Death in Merac

It was unusual to have a server down-time and a new patch not in the usual Tuesday night slot, but this morning a new patch did need downloading, and some changes have been made to the game.  To be positive first, they have managed to cure the bug where changing directly from having your mount equipped to having a pet equipped made the game crash.  There are some high-level additions, to the "Cube" system and a new tier for the Monster Combo, and a new cave/dungeon, but, yet again, they have made the monsters hit harder.

BasheR was around this morning, so my rogue Rage did head out to the Poison Mists on Auzura-3, in the hope of luring Kamira into appearing there, but I didn't have much luck.  Rage had actually gone up 7.75% late last night (plus 9 sp and 275 pet points), as a call from SirDarth to get rid of a level 50 Pandora's Beast from a Box meant she discovered that some GM had been spawning the groups of Beasts again there, so a few minutes was taken up with killing as many of those as possible.  As an apology for the apparently rather longer than planned downtime, though, today we had double experience switched on "overnight", so Rage's morning session with the Poison Mists added no less than 96.24%, taking her up to level 34, plus 42 skill points and 1260 pet points, which were enough to get her horse to level 25.

There was more of the same in the afternoon, too, plus a trip through Ajaka Canyon again to battle Blood Mistress Kamira, and a further 73.80% experience, 43 skill points and 1198 pet points got added. Rage was level 35 now, and able to get the first level of Reinforce 2, increasing her attack by 62, for 150 skill points.  I suppose I ought to look for some level 40 gloves for her, or indeed the whole 40/42 set.

But SirDarth had been having problems, again, despite 28 levels of Armour Increase; the Berserkers were doing bad things to his health bar.  Chat on the shoutbox advanced the theory that the new patch hadn't actually made the monsters hit harder, what it had done was increase their chance of making a critical hit - but it comes to the same thing.  So Darth had to retreat to the Butchers.

As Kaerella is a bit high level now to fight the level 50 Pandora's Beasts and get good drops, Rage has taken over that responsibility - but I must report that one of them managed to kill her this afternoon, when Snare failed to work.  And over the tea break, when I left SirDarth and SirPerivale both pet levelling on the Butchers, after no more than 10 to 15 minutes when I checked up they were both lying dead.  It must have been a marauding Pandora's Beast that did it, it killed Peri's horse as well, which cost 105,000 gold to unseal - but a couple of kills of that Beast's relatives more than covered that.

There was an "old school treasure hunt" just after my food break, hosted by GMJediMike; a number of locations in Juno on Auzura-3 were announced, and the second one I rode to was the one with the treasure.  I managed to pick up 2 large attack potions, 5 large defence potions, a skill point booster, a tool aid or two, and various small recovery potions - I don't think he spawned any of the Hands that contain heaven stones.  He stayed around to chat a bit afterwards, and was promising to do further similar events for Auzura at European-friendly times, as he was the one who got into the office first in the morning.

Rage did another Ajaka Canyon trip, mainly to check up how much gold one gets from it - I picked up 42,823 in all that time, plus a moonstone box, which isn't bad for the time taken. 0.90% experience was gained, too, plus 6 skill points and, although Rage's drake doesn't appear or assist in there, 207 pet points.

The double experience hadn't survived into the evening, unfortunately. There was just time for MrChuckNorris to go to Prokion Temple for an hour; I didn't use any skill pills, but, thanks to having the Blessed Reward active very nearly all the time, Chuck did add 297 skill points, plus 1967 pet points.  The Orcs did seem a bit more hard-hitting, I did have to use an occasional small health potion.  Jacqueline, who's a level 25 healer, had gone out a little earlier, and was being hit a lot harder than usual by the Orc Soldiers, so that she was spending more time healing than attacking, and soon gave up in disgust.

So, a bit of a mixed day, and it's difficult to say what this further boost to the monsters' attacking capabilities will do.  Still, Rage did manage to go up by 178.93% since yesterday's total, plus 101 skill points (or minus 49, after spending 150 sp), and plus 2944 pet points, with her pet horse reaching 25.  

Stavanic seems to be wanting his horse only to go to level 32, which seems a strange number to choose, I think I'd better try to get it to 33 at least, or further if he can come up with some more tool aids.  SirPerivale seems only just well enough armoured, with 24 levels of Armour Increase and his +3 armour set, to deal with the Butchers, so starting any more pets there from level 1 may no longer be possible.  I wonder how the Treants are doing these days...?