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.