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.

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

Colony Boss Summoning

During my faction leader weak week, it is my responsibility to summon our colony bosses every night. It's sort of a source for extra income as the bosses will drop veteran and level 100 chips, pure gold bars, elite 84 and level 100 items and other items that are unique to that boss. The best loots I have seen so far is a Dragon Heart Recipe from Avalanche Apparition, and an Unknown Ore (Claire Quest) from the Elite Storm Cockatrice that accompany the Giant Cockatrice when summoned.

When a colony boss dies, its loots normally would have no name attached to it, meaning that anyone will be able to pick up the loots. It used to be free-for-all for Eminence Boss Summoning, so people with high movement speed and pigling pet were at an advantage. To equalize the loots, a squad is now formed for boss summoning and the loots are now set to acquire by turn. Not only does this make the loots fair for everyone, it also makes it easier to down the bosses by stacking multiple buffs from various characters.

Colony Boss summoning is done every night when most of the members are able to participate. It should take no longer than 25 minutes to summon and deal with all colony bosses.

Faction Leader Week

I was the faction leader of Millenion once, when Vugtis was away for a week or two. It wasn't really that special, all I did was summon the Colony Boss/es each day, changed faction notice and maybe change a few memos.

Currently, Seitai is away on vacation for a week to God knows where. xBrotherHoodx, DestinyRoyal, PeppermintTea and OuYang are all busy with work - which leaves idunno_4 and me to handle faction matters. With idunno_4's schedule still quite full, the position of faction leader was passed on to me ._. (insert fangirl/boy screams here). It feels awkward being the "leader" of people who are more senior than me, who are stronger, better equipped and more knowledgeable than me even if it's only temporary. 

 
For most factions, there isn't really a big difference between FL and DFL. The one big thing is that the FL can kick and change DFLs, whereas the latter cannot do the same to the former. But for an actively-raiding and colony-holding faction such as Eminence, holding the faction leader buff is huge. Because Eminence is holding 9 colonies, the Faction Leader Buff (FLB) a.k.a Leader's Brilliance comes with +30% ATK and +30 DEF. This great increase in attack helps in winning raids from competitors.

Leader's Brilliance

With great power comes great responsibility. LAME! But great power indeed. With Seitai's departure, a few raid items have been passed on to me. These include bracelets for Ice Wizard Tower & Gate of Lightning and rifles for Swamp Frog Fish, Uraeus and Griffon. I also have the responsibility to summon colony bosses every night and update important raid timings. Last but definitely not least, it's my responsibility to lead the Brain of Argus raid. I know I've been doing it for some time now, but this will be the first time where I will be in charge of the raid ._.

Holding the FLB for Eminence feels weird and uneasy, maybe because I never expected to reach this level in the game, or even when I joined Eminence. I was already surprised to be appointed Deputy, to be trusted with an increasing number of raid weapons and now, the FLB. I hope I don't disappoint.. or do something dodoish. It'll only last for a week, then I'm back to deputy.

To end this post on a lighter note,

Raid : Undertaker

Every once in a while, when people go to Arsene raid, they check if the zone boss has spawned. The Undertaker spawns in its own room, so camping for it isn't that hard. When the boss spawns, mobs in Culverts gain extra AR/DR, and the path to Zeia is closed.

Undertaker isn't that difficult, but may take awhile to kill if not adequately equipped. His high HP, hard armor and high defense require MC / HG users with human bane equips to deal with him quickly.

Hard Armor. High HP. High Def.

I recently participated in this short boss raid with my EMN faction mates Lloydworth, Vugtis, Pyratic and Solferino. We were surprised to see that a Recipe - Crafted Fire RES Necklace dropped.

Undertaker Loots.

The Crafted necklace needs the following items to make:

Cut Necklace Crystal×1 Jewel Powder×5 Enchantment Chip Level 100×30 Elemental Jewel×5 Ambrosia×10

(source : Wordwood)


Although expensive to make, this necklace is currently the top end necklace. It can be chipped with very nice stats which makes it the best necklace even until version 5.x. Making a Crafted Necklace is definitely worth the expense.

Eminence : Auction #1

My first time to participate in Eminence Auction! Yay! Since I joined, this is the first time an auction has been held due to the absence of the auction master/s. I'm glad they have found time to arrange this for the members!

Here are the items that I won:

Lightning Gun (Lightning Pistol)
The Emerald Dragon (Ice Rifle)
+6 Daemon Slayer
+6 The Black Dragon

.. and I only used a third of my Raid Points! LOL. I didn't bid in all items that I could due to restrictions. Items are categorized and people can only bid in 1 or 2 per category. This is to prevent people from hoarding one item type such as Elemental (Ice and Lightning) Weapons.

Below are some of the items my friends from Millenion won.  Even though we are relatively new, bidding for items is equal to all. Raid points are earned when.. you raid of course. So even the most senior members can lose in bidding!


Pyratic
Le Noir Scout

Vugtis
Le Noir Musk
+6 Elite Robe of Pluto 2DR 8 Fire RES

Cruz
+5 Elite La Ventisca 3DR 11 Mental RES with 1S 3% mhp
Lightning Gun
Le Noir Elementalist

SiegeMaster
Einaptor Sword
+6 The Black Dragon
+6 Conqueror Cannon
Ranged Weapon Crystal – Grade 32
Ranged Weapon Crystal – Grade 32

Lloydworth
Le Noir Wizard
+6 Elite Camisa de Soldado
The Emerald Dragon
Magic Weapon Crystal – Grade 28


My next goal is to get a Lightning/Ice Shield and Sword. Can't wait for the next auction!

Experience Boost Week - Day 5 and Eminence Auction

Another day of leveling in SCR.  Current team has no more angel buffs (oh noes!), nor do any of us have Secret Guard Clients. The start of day 5 saw a decrease in manpower. We started with 5 people (me, Cruz, Axbinder, Speedtouch, Vugtis) but this morning i was glad 2 more faction members (SaviourVII, Zurdiczz) joined us. We no longer have a plasma buffer / burner inflicter but still have a decent amount of shockers, along with MC and HG users during the morning period. We also have Shining Ballade and Hound every now and then. By afternoon Tlabbar has joined the squad and Cruz changed to an elementalist so once again we had someone in Domination Fire Stance.

For the first time since I joined Eminence, i get to participate in the auction! The auction master has been on hiatus and the rest of the council members finally got up to organizing one. I managed to acquire 300+ raid points, and now i feel like a girl who has a credit card in a shopping mall. Due to the rules in bidding and to avoid monopolizing of loots, i am only able to bid for two items that i want. I'm currently interested in the Lightning Gun (Lightning pistol) and The Emerald Dragon (Ice Rifle). So far, i have no competitors in bidding, and this may be due to several reasons. One is that.. they don't have enough raid points. Yup, raids in EMN are not required, so it's raid at your own choice, earn RP at your own pace (a side note - Lloydworth is currently the top raider for EMN). The second reason is connected to the first.. maybe they don't want to bid against me because I have so much raid points (lol). Or maybe they have already what they need and are allowing us newer members get what we want. In any case, I have a strong feeling that I will soon have an Ice Rifle and Lightning Pistol - my first two items from EMN auction and my first two elemental (non-fire!) weapons!