MrD PikFortress

Video Link: Pikataclysm and Sher'Tul


The start of this video is finishing clean-up in the Pikataclysm. Other than being interrupted by my cat when I least expect it, nothing of great interest happens in this portion. We did reach level 19, giving us two levels to spend once the place is finished, and I did save an item or two for later consideration.

Our reward for this event is a skill/talent, which lets us be a bunny; not literally, of course, but we learn their Disengage-like ability that heals and moves us up to 7 tiles away in a random direction. I imagine this is better for melee characters, who don't have to worry about being kicked towards enemies as much as we do. I'm not sure how the random direction vs heal part ultimately maths out, but I think we'll put this one to some use.

Our next destination is the Sher'Tul fortress, for an event that happens here once you reach a certain energy threshold. I believe the first event, attuning the Rod of Recall, happens at 20 energy and this event happens at 50, but I could be off with those numbers. Either way, we stand outside transmogrifying gems until we trigger it, then proceed inside to be told by our servant/monster that something has come out of the far portal and wants to kill us. Yay!

And it's a rare/unique Blade Horror. New Yay, now with more sarcasm!

As it turns out, there's nothing whatsoever to worry about. The Horror doesn't even reach us before we've debuffed and destroyed it in 5~7 arrows. Archer Hype! Our reward is that now we may use the far portal to go through randomly generated dungeons for more loot and exp. This is something we may do in the future, but for now it's likely too risky to bother with.

More importantly than anything else ever, when we leave and re-enter the fortress we have a kitty! His name is Pumpkin and I love him and you can't come between us!


Our level situation is pretty solid now at 19. We drop points into Intuitive Shots, a sustain that we may or may not use, and a 4th into Thick Skin. Our other two points are banked, giving us 1 class and 1 generic at the moment.

Intuitive Shots doesn't scale with stats which means static percentages, making it a bad skill to use right now; 23% chance to activate for 1 knockback versus the 30 stamina it costs to sustain doesn't math out in our favor. If I do use it, it will take at least 4 points before it's at all worthwhile, 50% chance to activate for 3 knockback; the damage scaling is pretty unimportant, but the defensive positioning it offers via the knockback effect is all we're after. I don't know if it scales with talent level, but that may be something worth investigating, assuming there's something that increases Excellence's talent level outside of spending a category point.