the Monster Mash

[Bearabald]

Next week we will have a Monster Play night. This is an easy way for everyone to get together regardless of level. I will be pitching in prizes (including gold and gear). Prizes will include things like best death, best kill, last one living on a wipe... and whatever other silly idea we can come up with.

I have asked sporto to drive us around since he is probably our highest monster player (and it will probably drive him nuts leading around a bunch of newb monsters). That being said... no one needs to be 'good' at pvp to participate. I expect to have a lot of 1st timers out there. Although... there might be a prize if you can beat sporto duel or at least steal some of his kbs.

I would like to ask anyone that is going to participate to please at least make a monster if you have already.

I am thinking Monday or Tuesday night since we dont have anything planned early in the week.

Your thoughts and suggestions are welcome.

[sobeit thenn]

i still think all mambers bashing the officers without them fighting back is another good idea lol

[Aradel]

I think that sounds really fun, nanu. =)

[Frothy]

Sounds like fun and yes I have two creeps, neither of which I have done much more than collect slug meat and some scouting.

[professorchaos]

awesome idea nanuq! should our mp be a nooby? we could also do a "zerg chaos or sporto" match, and whoever gets the kb gets a prize :)

[Caerylwyn]

I have a spider that I have only collected some slug meat with and gotten lost on some island before RL called me away and I haven't gone back in.

Got lots of questions though like... how do I earn or get training?

Either Monday or Tuesday would work for me, I just need to know so I can tell my daughter I ain't baby sitting that night! Or if I end up doing so I would need to join after 8pm (when the kids go down) unless I can talk hubby into watching them and only leave temporarily when it is bedtime.

[Caerylwyn]

It appears that Monday is the best day for me to play because my daughter does not work that day but does work on Tuesday 3-11pm which means Granny Duty until 8pm pst (bed time).

[Sporto]

Either night sounds good to me. My warleader hit rank 3 last night, and my other two creeps are both rank 5, so I can bring whoever along. I am more than happy to answer what questions I can and will be able to show everyone how to get around the map in relative safety even with heavy freep presence.

Here's a quick run down of how monster play works (loosely). Hopefully this will answer Caer's current question as well as a few unasked ones.

Skills : Skills and traits are available to you based on your rank. You purchase them at the monster player trainer (one at grams and one at Dar Gazag) using destiny points which are earned instead of XP's through questing. You have passive skills, which escape me at the moment but include evade, parry, armor, and one other I believe, and active skills which are what you use in combat.

Traits : There are 5 types of traits and these are purchased at the same location as skills using DP also. Legendary traits don't exist atm, and the other 4 types are Class, Race, Corruption, and Appearance. They are all pretty self explanitory when you look at them ingame. Corruption traits generally buff some aspect of your toon while taking away from another (Health buff for a damage cut, for example).

Maps : The first thing we'll probably do is try to get everyone their Grams Map. Depending on freep activity this could be a fun challenge in and of itself. You get this map by talking to an NPC in Grams and then reporting to or scouting the various keep locations on the map. If a couple of the 'report to' ones are Blue then we'll have to re-evaluate. The other challenging part is that if you die before returning to Grams after the scouting quests and turning them in, then you fail and have to start over. This is especially painful on the TR scout, as it is a very long run. You can get 3 different maps to each keep as well, by completing 10/25/50 quests for each one, but I seriously doubt we'll get to that point.

Ranking : Ranking is the creep version of levelling. You can rank in only one way... killing freeps. Unfortunately when you start out, it can feel like it would if they populated the countryside around Archet with level 15 mobs from the start, but as much as we all are used to working together I think we'll suprise a few freeps who will think a gaggle of green dots (with one sig) are easy pickings.

Green, Blue, Sig : If you look at the top left of your screen at your character picture, there is a ring around the picture. When you start your creep that ring will be green. After you purchase your first round of passive traits (I believe) it will turn blue... indicating that you are a tad harder to kill. Once you rank to 3 and max out all of your passives it turns orange and you are then considered Signature. Nobody will get this in one night, but we'll have fun and see if we can get some folks close to rank 1.

Key thing to remember. Have fun and expect to die...alot... badly.

I will try to farm up some stuff to pass out for passives and such, but my time is going to be sketchy this weekend. I will also roll whichever of my creeps seems like it'll help the most.

[Noveah]

Looking foward to more monster play.


Rolled a creep this weekend and Sporto showed us the ropes for a bit and boy was it FUN! Thanks to the Hoff we now have the map set for monday night.

[Bearabald]

I made my monster WL on Sunday. Named Wickedblade... yeah, i know all those lions are going to hunt me down now, lol. Play nice until i am at least non-cannon fodder :) I already had to pick arrows out of uruk ass from cainman.

Anyways... add me to your friend list on monster side. Being solo is a death sentance atm and i am trying to doa few newb quests for dp

[kitty]

sadness i work, if its up and running when i get home, ill be there

[Aradel]

Sporto, I've been reading the meneldor forums and have been seeing a few posts about An farming. What the heck is An farming?

[Bearabald]

Sporto, I've been reading the meneldor forums and have been seeing a few posts about An farming. What the heck is An farming?

I am not sporto at monster play, but i assume that is killing marshall An (which is a 2000dp repeatable quest)

[professorchaos]

yeah nanuq is right, he's the dwarf in ec that u can farm :( you get 2k dp for that quest, with a half an hour cooldown on it, so what people do is bring their alts in and just repeatedly farm him. it gets really annoying when a keep is falling and people are spamming "say yes for an"

[Sporto]

PC wins the prize. An is an NPC in the Elf Camp (EC) who is part of a quest for monster players that nets them 2k dp. Many people, mostly newer players, have 5 creeps and will constantly kill An to get massive amounts of easy destiny points. The problem is two-fold.

One, An's respawn is broken and he spawns pretty much instantly. He used to (book 9-10 IIRC) spawn on some kind of random timer which was pretty long and forced creeps to make an effort to band together so as many people as possible got credit. They already do this for the other two main NPC's that monsters get quests for (Golloval and Goldhead), which are on something like a 30 minute respawn and only worth 750dp. In book 11 An was removed altogether (nobody knows why) and that is where I actually did the vast majority of my ranking for my reaver. Truthfully, once you reach rank 4, destiny points really pile up while you are trudging towards rank 5.

Two, because it is more or less a DP factory, ANY time there is a lull in PvP and many times when PvP is hot and heavy people are spamming for An raids. We all know that PvP 'vets' can be pretty elitist on their best days, but in this case the newer creep behaviour in regards to An is very disruptive.

As for me, the whole Anaholic thing is annoying but overall not a huge deal. My main complaint is that the ease of the quest makes other questing less important to your average new monster player, and learning to survive around the map while questing is part of the growing process as a monster player (IMHO). There is a big advantage down the line to having had to learn to be crafty and sneaky as you make your way around the area. You also earn VERY useful maps from the 5 keeps as you complete quests.

I plan on our group killing An, Golloval, and Goldhead tonight when we get going. How realistic that is will depend largely on what the action is like and where it is going down. Hopefully we can get maps for everyone pretty quick, as those of us with maps already will be able to 'straggle' behind if we suspect freeps are onto us and die so our comrades can escape and not fail whatever portion of the map quests they happen to be on.

I also will hopefully be able to quiz folks on the different keeps and locations for prizes. Not sure what the competition will be for the 2k dp item that I procured this weekend, but we'll try to make it fun.

[Achilleus]

I saw on the MOTD that it is happening today (Monday), but it doesn't state a time here or there. Do we have a firm start time or do we just join up whenever we log on?

[Aradel]

I was wondering the same thing.

[Sporto]

I plan on logging in around 7 my time (central). I may be on a little earlier than that getting stuff transfered around between my toons.

[Achilleus]

Well, it was alot of fun until my internet went out for 2 hours. :( Stupid Comcast!

[Noveah]

hey Sporto,

Thanks for taking us Noobs out for creep play. I myself had a blast.

Thanks for being a patient leader and I enjoyed running with some kin members that I haven't had the chance to fellow with.

Would you want to try to set up creep nite with the kin? It sure seemed like there was a lot of interest and fun..

[Caerylwyn]

Thank You Sporto!

I had sooooo much FUN! last night! What a HOOT!

I wouldn't do the monster thing by myself but with a big bunch of friends it was a blast! :cheese:

And if we do it enough we may be feared by all who cross our paths! :eek: LOL!!! Those players didn't stand a chance even if we were mostly noobs.

We do need to figure a strategy for a burgie patrol though, maybe have designated teams to take on each one individually instead of all on one. You know, to keep them occupied individually so they don't have time to help each other. Same goes for Minstrels, Lore Masters and Captains. If we have a plan that we all can work with it could help immensely even if there is more than one in a group.

And Y'all who play the 'Other Side'... no fair telling secrets! :p

I even laughed all the way to the circle of fools time and again! Although someone could have warned me about the suicide run at the end! lol! :eh: :eek: :laugh: What was that place anyway???

[Sporto]

The suicide run at the end was to the Freep base of operations which is protected by one-shot guards. As for strategy, I have a few in mind that work well but didn't want to muddy the waters with such things while we were all getting used to our toons and laughing and goofing around. After we've had a chance to all get comfortable I'll go into some of them as well as picking other folks' brains for their ideas too (Mallory).

[Achilleus]

A freep night would be fun too so that we could get our mains some pvp rank and gear.

[Sporto]

A freep night would be fun too so that we could get our mains some pvp rank and gear.

100% agree with this. Wed nights are good nights to go freep because at least one big kin has their PvP night then so we won't be getting absolutely zerged.

[Aradel]

I just wanted to add that the creep idea is a wonderful one because it can include all lions that are above lvl 10. Nobody is really left out of this one. =) I do like the freep plan as well. ^^

[bokonon]

I've done no freeping and hardly any creeping...would be nice to learn the ropes with a group, yep.

[Caerylwyn]

I've done no freeping and hardly any creeping...would be nice to learn the ropes with a group, yep.

Yes it would! I have wanted to 'Freep' but was too cautious to step off the porch. Having the semi-security of a group would help and be a lot of fun too.

[Renmazuo]

I can't wait to get in as a Freep. It's such a tease that you can go there at lvl 40 but can't really do anything until level 50.

[Bearabald]

Poor Chaos :)

<waits to be killed repeatedly>

[professorchaos]

o its on now.....

[sobeit thenn]

wow good job too bad it was only 10 infamy better luck with the better freeps lol

[Renmazuo]

Sobe, sorry if I'm mistaken, but where were you? :(

[Bearabald]

Hey this freep was worth more than 10 inf... where do i know that name from... oh well.


:owned:

[professorchaos]

This is how u make me feel nanuq...
(yes, i did grab this pic off the forums) haha

[Bearabald]

lol, poor doggie


Ding Rank 3 btw :)

Now I must become a dp whore

[professorchaos]

well, i was bored this morning so i figured i'd post some screenies that i had taken throughout my pvp adventure, so enjoy :)

[professorchaos]

for nanuq's eye's only....

[professorchaos]

and my personal favorite :) i wonder who this could be....

[Aradel]

*giggle*

[kitty]

wow 98 renown :P bro..you were only worth 17 o.O

[Sporto]

The main reason that his kill was worth 98 and his death was worth 15 is that you were raided up for the cainman kills. I'm sure most folks know that, but there may be some who don't. Solo kills always give more infamy, but even if you aren't near your raid and are raided up you will get only a fraction of what you would get if you killed someone 1v1 while not in a group.

Planning another creepy lion night for next week, probably Monday or Tuesday... discuss.

[Caerylwyn]

TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY are my days off granny duty next week... the days I can tune out the rest of the family and play unimpeded by BBOL syndrome (Baby On Lap).

If we do another 1st map run I would like to try the warg but that is something I can do on my own time.

[Sporto]

I doubt that I'll host another first map run, honestly, because it is something that can be done solo and the first one's main purpose was to show folks the map. However, if I am on and not up to my neck in freeps, I will happily take some time to help someone get that map on a toon.

Not sure about the night still, wednesday could be good or bad depending on your outlook. That night about 40 people in vent from the same kin all roll the map blue every week against about half their numbers so it tends not to be exactly fun. Tuesday night I will be creeping, but we are doing an all reaver/warleader raid that night and I will be participating in that. Tonight I wouldn't mind doing it (Monday) but I also was thinking of joining Cainman on his troll vendetta or of pushing Caffran a couple of levels towards 30.

[Sporto]

Monster Mash 2.0 coming soon, I will post time and date in the MOTD when I return from Birmingham on Sunday.

[Dangar]

I need to get back into monster play. I need to Nail Pro to the wall sometime.

When yall are ready Ill tag along my BA is pushing rank 5.
Just let me know :D

[professorchaos]

we should have a shoot out sometime dangar :P