One of the most interesting thing about Asheron's Call 2 is exploring. There is so much to see and a lot of places that aren't always visited. Here are a few of the places Keikorua has been to on Osteth. All of these are within the parameters of beginning travel, though some may be a bit more challenging to get to than others.

We'll start off with Millstone. This is at dawn, I believe, and is easily assessible. You can see the diving board if you look.

The next one is a place many of us long to get to. You can make by portal at 6th level, but you can make overland from Arwic in about 15-20 minutes. This is Cragstone at midnight.

If you ever played the original Asheron's Call, you probably have at least heard of the Obsidian Span. Here is the Obsidian Span, as Keikorua traveled crosscountry to it from Cragstone.

Of course it has stood for millennia, through several major upheavals of the land, so there are places that need repair.

But it is still majestic, especially at dawn.

Then of course the upheavals that have damaged the Obsidian Span have resulted in some natural wonders. This is just a portion of one of them, the Six Falls, in the Mad Crone Region.

Then of course, most people have heard of Heroes. This is the Heroes' Tower, for lack of a better term, and it is really easy to get to, out of Millstone.

If you climb to the top and take a look at the surrounding terrain, you may see these areas.

If you go inside, this is just a glimpse.

That's all for now, I hope you enjoyed some of the views, and if you would like to see more in the future, drop me a comment. Keikorua is now exploring Omishan, and it has its own style of beauty.

Gueron

Coming Next: A Pet for Peregryne.

When we last left Cucarocha, he was a young Drudge in an unfamiliar world, an outcast to polite society, struck with the frightful Purple Plague, and well, still 1st level. So a little recap.

Drudges are a playable ‘prestige’ race. A Drudge starts with two weapons melee weapons; a digging tool and a board with nail, each having the same speed and damage. Drudges do not even have armor, though they do have ‘rags’ as clothing. A Drudge does not have a starter dungeon, but rather are inserted into the world before learning anything of the world, and still at a low level. Drudges do not have multiple disciplines. The only real purpose of a Drudge character is fun. Oh yes, at this time Drudges are only available to players that have purchased the Pre-order Legions, but there is a quest coming out soon that will allow players to unlock the Drudge Race.

Cragstone, a city on the Isle of Osteth, perhaps the most important city, as far as many people are concerned. It was at Cragstone, the last of the Humans, Tumeroks, and Lugians made their stand against the barabarian drudges, before finally retreating to the shelters that housed them for generations. Or so the tales would have us believe. But the tales are told by those same races, The Drudges may have their own tales, of a city fallen because of its pride or weakness.

Cucarocha left Cragstone as quickly as possible, he had picked up the Purple Plague there, a diseases that left him with little stamina. He chose Millstone, because it seemed appropriate.

Outside of Millstone, he swam to one side of the Esper river, and was attacked by a Cutter Beetle, and he could not manage to survive, it chased him down and slew him, and he found himself once again at Cavendo. He ran back through Rithwic, and Cragstone, to again make it to Millstone. This time, since I did not want to have a long run back, I tied him to the lifestone Arwic/Cragstone gateway. I swam across the river again, and found a cutter beetle, and fought it and had to run yet again, with the same result.

This time, I had noted the lifestone across the river. I tied to it, and went to fight the cutter beetle again, again dying, but this time I was on the same side of the river, and attacked the cutter beetle again immediately. It was still weakened, and I defeated it. I did this several more times, earning enough experience to make 2nd level, before deciding to go after stronger prey, edge beetles. It kind of makes sense, Drudges eat small beetles, so you would figure that they would attack the larger ones. However there were also vermin, so I decided to attack the weaker Bold Vermin Pilferer, earning a potion for an edge beetle incursion quest from one of them. I drank the potion and took the quest.

I continued this pattern, dying a bit, but also earning weapons and ever more useful rags, for a while. I did go after the higher vermin as well. From a Brave Crawlspace Vermin I was able to get a Wasp Slayer Elixir, which starts the Wasp Bane Quest. After I had achieved 7th level, I took swam across a different river to the small islet which houses the Drudge Cadre. It is also infested with Green Phyntos Wasps, the target of the Wasp Bane incursion quest. I attacked The green wasps and Drudge Outcasts. From time to time, I had to run and jump into the river to escape a monster that I was having little luck against. I eventually finished the quest, and had earned up to about 9th level. It was time to log out with Cucarocha.

I logged back I the next day with a Cucarocha, and started mining. Role-playing has always been a focus of mine, and I like to give each of my characters a hook. Drudges do not have a particular type of crafting for their gear. They can, I have discovered, use swords, as can every race, but I decided that Cucarocha’s hook would be to craft weapons. I like the crafting system, and it seemed appropriate. All of my characters have some crafting abilities, but I generally specify a crafting discipline for them. In Cucarocha’s case, He will try to equally improve all weapon disciplines. This is not efficient, but I think it will be fun.

While he was mining, a call came for help on a vault. Cucarocha already had the purple plague, but he had picked up a glyph for the Arwic vault, so he volunteered. He took another player to the Arwic Vault, and they fought through it. He was powerful enough, that he rarely had difficulties, and he finished the adventure at 11th level. I logged off Cucarocha and logged on Samhuin to finish the other vaults with the player.

I didn’t log back on Cucarocha until the double experience point weekend, May 19th-20th. He was able to get a cure for his Purple Plague and he fought against and ran from the Reed Sharks and Cobalt Drudges near Molwirth to earn 12th, 13th, and 14th levels. After I had earned 14th level, I decided to rest Cucarocha for a while. I have 18 characters now, on Frostfell, and the others needed to be played.

There is still more that has happened to Cucarocha, but I guess that will be reported in a future blog. I hope you are interested enough to check back and find out. Drudges are fun.

Cucarocha,.... er, Gueron.

Well, I had finals this week, and after that, I installed AC2: Legions, the first expansion pack to Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings. Legions was released last Wednesday, and I finally got a hold of the game on Saturday. I had already opened the Pre-Order pack, but as I had Finals starting on Monday, I decided not to install it, lest I neglect studying.

When I did finally install it, Wednesday, after my last final, the x-pack had been in use for a week. It did take about an hour and a half to install, this from the four CD-ROMs, as there is a lot of new information, and I decided to go for the High-Res pack. It might have also gone faster had I been attending it the entire time. Legions adds a new playble race, the Empyrean, and a number of quests, as well as about 33% more land mass. Also, with the pre-order pack, we got a prestige race, the Drudge, which is unlockable. There will be a quest in the future, that will allow the Drudge to be unlocked, even if you didn't pre-order Legions.

Drudges are a staple of Asheron's Call, and have a lot to do with AC2. I'll go on to my entrance to Legions. Basically, Drudges are a common foe for all of AC1. They range from pitifully weak, to extremely strong, in both AC1 and AC2. In AC2 they are a nemesis race, primarily living on Omishan.

When I completed the task to unlock the Drudge, delivering something to a Drudge representative in Cragstone. I logged off and set about creating my drudge. First was the name, I chose Cucarocha, a modification on the scientific name of cockroach, and was surprised that no one else had already taken it. The only thing you control, as far as character creation, is color of fur, and general size. Even the largest drudges you can create are small. I then logged in.

Drudges get no training camp. Cucarocha was dropped on to Dereth with some rotting rags, a digging tool (melee weapon) and a board with nail (melee weapon). Drudges also have only one discipline, melee. I set about trying to learn how to play a drudge.

A thoughtful person had left a nice portal right in front of me, I took it, and wound up in Cragstone. From there I took the portal route to Cavendo. I tied to the lifestone there, and then made a Crystal map. I gave the map to the cartomancer, and I was in the Esper Reaches. I was killed by an npc drudge rather quickly. I decided I'd best run some starter quests, returned to Cragstone, and picked up the Purple Plague (by the way, this is the bug, but it is intentional).

I now had to figure out how to survive with the Purple Plague, no experience, and really weak weapons, not to mention without armor, or the ability to get it, and with every monster a higher level than I was.

It's a Drudge's life, killed by his own, and disliked by all. So where did I go. I'll let you know during the next entry. Tune in next time, same Drudge Channel, same Drudge Time, er well, later anyway.

Gueron

... Her next conscious thought was to wonder why she was looking at the blue transport device. She looked around, not remembering why she had activated her recall, and noted that she was in Arwic. She had been sure she had been looking for the stone so prized by crafters, and she had been attacked by a beetle: one that was large, with great sharp pincers.

Then she remembered the pain. She looked anew on the transport device, and remembered its name among the humans, a lifestone. Horror dawned upon her. She thought back to the histories taught in the shelters, and remembered the name of Asheron, and his mythical manipulation of arcane energies to try and protect the people that had been brought from their homeland. She had died. Her mind strained to escape that reality, she had died, and been recalled. She fell to the ground trembling with the missing memories of her death.

She had been fighting terrors, massively strong large and deadly beetles. She had realized they had been overrunning the resource-rich Prosper region, and though she had been able to handle a number of them, the last one had been a bit too strong. She had not been able to heal herself as its magic overwhelmed her, drawing out the last dregs of her energy. She shuddered away from the last thought.

Standing up, she caught her breath. She still had the map she had drawn up. She considered disposing of it. She could always make another, and steer away from the frightening Prosper Rings region. As she was about to rip it up, she thought to herself that she had never given up before, and she would not do so now. Mining was her primary means of sustenance, and she still had stone to seek.

She stepped through the Cragstone Portal and found Gerhard, just returning from a break. After exchanging pleasantries, she handed him her map. He noted the blood on it, gave her a compassionate look and sent her on her way. As she materialized at the drop spot in the Prosper Rings, she gripped her javelin tightly, feeling the reassuring weight of her shield Then she headed toward her place of death. She had been sure that she was getting close when she had been ..... indisposed.

As she approached she saw the familiar shape of the Scythe Beetle. Not waiting to be attacked, she attacked it, this time paying more attention to her energy. After a short, somewhat painful battle, she emerged victorious, feeling more her old self. She continued on her journey, knowing that she was almost there. As she approached she saw the gleam of the shell of a Scythe Beetle. A chill passed through her, causing her to hesitate.

The beetle had no reservations, and attacked immediately. Valiantly she fought back, and started to make some headway, as she felt the dark magic of the beetle seep into her. She began to lose health, bleeding with exertion and in reaction to the hunting magic of the beetle. She knew she had but a short time before she again fell to the beast. As her strength faded, she called upon magic to heal her. It helped, but it was not enough, she continued to fight, as the world grew dim.

She knew little of the ancient spirits that protected her people, nothing of their names, still she prayed, "Great Family protect me." In that instance, a wind picked up. "Great Sister Wind," she prayed striking truly and slaying the creature just before her strength completely failed. Suddenly her limbs were infused with strength and she became stronger than she had ever been before. She knew she could finally become what she had dreamed of, a Hive Keeper.

Before she made the decision, she had something to do, though. She located the stone beneath the corpse of the Scythe Beetle and extracted it. She looked at the beetle and took out a knife to remove its shell. She had heard there was a market for items of that sort in Cavendo. She intended to travel again to Cavendo, and this time, she knew she could make it to Omishan. Her ancestral home awaited, and she wanted to see Ikeras.

She recalled to Arwic, this time of her own choice, and then ran through the Cragstone Portal to Cragstone. She traveled through Cragstone, her steps lightening as she thought of the stories she had heard from other Tonks. Through Rithwic she went, pausing only to help a young Human, Mychaos, battle a blade beetle. She little like beetles, but knowing the desire of one to overcome such a beast, she only healed him, as he needed it. He was working with a young Tonk, Shy Lataan, who in turn eased her fatigue. She passed through the Cavendo portal and ran through the town: her goal, the Omishan portal.

She paused briefly before the portal, savoring the anticipation, and then she exhaled and stepped through. The warmth that greeted her on the other side was gratifying, as was her first breath of the sweet, humid air. She gloried in the sounds of the jungle. Eventually she headed up the road; she wanted to see Ikeras.

The jungle, though welcoming, was still hostile. She ran through many creatures she had never encountered before, but the Spirits protected her. She arrived at the Kydi Gateway, somehow knowing the way instinctively. Taking a few jumps, she arrived in Mayoi, and from there went to Ikeras, the first Tonk settlement built after the exile in the Shelters. She looked around, and decided that “built” was an inappropriate term. Ikeras was formed, working in harmony with the land, instead of excavated and built as was usually done by Lugians and Humans.

Laughing with joy as she ran, she climbed the decks winding around the trees. At the uppermost point, she stopped. Praying to Great Sister Wind, Blue Mother Heaven, and other spirits she knew of but was not as familiar with as she wished to be, she gave herself to the path of a Hive Keeper.

Asheron's Call 2 is classified as a role playing game. But role playing is not enforced. I am a roleplayer, and will always try to do that. The above story did happen. Keikorua was mining in the Prosper Rings and she was very close to making 15th level, where she could choose to be a Hive Keeper, which is why I was playing her.

The Prosper Rings is a fertile area for adventuring in the late teens, and I would not normally have played in the area with a 14th level character, but I felt I would have a limited time to play, and all the mobs in the Prosper rings are 16th level or higher.

One of the better incursion quests is the Scythe Beetle Incursion, started by killing a Reaper Beetle. Incursion quests are short in-game quests that detail the player to eliminate a number of a type of mob or mobs. Incursion quests may be started by killing a specific creature, drinking a potion, or being given a quest by an NPC. There are incursion quests for all levels.

The Scythe Beetle Incursion is targeted at 19th level characters, but I thought I might be able to pull it off with Keikoruo. With Scythe beetle it is far better to attack at a distance, and Keikorua follows a missile discipline. Scythe Beetle are tough, though; they have pretty effective damage over time attack, called fester, and it is that which led to Keikorua's initial death. At the time she was working on her fourth Scythe beetle of the five the quest called for.

Keikorua was tied to the lifestone in Arwic, and took the journey through to Cragstone. She went to Gerhard the Cartomancer and turned her map over to him. A Cartomancer is a specialized NPC that will open a portal to a mining area. On Osteth I think there are about six mining areas, two in Prosper, two in Esper, one out of Cragstone, and one in Cobalt. The portal dropped Keikorua in the Prosper Rings, at 7.5 N and 7.8 E.

She ran back to the beetle that had slain her. Before she engaged it, she improved her heal spell skill, so she would be able to recover more health per use. Then she attacked from a distance, and was able to defeat it, clearing her vitae. She then continued looking for the stone mine. As she got close to the mine, she saw another Scythe beetle. Using the skills she had learned she engaged it in combat, but she was not doing as well as she had with the earlier ones, and it was able to land a Fester on her, meaning she started losing health, and she was barely able to stay ahead of the loss with heal while continuing in combat.

She was down to 20 health, when she defeated the Scythe Beetle, and the quest gave her enough experience to make the 15th level. When you level in Asheron's Call, you immediately return to full health, so Kei survived by the slimmest of margins; in fact, the next wave of Fester hit her, and took away 35 health, which would have killed her had she still only had 20 health. When she went to where the Scythe beetle had been, she discovered the mine.

In Asheron's Call 2, you may choose a class at 15th level. In the Tumerok Missile discipline, there are two classes Hive Keeper and Clawbearer. I had planned on Keikorua being a Hive Keeper, even though I knew virtually nothing about them, because it sounded interesting. I could have become a Hive Keeper immediately, but my role-playing background kicked in. Hive Keepers are unique to Tumeroks, and no other class works exactly the same way, so I decided to make a journey to Omishan, in game lore, the homeland of the Tumerok race. Also in lore, Ikeras is the first town built by the Tumerok when the races returned to the surface from the shelters. So, as a role-player, it seemed appropriate to return to the home of the Tumeroks, as an offer of faith for a Tumerok that just survived death by a hairs edge. She recalled to Arwic, ran through Cragstone, and took the Rithwic portal. In Rithwic, two other characters were fighting a sheer beetle, and I decided to heal the one being attacked. After they won the battle, Keikoura continued on through to Cavendo, tied to the lifestone there, and took the portal to Omishan there. After a short journey, which I knew from other characters (Instinctively), she made her way to Ikeras, and learned Agitate Nest, which is the base skill for a Hive Keeper.

The primary theme of this blog was that role playing is what you make of it. If you want to log in and play , just to run around and kill things, that's fine. It's a game. If you want to log in to meet with online friends, that is also fine, maybe you just want to mine, or hunt, or craft, that is also fine. AC2 is going to be what you make of it.

Gueron of Dereth

Well, I’m a bit late getting to this blog, but at least I managed to get it posted this week. That is something of an accomplishment, as I’ve had two midterms and a major lab due this week. However, next week, AC2: Legions will be available, so I really need to be on the ball.

I had wondered what to write about, but after a little consideration I decided to write about a couple of things; the mechanics of playing, and some of the unique careers available. I plan on returning to the various adventures I have had upon Dereth in a future blog.

When I first started playing Asheron’s Call 2, I made a small mistake. In AC2, the tree skills, can be moved to a hotkey bar, and the three basic ones are already there. I started playing a Human, so my three basic attacks were Riposte (melee), Deadeye (missile), and Mindlash (magic). In addition, all tree skills cost vigor (kind of an endurance/magic reservoir) and vigor is limited. All of my attacks were grayed out, and it took me a moment to determine that I had to equip my weapon.

I looked in the pack, and found a staff, a bow, and a sword. Equipping the sword, as I had planned this character to be melee, I dutifully moved to attack a drudge. Repeatedly, I struck it with riposte, and I watched as my vigor drain away, until I could not attack. I waited until I had regained some vigor, and attacked again with riposte. Fortunately, as this quest is keyed specifically toward beginners, I was still able to win the battle. What I was overlooking was the auto-attack function, which is a straight-forward attack which does not use vigor. The tree attacks are meant to be used tactically, not as a base attack, and that was something I had to learn.

On the topic of combat, there are a number of visual clues, which are not duplicated in text. The most obvious is the vulnerability flash. When a mob (Mobile Object – the monsters or non-static NPCs) begins to flash with a golden glow, they are vulnerable. If the mob is hit during this vulnerability period, the attack is usually more effective. This is even more pronounced with tree skills. With the number of possible attacks, the number of situations, and the management of your vigor and health, combat in AC2 has layers of effectiveness and is an interesting challenge to master.

Asheron’s Call 2 also was set up to try to appeal to both group and solo players. There are two types of mobs, group mobs and solo mobs. Group mobs have superior health and regenerative abilities, and reward more experience if they are successfully defeated. The experience is actually designed to be split up among a fellowship, but this is not to say that a solo player can not take on a group mob, they can, but it is considerably more difficult.

Beyond combat there are other things to do. The craft skills, which feed directly to combat, are just one example, but one of the most unique examples, in my opinion, is the music. In the case of music, there is no direct effect on combat, but it adds an element of fun. As AC2 is a game, that is something that should be considered important, and to me, it is.
The developers of Asheron’s Call 2 spent a certain amount of time developing the sound systems of their creation. There are a number of instruments available that can be used, and even a few items that can add to this. It is possible to go in to a city and start playing, and quite possibly others will join you. You can even play your voice, which is different for each race. Of course, where there’s music, dancing will soon follow. There are a number of emotes that send a character into a dancing routine. These do not really add anything to the game other than atmosphere, and some players prefer not to be involved with it. I’m not one of them. To me, it’s just another way to enjoy the game.

Now that I’ve mentioned some very basic mechanics, I’ll continue on as a career advisor. I won’t actually suggest what to play, but there are some classes that I feel are interesting classes, and it would be a shame to ignore them.

First off, let me state, that the normal fantasy classes are not directly available, normal being warrior, mage, priest, archer, and rogue. Almost all fantasy games revolve around these classes and the same can be said of most fantasy novels. Asheron’s Call 2 does not provide for a rogue class, and priests are really an extension of magic wielders.

As I’ve stated before, at this time, AC2 provides for 3 races which generally are divided into disciplines that are based upon the philosophies of the races as described by their backgrounds. Each race has two classes in each discipline, which means six classes. So there are eighteen classes that are available, to play, not counting non-classed characters and hybrid-class characters.

The most interesting aspect, though, is that almost all classes have different styles of animation, and different styles of combat, even though all races include the pseudo-classes of damage dealer, tank, ranged, magic, and support. In each case, there is an additional element that ties the class to its racial component, which slightly modifies the way the pseudo-class is played.

Two classes I would like to mention, though I’ve just started playing them and can’t offer much information are the Human Alchemist, and the Tumerok Hivekeeper. These classes don’t seem to have a corollary among other games. They both fall under the missile discipline but don’t seem to actually belong there natively.

The Alchemist carries a flask, yes a flask. The basic attack is Fire-Breath, which interestingly enough, is described as a melee attack. The animation is to drink from the flask and then breathe fire. My first alchemist is Kaylith, on Frostfell, and I’ve just advanced her to Alchemist. Alchemists seem to be able to choose Left-Side or Dark-Side, I’m afraid I can’t really shed any further light on these arcane terms yet, but I guess, that is actually in keeping with the character of an Alchemist.

The Hivekeeper carries a nest. Apparently the base attack they have is to summon a wasp. By the way, wasps on Dereth are pretty big, but I guess you’ll have to see it to believe it. I have a character, Keikorua, who will become a Hivekeeper this weekend. I’ll let you know how it works out. It should be interesting.

There is another class, that seems somewhat unique, but I have no one near the level of becoming one. It is the Lugian Tactician, which is also classified in the discipline of Missile weapons. Tacticians are armed with a wrench, and from what I understand, they build artillery on the spot.

In this blog I have used the term discipline to refer to the major means of combat, Melee, Missile, and Magic. I have also used the term pseudo-class, to refer to what are basically archetypes of MMO game characters. To my knowledge these are not official terms, and I used them to simplify the overview into more specific parts, primarily to make me happy.

Well, that concludes this blog for the day. I’ll write again soon. Thanks for reading.

Gueron