Saturday 3 April 2010

RedRyder's Busy Day


I left SirDarth pet-levelling overnight on Sarissa-4, but sadly he did lose a few hours to a ks-er, who killed his target bandit. Still, by late morning the horse had reached level 26, so we continue to make progress there. Galahad over on Cariae-4 started up at breakfast time for some similar work - but as 9:30, UK time, I got disconnections on both computers, probably from staying connected rather a long time. I switched off the modem for a few minutes, before getting SirDarth back online.

The morning session wasn't long enough for RedRyder to use both her remaining "beginner" pssps, but there was ample time for a single hour in Sarissa-4's Prokion Temple. Before that, though, I spent 474 skill points to get Red's remaining available general skills up to their top levels - and I also used her tool aids, and some knives and hammers purchased from Merchant Geres, to get her a large supply of green herb leaves and quality stones, as her hatchling was starting to get rather hungry.

RedRyder was in a solo party with SirDarth again, and had an event-free hour in the back room, with the orc sergeants and orc axemen. In all Red added 39.33% experience, which meant that Discipline got another 299 guild points, while her dragon hatchling got most of the way through its fifth level - and 505 skill points were earned.

Over lunch, Galahad logged back in to work on his horse a bit more, while SirDarth continued his pet-levelling. Galahad then gave way to RedRyder again for a final beginner pssp's hour in Prokion Temple on Sarissa-4; Red got to level thirty, which slowed things down a bit, but another 32.14% experience and 271 guild points were earned, the hatchling reached level six...and 453 skill points were added. Back in town, RedRyder was able to learn the general skill Invisibility, and the passive skill Detect Weakness, which massively increases her physical hit rate, Those cost 445 skill points - easy come, easy go.

After that RedRyder had a quest reward to claim for another 9.90% and 10 skill points, and then she teamed up with Kaerella in a combat party, back on Sarissa-5's Prokion Temple. This time Red got 110.13%, getting into level 31, along with 548 guild points, while Kaerella, as the non-fighting party member, went up by 36.10%, along with 90 guild points. They each gained 360 skill points.

A knight called Moridon did come into the room for a few minutes, bringing a mob of orc soldiers and fighters he'd been battling out in the corridor with him. "Are you okay there?" I asked, and he assured me he was, that he'd pulled them all on purpose... but a couple of minutes later he said, "Okay, maybe a little help", so I got rid of the orc sergeants and axemen that had joined his mob. AFter that he returned to the orcs in the corridor.

After Kaerella had spent all her skill points, it was time for her first "death run", so she went to Maargadum Jail and died 24 times, to get her experience back to the start of level 27. It seemed to me that the "double death" bug, where the character respawns at the spot where she died, with low health and unable to move for a couple of seconds, happened more often than I've previously found - almost every time, in fact, with at least one "treble death".

Following the early evening food break, RedRyder and Kaerella teamed up again; this time my favourite back room was in use, so I moved along to its mirror over in the other half of the temple. I had to break off when RedRyder was up to 99% of the way through level 31, as she needed to choose to become a ranger, so both characters relogged, which had the advantage of letting us restart the three hours of the Elizabeth's Enhancement buff. Red had gained 63.39% by then, and 358 guild points, while Kae had reached 23.28%, with 58 guild points. They each got 241 skill points.

RedRyder visited the Master Rogue and became a ranged-attack ranger, and then hopped across to Merac to do a couple of messenger-type quests - the 7.71% the quest rewards gave got her into level 32, and so, back in Randol, she was able to learn a couple of new skills, before she and Kaerella returned to the Temple.

This time, luckily, the back room I prefer was clear - so a nice long session got Red a further 106.80%, taking her into level 33, plus 746 guild points, while Kaerella went up 47.51%, and 119 guild points. Red's hatchling reached level ten, and 476 skill points each were gained too, which meant that Kaerella had enough sp to finish her final general skill - and start on the special armour and weapon crafting skills as well.

At ten o'clock UK time the first of the "Monster Spawn Race" events was due to start, on Katar-4, so my local level 31 rogue Memree went along, after carefully spending 28 of her 29 skill points on the second level of epsilon wave processing. This was to be a contest between groups at the west and north gates of Randol, for the speed with which we killed the monsters that were to be spawned in four waves; I opted for the north gate.

The monsters spawned were surely impressive, a lot more darkmind terrains, flutons, sphinx commanders, anubis occultists, anubis spear men, nivas, performer bereids, raging spirits of the sorcerer, female assassinbugs, and more than a Mad Monster Spawn would get - and we were at half strength, of course. Initially the lag was bad from all the monsters spawned, and to begin with our task looked impossible - but we started to pick them off, and we must have had some high-level people there. I did get killed once when a fluton turned its attention to me, and had some narrow escapes too, but was able to help out with Snare on quite a few targets.

After the field had been cleared, I commented on the "four waves" thing, and [GM]Cara quickly assured us that we had, in fact, had all four waves at once - it certainly felt like it! The usual rewards of loot were spawned, though apparently the west gate bunch had actually won the race by clearing out all their monsters first.

It's a shame that these events seem to be getting later in the evening - The Auzura one starts at midnight, UK time, or 1:00am for mainland Europe... and it is supposed to be the European-time server? I had been slightly tempted to go along to the Cariae event, at 10:30, but with the mass spawning and the lag, it would have been a bit risky to take Barbarienne along. Resurrection scrolls are expensive. Not that Memree had to use one, losing 3% of 1 skill point is not a problem...

SirDarth had been peacefully pet-levelling on a pair of bandits while the race had been going on, so that by the end of the evening the pale blue horse was steadily approaching level 27. But today's levelling-up crown must go to RedRyder, for going from level 29 to level 33, with the 50% experience freeze on. I doubt that she'll ever manage four levels in a day again.

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