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Part Two : A Gypsy In Disguise Joins Factions

  • Thread starter Gypsy Keja Mimi
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Gypsy Keja Mimi

Guest
When I got home I took a look in the mirror. I was going to join factions in order to spend some time learning what it was all about, but somehow, I didn’t think I would be much use in factions as a gypsy.

I took some time and found a disguise for myself, darkened my hair, changed the way I dressed, I went out and got myself some different skills... magery. The faction needed mages, and I am the first to admit I am no kind of mage, but I figured the Fortunes would provide if I worked the skill. Off I went to work on the skills I decided to pursue in my disguise. Hours and hours of sailing later, I figured I was ready to join the faction and see what it was all about. My skills were still not as high as I would need them to be eventually, but I figured they were high enough to get me started. Most skills were around 80 at the time I felt ready to join.

I called TorAnn who met me at Skara Brae in Trammel. Along with me was Obnaidys Ner'le, another new member to YAD.

I didn’t know what joining factions would be like. Over the years I have heard people speak about joining and quitting factions as if there is a scary secret ritual... how do you join a faction? That was my next question, and I was about to have my answer.

When the red gate opened I found myself in the city of Magincia, which is the home to the Council of Mages. We walked down the sandstone path until we came to a stone set in the grass beside the path. It was a dark blue stone looking somewhat like a tombstone. Upon double clicking it, a menu came up with a short history about the Council of Mages. After reading it quickly, all I had to do was use the joining option, and I was now a COM Faction Member. That was easy. A note here about factions, only one character per account per shard can be factioned, so make sure you get the character you want in factions, or you will have to a wait while taking them out and putting in another one. Joining is instantaneous, leaving takes a week.

TorAnn then took us to the YAD house, and one after another Obnaidys and I joined YAD. I was now a member of a COM guild as well. (A note here, you do not need to be a member of a faction guild in order to be in a faction. But it helps some having guildmates as well as factionmates, for obvious reasons. To become a member of YAD, you must know someone in the guild, you must be recommended by them, and you must fulfill the requirements of membership as set by YAD. For information about this or any of the faction guilds, contact one of the members of the individual guild you are interested in.)

So I was now a member. I was afraid and excited all at the same time. What to do next? Back to training... Have to get those skills up so I can do something other than stand around...

The members of YAD were very nice to me, and I spent two nights on a rooftop of a house dying. Daemon DeMort and Lao T'syn were very patient and they killed me many times as they attempted to teach me. I died over and over again. I died, they rezed me, I looted, I healed, I died...

Over and over again. I set macros to help with spell casting and healing. I promptly forgot where they were and I died. I moved some macros. I concentrated on healing. I died. I tried again. I died. I moved some more macros. And then somewhere in their drills I was concentrating on healing myself, and Lao ran out of mana and I nearly fell off my horse dead from shock! I lived!!! I had kept myself from dying!!

"Did you see that?" Lao said to Daemon, "She had the nerve to live..."
"Yeah," Daemon said. Then they both promptly killed me.

I was so excited. I knew Lao had not been easy on me, and I had actually survived. I still had a long way to go, and I worked harder. Soon I could survive a little longer, even against two of them, and I could even sneak in a well placed if weak e-bolt or something once in a while. I was no where near able to kill them, but I was learning. And I died a ton. But they were helping me learn and I appreciated the lessons very much.

My next concern was armor. I spent hours on my blacksmith/tailor working on making suits of GM armor with as high resist as I possibly could get. Add a shield with spell channeling and some faster cast/ faster cast recovery jewelry, and I was getting there on what I needed. A few notes about armor in factions. Lower Reagent Cost Suits and Luck suits have no place in factions except under special circumstances. What you need is resists and lots of them. The better your suit, the more chance you have of surviving. The members were very helpful at different tactics to put together suits.

Another thing you really need... you die A LOT! There are pieces of equipment you are not going to want to lose. You really do need insurance on those pieces, and subsequently, you will have to have enough gold in the bank to cover it when you die 800 gazillion times. During training you can obviously turn off the insurance if you trust your guildmates, but do not forget to reinsure those valuable irreplaceable pieces before you leave training. Factions are not cheap. I am a gypsy and it doesn’t pay well, so I did spend some time out farming gold to pad my bank account.

Factions is like anything else in the game, you will eventually want to get better, and some of that costs money, money or time for scrolls, money or time to collect artifacts, etc.; but there is nothing stopping anyone from joining like I did, with decent skills and some decent armor, you work up a little at a time to better skills and equipment. They need every person they can get, if you have the courage there is a place for you. People were very helpful and they did not make me feel weak and stupid. So unless you find the wrong people to play factions with, you should be fine. If you do find the wrong ones, you should just find a new group.

I got a look at the Council of Mages Faction base, as well as the other faction bases. One night Daemon DeMort took us on a tour and showed us the bases, and their different layouts. It was a great tour. He is a great source of information, and he never acts like I ask stupid questions, and I have a whole book full for him most days. A lot of the information I have in this series of articles is due to his patience as well as that of TorAnn and Lao. They have spent hours talking to me and answering all of the questions I have. That is not to discount the other members who have all helped me and been extremely kind.

So now I had a little skill, some decent armor, gold in my bank, I was working every chance I got to add a few more points to my skills, or to spar with another member to try to get faster at casting. I could barely wait for the next thing I would learn.

Well only a few days after I joined the faction was the first defense. I was about to learn what happens for real during a Faction Defense. The Defense is what its all about. I was really nervous. The next part of this series will show what I saw on the day of The Defense.

To be continued...

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F

FreeBird

Guest
Nice work Gypsy , outstanding !

I would request that as people read these that they give them a nice little bump and try to keep them in order.

ALOT of time , effort , energy , and it would seem blood went into these articles and it would be a shame for them to get lost in the shuffle of board traffic that other may not see them.

* risks board bannage *
* bump*
 
I

imported_Queen Mum

Guest
Wow, I am beginning to understand Factions.
Thank you again /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif
 
V

Vladimir Taltos

Guest
Keja... enjoyed this very much so... keep up the good work...
 
H

hiai

Guest
Hmmm, I finally know the things I'm going to need to get into factions.. Thanks again!
 
D

Dor of Sonoma

Guest
Bringing this back to the front page, due to current events interest. :)
 
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