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