Chuck, Kae, and SirFrancis

While the new week's patch this morning seemed reasonably substantial, the patch notes were generally disappointing, being something of a "copy and paste" job from last week's post. So, the 100% fix for Raid disconnects is still "in development", and "Plans for September content are being finalized and testing should begin soon" - exactly what we were told a week ago.

Some exploits with the high-level Raid system are being investigated, we are assured. The Tairen-specific bug where the 24-hour platinum refining stones tended to last indefinitely, particularly if they were started soon before a maintenance, is now fixed. That was a bug that people rather enjoyed, of course, until the time came to trade or sell the items, at which point a GM had to be called in to restore the items to their original condition. We are told to expect the return of "unbreak hammers" soon, rather expensive items which can restore an item that you break with a failed upgrade attempt; we can also "expect to see an all-new Loot Wheel this week".

Probably the most interesting announcement was "server 6 on ALL server groups is now a Newbie server! Players are encouraged to visit this new server and help reduce the congestion problems on Server 5!" That means that Elizabeth will now give players her Elizabeth's Enhancement on 6 as well as 5, but it didn't mention if subserver 6 still had PvP enabled. The word is that it is in fact moved over to the non-PvP type, making three subservers of each per server.

Talking of the Loot Wheel, the 100% rebate on a ten-spin go, per account, was active today, so I took full advantage...and for the first time ever, as well as plenty of strong medicine, berserker potions, and platinum pet experience pills, I actually got a polar bear collar, which I sent to the Cariae server, since I already have one of the cute little polar bear cubs on Auzura.

As usual after a maintenance recently, there were people in the forum shoutbox who couldn't get Last Chaos to start after the latest patch, but to my relief the game started up safely for me. People who had a problem needed to use the "run as administrator" option apparently, but for that you do need to know a computer's password. Or a couple of hidden batch files had to be activated.

I managed to get online to move some loot wheel prizes around - and got the polar bear collar to my cleric Kaerella on Cariae, who went to Lorraine and to the animal trainer in Randol, and got herself the pet poly, which looked exactly as cute as the one over on Auzura.

There wasn't the opportunity to play before lunch, but I was able to get online just in time for the two to three o'clock dungeon time hour. The Tomb of Theos on Cariae was still only on 50%, for Condition, but Auzura was on 90%, so MistressDomina and Kaerella were able to head for the anubis spear men, and, with their first room in use, take up their favourite spot on the corridor's first corner.

MistressDomina fought the spear men there, and used the usual potions once the dungeon time hour began - in fact she only gained 0.02% experience before that. Kaerella as usual concentrated on the sphinx fighters, though with her newly-enhanced bow was killing them rather more quickly than before, and sometimes had to move a little out of position to find a new target. By the time the hour ended, MistressDomina had added 29.43% in level 98, using 46 experience boosters, and gained 1039 pet points; Kaerella had earned 4.76%, with 975 pet points, and they'd each gained 4 skill points.

Then it was time to swiftly change over to MistressSabina and RedRackham, for a trip to Maargadum Jail on the same server. Luckily once again the third floor spot was free, so Red left Sabina there, with the divine shield buff, and went on down to the fifth floor for his pet-levelling. MistressSabina then popped her platinum super skill pill - it was actually the last one she had in her inventory, though thanks to the Loot Wheel MistressDomino have some more in stock now. Over the hour she added 4.88% and 142 skill points, plus 981 pet points.

My food break was a rather rushed one, which meant that I was able to get back into the Tomb of Theos on Auzura-4, now completely reset to 100% easy, just before the start of the five to six o'clock dungeon time hour. This time the plan was to do another double header in the ancient grey mummies' room, so Kaerella took the lead, with MrChuckNorris on the older computer. They both began assorted potions when the start of the hour was announced - Chuck, his weapon unchanged since his last visit, used 48 experience boosters and added 45.87%, reaching level 95, and gaining 1162 pet points, while Kaerella, killing more swiftly now, used up 64 experience boosters, and earned 72.62%, getting her into level 94, plus 1152 pet points - which got her drake, SirFrancis, into level 40.

I generally had the room to myself; there was someone close by in the corridor, but the rogue who was there when I arrived seemed to have connection problems, and soon vanished. It does get a bit hectic with two characters fighting flat-out like that, especially when they happen to finish their kills at the same moment, but generally things went well. I don't think Chuck ever lost any great amount of health; as Kae hits harder now, her suction of life did better, but she still did need to do some occasional self-healing, or sometimes used a small health potion.

At six Auzura's "whack-a-fluton" event was starting at the proving grounds in Dratan, so I was a little late getting there. I took a level six mage, Hazel, along, since getting killed by other players when you're fighting monsters is annoying, and below level 16 you don't get involved in PvP mode. She didn't hit the flutons, anubis archers, or blue dragons very hard, missing most of the time, but she did gain enough experience to level up twice. She only died twice, presumably from fluton ranged attacks - it was nice not to die when some passing mage sneakily used chaos nova and a few other players toppled to the ground, though.

[GM]Darasuum actually appeared in the arena at the end, to declare the event over, and produced some good old-fashioned "hand" loot as a reward for our efforts, which I hadn't been expecting. That was when just being, by then, level eight was a real advantage, some other people who were ready to grab the loot as soon as it became available for us to pick it up got killed, but Hazel could just stand there, and grab, well, one each of the skill point and item drop boosters, two or three large attack and defence potions, the usual small MP and HP recovery pots, and five tool aids.

As usual on a Wednesday, I had other activities planned for the evening, so, apart from a little moving around of loot, that was the end of my Last Chaos activities for the day. Still, getting Chuck, Kaerella, and Kae's drake SirFrancis all up a level can't be bad. Now, if only the Tomb on the Cariae server could be made a bit more hospitable...

I was at least able to put MistressDomino up in merchant mode for a couple of hours - long enough to take in 100 million gold, which may not go very far these days, but ought to be useful.