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.