What I have been up to lately...

Ever since Vicente Rio is available, many of us flocked to add him up in our barracks. What drove many of us to level him up is the event IAH set up. Getting a costume for free? That's a sweet deal (for me)! They adopted this event from what kGE did as well.

Before we can get to that, let me go ahead and give my thoughts of what I thought of Vicente Rio. On first impression, I was truly amazed that IMC developed yet another unique character. What got me surprised is the voice they gave him: a laidback Mexican musician. I was expecting a handsome voice to go along with the looks but I had expected wrong. At this rate, I had to think of a name that would fit him.

As what Rio can do? Well, looks like lutes aren't just his thing. He can also use Lightning stances as well. Of course, everyone who's been with me for more than a year should be familiar with the Lightning stances. For his lute stances, there's Minstrel and Serenade.

Minstrel is an offensive-type stance that has 3 offensive AOEs and 1 sleep status AOE. I was able to try this out (saved it for last!) and I'm really amazed on how this works. Now, two of the three offensive AOEs can target up to 8 enemies and the Crazy Rhapsody skill has a 33% chance of stunning the opponent. It may not be potent but it give you a chance to stop the enemy to get the higher ground. The other one is Rhythm and Blues which causes Enervation at 75%. From what I can recall, that status affects ATK Speed and Movement Speed. It also causes HP regeneration to stop as well. Silent Cradlesong targets 8 enemies but it only induces sleep status, making it harmless. This was very useful, especially with my experiences with Sandman skill from the Illusionist stance. That last skill only targets 3 enemies but the damage is higher and gives out a new status ailment: Requiem. This reduces evasion and block rate to 0, reduces ATK and attack speed to minimum, reduces all resistances by 75. This totally lets your enemies tastes the full power you've got with your weapons!

As for the Serenade stance, I'll look into it once I get the stance book. Serenade happens to be a Veteran Stance, so it'll have to wait. I gotta try it out first before I can make statements about it! :D

On the day I got Rio, I leveled him up to 3x on the first day. When I got impatient at Al Quelt Moreza, that's when I prompted to go to the Rion Dungeon Hollow. Seeing the EXP reel in so fast shocked me. But Rio got shocked as well, because he was constantly killed and I had to feed him with Resurrection Potions every now and then. I maxed out his Lightning stances because the lutes were available at level 60. By the time I got a lute, it was really exciting. At times, I would hit the Silent Cradlesong skill and it bought some time to get even with the mobs. After Rin Dungeon Hollow, I decided to invest on a FT pass and ventured in the Prison de Joaquin FT. I'm not sure if that was worth my G Points but I was able to cope in that place. Of course, I had to multi task by checking my mail, surf the web and do the laundry. I can't believe I was going through power leveling again ever since I leveled up my Catherine to Veteran.

Just a little more to go...

It's been a week already and I've gotten my Rio hit level 88 already. Just one more day and I can sit back and relax (and maybe try the Serenade Stance!). Oh, I'm looking forward to getting my prize at the end of the month as well!

P.S.
Before I forget, I named him "Felipe" because I had a colleague with an English variant of that name because I recalled him doing a Mexican accent during work. Inspired from his antics, this how I got the name Felipe.