Rashir's Istarian Beastiary

[Rashir Ajah]

Rashir's Istarian Beastiary: Part I

This is the first in what I hope to be a continuing series of articles. It seems there's a distinct lack of information regarding the various creatures of Istaria, both indigenous and supernatural. Having been round the continents a few times, I've observed and memorized many monster habitats and behaviors, but I haven't thought to catalogue them until now. Every update will contain detailed information regarding a monster's area, types, abilities, strengths, weaknesses, and behaviors that I have studied and observed, as well as a picture of the monster. Feel free to add or correct any information.

Entry 1: The Storm Ogre (Tier V) Smashicus Zapicus

The lumbering Storm Ogre is a dangerous foe. They are capable of dealing massive amounts of damage with their huge lightning clubs, and possess a number of area affect and stunning abilities. Fortunately, they are stupid and don't seem to work together. They are also fairly easy to hit.

Danger Rating: 3 swords. (Actual sword images pending)
This rates how difficult these creatures are for their levels. (My personal opinion only. Feel free to add your own opinion on the danger rating and I may adjust it if enough agree.)
1 sword=very easy for the level, 5 swords=very dangerous for the level.

Levels and Types:
Thunder Ogre: Level 81-85
Lightning Ogre: Level 86-90
Storm Ogre: Level 91-95
Tempest Ogre: Level 96-100

Location: Northwest of Morning Light near the dwarven North Gate. (Map image will be added soon.)
Other monsters in the area: Wind Golems.

Racial Abilities:
These abilities seem to be shared by all Ogre-type monsters.

Ogre Smash: Similar to the Power Attack abilities used by gifted fighters, this is just an attack that deals extra damage.
Ogre Cry: A powerful ability which affects all players directly around the Storm Ogre, stunning them for a few seconds and then doing mind damage before it ends.

Special Abilities:
These abilities are either unique to the Storm Ogre or shared by other creatures of the same elemental type.

Thundering Blow: An attack that deals extra damage AND stuns the target for an extended period of time.
Squall: The Storm Ogre will use this ability before engaging in battle. It's a very large area affect centered on the ogre which does considerable damage to all in the area.

Strengths and Weaknesses:
Evasion: Low
Damage: High
Attack Speed: Slow
Strong versus: Energy
Weak versus: Ice

Behaviors:
Grouping: No. This monster does not seem to travel in groups.
Assisting: No. This monster does not seem to assist others it observes being attacked, only joining the fray if it spots a player itself.
Buffing: No. This monster does not seem to possess any buffs.

Loot:
Coin: Yes. This monster drops coin.
Raw Resources: Yes. This monster drops raw resources in the form of Shining Essence.
Trophies: Yes. This monster drops trophies for use in the trophy hunter quests of the approriate levels.
Tech Resources: No. This monster does not drop resources used in any techniques.

Notes:
A blight storm seems to cling to storm ogres, turning the sky green and stormy in their immediate area. When all storm ogres in the area are slain, the storm will dissipate.

Image Link

[Rilramar]

Very nice and informative. Will you be collecting these all into webpage format for when the articles fall off the boards?

[Rashir Ajah]

Yes, more than likely. I'm still deciding how to go about doing these. I had originally thought to do them just for my guild but I felt others could benefit from them too. In the future I may link to them from my guild's webpage.

Edit: I have a rough HTML version of this monster ready to go. View it here.

[Rashir Ajah]

I have a new entry to the Beastiary up, and I think it's a pretty good one. Check it out here. I might also consider taking requests on what to post on next.

[imported_Ssilmath]

Hmm...could you do the various kinds of necroflies please?

[Varangaard]

A quick note on the vexator: the chain lightning does not stop when it has hit everyone at least once. During the Unity attack to eastern blight, I received the bounce several dozen of times as it kept jumping amongst the people. The bounce is not immediate either, else it would have just rippled through the army and been done with that. There is some delay that allowed it to 'reinfect' us over and over again. Obviously, for large groups (maybe 20+ people, not to mention the huge army we had down there) this attack is extremely lethal as about the only way to get rid of it is either to have everyone get killed or to scatter far enough from each other.

[Rashir Ajah]

An interesting observation Varangaard. The 'delay' you mention may be the cause of the unlimited chain lightning effect in extremely large groups. In my experience, with small groups the effect would say 'Chain Lightning failed because <playername> already has Chain Lightning effect.' and that would be the end of it. Probably because there's only a limited number of targets, the lightning gets bounced back on a target who's been hit recently and still suffering from the effect, which causes the lightning to end. With a lot of targets though, the effect might end before a target gets hit again, allowing them to hit an infinite number of times. I'd call that a bug possibly.

[Frons Von Frik]

Very nice Rashir ..I like the way you setup the website to give us information.. AE needs to do something like that :P

I noticed when Red Vexator casted rift distortion on me that I was unable to cast.. however when I charged at him with melee I was actually landed attacks but every so often it would say Target is 3ms away or 4ms away.. My recommendation while fighting these is to stay faraway using binds and roots on it.. or usestraight melee..