Mabinogi: Iria Sagas 1 and 2

[Part of my Mabinogi Tutorials.]

I know I'm incredibly late with these but really, if you've played through all the generations in order there shouldn't be much here that would phase you, what with your transformation and demigod skills. Half the time you are role playing someone else anyway so dying is not really a biggie, just a learning curve. Furthermore, it's all completable solo (and I think mandatory solo too). Still there are a few tips I can think of to make life easier:

How to Start:
Just pick an episode from this button. You can only have one episode active at a time.

Monster Lag and Space
Sometimes you enter a mission and all the NPCs seem stuck in place but you are free to do whatever. This is more prevalent in quests with lots of NPCs and big spaces. I believe it also happens more often in busier channels so if you want a helping had on hard quests try start it from there. Regardless if they are moving or not most of the quests give you a lot of room to work with so bring a bow or whatever ranged attacks you like and be proficient with your pet revolver and mount summoning / stuns / knock backs. Yes, this makes some really tough fights pretty inconsequential. Especially if you have a strong spirit bow. Muahahahaha. It won't happen all the time, but just be aware you have some control over it.

Shyllien Nature Reserve and Hillwen Mine
You have to go into these two for the first saga to collect stuff. Both have lots multiaggro enemies so be prepared and be careful. Lure and kill. You can even bring friends to help if you like.

Retreat to Vales (S1 E3)
In this mission you must escort NPC engineers from the mine to the city and it obviously won't work if they are suffering from Monster Lag (above). Get into an instance where they can walk and ignore the large skirmish against the White Dragon, you'll get to fight it soon enough. Patiently kill all the goons that appear in your way (they might be late) and you will be fine.

The End of Bhafel (S1 E6)
One of those annoying role play missions, make sure you use the potion to run faster and put up mana shield. Also knowing when to final hit is key. Try save it for the last two pillars (or patiently wait for the recharge) as those ancient ghosts will get annoying.

Macha (S1 E10)
She's a bit of a pushover for an end boss. Pet revolver or using a mount to kick her while you are landing fast attacks will take her down in no time (61 hits and she's done). Shylock's step and final hit with little knives will probably do this fastest.

Last Attempt (S2 E1)
The most irritating shadow mission of the entire saga, you play as yourself with no powers and crappy stats. So crappy that any of the boars can kill you in one or two hits. Way to go hero! While giants and elves might be fast enough to actually do the stone throwing thing and then climbing ladders this is what worked for me as a human (slowest race in game) - without throwing one stone:

• Look straight ahead, lure single boar off to the left and open with defense. Combo three hits and it leaves. Now switch to weapons slot 2 (bare hands).
• Get attention of 1 boar, climb up ladder when it gets close.
• Immediately jump back down as it loses aggro and rush it with your fists (fast hitting). Combo three and it leaves.
• Repeat until boss boar appears at which point you should switch back to slot 1 sword and shield.

Aliens and Balloons (S2 E3)
When you encounter the alien blobs, only target the alien map eater as all damage you do to all aliens hurts yourself too. Be prepared with health pots. Also for the balloon part, you can get away with using the "forward ballista" (1st one where wyverns spawn) then switching to the one to its left when you are out of targets. Don't move from that position, instead swivel the gun from side to side to gun down the enemies. When the enemy balloon appears you might need to switch again.

Snowfield Pursuit (S2 E4)
This skiing mission looked like it would be fun if it didn't make me fail after 5 seconds of entering with the enemy distance of ???. How to get around it? Use Ch1 and monster lag that sled for a 5 second win.

Dian Cecht (S2 E5)

I've spotted a weakness in her defense! *drool*

With her poor armor choice the only thing defending her really are her magic crystal shield generators. Just break those (faster with a pet) and then you can do what you want with her.

Final Fights (S2 E6)
There are lots of tough fights in the final episode of the second saga. Cessair's Heart, the Cessair Army and Ruairi. Guess which one is the hardest? If you said the Cessair Army you are correct. Handling multiaggro in this game is tough, and tougher still with dozens of respawning enemies who can use advanced magic, wire pull and final hit. Be prepared to run as your allies aren't enough to distract all the bad dudes.

Ruairi can be problematic because of his dopplegangers (again multiaggro) so try lure and fight him at an edge where fewer of his shades can find you. Also, you should abide by his decision and go all out. I found him more dangerous in his first form than his second. For all the aforementioned, I suggest you get ready to demi-up.

Cessair's Heart on the other hand is a decent fight but she's alone so your regular transformation should be more than enough to get past her.

Grinding EXP And Gold
You can replay episodes for 5000 gold, which also means you can grind their rewards. The two "best" ones I would think would be:

The Missing (S2 E2)
You need to: Solve easy puzzles, travel in Uladh (gates open all the time now), argue/fight easy pirates, fight dragon (which you don't need to live through)
Reward: 100K+ XP, 50k Gold

Heroic Path: The Choice (S1 E7)
You need to: Do 1 talky RP mission, 1 combat RP mission, 1 shadow mission of running away, travel a little in Iria (best with flight + gate timing)
Reward: 100K+ XP (Daily Bonus on Thursday and Weekends gains another 100k XP and 30k gold)

Meanwhile, in Mabinogi

[My fourth post of Blaugust!]

There are ninjas and guns! Yes it's been a long while since I've set foot on the continents of Uladh and Iria and wow have there been some changes going on. Not just in the usual "let's add more crazy skills for people to master" but also an upgrade to both Vales and Filia and a peppering of new Mana Tunnels all over the place. Furthermore these and the Uladh Moongates have been upgraded to keep them open now regardless of the day or night cycle they used to follow.

Also, dragons everywhere!

Obviously someone decided that continent was way too big to fly or ride around on, and for the most part they would be right. While there I also decided to complete "G18: The Saga - Iria" and was suitably challenged by new foes and old. What I found really cool though were the RP quests, something that I've not seen in any other MMOs. One example: My character is told of an assassination attempt so I predictably go to try stop it. During the mission though I PLAY AS THE ASSASSIN. That is both awesome and educational since she uses the dual gun skill set I've not yet experimented with.

After you fight your way past the guards, guess who stops you? Your own character! Now that is totally cool! This also means when you face her you know pretty much everything she can and can't do, because you were using all her skills to get up to that point. Telling a story is definitely one of Mabinogi's strong suits and I was hooked from beginning to end. :)

Blaugust Bonus: I've been on Mabinogi NA for over five years now. I think that would make it my second longest running MMO that I play (with some gaps). Ultima Online is at the top spot, sitting on around twelve years of play (also with some gaps) but the clock on that isn't going up anymore as I no longer have it installed.

Generation 12 Tips (Part Two) - Fighting in Falias

Having taken care of those pesky alchemists once and for all in the previous section, it's not time to deal with the more powerful forces at work.

A Goddess Remembers being in Danger (solo as Morrighan then solo)
The first part is a very fun mission and a good introduction to Morrighan's god skills which you will be using later. Try to always keep Wings of Eclipse active and use your Wings of Rage from a far distance (they'll move into range if they notice you) on the Daols to avoid multi-aggro. Your first hit won't kill them though, so be ready with a Silent Move (you won't be getting this :P) hot-key to evade their attacks. Don't worry too much if you fail as you lose nothing to try again.

The second quest though can be quite challenging. You need to destroy a number of arches in Falias and they are guarded by Aonbharrs - winged wolves that have heavy stander, instinctive reaction and really high protection and HP. You may want to make use of the Brionac to deal with them and certainly trans when taking them on. Dragon support is also available to wipe out one group. Beware too of the floating stones as like Cerberus they cannot be targetted, but these ones fire Thunder and Fireball (adv magic) so steer clear!

Collecting in the Connous Underground (fastest solo)
Gathering stuff for the Ark of Falias is pretty straight forward - you would have encountered treasure chests in the Solea caves already if you had run to Vales (see second post), so it's just the Connous Underground that may be new to you. To get in, use an advanced L-rod (the digging version, humans need to ally with either the elves or giants to get one - though a normal one may work too) and find spots on the great desert outside Filia, preferably in sand storm regions. Eventually you'll dig up a cloud and a warning message. Wander into the cloud and you should fall in. Shouldn't need to fight any of the denizens in here (especially the Ifrit if he's awake) so just explore till you find some chests. To exit, just keep making your way to the center of the map and run up the stairs - or goddess wing out, or continent warp.

Golden Apple (best bring full party)
While there's nothing you haven't fought before here, most of the baddies are on their strongest variation and will spawn in big clusters so unless you like the idea of fighting 8 shadow ghosts alone you'd better bring a full team. The boss room especially has super powered boars and deers that must die in the offering circle to complete the mission. Don't be like me and windmill stuff out of the circle or it prolongs the difficult combat and annoys your helpers! :P

Final Chapter (solo)
It's end game time so prep well before entering this mission which comes in four parts:

Part I - Repair the stuff you Broke
Use Shock (without Brionac equipped) and touch the lithograph in the middle to figure out which one you need to fix. Fragments dropped from Aonbharrs will reassemble them. Again look out for the floating stones with advanced magic. Use everything you've got to stay alive.

Part II - The Feather is Mightier than the Sword
Not really, main boss will be throwing all sorts of crap at you and you need to run like mad to evade. When he begins his "light sword attack" you are supposed to use Morrighan's feather on him at close range. He only does this when he is airborne. If he lands, he is only doing it to smash you with his fist so steer clear.

After Part II, it's time to be like Neo.

Part III - Not Running This Time
Woo, now you've got perma demi for the rest of the mission as well as Morrighan's powers. Try to keep Wings of Eclipse active on top of your mana shield and avoid the main guy while you take down his minions. Like before, the Daols can be bad news but the area is big enough to lure one using a long bow. As long as you maintain single-aggro and avoid their light spears you should be able to take these guys down easily enough. Run away if Wings of Eclipse is turned off and keep evading till you have it reactivated.

Part IV - Attrition is Fun
Morrighan will help you face the main baddie and should she die it is game over. She's quite tough but don't draw out the battle for too long because she will lose eventually. As you may have noticed your adversary has a lot of deadly attacks when flying so the trick is to keep him grounded by hitting him with Wings of Rage the same time Morrighan does. When he's on the floor Brionac his face using any move (other than Windmill since he usually resumes flight if you do that) as much as you can. He can hit hard and do a shockwave attack while walking but your Wings of Eclipse and Mana Shield should be able to take the blows. Repeat until you are victorious.

Treasure Hunting
Now that you've won you can jump back to Falias at anytime by using the Brionac with either shock or demi-god to open a portal. You'll also require a falias fragment each time you do this which is only obtainable through Keith's Part Time Job in Tara Bank. I suggest doing it after a server reboot to give yourself better odds. Back in Falias you can change your god-powers back to Neamhain's if you so choose and you can try recover some of those artifacts you had brought. This involves defending an area against waves of Aonbharr but since I again haven't done it myself I'll have to write about it another time. :)

Teaching an old dog new Tricks

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

The combat system in Mabi is quite different from most other MMORPGs. Certainly from the ones I've played anyway, and thats a pretty big list. After doing your newbie quests (Giant / Elf / Iria Human) or taking classes at the School (Uladh Human) its probably a good idea to go and nail down some good combat technique with the Beginner Battle Class board that you can find at Tir Chonail, Vales, or Filia. Outside of that, the immediate areas around those towns (and Qilla too) also provide good opponents to practice basics on. Some extra notes on these before we continue that I don't feel the game teaches too well:

Combat Mode:
Try to always be on combat mode (space bar by default) when going into battle. If you don't I've found your first combo into a second skill to be more delayed than usual, which can cost you a few HPs if the enemy capitalizes on it.

Normal Attack:
If your fight method involves simply clicking like mad, they you are doing it wrong. This can get you past maybe some foxes and racoons, but wolves and up will eat you for breakfast. You have a set number of swings you can do based on your weapon and each click should be a concious action. To chain another skill at the end of the combo, you should activate it while you character performs the last attack in his or her chain. With practice you can also add an extra hit to weapons that are 2-hit or more. It's just timing and delay.

While the normal attack is the standard "defense" against Smash, don't forget you can use it while your opponent is preparing another skill. Regardless of what it is, if you reach it in time, you should be able to strike before the skill loads. This goes for you as well: When you are -preparing- a move you are technically open for attack!

Smash:
Sometimes, when executing this you will run up to your target and just stand around/lag like a buffoon - especially when the targeted foe is distant. To combat this, when you load up smash run up beside your intended victim first and only click on them when you are a step away.

Windmill:
Is perhaps the most important skill in the game, as it is your best and often your only multi-aggro handler in close quarters. This along, with refining (trust me it's hard to rank later on), should be your number one priority in ranking up first regardless of what you ultimately want to be. Remember you want -all- the skills. Windmill also ignores protection which means it does a ton of damage even against targets on defense, but if you don't kill them they will have free hits on you. When the skeletons at Rabbie do this to you, you'll see what I mean. :P

Magnum Shot:
For humans especially this should be your staple opening bow attack at the beginning for luring things when you have space to use it (elves may opt to use mirage missile depending on the situation). Stuck in a room full of monsters is probably not the ideal spot but out in the fields or in rooms that allow you to run back through hallways you should have no reason to *not* use this (well unless your targets all have natural shield). With it, you can kill off many baddies and avoid getting into multi-aggro spots. Later on you will be following this up with arrow revolver (humans) which will all but ensure your target doesn't reach you. Later on you will probably switch it out for Crash Shot which does more damage in crowded rooms but for a newbie that will be far yet. Giants will not have this ability and will probably have to resort to bolt magic for ranged lures.

Time to Train - One on One melee:
One of the best critters to train up your combat ability (as a player) on are wolves. They are very readable in combat and move fast enough to catch you if you do something wrong. I suggest finding the correct type that you can take some hits from AND can take a few hits from you. If the battle is too one sided then you will not be learning much! There are quite a few types around Tir Chonail and you can find them East of Vales as well. Mongeese use similar AI outside Qilla and North East of Filia but you may have to travel far to find the correct type to practice on.

Alternatively for more EXP make the trek to Taillteann and take the mission "Defeat the Shadow Warrior" (basic) from a Shadow Mission Bulletin board and head to the Stonehenge to enter the mission. You will be locked in with small groups of enemies but they will only fight you one at a time. Except for the archers, you'll need to be on your toes and kill them quick. :P As a general rule of thumb, while you are free to attack anything it is the enemies that have the "!!" mark that are actively seeking to kill you.

Good sparring partners for new players.

Off to the Races

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

As of this post, everyone can get a free elf AND giant character card. All you have to do is reach their home cities on the Iria continent. I suppose a quick comparison of the available races is a good thing to add here:

Humans - runs the slowest but are the most versatile skill-wise. Can dual wield swords. They also have the widest array of gear that they can equip. They are my preferred race.

Giants - runs faster than humans and are geared more close quarters combat. Can dual wield blunts. They are weaker at magic and have almost no range capabilites though, and have the least amount of equippable gear.

Elves - runs faster than giants and are geared more for ranged combat. Can shoot while mounted and can hide from enemies. They are the weakest at melee.

If you started in Uladh and want to cross over quickly just go to Actions -> Continent Warp and pick Iria. If you started in Iria then I think you have to complete some basic exploration tasks before it lets you out into Qilla Camp proper. Remember to not have anything in your hands to "collect" artifacts from pillars, other than that it should be pretty straight forward. Once you are out of the tutorial zone you'll find yourself at Qilla Base camp and can begin your run to the race of your choice. You can only get the other free character 24 hours after you get the first one.

Easiest way to reach either city is if you have friends or make friends or even just ask strangers really nicely if they can give you a lift through a mana tunnel to either/both cities. If you are very anti-social or unlucky, then you'll have to reach them on your own. It is a good idea to "tap" the Mana tunnel a short distance from Qilla Base camp (to the West) during the day when it is open to provide an easier return trip too.

To reach the Elf city of Filia, you'll need to run East (that's turn right) when you exit Qilla Base camp and hug the mountains till you find a way across to the desert. Cross that and just keep running through the Karu forest, across a bridge, and then across another huge, sand-stormy desert.  Once you get to Filia, find their leader - Castanea, she's towards the back of the town and ask her about "elf/giant alliance" to get your free card.

To reach the Giant city of Vales, you'll need to run North West (turn left) when you exit Qilla Base camp and hug the mountains till you find a small valley that leads into the Nubes mountains and eventually down into the Solea Caves. Your mini-map will not be helpful down there but it is still straight forward to traverse. Just follow the left cave wall and make sure you run through any cave walls that can be opened (easy to identify via mouse cursor). You'll pop out on a clearing then dive into another cave system. Same thing, just follow the left wall. Eventually you'll come out on the snowfields and from there is a straight forward run to Vales to talk to their King, Krug about "elf/giant alliance" to get your free card. Obviously if you ever need to run those caves from Vales to Qilla, just follow the right wall.

They hate each other so much they want to make babies.

If you are running to either do not stop for anything and try avoid all the monsters you see. The trip will take you about 40 minutes either way, possibly slightly longer to Vales due to the cave system. Near each town should be another mana tunnel that is open during the day. "Tap" these to mark them on your map. You can then travel between the ones your character knows about as much as you like when the tunnels are open. On the Uladh continent the moon gates work very much the same way, only at night.

A good side quest for you new players to do when bored (like there's not enough to do :P) is to mark every single moon gate and every single mana tunnel you can get to (each town has one nearby and the tunnels in Iria show up on your mini map). While there is no combat involved there is a lot of leg work. Your reward will be ease of travel later on, coupled with being able to see the vast landscapes in the world of Erinn. :)