The MMO Notebook

So I roll on up the road to Halgarad.  It was a bit of a run, but not too bad.  I reached the city gates and found that some of the guards had quests to give.  Shield Korkash gave one called Isolation, where I need to deliver quests to an isolated watchtower outside of Halgarad.  Shield Diadra, who stands next to Korkash, gives Bloodhowler Invastion, requiring me to kill bloodhowler mystics and flameweavers in a camp outside of town.  I am also to set fire to their food stores.  I set these aside for a later time and continued on to complete the Okhnom’s Supplies quest.

If you will recall, I needed to find Shaman Krat to complete the Okhnom Supplies quest.  Following the in-game map to his location took me all the way through Halgarad, out the northwest gates, and through an area called Derogar’s Outpost.  While in the Outpost I found a spellcaster trainer that invites me to visit the Ring of Zalaz to further my Druid training.

Shaman Krat can be found west of Derogar’s Outpost.  He stands next to a wooden watchtower.  Completing the Okhnom quest gave 1310 experience points.  Krat then gives the Final Delivery quest that wants me to deliver the supplies to Lake Carlsson.  He also gives a few more quests that I will get into later.  I had the quests from the Halgarad guards to complete first.

I had to run all the way back through Halgarad to do the Isolation quest.  I discovered that the watchtower is on a high hill south of the Halgarad gates.  I ran past it on the way to Halgard without seeing it.  I delivered the supplies and received 80 copper and 524 experience.  While there, Shield Unga tasked me with killing bloodhowlers and taking their eyes.

The Bloodhowler Invastion and Two Eyes For An Eye quests took me to the same spot.  It is a gnoll camp just down the hill from the Halgarad gates.  Since I was playing solo, I had to tread with care in order to pull singles.  It wasn’t too bad, and in the end, I killed enough gnolls, harvested enough eyes, and burned enough supply bags to get the quests done.  The supply bags were a bit tricky as most of the little white bags are next to groups of gnolls, but with careful planning I got it done.

The last thing I wanted to do during this session was find the Ring of Zalaz and find the Druid trainer.  It took me a long time to find since I was not given any clue where it was located inside Halgarad.  I finally found some street signs that pointed the way to it.  It was in what I thought to be a strange part of town, being in the crafters area.  Be that as it may, I found Varral the trainer and trained my level 10 spells, which were:

• Dissipate: Disperses a spell my opponent is casting (counter spell)
• Piercing Roots II: Immobilize enemy and cause 303-323 damage over time
• Nature’s Wrath I: 1413-1490 damage over 32 seconds
• Soothe II: 360 heal and 702 heal over 16 seconds
• Restore I: 340 Heal
• Vanishing Winds: Evacuate self and or group to a safe area
• Hierophant’s Boon: Restore 60 phenomena points.

–Wolfen

My Dahknarg adventures eventually lead me to the Silvermane house where I am supposed to find a Vulmane named Hador.  He tells me that I need to select a clan and gives me choices.  There is the Ghostclaw, which is adept at casting, Swiftfang, which is adept with light weapons and armor, and Nighthunters, adept at heavy combat.  Naturally, as a druid, I chose the Ghostclaw clan.

They want me to prove myself to my new clan, so I am sent to find a Vulmane named Gnakel, who is under the influence of a Bloodhowler.  I am to slay him and wash my hands in his blood.  Gnakel is under guard at the campfire near the center of town.  It was an easy fight, which is good, because his guards didn’t help me.  My reward from this quest was 60 copper and 1459 experience points.

Next up was the Okhnom’s Supplies quest.  My suggestion is to save this quest until you have finished all of the other Dahknarg quests.  You’ll need the levels and it leads you to your next city and quest hub which is Halgarad.  I had to take some supplies to Shalen who is out on the road some ways east of the gnoll cave.  I found her standing next to a large boulder cowering in fear.  Turns out there is a band of bloodhowlers up ahead and she is too scared to go on.  She wants me to kill a bunch of them and then go find a guy named Armol Furth who should be further up the road.

The bloodhowler’s are 3-dot mobs, so they are a little tougher than the standard ones.  You can pull singles if you are careful.  I knocked off the required amount and then went past their camp in search for Furth.

I found Furth a good ways up the road.  He had fallen on tough times because the bloodhowler’s invaded him, tore up his wagon and stole his supplies.  He wants me to go slay the bloodhowler’s that did this and get back his supplies.  I found them just up the road from him in a camp on the right-hand side of the road.  The very first gnoll that I pulled dropped the supplies.

After recovering the stolen supplies, I was tasked with taking them on to the city of Halgarad.

–Wolfen

So the very last quest found in Spirit’s Rest told me to get my furry butt over to Dahknarg.  It proved to be a much larger town than Spirit’s Rest, with many more quest givers.  Class trainers can be found here as well.

The quest had me report to a guard named Mikah who is found just outside the gate.  I tell him about the alliance between the Broken Fang and Bloodhowler gnoll clans and I receive 20 copper and 150 experience.  I then get the quests Cull the Pack and Lobo head.  This required me to go just a short way beyond the gate and slay lobo’s and procure a pristine lobo head.  These were easily done and I was rewarded with just a few coppers and a few hundred experience.

Nighthunter Marudak, who stands next to Mikah, gives a couple quests, including Forrah’s Patrol, which has me patrol a few different patrol points and kill any gnolls I find.  This is a virtually an exact copy of the quest I had in Kojan except that the hidden attackers are gnolls instead of orcs.  I just run along the path until a hidden gnoll pops into existence and starts pounding on me.  Rinse and repeat for the four patrol points and you’ll get 244 experience.

I run a few more quests and then I am eventually directed to the NW gate to find Nighthunter Valas.  He gives me the Bloodhowler Raiders quest and Okhnom’s Supplies quest. Okhnom’s quest is significant later on because it will eventually take me to another quest hub much further out onto the continent.  The Bloodhowler camp is a ways out of town and up on a high hill.  The camp has several tents and a bunch of angry gnolls.  Luckily, they are easy to pull solo if you are careful.  I killed the required amount and received 30 copper, 781 exprience, and a pair of Ghostclaw Gloves for my trouble.

Back at the south gate, Varin gives a few quests.  They are Bloodhowler Threat (kill 8 Denwatchers), Bloodhowler Defenses (explore their defenses), and lastly The Foreman (kill 2 taskmasters and the bloodfang Foreman).  All of these take place at the same gnoll camp that is up on a hill.  Again, if you are careful, these can be pulled singly from the perimeter.  The Foreman is a little ways inside the camp but just be careful and you can get to him solo.  The Foreman quest gave 70 copper and 1177 experience.  I should note that I did these quests while between the levels of 6 and 7.

Near Valin is Nighthunter Dakken.  He gives a couple quests, including Stop The Flow.  This one wanted me to find and kill the Bloodhowler Runner who runs between the gnoll camps delivering information.  He runs along the paths and as you spend time in the area it will be impossible to miss him.

Nighthunter Jerl then gives a few quests, including Bloodhowler Attack, which needed me delve into a cave full of gnolls and kill some Gatekeepers.  Another one wanted me to remove some contents from barrels within the cave.  Yet another needed me to rescue a vulmane captive being held in the cave.

The cave is up on a hill a good ways east of Dahknarg.  The Gatekeeper is found just inside the first wooden stake wall you come across.  The captive vulmane can be found by taking the first right-hand turn once inside the cave.  You’ll have to fight a few gnolls to get to him.  Just past the captive is a dead-end where a named gnoll spawns.  He is called Angimor the Watchful.  He drops armor pieces, including a very nice set of trousers for my druid.

I was adventuring solo, so I didn’t go too deep into the cave, but it sure did remind me of the Blackburrow dungeon from Everquest.

–Wolfen

So I moved to the Xeth server to join a guild with some online friends.  As mentioned earlier, I decided to start another druid, but this time I chose the race of Vulmane.  This will show me how a starting area on the Thestra continent varies from Kojan.

The Vulmane starting area is called Spirit’s Rest and it definitely has the feel of a wilderness outpost.  The surrounding land is beautiful to look at and I instantly preferred this area over the Kojani style.

The first questgiver I see is Swiftfang Kover.  He gives a couple quests that have me kill some whelps located right outside the camp and to steal food from the Broken Fang gnoll camps.  They each gave a few copper and experience points.  There is also a general goods vendor that gives a quest called Young Bear Pelts.  The title says it all.  I killed a few bears and brought back the pelts for a few copper and experience.

Ghostclaw Grimaw has a couple quests as well.  He is too old to harvest the spirit blossom herbs anymore, so he sends me out to harvest some for him.  Once that is completed he sends me to see my spellcaster trainer who is located inside a tent.  She tells me the basics of being a spellcaster and gives me my level 2 spell Piercing Roots I.

I am then sent off to a cave northwest of camp to assist the Spiritragers found within.  Spiritrager Volsar tells me the history of the Vulmane and gives me The Essence of Souls quest.  I had to kill some Seething Souls and collect a Seething Essence.  I thought the essence would be found on the corpses of the souls, but it turned out that I had to click on a wooden stake leaning out from a wooden wall to get it.  Doing this gave 40 copper and 78 experience points.

Spiritrager Jalgresh wants me to do the Hunt The Soul Eater quest.  The Soul Eater is a big crab found in various spots within the cave.  This quest gives 10 copper 78 experience and Ghostclaw Boots.

The last quest in the cave is given by Spiritrager Jurkar, which is Soul Suffering.  This required me to kill Splintering Souls, which are little balls of light that are found throughout the cave.  I got 40 copper and 78 expererience for doing it.

Back at the camp, Nighthunter Karnor gives the Broken Fang Alpha quest.  After killing an Alpha Gnoll the quest gave 80 copper and 158 experience.  It also had a selectable reward and I chose the Ghostclaw Greatstaff.

There were many other quests in the area that I completed, but I won’t go into detail on them here.  They were all easy to do solo and gave various quest rewards.  One quest of importance, however, came from a piece of parchment that dropped off of the Alpha gnoll.  It is named Bloodhowler Plans and I have to take the parchment to a Vulmane in the next town I am to visit - Dahknarg.  This is another quest hub for the low level adventurer.  I will detail some of the happenings there in another post.

I personally prefer the Vulmane starting area over the Kojani area.  I like the look and feel much more.  It could be because it is more of a wooded, country-type area instead of the open, island area of Kojan.  I also liked the quests better and I think the quest rewards were much better, especially for quests giving armor.

–Wolfen

Ever since I  started up this blog I have been chronicling my adventures as a Kojani Druid on the Seradon server.  I reached level 17 and was looking forward to seeing what was in store for me in the higher levels.  Things changed the other day that has made me switch servers and start over again.

I frequent a very popular gaming message board.  Many of the members there decided to start up a Vanguard guild on the Xeth server.  I was asked several times to make the switch so I finally gave in and jumped from Seradon to Xeth.  Since Vanguard doesn’t have a character transfer service, I had no choice but to start over from scratch.  I decided to do things a little differently this time around.

I loved playing the druid, so that stayed the same.  What changed was the race I played and the continent that I started on. This time I chose to play a Vulmane druid.  Vulmane’s are wolf-like creatures that basically look like humans with wolf heads.  I have to say that the Asian “spirit” theme on Kojan was starting to wear a bit thin, so I felt that switching races and continents would be a nice change. As you will see in forthcoming posts, I greatly enjoy  Thestra over Kojan.  That surprised me because I always hear great things about the lands of Kojan. For me personally, however, I enjoy the quests and the scenery much better in the Vulmane starting areas.

Some things will obviously be a re-hash of what my druid did before.  The spells will be the same, but the quests and the lands I do them in will be vastly different.  This will allow me to report on the differences between the two starting areas so that others have a better idea of where they might want to start.  I thought about trying a different class, but I was having too much fun with the druid.

So a new chapter begins.  Let’s see how well it goes.

I have been playing Vanguard: Saga of Heroes for awhile now and I felt it time to give my overall impression of the game so far.  I have chronicled on these pages my Druid’s adventures up to his current level of 17.  During this time, I have seen and experienced many great things in this game, and I have also seen areas that need improvement.  Has Vanguard picked itself up off the floor from being solidly knocked flat during its horrible launch?  Read on and see it through the eyes of a low level noob.

I first played Vanguard when it was still in beta.  The game was so rough and unfinished that I could immediately tell that it would not be anywhere near finished before it launched to the public. History shows that I couldn’t have been more correct.  The game ran so poorly and had such a great number of game-breaking bugs that it is a wonder that it is still available on the market today.  I quickly cancelled my account with the thought of never turning to the world of Telon.

Time moves on and it has now been about a year since Vanguard launched.  I began to hear some good things about a game that couldn’t pay anyone to give it a good review when it was new.  Intrigued (and because I had the Station Pass), I decided to check it out again and see what all the talk was about.  Turns out that a near miracle has been performed.

The game runs about 200% better than it did at launch.  Where it was barely playable then, it now runs acceptably well on my computer (AMD X2 6000+, 3GB, Nvidia 8800GT).  Make no mistake, however, that Sony still needs to do a ton of enhancements to the game engine in order for it to run as it should.  The game still hitches and there is still a delay when you move from one land chunk to another.  The developers say they have found a fix for that and it should be coming soon, so keep an eye out for it.  I still can’t come close to running it on maximum settings. I keep it at the High setting and customize things from there.

The game world is incredibly huge.  The sheer landmass of this game can be a bit overwhelming and this started to become a problem with most players.  If you wanted to adventure with friends, chances are that you would have to run for half an hour or more to get where they were.  But, Sony listened, and this is another area that they improved upon.  The riftway system was expanded, allowing immediate travel to most major areas, which allowed people to group up much more quickly.

The game world is also a sight to behold.  In my experience, it is beyond a doubt the most beautiful looking game world I have ever played in.  Granted, it takes a high-end computer to get the most out of it, but I’m always in awe of the graphics.  I am constantly stopping to take a screenshot of the scenery for use as my desktop wallpaper.

The game play is where Vanguard gets a mixed review from me.  The character animations really need some work.  They are jerky and not fluid at all and it breaks the immersion factor.  Sometimes game textures will not render correctly, making things look strange and out of place.  When I first used my Wolfshape spell, I thought that I was turning into a cool looking white wolf.  Instead, the texture wasn’t showing and the next time I used that spell I was the normal shade of brown.  I also found an infamous old Everquest bug that seems to have found its way here. It seems fish have no problem swimming onto land and attacking you.

As a Druid, my combat usually starts with rooting the creature I want to kill.  For some reason, even though I am standing a good distance away, the creature will sometimes hit me with its fist or weapon.  I am not sure what causes this.  Is the game client not catching up fast enough to accurately show me what is happening?  Sometimes I will root a moving target.  I get the text message that it is rooted but the creature still walks up to me and starts whacking on my head.  My in-game network meter always shows green, so I don’t know what the problem is.

I have only played a Druid, so I can’t speak to how well the other classes play.  I do know that I hear nothing but great things about all the classes and I think it is almost unanimous that all the classes are designed very well.  Each class steps out of the standard mold and offers something unique that you may not have seen before.  That said, there are some problems that need ironed out and a few classes are slated to see revamps.

As for the Druid, it can hardly be compared to the Everquest druid of old.  Yes, I can heal a little bit, and yes, I have some damage over time spells, but what makes it interesting is that some spells can do two different things. Some spells have a direct damage component mixed with an additional damage over time feature.  Doing two different types of damage at once is nice.

What makes the druid most unique is how the class uses what is called Phenomena points.  Certain spells can use these points instead of using mana.  The neatest one I have seen so far is called Starfall.  If I have enough phenomena points available, the spell calls a star down from the sky and smites my enemy.  This does massive amounts of direct damage.  I can easily kill same-level creatures in one shot with this spell and it doesn’t use a drop of mana.  The number of phenomena points is limited and they regenerate back over time, so you can’t chain cast these things, but it sure makes you feel powerful at a low level.

Questing is a very large part of Vanguard.  My quest book has never been empty and there is always something interesting to do.  Sure, many quests are of the “go kill X number of Y,” but there are also many that have neat stories attached to them.  Also, as a new player starting out, I like how the quests move you from area to area.  I am only level 17 and I have already travelled a very long way from my starting spot.  It helps keep me interested in the game because I am always seeing new things.

Vanguard has always had a reputation of being a group-oriented game.  This may be true at higher levels (I don’t know), but I have been able to solo every step of the way with my druid so far. In fact, it has been almost too easy to solo.  As I said above, some of the mechanics of the druid class really make me feel powerful, and that is a great draw for me.  I am told that the druid is one of the least played classes and I was shocked to hear that.  I haven’t played a more fun class in ages.  I think it may suffer from the druid’s reputation from Everquest and that keeps people away.

Despite its flaws, Vanguard has come a very long way.  I wish things would get fixed more quickly, but Sony has decided to put only a small development team on it.  Be that as it may, they have worked wonders on what was once a completely awful game.  I can now honestly say that Vanguard is worth a try.  If you played it at launch and hated it, come back and see what has changed.  You might be surprised at what you find.  The game is far from perfect, but it’s not a complete stinker anymore, either.

–Wolfen

Martok Island.

The Riftseeker at Lotus Hold gives out many quests. They are designed to make you travel around using the Riftway system so that you can get experience with using it. I decided to try it out by starting the A Need For Heroes: Blighted Lands quest. Once I arrive in the Blighted Lands, I am to speak to Guard Eba.

Guard Eba has many quests to give the newly arrived adventurer. Next to him is Guard Na Cho who also has many quests available. The first quests had to deal with eliminating Ulvari Devourers which are nothing more than gremlins, and thin out an infestation of what turned out to be flying eyeballs. These creatures were just steps away from where you get the quests, so they were easy to complete.

The Ulvari Corruption: Ulvari Devourers quest resulted in me receiving 1 silver, 60 copper, and 3983 experience points.  The Eye of the Ulvari gave 1 silver, 50 copper, and 3618 experience.  The Eyes of Ulvari surround a colorful rock formation and are very easy to pull solo.  The same goes for the gremlins.  I also completed the Ulvari Pearls quest that had me find a pearl that the gremlins drop.  It gave me 75 copper and 1921 experience and this quest is repeatable.

The next set of quests had to do with the Loamsworm Brotherhood.  There is a stronghold of these brigands located just past the Ulvari area.  They built their fortress inside some mountain walls.

There are several different kinds of these brigands and I had to go kill several of each as well as bring back some gems that they drop.  It’s actually a neat area with fast spawns that can keep the solo player busy.  A group could burn through it in minutes.  I completed the quests Loamsworn Necklaces, Prophetic Action, The Rest of the Bunch, and Alluvian Gems.  They all gave around a silver each along with 3618 experience points each.

I dinged level 17 and logged out for the night.

Here is a picture I snapped while running around Vanguard.  Click the image for actual size.

I decided to head over to Lotus Hold, which is southeast of Nakai Dojo.  Nao Tak said I should go there and find a man named Bautali.  It seems they need some help over there.  On the way over, I found a Pegasus Trainer just west of Lotus Hold who will rent you a flying pegasus at the rate of 25 copper for five minutes.  I also found a Riftway right next to Lotus Hold.

I found Bautali inside the Hold and he had a bunch of quests to give.  Standing next to him is Hai Tang who also has many quests to hand out.  I picked a few from Bautali and got started on them.  I had to go kill a bunch of tigers, ostra’s, varana’s, and others.  The varana and ostra were easy to find, but just like back in the starting areas, the tigers were extremely rare.  I got so tired of running around looking for the tigers that I put that one on hold and worked on some other quests.

Located on the beach which is down the hill from Lotus Hold is a bunch of burned out houses that the orcs have taken over.  The quest Orc Assault: Martok Deadbringer wanted me to go kill a few of the Deadbringers, so down to the beach I went.  The beach is crawling with orcs, so it was easy to quickly find what I needed.  The quest netted me 1 silver, 40 copper, and 3220 experience points.

Back at Lotus Hold, I discovered that the stress and fear of constant orc attacks have caused some of the villagers to go crazy.  Some guy named Mung decided to take a group of them away from Lotus Hold to find some other place to live.  It seems that the crazed villagers took Tao’s Idol of Focus with them when they left and they didn’t ask permission to do so.  I was tasked with getting the idol back.

The crazed villagers are found up on a high hill that is a ways south of the Nakai Dojo.  They stand close to each other, so I had to use Nature’s Calm in order to pull a single.  The very first one I pulled had the idol.  Nice luck.  Returning the idol to Tao resulted in me receiving 1 silver, 40 copper, and 3220 experience points.

I then started a quest that tasked me with retrieving some treasure boxes that the orcs had stolen from Lotus Hold.  These boxes are located around the burned out houses down on the beach.  I had to clear the way of orcs in order to get to some of them, but I also found that I could sneak in behind the houses and get to some of the treasure boxes with minimal combat.  There is a wooden wall behind the houses that has gaps in it and I found a couple gaps that I could squeeze through.

I ran back to Lotus Hold and turned in the treasure box quest and the kill animals quests.  They all gave about a silver each and 3220 experience points each.  I dinged level 16 while doing these quests and here is a list of spells that my Druid received:

- Barbwood Talisman III: AC 60, HP 120, 17 damage shield

- Wild Growth I: 935 to 986 damage over 24 seconds

- Solar Flare II: 297 to 319 fire damage & 107 to 118 over 4 seconds

- Restore II: 503 point heal

- Summon Earth Elemental II: Summons a pet for 3 minutes

- Quelling Wind I:  Lowers hate by 3%