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

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