My Point Is Defense

My point is defense... and no, I don't mean I've been leveling my defense. ;-)

Priority seems to have taken a sudden change since the last update.

God Change - Having determined I could do some really heavy leveling in it now, I chose to drop the Potion goddess and take up the Engineering god again. And did so.

Current gods now: Alchemy, Manufacturing, Engineering

Massive Engineering Leveling

The method: Mixing Energy Essence in the Bethel Feros cave. Heavily stocked tiger lilly in Naralik first. Using the iron and silver in the cave, mix 550 per trip. Repeat.

For bone powders, I've been trying to hit the PWs daily. On a full run, mixing bone powders while waiting for them to respawn, I can get about 650 bone powders or so per trip. And well, the normal 10-12 S2Es and collection of AEs is nice, too, heh. Oh yeah, and the gc. Can't forget that.

Together, they make Point Defense.

As such, I've been stocking up, and mixing those in the Eng school on both Eng days and School days.

It's paid off as seen below. I started off with a huge number of critical fails, but even still it was the cheapest and quickest method to leveling, the ing loss not bothering me so much since, well, as shown above it wasn't costing me much but a little extra time.

The Plan: Continue these through level 80. Around then I'll start testing Failure Predictors, though I expect the "fails" will have me continuing Point Defense up to level 90.

Engineering is expected to be my 6th 100+ skill at this rate.


Achievements: And I got the "Medium Level Killer - Rank 1" achievement from spending all that time kicking PWs (with gargs and skeles on the side when I felt like it).


Other Projects: So much I wanna do, but since it all takes time, just working on them as I can.

1- S2Es - Besides from the PWs I've been kicking, I'm working on collecting ings to mix them myself as well. I need several Nexus to be a true all-rounder that has the ability to do everything. Specifically, I'll need two more artificial nexus to have the ability to finish the Engineering tutorial (to mix the Night Visor). My aim is to buy those through hydro projects. I'm currently halfway to buying my next nexus.

2- Essies and Potions stock - I plan to have a stock of (almost) all essies and potions for an "Ing Exchange" I'll be setting up... I'll provide finished product for ings + food. Common and less common essies and potions will be available for that. Only a few will be left out for specific reasons... Spirit Essence for example is much cheaper to buy from the magic shops than to get the ings for.

This means mixing anywhere from 2k up to 20k of each planned essence, the number determined by their demand.

If this works with essies and pots, I may expand it to include bars, as well as manu and eng items.


And of course, I gotta do some stuff to keep up the gc to afford to burn stuff off at schools, so gotta take time for earning that as well.


At any rate, here's the levels since the last post, in order...

Ranging - Haven't focused on but took some time on a ranging day to finish off a level.

You advanced to level 48 of ranging!

After which, the first wave of Eng-mania started. A school day resulted in:

You advanced to level 67 of engineering!

You advanced to level 68 of engineering!

You advanced to level 69 of engineering!

3 Eng levels, and the school day wasn't over. I wanted to take advantage of the final hour, so rushed over to Glacmor to do something I hadn't paid any attention to in quite a while... Crafting.

I didn't have enough sapphires to do the normal polished saps in the school. However I did have plenty of emeralds, so did as many saps as I had and switched to emeralds for the final two trips to the school.

You advanced to level 70 of crafting!

It would be several more days before I'd be leveling again. Doing the usual dailies, restocking Point Defense ings in Bethel feros cave and hitting PWs...

Then an Engineering day came. I was ready. I'd also stocked some ings in a hidden-away hyperbag for 800 H/D indicators, and did those first.

You advanced to level 70 of engineering!

[No image to keep the location undisclosed. Not that there's anything there now.]

You advanced to level 71 of engineering!

You advanced to level 72 of engineering!

You advanced to level 73 of engineering!

And that's just the way my Eng levels roll. ;-)

Well, those last 4 levels also included getting the Eng tutorial started. Did everything on it from start up to just before magic arrows, the first item to require a rare ingredient. I need to stockpile my rare ings before I can continue it.


Oh yeah, it's not all mixing. Still get dailies done, and do the occasional Lenny/Joker combo hunt...

Holy Crap, That's a Lotta Power-Levels!

Well, I went from "regaining my bearings" to mad number increments quik enough...

In order:

Sun Tzu, kicked a bunch of Desert Chims around...

You advanced to level 123 of attack!

Definitely taking advantage of special days... woke up to a summoner's day, and having already worked on stock for bear stones, this was easy enough.

You advanced to level 52 of summoning!

I can't recall just how long ago it was I got a summon level, but it's been quite a long time.


Randomness occured, I decided to hit a few other skills that hadn't been getting much attention.

You advanced to level 42 of tailoring!

You advanced to level 65 of engineering!

And then came a School Day, something I'd been waiting for to get to work on Manufacturing, since I had that god sitting there twiddling his thumbs. No more. Many leather and thread died that day.

You advanced to level 76 of manufacturing!

You advanced to level 77 of manufacturing!

Still having time left on that school day, I went ahead and started the Tailoring tutorial in Glacmor. Got the first 17 parts of it done. Saving the rest for higher levels as I'm nowhere near high enough to finish it. But that got me close to a Tailor level.

I then wasted away what time was left mixing some point defense in the Engineering school, getting about half a level there.


After which, being so close to leveling was too tempting, so I went ahead and finished the tailoring level off.

You advanced to level 43 of tailoring!

INVASION - A no-rostogol day had a c2 portal invasion. The portal was closed off for a while when creatures were being released, so they could have time to spread out to maps. I played a moderator role, ensuring noone entered, and instantly removing anyone who did.

But it was an interesting sight up there...










Fun and games over, it was time to get back to leveling business.

The alcher in me just couldn't resist this gem of a level.

You advanced to level 128 of alchemy!

Which as of this post, made me the #5 alchemist in the game overall. Nice.


No, I didn't stop there (yeah, I know, holy crap there's a lot of pictures, hehe).

An engineering day. I couldn't resist finishing off another level.

You advanced to level 66 of engineering!

I didn't use much of that special day. It was very late and I was about to go to bed when it started. So I only went in long enough to finish off a level, which didn't need much.


But the next day, I woke up to Sun Tzu again. I was 2 million experience away from an overall level, and couldn't resist spending the day kicking chims for it.

Your overall level is now 154!

Cheesus, I'm getting tired of writing and uploading pics. ;-)

But it's not over yet. That leads up to the final one. This morning, I had the Yeti daily from Haidir. The award made me all sparkly again.

You advanced to level 124 of defense!

*phew* Okay, enough pics!


What else? Well, those bone powders being poofed for engineering (point defense) didn't come from nowhere. Those were the result of spending a good chunk of time kicking PWs for bones, grinding them on the spot so I could stay and grab bones longer.

One unsuccessful treasure hunt.

Won the lottery yesterday. 45kgc. Considering 4 tickets were mine, it's a minor profit, but also considering I normally seed the pot with up to 20kgc every week, I'm still at a big loss on that.


The next few days may see me just harving. I need a lot of stock. Of course I'll likely get bored and end up doing something else, but oh well.

The Method to My Alching Madness

As of this post, I'm about 80% of the way to Alch 128. Alch mixing stats thus far:




My Alch Guide: Many moons ago, I wrote a personal-experience guide to alchemy items and leveling. I have just updated it, though not so much has changed since I originally wrote it.

You'll find it here: Burn's Alch Guide


About Power Leveling

There's a tendency to think that if something gives higher experience, it must be the thing to level on. Thus, many use bars and magic essence to level.

Not so here. I do make bars, but only for actual use... I have done S2E projects in the past, I need them for ring crafting, and so on. I did use magic essence at one point to level, but as can be seen by the mere 236k of them mixed, I didn't stick to that.

I generally make what I need. The only thing I've been known for when it comes to sales is the thing that I use to level... health essence.

And those are the #1 mixed item by a huge margin. Why? Harv mums myself, and use a combo of buying and harving silver (mostly buying). Mix, easy sales, repeat.

Experience isn't the only factor in deciding what to use to level. Power leveling a mix skill means you need to find something to mix where the ingredients are easily obtainable. Silver is a heavily harved (for sale) item.

Compare to magic essence... emeralds and lilacs are not generally seen on market. The only real way to level using those is to self-harv. While cheaper, and the magic shop will buy all your excess magic essies for an okay price, this is incredibly slow. Leveling? Yes. Power leveling? Not even close.

Am I saying Health Essence is the only way to go? Absolutely not. Perhaps you're in a guild with a lot of harvers that sell other ings to guild members. What I'm saying is take everything into consideration:

1- Experience - LEs can be as easily made as HEs, but HEs are better experience.
2- Ing Access - Can you quickly and easily get access to the ings that are necessary?
3- Cost/Sellability - Having easy access to buying gold isn't going to do you a world of good when gold bars are rarely bought. You need to ensure you can both be rid of the finished product, and as well in a way where you're not losing gc in the process.
4- Your Skill Level - Don't expect to make something for profit without self-harving for at least 30-40 levels above the recommended level for the item. There's a comparability to combat training here... You may be the same a/d as a mountain chim, but for easy training without depleting your HE stash and less armor breakage, you're more likely to train on a desert chim.

In my personal case, I found means to efficiently get the ings, make, and sell what is one of the most popular and used alch items available. And well, at my alch level, I didn't have to worry about step 4, heh.


My Alching

As a Jack of All Trades, I try to level everything. Alch being the base for many other skills (crafting needs essies and bars, manu needs bars, tailoring needs essies, magic needs... you get it), I mix what I need when I'm not looking to mix just for power-leveling.

Thus my alch list looks like it does above. A quick overview of how the top 10 items got there. There's of course other reasons to make each, but these are the primary ones:

1- Health Essence - Power leveling, plus of course my own training.

2- Fire Essence - Not done much anymore, this will drop in the list some day. But of course, for bars. And Ashes for engineering. I'm more likely to buy these nowadays though.

3- Energy Essence - I teleport a LOT. I also have sold these on occasion.

4- Magic Essence - Early attempts at power leveling. These days I normally only make them when I plan to magic train using radiation shields.

5- Life Essence - Normally only made when I do my occasional attempts to level summoning. That being done by mixing summon stones which require tons of these.

6- Air Essence - For my rare attempts at magic leveling. (I don't pk/pvp, so I mana drain bears, then radiation shield to use up the drained mana). I would never make these to sell, too much wasted time on the diamonds.

7- Steel Bar - Mostly thanks to my occasional S2E projects, working on buying a nexus. Though most of my S2Es these days come from phantom warriors so mixing these is a rarity of late.

8- Water Essence - A combination of my days of crafting (polishing gems), but these days more likely being made for dyes for leveling tailoring. (Actually, I hate making these, so there are times I'll mix other things for profit, and use that profit to buy WEs instead from the magic shop.)

9- Matter Essence - For some reason in my more newb days I thought these would be good to level on and sell. I got over that quick enough. These days I'll every other month or so set aside some time to bag mix 850 or so of these in the feros cave at once, primarily to have a stock for teleporting magic. Otherwise I generally don't touch these.

10- Earth Essence - A dying one on the list, at one time I used to make batches of matter conglomerates (which also explains the matter essence count). I can't remember the last time I did those though. These just don't get made anymore.

Regaining My Bearings

It's been so long of a break that it's taking a while to adapt back to playing. As such, I'm focusing less on the power-leveling I normally strive for, and just doing random things until it all comes naturally again.


Breaking Quests - For one thing, I've been playing around with breaking gear. I'm still on trying to break all the great swords as well as only on the steel set for the gear breaking quests. Thus far, the steel plate broke yesterday. Still got the rest of the steel to go though.


Alchemy/Potion for Magic for Summoning - I wasn't really touching summoning, not in quite a long time. However, something that would get me touching several skills for one project would be to do a level's worth of bear summoning stones.

To that end, I've:
1- Mixed enough life essences and SRs for the needed number of bear stones.
2- Mixed essences to do both mana drain and radiation shield spells.
3- Used those to collect bear furs, with some magic training in the process.(*)

And now the wait... my astro is bad as of this writing, so I won't do any mixing other than alch and pot where my levels are so high that astro doesn't matter. Once better, it'll be hitting the gypsum to finally mix the stones themselves. I don't intend to continue a focus on summoning, just getting one level while I get back up to speed with the game.

(*) - Magic training on grizzly bears - I hit a spawn, use a radiation shield (30 mana), mana drain the bear (30 mana) and kill it, repeat. I get furs and between the two spells, 486 magic exp per bear. I've mentioned this method many moons ago in this blog as an alternative for those who don't pk or pvp such as myself.

In this case, I did this 150 times for 150 furs.

Other things done since last post have included stocking random harvestables that I know I'll need later, making a personal stock of HEs and SRs, and other minor things. But primarily, keeping my storage window open to study what all I have, as there's a lot to dig through, and that in turn will lead to what I do next.

Current plans: Do the bear stones, which will mean many gypsum runs. And work on getting some gc, which is kinda low. I'm considering a possible S2E project, as it's been a long time since I bought a nexus, but I wanna get my gc up before that.

IWannaRock - My bot expired just as I went off in December. Within the next month or two I hope to bring him back. Meanwhile, he's off.

Ooops, Burn returned, hehe

Spent 6 months away... comp died, leaving me with only a laptop that couldn't handle EL, and a lack of funds to get a better comp that I could play on. Well, that's finally dealt with!

Day 2 of my return now. It took me quite a while just to try and remember what I was doing before I left, as well as catch up on everything new. Frost trolls... haven't tried them yet but look interesting.

New perk Dedicated Harvester - at only 10kgc, no pickpoints needed, and the fact that I never harvest without a harv medallion, this was a no-brainer to immediately take.

Hello Lenny! - While trying to regain my bearings, getting used to the maps and what to wear and kicking critters and mixing and stuff, I decided to go for a stroll at night on c2 and see if I could find my favorite kitty. He died before we could play long though... :-(






First Level in half a year! - Was close to a harv level, and the triple harv exp day showed up. Combined with the new Dedicated Harvester perk and a rare sitting at dung, I quickly hit it.

You advanced to level 109 of harvest!

The Potioner in Me - I finally figured out what I was doing in December the long way... I needed to stock leather, thread, and wine. Things I usually do via mule, but I noticed I was out of creature food. I decided to make creature food, only to notice I already had all the flowers to mix 3k of it. Aha, that's what I was working on!

So I mixed those, and muled up to stock up. Today, I added to that by stocking my SRs (2k) and mixing some BRs for gc since I had the ings for them (and I was close to leveling after the CF/extract mixing).

You advanced to level 110 of potion!

Where to go from here? Well, I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things, so focusing mostly on stocking needed supplies, by purchase or by mixing. My gods lie in alchemy, potion, and manu so I'll be looking mostly at those three skills, though I'm considering getting some levels in a few others. I would like to get all skills 50+, which would mean 3 more ranging levels and 9 more in tailoring, but at least the latter would take a while due to cost.