High level hunting in Istaria: Murial vs the Aegis

For this week's blog, I thought it'd be nice to look at a few in-game high level battle images. Over the next month or so I'l be mainly concentrating on taking a new character through its paces, but this gives you a pictorial idea of what things look like when you're nearer level 100 than level 1!

I'd like to thank my guild mate Murial for the screenshots. That's her, standing over the freshly killed body of a Blight Hound, one of Istaria's nastier inhabitants. Murial's got multiple level 100 skills, which is one of the great features of Istaria. Many games only let you level one class, or perhaps two plus a couple of crafting skills. In Istaria, you can pretty much be everything all in one character, although they do make it tough.

Firstly, you will only get all the strengths of the one adventuring class you have currently selected: skills from other classes will either work at half strength, or not at all. Secondly, you have an overall rating that goes alongside your current adventuring level. This rating affects how much experience points you need to go up a level, and is adversely affected by the total amount of adventuring levels you have. So, the more you multi-class, the longer it will take to level up.

Some of these shots were taken on a high level hunt with two other members of our guild, Universal Soldiers - Neuvitas Silver and Vici Legends - with 'art' along for the ride. It's a lot more fun to hunt in groups and you get experience bonuses for fighting multiple enemies, so it works out well that way too. Groups can be big as well, where they are often restricted in other MMORPGs.

The first thing you'll probably notice from these images is the foreboding atmosphere in the backgrounds and the stark, broken lands on which they're walking. In Istaria, all players are essentially on the same side (although some dragons may dispute that) - all races have joined together to fight the threat that faces them all: the 'withered aegis'.

Areas blighted by the aegis are left dead and lifeless and are the most dangerous in Istaria. Yup, you guessed it - that's where the hardest adventurers head and where the best rewards are to be had. While Istaria does use a lot of the clichéd fantasy races and trappings, such as elves, dwarves etc, many of the races and creatures you fight are unique to the game.

Here's a good example - a winged Kwellen Berserker in classic 'before' and 'after' poses! The red beam you can see on the creature is showing this is the chosen target - this can really help on a crowded battlefield, where a creature may be stunned and you don't want to hit it and break the effect.

Something else you may get from the pics is that the graphics are hardly up there with the latest games. This is simply a fact - Istaria wasn't released yesterday and will never look like it was. However, the sky effects are top notch, the music atmospheric and the spell sounds and effects really add to combat. It's also a challenge - something many games nowadays shy away from in their desperate attempts to reach out to the lowest common denominator.

What's more, it's a challenge all the way through the levels. Istaria can be pretty unforgiving right down at low level, although you can still use the cheaty methods of power levelling found in all games, if you want to. But if you're looking for a challenge, you'll often find that fighting a single creature of your level will be a tough fight, and a single mistake could see you taking a dirt nap.

Fights can be incredibly frenetic and exciting, especially when you're grouped. All the normal MMO group combat rolls are available, with tanks, ranged damage dealers and healers on show - plus everything in between and combinations of them all. Here Neuvitas goes hand to hand with another Kwellen Berserker, while Murial casts from range. As a druid, she can both heal deal out some hefty damage, but her armour isn't the best, so letting someone else stand toe-to-toe makes sense - although I'm not sure Neuv here would agree!

And as I say, however bad ass you may be, there's always something wandering around Istaria that will bring you crashing back down to earth. Complacency can get you too - I've often been fighting a series of golems, only to suddenly to attack a named boss that looks the same and been dad before I knew it. I'm not sure Murial knew what she was getting into when she picked on Dalknor here, but the outcome is plain to see...

That said, there isn't much of a death penalty in Istaria: you get some stat reductions that, when they stack, can slow you down pretty hard. However, you don't lose items, or have to return to your corpse - you just need to take a bit of downtime. However, in a game that's as good on crafting as it is in adventuring, there's always something else to work on.

If you're interested in looking into the game Istaria, visit the official website at www.istaria.com

My incredibly selfish Istaria wishlist - the Top 5

I know, it's selfish, but every MMO player has a personal list of things they'd love to see in game soon er rather than later. Here's mine:

1) Recall points: In Istaria (as in many MMOs), your character can 'bind' themselves to a spot and return their any time at the press of a button. However, you can only be bound to one place at a time. With a beautiful plot on the edge of the village of Darvus, it's not practical to make it my recall point because it's in the middle of nowhere, and I have to run a mile to the nearest portal (think Stargate-style teleporters that take you to other points in the world). It would be great if we could have a home recall as well as one other - perhaps we could do a cool quest to get the privilege once we get a class to level 100, for example, as a reward for our dedication to the cause :)

1b) OK, I know giving myself a cheaty extra wish already is a bit much, but its a kind of cover for the fact 1 is a little unlikely (and probably hard to implement). If not a second recall point, please, devs, could you at least put an 'out' portal in Darvus? Our neighbours have them and we're sick of being poor relations, especially on Order where Darvus is way more developed than the likes of Elmnic nearby.

2) Resources: While we're on the subject of Darvus, it would be nice if a few more nodes could appear nearby. One of the main things that makes Istaria great is the crafting, and making buildings that help people work on various crafting skills. My plot now has everything a young woodsman or weaver needs to ply their trade on the local elm and kenaf. However, the unpopulated local village of Elmnic (which also has an out portal, I may add!) gets nearly all the elm trees. Share the love around, please.

3) NPCs: NPCs, or non player characters, play an essential part in any MMO - they give out quests, buy and sell items, act as guards and gate keepers etc. Sadly, a couple of NPCs are missing in the region of Spire's Shadow, a key area to work on maple trees. While its certainly not a game breaker (top tip - jumping off Spire's Apex gets you pretty close - just be careful of the lake!) it surely wouldn't take much time to get these lazy buggers back to their posts so that we can attune to these landing pads. And bring back Seldon, even if its only for a week. I've still got a note to give back to him from about five years ago!

4) Structures: There have been persistent rumours of new buildings for players to build - non-human versions of many of the common structures such as houses, workshops and silos would be a great start. This would add so much to the landscape and give a much needed boost to players who have been around a long time. Istaria is very much built on players building on their plots and this area could do with a bit of love. Which leads me to the most important request...

5) Community projects: Please keep these coming! If I had to define one thing that made Istaria great, this would be it. There should always be community projects to work on - I've not been involved in the last few, as I've been working hard on my own plot, but some of the best times I've had in game have been on them. They bring people together, introduce new content and get people talking - all the good stuff. And if you can throw in random spawns of Withered Aegis (Istaria's bad guys) so the adventurers can get stuck in too, more's the better.

Learn more about Istaria at the official website, Istaria.com