[Cornsnake]

Originally Posted by Sigfried1977

Gonna be pricey. I believe she's well into the 60s now.

No it won't, Pawns belonging to people on your friendslist can be hired for free. But 60s is pretty high compared to the level 40 I'm at. I don't want to end up tagging along while she kills everything for me.

[Cornsnake]

So there I was, walking through the forest at night, wondering where all the dragons were. And, well you can pretty much guess what happened next. This the first time I felt let down by my Pawns. If I give them curative items, I want them to use them, and not walk around with half a healthbar. And if I'm fighting a firebreathing dragon with my ice sword, then I don't want your fire spell on my sword.

I did manage to kill it after a few attempts in spite of the pawns uselessness. But I didn't get the reward I was hoping for.

[Sigfried1977]

I think they don't use healing items unless they have less than 50% health left. Can get pretty annoying indeed.

[Cornsnake]

And if you revive them they'll be back at 50% health, so they won't heal themselves. Against something like a dragon they keep on getting one-shotted throughout the fight. They should allow us to heal them directly.

[Sigfried1977]

Getting one shotted by the dragon doesn't have much to do with health actually. Dragons, Wyverns and Wyrms - they all have that bullshit shout that knocks all the pawns out instantly. Doesn't matter whether they have full health or not. Doesn't matter where they are in the fight either. The dragon just knocks them out periodically. Nothing you can do about it.

[Cornsnake]

In that case it might be worth trying to beat one solo with a maxed out Assassin.

[Cornsnake]

I switched to the Mystic Knight vocation. It's definitely my least favourite vocation so far. Movement is slower and the ability to climb on things is greatly reduced. The sword and mace both share the same skills which was disappointing aswell. The Magic Archer remains my favourite. I'm certainly missing the ability to quickly shoot down flying enemies.

At least I finally managed to get something dragon forged, even if it's just my Mystic Knight's shield. I wish that dragon would respawn faster.

[3dcgi]

What level are you? I'm level 38 and still a Magic Archer. My vocation is maxed, but there are still abilities I don't have. I've use the ricochet arrow in the catacombs and it was awesome at taking down enemies in a confined space.

[Cornsnake]

I'm almost level 50. I only max out each vocations rank and move to the next without buying all of the skills. I figured I can always unlock everything later. My main pawn is now on her 4th vocation and has something like 36000 DP avialable to spend.

That ricochet arrow is excellent in small spaces. The Magic Archer abilities are so much fun. I can't wait to get them back. But I also want to complete the Mystic Knight, Warrior and Fighter vocations.

[Sigfried1977]

As long as you buy the augments. Some of them are real game changers, like all the night time skills the assassin gets. I've just switched back from Magic Archer (which is a very entertaining class indeed) to Assassin again. The problem is I'm about level 85 and never used any magic class before the MA, so my magical attack power is rather shitty. Since there's nothing much left for me to do besides grinding items out of the UR Dragon I'm just better off with my Assassin or Ranger. I also have the best Assassin bow, and it's even dragon forged. (does more than 2000 damage at night)

I love the immolation dagger skill of the MA by the way, and that electric whip is also kick ass.

[Cornsnake]

It's augments were the reason I was interested in the Assassin. I've bought most of them. The Assassin is a pretty good vocation overall. Nice variety of weapon and has some good skills. The gauge move was great for sticking your sword into a cyclop's head.

I've released your pawn. She's been with me from around level 30 to level 51. That should make for a large amount of rift crystals.

About the Griffin's Bane quest. Apparently what's supposed to happen is that it flies away, all the way to Bluemoon Tower. That didn't happen. Instead I killed high up in the air. That's nice and all, but now the part of Bluemoon Tower that opens up during the Griffin's Bane quest remains closed. I've already been to Bluemoon Tower to kill some sorcerer guy, but I still can't get past that closed gate. I'm wondering if I'm missing out on something.

[3dcgi]

Have either of you finished the main storyline? I never imagined I could reach level 85. Any idea how high you can get?

I finished the Griffin's Bane quest over the weekend. I got a lot of gold and at least one item, but I doubt it'd do you much good at level 50

[3dcgi]

I forgot to mention there was a portcrystal in the Griffin's lair so yes you did miss out on something. It's the only one I've found so far.

[Cornsnake]

I still haven't finished the game, but I think I'm getting near the end. The levels are capped at level 200.

I did get the portcrystal. It's also the only one I have. The closed gate at Bluemoon Tower is just past where you find the portcrystal.

[Sigfried1977]

As long as you got the port crystal (the one and only until you are in new game+) there's nothing you've missed. A Wyvern spawns at the top of the Bluemoon Tower after the big twist in the story. Nets a nice chunk of xp and some valuable crafting materials.

I'm in new game+, by the way.

[Cornsnake]

This game is really poorly paced when it comes to loot. I've gone over 10 hours without barely finding any better equipment. And now I've just done 2 quests, both giving me loads of new equipment, and suddenly all the shops have been resupplied with better equipment aswell.

The Mystic Knight is finally proving it's usefulness. Being able to change the entire party's elemental buffs to the one I want is quite effective. That dragon went down with ease, not even requiring me to use curatives.

[Cornsnake]

Anyone know how long it takes for bandits you've accidentally murdered to start liking you again? I can't do a side quest because they'll attack me if get too close.


My pawn is finally being hired again now that she's a Warrior. I guess no one likes a fat Strider or Ranger.

[3dcgi]

The lack of loot certainly wouldn't appeal to people that love Diablo's style of lots of loot.

[Shifty Geezer]

I'd rather have less loot that makes a substantial difference, so you feel like you are getting a notable upgrade, rather than loads of load the slowly edges the numbers up at a rate that matches the creature levelling so you never get any more powerful relatively. Games that drop hundreds of weapons are more about inventory management than RPGing. I think most loot-and-level games I've played only have a good item to upgrade to every few hours, with the rest being junk. The only exception is the very beginning, and I prefer playing the early stages of such games. When a sword 5-8 damage comes along to replace your 3-6, that's a huge improvement in fighting giant rats! Whereas when you have a 235-248 dmg sword and along comes a 230-265 dmg sword, it's no improvement at all in terms of how many hits to kill an enemy.

[Sigfried1977]

There's actually plenty of loot. The sheer wealth of different weapons and armor types was rather surprising. Same with the whole depth of it all since there's actually both armor and and the pieces of clothing underneath. I didn't think it was poorly paced either. There's just a lot of little sidequests you can do, and those generally reward you with experience and coin, but rarely with equipment. If you mainly stick to the story missions you'll get your gear much faster.
Did you get the Golden Idol, Cornsnake? There's 3 types of idols in the game, and at a certain point in the story, shopkeepers in Gran Soren give you a quest called Idol Woship. If you give the Golden Idol to the blacksmith in Gran Soren, he'll upgrade his shop substantially (he als accepts the silver one, but the benefits aren't quite as large). You can also give it to Madeleine instead.

The best gear comes from the ornate chests in the Everfall and from fighting the online Ur Dragon. If you want good loot from the Everfall, you should bring the Godsbane with you (it'll be in your inventory once you defeated "The Dragon") Chests have a certain chance of spawning any number of kick-ass items, and your best way is to approach a chest, save your game, open the chest, see if there's something in there you want, and if not, kill yourself with the Godsbane, and choose restart from the latest save.

[Cornsnake]

You can get better equipment faster if you stick to main storyline. But some side quests are tied to specific points within the main storyline. Advance the main storyline too far and you won't be able to do them. So there is a bit of contention between not missing out on side quests, and moving the story along to get better gear. Most open world games reward exploration equally well.

I lost the opportunity to do the escort quest that rewards the silver idol this way. I did find the golden and bronze idols. Gave one the blacksmith and the other to Madeleine. I may have given to the wrong one to someone.

About Madeleine. I think I've finish her little side story, helping her escape Gran Soren, and giving her 50000 gold to start over somewhere else. But I haven't seen her since. Is she basically gone, or can I still find her somewhere in Gransys?

[Sigfried1977]

She'll be in the Cassardis Inn once a certain huge thing in the story has happened. No idea where you are at this point, though.

[Cornsnake]

I'm at the Final Battle quest.

[Sigfried1977]

You sure? The game doesn't end when you think it does.

[Cornsnake]

I did know this game had an interesting post game, I just didn't know exactly what it was. I'm back at Cassardis now where I've just found Madeleine again. But I haven't really explored beyond that.

During the Final Battle quest. I chose to save the love interest, in my case the duchess, and slay the dragon.