Leveling: LLS in the Den of Rancor (65-66)

We decided to go to the Den of Rancor this week. Itera's MNK was 66, while the rest of us (except Erock) were 65, and we'd outgrown the Processionaires in The Boyahda Tree. We were hoping to fight the lizards near the Yhoator entrance to the Den of Rancor, but there was a party our level there, so we decided to head to the Cloister of Tides area and fight pugils instead.

Getting to the Cloister of Tides zone was quite an adventure in of itself. We had to got through the Temple of Uggalehpih (known in our household by the nickname The Temple of UglyPeople) and then into the Den of Rancor. The only time Kiki had ever been in the Temple was as a level 1 with perma-sneak and perma-invis for the Summerfest activities in the summer of 2004, but Yobun and Erock know the way around, so we followed along. At least in the Temple we just needed Invisible to avoid detection. We had to fight a Temple Guardian to get through a Granite Door, and even with barfira, the Guardian's Meltdown just blasted us. Kiki was hit for nearly 1200 points of damage, while Itera took about 1500. This killed both of us, but the others all managed to take less damage and survived.

We continued on our way to camp with no incident, but we crossed paths with another party our level, and they seemed to be heading for the same camp. We got there first though, and they left during our second fight. Our first fight was a bit of a mess for us - I blame the fact there were 6 extra people standing in our camp - and it seemed a lot of work for the amount of exp we got for that pugil. During our second fight, Elboron got blood-aggro'd by one of the Doomed nearby and didn't realize the zone was right behind us and he died. Kiki ended up dying too. By the time I realized I was in danger and should zone, it was really too late, and I would have died zoning anyway.

Things improved after this, and we ended up getting about 9K in just over two hours. It was a bit short, since it took us so long to get there, as well as the deaths. We disbanded shortly after Yobun hit 66. Erock also leveled to 61 during the party, but Grym, Kiki, and Elbo were about 3000 exp short of leveling to 66.

This week the three of us 65s spent several evenings fighting EPs and DCs in West Altepa (anticans, scorpions, giant birds), Quicksand Caves (lizards), and Kuftal Tunnel (crabs and lizards), both for skillups and EXP. We decided we liked Kuftal Tunnel the best for this, and even though the lizards have worse TP attacks than the crabs, I think they were better to fight. Elboron got quite a few levels on his sword, though he has a long way to go to cap it for his Maat fight. Grymalkyn was working on marksmanship, club and sword skill, while Kiki's been trying to get her staff leveled (180 at the moment, cap for her would be 212). I'm eager to get Spirit Taker and see if that helps alleviate all the downtime we have when Grym and Kiki are farming/skilling up as a duo without our Bard buddy around to keep the MP refreshing.

We inched our way to 66, and it was nice to get the level, but I'm afraid Kiki's going to delevel before the LLS heads out on Sunday. Tonight she'll be tanking for Windurst Mission 7-1, where we will fight four Hinge Oils (slimes) that are supposed to have pretty bad AOE fluid spread-type moves. However, people seem to say it's the mages that get killed by this, not the tanks. I'll still wear more +HP gear than I do normally. We're also hoping to fight Garuda before Sunday evening as well, and there's a good chance of death in that as well, though I should be able to get Kiki's HP well over 1300, and between extra wind-resistance gear and Elboron's (soul-voiced) Wind Carol and baraera, I hope it will go smoothy.