Level 110 - A Fatal Blow

I don't intend to make a habit of it, but as I knew I wouldn't be able to play actively during most of the day, I got up early, had breakfast, and was ready to make use of the eight to nine o'clock dungeon time hour. Barbarienne logged in, and checked out the Condition of the Tomb of Theos on Cariae-4. It wasn't perfect, but 70% of the way towards easy was considerably better than it had been for some days, so Keerella quickly logged in, and teleported out to join her there.

As one might expect, the Tomb was pretty quiet, and I only had two people run past my favourite corner of the corridor, where Barbarienne, with just the pbi and a platinum adrenaline potion to increase her attack speed, was fighting the two anubis spear men there, while Keerella, unboosted, fought the sphinx fighters.

It all went pretty smoothly, without Barbarienne having to use any healing, thanks no doubt to their +15 armour - and after ten minutes or so Barb levelled up, reaching level 110. This of course means that this was the last time Barb and Kee will be able to form a combat party until Keerella reaches level 100, which may well take some time.

Barbarienne added 16.92% during her power hour, using 39 experience boosters; her total experience gain, including a few kills while waiting for the hour to start and one last kill afterwards, was 17.13%. Keerella added 1.19%; Barb's drake earned 1310 pet points, while Kee's drake Greedo got 1251. Both Barb and Kee added 6 skill points.

Back in Randol afterwards, Barbarienne spent almost all her remaining skill points, 1100, plus 100 million of gold (passed across by MistressDomina, my Cariae merchant) on the second level of Fatal Blow, an attack skill she does find useful... she just has 138 skill points left, until it seems a good idea to release the sp she has hidden away in the "special skills". With the first level of Fatal Blow, she was able to hit with double the usual damage for a critical hit, though there was always the possibility that it might miss. Now that she has the second level, the damage goes up another 50%, so now she'll do triple damage...it's just a shame that the skill takes a whole sixty seconds to recharge.

After that I did some trading across of loot to my merchants, including moving the last of yesterday's Loot Wheel winnings out of the item mall "records" section. My Auzura merchant, MistressDomino, traded her old armour set across to a storage character, to make room for the +5 60/62 set that MistressBlaze earned by reaching level 60, so now looks rather smart in the sand-coloured costume - she is still wearing her top hat, though. Once the trading-around was finished, MistressDomino went into merchant mode. Business was slow, but she did sell twenty heaven stones before lunch, and a tower box later, followed rather later by her supply of large defence potions, which got the total up to 50 million.

Over on Cariae, my pet-leveller XxGALAHADxX logged in, and headed for Maargadum Jail. He hadn't done any work for quite a while, so he didn't even have Maargadum Jail on his memory scroll; he does have that location now, though. Back when he was working regularly, it was possible to pet-level on berserkers and bandits; he probably could still use a gnoll lancer, but going into the Jail and heading for the death mask lancer on the fifth floor seems safer. He logged in on Cariae-6 for a change, since it is now "Carebear" (or non-PvP) so other players can't kill a lone pet-leveller...it seemed as quiet as ever, but no doubt over time people will spread out to it from Cariae-5.

I did manage to have my early evening food break slightly early, and was able to get into the Tomb of Theos on Auzura-4 for the five until six o'clock dungeon time hour. This time MistressDomina and Kaerella headed for the Ancient Grey Mummies, since there they could both get a "power hour" in - and we arrived with no more than two minutes to spare. The archer Swenja was there already, as she often seems to be, no doubt sp-farming; things did get a little crowded when the rogue ddstone turned up, but, with Kaerella concentrating on the mummies at the start of the entry corridor, there was no actual shortage of mummies, and after a while Swenja went and stood off to one side. If you're interested in acquiring masses of skill points while you're level 103, the extra experience during dungeon time hours isn't exactly an incentive to play flat out then.

MistressDomina used 48 experience boosters, and went up by 26.31% in level 98, while Kaerella used 55, and earned 52.76% in level 94. They each earned 16 skill points, while MD's drake added 1068 pet points, and Kae's got 1095.

There was some trading about to do after that, but then MistressSabina and RedRackham headed for Maargadum Jail again, this time on Auzura-6. Red had headed off towards the fifth floor when I realised that Sabina was without any platinum super skill pills - luckily Red had got a package containing three of them in his item mall Records section, so downloaded the package, and went back to Sabina to trade them across. He then went on down to the fifth floor for some pet-levelling.

MistressSabina started her new pssp, though she did have a couple of interruptions. A rogue did come by and kill a few beast flyers, but as she was wearing the 95/97 armour set I was pretty confident she didn't intend to stay long; I assume she was heading for the Death Knight of Iris, to help her companion, a specialist sorcerer, with his quest to kill that particular boss monster. Sabina's kill rate was more affected by the "Attendance Event" - when the GM message "Secret word of the day: Batman" came up, I had to take a screenshot, then upload it to PhotoBucket, and then post it, or a link to it, in a particular forum thread. I was logged in as MistressDomina, as it happens, so that goes quite well with the MistressSabina name on the screenshot. What I'm not entirely sure about is whether the screenshot has to show the GM's message at the top of the screen, which mine does, or if just having it visible in the chat box counts.

Despite that diversion, and a phone call I ignored, MistressSabina ended her hour up by 4.66%, 136 skill points, and 942 pet points, so the lost time was negligible - and MistressDomina may win a "mystery prize", which might even contain a coupon for 500 free aeria points, or something almost as useful...or mysterious. Sabina then headed down to RedRackham to get the other goodies he'd downloaded, in exchange for most of her supply of quality stones, and also had her five spins of the LacaRette wheel, which included getting five heaven stones.

Yesterday was unusual, in that there weren't any "BOGO" offers in the item mall, but I see they have returned this evening, though today's three are not very attractive. They are "buy one get one free", except that, for the system to work, you do have to pay a single aeria point for the second package...this is usually compensated for by decreasing the price of the first package. The people in the forum shoutbox were unimpressed with the new prizes in the revamped Loot Wheel today, and I agree with them on that. It now has a "socketing" theme, with the main prizes being stabilizers and scrolls that may let you add sockets to an item, and a few gems, but just topazes and garnets at various levels...including the level one types, which are rather common drops and worth very little. Topazes just increase the wearer's constitution stat, and garnets just increase one's hit points, so they are not the most sought-after of gems anyway.

MistressBlaze got her next armour set from the storage character LordRevan - as MrChuckNorris had been the last character to use it, it was the titan "Mammoth" set. She can wear the level 65 gloves now, which, as they are +8 and the level 60 ones were +9, just give one more defence - once she reaches level 61, however, she'll be able to wear the "Vampiress" shirt and skirt, which will give 20 more defence each, and also be able to use the level 65 Augcuss Staff +15, for 174 more magic attack than her current level 57 weapon, the Blood Shadow Staff +15. As the helm and boots I have for level 67 are only +8, and the level 62 ones are +14 and +13, and even have a level two gem each socketed, I haven't bothered to change them from the titan gear into the mage equivalents, though MB may as well carry them in her inventory, to keep the set together.

MistressSabina transferred her loot across to MistressDomino, who went into merchant mode...perhaps an overnight session will bring her in some much-needed cash.