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i think this game's quest compass thingy is broken, it constantly mixes up east and west, but not every time, it's very weird

Just finished the video. Fun stuff! Makes me want to jump on and play. Just to comment on something you said near the end. RoM2 did have stone curse but it was greatly decreased on the weapons. After fully upgrading a weapon from quest rewards the max duration is 15 seconds. Pretty crazy nerf but it made you get creative for the tough fights.

The fact that (other) people still play this makes me happy. My buddy and I played the first one together on dial up internet back in the day. Love these games.

btw if you press backspace it clears the loot log so you can see

if you like the first game's single player that much more why did you choose to do the challenge on this one? I mean idk im not complaining just curious if you are planning to try it on that one too

You absolutely can complete that first level with a warrior, you just have to buy a bow in the first town.

"People usually complain about Brother Barachiel, it's not that bad if you know how to use them." Even knowing how to use them: "Brother Barachiel, what are you...? Didn't I tell you to... Ah, Brother Barachiel..." HAHAHAHAHA Good tips overall nonetheless! Thanks!

thanks for your tips!! i have to inform that due lack of items (and bravery) i got the damage needed for this mission out of luck following your indications about wich stats prioritize

If you return to the 2 villages after killing the dragon, you will be rewarded by the villagers. 2*10000 gold

Man , you have a huge amount of patience)

Yeah, Beast Land is horrible. I don't know how a map with stone curse mages everywhere, combined with huge groups of orcs or crystal armor knights and groups with multiple black dragons and bats is listed as the same difficulty as Forester. It probably is a good spot to end it. While possible to progress, it would require a lot of grinding the same things at this point. Some enemies like T4 orcs can drop stat potions. But you already killed a few of them and they didn't drop any, so you can see that it would take a lot of time to get over 60 potions to max your stats. And even after you got all the stats from that, you still would spend hours in the shop just waiting for things to pop up that are actually appropriate to be offered on a Horror map. The Horror map has a group with almost 20 mages, 20 squirrels, 20 snakes, 10 bats, 20 orcs, 20 goblins, 10 ogres, 10 trolls and 10 dragons, all t4. I enjoyed the playthrough so far though. As I am working on a few Rage of Mages 2 maps, I can share them with you when they are done. It will probably be faster than normal multiplayer, only a few episodes. They also will play a bit differently. Don't expect it to be finished any time soon though as I also change a few things about the world.res file for balancing and the maps use a lot of scripts.

Thanks

I don't know what's up with the Antipoison potion. I guess they just wanted to implement antipoison but realized that an item just for poison cloud feels unjustified, maybe if it would also clear things like curse it would make more sense. After that they probably experimented with other effects like +absorbtion and also weren't happy with it. Apparently they forgot to get it out of the game. If it was intended to be there they probably would have renamed it. I had the impression that the potion does not always work, not sure. It is still in the game files of Rage of Mages 2 even though it is not used.

About health regeneration equipment: I don't think you would want that at this stage of the game. Maybe if you have full +body equipment it could be worth it to use one health regeneration equipment to get really strong passive healing. But currently your health reg is too low for it to make a huge difference. I mean you apparently do not like the health reg potions. If you want to have health reg, I would go for the potions first as they do not take an equipment slot and are basically free. Defense can be great when going all in, it really takes a lot to get there though. T4 Orcs have 320 attack, with plain crystal gear you won't get far above that. If you reach 320 defense (same as Orcs attack) you will get roughly a 33% block chance. Purchasing all this gear just to block a third of incoming damage does not seem too great, your absorbtion already blocks more damage. Absorbtion is also more reliable. I think it is safer to take 50 damage every hit, instead of 100 damage with a 50% chance, as you still could get hit 4 times in a row. If you had crystal gear with high +defense magic on every piece and a pike with defense it might be better than absorbtion as you can get to 400-420 defense, you might be able to block most hits (I think 95% is the cap). To block that much damage with absorbtion you would need over 70 absorbtion against hard hitting enemies like orcs, even more against ogres. All +body is great, too. Also takes a lot for it to be worth it though. Anyways grinding for the perfect gear will be a chore. Can take hours and you still have the chance of losing all of it because you die. Btw. even with 87 earth resistance stone curse can still be very dangerous, especially when fighting multiple mages at once. Even at 95 earth resistance I still hated that spell.

00:20 "Let's go somewhere else and die" It has been forcasted. And yes, bees are dangerous. What I said about them previously is that you just need good enough damage. Bow is too slow and you also don't have enough attack on your bow yet. If you get to about 250 attack with a good sword/dagger you can take them in two hits and avoid most damage. Good thing about that is that after you died you only really need to purchase a sword and big potions as bees don't care about armor. If you are unlucky you will need to use the potions against the two bees in crossroads, but they will pay for 6-7 big potions. Right after you die you can also consider doing the bee group east to the town in horror, just buying a dagger with lots of attack and potions. (and maybe some bronze absorbtion gears in case you want to also fight suqirrels nearby) It is risky though, especially as you already bought expensive equipment which you could lose.

29:45 I also avoid 2handed weapons in rage of mages, especially later on. I think the problem is with how defense works. The absolute difference in attack and defense is what matters, instead of it being percentage based. What I mean is that 50 attack vs 0 defense is just as good as 150 attack vs 100 defense, or 100 000 000 050 attack vs 100 000 000 000 defense. At the start of the game shields have about 10 defense. It makes a relatively small difference, going for 2handed weapons can be worth it. But the large dragon leather shield (in ROM2) gives almost 90 defense. 90 defense can make the difference between being hit almost always and almost never. If you want your armor to have any effect defense wise, you absolutely need the shield later on. If you use a 2handed weapon late game, your defense is so low that you are at the hit chance cap against most enemies, it is almost as if you were naked if there wasn't also absorbtion on it. Also, shields can have a lot of +damage magic on them later on. So even ignoring the defensive aspect, 1handed weapons are also damage wise a good choice later on.

I vaguely remember a Hero attacking a monsters lair, giant spider I think. Is this the game or another ?

Most important thing against the bees is attack, so weapons with good amount of attack on them. Bees can deal a lot of damage if they surround you, but if you hit them reliably you can kill them before that happens. Second most important thing is having good healing. The big potions cost only 6x the amount of small potions, instead of 10x like in ROM2. I think they can pay off already. If you can kill them, they would be a lot better than farming the mage, as a single bee already gives as much gold as the mage. If you want to be safe, you can kill the two T4 bees at the northeast bridge in crossroads of mystery. While you wait for respawn, you can kill the tier 3 bees nearby. The bees right next to the starting town in the horror map are more dangerous, but doable if you have enough attack and good potions. A single bee gives enough to buy 3-4 big potions. The risk might be worth it after you lost your equipment anyways.

Options to go should be pretty good at this stage of the game. You can almost explore the whole Forester area northeast of the big river. In the far north east across a small dirt bridge there is an orc camp with 3 tier 4 orcs, the tier 4 orcs you may need to avoid. A bit south from there below the river is a single tier 4 orc, this one is possibly ok. East of Cross Roads of Mystery might be ok aswell with enough potions, but there are tier 3 trolls with bats somewhere you probably can't beat. Also there are traps in the sand that damage you without visual indication, so if you don't pay attention to your health bar you may get killed by surprise. Even in the horror map you could try killing a few critters east/southeast of the town. You will need a good amount of potions, but you would get enough gold from a single bee to buy 3-4 bigger potions from them. You should stay close to the town though, as it gets more dangerous further out and respawn is quick on this map. If you were to die, this is also a good spot to get money while occasionally looking at the shop to get equipment back, as you won't need good armor to kill some bees, only a good weapon that gives you enough attack. (220-260, tier4 bees have 220 defense)

Oooh, that +5 absorb gold necklace is nice. Gold necklaces and rings seem to have best enchantment/gold ratio.

Turning speed is also something I never take, even though I admit I never tested how strong the effect is. Arguably it could be something that helps you in critical situations when you need to start to flee. Turning around does take a long time, but I don't know how much quicker it becomes with turning speed items.

Impressed by the party on this underground channel as well (the game is amazing)

Sorry, I may have understated the damage of those bandits. As everyone plays a bit differently it is hard to judge at which point a certain enemy is suitable. At least you got a lot of blade skills, got 3 from a single axe man. That is why I prefered to aim high, it is what gets me out of the eternal grind.

9:50 and those guys are "only" tier 3. 10:10 Etherlords 1&2 were kind of fun tho. 11:21 huh, they changed into villager right before dying. Probably they drop all stuff while being stonecursed 15:42 o____________o I really wish this game would let you hire mercenaries, like a healer or archer.

2:20 Ogres get only 20% vs shooting and bludgeon. Turns out that out of high tier enemies only blades and axes do full damage. Fun fact, but in Polish version "ogres" are called "Maneaters", which is probably more accurate and far more terrifying. 7:40 Behold the power of Chip( 'n' Dale) damage! That's nuts! 17:50 As mentioned, it's full damage on blade and axes, and with your current setup it's only feasible to strike with two handed axe due to damage (Trolls have high defense and ridiculous absorption) 25:30 That is indeed strange, making meteor and crystal shields could literally be made by tinting adamantium blue and green. Same with Crystal chainmail (top tier is either meteor or dragon)

35:00 Pikes are good, but trolls have resistance to them (or at least in sequel, but I don't think this changed). The best weapon against them is axe (or something with fire damage)

Yeah, absorbtion progression is very uneven. Get to 7 early for just a few 100 gold from bronze, with bronze tower shield to 8 for an extra 1.6k. After that you spend like 100k just to get to 10. If you get lucky you find an amulet/ring with absorbtion for like 15k. At least the extra absorbtion from 8 to 9 you got should make a noticable difference on some enemies, like a 25% damage decrease on t3 squirrels. The bandits with the catapult are not worth it, they are all low level and the catapult itself pays almost no xp at all. The bandits to the west of the mage have no catapult, they are the bandits with mithrill crossbows. They definitely are worth a lot with about 100k. So if you can beat them that would be great, they definitely would still be very risky though, you will need a lot of healing potions. Possibly small healing potions wouldn't be enough to outheal them at max game speed. (at least without stone curse) Another thing you could consider to look at with your scout is dead islands and see if you could get to the bandit camp on the far east with Karen, might have to walk past a tier 2 troll. They wear mithrill mails which also pays decently well, while they only have wooden crossbows so their damage should not be too bad. the melees should not be a problem either with stone curse. You may also be able ot deal with the tier 3 bees a bit N-N-W from the camp while you wait for respawn. Together they should give like 30k.

I was expecting a Karen to attack the enemies, die and blame them.

I think the biggest reason for the imbalance is the amount of money tier 1 enemies drop. In ROM2 tier 1 enemies drop at least 5 times as much money, tier 4 enemies give about the same in both games. Getting high defense from mithrill can be useful in ROM2, as it makes you very strong against tier 1 enemies, killing them easily and repaying the cost for the armor you bought. As tier 1 enemies won't give you a meaningful amount of money in ROM1 you aim for higher tier enemies that have too much attack for your armor. On the other hand crystal sets are much cheaper in ROM1, so in the end you won't know how to spend all the crazy amounts of money you get from tier 4 enemies. I find the LuMoir squirrel area actually is not a terrible spot to get some money/skills. You almost have enough attack to kill them reliably. You may need to pop some potions, but each squirrel almost gives enough money to pay for a potion, so it is not too bad. Top left of the squirrels are also two single tier 3 sling goblins who can drop like 3k (not always). That means this area can be about as profitable as the mage while giving you more xp. Health regeneration potions can help reduce the amount of healing potions you need. A tip for a bit saver retreat, especially for single hard hitting enemies like trolls/ogres: Try to keep your left index finger over the "r" button. Because when in danger and you want to flee, you usually need to move the cursor away from the healing potions to click on the map to walk away. In that time you won't get healed and the char being stupid may try to turn back trying to attack again for some reason. If you just press "r" you can still drink potions and automatically walk away. Maybe not always good when being in the middle of bigger groups, as you won't know which direction she will retreat.

5:50 Oh wow, that guy is super weak (but also 20 damage per arrow is really nice, he probably don't have much defense or absorption) 24:50 Well, that's on point, mithril is pretty much middle tier (and first one to actually get any enchantments) 25:30 Trolls are super busted. Tier 2 have 170 defense and 16 absorption (plus resistances to everything but swords, axes and fire/earth/astral), plus hefty regeneration (32hp per "tick). You have 50 less attack and half the damage is absorbed. You probably should have 50+ skill to hit and stun it reliably.

6:25 Its fine. Losing most of the progress from previous parts is no-go. Just try to keep some pocket change next time, ok? 9:25 The power of stun-locking compels you! <bashes Ogre on the head, giving poor thing massive concussion>

Shops are a lot more frustrating than in ROM2. The item level has such a huge range for one shop. You make your way through to a very well guarded shop in the Horror map just to find wooden clubs there. And you really rely a lot on good gear in the end.

5:40 yeah, bees, bats and spiders can kill characters in seconds. It looks like you've lost about 7k of experience so if you want you may park your character somewhere relatively safe and AFK in-between next video.

I think you should grind gold first. Remember that game have weird quirk of barring players from easier maps based on experience, with money being secondary (not)progression. Also, it seems like enchantment progression is... weird? Especially on rings and pendants, sometimes cheaper ones (like silver and gold) have stronger magic on them than meteorite and adamantium.

I died to the mithrill crossbowmen because I just saw the bronze axe brigant (coming from above) at the edge of the fog, but for some reason they combined tier 1 melees with tier 4 crossbowmen. Usually they kinda make ranged units worse for some reason, like them often being a weapon tier behind, terrible armor and sometimes worse stats. But here they did the absoulute opposite. One way you could progress faster is letting go of the other skills and focus one skill, preferably sword as you can easily get a good amount of attack out of elven daggers, adamantium dagger for 10k gives +40 attack, meteoric for 24k even +50. Having to catch up with all the skills costs a lot of time. Later on when you can find amulets/rings/weapons with +20 to +50 attack, or find high tier humans who generally have terrible defense you can level up the other weapons much more quickly, you will make the same progress that took you hours within minutes. When you have a good +attack dagger, you can aim for higher tier enemies. Every increase in enemy tier gives about 8 times as much experience. So you can either kill 64 tier 1 squirrels, 8 tier 2 squirrels, or just a single tier 3 squirrel for the same gain. Therefor I'd also focus on absorbtion instead of defense. High defense like a full mithrill set would make you be able to deal with tier 1 ogres, which absorbtion may not. But what for? Reward from tier 1 enemies is low, even for ogres, trolls and dragons. A single tier 3 squirrel will reward you more than a tier 1 ogre. Against tier 3 enemies you would need like meteoric armor to get your defense to a meaningful level, but absorbtion will always help at least a bit, and a lot against squirrles, snakes or goblins. I'd go for bronze tower shield, next increase for absorbtion would come from mithrill plate cuirass. Maybe you can find a few magic items with absorbtion for less money before that. Tier 3 squirrels deal 15 damage max, it does not take too much to absorb most of their damage. A start could be the center of cross roads of mystery. North you have seen a single tier 3 squirrel. There you can test how well you can take them, before try other squirrel groups. (Like north of the start in LuMoir or heroes tomb)

19:50 Oh you were robbed. 38:40 NOPE! BAD GAME! I think you should consider buying mithril or even adamantium armour pieces, one at the time. Shield should probably be last on your pick list, since it's melee only. As for enchantments, fire protection probably should be priority (I don't think Astral is useful at all due to Drain Life being such rare spell monsters have, Water have Poison Cloud spell only, Air have Lightning and Prismatic Spray while Earth only have Meteor Strike/Blizzard-like spell, at least when it come to damage spells.) Please remember that some weapons don't appear in RoM1 - I don't think there are meteoric+ clubs, for example. I guess it's fine to have some bludgeon weapon to level up skills, but it's terrible type. I think you could lost the most Bludgeon skill levels because other skills were much higher and death takes certain percentage of all exp, so other skills lost a lot less "full" levels.

Another map you could explore is Forester. Area to explore could already be quite big. Upside of this map is that the enemy groups are kinda small, meaning you could take on higher tier enemies more easily. But there are quite a few traps and you need to be prepared to use healing potions. Also you could run into a mage petrifying you, which you won't get out of.

I wonder if small regeneration vials would be useful with lack of more "passive" ways of healing, like Drain Life weapons.

I really have to ask. What is the difference in Rage of Mages and Rage of Mages 2??? they seem to have the same maps and everything

Is this a 'skirmish' map? Or a mod?

I did not expect this game to pull out fantasy equivalent of tactical nuke this early. When game pulls out a cheese, it's time for big cheese. I wonder if it's possible to run second instance of a game and have other character (say, a mage with nothing so he doesn't auto attack) just follow/defend your main hero. I'm almost sure this game is balanced about having at least one warrior and one mage.

4:13 not the percentage of the map, just the absolute coordinates. As x=0 and y=0 is always the upper left corner of a map, going in a shop in a small map will put you somewhere in the upper left segment on a huge map. As you asked, two possible ideas to progress: The mage you barely died to in crossroads of mystery has a staff that sells for 10k. You almost killed him a few episodes ago. In general mages and humans give good xp and are easy to hit. Downside of this is that he is only one mage, waiting there and killing him too often could be boring aswell, but two/three times will still give you good money. Second is focusing on absorbtion and attack. Bronze gear is enough, if you focus on that dying won't be so bad and you can explore a bit more, Tower Shield is not cheap but worth it with 2 absorbtion. Daggers, especially elven mithrill dagger could give you a good amount of attack. With the attack and absorbtion you could easily take a few tier 2 squirrels, and with a few level ups at least the single tier 3 squirrel in crossroads and maybe some tier 2 or even tier 3 bees. For some variety you could also go to the east in heroes tomb where you saw the squirrels.

I dunno if you still play WOTV but they rerun Tactics on global and give 3 level 120 characters of choice today. Might be worth it to login and summon anyway.

I also find it hard to choose about what to cheese. Abusing guards for kills is cheesy. But of course you sometimes run into enemies you can't kill and need to retreat to the guards, they are there for a reason. And when they are killed you can also loot them, it is kinda tempting to rely more on the guards. Changing maps when you are about to die feels cheesy aswell. But maps like LuMoir have no guards, so when you encounter an enemy that is stronger and faster than you you'll be like: "Okay, I guess I'll die". Or if you explore a map and suddenly get petrified. It sure is possible without it, but it doesn't really improve the experience. If you have played through it all before and know where the dangerous spots are, you may try it without such tactics. Also it is made for multiplayer, a bit of compensation seems reasonable. Changing maps to update shops also is cheesy, but the shop contents in Rage of Mages 1 are so horrible that it would take forever to find what you need otherwise, especially later on. Most cheese is just something you do because the game lacks non cheesy alternatives for your situation. I'd say changing maps to save yourself or update shops is okay. Also retreating to guards when in danger, but do not abuse guards on purpose for loot.

Imagine, it's part 3, you died few times already and still wear bronze gear that you've luckily found in bags... In sequel, you would be having some Mithril stuff by that point.

13:30 you are absolutely right about that. It take VERY long to be self-sufficient in RoM 1 MP. I don't remember if Drain Life is even a possible to get as enchantment on warrior equipment. You pretty much have to play with mage sidekick (I dare to say even in campaign you probably should start with earth mage, get second mage and then Brian ASAP). 30:41 Fire sacrifice is a meme spell. If I recall it basically is very short ranged AoD that also puts caster at 1 HP. So you run close, cast it, damage enemy and yourself and most likely die when he swings back you. Oh and it is top-tier Fire spell. Yeah, there is reason why it isn't in sequel. 31:16 I miss this guy. Top shopkeeper, along with Crypt of Necrodancer and Resident Evil 4/Village.

Wait, are you saying they reused this map in ROM2? That's lazy 😄

Not being able to use hotkeys for potions is terrible, especially with this inventory that scrolls away from the potion every time you pick up new stuff. It killed me aswell.

Ufff, RoM1 Multiplayer is rough indeed.