Christmas in Granado Espada

Wow...it's been a while, people. How are things with you?

I've been quite busy in the world of GE now that Bahia Island patch is here. On the minute the servers went up after the 3-day drought of no GE, my mates in †Legion† and I took the first trip on the Pinta for a visit to the island. Here are a few shots of our exploits:

The sun, the sand, the surf...the crabs! LOL

Flying without wings...thanks to the Diablo trainer. XD

I've also been on the hunt for the Christmas Trees in the cities as well as those of Snowmen for Red Socks. Armeo, my Elementalist was the first recipient of a Santa suit I received upon completing the Red Socks event. Now I'm gunning for the trees to get cute Christmas accessories. Too bad there's none for RNPCs.

I'm pretty much sure you've all been busy with so many things to do in GE. The patch is choc-full of stuff that needs to be explored. I won't be detailing out everything, but do permit me to note a few observations:

• A lot of skills have been changed, some have been nerfed (as far as I heard from the grapevine). Those with Wizards and Emilia the Sage characters have seen this now that the Photon Splash skill and Hole of Darkness require magical orbs. The damage wrought by Photon Splash has been somewhat decreased as well, although I'm not sure if I'm correct in this as I've only observed it when my ETS casts the skills. As for the Elementalist skills, they say Blizzard damage has decreased considerably as well. Hrin has specific details on some of the changes in the skills, right here.
  

• Noticed the icons on your characters in the UI? Bernelli's as well as the male Musketeer's icons have changed.
  

• Mob spawns have decreased as well. I've heard of reported decrease in mobs in Porto Bello and Topolo Durga among others.
  

• The chat interface is much more functional as you can add people to your buddy list simply by hovering your mouse on their names in the chat box.

• Channel 3 is gone! O.O Lo and behold, utter lagness! >.<

• Some stuff in the item mall cannot be traded anymore. Some of these include Veteran scrolls, Enhancement boosters and Enchantment powder.

• New costumes for female Fighter, Wizard and a couple of RNPCs too! And of course, teh swimsuits!
  

• Hrin's best friend now has a name...Leticia!

• Colonies are much more resistant to attacks. Can anybody verify this? As I observed in last Sunday's war, it took quite a while for some factions to whack the beacons on a full force rampage.
  

One of the more exciting things in this new patch is the Super Fight, which involves several battle arenas for specific family levels. I tried my luck in the Battle Coliseum, but alas, the mobs were too quick and had insane AR and DRs. The boss was a major pain too, not to mention the instant PvP mode once you enter the map. Augh! T_T

Run for your lives! >.<

The CW map reset was likewise implemented in this patch, and so last Sunday's war became a mad rush for factions to get their colonies.

And the best part of it all is that I'm down to my last 9 levels before hitting the much anticipated Veteran status. Ho ho ho!!! Must level grind like crazy. XD

With that said, I'd like to greet everyone a Merry Christmas! I hope I get to blog a bit more often though. XD See you all in Granado Espada! ^0^