Leveling my main team

Decided to see how fast would it be if I level up my main team in the Ancient Territory dungeon. So, I prepped up Marvin (Male Fighter), Stephanie (Female Elementalist) and Sabrina (Female Scout) for trip to the Ancient Territory of the Skullic Dungeon. Of course, this will be a powerleveling session, so I got another Pet Bonding Package for my Broomy to help while getting all the EXP Boosters.

It's raining ice!

As Veterans, I was better off fighting level 102-105 mobs in that place. Well, I wasn't just leveling them up, I wanted to improve their stances althogether. Although I tried, I only have one last stance left to maz out for my Scout, Esgrima. That will come in a future time, though. Moving on, I was able to max out Marvin's Stave Guard (I think it's better calling it Stab Guard) and Stephanie's Domination Lightning. Running out of stances to level up, I checked out Marvin and Stephanie's skill windows. At this point, I am driven to get the Domination Ice stance for Stephanie while I pursued a stance that fighters normally shouldn't use: Pistol Shot stance!

While taking a break from grinding, I prepared the Domination Ice stance book and began to level up the Evocation Ice stance to meet the requirements. Once the level has been reached, I immediately learned it and got busy. I am impressed what Domination Ice had to offer and all Domination stances are indeed strong. Of course, I had to "borrow" the Elite Beam Gun that Samantha (Female Musketeer) was using for Marvin to master the Pistol Shot stance.

AFK grinding with this team is okay but if left alone for too long, disaster may strike. So far, I have gained at least 42%-45% EXP for everyone during the leveling period. I have to say that this may be slow or it's the best that anyone can. Well, I think I have to blame it on leveling stance but I don't want the EXP to be wasted, is all.

I look forward to another grinding session with my mains so I can reach Expert soon! :D Catch y'all later!

Andre Janzur is now 100!

Yes indeed! The fantazztic man in white is now officially level 100 in my family. I almost didn't make it but thanks to some contingency plans, I made it!

Crunch time! (with the lucky 7's!)

Like what I did with Scarlette (Calyce) and Saija (Karjalanien), I went on another 24-hour leveling spree to make the most out of my premium services. Applying what I learned in the past session had its rewards but looks like it kind of backfired on me.

Let me explain the part where it backfired me totally. It seems that when I don't "establish" a good AFK'ing environment with my Outrage Shot Musketeer, she'll pretty much die quickly even if my healers (Scout and Broomy) keep healing. Now, this happened when I needed to get some shuteye for the night. Sure, I was hoping the next hours a woke up, I would just be on time to open some Portable Pistol Boxes. But when I kinda slept for like, 6 hours, the results were more than disappointing. It seems I only spent a tad amount of pistol bullets when the whole party died and I had around 7 hours left to grind. Knowing I have been stumbled with a task imposed by my sister (and some I did on my own initiative), I had to closely monitor my AFK'ing habit.

Looks like I was able to set everything right at that point but this really calls for an action plan: have an Elite Dragon Coat crafted ASAP! Why? So that way my Musketeer can have a higher DEF Rating than what she has with the Level 80 Pioneer Coat I made for her! That would require my Andre to be a Veteran but I am on the road to making that happen...

I don't think the wings work well with Andre...

Since I had to crunch time (using AFK) while doing the chores, I achieved level 99 with 70%-ish when I got booted out of the Skullic Ancient Territory. Fortunately, I still have some EXP cards left and after using 3 cards, I was at 99%. A quick trip at the dungeon with some kills made my Andre level up. End of story. Whew...

So, there you have it. Yet another member of my family reaching level 100. On the next post, I'll explain why I have leveled Beaumont (Andre), along with Saija (Karjalanien) and Scarlette (Calyce).

Karjalanien's at 100, AFK notes and a premium item package!

I was able to get Saija (Karjalanien) to reach 100 in a span of 48 hours worth of two days off (24 hours per week) and I was glad that I hit the deadline. I noticed how affective and ineffective using the Outrage Shot stance AFK'ing method. Allow me to list out the good and bad of doing this method:

The good...

• Allows multitasking of the user, both using the PC (if PC is powerful enough, like mine!!!) or doing external tasks (chores, physical favors, etc)
  
• Allows you to virtually leave your family alone while you catch some Z's (sleep)

The bad...

• Eats bullets as fast as 3-4 hours (not good for prolonged AFKs)
• If area of AFK is too much for your character (i.e. heavy damage from mobs), it would an extreme waste of time and effort
• Kill rate is may be slow, thus delivering minimal EXP acqusition
  

Now, to counteract some of the disadvantages, here's something I can recommend:

• Since the Outrage Stance eats bullets the most of all stances, I recommend grabbing some Portable Pistol Bullet boxes from the Feso Item Merchant. It's very cheap and it spills out 10,000 pistol bullets per use for you to pick it up. Perfect for long-term multitaskers checking their family from time to time.
• If you are actually playing the game itself, I suggest using Catherine instead. This counters the kill rate since you can summon as much as 11 puppets (or more depending your skill levels or rings equipped) to kill a lot of targets.

There, I said it. Moving on, I got my Karjalanien hit level 100 minutes before the temporary stuff expired. I amazed at this new cash shop package called "Pet Bonding Package." It's got what I need when doing my powerleveling sessions. Looks like I'm brewing yet another blog post with this!

Oooh! Items galore!

Anyway, the package contains 50x Pet Food, 1x Expert Combat Manual, 1x Expert Tactics Manual and 1x Field Survival Manual. Let me explain what these items do.

• Pet Food gives your active (summoned) pet 5% activity power. They say that 5% activity power is good for 1 hour (at least, for the Broomy and Pilfurr).
• Combat Manuals increase EXP rates for your character's level. Three different rate levels are offered, depending how much you want the rate to increase.
• Tactics Manuals increase EXP for your stance level. Like the Combat Manual, they too have three different rate levels as well.
• Field Survival Manual increases your item acquisition by 20%. If If understand this correctly, this means that it increases an item 20% of it's current rate, not 20% on top of it's drop rate. An example would be a 50% item drop will actually be 10% more, thus having a total chance of 60%. If a rare item was at like 0.1%, you would end having a very small increase of 0.02%. The total would be at 0.12%. Not a very good improvement, huh?

What does this have to do with my Karjalanien reaching level 100? Of course, the premium items helped in boosting (and shortening) productivity and the Outrage Shot AFK did some help when I had to do some chores as well. Okay guys, need to clean the other dog now since I had to crunch time before the deadline hit. Catch you guys again! :D

Rainbows and sunshines: Community

Sure, I may be disappointed that I didn't hit level 92 for the main team for this day off. But there was something that made it worthwhile: Being with my friends in Granado Espada.

The first instance:
When NineMoons (fellow faction member!) went online, I asked if she needed assistance in leveling up. At first, she told me DeSanggria would be helping her out. I told her that I will join them once I hit level 90. Keeping that promise, I prepared to come in only as Catherine. I got an update that Fiksdotter is online and he's went online via Reclusion's PC. Looks like he's spending his vacation over at their place now, as what Reclusion did before that. Anyhoo, I arrived bringing some equips to NineMoons and I asked if I could squad up with Breviary and Fiksdotter. Since they didn't need me, I just stayed and gave my gifts to NineMoons. However, that wasn't all of the stuff I wanted to give to her. So, I decided to check my vault on what I can do not just to help NineMoons but to help my vault from exploding! Well, I gave a bunch of armors and a few weapons to help our lady blogger get a great start in Carracci.

Friends helping out a fellow player/blogger

When I arrived, it has come to my attention that Fiksdotter tends to alternate between Fiksdotter himself and the Reclusion Brothers. When Fiksdotter saw me (as himself), he sent the squad invite and I accepted it without any second thought. Knowing I was sharing EXP, I had to do my part and kill some monsters to help speed the process. While we were helping out NineMoons, she did a little update. When DeSanggria put up her "Queen of Vespanola" statement, that's when I was surprised that she was with us! :P It was really nice to get along with friends that I've met in real life. NineMoons had to go since she other matters to attend to. Well, it was worth my time! :D

I really need a makeover!

This ain't over yet! Remember I was ranting that I didn't get to AFK properly at Topolo Durga? Well, something better happened when my powerleveling kit expired! :P

The second instance:
There were three members online (not including me and others) that were hanging out at the Tetra Ruins Forgotten Territory. I asked if I can join. Yes I could, just bring characters appropriate for that level. After taking time on who to bring, I came as Clint (Jack the Engineer), Verena (Female Auch Infantry) and Cristobal (Ramiro). When I arrived to join, they were a really friendly bunch. It was kind of boring at first, since we just leveling at a small spot. However, I decided to "expand our coverage" building cannons outside of the range of the wards these guys set up. Things heated up when I was rebuilding some cannons in one end of the spot and then a family complained that I was stealing kills from him. Well, to solve that problem, I decided to build a fortress in the opposite end. When I destroyed all my structures to set up a fortress, this is when a window popped up saying I am reported as a bot!

Can you spot my cannons? Can ya? Can ya?

The nerve! I was able to prove my innocence and that family who accused just plain played dirty. Since I had my faction mates with me, they decided to overpower this family because of the response I received. After a few minutes, that family just left the scene. Wow! That was one way to start the morning. A Deputy Faction Leader then chatted with us and NineMoons was online again! We had a great discussion about many things in GE. Looks like I enjoyed this session at the FT along with the other three faction mates with me. We were able to wrap up since the servers had to go through maintenance and will be shut down.

These two experiences really made my day because I was around a community that supports each other and knows how to have a good time. Thanks guys, it really put a smile on my face even though I didn't reach level 92 this time.

My "Thank You" shout outs:

NineMoons: Supreme Lady Blogger
DeSanggria: Queen of Vespanola
Reclusion: Legendary Movie Director
Fiksdotter: Undisputed Movie Writer
The Takhisis Faction
IAH Games for the Premium Buff testing! Freebies were great but the buff was way better!
IAH Games for the extension of the GVC Boost Promo! Yes. That means extra G Points and E. Boosters for me!

That's all for now for this week! Hope to experience progress both in GE and in work! :D

ALL YOUR SPOT ARE BELONG TO US!!!

At Your Own Risk: AFK

Well, this isn't of my day off experience! Since I need level up to 100/Veteran before the next Colony Wars, I ended up going to the Joaquin Prison Forgotten Territory with my powerleveling kit still enabled. Of course, I stayed at Zone 4 since it was the highest level it can accommodate me. With the Premium Buff still enable for everyone, it was kind of laggy since there are people who took advantage of it. As much as I wanted to get my butt off the chair, I had to stay behind because of doing AFK (Away From Keyboard) I will get killed and therefore, no EXP.

I did my best alleviate the boredom by talking to friends in GE. One of them would be Device where we discussed many things. Also, Southernsky was there but only for a few replies. When I saw NineMoons going online, I asked if she needed some help in leveling up. She kindly appreciated my offer but I had to level up first 90 before I can be available. When did reach level 90, I came to her spot as Catherine. Looks like she's accompanied by Breviary and Fiksdotter. Okay, let's skip this part first because my main focus for this post is a rant: AFK!

As the night came closer, I really need to AFK because I do want to sleep. Around 8-9PM Southernsky advised me (after some talking here and there) that I should AFK at Topolo Durga. I tried to out and the mobs seem weak, even if they're at level 98 and above. I left my main team and slept the night away...

Waking up at 2AM, I checked to see how they were doing. They were dead and they didn't get much EXP. With my powerleveling kit still in effect, I tried doing another AFK session. After hours later, I only gained 5% EXP. I did attempt to AFK but it involved my Feng Ling 4x, Lorch 5x and Emelia 6x at the Porto Bello Forgotten Territory some time ago. I AFK'ed them and I saw no problem in them surviving, even for just a nap (more like more than a nap!). Looks like AFK'ing in high levels is very dangerous now.

Well, looks like I need some help reaching level 100/Veteran before the month ends. I'll try my luck to be able to get some more support from my friends and faction mates. Well, wait for the next post because there are some rainbows and sunshines that occurred during this day off...

The Prison de Joaquin Forgotten Territory: Laboratory Block

Ferruccio's Legacy... Does it exist?

I logged in around 6PM last Tuesday, March 18, 2008. I already bought my powerleveling kit (which consists of Expert Combat Manual, Expert Tactics Manual, one pair of Lucifer Wings and two pairs of Devil Wings) before that day. However, I didn't want to use it now and I decided to level around at Zona Tres of Ustiur. However, sleep was catching on me so I decided to AFK until I woke up the next morning. Since I got used to my shift schedule, I woke up around 2AM and saw my family dead after a few seconds of sitting in front of the PC.

The Colbourn Family was online and I asked if he could accompany or tank for me. He was in the middle of his quest to get Bone Sarira and he let me join him. I arrived at the Skullic Dungeon 1st Floor and met him there. We had a few hits here and there but I able to finish my Bone Sarira quest. However, there was a part 2 of that quest! After (painstakingly) collecting 50 Bone Sariras for the Crystal Skull of the 1st floor, he told me that I'll be on another quest finding another Crystal Skull on the 2nd Floor and triggering a requirement of 150 Bone Sariras! Woah! I thought it ended already!

Anyway, Colbourn Family was kind enough to accompany me through this quest. We had to part when he was able to finish his quest earlier. He did come back to help me finish it. By the time I finished the 150 Bone Sarira part of the quest, I got to see none other than Montoro Viscount himself! I was accompanied by Romina who tried to bring him down but she got beaten up badly. As Montoro was about to finish her off, Grandice came to the rescue! With my assistance, Romina and Grandice were able to drive Montoro away. Looks like this won't be the last time I'll meet Montoro...

Heading back to the Ustiur Camp, Grandice tells me about "Ferruccio's Legacy." According from the info I got, this Ferruccio's Legacy is an artifact left by Ferruccio Espada himself somewhere in the New World. Some say it has powers that anyone else can't possess but with all that stuff here and there, it's hard for me to elaborate what the "Ferruccio's Legacy" really is... However, two other characters did tell me that they were also looking "Ferruccio's Legacy." Only time will tell when the secrets are revealed to us (that includes me and other players, okay?).

Is it getting boring or it is really getting slow?

I have now transfered to Porto Bello The Deck in pursuit of training and grinding better. It seems kinda slow and really hard to keep up since the mobs there pack a punch (not to mention crowded). My spellcasters (Wizard and Elementalist) cannot survive rapid mob hits. Also included is Lisa and Musketeer.

Well, looks like I'm in the part where this game will test my patience. I hope I can hold on to this virtue:

"Good things happen to those who wait"

Oh yeah, I decided to AFK because V for Vendetta is showing at HBO Asia in cable TV. I come back periodically to check on my characters and to my surprise a Level 64 Joaquin Comodo has been lured there! There's no way I could kill it in any possible way. Maybe my ATK rating is REALLY lower than it's DEF rating. Well, those anti-AFK'ers are up to their antics again.

Remember, remember, the 5th of November...