Did tons more sidequests over the last few days (kill sh
it, get money etc.), I only do a story quest like once every 8-10 hours, then again some of them are timed so I can’t do them if I progress too far. I have technically finished 4 story quests given to me while I worked on sidequests, I just haven't turned them in yet. Several escort quests opened up back in the first town & they’re all long as hell. Like 5 minutes long if I had unlimited stamina & ran there without stopping for allies or enemies, they’re all like 20 miles away, normally in spots I haven’t been to yet. Plus they stick to me like glue, and since I’m playing a Fighter (Warrior is another class/vocation, got that mixed up) I have no ranged attacks. Whatsoever. Which means it isn’t a good idea to attack things I can’t kill in seconds. During a second escort quest, as I neared the area at night, this Drake appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the forest, along with a horde of goblins that apparently formed a temporary alliance to kill me. Naturally, the guy died since he didn’t have any sense to realize its probably not a good idea to be anywhere near me when I’ve got a Drake & goblins gunning for my ass all at once. Still won, cuz I’m a beast, but the drake was the first enemy to nearly kill me, 3-4 hits would've been enough to knock off all my health & he kept killing my pawns with fire breath. Thank goodness I had one of the best Fighter skills at the time called Steel Will, which makes me almost invulnerable for around 30 seconds. Seriously (It just says less damage but the amount of times I took any significant damage or got stunned could be counted on one hand, if at all).
Speaking of which, the best offensive skill is easily Dragon’s Maw. It cost like 5000-7000 Discipline points but its one of the few times a really expensive skill was worth the cost. It’s a multi-hit sword combo that covers 270 degrees, is pretty damn powerful, tends to stagger & knockdown enemies for more free hits & can easily be thrown out at random. An enemy is blocking my normal swings? DM doesn’t even acknowledge the enemy had a shield. Surrounded by a group of enemies about to dog pile me? Nope, DM will make sure they all back the fu
ck up. An enemy decides to no sell my swings & land attacks on me? Nope, eat that reversal, invincibility frames, son. Hell, you can just throw it out if you know a strong foe is about to hit you & you can’t dodge so you take no damage. If there are any downsides at all it would be the range isn’t that big & it uses quite a bit of stamina (can only use it twice in a row, three if I wanna risk getting exhausted right after). Also, as far as I’m aware escort sidequests don’t respawn, the quest for the guy who died to the drake never came back. If he dies…he dies. I was worried when another from Selene came up later to go to another area I hadn’t been yet. Didn't say earlier, but Selene is the granddaughter of the witch who lived at Witchwood, but had already died ages ago so Selene lives there by herself apparently.
Also been hunting these badges that give 1k exp & rift crystals (used to hire some pawns, half tend to cost nothing but I don't know what determines the cost) for each one but some of these are placed in the stupidest places, they’re so tiny that I can’t even tell where it is till I’m standing right on it, and they don’t even glow either so I spend like 2 minutes looking in one tiny area for that one obscure spot where the map says its located (one required a double jump which Striders get & many tend to be on roofs). Maxed out the vocation/class of my character & my pawn so I changed them to learn all the skills & passive abilities I could. It costs 1,000 Dcp to change but surprisingly you only have to pay once then you can switch classes on the fly. Using the Strider class now & fortunately saved some good gear to equip myself with instead of selling the stuff my Fighter couldn’t equip, actually looks good too, thank goodness it wasn‘t a case of: Horrible gear, really good stats.
Changed my pawn to the Warrior class, who seem less about balanced offense & defense like the Fighter and are more, “Tank that sh
it.” plus I think pawns can’t change to hybrid classes like Mystic Knight & Magic Archer sadly but I may as well experiment with the different classes while I progress. I’m probably like 10 levels above what I should be for story quests because of all the sidequests I’m going out of my way to complete, running through areas I have no reason to go to yet story-wise & killing all kinds of enemies & cyclops/chimera/ogres/drakes etc. whenever the game informs me one is near. I’m liking the Strider a lot with focus on evasion & daggers for close combat (its just missing a roll) & bows for range but I wish I still had a shield (though I’m so overpowered it doesn’t really matter) or a skill that no sells other moves. Also discovered the move that was reaming right through mini-boss' health bars whenever I encountered one with a Strider pawn: Hailstorm Volley. If it hits, the damage is ridiculous. Makes me wish I could play with three other online players, feels like this game should have had that option.
