Seventh 100+ Skill Reached, Changing of the Gods

Before the break, I did some leveling of course since the last update here, but decided to not bother posting those. Instead, just focusing on things since my return.

New Computer

Since the break, I've gotten a new computer. Put together piece by piece, all parts individually studied and chosen in order to get the best at what I could afford, which was a limiting factor. The end result was a very nice setup that is a good 4-5 times better than an equivalently priced computer that's sold whole.

I'm no longer, after all these years, playing in almost-poor-man mode with a max of 20fps that crawled down to 10 in forests or MM. I can now have full high graphics on with no FPS-killing in even the worst areas. (I am intentionally limiting the FPS to 30 though, which is more than enough and doesn't affect me doing other non-game stuff. It can go much higher than that. 60 fps while sitting mixing at Naralik sto, for example.)

At any rate, it'll also make for nicer screenshots in the future.

Pear Hunts

I have done a few hunts since my return. As of this post I've found every pear I hunted for with the exception of one that was unreachable.

But I don't intend to return to regularly hunting. They're still not worth it due to low sales.

Did it mostly just to test my new computer, and as well get used to the higher graphics... shadows, fog, water, etc... feels almost like playing a brand new game, hehe.

Future hunts when done will mostly be out of boredom. Changing plans as I go into below will limit that anyway. Lots to do, and stopping every 6 hours will be more an annoyance than anything, esp. considering it's not really worth doing.

Tailoring Day

Having just returned, I had left not really prepared for anything. So when tailoring day arrived, I had just enough to take advantage of about an hour of it.

You advanced to level 72 of tailoring!

School Day - Manufaturing Level 100

I used another school day stone, as I have a past habit of doing. And with it, I finally reached my manufacturing goal.

You advanced to level 100 of manufacturing!

Yee-ha, unless I get to the point where I want to attempt to be #1 in the skill, which I have no intention of at this time, I won't be spending any more school days doing Manu.

After finishing off the bag I was sitting on in the pic, I spent the rest of the day in Alchemy school. As of this writing I'm 6.5 million experience away from my goal in that skill.

Changing of the Gods

With my manufacturing goal reached, it was time for a gods change.

I had Manu, Defense, and Alchemy gods.

Crafting and Summoning are my big "have-gods" skills that I wanted to move to, both having been mostly ignored for years now.

In order to take Crafting, I have to drop Alchemy. As I mentioned I still have 6.5 million exp to go to reach my goal in Alch, so I didn't want to do that yet.

So Summoning: For it, I had to drop both Manu and Defense gods.

So I did, and now have the Summoning god.

That leaves me with two gods currently, Summon and Alchemy. I'm working on items to soon take the Potion goddess as the third.

Once my Alchemy goal is reached, I'll finally drop that goddess and replace her with Crafting.

So after my Alchemy goal is reached, I'll have: Summoning, Crafting, Potion

Taking Summon God for a Test Drive

I have plans in place to work on summoning. There's simpler methods but they're much more expensive, and I really don't have the gc for that.

I'll see how my plans go before discussing them. Meanwhile, I spent some time yesterday finishing off one summon level, using spider stones since I had a massive excess of thread.

Did one final Tiger Stone at storage, as I only needed to mix one to finish off the level and didn't wanna do another gypsum bagmix trip just for that.

You advanced to level 61 of summoning!

"Only" 39 more summon levels to go for that goal.

The Near Future

My game play will be changing a lot over the coming month. Primarily as I finally reach goals in skills that are leading to changing all three of my gods.

Primary future goals:

1. Finish off Alchemy level (6.5 million to go)
2. Get Potion Goddess
3. Change Alchemy Goddess to Crafting God
4. Stock for Summon Days, work on summon mixing at the same time (can't just rely on special days)
5. Stock for Potions and Crafting for school days.
6. SR mixing like a MoFo after I take the Potion god, for mixing summon stones
7. LE mixing like a MoFo for summon stones
8. Stone mixing at gypsum only, saving gypsum I return to sto with for summon days.

Yeah, that's more than enough. I'm stocked with training arrows for another ranging day as well, just waiting for that.


Mixing through rain or shine...

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.

Changing of the God, Global Quest, and Yet More Levels

'Tis been a long while since the last post. The levels just keep getting harder and harder to get, not justifying writing so often when there's nothing much to write.

But figured it was time to upload some screenies and get another post done.

Changing of the God

As much as I hated to do it, I realized it just wasn't feasible in my current state to have 2 gods for gc-loss skills and only Alch to rely on for profit. Of course I can do other skills I don't have gods for, but in the end I'd do a skill more to get more gc to pay for the sink skills. So I figured I may as well have the god to go with that skill.

As such, I reluctantly left the Engineering god and replaced him with the Potion goddess.

I found myself not getting around to much Eng anyway due to the heavy ing needs.

Now with the Potion goddess, I have both that and Alchemy to rely on for gc, and the Manu god to sink some of it into.


Current Work

Having just got the Potion Goddess, I am of course doing a lot of potting, selling SRs on market and BRs to the NPC, whichever I can buy the most ings for.

Spent some time doing Trik runs with leather helms as well now that I'm getting the gc to start that again.


Global Quest

We recently got the new global quest which requires grapes, pears, and a ton of harvestables to complete.

Radu had us searching for the NPC for it when it was introduced (per usual). And I managed to be the first to find it.

As well, when it came to the second part where you have to find worms in trees, I also was the first to find a worm. :)





The Leveling Goes On


And last but not least, I've gotten a few pretty high levels since the last writing...

You advanced to level 118 of attack!

You advanced to level 106 of harvesting!

You advanced to level 64 of engineering!

Your overall level is now 150!

You advanced to level 107 of potion!

You advanced to level 108 of potion!

You advanced to level 119 of defense!

The final one gotten while doing the feros daily. I very rarely train.

Oh, and why I'm mostly naked while training... I still need to break those damn damaged iron greaves. So I'm only wearing those.

The Brief Update...

Had another short period of offline time, but back today, heh.

I made some changes in my path since I last wrote.

1) Focusing on mix skills.

I may go kick chims as a break from mixing and harving, but not planning to do any a/d training for a while. Sometimes as an all-rounder some skills get prioritized over others, and I got a ton I want to do with mix skills. So taking a break from a/d training.


2) Dropped Defense god, took up Manu god.

To go along with my mix focus. I really wanna get the perk that comes with finishing the manu tutorial. In order to get it, I need at least 20 more manu levels, and as well I'm reading a ton of manu books (dragon armor construction) to prepare for it.

3) "Burn found an Animal Removal Stone."

Found one, sold it for 950kgc the same day. Spent the majority of the gc the same day...

a) Bought 30 Archery AP potions (which will take me to the maximum 60 AP when I use them. Waiting for the special day to use them so I might save a few, sell the remains on my bot.)

b) Bought 120kgc worth of manu books.

c) Bought a steel set to eventually degrade and break for the armor breaking quest.

d) Stocked some NPC-only supplies.

In the end, was left with about 100kgc of the 950kgc, 2 hours after getting the gc. :P


All-rounders just can't keep money around, hehe.



I've also killed Lenny about 8 times since my last entry, with hopes that a Lenny achievement had been added. No messages.

But, I haven't logged in yet, and I see that there's new achievements on a server update today. Here's hoping... :P

Playing Catch-Up! Achievements, Levels, Gods, and more...

Been quite a long while since I posted here, mostly because I've been "not playing" more than playing of late due to real life.

Seem to be back in playing mode again, though nowhere near the way I used to. Still, it's enough that I at least feel like an active player again. :P

No way I can catch up on everything, but summarizing can be done...

Achievements

Tutorial completed, Church donator, Alchemist, Big belly

4 of the possible 9 so far.

The missing ones:
1) Armorer - Slowly working on this one, breaking the gear as I can. I don't PK or PVP so relying on chims and clops to break this stuff.

2) Child of Stars - The manufacturing tutorial. I want to get at least 10 more manu levels before attempting this. As well, possibly switch to the manu god.

3) Crafter - The crafting tutorial. Similar to the manu one, I want some more levels first, and possibly even the god.

4) Potioner - The potioning tutorial. I could very easily do this one, but I'm going to wait until I switch to the potioning goddess (see Gods below).

5) Vanquisher - Novac fighting tutorial. Almost done. Only need to kill the final ice dragon. I want to get my Archery AP up to 60 first though. It's currently at 30 so half-way there.

Gods

Still have Engineering, Alchemy, and Defense gods from when I last posted.

At this time I have no plans to change them. If I get heavily into crafting or manu I may switch the Defense god to do that, but for now I'm attempting to focus on the Alch and Eng skills, as those gods were quite expensive to get.

No thoughts on when I'll drop Alchemy god. I want to get a lot more levels in that skill, and at Alch 120 already, the levels are very slow to get, even with the god bonus.

Engineering god... I want to at the minimum reach Eng 80 before letting go of him. Though I'm more keen on getting it to being another 100+ skill so will likely keep him through that.

Leveling and Skills

There's been a bit of it since I last wrote. I won't post all the details, but I've updated my levels and stats to the right of the page.

Attack/Defense - I haven't been focusing on this. I do the dailies as much as possible, and kick chims when I need a break from mixing.

Harvesting - No focus on this at all. I harvest what I need and that eventually brings a level with it.

Alchemy - Heavy focus. Been mixing tons of HEs and EnEs both for personal use and selling on my bot. Plan to continue doing this. Mixing bars as well as needed, and have even done a few more hydro runs.

Magic - No focus on this. I heal and teleport a lot, but have made no real effort to level this.

Potion - I mix what I need (SRs, extracts, and creature food mostly) but no focus for now. I plan to heavily hit this once I'm ready to drop the Eng god and replace with the Pot goddess.

Summoning - Not touching this at all for now. Too much else to do. If I get bored I may go mix some stones at some point, as mixing those at the gypsum brings back some gypsum with me, which I can always use for potioning.

Manufacturing - Looking at doing more of this, to get the levels needed to do the tutorial. So... minor focus. Mostly manu-ing stuff for the daily quest though.

Crafting - As needed. Trying to mix my own supplies, so mostly Naralik/Glacmor/EVTR rings and the ring/polished stones needed for those.

Engineering - Heavy, heavy focus. If it's makeable and doesn't require a rare item, I'm doing it. Doing the Eng daily regularly as well, mixing my own items for that.

Tailoring - Minor focus. My only "under 40" skill, and that annoys me. ;) So I'm mixing blue dyes as I have the money/ingredients to do so.

Ranging - No focus. If I'm online for a double exp ranging day, I'll do a mule-load of bolts at the arena though.

Near-Future Goals

1- Engineering, and a motherload of it. As much as I can afford it.

2- Alchemy, and a motherload of it. Easily affordable...

3- GC to buy the last 30 Archery AP potions needed, then finish the Novac quest.

4- GC to buy gear to break for the Armorer achievement.

5- GC to buy books and continue reading. 310 of 366 done at this point.

Latest Levels

Can't post every one I've screenied or this entry would be a few miles long. Here's the latest and most notable ones...

November 10

You advanced to level 104 of harvesting!

November 14

You advanced to level 120 of alchemy!

November 15

You advanced to level 73 of magic!

November 16 (1)

You advanced to level 69 of crafting!

November 16 (2)

Your overall level is now 147!

November 19

You advanced to level 60 of engineering!

November 20

You advanced to level 116 of attack!

November 21

You advanced to level 117 of defense!

God change, OA 142, and 5th 100+ Skill!

Just been too preoccupied to write of late. Just a temporary thing.

Time to play catch-up...

The two biggest things:

You advanced to level 100 of harvesting!

5th 100+ skill! \o/

Your overall level is now 142!

And I wasn't kicking chims when it happened, hehe.


Other Levels...

You advanced to level 46 of summoning!

You advanced to level 54 of engineering!

You advanced to level 36 of tailoring!

Sweet.


Lenny and Invasions and Quests

Got Leonard twice, both times in Palon Vertas after having almost walked into him while harving coal.

Participated in the global (well, multi-map at least) invasions. The only kind I participate in these days. Well, hidden ones are fun too, if just for trying to find the invaders...

Two new quests with a server update yesterday... both done. Back to only needing to kill off the ice dragon for the first Novac quest to have all quests done.


God Change

Even with the new "Day of Magic" or whatever it's called, I was just tiring of trying to level magic, needed a break from the constant essie mixing and bear kicking.

So I switched magic for the Crafting god. Means I got a lot of WEs to make (bleh), but it's a change of pace.

May still work on magic, besides normal use, but not in the near future. I really don't "need" a higher level than I have now, though it would be nice to have. We'll see...


Priority Increase - Archery AP

Decided to get my Archery AP up to the maximum 60 as soon as possible. Been slowly adding to it, but thinking to work on more gc now to buy the potions faster. I do all my range training in the arena now, so killing off "training" critters to quick isn't an issue anymore.

It will, however, help with killing off larger creatures during invasions and such.



Anyway, that's the update. Not feeling too well, so I'm off...

Manu Top 50! And a God Switch

Did a god switch yesterday. After a couple hours with the chims, my attack got up to where it was almost even with my defense experience-wise.

So I dropped the Attack god, and got Summoning. That and Animal 5 Nexus are assuring me I'll see the gypsum a lot in my future.

But if it'll save me some of the pain of mixing stones there with extra experience, it's worth the god switch.


Also been mixing my iron/steel bars for next S2E batch. And even ranged some for the first time for a Bethel invasion. Dunno if I'll make that a habit though, I kinda prefer global invasions.


But the biggie of yesterday was a School Day. Burned a lot of gc for it when I hauled a motherload of leather and thread as a mule to poof away as helms in the manu school.

You advanced to level 69 of manufacturing!

You advanced to level 70 of manufacturing!

You advanced to level 71 of manufacturing!

Sweetness :P Though I was kinda wishing at this point I'd taken the Manu god a while before moving to the Summoning god, hehe.

But that makes the 6th skill I'm in the top 50 ranks for. \o/

Somehow doubt I'll ever make top 50 for attack and defense, but I can certainly try to get all the others up there, hehe.



Anyway, today is back to the steel bars for S2Es. And some LEs since I'm gonna be needing motherloads of those. And hopefully finish off my round of mana drains and radiation shields of 500 grizzlies, still got about 150 more of those to do.

Joining the Top 10 Potioners

You advanced to level 103 of potion!

Ties me in 10th place rank with someone who's not playing anymore. Yippee!


And sadness. This was my goal to get before dropping the potion goddess. She's been good to me, but it's time to move on and give other skills some loving.

Particularly, engineering. Now that I've reached my potion goal, I'm working on quest items for the engineering god. In fact, not much more to get as I've already collected the hardest stuff.

By the end of the day, my gods will be: attack, engineering, magic




That's what I've been working on mostly since my last post, buttload of SRs for the level, heh. Well, and for use/sale.


Current goals:
- Take Eng god
- 500 more bears to mana drain (with radiation shields between) for magic level
- bear stones for summoning level
- 3rd of 4 batches of S2Es needed for next nexus buy
- Engineering level (naturally) :P

God Decisions

Current: Attack, Potion, Magic


After a long thinking and debating process, I think I finally figured out what to do with my gods to get them switched to skills that more need more work.


1) Magic - No change for now. It's still relatively new, and I'm still working on getting usage of it.

2) Potion - As soon as I get my next potion level (103), I'm going to drop it for the engineering god. Already got the 2 hardest eng god quest items, and the rest are easily gotten.

3) Attack - Continue training on chims, where I'm averaging 27% more attack than defense experience. Attack's only 1 level behind defense, so once they're close enough to being even again, I'll drop Attack god for Summoning god. Shouldn't be too long, assuming I can get off my mixing ass and go train more regularly, hehe.


End result: Summoning, Engineering, Magic

Harv and Mix, Plus Thinking Things Out

When actually doing stuff yesterday, it was harving and mixing for another round of 500 bears to mana drain (and do radiation shields between). That's 8k essies total so it takes a while to stock, heh.


Gives a lot of time to think... specifically, about the god changes I've been considering my past few posts, and their affect on my normal gameplay as well as skills.

On Removing the Attack God

Before I lose the attack god, I need to consider the effect on my training. I've been heavily relying on the attack god to keep my attack level close to my defense level. With attack god, I get close to the same attack experience as defense in my current training on feros.

Another player has told me they get about equal attack and defense on desert chims, and they have the defense god. However, that player is also 6-7 a/d levels above me, and has a different build attribute-wise.

If I didn't have either god and was able to get my levels/atts to a similar enough status, the possibility exists I'd get more att than def? That would actually not be a bad thing at all, since I'm still 1 att level lower than def. Doing that and even getting attack a level or 3 higher than defense wouldn't hurt, since I'll likely end up with defense god again at some point (for the OAs).

And of course, some training using a real weapon of some sort might help keep attack from going too far below defense. Last resort though, as I don't like that thought, and I'd have to plan training around others as I won't be one of those idiots that runs around hitting every spawn with a sword while others are trying to train "properly".

(I've only resorted to swords once since I started properly training, and that was before lions/armed orcs were adjusted and I went straight from ogres to cyclops. I went to the clops too soon, just to get away from the constant battles with other players over ogre spawns, and that required a sword. As people seem to hate training clops it wasn't a big deal though, since there were always free clops spawns, barring sun tzu.)

I won't be removing the attack god just yet. I still plan to, as I need to in order to better work on my lower-level skills, but

Pickpoints and Attributes

With the thoughts on training and dropping attack god, I've also been considering whether moving some pickpoints around would be a good idea.

Honestly haven't thought hard on this yet. I'm not a PKer so my pickpoints are best spent attribute-wise on a combination that works best for my current training level and mixing.

Mixing/Harving: EMU is the priority, with rationality a secondary factor. So high p/c and other points spent in reasoning and will.

Mana: Currently more than enough for what I do. Will works for me.

Training: Still 42/48 p/c. Decent reasoning.


I currently have 6 each for instinct and vitality. Dunno why I even put 2 pp's each on those.

My original plan was to not touch my pp's, instead all future OA pp's would be placed on physique until I was 48/48 p/c... which means I'd have 48/48 when I got to OA 141.

Contemplating changing that to: On OA 137, get 2 more physique. Use instinct/vitality removal stones to drop those back down to 4, and put them on physique to get 48/48 p/c sooner.

I think I can actually hear some of the pure fighters screaming about my attribute handling, hehe. But keep in mind (1) I don't PK, ever, I only train and that's mostly for OAs, and (2) My build takes mixing/harving and thus EMU into heavy consideration as I am an all-rounder.


Still got 4.7 million OA to go to mull that over, and no plans to a/d train so that'll take a while to get. And probably need 2-3 more a/d levels before removing the attack god...

If I do go with the removal stone option, dunno how I'll handle future OA pickpoints. Hadn't planned past 48/48. But they'll probably go on whatever will help keep my attack experience as close to defense experience as possible.



"The Other Skills"

I actually had a "very loose" plan that allowed for doing what I wanted, but helped ensure I got something done in every skill.

The plan actually was working quite well, was keeping my lower skills going, and I didn't have to follow it strictly (that would be boring). It served more as a reminder than a plan, actually.

However, I'm realising more and more, especially now as I think of God changes, that the Gods I currently have aren't factored into that plan.

I mean, I got the magic god, I should be doing as much magic as possible while I have him, so I can switch it to something else as soon as possible. Just an example.

So I'm rethinking my plans... this'll take a while. I want to keep all skills moving along (with the exception of ranging which is on temporary hold until maybe around the time my tailoring level catches up to it), with focus more on god-skills.

I don't plan training (a/d) into this, nor alchemy (it levels on its own as discussed in a previous post), nor harvest (not even trying to level it right now, it just happens when it happens). The plan is for all the other skills... mix, mix, mix, hehe.

Potion leveling may also be taken out of "the plan", once I get into the top 10 potioners and drop the god. I'll still be potioning, but a lot less intentional focus on it. I'll still be making tons of SRs for myself (for summoning, making stones) and to sell on my bot. As well, BRs when possible... "for the gc".

The "plan" also includes "non-skill" things like buying nexus (when to mix S2Es and such).

Working on that now, hopefully have something better to work with.


Meanwhile, back to mixing essies for the magic leveling... probably hit the bears again later today.

Another Potion Level Bites the Dust

Made a motherload of SRs yesterday, so plenty of stock when I make bear stones, and for selling on IWannaRock bot.

Finished the level off with some BRs for quick NPC-sell gc.

You advanced to level 102 of Potion!

Sweet.

On the Gods I mentioned possibly switching... I think it'll be a while longer.

1) Potion - I'll keep until I'm at least a top 10 potioner. Being ranked #11 now though, that won't take long. 1 more level, technically, heh.

2) Magic - Already said I was gonna wait on that one, plan to keep it until around magic 80 or so.

3) Attack - This is the big problem. My attack level is only 1 behind my defense level, and keeping the gap even that low with the attack god isn't simple. In a way, I don't really care about the gap, but still would like to keep it as limited as possible. The second I remove the attack god the gap will start increasing drastically based on my testing.

Even yesterday on the feros during sun tzu, I've noticed that while my total experience on them is still about the same, the difference is slowly rising as my levels increase. I've gone from maybe a 5k difference to closer to 50k difference for the same training, defense being the one getting the slight bit more.

I guess I could try playing with weapons, but really don't want to. And obviously I wouldn't want to become one of those asses who thinks they can hog multiple spawns despite others trying to train, just to get more Attack than defense experience. So it would take planning there as well to ensure I'm not screwing up others.


Bah. Decisions to make.



Meanwhile... current plans:

1- Do another batch of essies for 500 mana drains and 500 radiation shields
2- Do the said MDs and Shields on a grizzly spawn, hehe
3- Do the first of four S2E batches to buy another nexus
4- Get an engineering level (including mixing some saltpeter to plan ahead for next tailor level)

And somewhere in there, do some stuff to make some gc. None of the above is a gc-positive thing, so probably make and sell some BRs in there, or even sell some of the SRs I've got stocked. We'll see...

Contemplations of Gods, and a Summon Level

You advanced to level 36 of summoning!

That's what yesterday was spent doing. A lot of it at least. Evil ing loss made me end up having to leave Arius and make more SRs and LEs to get it finished as, while I'd planned for some ing loss, I didn't plan for as much as did happen.

Just so used to working with high-level skills like alch and potion that I forget just how much can be lost with lower-level ing loss, heh.




Contemplating Gods

It's getting that time again, when I start wondering if it's time to switch some gods around.

Current gods: Attack, Potion, Magic

Magic I want to keep, at least for a dozen or two more levels. The MD-ing of bears and using radiation shields is getting the levels up pretty nicely.

Attack... I need to go see how I do against desert chims, if I can train them yet decently and what kind of att/def experience I get off them before I change this.

I think Potion goddess is holding me back though. Just like I had to force myself to drop alchemy goddess so I could get other gods, I may have to force myself to drop potion goddess.


Reasons... I got other skills that need them more.


I would like to keep attack (or defense) god for better work on OAs, but I may have to drop it just so I can get some work done on other skill levels. Still need the OAs, but this has been a limiting factor in my previous god choice decisions and needs to stop, at least for a while.

I don't want to take defense god for the time being, as defense already is continuing to work its way higher than attack level. I know, that's the common thing to happen, and I'm letting it happen, it's just that I don't want it to happen to an extreme like I've heard with some other people.

I need to switch my gods, hopefully to the lowest possible skills.

Current considerations for change:

1) Switch two of my gods at the same time:
1a) Attack to Summoning
1b) Potion to Engineering

This would definitely encourage me to work on Summoning and Engineering more, both of which are in my lower-level skills.

2) Switch Magic to Crafting

This would be a later switch, after getting Magic up to maybe level 80 or so. Crafting is my "evil" skill for some reason, a skill where others seem to have leveled quite well in it, but I'm still slow-going because I don't get the urge to do it a lot. I tend to get the urge to do skills more when I have their god chosen, so... ;)



Anyway, it's just contemplation for the moment. In order to do this I'd need to try training on DCs to see if dropping Attack is okay at this time, and as well stocking up for the engineering god quests will take quite a while. I am, after all, quite broke, hehe.





What to do Today:

- Possibly do that desert chim training check, though I won't actually sit and train for long.
- Stock and mix SRs, a motherload of them. Or more specifically, more than enough for my next potion level. Only thing I need to stock now for them is BQ since I hauled 40k wine yesterday as a mule.
- Start essies for another round of MD-ing 500 grizzly bears and the accompanying radiation shields for magic training.

After which, I'll be getting back into making S2Es for another nexus purchase...

The Gods Must Be Crazy... Or Maybe I Am

I was working along, gathering ings for my next batch of S2Es. I looked at my future plans to see what I was going to work on next. And I realised something...

When you have gods, your focus tends to be more on the skills you have gods for. And that was keeping me from getting my other skills up faster than they were. It's a mindset thing. Even when I tried to work on my non-god skills, I somehow ended up doing a lot more in the god skills.

What adds to this thinking was that my 3 gods that I currently had were also the 3 skills that were my highest... alchemy, potion, defense.

So I decided... If I'm gonna be a real "all-rounder", I need to make a drastic change. And that's what I'm doing now.

The change? Kill all 3 gods and pick 3 completely different ones.

Not as easy as it sounded. After much decision-making, I only ended up changing 2. But even still, that's a huge change for something so spur-of-the-moment as this.

The two changes:
* Defense replaced with Attack
* Alchemy replaced with Magic

Defense to Attack was a no-brainer. These days my OAs come primarily from feros kicking, so I want to keep one of those gods at all times.

Taking Attack though helped force me to kick Alchemy, since those gods are enemies.

The original idea was to take Summoning. However, I knew I was going to want to play mana-drain games with bears to stock a load of furs before I hit the summoning stones. So I went with magic.

As for the third god, Potion, I ended up keeping it after consideration for a few reasons:

* I need at least 1 skill to focus on that is actually profitable. With Alch gone, Potion was the second option.
* I'll be making a motherload of SRs in the near future for summoning stones.
* The god I intended to replace it with, Engineering, is quite expensive and my gc isn't as high as I'd like it to be. Even attempting to make the majority of the needed god items would take way too long for this spur-of-the-moment change.

I still plan to replace Potion with Engineering, it just won't happen for a while.

So my new gods are (once I finish making the quest items I'm doing now): Potion, Attack, Magic

Magic to be replaced with Summoning once my summon level is enough that spider stones are a viable option.

Potion to be replaced with Engineering "one of these days"

And Attack... we'll see how my a/d training goes. No plan to change it for quite some time at least.


At any rate, this will start to drastically change my priorities around, and allow me to focus on things I hadn't focused on at all, or at least not in quite a long time.

The near future will be a lot of:
- AE making for mana draining
- mana draining bears and collecting their furs
- BRs to keep the gc income alive
- SRs to stock for summon stones
- LEs to stock for summon stones
- Kicking a lot more feros than I used to get the a/d as well as overall levels
- And of course, continued S2E making to buy nexus

Heh, see, even with my priorities changed, alchemy remains a heavy thing.


As for my other skills:
- Alchemy won't be focused on like it used to be, though it will keep leveling on its own due to constant bar and essie making for other stuff.
- Ranging will be a rare thing for the near future.
- All other non-god skills will continue to be occasionally leveled as I feel like it, for change of pace, whatever. Manu less so than the others, excepting the S2Es being made or other necessities.

- Overall - My goal for overall remains to be OA 141, which will give me enough pickpoints to have full 48/48 p/c. Wanted for the emu. May screw with my a/d training but I don't really care about that. The emu makes mixing and harving so much easier, heh.



So... back to work on magic and attack god quest items. Should have my gods switched within an hour or two. Probably crazy doing this, but sometimes a drastic change is needed, if anything to give something new to do.

Back in the Alchemy Saddle

Yesterday's goal achieved:



The Crafting is gone, the Alchemy Goddess is back.

Though ironically enough, while working on items for the Alchemy quests, I came only 2k experience away from a crafting level. So I went ahead and finished it off with some moon medallion ings:

You advanced to level 44 of crafting!




After getting those quests done, it was back to harving ings for eventual nexus buying. Got my stock of roses and snaps up to 30k each. That took pretty much what was left of the day.

Except when the Ranging Day was added for an hour and a half or so. Muled close to 1800 bolts to the packed arena and am now only 8k from my next ranging level.



Today: Yet more harving. Need to finish my coal stock off (plus some of it went to making stuff for the alch goddess quests so I gotta restock that). And then I guess it's making 30k of FEs. *shiver*

Ranging and Yet Another New God

Ignoring the hypocrisy for a while... catch up on what's going on in regular play.

Yesterday morning, spent some time in the arena to finish off that level:


You advanced to level 35 of ranging!




Yet Another God Change

Just when I thought I had everything planned out, I changed my plans again. :P

The change came this time because of thoughts of buying Nexus. All the bars I'd need to make for the S2Es just for that, plus the continued making of HEs and other essies for regular use, bars for moon meds... alching just seems to be the primary skill no matter what I am doing. And the whole "buy nexus" thing needs to start being worked on now if I'm ever going to get them.

So... Crafting is going and the Alch goddess is coming back!

I'm currently working on mixing and such for all the alch goddess quests, and once done the switch will be made.

So new gods: Defense, Potion, Alchemy

And no plans to change them for a while. Won't even consider it at this point as I haven't determined how long I want to hold on to Alchemy.





Otherwise, spent most of yesterday harving coal. That was... um... fun? Still got more to get, needing about 45k total to work on my first nexus.

Then it's a ton of harving and making FEs, then harving and making bars, then making S2Es, then making hydro bars... augh, just for one nexus and I'm looking to eventually buy at least 10.

Another Alch, Another Craft, Another God

When I wasn't busy in real life, spent most of yesterday morning gathering ings and eventually making silver bars.

You advanced to level 105 of alchemy!



Turned those into silver medallions, which turned into moon medallions... really loving that moon meds are stackable now. Makes it so much simpler to make them in bulk, as opposed to sitting in the glac magic shop selling as I make them (like some do with leather helms at Trik) to reduce trips carrying them.

But anyway... You advanced to level 43 of crafting!




New God and God Plans

Since my attack has gone higher than my defense (which it was under for many a level), I dropped the Attack god and switched to Defense. Not just for that reason... determined I'd get more OA experience boxing fluffies using Def than Att god as well. ;)

As for future plans... I'll be keeping the Def god for a while, most likely up to Def 100 or around there depending on how well it goes vs. my attack level.

I've decided to keep the Crafting god for the foreseeable future. Stacking moon meds removes at least one thing that made it such a pain to level. (All the WEs and silver bars being the other things, but those are unavoidable, and at least the silver bars give good alch experience as seen above, hehe.)

The Potion goddess... I've decided I'll keep her until I reach Potion 100. Considering Def and Craft gods, my only 2 non-enemy options left outside of potion are manufacturing and engineering. (Would have more options if the 3 missing Gods were in-game, but...)

So which to do? I decided I wasn't ready to go back to non-stop tossing gc in the leather helms pit, so I guess engineering it is. That's gonna be expensive to get though to get through the quests. I just may end up hanging on to the potion goddess for a few levels over pot 100 while I slowly gather/make all the stuff needed to do the quests.

So current gods: defense, crafting, potion
Planned switch: potion to engineering

Into the Arena

Ended up doing 2 trips to the ranging arena yesterday as well, using my mule of course to carry almost 1800 bolts per trip. Got the majority of my next level with those 2 trips. In fact, I'm only less than 3k away from my next level. I'd go finish it off but after I finish writing this I'll be afk a lot so not an option. Maybe later.


Nexus Buying

I'm starting to put some serious consideration into buying Nexus. As mentioned, I'm an all-rounder, and would like to be able to do everything possible, which means getting every possibly-needed nexus. I'm also not wasting any more OA pickpoints on them so... I still need:

- 4 Animal
- 3 Artificial
- 3 Magic

So I need 10 total. Which is 500 Hydro bars. Which is... a lot.

I could buy the bars. Make S2Es, sell them, buy bars. Or as a level 105 alcher, I could easily make those level 50 bars myself. That would mean making the S2Es, and doing hydro runs.

The hydro runs being the problem. As a non-pker, I avoid pk maps for any reason. Too many idiots in the game. But harving hydro means going into pk maps. Even though there's a good chance I can find times that there'll be no pkers around there, it still feels like going against every fiber in my being to do the hydro runs since it's the only harvable that requires going through pk maps.

Doesn't mean I won't end up doing them though. It would mean making a lot less S2Es, and a lot less reliance on others by having to both sell the S2Es and buy the bars. I went to the test server the other day and tried out the hydro run, seeing what I'd be facing environment-wise... smart move since seeing anyone there on the test server would have been highly unlikely, heh.

Dunno when I'll get around to trying this, and for obvious reasons (idiots can apparently read when they want to) won't announce it until after it's done.



Anyway, off to being mostly AFK for quite a while, harving what I can while doing so. Which won't be much, but better than getting nothing done at all.