An Expert Weaponsmith

SirGalahad did manage to do some work down with the gnoll lancers before coffee, but my attention was more on Guild Wars, where the Wintersday Festival was reaching its usual annual climax, with new kinds of headgear being given out to people attending the finale. So, a character of mine was in Lion's Arch at eight, and managed to get the Ice Shard Crest that followers of Grenth get. Unfortunately, proving that it's not just Last Chaos that has bug problems, the automatic distribution of the headgear wasn't working properly, and three hours later I, along with almost everyone else in Kamadan, failed to get the Snow Crystal Crest for supporting Dwayna there - further attempts failed, too.

Still, on Cariae-1 Kaerella went out to the akane giants and the ordinary giants near "The Tomb of Theo" (not to be confused with the Tomb of Theos). There was no solo party available, and the only person listed as wanting a party didn't respond, but before long there was someone who did respond, and we got a solo party going, though it never got beyond five people, and broke up before the end.

Kamira did show up for me, so Kae logged out, promising to return soon, and Keerella, my level 93 mage, logged in and quickly rode down to the spot. Kamira didn't manage to do any damage to her, and soon Kee was picking up the usual assortment of lucky scrolls, moonstones, tool aids, et cetera. There wasn't a rare accessory, but Kee hadn't used a lucky scroll or an item drop booster, so still came out of it well ahead.

It is convenient that, unless the leader kicks you, these days you reappear in your party when you log back in, so Kaerella was back with the others, and hurried back to the akane giants. It wasn't a hugely long session, though; but even 3.50% and 32 skill points helps, along with 543 pet points... it gets Kae 10% of the way into level 51, anyway.

Once the Guild Wars excursion was over, SirGalahad returned to his gnoll lancers; and, over lunch, level 28 was achieved. Then, for the afternoon session, Gal got the Elizabeth's Enhancement buff and headed for Prokion Temple on Tairen-1, joining a solo party. The back room was in use, but the corridor room was free, so that's where I set to work. later in the afternoon I had three other people trying to farm there too, all members of the BrAzUcAs guild as it happens - but then, the influx of Brazilian players does have a different approach to "oh, the room is already occupied" from most other players. The knight NiCoLaS was the first, followed by the healer Livia; another knight, ANDRExBR, seemed to be lower in level, and seemed more prepared to attack my orcs than start attacking one of his own, so he'd really have been better off with lower level orcs.

Still, they drifted away after a while, and by the end of the session SirGalahad had reached level 32, adding 55.58% and 252 skill points. Back in Randol he was able to learn the Wall of Belief passive skill, increasing his defence; that took 227 skill points, so he still came out ahead on the afternoon. The extra defence meant that it seemed worth trying out the pet-levelling possibilities in Maargadum Jail in Merac, so that's where Gal headed.

The Spike Canines on the ground floor are often used by pet-levellers, and I could soon understand why. Their attack stat is, I find, 162 (slightly more than a gnoll lancer's 153), and their defence stat is 1196 (a lot better than the gnoll lancer's 751). One can easily lure a spike canine right back behind the teleporter NPC, and they didn't appear to lose health from Gal's 44 bare-handed attack, so all was well - except that it is a relatively busy spot, with people entering the Jail to fight on its many levels, so perhaps it wasn't surprising that I had my canine killed a couple of times in an hour.

The next step was to head for level five, where I have in the past noticed people pet-levelling on a death mask lancer. I got attacked by an aggressive death mask soldier as I entered, and was slowly wearing him down when a titan called Xaen came in, paused to open my Christmas Gift Box, which had just appeared, and went after the death mask lancer himself. I rather assume that if the box had dropped a platinum drop booster he would have stolen it. He seemed a bit aggrieved when I too attacked the death mask lancer - but I didn't stay long, as I wanted to move over to Tairen-4.

I had been pleasantly surprised by the lack of player-killing action in Prokion Temple on Tairen-1, with everyone just getting on with their farming and grinding, and no high-levels going on killing sprees... but it seems that actually it's another bug, and that there is no pk-ing possible on any of the Tairen sub-servers yet, even though four of them are designated for PvP action. Still, SirGalahad, moving to the older computer, also moved to Tairen-4. There were already a couple of pet-levellers at work next to the teleporter NPC, but I headed down to level five, and finding it clear, managed to avoid the death mask soldier "greeter" at the doorway, and started to fight the death mask lancer, whose stats are 186 for attack and a massive 1504 for defence. By then the horse was down to 27% health, so a levelling up was just what he would need. It did take a while, but before the evening was over level 29 was safely reached, and a little further progress made, even, with both SirGalahad and his target remaining in perfect health.

But over on the main computer, RedRyder, on Tairen-1 and with Elizabeth's Enhancement, headed for Prokion Temple in the usual way. The back room was in use, but the corridor room was free, again - and again I ended up having to share it, for quite a while with Sarpshootr2, and after that for a while LoyalRogue. Both were rogues around level 35, so coming towards the end of their time in the Temple. I kept slogging, and finally noticed that I'd reached 95% of the level, which was cutting things a bit close as I didn't want to level up. I worked out that a dozen or so more skill points would let me get all three levels of Expert Weaponsmith, to finish that special skill off, so, carefully choosing slightly lower-level orcs for a better skill exp to experience ratio, finished with 452 skill points and 97.03%.

After spending the sp, a quick trip to Misty Canyon was needed, and the Introducer Camio closest to the start swiftly helped Red to get rid of the unwanted experience. There are plenty more special skills still to learn, but at least weaponsmithing is finished, unless I end up adding the levels that come available when Red gets to level 32 and 42... but I don't think that is particularly likely. One has to draw the line somewhere.

There had been an announcement of some special New Year drops being made back in Randol, but, on the evidence of what had happened at the equivalent Christmas event, I decided not to bother leaving the Temple for that, and judging by comments in the shoutbox, I made the right decision. That was the nearest we came to an "event" today, but tomorrow at one o'clock [GM]Valsharyn is scheduled to hold her own brand of "Storm the Castle" on Auzura-5, which should be well worth attending. There's also the possibility of defending Randol from an onslaught of monsters in the evening, from eight o'clock UK time onwards, but defending Randol's gates can be a bit cramped and dangerous. Still, if I'm on the right server to see the announcement, perhaps one of my rogues will drop by and do some snaring...