I start in Gludio and stand near Captain Bathis and call out for a kama for about 15 minutes but get no replies.  There are some players in my grade milling about but no one messages me or anything. I see several people in A grade or better but they are not speaking either. I had luck on Bartz going to Ruins of Agony so I decide to head that way again. I make about 41% before I am bored out of my skull after calling out for a party or kama for about 45 mins.

I go to Dion and start shouting and pick up a level 20 elven wizard and we try the 23 kama but he runs out of MP in like 5 seconds and has to sit almost the entire time.  I’m making zero progress on the mob and eventually, thanks to the stuns, die. He wishes me luck after safetly SOEing out (which I told him to do) and drops party.

Now minus about 8% exp, countless shots and pots, I’m out on my butt and back to Dion. I start exping out there but die again when I grab too many mobs on accident.  I’m in party with FatherDagon, after the other member (PriestOfZalgo) left, who tells me raids and kamas are good exp but the grind sucks. He says Priest will be back later. I hit 22.

I tell this person I am new and the game seems hard (which let’s be honest, is an understatement).  He says it isn’t really you just need to learn how to play.  Says I should learn about instances, raids, and common weapons. Says if I join a clan I can teamspeak and meet all kinds of weirdos. Ha ha.

And let me go off on a tangent here, but no one should be running around in common items in lower levels.  Set bonuses aren’t that great in the first place and NG through C grade should be dropping from the skies or given away at class changes. /rant

I have not received any drops since my jewelry drops around level 5. I am at 185k. FatherDagon tells me I should get a top common weapon (D I’m assuming) from Giran. Instead I equip my shadow weapon and buy 2k DSS which is only 28k. The difference between a shadow NG item with shots and a D shadow with shots is like night and day, it would be ridiculous to keep using the NG.

Anyway the raid is going nowhere and he says usually it’s better than this.  One person joined party then left and Priest never came back. I die again on a bee around Cruma.

I decide to find what my partner is doing, as I was chattering away and not receiving a response while he was exping in the area.  He SOE’s out as I get close and goes back to Dion and remains not moving for a bit.  I see only briefly that he’s an orc raider. (yes I know it shows in party too)

He later comes back and says he “got carried away” (quite literally, SOE) and asks if I got my common weapon, I say I just bought shots for my shadow item. And here’s another thing I don’t get, here and in game people often say I just need to learn how to play.  I really don’t think games should work like that.  The game itself should be directing game play, not needing a character to tell you to spam shots, use common items, make a dwarf and farm and delevel to earn money. That’s just my two cents and I KNOW “how to play”.

I ding 23. I head back to town and take a picture with my party pal but he logs out right after before I could thank him for the advice.

Hm.  Left to my own devices again I try to get another kama group because soloing is BORING. I remember to pick up my shadow D jewelry. Now leaning back to the advice a friend from open beta once gave me, which is to always upgrade your weapon FIRST, I visit the weapon and armor shop. Top D common is not found here.

I continue asking for a kama and pick up a dwarf named Ralin. I shout again for more and LadyBethany say she’d love too but only level 18. I appreciate the contact at any rate. Balin and I do the kama and he asks why I do not transform my weapon. I explain it’s shadow and I’ll have to get a common per Father’s advise earlier. Kamas, at least at this level, clearly go much better with melee.

He says wizards are useless in low level kama and only go out of mana.  Someone should look into that. I burn through 1k shots before the mobs is more than half dead but he kindly gives me 3,500! Nice 🙂 We get to talking about dwarves and I offer to find the DSS rec for him.  Well, knowing the drop rate, if I can.  We kill this mob and I hit 25! It drops a Bronze Breastplate, which I get, 6 EAD’s, and 10 Piece Bone Breastplate Fragments.  Yes, that’s NG drops from a D grade boss.  Go figure.  He gives me 3 of the scrolls and I ask if he wants the BP and he says no.  I spend 80k in Giran getting an elven long sword then change it to an epee.  I pick up my new skills.

I see another tagged player in RoD. We exchange “hi’s”. I decide to message Ralin and say the drop rate on that rec is pure insanity.  He invites me to AC to train some mobs.

He has to go eat but I’ve now made a Friend!  Leveling solo is bogus, let’s be real with each other, and I go back to Gludio to do another kama.  I pick up a party quick enough and head in but since I already did one I can’t go in again today.  Which.. is stupid.   Oh well.  Both characters are tagged and one is in clan oath armor. I am not asking for clan in any of these tests.  I take a break.

I pick up where I was on the Way of the Warrior quest and hit 11 shortly after killing a few mobs. I finish the weapon quest, which is useless because the shadow weapons are still better, talk to the newbie guide and hit 15.  I am up to 62k adena now.

Then I get a little irked when a quest tells me to go to Mimir’s Forest, yet the pointer isn’t really anywhere near it.

I get a few items, see it’s unlimited then run back to the newbie area again.  Someone really should switch that quest to another npc because the run back to the starter cave 7+ times is irritating. I finish that, talk to the newbie guide and I’m 18. I ave 76k adena.  I get the message from Captain Bathis from Gludio about the Kamas too. I see two more players running about.  I check at the trainers since I haven’t learned anything in a while.

I am able to learn all my skills with SP to spare.

I head to Gludin and pick up the warder quest.  These mobs are all non-quest mobs so I can get drops and exp/sp from them.

I get sent to Gludio and run back and forth a bit as per usual with most quests.

Gobie appears to be standing around in her underwear. I get sent back and forth then off to kill more things.

then I finally class change to warder, hit 20, and I’m currently at 160k adena.

I am left with some 13k shots that I won’t be able to use at D grade; there really should be some kind of shot upgrade to D for free at this point. I learn all my skills with Sp to spare again. Change weapon does not work on shadow items. I can however, use my fancy kamael skills now.

Leveling is suddenly slow as heck, like 1-2% a mob even at Vit 4. I hit 21 anyway. I go back to Gludio and spend some time calling out for a 23 kama but get nothing.  Of course the stupid Olympiad manager generally spams my request off the screen as soon as I make it.  I take a break.

This time you know and I know I already know how to play, but I again just want to see how things go as a new person so I’m going to lay off the “just born yesterday” effect 😉

Day 1:

Created a new kamael charater and noted another new player with me right off the bat.  I get to 3 just wacking the goblins though it nearly takes me to death fighting without healing 3-4 of them. Maybe it’s unique to me but I see the old issue is still there where you target one mob, then switch to another and F key an attack and it flips to the first mob. I hate that. I hit 4 and leave the starter area.

I get a Magic ring right away from a Grey Elpy. Then another! Woo!  Apparently these are jackpot mobs and I also get an Apprentice Earring as well. I get 5 and get another earring. Then a Necklace of Magic!

Fully jewelry equipped I trip my way down to town. (It should be noted that all starter areas have mobs that drop all the jewelry, they just always aren’t where you might happen to go) I obtain a few more magic items along the way.

I speak to an NPC in the Kamael Guild then talk to the Gatekeeper and get a scroll of Giran but I don’t want to go anywhere just yet. I’m noting no other players in this town currently. This is where the game would benefit greatly from the question mark/exclamation mark system WoW has where you can clearly see quest npcs and turn ins on the map.  I’m sure other games use it to but I play Wow too, ok?.

I see another playing running the same quests as I. I end up with a helm, boots, gloves, and top and bottom.  Wow, I am practically fully equipped at level 6. I run back to the Newbie Guide, grab my buffs, and my weapon coupons and trade them all in for a dagger right away.

I pick up the [url=http://wiki.elliebelly.net/index.php?title=Head_for_the_Hills]next newbie quest[/url] and take a long boring walk down to the mob area, which is on the map.

Clearing mobs along the way gets me level 7. I grab my skills at the conveniently placed masters at Stronghold I and get nearly every skill, as they are all cheaply priced in SP.

Now I get little glowy things drawn to me on every kill but still cannot use  my Fallen Attack or Fallen Arrow.  Apparently it requires NOT a dagger. I should L2R.  I hit 8 just clearing mobs to where I’m going again. Muertos appear to be cousins or something, it’s creepy killing them.

I SOE back to town. Turn in my quest, hit 8, run the newbie guide, get 10. That last quest was profitable after only a few items, I’m at 13,079 already.

I go to talk to Kekropus only he has a giant list of quests to choose from for whatever reason.  Not just ones available to me. I have to close out of a ton of windows telling me the quest doesn’t apply to me first. Getting the direction arrow often requires opening the quest list first. I see another player on my way back to this one.

Heading back and forth from this quest I find a pair of Pants free for the taking and grab them. I see another new player, this time a light elf.

Back at the original cave that same new player is still wacking away at the same mobs.  Either they are really dumb or someone is botting early.

In town I see a tagged person hanging out, someone in devotion. This quest is pissing me off with all it’s back and forth running already. I see a high level player run past as I head back to town for the millionth time. Kekropus tells me to go to the Hills of Gold, which I’ve already been to like 20 times to get some claws. Ugh. I take a break.

Well I guess the days can kind of be stopped now that my main and alts are all on the same server as the rest of my clan 🙂

I log in as AmberDrake (77 cardinal and all that) to look around, I notice the clan is at peace, level 10, and my rank is Count.  The base is Swamp Fortress, and I am in the main clan Argonautes!

I shoot over to Aden and ask about the clan hall I heard they got but they said it was a mistake by NCsoft that they did not receive it, and currently are still out 2.1 billion adena.  Apparently it hasn’t been returned to the clan. I check one of the Aden halls and it looks like the GMs still have them locked down since the one I looked at is owned by NCsoft40 lord of the NCsoft40 clan. Curious to see how that will be handled.

While I’m messing around I keep seeing spam by “Gloomy Baby White Tiget Matriarch” spamming all kinds of stuff like “I feel kind of sleepy” and “roar my body feels light as a feather”.  Sort of obnoxious.

I forgot I’ve left my majestic robes on my SE but you and I both know my gear is brutally behind in the times so it hardly matters, still wearing DC robes 😀 Ah well. The server does seem a lot more active and I’ll have to give actual exping a go when I get some free time.

Logged in this morning and said hello to Zoub and Furrious and the rest of clannies on before maintenance.  I tried to summon Kai the cat but it tells me I don’t have the required items.  Ok then, Furrious sends me C crystals and notes that he has been unable to sell them.  Same message about required items.  Clearly I haven’t been reading all of my updates so I check my skills and the summons now take Spirit Ore.

I think well at least I can craft my C bsps right?  Well, I’m told that would be pointless because you can buy those same shots for 54 adena in Oren, 56 in Schuttgart and crafted would be 100.  Sooo, what DO lower level dwarves craft to make money now?

I buy more ore, but I still have plenty of shots and head out to Fields of Massacre.  I am at max vitality still but I earn about .2 per white mob and .3 per yellow and pink mobs.  The trees and green slugs in this area are less dangerous at .2 per mob, and the Doom Knights and related skeletons are yellow and pink to me, but more dangerously social aggro because they stun.  I have to heal Kai quite a bit since the stun allows the Doom Knights to wack away freely up to 3+ times assuming I didn’t also aggro anything else.

I go from 2% to 15% and not altogether pleased at the leveling speed at 59.  .3 at harder mobs at max vit is bogus, let’s be honest.  Maybe I’m just in a “bad” area? I log out for the maintenance.