Darth's Big Day

Late last night in Merac things did get a bit, well, dramatic. XRoidRageXX was ks'd a few times, and got very annoyed, swearing to kill on sight not just the perpetrator but their whole guild. A mage called Freelance was the worst offender, and she wasn't in any guild; Roid did actually bring in his main character, MortimerJones, so we had an enraged level 140 titan dashing around, though as it is a non-PvP server (or pet-levellers wouldn't just get their Berserkers killed, they and their pets would soon be dead too) there wasn't a lot he could do, except vow vengeance.

His fellow Vendetta member, the level 105 mage "bladesdontkill", who does come to our spot to visit a friend sometimes, was around too, and also pretty annoyed. Poor Lylja, in the same guild as SirPerivale, DeathBringers, happened to come along to try to lure the Grand Red Dragon, and got caught up in things, with Mort thinking that she had been ks'ing, and thus vowing to kill all DeathBringers members on sight. I think we convinced him that it was just Freelance who was causing the mischief, though. And a few minutes later a healer called Amoon ks'd us all again...

Still, things did calm down, and I risked leaving CaptainScarlet pet-levelling overnight. He managed to tuck himself away in a quiet corner, and didn't have any further problems, except that he lost an hour or so to a disconnection - but, unlike having one's Berserker killed, one only loses time, one's pet doesn't continue to get through the quality stones while one just stands there. By the morning the horse had safely reached level 30, while before too long, after Peri had returned to action, his dragon hatchling reached level 14.

The main morning action involved SirDarth going solo in Prokion Temple, on Auzura-3, with CaptainScarlet doing some pet-levelling and providing the solo party boost. Cap found that XXRoidRageXX had moved to Auzura-3 as well, instead of Auzura-4, hoping for a quieter time no doubt.

I had been able to provide Darth with a single (50% extra skill exp gain) platinum skill pill, so I used that stacked on a (200%) platinum super skill pill, so that each Orc Axeman killed would give 15,400 skill exp instead of 4,400... and each Orc Sergeant would give 19,250 instead of 5,500. Except that, for the Sergeants, I used a (x 4) skill point booster, so that each kill gave 77,000 skill exp, almost eight skill points.

In that hour Darth used 120 skill point boosters, so killed 120 Orc Sergeants, and got 1106 skill points; the Sergeants thus provided 924 of the skill points, and killing 118 Orc Axemen provided the other 182. 48.17% experience was gained, too. For the second hour I could only stack a (15%) red-and-white skill pill with the pssp, so the skill exp gains were 10% less, but I used the remaining 103 skill point boosters (which I finished with ten minutes left), and added another 903 skill points, 714 of them from the Sergeants killed with an spb activated. That added another 47.17% experience, so I was a little bit short of levelling up; I just had time to use a ten-minute "effort scroll", just adding 50% to the skill exp gain, which netted me another 28 skill points and 7.00% experience, taking SirDarth safely into level 30.

One thing that was strange was that SirDarth had ended yesterday with 0.11% experience in level 29 - while when he logged in today that was back to 0.00%, and he had, I found, also lost 47 skill points, very nearly 6% of his total. That tied in with something last night - I thought I must have mis-read the notes I'd made about MistressDomina's experience, as after the main evening session with the Sphinx types she was at 59.69% of the way through her level, and then after the questing session, with its trip to level five of Maargadum Jail, she was down from that rather than up, on 57.65%. It was almost as if the game thought they had died, rather than logged out peacefully.

For the afternoon, SirDarth got a few experience "lucky draw" boxes from Chuck's storage, and the first one he opened gave a three-hour + 30% experience potion, which was what I was looking for, basically, as level 30 takes rather more experience gain to get through than level 29. As Darth had used both his pssps now, once I was in the Prokion Temple back room again I triggered the experience potion, plus a (+100% skill exp) super skill pill and a (+15%) skill pill, so that now each Orc Sergeant gave me 10,642 skill exp, and each Orc Axeman gave me 8,277 - it wasn't just the boosting percentage that was lower, since I'd gone up a level the basic figures were lower too, at 4,950 and 3,850.

Darth had spent 1130 skill points on, well, skills, but during the first hour he got back 249, and the second hour brought in another 231. That got him up to 96%, but there was luckily just enough time to use another of those ten-minute effort scrolls, which added 26 more skill points, making a total of 506 for the afternoon, and 7.36% more experience, to get the total up to 100.36%, taking him safely into level 31 (with the +10 armour set, shield and weapons arriving in his inventory), and 2159 pet points, just getting his drake into level 24.

After the food break, or indeed before I'd finished eating, the "Mad Monster Spawn" was announced, so MistressBlaze put in an appearance over there. It had already begun when I arrived, but I assisted with as many kills as I could; I got chased by a couple of high-level types, but managed to out-run them, and was avoiding getting killed, generally. MortimerJones was there, so he too uses two computers as XXRoidRageXX was continuing his pet-levelling in Merac on Auzura-3, just next to CaptainScarlet, while Mort was exhorting people to team up and concentrate on a specific monster at a time. Sadly there were still some Flutons alive when the six o'clock deadline (UK time) was reached, so GM Stratos announced that the event was over. A large group of us, including MortimerJones and MistressBlaze, were just finishing the lengthy task of killing one Fluton, when "BAMMM!!!" said Stratos, and suddenly a whole bunch of the purple dragons were dumped right on top of us, killing MB instantly. She used her "beginner" res scroll to respawn back in town.

"Ouchie, "BAMMM!!" indeed - landing all that stuff on top of us fighting that fluton was a bit mean of Stratos", Cap commented, and before long XXRoidRageXX replied "Yep, sure was"... Still, MB did manage to pick up, from the couple of loot spawnings we did get, 5 large attack potions, 5 large defence potions, 3 skill point boosters, and 3 item drop boosters, plus assorted health and mana recovery pots and tool aids, which between them are more than worth a resurrection scroll. One of the Sphinx Commanders I'd fought actually dropped an item for me - it was just a great mana potion, but it showed that I'd been one of the main contributors to that particular monster's death. MB actually added 9.04% experience, and a few more guild points for Discipline.

The rest of the evening was pretty relaxed. I made a few level 2 characters on the Katar server, just in case I'd find a need for them later, in which case they'd have the "Player Appreciation" beginner type platinum blessed irises, platinum super skill pills, and resurrection scrolls in their inventories. And, as well as making a few contributions to the forum shout box, I sent MistressDomina out for a short session with the Sphinx types, which was pretty uneventful. At least it got MD back above her previous high point, after that mysterious loss of experience - she added just 4.39%, plus a skill point, and 195 pet points.

CaptainScarlet had got his horse to level 31, so that now it could be turned into a mount, but more importantly from my point of view it means that his pet now gives him all thirty levels of the Armour Increase buff, making his total physical defence stat 1265, almost 300 more than he needs with Berserkers. So it seemed like a good idea to see if that was good enough to pet-level against the level 39 Gnoll Lancers. Cap's health bar did fluctuate a little, but generally kept close to his 1382 maximum - but then I left him at work for a few minutes, and when I next looked he had lost around 300 health, so it doesn't look as if he is quite ready for them yet. The level 36 Gnolls didn't hit as hard, though, so he seemed pretty comfortable with them. Of course they are rather close to the level 41 Gnoll Soldiers, who are aggressive, pet-eating types, so could some little scamp lure one of those on to me if I was pet-levelling there?

There are no great changes planned in this week's scheduled maintenance, back to its normal time of 1:00 am UK time; the in-game item mall may be updated, but we aren't promised the return of the "merchant house" system, "Last Chaos Episode Two" (still being checked out on the private test server), or any new events. It looks as if the "Player Appreciation" event, with the freebie armour etc, will be continuing, apparently we are promised a week's notice of its discontinuation, so with any luck, maybe MistressDomina, and Ratel, will get to level sixty, and get that set of +5 armour, before it ends, if we can get into a few Tomb parties.