Dragon Hunter Rox

Part of my Explorer of Tyria journal - you can find the rest here!

Met up with the charr ranger Rox at Sparkfly Fen recently. She was hunting the reincarnation of the local dragon "Tea Kettle" in the swamps to impress Tribune Brimstone. Stupid cats. Anyway I helped her out, finding numerous tracks of the beast as well as leftovers from the Shatterer and Jormag's little friend. Ironically during all of this I only encountered the last one up at Frostgorge Sound and helped the local army defeat him. Nothing really heroic about it when you have half a legion behind you combined with heavy firepower provided by the nearby stationary guns. The dragons in this land are stupid, they always seem to attack in the firing lanes of the cannons that await them. Not sure what else there was to do since none of the other beasts dared show their face while I was active (the cowards) so I moved on to other things.

I think Rox spotted a dragon.

I've since heard tell of the local militia swarming to Rox's aid, often spending many hours just waiting in anticipation for the arrival of their foe in the sticky, smelly swamp. I guess they find the waiting fun, or are they just waiting to have fun? Reports say the dragon has grown in strength - more often defeating or escaping from the angry mob than not. Commanders have taken it upon themselves to meld the troops into a well fused, fighting machine - posting tactics and requirements on the local forums. I had one look at this and rolled my eyes. I was never really one for filling a "role" like an automaton. I suppose they are keeping the ... swamp... safe? Hmm. It's not like Tea Kettle has made any move to push further North, or has ever attacked Fort Trinity to the South. Whatever - it is there. That's all that Rox needs to know. I think it will be hard for her to prove herself with an army behind her though, especially one she doesn't lead.

Maybe she'll have better luck assisting Caithe with the Scarlet(?) distubance being investigated at Twilight Arbor. Sent her a letter via carrier pigeon wishing her the best of luck while I headed back to the deep woods of Sharandar (in Neverwinter Online) to continue the campaign against Malabog's forces. I still wonder how those fomors got there. Possibly a rift between the shadow realm and the feydark? Maybe I'll yet find out.

Generation 9 Tips (Part Two) - For SCIENCE!

After setting the stage in part one, the bad guys are on the offensive and you'll be spending loads of time in the shadow realm to hold them back. "Fomor Counterattack!" makes you run regular shadow missions to display this and they are all quickest to be finished on BASIC. Later on you will not be given a choice on difficulty. :P

Defeat a Bovine (fastest with friend)
Your first important scouting mission is to wander around and get stoned again, just like the previous mission. Only this time you can bring a friend and instead of looking for a dude with wings you are looking for an ugly cow. I guess the enemy eats these cows so, eliminating one will make them starve or something? Who knows. New baddies anyway are:

Shadow Shire
Evil horsey! They smash hard and will multi-aggro with whoever they are with (never alone). Probably on the same "to-kill" tier as shadow lancers. Being horses they gallop around pretty quick and will generally be the ones to catch you mid-skill if you aren't careful.

Crag Cow
You've fought these already as Leymore but perhaps this single cow is your first as your actual character. Treat it as a gorgon with -heavier- stander with more HP and does more damage. Smash, windmill, and counter your way to victory.

Defeat the Shadow Warrior (solo)
Seems the city is being held by a single fomor bastard with a few minions. This is a simple run through the shadow city against mostly single aggro spawns. Once you clear all the orbs you get to fight Lo Wang... erm I mean, a Shadow Warrior who is essentially a beefed up shadow fighter. Get used to them as they will come out as regular baddies soon. Also, it will pay to develop a route to follow to hit all the orbs on the map as you will be doing this a LOT - sometimes even twice in one mission.

That's the way I do it. Props to lilaznkikas for base map.

Taillteann Defensive Battle (3-6 people, 6 ideal so everyone has someone to chat to)
Now that you've taken the city you need to defend the gates against enemy forces as they march in. Well that's a lie, more like you need to defend the gate guard NPCs as enemies "beam in" from the mothership. Each pair of NPCs have no chance in surviving the onslaught so it will be up to you to kill them quickly. Windmill and pets are highly recommended. Be sure to also heal the guards if you get the chance between waves as they need to survive around 20 minutes. The giant guards are particularly moronic in this mission. Should a pair of NPCs fall, follow the road back towards the center where the spawning will continue. If too many pairs die, game over - restart. High level dudes running this on basic can pretty much hold a gate solo, but it's just... boring.

Battle for Taillteann I (fastest with 4 people)
After your efforts in the previous mission the town has fallen and is now overrun with enemy forces. Good work. :P These scum are slightly better armored than previously and have more HP. They're also fortified behind barrier spikes and ice mines. To clear the entry quick you can get a buddy to call Adniel and dragon strike the first group out of the way. Alternatively rush the right most side where there's a gap between the wall and barrier. If you are mounted when you hit an ice mine, you can dismount and unsummon your steed to negate the effects. You can also use an L-rod to spot them and disable them with range or magic. Their archers can shoot over the barrier spikes so flank-charging is a good idea. There are no orbs here, so just circle the roads around the town square to find any opposition. Once you get in, you will meet a new baddie:

Shadow Commander
Gold armored dude is the "final" upgrade of a shadow fighter and he comes with instinctive reaction (don't open with a smash if he is idle), an ability to summon numerous snow golems (usually when near death), and a very fatal life drain which targets everyone in a set radius. He glows red and is technically invulnerable when this happens so unsummon any pets giving him more HP and back off yourself - you'll only be able to walk but if you have evasion you can use that to cover more ground faster. Final Hit is a good way to stop him doing anything if you've got it, otherwise strong windmill, normal attack or magnum range will suffice.

Defeat the Shadow Wizard (fastest with 8 people)
Since you beat the last mission the fomors have moved a friggin army in this time - as you will see in possibly your first orb run marathon, you'll need to clear the circuit twice and be facing pretty much everything you've already fought but in bigger numbers and in mixed spawn, so plenty of multi-aggro here. Second circuit provides slightly stronger enemy combos so the easiest way to go about this is just bring a big team to trash them quick. You -can- do this solo but it takes some time and skill. At the end you'll face a shadow Wizard Dude who is almost exactly like the shadow wizard chicks, except stronger. He can teleport around too, often jumping behind his intended victim. You can catch his teleport easily with a windmill so other than that, just treat him like one of the girls.

Conflict! An unexpected Battle (bring four people)
The fomors decided to setup a field camp outside the city (which I guess is the unexpected part in the title) and you are to assist an allied squad to wipe them out. Only problem is the enemy is fortified behind barrier spikes and ice mines (which you'll have no time to detect/disarm), they are elite troops, and should even ONE of your allies die (happens easily) you fail. Transform before entering as this is a very short but difficult mission and have two guys flank the barriers to take those archers out ASAP while the others protect the allied soldiers out front. It is possible to flank and call dragon air-support to eliminate the back rank quickly but you have to target the zone carefully - friendly fire will often result in mission fail.

Gay Times at Coill (as Elatha)
After all that fighting you are rewarded with some incubus on incubus action! Elatha fights better with magic and can still do decent damage with his wand so don't bother switching to the longsword. The only thing new in Coill for you will be an incubus at the end. In general they are bad bad news, have high levels in all passive defenses and can use advanced magic, along with doing high melee damage. Use a firebolt/icebolt combo to deal with him but be ready to counter or windmill if he gets too close.

Secret Experiment Time (easiest with friends)
Now it is back to the shadow realm to collect 8 clues. No new monsters but since it is now at the "level of the party leader" they may be stronger than usual. Also, everytime you run these missions they get longer and harder so to prevent arousing the bad guys so much you should work with friends, better if these friends are also looking for the clues. Clues appear at the end of each run, 2 per chest. One set - based on the in-game time you entered, one random.These are not tradable themselves but the treasure chest keys ARE. If you have buddies that don't need the clues have them hand over their treasure keys to help complete your book more quickly.

Set clues are:
12:00 AM - 3:00 AM, clue #1.
3:00 AM - 6:00 AM, clue #2.
6:00 AM - 9:00 AM, clue #3.
9:00 AM - 12:00 PM,clue #4.
12:00 PM - 3:00 PM, clue #5.
3:00 PM - 6:00 PM, clue #6.
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM, clue #7.
9:00 PM - 12:00 AM, clue #8.

Alchemy Experimentation (best bring a friend)
There are a few evil alchemists in this mission so bringing a friend to help deal with them is a good idea. Leymore will assist for one part of the mission too, don't let him die or it's game over. At the end a named Shadow Commander will appear and he will be tougher than the last one you fought. Team windmill or enough final hit should do the trick. If you prefer range then light up a fire first so that at least your first shots will do double damage. You have a lot of room to move - the whole city in fact. Just look out for those summoned golems as they will pack a punch.

Couracle's Heart (best with three people)
Similar to a higher level clue-hunting mission, by now you should be familiar with all the spawns and how to best deal with them. Your main adversary here is time. 30 minutes isn't very long to complete your circuit so speed up the process by bringing friends to clear the orb sections quickly. Don't forget to bring some paper to draw the damn thing once you get there. :P

If I were a Rich Man

My sixth Mabinogi lesson! To find what other classes are available please see the binding post. :)

You are Gold!
Gold is the main currency in Erinn and it will come to you from all the previous methods[link] (other than aging and rebirth) as well as from slaying critters and opening treasure chests. Note that your Luck stat can affect how much gold appears in both those cases. You can also make gold by selling goods to other players - it will require a paid account to setup a shop in town, but it is free if you are advertising via party sign or the trade forums on your chosen server.

Fomor Scrolls and Hunting Quests
Collecting 10 fomor scrolls can earn you some extra gold, as can hunting quests that are available from a few npcs - though those tend to eat up a bit of space. Scrolls that you should always collect are: mimic, skeleton wolf, and metal skeleton (while doing g1 anyway). There are many others, but which to collect depends where you most often hunt.

Ferghus
Cheap repair can save you a ton of gold later, even better is if you use gear that is cheap to repair especially when starting out. Wooden blades are very good for this purpose and pretty easy to come by so you won't mind if Ferghus breaks them from time to time. ;)

Farming
Another way to make a decent profit is by renting a farm at Taillteann. Blatt the farmer has 90 plots per channel (remember where yours is) on offer which cost 30,000 gold to rent for a week plus 500 gold for whatever type of seed you decide to grow. I suggest tomatoes for your first run as they are the easiest to manage and even if you somehow stuff it up by performing very few actions (of the 10 you are allowed to do per real day) you should still at least double your investment. When I was doing it I was making around 220,000 per week, and that was with a lot of competition (less people are farming these days). Given that your bank account funds are shared between your characters it is an idea to have one of your mules tending to it once every 20/30/40 minutes (depending on your last action) while you continue to build your main for the majority of your play time, rather than having him constantly hop back to the farm to "poke" it himself.

Currency of the L33t
While fomors carry gold it is not actually their main currency - they use it to distract a large, gold eating monster you will encounter a few times in the game. Instead, they trade with Ducats and now that some of them are "good", will happily trade them with you too! They can be used to buy some pretty nice things but the catch is, unlike gold - it cannot be traded amongst players and can, as of this post, be earned in one of two ways. For a newbie though I do not recommend either till you are confident in your combat ability.

Merchanting
Moving goods from between trading posts is the main method of earning ducats. As a bonus you also get gold and exp for successful runs. Your first few thousand ducats are often best spent purchasing cargo carrying options from the travel ogre as they will always pay themselves off rather quickly. The main problem with this is that while doing this you become a target for bandits and, given that you will be at 50% combat efficiency when moving goods and will almost always face a multi-aggro situation, it could be a painful experience. I recommend moving as a group to at least have support especially when bringing elephant-loads of goods. Some people even offer their services as caravan guards - a good idea on some routes. Remember too that trade between Dunbarton, Cobh, Belvast and Scathach Beach will yield zero profit so you can't rely on the safety blanket there.

Bandit Hunting
This is for veteran players only - the bandits they will be facing will always be of veteran or master level and the bandit bosses themselves are quite overpowered (stronger than some generation bosses) and can only be faced one on one. Best to avoid this until you are sure you can take them on.

Secrets to NX
Not really in-game currency but Nexon Cash is sometimes the only way to get useful things such as pets or spirit weapon repair potions. If you are a cheapskate like me and don't want to spend real money getting NX there are still other ways available to you. Obviously being "gifted" NX by someone else is nice, but Nexon often offers free methods to earn NX via watching trailers, filling out surveys, winning competitions, and random lucky picks. Keep your eyes open on their main page and forums for these opportunities.

My kingdom for a Horse
I cannot stress enough how useful having a pet is. If/when you get your hands on some NX they are perhaps the first thing to spend on. Make sure you research first into what you need! Do you need to speed up transportation? Need more inventory space? Or just want something that can kick butt? Most people go for a mount first. I went with a minibear because I didn't mind to jog everywhere nor need lots of space. Regardless of what you get, you should train / level up your pet ASAP. Fastest way would probably be with help at the black mongeese again, but remember you should be playing -as- the pet yourself to reap the most benefits (with or without help). While playing as your pet you will also no longer see enemy skills. This is good training for you (the gamer) too, to read your opponents without relying on that bubble.

Furthermore once you start using your pet in combat you should optimize its AI to better suit its role. Not a coder? Don't worry, there are many kits already setup out there for you to cut and paste - just have to find them. This is the one I use and in one on one melee, my bear now rarely loses so I can just send it off and not worry about it as it will take care of itself. For the record, it still does more damage than my higher level thunder dragon. ;p