raynes wrote:Oh lets just cut to the real reason why you and so many have managed to make it. You got the spawn points and were able to explore the roots before the devs made the changes to make it next to impossible.
So?
We went on a spawn binge pre-patch one. In fact, we went on several. My team-mate (and again... my unguilded low-magic team-mate) and I (my unguilded low-level melee self) would carry max DP for *days* as we explored. However, I never even went to the Roots before the kitin patrols and kincher guards were in place. My first day in the roots was guardian kinchers and a crapload of aggro at the front gate.
That's the way I like to play. I explore. That goes back to my days of playing Xeen with its 20x20 zone maps where I would start at the corner and move in the classic space invaders pattern... all the way across, down one level, all the way across, down one level. In every single game I play, I use automap to its fullest, and I will hug walls, climb hills and crawl around trees to get to every single part of the map I can. That's what I do and that's how I play and I refuse to be made to feel like I'm doing something wrong for playing that way here.
You can ask the GMs who've had to rescue us on a couple of occasions. Takashi had to come fetch us off a cliff when a teleport (a teleport to Haven of Purity, something *any* Zorai can get) went wrong. Hesperos showed up when I got boxed in a canyon with a non-functioning kami (in Fyros after we *walked* through the roots to get there two days before patch one). Shadowthorn must have laughed himself silly watching us pass his position in the desert in Matis roughly every three minutes as we dashed 'n died our way attempting that zone (and we never did succeed). We've been reporting broken teleporters across the map for weeks as we explore.
Frankly, the roots were impossible for me to resist. Within a week of the guardian kinchers being there, we were there. So? That's the game I want to play, and again, I got *nothing* tangible for it except a lot of DP, some cool screen shots and now, prime forage 79 (which means I can pull q90 mats which are of limited use as I craft q100-q110). In fact, I was there most of yesterday as well. There are areas now that are not difficult to pass, areas that are as they once were, and areas that are nearly impossible to pass. The aggro ranges on things are way out of whack. They can hit you from 50m away through a wall without you ever even seeing them.
Post patch, BG got from MinCho to Bounty Beach in one trip, no respawn points, no deaths, I fact we had the bugs that didn't let the respawns show, (and I would have made it but I forgot to hot-key speedup after respec and died 10m from the gate). Getting past the kinchers at both entrances and the aggro on the way. That's walking. No teleports, no respawn and no combat because everything between MinCho and Bountry Beach would kill us instantly.
My highest skill is 103 forage. That gives me a ~530K DP. I've maxed that twice post patch on exploration for a total for 10K payback per forage. And I'm not gonna stop. Tough!
The week before the kincher patch went in, there were posts on the boards from the Prime foragers saying that they would be in the roots until patch. The week before patch one went in, there were teams maxing out every skill they had in preparation for the increased mob difficulty that was announced post patch. Blinder groups were very popular. The week before the patch, BG and I maxed our spawn points. So, now we're facing the new mobs if we want to level fight/magic. My forage XP is one 3rd for half the quality mats (although many more of them) than it was pre-spec nerf. We're paying our price in other ways, but we have the spawn points and tickets and I damn well intend to use them without feeling guilty for it.
Frankly, I don't know if the passage is possible even with a guild *now*. I see parts of it that should be fine, but I really don't know given the unpredictable nature of aggro ranges (cutlers and gingos can aggro over 125m now, not always but they have and they can). Be that as it may, I will teleport to the event (or I would if I weren't working) and I'm not going to apologise for it because you play a different way and don't have the same option.
Tin.
