Curse

merciless · Feb 20, 2007, 10:05 PM // 22:05

I figured it out once I tried it in THK :blush:

Dragou Du Porzan · Feb 21, 2007, 02:58 AM // 02:58

I apologize for neglecting this thread - I spent the weekend enjoying the Canthan New Year festivities

- so I want to thank those of you who have been submitting zoning info and helping to clarify some of the admittedly confusing concepts and terms I used in my guide. I'll update the guide with the new window info in a minute, but I wanted to take a moment to cover some of the most common questions that people have been asking:

1.) "What is a window?" First, check back a page; Rabbit28 and drego_rayin have very good explanations. What's most important to understand is that (in most cases) there will be times when you zone and do get credited with Drunkard minutes, and times when you zone and don't get credited with minutes. Whenever I refer to a "window" in the guide, I'm talking about those times when you zone and do gain minutes. The reverse is true when I refer to being "outside of a window". I think a lot of people get confused by this because they're expecting that they'll be able to zone and always gain minutes; when it doesn't work they assume the system is broken when it fact it just means they're zoning outside of their window. It might be more helpful to think of "windows" as "moments when zoning drunk gives you minutes". As long as you understand that (in most cases) there will be times when you zone drunk and don't gain minutes - and that this is normal behavior - you're in good shape.

2.) "How do I figure out how long my window is?" The first thing to understand is that (with a few exceptions) windows repeat precisely from minute to minute. That means once you've found out exactly when a window starts and stops during one minute, you've also found out when it starts and stops in every minute. To find the start/stop times of a window, you begin by zoning to the outpost you want to test. Note the time on your clock to the second, then drink and zone to your GH. Once there, check to see if you gain a Drunkard minute.

- If you do gain a minute, keep zoning back and forth between your GH and the outpost until you don't gain minutes. When this happens, record the time to the second and then continue to zone back and forth as quickly as possible. Eventually you will gain your minutes after one of these zones; when that happens, again record the time to the second. You now have the two times you need: the first time marks when your window ends, while the second marks when your window starts. If the gap between the start and end is 45 seconds or more, congratulations! You've found a good outpost to zone from.

- If you don't gain a minute, the process is just reversed. Keep zoning until you do gain a minute, note the time, continue to zone until you don't gain minutes, then note the time again. You now have the start/end times for your window.

3.) "Do I have to drink spiked eggnog to use this zoning technique?" You do not have to drink spiked nog; regular ale will work too. However, spiked nog is preferable for a couple of reasons. One, it's more efficient since you don't waste any alcohol. With regular ale you have to keep wasting two drinks every two zones to get your "buzz" on. Obviously this is a pretty costly inefficiency over time. Two, it's quicker to drink one spiked nog than 5 regular ales. Still, yes, you absolutely can use regular ale with zoning.

4.) "How can I get spiked eggnog and how much should I expect to pay for them?" Spiked eggnog is only given out during the Wintersday event. There is no merchant that sells it in game. That means your only options for obtaining spiked nog are a.) wait until next Wintersday, or b.) buy from other players. That leads into how much you should pay, which is a trickier question. During Wintersday, when spiked nog is more plentiful, people usually sell spiked nog for between 300-400g each. Some people feel 300g is a fair price because you’re paying 100g for each Drunkard minute you'll get (and regular ale is usually obtainable at a 100g/minute rate). Now that Wintersday is over, prices are going to vary much more. Using spiked nog with zoning is such a boost to convenience that I'd personally be willing to spend a little extra - say up to 500g/per - to obtain it. But that's just me; you'll have to decide for yourself how much you're willing to pay for the convenience and efficiency of spiked nog.

Dragou Du Porzan · Feb 21, 2007, 05:12 AM // 05:12

Commenting on some posts from the last few days:

@ Sample Attack: You drink in Iron Mines, zone to your GH, then zone back to Iron Mines without drinking again. At this point you should have gained 3 minutes if you were zoning during a window. If not, keep zoning until you get your 3 minutes. Make sure you never drink again before you get your minutes; otherwise you're wasting alcohol!

@ Gli: It sounds like you're running into yet another quirk in the system (yeah, there's a lot of them). During testing I noticed that if I zoned to my GH during a window while not drunk, then drank and zoned again, I'd lose my drunk levels and gain all 3 minutes in one fell swoop. Since it still involves the same amount of work (1 drink / 2 zones), I omitted the info from the guide since I thought it would just be confusing (and it's confusing enough as it is).

@ Lanfear of DE: There's been no reports on Isle of Weeping yet. If you've discovered any good outposts with long (45+ second) windows that work with it, post them and I'll add the info to the guide.

@ Rabbit28: Which combos didn't work for you? None of the entries in the windows list have been verified by a second source, and I've been concerned that some of them may be inaccurate. If you can let me know which ones were broken, I'll take them off the list.

@ revelation: Gratz, man! Attaining IAH is a great achievement; you definitely deserve to be proud of making it!

@ -NoXy-: I'm a bit confused: You're saying you were gaining 3 minutes every time you zoned? Normal behavior is 3 minutes every two zones. So drink in THK -> zone to GH -> zone to THK -> gain 3 minutes makes sense. But it sounds like you're saying you were doing drink in THK -> zone to GH -> gain 3 minutes -> reverse -> gain 3 minutes again. If that's what you're saying, could you double check your results? This zoning has a bunch of odd little quirks; it's definitely possible you were running into the same quirk that Gli was (zoning once while not drunk, then drinking, zoning and gaining 3 minutes all at once). Check it out if you would and let us know one way or another.

merciless · Feb 22, 2007, 03:03 PM // 15:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dragou Du Porzan

@ .....-NoXy-: I'm a bit confused: You're saying you were gaining 3 minutes every time you zoned? Normal behavior is 3 minutes every two zones. So drink in THK -> zone to GH -> zone to THK -> gain 3 minutes makes sense. But it sounds like you're saying you were doing drink in THK -> zone to GH -> gain 3 minutes -> reverse -> gain 3 minutes again. If that's what you're saying, could you double check your results? This zoning has a bunch of odd little quirks; it's definitely possible you were running into the same quirk that Gli was (zoning once while not drunk, then drinking, zoning and gaining 3 minutes all at once). Check it out if you would and let us know one way or another.

If you use THK with Imperial Hall you do get 3 minutes in one zone not two. I tested this the day NoXy posted because I had the same guildhall and I got the same results as he did. But, occasionaly it did not give me the 3 minutes per zone; that was only like 10% of the time.

-NoXy- · Feb 22, 2007, 04:54 PM // 16:54

@merciless & dragou :
i took 1000 minutes that way, getting 3 minutes every zoning (either way) so yes i was drinking in each zone. I have a slow connection to the servers cause i'm in the middle-east so i wouldnt have been able to do it that fast without double-drinking.
i can add this : i had exactly 300 spiked eggnogs and after a couple tests i stopped really checking @ the drunkard counter so it must be correct (was still keeping an eye on it though

).

wanted to do it again to show but i just realized i quit my lousy guild. hmmm

i ll get in one and i ll post the pics asap.

Jadzaea · Feb 22, 2007, 05:50 PM // 17:50

I'm so trying this over the weekend.

My crazy assassin willbe a Drunkard by Monday.

Great research and work guys!

Dragou Du Porzan · Feb 23, 2007, 08:07 PM // 20:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by -NoXy-

@merciless & dragou :
i took 1000 minutes that way, getting 3 minutes every zoning (either way) so yes i was drinking in each zone. I have a slow connection to the servers cause i'm in the middle-east so i wouldnt have been able to do it that fast without double-drinking.
i can add this : i had exactly 300 spiked eggnogs and after a couple tests i stopped really checking @ the drunkard counter so it must be correct (was still keeping an eye on it though

).

wanted to do it again to show but i just realized i quit my lousy guild. hmmm

i ll get in one and i ll post the pics asap.

Hmmm, that would be something if you're correct because there's been no confirmation of behavior like that. I just tested THK using my Warrior's Isle GH and I got the typical behavior you'd expect (1 min. 1 way, 2 mins. the other). So if you're right about this, it's something about the interaction between THK and Imperial Isle (and not an inherent property of THK).

If you have some pics, that would really help in confirming what you're observing. Post them if you get a chance so we can look it over. Anything that might make the laborious process of achieving IAH less painful for people is worth investigating!

xtremextreme · Feb 23, 2007, 10:59 PM // 22:59

I think I'm going to give this a go

Congrats on the guide, was confused about windows, but read all 6 pages...so im getting it :P

So, using this method, how many average spiked eggnogs for Drunkard and IAH titles?

Also, if anyone could suggest a good window for a European with Warriors Isle as GH, that would be appreciated.

Thanks guys

Dragou Du Porzan · Feb 24, 2007, 01:12 AM // 01:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by xtremextreme

I think I'm going to give this a go

Congrats on the guide, was confused about windows, but read all 6 pages...so im getting it :P

So, using this method, how many average spiked eggnogs for Drunkard and IAH titles?

Also, if anyone could suggest a good window for a European with Warriors Isle as GH, that would be appreciated.

Thanks guys

You'll need 334 spiked nogs to reach Drunkard and 3,334 to reach IAH if you don't use any other regular ale. Also, I'm not aware that it makes a difference which regional server you're connecting from. So go ahead and use the locations listed in the guide as working best with Warrior's Isle (Dasha's Vestibule, Ember Light Camp, Hell's Precipice).

feedmenow · Feb 24, 2007, 03:23 AM // 03:23

Ok so reading this awesome guide I found myself asking a few questions right off the bat. Some being answered right off the bat. (ugh) Then of course there were questions left to be asked. Here they are:

Questions!

1. I understand the zoning-window process, but is there any real way to determine when exactly the "timer" starts? So that you can safely drink and get your minutes without having to waste some alcohol looking for the window.I had a few ideas:
-When the loading bar reaches 100% (though you may lag, so I'm not sure)
-As soon as you are capable of drinking (clicking the alcohol icons)
also, does lag affect the timer as well as the window? Like if you zone to a place, and the loading bar shows 50% only...does the timer already begin?

2. I forgot the second question, I'll try to remember it later :P
edit: ah! I remember!
*Sometimes, I would get 1 min zoning to Gh and 2 min back (which is/should be normal). But in some outposts I tested, I would get 3 minutes zoning to GH, and none back. This effect would go back to "normal" after quite a few zones. Question is: IS this normal?

Tested Times: ***Note: all times were tested at 11 AM PST, this may not affect you, but it's good to note***

1. Indeed, time windows do vary from GH to GH. here are some examples.

On the first post, I see that Nolani Academy provided a large 45 window (zoning to Isle of Solitude). I tested this, and for ME, Nolani had a terrible window: 5 seconds or maybe even less, I could not be sure.(Bleh, Spiked nog wasted)

Referring back to the first post, I see that Seeker's Passage also was reported a 45 second window outpost. testing this, I found that for ME, I had a 35 second window.

I decided to give Iron Mines of Moladune a shot as well. Hoping for a better window. This was not the case for ME. I got a 15 second window here.

Seeing that Temple of Balthazar was terrible for Dragou, my curiosity kicked in and I decided to find MY window for the temple. Surprisingly and not surprisingly enough at the same time, I found a 30 second window here.

I also looked at Ember Light Camp as well. Seeing as you can get all non-elites there, I thought it would be a nice place to test. Bah! Nothing, I could only get a mere 5 second window. Eww more spiked nog wasted....

Now the goodies (for ME):

1. Quarrell Falls (I told you about this Dragou

). Another 45 second window? maybe. I tried it: Yes! Finally I found one! (Well not 'finally' this was the 4th outpost I tested) For ME I got a 45 second window.

2. Hell's precipice. A reported 45 second outpost. Sounds like a good one, so I gave it a spin. At first, I received ABSOLUTELY NO minutes for being drunk. Continuing my search, I eventually found the glorious window. Then I was off to discovering the end time.

I NEVER FOUND ONE

sweet! endless drinking and not having to worry!! \/\/00+!!!!!1111oneone

I even tried in between all the multiples of 5 seconds, ALL of which yielded me my minutes! BUT remember that this was only ME, it may not be the same for YOU

Observations:

This only goes to show even further how much different YOUR window may be, and that you must find your own windows.

Once in a while, I found that drinking to lvl 5, and zoning to my GH would have me gain 3 Minutes right off the bat, then if I drank a lvl 1 alcohol, and zoned back, I would receive yet another 3 minutes. I wasn't really paying attention when this happened, so I'll have to look further into this.

****NOTE****I zoned to and from MY GH, the Isle of Solitude

I will continue to post more tests results that I find later on, but for now, I'm busy AFK'ing for my lucky points

For those of you lazy people that don't want to read through all of that, here are MY test results "quick reference"

Seeker's Passage -> Isle of Solitude (IoS): 35 seconds
Iron Mines of Moladune -> IoS: 15 seconds
Hells Precipice -> IoS: Window is 'open' the entire time
Quarrell Falls-> IoS: 45 seconds
Temple of Balthazar-> IoS: 30 seconds
Ember light Camp-> IoS: 5 seconds
Nolani Academy-> IoS: 5 seconds (possibly less)

~Until next time: feedmenow

red13xx · Feb 24, 2007, 07:43 AM // 07:43

I have the isle of jade..
I start at grotto, drink a spiked eggnog, teleport to guildhall, look at mins.( some times i get full 3 mins., when i dont i just teleport out and boom 3 mins.) so always i get three mins. from 1 spiked with this method. Now I test for more minutes with spiked + other liquor. I test most 1 min. available liquor I get 4mins. all the time in and out of guildhall( maybe 1 more in and out if your not sure while counting to make sure but 99% of the time 4 mins is possible with spiked at grotto + 1 min. liquor in hall. I tried with flask of firewater. I only tested a few firewater I think 15 is all i had available. I had some mix results with it. I got 5 mins. most of the time and 2 times out of the 15 i tested i got 6mins. So i think there is way for you to get 6mins. with spiked + firewater.

red13xx · Feb 24, 2007, 08:10 AM // 08:10

I also would like to point out that if you mix the liquor up you save a ton more money. Like let us say you have 100 spiked eggnog and 100 regular beer. You can get 400 mins. with this alone. But let us say you using regular beer without the spiked,100 beer is only 60 mins. So you think about it using spiked eggnogg is way more rewarding when you mix it with other beer and I think it is a waste for you to not mix it. You save so much money when you mix it. If you go for alehound better mix because you can save up 100-200k.

Gli · Feb 24, 2007, 10:11 AM // 10:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dragou Du Porzan

@ Gli: It sounds like you're running into yet another quirk in the system (yeah, there's a lot of them). During testing I noticed that if I zoned to my GH during a window while not drunk, then drank and zoned again, I'd lose my drunk levels and gain all 3 minutes in one fell swoop. Since it still involves the same amount of work (1 drink / 2 zones), I omitted the info from the guide since I thought it would just be confusing (and it's confusing enough as it is).

But I'm actually drinking before every zone.

Drink, zone: Uncharted Isle -> Basalt Grotto / Maguuma Stade.
Drink again, zone: Basalt Grotto / Maguuma Stade - > Uncharted Isle.

Every time I zone, be it from or to the guild hall, I get either 2 or 3 minutes. If I get 2 minutes, I bring myself back to full drunk on cheap (1 minute) drinks.

The best part is, when I do get only 2 minutes for zoning, the return trip always gives me 3. This way I get 5 or 6 minutes for every round trip.

Quote:

Originally Posted by red13xx

I also would like to point out that if you mix the liquor up you save a ton more money. Like let us say you have 100 spiked eggnog and 100 regular beer. You can get 400 mins. with this alone. But let us say you using regular beer without the spiked,100 beer is only 60 mins. So you think about it using spiked eggnogg is way more rewarding when you mix it with other beer and I think it is a waste for you to not mix it. You save so much money when you mix it. If you go for alehound better mix because you can save up 100-200k.

Cheap booze is perfect for 'topping off' your drunkenness. Starting off with a spiked eggnog and knocking back a few ales whenever you didn't get the full 3 minutes added after zoning is both cheaper and faster than zoning back and forth until the 3 minutes for the initial eggnog are credited.

In practice:

Drink spiked eggnog and zone.
- If you got only 1 minute, drink 1 ale and zone.
- If you got 2 minutes, drink 2 ales and zone.
- If you got 3, use another spiked eggnog and zone.
Rinse and repeat.

That way, you get the most out of your ale AND your zoning, because every time you zone there's the potential to gain 3 minutes. Zoning in any state less than fully drunk is a potential waste of drunk minutes.

EDIT:Fixed faulty quotations

mb007 · Feb 24, 2007, 01:57 PM // 13:57

Ok, 1st big thanks to Dragou Du Porzan you rock m8.

I was using the way Uncharted Isle>Marhan's Grotto.
Was drinking Spiked Nog on each side and I got Drunkard in about 40mins.

feedmenow · Feb 24, 2007, 01:57 PM // 13:57

Hah, In my last post I was so excited to find no window in Hell's precipice. Now I see other people found some too (though they don't work for me) and the term for that is:Permanent Window :P

I have some updates on testing. This time I tried some that I didn't see anyone test. I tired a lot of Factions cities.

Lutgardis Conservatory->IoS (Isle of Solitude) yielded a 15 second window
Seitung Harbor->IoS yielded a 10 second window
Leviathan Pits->IoS yielded a 5 second window(I can't be sure, I think I may have messed up a bit)
Vizunah Square->IoS yielded a 15 second window
Cavalon->IoS had a 35 second window
Maatu Keep->IoS had a permanent window
House zu Heltzer->IoS had a permanent window

Notes to be considered:
*some times may be off, particularly because I got annoyed by some outposts and I didn't want to verify my results again. But I did go over most of them at least twice

*When you drink to level 5, and zone, you might not see the 'drunk' effect when you reach the GH or wherever you zoned to. For me, this was always the case, and I can assure you that it is completely ok. You are still "drunk" technically, so remember to zone back. DON'T DRINK BACK TO LEVEL 5 IF YOU DON"T SEE THE EFFECT. You are only wasting your alcohol.

*I found out something funny while testing. I might be useless info but I just feeling like saying this. When I drank/zoned/zoned back and I would record my findings, I would look up and suddenly see that the "drunk" effect was taking place. It didn't show earlier, so I thought that this was interesting

Well, taking some time and Spiked nogs, I give you my wisdom. I shall keep finding more outposts later.

~feedmenow

vivec66 · Feb 25, 2007, 05:30 AM // 05:30

i got it now thx all!!!

w00t!!!!!! thx bye

herroyal_highness · Feb 26, 2007, 05:07 AM // 05:07

My guild hall is the Imperial Isle and I tried zoning in some Nightfall places.

I found that Wehhan Terrace has a 30 sec window(1 to GH, 2 back), Mihanu Township has a 35 sec window(1 to GH, 2 back), and I hit the jackpot with Honor Hill. I got 3 drunk minutes from Honor Hill to Imperial Isle, and after drinking a spiked eggnog again, 3 back to Honor Hill. Unfortunately I was unable to ascertain the time for the window because I ran out of alcohol, but it seemed to be longer than the other two towns. It may quite possibly be 45 sec or more. When I round up some more alcohol I will try Honor Hill again.

Oh, by the way, I was experimenting after 8:00 Pacific time.

StueyG · Feb 27, 2007, 07:03 AM // 07:03

I found out the other day that I could zone from any district in Kamadan into District 1 Kamadan (always had to be going into dist 1 to get full 3 mins) and did not have to wait. Watched the clock and wrote down how many minutes I started with and was able to get 35 minutes of time in 3 minutes

Could have gotten more time (5 mins with each switch) but it wasted 1 min. 35 mins in 3 mins was enough for me

That means in 60 mins I could get 2,100 mins of "drunk time".

Oh yeah and a tip to speed up things, dunno if it has been suggested, but turning off sound and lowering graphics while you are doing this helps to speed things up alot....

Jadzaea · Feb 28, 2007, 06:07 PM // 18:07

I gave this a shot on Sunday to check out windows and locations in Factions. Since I have three birds (two parrots and a cockatiel=cute, but LOUD) in the computer room, I didn't have a lot of time to test very many things. But real quick I went to Lutgardis Conservatory, pounded down a spiked nog, and zoned to out Guild Hall (Warrior's Isle). I got 3 minutes! Downed another spiked nog, zoned out of the GH again--another 3 minutes. All but two of my spiked nogs yielded 3 minutes per zone, 6 per round trip. And I think there is a very long window in Lutgardis Conservatory. I'll have to do some more extensive testing (or hope someone else decides to) to know for sure, but it looks like Lutgardis<->Warrior's Isle is a winner.

Now I just need more booze--got 50 drunk minutes in 5 real minutes, but I ran out of spiked nog. :P

Dragou Du Porzan · Mar 01, 2007, 06:51 PM // 18:51

There's now a bunch of reports of people getting 3 minutes on each zone. That's very interesting because I never witnessed that behavior during my testing. I tried testing from THK -> Warrior's Isle (THK had exhibited this behavior for a couple of people using Imperial Isle) and wasn't getting the 3 minutes each way behvaior. So far I haven't been able to replicate this anywhere, but too many people are reporting it for it to be written off as an error.

For any of you who are getting this behavior (3 Drunkard minutes after every zone), I'd like to know how many drinks you tested this with, how many real-world minutes/hours you spent testing, and what time of the day you conducted your tests (and, of course, where you were zoning to/from). Basically I'm curious to find out if this a "quirk" or an actual repeatable feature that can be consistently utilized.

BTW, great tip from StueyG about lowering video and audio settings when zoning! That would definitely help speed up the load times (and subsequently allow you to get more Drunkard minutes per real minute). I wish I had thought of that when I was testing...