Ok, now I wish I had some funny interesting stories about to cover levels 7- 15, but I don’t it was just one wicked blur of leveling. I hunted the hills around Baishi, killing matties, lugies, ursuin, golems. You name it, I killed it. Nothing on my radar was safe. (most of all myself, but that’s irrelevant).
It was now Friday and I scored a half-day off at work. Nothing quite like logging into AC in the middle of the afternoon, before everyone else gets home from work/school/juvenile detention etc. Hell bent I charge right along looking for level 15…why 15? I read a lot about other mages heading to the dires at 15th level, but I didn’t feel that I was confident enough, or proficient enough at my craft to really make a go of it yet. I wanted 15th just so I could get into the Lugian Citadel.
GSA
At 9th level I had a major advantage thrown my BM’s way. You see, I HATE Shadow Armor. I had GSA and GSC back on TD, and I’m convinced that it got me killed more than it saved me. The only positive things are it’s no-droppability…well that’s about it….for a melee. (If anyone wants to debate this, feel free. I have an al 185 imp 4, bludgeon 5 A/AA/A/BA/BA/A amuli coat Gharun only, as well as some al 160 amuli leggings, similar protects sitting muled. Those 2 items alone prove my point)
Back to my point, I hate Shadow armor, so whenever I find shards, I give them away to friends and allegiance members. The deal is, I give them away, and once that person completes their armor, they can return to me the shards I lent them, so I have trade fodder. In all honesty, I don’t even remember who I give the damn things to half the time. Some people stick to the deal and return em, some dis-appear. I could care less. They’re only shards, right?
Well, on this particular day I got 3 messages within an hour. It seems everyone was just dying to pay me back and all at once. Suddenly, I found myself in possession of 7 small shards, and I knew I had a ton of specks muled. Hmmm…GSA sucks, right? Well, I looked at what I was wearing, and decided al 150 was definitely better than al 120…and no drop could help me. I definitely didn’t want to chance losing my prized armor sitting muled. That will come in handy in the future.
Hmm, I needed a shard and 2 specks, how could I get em quick? Trade spamming is a necessary evil. It took almost 10 whole minutes to get that last shard.
Now, I have to admit, this GSA has served me damn well. Maybe I’ll lay off the GSA sucks comments for a while, I’m just tired of people thinking it’s the “be all, end all” of armor. As far as I’m concerned, all armor is no drop, if you have 10 masters robes on you. The problem is I can’t afford 10 more sets of robes. Most people can’t. I sure as hell can’t pull the robes off of my melee. Although Trendkill is my main now, I still actively hunt with my UA. I’m honestly convinced that I have THE BEST shield on Wintersebb, bar none. Along with various other God Items that I scored, he needed the robes more.
Lo and behold, GSA has grown on me. I’ll probably wear it right up until I get my Exarch Plate.
Needless to say, the no-droppability made me a bit careless, but carelessness breeds xp as far as I’m concerned. Getting to 15th level was a cakewalk.
At 15th I made my way to the lugian citadel. You gotta love or hate this place. Personally, I hate it, but I knew I could use it to my advantage. Everyone in the damn place is pretty much out for themselves. I’m a big advocate of respecting others kills, and 90% of the inhabitants of the citadel could care less. PERFECT.
Here’s where the fun begins…Lets look at 2 scenario’s:
a) I’m fighting 2 lugians…Fist of Honor comes running up and attacks the lugian which I AM NOT currently engaged with….I finish my kill, then vuln the lugian that Fist is fighting, and I cast a few heals his way.
b) I’m fighting 2 lugians…Jackoff Swordguy runs up and starts attacking the lugian which I AM currently engaged with….As soon as he starts attacking my lugie, I switch to the next and start draining. I’m not skimming, I’m letting him have the kill he wanted so badly. I’ll take the next one I’m not picky. Hey, I got both, what do ya know?
Of course, the upper levels of this place are pretty much a free for all so the honor principal isn’t something I get pissed about. Everyone should be attacking everything in site. That’s the way it is. I just hate someone jumping my kill when I’m obviously in control.
My death toll exploded after 15th level. I died constantly in the citadel, but the xp was unbelievable, so back I went.
By 18th level I was bored outta my head by the citadel, so I took a road-trip. I love the woods Northwest of the bandit castle. It has some great stuff to level on. Lower level tuskers, ursuin, drudges, golems etc. I got my first taste of Raveners up there. That’s some damn good eatins.
By now you’re probably wondering what my stats looked like at these levels. Just look at the other diaries. I was pretty much emulating what I saw Dizz and the others doing. I put more into Mana Canv, and less into Item than Dizzarian, but aside from that, my skills were within 2-3 points of his at the levels he has shown us, so I won’t waste the space. As I progress higher and diverge a bit, I’ll post the stats. How to look at your stats is fairly well documented on Dizz’s site. You know what to do, this is just my story of how I did it.
Next up…The Dires