Levelling Up

Checking the Last Chaos forums, it does seem that other people have been noticing that some monsters, at least, are hitting harder - some pet levellers have been found killed by critters that previously didn't give any trouble, whether in Juno, Merac, or Strayana, and people playing in the regular way have been finding that sometimes monsters that used to only send a red "1" floating up from their heads now can hit for a "300".  So, a rather sneaky in-game change, that.

SirDarth put in some time with the less hard-hitting Butchers, while I was otherwise engaged, and the pet pony he got from MrChuckNorris, my titan, went up a level or so; Butchers do tend to lose health though, and die after perhaps twenty minutes if I don't redirect my attack.  One good thing is that if one Butcher's health bar is getting a bit short, and I switch to hitting a different one, the first Butcher loses all interest in attacking me after a few seconds.

SirPerivale spent very nearly the whole day with his Berserker, anyway, since the full 30 levels of Armour Increase mean his physical defence (848) is enough to keep him healthy...the horse needs feeding fairly often though, as he went up to level 35 during the morning - by the time Peri logs out tonight the horse should be about 85% of the way through that penultimate level, I think.

I did manage to start playing at about mid-afternoon.  The Friday "Happy Hour" was, the website had informed us, going to be double skill exp, and, since the USA moving to "daylight saving time" three weeks before the UK goes to "British Summer Time" cuts an hour off the usual time difference, it was scheduled to begin at 3:00pm UK time.  So, it seemed a good idea to give Chuck the titan a trip to Prokion Temple, as extra skill experience would be a better thing for him than for Kae.

Unfortunately, the Aeria crew really messed up the "Happy Hour".  It wasn't surprising that it started late, as it presumably relies on somebody getting into their office fairly early in the morning - but they also put on 50% extra experience instead of the double skill exp.  There were no Game Sages in the forum shoutbox, which was pretty busy with exasperated players, but eventually the Game Master SupermanOX showed up.  He did switch the bonus to skill exp - but after having it briefly at the correct 100% extra, it got put back down to 50% extra... and then finally up to the proper 100% again.  By the time "Happy Hour" got switched off just after 6:30 I suppose we'd just about had the equivalent of two hours of double skill exp, but honestly, what a way to run things.

I'd given up on Chuck after a while, since he, with his experience gain frozen, wasn't getting anything from the initial experience boost - but by then he'd had a reasonable session with Orc Axemen and Sergeants, without losing any great amount of health.  He'd gained 170 skill points, so he had enough to get the final level of Expert Armoursmith, anyway.

So, Kaerella teleported out to the desert, and the Poison Mists, and seeing the Elite one ready and waiting, started a platinum blessed iris and an adrenaline.  It was only after that that I saw that there was a mage around too, who went for the Elite Poison Mist as often as she could, so for that hour my experience gain, 41.98%, probably wasn't quite as much as it could have been.  The "Happy Hour" had got changed to the skill exp fairly early in the hour, so 67 skill points got added.  Still, I got up to level 39, which was good.

After the food break, Kae went back, and got 42.55% experience from the first hour (plus 44 sp), and 43.63% (plus 46 sp) from the second, so level 40 was reached - a bit of a milestone, though there are no new skills to learn; there's one at level 41 though.  In all, including a little while continuing on after the potions had ended, Kae managed 137.61% experience today, and 188 skill points, so that it's possible her unused sp may go back above fifteen thousand briefly before level 41 is reached.

Kamira only appeared once - or twice, as after the first 14 minutes she "arrived" again, but after that she went elsewhere, which suits me, I'm always worried that in trying to click on a Poison Mist just underneath her, I'll attack her instead, which would not be a good idea at my level at all.

I changed the level 45 +15 weapon I bought a few days ago into a healer's bow, Collector Ryu only charged 340,000 gold to do that, so it's now an Anger Strike, waiting for Kae to reach level 41 so that it can be used without penalty; however, it's more than time Kae replaced her old level 30/32 armour with a new set, and I just can't find any 45/47 items at all.  Looking through the "Merchant House" listings for armour, there's page after page of level 17, level 21, and so on, but absolutely no 45/47 items at all, except a couple of knight shields.

It's possible that Kae's current armour, with its plusses, is almost the equal of an unplussed 45/47 set, but if I'm going to go indoors, where one can't apply a mount's buffs, I'll need to do something.  Some research is going to be needed, and probably more gold than I currently possess... maybe I'll need to sell some of the Myst Eyes that I've been accumulating.  At 40 I am a level higher than the Poison Mists, so the experience they give is slightly reduced, but I should think I could continue through this level at least, and still get good drops.  Maybe the level after, too, but by then Maargadum Jail in Merac may be better, if I can get my defence up a bit.