31 October 2011

Relic up and Get Down, Gianthold!

So, it appears our adventures in Gianthold are one step closer to ending. Does it feel like we've been in this zone for freaking ever? Man! It does to me . . . and that's a good thing since there's so much to do in this area. I'd have to give Gianthold a thumbs up for playability value. I saw a YouTube comment on a video about Gianthold somewhere that said something to the extent of "And people used to pay for this shizz." Yes we did pay. Yes we liked it. No, you wouldn't understand. (I freaking hate YouTube comments.)

Team Spode did a lot of playing throughout the week this week, which is unusual for us. We usually play only on Sunday and only occasionally dip our toes into the game outside of our Sunday night game (well, I do a little more than dip my toe :D). This week though, I'd log on and there would always be a Spode or a Ulan on farming for their relics. Reports started coming in through our back channel e-mails about our individual relic hunting efforts. Spode finished his fairly quickly, I came in second, Ulan had his soon after, and with a few donations from the guys last night, Ophiga had her final few Giant relics. WOOT! READY TO ROCK!

I made a map during the week of my relic farming route over the top of the Alex Haddox Gianthold map, and although my layer over the top of his beautiful map looks like a kindergartner scribbling over the top of a work of art, here it is:


1- Run out and fall down into the giant party by the first frozen dragon. (kill named if up), Run over to the first two tents on the high road from the first chest. (kill named if up) Continue on path that jogs around to the two even larger tents (kill named if up).

RECALL—mana up.

2- Take teleporter to Storm's eye. Run down and kill portal to Shavarath (kill named if up). Run back up and then over and up the spiral mountain and kill Mind Flayer (always up) and cast knock until I roll a 20 to unlock it ;) (the DC is 46 I believe). This wastes a lot of mana usually. Run over and down a path to kill named. Run back. Run up to kill supply depot named (have to break a number of the barrels to get him to show up.

RECALL—mana up

3- Take teleporter down to Storm's Heart, run into Trial by Fire and farm until I get around 3 chests.

RECALL—mana up

4- Profit!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Team Spode did this route last night, but instead of hitting Trial by Fire, we took a little jaunt up to the Foundation of Disco instance.



Did I say Disco? Oh, I meant DiscoRD! Right. Sorry about that. The foundation of DISCOrd is a great little instance full of angry Aurum dwarves. OHMYGOSH Aurum dwarves! Yes, it's true! I read about these dudes in The Shard Axe. Aurum dwarves are a wealthy sect of little peeps who usually hang out in Mror Holds over on that other continent of Khorvaire. (Hey! A Khorvaire expansion to DDO would be pretty cool, Turbine!)

I don't exactly remember what these little fellas are doing in Gianthold, but I'm sure it (in a roundabout way) involves making some bank. According to this splash screen you get when you're zoning in, Rumor has it they've sent their best to fight for the Stormreaver.


The wiki paints this instance as incredibly difficult. We didn't really experience that, of course we're all level 14-16 now. What you do is come to a central shrine and then kill the bosses at the end of each corridor. Once you've done this, the locked door opens up and you can go fight the final boss, who's fond of summoning elementals of every sort.

The one thing that I'm really liking about the Foundation of Disco instance are the names of these righteous dudes that you be slappin' skin with, yo! Duncan the Wayfarer, Mars the Dynamo, Tinius the White . . . Patrick the Maniacal. These are some awesome disco club names. If my 40 year old self ever stumbles into a rave party, I'm saying my name is Mars the Dynamo. That's just too hawt.

We found this great mirror in the instance. Spode's doing his V for Victory pose while the drow are fawning over him. I am NOT looking at drow butt. I am NOT looking at drow butt. I am NOT looking at drow butt. OH MAN, I looked at drow butt.


Anyway, here's how it rolled out at the end of the instance. Good times.


After that, we still had an hour of playtime left. Hmmmm, what to do? Peek our heads into Gianthold Tor and get owned of course!!!


Gulp.

We literally went into this instance raw with no idea what we were going to face. None of us had looked too far into the wiki or remembered much about what is inside here other than a dragon. When a dragon calls, Team Spode comes running with swords raised! WE WANT SCALES!

What we discovered were many many many many giants. Let me add another many: "many." We died during that front wave of giants and had to come back in to finish the job.

Although I really liked the names of the dwarves in the Aurum Lair, I did find my favorite name ever here in Gianthold Tor.


By the time we made it to the area where you spawn the gatekeeper, it was time to call it a night. We did stay long enough to die again to several giant skeletons. :)

Next week we shall definitely be prepared to stick it out and slay a dragon! WE SHALL! Or at least die to a dragon. You know, that's how we roll.

Until then . . . happy dueling!

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