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Dizz's Diary - The New Dereth It Begins A disclaimers before we get going here. I'm not an expert when it comes to AC2. Anything I state in my journals could be wrong they are simply my observations and my attempts at helping new players.
This journal will be a bit different than the others because it will contain a lot of starter information. You could almost say it's a
primer for ac2. Also this will be very long since I crammed so many levels in this time period. Character creation in AC2 is very different from AC1 that's because, well, there just isn't any. We all start on the same page. That doesn't mean we can't plan a little. Since I played in beta I had a good idea of where I wanted to go with my character. My long term plan is to be a straight-line mage then start crawling up the enchanter spec line and get tanglefoot (root) Here's the decided outline as it stands.
At this point I'm pretty powerful and able to most of what I want and kill 5 levels above me. But to become a god I need a root spell so I start climbing up the enchanter spec branch
This is my plan as of now, I would like to try getting tanglefoot earlier but there's just too many skill points to start up the spec tree early plus you can't take it till 30 so there's more powerful skills to take before then. Most of these decisions were decided upon in Beta. The first 10 levels The first 10 levels are the easiest in the game. If you're just starting out and never been through them then take your time. There's lots of content here and it shouldn't be missed. If you have done it before this is how I go about skimming through it. First I stayed in the starter area till I was level 5, anymore than this and you're really hurting yourself because there's better xp out in the real world. It seems as though the packed the starter area with even more critters than before so if an area is camped just keep on moving till you get your own spot were you can kill none stop. I said level 5 is the limit but basically that translates into don't leave till you have new armor and a new weapon, either by crafting or looting. And don't forget to use fickle fate, this is in your crafting tab under gambling. It's so cheap up to level 15 that it's silly not to use it. After you leave the starter area start talk to the closest ancestor head and start questing. The Obelisk quest is very easy and the only tip I can give you when do this is to lifestone at the 3rd ring portal. This is the stone that will take you to your first vault and when you go back to the ancestor head all you have to do is recall back and then do the first vault. Always get in a group for your vaults, you could probably solo them but no need to risk it. When you complete the 3rd vault you should be 10 or at least almost
there. After getting the starter stuff out of the way my next goal was to start
doing the "big" vaults. But you really can't do them till you reach level 12. There's lots of little quest you can do during this time but
I've done them all before so it was time to upgrade my armor and weapon. I headed to the mad crone vault area and was quickly overwhelmed by the
big Grutts there but I wasn't there for them (btw have you ever noticed there
diaper? it's almost obscene the way it moves). I had noticed a dungeon near there called "Mad Crone Haven" it really had me curious and I was
pretty sure I could make it there so I took off. It took a lot of dodging and weaving but when I got there I was very happy. Inside this
non-portal cave was loads and loads of scravens. Now if you don't know about scravens then your missing out. For the level you can't beat the
loot the drop. In fact after leveling in here to 12 I had my armor maxed out and had a
formidable staff. Not only that but I had collected a full suit for my lugian buddy when he made it into the game. I love this
place and it will be my one stop shopping spot for all my characters at this level. Once you get 12 you pretty much get to 15 off the bat too. In AC2 I've noticed that certain levels are just vaulting boards to higher levels. These levels are 12, 15, 19, 24. This is because of the vaults and quest you can do at these levels. For example at 12 you should do Mad Crone, Cobalt Vault, and Mist Caverns. If you do you be at least level 14 if not 15. Mist caverns is a decent quest not because of the xp but because it will round out any armor and loot that you haven't got already. The Grutts in the Caver are pretty decent loot carriers and it seems every time I go through this cave I get a magical piece of jewelry. The boots you get at the end are lower ar than what you can get through the loot system but the enchantment on them is handy for mages. Slavetaker At level 15 it starts to get slow. You're ready for better armor and better skills but that won't happen till you get 18 (at least for human mages) You can try to level up some solo but it just takes a long time. There are 2 things to do at this time. Start Rashan's Revenge and then go and do Slavetaker head quest. I won't go through the details of this quest as it can be found on many sites but I will say that it's very hard at this level. You will need at group of at least 4 (unless it's camped). The group I was in must have died 5 times a piece before we all got a head to take back to the drudges. It was very hard and very fun. This is one of my favorite quest. When I went we were the only ones doing it so we had to plan to take the beast down. But if it's camped like it was in beta then as a straight-line mage you should be able to get the kill if you're fighting for it. How to take down a boss Monster As a mage I seem to have an advantage when it comes to monsters with huge amounts of xp. Since I rely heavily on skills it comes pretty natural as opposed to other classes. When competing for a kill you need to do as much damage as possible in the shortest period of time. So I always lead with Spontaneous combustion then combustion then a firebolt. If no evades happened that should be aver 400 points worth of damage, then you just rinse and repeat if you have the vigor and the monster is still alive. The Laboratories Doing the slavetaker and Rashan's quest should put you to 17 if I remember right. From there you just have to push yourself over the hump. The best place I found for this is the Laboratories. Like the other dungeons before it should upgrade your armor and weapon again. Not much to say about the Labs except that they will probably get more and more crowded, I was the only one there when I went but this is not an out of the way place and many know about it. Oh and I guess I should mention what is in the labs ;) Crones.. lots and lots of crones. I got 18 in there and was very happy. 18 for me means encase. Encase may be the greatest spell in a human's arsenal. It's a very powerful long lasting armor buff and will single handedly allow you to fight way above your level. Tips and Tactics I'm going to jot down a lot of tips and tactics here in this section that I think everyone needs to know about. Most of you who have spent any time in AC2 will know a lot of these.
I have more written down but this is getting way too long, I'll have to
cover them in next journal. This section use to be called skills and stats in my old journals. It's a different world in AC2. Nothing shocking here it's pretty much following my game plan from above.
This journal was long winded and really not a journal. The next will be
more about my adventures and closer to what you are used to if you know my old ones. It's a bad week for release so my next one won't be for a
week or more. |
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