Smobs!

Yes, that IS a word and if you've played WoTMUD for more than a week or so, you probably have heard this word thrown around. I'm pretty sure it stands for Super-mob. Since mobs are those NPC's we see everywhere from the grocer to the Kings and Queens in their castles, it stands to reason that a Super-mob would be a really strong mob. Which it is, but it's more than that.

An smob is a group of mobs of varying difficulty that a group of people kill for high quality equipment. There are also mini-smobs that can be soloed or with two people, such as the Cold Eyed Man on the Almoth Plain. There are TONS of smobs in the game. Some of them are stand-alone smobs and some of them form a chain where you have to acquire an item from the first one to unlock the second one and so on.

I really don't know a lot of specific information about smobs, which is why I've been reluctant to write about it until now, but I've recently discovered an amazing resource that I really wanted to share with you. It is a database of smobs. It lists basically anything you might want to know about the smob from its location to what it loads. I'm not entirely sure if it's up to date, but it is a great jumping off point if you are looking to start smobbing.

Which I was! I've been fortunate to be included in a few smob groups, but it's really hard to figure out what's going on in a big group because basically the leader leads you around and you lose track of where you are, and then he opens all the doors and collects all the keys so you never really know what the details are. Then you kill things and loot the equipment and split it among the members of your group. It's a lot of fun, but unless your leader is making a concerted effort to teach you about each smob, it can be hard to pick up the finer details. That's why I really love Lizner's Smob Database. It also points out which smobs are stabbable, which gave me an idea. As it happens, I have a level 31 rogue.

Excited at the prospect of actually soloing an smob, I headed out to Haddon Mirk to search out the Deranged Wolfbrother. Oh yes, I was determined to discover his secrets and bring about his demise. When I found him, I felt like a giggly schoolgirl. In the course of killing the Deranged Wolfbrother, I discovered a few things. First, it will take a long time. There will be a lot of regenning and waiting involved in such an endeavor. Second, it will take a long time. Bring food and water because there will be a lot of regenning involved. Third, don't get frustrated if it takes a long time. You might clumsy five or six times in a row, but then you might get lucky and land 3 or 4 and then he's dead! Fourth, be really, really careful. It will take a long time and it can be dangerous if you get caught by an enemy. There is only one door leading in and out and there are rats inside. Be sure to kill them quickly.

The tactic I used to kill the Deranged Wolfbrother was simply to ignore his wolves. I just went for the stab on the wolfbrother over and over and eventually I got it. It was a really amazing feeling to see this:

A deranged wolfbrother hermit makes a strange sound as you place a sharp, red stone dagger in his back!

A deranged wolfbrother hermit is dead!  R.I.P.

Oh, much better the second time around.

Your blood freezes as you hear a deranged wolfbrother hermit's death cry.

Victory!! And for my efforts, I got a gator skin bracer and a bronze scourge. The first time I killed him, I got a bearskin tunic and some other nice things, but I can't recall what they were.

I intend to have an Smob information page on my blog, but since I have very little information right now about them, it would be skeletal at best. Check out Lizner's smob database for information about smobs. You'll be able to find the link in the Helpful Links section in the left sidebar.

And in the same vein, I'm looking for someone knowledgeable about databases who might be interested in fancying mine up a little bit. My ability to create helpful databases is sketchy at best and it would be great to have something that was a little more user friendly. If you're interested in helping out, forum mail me or email me at wotmudnewb@gmail.com

Happy Monday!