mobs left in the kite it would have been curtains for Babaente, but with only one mob left, she switched to using her stronger one-on-one combat nanos and quickly dropped the final mob and got her level 50 ding.

This is what she has been dreading while hunting humanoid type mobs, getting rooted.  The free movement stims, anti-virus, and purge nano kits that she can equip do not seem to be very effective, in that they rarely, if ever break roots cast by mobs in missions or the wild.  Speed debuffs also seem to be immune to the counter measures now available to her.  Even though she just broke into the 50 range, her skill levels have a long way to go before she will be able to equip the NT roots, and calms.  The root and calm she does have seems to be pretty useless, either never landing or too short termed for practicality.

Hitting level 50 is a milestone as it is one of the levels where the amount of skill points awarded each level goes up.  With a combination of the extra IP and the level, she now could equip the next major area of effect nuke, Expanding Neutron Pulse.