Another Maple Journal

Hi! I hope everyone is doing well, staying safe and healthy. My name is Russell. A little intro about myself: I just came back from a long hiatus. I hope to use this journal as a way to log my thoughts, share my journey with people, and hopefully spark some enthusiasm in some way. Huge shout-out to Skuire and Spencil (GetSmoked/ spencil2) for motivating me to start my own journal!

Spoiler: Character

IGN: Ereb (Yes, I'm sorry but I'm a dude IRL f3)

Spoiler: Reasons to start Journal

Reasons to start a journal: 1) Hold myself accountable to how much time I'm wasting idling around instead of doing something productive (which is something I hope to get better at, both in-game and IRL)
2) Log some real-life progress (working-out, mental gymnastics through reading and studying, following a better sleep-routine, being positive)
3) Improve my literacy through penning-down my thoughts
4) A few nuggets of insights along the way whenever I feel a flash of inspiration

Log #1(04/05/2020)
Playtime today: 2h15mins
Total playtime: *unknown*+2h15mins f3
My main goal right now is to grind out monster cards. I'm at Tier3, 115 sets right now. My current goal is to clear out all the monsters in Victoria (except mini-bosses).
Huge shout-out to Precel for his Monster Book Efficient Farming Excel.
Let's go!

Spoiler: Card Log

I'd like to preface by saying that although I'm playing on a 129NL, I'll be experimenting with solely using Triple-Throw instead of Avenger to farm cards. There are speculations that single-target spells have a higher drop-rate for gacha and cards. For gacha I feel that's the case, for cards I'm still not sure. Gacha is my main source of income right now, so I'll try this out for awhile and see how it goes.

Although not a Victoria card, I decided to start-off with Cloud Foxes at Zipangu, The Mountain of Cloud Fox, because I already had 2 cards.
Cloud Fox: 3 cards in 30 minutes (116 sets)

Next, I went to Tree Dungeon, Forest Up North IX for Curse Eyes, had to google hidden street's bbb because this area is a maze, and MapleLegends library doesn't provide portal locations (or does it?). Even for hidden street, it doesn't show, so for this map, you have to go to the absolute top of The Forest North of Ellinia.
Curse Eye: 5 cards in 9 minutes (117 sets)

Next, I went to Florina Beach for a sun-tan, can't do it IRL, so I'll let my missy do it in-game f2
Lorang: 5 cards in 24 minutes (118 sets)

Tortie: 5 cards in 18 minutes (119 sets)

Clang: 5 cards in 8 minutes (120 sets)

And... there we go, tier4!

An advice that I have for hunting cards is not to distract yourself by multi-tasking, but to focus solely on the grind. It gradually becomes like a meditation, and you'll even start to enjoy it in a state of flow.

Spoiler: IRL Log

An IRL thing I've started doing is to do a set of push-ups and jumping jacks after using the toilet. It becomes a ritual/habit that helps in consistency. I encourage you to do whatever physical activity works for you. Not being able to exercise outdoors is no excuse!! f5

Spoiler: Long-term goals

1)Save up for either a scrolled craven/sleve, or gamble 30% claws on clean cravens (very tempting given the prices of 30% claws right now...) Any suggestions?
2)Save up for a horntail pendant. I don't see this as an absolute necessity, because I have a 5WA MoN, so I'd assume that is end-game for NLs? I'm mainly going to use the HT pendant to wash.

Do let me know if you have any questions, compliments and criticisms are both welcomed. Thank you for checking my journal out, take care and have an awesome day!

 

Log #2(05/05/2020)
Playtime today: 7h45m
Total Playtime: *unknown* + 10h

Spoiler: IRL Log

I made a huge qualitative change today in my sleep routine. For the past week I had been going to sleep at 2-3am, and waking up at 12-1pm, which made me feel really awful. Last night I slept at 12am and miraculously woke up at 6:30am. Had a good breakfast, a good cup of coffee, and I feel so much better already. When you start the day earlier, you feel like you have just so much more time instead of waking up in the afternoon and it seems you don't even have a day. Another thing I've learnt about sleep: A good way to prime yourself for bed is to read a book, a physical copy instead of a digital source. Reading from your phone emits light that produces cortisol which disrupts your sleep, whereas looking at black ink on a book stimulates the production of melatonin that induces you to sleep. So if you have trouble sleeping at night, I encourage you to wind down with a good book.

Spoiler: Card Log

Today, I decided to switch things up and start spamming Avenger instead of TT.
Skeledog: 5 cards in 9m30s (121 sets)
Skeleton soldier + Officer skeleton: 10 cards in 20m30s (123 sets)
Mummydog: 5 cards in 11minutes (124 sets)
Commander skeleton: 5 cards in 41 minutes (125 sets)
Copper Drake + Red Drake: 10 cards in 1 hour(!) (127 sets)
Dark stone golem: 5 cards in 54 minutes (128 sets)
Mixed golem: 5 cards in 1h6m (129 sets)

I'm not going to lie, during that 2 hour session of golems, I was fuming and super irritated at the low drop rates of the golem bros. I don't know if I was super unlucky, but I'm sure at least 30 blue mushroom and 50 fairy cards dropped before I was finished.
Unfortunately, I'll be moving onto Ludi to clear some (hopefully) easier cards. The ones I'm left with in Victoria are some deep-sleepywood cards like Kargo and Tauromacis, which their drop-rate I've heard is not too good...

Retz: 5 cards in 27 minutes (130 sets)

After the server restart, I rushed for Timer, sniped 5 of them but only 1 card dropped. I then VIP rocked to Omega Sector hoping to snipe Zeno, but was too late. Luckily, I managed to loot one of the cards on the floor (thanks to whoever it was). I spotted a 2nd one in another channel but due to the overwhelming lag in the first 15 minutes, the card disappeared f4

The plan now is to clear the cards in Omega Sector due to how inconvenient it is to get here.

I'm starting to feel a bit of the card-hunt burn-out... or maybe I'm just tired today. I hope to make this a daily-journal, but I'm not sure if I'll commit... In any case, I'm happy to have progressed my card sets from 120 to 130. Onward to Tier5!