Hi, i have a few questions regarding some creatures... and wether or not i may be able to hunt them.

Melee weapons 142 and 124
Ranged weapons 138 and 131
Shield 164
Evasion 155
Parry 136
Multi 146
Leathers 155
L Chain (hands and head) 116
PM and harness 178
skinning 159
hiding 185
stalking 180
disarm/locks 114/106

Spells: SOP, SOTT, EM, HB, STW and WOTP

AGI 33
STR and REF 30
STA 25

I'm currently hunting First tier snobs, they're still good for weapons and stealth but not defenses anymore :(
Tried second tier goblins a few times in the last couple of days but they dont seem to swarm much... keep having to wait for them :(

Here are the questions, finally ;)

Wormwood vines: How is their spawn rate and where would they start to slow down defensewise? How would be my survival chances there and anything i should know about them and the area? Such as can i depart and get to my grave easily? Any other creatures mixed in that could ruin my fun? :)

Black Leucros: How is their spawn rate and can i hunt there yet? is 145 perception + WS enough to find my way in?

Heggeragi boars: How is their spawn rate and would i be able to survive? Where is the best place to hunt them? I'll travel anywhere, even Hara'jaal :D


I'm looking for an area with a fast spawn rate where i can kill creatures knowing i'll have more to kill very soon :D
Skinning and boxes would be a good bonus but not crucial. If you know any other creatures/areas that fit my needs but i didnt mention them, please feel free to tell :)

Oh, another thing. I'm going to upgrade my set of leathers from wolfclan to capped firecats, what sort of difference should i expect? :D

And thanks a lot for the help!

thanks for the quick reply Kartaan :)

I just docked Riverhaven, coming to the mainland to get the leathers, new anatomy charts, explore some new hunting grounds and visit Tolle.

I'll try gargoyles while i'm in Shard :D

Thanks!

I tried leucros... they die fast, i die fast :D Well... i'd die fast if i had stayed, managed to hide.

Can dance with 1 and learn well but the second one will hurt if i'm not in position to parry or dodge. I'll try again in a couple of weeks. Getting ready to travel south.

I've been hunting frogs, eels, beisswurms, sand sprites, morah vines, grave worms and snow goblins so that is what im used to :( I guess if there are not many more areas like that i'll have to live with it eheh. As long as i can get my defenses moving well and can kill them without having to wait a few minutes for a new creature i'll be happy.


wormwood vines require a key, right? So if you die and depart the key will stay in the grave and you're out of luck?
That might ruin my fun...

Hope i'm not sounding too picky or demanding, i'm just interested in learning about those new areas so i can hunt there, now or in the future :) My next big goal is Young gryphons, cant wait!

>wormwood vines require a key, right? So if you die and depart the key will stay in the grave and you're out of luck?
>That might ruin my fun...

they do require a key which is rather tough to get. i would not recommend tryin at your current skill level.
i believe the key <which is a badge> stays with you when you die, so you wouldnt have a problem gettin back in. also, in my experience the vines dont swarm at all. nor do the shadowweavers that are mixed in with the vines. not a viable hunting area from what ive witnessed. though the muck is decent enough for escaping training upwards of 100 ranks, and its safe.

i would try out gargs and see how well they teach you. they dont necesarily swarm, but moving round will get ya a bunch, and over the boulder there is a good chance you can walk into a room with 2-3 already sittin there. also the viper suggestion is a good one, and with yer training shield you should be able to block the poison they spit.

but honestly, not to send you back where you came from, but snow gobs are perfect for you. i know you said the 2nd tier ones dont swarm enough, but i went from tier to tier in snobs till i capped each out, and each tier would certainly have its moments when i didnt get much, but thats with ALMOST any hunting area, barring stuff like griffons, 2 out of the 3 vine area, etc. that just plain swarm. overall though snobs do spawn at a good rate, especially when you get 2-3 other people in there.

well, hope this helps ya out some. good luck




~Artilius

Thanks for the input

Snow goblins have probably been my favorite creature to hunt so far and im sure i'll be back there soon, i want to keep up with the disarm and lockpicking skill. :)
Just got a little bored and since i had to travel to the mainland i'm going to do some explorining. :)


Volsa, your skills seem similar to mine except on the main weapon... mine is waaay behind :) I'll give them another try later and use SOP this time :)

Will also try Vipers, last time i was there i got stunned for a while lol

>* Driving in with naturally fluid movements but just as its opponent stumbles, a giant black leucro pounces, its mouth curled back in a savage snarl at you. You fail to block with a claymore. The teeth lands a powerful strike that slides the teeth deeply into the stomach, severely stunning you.
[You're badly hurt, very badly balanced with opponent overwhelming you.]

They got a lucky hit in. That 'opponent stumbling' bit is, I forget what it is called exactly, Zoha crit or open rolls? It happens.

Whenever a third one comes in I do one of two things either start wailing away on one till it drops and then skin it, or hide, wait till the third stops advancing and immediately ambush, wait till the third starts advancing again and do it all over again.

Of course swinging a 36 stone bastie one handed, with 29 strength and 28 agility means I can kill a leucro in 2-4 hits, sometimes 5.

Figure out how many swings it usually takes you to kill a leucro and when dancing with two, get one down to near death and continue dancing. When the third comes in, one or two hits will kill the near death one. Get one down to near death and wait for the third to come in. When the third is in the room, it is a nice time to practice a ranged weapon.

Used to before the magic nerfing you could web the third one for an anlas...



V.

<< Of course swinging a 36 stone bastie one handed, with 29 strength and 28 agility means I can kill a leucro in 2-4 hits, sometimes 5.


Eheh, i know what you mean... i used a 34 stone bone-crushing claymore (30 str and 33 agil) as my main. I've killed at least two first tier snow goblins in one hit so far. Against second tier snow goblins i can hit more often with my HE on the bastard sword than with 2HE claymore, because of the weapon balance...

Those tactics for beating one down and waiting seem like a good idea, i'll try it on leucros one last time today :D
Already had 2 near death experiences there today... glad we can hide!

<<Against second tier snow goblins i can hit more often with my HE on the bastard sword than with 2HE claymore, because of the weapon balance...>>

Dismal balance will heavily effect your ability to parry as well. Which of course is part of your defense, so it will definitely make things more dangerous.


~Van

They definitely can swarm pretty bad. That can make things both difficult, and fun though. The older ones occasionally wander in. I think they have thier own set of rooms though as well, as long as you don't cross over into it, you should be generally fine.


~Van

The young ones can be handled with a bit over 200 in weapons and defenses- but like Van said, mind the swarms. The mature ones can be a great deal more difficult to handle.


Sometimes the key to happiness is not assuming it is locked in the first place- Ziggy

A journey of a thousand SMILES begins with a single step- Ziggy

great!

Is it like the snow goblins? or the ranges are bigger?

I will only move to gryphons when my 4th weapon is 200.. right now its 150. My shield is 200 and evasion is 195 so by the time i go i'll probably be safe "enough".

and mature gryphons often fly so you'll want a ranged weapon to kill them. they also have a special attack that knocks you down. i'm thinking around 250 skinning you'd learn pretty well in that skill. for stealth training, i don't know that i've seen any critter in that range that is more perceptive, those suckers have great eyes, but then again i don't put up EM when i hunt and at the time i was using chain accessories. they can still kill me in swarms with 270-300 defenses and 230 MO. i'm sure they'd still be a viable training critter for me at this level except i got to tired of the good rooms always being full and moved to rossmans/haven for peccs and basilisk. i believe when you depart from there you go to ravens point, and that area is just outside gweth range of shard. good luck and enjoy, those are some of the best critters IG and a great way to make coin.

>for stealth training, i don't know that i've seen any critter in that range that is more perceptive, those suckers have great eyes, but then again i don't put up EM when i hunt and at the time i was using chain accessories.

Anyone able to expound a bit more on hiding/stalking ranks needed to consistantly train those two skills in young gryphons?

I'm a Barbarian, not a Ranger, so I don't have access to EM and I can't keep Panther up back to back yet - so I'm basically stuck with base ranks. My skills are currently just under 270 hiding and mid-250s stalking. Any advice for a non-guildmate?


________
"I for one welcome our new Lithping Overlordth."
________

>If you're wearing leather coat and just chain accessories i'd say give it a go, worst that happens is you die ;) I'm assuming you're defenses/armor are on par with your stealths.

Leather coat + cowl, LC gloves + greaves. I'm not against switching to all leather initially, though.

Shield Usage: ~240
Leather Armor: ~230
Light Chain: ~205
Parry Ability: ~225
Multi Opponent: ~210
Evasion: ~235
Hiding: ~270
Stalking: ~255
Weapons: ~220

I just want to know how doable gryphons would be. Not being able to hide on them would be a deal breaker.

________
"I for one welcome our new Lithping Overlordth."
________

>Hearing that they're extra perceptive doesn't sound like a good thing then. Remember that even without EM, most rangers are still hiding with a wilderness bonus added. But I really don't know what the figures are.

Yep. I'm not hearing good things.

Thanks for the info everyone.


________
"I for one welcome our new Lithping Overlordth."
________

<<I'm thinking that making the jump from third tier goblins to gryphons will be too big of a jump, are red leucros a good area to fill the gap?>>

I went to red leucros, then to geni, and then to gryphons, personally.

---

I've lived in darkness a long time. Over the years my eyes adjusted until the dark became my world and I could see.

reds to gryphons will work (thats what i did, with some trips to blight ogres) if you can handle the seriously low gen rate of reds. on the plus side you get to work climbing like mad while in red leucs. geni sounds like good advice especially if you plan to keep the box progression going.

red leucs dont swarm, but if you move around you will find enough to keep weapons movin at least. i was there for bout a week or so, and they taught me well enough. but if you like to dance, like i do, i had trouble gettin 2 to 3 on me at times. maybe try out the super swampies in lang, along with the fens that go with em.


~Artilius

Hmm, do the grounds Red Leucros inhabit teach climbing like the critters teach combats?


V.

I'm looking more on the mainland. If Red Leucs area will teach climbing from moving around, I'll hunt there. I can justify having to go from Therengia to Ilithi for good hunting, but not to Aesry.

How hard to swim the frozen river?


V.