Kizmia's Island adventure

Yesterday I was alerted to the Pirates of Lok'Groton Lootin' Time which I had not attended for a few weeks because I didn't know it was still being held. I decided to leave the library in order to be a good pirate, unfortunately Stinkfist was no where to be seen. I was about to go back when Azel asked if I wanted to have a trip to Kizmia's Island. I hadn't been there in quite some time so I donned my Catsbane's Necklace and headed out.

The group consisted of Azel, Borzon, Brahtz, Ravenstorm, and myself. We started in Kizmia's Island Cove on the east part of the island and headed underground through the one-way path. Once there we hunted throughout the caves following Borzon's directions since he had a map. We even visited Groar's statue and its amazing glittering jewel.

Borzon wanted some tar for a future trip so we exited on the west side of the surface. We weren't able to spend much time there since Azel had to go, but we did scan a few of the snells in order to find the Albino Maha that can be turned into clothes or a rank (one-time only). The general consensus was that it was probably already found and killed, probably by Mujin-kun. We weren't able to find it regardless.

It was a great trip with enough challenge to not be boring and enough coins so that I started out with 2c and ended up with over 1,600c. Borzon and Azel also got some studies done.

I definitely noticed the improvement to my usefulness with the extra histia I trained over the past several months. If I was here with the 300 histia I had instead of the 450 histia I have now it would have been a lot riskier. Especially since at one point I got surrounded by junk and Lyfelidae and was getting low on health. Thankfully Ravenstorm came and freed me and I was able to get to safety to heal the fallen and myself. If I had only 300 histia I would have fallen and put the group at risk. After I finish getting to 400 faustus with AnDeux Faure I'll get to 500 histia before doing anything else. I thought I could avoid damage with proximus, and I did for a long time, but that's just not possible anymore.

I think I've said this a couple of times before and am sounding like a broken record. I just really like the extra health and how it keeps me from looking like a noob when I fall. Having fast reflexes and knowing where to run to avoid feraling mobs helps a lot too, but sometimes avoiding everything becomes impossible.

Kizmia's Island shouldn't be forgotten as a good place to hunt. It's great for experience for a long time, and if you have someone with good skea it's great for coins as well.

A Blind Amphibian was an odd sight.

Groar's statue hides secrets.

Glad to be there. ^_^

Random Estuary Screenshot

Talas likes Meshra a lot

We were talking about how annoying Flotsam Meshra are, which Talas is recently studying in order to get the morph. Talas is very excited about getting closer to morphing into them while the rest of us hate how they come in a group and feral everywhere.

I also turned on the settings option to have this post posted on Google+ which I thought would be automatically set to do it but I was wrong. Now Eviler Toaster can see how awesome Clan Lord is, especially compared to some Star Wars game. Who needs lightsabers when you have bloodblades, gossamers, and fell blades?

Estuary is still dangerous

Never let your guard down.

Azel's Estuary Team has been going to the Estuary for many months now and it's easy to forget how dangerous the place is.

Our rangers have completed many studies and morphs and with Mujin-kun's power and Lorikeet's durability one can be forgiven for assuming that nothing could possibly hurt us too badly.

Until today when we were in the newest area where the lizard boss resides. Mujin-kun had lured him out along with a few other beasts and it was already slightly difficult since there was so much stuff running around.

Suddenly Spicy Manders spawned everywhere. The above picture doesn't show just how many there were. Every free spot was filled with them and since they feral that meant that escape was nearly impossible. I chained a bunch and tried to run south where Lorikeet and Mujin-kun were, but there were just so many that I quickly fell.

I assumed it would be a depart but Mujin-kun found a healer in the library and got some other people to come out to rescue us. Fortunately this area is pretty close to the southern dock so it didn't take long for them to get to us. They were probably delayed by getting enough people out of the library and killing everything that spawned. Talas and I also poofed and came back much further south which also helped.

I don't think it was a natural spawn. Before the hunt started there was a huge spawn of Death Vermine in town which is also unnatural. I wonder if there will be future spawns of this type and what it could mean.

The perils of Ranger studies

I decided to quickly leave the library to verify Stylunk's correction of how it handles female Fen'neko hair dying and got pulled into an adventure.

At first it was just Gremlins, Eirian, Mork, and myself heading to the Basalt Passes (I'm not sure if this is the official name) on Metz. Seems that Mork wanted to study Ancient Greymyrs in order to get the full family bonus on Earth Elementals and had been working on it for quite some time.

There's an Ice Greymyr in the 8th-circle Fighter's Test, but you can't just study the Ice Greymyr and get 100% of your Gossamer bonus on it. There's actually a Captured Ice Greymyr in the test which means that you need to study other beasts in the same family in order to get a maximum of 50% of your Gossamer bonus with 5 studies. Ice Greymyrs are in the Earth Elemental family and there are very few of them which is why Mork wanted to study Ancient Greymyrs.

At first it went well and we made our way to the Basalt Passes with little difficulty. Then there were two greymyrs and a bunch of Twilight Wendecka and Gremlins and Mork went this way and that and both fell. I grabbed Eirian and fled to the cove only for her to have to leave.

At that point Stinkfist came on and I asked him to help. Baffina came along with Brahtz at her heels and then Eirian decided to come back. We slowly made our way to the Basalt Passes. Very slowly, even though we had more people and another healer. We made it to where we fell and I grabbed Gremlins and Mork and Brahtz and was heading south for a triumphant chain run victory when disaster struck. Suddenly there were Twilight Wendecka all around me and since I was too close to a wall there was nowhere for me to run to. I then fell and decided to depart along with everyone besides Stinkfist and Mork.

It went much better this time as we lured the Twilight Wendecka out and managed to kill them. Mork was difficult to raise but a potion got him up. Stinkfist was more badly fallen so Baffina got Great Pumpkin out of the library. I wondered why she couldn't have done that for Mork, but didn't say anything. Finally we could focus on the reason for the trip in the first place, Mork lastying Ancient Greymyr.

I directed Stinkfist to use Disable in order to make it easier for Mork to hit. The first greymyr didn't go smoothly since Stinkfist killed it even though it was on yellow. He was pretty surprised because he had his Bloodblade on Control mode. I reminded him that he did have 900 darkus. I also should have reminded him that yellow health is a huge percentage range so it could have been barely above red health, but I forgot.

With that lesson learned we lured the second greymyr and this time Stinkfist used Disable when it was at green health telling Mork to hit it right after he did. Stinkfist hit, the greymyr was surrounded with blood, Mork hit it, the greymyr fell down, and finally, victory.

It looks easier than it was.

More Fun in Estuary

Tabatha: Mirror Pond, Lorikeet: Bruised Sapphire, Azel: Floodwater, Moon Kitty: Gathering Dusk

Talas: Deluge

These are some of the pants you can get with a Caustic Gland (drops after you kill the Lord of the Undermarsh), Tangleberry, and 1500c. Both the name and the color are random, although he's only made shades of blue so far. You can see all of them on Stylunk, except for Deluge but it should be added soon.

Back to AnDeux Faure

Moon Kitty reached the 450 Higgrus mark a few days ago and is back with AnDeux Faure (2 respia to 1 faustus) until Faustus reaches the 400 message. After that I'll return to Higgrus until 500.

Borzon must be awesome at parties.

Lasties make hunts challenging.

Azel was afk and came back to this.

We fell to lack of oxygen. Sligh was never raised.

The first sighting of a Snowcat. Tabatha later learned the morph.

People still like hiding Stora. Why?

Himi Passes 2nd-circle Fighter's Test

Another milestone reached

I decided to get out of the library for a bit of exercise and training when I reached another milestone with Evus. I should have about 62.5 atkus training so I decided to try the 2nd-circle Fighter's Test.

Even though I still couldn't hit the feral dummy underneath the Fighter's Hall I realized that I had to wait until the ferals swung twice before I attacked, not once. After figuring that out defeating them was no problem at all. Aside from the usual whiffs. Atkus is evil!™

Easier than expected!

I tried the 3rd-circle Fighter's Test and defeated the two vermine easily but the two orga were much tougher. I couldn't defend against their blows or hit them even after they swung so it'll take a little while longer.

I went to see the next set of trainers even though I have no intention of ever training with them directly.

Detha: 10 - 19
Balthus: 50 - 99
Regia: 50 - 99
Darkus: 40 - 49

In addition to the 1st-circle Fighter trainers.

Atkus: 50 - 99
Swengus: 100 - 149
Histia: 50 - 99
Evus: 250 - 299

My total training is 50 skea and 250 - 299 evus. No languages, baking, brewing, pathfinding, or anything else besides pure fighter training.

My goal is 400 ranks with Evus before I decide to switch to Swengus for better balance or whether I stay with Evus.

Evus is awesome!

I've mostly been in the library studying up on the basics of fighting, and when I leave usually stick to the farms where I still dispatch rats and vermine.

It's rather relaxing and yet invigorating at the same time to be able to kill Giant Slugs and Giant Vermine that used to be such a bother whenever I wanted to explore. Now I don't have any fear of them at all.

So far I have between 200 and 249 Evus in addition to the 50 Skea I got right after I reset. I was going to keep detailed track of the skills that make up Evus, but found out Gorvin already did so and far better than I would have done. I decided to just focus on killing stuff.

Right now I have a little bit over 3 swings which is far reduced from the seemingly limitless amount I had before. On the other hand I rarely miss so the swings are more effective. I've also discovered that if I swing twice and run away to recover I don't get hit often so even though I don't have any Troilus I don't have to wait too long for my health to recover.

I knew the number of swings would decrease with the Atkus in Evus, I just didn't think they would decrease so quickly with so little training. At this point I'm going to keep with Evus until Atkus is at 100 trainings which should be at 400 Evus precisely. I'll evaluate the number of swings I have and will decide then whether to train with Swengus or not.

What's really great about Evus isn't his rank bonus (although that's great) or that he trains in 2nd-circle trainers before you can get access to them (any extra Detha and Darkus is great), but that he trains in a balanced way.

The way Jeanne trained in first-circle was to get a bit of Atkus when she needed to hit better, and then Swengus when she wanted more swings, and then Histia when she needed more defense. At each point she was weak until she could get caught up in what was holding her back. Even though I'm progressing slower by comparison I'm doing so in a much more even tempo. Maybe I'm not describing it well, but I feel a lot stronger than Jeanne did at this same level.

I still can't hit Ferals though, not even when they swing once.

Atkus is evil!