Thursday, June 28, 2007

what happens when you buy pose books?

...you'll have a roll thinking up of wacky scenarios and dialogues!





Tuesday, June 26, 2007

wanderlust

I really think this is a bad idea.


We've been here in Granado Espada for more than a month, and all we do is run errands for some people, challenge hooligans and engage in battles on a daily basis. This whole edict made by the Queen is pure nonsense! We Vespanolan noble bloods shouldn't be dallying with the commoners of this New World! Why, I cannot believe our parents shipped us to this godforsaken place without our servants to attend to us!


But of course, I cannot tell Alaena and Cyradis how I truly feel, or else they will think of me as the family blacksheep. I know that it is our duty to submit to the Crown's wishes, but there are tons of other families who would go head on into this insane mission.


Sigh. I know my complaints will fall on deaf ears. After all, the Queen IS the law in Vespanola...and my parents will
probably disown me if I had it my way.

But it's just so DIRTY here! It's ruining my perfectly manicured nails! I know Alaena is having the time of her life in this pointless mission, and we all know how much of a fan Alaena is when it comes to fights and all that other despicable barbaric acts. Cyradis is far more interested in collecting the loot we get from battles and documenting it in her journal, but other than that, nobody's sharing the same distaste with regards to this quest.


Nevertheless, these constant skirmishes has enhanced my elemental powers to some extent, though I remain to be the most vulnerable member in our team. Countless times we've been vanquished by horrible monsters in Tetra Ruins, more so with the occasional appearance of the Phobitan Chieftain. That giant cockroach follows us wherever we go, even if we try to get out of its way. I personally would want to roast it alive, but everytime I cast my spells, I am at my most vulberable moment and that's the time the fiend attacks.


Thankfully, we were able to join forces with other families as we sometimes go out on squads while going after mobs. The extra help truly contributed to our efforts to accomplish some quests. At times, Alaena chooses to let me stay in the Barracks to recuperate while they include the new recruits to the family: Armea (Emilia Guliano), CeNedra (Lisa Lynway), Sylar (Diego the Carpenter) and Hitano (Soho).


Personally, I have no complaints about this arrangement. These new recruits actually share Alaena's lust for blood, and they're more than welcome to slay more monsters for all I care. Although I find it odd why Cyradis had to give new names to these people when they joined our group.


So far, we've been improving at an even pace. Alaena is now wielding this

huge sword strapped to her back, and you wouldn't believe how much she struts around with that big glowing sword looking like a barbaric cave woman. Sometimes I have to think twice if my elder sister really is a noble woman or some
tomboyish commoner with foul manners. Augh!


However, growing in strength did not necessarily mean that we can actually take on more powerful monsters. In the Tetra Golden Road, for instance, we've been wiped out by the Treasure Golem. Apparently, we were no match against the sheer number of mobs and the powerful attacks of this hulking fiend. I believe Alaena was so depressed that didn't allow us to come back to that accursed place without having the proper ammunition to tackle this giant.


Monsters and battles aside, there is one thing that I actually like in this New
World, and that would be the spectacular architecture. My sisters and I went outside the gates of Coimbra once, and I was just stupefied by the gorgeous edifice and the amazing flora surrounding it. Give a few years and Granado Espada will probably come close to the glory of our country, Vespanola.


Oh, I've just received word that our cousins Armeo, Kahlil, Raquim, CeVanne, Azulan and Althalus have also joined the Reconquista Party to venture in Granado Espada upon orders of the Queen. Although, I believe we cannot come face to face with each other until this mission is over. This was expressly emphasized when we joined this quest.


Although, I wonder...will this perilous journey ever come to an end?


===


Finally, Verdandi's entry comes to the fore. It took me quite a while to sort through the screencaps and edit them in Photoshop. I didn't know I took so much pictures in-game that it's taking a lot of space in my hard drive. I must clean that soon.


Anyway, I've been recently invited to the CARNAGE Faction by its leader (and Team PH representative to Zouk), Overseer. My first introduction to the faction happened just this Friday and I have to say that CARNAGE peepz are rather talkative in the chat system. XD I did enjoy that session of just talking to them and I did like their wacky, albeit weird sense of humor. The people are quite nice as well, even though I don't actually fit the requirement of level 60 & up.


I'm still having second thoughts about this, coz it's kinda awkward being in a faction that has a level requirement that I don't actually have.


Nevertheless, I still like this rambunctious group. I've been a recipient of their excess stuff as well. Overseer gave me some level 40 weapons for Alaena, plus Vis to boot! O_O Golly, I've never had that much money in-game ever since my CBT days! I have to conserve the dough so I'd be able to buy high level costumes once I hit the 40 mark (and that kick-ass Heaven and Hell stance W00t!). So if Kuya Overseer's reading this, much thanks from the DeSanggria girls! ^0^


And that exchange session actually called for an impromptu picture taking!

















Thursday, June 21, 2007

yatta!

I finally got the girls at level 30 after much level grinding. Yeah, it's still a bit low level compared to those who are at their level 40s and up, but what the heck...it almost took me forever to get them in that current situation. I'm already in the process of leveling Alaena to 32 so she can don the Wallace Great Sword, a unique weapon I bought at the Auction house primarily because of its nice attributes and high attack powers.

I really like Great Swords because of its kick-ass design and the sheer mass. Fighters look dangerous wearing those huge weapons on their backs...much more if it's a glowing +5!

What I really want Alaena to have is the Heaven and Hell stance, which can only be acquired at level 40. It's still a long way to go, but I've got all the time in the world.

As for Verdandi, she's already using the Evocation of Fire stance. On the upside, I like the Hell Breath skill, which is somewhat similar to Uchiha Sasuke's Katon Blazing Fire technique. But she walks too damn slow! I have no idea how heavy those elemental bracelets are, but having Verdandi wear two of them is slowing her down! T_T She doesn't have a high level armor to protect her, and the team cannot move around that much with her trailing way behind. I really must invest on a new protective suit for her. I really love her current stance, but alas, I can't have everything. *le sigh*

On the other hand, I'm leveling Cyradis' Fortitudo stance so she can aid her sisters with better buffs. Her Healing stance is almost maxed up, though I haven't alloted the last skill point on the Cure All skill.

On a side note, I've created another DeSanggria family on the Pachelbel server. I figured that it's about time I tried the non-PK servers now that I have two families on Cervantes and Caravaggio. I have Althalus the Fighter, Azulan the Scout, and CeVanne the Wizard all on level 1 (hahaha..pathetic! XD). My other DeSanggria cousins (Armeo, Kahlil, and Raquim) are still stuck in level 7 though LOL. I really must devote some time to leveling them as well.

This made me think how NineMoons manages her other families in all servers. XD

Anyway, I'll be posting some pictures of the Zouk Raid Party (courtesy of Veya), as well as the latest updates on the DeSanggrias on the next post. There was an avalanche of work this week that I cannot just find time to write a lengthy journal entry of the three sisters. It'll be Verdandi's entry coming up next, and we'll all get to see how vain and bratty this Elementalist really is. ^.~

Monday, June 18, 2007

this is what adrenaline rush is all about

Okay, so I haven't updated this blog for the longest time. XD I'm still trying to stick to the original plan of having this blog as the "journal" of the DeSanggria sisters, so it still takes quite some time for me to write their adventures in detail (complete with screencaps!).

All I can say is, the girls are moving at a slow pace. Blame it on the fact that I can't play here at work as often as I wanted. I'm trying to cope up with this by going to work early so I'd still have an hour or two to play before official work starts.

Anyway, the reason for this sudden update in this blog is to recount the recent Granado Espada PvP Tournament Finals last June 16 at the Toycon event in Megamall. 16 best GE players (with 2 of the lot in Singapore to personally attend the Zouk Raid Party) represented the country in this first-ever tournament. I personally met the 14 players from NCR, Central Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, and I have to say that they were really quite something. Two of these players are my personal friends, namely the Stormgeist and Crowe family. To identify them from the massive crowd in the venue, they wore awesome GE Team Philippines jackets.

I was quite surprised to learn that during the semi-finals, Team Philippines had to compete with each other to get a spot in the finals. Like, WTF?! I shared the players' sentiments of disbelief on this. I even heard them conversing about strategies and all that other stuff, thinking that they were to play as one team against Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam. Each team had only one chance to advance to the next round. The first ones to emerge victorious were Crowe and Stormgeist, oGTO and DeathAngel, Street and Arcleaumont and Tresspassing and wattz. Then from this batch, Street and Arcleaumont and Stormgeist and Crowe were pitted against each other with the former team finally winning the much coveted spot.*

Here are just some of my observations during the competition proper:

- The lag was just horrible. It took the system more than 3 seconds to respond to the players' commands. Most of the teams had to bear the brunt of this problem as they were knocked off the race. I personally saw the frustration of Stormgeist and Crowe as they just took the beating from Street and Arcleaumont without much struggle.

- The veteran stances and armors/costumes had us all drooling uncontrollably as we watched the players try these out
in a practice match. Since they only had the 5 classes plus Emilia the Sage to familiarize, seeing those maxed out stances at work was like waving chocolate under my nose. I want my girls to have those stances! Hopefully it wouldn't take me too long to have them attain the appropriate level. *crosses fingers*

- Seeing the pros at work made me realize that I'm basically a n00b when it comes to game controls. I really need to brush up on that.

I was also tasked to talk to the crowd in the GE segment of Toycon, so I wore my Elementalist Robe of Fire yet again. Funny that I didn't feel the butterflies when I went onstage...and that was a good thing I guess.

Meanwhile, after Street and Arcleaumont were proclaimed as the official team to battle against the other SEA GE gamers, we got the shock of our lives when we heard the news of Ino and Overseer's (the one team that when to Singapore) defeat in the tourney, leaving Street and Arcleaumont as the lone PH team.

And then afterward, we learned that the Singapore Team was also knocked off the race.


You can just imagine the tension come the finals, and we saw that very same pressure reflected on the team. The tension was even heightened all the more when we all had to wait for Vietnam and Malaysia to arrive on the PvP room.

When the moment of truth finally arrived, we were all cheering for the lone PH team as they came face to face with the Vietnames team. But alas, they were defeated in the first and second round. The opposing team apparently had a lot of pots, and we had to contend with the lag on top of everything. I saw the frustration on Street and Arcleaumont as they tried to take a hit on the opponents, only to find their HPs replenished.

But what the heck, we finished at 3rd place, which was not too bad Team PH won special awards such as the MVP and Most Supporting Team Award. Arcleaumont corrected us with this, so that means Team PH didn't win a runner up spot, but that's ok. There's always next year's tourney and I'm definitely going to fight for better connections so the gamers won't experience the same horrible lag. I just feel that we'd have given the regional GE gamers a run for their money if not for that godforsaken technical problem. I'd have wanted a rematch, if you ask me.

I can still feel the adrenaline rush after the tournament was finished and I'm very thrilled to have witnessed the first PvP tourney. It was also nice to have met fellow GE gamer/blogger NineMoons and Mena. I hope we have more events like these, and perhaps a grand EB for all GE gamers. Hopefully by then, I'd have my Idge costume ready (it's kinda lame to be using the same costume thrice in a row already XD).

This is definitely one of the reasons why I love this game. I hope one day I can pit my own girls in a heated PvP match, but I still have to train and familiarize myself with the game's intricacies before I jump from one task to another. Nevertheless, this experience made me want to strive harder, and I definitely will.

Long live Granado Espada!


*source: NineMoons Family