Ancient Kingdoms

Well I killed Pyroth (he didn't drop his quest item), Nyxarion (only issue was the fear but powered through), and tried Urzak: his Primal Fury skill is a MUST INTERRUPT during enrage. And there is enough lag that properly stun countering a skill is difficult. So I died. The Primal Fury skill even puts my health in the danger zone outside of the enrage, it is pretty brutal.



I guess I could use a Dispel Magic scroll but I only have 1. Hrm need to farm arcane runes from Sunken Temple.

Also killed Captain Kragek again and he still won't drop a set glove for anyone.

I also finally went into the Northern Waste (snuck past the North Gate Guardian, not ready for that yet) and got scrolls from the town there. I tried to kill a purple wyvern but was ill prepared. Need to check out his skills - may be time to use that poison purge artifact.

Also, I note there is a Temple of Veeshan equivalent and a Molten Core equivalent? Kinda cool.

From Kragek third kill. What is even this? Forgot to use my Fatecharm too.

Yeah, this is why I was saying that Mage is far and away the best PC class. It definitely has the most "complete" kit and it's the only reliable way to do mobs like Urzak, Overseer, Gate Guard, etc. "early". You can eventually just overgear/VT them down, but it's soooo much easier with mage dispel. They really need to give you a more reliable way to farm scroll mats.

I have all the world bosses on farm (Spirit of the Forest is crazy easy once you get the Staff of Flowers and Dawnstone from the treasure hunts), but not really any upgrades off of them outside of the Legendaries. I still haven't had a black scale drop for the Draconic Key - last piece I need and in 8 kills, still no luck.

Got King in WF down as well and he's pretty much on "farm" status now, after having a rough few tries at him. I ended up dropping his Legendary Artifact on first kill, which has insane stats...



Now it's just a matter of getting the Gate Guard on farm, and he's an absolute nightmare. I finally killed him after four attempts, but there's no way I can do it consistently yet. During his buff + enrage window, he hit me for over 13k in a single swing. Even with Parry, Avatar, miss debuff, mage debuff, and rogue debuff running, the fight still feels like a total dice roll. I can burn Runeshield to survive one enrage window, but it doesn't last long enough to finish the fight, so I still have to live through another phase afterward. The game has a real issue where "difficulty" mostly comes from mobs scaling to absurd damage levels, which turns encounters into RNG checks more than anything else. You're basically praying for favorable rolls.

I'm sure once I get more VT levels for health, full Runeshield duration, AC, and the rest, it'll smooth out, but right now the fight just isn't reliable. Luckily, he dropped his haste belt on my only kill, which is basically BIS for Rangers and Rogues at 20% haste. The Ssaryx version is solid too, but it's only 15%.

At this point I mostly run the world boss loop, then Avatar of Water, followed by Captain, King, and the Ssaryx area. I mainly need VT levels now before I can realistically handle Morwyn in Vault of the Vanished or Hrimsorr in Winterforge. I tried both around three VT levels ago and got completely destroyed. My gear hasn't changed much since then, and I doubt those few VT levels alone are enough to matter yet.

I hit VT60, so now the goal is pushing toward VT100 so I can start farming Legendary Artifacts from the Altar events. Those should help my mercs a lot, especially since I already lucked into Glacierheart for my main character.

The game is still fun as hell, and hopefully I'll be breaking into the ToV and MC areas soon. I also need to farm the boss in the middle of Despair since he drops a ton of strong FR gear for MC, but the area is incredibly touchy because of how tightly packed the mobs are. The NPC command system in this game is also pretty rough, which is what makes it such a PITA. Honestly, Erenshor completely smokes this game when it comes to AI and companion commands.

I am 47 VT I think? I have a Dawnstone, but haven't seen the Staff of Flowers yet. Duly noted.

It's funny how the typical end game routine in a game like this is ultimately comparable across players - Fabled Lizardmen + Ssaryx, Kragek, do-able world bosses and Sunken Temple is my current cycle. I haven't ventured into the Vault yet because the keyholder hasn't spawned for me.

The Sunken Temple Teleri Scholars drop Arcane Runes at a 5% rate, which is the same % for every mob aside from a high level named in Despair who 50% drops one (looks like the other 3 mobs that drop them are in the same room as the named). Those scholars are easy kills, so it is just spawn timer limited, as per usual, for farming. Dispel would help the Thalassor fight as well, because that 30,000 hp heal over time really drags it out lol.

I also want to make a Draconian pick-axe but it needs 50 ore - wtf!

Yeah, this game really hit a sweet spot for me - the farming, the slow progression through gear and levels/VT. I can't believe I have spent some 120 hours on an isometric, pixelated, single player (as I choose to play it) interpretation of EQ/WoW.

Love it.

I know I am going to really immerse into Erenshor as well, which is why I really want to stay with Ancient Kingdoms until I truly feel like I've hit a point of frustration or boredom.

Edit - I was going to try the North Gate Guardian last night while sneaking into the Northern Wastes for the first time but decided against it. That was, evidently, a good decision!

Ah yes, so I put my Winterforge fatecharm in my primary backpack and make my way to Captain Kragek. On the way the guards drop 2 ranger set boots. Kragek drops that pos +40 char ring and............Ranger set gloves.

Welp, that's enough for me for tonight. RNGesus just laughing it up.