Rift: Sights Along The Way

Posted by Wolfen in Rift

I hit level 49 last night. It has been a fun climb to the top, with only a few “what the heck” moments. I blew through Iron Pine Peaks (more on that later), and spent lots of time in the Droughtlands and Shimmersand desert. The variety of creatures and uniqueness of quests greatly diminishes as you level up. That does not mean that things get boring, but the wow factor is not there as much.

In the Droughtlands, you battle centaurs, scorpions, lizards, ants, and giants. Shimmersand continues with more scorpions, giants, lizards, and cultists. Most quests use the tried and true method of go kill “X” amount something and get a reward at the end. Some quests, however, are fun and interesting. In the Droughtlands, you’ll find an arena where some giants want you to defeat a series of tough encounters in order to gain their respect. Most of these fights require a group, although I was able to defeat the first two fights by myself.

I wasn’t very impressed with Shimmersand until I discovered the city of Fortune’s End. This is a quest hub city that will send you out in all directions. There are three quests here that I consider highlights.

The first sends you go a large prison colony where you find that the inmates have rebelled and you need to find out what they are up to. You are given a disguise that makes you look just like one of the inmates. Once in the prison, as the new guy, you must prove yourself to the gang leaders before they trust you. This requires using a shiv to kill enemies of the gang leader. After running a bunch of quests, you eventually learn what the cultist’s plans are and attempt to stop them.

The second sent me off to find a treasure chest in a nearby cave. The quest is called “I Hope You Like Surprises,” so I was alert to the fact that something would happen. Well, when I tried to loot the chest, I was attacked by a stealthed enemy. I was surprised when I discovered that he had stolen my kidney! I was then on a timer to find certain items that would allow me to get my kidney back. I had to run fast because my health was constantly dropping. I barely got it done in time.

The third sent me to kill the main bad guy in the area. When I arrived at the spot, I saw that this final fight was going to be a rift encounter. I confronted the bad guy and that triggered the first round of the rift. The mobs in each round are level 50. I didn’t think I would be able to win the fight because I was only level 47 at the time. I can kill mobs two levels above me fairly easily, but my attacks miss a great deal with anything higher. Each mob took awhile, but I took my time and got through each stage. I was joined by another player when the final stage started, and I am glad that he did. I would not have been able to do it by myself. Even then it was a very close call.

As for Iron Pine Peaks, I discovered that I had missed a huge amount of quests in that zone. Other quests lead me on to other places, so I didn’t find the other quests until I went back. I didn’t keep count, but it sure seemed like it was another 40 or more quests to be done. So, my advice is to make sure you have turned in all of your Iron Pines quests. The one I didn’t turn in was the one that would have sent me in the right direction.

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Rift: The Middle Levels

Posted by Wolfen in Rift

I have been moving through the ol’ PVE grind as I explore the middle levels and inch towards level 50. I have reached level 44 and I am still having fun. I find certain zones better than others, but nothing terribly bad. I moved to Scarlet Gorge after finishing up Gloamwood. From there I went through Scarwood Reach, Moonshade Highlands, and the Doughtlands.

Scarlet Gorge has been the least fun zone for me. I just don’t like the way it is laid out. It is a nice looking zone, but I didn’t like the feel of it. Foul Cascade can be found here, which is the zone’s dungeon instance. It is an interesting 5-man dungeon with some neat boss fights.

Next was Scarwood Reach. It is a large zone with a huge array of quests. I particularly liked the many quest variations to be had. I never felt bored running quests here. There was always something new around the corner.

Once Scarwood Reach is completed, you are left with quests that send you to both Moonshade Highlands and the Doughtlands. Both zones are designed for the same questing levels. I first went to Moonshade, but I soon developed a plan that I think made things easier and faster for me.

I was noticing that each time I came to a new quest hub that I was always two levels below the quests offered there. It was happening without fail. I don’t know if I was just being efficient or if the game was designed that way. Either way, since Moonshade and Doughtlands were of the same level range, I was able to get around that issue. I would run quests in Moonshade until I hit the next quest hub where the quests were higher level than me. I would then move to the Doughtlands where the quests would be the same level as me. I would run those quests until I hit another hub and then move back to Moonshade. Running quests of the same level made getting through them much easier and faster.

Of the two zones, I found the Doughtlands to be more fun. I had already seen many of the creatures that also inhabit Moonshade, whereas most of the creatures in Droughtlands were new to me. You will start in Lantern Hook, which is a city located inside a mountain.

My Paladin/Reaver/Warlord build continues to serve me very well. Alas, it appears as if the party will soon be over. Patch notes on the test server show that the Reaver soul is going to get hit with HUGE nerfs in the near future. There are many nerfs coming, but the one that burns me the most is that they are taking away the 9% heal for each creature killed. That is going to slow me down in a very big way. I’ve had so much fun with my AOE abilities, but it appears that Trion is taking all that fun away and replacing it with pain. It is a damn shame. I will post my experiences with it once it hits the live servers.

I am almost done with the Droughtlands and I have started a few quests in Shimmersand. More details to come.

Scarlet Gorge waterfall	Foul Cascade spider
Moonshade bay	Droughtlands scenery

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Rift: Gloamwood Area

Posted by Wolfen in Rift

Gloamwood is a dark, spooky place to visit. It reminds me of the World of Warcraft zone called Duskwood. The setting and ambiance are very similar. Gloamwood is full of ghosts, undead, and evil cultists, which will occupy most of your time.

The visuals in this zone are very nice. I want to compliment Trion on how great the game looks. While they took ideas from WoW, I much prefer the more realistic look of Rift over the cartoonish style of WoW.

The quest hub is the town of Gloaming Pines. It is fairly large, with plenty of buildings, shops, and trainers close to hand. It even has a huge tree that you get to visit via running up a street made of wood and rope. Be warned, however, if you make the journey to the top of the tree, that it is guarded by evil cultists that are higher level than most level appropriate players.

There is a huge number of quests in the Gloamwood area, but there is one in particular that I wish to mention. As you venture along the various quests, you’ll eventually get one that wants you to confront an evil hag that has been causing lots of trouble in the area. I fought my way through all the guards and entered her house. I confronted her and then she started talking some smack and then teleported me out of the house to a spot a good distance away.

I immediately realized that something was wrong. I was no longer human! The old hag had placed a curse on me that had turned me into a werewolf! To add insult to injury, I was now KOS to all NPC’s! I could not go to town, get or finish a quest, or train up my character.

 

As you might imagine, this made things rather difficult. Every now and then I would turn back into a human, but I would always change back into a werewolf. I suspect this transformation correlated with the day/night cycle in the game. I was given a hint that to break the curse I must either kill the hag or find someone in town to cure me. Going to town, however, was a tricky thing since I could change back into a werewolf in an instant.

So, long story somewhat shortened, I continued to run the quests I had and eventually got one that sent me to find and kill the hag (in a different and more difficult location than where I first met her). The curse lifted when she died. It is an interesting quest, but I found it to be annoying rather than fun.

You can also find the Deepstrike Mines instance in this area. A couple points of interest would be a huge werewolf boss fight where you need to keep him out of the moonlight, and a very large and nasty spider encounter.

Other than the werewolf problem, I enjoyed my time in Gloamingwood.

 

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LOTRO: Combe Quest Hub – Part 2

Posted by Wolfen in LOTRO

Continuing on with quests in the Combe area, I began with one named Old Bauman’s Farm. This took me back into the Chetwood to retrieve a chain that used to belong to his beloved dog. I found the Blackwold camp in question and the first Blackwold that I killed dropped the chain. No fuss, no muss. The quest reward was some food items.

The same Blackwold that dropped the chain also had a receipt on him that I returned to Constable Sageford. This receipt seemed to implicate a local towns-person with the Blackwolds.

To be certain, I was sent to obtain another strongbox from the Blackwold stronghold.  Sure enough, the second strongbox showed that the local locksmith had created the box. I go talk to the locksmith and he tells me that he was forced against his will by a Blackwold named Applewood to make the boxes. The constable sent me to the northern area of the Chetwood to kill Applewood and retrieve the master key. After finding and killing Applewood in the Blackwold stronghold, I was rewarded with decent bracelet.

The next quest string I  embarked on was started with one named Cutleaf’s Good Intentions. I am to infiltrate the ranks of the Blackwolds by talking to Ellie Cutleaf, who seems to be a double agent. Before I could do that, however, she wanted me to go kill a den mother wolf before it can begin breeding more wolves for the Blackwolds. The den mother was located in a stall next to a house up on a hill in the northeast portion of the Chetwood. My reward for killing her was an axe, which finally gave me a second weapon to use with my dual wield skill. This greatly increased my melee damage.

Ellie then sends me to a man named Leecher Cartwell to get some poison to be used in finishing off the rest of the wolves. Leecher didn’t have any of the poison ready, so he sent me out in search of the necessary ingredients required to make it. All the ingredients were not far away. The berries were found in a valley filled with bears. The beehives were behind a house just south of Leecher’s house. The roots can be found near the wolf den located just inside the Chetwood. By the way, Leecher’s house can be a pain to find if you have never looked for it before. Here is a view from his porch. The big building on the right is the Combe and Wattle Inn.

Poison in hand, Ellie sends me to the Blackwold Headquarters to poison the meat that the wolves eat. I am also to kill the leader of this band of Blackwolds. His name is Jagger Jack. The headquarters, which I have visited several times before while on other quests, is located in northeast Chetwood. I entered the stronghold and worked my way deeper into it. I found the dead sheep that I was to poison while on the way to Jagger’s camp. With that done, I went in search of Jagger Jack.

Jagger is located just to the north of the dead sheep. He is guarded by several Blackwolds that have wolf pets at their command. I worked my way through those and found Jagger Jack in the middle of an evil looking camp in the valley below. He is well guarded but I did not have any trouble it taking him or his cronies down. I ran back to Ellie and completed the quest. This resulted in a huge upgrade to my boots. 30 more armor to be exact. Not a bad end to my evening.

–Wolfen

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LOTRO: Combe Quest Hub

Posted by Wolfen in LOTRO

The one thing you can say about the town of Combe is that it gives you plenty of things to do. I picked up a good number of quests upon my arrival, so I checked my gear and headed out to claim my fame and fortune.

The first quest I embarked upon was called Message to Taylor Green. Taylor can be found in the lumberyard located to the east of Combe. Several more quests are available at the lumberyard and I grabbed them all.

Taylor gives me the Den of Wolves quests, which required me to go into the nearby forest and kill 8 wolves. The wolves were nearby and I quickly dispatched the required number of beasts. Also at the lumberyard is a guy named Posco Burro. He wanted me to go find his uncle who had gone to have a word or two with the evil Blackwolds located in the Chetwood forest. I found his uncle along a forest road and he then sent me on a quest to find his missing handkerchief. Other quests that sent me into the Chetwood were Morning the Dead, which had me looking for a stolen fishing pole, Reconnecting Ties to find a missing boy, Beneath the Hanging tree to find some buried treasure, and a few others to boot.

I completed these quests fairly quickly. I would imagine that was because I had done them before, even though it had been a long time since I had last played. Almost all of the quests required me to go into various Blackwood encampments throughout the forest, kill everyone I found, and loot the required item.  The fishing pole was at one camp and the Blackwold lock-box (for the quest Unpaid Debts) at another.

The Beneath the Hanging Tree quest sent me over to the river to dig for treasure buried there. Turns out all the trees had been cut down and only the stumps remained, which made it impossible to know which tree the Hanging Tree was. So I was sent to someone who has a ledger that would lead me the exact spot, but the guy has lost it and I must retrieve it.

I found the ledger inside a Blackwold Lock-box that was located in a heavily guarded camp. The camp with the lock-box had about 5 Blackwolds in it and there was also a level 8 elite named Captain Dogwood. He roams around the general area and walks right through the camp every now and then. I suggest picking him off before you tackle the camp so that things go smoothly. He didn’t give me any trouble. The ledger gave me the location of the Hanging tree’s stump and I quickly dug up the treasure and returned it to its owner.

Reconnecting Ties had me looking for the missing boy named Covell Woodwright. It seems as though he ran off to join with the Blackwoods and has no intention of returning to his mother. He attacked me when I spoke to him and then ran off into the Blackwold camp before I could kill him (the quest is scripted that way). His mother didn’t like the news.

With the above quests and several more besides, I was able to get quite a bit accomplished and had some fun. Several of the quest rewards resulted in nice armor upgrades and I also reached level 12 by the time I stopped for the night. I was disappointed, once again, to find that all the battles posed no challenge. I never came close to dying. I hope the trend does not continue.

–Wolfen

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