Stone of XP-related issue...

[mobrien316]

I was running elite Invaders today on my third life, 14th level cleric, with a 16th level sorcerer in the group. I don’t want to be overtly biased, but I am assuming he was a new player who had used the Stone to get to level 16. His was an adventurer build (28 points). He had 132 HP at level 16 (my level 14 cleric has 373 HP) and he died eight times.

According to him (as voiced loudly and repeatedly) every death was my fault.

He did not appear to know that:
1. Casting Deathward prior to facing a beholder is often pointless because of the beholder’s anti-magic cone.
2. Deathward does not prevent death.
3. Deathward is not the same as wearing a deathblock item.
4. Cure and heal spells don’t go through walls or around corners.
5. His spells won’t work when he is standing in the beholder’s anti-magic cone.
6. Clerics don’t generally (if ever) use all their turns to cast Divine Vitality on casters so they can “fill up” after each encounter.
7. A cleric’s healing aura and healing burst have limited range, and if you are out of that range you won’t be healed.
8. You don’t have to jump in the air to hit a beholder (he had a sword…)
9. If you are a sorcerer who wants to use a sword, you should cast Master’s Touch on yourself.
10. Clerics (like me) can carry a shield without worrying about arcane spell failure, whereas sorcerers cannot.
11. Casting cold-based spells at the ice flensers is pointless and a waste of SP.
12. Many casters carry scrolls and wands for use when they want to conserve SP, or for when they are out of SP.


I am generally VERY patient when playing with newcomers, because I feel that a little extra time spent now will result in a greater number of skilled players to quest with later. But this kid was a complete jerk. For the first few minutes of the quest, when it was apparent this guy had no clue as to what he was doing, I tried to give him a few helpful suggestions about gear and such. He was not the least bit interested and let me know that if I was “doing my job” and healing him then everything would be fine.

I actually turned my sound down so I wouldn’t have to hear his BS rants, and I would have dropped except that three of the other people in the group seemed nice enough and I was the only healer. I stopped resurrecting him but the rogue (who I believe was a friend of his) apparently had a stack of Raise Dead scrolls on him.

Despite the DOOM predicted by many when the Stone of XP became available, this is really the only terrible player I have encountered. And the only thing that really made him terrible was that he already knew everything and refused to listen to advice (I was not the only one making polite suggestions). I have encountered a number of other new players who were clearly a bit over their head at level 16, but the vast majority have been polite and willing to listen.

[WruntJunior]

In all honesty, if I had the ability to raise him and was in the group, I would've raised him every time I could...this sounds hilarious. You just have to look at it from this perspective: many people are idiots, and stressing over their stupidity is bad for your health...so laugh at them.

On a side-note, how on earth did he manage to get to level 8 anyways?

[Xynot2]

6. Clerics don’t generally (if ever) use all their turns to cast Divine Vitality on casters so they can “fill up” after each encounter.

None of my clerics have DV

And to the point of him blaming you... Your post indicates you have been playing a long time. My default response is that it's just a game and if you think this is too tough for you, there's always a used game shop you can go buy a NES, SNES, N64, CUBE and Wii that you can buy cheap along with the games so that you can slowly work up to the speed of an MMORPG.

[WruntJunior]

None of my clerics have DV

And to the point of him blaming you... Your post indicates you have been playing a long time. My default response is that it's just a game and if you think this is too tough for you, there's always a used game shop you can go buy a NES, SNES, N64, CUBE and Wii that you can buy cheap along with the games so that you can slowly work up to the speed of an MMORPG.

Old Nintendo consoles would probably be too hard for him with many of the games. >_> A lot of them were purposefully made too hard to extend game life. :P

Seriously, though, I've only gotten DVs on my casters a few times in over a year...and that's generally because I've already shrine and rebuffed while the cleric is about to shrine, if there's one in party.

[mobrien316]

None of my clerics have DV

And to the point of him blaming you... Your post indicates you have been playing a long time. My default response is that it's just a game and if you think this is too tough for you, there's always a used game shop you can go buy a NES, SNES, N64, CUBE and Wii that you can buy cheap along with the games so that you can slowly work up to the speed of an MMORPG.

What a nice reply.

What part of my post led you to believe that "this" is too tough for me?


Many of your posts seem to indicate that you deal with a lot of unresolved anger issues. Perhaps you could see someone about that.

[WruntJunior]

What a nice reply.

What part of my post led you to believe that "this" is too tough for me?


Many of your posts seem to indicate that you deal with a lot of unresolved anger issues. Perhaps you could see someone about that.

I'd assumed he was referring to the sorc in your party.

[Lithic]

As for jumping to hit a beholder, it is honestly a GOOD thing. Not because it lets you attack the big floaty orb, but because 90% of their ray spells will miss you if you are meleeing them while jumping, and your attacks will still all hit normally without a movement penalty (unless you need to chase the beholder of course).

[mobrien316]

I'd assumed he was referring to the sorc in your party.

Ah.

My mistake.

Apologies to Xynot2.

[WruntJunior]

As for jumping to hit a beholder, it is honestly a GOOD thing. Not because it lets you attack the big floaty orb, but because 90% of their ray spells will miss you if you are meleeing them while jumping, and your attacks will still all hit normally without a movement penalty (unless you need to chase the beholder of course).

Only problem is...a level 12+ sorc could melt a beholder with SLAs. >_<