Pinefar primer?

[yesicj]

So I've decided I don't much care for the Stone Valley, so I'm considering shipping off to Pinefar for a bit. Before doing it though, I thought I'd ask some questions.

1) What would you say is the number of climbing ranks necessary to move around easily?

2) Is not training in Survival a deal breaker out there, or would Resist Elements cut it?

3) I'm thinking of hitting the Frozen Tundra. Does that avalanche messaging mentioned in another thread here apply up there as well? And if so, would someone mind posting it so I can highlight it?

4) Skinning is the primary source of silver out there, right? Anything I need to watch out for when skinning or searching critters?

If I can think of any others, I'll add them as they occur to me.

[droit]

1) I did it with 24-30 ranks of climbing and good physical stats. I'm not sure what my PF was at that point, but I've heard that it helps.

2) 602 will let you last a good while. What kind of hunter are you? If you like to hunt for extended periods, I'd definitely recommend at least some survival.

3) The avalanches only occur on the mountain (past the arch).

4) Searching the glaceii requires a free hand and gives you a hand minor. Watch out because those minors can stack and become a pain in the ass.

[yesicj]

When you say "on the mountain, past the arch" do you mean Aena-whatsit where the seekers are? I have a feeling I'll be heading up that way a bit as well, so it couldn't hurt to have the string to highlight.

Also, on a related note, how do you actually escape these? Move a few rooms? Run all the way off the mountain? And how much time do you have between the warnings and the actual avalanche?

EDIT: and thanks to whoever gave me this (neg) Pinefar primer? 06-25-2009 10:56 PM Loser! Too old for Pine you idiot.

[DoctorUnne]

I would say 30 ranks minimum of climbing. I'm usually okay with that but sometimes I have to climb 2-3 times before I make it and rarely I fall, even unencumbered as a rogue. A couple of the climbs are a bit harder than the others, namely the last slope on the west side (which only leads to two more rooms so you can avoid it) and the trail and path on the east side (which leads to only tigers and polar bears and also not necessary).

602 will be enough to put you out there well beyond what is needed to fry or do any bounty, so if you have that up survival isn't necessary. If you don't have 602, you will start taking damage within a few minutes with no survival. 1x survival and I can hunt for maybe 15 minutes without 602 before taking damage. There are also a couple caves up there with firepits where you can rest and warm up.

With avalanches (which yes only appear after the arch where the seekers are), there are two messages that you will see before getting hit. I don't have my logs with me so I don't know the exact messages, but the first one has something about a cornice and the second (more important) one ends with "... you realize it is headed this way!" PM me to remind me and when I get home I'll send you the messaging. There are maybe 6-8 seconds between the two messages and also between the second message and you getting hit. You will probably die a good % of the time you are hit, but they are fairly easy to avoid if you're paying attention. You definitely have to move at least two rooms away to be safe. It may be more, and I usually run at least 4-5 rooms away, but I think you're safe at 2, maybe 3. You do have to be on your toes because occasionally the second message will be the first one you see, and rarely (it's happened to me a couple times) you just get hit with no warning. I don't know if that's intended or if it's because someone else had just run through the area on the way to the rift and started an avalanche, but it's a really annoying cheap death that you can do nothing about. Luckily it's only happened to me maybe twice in 10 levels of hunting there.

You will definitely want to skin if you want to make any money. The only things that carry treasure are frozen corpses, ice wraiths and seekers. Ice wraiths decay very fast too so unless you're a caster you won't be searching many. Polar bears, mammoths, tigers and seekers all have valuable skins, especially the seekers. If you're a 1x/1x skinner and don't damage the head or eye (the skin is an eye) you can make 1,200-1,500 per skin. The tiger incisors are worth 750-1,000. Bears, mammoths and tigers don't have loot, so more than half of your loot will come from skins if you can skin well. What Droit said about the glacei also applies to ice golems and ice elementals. Looting them will give you a clear blue gem, which sell for 600-800 each. One trick is that searching them won't give you worse than a rank 2 wound on your hand. So after you've searched two of them don't heal yourself and just keep searching and the wound won't get worse. You'll lose 10 health each time also, but just replace that after a while. It makes no sense to heal down every time you search.

One last suggestion is to tell people in Icemule before you go if people don't know you. Pinefar is a separate area on the amulet, is not within fogging/ringing distance, and it's too dangerous for most Icemule residents to rescue you from there. If you're not well-known and you don't make an announcement beforehand, you will decay a lot because not too many people hunt up there. Also your corpse can be buried which makes it harder to rescue you.

Hope this helps, like I said I've spent the last 10 levels hunting there so I know it very well. If you have any other questions let me know and I can give you more specific hunting strategies if you're a square.

[Fallen]

What Droit said about the glacei also applies to ice elementals. One trick is that searching them won't give you worse than a rank 2 wound on your hand. So after you've searched two of them don't heal yourself and just keep searching and the wound won't get worse. You'll lose 10 health each time also, but just replace that after a while. It makes no sense to heal down every time you search.

This. You can make a fuck ton of silvers doing this if you can kill Glacei quickly and efficiently. They swarm like mad, so you can make piles and piles of blue gems easily. I imagine if you brought an empath with you, you could keep them perpetually fried off the wounds.

[Tolwynn]

If your armor is leather-based and HCP or below, have a ranger put some frost resistance in it, that helps blunt the environmental crits that start stacking up during extended hunting trips.

[yesicj]

You guys are my heroes. I guess I'll be bumping up his climbing ranks a bit before heading out there. He's a pure though and not Sunfist, so unfortunately that don't heal it down thing won't work for me. Maybe I'll drag an empath along for the trip though.

[Fallen]

If your armor is leather-based and HCP or below, have a ranger put some frost resistance in it, that helps blunt the environmental crits that start stacking up during extended hunting trips.

Reggy can actually manage ECP and below. This useless bit of information was brought to you by the letter F and the number 0.

[DoctorUnne]

You guys are my heroes. I guess I'll be bumping up his climbing ranks a bit before heading out there. He's a pure though and not Sunfist, so unfortunately that don't heal it down thing won't work for me. Maybe I'll drag an empath along for the trip though.

Sunfist has nothing to do with it. The wound won't stack beyond just a regular rank 2 wound to one hand (assuming you search with the same hand every time), which doesn't affect your climbing too much. As long as you can deal with the 10 health loss every time (bring acantha), it's not a big deal. But don't heal it down, that's a big waste of resources. If you can't deal with the blood loss then just don't loot them at all, but you'll be missing out on some good money.

[yesicj]

What I meant by Sunfist is being able to use the hand despite injuries. Pretty frequently I use wands on my mage to keep a hunt going for longer when hunting for loot, and a Rank 2 says no waving pretty magic sticks. Admittedly writing an extra "swap" into my stancing macros would be easy, so I guess it's something to consider.

[DoctorUnne]

What I meant by Sunfist is being able to use the hand despite injuries. Pretty frequently I use wands on my mage to keep a hunt going for longer when hunting for loot, and a Rank 2 says no waving pretty magic sticks. Admittedly writing an extra "swap" into my stancing macros would be easy, so I guess it's something to consider.

I assume this is what you meant with the swap macro but yeah just loot with your off hand.

[phantasm]

Pinefar is a major pain in the ass and not worth the trouble. Thank god for new and superior hunting grounds.

[Maerit]

Ok, here is a couple warnings for you about hunting in Pinefar.

First off, I have been hunting there exclusively for the past few months on my warrior. He does excellent in Pinefar, but my pure sorcerer cannot handle it.

Here are the problems I had with my pure:

Glaceis - these things can one-shot you with a manuever that they do pretty much instantly shooting a chunk of ice at you. It usually hits you if you're lacking in dodge skill. Usually gets me in the face or the neck, insta-kills me, and drives me insane. If you do manage to survive, it tends to stun, and put you in RT. Dodging it will put you in RT. I would say they do this move frequently, but outside of this one manuever... they are mostly harmless.

Mammoths also have a manuever which impales you on a tusk and throws you into the next room, pures rarely dodge this. But, I will say they dont use that move too often. It can kill, but usually maims, stuns, and makes you prone.

In the nightmare gorge there are random call wind procs which will force you into RT, stance you to offensive, and sometimes knock you over. It does this to the critters as well, but glacei get up in seconds while you're usually still stuck in RT and in a reduced stance.

There is a two-room area that has massive swarms. Right past the "stones" and before the "boulder". If you go in there, and wait a bit, you'll end up seeing 10-15 critters in either room, and things can get pretty hairy.

Top of the world hunting is a bit easier. You'll see seekers, ice golems, ice elementals, and saber-tooth tigers. Most of these are pretty easy to take down. Tigers are fast, but easy to stun. Golems are slow, but easy to knock over. Ice elementals have the habit of elementally dispelling you with annoying frequency, but fire magic rips them apart. Seekers are casters, but easy to hit when forced into prone position, and crit to death really easily.

You need 30 climbing, uninjured to manuever through the slopes in the top of the world. If you start getting minors on your limbs, you'll take a nasty fall from time to time. This will just put you in RT prone at a lower room, but shouldn't kill. I find Pinefar areas much more dangerous than the Mt. Aeutwhatever area.

Not a lot of loot to be had, but skins are worth a lot. Looting elementals and golems leaves you with hand injuries just like with glaceis. If you plan on climbing through the area, it's not a really good idea to loot them at all. The freezing wind up there can also leave you with a lot of scratches, and the healing herbs in pinefar are pretty price in comparison. I'd say it's not very "pure" friendly, but this is from a sorcerer perspective. Wizards probably have some better tactics for up there.

[Murkshev]

yes as was mentioned earlier about having an empath with you is great for the hunting party. i regularly take one or two of my empath friends and always bring in a big haul from hunting on the mountain. one empath is too old for the mountain only way they learn is by healing me all the time. takes awhile to get up there in exp, but with all the things that can happen just got to not die from a manuver shot to the head or neck. survival really helps, as does being able to skin. anyone want a sweet skinning script let me know.

Murkshev

[Danical]

Glaceis - these things can one-shot you with a manuever that they do pretty much instantly shooting a chunk of ice at you. It usually hits you if you're lacking in dodge skill.

This is absolutely false. The dodge skill isn't in a single Creature Maneuver to date. The Standard Creature Maneuver (All BCS creatures use as a baseline) take stats (generally AGI, INT), skills (Generally in this order or priority: CM, PF, Perception, etc), Spells (Mobility, Song of Luck, etc), and Armor Maneuver Penalty.

[Androidpk]

This is absolutely false. The dodge skill isn't in a single Creature Maneuver to date.

Really? I did not know that, that's pretty lame.

[yesicj]

Really? I did not know that, that's pretty lame.

As a guy who plays mostly pures, I respectfully disagree.

[DoctorUnne]

Danical is right. Dodge plays no part currently in maneuver defense.

[DaCapn]

Mammoths also have a manuever which impales you on a tusk and throws you into the next room, pures rarely dodge this. But, I will say they dont use that move too often. It can kill, but usually maims, stuns, and makes you prone.

I'm confident that I saw this maneuver less than 10 times in 5-7 levels of hunting in the mammoths/tigers area. It really is rare.

[Murkshev]

I have been tossed by a mammoth a few times. But I think thats just my luck, so now I just limb them and stun the hell out of them. I have been killed twice by getting hit in the neck from a tusk.

[Maerit]

I'm confident that I saw this maneuver less than 10 times in 5-7 levels of hunting in the mammoths/tigers area. It really is rare.

It's pretty uncommon. About as common as the Polar Bear leaping at you. Nice thing about that one is that my warrior commonly tosses the bear aside, or whatever, which nets him a +20 to AS bonus for about 60 seconds.

Yeah, that dodge comment is pretty enlightening. I always thought that since my warrior is 2x in dodge, and constantly evades manuevers, that it was probably that skill which was impacting me. Guess it's the 2x in PF and/or training in whatever manuever happens to be used.

Maybe the saber-tooth and polar bear pounce abilities are related to tackle? My warrior always manages to dodge those, and he's master in tackle. Saber-tooths just end up lying down after missing, but polar bears inspire and give a nice AS boost. The mammoths rarely land their tusk throw ability on my warrior, but he has been tossed into an adjacent room a couple times.

My sorcerer only encountered the polar bear "tackle" like once, and it flattened him for a short RT.

[DoctorUnne]

Knowing tackle may help, but as a rogue I don't know tackle and I dodge them most of the time too, so general CM and PF have to play a pretty big role.