Prison de Joaquin Raid

It was hard.


1st Attempt - 28 November straight after CW
dugunitrous : Romina - STW - Grandice
Cruz : Romina - STW - Nar
Lloydworth : Romina - Scout - Torsche
Pyratic : Musk - Scout - Elementalist
Almarech : Grandice - Scout - Hellena

We tried to follow the guide but upon entering, there was no mini-map (LAME). Mobs were a lot stronger than expected and since it was our first time, we were slightly unprepared. We failed to finish the raid even with Hrins, Triumph Fillers and Status Ampules, though we tried fighting until the end.

2nd Attempt - 29 November
dugunitrous : Trooper - Scout - Reckless
Cruz : Nar - Scout - Grandice
Lloydworth : Grace - Scout - Fighter
Pyratic : Elementalst - Scout - Fighter
Tlabbar : Romina - STW - Elementalist

We learned from our mistakes quickly. Moving as a group and luring + AOE made this attempt a lot easier. We knew where the "ambush spots" were and had Abyss Flares and Spell Hails waiting for them. We had better knowledge on what to expect this time around and it was definitely a lot easier and less painful.

We were all very happy that we completed it despite our "common" armor (no ELN users here!)

As for the drops.. well.. we should do this more often.

Recipe - ELN and Recipe - Prison Series 32AR Weapons

32AR items, HQ Earring, Recipe - Artisan Grade accessories

Gold/Silver Earring, Recipe - Magic Grade accessories

Innocentio Stance Book

note : I spammed screenshot button while the roulette was going.

I highly recommend Fighter/Trooper + Scout + Reckless/Ele for this raid. A lot of the mobs wont be able to hit flying, which makes Reckless very nice to use.

PVP team changes

After my (failed) exploration to use wizard for PVP, I didn't have to look far to go for the popular Catherine Torsche. Since I sold my Catherine Torsche card the day she came out, I had to buy a fresh card, but the price has considerably gone down and it wasn't very painful to the pocket.

The first issue was armor. I had a friend who was selling +5 ELB fighter def+2dr 1s for a very cheap price (as cheap as a +0 crap stat), so I quickly grabbed the armor. After some painful chipping, the armor replaced def+2DR many times until it got 3DR (only). I was kind of disappointed and wanted to rechip but I had other things to spend my resources, so I settled. I succeeded on the first try and only took 4 Socket Tranquilisers to open the 2nd and 3rd sockets. I had made some great spodumenes myself and have been saving them for such an occassion. Catherine's armor was good to go (and she wasnt even in barracks yet). I then upgraded her armor at a much later time to 15evasion 18mspd 3DR. She can now reach 67 evasion without using Assassin Boots.

The next item was a 2nd dagger. My old (but dependable) dagger was passed down to Catherine. The money I got from selling my forest whisper allowed me to acquire a +7 Black Dagger 3S and I used what I packs I have and aimed for pvp stats. I had to stop at 30atk / 60Human since I was left with 4 level 100 chips and 4 Enchantment Tranquilisers. (I sold alot of my excess level 100 chips earlier that day to a friend so that I can buy more enchantment tranquilizers. He chipped 3x atk 9x Human on his +7 Black Dagger with my lucky chips. I felt happy and sad at he same time and slammed my face on my desk).

Accessories were set since I can recylce my earring, necklace, belt, boots and gloves. It took me quite some time to train her to master 10 100% to maximize the power of her summons.

Torsche Lloyds are powerful at level 130.

I teamed Torsche up with Romina-Flintlock and Scout for a few reasons. One is that I've been told that this mcc3 performed well in kGE Cross Server PVP, another is that a friend of mine also uses (or intends to use) this team.. I beat him to it.

I easily saw why this team can function well. Romina and Scout have high HP and very sturdy. Both has resuscitation which is vital. Catherine's Death Stunt can hit flying / evading / blocking opponents. The best reason is that these three can stack:








With HP and SP draining, a slowed down opponent with reduced AR/DR/Def will quickly go down.

Rosalia gets bullied

I still have a lot of room for improvement in using these 3 characters together. Equipment plays a big role in PVP, but skill and quick reaction speed will definitely aid in bringing down opponents that are stronger than me.

sGE Renaissance : Raid Galore

With the recent update of sGE to v5.0 aka the Renaissance, new content has been added including Castilla and Bounty Hunter Raids. These raids can be done anytime and have decent returns if you are able to complete them. The roulette system is applied to Castilla and Bounty Hunter Raids, which makes it ok to raid within a large group.

Bounty Hunter Raids can be repeated several times by doing them in the correct order and paying the npc silver bars. My group of 4 usually does veteran and above BHG raids, and we do them in this sequence:

1. Chaos Requiem 
2. Bahama (pay npc to be able to redo Chaos Requiem)
3. Skullic (pay npc to be able to redo Bahama)
4. 2nd Chaos Requiem
5. 2nd Bahama (pay npc to be able to redo Chaos Requiem)
6. 3rd Chaos Requiem

Aside from 12 roulette chances, clearing mobs if time permits enables us to get even more veteran tokens from Jack Spade (the npc inside BHG, dont miss him!). As for now, the only good thing I buy from him are Basement Treasure Box Keys for Torsche Mansion Raid Roulette and Tough Leathers for crafting. Skullic level is 100 to expert 1, Bahama is expert 1 to master 1 and Chaos Requiem is master 1 to master 10. If you plan your teams and training correctly, you can use the same characters for Skullic and Bahama (expert 1) or for Bahama and Chaos Requiem (master 1).

Loots worth mentioning from Chaos Requiem are 32AR items, Elite 96 Armor and Weapon items, Cut-grade Necklaces, Gold/Silver Earrings and Artisan-grade Recipes. Bahama also drops Elite 96 weapons (armor unconfirmed) and Refined Room of the Dead Key from Skullic. ASO boxes, tokens, reputation cards (medal of honour), veteran boots/gloves and level 100 items are common drops from all three.













Castilla Raids is the expansion of the storyline (i think, i dont really read much of it). Castilla can be accessed from the Ticket Seller at Port of Coimbra (where tickets to Bahia and Ustiur are bought). Castilla Mine is free to enter daily. After finishing Castilla Mine, you'll need a few Ancient Relic Piece, Ancient Relics, Ancient Gold Relic Piece and Ancient Gold Relic to progress further.

Medals can be acquired through completion of quests such as killing the bosses, however getting the "quest kill" is not 100%. I myself took 6 tries to complete the first quest and gain my Chaos Steel Ararat Medal. Medals dont really do much (as far as i know) so theyre just for bragging rights / sense of completion. It's possible to power through these quests and finish them quickly but as I see no need to do so, I'm taking my time and only doing Castilla Mine daily if time permits.

Medals are used for...?

Since I've only done Castilla Relic once and not even stepped into Castilla Temple, I'm unable to share possible loots from those raids. So far, Castilla Mine is confirmed to drop DHr, but other than that nothing really amazing.







My personal recommendation for efficient Castilla Raids are musketeers + 1 tanking family/character, preferably with provoke. Squad buffers like Rio, Grace and Elementalists are also welcome if you feel your group lacks strength in weapons. For the more powerful and eager raiders, castilla mine is soloable with 2 musks and a scout or STW equipped with good armors and racial weapons.

Little Alexandra, the Wizard

When I first started the game, I made one of each stock character and played around until about level 50 to see which ones I would like best. Fighter and Scout were easy choices. Musk was easy to use and Elementalist was good at nuking, but I really didn't feel any calling to use the Wizard. So I deleted him.

After about a year of playing I decided to try play a wizard again, this time for low level ST only, to serve as a another trial as a wiz user as well as training ground for my (lack of) wiz skills. Debuffing was quite fun, making the opponent helpless as you stack debuff upon debuff getting ready to make the kill. Turn invisible for a quick escape and watch how the confused enemy tries to look for you.

Little Alexandra for Lowbie ST

I decided to push my wiz to my main pvp team. Luckily, an ELB Wiz was available for her, as well as a very good Forest Whisper. I used the wiz for several raids including Argus and Ice Wizard Tower, but had very little chance to user her in PVP. I went to PY/ST a few times to practice using a Wiz - Scout - Nar team, but it wasn't fruitful as most people who go there now are only for Hero Seals / farm sunstones and not for PK.

Little Alexandra all grown up

Darkness stance is quite powerful, which skills at level 10 having a 90% chance to connect. Deep Sleep is enough to stop anyone in their tracks, ready for a deadly skill from Nar. At this point I considered having Nar go ahead (since he is really really thick) to lure enemies to debuff them easily. Or I can also put the wiz ahead and debuff 1st, and let Nar finish the rest. Deep Sleep -> Whole Cancellation -> Improved Disease -> Curse -> Nar power = kill.. in my head at least. But it only worked that way for about 2x. Players are dynamic and dont always behave the same way. A good wiz user SHOULD be able to handle all threats with all her various debuffs but alas, I am nowhere near decent with the wiz.

I sold off my Forest Whisper and kept my armor since I can still use the wizard for raids. I went back to my Romina - STW - Nar team for PVP.. but I was still looking for a change in PVP lineup.

Instanced Mission : Arsene Secret Vault *Revisited*

Refer here for previous article.

A minor change to this raid is that the final boss (Celine) now drops the following in addition to the usual Magical Amethyst, Liquefied Gas and Piece of Trump Card:

• Ancient Star Orb Box x3
• Ringmaster Arsene's Secret Key (for the regular Arsene Raid)
• Level 100 item

The ASO box drops in many instanced raids including Torsche Mansion and Bounty Hunters. This helps cover some expense considering the huge amounts of ASO needed for expert stances.

Instanced Mission : Dr. Torsche Mansion Basement *Revisited*

Refer here for previous article.

With the update of sGE to v5.0, some changes have been made to this mission.

• Torsche Liberation Buff now lasts for 3 minutes instead of 1. - This greatly reduces the amount of Otite Pieces used as well as decreasing the difficulty of the whole raid.
• There are now 2 Victors instead of 3.
• The last room now has a roulette chest, which needs a key that can be bought from bounty hunter guild shop using 3 veteran tokens

Despite the reduction of vet chips, pure gold bars and reputation cards, the roulette chest at the end increases the potential loots from this raid. Possible loots include:

• Level 100 item
• Medal of Honor B
• Cut Necklace item
• Portable ASO box (contains 1000 ASO)
• Golden Earring item
• Recipe - Artisan's Belt
• Recipe - Artisan's Metal Belt
• Recipe - Elite Le Noir
• Recipe - Dragon Heart
• White Gold Bar
• Elemental Jewel

Here are some screenshots of the roulette chest:

Nar vs Grandice

I guess it's common in most games that if it's hard to get, then it must be good, whether they be characters or equipment or other special trinkets. This ideology somehow runs the same way in sGE. Constellation Weapons, Garim / Magic belts, Argus earrings, Crafted Necklaces - they're all hard to get and sure are powerful. Reckless Emilia, Catherine Torsche and Grandice also fall within this category.

But there are also times when stock, free or easy to get characters are just as strong. Wizards, Scouts, Elementalists are common in the PVP metagame, Fighters and Coimbra Troopers cant be replaced in their roles in IWT and musketeers still rule ranged raids.

This brings me to compare Nar vs Grandice. If it weren't for several events, a lot less players will have Grandice due to the difficulty of acquiring her. Getting Nar on the other hand, is much easier. Despite this difference, the two are actually on par in PVP.

Grandice is wearing a +2STR Stance Ring and +1HP necklace

Nar is wearing a +1STR Stance Ring and a +1STR necklace

Wearing the same armors and roughly same stat weapons and under the same buffs, Grandice has a slightly higher base ATK than Nar, even with Nar's level 12 militant buff. Accoring to the wordwood, Grandice HG has +70% base attack whilst Nar Semilunar only has +50% base attack. Grandice also has 10 more AGI than Nar.

Their skills are similar to each other but from my experience, Nar's skill set is better and here's why

• Harsh Kick vs Impulse - same cool down and cast time, Harsh Kick is stronger by 28% at level 10 but Impulse ignores block and some def and hits 3 targets. Winner : Impulse
• Volition vs Merciless - Volition has a shorter cool down but it has a minimum distance (Grandice will actually step back) while Merciless has a higher multiplier (198% more at lvl 10) and has 10% more chance to stun. Winner : Merciless
• Ruthless vs Gruesome - same range and cast time, Gruesome has quicker cool down by 2 seconds and can attack 3 targets at once. Gruesome also has a much higher multiplier than Ruthless. Attacking 3 enemies at once is a big advantage to clear out an entire enemy family in 1 skill. Winner : Gruesome
• Slaughter vs Militant - albeit they are different in purpose, I decided to pair these two skills. Slaughter gives access to another potential killer skill (its damage is between Volition and Ruthless) whereas a level 12 Militant will greatly increase survivability and damage output of Nar. For raids when I need to spam skills, I would choose Slaughter but for PVP, 3 killer skills is more than enough. Winner : Militant for PVP.
• Carnage vs Occult Science - both low multipliers but cause "unexplainable" damage. It is believed that Carnage and Occult Science deal -holy- damage, ignoring all defense. Carnage is a bit hard to combine with Volition (knockdown, get close, cast at the right time) than Merciless + Occult Science (same ideology). Occult Science however can hit air units, can inflict status (IF they survive) and has a larger AOE (and is so much cooooler - Hi Avey, i like your rainbows). Winner : Occult Science

I also took stance bonuses into consideration when I chose between Hanging Guard and Semilunar. HG has 10% defense against ranged attacks, but is 20% more susceptible to magic and 10% more prone to debuffs. Semilunar has 10% defense against ranged attacks, but has 20% defense against magic and debuffs. The current metagame features a lot of magic attacks and debuffs, so Semilunar was a clear choice for higher chances of survival.

I must say in my recent PVP experiences Nar has proven to be better than Grandice. Merciless + Occult Science pretty much clears almost everyone. Occult Science is nice when Nar has just dodged several Reckless Emilia and/or Elementalists charging up for Abyss Flare. In the midst of chaos, hit the Occult Science button and watch (most of) the enemies die.

High Level PVP team progression

When I first started out, I had no intention of engaging in PVP. I knew sGE has been out for quite some time, and surely a lot of players would have far better equipment than me. So I was mostly a PVE player, just leveling my characters to expert and doing the raids I can.

After some time in Millenion, a number of players started engaging in PVP. They were masters already and I was still expert but I decided to join in anyways. I remember heavenzmandate and his fighter on defender as well as TheShadowKnightz with his elementalist in LOE stance. It was a lot more fun trying to use your skills against players who were not as predictable (sometimes) than normal mobs. This gave me the motivation to train my first 3 characters (Romina, SohoTheWind, Grace) to master and start engaging in PVP.

Training in Bahama AT to master allowed me to camp quite a number of King of Greeds (KOGs) and by the time I mastered my 3 characters, I already got 2 Dragon Heart Recipes. This allowed me to craft a black dagger for STW and a serpent rifle for Grace. Romina stayed with her +6 Trump Sword (woot!).

My initial team was ok-ok, able to handle various threats and can buff and debuff. I did however have problems with Hard Armour characters due to my weapons. After a few months, I got an iPod (calyce) and was extremely lucky in making a constellation crossbow (2 tries to +7, used 7 chips to get the stats) so I retired Grace and started using Calyce. She was fun to use, at the start. Approaching the enemy while invisible then releasing burst shot and watching bodies kiss the ground was fun until the 100th time, then I got bored of it.

I was contemplating on replacing Calyce with someone who was able to handle metal armour, and coincidentally a friend of mine was selling Grandice. In my faction I think less than a handful had Grandice, but I already knew she would be a great HG user. I bought Grandice and traded out my Crossbow and ELB fighter for a Constellation GreatSword, an Elite Schvarlier Armor and some other stuff.

While Grandice was training to master and still lacking a weapon, I went back to Grace for a few weeks. It felt so weird using flintlock again for PVP, but it was only temporary. The constellation GreatSword took 155 veteran chips and tranquilizers to get the current stats.

I was on Romina - STW - Grandice for a long time. It was quite a popular build and even until now, I still see top tier players using the same build. However, Grandice got old (get it? GET IT? ok.) and I moved on to try Nar.

I encountered a Nar user at Poison Yard and was impressed at his power, but I thought maybe that player possessed a really really good Hestia which would explain the great killing power. After training my Nar to master, I borrowed a War Crescent with 39 Atk Stat and tried out Nar's skills. To my surprise, even a +5 39atk 1s War Crescent dealt considerable damage to ESA + Garim + HOA. This pvp test closed the deal and I poured a substantial amount of my savings to prepare my Nar for PVP. His Hestia and stance rings took a lot more resources to complete than expected. Enough to make me EMO //__* but when it was all ready, it was very satisfying.

My current team is Romina - STW - Nar and I need a few more weeks of practice to completely sync their skill timings. But so far, Nar has proven to be thicker and stronger than Grandice.


And now for the hao lian part. My current weapons for my PVP teams.

Romina - Equites

Grace - Flintlock (now shared with Romina)

SohoTheWind - MMA (set sold)

SohoTheWind - Arnis

Calyce - Sagitta (sold)

Grandice - Hanging Guard

Nar - Semilunar

a side note on these pvp weapons - I am unsure as to whether Penetration Rumins are better than Attack Rumins.

One theory relates rumins to weapon type. Apparently one should put attack rumins on physical weapons  and penetration rumins on magic weapons. Another theory is dependent on stat weapon. If it's attack + AR, put attack rumins because the extra AR will penetrate through high DR. If it's attack + human, put penetration. A forum thread suggested that penetration wins hands down, but it used a japanese / russian damage calculator; the difference from attack rumins were only minor, less than 5% damage really. I really don't know which is good, not that rich or too concerned to test out damage with different rumin sets against different armor sets. If only GE had a damage calculator -in English-.

PVP Team : Low Level Secret Temple

I go to High Level Superfights quite often since I promoted my first three masters (Romina, STW, Grace) for a bit of PK action, some sunstone farming and of course, loots. But near the end of my gaming experience I realized that I haven't really gone into the low level superfights. No 32/33AR 30/32DR armors here - Elite84 is the top level equipment. No veteran or expert stances - just basic stances. The battles in low level superfights are closer, due to this limitation.

I wanted to try out low level ST so I asked Lloyd what team I should use. I had Romina and STW in mind, but their non-veteran stances were mediocre at best. So I went for Wizard - Scout - Cath Int, an old build I believe that was popular before the first server merge. I could have gone with an elementalist but I chose Catherine since she can also play as a partial wizard if needed. Scout was their for basic buffing and ressing - an aspect I just cant leave out of pvp. My Wizard would be a debuffer, controlling enemies with a variety of spells and Catherine would be my finisher with her 2 lightning stances. It seemed good in my head and I was ready to give it a go.

I was easily able to gather some equipment for my three characters due to my frequent visits in High Level Superfights as well as some support from my faction vault. Nobody claims elite84 armor anymore so I just help cleared out inventories and paying for them at a cheap, cheap, cheap rate. Weapons were a bit tougher since Elite84 Rods, Staffs and Bracelets are in high demand for making Rosario. I was hesitant at times either to keep my +6 Rod/Staff and Bracelets for my team or to sell them off at a high price.

Leveling this team also took me longer than normal, since I had to focus that each character was able to max all stances available before reaching level 84. I completed my equipment even before getting to level 84! So when I finally reached level 84 for my three characters, I was so happy to finally be able to wear their appropriate equipment. It was my first time to use a wizard and elementalist in pvp, and my scout skills have long vanished since I started using Romina + STW. With the help of Lloyd, Pyratic and MsSwan, I brushed up my skills with my new pvp team and was ready to go.

As with all superfights, things are only exciting in the presence of enemies, so you can try out your skills and equipment against them. So far, my team has proven good to most physical type enemies but is having a problem battling other Wizards and Elementalists/Hellenas. I still need to practice more in using the Wizard - she just has so many skills in her arsenal. Even if I only have three stances available at any one time, each stance has its own use. I usually get stuck in using levitation most of the time, switching to Illusionist for finisher debuffs (sleep / magical piercing) or escape (ritardi, spiritual shield) but I keep forgetting to use Psychokinesis skills - especially Apocalypse which has a large AOE and can stop enemies from using their skills.

Low level superfights actually give substantial amounts of experience to characters. If done three times daily, my characters will quickly get over their level limit of 90 and be unable to participate.. So I don't go to low level ST unless Lloyd will really bug me and I'm not swamped with other tasks. But when I do go and there are reds, it's always fun.

Brain of Argus #4, #5, #6, #4 again, #7, #8, #9

When i said in my previous entry that I will be leading the Brain of Argus raid, I thought it wont be difficult or stressful. Go in there, do the procedure, get the loots and done.

After doing Boss Summoning that night, I gathered a squad for the raid. The first batch had 7 people, which was a healthy number. BOA #4 consisted of Vugtis as tanker and me as main DPS. Our "roasted sotong" method is very dependent on our tanker, and Vugtis' internet connection is... not that reliable. Don't get me wrong, Vug is a very capable tank - if he is online. As fate would have it, Vugtis disconnected at BOA #4, and we aborted that due to people dieing left, right and center.

A small squad is enough

I then switched people around and designated Cruz to tank. It was his first time to do so, but he has seen me done the role several times. I had hoped seeing me do the tanking was enough for Cruz to tank well. As his first time on the job, he did pretty well :) BOA #5 and #6 was a breeze. We went and revisited BOA #4 on the same evening and finished it with no problems.

Roasted Sotongs

After the max emo time a.k.a. respawn time was over, I gathered a squad again to visit BOA three more times. I was not able to farm Amethyst Piece over the week, so I did not have enough to sponsor my raiders. Luckily, drummies (server's Highest family level - 56 + 2) had been farming at that map and was kind enough to provide AP for the rest of the crew.

We went off with a cold start with BOA #7. Vug was available again to tank, but was unable to maintain his connection for the first half of the raid. We also had a newcomer with us, who used AOEs (Abyss Flare) against the 8 sotongs. Sotongs are very angry mobs. You touch them once and they will not stop whacking you until you are dead. And die, we did. Without a tank, the ideal way to deal with sotongs is to attack them 1 at a time, with a scout on arnis upfront while elementalists and musks whittle away its HP. But due to Abyss Flare, all 8 sotongs engaged us. The family who turned them aggro quickly died, which left the 8 sotongs free to choose from the rest of the squad. There were 8 of us at the time and sotongs had a target fest. We were getting knocked backed and consequently dieing. It took me a fair bit of time to settle things down, even with the help of drugs. As we were finishing rounding up these wild sotongs, Vug's connection improved and he was able to tank the brain.

Cruz came online just before BOA #8, so again Cruz and Vug switched roles. This time around Cruz had minor computer problems and some people (including me, lol) went to the wrong channel for the raid. By the time everyone was gathered, there were 2 sotongs left. We moved on to the brain and it didn't prove to be a problem as we were able to down it before it hid it its shell and summon Argus.

Finally on BOA #9, everyone was familiar with their roles and we were able to do it a lot quicker. Everyone went to the correct channel this time (lol), entered the same time, stacked the right buffs and attacked according to plan.

Everything was going ok until I looked at my inventory and saw that I had brought 2 Prelude Rings. I could have lent them to our Prelude buffer for level 12 buffs. Many thanks to drummies for sponsoring them much needed AP and the faction's excellent Daemon bracelets. This will be the last time I will lead Argus raid (for now) as next week our Faction Leader will be back.

"oh, i have 2 prelude stance rings here"

loyd is not impressed

Another Boathon Successful