Saturday 14 March 2009

Downtime

SirPerivale got Ratel's horse to level 36 fairly early in the morning, so that it now started to get through eight hunger points every five minutes - that means 62 minutes from 100 to zero.  I had finally got a response from the Aeria staff on Thursday that the "Man's Best Friend" package I lost in a mass disconnection a Sunday or two back had been restored to me, so I transferred that to SirPerivale, so that he was able to use its two platinum pet potions to speed up the final level a bit.

SirDarth was also busy in the morning; with his horse-in-training now at level 18, it seemed worth seeing how well he could get along with the Berserkers again, but they were still hitting him a bit too hard, so he retreated to the Butchers, after a while when using Divine Shield occasionally kept the health bar from getting too low.

The afternoon session saw Kaerella heading out to the Poison Mists again; I did use platinum adrenalines, but for some reason double experience was running, perhaps left over from last nights US-timed "Happy Hour", along with 50% extra skill exp, so I didn't need to use any platinum blessed irises.  The afternoon session in all added 61.14%, not as much as it would have with the triple-experience rate pbis, but a very useful amount.

The session did end very slightly early, as the GMs announced that they would be taking the servers offline soon, to attempt to fix a problem with the Merchant House - the main problem being, I think, that some miscreants had figured out a way to use its systems to duplicate items.  In the end, it was about 50 minutes before the servers actually went off, and they stayed off for a little over an hour, so I had a longer time than usual for my food break.

When things did finally restart, it didn't take SirPerivale very long to get Ratel's horse to level 37, at last - but Ratel never appeared online today.  SirDarth took over with his horse, which reached level 19; a titan named Tryedge did mess him around a little, luring away his butcher a time or two, but gave up when he saw that Darth was not entirely "afk".  He did give Darth the "Battle Roar" buff, but although it "increases target's physical attack", Darth continued to hit the Butcher for just 26.

In the hope of increasing my knights' defence, I had decided earlier to add bloodseals to their armour - Darth's is fine, even with small boosts to physical attack his weapon-less attack stayed at 26, and he gained some evasion and defence, but SirPerivale did get his bare-handed attack figure increased to 28, due to adding 4 to his total strength.  The Berserkers can just about stand that, though.

The restart lost us the double experience, and 50% extra skill exp, unfortunately, which does rather show that it was an accident rather than a deliberate compensation for the troubles we've been having.  Kaerella continued with the Poison Mists, without any potions, and over three hours or so added 27.41%, and 91 skill points - enough to finally get her to level 41.  I immediately equipped the new level 45 +15 Anger Strike bow - boy did it make a difference, increasing Kae's "Physical Offense" by 36%.  But it was time to get back to town, and get the Mind Training level 41 skill, increasing Kae's magical resistance, as well as the level 32 single level of Deadly Shot 2, increasing the rate of "Deadly" hits.  Between them, 476 skill points well spent.  I couldn't get Deadly Shot 2 until now, as it required 12 stat points in Constitution, which I've only now managed to get together.

I kept an eye on the forum shoutbox while grinding away, and there seem a lot of people worried about the way the Merchant House has been removed from the game temporarily - as they have lots of expensive stuff deposited in the system!  Hopefully the NPC involved will return before too long.

At level 41, Kae has probably done her last Poison Mists session now - whether, with her current armour, she can fight level 52 Giants in Merac, or survive the mobs of canines and other types in Maargadum Jail, we will soon, I guess, find out.

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