New Server, New Year

New Transfer, new host, new content, new opportunities, new characters..

So much new stuff!

New blog too, well, sort of. TAE is undergoing a major revamp in light of a contest ongoing in T3Fun's new forums (See Event 2). There are a number of ideas I've had floating around in my mind for months now, and this has been the final prod of opportunity to get them into motion. The overall look and theme of TAE won't change much, however the content and where it's seen will. The side bars will be completely revamped, and a lot of the current content taken out. Instead of a mass of family-specific information (ie: my hoard of characters) there'll be links instead.

The body of the blog will remain much the same, as posts on Family progress and game-specific guides will both be listed together, however a small mini-directory off to the right should help visitors in finding precisely what they're looking for. There will be a guide or two popping up in the next week, along with some pages to cater information specifically for the Castilla Server.

This isn't a terribly long post, as you can see. ^^;; It's no-where near my usual lengthy rambles (and much more upbeat than my last one), but sometimes something more 'bite-sized' is okay too.

Happy New Year everyone, and I'll see you next year!
~Alze

That Restless Feeling: A Final Update

So pretty much all the events on the Sword 2 servers are drawing to a close. Things a finally winding down, the drama is slowly coming to an end. It's the final tune before the curtain call. Never has it been so quiet, silent, anxious. I'm not so sure if  this is the quiet after a storm, or the silent brew right before one. It's right in the middle between closing the G1 chapter of drama, and opening a new one in T3. Honestly it's a bit fitting this should happen so freshly within the New Year..

..and I just can't shake that restless feeling.

I keep feeling like there is more to be done, something to do. The thought of leaving Orpesia - no longer being Orpesian - becoming Castillian (Castillan? Do we even have a word for ourselves yet?) is.. quite a notion to get used to. True this is all something we knew would happen, and was going to happen, for months now. But the fact that it is going to happen, and very soon, is.. well.. a bit shocking.

Perhaps I'm overly sentimental, but I get attached to these sort of things. After being within Orpesia for nearly five years (holy buckets that's a long time..) it kind of grows on you. The 'Drama' server, the history, the politics, the clans.. after playing so long it kind of 'becomes a part of you'. Your in-game identity, who you are. It separates us from the Bristians, and Illierians (Sorry, I have no idea how to put it ^^; - What DO Illier players call themselves?). It makes us unique within the player community. Now all three servers will be merging into one, Castilla. This sort of nerves reminds me of when xpvp was going to be introduced, but bigger. Much, much bigger.

I could launch into a lengthy debate, but I'll resist. It can be summed up as merely the consideration that each server is used to having only a select population being geared, and having access to certain raids exclusive to their own social and political class. Each server has at least a group accustomed to this. Now they'll all have to compete/share for the same amount of resources - and find a new 'pecking order' (if you will) amidst themselves with triple the competition. (Three, as in competition from their own server, and two others from the other two servers respectively). It's like tossing spiders into a jar to see which ones will come out on top. (Someone's cringing at me now xD). Gross or not though, it's a fitting comparison.

- - - - -

All that a side though, it's been one hell of a ride these last several months. Over two major events (and one minor), and several month's time of near-perpetual farming. This is what has been resulted to the Family in the end:

Veronif/Cruz Event:

I must say, as a disclaimer, most of those cards were used Experting my hoard of characters. Same goes for the Soul Crystals (only a fraction of that original amount remains.. somehow) and all of that pet food is long gone. Though note that was all collected (and collectively used) over an entire month, however it has been a near solid two months since this event has ended.

Alphabet Event: 

Unfortunately, I did miss recording some things, but nothing of much importance. This also included approximately 1992 Elite Treasure Chests, and approximately 6.6-6.7k Alphabet Boxes farmed over a span of 70 days for an average of 93 boxes per day. Honestly.. that math sounds a little weird to me, a bit high, but meh, this is just the tallies, not fact checking.

Christmas Event:

This event I *really* held off on pursuing especially in light of the fact that Ordinary Boxes weren't dropping the proper items, and frankly after three months of farming, I didn't want to look at another afk team ever again. These are the results of opening approximately 44 boxes - most of them Fancy boxes. I turned in 1670 tokens, which could be farmed in about a day and a half in places like Skele AA/SA. My MEP had run out by that point, however, and my desire to 'farm moar' had fled long ago.

All in all, I finally feel sufficient in the amount of weapons I have (albeit nearly all need to be chipped). There are enough wings to keep a team equipped constantly for a solid two years. Enough Caeb Passes to live amid the vesps an entire year. 10hr pots to stay buffed for 250 days. 1hr pots to stay buffed 11 days. And Triumph fillers for a solid day and some change. I really, truly honestly do not know how I'll use these up. 

This entire year I have been able to progress considerably, both in gear and game play. I must say, it's been quite a ride. Until next year, Orpesia. We'll see you in Castilla.

Exceedingly,

~Alze

Decemble Rambers

Seems a bit strange after having the Alphabet Event for three whole months (yes, it really has been that long) that the entire thing is finally coming to a close. As of this last maint the boxes no longer drop from mobs, though the already-farmed boxes still exist in-game, as well as all the letters, and all other event-related paraphernalia. The UPCs will be in town until the Christmas Day maint next week. With a little luck, the words will change one more time before then during this weeks maint as Raiden has hinted. I really hope so, I'm just a few tokens from another shiny I want to get.. /QQ

As far as my Farming Guide was going, I had it about half-written when the end of the event was announced. With only a few days left of farming itself, I decided it wasn't worth finishing for a 48hr benefit at most, and so it has been archived for now. If in the future a similar event is implemented  I'll dust it off and finish it. Until then, well, it won't be.

I believe, instead (whenever time permits - heaven knows I've been severely short on that) I would like to flesh out a Raiding role guide. Not a guide on how to do x, y, and z raids.. but rather how to successfully fulfill the needed role within the raid to ensure success. It'll be divided into categories of: Tank, WC, Support, and finally DPS, in probably that order. I'll list preferred teams, gear, needed rings, useful buffs, stances required, and other information. With a little luck it'll be out by the time we switch over to the new server (lawl), or perhaps within a month or so after.

With three servers merging into one, there will be a lot more people to go raiding with, but the need for people who know who to tank/wc/etc won't necessarily decrease. In Orp, as far as I'm aware, there only tends to be a few certain people who nearly always fulfill the same roles. It tends to be, if they are not around or available for a raid, it simply doesn't happen. Besides, I think there would be more volunteers for other roles other than support/dps if people realized how little they actually needed to do so.. It's DPS that's the most gear intensive, imo. I'll save myself from rambling. I'll save that for the guide itself. :P

IRL has been a mess of busy schedules, so while I've managed to farm quite a bit during the Alphabet Event, I reallly haven't played much at all, save for the brief instances of come back from afk/empty inv/set up team/go afk again. Winter is a super busy time work-wise as it is, and with other plans also cooking on the back burner, free time? What play time? /nervous laughter x.x *cough* Ah well, so is life sometimes.

And cold. It's also freaking cold. It looks like the Katovic Snowfields outside, and feels like it too.

Admittedly, I do keep thinking of the massive update we'll have as Sword 2 becomes Granado Espada once again as it switches hands from G1 to T3Fun. It's labled as 10.23.4 (which is just a breath shy of Bristia, as far as I know - or maybe that is Bristia? The specifics are a bit unclear currently..). Ramiel (our resident t3 Admin) has been posting Update Previews on the new forums about once a week. So far it's only really listed 9.5 stuff, but I'm interested regardless. My theory is they're working on patch goodies from 9.5 -> 10.18 -> 10.6 -> 10.23.4 and we'll see thread updates as they progress that far. Either way, regardless of how you slice it, its a massive amount of content. And considering it's been a solid year since we updated to 8.5? About time!

Event-wise I've farmed up.. a seriously unhealthy amount of boxes. Sometimes I envy others who have farmed up a ton more than me, though, I'm not sure they blew all their tokens getting all the Promo Chars/Puni either.. which is exactly what I did. Alllll of them (well, sans the ones I already had ofc). Actually in hindsight it's kind of curious they'd even have Asoka in there.. actually a lot of things have been highly curious about the event.

1 - Punisher stance being readily avaliable (via tokens, ofc)
2 - Asoka being readily avaliable (after previously being stated that s2 was allowed 200 (or was it 300? I forget) Asokas *ONLY* and no more for server balance concerns.
3 - The insane amount of Raiden boxes one can acquire, and how 32 and 33 AR weapons have absolutely plummeted (I mean this in the fullest sense of the word) from 200m-1b in prices to a scant 50-100m ea.
4 - Not to mention, how all the Rune, HQ jewel, Const Symbol, and feso markets have been utterly ruined compared to what they once were.

From what I understand, it all boils down to one thing - future availability. Weeeeell and there was that lil factor of keeping a highly disgrunted community pacified and playing long enough to make the transfer. But that's besides the point.

Now I can't say anything about anything in point 4, but 1 and 3 points are all items that are either A - easily avaliable in other versions, for equally cheap prices (or so I've been told, #3), or are simply easier to get than in the current version (#1). I've heard Asoka gets nerfed a bit, so she isn't quite as Imba.. though I might be all washed up on that.. buuuut.. I'm just repeating what I've heard.

..Cripes.. in <20mins I've belted out all that ._. Yikes. I'll save some other content for later.
Possible future rambles:
- That supposed Raid guide, if/when it happens.
- Final loot tally from the Event Marathon we've had.
- Future speculations
- Feature: The new Family Level system and how it works. (Yes, yes I know there are translated guides on it, but there are a few quirks about it I've found that I haven't seen addressed.)
- Feature: Castilla AA
- ...maybe some other quirks if I think of them?
- Family profile page? (Yeah, I've been slacking on that. xD)
- Brief recollection on the (very recent) history of Orp and it's clan politics. (A background sort of glance)
Annd.. I think that's all I got. However, if anyone has any ideas/suggestions.. I'm all ears.

More 'Rambers' later.
~Alze

Something to Consider

Alright so this is an idea I've had bumbling around in my mind for a while but never fully decided to execute. I've decided though that over time - as knowledge, interest, time, and subject matter permits, I'll begin to make and post up guides on various topics onto my blog.

It's interesting to look at what search terms have brought people to TAE and often I see what they were searching for isn't information they'll find here, which frankly is a bit unfortunate. It's always a bit of a pain to be hunting for info on something, click on what you hope will help give you the answer just to find everything 'but' the info you're wanting.

So, without further ado, I'll be adding a 'Guides' and 'Searched' tag onto certain future posts. I'll still make posts about the Fam itself and it's progress (lawl, when I finally DO update that - most likely after this event ends) however I think I will aim a bit more on the finer things of game play often overlooked, forgotten, or just not even noticed. Things might be a bit slow right now, but I would like to pursue this path.

Alze note: Slight disclaimer here though, it might take me a while to get going on this, or update on here at all. A definitely timeline I cannot guarantee.  For me IRL, winter is a super busy time at work so it's difficult to get any consistent free time.

More soon
~Alze

Soup and Crackers (Alpha Soup Pt 2.5 - Veronif/Cruz Event)

Just when you begin get settled into the new farming routine...

G1 has added yet another event to the crazy montage of events, the Good Samaritan Event, also known in other versions as 'Anxious Veronif and Starving Cruise' event (which, I also hear, was removed due to conflicts with v10.18). Right when one would think we didn't have enough to farm for.. voila.. moar stuff. On the upside, its a very simple event and an easy way to gain lots of princ pots, exp cards (vet and expert G both), pet food, soul crystals, stance exp cards, and even socket fluxes. On the downside, the addition of these new event items required for this event (White Crystal, High Viscosity Liquid, and Unknown meat) has effectively nerfed the rate at which boxes can be farmed for most families.

Don't get me wrong, the boxes aren't dropping at any less of a rate (as, actively collecting with 1 char, I can still acquire the same number of boxes per hour as I did last week), but that the addition of these new drops means more boxes are missed. A lot more boxes. Check this QQ screen of the first 19 hours of farming after Maint ended. The first record (not in picture) began at 3:00, 0 boxes, 0 Samaritan event mats. First line in image was 8hours later at 11:30am, the following line 11hrs after that at 10:30pm.

A normally this should have been from 36 to 100-120 boxes (approx)

That's about 60-80 less boxes a day. /AlzeQQ

Curiously enough by actively looting this afternoon in one hour I netted 7 alpha boxes, 3 liquids, 6 meats, and 11 crystals. For me at least, this seems to prove that the new event items are indeed crowding out the boxes and once again this has become a matter of whether or not a loot pet is able to keep up with the rate at which items are dropping. It was barely keeping up before, now it's just completely underwater.

Complaints aside, this event is truly delicious in it's own respects. How it works is players gather at least 1 of each item: White Crystal (looks like talt), High viscosity liquid (looks like Liquid Gas), and Unknown meat (like any other meat in this game xD). Having one of each forms one set, which when turned into Veronif the player is rewarded with one random item. Amongst these is also Tasty Meat and Tasty Crackers which can be turned into Cruise (or Cruz, as he's called here) for additional rewards. As a result, there appears to be three separate reward tables.

Veronif - per Set:

• Mystic Ampuleb (Ampule) x1
• Princ Pots x1
• Tasty Meat x1
• Tasty Crackers x1

Cruz - Tasty Meat:

• Event Triumph Fillers x2
• Expert G EXP Card x10
• Veteran G EXP Card x10
• Training Card G x2
• Alphabet Box x1
• Principal ampule x2

Cruz - Tasty Crackers:

• Health-Generator x20
• Training Card G x2
• Soul Crystal x10
• Pet food x20
• Expert G EXP Card x10
• Veteran G EXP Card x10
• Event Socket Flux x1

Mystic Ampule grants Lv 20 Bard buffs (Insistendo, Accelerando, and Meditivo) for 15 minutes. Princ pots give the standard Lv 12 Principal buff for 10 minutes. Triumph Fillers grant +1 AR/DR for 10 minutes. Training Card G grants 1m stance exp. Each G EXP (Vet/Expert) card gives 10% exp for their respective name promotion. Health-Generator returns 8k hp to a char upon use.

After I'm able to collect and turn in more sets, I'll make another post listing the percentages these rewards are given at. I must say this event is absolutely marvelous for leveling up characters. It is ridiculously easy to get a character from Expert to Master daily by doing nothing but afk farming. I theorize, it'll be very possible to insta-master one, if not two characters daily by using the Expert G cards alone.

Broken Event x Broken Event = ..Oh heavens.. I do believe Orpesia has turned into a test server. o_o;;

Moar haxness to come..

~Alze

Alphabet Soup: Part 2

The entire week of farming was fairly simple for the most part, though it seems the longer this event draws on the more drama the spikes up from it and malicious gameplay arises. People first complained of spinelles and bms, and later reports of pkers has arisen since then. Given Orpesia is a non-baron server pk isn't something often seen unless it is between warring clans (previously, before the feature was removed) or now between the factions of Sahasrha and Dronarati. Unfortunately, squadding with an opposing faction will make you red, even against your own faction. Not something I was particularly thrilled with at all, but, eh, if someone wants to kill you/your faction/clan/whatever for whatever reason or purpose, they will find ways to do it.

..Anyway, I'll leave that topic for another time.

Over the week the afk farming netted near 500 boxes resulting in juuust eeking by to acquire 30 tokens just in time to buy Punisher from the token shop before Maint began. (Much thanks to a dear friend for helping me with those last three Rs!). The purchase was none-too soon as post-maint Punisher was increased in price from 30 to 40 tokens, and all UPCs' prices rose from 10 to 15 tokens each. In addition, the original words were rotated out in favor of new ones, Orion, Stars, and Queen. I was pretty excited about this move as I had enough letters from the previous week to buy 10 tokens as soon as I could access the shop, and did so with relish.

An additional change was to the Alphabet Basket which I had ignored/skipped over in my previous post. With the Alphabet Basket a player can put in 1 letter (doesn't matter what one) and get back a random item. Previously they weren't of much interest, as half of the prize list consisted of Lollipops. The other items were Elite Treasure Boxes, Swampangler Spinelles, Amrita, AMs Boost, and Teleport Scrolls. Pretty mediocre stuff, well, maybe sans the boxes. Over maint this received an uber boost to also drop every Raiden's Angel series box from I to X. Previously cash shop boxes that have been since removed, they are known for having a chance to drop Angel Series (33 AR) and Draconic Series (32 AR) weapons. A complete list of what box drops what item is available here.

Currently the Raiden's Angel VII box is bugged and refuses to drop anything when opened, so it's generally advised people hang onto them until they can be fixed.

Another little perk added after maint was the addition of an absolute ton of Parasols dotted across Gigante Beach.

Sit back and relax for a nice buff...

If you move your characters beneath and use the 'Sit on the floor' pose, the posing characters will all gain a buff that grants 50% exp for two hours. It makes for an excellent boost to any vesping expedition, for similar powerleveling task.

Utilizing the new words after maint, I traded in enough tokens for Emilia the Sage, Pose Guide Book 11, and a Black Dragon Pet. In addition to a Master Explorer Pack I snagged last week to help with farming (and for SA access) this brings the total to 52 words turned in thus far, and as of writing this nearly 1.1k boxes farmed. Oh, that was another thing over last maint - box drop rate was increased 50%, however due to my now casual farming endeavors, I still gain boxes about the same rate per hour this week as I did last week. (5-6/hr)

Should my more favored maps ever open up at some point, it would be interesting to try farming there once more and seeing how effective the 50% boost is. While some players have reported an increase in drops, some still complain that their drop rates are mediocre to pathetic at best. Personally, I'm of the opinion it's due to area set-up/team composition, but I'm sure it makes things no less frustrating for the affected parties. Currently I'm leveling my Vets and maxing their stances as I farm, which means I have to use different teams than I prefer. I'll keep track of how different team combinations affects my box farming, and post on it later. Until then..

~Alze

Alphabet Soup: Part 1

So after months of very little of anything going on, an unexpected custom-made event for the Sword 2 servers was added this last Maint consisting of a very delectable Alphabet Event. In short tradable Alphabet Boxes drop at random from all mobs in-game. When opened, the boxes drop a random non-tradable letter. These letters in form of three pre-determined five-letter words can be traded in for prizes to a designated NPC. Depending on how completed the word is at time being traded in, dictates the tier of rewards the player can pick from.

Prizes of Note: A minimum of # correct letters to any one word will grant some of the following prizes.

• Two Correct Letters: AA passes, Ti/Te runes, 1 day 80% combat manuals, 7-day crystal wings, and a smattering of lesser interesting items.
• Three Correct Letters: Letizi boxes, Const boxes, Expert chips, Lv 32 weapon crystals, and other misc.
• Four Correct Letters: HQ Spod and HQ Obs items, Aries Symbol, DH, Red Tiger Box, 30 Day Exp Explorer Pack, and Magic Earring Rec.
• Five Correct Letters: 30 Day Master Explorer Pack, Princ pot, Rose Wing coupon, Sage Necklace, Capitaine Costume for Fighter, Pose Guide 11, and Diamond Tokens.

The last two, in my opinion, are the most exciting items of this event. Pose Guide 11 has thus far never been released in our version, though it was been requested and sought for ages. Diamond Tokens can be spent in a shop (avaliable at the same UPC) for a myraid of extremely valuable items.

Diamond Token Shop: Sage Necklace, Black Dragon Pet Box, AtP, EtS, BSI, StF, ICP, Ralph, Asoka, three different never before released 33 AR Mechanical Series Weapons (Sword, Pistol, Bayonet, and Fire Brace), and the ever elusive, coveted, and drooled over Punisher Manual.

Personally, I'd absolutely love if they'd add Innocento if they're going to be so brazen as to include a stance as elusive as Punisher.

Even if the boxes decide to just be bishes and not give everything at all - you can trade in random letters for basically crap items. Hey, at least at the end we can empty our inventories of these letters when the event finally closes! Oh - did I mention Raiden gave no end date to this event? It's going to run at least for several months. Theories speculate until we get our patch update which - thus far - we have had virtually no news of whatsoever.

Now, gleeful news aside. Nothing would quite be right in Orpesia or it's sister servers anymore these days without a bit of drama. Now something to note is that the player presence on the forums has been incredibly restless and increasingly disgrunted of late due to lack of information updates and general visual absence of most everyone G1-affiliated. Frankly, I haven't seen the player base this frustrated/up in arms in.. well.. ever.

Anyway during the first 18 or so hours of the event, Alphabet Boxes dropped like absolute rain. It was definitely possible to farm 18-20 an hour in high spawn areas, if not a tad more in others. Considering it would then be possible for a single family to farm upwards of 400+ in a day (in semi-ideal situations), the 35 diamond tokens it would require for a single Punisher manual in the Token Shop would be laughable, let alone the other rewards.

There is little doubt in my mind it would have been possible to complete the entire shop within a week. It really was no secret this was broken, something more or less the entire player base could agree on. Fortunately (or unfortunately) G1 agreed on this as well and in a brief dc, they adjusted the rate.

Currently I theorize the drop rate was reduced to 1/4 or so of what it was previously, based upon my own farming experience. For me, this is still okay as in some areas one can still farm an avg of 5-6 boxes an hour, which still isn't too shabby. The great downside to this is this requires afking in an area with a very high spawn rate. The number of said type of locations in Sword is incredibly limited to just a few maps. ie:

In short, unless you can secure yourself an ideal location in 2-3 maps, most of the player base is somewhat screwed in more normal/slower spawning maps. As it is, I've heard from several people of only collecting a handful of boxes over many hours, some, collecting only a couple if any at all. Though a nerf was needed, I do believe it's currently a bit too rough. Given as the event is still very new (and not even a full 2-days old yet) I'm sure there will be more tweaks in the future. I just hope they're the best ones.

~Alze

The Miracle of Coffee

So, I figure it's time for another Ramble Update. The Family recently has undertaken an unusual challenge, one of inventoring the entire collection of the Family's belongings and tallying the amount of their presumed worth. One never really realizes exactly how much "stuff" they have until it starts being listed in an ever-growing notepad document.

The Bounty Hunter roulette and Raff drop tallying has continued, and thus far ratios has remained rather consistent though there was an odd time of receiving const boxes from Raff four days in a row. That was quite entertaining. On that note - Scorp symbols are nowhere to be seen. @_@ The const symbol collection has grown since the last update, but Scorpios still remain incredibly.. not there.

In other news, the Family has acquired their first-ever eln. As everyone else in the Family currently resides in elbs, this is quite an exciting change of pace. In crafting-news, the 'to-make' list has been increasing constantly. Practically all of it is accessories. Quite a few artisans to be crafted.. if only there were a few more magic I'd be more enticed to craft them!

As it stands, the recipes I have I don't really need  to craft due to existing items in the Family's possession. However - the items I actually need more of? Trololol.. good luck scaring up some of those. They're not so much 'rare' or 'elusive' as 'refuse to show up to go into Alz's inventory'.

Went on a little chipping spree earlier this evening. Got completely trolled on a couple braces, and got some decent mods on another few. I finally have a brace with a atk+golem mod! The racial itself is a bit troll, but it's at least something. The only other golem racial in the Family's possession is a gaiter. Handy in some situations - but not when ranged chars are needed more. In addition, a nice life racial, troll daemon, and even more troll double racial was chipped today. Considering I rarely chip, and tend to despise the process, this turned out to be quite fun. ^^

Claire was finally Mastered earlier this week. She was spam-fed exp cards I've been collecting from a daily Viron quest I do for rep. On a whim, Adelina was taken out of the dusty barracks and given Bloody Feast and let loose upon the unsuspecting mobs in Skele. This works as a double-advantage as 1 - she has jack crap for sabres currently, thus pitiful killing power xD and 2 - A chance to gather some items in preparation for the 'Patch of Doom' as I call it, whenever it arrives. Ie: Sword 2 updating to 10.6. Eventually. One day. .. >_>

Also - on a side note - Don't stay up 30+ hours via having a normal day, staying up through maint, then mob-slaying your little heart out til the following afternoon. It's just... bad... bad idea. You end up sleeping 8hrs during the entire afternoon and be stuck up late, awake, writing stuff like this. xD So, maybe not entirely bad - but still. 8hr doze all day on the 4th of July? Tsk tsk!

More shenanigans to come..
~ Alze

An Overdue Report

Since the last update:

Vesping:
- Ralph reached Vet, and subsequently Expert.
- Made a new Wiz (Female) who was Experted, and maxed all stances.
- Lorch reached Expert
- Mia reached Expert
- Grace reached Master
- Lisa reached Master
- All Understudies reached Lv 100, but have not been promoted to Vet (yet) - ie: Auch Infantry (F), Rescue Knight, Claude, Jose, Alejandro, Irawain, Kurt, and Tiburon.

Family Level has reached Lv 48. I'm just two away from 50, now. =)

Dailies: The following will be divvied by month, and a final overall statistic. This does not include raids like Crow, Prison, HWC, etc as they were completed irregularly. Rather these stats come from completing Instanced Raff, 2 Occulta BH runs, and 1 Caeb BH run daily. (Sometimes I messed up and didn't reset Occulta x.x but it only happens once in a while.

Key thing to note: Raff gives 4 lv 100 items, and 2 asos per instance, hence those numbers are considerably high.

February (being this wasn't posted before) Listing began: 13 Days Completed.
- 3 consts (from raff) - Capricorn, Pisces, Leo
- 30 Expert tokens
- 17,000 in rep cards
- 52 Ancient Star Orb boxes (26 from BH missions)
- 74 Lv 100 items
- 2 e92 items
- 17 Vet tokens
- 1 Artisan rec

March - 29 of 31 Days Completed.
- 6 Const Symbols
- 71 Expert Tokens
- 33,500 Rep from cards
- 73 Asos
- 180 Lv 100 Items
- 7 e92 Items
- 1 Magic rec

- 34 Vet Tokens

- 1 Artisan rec

April - 30 of 30 Days Completed

- 9 Const Symbols

- 73 Expert Tokens

- 68,500 Rep from cards
- 91 Asos
- 175 Lv 100 Items
- 10 e92 Items
- 0 Magic recs
- 38 Vet Tokens
- 1 Arti rec

May - In progress.

So far I've noticed...
Instanced Raff:
- Gives a Const box about 25% of the time ie: 1 in 4 runs will yield a Const box.
- Gives 4 lv 100 items, and 2 Asos boxes always.

BH-Occulta
- 40% of the time BH Occulta will give you Expert Tokens
- 20% of the time will be Lv 100 items.
- 20% of the time will be Honor B (500 rep) or Honor G (2,000 rep) cards. Between these two they are about 50/50, leaning slightly more towards Honor B than G.
- 10% is Asos
- 5% e92 items
- Remaining %'s are scattered due to rounding.

BH-Caeb (ie: Sedecram)
- 40% of the time will be Vet Tokens
- 30% of the time will be Lv 100 items
- 10% of the time will be Asos boxes
- 10% is Honor G cards
- Artisan recs drop slightly more often than Honor B, at 1.5% vs Honor B's 1%
- Remaining %'s are scattered due to rounding.

Phew~ So.. yeah.. a little curiosity evolved into a lengthy Notepad document, which morphed into a spreadsheet.. somehow.. still not completely sure how that happened.
I've also noticed - if I tally up all daily runs, it's really easy to spend close to 30m on just extra roulettes when you do all the raids. By that I mean: Dailies, Crow, Basement, etc.. 30m hurts. Omigah. Hence, until Markets decidedly improve - the Family shall hence become moochers and be satisfied with the two roulettes given to them.

More posts soon? Who knows~ stay tuned.
~Alze

Raff Gift of Win and Baffling 'Cold Calls'

So earlier this evening while completing dailies, the Family came to the stark realization that they were out of Yellow Leaves for their daily Raff instance run. MM, oddly enough, didn't have any so it didn't look like it would be an option til a clanmate generously gave a small stack of leaves out of the blue. What came of that now avaliable raff run? A Constellation Box. What came out of that Constellation Box? A Pisces symbol. What's so awesome about a Pisces symbol (besides it's value)? It was the last symbol I needed for a 2nd complete symbol set. :D

Heck, freaking, yes.

On a side note: Helena + Asoka works quite nicely for Occulta BH, however the one trick of it is, is to have Asoka within range of Necro's aoe, and having Helena out of it. It took me a little while to figure the exact spacing, but here it is.

Such a fine line between pwn and pwn't

The two green lines were made directly over actual lines on the floor. As long as Asoka stays *just* behind that line, and Helena doesn't enter the Box area, they're both fine. However if Asoka is even *on* that line infront of her? Helena will get hit. It's very tricky, and sometimes takes a bit of maneuvering to get them situated just right - but it can work out quite nicely.

Also - no spacebarring what so ever. Click-to-attack only, as going on spacebar lessens the distance between mob and character. It's a very slight difference, but here it matters.

- - - - -

Tactics aside, I find myself in another befuddling predicament. At some point in the day when I am in Auch - par daily or every other day - inevitably someone will PM me asking for help/vis/gear. This utterly baffles me. I don't mind giving out advice and how-to do something, but some things I still do not understand.

For instance one person was seeking X-amount mil of vis (not much), yet only asking for 1k increments (clever!) However, for amounts so low, that's easily farmable in low places such as Prison and Fire Isle. Heck, just farm up pure ores and npc them and voila ~ profit. Judging by their fam lv, they at least had some vets if not expert too. Why they didn't so that instead (much more profitable and less time consuming) I have no idea. /baffled.

In short, I just plain don't get it. This rarely ever happened before, but within the last couple weeks it happens very frequently. Perhaps I should whip up some guides so when people ask me 'Can you help me with ____ can you give me ____?' I can say 'Go read this here ______ - it'll give you all the info you need, havaniceday kthxbai. :D' I mean.. not to sound antisocial or anything but.. all the 'Can you give me vis/items' stuff is.. kinda.. ew. x.x

I never asked for items as a lowbie player, never asked for gear, or donations. I stuck it out on my own, figured out the steps I needed to take, and worked towards achieving what I wanted to acquire. That isn't to say people never lent me gear, but rather I never went out seeking it - let alone messaging complete strangers. I guess.. it just strikes a nerve with me. =/ /rant.

More bipolar-esque posting ahead! Stick around. :3

~Alze

Almost missed the 'Title' line..

Omigah, Blogger, y u be so strange, la?!

I'm completely not used to this layout. @_@ It feels so WEIRD.
(To anyone who doesn't have one, they revamped how a lot of it looks from the writing side of things. It feels so.. strange. ._.)

Anyway, time for an update/to-do list.

Update:
- Bought Ralph for a slightly higher sum than desired, but still not a bad price.
..Actually that alone has been holding up a lot of progress. The Family has been hoarding up vis to ensure Ralph would be purchasable, which includes holding off on other expenditures. Most notably expensive upgrading/chipping practices as the Family has... quite a number of items that need both.
- Family Lv has now hit Lv 46 - Just four more levels to go for 50!

To-do:
- Achieve Fam Lv 50 in preparation for 9.5
- Level, Expert, and max Darkness on a new F Wiz.
- Begin crafting Family's first const (evar!) - a LoE
- Craft 1 (possibly 2) e100 Fire Braces in preparation for 9.5
- Upgrade Le Scarces @_@
- Pray to the chipping gods/threaten their oracle (*cough*ench chip lady*cough*cough*)

...aaand there are some others, but that's the main important ones at the moment.

Other news:
Partly out of curiosity, I've been keeping track of what drops I get from my daily BH/raff runs. I've been keeping track since mid-Feb, so perhaps by mid-April I'll post what I find.

Also, ironies and trolldrops, most notably:

Doesn't know the meaning of 'Atk'

A BH Occulta roulette drop.. now where might this sound Familiar?

More to come later. :3

~ Alze

Hmph

Funny how that is, the longer time passes, the more that occurs, the less interest I have in posting any of it. Has my blogging muse ran out? I find I no longer that that inciting drive to post up whatever happens to the 'Family' in game anymore. This however - does not mean I have any less interest in playing (au contraire, I'm probably more active now in ways than I have been in a long time), however with people in-game to chat with on a regular basis, the "Omigah! MUST SHARE THIS!" twitch I previously had has been seriously medicated.

However, I do have a few things I would like to note for future reference lest I forget then timing of their incidence and strain my brain (and wade through a veritable ocean of screenshots) to recall when they occurred.

- Early Dec (11th) of last year, the Family parted ways from Core after residing within the clan for nearly a year. A week later after the wait penalty, they joined Albatros. A curious and confusing move to some, but overall - in my opinion - a worthwhile decision. I find it very tempting to ramble away as to the motives for such a decision, and surrounding circumstances and (at-then) present and previous deciding factors as a lot of thought was put into the decision, however I shall resist.

- Family level has increased several times, and is now Lv 45(+2). Only five more levels to go in preparation for the next patch!

- I have more things to chip, and more chips to use, than I have EBs and vis to cover for.

- The Family has finally acquired/crafted/hunting/sought/luck-begged/roulette bribed/completed it's first full magic set of accessories. It only works on certain chars due to limited wearability of the boots, however a set is a set indeed.

- Everyone in the Family still toting elb's like it's going out of style. (..is that line redundant?)

- Family has achieved 'Knight' rank for team pvp, however 1v1 ranking fluctuates considerably between Brave and Valiant.

- The Family's raiding teams have learned new ways of accomplishing a desired goal. I've been very much enjoying new things I would otherwise be unable to know. It's keeping my interest and keeping the game fun for me. Things and subjects which, until last year, were virtually unspoken by anyone the Family knew (though I'm sure some knew, ah well. Was wishful thinking for me at the time.)

- All characters who had been in card-form have been crafted, Lionel has been re-added to the Family from an alt, and Selva's questline completed. On that note - the number of Masters and Experts in the Family has increased considerably.

- Acquired lv 5 rank buff from AW. Currently half-way to desired goal rank. After that? Family shall be medal hunting and pursuing other accomplishable achievements offered by the weekly Alliance War event.

- Acquired a 2nd ET ring, crafted a 2nd Augury ring (for Helena, who is now Master), and various other small trinkets.

- Daily raid list has expanded from daily CM, to include daily BH and raff runs. On that note - raff has been very generous of late, contrary to its former stingy nature in regards to giving out const boxes. On that note, I am currently one symbol away from a complete (first ever) symbol set.

- An old friend is leaving the game for fairer fields, which is sad. On the upside, he'll still drop now and again, but PMing shennanigans will be missed.

..and ah.. yeah. That kinda wraps up everything important I have on my mind currently. And. Um. Yeah. That's about it. Perhaps I'll get some pics up sometime? This blog could use a little more color. x.o

Until later
~ Alze

O_O

I LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!

Just wanted to put that out there. /fin

Yes I have updates, yes there is a crapton of them, no I'm not about to bury you hapless souls in them. Ramble fest for all yall later, but for now I'm just sticking this flag out here and waving it around a little to say Yes - I'm still alive. The Family is still alive, well, and kicking in Orpesia. I haven't forgotten about this little blog.. it's just.. well yeah.

When life vomits on you then your full-time work kicks into highinsaneyoureneverseeinghomeeveragain gear, things don't get updated much.

Good news: things are settling down.

Expect good nummy postie updated-ness soon.

~ Alze