All Is Well

It was slightly naughty of me not to update last night's blog entry before quickly uploading it this morning; the modem and the connection seemed to be working perfectly, it just shows the benefits of holding on waiting for technical assistance for twenty minutes or so, even if nobody actually answers the TalkTalk phone.

Anyway, imagine my happiness to find that, after various overnight system restore attempts and scans, when I switched the modem on this morning, it connected me to the internet. The first thing to do of course was start Last Chaos, and to my great relief RedRydeR's health was no lower than when I'd last seen it - she hadn't been killed, and her stash of skill points was safe.

It shows how close to a full hour she got before last night's disconnection that another 40 experience boosters had been used, getting her up by 158.14%, well up in level 87, which had been our target for the project. Shortly before the end her drake had levelled up too, reaching level 41. The drake already gives the full thirty levels of increased attack, this means that its increased armour buff has reached level ten. In all yesterday the drake added 8089 pet points. And, since RedRydeR got high enough in level to actually start getting a little skill exp per kill, Red added a total of four skill points.

Kaerella, just by supplying the combat party boost, went up by 11.52% in all yesterday, and the same four skill points.

On the loot side, the Tomb was not quite as parsimonious as usual; the screaming zombies had dropped two pairs of mage gloves, while the ancient grey mummies dropped a pair of healer pants, and a not particularly distinguished necklace of lightning. There was one "hand of the guard" during the day, and Red managed to pick up no less than three heaven stones, not to mention four rotting bandages, and one Hemostatic, an item which cures bleeding. Armour pieces from the Tomb tend not to have good bloodseals, so I didn't bother to identify the three pieces, I just sold them to Merchant Geres for 1,068,873 gold.

I was going to get RedRydeR's new skills, but the rogue Sillenti logged on and asked to borrow a better armour set, as she was still using her 30/32 +10 set. I checked up, and found that MistressFelicia was carrying a 50/52 +6 sorcerer armour set (leggings +10), so passed it over to her; I think it's a loan. I had to buy a couple of large attack potions off her so that she could afford to get Collector Ryl to change the set into the rogue equivalent, but it did increase her physical defence usefully.

RedRackham logged in for some pet-levelling, to find Bobthewarrior, HoneyBun and KiaOra all at work down with the gnoll lancers. And, after coffee, it was time for RedRydeR to get all the skills for the levels she had zoomed up yesterday.

On the passive skills side, Reinforce 2's second and third levels, coming up when she'd reached level 72 and 82, added 13 each to RedRydeR's physical attack for 175 and 200 sp; Mental Defence levels seven and eight increased, for 200 and 300 sp, her magical defence by 8 each. Detect Weakness's seventh and eighth levels, at 76 and 86, boosted her physical hit rate by 75 and 80, for 300 and 350 sp. And Critical Increase's sixth level, at 80, increased Red's rate of critical hits by 15 for 500 sp.

On the general/attack skill side, Hide Shot's sixth and final level (350 sp), available at level 68, increased that skill's power from 300 to 330. The big level 70 skill, Controlled Shooting, a buff which increases attack, decreases defence, and prevents you from moving while it lasts, cost 1450 skill points for its first five levels, not to mention 3,500,000 gold. Level 78 brought the eighth level of Piercing, for 500 sp, increasing its power from 350 to 410.

That meant that in all Red spent 4325 skill points, over 20% of her stash. Still, all those extra levels do mean that RedRydeR's stats are nicely improved. I suppose Controlled Shooting may be useful in certain circumstances, though my Auzura rogue, Rage, hasn't used it. At its fifth level, it lasts a minute, I see, and gives 25% more to one's attack, while decreasing one's defence by 15%. If you do need to move before it wears off, a Potion of Escape has to be used, apparently.

By the time all those skills were learnt, and I'd made careful notes and checked the Wet Paint Wiki, yesterday's platinum refining stones had just worn off, so RedRydeR logged out, and, for a lightweight session, I logged in my level 34 temple knight SirDarth on Cariae-5, a character I've not played in ages. In fact, I can't be sure that I've found the last stats for him in my notes - but I think the session only added about 7%, as he aimed more for the orc axemen than the sergeants, and a hundred or so skill points. He isn't one of my characters with a huge stash of unused sp, but at least this session got him over the 2k mark.

The sorcerer uffo recruited me into a combat party when I entered the temple, along with the level 31 sorcerer Fallender; uffo didn't stay long, but Fallender stuck around for a while and chatted. He was anxious to get to level 32 so that he could learn the specialist skills and start transforming into a pin-headed knight or a red demon, but a guildie who had planned to help him level had gone offline, so he was stuck with another Prokion session or two to get there. When he left, I joined a solo party, but, just as my session was reaching its end, and I'd just commented in party chat that I usually liked to use the "leave party" button rather than suddenly be a blank on the party list...my internet connection failed again, mid-orc.

Luckily switching off the modem over lunch allowed it to cool down, and at the start of the afternoon I was able to get back online. RedRackham had been pet-levelling, and had got his drake into level 37; now it was SirDarth's turn on Sarissa-5 for some pet-levelling, after I used a purification gem to remove that strength bloodseal from his gloves. And he was able to provide a solo party for my level 38 rogue there, RedRyder.

After yesterday's exertions, and with the continuing heatwave, plus the risk of a disconnection, I didn't do anything intensive - Red mainly wandered around Merac. She did try the four elite frenzied berserkers, but a couple of archers turned up, and also attacked them, so I ended up heading on down the road. I went off to the south of the path that leads towards Merac Castle, and fought an elite gnoll lancer or two, as well as elite gnoll sworders, which are the beefed-up versions of the gnoll soldiers. I did visit Maargadum Jail a couple of times, and also went to the west of the main road - I don't think I'd been that way for years, but the way a whole group of highlanders would come running in if I attacked one of them seemed familiar. I think one of my characters got killed by a disconnection down there, long ago.

RedRyder just added 21.56%, and 79 skill points, as well as 780 pet points. She picked up around twenty soccer balls on her travels - as this is apparently the last day of the soccer promotion, or maybe even the last day but one, back in Randol Red set up shop to sell them, though her early sales were just a cheap accessory and three orc ornaments. The soccer balls did all sell after a while, at 40,000 each - leaving just the one gold soccer ball, even though at 350,000 it was less than ten times the price of the soccer balls. Luckily it did sell, plus another accessory or two, so that Red ended up ahead by 1,339,500 gold.

SirDarth on Sarissa-5 continued the work on his drake over the food break, and throughout the evening, so that it had added four levels, getting well into level 19, by the end. The main evening session, though, involved Kaerella - this time the level 29 version on the Tairen server. She is in need of plenty more skill points, though she does at least have all her skills, including the special skills, maximised. So, another trip to Prokion Temple was needed, as usual on the fifth sub-server with the Elizabeth's Enhancement buff active.

With Kae on level 29, the level 23 orc soldiers gave not much over 1000 experience, and four times as much skill exp... 4400 once I finally found a solo party. So, I settled down in a rather familiar room, close to my favourite orc axeman and orc sergeant room, and concentrated on the soldiers. Occasionally someone else would come in and kill a few, but they usually moved on. One knight did settle in in one corner, but he had a disconnection before long - luckily I noticed that in time to protect his poor pony from a couple of orcs, so that it was still alive when he finally vanished. I got a disconnection myself not long after, but to my relief it was just the traditional kind, not my modem going on strike, so I was quickly back in action.

Towards the end I was chatting with a rogue called TwoMoons, and giving her the occasional heal - she was a couple of levels below the orc soldiers. She had asked for a party, but I explained that I was sp-farming, and that teaming up that way would give me too much experience per kill. I tried to give her the idea that fighting Prokion mobs below her own level, while slower, would get her more skill points...

The Elizabuff, which I'd renewed when I logged back in after the disconnection, ran out as my usual log-out time approached, so that seemed a good reason to call it a day. I ran back to the starting hallway, as usual picking up any abandoned loot - I'm used to the occasional tool aid, or even a few moonstone boxes, but I actually got an item drop booster this time. Even if someone was using a platinum super skill pill, I'd have thought that it would have been worthwhile to stop long enough to pick something like that up.

Kaerella only added 10.15% during her session, along with 37 guild points, but added 303 skill points, which makes her total start to look a bit healthier. Once she had logged off, RedRackham was able to log in on Cariae-4 for a little work on his drake, now starting its trip through level 37. I see that Red is almost out of quality stones, so that's something to attend to soon. One of my "busy weekends" is starting to loom on the horizon now, which means more pet-levelling and less fighting as the weekend approaches.