Luu's Journey to a Main

Spoiler: Backstory

So, a couple of years back I started doing a playthrough of a LUK mage (documented here), to try and have the "classic" nostalgia experience with this game from my childhood.

The fact that my attempts at this last a grand total of about 40 days before I take a hiatus for a year and then restart the thing on my return should speak volumes as to how well this was actually going.

What went wrong? Well, a few things come to mind:

1. Having a playthrough entirely contingent on my goals being a matter of whether or not RNG happens to be in my favor is rather demotivating when things just take absolutely forever and a half to drop.
2. Mages might be effective for grinding, but they aren't necessarily the most enticing of gameplay by themselves.
3. Chasing nostalgia doesn't work when my nostalgia for this game ends at level 40.
4. I don't actually really enjoy the "casual" experience with an MMO and never really have.

For a while, I thought it was just that I didn't really enjoy this sort of grind-y, repetitive gameplay, and that my inability to play this game on any character past level 40 (level 50 or so here, due to double experience) was simply because the gameplay burns me out fast. However, my brother recently asked me to join him in a private server for a different game that we also played a lot of in my childhood, except this was a game that I would also go back to much more often on my own compared to MapleLegends. The game is certainly just as grindy, and honestly even more dependent on getting lucky with RNG for the bulk of the gameplay. What was the difference?

I figured it out after two days of playing that other MMO with my brother. Before even making my character, I already had my entire character progression plotted out in order to min-max my character's growth as much as possible and as quickly as possible. The problem, it seems, was never that I didn't enjoy this sort of grind-y gameplay. The problem was that I was trying to do it "casually".

If playing the game the way I tried to do here never got me past level 40 when playing it when I was younger, why was I expecting it to go any differently now?

Why was I expecting to enjoy playing a game like this in a way that clearly I had not really enjoyed in the past for more than a day, when the way that I do seem to enjoy these games is significantly... for the lack of a better term, sweatier?

The solution, once the problem is phrased like that, is as clear as day. Stop playing the game in a way that I think will be fun but isn't, and instead play the game the way I actually enjoy. Which is to say, min-max the hell out of things.

This is a journal of my attempts to do a more "proper" playthrough of ML in the way that I would actually enjoy, rather than my attempt to chase nostalgia that was doomed from the start (see the above). Which is to say, I want to actually set up a proper bossing character, washed and all (yes, I know the HP challenges are coming, but I want more than what they're offering).

Which is to say, my goal is to do my best to follow Krythan's 30k washing guide here and have a bucc that (per the update) should have 30k HP at around level 170. Now, while I might have a level 50-something IL wizard lying about from my previous attempts at playing, I'd rather start fresh with making a cleric for self-leeching purposes rather than use that character to that end, so that I can at least take advantage of the NX I have lying around on that account rather than needing to start completely fresh. That and this gives me time to acquire more NX/money for the necessary INT equipment.

It's also worth noting that I probably won't be exclusively self-leeching the bucc character all the way to level 140, but also try to do some solo play to get a feel for the character. Having a high-level character means nothing if you can't use it, after all. That and, given that this is a bucc and not a ranged character, it should be able to hold its own after a while and the self-leeching priest will probably be reduced to an HS mule by the end of it.

Any suggestions/support/guild invites/discord invites are welcome!

 

Session 1

Managed to get my soon-to-be-cleric up to level 14 before realizing that I was sitting on a nice 47 million on my previous mage. Decided to go shopping for some INT equips; made some miscalculations (bought some +6 INT red emerald earrings when I should have purchased the +5 INT single earring in the same shop at a comparable price; whoops!) but otherwise didn't do too terribly in getting some reasonable INT options for my mage (and bucc-to-be). Used up all those wand 60% scrolls collected via grinding (managed +8 INT on a wooden wand!). Also realized that I was sitting on a whole lot of gach tickets, so decided to cash those in real quick to see if any of the results would be useful. Lots of scrolls, none really noteworthy. Put all the ones worth anything into a shop to try and get more funding. Ostensibly the scroll pull should be worth several million, but only time will tell if they actually sell for what they're worth.

In the meantime, I acquired a couple more INT equips for the cleric (and bucc down the line). +6 INT earrings, +6 INT gloves, +8 INT wand, +2 INT shoes, +6 INT cape, and a +6 INT hat with slots to spare. Shield scrolls are... crazy expensive, so I avoided worrying about that for now. Y'know what, though? 22 INT from equips at level 14, with another 6 at level 20 and another 6 at level 30, is nothing to sneeze at.



Even if this cleric-to-be looks a bit dumb wearing it all.

(kept grinding until I hit level 20)

 

Thanks for the support! Yeah, I think I managed to get a grand total of... one character to level 50, after years of making character after character. That one only made it to level 50 due to Carnival PQ grinding.

 

Session 2

Realized I never actually acquired the most necessary part of the washing ensemble, the scrolled bathrobe. Since I'm currently a bit broke and scrolls don't sell in an hour, I'll have to make my own. Which means, since I don't have the money necessary for all the scrolls I would want to use, that I'll have to be grinding for them myself.

Fortunately I have a level 56 I/L Wizard that can head over to nightghosts and start killing away to get as many 70% overall INT scrolls as possible.

The effort lasted about 30 minutes before I realized that it wasn't nearly as efficient as I thought it would be. Did manage to score a helmet INT 30% scroll, though, which sells for 1.5 million. Seems the plan will instead be to use what money I have to land one 10% scroll (which sell for rather cheap) on a bathrobe and then, over time, hit it with 70% scrolls until all the slots are taken. Funny enough, the odds of hitting at least 6 of the 9 70% scrolls on the robe after hitting that 10% is actually greater than 70%. Ah, statistics.

Unfortunately I only had 5 million mesos left (other than whatever's pending in the store), meaning that I could only afford 2 10% scrolls. Which both failed. Alas, I'll just grind without. It's not like this eventual HS mule needs to max out MP.

Then I realized that I can leech the to-be-cleric with the I/L. How did I not think of this before? Did this self-leeching at various locations to hit level 25 before calling it a night.

 

Oh, that's a good point! I was noticing that, while I was still getting some amount of traction out of self-leeching, that it felt a bit slow compared to just grinding with that character directly. Not that it matters too much; can just switch to direct grinding and send my other mage back over to Ludibrium to grind Master Chronos for extra funding (thanks for that suggestion too by the way).

 

Session 3

Checked in on the scrolls; looks like more sold but not all of them. Shop's still open for several hours, so no need to cash out just yet. Flew the I/L back to Ludi to grind Master Chronos for scrolls that sell for a good chunk of change.

Figured that, given that these are two different accounts... I can grind on one while flying the other over to Ludi! And then I can do both grinding this cleric-to-be, and grinding Master Chronos with my I/L, at the same time!

And then manage to get the cleric-to-be killed because I'm not used to having a mage be this squishy. Oh well; not too much progress lost (and we'll call that second death that followed shortly after an "intentional death warp" to go restock on pots). Managed to get in a level and one of those helmet dex 60% scrolls before lunch. A pretty good start to the day, if you ask me.

 

Session 4

Took the money I obtained and decided to make an attempt at scrolling a bathrobe. Took a bit, but got a 10% to land, followed by 5 out of 6 70% scrolls.

It blew up on the 7th.

It hurts a bit, but at least we're talking a bathrobe and not, like, something of actual value. I'm only out the cost of scrolls here, which is probably only about 14 million for all the ones I used. Fortunately the scrolls aren't all that expensive for this, either. Though this is quite a setback financially.

Back to grinding Master Chronos I go.

 

Session 5

Talked with Krythan a little bit, and through that discussion properly worked out exactly what my goals are here with this. My goal is simple: to push this Bucc character that I want to make as far as I can possibly push it. I realize now that while I am working on a requisite HS mule for this Bucc, I don't actually need it for leeching. This character should be able to grind their own way; they're not a ranged attacker after all. With that in mind, grabbed a couple of maple weapons for 'em so they aren't quite so powerless (and since maple weapons are cheap right now).

Still need the HS mule though. Particularly for making money, because even once I have the ideal character, I gotta start paying up for equips. Lots of equips. Lots of very expensive equips. While at one point theoretically I can actually make money from bossing, I gotta get in the door first, and the only way I'm gonna get in the door is by having the funding necessary to get just enough equipment that I can actually justify my place doing bossing.

Which means setting up this HS mule.

Decided to, rather than grind Master Chronos on the I/L, to instead go back to grinding the mage. Couple of reasons for it:

1. Cleric can kill these more effectively than an I/L, since they'll be heal-able and weak to holy, and Master Chronos should be a more available map than, say, GS2.
2. The I/L doesn't have much life left in it. This mage, however, has a long road ahead of it, and it makes more sense to put that grinding experience into a character that can actually make use of it.

So, back to grinding on the mage. Wrapped it up at level 29, turned in some gach for some mostly worthless scrolls, and looked back at my earlier, uh... scrolling ordeal. Honestly I think the availability of overall 10% INT scrolls is going to be a bigger issue than the cost, because merely selling the equips from this simple grinding on this mage of mine has pushed the meso count over a million. Just equips!

It might be a bit of an odd thing to say that I can afford to blow up some bathrobes, but... honestly the 70% scrolls are only like 2 million each, the 10% even less than that, and bathrobes are only like 30k. It should only cost, like... 30 million if it takes 10 10% scrolls to hit one, and all the 70%'s hit (or at 6 of 9 hit and the remaining 3 don't explode). That should get me at least a +17 INT bathrobe, pushing the total INT from equips at level 30 to about 51. Throw in a warm muffler (+3 INT) and some scrolled eyewear (+7 INT) and I should be able to break 60 INT from all of that alone. Zak helm at 50 should add 11 INT over the current bandana (assuming 17 INT), deputy star at least another 2 INT on top of that, and then I suppose I could scroll the Zak helm for INT, assuming my actual end-goal helm will be a Scarlion helm? That seems a bit like a mistake, though.

Oh, right! The shield! I haven't scrolled a shield yet! So, if with all the above at level 50 I would be at... 74 INT. Meaning I would need 6 INT from a shield, or try for a better cape (+6 INT is average; depending on my luck I could go as far as +10 INT on a cape, meaning my shield cost would be reduced to a much more reasonable +2 INT). Or of course I can get more than +17 INT on that bathrobe, but that would require both a lot more money to throw at the problem (those 30% scrolls go for over 10 million each) and a lot of luck. I think I'll just stick with throwing 70%'s at the problem.

Honestly I could even drop the 10% requirement and just throw all 70%'s at it until I get one that doesn't blow up. After all, if I'm performing a trial 10 times with a 70% chance of success, the EV should be 7 successes, which is +16 INT. If none of the failures explode the thing, it should be fine. Honestly probably cheaper that way, versus going for starting off with a 10%, where the EV is that it'll cost like 10 million to hit one. Not to mention that there's rarely more than a handful for sale. Meanwhile there's hundreds of 70%'s for sale (thanks akashsky for selling so many at a reasonable price by the way; also thanks for that starting point on how to do all of this efficiently when starting with close to nothing, though obviously I'm deviating from it a bit for various reasons such as having a little bit of funding to start with and washing a bucc, not a ranged attacker).

Besides, I could use some more experience blowing up stuff that were actually kinda good. Seriously, that bathrobe had +15 INT! From all of that, to nothing at all. Then again, that's what I'm gonna be dealing with many times over if I wanna push this character to the limits. At least this intro to blowing up items didn't cost as much time or money as they will in the future.

So, lots of options, lots to think about. The future is bright, but this journey will be a long one.

 

Thinking on it, I think it should be fine to scroll INT on the Zak helm and then see about getting a Scarlion helm for the actual endgame helm. Ideally it doesn't come to that and I can just get more INT through other sources, but I don't think it would be unreasonable to have INT on that thing if I plan on using a Scarlion helm. Also, if I've read the guides on this right, I should be able to alternate Scarlion helms between ones that land more scrolls and just drop the inferior one repeatedly. It's not like the Zak helm wouldn't have all the other stats boosted even if I do scroll it for INT, after all, so it'll at least serve some use in the meantime.

I think I'll keep the option open to needing to scroll the Zak helm, but push for getting INT elsewhere before resorting to that.

As for whether I level the HS mule to a bishop, I think the plan is to get it to 81 before creating the Bucc, and perhaps leveling it up to Bishop later, once I hit a point where it seems that self-leeching would be more productive than grinding, if I ever hit that point.

 

Session 6

Felt like hitting level 30 real quick so I could take my job change to cleric and head over to Ludi for what will be a long stay (from teddies to the various flavors of chronos). I'm still floored by the fact that I managed to break a million mesos from selling equips alone.

Also used this time to practice jumpcasting. I know, mage versus bucc, but I'm sure the technique's the same regardless. In the meantime, did some mental math and some checking of prices, and it seems that I could also just... buy a bathrobe with sufficient INT on it for ~100 million. More expensive than scrolls, sure, but at least it's guaranteed.

Of course, that requires me making 100 million, but that honestly seems rather doable if I, say, farm helmet dex 60% scrolls at Master Chronos. If they sell for around ~5 million each, then it'll only take like 20.

Given that my I/L had... 7 wand m.attack 60% and 7 cape INT 60% scrolls just through the grind on him, plus an assortment of other scrolls, all from grinding inefficiently at inopportune locations, I think hitting 20 scrolls shouldn't be too much of an ask at all. Besides, hitting 6 or more out of 9 70% scrolls might be more than 70% likely, but even 3 coin flips needing to come up tails is... not great odds. I think what I'll do is save up more than enough for buying a bathrobe and giving an attempt at scrolling one, exhaust all the available 10% scrolls (and if any of those land, burn through 70%'s to see how lucky I can be), and if that goes bust and there are no more 10%s on the market then I'll just buy a bathrobe. Or if one seems particularly lucrative I'll just buy it instead of trying for scrolling one myself.



Funny enough, I think this is the first cleric I've ever made in this game. I think I tried (well, "tried"; some of those other characters never even made it to second job)... pretty much every other class, but never cleric. I suppose next is off to Ludi, then. Won't start the grind there until next time, but I can at least head over there. It'll be where I'll be stuck for a while, so might as well get comfortable.

 

Yeah, I'm familiar. I suppose if I have a moment I might get around to doing some of those, just to see if I can get lucky and nab a good scroll to sell.

 

Ah, didn't know those were fixed rewards. I'll probably do those first, then, rather than grinding in Ludi. At least, the ones doable at level 30.

 

Actually, don't think I did any of those quests on the I/L. Suppose I'll grab those on both, because that's quite a payday for not all that much effort.