Last weekend I actually got Blintz, my level 57 swashbuckler, out and played him for a while. Gaff and I went into Klak’Anon and did the Court of Innovation.
It was my first chance to see Gaff triple box.
In hindsight, it was a bit of an unfair balance of characters. Gaff had the responsibilities of tank, healer/warder, and buffer/crowd control, while I was just DPS and emergency evac.
It worked out all right though. Gaff was a lot more prepared than I was. It was my first time actually doing something in Norrath for a few weeks so I was out of practice. I even ran off without any poisons in my bag. Some DPS.
We got on Skype at about 4 in the afternoon and headed into Klak’Anon. Gaff mentored down 61, the level of his conjurer, so Blintz was also the lowest level in the group. Fortunately most of K’A is grey to Blintz and we only ran into a few aggros just outside the entrance to the Court of Innovation.
Over all we did pretty well, only getting in over out heads for a wipe once during our expedition. Blintz managed to grab too much aggro a couple of times and died while Gaff had a couple of additional deaths due to the character juggling he was doing.
The Court of Innovation instance, like the rest of K’A, is very nicely done. I like the look and the sound effects, especially the crashing sound that a dying clockwork gives off when you kill it. But it is all pretty hard on my system. I had to step down to Balanced video settings, and then down one more step after that in the instance and I was still lagging quite a bit during the big fights. My four year old system is showing its age, even with the video card upgrade.
We managed to do the whole thing in about two hours. The biggest disappointment though was the drops. None of the named dropped anything wonderful. Not even a master skill that we could sell. The best item I got was the Klak’Anon Metal Lord Earring, which was an upgrade for me at least.
Of course, being in a hurry to get on and get something done (I had some free time due to my wife and daughter heading out to a birthday party) I forgot to take notes. And, as with a lot of indoors zones, it is difficult to get a good screen shot.
Still, I managed to get a decent picture of the biggest battle, the fight between us and King Klak’Anon the Mechnamaximus.
When you begin the fight with King Klak’Anon, he is pretty easy. But then he flees before you can defeat him to get himself upgraded to “Mechnamaximus.” You have to clear a few more of his minions and then you get to battle him again. A fun battle with some witty dialog.
In the end there wasn’t much of a loot haul and the experience was okay, but it was still a fun afternoon adventure.
The Ancient Gaming Noob 