The 8th Skill to Hit 100 and Then Some

New Guild Map Exploration! I've just done an exploration write-up for a 15th guild map. This time it's Ozu! that got the treatment.





"Only" 4 more skills left that haven't hit a 3-digit number. Yeah, it's really an arbitrary goal considering 100 is just over 2% of the experience to maximum 179. I prefer not to think about that. ;-)

But since the last update, I did some school power-leveling for several more levels to hit 100 in Crafting.

You advanced to level 97-100 of crafting!

And with that, more God changes. Though two of the 4 skills left do not have gods, so new god thinking is more where they'll help most as I work on these 4 skills. Primary work is now focused on magic, and summoning. Tailoring and Ranging being worked on as best options to do so occur.

Otherwise, I've also taken myself out of the possibility of doing 140-limit invasions as both att and def are now 141.

You advanced to level 141 of attack!

The overall levels continue to roll in at their slow, slow speed as I get closer to the 179 limit...

Your overall level is now 172!

Being the number one alchemist is apparently not enough as well, I gotta continue to work on it in order to keep that spot. ;-)

You advanced to level 142 of alchemy!

Potion really hasn't been worked on, mostly just mixing what I need, be it creature food and its required extracts, or stocking my SRs.

You advanced to level 115 of potion!

I really do need to focus more on Summoning, seeing as I have the god, but recent times I've been off the game more often than on and unable to focus on it. I do of course continue doing the daily for it...

You advanced to level 79 of summoning!

I don't do invasions often... I'll sometimes search for stragglers in portal invasions so others can kick them or such, but I may start getting more involved in them later as I'm wanting to put my ranging to use. In a Melinis invasion not long back, I sat on the wall pinning a motherload of stuff to make it easier for the fighters to walk around and pick off critters. Once it was getting clear I spent some time ranging a few pinned ones, solo.







Oh yeah, started the last armor break quest, though I haven't been fighting enough to actually get it done at any good speed. I did, however, have my first break while doing a yeti daily.

And finally, the most expensive leveling I've ever done... started White Wizard Hats in the school on tailoring days. Once you're able to successfully mix 2 or more of the 22 or 23 that can be carried to the school in one trip, those become the cheapest method to level in the school despite all the critical fails.

So around level 76 I started mixing them in the school, despite them having a recommended level of 89. And it's working, albeit painfully. Since my last update, there's been two tailoring days that I was online to take advantage of at least partially, and 7 levels came from those.

You advanced to level 78-84 of tailoring!

Pear hunts have continued, when I've felt like it. Honestly they don't hold much interest for me anymore, especially now that the market for them is seriously dead. Radu really needs to give them another use as the Big Book market, which they were primarily used for, isn't anywhere near as big as it once was. If I hunt, it's more out of boredom now, the need to do something different than harv and mix. The count is now up to 874 finds. While I'd like to hit 1000 before I "retire" from it, cost effectiveness is a huge factor at this point, and unless the market changes for them, that's not gonna happen. I honestly can't recommend anyone get into the hunting game at this point, as you're going to find yourself losing gc in the long run.

Number One Bomb

Almost three months since last update... been off quite a bit, and on less hours than normal when I have been around. But still, did get a few things done.

Pear Hunts

Still doing these, though being offline I haven't hunted as often, and even when online I haven't bothered sometimes. Not as worth it as it used to be so it's not as big of a priority.

Despite that, grabbed another 107 pears since my last post in May, now up to 830 found.

Number One Engineer!

Managed to make time on a couple game days to mix up the massive stock of Treasure Finder ings in school on Engineering Days to get 6 more levels (117 to 122) in Engineering the past 3 months, and take the number one spot. Looks purty next to the number one alch dude. ;-)

While I'm sure I'll continue doing that as the ings are available, it's getting a lower priority as I focus more on my "all skills 100+" goal... which many will know is quite an endeavor considering there is still to this day no 100+ ranger. ;-)


But those Finders on special Eng day can make for some killer experience... though incredibly expensive at the same time. Takes some massive planning to do right. But in just one game day alone I ended up with experience like this for Eng:

Sweet, huh? And that's not really a full game day even. I do have to take regular breaks from that due to hand troubles that require me to rest them. I'm sure others could get much more.

 But days like that led to...

You advanced to level 117-122 of engineering!

Getting Attacky and Defensivey

The A/D levels continue to come in at a trickle. Dailies for those are done... daily, excluding when I've been completely away. I do kick a lot of random creatures, but I doubt that leads to any huge amount of experience, as it's not training.

But two defense levels and one attack level have been added. I'm now one level away from being too high for 140 cap invasions... so I can hunt pears if they show up on a 140 cap invasion map. ;-)

Priorities, heh.

You advanced to level 140 of attack!

You advanced to level 140-141 of defense!

New Dailies, New Summoning Levels

So two new dailies appeared these past few months. The first a "tailoring" daily that requires PvP/Pk. WTF... no, I'm not doing that one.

The next though, is a summoning daily... scrape up some critter parts, get experience. That one, I've been doing, and even did the first minute it was added. ;-)

I'd been working on Summoning though in general before the daily, and will continue to do so as it's one of my "god skills" until it hits 100.

So a good load of summon stones have been mixed, mostly on summon day.

But the daily is welcome, and will get done daily since it's easy experience.

The summon stone mixing gave me two more levels for the most part though... this second level happened on turning in the summoning daily for only the second time.

You advanced to level 77-78 of summoning!

ZOMG! Tailoring Levels!

It's been a while since I touched this skill. I'd read some books, but that's always slow-going. It was, at the time, the cheapest means to level the skill.

However, many calculations and tests later, I've realized that even with a massive amount of critical fails on white wizard hats, I can still get better and cheaper experience on a school or tailoring day with the low successes  than even with a book.

Those hats are a rec level of 89, and I started testing them at 74. As you can imagine, that's a serious number of crit fails, on something with ings that are over 650gc per hat.

Still, fully calculated, it's the cheapest means of leveling the skill, on school/tailor day, as long as a certain minimum number are successes out of a single carried batch to the school. If planning to level this skill, it would be a good idea to calculate that for yourself.

So after getting level 74 via a Big Book, a tailoring day appeared and I got levels 75-77 using it. Only a few hours of the day as I was definitely not prepared for it.

You advanced to level 74-77 of tailoring!

Sweet. It'll take a while, but I have plans to do some heavy stocking as I can afford it, and get this skill up pretty quick-like once that's done.

Getting Crafty

Crafting is still one of my other "god skills" with a 100+ goal. And I'm getting very close to reaching that goal which will lead to another god switch.

I've been leveling this skill by two means... primarily via poofing Blank Paper in school on school day, but I've also been making tons of C2 rings to sell on my bot, to some okay success.

Six levels (90 to 95) since my last update because of those two things.

You advanced to level 93 of crafting!

You advanced to level 95 of crafting!

The Overall Factor

Imagine that, these are hard to come by at this point. But they do still rarely happen. Only 8 more to go...

Your overall level is now 171!

Here Thar Be Treasure?

I haven't done much treasure hunting. Granted, there haven't been that many of late either. But I think this was my third treasure find. It's very random when it's placed, so if you think this image is a hint on where to look for a future one, you're wasting time, that's not the way to find it.

The End...

Currently expecting to continue to be out of the game as equally as I have been of late for the forseeable future. Something about actually having a real life or such.

But still around, and still have goals.

Summoning and Crafting as god skills will continue until 100 levels of each.

Stockpiling for tailoring, though limited due to gc of course.

Another Alchemy level is on its way, though more from just mixing for necessity than actually trying to level it.

Definitely going to be looking into ranging again, as I haven't touched it in quite a while. I've gotten both the major ranging perks now, so that should help.

Overall 170! About Pears. Invasions. And Several Levels.

A few topics before the levels...

LION Has Been Explored

Finally got around to putting together my next guild map exploration. This time, it's LION that I've invaded.

Exploring Guild Maps XII: LION

12 maps down...

So Where Are the Whiny Pear Hunters?

You know the routine. Someone's just too lazy or plain incompetent at something, so they whine and bitch about those who can do that something.

I held a contest once, just to get people to pear hunt.

It got found faster than hoped for.

Lately my pear stock's been pretty high, so I decided to just stop hunting for a while and focus on other stuff.

For over two weeks now, I haven't hunted it. So... those people who incessantly whined about how I always always finding them, so there was no point in them trying (which is not true), no longer had that excuse.

These two weeks have proven just how much shit they're full of. How many pears found since I quit hunting, at least 56 game days ago?

Three.

Now that this period has proven that they're full of shit, and just jealous that I'm not as lazy as them, they'll have no excuse when I eventually start hunting again.

Random Invasions

Since there's a been a bit more on the lines of "not just bethel or SKF" invasions, I've started showing up at a few of them.

Then there was the time there was a single invisible rat left, could be on any map on either continent, over 24 hours passed with noone finding it. Naturally, I had to go out and do the dirty work, er, the hunt, and track it down. ;-)

But that's Hunter Life...

And Oh Yes, The Levels

Your overall level is 170!

Hitting 170 is one those happy-go-"Doh!" moments. On the one hand, you realize the number of OA levels you have left is now down to the single digits.

On the other hand, 170 is only about 64.5% of the total experience needed to get to the top level 179. Still about 1/3 of the way to go.


Engineering continues to be "whenever have TF ings to poof in the school" as I have zero focus on it otherwise. I still try to stock to do at least some of those on Eng Day though, as the experience is massive. Even without the Eng God I still clock 42k experience per minute.

You advanced to level 116 of engineering!

Summoning being a god skill, it finally got a nice boost with this update, with three more levels.

You advanced to level 74-76 of summoning!

Crafting has been slow-going despite being another god skill, as I've been busy focusing on other things. But it's still going. I plan to hit it hard later. Even have a school day stone gathering dust in storage for it.

You advanced to level 89 of crafting!

Magic... happens.

You advanced to level 88 of magic!

As does a/d.

You advanced to level 139 of attack!

And back to the leveling. Though the next few days will mostly be harv stocking and essie mixing.

Jack of All Trades Turns 70

The more things change...

First things first, since it's the title of the blog entry and all that: Finally reached my goal of "all skills 70+" when I hit 70 in Ranging.

You advanced to level 70 of ranging!

Next up: All skills 75+ ... Ya know, that goal seems kinda never-ending ;)

Soloing Invaders

More levels later. Had some non-leveling goings on. Like, oh, this happened:

 

Invasion leftover, I managed to range it until it got onto the 45 a/d limit PK wall in Zirakinbar, and solo'd a blue dragon.

Was soloing Naspas without the aid of an a/d limit. Not the easiest task but I took on quite a few.

 

And while I can't take on an icy by myself with a sword, I certainly can pin him, at Ida storage no less, and arrow his ass to death. ;-)

So yes, it was a rare time when I actually participated in an invasion.

Invance... Me?

And an invance. My first in at least 6 months, if not longer.

That last pic has some nice experience in it, but not due to the invance. It was an Engineering Day, and I'd spent a couple hours before that in the Eng School.

 I half-fight, half-range those. Fight all the stuff up to giants, range when there's nothing left I can fight.

Buried Treasure

Also did another treasure hunt, found my second treasure:

Used F9 to mark where I'd checked for bags, thus the fires behind me ;-)

Speaking of finding stuff... this happened:

A pear and 4 Jokers in a row. That's a helluva poker hand.

Pear finds are up to 676, so 61 finds since my last update.

Redeemer Perk

A fourth redeemer perk was added, and I got it the same day. So I have all four.

And the Phoenix Flies

The mostly-forgotten Phoenix shapeshifting option still exists. Gotta admit, I have no clue when I'd ever actually use it. But since I'm an all-rounder, and it's something to level, I do on occasion "Phoenix out" and work on that level. Think 14 is the highest, and I've moved it up to level 9.

Oh Right, I Leveled Some Stuff, Too

Harvesting levels continue to come despite my not trying. Just the usual dailies, and harving whatever I happen to need.

You advanced to level 121 of harvesting!

Attack and Defense are still pretty much the same... dailies, though I do go out occasionally and continue to work on attempting to break stuff. This happened cashing in a daily:

You advanced to level 138 of attack!

I haven't done as much as I'd hoped working with my three God skills, but I did manage one level in one of them at least.

You advanced to level 88 of crafting!

Engineering levels are still happening, getting power-leveled on Eng Days whenever I have the ings to poof treasure finders in the school.

I haven't done as much as I'd hoped working with my three God skills, but I did manage one level in one of them at least.

You advanced to level 114 of engineering!

And last but definitely not least... while attempting to break some stuff (on creatures that happen to give "okay" a/d experience):

Your overall level is now 169!

That's all, folks! (And yeah, I got plans for more guild map visit entries, just haven't had time to put them together.)

Offline a Lot, Still Managing to Progress

Well, since last update, I've spent much less time than normal playing. Real-life among other things...

As well, spent a lot of that online time focusing on stuff that's not in my normal power-leveling mode. Harvesting stock, mixing minor crap like FEs and WEs... things that don't really bring the levels at my stage.

But still managed to make progress in a few skills despite that. But first...

The New EL Client Update

I was pushing earlier for a new incremental update for the EL client due to the incredible number of fixes and changes that had been done to the GIT code for it.

And it's about to happen! No date set yet, but communications with those working on it indicate we're only waiting for one thing to be finished and a release will be ready.

Besides the fixes to the client which anyone can already get via the GIT code, there's some map fixing done, as well as new stuff being added.

I am privy to some of the new stuff, but won't be providing that info since it was told in confidence. I'll only say "expect some new stuff". ;-)

Pear Hunts

While not the fun they used to be after all this time, I have continued to do them as they still provide a little extra gc despite their price drop. And I have a few "clients" who at least semi-regularly buy them now.

Having been offline a lot, my name hasn't appeared much in blue spam for them. And sometimes even if I'm online I haven't hunted simply due to being busy doing real-life things... only online to semi-afk harvest.

But on those times I've hunted since last update, I've had a 95% success rate. The other 5% being when it appeared on a map like White Stone which I never search, or it being unreachable. Only once of those times being found by someone else first, and that was a regular harver who sheer-luck stumbled on it while doing their normal harving, heh.

But generally not actually caring about it. As long as I have enough stock for my regular customers, I'm good to go.

Guild Maps

The response to the guild map writeups I've done so far (see the column to the right on this page) has been generally positive, even from guild members of said maps where members still exist.

Most just interested in getting to see the maps as they likely never will while playing.

Of those actually in the guilds, they seem content that while I've shown their map, I've not given any clues as to the map's location or even how to get around it where such things are secret. Nor have I provided that info elsewhere such as in-game. And yeah, I've had people use alts to test me with that.

There is, of course, the occasional idiot. (You can read one of them on the comments on the Limited Addiction map writeup comments. Includes of course my response showing them just how stupid they are.)

I have quite a few more maps to go, and as well I haven't stopped looking for others that I haven't found yet. So just because I haven't done a write-up doesn't mean I haven't found it, hehe. The writeups, complete with detailed screenshots, just take a while.

Meanwhile, During Game Play

Getting Crafty

Being one of the three gods I have these days, and one of my under-100 skills, Crafting is one of my main priorities these days.

As such, it has probably gotten the most attention in my limited gameplay of late.

Five levels in it since last update. School Days of course played a large part of that, poofing Paper in the school as I had the ings for it.

But I've done some normal crafting as well. My bot's been doing a good job of selling various C2 rings, so I have mixed those as needed to keep it stocked.

You advanced to level 83-87 of crafting!

Thar Be Treasure in the Eng School!

I do try to keep a stock of treasure finder ings when I can. Despite my no longer focusing on this skill, it's still good for leveling, working towards overall levels.
Which led to two more levels on a recent Eng day, just poofing what I had stock for, not using the entire game day.

You advanced to level 112-113 of engineering!

Oh Right, Those Combat Levels

Still not focused on combat. Still doing dailies every day. I can be seen kicking stuff occasionally outside of dailies, but that's normally more for trying to break whatever I'm wearing so not exactly best experience for the time.
Still... these happen.

You advanced to level 138 of defense!

That's All, Folks...

Limited game play makes for limited levels, especially when trying to get as high of levels as I am working on in most skills.