A hunting we will go...

[Amarie Ancalimon]

It's been too quiet around here lately, so time to kick off another topic....

Where is your favorite place to go killing bad guys in Istaria? And why?

If you could make this group of bad guys appropriate to your level, sort of thing.

Do you have a fond memory of spending hours slashing apart ruxus for potatoes? Then share that with us. Whatever your reason is, I'd like to hear it.

(And for those of you who may be thinking "There are no good places to hunt in Istaria because the spawn system stinks, I've created a topic for you too. Spawn Bugs Feel free to post there instead, and allow this topic to stay on course with those areas that people do find fun.)

Personally I love hunting treants. Don't particularly care what level treants. I just really enjoy watching treants fall down, and love the challenge of "just how strange a position can this treant end up in when it falls".

[Zexoin]

Blights ! I love killing blights, no matter what level. Cause it's always fun to mass kill them with my AoE spells, and they drop nice goodies that I love to collect.

[Takora Drakan]

I just really enjoy watching treants fall down, and love the challenge of "just how strange a position can this treant end up in when it falls".

Reminds me of a shot I once made, the treant just stopped in his death animation... was rather funny

[Arietna]

When I go hunting, it's usually to compliment my gathering.. so treants are a fun way to gather wood - bronze golems a great way to gather copper & tin ore and so on.

I have fond memories of when Ariadne was on Unity, keeping me company was Elspeth, a dragon, and we'd spend a while hunting maple treants so I could improve my carpentry skills! Well, to be absolutely honest, Elspeth hunted them, and I chopped them into bits. I remember also running like MAD to get away from one massive treant who took offense at me chopping at his smaller brethren. Ah, those were the days.. Now I get beaten up by most things that look at me too hard

[Kadiya]

I have tons of favorite places to hunt! Top Two:

1. Isle of Ice would have to be first. When I was an adult dragon, I spend days killing things so I could be strong enough for my Ancient Right of Passage (ARoP). I think my best was 5 levels in one day hunting down emerald and peridot golems.

2. The icy dire wolves on the way to the Mage's Tower. Those are always good for a quick hunt. This is where I learned how to use the new spell timers.

and honorable mention: The purple flies of old. Spend many, many hours there killing and having good old fashion fun with people who don't play anymore. But the memories still make me laugh.

[Justa Mirage]

My vote would have to go with Ice Isle as well.

It is a place that the rest of Istaria should be like, you have a mix of mobs and bosses all mixed up and crossing paths, not just the corralled feeling you get because all of one mob spawn there.

There aren't many places in Istaria where you will find 4 types of mobs crossing paths (sure their spawn fields might be close as in Saritova's golem fields, but they hardly cross), and each of these 4 mobs have varying level ranges, to keep you on your toes.

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For fun, I get a kick out of the rabid spawn rate of the snow creatures in AI. I love to just run around and aggro all of them and then let loose a breath of fire burst and watch them all drop. No sooner that happens, a whole other set appears, so fast, you can't even start looting the first ones.

[LaughingOtter]

My two favorite places, both long gone...

1) Lower iron. Crafters mining iron & silver, groups hunting spider soldiers, the occasional fyakki charmer storming through and scaring the salt rock out of newbies... And the Spider Huntress. I will still go out of my way to multicast Dark Cyclone on her every chance I get.

2) The original Bitter Pickle. What a wonderful place for guild hunts. Talk about a target-rich environment... Between the cash drops and the bottle caps, it offered good reward for effort, too.

[C`gan]

I have two hunting places that I consider my favorites. Both of them are for construction.

First off, Parsinia South and the sandstone quarry. It's always so nice to go out and gather and process sandstone when you have pebble golems chasing you up to the machinery. They can't hit me (I'm a 31 warrior in silk cargo armor), so the little level 1-5s AND Pebbles usually end up with Death by Masonry Trowel, Death by Stoneworking Chisel, or even on my fun days, Death by Sewing Needle. One hit kills. I often wonder what they have to say when they report back in for respawning and what sort of humiliation it is.

My second hunting spot is the Harton Valley West maple forest. Granted, I can't hit the treants. I'm just out there for the maple trees. But, from time to time, I'll have someone accompany me to do some hunting of their own. I've found when I go it alone, maple treants are thick as flies. When someone else goes along, they all invariably are gone. Might get a kill every 5-10 minutes.

[AmonGwareth]

Undead outside of Tazoon pre-merge. I loved killing stuff beneath the massive bones and in the crater.

The original Aughundell battlefield cause it felt like a battlefield. Btw, why are houses built on a battlefield? :P

[Shian]

The original Aughundell battlefield cause it felt like a battlefield. Btw, why are houses built on a battlefield? :P

....

Anyways... Zombies! BRAAAIIINSSS!!! *giggle* They're fun- not in the other blight-monster grotesque sense where I feel like I need to bathe after killing a single one. Aregors(sp?) come to mind. Ewwww.

Giant chickens are fun when within that range too ^_^ Bgawk!

[Sindala]

Slayvite = Giant ice Beetles, need i say more? *wink wink nudge nudge*

Sindala = Up at the Bitter Pickle Bar, those drunks are funny when they start a pub brawl

[GalemThawn]

Agents of WA in structured positions.

NT's blighted area.
Lesser Adaroth Deadlands east of Parsnia.

Wandering WA in WD and ED? Not so much.

The ENVIRONMENT adds so much to battles. Fighting around ruined structures or in a ruined city is so much more fun than fighting random AE in the countryside.

With the Kion/Sslanis series of quests ending at the Assault on the Deadlands, I really think that area should be built up slightly. On the other side of the ridge from the named there, why not put some blighted tents to make the area REALLY look like there is an army gathering.

The ambience of any area adds GREATLY to my experience even when in combat. It's that feeling that you are really fighting for a reason instead of just mobs thrown into an area for you to engage.

In the Western Deadlands, as you enter on the road eastern road, you encounte random grouped agents of the WA. It would be SO much more awesome to have small structure outposts along the road. Maybe even have more WA at that particular area with a named LT, Captian, or even Major. Structures like those found on the road in the blighted area north of Parsnia could be reused. Plop the structure down, add a few soldiers to area, and we have some content update that doesn't require a lot of new assests.

[lightning claw]

there is Many places where EPION loved hunting each tear i would start singing ohhhhh give me a home where Epi can roam where the Dear and the golems play where crafting is heard a discouraging word and the skys are bloody all day.

Eleat blighted blights
Hounds
blights
Umary the golem king


Storming the Edl and see where the blight takes me


i once attempted to get every one at the edge of the edl on chaos to see how well we could storm the edl and attempt to push the blight back never worked no one came but i still brawled

so any where i can find massive combat and learn how the engen thinks

[Favoran]

Reminds me of a shot I once made, the treant just stopped in his death animation... was rather funny

Haha, nice! I like the caption especially.

I don't know about my favorite hunting spots... but I'd have to say the Isle of Ice and Drakul due to their wide variety of mobs that can't ridiculously debuff you (*cough* blights *cough*).

[velveeta]

golems.....any type or size.
i will gladly and happy take time out of almost any rush i am in to knock down a gol, especially cob ones (sometimes, when i am alone on blight, i go to kira just to play with him... ). altho lately i have been having fun seeing how many nic gols i can drag thru the aug mines before i nail em all.

before i was the uber cheese queen i am today, gols were the bane of my existance and i am more than happy to return the favor now that i can.....

[GalemThawn]

After and inbetween quests, I got my early levels almost entirely from gem golems.

Just about every thing that was very fun, or easily recalled, had to do with the WA.
The quest to kill 10 Skeletons for the druid on New Trismus island.
Cleric quest to kill the named Saris ghost.
The abandoned house below the Kion volcanoe.
The Lieutentants patrolling Lesser Adaroth.
The Lesser Adaroth Deadlands at Parsnia.
The Dead Pool at Chiconis.
Exploring the Northern Deadlands.
Just surviving in the 'ice rink' at Rift's Edge.
Nature Tower quests to kill Western Deadland WA.
And recently, just begining to explore the Eastern Deadlands.

I've only seen Fafnir once. I've never seen SOG, Daknor, Reklar, or any of the other epic mobs. I've never engaged, or even seen the Crimson Tide (or whatever they are called) of the WA.

I've had a lot of fun in Horizons, but I'm expecting that the best is yet to come.

[Khetienn]

Favorite hunting spot, hmm. Used to be the Tazoon desert, near the Crater, hunting desert wolves and praying that the Bone Golems weren't going to appear from under a sand-dune to smush me.

Now, I'd have to say that my favorite hunting spots are the Granite golems by Drift Point, and the oak Treants (outside Tazoon...somewhere).

[Steelclaw]

My favorite spot used to be just north of the Valley of the Moon landing pad in Trandalar -- gem golems! Yes, they are still there, but they used to spawn more frequently and in larger numbers. It was a lot of fun leaving golem piles of massive carnage and ... strangely satisfying.

[pevil2000]

Hmmm good question. It depends on my mood and what I'm up to.

Pevil particularly likes to kill golems, as she has high evasion and dexterity, so melee mobs have a hard time hitting her. She's also usually got a use for them (either crafting stone items or gems, needs their comps for her scales or needs them for a quest). My favourite golems are the granites at Drift Point... I levelled from 45 to 65 DCRA there, and at the same time levelled up from about 50 to 62 DRAG. Poor, poor golems. The gold golems just past Summit have been ritualistically slaughtered by me too.

Her other favourites are Ruxus, though she doesn't go out of her way to find them. It was just always one of the easier quests when her and Nagafyn were hatchies (hence if we're online together we often talk about Ruxus, for those who have wondered what the heck we were on about!)

[Sonea]

My all-time fav-o-rite spot is the fire opal golem area on Saritova. While it is not as much fun since the spawn rate was lowered and the cycling of tiered AoE spells has been removed, I have many many fond memories of hunting there with Sephiranoth. Guardian, blood mage, monk, and I'm sure a couple of other schools were finished in that area. I will never forget the thundering rumble as Sephiranoth would gather and bring so many golems that the ground shook with their passing. .. and the sight of all those golems bearing down on me was enough to make my stomach weak. In fact one excursion there has been captured for the Tale, though it has not yet been written into the story line:

There came a day when Sonea, newly risen to 100 seasons of Guardian, and armored in the finest mail -- handcrafted by Carinde of the Axe and Anvil -- went with Sephiranoth to dance with the fire opal golems on the Island of Saritova, that they might celebrate her century.. and of course, try out her new armor. At first, Sephiranoth did pull to Soni two of the golems. And then he cried for help... and stood still whilst she danced with the two until they were naught but rubble.

Next he pulled three, then four, and finally she succumbed under the combined force of five of the fire opal golems. Being of the Gifted, she quickly returned, checked her new armor for scratches, and returned to the dance. Whether intentionally or no, the next pull was to be the one on which Sephiranoth did prove to Soni beyond a doubt that Sonea Finder was a force to be reckoned with.

It started with a massive horde of fire opal golems that Sephi brought to Soni. And then he promptly died at her feet. As she had seen that the foe were many, she had already started a casting of the Dark Cyclone magery. She stood her ground whilst the cyclone blew itself out. And then she healed herself and began calling forth a lightning storm on the foe yet standing.

When all was done, Sonea stood surrounded by an immense pile of rubble. She revived Sephi, and he counted the fallen whilst she relieved them of their treasure. When the last of the debris was cleared away, Sephi exclaimed that Soni had faced 16 and lived to tell of it! Soni's hands began to shake and she very nearly fainted from the enormity of it.