Guide: How to farm Alien Oasis 2 pt 4

[kavanah]

So as most of you know, I like to farm a lot. I rarely sell anything, only enough to pay for my continuous use of pots, not the herbal kind, and either donate the rest to guild bank or for hand-outs.

In the time that I have been doing this I've realized that many people don't know quite exactly how to do this whole "rushing" thing so I figured I would make a guide depicting how it should be done. If anyone has any POSITIVE feedback about this guide then please do post. If you don't agree with me, believe Luck Pot's are a conspiracy the dev team put together to win back the gold people scammed out of them with the free hats, or think that switching up the host of farm groups is going to get you better drops... then please... do not post. Go hit the "create a new thread" button under Off Topic forums.

For those who do want to know how to properly run this map then know that my advice comes from about 500-600 runs of this map, and through trial and error I have learned it well. You may be like my students and think that you won't learn anything unless you fail first at trying, if you have this mentality then like them I will ask you this question... "Have you ever seen someone completely on fire before? Would you like to be put on fire to learn that it isn't fun?" Learn from the mistakes of others who have been set on fire before you...

#1 What are we doing?

Let your team know that you guys are "rushing" at the very start. The term rushing means you are skipping all mobs and heading straight for the boss. Don't kill mummies, don't kill djinns, only kill forums trolls, zmoxx, and preferably zmoxx...

This means you will be dragging a total of 7 djinns with you into the room you kill zmoxx. Just focus zmoxx!

#2 Group Composition:

4 tanks and 1 pally in my opinion makes the most effective group. I don't care if they are all dex spec'd as long as you have ursans.

5 ursans works well too. Any group that has 3+ ursans will be viable at accomplishing this.

*This can be done with any group makeup if you all decide to use Tanker's Elixer and Speed Elixer*

3# Skills for ursans

Don't use taunt unless you have to pull the djinns off of your pally while fighting zmoxx. Don't use beckon unless you have to "un-stick" someone which we will discuss more in depth in just a second.

Do use hellscream on the white mummies as it will stun them and they can easily kill you if enough of them are on you. Do stomp... A LOT! Be careful with how you stomp though... you want djinns prefferably always going backwards. Don't stomp them into your pally... also watch your "push" from stomp on zmoxx. Do not stomp him out into the hall as he can reset after you pass the side corridors. Keep him in the big room if possible, stomped up against a wall. Use your brain on which direction you need to stomp him to get him against a wall.

Do use evade while running. No reason you should die while running with evade on...
Do use iron blood... but not right when you use evade... alternate them. Evade first, wait till it is about 70% off cd, then hit iron blood, pop evade when it comes back up and cycle it.

#4 Spells for Paladins

Do buff your party please...

Do revive your fallen comrades IMMEDIATELY or you will share the same fate. Dawninfinity can teach you lessons on how to without even thinking hit the revive button when someone dies.

Don't go to town with aoe's while your tanks are running in front of you... you will get aggro and die and make these faces =/ -_- =P

#5 Un-sticking

Its not a race to see who can get to zmoxx first, and then go *SPLAT* because they are all of a sudden alone with 5 of the 7 djinns beating their corpse into a pulp. Stick together! If you see someone falling behind and they have all these red triangles around them... chances are they are being stun-locked and can't move coupled with lag from the massive mob on them. Turn your speedracing rear end around and go STOMP that crowd. Ask anyone I play with, if you get "stuck" I will come and "un-stick" you with beckon, stomp, and hellscream, and I will not proceed until you are free to run with me and I'm sharing the aggro.

#6 Play Smart!

If you are an enchantress or an avian and you run ahead of your tanks... you deserve that death without rez, maybe even a boot. Don't rush ahead of your tanks. Don't enter into Zmoxx's room without your tank. Let the tank initiate first.

Tanks... don't run into zmoxx's room and not have evade or iron blood up. If you go splat then you risk your pally getting your aggro or the other ursans and it may quickly overwhealm them. I've had this happen several times where someone ran in, died almost instantly and suddenly the 2 djinns beating me turned into all 7 and I died faster than TheLoneArcher buying a half off pink!

Use your brain please =)

#7 Booting

From now on, if you join my PUG (pick-up group) runs of AO2:4 and you run the opposite way of everyone else, it will result in a boot.

If you join the game and you are 1 of 2 already joined avians... you will get a boot. Rejoin with an ursan or pally.

If you rush ahead and die as an avian or enchantress, or even rush way ahead as an ursan, you get a boot.

If you don't revive people when they die and you are an enchantress... you will be booted.

If you leave me "stuck" tanking 6 of 7 djinns while you rush ahead and kill zmoxx, you will get an angry face like this and then you will be booted.

*This may seem harsh but I do farming groups, not exp groups, not play to learn groups. I spend gold on elixers and I want them to be put to good use. My farm groups are a free-for-all... I will not hold spots, I will not boot to make room for you or your friends. It's first come first serve with the exception of my few officers whom I try to play with as much as possible in which case I will explain before apologetically booting you. Take no personal offence please, you'll be happy later on when I give you the 29th conqueror's plasma that I get*

Have fun! Enjoy the game! Happy Farming! Peace!

[vulgarstrike]

amazing. yet harsh. i like the first 6 paragraphs!

[Prest87]

Kavanha i'll do some runs with u add my pally prosword, nice tips.
I think i did runs with u today just noticed your ign.

[gunnderakk]

il do some too, add gunnderakk
he is my main, i respec alot, mainly from dex to str.

[Rnrking]

same here add rnrking its my main character pure warrior str

[smokester]

Lol this kinda farming originally chaudexs idea so I would like to give credit where it's due and farming is common sense - be fast, keep enemies off u, don't die, stick wit group, and kill boss then gtfo

[jonboy]

Wow Kav, so much valuable information, yet tainted with brutal reality. Can I steal the on fire story for my kids.

[kavanah]

Lol this kinda farming originally chaudexs idea so I would like to give credit where it's due and farming is common sense - be fast, keep enemies off u, don't die, stick wit group, and kill boss then gtfo

This kind of farming may originally be Chaud's, in the sense that he decided to use it in PL, but the idea itself is most likely originated back in Diablo. Where as it wasn't quite so popular with 1, it was definitely encourage in 2 with the addition of +magic find gear.

I spent many many many nights "rushing" through Mephisto's labrynth collecting "oranges" like vampgaze, ali babas, and storm shield. I don't wish to take anything away from Chaud but he simply did what other's have done in the past, making it less original of an idea as an application.

And while you summed it up in a nutshell, there is still some detailed things that people need to learn when rushing as I have outlined. Nevertheless, thanks for your post smoke =)

[kavanah]

Wow Kav, so much valuable information, yet tainted with brutal reality. Can I steal the on fire story for my kids.

Lol if you think that will get the point across =)

[jonboy]

Well they are pretty good kids, but ever parent needs a quick fire arsenal of good Menes

[kavanah]

Well they are pretty good kids, but ever parent needs a quick fire arsenal of good Menes

I truthfully used that analogy once when a student of mine said, "well somethings I wont learn unless I make the mistakes I need to make, I'll learn that way."

To which I replied something along the lines of...

"If ever you would see someone pouring gas over theirself and play with a match, igniting their body in flames, would you still want to pour gas all over yourself and play with matches so you can learn that it isn't fun? Take my advice and learn from the mistakes of others who have set themselves on fire."

[jonboy]

Excellent thanks mate.

[Kalielle]

...you will get aggro and die and make these faces =/ -_- =P

Lol! That totally cracked me up!

Thank you for the excellent (and very well organized!) guide. I wish I had something like this to read when I first started to rush - would have been extremely useful!

And for those of you not yet convinced about the benefits of rushing, take a look at this screenshot from a little earlier today:



That was the second Zuraz lance that dropped in the space of about five rounds. Other drops included 2 lev 45 plasmas, an Isis Khopesh, and several Thoth armor pieces, all within about an hour. And no, none of them were due to luck pots as far as I remember.

Now go farm!!

[DawnInfinity]

#4 Spells for Paladins

Dawninfinity can teach you lessons on how to without even thinking hit the revive button when someone dies.

I have a tip for paladins: if you find yourself taking a lot of damage, use an armor pot. If you're in a group with two pallies and 3 tanks and the other pally dies (aka me), resurrect the other pally as soon as you can. This will increase your party's chances of not failing epically. If you resurrect your fellow paladin, most likely they will resurrect you in return when you die. I know I get aggravated if I am in the boss room dead, while I watch the other mage in the group spamming every spell in their arsenal EXCEPT the resurrect spell. Seconds later, I see that pally go down followed by each of my other team-mates, and we have to run through level 4 again. In general, if you see the little (!) by somebody's name, just tap the resurrect spell. Simple as that. It doesn't help to spam the heal spell as well, it's not like it costs 200 mana to cast. Just saying.

[kavanah]

bump so more people can read!

[Snakespeare]

If there is one reason to NOT play Pocket Legends it is because cheaters win.

[kavanah]

If there is one reason to NOT play Pocket Legends it is because cheaters win.

Take it up with the dev's. I've been on board with Royce about taking rushing out of the game. Until then it is a part of the game and I'll farm that way.

[Snakespeare]

That's OK. They won't nerf it. So, you win.

[Kalielle]

If there is one reason to NOT play Pocket Legends it is because cheaters win.

For someone who hasn't done much rushing, you have some very strong opinions on how it's all evil and nothing can be learned from it. For many of us at 45, it's the last thing that remains that's can still be a challenge. It's doing AOS2 levels the slow way that's nothing but grind and non-strategy and routine now.

I've just respeced my pally's stats and have been experimenting with different gear to make her a more effective rusher. Before I rushed I was never that concerned with optimizing a character, because quite frankly one doesn't need to. Even 45s who don't play very well can make it through all AOS2 levels the slow way without much difficulty - the worst that will happen is that it's going to take them a while. That's not true for rushing.

Oh, and I've just come back from solo rushing Bayou Boss Brawl with my 45 pally. I'll challenge anybody to do that and tell me how nothing can be learned from it. (And yes, it's quite a bit more difficult than doing it with a bear.)

Anyway, not meaning to start a flame war or anything. It's just that rushing -- especially with a non-bear -- is one of the few interesting and challenging things left in the game for me at this point. When they release AOS3, I'll be the first to leave rushing to others and go play the new levels the old-fashioned way.

[Snakespeare]

naaaahhhh... I'm just being a kurmudgeon today... best to just ignore me.