[23:35] <Animal_> hell yes...

[23:35] <Allerion> (and still want to play a mage?)

[23:35] <Animal_> yes...

[23:35] <Animal_> need something to keep my 15 fingers busy with so i dont smoke a cig :P

[23:35] <Allerion> hehe :)

[23:36] <Allerion> what's the biggest advantage to specialized life and war, having played it for so long?

[23:36] <Animal_> i dont yield anything...

[23:36] <Animal_> no need

[23:36] <Animal_> i did it to continually keep turbine on their toes... i still push the envelope of what they should be looking into

[23:37] <Animal_> everyone has thier special class

[23:37] <Animal_> your templates

[23:37] <Animal_> this OG mage junk

[23:37] <Animal_> UA's

[23:37] <Allerion> Do you feel the rants and comments like Mu's about the extremely high magic defense on Dark Magus and other mobs atill apply to your template?

[23:37] <Animal_> you know the drill

[23:37] <Allerion> or can you still tear things up like we could in the early days with a mage?

[23:37] <Animal_> welp... there are broken monsters...

[23:38] <Animal_> on aerlinthe... if a monster gets to 0 mana... it becomes invincible..

[23:38] <Animal_> at least i think thats what is causing it...

[23:38] <Animal_> augmenteds silver tuskers and occasionally firestorms

[23:38] <Allerion> we had theories like that too. Like if a monster resists you three or more times, it levels and puts 400 million exp into magic defense.

[23:39] <Animal_> it does something wierd...

[23:39] <Allerion> but whatever the cause, they seem to become almost 100% resistant to magic for everyone, while sometimes other monsters of the same type don't resist at all.

[23:39] <Animal_> yup..

[23:39] <Animal_> corals resist me about 10% of the time

[23:39] <Allerion> What one skill do you most wish you had picked up on Animal?

[23:41] <Animal_> that would be a tossup between spec magic D (which you can't have if spec life/war) or melee D

[23:42] <Allerion> Do you have anything to say about hollows? :)

[23:42] <Animal_> COUGH... MAGE NERF!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[23:43] <Animal_> i mean... dont get me wrong..

[23:43] <Animal_> robes and banes = bad

[23:43] <Animal_> but hollows are worse

[23:43] <Animal_> i got my ass handed to me in 10 seconds by 3 level 50 hollow monsters...

[23:43] <Allerion> I know they are the one thing that keeps me from playing PVP now.

[23:44] <Allerion> The only difference between hollows and no hollows for me is my burden and how many pieces I need to buff.

[23:44] <Allerion> I like robes, they reduce buffing, and buffing sucks. :)

[23:45] <Animal_> welp... not having item magic till level 75... I've always worn armor

[23:45] <Animal_> I've never had a hoary

[23:45] <Animal_> gave them away

[23:45] <Animal_> al 40 is useless to someone without item

[23:46] <Animal_> and I was always at the pinacle of the high levels... so twinking was not there for me..

[23:46] <Allerion> How do you recommend people go about playing spec'd life/war, for those that won't simply macro to 70?

[23:46] <Animal_> carefully :)

[23:46] <Animal_> get your critter jewelry soon

[23:47] <Animal_> get good armor...

[23:47] <Animal_> take item and not critter at 36

[23:47] <Allerion> unlike most people who pair up to overcome missing skills, you and Gargamel did over 50 levels as a pair of people without item, correct?

[23:47] <Animal_> yup...

[23:47] <Animal_> we well... wall humped

[23:47] <Allerion> and you do recommend lore before creature?

[23:47] <Animal_> YES

[23:48] <Animal_> without item or critter.. your choice.... lore is essential to fill in the gap

[23:48] <Animal_> but after level 80... lore becomes a toy

[23:48] <Allerion> How often do you use your racial staff skill instead of war?

[23:49] <Animal_> hehehe

[23:49] <Animal_> only when bored and doing low level content (like frore and those damn MAGIC RESISTANT *@&^%@% STUPID ASS MAGE NERF LUGIANS)

[23:50] * Allerion grins

[23:50] <Animal_> and post it just like that :)

[23:50] <Allerion> My roommate quit AC after the hollows dungeons went in.

[23:50] <Animal_> dont blame him

[23:50] <Allerion> That was the same time they screwed up stamina to mana for a week.

[23:51] <Allerion> Since you've had over 2000 followers multiple times, do you have any advice for all the aspiring monarchs on Wintersebb?

[23:52] <Animal_> stay below 1400 unless turdbine comes up with some great scheme of controling them all

[23:52] <Animal_> 1400 = tolerable

[23:52] <Animal_> 1800 = 120 words per min

[23:53] <Animal_> 2000 = stressful

[23:53] <Animal_> 2100+ = INSANE!!!

[23:53] <Allerion> I've never had more than 300, and even then it was intolerable.

[23:53] <Allerion> mostly because I couldn't answer everyone, and then they'd get pissy and say I was ignoring them

[23:54] <Animal_> welp i have /p and /m turned off... because its broken... wish turdbine would at least fix it to let those that /m or /p me know i have that channel turned off

[23:54] <Animal_> that is a starter

[23:55] <Animal_> also I'd like a totally seperate channel to talk in... that you like have to click to open.. that only your followers can get into

[23:55] <Animal_> like if turbine added a monarch chat channel where you can scroll back and answer tells after you were out of combat

[23:55] <Animal_> and give the monarch the capability to allow tells in that box to be visible to a select few vassals that generally help people even if monarch isn't online

[23:55] <Allerion> that would be VERY nice

[23:56] <Animal_> i know... but they dont listen to me..

[23:56] <Allerion> nothing is more annoying than combat messages interlaced with "Where do I take banderling scalps?"

[23:56] <Animal_> im just a disturber

[23:56] <Allerion> I like being called a whining mage myself :)

[23:57] <Animal_> welp..... for you ill do anything for...

[23:57] <Allerion> I consider myself a mage rights activist rather than a whining mage since I haven't been able to bring myself to play a pure mage in almost eight months now.

[23:58] <Animal_> yeah... damn archers :P

[23:58] <Allerion> Do you feel the definition I always use for bow as being "War that works right" to be correct? :)

[23:58] <Animal_> well yes...

[23:58] <Animal_> you cant hit me with war if i dont want you to...

[23:59] <Animal_> and that is irrelevant to my magic D

[23:59] <Allerion> yes, and I often say that war can't hit anything that moves, and abuse that fact every day in-game.

[23:59] <Allerion> We do the shendolain dungeon without killing anything but the crystal, and the screen is a constant glare of fireworks that won't every hit a player as long as they are moving.

[00:00] <Allerion> a dozen plasmas at 2 feet range and unable to hit a player with a war spell should be all the example they need that there is an issue there.

[00:00] <Animal_> the problem is... they dont care..

[00:00] <Animal_> but they hide that behind... TOO MUCH TECH TO FIX

[00:01] <Allerion> Our theory on that is that most of the original coders have moved on to other projects, and the maintenance coders now don't want to touch the old code.

[00:01] <Allerion> For the people that wrote the original code and understand how it effects other code, turning it upside down shouldn't be a big issue.

[00:02] <Animal_> welp whatever the issues may be ... I hope for Turbines sake that once Beta for AC 2.0 gets ready.. they pick the right testers and work closely with them...

[00:02] <Animal_> i know what its like to be a mage...

[00:03] <Allerion> How many times has a dev asked you for opinions on mage fixes in the 24 hours a day seven days a week you've been available and in the same room with them over the past year?

[00:03] <Allerion> (same chatroom to clarify that for readers. Animal does not have a desk in Turbine's offices lol)

[00:03] <Animal_> once...

Subject omitted since the fix discussed might not be implemented if there is some sort of NDA issue about it.

[00:05] <Allerion> then we can cover this next topic :)

[00:06] <Animal_> whoot :P

[00:06] <Allerion> how often have you seen evidence of leaked patch content in-game?

[00:06] <Animal_> HAHHAHHAHAHAHAHA

[00:06] <Allerion> speak freely, we can nuke the whole section

[00:07] <Allerion> I won't start a war with sents or turbine, I still want to play unharassed :)

[00:08] <Animal_> hmmm

[00:08] <Allerion> so...every patch? or every other patch?

[00:08] <Animal_> I would say... 80% of the patch contents have leaked to small groups

[00:08] <Allerion> I know I've personally been approached almost every month since Allerion first got big by people saying they had leaks

[00:08] <Animal_> probably higher if you conglomerated all X servers

[00:08] <Allerion> and wanted me to help them get this and that

[00:09] <Allerion> about 80% of these were BS and just people wanting me to help them get to a chest to camp or something similar.

[00:09] <Allerion> but the other 20% put me in the awkward situation where I can go with a "cheating" group to do a quest, or I can miss out on the whole thing. :/

[00:10] <Animal_> pretty much...

[00:10] <Animal_> its why since aerlinthe's quest... which i beleave to be 80% misleading info... and 40% missing content and 10% broken content...

[00:11] <Animal_> i have given up on being the leader on day 1 of patch day to rule the quests

[00:11] <Animal_> only reason i went to kill BZ today... is because i didnt wanna see the devs do it for us all tomorrow and see FF get a bad name

[00:11] <Animal_> then once we mastered it...

[00:11] <Animal_> everyone wanted in on it..

[00:12] <Allerion> The caldera was what most people considered an impossible task, where for experienced players it was just a big kid's version of the Esper crater caves dungeon.

[00:13] <Allerion> That's another thing about being both a high level quester and a big monarch...

[00:13] <Allerion> did you get a lot of requests from level 20 vassals like "grab me a pallium, will you?"

[00:13] <Animal_> hahha

[00:13] <Animal_> and black boulders

[00:13] <Animal_> and glowsticks

[00:13] <Allerion> as if it were something that was simply no big deal

[00:13] <Allerion> like they spawn all around your lifestone at high levels. :)

[00:14] <Animal_> pretty much

[00:14] <Animal_> i will do that quest again...

[00:14] <Animal_> someday..

[00:14] <Animal_> just not today...

[00:14] <Animal_> i wanna get a robe and glow stick for my honey :)

[00:14] <Animal_> and boulder

[00:15] <Allerion> well the quest is currently being done about hourly on Frostfell. hehe

[00:15] <Allerion> and because of the way it is set up, it is almost impossible to do without getting in other people's way.

[00:15] <Animal_> well

[00:15] <Animal_> if you had control of allerion and nerf was there.... we could sneak one in in 25 minutes

[00:16] <Allerion> I might as well say here where everyone can see it, that you were not included in the heavy exploitation of the logoff portal bug.

[00:16] <Animal_> whats that?

[00:17] <Allerion> Nerf, Valens and I kept our exploiting to ourselves to delay the wholesale camping of that quest.

[00:17] <Allerion> A lot of people assumed that you were portal tied right next to Lady Aerfalle. I figured we should say that was simply not true.

[00:18] <Allerion> and you did all the quests the hard way.

[00:18] <Animal_> to summarize Animal... I dont know how to macro... i know like how to do 3 alchemy things... I have used exploits as I still use today... to a degree... but what i really know how to do well is play my character thats about it...

[00:18] <Animal_> im tied on the island...

[00:19] <Animal_> along with probably 400 others

[00:19] <Allerion> I'll be the first to jump on an exploit, if it is something every character has an opportunity to do.

[00:19] <Allerion> I'm opposed to accepting Sentinel portals or leaked information though.

[00:19] <Animal_> yes...

[00:20] <Animal_> Whole issue... that many have forgotten... is that its a game...

[00:20] <Animal_> games are to be exploited

[00:21] <Animal_> turbine exploits the game at their whim by continually changing it midstream

[00:21] <Animal_> which is no different then nerf having his macro guy somewhere

[00:21] <Animal_> or my tie to the island

[00:21] <Allerion> do you believe in the mage-nerf curve concept?

[00:21] <Animal_> or people doing the dual logins on same puter

[00:21] <Allerion> That over the past year, every month your mage can be 10 levels higher, and less effective than it was the month before?

[00:22] <Allerion> The addition of war and life inept turned level 70 mages back into level 40 mages.

[00:22] <Animal_> ive been compelled to powerlevel to stay above or at the edge of any such nerfs...

[00:22] <Animal_> prime example is the relics

[00:22] <Allerion> the hollow lugians turned them into level 1 vagabonds. :)

[00:22] <Animal_> they decide that spells are too easy to cast... and raise the stats on them.. now relics cant cast

[00:23] <Allerion> Yes, relics are excellent examples of nerfed mages. hehe

[00:23] <Allerion> We always call them that. :)

Clarification: Bone Relics and Cursed Bones have a 100% fizzle rate. They haven't been able to cast a spell successfully in the four+ months since they were added.

[00:23] <Animal_> the reason behind 80% of the stupid things that turbine did is the fact that they play on a 100% PK server...

[00:23] <Animal_> which is bs

[00:23] <Allerion> True, but I can see the psychological reasons why.

[00:24] <Allerion> Its hard to be all sweetness and light (Jesse) reading dev board posts without going postal from time to time.

[00:24] <Allerion> DT allows them to blow off steam.

[00:24] <Allerion> But I'd prefer they do it with a mage to get some perspective. :)

[00:25] <Animal_> naaaa... cant have that... mages are tooo powerful

[00:25] <Allerion> lol

[00:25] <Allerion> The only thing a mage can consistantly kill quickly with little difficulty is another player.

[00:26] <Allerion> We're about to put up a guide to one-hitting tusker guards without vulns or imperil.

[00:26] <Animal_> hehe not with war :)

[00:26] <Allerion> something even a no-magic melee can do.

[00:26] <Animal_> just takes 2 :)

[00:26] <Animal_> archers

[00:27] <Allerion> The max soft-tissue crit (new term) for an archer is 240-280ish.

[00:27] <Animal_> aka AL 0

[00:27] <Allerion> about 520 for sword, 460 for staff on tusker guards(estimates of course). But that's all for a different article.

[00:27] <Allerion> right

[00:28] <Animal_> but thats ok... mages hit for 60-120

[00:28] <Animal_> if they dont fizzle

[00:28] <Allerion> hehe

[00:28] <Allerion> I know, I know. :)

[00:28] <Allerion> and archers/melees hit for 4+ digits with imperil. :)

[00:28] <Allerion> ok, well anything else you want set in stone to say to people?

[00:29] <Animal_> yes...

[00:30] <Animal_> I challenge.... noooo... i DARE.... Turbine to come up with a better level of content for us so called high levels other than HOLLOW/BLIGHTS/and MAGE NERFING monsters.

[00:30] <Animal_> to further that...

[00:30] <Animal_> never again... make a quest to where you have to have 50+ people all in a small area to stand a chance to accomplishing it

[00:30] <Allerion> I've been in favor of adding uber monsters to the random spawns. Things with 10,000 health, hard-hitting attacks

[00:31] <Allerion> something that doesn't hit for zero through a shield, yet is not hollow

[00:31] <Allerion> and doesn't need 1000 melee, magic, missile skill to fight.

[00:31] <Animal_> BB's :)

[00:31] <Animal_> cough cough

[00:32] <Allerion> Something people can fight and hurt, but is tough to beat because of its offensive capabilities and massive base health

[00:32] <Allerion> I'd much rather lose to a monster I did 2000 damage to than one that resisted or evaded 100% of the time.

[00:32] <Animal_> actually...

[00:32] <Animal_> my challenge to turbine is to "SCARE ME"

[00:33] <Allerion> Yes, we all miss that. :)

[00:33] <Animal_> when i was a wee lad treking into the bowels of the Crater Dungeon...

[00:33] <Animal_> i was scared...

[00:33] <Animal_> nowdays...

[00:33] <Animal_> level 106 mage..

[00:33] <Animal_> not scared...

[00:33] <Allerion> I'd really like to see more single big bad monsters, or monsters in pairs.

[00:34] <Allerion> Rather than 400 monsters packed into one room as a challenge.

[00:34] <Animal_> because there is a difference between scared and just stupid to even think of going

[00:34] <Animal_> no shit..

[00:34] <Animal_> BZ alone without a perch would be scary

[00:34] <Animal_> that fucker is quick

[00:34] <Allerion> hehe

[00:34] <Allerion> yes, I'd like to see some new uber monsters on random spawns

[00:34] <Allerion> like all over the plains

[00:34] <Allerion> so no need for camping to get a shot at one

[00:35] <Allerion> and at least ONE monster type in the plains that you think twice about obliterating in 10 seconds

[00:35] <Allerion> when was the last time you ran around a spawn because you were afraid of it?

[00:35] <Animal_> yes...

[00:35] <Animal_> like random pop ups in the crater on BH

[00:35] <Animal_> aka if you wanna camp... welp.. you ahve a ton of other shit to deal with too :P

We went off rambling about the same old boring things here

[00:39] <Animal_> ideas??

[00:39] <Animal_> i have tons

[00:39] <Animal_> gauntlet type runs

[00:39] <Animal_> gets harder and harder

[00:40] <Animal_> so hard it becomes an extreme challenge for a soloist...b ut still possible..

[00:40] <Animal_> aka the old RAT MAZE....

[00:40] <Animal_> fill it with gradually harder and harder monsters...

[00:40] <Animal_> each requiring different techniques to kill

[00:42] <Allerion> lots of people like that idea

[00:42] <Allerion> I dislike the move towards tomb raider/mario brothers dungeons

[00:42] <Allerion> dying to a long jump for lack of a rope is stupid :)

Pits have become the accepted method of keeping people from bugging through lever doors. Dying in a pit because of a missed jump sucks.

[00:46] <Allerion> If you could get turbine to make one change at your whim, what whould it be?

Hilarious comments

[00:46] <Allerion> that for the interview?

[00:46] <Animal_> dont post that

[00:47] <Allerion> you'll see it before anyone else and get a chance to change whatever you want.

[00:47] <Allerion> I'm not going to piss anyone off or they won't do more interviews :)

[00:47] <Animal_> hehehe

[00:47] * Allerion isn't doing the Jerry Springer show of AC

[00:47] <Allerion> though that could be fun :)

[00:48] <Allerion> Get OMA, you, nerf, CP, CTM and Clockwork in a room with some chairs.

[00:48] <Allerion> oh, and Quikai, the Koys...I think we need to do this

[00:50] <Allerion> ok, so what would you have them do with your one wish?

[00:50] <Animal_> make me feel like a level 106 mage(player) instead of a level 65 mage with 14 times the xp

[00:50] <Animal_> AKA add the xp cap..

[00:51] <Animal_> and level 7-9 spells

[00:51] <Animal_> in conjunction... make meleers incapable of casting the spells that a mage should be able to

[00:51] <Allerion> so a greater split between the classes then