Long Since Updated, so... OA 176, Alchemy 145 and more

I went full-on map editing for several months, limiting my play to mostly just dailies. A break to deal with real-life. And Acelon and I have already gone through map plans for 1.9.5.

So I haven't actually done an update on gameplay since October 22nd. Doh! I've more recently gotten back into play, when I can...



Triple-digit count on number of invdrags killed.





Pear hunting finally hit the four-digit mark and still going.




And I sat in an egg's icky whites... thanks to a secret I added as part of 1.9.4, hehe. If you haven't found this, you haven't found all that I added to the maps for that release.




Also did a heavy increase in Lenny kills. I haven't actually hunted him in years, having been stuck at just under 100 kills for that reason. But finding him while hunting invdrags has led to getting that number up to 148.

LEVELING since Oct. 22nd...

This has been a challenge, with levels in most every skill so high already, and limited play time the last 8 or so months. But several numbers have gone up since the last update.

I'll stick to just one image per skill, heh. Though several have gone up multiple levels.

These went surprisingly fast considering I spent several months doing only dailies, and more time not playing at all. Only 3 to go.

Your overall level is now 174-175-176!

And my favorite:

You advanced to level 144-145 of alchemy!

So this happened as well. Amber stock is a Very Good Thing.

You advanced to level 124-125-126-127 of engineering!

These were all surprisingly done solely using the daily. I just haven't had time to actually work on it, though I do intend to until I at least hit 100. I've got the god and all.

You advanced to level 82-83-84-85-86-87 of summoning!

Attack and Defense, of course thanks to dailies.

You advanced to level 143-144-145 of attack!

You advanced to level 143-144-145-146 of defense!

Now this... the Invdrag heavily contributed to advancing magic. Rather than playing with TS pots to find it, I used the magic spell instead. This led to a nice load of magic experience killing over 100 of them. Leads to experience in alch and potion as well for the essies and SRs.

You advanced to level 89-90-91 of magic!

Most all of this skill has solely been leveled while mixing leather stuff for Daritha daily. Thus it's been a year or two since the last level.

You advanced to level 101 of manufacturing!

With the high levels of previous skills, this looks sad. Though considering the difficulty in getting ranging levels, it's actually pretty good.

You advanced to level 73 of ranging!

The Future

I'm actually already back at work on getting the maps for 1.9.5 put together. Though not devoting all my time to it like the last release since we've got plenty of time to get done what we've planned.

But as far as play goes, plans include:
- continue occasional invdrag hunting
- continue occasional pear hunts
- Get summoning to 100
- Get magic to 100
- Um... other stuffs ;-)

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.

All Skills 60+ and Then Some

It's been a long time since last update. I've been off quite a bit, more so than on. Despite that, in those on periods, managed to get a lot done.



The Fools of April

Well, most figured out quite quickly that my last post "selling" my Burn character was an April Fool's joke.

A few didn't... one started talking on 6 about it before realizing it wasn't real. A couple of offers sent my way... responded to simply with "What day is it?"

And a lot of interest... almost 200 hits on this blog yesterday, very much over the normal amount I get on a new post.

Seriously... it came with mod powers. Certainly that would be allowed. :-D

Mission accomplished. ;-)


Tit Serp of Joker

So there was a contest along with new Joker locations. A Thermal Serp in a hyperbag under one of the new Joker locations.

When first announced, I went Joker hunting a while, but to no avail and eventually had to go to bed.

The next day I'd given up on it as my time was limited. I went on a pear hunt, and lo and behold, there was Joker on the same map. I traded him, then went on to finish the pear hunt.

After finding the pear, I went back to check and the bag was there.

Sold the weapon off of course, as I don't have a use for it. I do have use for the gc though, as seen below with the number of school days and such I've been using.

The Pears Continue to be Harvested

More recently, I've barely hunted for them, thus my name hasn't been seen much finding one. Real life has been more important and keeping me busy.

But they have been hunted when there's time. 60 pears have been found since my last update, bringing them up to 279 total.

Back to School

One of the main things I've been wasting my gc away on is school days. Not just the ones that randomly occur, but since last update I've bought stones to sponsor 5 days myself.

And of course, I used them quite a bit. First time included tailoring, but now that there's a tailoring day I will limit using school day for that. Until I reach my goals in Alch and Manu, those are the two skills I'll be focusing on for those days, and did.


The Levels Spring Forward

In no particular order, there's been quite a few since previous update...

Overall

Besides my school days, I've taken advantage of many other days, random or by others. Even Sun Tzu, though not often, I've done when I've had time.

Your overall level is now 161!

It helped mostly with the overall level.

But attack and defense haven't gone dead. Normally when I've been on I've only had time to get my dailies done, so they've for the most part continued even when I didn't have time for anything else.

Which has led to a couple levels on both. Limiting images below to just the last level to avoid going too long...

You advanced to level 129 and 130 of attack!

You advanced to level 129 and 130 of defense!

Attack and Defense remain low priority, until I have gotten all my other skills that have gods to 100, at the very least. Which will be quite a long time.


The Alchemist in me continues to take advantage of the Alch goddess, and school days to push it even further. Moving slowly up, I've gotten to be the #3 alchemist in the game and have no intention of stopping that leveling anytime soon. The levels come incredibly slowly at this point though, especially since it's not the only skill I'm working on.

You advanced to level 135 of alchemy!

Not mercury? You gotta be kidding right? Correct... we're talking some serious expense to get a level here. Only half of which is coming via schools as I do need a motherload of essies for my magic leveling and as well need to earn gc to afford school use.

Mercury is just a waste. I know some still try to use it, but the cost factor is extreme and gives very little over what magic essies will do. Broken alembics, the lack of cinnabar on the market as people no longer harvest it as they used to back in the day, rising cost of ings for energy essies... all have led to mercury no longer being a good use of the school. Magic essies give less exp each, but ings are much easier to get hold of or even self-harvest.


God use continues... the other use of school days has been for manufacturing, a much more expensive task where the gc provides less experience than alchemy. I get 334 exp per magic essence, but only 208 per leather helm.

Nevertheless, I git 'er done. The several school days have led to several levels.

You advanced to level 89 through 92 of manufacturing!

Not so bad... 8 more levels and I'll drop the manu god to focus on either crafting or summoning, haven't decided yet.


And yet the third god I have... magic. I've been pushing myself to do more random spells while sitting at storage, started with true sights but after lots of calculations determined Magic Immunity to be a better exp per gc option.

On Day of Magic though, exp per mana is a more favorable option despite the cost.

I use Mana Drain when I have the ability, which hasn't been much of late since as I said I haven't been on much. But sometimes when I can't be around I can still have the game on, and click off spells occasionally sitting at storage.

Two levels have occured...

You advanced to level 80 and 81 of magic!

At the point in the image, I chose to use the fast regen spot in Kusamura Jungle to speed along spell casting. Not optimal, but it was a busy time in EL and any good spawns for mana draining were taken.


There's been quite a few ranging days, and I've been taking heavy advantage of those, for quite a few levels. 7 levels to be more precise!

You advanced to levels 56 through 62 of ranging!

Not bad... and definitely not cheap, hehe.

This left me with an impulsive wanna-level-it problem... I'd been almost completely ignoring summoning. It was once my third-lowest skill, with both tailoring and ranging below it.

However, ranging has gone ahead full speed as seen above, and quite a bit of focus on tailoring in the past has gotten it even higher than ranging.

Summoning has in turn become my lowest skill. And at 58, I just couldn't bear for it to be my only skill under 60. It needed some attention.

So, I started taking advantage of Summon days when they came along.

You advanced to levels 59 and 60 of summoning!

And with that, I hit my "All skills 60+" goal! The only problem with that, is that it automatically creates a new goal... all skills 70+. Doh! That goal will mean 10 more summon levels, 8 more ranging levels, and 3 more tailoring levels.

Right, tailoring. It's been on the wayside for the moment, as my gc has been poured into ranging and school day stock and more.

But it did get one power-up, on our very first Tailoring day.

You advanced to level 67 of tailoring!

It'll likely not be leveled much in the coming months. Though I do plan to work on stock for a possible future tailoring day.


Engineering is no longer being worked on. As I said in my last update, I've dropped that god now that I'm 100+.

However, that doesn't mean I won't take advantage of Eng days when they come along, and I happen to have the ings for it. Particularly Treasure Finder ings. I had enough to "almost" get a level on an Eng day during this period. Too close for my taste, I continued leveling that day using indicator ings. Not something I'd normally do, but it was too close to level to let it drop.

You advanced to level 102 of engineering!

And finally (I think) is a skill I don't pay attention to, ever. I harvest what I need when I need it, and rarely pay attention to getting experience. Of course I do the two harv dailies regularly but when it comes to hourly harvs, I just harv what I need... be it amber, or be it low-level flowers.

You advanced to level 114 of harvesting!

And with that... um... yeah, adios. Crafting and Potion remain unleveled this time. I do mix SRs, and my own C1 rings which I eat like candy, but not enough to level, and not caring about levels for either for now.

I'll probably continue to not be as active as normal for the foreseeable future. But I'll be around.

OA 160 and Another Skill Over 100

Been a long time, but finally got another 100+ skill.

Engineering the Amber Away

Two more Engineering days led to 6 more levels.

You advanced to level 96-101 of engineering!

And with that, I hit my current goal of making it a 100+ skill.

Pray to the New God

That goal was what I was waiting for in order to drop the Engineering god. I continue to hold on to both Alchemy and Manu gods. Of the choices available removing those gods and their enemies, Magic seemed to be the best option.

So, Eng god is now gone, and Magic is in.

Which in turn will help with Alchemy. My goal for it is still a long way off, but Magic leveling will require tons of essies, which I'll end up mixing the overwhelming majority of.

And the Overall Is...

Besides that huge goal, another overall landmark was hit.

Your overall level is now 160!

Granted, the power-leveling of Engineering covered a motherload of the experience needed for that OA.

Further OA's likely won't come as quickly. Now that I'm off the Eng god... Magic can't be power-leveled anywhere near as quickly, especially as someone who doesn't PVP as a rule, so MD sessions aren't an option.

The Alchemist In Me

Holy Health, BurnMan!

I'm only 128 a/d, so obviously the overwhelming number of those were put on market.

Part of what led to...

You advanced to level 134 of alchemy!

In itself, a helluva level.

Forest Chims are Magical

Been doing some occasional double FCW bashing, using MD of course for extra magic experience...

You advanced to level 79 of magic!

It's The Daily Show with Burn Stewart!

Okay, that was bad... the occasional FCW bashings of course help with some experience, but I don't do it often enough for it to make a real dent in leveling a/d. That continues to remain primarily from dailies.

You advanced to level 128 of attack!

Just Break It

Steel set is finally broken as of today. The quest continues... my Titanium set is already degraded and ready to go.

Was waiting for the tit set before starting to focus on the swords as well, though I do use degraded ones when I need to use one just in case I could get a break. My coming training/magic leveling and such will require a sword of some sort so I have a pack of degraded ones ready to try and break. Only the scythe has been done thus far.

The Future...

The next big goal is getting Manu up to 100, where I will drop that god. I plan most of my gc to be going into it now, combining school days with Trik runs for lesser expense.

As well, continuing a heavier focus on Alchemy, mixing up tons of essies needed to work on magic. I haven't fully decided on leveling process for magic, but I'm using a lot more where possible, including regular rounds on the dual-FCW spawns for health and mana drain, and regular TS usage "just because". I'll work out a more specific plan for leveling it soon.

Return to Eternity

Since the last update, I played a bit longer, but then got sidetracked for a couple months by a big real life project, which will continue to have me off on occasion over the coming months, just not completely gone.

And it's taken a while since return since I've had time to work on an update here.

There's been some upping of the levels though. Rather than going through every level like I normally do, just gonna cover the bigger stuff in summary as the other would take too long.

Pears

Since the last pear update, there's been 50 more found.

I've decided to stop showing all the screenshots for pear finds. There's too many of them. ;-)

The screenshots are all generally looking the same now. I may post a few more interesting finds in the future, but basically put they're not different than the many posted before.


Magic

I've kinda-sorta started working on this again... not in any power-leveling way like the mana drain methods, but I'm trying to use magic more when like mixing at storage, using TS magic instead of pots when hunting invisible rats, mana drains when kicking DCWs and FCWs, anywhere I can toss some magic in, I do.

Once I hit my Engineering goal, I plan to switch that god to Magic, then with my "above average" alch skills combined go for some massive magic leveling. I've even started stocking for that.

The days of mana draining bears, the method I used to use on magic days, are essentially over. I focused on bears since I could use their furs for summoning, but I'm working on switching to tiger stones now so no more use for those furs.

For now, one magic level... gotten while doing a tele-to-range.

You advanced to level 78 of magic!

Attack/Defense

Still continue to be almost exclusively leveled by dailies, though I have found myself more frequently doing a round or three on one of the double FCW spawns. Mixing skills will continue to be dominant for the foreseeable future.

You advanced to level 127 of attack!

You advanced to level 128 of defense!

Harvesting

There's been a motherload of hydro harved. A good 13k or so in the past several months. The skill itself, not being paid attention to, I level when I level, I don't look for high experience. But...

You advanced to level 113 of harvesting!

Manufacturing

My "other god" that I have a goal for, so I can get it switched to another. I still have quite a way to go on that goal, probably get to my Engineering goal first.

But books are being regularly read, helms are mixed both at Trik and in the school when I can afford it (most gc going to other things at the moment). And the skill is getting a decent amount of attention.

You advanced to level 86 of manufacturing! (book finished)

You advanced to level 87-88 of manufacturing! (both in school)

Overall

It's wonderful to finally hit one of these on the rare occasions I do. ;-) I've given up on focusing on getting to the next one though, just letting them happen naturally as I power-level in various skills.

Your overall level is now 159!

Ranging

I've taken advantage of several ranging days, which has gotten me another 5 levels since my last update.

You advanced to level 51-55 in ranging! (all done in arena)

Tailoring

No god, so no focused plan. I intend to continue leveling this, though on a brief hiatus as I need the gc to work on other skills.

But a school day with a stock of fabric ings led to another 4 levels.

You advanced to level 61-64 in tailoring! (all done in school)

And the big one... Engineering

A labor of... labor. I've dropped Point Defense as the leveling item now, as those are starting to take forever to get to the next level and have become a waste of good Eng Day time. Those still working up, yes, they're awesome, keep using them until you're ready to move on to...

Failure predictors. We're heading into heavy ing territory here.

I got a couple levels before my 2-month hiatus, then:

With stone in hand, I spent close to the full 6 hours on a day I clicked into existence doing non-stop failure predictor mixing, which led to 5 levels.

You can see what was left in my bag as I got the last level in that in the image below. I continued mixing for another 2/3 or so of a level before ings finally ran out. (And for the hyperbag jumpers, no, I have nothing left in there, hehe.)

You advanced to level 86-90 in engineering! (all done in school)

Yes, it took quite a long while to build that hyperbag before setting off the #day stone.

I started collecting ings for Treasure Finders at this point, but due to focus on other skills I wasn't heavily focused on it. Did get about 3 hours worth to mix though when another Eng Day came along, and poofed them in speed hax mode between sto and school, carrying only ings for 11 at a time as they're quite heavy.

And that led to another 5 levels. (Yes, the below image shows almost 4 hours of the day having passed, but first half hour was spent pear hunting, and another half hour I had to go off for a bit. It was only about 3 hours of actual running and mixing.)

You advanced to level 91-95 in engineering! (all done in school)

The Continuation...

Engineering is slowly being stocked, for an eventual Eng Day where I'll poof to getting my next level 100 skill.

Meanwhile, alchemy is getting a boost as I've begun stocking for the eventual switch to magic god after that, plus personal mixing and some HE sales on my bot.

Manufacturing will get another jolt very soon. I just need to get off my ass transform into a mule to haul a motherload of leather now that I got some gc for it.

Hmmm, that's not surprisingly all three of my skills with gods. ;-)

I'm stocked for another ranging day should that come up, prepared to stop and use it.

Yeah, that's about it. Oh right, I may go look for some pears, too. Maybe. Possibly.