Youtube Challenge: Kill 20 Ishkuk Gatherers

[Raeshlavik]

Most MMO games have it so as the farther you go into an area the mobs get tougher. Not with Istaria. I never have liked how the developers put higher mobs in front of the lower mobs you must get to in order to complete a quest or get the needed dropped item. Pretty stupid in my opinion. Some people like the challenge but I find it more frustrating than fun.

Oddly, this is one of the things I've always liked about Istaria... What semi-sentient creature, in good conscience, would leave its weak or young to defend the outer edges of its habitat while the stronger and more able warriors sit deep inside? It's backwards in most MMOs - the strong should defend the weak.

Now, I understand 'why' this is done - to provide a linear difficulty increase as a player progresses into an area, but it still seems silly if you really think about it.

Istaria's critters also pick on the weakest opponent first, rather than who has the most threat... Again, more realistic - reduce the number of things you have to fight as quickly as possible; but it's certainly a bigger pain to work around in a group.

[Dhalin]

Oddly, this is one of the things I've always liked about Istaria... What semi-sentient creature, in good conscience, would leave its weak or young to defend the outer edges of its habitat while the stronger and more able warriors sit deep inside? It's backwards in most MMOs - the strong should defend the weak.

In WoW, the more weak stuff is found closest to the Capital Cities; the strongest and most dangerous enemies lie in the furthest reaches of the wilderness in most cases. The same goes for FFXI too; the three main nations have the weakest mobs right outside of them, and there are two neutral Cities. One of them has fairly strong mobs near them (the city was added to the game much later) and the other has mid-level mobs near it.

If you travel back in time (latest major expansion), the three aforementioned nations have the lowest level mobs found in the "past" areas near them.

Now, I understand 'why' this is done - to provide a linear difficulty increase as a player progresses into an area, but it still seems silly if you really think about it.

Actually, the best way to do it, is to have the lowest-level mobs near the capital cities and towns; further away from town you stray, the harder stuff becomes.

Istaria's critters also pick on the weakest opponent first, rather than who has the most threat... Again, more realistic - reduce the number of things you have to fight as quickly as possible; but it's certainly a bigger pain to work around in a group.

Thank the re-tar-ded (stupid filter...) "Anti-PL" patch (there are ways around it; people PL to this day) for this. The very patch that absolutely destroyed any sort of non-endgame group hunting whatsoever. Any other MMORPG would use a Threat/Hate system for good reason -- it allows tanks to be tanks, and healers to be healers. The Damage-Dealers still have to be careful, though. If they do too much damage, they quickly find out why they shouldn't be tanking if the game was done right.

Here in Istaria, though, everyone can be Tank, healer, and damage-dealer all wrapped up into one... still though, they COULD give a 10-ish level leniency as far as the "Anti-PL" system goes. I still feel that if two people are within 10 levels of each other, the mob shouldn't have a preference based upon level. Also, Level 100+ should not apply -- that way we don't unfairly make all dragons tanks, because bipeds can get above 100 where dragons cannot.

[skott_karlsson]

Oddly, this is one of the things I've always liked about Istaria... What semi-sentient creature, in good conscience, would leave its weak or young to defend the outer edges of its habitat while the stronger and more able warriors sit deep inside? It's backwards in most MMOs - the strong should defend the weak.

Now, I understand 'why' this is done - to provide a linear difficulty increase as a player progresses into an area, but it still seems silly if you really think about it.

Istaria's critters also pick on the weakest opponent first, rather than who has the most threat... Again, more realistic - reduce the number of things you have to fight as quickly as possible; but it's certainly a bigger pain to work around in a group.

This logic would make some sense but often the various mobs intermingled are not of the same species or even the same family so saying the older/stronger defending the weaker doesn't really work. Is a Fyakki and a ghost gonna care about each other? No, don't think so. Is a Gruok going to care about a wolf? No, don't think so. See what I mean? Doesn't make sense.

[Ashuran]

-First off, it's a level 20 quest. You'd think it would be simple but no. Going up the mountain alone, I run past level 39 Ogres.

Here's how I do it. Run up the path, saving sprint until you get to the level 39 ogres. Sprint past them quickly, kicking on your regen just in case you get stunned, and run up to the gemcutting shack.

-Second hurdle is to get past the swarms of wolves, beetles and snow <insert creature here>, PRAY that none of them see me then run to the safe spot on the other side of the island.

Well this part is easy. Once you're at the gemcutting shack just run along the ridge toward the smelter. The wolves and beetles won't be close enough to come after you. I usually stay on the ridge, but if you don't have the agility of a mountain goat you can run along the ridge easily until you're right by the smelter and hop down.

-Okay, Once there, I pull one gatherer only to have one gatherer+5 run towards me... and about 4 ogres.

This is actually the hard part... those ogres and pygmies will come after you if you just target them, much less cast a spell at them. I used this to my advantage. I would stay away from the herd until a pygmy straggled far enough away, then I would target it and creep up until it came at me. If I did it right it would come alone, but if I was unlucky I'd get an add or two. I'd run these off until they leashed, using dragon's reach to re-pull my target if it leashed also. If I was lucky enough to just get 2 pygmies I'd just kill both.

That eliminates the last two problems...

-If I'm lucky, I dispatch the ogres without dying... only to have the gatherers I tagged run back to where they were before.

-Tag another gatherer just in time for the Ogre-insta pop to join the fun.

As for the wolves they can be pulled similarly by hanging out on the ridge by the gemcutter side. You run up to them, wave your tail in their direction to taunt to taste and then run back to the ridge when your target locks on and dispatch it in peace.

Required Parameters:
-level 20 to get the quest
-up to date spells, claws and scales
-a little pulling finesse.

Hope this helps. ^.=.^

Now if only Periado's Dead Pool quest were finesse-able... so far I think that one can only be done solo with severe hoard burning, waiting for all abilities to be ready and no small amount of luck. Even then you'll probably still rack up some death points.

[velveeta]

this quest is a real pain, for sure.....i use(d) ash's technique and still had a heck of a time...
if one can get a good babysitter or two, its a bit easier, but the trick is to pull as much as possible and know where to run away if you can....if you can run up the ridges on each side of the canyon, most stuff will not follow (some ogres and pygs will tho, so watch out you don't get comfortable....), but plan on these quests taking more time and effort than the others....