Morriana outside Nektropos Castle
What started off as a fairly routine evening checking the broker and my next tier of spells and armour, ended up as a real doozy of a night. After I had been online for 30 minutes or so, I received a tell from a good friend of mine Scuskuniish (affectionately known as Coercer Scuskuny) who asked me to join a Nektropos Castle-The Return group. I jumped at the chance. Not only because I have never done that particular guise of the instance, but also because it had been a goodly while since I had grouped with Scuskuny.
So off I troll to Nek Castle to await the rest of the group. Things didn’t start off too well with our 52 Wizard Lightingscales being one of those people who speaks their mind bluntly and abruptly. Not only had they just commented on how much Wisdom I have “Besides you don’t even have above 300 Wiz” as a comment that we would need another healer. Incidently we only died once…and that was because…you guessed it..the all knowing all wise Wizard AoE’d and pulled a totally unmanagable amount of mobs. The rest of the time the tank went into yellow only a couple of times and the rest of the group when getting pounded were dutifully healed. The Wiz then went on to insult our Warden who was logging on with one of their 70 tanks to mentor down. When they asked the group, which would be better the Bruiser or Guardian, our friendly Wizard replied something along the lines of “The Guardian definitely. Bruisers are crap”. OK, so one offended tank later we all gather and head on in….as we drifted in..what was that I hear? The dulcet tones of the Wizard already bragging about their impending DPS.
Basically, if you haven’t done the Nektropos Castle-The Return instance before, this is how it goes. Level 50 to mid 50’s, lot’s of mobs, great exp and amazing AA from the (upto) 13 Nameds in there. Also some quite nice treasured (ok…average) treasured gear. Most of all though it was a chance to return to what I feel is one of the great zones in the game. Unlike some of the higher end KoS zones which seem to be reincarnations of each other (The Nest, Vaults, PoA etc) it is a truly original zone that creates and unbelievable atmosphere. With the mist, the twisted walls, towers and the strange noises it all adds up for a great bit of adventuring.
Obip, our tank the Guardian (mentored from 70) did a splendid job, especially considering they had not been to that instance before either. The flow was good, and it was nice to see a tank that doesn’t rip the mezzed adds (although the Wiz certainly did a few times-yes…that’s right, he got up my nose and on my nerves!). Scuskuny as usual did a fantastic job of holding down the adds, with the class played as proficiently as any of his plethora of other toons. It’s always nice to group with people who know what they are doing. To be fair the DPS Lightingscales kicked out was kinda nice. It certainly helped when we had big mobs that’s for sure. I am not so sure how it would compare though to another pure DPS class. I only have my 70 raid assassin to compare it with, and thats simply not fair as that DPS is just silly… (I didn’t have ACT way back when she was 52, so I cant compare with what the Wiz was putting out). Overall though it wasn’t bad at all.
Morriana didn’t pick up any gear that was amazing, but she did gain 1.5 AA and went from 27% into 55 to 86% in. that’s 59% in just over an hour. Like I have previously said though, the best bit for me was just being there. Good company, an excellent adventure location and plenty of mobs to play with.
Marvelous.
As a side note, someone mentioned in group that the Legends of Norrath booster packs that have been dropped off mobs in game, are on the broker for up to 34 plat. Surely that’s just crazy! If you have to buy some booster packs (personally I think they are a waste of money) then why not just pay the 3 dollars, and if you are worried about the cost..just miss that cup of coffee out from Starbucks that day.
A Cursed Guardian dispatches one of the Everling sisters…Chaos ensued. Nektropos Castle-The Return.
