Pears and Gods and OAs and Alchemies and Other Goodies

'Tis been some good levels since last update. Alchemy is still on a roll, OA of course moving up, and more... and a decision on the gods causing a plan change.

But first...

The Pears Continue

Pear finds are now up to 463. Still over 60% found when hunted which allows them to remain at a profitable level. There's of course been periods where my name showed up a lot as finding it, and others not so much. (That has more to do with real-life than anything else... during times I'm not finding many I'm spending a lot more time out of the game, thus not hunting. Add to that the under-40% of times I just don't find it.)

I've been asked two things regularly. Granted, I've grown very tired of pear talk and I don't respond to PMs about it anymore. But since these two things come up frequently, I'll mention them here.

And BTW, if you are hunting or trying hunting, don't expect me to be chatting with you. I ignore all chat during hunts. I'm focused, and as well with some health issues that affect my hands, I can't chat and be running around trying to hunt at the same time.

Besides that, you're the competition. Just because I wrote the ultimate guide to pear hunting doesn't mean I'm going to help you in any way mid-hunt.

(I'm also not going to chat about "where it was" or "is it harvestable?" or such once I'm done... I've been doing this a very long time. It may be new to you, but I grew weary of that a very long time ago and won't respond. I'm on to doing other things or going afk the second I finish hunting.)

1. Are they profitable?

What's a profitable level for pears? I did the calculations during my first few hundred hunts, both when they were found and not found. It's very important to include all the time and finders and essences and hax food used when you don't find it in your calculations to determine the average per found pear.

Profitable: When it can be sold for more than the cost of the pear finders used on all hunts, whether found or not, as well as covers the value of the time wasted, both when found and not.

That of course is when you hunt solo. Keep track of the time you use on every hunt as well as all finders used (whether you find the pear or not). Average those out. Requires a good 50-60 hunts to get a good average. Determine the current pear sale price. If a team, split that price equally.

Now... having done that, calculate the total time you spent hunting, and the cost of the finders and other things needed while hunting. Determine how much iron ore you could have harved and sold in that time. Is the value of that equal to or better than the profit you get from selling pears, after finder cost, essences, food if haxed, and so on?

As a team you have to split the profit... at its current value, definitely not worth it in the long run. Maybe back when they sold for 70kgc as they did when I first started hunting, but I've since forced the price down via my bot to 45kgc. Which is still profitable. For a solo hunter. I dunno what the price would need to be for two or more as a team, since I never considered the team option.

That's why I always fly solo. (And well, giggle a little when teams occasionally appear, as they have done a few times. They drop out pretty quick when they realize it's not profitable to continue. Larger the team, the worse it gets for them.)

The basic gist is: Including time/finders used when you didn't find it, is the pear value more than what you would have made in the same time doing your most profitable thing? Or just harving iron ore or gypsum to sell if you don't know what to compare to.

Oh right, and definitely not worth it if you don't have your own ability to use the pears, or people you have a working relationship with to sell pears to. There's very few people in the game who can use these, and less who actually do. Those who do tend to already have their sources, like me. Selling to just random people at this point simply doesn't work, unless and until a new use for them is added.

I'd have quit hunting long ago if it weren't for my own occasional use, as well as "working relationships" to sell to.

2. Can I team up with you?

Generally asked by newbie hunters who don't really know what they're doing, usually after doing a couple unsuccessful attempts...

Absolutely not. First off, I've been guildless the overwhelming majority of my time playing for a reason: I don't have to depend on others or have them depend on me. Thus I can do things at my own pace, and always be doing what I want, not what needs to be done for the guild or such. I answer to noone but myself.

I won't team up with anyone to pear hunt for several reasons.

1) Basically the same as why I'm guildless. I enjoy finding it on my own. And with my current patterns and such, another person would just end up in my way. With 463 finds as of this post, I think I'm doing just fine without help.

2) As I explained above, it's difficult if not impossible for pear hunts to be profitable as a team. Every team that tries eventually gives up because of that. It's costly in both time and gc. With other competition, unreachable pear days, and so on, keeping the hunt at a pace that doesn't make you lose money is difficult even by yourself.

3) I have spent a massive amount of time learning the maps, inside and out, in very thorough detail. I know that the chances of me missing a harvestable on a map are damn near zero. I can't be assured a "teammate" has done the same and won't end up missing a lot. Especially when those wanting to team up are usually nowhere close to being long-time players. I'd just find myself going over the areas they did myself. Not worth it.

Okay, as I said, I've bored of pear talk, just wanted to clear up those two things that seem to come up often.

The Gods Have Gone a Bit Nuts

I've been on manu, alch, and magic gods for quite a long while. But I realized for the last one that I just didn't have it in me to keep trying to force-level magic at this time. I wanted to do other things.

So, I dropped the magic god.

Manu and Alch remain of those three. I still have a way to go before I'll drop alch. But manu... two more school days where I'm stocked for a full day of mixing and I'm done with it.

So replace magic with? Another thing I learned is that my build is finally up to a point where I can very decently handle a double frost troll spawn. Seeing as it's been an incredibly long time since I've done any a/d training, relying almost solely on dailies for levels, I decided it was time to maybe get back into that for a while.

I wanted to continue to focus on alch and manu mix-wise, so rather than get another mix god this time, I went with defense. (Attack is an enemy of Alchemy, so that wasn't an option.)

I've since used a couple Tzu days on a double frost spawn with some very nice results. Hell, I've even hit the double spawns on normal days as they're decent experience then as well.

But yeah... now my gods are: Manu, Alchemy, Defense

Next step: Due to the Alchemy god, switching gods after this will be problematic until I reach my goal in that skill. I may switch manu to magic once I hit 100 in that skill, if just temporarily until I can get into crafting (alchemy enemy) and summoning (defense enemy).

Redeemer Perks

Two new redeemer perks (so far), and with tons of harving in between, I've gotten both...

Here We Go Again... LevelMania Continues

Alchemy - Surprisingly the last level got done mostly outside of school. Doesn't mean I was never in the school though, hehe. I need two more school days for Manu so manu will get priority on future school days until it's complete.

You advanced to level 138 of alchemy!

Magic - Dropped the god, but got this beforehand. I'll continue leveling it, just without the help of the god for now. When I feel like it. I do still have a goal to get it to 100, it's just been de-prioritized.

You advanced to level 85 of magic!

Overall Levels - These have been coming along nicely despite how high I am. Yeah, they're painful to look at when trying to get them though... 164 occured on a School Day, 165 while I was training on Sun Tzu.

Your overall level is now 164!

Your overall level is now 165!

Engineering - While I don't focus on it these days, I do still collect my amber when my Action Points allow for it. And I'll gather the rest of the ings to use that amber in the school.

You advanced to level 104 of engineering!

Tailoring - I really need to stock up and work on this. No god to play with so I forget about it. But I have read a few books for it lately.

You advanced to level 70 of tailoring!

Harvesting - A long-forgotten skill. I do the dailies, occasionally I'll take advantage of 3x days if I happen to need something higher level (like yew for engineering), but generally I don't do anything for this skill, just harvest what I need regardless of the harv points.

You advanced to level 117 of harvesting!

Manufacturing - Almost done with the god. Besides this level, I'm actually only a handful of helms from the next level as well.

You advanced to level 97 of manufacturing!

And finally, as I said I took the Defense god just recently. So I actually am doing some training on occasion now. Still mostly leveling via dailies though.

You advanced to level 133 of defense!

You advanced to level 133 of attack!

You advanced to level 134 of defense!

You advanced to level 134 of attack!

Yup, that's it for now. No summoning, no crafting... but both of those will be attacked hard soon enough, once I'm done with my current gods.