Part 5: The Trek to Zeal

[Howie Feltersnatch]

Welcome back for part 5 of my tutorial.



In this installment, you'll learn about Zeal and the Level 7 Goblin
Tower - but we're not quite there yet. When I left you last, you were
supposed to wait in Inachis for the reset.



Now that the reset has occurred, go ahead and work. Like always, keep
the stats you need to build in mind when picking your job. You should
be level 7 by now (after you work). No spirit point this time so no
need to adjust your deck quite yet. I would like you to note that you
can use your PvP crafted items now though - woo hoo! Also, we have some
other crafting to do before we leave Inachis. No Dungeon raids here
though.



Let's go buy more PvP items... But first, let me remind you about my
character and goals so that you may use me as a template to help keep
you on track.



If you recall, I chose to build my stats as DEX/CON/INT because I want
to be a Warden at T3. Using those stats, you can look at the crafts in
PvP and compare the weapons requirements with the stats you will be
building. Using these as a guideline, I can see that in my career path,
these will be my weapons based on stat choices:



Primary Weapons:

Ice, Lance (DEX+CON)

Secondary Weapons:

Holy, Lightning, Daggers, Mace (DEX/CON/INT in some combination other
than primary)



As I already have Battle Ice Scroll x5 from my previous purchases, let's
go ahead and pick up a secondary that will help me build my Tactician
skill - remember that lesson? High penetration weapons like Ice and
Daggers build Tactician Skill and I will need Rank 2 before I can take
my T3 class. Easier now than later so I will buy Battle Daggers x3 (all
I have the dust for).



But I'm not done crafting yet! Return to the market and go to the
Fight with Art crafting shop. Remember the bunny stuff we saved? Time
to put it to really good use.



I want to craft Rodent's bane but the number (3) is RED - I have to
remove them from ALL my decks to transform them! Remove them from all
decks and save each one. Don't worry, it's time for a major deck
overhaul anyway and this is a safe city unless you're an outlaw. Back
to crafting and look at that, green number now and I have x4 of the
bunny items needed - woo hoo! I will upgrade them now. 9 melee damage
to 12 melee damage, good upgrade! I have 1 Black bunny fur left over
but I need 6 power to use the Cozy-Hilt sword and only have a 5... Meh -
no worries, I'll take the ward charm instead - swords aren't really the
thing for this character. You need to make your own choices though.
And if you want more Rodent's Bane maces, you CAN go into the Inachis
sewers to try for more Rat Flails if you'd like. But given the PvP
items you have, I wouldn't waste the AP - but that's just me. Bunny Hood
x1 for me please!



Now that we're done crafting - go take care of your decks.

HINT: If you drop down the Character menu, you will see a 'Show Charms"
selection. Go in here and archive any old charms you do not plan on
using any longer, usually because they are too weak. Don't worry, you
NEVER lose charms and can always show archived items and retrieve them
so they return to your selection list. This is a good way to clean up
the list you have to look through when doing deck maintenance. Go ahead
and try this now when you fix your decks.



Decks all straight now? Mine looks like this: (Note, I changed
Attack/Defend options both to this deck, it should suit quite well for
both - not balance training though, I will still make a custom deck for
that)



21/21 charm slots

Pair of Stone Swords x2

Shoulder Glyph x1

Bronze Helm x1

Shadow Wand x1

Yeti Fur Cloak x4

Rodent's Bane x3

Battle Daggers x3

Battle Ice Scroll x5

Bunny Hood x1



Summary

Gear 'Attack/Defense' (21 charms)

Melee: 75 (23% P)

Magic: 58 (32% P)



Armor: 59

Ward: 43 + 12 cumulative



You all set now? Good, go ahead and move to Eversweep. Do PvP if you
want or if you need more focus charms, raid the High Summoner's study.
I'm good with the Bright Flame x4 I have, so I will do PvP later
tonight when I have more AP.



I found some level 10 dudes in my PvP with scores in the very low 1400's
- check this out!!! This is the difference between good crafted
weapons and store bought crap.




YES! Courage Rank 1 at Level friggin 7 and Tactician well on it's way!



Waiting for the morning reset... my work here for tonight is done.



RESET



Good morning - time for some PvP. I'm already starting to fight some
level 10 dudes. Had a particularly good run this morning: (had 2 more
after these, 1 got me tactician and the other one got the other 2)





I got a little brave this morning and only won 5, but 3 were against
level 10 guys. Time to wait for the reset, which is only 2 hours away
for me since I was up drinking late last night and got a late start this
morning. I wanted to get in all the PvP I could now since Zeal is a
safe city and there will be time for me to get enough AP after the reset
to raid the Goblin Tower before I go to bed tonight.



RESET

Worked the same job I did yesterday and gained a level. Beat up some
sure things to use the few AP I had and then moved to Zeal. Visited the
Market's Dust Trader and cashed in for some new crafted weapons.
Rounded out my daggers to a full 5 and added 1 Holy. Later on tonight,
I will raid the Tower again. **EDIT - Stop selling your stuff that
isn't GREY even if I say to later on, we'll get back to this in Part 6
and you'll see why. GREY items can still be sold because they can never
be used for crafting**



Blew right through the tower without issues at all. Because of my high
speed PvP crafted charms, a level 7 dungeon at character level 8 is
actually really really easy. There's no PvP in Zeal because it's a safe
city so for tonight, we're done.



RESET

meh... It's 2 AM and I'm up late so I just blew through the Goblin
tower again, only got 1 good drop, which is the tech rune, wide swing
(+15 to next melee). Same drop I got my first run through and a useful
card for quite some time to come. I'm going to sell off my other crap
from inventory, no real good reason to keep it. While we're here in a
safe city again, may as well visit the soul crafting shop. I have 4
soul dust and 5 soul fragments now. Looks like with the dust, I can get
a Battle Glyph charm, good for 20 ward - good stuff at this low level,
and we've still spent almost no gold so far - I've got 1250 gold now
after selling off my junk.



So far, so good. See you after tomorrow's reset.



RESET

Go ahead and work. Today, I chose Flower Shop Assistant because of the
large boost for my primary stat. My stats are now:

POW 8

CON 21

DEX 26

INT 21



And I gained a level after working so I'm level 9 now. Again, no spirit
point this level so no need to adjust your deck yet. Raid the Goblin
Tower - this time, the good drop was a focus staff (+15 next magic).
We're going to do this dungeon 3 more times before we move on from Zeal
but we still want to do some PvP without missing out on any raid times.
I'm going to show you how to do this tomorrow. Once again, we wait on
our reset.



RESET

Raid the tower again, sell off crap, I still have 1 black bunny fur and
some bunny ears in inventory. I think it's time to get rid of those
also because now we've made sufficient levleing progress that the crafts
they produce really wouldn't be useful. In the raid, I got another
Wide Swing Charm - was hoping for another Focus Staff, oh well, maybe
next time...



Since we still have our move available from yesterday and we're done
with the tower until reset, may as well move to Eversweep for more PvP.
I have 150 AP to burn!



Nice PvP run!!! I started with the level 12 guys, sticking to the
1400's ratings and working my way down to level 10 guys. I won 16 of my
battles, bringing my Soul Fragment (not dust - remember, level 10-20
guys give Fragments) count is now 21 total because I already had 5 from
day before yesterday. I will do nbo more this morning as I've exhausted
most of my available opponents in the range I desire. 16 wins and 2
losses this week (which since it's Monday and I did none yesterday,
would be all this morning) not too damn shabby. And as a bonus, my
Spirituality R1 is at 96/100 - ALMOST THERE for another Spirit point!



Now the next question is do I work here or Zeal after the reset? Well,
here in Eversweep, there is a job for Soldier which gives +7 Discipline
to R1 - I need R1 of Discipline for my T3 class requirements so I'll
work this job just for the skill. Sometimes, to get required skills,
you will need to work jobs whose stats do not line up with your class
requirements. This is OK because you have no choice but it is better to
do these jobs early for several reasons. This job will give me another
point of power and that will probably make more charms available for me
to use at these lower levels. Later, as we become more specialized, it
will be harder to use some other types of charms because of stat
limitations/requirements so why not take advantage now while you can.
See you after reset.



RESET

Well, Estiah was down for quite a while so it's almost 11 PM. I will do
some PvP before moving back to Zeal, but will save 60 points for the 4
fights in the tower. But first, I will work the job of soldier. No
reason to go after level 11 guys tonight because my courage skill is
maxed out. So I'm level 9 still, so I'll stick with that. Nope, after
the first 2, I realized my mistake - I want to fight at leaset level 10
because I don't care about Soul Dust anymore.



Woo Hoo! This is rockin!




24 Spirit at 9th Level! I fucking rule!



So knowing I'm getting 20 more points in a few minutes, I dropped down
to 49 points doing PvP. I didn't lose any matches but I did those 2
screw-ups with the level 9 guys. I adjusted my decks and moved back to
Zeal.



Right after 11 PM, I will raid the tower... I should be able to blow
right through it without issue.



Yep, no problem except I got another Wide Swing instead of a Focus Staff
- damnit! Maybe tomorrow then. I have 2 more chances before we move
again. Oh well, can't always get what you want. Sell all your crap,
see you after the reset.



RESET

Raid the tower... Yay! Got a Focus Staff!. Sell all the junk, update
decks, wait for reset.



RESET

Worked as a Flower shop assistant and still level 9, raided the tower
(another wide swing), sold my crap and move to Eversweep... see you in
the morning.



RESET

PvP time!!! OK, remember, we want to beat up level 10 plus here because
we don't need or want any more soul dust, we want fragments now. I
just finished spending all my AP and my fragment total is now 48!!! I
beat up every level 10 and then went to low score 11's and won them all.
The only exciting event was a cheat death I got.



So now, we will stay here until tomorrow morning and then move to
Inachis, but I'll cover this in Part 6 of my tutorial - The Southern
Lands - See ya!