My AO2 saga: The ramblings of an under-levelled healbot (long and rambling)
This is partly an introductory post to say "hi" and partly a general ramble about my experiences in Alien Oasis 2. During this time I met power-levellers, farmers, and a couple of forum regulars, and realised that despite my previous concerns and the fact that I'll never see the Ancient Swamps at their original difficulty, I'm probably not part of the so-called Mynas Generation.
I'm an old raid healer (and occasional Druid rights activist) from World of Warcraft, back before I decided I wanted my life back, and so I naturally created an elf. I actually like healing, even if I tend to lose concentration a bit in my old age. Pocket Legends is a little more frantic than WoW ever was, even with a good party.
At the time these events took place, I was in my early 30s - both in terms of level and real life age, as it happens. I'd finished all the quests and had had a couple of invitations to Alien Oasis from friends, but hadn't actually unlocked any of the levels, so I set out to rectify that.
I realise this isn't quite the normal format for an introductory post, but please try to humour me a bit. I won't be offended if you skip the rest.
Alien Oasis 1
As I recall, I completed AO1 somewhere around level 28 or so. I happened to find a party with enough of a clue to run through the whole campaign without anyone rage-quitting, and with enough determination to keep going. Actually, I think we were all pretty low level for that campaign. I'm a bit disappointed that a group that far below level 35 can even complete it at all (and also mildly annoyed that the Ancient Swamps were nerfed just a few days before I reached an appropriate level).
While I don't consider the Graveyard Zerg to be an entirely acceptable tactic, it did the job for a couple of the harder bosses. My personal preference is for regrouping so that everyone gets buffed properly, but maybe that's too much to hope for.
Alien Oasis 2: the Early Maps
As it happens, my first experience with AO2 was similar, if not better. I found myself in a somewhat under-levelled group, with one or two players around level 40, but most of us in the early to mid 30s. We cleared the first three levels without too many casualties, before I was called away to clean the bathroom.
Knowing the reputation of the Mynas Tombs, I figured I could find a group for the last couple of maps later, since I'd already unlocked map 4. Unfortunately, I completely forgot that map 4 has a similar reputation, if for different reasons. Not a mistake I'll be making again.
Alien Oasis 2: the Map 4 Saga
Once the bathroom was clean (well, cleaner), I set about finding a group for map 4. The first one I joined had four level 45s who didn't seem to object to my being there, so I buffed and healed my way through, although I don't think it made a lot of difference. At least they took the trouble to clear most of the level. Unfortunately they didn't actually clear everything, so at the end they chattered a bit in Japanese (I understand enough of that to know what's going on - I think they were discussing whether to do another run, and probably trying to alienate the level 30 noob), before leaving with their shock lance. Yes, I saw a shock lance drop on my very first run. Obviously I didn't actually get it, and I would have given it to someone who'd actually contributed a decent amount to the run if I had, but even so. Meanwhile, I was left with 18 enemies that I had no hope of defeating, one of which might have been a djinn, but I can't really remember. At this point, I remembered that it's map 4 that's notorious for rushes. Anyway, that's probably the single most disciplined party I've seen in the short time I've been playing.
Normally in this situation I would have looked for a party in the previous map, in the hope that they would continue and clear the one of interest. Unfortunately, the previous map is Mynas Tombs. I joined a couple of parties there for the sake of getting the last 20 points or so to my next level, and realised that there wasn't much hope of anyone actually bothering to clear the place. Incidentally, I (briefly) joined a party with Snakespeare during this time, but he and another player had run out of potions, so he didn't stay for very long. I hope I'm not committing a major faux pas by assuming Snakespeare in-game is the same person as Snakespeare on the forums.
So I set out to find groups in maps 1 and 2, only to find that unlike my morning group, I was systematically booted from games within a second, without a word (bear in mind that I don't start by saying "dont boot me plz" or anything similar - booting people who do that is only to be expected, if only for the sake of irony). Not that I have anything against the players in question - after all, I was massively under- levelled, a complete unknown, and could reasonably be expected to run around, pull a ridiculous number of enemies, not heal, not buff, and generally be a complete ***. I hope I'm not actually that bad. In the meantime, I went back to answer some of the endless requests for help from level 20 players who really should be able to handle their respective campaigns on their own by now. I'd finished collecting tomes the previous night, but still felt some kind of obligation to be helpful.
Finally, before giving up and writing a long rant for the forums ("how many organs do I have to sell to get through AO2?"), I joined one last group for map 4, to find about 6 enemies remaining. We cleared that, and got about halfway through map 5 before half the party remembered other appointments, my rant became more of a ramble, and the rest is history. I still haven't technically cleared map 4 to my own satisfaction, but the game doesn't really care. There'll be time to do that when I'm actually the right level for it.
So now I'm looking for a party for map 5...
