Two Years of EL!

I don't recall the exact date of when I started playing, only that it was around the end of April/beginning of May in 2008. So this is approximate. ;)

I did a "One Year of EL" entry last year, and this is the follow-up. Basically seeing how far I've come along since then.

Not as far as I could have, I guess, since I was pretty much out of EL for about two months this year, and at least another month or so I was only sporadically logging in.

As an all-rounder, I look at everything of course. So this entry will likely be quite long. :)

Skills

Attack/Defense (111/111) (since last year: +19/+20)

Training continues to be a sporadic thing for me. I have to really be in the mood to do it. There were periods over the past year that I did a lot of it though.

I currently train on Desert Chims. Forest chims can be trained on during good astro at least, but I don't mess with them much for now.

I'd been doing up to 4 DCs at a time in Bethel when they were available. Kinda stopped after I hit the ignore level for them though. Yeah, I can use mana drain and such to get multi, but I can't be bothered. At least, not for now.

Of late, my a/d experience has been coming primarily from Haidir daily quests.


Harvest (101) (since last year: +12)

I actively got harv points whenever I could, up until I hit harv 100. Since then, I've pretty much stopped caring about leveling this skill, so I just take points off whatever I happen to be harvesting at the time, no matter how low points they are.

Also doing 2 harvest daily quests every day I'm in the game now, to help compensate for that.

But this skill is essentially dead to me now that I've hit the highest rec level for any item.


Alchemy (118) (since last year: +14)

I was heavily alching for a long time to get myself up to this level. As of this writing the only skill I am a top 10 player in.

My alching the past year consisted primarily of HEs, silver bars for own use for crafting, and iron/steel bars for making S2Es. I of course did other alching as needed.

These days, my primary alching is HEs (which I tend to sell quite a many of on my bot), and silver bars for crafting, as I have the crafting god.

I have abandoned making FEs completely, buying them instead via my bot as needed. WEs are semi-abandoned. My bot buys them, and that tends to keep me stocked, but I'll make some if I need them.


Magic (72) (since last year: +19)

I got the magic god for quite a while, and did some heavy leveling of this skill during that time.

My preferred means of leveling this skill was a combination of mana drain and radiation shields.

I would do a radiation shield, then mana drain a grizzly in Nordcarn. And repeat. This also set me up with a nice stock of bear furs for eventual summon use making stones.

I am no longer doing this, focusing on other skills for now.


Potion (105) (since last year: +10)

My first year of play, potioning got a heavy priority, and was pretty quickly leveled.

That spilled over to this year, but then I dropped the goddess in order to work on other skills.

These days, I only do stuff "as needed". This primarily means SRs, both for sale on my bot, and my own stock which is needed for summon stones.



Summoning (51) (since last year: +22)

This is one of the skills that I currently have the God for. A good thing considering the amount of work involved just to get this skill leveled.

I have been mixing bear summon stones with furs I gained leveling magic. I should shortly be moving up to making spider stones.

Actual summoning is a rare occurance, mostly when I'm bored.


Manufacturing (71) (since last year: +7)

I've paid very little attention to this skill the past year. A couple times I intentionally went for a level. Others I used the School Day for triple exp to get levels.

But in general, not really working on this skill.

Not because I don't want to, just that it's high enough for the time being and I've had other gc-sink skills to work on. ;)

I do plan to do a boost for this skill at some point in the near future, likely taking the god again in the process.

But besides making my own S2Es, I've done very little outside of the usual leather helms for leveling.


Crafting (67) (since last year: +26)

A skill I've more heavily worked on this past year. I've had the Crafting god for quite a while now.

My primary means of leveling is the combo of polished sapphires, silver medallions, and finally moon medallions. This combo, with lots of self-harvesting, allows for leveling to be a positive gc experience.

As well, I've been almost non-stop reading Crafting experience books, esp. since I have the god which means an extra 16% experience off the books as well.

The plan is to continue leveling this, at the least up to level 80, though making it my next 100+ skill may lead to continuing to have the god for quite a while.


Engineering (55) (since last year: +18)

Another decently-leveled skill the past year. I've had the engineering god for a while now, and plan to keep him until at least level 80, particularly because of how much it cost to get this god in the first place.

Primary means of leveling: ashes-saltpetre. The saltpetre eventually gets good use in making dyes for tailoring.

I also do indicator stone projects on occasion, though I have to be really in the mood to do that as I self-harv the turquoise which leads to that being a very slow way to level.


Tailoring (37) (since last year: +10)

This is a frikkin' hard skill to level! I made sure to get a level or two on occasion though, as it is my lowest-leveled skill which is a nasty sight to an all-rounder like myself.

At this very point in my game play, I'm actually focusing on getting 3 more levels, in order to accomplish a goal of getting all my skills at 40+.

Blue dyes are pretty much exclusively made. I have 150k BSFs in storage for making them.



Ranging (44) (since last year: +10)

My second-lowest-leveled skill. Not as difficult as tailoring to level, just requires a motherload of gc which I rarely have.

I train exclusively in the Grubani ranging arena. And on the Ranging special day, I'm always found there if I'm online at all.

I've gotten my Archery AP up to 30 now, halfway to maximum, and planning to continue raising it all the way up to 60.



Shapeshifting

I was a fully leveled mule already this time last year.

The phoenix has been introduced since. It was introduced just before I left the game for a couple months though. And as well, the glyphs aren't makeable still so I have only used one due to their cost. With which I overnighted to get my first phoenix level, possibly second as I didn't see my level before I ran out of food.

Planning to fully level the phoenix though, of course. Part of being an all-rounder. :P


Guilds

Last year, I'd had a "non-guild" I created called Lonr. For loners only, people who prefer to play on their own and just want a tag so people will stop asking them to join guilds.

I grew tired of that, gave the non-guild away to someone else who was using it, and have been guildless since.

And no intention of joining any guild anytime soon. I play quite well on my own.


Moderator

I was asked to (and accepted the offer to) become a game moderator. I'm currently a "low-level" moderator, which gives me access to some commands. I am always on the lookout for any issues that may require a moderator, but they're fortunately not that often so most of the time I end up watching various chats and making sure questions in help channels get answered.




Well, that's about it, I think. Until next year...