Castilla Ruins and Other Little Things..

Hello again lovelies! I decided it might as well be time again for my weekly/monthly/bi-monthly/random-time-of-the-year blog to finally be updated. I've pretty much lost track atm of where exactly I was when I posted last (Character-wise) so all of this will be one big ol' lump of 'guess what!' news.

First and foremost - the detested Castilla Mines have finally been done away with! Luck tripped across the Family's fortunes while checking the MM the other day and found quite a number of Gold Relics for 1m ea. After buying a few (the Family has been saving up what one's they could get a hold of for some while now) they were exchanged for the last two quest items required for the CM part of the questline.

Yes, yes we do have something.

Finally, after I-have-no-idea-how-many months, that quest can finally be put to rest. In exchange for their hard work, the Family received two new medals, and Anwen (Romi) got a snazzy new costume so now she can hide in plain sight whenever she visits the Ruins.

..Actually come to think of it.. it's been about exactly a month since I last posted.. funny that. xD

In more recent news that may or might not have been reported thus far:

- Finished the Viron questline (well, almost), acquired Raven (who was consequently named Auberon), got him to Vet and there he has sat in my quarters since. Shortly thereafter Valleria was finally rescued from the prison, also Vetted, and allowed to retire upon a comfy couch in a very empty looking quarters to rest her sorry bones from the shackles that once held them, and for some relaxed chatter with Auberon while adjusting to her new name of Elsie.

- With a bit of luck, some chips, and an assistant to help flirt with the Enchantment Lady, nearly all of the family's e100 arsenal has been rechipped to much more acceptable standards including a recently crafted Eye of Veilant, for Asoka.

- Also in regards to the Family's white-haired greatsword-weilding companion, an ESA was crafted, chipped, and +6'd, also in addition was it's sister-recipe, the magic belt from the halloween event, was also managed to be crafted and chipped to an imprintation of 2 dex, to which Zinnia was quite delighted.

- Margaret was finally granted an Augury stance ring crafting, which was intensified shortly thereafter. It's a huge help from having to switch between Ele Pen, Barsel, and Flare rings depending on what was required.

In other news....

Yup, it's true Ladies and Gents, Sword 2 has x-world pvp.

Lately, as you can tell ^ x-world has been finally added to the Sword 2 servers. It is a bit buggy in the sense that one has to try repeatedly before actually being successfully sent to a match. 90% of the time the player merely receives a 'Server Closed' message and you have to shut down the game and restart it again. That is unfortunate, however, the matches themselves? Quite a bit of fun. Above was a screen from the Family's first match, which.. strangely proved to be surprisingly easy. The match in the screen below, however, proved to be surprisingly hard. xD

Two Soso's face off while a Val and Catherine observe how it's done. :3

On that note.. there seems to be an awful lot of Catherine Torsche's in the rankings now. A lot of teams seem to be composed of a Sco/Val + Cath + ______. Frankly, I can't blame them. Cath is awesome <3 Also on the note of wcpvp, I'm not sure what all the numbers mean quite yet. No idea of exactly how the promoting works from Squire to Gallant either..  but I'm sure they'll be explained with time. 

- - - - -

On a side note, I've come to realize I'm only a month or so shy of being in the Family's current clan, for nearly a year. Interesting, that. I intend in a future entry to look back at where the family was then, and see how far they have come since. I must say this is the first true year-long bout of S2 playing that I've actually done without taking a x-month long break at some point. Back then Nar was the newest shiny character to be added, trump weapons were uber shiny, elite trumps were too much work, Circus was a brand new (painful) raid for the Family, and Equites was the first (of what would later be many) Expert stances to be learned by the Family's members. Funny to think also at that time, e92's were out of reach, the Family was *just* finishing their first full set of e84's, and 5.0 was the new shiny update lurking just around the corner.

Gah! I'm almost launching into said entry already. @_@ Must.. save.. for.. later.. Fates, it's late enough atm as it is.

Next update:

- CR mauling

- ToC poking

- CW shenanigans

- ET crafting?

- Equip scheming

Stay tuned :3

~Alze

When Lady Luck says "Rain"...

This weekend after a very busy week IRL, the Family was able to attend two weekend Halloween events. They seemed laggier than the Oktoberfest events, and it was still quite a wait to get our prize boxes from G1's Fynlo and Cresius, but overall well worth it.

The total tally from both Saturday's and Sundays events prize boxes are as follows.

10 AM Boxes (5 from each day)

3 Citadel of the Gods pases (1 day)
10 socket flux
10 shiny crystal chests (2557 total)
10 AMs boosts
40 vet chips
1 const box (Aries)
1 magic leather belt rec
1 elite schiv armor rec

10 Jeepers creepers boxes
2 pumpkin hat
12 reventant temp back costumes -.-
20 red lollis
20 pink lollis
1 witch hat

The day before this the Family was granted 1 GQ spod and 2 GQ obs in a row from the exchanger, and more recently won an fc for an elb scout recipe. From the halloween in-game quest event, the Family has acquired an assortment of rings including Barsel, Prelude, Principal, Logistics, Rouse, Croissment, and several Occultism, Death Chopping skill rings just to mention a few. Needless to say the Family has been thoroughly relishing this event. Granted the yeilds from the AM boxes, it seems a lot of crafting is in the near future.

Alze note: On a side note, these are totally the kind of reports that make me want to rage quit some days. On the flipside, these sort of memories are also what keeps me going. On a funny note about that magic belt rec - I don't even *have* a belt. I smell crafting shenanigans. Lulz. Until later.

~Alze

Break

I think I'm going to be taking a partial break from this game. Not that I'll completely leave for a time, but rather I've about had it with trying to level my higher lv chars and gear them. With the streak of bad luck chipping/selling chips/raid drops coupled with a number of fail runs in the very recent past in a number of different raids, I've just plum run out of energy to keep pushing myself and pursuing a loftier goal.

For instance, I've gone through 70+ chips on my xbow and not once gotten any sensible stat. By that I mean a stat that wasn't poison, stun, or some sort of ele/mental atk. Some had only speed, never saw even one atk % stat. Not even a low atk/low speed combo. I even tried using EBs at one point - 15 chips of solid poison/stun/ele/mental atk stats.. and absolutely nothing useful.

These are chips that have been tested on 5 or so seperate occasions. In my experience if you use about 10 or so chips, and get a hint of something good - you can get a good combo within a few chips more. Finding only junk stats you won't get anything at that time, try some other time/map/channel. This time has been nothing but the same for over a week.

A crafted golden feet for Soso chipped the same way. Fortunately I had the sense to stop on the best mod I'd yet to see after xx chips - 27% atk speed. That's it. /rant

Instead (as pushing myself is only draining my already meager interest and morale) I will be leveling nub chars to vet, farming shinies, selling starters, and doing other nabbish things. Screw this trying to chip 32AR weps and sell chips for elb funding. I've had it. I'm done.

Until later
~Alz

Castilla Ruins and the Tower of Chaos.

So another part of my little updates was this little deviation. After a (for me) fail run to King Henry at CW, a number of clanmates decided to run through the Castilla Ruins. I'd never been then before, and I've yet to go again since, though I'd love it. In short CR is a *lot* like the Castilla Mine raid, only its considerably shorter, and the bosses are a lot meaner.

Of a potential eight, five of us banded together for a run. Suicide run mostly, as (at least I for one) we weren't sure how far we'd get or if we'd even make it. The details are a little fuzzy, but if I recall it costs a gold relic to get in, so it can be a little spendy. As soon as you go in you earn the [Castilla Relic Explorer] Medal.

A map for convenience.

1. The first boss is the Diablo of Chaos, and he's rather huge, as most all of the bosses in the Castilla Ruins are. 

2. The 2nd is called Wetis of Chaos. Wtheck a wetis is, I've no idea, and I'm not too interested in finding out. But he looks a little like this.

Behold! The fearsome Weits of Chaos.

A little bit beyond that is this pretty little scene..

The last calm, serene view before many a pioneer's demise.

3. Arito of Chaos is the next boss you get to meet. Looks liek a seriously old man in epic armor. Kinda spiffy looking, if I may say so myself.

4. Part four of ze tour is a very small boss called simply 'Nana'. A small young red-headed female who packs quite the 68 AR punch.

Coincidentally, she's also prophetic.

5. Here is Tempest. A giant armored knight with purple glowing eyes and an arsenal of pain that will make most anyone become very friendly with their Soul Crystals. At 69 AR/DR, there really was nothing the Family could do that the time to damage it, so the time was spent best running around and ressing our teammates when possible. For that large area right before where Tempest arrives? You need that space to defeat the other bosses. Yes, the other bosses you just defeated. You get to defeat them, again, all at once.

The mighty Tempest in the vast Arena.

The roulettes seem to vary between dishing out more e84 items (yuck >_<) to gold bars, lv 100 items, and even some rings. Given our moderate success at Castilla Ruins, our group continued on our adventure even further - into the Tower of Chaos!

- - - - -

I've heard a lot about ToC, and seen a lot of pretty pictures from there too. As far as I know, no-one has yet completed ToC. I know it *has* been defeated in like.. one of the versions/servers for Granado Espada, but not to my knowledge has it been done on the Sword 2 servers. It cost.. actually.. I don't recall what it cost. But it involved gold relics and it was spendy. Regardless, we were fortunate to have enough with us so everyone could enter, so in we went!

Just a short ways in, but already a gorgeous interior.

One thing of interest to note, is Tower of Chaos absolutely reeks of exp. Granted I hadn't tried vesping before this point, but it certainly isn't anything to thumb your nose about. It's very nice exp - assuming your party can survive long enough to get it. I wouldn't advise trying to bring a nab to plvl though. Now when I went in I brought in a Lv 1 Master scout, Lv 3 Ele (cringeworthy, I know), and a Lv 1 Master Soso. Their exp % was 15, 63, and 91% respectively.

A thing to note is that - for starters - ToC begins with 68 AR/DR mobs. By the time we reached Einschwer of Chaos, (Einwind, essentially), Niyone was up to 30%, Margaret my Ele up to 96%, and Mei (Soso) was 6% into the next level. On that note, Ein completely slaughtered a number of us, but it was fun all the same.

Tanking: It's srsbsns.

All in all, it was a lot of fun. Personally, I can't wait to go there again. xD It's freaking expensive though. @_@ But the experience was worth it, and I'm not referring to the character %'s either. I've no idea when the next time I'll be able to/can afford to go to CM let alone ToC, but I'm looking forward to it. I have this thing where if there's a boss that's tough and hard to beat - I just want to defeat it all the more. So with that in mind - ToC is like a ideal *cue angels singing* challenge to me. Teehee, can't wait.

~Alze.

Alze's Update (Pt. 1)

Sooooo... I haven't actually posted on here in a heck of a long time. Time to fix that. Last two months have left this blog pretty barren save for Character promotions/levels updates on the side bar. Au contraire to these blank pages, the family has actually been very industrious in the New World. Allow this simple narrator to present to you, one of no doubt several, updates. Ie: A Pic-spam of Events.

Now last time we left off, the family was struggling on several points. LoD wasn't completed. Soso was a fresh Master, RE was undefeated and the best gear avaliable to the family was some trumps. Oy, surprising how much can change in two months.

- Aquired and maxed Flintlock, Hapkido,
-Completed the LoD questline. Aquired Kurt's character card.

A bit of exploring was in order.

- Crafted a Rosario, which after 100 chips, has yet to yeild any DR.

With Viron's release a new area was added to the new world. Along with it came daily Viron raids, maps, as well as weekly clan missions and Party Arena, a clan vs clan version of TA.
I gotta say - one thing I really like about Viron (similar to Castilla) is how much movement and animation the npcs have. It's so pretty. @_@

- Maxed Hapkido + ET turned out to be the solution to defeating Reckless Emilia. She was renamed Elena and added to the family. She underwent vigorous training and reached Expert within a week. 23 Chimera keys when into farming up an Aries for Madness, which she maxed in 2-3 days in Skele SA.
- Rio's questline for his expert Stance book was completed. Now just to actually get him to expert.

 - - - - - 

Now that was everything that happened until I was able to switch from playing on my lappy (faithful old thing it is) to my desky. Oh happy hd pretty-ness! The day I finished it, the clan was embarking on several Clan Raids. Thanks to the much bigger resolution I was able to use, I was able to take much prettier pictures! Enjoy some shots from our exploits. :3

Raff at it's finest.

Mad Uraeus rises once-more from it's bathwater.

Mad Griffon in all his raging glory.

The ever-vigilant pioneers.

I'll add more pictures about Red Forest after next week's raid. So far it's given me both a DHr and an eLB scout recipe. :3 The wraith-y things at the end drop elbs at a pretty nice rate.

- Mastered Niyone

- Attempted Valeria's quest. 

- Found and turned in a Snake Scale. Serpent recipes are now avaliable.

- Aquired and maxed SS on Zinnia (Caly)

- Promo'd Caly to Master

- Crafted first Serp weapon, a Whisper of the Forest. Fortune shined and granted a low atk + decent human racial mod to it.

- Crafted first ever eLB fig. Also, an elb scout dropped for me during a Red Forest run.

- Explored the maps outside Viron, and in turn found the infamous RedHair Fighter.

- Completed and recruited Catherine Torsche. She was renamed Caroline. Anyone who's played Portal 2, can recall the storyline, and has enough brain cells to rub together should be able to appreciate the irony. They're a bit stretched, and somewhat inverted by comparison, but it's by far enough to make me giggle.

- Went Vesping for the first time ever with a borrowed bow from a clanmate. During the 1-day pass a leveling extravaganza occurred. Margaret (Ele), and Jisket (Musk) were leveled and promoted to Master. Isabel (Helena) gained two levels. Circe (Asoka) gained two levels. Amelia (Lisa) and Caroline were promoted to Vet. And Caly went from fresh Master - to 60% into lv 5. Family level increased to Lv 35, and added enough % to leave it at the same percentage the Fam level had been when I first started vesping during fam Lv 34.

More goodness to come. :3

~ Alze.

Aqua! Travels and Flintlock.

((Alze Note: This was orig. written some.. two weeks ago? It has a healthy bit of ramble/rant so I figured I'd just post it anyway vs letting it collect dust in my draft bin.))

Ah, it feels good to be back again! Of late life's been very busy as some much-needed planning is kicking into high gear. In the meanwhile the Fam has been taking an extended snooze in the barracks while IRL I've been having my own off-the-wall *ahem* adventures.

An old note:
"I've been mostly awol during the last few days as I've taken off traveling cross-country. Until I return home I will stay equally awol until further notice! This includes a healthy presumption that nothing more goes wrong with my traveling, no mufflers falling off, no sensors freaking out and drying to drown the engine in gas, and no dead deer on the road to get in my way. It's a long story, but I had to be towed the last 40 miles of my journey. Oh joy."

That was part of the original message I had saved in this post when it was still a draft. On the return trip, I still ended up stranded on the side of the road and had to have a family member drive out some 300+ miles, hitch up a trailer, and tow the damn car allllll the way back home. Good news? Nothing was terribly wrong with it. Fussy news? It was just the right part to go haywire to mess everything up. Well - in terms of being able to move forward when you press the gas pedal at least.

Sword-wise not a whole lot has been happening. The Family is currently hinged on needing to complete the LoD quests, and I've yet to have the spare day to do it in. Beyond that the Family has been firmly lodged in a deep debate of what to do with their chip sales. Prices are.. pathetic.. considering they can be gotten from boxes while people spam away for _____ high item. It's still possible to make a reasonable profit given one has the opportunity, clannies/friends, and the time to do so, but time is of the essence as symbols are also tied into this deflation of prices. Namely - Libra. Aka: Shadow Sting FTW. Good news - it's uber cheap now and probably only going to get cheaper. Icky news - I'm about 50m short of one and chips don't sell, dag nabbit.

Bet you can't guess what my main source of income is.

I really do hate those boxes sometimes. They flood the market with all the stuff I sell to make vis. /QQ.

Either way - armor, weapons, and symbols need to be aquired. The which/what/how/when/now? debate still rages from time to time. Lately the Family purchased a small stockpile of cheap (for recent times) Mysterious Powders in preparation for tackling the LoD quests involving Kurt and Eduardo. I still have no idea which of the two I'll go with. They're identical - save for skin and summon color. But.. stiiiiiiiilll. *fidget* I can't decide.

In other news the Fam got a cheap Aqua some weeks ago, and so Jisket (Musk) still has a nab Flintlock level as I haven't the time to level it properly yet. Also got the new costume hair for Nar, and hair and costume for Ania. Now if only I could find Nar's costume for uber cheap.. buuuut.. I'm not sure that's going to happen. We'll see. :3

Kinda interesting to look back, back when I'd QQ about how many stances I didn't have. As of now I have pretty much all the ones I wanted to get, and then a few extra. Funny how that goes.

A Month Later.. Wait, what?

Ya know I've come to the conclusion I make far too many drafts, and not enough posts. Anyway, nutshell bite-sized edition of what's been happening since my last successful update/post in no particular order. This isn't meant to be of any great nutritional value. Just reporting ze events so I don't have to later. :3

Since April:
- Made a ton of black oxides from a crud-ton of rings that'd been hoarding. We're talking some 50+ rings of nab stances I've been collecting since the uber nub days x-years ago.
- MAULED Katovic for cabbages. Was able to make a snowfield soup. One quest done. Just need to farm up even moar cabbages for Garcia. -.-;;
- Finished the Ania and Andre quest - made a Fig Dignite Costume. It's.. it's ok. Might make more later when I'm bored and rolling up to my gills in Amritas.
- Spent oodles of time hunting angler and voila! Persistence pays off. Managed to find a Scorpio for Niyone, which is now only a Lv 16 Enhanced Tactics. People weren't kidding, it really is a bish to level.
- Also got a DHr from angler, now affectionately dubbed 'Ann Geller' aka 'Annie G'. Took a lil while - but crafted it too. It's now sitting in storage, collecting dust until the Family can acquire a recipe worthy of said item. We're hoping for an eLB (fig, ideally) but it might be a while before such an item is crafted and chipped into something usable.

- Found a Cut Phys Res necklace in Sewers while helping a clannie farm seals. Bought a phys necklace from BH, got a made recipe (and crafted it) from Errac. Now the hunt is on for an Enhanced Phys necklace to make the cut version. I should go farm for it.. KoC timer is silly easy to get if you have the time for it. On that note..
- Got a cave piece, now I need a snake scale to be able to access recipes for the Serpent series. No I don't want to pay 15m for the drop. Cheaper, damnit. Yes I'm a vis-pincher! (ha-ha... x.x) This might actually wait a while. Got started because of debate over what to do with the DH. I wanna maaake somethiiiiiiing ;~;
Also: a Story as told by Sierra:
"Long ago, the underground cave was covered by a lake. There was a large snake, called the Sworn Guardian, that requested sacrifices every year. But, in return, the Sworn Guardian gave the King many treasures. But, the King was not satisfied with the amount of treasure he recieved from the Sworn Guardian. The King even tried to have it killed, so that he could have all the treasure for himself. Unfortunately, for the King, the Sworn Guardian got angry and swallowed him and his people and then shrank to the bottom of the Underground. Do you think the Sword Guardian is still alive?"
Que curioso. King of Greed, indeed.
- Family finally managed to defeat the Phobitan General in the Castilla Mine.
- Iapetos (Nar) and Rosaline (Sum Cath) were both promoted to Veteran.
- Wanna find a Caeromia costume. For cheap. Saw one the other week for 20m, haven't found one since. QQ. Got Wild Blare for Iapetos. Now just to wait for his costume to come out.
- Tried and completed (a) Vergo Instance mission. V is a bish. Do. Not. Like. Didn't really break even, though chip prices were faceplanting at the time. If only I had the dps for raff. @_@

- ASSOOOOOOKKAAAAAAAAAAAAAA (yes she qualifies as her own bulletin point)

Introducting: Circe! She's shiny @_@

- Circe was quickly Vetted and then given Sidewinder to level. Much debate happened about what to do with the 950 some Caeb cards the Family had stashed away. It was decided to let Circe sit as she was for now, given the Family seriously lacks in gears as it is, let alone having a decent GS for this lil specialty. She'll be a project continued at another time.
- Got a taste of the whole auto-red thing first-hand. (As I understand of the issue, it's still a bit fuzzy to me). Conclusion: It's a bish. I say if you're going to turn red and kill me, then switch back to blue a minute later, is cowardice. If you're going to  be red, stay red damnit. I don't give two excrement lumps if you* can mop the floor with me, at least be a sport if you want to pk. -.- (* using word in general to avoid naming names. Gotta say it knicked off some previous respect I had for said subject. Trying not to associate the disapproval to the rest of said player's clan. I dislike judging a group by one player's actions but.. still. Not. Cool.)
- Stuffed said hoard of Caeb cards down Soso's throat instead of Asoka's. 10 Hours of leveling later, Mei was promoted to Master. This makes her the 3rd Master of the Family.
- Started and completed the MMA questline in two tries. The first failure happened quite on accident on the last boss before Fritz. Overall - was much easier than I anticipated. Also - ET saved my bacon so many times it's not even funny..

Victory Stance after xx-pics of bosses and fighting. Soso + Ice = Love.

- Kicked Sharon's butt in Caebolan, but however got butt kicked by Reckless Emilia. Here's the funny thing - Soso managed to single-handedly take out a bit over half of RE's hp by herself in an initial test run. Haven't been able to do *nearly* as well since. It's.. a bit silly in an absurd sort of way. No special buffs either. Not even ET. Wtf?

Actual reading-quality posts later. Til then. :3

Past Two Weeks

 Well the last two weeks have been.. somewhat monotonous game-wise. RL has taken a liking to mauling my better senses so everything is pretty much jelly atm. Stresses aside, at least Sword-wise there's been a few note-worthy remarks to be had - so without further adeu!

- Went Vesping for the first time ever and Italy found out what an uber pain Armor Crasher is. I've never pot spammed so fast in my life. Well, maybe that's not quite true, but it's up there.
- Got to help take down a Heaven Giant Keeper though trump blunts don't do very much in ways of damage. Got a Magic-spelled Amethyst and a Liquid gas and some chips for my (not so useful) involvement. On that note - Vets were total derps and kept running in the way of the vesps and getting themselves killed. -.-

It was a race to see who could inflict AC first. :3

- A friend lent the Family some gear and so fresh Masters Anwen (Romina), Italy, and neglected scout Niyone set off for round two of the Holy Water Chamber quest. :3 It's amazing what the right gears can do. The first attempt took 30 minutes to get by the first boss. This attempt? Just eight minutes. Eight. That's absurd. I was giddy but died a little inside at the same time. Surprisingly gear+buffs alone (not ET or FF) Romi had 68 AR 65DR, and Italy had 67 AR/DR.. and that was without a shield. With 32 minutes left on the clock (and only 2x minutes fighting) Jorgen went down as well. :3 After that the rest of the quest went pretty uneventfully.

Boom! (Knockback was still a bish x.x)

- Rest of the Caeb SA pass was spent in a card squad. All cards were used on Soso who reached Expert. She's Exp Lv 4 now. :3 Leveling her is a bish x.x She has worse survival luck than Caelan (Vincent Rio) did while trying to level him to Veteran back in October.

 Random Clan Shenanigans. You can guess what was actually happening.

- Discovered Italy can now thrive in Circus, not completely fail at damage. Her weapons are pretty generic currently, but she can tank just fine with her existing gear. Hitting 67 DR with a shield isn't much of an issue anymore. ^^ Now if only she could hit that kind of survivability without one.. *dreams a little more*
- Tried using a crafted key for skele - silly simple fight - no frenzied ravyn. QQ

Castilla Mine Phobitan Imp General still eats the Family for breakfast.

- After numerous unsucessful attempts at chipping *any* DR on our own e92 ERS, the Family purchased a +5 3DR ERS instead. Finally, Niyone won't be stuck wearing e84 armor at best anymore. Will work on +6'ing it later. Now just to get a Scorpio.. *dreams*

Lady Luck Strikes Again

Tonight I tried rechipping an Elite La Luna that the Family was very kindly given not that long ago. The first few chips yielded a sole stat of 34% atk, which was fine for the time. Having hoarded up a few more Lv 96 chips (after foolishly selling the sizable bunch I had >_<) I decided to try rechipping on a whim. I'd been upgrading to break items into chips and had gotten several +6, and even a +7 earlier this evening, so I was feeling a little lucky. Apparently, tonight I was.

First chip. o________________o

I tend to have terrible chipping luck. Been pouring Lv 92 chips into an ERS to no avail yet, so I've hardly attempted chipping weapons. I'm not very familiar with socketing, so a 2nd and possibly 3rd will have to wait until later. I mean sheesh..  It's been a while later and I'm still gaping like an idiot. It even +6'ed on the first try. I must say, I do believe I know who will be the next Expert and possibly Master in the Family. Errac Dias slayer anyone? 

<_<

>_>

<_<

...

*giggle*
~Alze

First Masters! ..and HWC quest.

Oooh so much has happened in the last month! Both in and out of game, but I'll just stick with the relevant stuff. ^_~

Since my last posting, Zinnia, Margaret, and Anwen were sent off to Skele AA to level their way to Expert. About exactly two weeks later all three were promoted to Expert within a few days of each other. There was a bit of QQ over the lack of a Libra for Shadow Sting for Zinnia (Calypso), but Margaret(Ele) was given Occultism (and later also Augury). Neither stance has yet to be maxed.. yet. Lack of decent damage dealing items makes them a bish to level. Also found an e92 3DR robe for cheap. It was upgraded to +5 and left there for the time being.

Margaret ponders the Family's next move.

Anwen learned Equites and so her and Italy (Fig) were set loose into Baha SA. This worked well for a time. Curious thing about that map, decent spawn only lasts in the 1st area. In the hallways? Pfft forget it. At best (of what spots weren't taken - even in what I was later told were 'ideal' spots) spawn rate was too slow to keep them busy and at best they got around 2% an hour. Italy called bs and so they moved out to Murky. The experience there was excellent as long as they weren't afk killed by an Angler or dragged away to their deaths by Angler Hunters. There they got about 6-8% an hour. Shortly after on another player's suggestion the duo tried leveling in the Underground Caves. Oy! 10-12% an hour there, and so they camped. :3

Now during this time Italy went on a stance leveling extravaganza. During the past couple weeks she maxed Defender (which had been sitting at lv 20 for forever), and acquired and maxed the Expert stances Hanging Guard, Crusader, and Tronada Cruz. She's only lacking Peltast, but Scopio's are expensive and Niyone has first dibs. Anwen maxed Equites. Over the last weekend Italy grinded her way to Lv 10 - 100%. A soloing Romina quickly closed the 1 1/2 level gap and caught up. With the help of some cards in time for some BH runs, both were promoted to Master within the same day.

Master at last! Huzzah!

It's been a while since Italy was promoted to Expert back in September. Exactly seven months and a day later she's now reached Master. Anwen took a little under two weeks. Found out they each gained two AR/DR for their promotion.

- - - - -

- Found and killed first ever King of Covetry in Baha SA. It was muuuch more successful than the first try. The Family couldn't even dent his hp at the time. This wasn't exactly a cakewalk either, but they finally succeeded!

Proof! :D

- Accidentally made a +8 BFG while trying to break lv 92's for chips.
- Joined in and completed first (and second) BH Caeb run with my shiny new masters.
- Found an Old Chess Piece in inventory. Noooo idea how it got there, nor when, but whooohoo! Is also the first OCP I've ever found.
- Bought a Ruined Ancient Rosario and gave it to Reina (Emilia) so she can level her other stances. Bought her Tactical Assistance. Makes her the second TA user in the Family next to Niyone(Scout). No intent to chip it (being it takes vet chips ;~;) but the lv 92 rosario is out of the Family's reach at the moment. The LoD quests will probably be happening shortly.

- Attempted the HWC quest with Masters Anwen, Italy, and Expert Jisket. It... wasn't pretty. It took about half the time to get past Ortega alone. Jorgen is totally tankable by Italy, with or without a shield. (with = 66 DR o.o;;, w/o = 63DR). Jisket easily died multiple times during the attempt, even in an +6 3DR e96 coat. The quest also nearly ran the family out of hp pots. They easily ate up some 800+ in the half hour alone. Maybe that isn't uncommon, but it is the highest pot burn in one shot the Family has seen yet.

As you can tell.. Italy wasn't too happy.

Maybe if Jisket could've stayed alive, they might've had a shot. As it was with Italy and Anwen, the two couldn't even dent Jorgen's hp. Whatever minuscule dent there was, it was quickly reclaimed by regen. Also - discovered ranged characters are wonderful for this quest, if not absolutely vital. The knockbacks by Ortega were super annoying, and Jorgen's debuff even more so. I've concluded that even if the MMA quest is completed (whenever Mei (Soso) reaches Expert/Master) that with Jorgen's 67/67 AR/DR and the difficulty that posed, working on improving the Family's weapon arsenal will be the next priority. Without that, Jorgen, (and not to mention) Catherine Torsche, and Reckless Emilia (we won't touch on Valeria) will be next to impossible to beat in the current circumstances.

Next up:
- LoD quests.
- Expert Mei (Soso)
- Angler Hunting.
- Weapon chipping?
- STo revisited.
- Caeb/Baha/Skele BH mauling.
- More CM runs?

Wish me luck. :3
~Alze

Pisces! Updates and Plans

First and foremost the absolute *highlight* of my week happened just the other night. I have been hunting the bosses from AQM, Tetra, Porto, and Prison in hopes of *a* Constellation Symbol but have never found one - ever. Until just the other night. :3 A Symbol of Pisces dropped from Dios Lantem for the Family prompting much squeeing and jubilant celebrating. Apparently only Elementalists can use any of the stances Pisces affords, so Margaret (Ele) and Isabel(Helena) will have to duke it out and see who gets first dibs. Catch is - neither is Expert... yet!

 Short Rundown of Events:
- Family has received several goodies from the New Years Event including: 3 Training Card B's which give 500k stance experience each, a Moon Bunny back costume, and a Korean Traditional Costume (hat and dress) for Elementalist.
- Bought a Clivia Sprite costume for Jisket and a Torozova Ell for Niyone. Both were very inexpensive compared to competing prices so.. impulse buy!
- Opened two angler spinelles the Family had recieved some time ago - got two bogs for it. I understand now why people aren't a fan of bogs. They drop.. almost literally nothing.
- Farming in Errac Dias is much more effective with at least one character within the yellow exp range.
- Finally acquired Irawain's card. Quests oddly remind me alot of completing Gracielo's questline. The card will sit along with Angie's in the inventory for now.
- Revisited PY (deserted as usual). Finally killed Chimera (first time ever) and later Gerero. I now understand why PY is deserted. Got a number of e84 weps, a few rings, and Hero's Seal but not much else.
- Bounty Hunter quests are marathonable. With sufficient character levels to complete them, one player could do as much as 21 BH runs in a day. Six of those being for Caeb, five for Baha, four for Skele, etc. Twenty-one runs!!! We'll ignore the bar/rep/crystal costs that would go along with it.

The Andre and Ania quest was finally completed in Rebo. Apparently Andre was all shocked at Ania's knowledge about Violakea. She confirmed it was his objective to stop Stratavista and asked what Andre was going to do about Ferruccio Espada  when *bam* Emily from the Circus showed up. Apparently Andre foiled an assassination attempt on Emilia (...when did this happen?). Fight ensued (provoke ftw). Afterwards Ania tells Andre of Fritz being on the move. Andre spazzes and asks where he is. Ania says he's 'somewhere passing all his skills' to his disciples. Hello Hapkido quest anyone? Ania has her own score to settle as her motive for helping, and Andre wants to create something better than her 'questionable' costume. Cue start of Andre's Masterpiece.

- - - - - 

Phew! Now that updates are over and the Luci wing issue was fixed, I'm strongly debating what to have the Family do especially now with having a Pisces Symbol. I see it going one of two ways. Either spend another sleepless night in Caeb SA and insta-Expert one character, or team up some of my splash damage dealers and set them loose in Skele AA for a while and have 3 more experts in a week or so. I find the most difficult to expert are the characters that cannot inflict splash damage with their attacks. That means Mei (Soso), and Anwen (Romina), specifically.

..Yeah.. I think I know what I'm going to do now. Its definitely worth a shot. Only this time without the 5hr mandatory bullet refills!

BH and First Angler

So maint just kicked in, or so Raiden claims. Technically I was still logged in when it 'started' but meh, minor details. xD I was going to stay up just long enough to do a Circus run after reset, so in the two hours I had the Family completed one Prison of Joaquin Bounty Hunter run (receiving two tokens), and a BH Skele Dungeon run (receiving two Crafted Skele keys), which made me chuckle. The last skele run I'd done this morning had also given me 2 tokens. That's three runs in a row of the same item twice in the roulette.

Irony? I do believe so..

Given I only had about another half hour or so until maint the Family went off to Bahamar Marsh to go hunt up an Angler. Now I've only seen an angler once, and that was from a spinelle back in Skele AA last fall. It was hunted for briefly yesterday with no success, but I thought I'd give it a shot tonight anyway. One thing I've noticed - just from the hour of maint and the fact maint is happening in xx minutes.. if any bosses respawn during that window of time - odds are they're still alive and kicking by the time the servers go offline. Go figure.

The trio (Jisket, Italy, sans Niyone as Zinnia (Caly) was with in her place instead) went off and combed over the Marsh. They circled the entire perimeter searching pretty blindly for a boss that might or might not be there. If the angler has any general spawn locations, or places it tends to show up more than others I don't know of them. ^^;; Anyway at last whim they cut across the Marsh, confident it had been thoroughly searched and found empty. At the channel timer ticked down to an imminent move, a very murky.. colorful.. strange form showed up ahead. And poof. *Moving to Bahamar, Marsh* popped up on the screen.

I've never changed channels back so damn fast. .______.;;

Sure enough it was still there. The Family only had about 10 minutes before maint, and having no idea of what damage they'd be capable of let alone if they could event dent the creature's hp.. well.. it was a maul-fest. Skills were spammed, pots were nommed.. once in a while, and sp pots were abused rigorously.

Can't see too much unless you click on it.

Six minutes later (with 3ish to spare - supposedly) it finally ran out of hp. Huzzah!!! I was really really REALLY hoping for a symbol or something. I've heard that it can be an excellent supply for Scorpio, and oy, I'm in dire need of them. Well, for once at least. Niyone has been lacking ET for-ev-er and I'm not about to shell out 350m+ for them. I just don't have that sort of income. ^^;; Also - DHr would be absolutely awesome to find. I kind of need one of those.. I have a Black Dagger recipe calling for one.

*grin*

~ Alze

Novia Revisited

Lady Novia.. that famed Ice Mistress of the Glacial Fortress within Glacial Plane beyond the Wastes... (geeze that sounds epic) ..has been taunting the Family for months. Every cold breeze, every falling snowflake whispering of our imminent defeat should we return, and reminding the Experts of their last. With Spring coming ever nearer and the grip of Winter weakening, the family decided to pick up arms and try to seal her away once more.

Only Jisket this time remained of the first trio. Joining was Italy and Margaret for a bit of an elemental edge. Two experts and a vet.. so far this was turning remarkably similar to the first time. With the best gear available to them they warped out to the Fortress, spoke to the statue and entered. Just within the icy door, a brief investigation once more landed the Alzeda family within the presence of Novia herself. Bewildered and disoriented the Family missed the buff spot, and true to the whispers, littered the floor within seconds. Minions punted the defeated trio out of the tower. The Family waited just long enough to patch their wounds, and they charged right back in.

The Second Time started off a bit better.

The second attempt was met with a little more success - surviving the initial wave is always the most difficult part. Even armed with the buff, Margaret went down fairly quickly. Apparently there was a bit of a graphics glitch that showed the trio standing in the same place while clicking off to the side and the bosses chasing in that direction and obviously hitting them. Couldn't attack them either. Huh. Anyway it rectified itself soon enough and after a little circling Italy and Jisket took on Elbrid, Elnugad, Elminor, and Montoro, and so the following ensued..

 Italy took on the trio, while Jisket contended with Montoro.

Once they were down, Margaret rezzed they went after Novia - So very close!

...and then Montoro showed up. Again. (Didn't we just defeat him?)

"Ah!" Proclaimed Novia, pausing in her assault while glaring at the fighter in front of her. They hadn't died as easily as last time. In fact they hadn't, at all. "What did you do?" Asked a voice from behind. A quick glance revealed it to be Montoro, young and unchanging as always. "How come it's so different?" Only silence answered his inquiry. Margaret could practically see the sigh. "This is dangerous." Montoro muttered, suddenly changing the tone. "I think I have to escape now, but I wouldn't just let go off so easily!"

"Die, Montoro!" Yelled a female voice, the sound of a rapier blade slicing the air.

"Selva!" Garcia yelled as red lines suddenly formed across the ground, one didn't need to see the smirk on Montoro's face to know what was about to happen. Suddenly as quickly as it began, it was over. Jisket couldn't spot Montoro - he had vanished. Novia also faded as her strength was depleted and the seal reclaimed her. Helplessly Garcia crumpled to the ground, having dashed in taken the brunt of Montoro's spell.

"...You stupid fool." Muttered Selva, putting her rapier away and glancing icily from him to the Family. "So... I told you not to follow me." Italy stopped short of a retort as an old man ran up to them. "Everyone okay? Garcia!" The boy was hurt, badly. It took only moments for the man to figure exactly what it was. He'd likely seen it before. "It seem like you've been attacked by Montoro's magic. Ummm, It's fine, I think I can break the spell. Okay, is Novia safely sealed?" He glanced around, the Ice Queen was nowhere to be seen. Well - one of them anyway. "Montoro?"

"Invierno." Margaret spoke up, hushing a look to her irritated sword-loving sibling. Glancing down at Garcia, she frowned, worried. "We fought him but.." Jisket refused to look at the rest, only crossing her arms in the silence. She'd shot the hell out of him, damnit, and he was still alive and kicking. The elementalist continued. "..Montoro escaped. Again."

"That," Invierno grunted, and got back to his feet from Garcia's side. "He must have escaped to Cortes. One of the Ten Nobles. I heard that he is planning something in the Caebolan zone these days." Selva's look hardened at the thought. Strange tales were told of those lands. Old man Winter continued.

"He went? Well.... I can't leave him here like this. You should help me. Let's get out of here first." Italy nodded to Invierno's suggestion, helping to pick up Garcia and make their way out of the Tower. Staring down at the body she couldn't look for long. Humans weren't supposed to be petrified. But this was the New World. Her and the rest of the Family had seen a lot of strange things since their arrival nearly three years ago.

"Why did he jump in at that moment? He hasn't been completely petrified, so we still have some hope." Invierno started once Garcia was safely tucked away, far from the tower and it's chilling image. Selva had once more left the group during the journey. "Fortunately, if we have some Snowfield Soup and a Philosopher's Stone, we can save this friend." He chuckled. "Snowfield Soup needs the golden apple, beet, cabbage, and wolf meat. Please bring me 1 Snowfield Soup. I can use the pot to make this, I believe that you know the Philosopher's Stone too. I think 10 of them will be enough." With a quick agreement the trio left. They knew those ingredients well. The meat and stones would be a cinch. The apples however.. Once they were out of earshot, Jisket groaned and kicked at a snowbank. "I hate farming!!!!"

- - - - -

..........yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh I couldn't resist. Sorry guys but it was just too tempting with all the supplied lines. Yes indeed the horrible dialogue (well, from the npcs at least) is all verbatim from screen shots I took during the instance. I have a weak spot for the storylines in Sword, so I mused over making the storyline more.. story-ish. Heh. ^^;; Moving on. >_>

Quest-wise:
Expert Italy had 59 AR - 64 DR, thanks to a 2DR shield, and a lent Le Noir.
Expert Jisket had 60 AR - 62 DR, thanks to some Trump pistols and a lent e96.
Veteran Margaret had only 56 AR - 57 DR. thanks to a Trump bracelet and vet pio lightning bracelet, her e84 robe, and a pair of lucifer wings. That extra 1k hp kept her barely alive through several of Lady Novia's assaults.

Success!

Now to do a bunch of soup farming. There's no way in heck I'm paying xxxM for all the ingredients. The family already has two to make, and still just short on resources to make one. I don't mind farming too much but... oy. Time to haul in the levitating vets. Wish me luck. I'm going to need it. @_@

The Expert Debate

So - since last time a few things have happened but nothing terribly notable. Family leveling has gotten underway. There's little point in leveling my Experts as right now not one of them has all of their stances yet. Niyone needs ET, Jisket still requires Flintlock, Italy needs a ton of them (the exalted Peltast and famed Tronada Cruz, along with several others), and Victoria..? Actually leveling my Grace isn't a huge priority at the moment. Stock chars have precedence. :3

Last weekend I made a run to Caeb SA for the first time ever. *le gaspeths!* Got into a very good group and was able to turn in the quest for more cards every hour and five minutes. Sleep eventually sneaked up on me and out of a possible 600 cards (if 25/hr) I came away with 500 cards instead, and that was with sleeping through a couple turn-ins. Kinda neat to think that had I kept awake long enough - I could've come away with 550 cards. ^^;; This, however just launches one great debate - who to Expert/Master first?

I'm considering waiting on Mastering anyone. I'm a bit of a stickler for having 'all available stances maxed' before advancing to the next promotion so I'll probably wait until I have all the Expert stances I want on x-char before I level/card feed/promote them to Master. With that out of the way leaves the second question - who to Expert? Along the side of the blog I have all my Veterans listed along with current levels (updated today) with a new addition. The (R) next to some of their names means all their stances are maxed, even all the Vet ones they can acquire. There is nothing left for them to do but reach Expert.

Right now (being I'm waiting on Expert stances) I'm leveling my vets in Skele Dungeon while AFK/sleeping to at least Lv 2, and maxing what stances I can. The idea is have all stances, get what ones I do not have, and max all of them while getting to at least Lv 2. With the mobs being strengthened across many maps - while soloing Experts is still a cinch with Lucifer Wings - I'm at a loss of where to AFK Vets short of going to Skele AA. If I Expert them via cards - well - each level saves me another 100 cards to use for another level. That and going from level 1 - 2 in Skele isn't very difficult nor take very long.

Anyway - I'm stumped. Expert Romina and give her Equites? (or Flint - I don't remember what I decided for her -.-) Expert my Wiz and hope for Darkness? Or maybe my Elementalist even though I don't use her that often? Zinnia (Calypso) would be fun as an Expert. Or how about Ania and her Gorgeous stance? One of the MAs for the road to Master for the MMA stance quest? Who? My objectives are so I can more effectively participate in Raids/CW/etc. I know gear is also a huge factor, but I'm stumped on who to have join my Expert Quartet.

On that note - decent 3DR e92's that aren't overpriced are silly difficult to find. @_@ As one that's been keeping track of prices for some time, they're just silly right now. They've actually gone up since the Patch.

 Enough of my QQing! Besides being stumped and hoarding cards until the obvious solution strikes me, the Family has been running off and being the extra 3rd person in Circus runs, doing Bounty Hunter runs with friends/clannies, and even a run through Castilla! I haven't found anything extraordinary drops-wise but I have been compiling a list of possible rewards based off of the roulettes. It seems a person could get really lucky.. or end up with just e84s. Imo, even e84's sell for a couple million so it's still worth it, but I do wish some of the shinier things would drop for me. ^^;;

Taking on KoC with clan mates in a BH Baha run.

So! New objectives :3

- Finish maxing Lightning and Fire Domination stances on Isabel (Helena)

- Acquire Domination Ice for Isa.

- Finish maxing Dom Light on Caelan (Vincent Rio)

- Finish maxing Sight Shot on Evalyn (Brunie) - our newest Vet! (She was vetted *just* for Outrage xD)

- Acquire a Rosario?

- Try out TA and hope for a Symbol - even if the Fam only ends up dead. :3

- Level a team from 80 to 84 to take advantage of the BH Torsche instance.

- Do something about the glut of rings the Family now has. @_@

- CW your little heart out. <3

...I think that about sums it all up.

Angie, e92's, and Lady Luck

So - earlier while reading another fellow Pioneer's blog I found out that - lo and behold - warp scrolls are purchasable with vis! Excellent, excellent news for which I was quite happy to find out. Angie's quest was one of the very first quests the Alzeda Family did in their earliest days within the New World. Upon finding out of it's (at then) expensive requirement - the quest has sat there ever since. The approximate date escapes me, but it was a few years ago - at least.

Almost~ but not quite.

Angie is still sitting as a form of a card in my inventory. I suppose this equates to poor Angie standing outside the Alzeda family manor, knocking on the door to listen to the empty hollow knocks. Listening for any sign of someone about to open the door, with naught but patience, a good word, and faith the crinkled piece of paper indeed held the right address. ..Oh geeze - writer mode is kicking in today. This might turn into a short story at some point. I have a small scene that pops up in my head everytime I have to name a new UPC - I might have to write it up here sometime. ^^;; *cough*

Anyway~ In other news! Niyone (Scout) finally FINALLY maxed Arnis. Currently it's being debated which skill to leave unmaxed. Lado Patada or Intoxicacion? Looking back it probably would've been best to have not maxed Asalto, as it doesn't do as well for a multiple-target sort of skill as I'd hoped. Ah well. Currently leaning towards leaving Intoxicacion, but we'll see.

The best news of the day today, came not even three minutes into a Bounty Hunter mission for Skele Dungeon. Lo and behold - whilst kicking myself for NOT restarting the hunt missions >_<!! ..something shiny fell on the ground! Running over the trio (Niyone, Italy, and Jisket) picked it up and found it was an Elite Dragon Coat. Not even a recipe - it dropped made - which is awesome. I wasn't even aware e92's even dropped in the Skele BH mission.

Now - if that wasn't silly enough - things only got sillier after that. After a bit of debate, it was decided not to sell the thing but rather try a hand at crafting it into something useful! So 1 spare EB, 7 chips, 24 UA's, and 1 Vet Lac later.. voila!

Jisket's Lucky Coat (of Win)

Now usually I'm a stickler for having 3DR on my armor, but considering this was a free drop? I really have nothing to complain about, especially considering this is the first e92 the Family has EVER been able to get. Total cost (as all supplies were bought on the MM - sans chips and EB) was about 50m. Apparent value (again, according to the MM) is about 250m. Not bad little investment, all things considered. Not bad at all.

On a side note, Italy is now soloing her way to Expert Lv 4 in Bahamar with her freshly +5'ed Trump sword. Hopefully she'll be able to reach it before Friday. Current rate says she won't make it in the next 30ish hours, but whatever is left over will be made up with stocked-up EXP cards. Like many things - I have been hoarding them. The tentative plan is to start farming cards this Fri-Sat. It'll be a 24/hr ordeal until it's done, but I'm sure it will be totally worth it. :3

5.0, Circus, TA, and Moar Stances

So freaking much has happened lately - and I haven't written a stitch about it. This is bad xD

Lately the Family has been able to join in on some Circus runs. Usually it's just to fill in and be an extra 3rd person/moving anchor. The lowest death record for a run is one death, but that's with staying well out of the way 90% of the time. e84's don't offer a lot of protection in there and Italy gets killed fairly easily. Either way some rough stones, lv 100 chips, a couple ticket recipes, and some boots, and even a Le Blanc have been acquired from it. Not too shabby for just being (mostly) a tag-along/buff monkey.

Not long after acquiring Italy's (fig) Expert stance Equites, she was also awarded with a Leo for Hanging Guard.. which.. still has yet to be leveled. After a small test I have a hunch she will need to be leveled by other characters - or at least assisted - before she can make much progress with leveling that stance. Also~! The Family was given a Symbol of Capricorn so Niyone (scout) now knows Arnis. She's being horribly stubborn about mastering it (read: dying), but it's happening slowly but surely.

Found a very inexpensive Shaggy Bobcut for Niyone. At first I wasn't very excited about this particular hair until I equiped it to her. Then I changed my mind xD

I think she looks adorable. ^^

Strange things have been going on with the servers again. For a time on several maps in the recent past all mob spawn would completely die off from certain maps on a specific channel. This however did allow for some awesome picture-taking opportunities - namely in Errac Dias.

- - - - - And then 5.0 hit. - - - - -

I haunted the maint thread as usual on the Sword 2 forums until the wee hours of the morning. I was there juuust long enough for a few lucky people to start patching ahead of time and cries of 'WE'RE GETTING 5.0' to start ringing out before I gave up waiting for maint to end and decided to crash and went to bed. I - of course - having set faith in certain promises that the community would be alerted ahead of time - internally scoffed at this when I hit the pillow and thought about how (sadly) disappointed everyone else would be when they found it hadn't actually happened yet.

The next morning? I couldn't have been more wrong. It was indeed 5.0 Now on one hand I was a little upset that we weren't told ahead of time and that it was suddenly *bam* 5.0 (and QQ to the loss of every continuing Belleming - my at-then source of income) but who can argue with new stances, maps, quests, and instances? I really can't. Other good news? I had just spent all my remaining vis on Bellems.. which.. I figure should return about 3-4x what I spent.. which is perfectly fine by me. ^^ The trick now is just deciding when to open them for best profit. Since then I've noted some players still sell Warp scrolls in the MM, but not much of anything else. Keys of any sort (AQM, Tetra, Porto, Prison, and Barrow) are completely nonexistant on the MM. It makes me curious what they might sell for now..

On that note - an NPC now sells Enchantment Chips - biiiiiiig DISLIKE. I have a small hoard of lv 32-76 chips.. mostly 32-40 in the triple digits. It's going to be.. interesting getting rid of those sans just discarding them. Good news - there will always be someone willing to buy straight out of the MM. :3 Those low level chips were getting difficult to sell as it was with the slight Belleming rush just before 5.0 kicked in, it might take a while now. Also - I know I'm not the only one hoarding a store of Bellems. It might not be a bad idea to camp on them for a while.

- - - - - 

Now - no proper update is complete without new maps and features. For me personally being able to have a map/quest/location to strive to get to can be a huge motivator for leveling/farming/and general progression in the game. At first it was to get to Ustier, then to Zona Uno, Dos, Tres, and Quatro. After that it was to be able to make it through Bahamar (maps and questline, which I thoroughly enjoyed), to Errac which has been recently completed, and recently the Family has found themselves being drawn to the mysterious land that is Caebolan. And now also Castilla.

Now Castilla has completely intrigued me, and so first thing after a brief glance about the camp (Comprised almost entirely of women no less.) The Family tested their strength at a solo run into the Mine. It all started off well enough.

Entering in, you get a medal just a few steps in!

It all started off simple enough. The Family took out the two Bear Workers with relative ease sans their sillily high hp. Next was a Steel Ararat that took a bit more effort, some rebuffing, and pot spamming to keep my squishy Experts alive in their e84 gear. It spawned three or so smaller Steel Ararats beneath it. They were annoying and didn't drop anything. Next was a pair of Phobitan Imps.. I don't have a ss of it, but I believe that's what they were called. They took the team by surprise and killed off Niyone and Jisket before the trio realised what was happening to them. Italy tanked the Imps and an SC resurrected Ni and Ji. The Imps were taken down shortly after. After that was the Phobitan General. That encounter went okay until it reached a point that cued its summons..

Imp summons are painful.

Needless to say the summons took out the team in very quick order. Not one of them could withstand a round of hits from all of them at once. Italy lasted a couple strikes longer, but not quite long enough.

Since then Gerero was found, fought, and killed once in the Prison and dropped some chips. There have been Reckless Emilias, Catherine Torsches, and Valerias *everywhere*. Prices of any and all Symbols have spiked sharply. Some have settled close to their old prices, several haven't. I missed out on CW over the weekend, but the clan the Family is in still took a colony. Bounty Hunter instances for Joaquin and Skeleton Dungeon have been checked out - and they're very well worth doing - especially considering 92 chips sell well and my team is horribly squishy for being Experts. There has been a huge increase in eLB recipes and (reportedly) DHr's. I was pretty surprised to see broads selling ELB recipes - though while they are probably still very far out of reach for the Family - if Elite Le Blancs are going to become common.. this means many other recipes should become alot cheaper in the near future... quite a lot.

Hopefully at least. ((I'm looking at you e92's!!!!! *shakes fist*))