God Changes, and OA, Att, Def Leveling

With less playing than I used to do, I had to reconsider how I was playing, and the gods I had.

God Switching

I was working with the engineering, crafting, and summoning gods before.

However, I realized that these days I was doing a lot more alchemy again, as my cashflow was getting hit hard by working on sink skills and quests.

Crafting was still being done occasionally, but not enough to warrant keeping the god.

Summoning was pretty much dead. I found myself not really having the time to get up to the gypsum for stone making.

Engineering wasn't being done much either, but due to the high cost of getting that god, I am keeping him until at least level 80.


So I decided to drop the crafting and summoning gods for now. Summoning was the first to go, easily switched to the defense goddess.

Then I spent about 2 days collecting and mixing all the quest ings for the Alchemy goddess (not an easy task, heh). Went close to broke doing that, even mixing and harving everything myself.

But I did it, and the crafting god got switched to alchemy.

So my new god lineup: Engineering, Alchemy, Defense


Level Up


Getting levels in any skill these days is nothing short of miraculous, hehe. All my skills seem to be at that point where it takes quite a long while to get one. Nevertheless, I'm managing to pop out a few.

Been doing a load of alchemy, which is at a level so high that all the alching I've done since my last entry still hasn't brought me a new level. But daily quests and actually doing some training on desert chims has made me hit some fighting levels at least.

You advanced to level 113 of defense!

Followed by...

You advanced to level 113 of attack!

And a final payoff:

Your overall level is now 145!

Sweet.


Book Reading

I'd been mostly reading crafting experience books, to help push that skill and get extra use of the crafting god.

But I needed to get back to reading the regular knowledge books. Reading all of those is part of my quest to having the ultimate all-rounder character. So I've read 8 more of those in the past week, and plan to do more.

Meanwhile, I've started reading manufacturing experience books until I get a level in it. I don't seem to have time for that skill either, nor the gc to burn helms in school so... yeah.


Current Plans

Now that I've got the Alch goddess back, I desperately need to work on my lack of gc. With that in mind, I'm planning a lot of alching for the purpose of selling for gc.

As well, I plan to continue training, getting use of the defense god. Not sure how long I'll be keeping him so do it while I can.

And as well, my "all skills 40+" goal hasn't been forgotten. Planning some engineering to get the saltpeter made that will be necessary to get two more tailoring levels.

Also, breaking stuff. The new quest, hehe.

7 levels in 7 skills

Game play has been limited to a few hours most days. This includes spending up to an hour getting all five daily quests done.

Though as of yesterday, I've stopped doing the newest daily. It's been hosed with the inclusion of asking for 3 tit chain mails. Noone makes these due to the EFE, which is sought after for too many other reasons and expensive. So the only ones available on market are drops, and those have pretty much dried up quickly with so many people looking for them for the quest now.

Just not worth it.

But I continue doing the other 4 dailies. I've considered dropping the Tatu mule daily though, as the incredibly low experience given by it doesn't seem worth all the work involved in making the creature food. I mean, really, 4k alchemy experience (one of the possible rewards) for someone who is at alchemy level 118 is pretty insignificant. :/

The other daily quests... dung, harvest, and fighting, will be continued though, no problem.


Since last posting though, I have managed to get 7 levels, in 7 different skills. I've also been doing some incredibly heavy harv-stocking, primarily for creature food flower ings, and over 150k BSFs in stock currently even after using a load for blue dyes. The BSFs are primarily for tailoring leveling. Just two more tailoring levels to get all my skills at 40+!


But, anyway, here's the levels collection since last posting, in order I got them:

You advanced to level 102 of harvesting!

And with a fighting daily:

You advanced to level 112 of defense!

Prepping for tailoring by making saltpeter:

You advanced to level 56 of engineering!

Which led to:

You advanced to level 38 of tailoring!

A double-exp ranging day naturally finds me in the Grubani arena:

You advanced to level 45 of ranging!

More fighting dailies got me close enough to an attack level that I went and trained a bit:

You advanced to level 112 of attack!

And finally, a combo of actual crafting along with experience book reading led to:

You advanced to level 68 of crafting!

Two Years of EL!

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

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

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

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

Skills

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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


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

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

But in general, not really working on this skill.

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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



Shapeshifting

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

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

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


Guilds

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

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

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


Moderator

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




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

Just a Few Levels...

Over the last couple days, I've managed to be in the game long enough to work on and finish a few levels. Yippee! ... says my inner power leveler, who's been starving for these of late. ;)



For this one, I actually was out kicking Desert Chims for a couple hours, and finished the OA off with some harv points.

Your overall level is now 144!

After reading a craft exp book, I had only 12k exp left to level, so I polished some gems for future ring making usage.

You advanced to level 67 of crafting!

And this one... I did close to 12k HEs to finish this one off, among other things. Getting an alch level these days is far from simple. (I hear it gets worse! hehe)

You advanced to level 118 of alchemy!

Fun fun fun. Um, I mean, time to get back to more levels!

Still Around!

Realized I hadn't posted in a while, so doing that to show I haven't gone and disappeared again, hehe.

I've been in the game at least 5 days a week, but normally for just a few hours each day at most due to real life occupying a lot of my time.

During this time, my focus has been mainly to get the daily quests done first, which I've been doing regularly. After that, harving stock and doing some alchemy, primarily HEs to sell on my bot.

Reading crafting experience books constantly. Got a crafting level from those the other day. I always seem to miss taking a screenshot when those happen via a book though, heh.


Um... really not much else to tell for now. I've slowly gotten myself adjusted back to playing, and now it's just a matter of getting the time to do so.

But I'm here, I'm active, and I'm not going anywhere. :)

Sick and Such

Sick for the time being, so not really doing anything but harvesting stock stuff.

Got a crafting level, mostly thanks to the exp books.

Not feeling well enough to write more, so that's it for now...

Sun Tzu Brings Attack 111

Twas a longer day in game yesterday, since a combo of bad weather and low cashflow kept me home, hehe.

Spent several hours kicking Desert Chims in Melinis for Sun Tzu. Was working on harving coal for silver bars for a crafting project, but I hadn't had the chance to take advantage of Sun Tzu in over 2 months so went for it.

You advanced to level 111 of attack!

Sweet, goes well with the Defense 111 I got two days before, hehe.



This morning, woke up way too early and my brain was mush so couldn't do anything more than grind and harv which can be done without the requirement of thought, hehe.

Woke up just in time for 3 hours of Robin Tell day. Double ranging experience... takes close to 2.5 hours to shoot off a full mule load of bolts, so I did that. Got more than half a ranging level in that time, and should hit my next level next time I do another mule load of bolts.



As I said, working on a crafting project now. Motherload of moon medallions for leveling (and gc). Got all the ings I need except the silver for the silver bars, so I'm mixing bars at the silver now. Need to make about 4,275 silver bars for this particular project. Combo of this and reading exp books should get me at least 2 more crafting levels by the time I'm done.


After that, well, um, this crafting thing will take a while so I'll plan that later, hehe. But I do wanna get some engineering done soon, put that Eng god to use since I have him.