Up and Down

As usual, SirDarth got an early start, and started to level up the pale blue horse; it was already about three-quarters of the way through level 27 when he started, and soon after breakfast the horse reached level 28.  It wasn't long after lunch when level 29 was reached, as well.

Stavanic was on for a while before lunch, which in his time zone means playing before heading off to school in the morning; he produced another level 1 pony which he'd like levelled up a bit, so SirPerivale took charge of that one, and moved the horse he'd been working on over to MistressDomino - not to be sold, just so that it wouldn't lose sympathy by being in Peri's inventory but not equipped.

SirPerivale opened a Pandora's Box near to where he was fighting a Butcher, but there was no reward inside, just a level 50 Pandora Beast; I thought I'd moved far enough away from it, but when I returned from being afk, it was just finishing killing my poor pony.  So, I had to take a trip back to town to get the poor thing "unsealed" - to find that the Animal Trainer charges 0 gold for returning a level 1 pony to life, which is sensible.

I used a purification gem on SirPerivale's gauntlets again, after once more getting a bloodseal that gave him extra strength points - and yet again "physical prowess" (as strength is called in such circumstances) turned up, increasing his bare-knuckle hit from 26 to 28.  Now that those gloves have all three bloodseals again, I think I'm giving up, on gloves that particular addition just comes up too often, and the other additions are mainly to attack.  So, one more purification gem must be used, and then no more bloodsealing attempts.  Other bloodseals, on other pieces of armour, give evasion and physical defence, so the bloodsealing was generally worth doing.

It's good to know that, with his +3 armour, SirPerivale can fight Butchers at least without losing health, without a pet buff.  The pony did reach level three over a slightly extended lunch break, so was at least be able to give a small buff later - level two of Increased Armour adds 30 to defence.  Peri continued for the rest of the day, and the pony was up to level 10 by logging-out time.  He had moved over to the lip of the "extinct volcano", to be well clear of the Pandora Beast, and when another Box appeared there - well yes he did open it, and yes there was another level 50 Beast.  

This time, since the place seemed to be filling up with prowling Beasts, Kaerella came out to deal with them; the first one had vanished, but the more recent one was easily defeated by her, and dropped 85,600 gold.

BasheR reports that some people he had been partying with in the Tomb have now got too high for him; he did join a team there this morning, but they were weak and slow and the party didn't last long, though he still managed to add 30% to his experience.  He asked me what I thought of a set of 55/57 +7 armour which someone was selling for 50 million, and my advice was that he should grab it - which he did, after talking the vendor down by 10%.  I'm envious, we don't see many sets like that for sale on Auzura yet.

Kaerella was looking to see if she could find any bargains like that when BasheR invited me into a party.  As there weren't any other people around with the Tomb of Theos on their minds, he decided to go to the level 63 Sphinx Fighters and level 64 Sphinx Speer Men (sic); as they aren't too far from the entrance to the Tomb, I teleported to that location, and rode across.  We started as a twosome, but the party soon grew; BasheR himself didn't stay all that long, as he did, at level 49, "cap" one or two new members.

We got up to seven at one stage; where we were there was an Elite Speer Man, who gives 636,593 experience, which even divided five or siz ways was rather useful.  Early on we had three specialist-type sorcerers, and towards the end we had three archers, which, as it happens, was a bit unfortunate.  One member was keen to use one of the "Summon Death Knight of Iris" books, which I see costs 299 aeria points.  I wasn't much in favour, as the Elite Speer Men give almost as much experience, but, with freshly-applied horse buffs, and the healers staying well back, the Knight was summoned.  I think everyone except me and another healer was killed, but, after he'd moved to follow us, people respawned, and we did actually manage to defeat the boss monster finally.

There were a few deaths along the way, despite the best efforts of us archers - and right at the end, I finally got killed myself.  I was just clicking on the skill point restoration scroll I'd got active - when another healer resurrected me!  That meant I didn't have the chance to avoid losing the skill points, so I was not happy.  While I ended the session up by 35.57% experience, I was down in all 284 skill points, so must have lost something approaching 300 of them.

After the food break, I decided that a slog with the Elite Frenzied Berserkers was called for - dull work, but safe enough, and with a little bit of skill exp.  I did use another of those 30%-extra-experience pots for an hour, and so that helped a little, so that the session, by the time I'd finished, added another 27.04% experience and 61 skill points, so that over the whole day I was up by a useful 62.61% experience - and down by just 223 skill points.  2618 pet points got added along the way, so hopefully SirFrancis should reach level 29 tomorrow.

There was a mass disconnection at about a quarter to seven, UK time; Kaerella and SirPerivale quickly returned, and were still in the same party as before, but as it was, I suppose, approaching his log-out time Ratel didn't reappear, and so remained in our party only as far as the member list was concerned, apparently level one.  He had done the third personal dungeon earlier, and managed to kill Blood Mistress Kamira - probably easier for a knight than a titan, and, well, he is three levels higher than Chuck, but still pretty good going.   He did nearly log out when the second doorway wouldn't open, but took my advice to go back and clear out any late-spawning trolls, and after he found one such, was able to continue.

I must say that I'd never been aware of that problem with resurrection scrolls, or skill point restoration scrolls - if a healer used the resurrection skill before you have time to use the scroll, which does involve opting whether or not to use it, and then deciding whether to come back to life where you were killed or back in town and clicking appropriately, then you are, basically, messed up.  I still have the scroll active for use next time, and being resurrected by a healer meant losing less actual experience (about 1% instead of 2%, assuming the healer had the Resurrection skill at level five), but losing that many points in one go, well, I don't want it to happen too often.  Usually healers are slow to use Res as it takes a lot of mana, and has to be done at close range, so generally you have to wait until the fight is over.  I'll be sure to make sure anyone with a suitable scroll active has time to use it, when I'm the one who's alive, in future.