Loving the Spoils

As I previewed last night, the a prelude event for the upcoming Spoils of War 1.2 patch went in last night.  Like a shot in the arm, it has whipped my server into a fury once more.  I know personally I have been sick a good deal lately, so as a result I have been playing minecraft or other games that did not involve me having to interact much with other players.  This event is exactly what I needed to relight my fire.

Prince of Earth

 

As soon as I got home last night I patched up my client, and found the daily quests.  This time they are out in the outer courtyard area, near the mount vendors (sorry was lead to believe they were where the shade guys were set up).  Once again Gaarawarr over at Gaarawarrgabs has a far better guide the to the quests that I would write, so I am linking to him.  The name of the game…  collect Ancient Golden Dragon Egg Shells from Earth or Fire rifts.

So putting on my thinking hat, I thought about which zones natively have earth and fire rifts.  In my level range, the big one was Shimmersand, so off I went to one of my favorite places in Telara… Fortune Shore.  A few minutes into the zone the new world event started up.  Tons of Earth Footholds spawned INSIDE of Fortune Shore…  so from the moment the event starts the players are trying to push back the forces of earth from what normally should be safe territory.

When the players have destroyed 50 footholds, and 12 mini-bosses a Colossus spawns, which the above video shows.  The giant hits really hard, as is the norm for Epic Colossi, however we had a truly ridiculous amount of players gathered at Fortune Shore.  Normally in an event like this, when you down the big boss it is over.  This event breaks that mold.

But Wait… There’s Much More

After the big giant drops, a number of slightly smaller Colossi spawn all around the map.  To end the event the players need to kill 5 of them.  Thing is… there are WAY more than 5 in the zone.  So for 30 minutes after the event, players are still cleaning up the remnants of leftover footholds, colossi, and invasion forces.  Doing this one event I managed to get over 30 shells.

When you finish the event, you get the holy of spoils of war holies.  In this event, there are very cool epic drops called a Chest of Riches.  Inside these are many wondrous prizes..  but what you get are completely random.  In theory you can pull gear, artifacts, and even plaques of achievement as well as between 1-2 platinum.  I have a sneaking suspicion that the dev mentioned “Gritty Kitty” pet will come from these coffers.

Why I Am Loving This Event

This event is devoted to the Golden Maw, the dragon cult devoted to the element of earth, and aspect of greed.  This event is completely about random mass consumption.  Three of the daily quests reward you random good stuff, as well as a decent amount of money.  So the rewards, to me feel like the match up to the lore of the Golden Maw itself.

If you are like me, and want to do all the possible daily quests each day it will involve doing the easy quest in your capitol city for 10 shells, and then collecting 70 more shells from Earth or Fire rifts.  What do you get for this carnal ballet of rift grinding?  For 15 Golden Shells, you can get a Crafter’s Glowing Pouch.  This gives the player a random selection of crafting items for their tradeskill.  Last night I got an assortment of 3 kinds of planar dust, but I have seen players get artisan marks and plaques.  For only 15 shells this is well worth doing for crafters as it basically doubles your chance of getting plaques for the day.

Moving up to the next tier, for 25 shells you have the Mysterious Artifact.  Contained within it is a random artifact.  Based on the incidental data I have seen from players in game, it appears that this artifact will always be green or rarer.  This is a spiffy way of getting those rare artifacts to complete your sets.  You also get a few gold for your trouble.

Last and most definitely not least for 40 shells you get the fabled Chest of Riches.  These are the same things that drop from the epic zone invasions, and pretty much give you the best chance of getting something cool.  Guaranteed are between 1 and 2 platinum, but after that you get a random assortment of cool stuff.  I have seen players get artifacts, plaques of achievement, armor and weapons, and essences.  Like I said above, I believe this is probably the place that gives you your best chance of finding the Gritty Kitty pet.

If This Is Just a Prelude…

Honestly if this is just the prelude it has me intrigued as to what the event proper will look like.  All I know is that so far I am having a blast.  It combines my two favorite things to do in an MMO.  Mindlessly killing everything that crosses my path, and getting random loot.  Seriously I am a fool for Diablo style random loot, and I find myself grinding endlessly just to see what is going to come out of the candy machine next.  So giving me an event, where that is the entire purpose…  I am supremely pleased.  This might not be the thing for everyone, but for me, combine the lore of the Golden Maw with the mindless fun, it is pure addiction.