Day 5:

Day starts off pretty good with people looking for more people for the kama I want.  I PM iMatrix who is looking for more for a 33/36  but I get no response back. Then I pick up a group with Sting3r and we have difficulties picking up a third player.  He yells in Dion while I go to Giran and Gludio with no luck. I ask if anyone uses party matching and he says he doubts that. We finally pick up LightofAka and head in.

Now I realize, as melee, why the mob buffing is a problem.  He’s hitting everyone with some kind of nasty AOE damage repeatedly and I die once because of this. The mob goes down quickly though and I receive Gloves of Knowledge, LightofAka receives a single EAD, and Sting3r receives nothing.  There is nothing to split, so there’s not much we can do there.  Everyone kindly says thank yous and goodbyes in this group.  I gain nearly 90% here and head off to exp to get 31. I have also earned another friend, LightofAka on my list. He was using an S grade dagger and shots, so clearly he is a twink.

In the interest of pretending to be new I ask about his weapon, since he linked S grade shots into the party list earlier, asked about his other characters, max level in the game, how long it took, and whether or not guilds take people just over 80 or what.  He says they take all levels and asks if I’d like to join them.  I say that would be cool. I hit 31 in the meantime.

I see a few of his chars.

I am invited to clan Devastators, leader Extinguisher, no base, level 7, which is at peace.  I’m in the Avatars academy.

He also transforms into Final Form for me and then goes and destroys two noobie guards, which is suitably impressive to show a “new” person.

I head back out to Breka orcs and realize without my jewelry, I take brutal damage from the shamans nukes. I hit 32, I’m at 107k adena and completely out of shots. I buy shots and jewelry then dump all my kama drops to the NPC and I’m up to 162k adena. I learn my skills,  and chat a bit in alliance with PureHeal who says he/she’s from Great Britain Wales.  I log out and back in and catch the clan message about their forums and ventrillo server.

They question why someone from the US would play on a euro server and I simply say I heard it was the busiest and other servers are dead.  They say they’ve heard the same and talk about the server merges.  I ask a few more dumb noob questions then say I need to eat lunch. I take a break.

Day 4:

Start in at 8:00 am CST and go to Gludio and yell a bit for a kama. I get no takers. I head to Dion and repeat and this time pick up Rambus, and then DonBurnz.  DonBurnz is in academy gear and tagged, Rambus is not but appears to be in full brig so he likely already knows how to play.

We start the 26 kama and it appears Don did not pick up any buffs, and is not using shots, though his wolf is using shots.  He is told to hit the back of the mob but he doesn’t move, so Rambus readjust the mob so Don is in fact, hitting its back.  This leads to a bit of annoyance when 2 people are spamming shots and one is not, essentially taking everyone else for a ride.

It drops a Cursed Tunic which I get, 8 EAD which Rambus receives, and Cursed Stockings which Don picks up.  I thank them for group (which is common behavior in WoW) but they just SOE and drop party.  I am now 29 at 53%.  After refreshing shots I am at about 54k.

I head to Cruma area and hit 30, then go to Dion and learn more skills only, I don’t have any new ones so I pick up what’s left on the list. I am still jewelry-less from when the shadow items expired.  I run around idly in Dion for a bit, watching tagged and untagged, high level and not run around town but no one is talking.  I log out.

Day 3:

With my weapon upgrade out of the way I take a look at common armor back in Giran as an earlier person had mentioned about the weapon upgrade. I pick up some light armor, as that is all I can wear, which sets me back to 87k. But really, running around in starter armor for 26 levels is somewhat unbecoming. Besides, selling off old gear puts me back to 125k. Now I look not so.. undressed.

I try to get a kama in Gludio but there are no takers other than a level 18.  I go to Dion and yell some more.   I watch my shadow jewelry tick down from 10 mana to 5 and vanish during this time.

I run outside of Dion looking for something to do and hopefully catch any shouts from town.

Then I head to Execution Grounds.  I see another tagged kamael but they appear not to notice me.

I say hello to the other person but get no response.

I hit 27. I call out asking if there are any quests I can do in EG but no reponses. I try asking for a kama again then pick up a cleric (sigh mages) named Xan8ipph and work on getting another DD since we all know mage classes kind of stink in kamas. I go to Dion with about 146k and pick up more shots and call out for more, then go to Gludio and repeat.  No takers.  The cleric drops and says “sorry m8” and tells me the time is wrong.  They say it’s 14:00 GMT +2 (it’s 10am CST).

Back in Gludio I pick up a Palus Knight darksamus and we try one in a duo since we cannot get anyone else.

They are not using shots, and I obviously have no idea how much damage they are or are not doing because there are no meters. I run through over 3,000 shots before it’s more than halfway dead. I run out with about 10% left now we are both not using shots. I’m beginning to really hate kamas. We fail to kill it.  I’m out about 3,500 shots for nothing. My bad I suppose, I did say we needed another DD. They explain they are on a test account and cannot buy from players.  That sucks.

We exit, pick up Malenki and down it.  I get a Cursed Tunic and Stockings and they both receive Cursed Stockings. At least that’s D grade stuff.

I have also hit midway through 28. A bit frustrated I log out after learning skills.

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.