rayner2814's Blog - Apr to Jun 12 (86 followers)

Blog

• Date range... Apr - Jun 13 Jan - Mar 13 Oct - Dec 12 Jul - Sep 12 Apr - Jun 12 Jan - Mar 12 Oct - Dec 11 Jul - Sep 11 Apr - Jun 11 Jan - Mar 11 Oct - Dec 10 Jul - Sep 10
• Blog RSS feed
• View full blog

On my first playthrough of Dragon's Dogma I acquired all but 5 Achievements, some I thought I would get in time and I was just 1 Quest shy of The Hero, I lost track of Reynard, the traveling merchant you save as soon as you leave Cassardis and head for the Encampment. I gathered all the materials and Journal Entries, and when I arrived in NG+ I completed "Search Party" within the first 10 mins and the the Achievement unlocked. Then I went to the Rift to hire and fire 70 Pawns... technically this could be one of the first Achievements you can unlock, why it has a 6.83 TA Ratio is beyond me? Leaving me with just 3 Achievements remaining. For my first playthrough I say I was pretty dam productive, I visited 162 Locations, I accumulated 12 million gold, I reached lv 60 Sorcerer and I'm in a really nice position to pimp-my-archer! All I read about is how weak the Magick Archer is... but if you leveled as an Attack Damage character then you are shit-out-of-luck! Here is what I have left:





For "The Ever-Turning Wheel" I have to complete the game "A second time" so I figured that I have to get to the end-game again, and I can fight the Ur-Dragon on the beach of Cassardis at any time. I might as well fight it at the end so it will be an easier fight as I'll be Uber-powerful at that point. I'll probably be around lv 80. The only Achievement at this point that is giving me a problem is "Well Equipped" which is for obtaining 350 DIFFERENT pieces of Weapons & Armor. Currently I have 212 and I am unsure if there are 138 pieces that I've skipped over in the stores, this is another that I plan to complete as I near the end of my 2nd quest. I just have to be sure to find Reynard again, there are many Weapons & Armor that only he sells. I will make sure I don't let his "Escort Quest" expire this time around... but getting his ass to the Great Wall even at lv 62 is going to be a pain... and I'll have to plough through the Female Bandit Encampment at Heaven's Peak, good thing I've done all the Quests already.

Levels are now more than 100K EXP apart and in NG+ I can buy Port Crystals... so I will place them all over the map for fast Travel. I've ran into a HUGE Gold exploit in the game. Basically buy as many Carrots as you can from the first item store in Cassardis at 65G each then stay at the Inn for 3 days. They will all become Rotten Carrots and with the Suasion Augment from the Sorcerer you can sell them for 189G each. You can make ~ 200K Gold in 5 mins. The Port Crystals sell for 250K and if placed at strategic areas I can really cut down on the time needed for my second playthrough. I'm actually looking forward to some DLC, I just hope they don't milk the Notice-Board with bullshit quests like Kill XX amount of a specific enemy. It would be awesome if they added more areas to the map... but that might just be wishful thinking.

This past week my quest for an uber-powerful Magick Archer in Dragon's Dogma was in full effect. Currently I'm a level 37 Sorcerer, at level-up they acquire the highest Magic Attack and I will soon switch-over to an "Adventure Vocation" and "Level-up Vocation" I say level 40 is a good starting point as level-ups begin to be more spread-out... and at this point the absurdly expensive "Ferry Stones" which teleport you back to the main city of Gran Soren don't feel as rare as they once were, I usually have > 200K gold on me at all times. I really don't understand why there is such complaints about "Fast-travel" in Dragon's Dogma? Are players just not doing Quest-boards? Seriously... kill 45 rabbits and acquire 50K gold, it's really not that difficult. I must be really close to the Achievement to complete 50 of them. I've yet to receive the "Quest Failed" notification... so I hope I can get:



The more I play, the more it reminds me of Monster Hunter... this is like the Xbox 360 version and both are developed by Capcom. Gran Soren is the main city and all paths lead to it in one form or another. At the start just reaching the capital is a quest in itself, but so satisfying... and the amount of exploration is incredible. This is the only place where you can change your Vocation or Job-class if you will, so when building a super-specialized character it's the focal point of the adventure. There are several short-cuts such as the Ancient Quarry, which one of the main quests has you pass through. Once cleared out it acts like a "Town" where your stamina does not diminish while running. The Catacombs are another good spot to "Fast Travel" in the northern regions, and very accessible from the main city. When looking at the main map it all comes together... Gran Soren is the Hub-World.



Gran Soren is the HUGE city on the eastern coast in the middle of the map. When you are a lower-level character you travel the roads and familiarize yourself with the enemies. Leveling-up definitely gives you a sense of increasing power, the enemies that once gave you trouble become more of a nuisance. My first Cyclops battle almost decimated my entire party... now I can take on two at the same time with little effort. When upgrading equipment you can also feel the difference, and there are several ways to gain Gold fairly easy. Here is my main method... just outside the castle there are oxen, they drop 1 or 2 "Beast Steak" when defeated. In a quick collection I can obtain 10 - 15... then stay in the Inn for 1 day or 1 & 1/2 days and they turn into "Sour Beast Steak" and with the Sorcerer Augmentation "Suasion" they sell for 1,750 Gold each. That's 17,500 - 26,250 gold in 10 mins.

My main Pawn "Lady" Jade is tearing it up from what my friends tell me... I've given her the sluttiest outfits and upgraded them all to level 3. At the moment she is also a lv 37 Sorcerer and I've equipped her with "High Bolide" a.k.a Meteor Swarm! The best part is that hiring Pawns from players on your friend's list cost 0 Rift Crystals. When she reaches lv 40 I intend to play her as a Mage, which is the main Healer... and switch back to Sorcerer at level-up for the +5 Magic Attack. I have over 250,000 Rift Crystals from players hiring her, when I rest in the Inn I get presents from players all the time. If anyone wants to enlist the services of Lady Jade send me a friends request. Currently my two hired pawns are lv 50, Mage & Fighter... I tried a Warrior, but the AI does not do well with slow attacks and I like my Tank to have a shield.

There are so many exploits in the game that anyone who says this game is difficult is a nubcake! The resources respawn after about 1 week... a trip through the Ancient Quarry can yield tons of Ore, that sell for a fair price as well, Gold Ore sells for 1,800 alone. Non-quest specific treasure also respawn, The Altar of the Water God is prefect for gaining HUGE sacks of gold. Those bitching about no fast travel can't complain either, after 1 week you will receive a new "Ferry Stone" at the portal. This means that just stay at the Inn 7 nights that cost 3,500 gold and return to the portal and receive another. I feel that those not familiar with an MMO are the players having the most difficult time... they are playing it as an Action Game and it's far from it. Can't wait to advance the main story, NG+ is just playing through "A second time" definitely looking forward to that.

It's that time again... it's time to restart my character in Dragon's Dogma! In character building RPG's I usually restart my character after I get a good idea of how I want to build them. In Dragon's Dogma there are really 4 different Archer-type classes, but the first instance that you can change your Vocation comes when you reach the main city Gran Soren. When you level-up you get a stat-boost depending on your current Vocation. If planned correctly you can venture-out as one job-class and gain Vocation-Rank and then level-up as your preferred stat-upgrade. I cheat the system and find the loop-holes. Granted in the beginning it's going to be much more difficult to enact this tactic, so I might just have to level-slowly to ensure maximum stats. Regardless you can not class-change until you reach level 10 so I made an excel spreadsheet for the stats of the first 3 starting classes:

Fighter @ lv 10

Health - 720
Stamina - 720
Attack - 116
Magic Attack - 78
Defense - 107
Magic Defense - 78

Strider @ 1v 10

Health - 675
Stamina - 765
Attack - 97
Magic Attack - 97
Defense - 97
Magic Defense - 88

Mage @ 1v 10

Health - 608
Stamina - 720
Attack - 78
Magic Attack - 116
Defense - 87
Magic Defense - 107

Looking at this information I notice that a Mage & Fighter have the same Stamina? Doesn't make sense... and the Strider has basically the most rounded-out attributes. From the start I would decide on damage-output... either Attack or Magic Attack. I will be discussing Archers... the Ranger & Assassin are both Attack-based and Magick Archer is Magic Attack Based. This is the first BIG decision. Assassin class is based on stealth, is encouraged to venture out alone which goes against the party-dynamics... BUT it gains the highest Attack-power increase, even among Fighter-type classes at +6 Attack per level. It gives up Defense and Magic Defense. If I wanted to make an Attack-based Archer that deals the most damage I would level-up with the Assassin-class and play as the Ranger-class.

If I were looking to play as a Magic Attack based character... ie. the Magick Archer to get Maximum Magic Attack is a bit tricky. First do we want +9 Magic Attack & +19 Magic Defense or +10 Defense, +67 Health & +45 Stamina... Attack is irrelevant for this build. I know it's technically NOT Maximum Magic Attack, but I will go with the base Strider lv 10 build for the added Health & Stamina... I'll explain. For this build I want to play as a Magick Archer and level-up as a Sorcerer as they get +5 Magic Attack per level as opposed to +3 for the Magick Archer. After just 20 levels you are looking at a +40 Magic Attack difference, but at the same time you give up 4 Health, 5 Stamina & 2 Defense per level. This is why I would off-set this build with the basic Strider start, most of the specials are Stamina-based.


Lv 50 Magick Archer - Leveled as Magick Archer

Health - 1,475
Stamina - 1,565
Attack - 177
Magic Attack - 217
Defense - 217
Magic Defense - 248

Lv 50 Magick Archer - Leveled as a Sorcerer

Health - 1,315
Stamina - 1,365
Attack - 177
Magic Attack - 297
Defense - 137
Magic Defense - 288

Basically the noticeable difference is that I'm giving up 80 Defense for 80 Magic Attack... also a loss of 160 Health & 200 Stamina. But this is almost equivalent to 27% more attack power. This build should be sufficient with a Mage / Sorcerer / Warrior party. I'll be one of the most powerful Magick Archers on the server... but it will be a very slow crawl... basically venturing out only when I've just leveled-up... lots of power-leveling and perfect planning.

It's no secret that when given the option in an RPG... that's right an RPG, I always choose the Archer as my first character. I tend to create my initial character as a reflection on myself. In 2003 my friend and I took up Archery and I have my own Green / Black Hoyt CyberTech Compound Bow with Green Drawstrings, it's only missing a Green Lantern Symbol. For years we'd go to Queens Archery http://bigapplearchery.com/ in Flushing Queens, NY, a quick ride over the Throggs Neck Bridge from the Bronx. My wife took some pictures of me drawing my bow and uses it as my caller-id pic. I can hit a target the size of a Silver Dollar from 25 meters away, I averaged a 260/300 in 30-shot tournaments... an average of 8.6pts a shot... a 10 is a bulls-eye. When I see the option to choose a Ranger-Type class I'm all over it! What makes Dragon's Dogma even better is that there are 3 Different Archer Classes!!!


Of course when I finished the Prologue and began creating my character I choose the "Stryder" Vocation... another word for Job-Class. His primary attack is with Dual Daggers, quick and deadly and the secondary attack is with the Shortbow for range and crowd-control. At the start you only have access to 1 special attack for each, which is accessed by holding the RB for primary and LB for secondary. As you defeat enemies and complete quests you "Rank-Up" in your Vocation then choose "disciplines" or special attacks by purchasing them from the Inn-keeper. Your character can have up to 3 Disciplines mapped to the X,Y & B button for both as well. These attacks use stamina so you can't just spam them, it's key to use them strategically. In my first day of play I reached lv 12 and Rank 4 in the Stryder Vocation. I had so much fun sniping enemies and tearing them to shreds with my daggers.

This wasn't even the best part! In Dragon's Dogma you create / hire Pawns as allies to vanquish foes. You create your main Pawn... who I named "Lady Jade" a play on G.I.JOE. As my main comrade I set her to a "Healing Mage" You choose a few questions while creating the Pawn that kinda sets their behavior in battle. This pawn is an extension to your party, you get to equip her with all sorts of items and disciplines and such... it's literally a second character. While you sleep in the Inn your "Main Pawn" can be hired by other players connected to the server. As the player you enter the "Rift" and hire Pawns from other players as well, it cost "Rift Crystals" to hire Pawns that are a higher-level then your main character, these are Main Pawns from other players, and you can give them gifts and even equip them. I think this is an outlet to give Weapons & Armor to friends... which I have to test.

One of my only complaints is that the game thus-far is too easy, it might be because I fully understand the Pawn-system and I have a team of Stryder / Warrior / Mage / Mage... the casters are powerful, they can enchant my weapons with elemental damage, heal wounds and cast offensive magic. The Warrior is the "Tank" I stand back and attack from a distance and stagger when the enemies get close and the Mages Heal. You can have a team consisting of you, the main Pawn and 2 other hired Pawns. You can customize your party for the tasks at hand. I don't think the 2 other pawns level-up so it's wise to enter the rift and switch Pawns when you level-up. I throughly had fun playing last night, I even started leveling-up my weapons and armor. Dragon's Dogma is much like Monster Hunter... not surprising since they are both by Capcom.

This past weekend was pretty productive in the online Achievement department, I started my weekend on Thursday as I had the day off from work and met up with "The Platoon" to complete co-op dash, finish a stage in less than 15 minutes on Heroic difficulty or higher, in Halo Reach which is the weekly challenge to acquire this Achievement:



I was joined by Platoon members Big Ell, Matrarch & NinjaDave04


The mission of choice: Mission 3 ONI Sword Base, I really haven't spent much time in Halo: Reach as it is... and they were running through the stage with reckless abandon. In our first attempt we failed the challenge, but had a better understanding of the map and the objectives. On our second attempt, everything seemed good until the very end... we couldn't hit the Banshees, and just as the last one fell, we see co-op challenge Failed!!! In less than 5 seconds the screen fades to black!!! I'm not joking, it was 5 fucking seconds! Third times a charm right? They plowed through the stage in little time, they left me in the dust, I was falling asleep and my wife threw-up which I'm surprised none of them heard through the mic, but I heard the wonderful echo... like I needed to hear it a "second time" and Challenge COMPRETE!!!

Thanx again to the Platoon! Sorry I was boring and quite... spent 5 hours looking at blue and purple bullets... and my wife was sick.

On Friday night I downloaded the 2nd DLC pack to http://www.trueachievements.com/Resident-Evil-ORC-xbox-....htm, basically I paid $20 ( Echo Six Pack 1 & 2 ) to play as the same dam characters with different skins on the 6 missions in reverse... I do like the game, but again I feel so cheated by Capcom and Resident Evil. I played both Expansion packs with my friend gourmetchud


We're like the Justice League, he's an avid comic fan like myself. and a huge Resident Evil fan. We played through the 2nd Echo Six DLC pack and then a few multiplayer missions to get some of the other Achievements. Both DLC Achievement lists are pretty weaksauce! All we have left is for him to complete a mission without shooting his gun and we both have to get this annoying Achievement.


On "Places we're meant to die" at the end you fight a total of 4 Super Tyrants, problem is that there is a huge Laser firing down on them, to survive the stage all you have to do is run around and have the laser do the work. If you want to kill the Super Tyrants, you have to watch out that the AI doesn't steal your kill... and end the mission. I'm almost done with this game... too bad the DLC put the game below a 2.0 TA Ratio and can not be added to my Trophy Case.

Now for the finale! I'm finally getting around to Gears of War 3, and I wanted to start with getting all the campaign Achievements. Our goal is to complete the game on 4-player co-op on Insane to unlock these Achievements





I enlisted my friends AYU X360 & Jhous10 along with one of his friends:



We started Sunday morning... what does everyone in California stay up until 6am? We completed Act I and got up to Chapter IV in Act II. We really din't have much trouble, AYU X360 and I are playing on Insane while Jhous10 and his friend played on Casual. They are doing all the work, while we supply the support. Any mission where the enemy "comes from... behind" is difficult, but we managed. It was a good morning, we made some progress and things were falling into place. We met back later that night to continue and again we didn't have much trouble aside from a few deaths... where I turned into a meatball. That is until we arrived at Act III Chapter V... where we have to fight the Lambent Berserker!!!

We spent over 2 hours trying to defeat this son-a-bitch! First I spawned with the One-Shot... and every other restart began with me being turned into a meat-popsicle. Then once we reached the check-point we just couldn't do enough damage to her with Lancers scattered about the area. If me or AYU X360 even inhaled the imulsion we died. We kept getting cornered, or we'd dodge, only to take cover on the boxes strategically placed to annoy the shit out of all players. After several dozen attempts we tried alternate methods... we restarted Act III Chapter IV hoping for better weapons, but 1/2 the team spawns with starting gear! Then we had an idea to have Jhous10 host and he'd play on Casual... thinking that the enemy will be weaker. I'm not sure if it's true or not... but within our next 5 tries we took down the bitch!

It was an epic finale and such a relief, it's one of those instances you remember from generation to generation. As I said before many times the one thing I will always remember about the Seventh Generation of video-gaming is the co-op. So that was my weekend, and now I have to study for my last Final Exam in Vector Calculus and I'm done for this semester... then it's SUMMER-TIME!!!