Guard hunting

[Thrashum Gud]

I've looked around but I just can not seem to find good information on how to hunt the guards in cities like Kaladim, Halas, Felewithe, North Freeport, and the other goodly race cities.

I've already ruined my own lands, I really want to ruin theirs as well.  Any links would be greatly appreciated.

[Tailzin]

I *could* be wrong but I think they seriously nerfed exp from guards a while back...

From what I know though, high elf guards are mainly light blue at 65 - solo'd with my shammie in Felwithe in a bored moment, they drop FS 2hers which sell for 10pp'ish.

Other random info, Ak'Anon guards seem to have insane MR (try the one closer to the city than Watchman Halv and you'll see what I mean) :(

[Thrashum Gud]

I don't really mind slow exp (I'm a troll it comes with the territory) so long as I have good loot AND completely ruin my faction with every good race (except those I need like Shadow Haven or Shar Vahl) I'll have achieved my goals.  Hell I even plan to bump off a few Ogres until my faction bottoms out with them just because they are uglier than me.  From a pure roleplay standpoint I'm already darn near KoS everywhere, I want them to hate me so bad that they practically frothe at the mouth any time I'm in the same zone.

Now factor in the fact that good race guards all (except lower levels ones) drop fine steel weapons, plat, and sometimes other decent selling vendor trash so hutning them is also a nice way to pad my bank account.

I've checked places like Allakhazam for strategy guides and sadly it seems that the overwhelming majority of posters are far more interested in having a "I've got the biggest wee wee" contest and there is little real information on actual guard hunting.

Don't the SK's have a board?  If any one would know they would and I'll bet bottom dollar if they can solo the mob so can me and my Gussy.

[Lewzephyr]

Don't the SK's have a board?  If any one would know they would and I'll bet bottom dollar if they can solo the mob so can me and my Gussy.

http://www.shadowknight.org/ for your SK pleasure

[Kryq]

Guards have high resists, but low HP and melee.  I generally pull with slow, and as it (usually) doesn't stick, I just melee them down without trying to get them slowed.  

Since all of their resists are pretty high, I don't bother with DoT's or nukes either....just pull, beat down, heal up, and get the next.

-Kryq

[NoxCruor]

I know my g/f hunts felwithe guards with her SK.  If you'd still like, I can ask her how and where she does it, and post the info here.

[Hereki]

You need to distinguish between newbie guards, the ones right by city entrances, and other guards.  Newbie guards are undercons with MR out the roof.  Normal guards are just like any mob, and come in a wide range of levels.

There are the teens level Nektulos guards (not all of them, so be careful), level 30+ ogre guards, 40+ Felwithe guards, etc.  Kill them at the appropriate level, but avoid the newbie guards in each area unless you need to prove something to yourself.

[Thrashum Gud]

I tend to pull guards in a city or those in places where newbies are not running to them for help.

Currently at lvl 48 I find the Thurgadin guards to be rewarding, I went to try the Thurgadin gate potion and was told by the NPC that I was a pile of refuse.

I may be a Troll but I have feelings too so I've decided to exterminate as many of the vermin as I can between now and lvl 49.

What I really want is to invade Halas, once I show those Barbie women what a REAL man can do they'll dump those skirt wearing sissies and lavish their affections on me.  Now THAT'S a goal of worth.   :wink:

[Dakat]

Way back when, when Kunark just came out, there were a lot of level 50 necro's and other classes that would camp the West Freeport, East Freeport, Neriak, and a few other newbie areas killing the guards.  Back then that was how you made platinum.  After a while, people that were just joining the game would complain to the GM's that these higher level characters were killing the guards. Which made it difficult for low level characters to level.  Since the guards were always dead, when a level 2 guy got an add or 2, the only thing they could do to stay alive was to run to a guard and let them kill it.  Guards were not there so the level 2 guy died. It happened to me once upon a time.  Imagine starting from level 1 with no friend in game or equipment to get you started.  It would be very tough without those guards to protect you.

[Lorathir]

What I really want is to invade Halas, once I show those Barbie women what a REAL man can do they'll dump those skirt wearing sissies and lavish their affections on me.  Now THAT'S a goal of worth.   :wink:

Courting ritual of Barbarians -

On finding a prospective mate, the male proceeds to try to impress the female with feats of strength. One of which is to throw "Bairm McTaggle" into the Halas lake. No ordinary feat - Bairm is 7ft 8, 24stone of drunken wildman Barb muscle. This will continue for several days. The male will remain drunk for the course of this.

If the female accepts the suitor is suitably strong, the two will enter courtship. NOTE - they are NOT a couple yet. Barbarian courtship consists of approximately two weeks of fisticuffs - not the kissing and canoodling one would normally associate with courtship. Barbarian flirting consists of punching each other hard in the face. There is usually lots more drinking.

After these two weeks are up, and both participants think they measure up to one another both mentally and physically, then 'real' courtship commences. This means two weeks in bed. No, they don't go to sleep...

Hope ya still think it's worth it, Thrashum...good luck there!  :wink:

[GurBur]

Court 'em?  I'd just rather pickle'em and eat'em, while they begging for my hand of mercy.  The only good woman is a troll woman they are the only ones worth your time.  Cause a troll don't like being around anyone.  So once they have what they want they leave.  Troll women they are good.

[a_beastlord_01]

I just finished 37-49 with Oggok guards. I did this with a 2-boxed elemental 65 enc, but they are a fantastic camp.

1. All melee (casters are a pain, never come when you pull)
2. Low HP (estimated 1.5K)
3. Hit for crap (BL is average bazaar twink, definitely not uber)
4. Nicely bunched (2 camps, 1 at each end of town)
5. No other mobs to worry about (except exterminator you can avoid)
6. City xp bonus (25 % bonus ? /shrug 1% per dark blue at least)
7. Two factions ruined that don't matter!
8. If you can be bothered to gather up the loot, there's a lot of it (usually sword, shield, crude stein and one other per kill)
9. Fast respawn (2 minutes ?) on certain spawns.
10. Nobody else there (although there was a major invasion of level 1 zerkers last week   :wink:  )

Put it this way...I concentrated and did the last 30% of 48 in 40 minutes, and that included at least half of the pulls being light blue.

I looked into Neriak. Commons/Foreign quarters there aren't enough pulls. Third gate I took the enc and tried one. When it CH'd, I decided this was a non-starter   :D

Felwithe looked possible, but while I was watching them they all cast (paladins maybe ?), so scratch that.

As to other cities, the guards are generally too low level or not consistently of the right level (ideally 39-42).

I don't know why, but I have a stupid emotional attachment to Thurg, so no dorfs for me!

Now kaladim...There's half a dozen guards at the entrance, and a few roamers. Plus, there's several guards in the 'king's palace' (I stumbled over this by accident scouting the zone). I tested one with the enc, and estimate they're in the 3-4K HP range, and the right level range. The bad news is that you hurt merchant faction (and about 500 other dorf factions) per kill. So I imagine running between camps or just running out to get roamers may aggro some non-guard NPCs.

I'm going to try a session there just to see how it works out. Has anyone successfully hunted these ?

[Ghoat]

The good ole days of killing bouncers :)  Pre- Kunark there was always a group of uber 48-50's camped at the zone, decked out in PoF/PoH gear.  Killem at zone, loot the FS, and walk to the vendor right in front of you & sell the stuff off her fellow ogurs corpses :)

[The Kittenpeeler]

Well, playing with my Shaman, I managed to bottom out every faction I possibly could, just for the fun.

Qeynos Guards - Quite probably the most wussified guards in existance. The corrupt ones top out at 20, the others might carry on to 40. Corporal Lancot and his evil twin near Crows are mean jerks, however.

Surefall guards - Pfft, there's three wandering rangers. Easy. There's like a hundred Ranger and druid guildmasters. Not so easy. They all drop rusty weapons and silver, don't bother.

Halas Guards - They swarm. Huge aggro radius, fast regen, seem able to triple attack pretty often. Fairly high level folk up there, mean and evil. I have no idea on loot, since I zoned out once my barb shaman had one at 5%

Erudin Guards - Not much tougher than High Keep guards, but crap for loot. ~3pp each, a cracked staff, and sometimes fine steel, which htye will hold sideways like the pecan-headed freaks they are.

Paineel guards - Great loot, easy kills, except for the new pirate mob in there who's level 50 and hits like bruce lee. Mandariil Dark Knife is no fun to aggro, either, for that matter. They also recently put a heretic faction hit on these guys.

High Keep Guards - Some of the best risk vs. reward in the game. High keep is the newbie Sebilis. Come here, mop up, and wish you could get exp.

Rivervale Guards - Possibly the most fun to kill. Spears sell for 10pp, sheilds for 2, and every last guard has both. Most are safely out of the way of guildmasters, and are uniformly green at 58.

Freeport Guards (Militia) - Pretty okay exp up to 52, so-so loot. Slow spawns, however. Turn their helms in at the NFP pally guild for some decent plat (well, not the best, but not bad)

Freeport Guards (Paladins) - You have to kill these level 25-ish bungholes twice, and then they drop rusty, bronze, and low-level research. Screw 'em, their faction boost to the militia isn't even noticable.

Neriak Guards - Shadow Knights, Warriors, Wizards, and Clerics make up the ranks of Neriak guards, and the only way you can tell which is which is if you have a catalogue of Dark Elven family names and professions. Still, they're exp up to 60 (3rd gate, I beleive), and drop pretty good plat / sellables.

Kaladim Guards - Magic resisty, swarm, usually dual weilding that i've seen. Pain in the butt, but dun because they look like little hams in helmets.

Kelethin Guards - Easy mobs, about as scary as the SolB bugs, with better loot. Just do NOT let them fall off a platform, they path around under the city until they hit a tree, climb it, and carry an army onto you.

Felwithe Guards - All Paladins, hit fairly hard, slow spawning. Their redeeming feature is that they're rich. An average of 10pp per, plus mid-level gems (black pearls, gold pendants, etc). They sell "A two handed sword" which can fetch nearly 20pp from a merchant, every time, and often have chainmail or fine steel. Very much worth the aggrivation of fighting a Paladin.

Gnome Guards - What, the clockworks? They swarm, are HIGHLY magic resistant... And quite green at any level you could beat them. They drop the same loot as the newbie mobs out in Steamfont.

Ogre Guards - Cheaper than the Felwithe guards, but still nice plat, plus they're easier. If dwarves look like hams in helmets, ogres are the whole pig.

Troll Guards - Are extinct. The ones in Neriak are fun to kill, and drop okay plat and fine steel.

Gukta Guards - Will shred anything they youch, pulling guildmasters with htem, and spanking you as if you were a mooning troll. Each and every Guktan NPC has the power of a newbie guard, due to annoyed troll players wiping out the town. Just don't bother.

Cabilis Guards - Come in two flavors. Troopers and Crusaders. Troopers are standard warriors, crusaders are Shadow knights. All of them are exactly level 50, no more and no less. Max hit seems to be 175, but they hit fast, they hit often, and they seem to be pretty damn resistant to spells. My shaman died repeatedly before bringing down a crusader, looting his 5 gold, iksar targ sheild and rusty warhammer.

Vah Shir guards - I haven't tried here. Their shields andswords tempt me lots, though.

Shadowhaven Guards - Another "haven't tried".

Katta Guards - Designed to be killed, can take you to 60, if you move up to Nathyn's guards. swords and axes sell like fine steel, armor sells like bronze, they drop an average of 5pp and sometimes a helm I haven't been able to find a use for,

Seru Guards - Mean sons of bitches. But great exp and great loot. Bring a group here and tear the guards in the walkway and zone in areas apart. I would think you could grind out to 65 here and come away with more plat than you probably need.  If you can do a level 65 LDoN (or level 55 - 60 hard) then these guys should be doable.

[a_beastlord_01]

Kaladim guards (again, using 65 enc 2-box, so...)

swarm indeed. I stupidly believed their aggro range would be similar to oggok.

Oh boy, did that first pull teach me  :D

When you zone in, there's a corner dead ahead, followed by a short tunnel, then the left side opens out into the guard area. With ER you can pull the guards single. Since they run on low health, tank them at the corner where you zone in to give max time to reroot/finish off. There is one roamer who roams almost up to the short tunnel, try and kill him first or he'll add.

They do slow after tash, but at least 50 percent will resist once. So, just refresh arcane rune after every kill, and keep illusion fire elemental and feedback up, and forget slow.

Once the 6 static spawns are dead, there's about 2 or 3 roamers who stop-off at the guardhouse. If you run out of pulls, go through the guardhouse arch and turn right. Cross the bridge and take the right-hand tunnel. This leads to the castle. I'd recommend pulling to zonein.

At 50/51 I'm getting 1 percent per kill, and 2 percent every 4 or 5 kills, so maybe 1.2 % per kill. They have 4k or so hp, so this is much slower than oggok. They hit harder/faster than oggok, but one arcane rune (1500HP) can usually last a fight.

It's mostly quiet and you're not far from BB LDON camp if someone needs an extra hand.