Hitting 130.... Again!
When last we met our hero discussed my journey through Conquer Origins, I had completed Whiskeyjack's rebirth into an archer and had finally gotten him all the way back to 120. There was 10 hard levels between me and the level cap of 130, and I had just purchased my first 1 socket item.
Then the holidays hit and life got busy, so my next blog about CO has waited until today... but even with Christmas, my birthday, and the new year... I did manage to crush out some pretty major milestones.
Foremost among those... I hit 130! Again!
This achievement means I've advanced this character as far as I can in this server, as far as levels go. Trojan 130 reborn to Archer 130. A fine accomplishment. In some games hitting a level cap like this is where the game ends... but not with Conquer. No, no. Now that I've done this, we're finally getting to the real endgame! Events like City Wars, Guild War, and Dis City are viable for participating in now... and the various PVP mini-events that the server has are also finally worth playing.
But, to really do well in these events, I knew that (particularly as an archer) I'd have to gear the heck up! I'm pretty darn new, with a pretty small amount of play time, so there's a ton of folks that outpace me. Which is okay, I'm not the competitive gamer I once was. Still though, I want to "place favorably in my weight class" if you know what I mean.
Which is why I started...
The Socketed Gear Grind
As we discussed in a previous post... sockets aren't easy or cheap to come by. There are really only two ways to acquire item sockets. First is to spam meteors to level items up, with a small chance of getting a socket each time the item successfully improves level (or quality). I did some basic math on this method, to see if it was viable for me.
What I found out was that the likelihood of a socket in 400 successful upgrades is 39.37%. Which, let's be honest... isn't great. Meteor scrolls (packs of 10 meteors) cost in the range of 550,000 to 700,000 gold. Already 1 socket boots/necklaces/rings generally were going for about 30,000,000 per item at the time. So, to make this method worthwhile, I would have to achieve a socket in 400 -> 500 meteors... and not every meteor used is going to be successful.
So, with this knowledge tucked away, I decided that attempting to get a socket myself was just not a viable use of my limited time. It'd be better I figured, to hunt like mad and grind a ton of items to sell to buy already 1 socket items.
Which is how I found myself browsing market one day, sitting on a pile of gold which was just burning a hole in my pocket. I'd been checking every day when I got on to see if there were any good deals on some decent 1soc gear, and for several days the market was either dry or way overpriced.
And then I found it. Super 2 socket +3 boots. They were priced at 350 million when I spotted them, which felt a bit high to me so I sat back and waited... hoping that other market-goers would feel the same.
Sure enough, when I checked back later in the day, they'd dropped to 320 million. Not bad. Much closer to a reasonable price for the item, but I was willing to take a gamble and wait still. If the seller had within a day dropped price... there was a pretty good shot they'd drop it again if nobody snagged it.
So, I went back to hunting... and checked again a few hours later. My gamble paid off. The seller had dropped the price right down to 299,999,999. Which told me two things. First, they were actively paying attention to their market character. Second, they needed money in general more than they needed top-value sales.
Being not a complete dumbass, I decided to try and capitalize on this information and I sent the seller a whisper asking if they'd be willing to drop the price a bit further.
They responded almost immediately and after a bit of back-and-forth haggling, agreed to drop the price by an additional 10 million gold. I had something like 350 million gold back in my warehouse hoarded away for gear, so I agreed and we made the exchange.
For the first time in 15 years, I once again owned a super 2 socket item, which further fueled my ability to hunt by allowing me to 1-hit mobs just a little higher level than I'd previously been able to take down.
This was a great start. But now I had a hunger to complete my goal, so I dove into hunting. And mining. And trading. With my necklace and boots already purchased, and my coat being a freebie from the rebirth... I really only had two other pieces to get. Earings, and a ring. The hunt was on.
It took a bit, but I managed to find some satisfying earings for dirt cheap a few days later (December 1st, looking at the date of my screenshot).
Then came the next big purchase. Ten days of hard grinding later, I spotted a ring that was, frankly, absurd. The price was high, but so was the quality. Rings like this were rare for me to spot in my market browsing, so I once again reached out to see if the seller would cut me a deal.
It took a bit of back and forth, but in the end I managed to snag this absolutely bad-ass ring for about 380 million (in cash and trade).
This purchase absolutely liquidated my funds. I sold every single +1 item I had in my warehouse and on my seller. I sold every gem I had across all 5 of my miners. I included the few dragonballs I had in the trade. The only thing I kept back was enough money to buy 1 extra Super Dragon Gem... because the ring came with Super Rainbow Gems, and what was I going to need extra EXP for?
I had done what I'd set out to do. My little Tro-Arch was finally rocking a full set of socketed gear. It wasn't all two-socket (and still isn't), but that was okay. I could now efficiently farm all but the very highest level mobs and could hit with a respectable (for an archer) amount of damage.
PvP Time
It was finally time to dive into some PvP and earn my keep in the guild. Until this point, I'd been basically leaching off of their success to get increased drop rates. Now that I had some decent gear though, I could be of actual use in combat.
Smashin' dem poles
We won the next several guild wars in a row, and participating in the event was (and is) an absolute blast. Nothing gets the blood pumping in this game like some good ol' PvP combat, and when you're trying your best to slug it out with the top guild on the server... well, it's a memorable feeling, that's for sure.
Waiting for City Wars to start
I haven't managed to take the time to actually record one of these fights... but I'll make sure to take a video of the action for my next blog. The still images don't do it justice.
Some among you may notice here that my UI has changed too - from the regular blue the game usually sports to this slick black UI. Your eyes are not playing tricks on you. One of the server admins has a black UI which several of us asked her about, and she kindly shared the files with us. Which I immediately installed, of course.
Planning for the Future
So... you may be wondering - where do I go from here? What's left to conquer in Conquer Origins?
I had planned to touch on some of that today, but I see that the blog is getting pretty long so I'll save the details for a future post - but in short... the plan now that I have a great hunter that's able to power level, is to make myself a good melee character.
I'm thinking I'll go back to my roots for this goal, so I've been leveling my warrior - OblivionCubed - so that he can serve as both a tank (for farming Water Taos), and as my melee damage dealer.
He's currently sitting at around level 100, so I've got a bit of grinding ahead of me before he's actually useful. His adventures are a journey for the next blog though. Until then, as always, I encourage you to join me and get in on the fun. I'll help however I can, just reach out to me here, on discord, or in-game.
Happy gaming, friends!