Time for the Tomb

After having the night off, LordDarth headed for level five of Maargadum Jail before breakfast this morning on Hatzring-4; if I'd expected to need him to provide a solo party for Hatzring's Kaerella or RedRyder I'd have put him on the fifth subserver again, as Kae and Red do need the Elizabeth's Enhancement buff they can only get there, but generally H-4 is quieter, and indeed the Jail seemed deserted when Darth ran through it.

Darth's work there was all that happened this morning, as I had to go out to do a monthly "big shop", as well as a trip to the post office, so my morning was rather busy. Still, Darth kept going without any problems, and by the end of the lunch break his horse was getting pretty near to the top of level 30.

It was, however, time to try teaming up my level 91 ranger-rogue Rage and my level 84 archer Kaerella on Auzura-4; Rage checked the condition of the Tomb of Theos and found it was set to maximum easy, so, after transferring some platinum blessed irises across from MistressBlaze, Rage and Kaerella made a combat party, teleported to the Tomb entrance, and went in.

The place was reasonably quiet most of the time. For the first hour Kae just stood and watched, providing the combat party bonus for Rage - and Rage used berserker, crit and platinum adrenaline potions, along with a pbi and 147 experience boosters. It looks as if it is about time for Rage to seek out harder foes than screaming zombies, as soon as she gets the last two parts of the 85/87 armour set, as even killing 147 screaming zombies in an hour, boosted twelve-fold by the pbi and xpbs, only got her 43.54% experience, along with 3 skill points and 974 pet points. Kae got 2.83%, and 4 skill points, just for being there.

We changed over to an equal party after that, with Rage using the same potions, but no experience boosters, and both Rage and Kaerella using platinum blessed irises. Rage did most of the fighting, but Kaerella was able to help too, and equip her drake, SirFrancis. Rage got 6.97%, 4 skill points, and 979 pet points, while Kaerella got 29.88%, 3 skill points, and 523 pet points.

There was just time for a third hour before the early evening food break, which went pretty similarly to the second hour. There were a couple of people, a rogue and a sorcerer, that I allowed to "ks" me, but they didn't stay long; the place was a bit busier generally, with an archer power-levelling a friend, and a night shadow levelling his pet jaguar - he managed to get it lodged against one of the corners in the corridor wall, so that it stayed out of harm's way but within range to gain experience. Pets that wall-hug, whatever next?

Kaerella reached level 85 during this third hour, which is useful, as it means she will be able to get and equip a new bow, with a little help from MistressDomino's gold reserves. Rage went up another 6.69%, plus 3 more skill points and 906 pet points, and Kae added 28.22%, 3 skill points again, and 528 pet points.

The early evening food break had to be a bit extended, but I left Rage and Kae in the Tomb, and continued there afterwards - but without using any pots or boosters. It must have been a bit under two hours, as they each got 5 more skill points - Rage went up 3.53%, along with getting her drake into level 38 courtesy of 1806 more pet points, and Kaerella went up 14.20%, and got 1159 pet points.

At about ten to nine both characters logged out from the Tomb of Theos. Kaerella was replaced by LordDarth, who hurried back to Maargadum Jail on Hatzring-4, and soon got his horse into level 31. Rage, however, just hopped across from Auzura-4 to Auzura-5, and took the teleporter to Merac village... as the day's event, the "Merac Run", was due to begin there at nine.

I got recruited into a party with people from level 27 upwards; the top player in it was a level 102 assassin-type rogue, TaterTot, who had Recall, which some people found useful, if they happened to respawn in town due to a death or a disconnection. At nine many of us ran down the path, finding absolutely no monsters, and got as far as the final area before their was a jerk of lag, and the monsters appeared. Luckily I was off to one side, and was able to mount up and use "pet return to village" without being attacked.

The run began properly then, starting with wafes and masters of secret technique, jumping devils and spiders from the Forgotten Temple, and gradually ramping up, with grand golden dragons, and soon we were fighting ancient screaming zombies and other stuff that was red-named for Rage, and soon for TaterTot too. The final area, where the elite cerberi lurk around the teleporter into Misty Canyon, had the usual really high-level golems, and patriarch botises, flutons, etc. I found myself tanking a Commander Agaress, level 133, not something I'd wish to make a habit of, but luckily Snare worked most of the time, and other people joined in.

I didn't see any big loot drops, though I picked up a little cash... the drops from the individual monsters are more likely to get picked up by the melee fighters, rather than ranged attackers. The grand golden dragons, being Egeha raid bosses, did drop their usual moonstones, tool aids, lucky scrolls, and so on, but not for me. Still, it was a fun time, and we finished within an hour. Despite having low-level people in the party, Rage added another 0.55%, a skill point, and 556 pet points.

The maintenance tonight is going to be longer than its usual three hours; I did see the figure of fourteen hours mentioned, but let us hope that things don't take that long. Hardware upgrades to improve the servers are promised, as well as the usual new week's patch, so tomorrow could be a little bit fraught. It all depends how the tests on the new server equipment go. LordDarth may get a bit of a lie-in, but we shall see.