Suggestion: Make Draak accessible for ROP

[Sarpedos]

Getting to Draak is worse now than ever; even at level 69, my hatchling is having a hell of a time just getting to the stupid island to work on the RoP. The route south from Harro that worked a few weeks ago through the thornwoods is now nearly blocked (I did make it with a combination of mountain climbing, sprints, and killing everything in the way I couldn't avoid). The best way now that I know of is to plow through the swamp and kill everything on the way. Which is fine, if you have an escort or wait till you're level 70 to do the RoP. And even then, the bridge to the island was guarded by a level 90 zombie laborer. Alone at any reasonable level, forget it...

So the actual suggestion: put an arrival pad near the entrance to Draak and have a one-way port there from the portal in the Hermit's cave. At least until the event mobs have subsided... the run to the Hermit from Dralk is not much shorter than the run from Harro to Draak, back when it was safe. Add in portal time and it's basically just an alternative that doesn't really make it too easy. Just doable.

[Seranthor]

I agree with Kumu to disagree, however, I disagree strongly. IF RoP is truly important enough to you then you WILL find a way there, otherwise its not nearly as important as you want to think it is.

[Sarpedos]

Oh I found a way, I found two or three ways. Mission accomplished. It's just a pain, and I think perhaps for those who haven't been around for years and learned the tricks, it may be unreasonably difficult. If it's actually "working as intended" I have no problem working with it. I just wonder how intended it is that this stage of the RoP is grossly more difficult than it originally was.

Incidentally, I'm happy that this makes it harder for people to have the entire thing handed to them at level 30. ;p

[AA0]

The path through the thornwood is quite simple actually, I know a few young people that explore there regularily

[Xarog]

You're forgetting about the daknor event mobs guarding the bridge. You *have* to go through them.

[Justa Mirage]

Ok.... Here's how we recently did it with 2 hatchlings:

You leave Harro up the path behind the game provided building near the landing pad and go up to the ridge... follow the ridge past the lair up there to the east.

Follow the ridge that drops down into the blight south until you come to your first Treant trees and sighting of your first treant... there is a ledge area you can sit on safely (like an indentation closer to the blight road)... this is where the chicken crossed the road...

Instead of sneaking past the treants (which noted from the poster) has been tremendously increased along the ridge) ... we counted 20 that spawned in 1 area, you run down into the blight, cross the road, then up the hill on the other side. This gives you safe passage up to the back end of the Draknor settlement. You might run into 1 Abomination Task master but if you stay off the road and wait to drop off the cliff edge to the beach right after the treant forest ends.... pretty much safe.

The only problems.... the crossing the road to the other side MIGHT have a green vextor, Abomination of Anguish, or other bad boy running along the road... so wait for the road to be clear of the occasional mob and run across. Yes... I have several DPs trying to do the treant route. They have placed a new spawn generation on the ridge so you can't sneak past using the ridge.

[Sarpedos]

Actually, the route we found best was just a straight blaze through the swamp from Lerena. As long as you avoid the blood skulk areas, it is possible to get through the other mobs without getting hit, as long as you don't stop running. They're all melee types after all... just have to thread the right route between them so that after you piss them off, they can't get quite close enough to sink in the fangs. In fact, a level 43 made it through alone and unscathed yesterday, after figuring out the route through the swamp.

So I suppose, whining withdrawn. Sure it's harder than it used to be, but not as bad as I originally thought.

[Nexxus]

Hmm, I went down there a while back when it was still bad, but not quite as bad as now.

I ran, I didnt stop, the mobs would one hit me from a range.

Eventually DPs just ment I was going slower and slower. I eventually did it, but asking a lvl 30-50 payer to go past loads of t6 mobs is just pointless imho. The difficulty of getting there has dramatically increased, which isnt really fair.

[Dracana]

I would take the route where you scale the up the mountain behind the training center in Harro and run south hugging the edge of Harro till you start going downhill again and run south toward the blight past a ring of bramble and follow that path south to the beach then back to the usual route of hugging the beach. The worst I've ever run into down there was a single abomination which we made short work before it could ever touch any hatchie. I would even dare say it's safer than the swamp route.

If all else fails of course never hesistate to ask the denizens of your shard for help. You'll usually find someone willing to help.

[Justa Mirage]

The last time we did this... there were spawns of Treants (a LOT of them) right along the ridge. Unless you want to be brave and run like hell and hope the spawn engine doesn't "find" you, you could probably be doing the ridge run.

I found it easier to bolt across the road and run along the east ridge of the blighted road below. This new spawn of Treants was new to me... and there had to be at least 20 of them in 2 different spawn zones.

[Guaran]

Those treants have always been there, just no one explores there very often. Once you know where it is it's not hard to avoid.

As far as the difficulty of getting there... well no sympathy from myself. I still believe level 30 is too young to be doing RoP anyway. Wait until you are lvl 60, with tier 4 speed techs on your wings. You can make it. Get some Quints quickstep potions and a vestia's soothing remedy, drink them then go, save sprint for when a mob see's you.

[AA0]

If you run south on the western side of the treeants (near the event mobs) the treeant spawn is the weakest and very avoidable. The toughest part is having patience in a couple areas, you will come to a small hill/ridge where treeants and event mobs spawn. Running past the event mobs is very easy but if you wait too long the treeants might spawn there, but you can always run east a bit and then back south.. the whole area isn't dense with mobs so you can get around it. Once you are on the beach there isn't a problem.

[Dracana]

Mmm perhaps I phrased that wrong. I didn't mean running on top of the western part of the ridge which I wouldn't suggest trying either. I'm taking about dropping down into the blight from the southwest side where the ring of bramble (and a dead tree in the middle) is and following the blighted path. Maybe I just haven't found it yet but I don't see any way for a hatchie to get on the eastern ridge above the path. Also going too far east you may run into problems with mummies and ghosts and possibly even Fyakki.

In my experience unless someone brought the treants down there they have never actually come down the ridge onto the path. Mind you, one does cut it kinda close to the treants but thats not a new risk for this run.

[Jayne]

I Disagree too

Forget about how to do it.

Thats the whole point of the game, the terran changes. We are at war. Honestly, why does everything need to be easy? If now one needs escort then they can ask. Thats what makes this game fun. If the game consisted of hey I log on and run from point A to point B and I'm done that would be boring and no one would care. At least there is now a somewhat challenge to go from point A to point B.

And I'm not bagging on the complaint, just be honest and I am sure most would really want a challenge then not. As I have said before if you dont want a challenge then when you go to the register to pay for the Playstation game also bring the cheat book and pay for it at the same time. After all then its a no brainer and you will save gas on less trips to the store

Jayne

[AA0]

The level 30s don't want a challenge, they want to be spoonfeed and be an adult..

[Justa Mirage]

<ahem> I made the run with a hatchie with 0 problems... although I had to dodge an indestructable Fyakki that popped... and there was a Zombie Laborer waaay down the beach where it's supposed to be "safe" (past the tree line of thornwood) so there are still a few suprises... and oh...

That blighted road where the dead tree is.... is not safe anymore... as we ran into a green vextor on one trip, and an Abomination of Anguish on another trip (We have had 3 hatchies doing ROP in the last 3 weeks so been busy inventing new ways of running through there) Just keep tapping the "detect nearest enemy" hotkey and avoid any unpleasant suprises.

Sometimes you can get lucky and that road is vacant and you can sprint through and sometimes it isn't.

[Dracana]

There is no road down there that is truly totally safe and mob free. For as long as I have been playing there never has been. There are just a couple of paths that are less dangerous to take than others. So really the hatchies have a selection.

As for helping the hatchies on RoP even a hatchie being level 60-70 doing this run will have trouble so they may still need an escort. For the hatchie it brings them a little closer to having their wings for me and anyone else that helps hatchies it's a nice little challenge to see if they can get something small and fragile through a nasty situation.

[LaughingOtter]

Of course hatchies want to fly - if every biped had to do an RoP-type quest in order to unlock their full game play, every one of them would be chomping at the bit too. That 'level 30s want to be spoonfed' nonsense is patronizing if not downright elitist. Once the game goes back to retail, there is going to be a huge influx of people who want to play dragons and want to fly as soon as they can.

Everyone is free to assist a given candidate or not, as they see fit. That is every player's absolute right as a free-willed individual. Even so, it's a practical reality that - if all goes well - we veterans are going to be getting a lot of requests for assistance. I hope that the community as a whole will remain as friendly and helpful as we have been.

Wanting people to work for or earn a thing is understandable from a game play perspective. However, we are supposed to be at war, thus to need as many strong and capable fighters as possible, and dragons as a race need to propagate their species; how does forcing someone to remain a hatchling until they have 'enough' levels satisfy story logic?

[AA0]

It is our guild's experience, and many many others, that if you end up doing a hatchling's RoP for them the same behaviour will persist through that characters entire lifespan. If people don't learn how to play and enjoy the game instead of just obtaining things, we end up getting harassed over and over to help them, and then we can't enjoy the game.
Getting to Draak is not difficult to do, nor will I show someone and do it for them, but I will give them advice and they can think and learn on their own.

[Guaran]

It is our guild's experience, and many many others, that if you end up doing a hatchling's RoP for them the same behaviour will persist through that characters entire lifespan. If people don't learn how to play and enjoy the game instead of just obtaining things, we end up getting harassed over and over to help them, and then we can't enjoy the game.
Getting to Draak is not difficult to do, nor will I show someone and do it for them, but I will give them advice and they can think and learn on their own.

Agreed.

I'll help them as well, however I still believe they need a certain amount of experience, and hp's, to realistically participate in their RoP. I refuse to "do it all" for them. I give advice, hints, tips, and assist with Kaa, Esh, and Entombed when asked. Doing too much for them is the same as powerleveling a brand new character. My guild only made this mistake once. That was with a biped healer who we leveled out on dahibi. You end up with someone not really as experienced as they should be for 100 levels, who has little money and needs/wants T5 gear, T5 teched spells etc. which boil down to expensive comps. The player didn't have the patience to hunt for all the comps, even with assistance. (blue fringes and zombie ogre toes for the lose) So they whined, begged, complained, left the guild, and a few weeks later quit the game altogether. Then theres some hatchlings (several came thru our guild this way) who play, we help thru RoP rather quickly (sub 40), within a week the player gets bored and quits the game. (Taking guild-use teched scales along with).

If you do too much too early for them, you rob them of alot of the fun and exploring they could/should have had. A brand new player rushing thru the lower levels ends up missing 80% of what content the game does have. Sly Loki/Gregory/Melagant quests, all the dragon ability quests (none are required for RoP). Most all of those type quests are lower level quests.

For a new player leveling, I always tell them to group with players around thier own level. It's best for their exp and doesn't go too quickly.

My requirements for helping them on their RoP is to have all of the dragons quests (adventure) completed for thier level (minimum 40). There's nothing eliteist about this stance. I want them to do those tasks, as well as run around and attune to all the player towns, so that they get some experience with hunting, with various monster types, and the landscape. This is where 3/4 of the fun is for a sub level 50 player. They do have fun, and because they have a goal in sight (completing RoP) they can push thru the (few) quests that are boring without giving up.

When you make them attune they get to do alot of exploring, learn to use the map, and learn the monsters that inhabit many parts of the frontier. In the meantime they discover the fun in just running around and exploring, and feel a real sense on accomplishment at having attuned everywhere.

Rushing someone thru RoP at level 30 robs them of fun and experience imho.
Rushing a new player thru ANY school does the same thing. (although this has even worse consequences)