Comments on: The Arks of Harmony – Jalen’s Crossing http://www.journeyswithjaye.com/?p=1031 An Emm Emm Oh Blog Sun, 11 Sep 2011 21:07:50 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Cameron Sorden http://www.journeyswithjaye.com/?p=1031#comment-44941 Cameron Sorden Wed, 10 Oct 2007 06:10:59 +0000 http://www.journeyswithjaye.com/?p=1031#comment-44941 My brother and I have been to the center tower twice after duoing here for quite some time (from about 10-13). When we killed the spawned boss mobs they dropped the required orbs every time, so you may need a level appropriate party, but you can have more than one of each orb at a time and they're stackable, so you can farm them. By examining the entry pedestal you can give up one of each orb (four total) to teleport your group inside of the tower. You clear a few trash mobs (easy 2-dot 10-11s) and then you can float up the central translucent pillar all the way to the top of the tower. There is a level 13 or 14 samurai-looking guy up there and he's the boss of the whole instance. Can't remember if he was 4-dot or 5-dot. He's tough either way, but we were able to duo him with a Disciple/Bard combo at 13. Both times he dropped an item that hadn't yet been discovered on Xeth... nice yellows for our level. My brother and I have been to the center tower twice after duoing here for quite some time (from about 10-13). When we killed the spawned boss mobs they dropped the required orbs every time, so you may need a level appropriate party, but you can have more than one of each orb at a time and they’re stackable, so you can farm them.

By examining the entry pedestal you can give up one of each orb (four total) to teleport your group inside of the tower. You clear a few trash mobs (easy 2-dot 10-11s) and then you can float up the central translucent pillar all the way to the top of the tower. There is a level 13 or 14 samurai-looking guy up there and he’s the boss of the whole instance. Can’t remember if he was 4-dot or 5-dot. He’s tough either way, but we were able to duo him with a Disciple/Bard combo at 13.

Both times he dropped an item that hadn’t yet been discovered on Xeth… nice yellows for our level.

]]> By: Kevin http://www.journeyswithjaye.com/?p=1031#comment-44807 Kevin Wed, 10 Oct 2007 01:02:29 +0000 http://www.journeyswithjaye.com/?p=1031#comment-44807 Nice summary! I was fortunate enough to get a group and run this with my fledgling rogue after launch. It was fun experience in learning how my class interacted in a group environment, and I generally had a good time, but I do think this area suffered from some pretty bad design flaws. 1) Why, after we spent 20 minutes clearing one of the arks to activate the little widget, did the whole island respawn and we had to re-clear the same mobs all over again to get to the boss? I'm trying to place myself in the content designer's position, and I still can't seem to think how they thought that it would be something that people would look forward to doing. I would have found it a little more palatable if clicking the portal spawned the boss nearby, at which point the players could kill them, collect the head, and move onto the next island. 2) The arks also pointed out some of the issues that you face when choosing to non-instance some content. Only one party at a time can be on each ark, so you are at the mercy of others to complete what they're doing before you can proceed. This is especially the case when you have more than 4 parties (due to the fact that there are 4 arks) attempting to complete the quest--someone will have to wait. I know that we spent a good amount of time waiting for another group to wrap up, and spent a lot of time asking in the local chat if they were near finishing. Nice summary! I was fortunate enough to get a group and run this with my fledgling rogue after launch. It was fun experience in learning how my class interacted in a group environment, and I generally had a good time, but I do think this area suffered from some pretty bad design flaws.

1) Why, after we spent 20 minutes clearing one of the arks to activate the little widget, did the whole island respawn and we had to re-clear the same mobs all over again to get to the boss? I’m trying to place myself in the content designer’s position, and I still can’t seem to think how they thought that it would be something that people would look forward to doing. I would have found it a little more palatable if clicking the portal spawned the boss nearby, at which point the players could kill them, collect the head, and move onto the next island.

2) The arks also pointed out some of the issues that you face when choosing to non-instance some content. Only one party at a time can be on each ark, so you are at the mercy of others to complete what they’re doing before you can proceed. This is especially the case when you have more than 4 parties (due to the fact that there are 4 arks) attempting to complete the quest–someone will have to wait. I know that we spent a good amount of time waiting for another group to wrap up, and spent a lot of time asking in the local chat if they were near finishing.

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