Epith Adventures - A Week Long Saga

Epith.  My time here is fleeting, unfortunately.  My self-imposed deadline is swiftly approaching.  Though I do still have more days ahead of me than behind, seeing the finish line is a bit saddening.  What makes it sad?  I'm really enjoying myself here.

I honestly didn't expect to make any friends here.  I figured I'd just go about my business, get on with my project and be done with it, leaving no footprints of my existence on the Epith server.  Get in, get it done, get out.  Gone, without a trace.  But nope, that hasn't happened.  I made friends, quite a few of them actually, and none of them know who I really am.

To them I'm "SweetEscape" a 2x Fighter with a fire in her eyes and skill that betrays her modest 20+ levels.  I'm friendly, especially generous, and extremely protective of those around me.  We've quested together, hung out a little bit, farmed dungeon bosses and conquered KQs together.  It's pretty amazing what can be done in a matter of days based off of a chance meeting.

The Cleric in our group, AzianHealer, is very capable and confident.  Even in her mid-twenties, she's tested herself against Burning Hill's Marlone and come out on top.  Happy to receive quest help, but not bothered by having to get her own hands dirty and soloing.  Didn't spend too much time with her, but I love her attitude.

The Trickster is DeathwishReborn, an alt of a 7x Cleric here on Epith.  Cheerfully he greets me in academy chat when I log in.  I appreciate that a lot actually.  It was nice to have some stability in Classified's Academy.  Perhaps it was because their GM wasn't around to clear out the academy, but it was nice to login and still see their guild name emblazoned above mine.  Familiarity is a nice thing.

The Mage is iCantEven, he has a few other characters on the server, but this Mage wields the lucky pickaxe.  During the Gold Hill KQ, he successfully found three of the four keys.  Needless to say, he was a bit peeved when I discovered the fourth and final key.  We had a most profitable time in Marlone's Hideout after the KQ, he logged on to his Cleric and dutifully followed me around as we farmed King Marlones.  We got two card drops, Marlone A and Path of Sin A.  I was happy to let him have both.  He also picked up some 20 blue pants for his Mage.  I was grateful for the heals and just for keeping me company in there.

Not pictured is _Ryero_, a level 3x Fighter who I bumped into a couple of times during the Gold Hill KQs.  He led the charge the first few levels while I tagged along and eased some of his tanking burden here and there.  Even at 2x and with just +5 gear, I'm a capable tank, Cleric or not, but I'm more than happy to let him take charge and set the pace.... though I tanked the boss.  *wink*  Hey, I can't let him have ALL the fun!  The second KQ was even better, we work well together as a duo within the party, mocking and kicking the mobs into our range.  He even gave me a green level 30 shield, it was nice of him.  He called me beautiful in party chat, I thought that was kind of him.

Also not pictured is V4nill4, a 2x Cleric from our academy.  She was the lucky recipient of a level 20 blue Cleric top that dropped while iCant and I farmed, she also got a nice max-END, 2 slot, KM Hammer that we picked up.  Items were donated to her despite her insistence on paying.  I told her to just believe in the generosity of strangers sometimes.  She seemed happy and the gear was better than what she was currently using, so that made me happy.

I've told a few people that I'm only planning to be here for a little while, which was received with a bit of sadness, much to my surprise.  I guess even in as little as 24 hours, you CAN have an impact on people you meet.

So what have I done in my time in Epith so far?  Here are some highlights...

Soloed the Slime KQ at level 17/18 - I had joined the KQ while I was level 16, but managed to hit level 17 while doing the Ratman repeats before the KQ started.  Midway through the KQ I leveled up to 18.  I used a bit of strategy on the final boss, kiting it a little bit using Kick.  Similar to what we do in the Henneath KQ to get the boss away from his spawned minions.  Worked like a charm!

Soloed my first King Marlone at level 20 with only +3 white shirt, 1h, and shield, a single T1 vit scroll and no buff.  I burned through quite a bit of HP Stones and T1/T2 HP Pots, but it was worth it.  I got a decent ring that I saved for my troubles.  My gear was only +3 because I didn't hit Lix[1] yet at the time, nor was I actively making T1 scrolls, both have been remedied since then.

Trio'd the Mara Pirates KQ with a Trickster and a Cleric who only had Bash, a T1 Heal, and Revive.  I'm pretty sure I could have soloed it, but they both joined the KQ at the last moment, I was happy for the company at least.

So where am I financially? I think I'm pretty well off and geared up well enough to be able to farm successfully alone.  My stones, scrolls, and potion productions are all up to date, I can make up to Lix[1] for my gear and all T1 scrolls and potions.  Marlone's Hideout drops T2 HP/SP pots by the dumptruck load, so producing those aren't an issue.

I've made 12.3g simply through academy rewards.  I used 6g of that to purchase a +0 Level 20 Bone Top for my Fighter.  Even at +0, it has nearly double the DEF of the 20 white shirt I was using as well as +200 HP.  I NEEDED this to farm.  At the time, this was nearly all of the gold I had on-hand.  Thankfully the seller lowered his price by 1g for me so I could afford it.

I made another 9g selling a Slime S card that I picked up during my solo run through Slime KQ.  I used a bit of that money to buy a level 30 green shield as well as a ZK 1H with additional evasion stats as well as 2 empty sockets.  I may just end up staying at the 2x levels though for KM, the money generated is more consistent I think.  But, I have those equipments waiting for me should I decide to continue to level.

I potentially could have made another 25g off of one of the two Marlone cards that my friend kept as well as the sale of the Cleric items.  5g was offered by V4nill4, but I turned it down.

Among the cards I still have remaining, I estimate the value of all of that to be about another 10-15g, that's conservative if I wanted to vend them.

Altogether, potentially, that's nearly 70g in the matter of about a day and a half of playtime over 27 levels, that figure could be higher if I was able to keep both Marlone cards.

So what's my build?  I'm pure STR, but will use only sword and shield.  I've empowered only Slice-and-Dice for full CD and max DMG.  My base DMG maxes out around 230 or so with my DEF around 260 before scrolls. I guess those are your benchmarks if you decide to do what I've done.

I did not quest too much, I mostly grinded my levels out as I wanted to collect as many mats as possible to build up my skill points in those areas (I did not want to buy anything produce-able from vendors).  

Oh! And I ran into a minor-celebrity, Tromgar of Epith!  Don't know him?  Well I only knew him from the forum as he went on a pretty heated rant about powerleveling.  I was so dying to ask him to powerlevel me, but I resisted.  Oh well, opportunity missed!

Although they may never read this, I also wanted to thank the "Classified" guild of Epith.  Without your generous academy rewards, much of this may not have been possible.  Thank you for advertising your academy through roars.  I was walking around Sand Beach trying to farm King Crab for a card (which I got!) when I saw the roar.  I joined and have been extremely happy here, so thank you.