How to treat your cleric

The cleric is a sensitive creature who thrives on making others feeling healthier/happier in exchange of appreciation. Gianna, creator of TheNoob comic, puts it well: the cleric is a "co-dependent" personality - at least 9 times out of 10.

Click Pic to Enlarge

Dictionary definition of "codependent" is: A person who is unfulfilled, constantly in relationships, is indirect, unassertive when they have a need; the person will also exhibit symptoms such as controlling behavior, intimacy problems and is a caretaker of others.

Wikipedia definition of "codependency": Codependency is a tendency to behave in overly passive or excessively caretaking ways that negatively impact one's relationships and quality of life. It also often involves putting one's needs at a lower priority than others while being excessively preoccupied with the needs of others. Codependency can occur in any type of relationship, including in families, at work, in friendships, and also in romantic, peer or community relationships.

For best results, keep your clerics out of direct 
sunlight and hand wash them with lukewarm water. 

The definitions above do sound like the average cleric. As the comic implies, the cleric:

• is insecure and needs recognition, 
• will avoid direct confrontation, 
• needs a group to lvl, 
• prefers praise over loots,
• is a caretaker of others.

One of the rare care labels delivered with each new cleric.

4 ways to make your cleric happy (and train him to follow you):

1. Reward him with a praise, each time he does something you like.
2. Do not shout at him, especially in the midst of the battle - chances are it will have a negative impact on his moral and consecutively on his performance.  In general, he is easily hurt by disapproval.
3. Make him feel useful and needed. Give him an endless supply of problems to solve. Prefer problems pertaining to you, friends, legion. Let him help you. Be truthful, he will know if you do not mean it. Make sure you spell out, often enough, that he is needed.
4. Offer him love and support. Since your cleric values love and support, he will appreciate your gesture. He won't ask you to prove any of those, so you can easily fool him.

Caution: the cleric is not an idiot, nor a masochism. Although usually his loyalty towards friends and legion is increased, he will eventually move on to a new environment if his needs are not met, if he thinks you are taking advantage of him, or simply if he is not having a good time with you.



Information on co-dependence:

• Codependency article in wikipedia
• Narcissists article in wikipedia NB: Narcissists are a natural magnet for codependents.
• Codependence article in About.com Health's Disease and Condition
• Dependent personality disorder in NIH's Medline. NB: A codependent person does not necessarily have a dependent personality disorder.
• 'Cluster C Personality Disorders', in: Diagnostical and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV, Washington: American Psychiatric Association, 4th ed. 1994, ISBN 0-89042-062-9, 662-673.
• 'Schema Therapy, A Practitioner's Guide', by J. Young, J. Klosko, M. Eishaar, Guilford Press 2006, ISBN 978-1593853723

Killing Bollvig with a bat

Bollvig Blackheart is a legendary lvl 50 boss in Heiron, friendly to Asmodians, with excellent drops. It takes an alliance of lvl 50 players to kill him. There are multiple strategies, including line of sight for the aoe and heavy healing.

Bollvig does an awful sleep skill, that disables your clerics. Usually one of the clerics stays at a distance, to dispel the other clerics (who in turn will dispel the rest of the players).

Getting to lvl 55, acquiring last stigma and better gear, makes the kill much easier. The tanks have much more damage resistance, the healers have much more healing power, the damage dealers have much more cocky attitude. The only remaining problem, is Bollvig's sleep skill.

Unless you have a bat.

No no, not that kind of bat.

Nop, not that kind either.

This is what you need:

Bat - regular mob found flying around Bollvig.

Yeap, a real (= nocturnal mouselike mammal with forelimbs modified to form membranous wings and anatomical adaptations for echolocation) bat. A plain mob, which will be your life insurance.

Strategy:

1. Get a group of 55ers.
2. Clean area, however let 2-3 bats alive.
3. Have the cleric build aggro with a bat, without killing it. The bat will keep hitting the cleric throughout the fight, however the damage is low.
4. Start killing the boss.

Trick:

• When Bollvig casts his sleep, the cleric will be dispelled by the bat's hits. 

Caution:

• If for some unfortunate reason the bat is killed, the cleric should immediately get a new one. 
• If one of the DDs has enmity boost gear, the bat might leave the cleric.

That's it really, you can easily kill Bollvig with just one group. For a quest, for the loots, or just because you hate him for having you wipe in the past so many times.

Legion

Having a quick break in Besh, we took a photo. Let me explain who is who!

Click Pic to Enlarge

Remember - as far as anyone knows, we are a nice normal legion.

Stormwing HM with rez loci

Detailed instructions on how to kill Stormwing (Besh) in hard mode, using rez loci from cleric.

Stormwing is the final boss in Beshmundir Temple. If you are doing a hard mode (HM) run, this boss is really hard to kill. To achieve it, you can use the "rez loci" method:

1. All group members (except cleric) stand close to each other and attack the boss as hard as they can without moving.
2. Stormwing kills the group - except cleric who is standing 19m away.
3. The cleric casts rez loci, a skill that resurrects all group members from a distance and transfers them where the cleric is.
4. Group members get up as soon as they can and attack the boss to get the aggro again. The cleric moves away.
5. Back to step 2.

This cycle is repeated as many times as needed. The actual number of cycles depends on the dps the group can deliver in the few seconds it is alive each time.

This is not an exploit, so use it freely. You will need to pay a lot of money on soul healing.

There are many videos on HM Stormwing, the best being by Panatheus.

Caution! The cleric should not move, until at least one of the group members has been resurrected!  Otherwise the boss will reset.

Chanter's tip: 

• Cast Word of Inspiration as soon as you get up. This will help you and the other group members get the aggro.
• Do not bother buffing your group each time you rez.
• Do not bother healing either. Unless you are a pro Chanter, in which case you can drop a heal on the cleric when he needs it.

Tank's tip:

• Try to aggro as soon as possible.
• You might need to remove your shield and other gear items, in order to ensure that you will die when the boss casts his aoe, together with the rest of your group.

Note: It's generally a good idea to duel the members with lots of hp, before starting the process. As far as resisting/evading, some groups have all the members strip. Some others have everyone with full gear.  I would suggest having the tank and the glad remove some items. But you will have to work out what is best for you.

DDs:

• Cast DoTs if you have (Damage over Time), which will keep running even when you die.
• Try to die together with the rest of the group, please! This might mean you might have to remove some of your armour (e.g. helmet) to avoid evading or resisting the aoe. As a rule of thumb, get your magic defense below 1000.
• Accept rez as soon as possible. Lowering your graphic settings might help, since this semi-grey graphics used when dead can really delay the process.

Cleric's tips:

• Stand 18m-20m away from Stormwing. Not less. Not more.
• Do not use heal on yourself, since it will only draw aggro on you. Use pots.
• Do not use any skill, except rez loci and maybe tranquility.
• Target the first group member to die. Start casting rez loci when Stormwing flies up - this is usually when he starts casting his AoE ("threshing wind"). Caution - you might need to cancel your casting! 
• Use of casting speed and running scrolls is suggested. Also any kind of wind resist.
• Have Stormwing branded and create a shortcut for you to target him easily. You will need to target him, in order to keep the required distance.  
• If Stormwing emits a blue colour on the floor around him and starts saying something like "My Powers..", then you should slightly delay his casting. The reason is that SW will do some animation that takes about 1.5 sec, before he lifts up for the aoe.

Cleric's Hint: Start casting rez loci when: Stormwing flies up, or  When you see him starting to cast threshing wind, or  When you hear him announcing the AoE (you will recognise it, don't worry). Supposedly all those (fly, cast, announce) should happen each time, but I found out they do not. Any of those however is a clue for you to start casting.

Alternative presentation of the same method ("rez loci") at aion-guide.

Comic TheNoob by Gianna Maseti

MMOs are good for you

You know that MMOs are good for you. I know it too. But how can I persuade a teenager's mom?

More often than not, I have people trying to persuade me that gaming is bad for my mental (and physical!) health. Although I have found ways to deal with these people, there will still be the argument that young gamers, ie 15-18 year olds, are in danger, "destroying themselves", in an addiction "worse than drugs". On top of that, there are pseudo-scientific articles, describing this new disease and urging parents to guard their offsprings.

Well I think that MMOs are beneficial for a teenager. And I want to spread the word. Could you help me write down the arguments in favour of gaming? Please mail me your ideas.

Some thoughts to start with (in no particular order):

• Functioning in groups. Learn to follow, collaborate, lead, organise, talk.
• Every-day english, including slang expressions and terms.
• Controlled environment, no drugs or viruses - child at home.
• Group-therapy.
• Friends, friends, friends.
• Multi-culture environment.
• Gender equality.
• Discover information on the internet.
• Statistics and scientific methodology.

That is a really interesting subject..

 Click Pic to Enlarge. Comic by pvponline.com

Guest contribution: Assmos

Another contribution arrived today by e-mail. Since I chuckled while reading it, I have to post it - although it does not necessarily fit the rest of the blog.

Click Pic to Enlarge. Sent by reader who wishes to remain anonymous.
 

This comic is by gai-on (i think), and more material can be found at aiononline forum, published by LucifelKS.

Purring in sieges

Continuing on previous post, I will try to attend today's siege.

Us (Elyos) will be defending the Inggison forts against the black-clad enemy (a.k.a. Asmos) pouring out of of the skies and attacking our castle gates.

Many thanx to Winternight (no server specified) for sending the pic.

Actually the battles are not that bad. I quite enjoy them - albeit i can not see much, because of the unbelievable lag. But I learnt to move blindly to pre-defined points, and heal or attack the (equally blind - i am sure) enemy.

4 New Year Resolutions

Dear Solorius,  

I promise I have been really naughty and really nice throughout the year! I will try my best to fulfill my new year resolutions (of 2010) during the remaining 7 days. I have also written down my new new-year resolutions (for 2011):


1. I will make my own potions.
No more buying of the trader. Or at least I will gather the materials, buy the NPC items, and ask a friend to craft my potions for me. Worst case hypothesis, I will morph the necessary hintera and beg for mp pots. Yes, the past year MyTank has been kind enough to craft my pots. Maybe it's time to repay him, maybe with some actual kinah?

2. I will increase my aether gathering skill.
At least up to the stage needed to gather the magical aether, which is necessary for all this morphing required (see point 1). But, dear Solorius, this will have to wait until a double-gathering-exp weekend, because - as you very well know - I am no good in flying. And Storm Circle is still a dangerous place!

3. I will try to attend at least a siege a week.
Not for the AP. Nor for the medals. Not even for my legion. But I must do it, in order to be with my friends (in game) and understand what they talk about (in real life).

4. No more QQ-ing.
I can be the best dama-queen ever. I can out-drama you. But I usually avoid it. So that's it - no more QQ-ing will be *accepted*. I promise to ignore (and if this is not possible, i will try to avoid) all those melodramatic people who think that their life is important and their wings spread further.

But, dear Solorius, 

You need to do few things for us too.
Remember what massively wrote in the article "All I want for Solorius is.."? Well check them out - pretty darn good ideas all of them. My requests?


Ease tension in North vs South.
If this is not possible, try China vs US - the same thing really, but easier to identify. See, they don't enjoy fighting like we do with Asmos. They have no rez stones (!), no clerics above lvl 1 and - believe it or not - they can not bind to any of the obelisks there.

Make Miragent easier to craft.
You could add the option of exchanging 3 or 5 or even 10 "plain" hearts with 1 "crit" heart of magic. I understand this might be difficult to do, so let's just stick to miragent this year and if it succeeds you could do the same thing next year for Fenris too!

Chain +15 [humor]

I was sent this picture from a reader of the blog. The mail text read:

"Chain Mail:  +15 physical attack against male opponents, +15 magical attack against female opponents,  +16 evasion against all enemies"

Many thanx to Annil for the contribution. You can also send yours, as long as it related, fun, and relatively decent :-P

Click Pic to Enlarge

Hands-on-Boobies

Having to constantly wear chain, makes a woman's life difficult - have you tried finding something sexy in chain?

Cloth wearers have it easy - check the Asmodian skin! It's sexy, although the "hands-on-boobies" feature might be too much for me. I am pretty sure the fingers change depending on the toon's stance!

Standing toon: Bone fingers about to grab.

Grey patch added to protect toons' identity - since it's irrelevant to the current post.

Sitting toon: Bone fingers making the "success" gesture, implying they have already grabbed.

 

I am sooo getting shouted for publishing those! 
At least she has changed her armour since these pictures were taken.

Meanwhile, in a dungeon far far away:

Image from Komikino's Lineage II comics, series "Stabby McStoo". 

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Epilogue: I know that not everyone is enjoying changing skins and colours - I do however enjoy the change while I am training, hands-on, for the next instance.