2021

Another Day, Another Season

stargrace September 15, 2021 0Comment

September 15th started the new season (fall) for Black Desert Online, and of course I wasted no time making a new season character! This round I decided to go with a Shai class, the only support class in game. This character has a penalty to PvP, not many skills, and no big AoE attacks – but they get a bonus to life skills (crafting) and are SUPER CUTE and fun to play (IMO). Their attacks include hops, skips, and jumps, plus swinging a GIANT boomerang. It’s adorable.

This time around I have a lot more time (I came into the last season with only two weeks left to it) to level my character, and I know a lot more about the game. The season rewards have changed some, and there’s a ton of events going on at the same time (8?!) in what I can only assume is an attempt to get people to stay focused on BDO while Lost Ark and New World go through release. You can even get yourself a free copy of the game, if you sign up to play for free for 14 days and then reach level 50. Next time there’s maintenance, you’ll be given a copy. Speaking of, if you get three pieces of gear to Pen quality while playing in seasons, you can earn yourself the $90 upgrade to the game too (only 100 people from NA and 100 people from EU will be chosen for this). I think that would be awesome.

Another QoL change was a quest for a T5 mount. You used to have to progress to a certain point that was quite far in (my last character never made it there) before you could get it, but now you reach that point much easier. So I have a T8 female and T5 male horse – once I get those leveled up, I’m going to attempt to breed them and see what I end up with. I’m excited!

My Shai is nearly to the point that my Guardian was at quest-wise, so even though I’m technically re-doing content I just did, it doesn’t feel too bad. I’m also taking some time to work a bit of life skills along the way (AFK fishing while I write this post) and Shai start with gathering and alchemy at professional 1. I still know pretty much zilch about life skills, but I’ve been making my way through videos (slowly) in preparation for when I do get started in honest. I’ll probably continue to work the main quest on my Shai and try to reach 60-61 and then we’ll see where I’m at.

Honestly, BDO is not the game I thought I’d be playing right now, but I’m very glad that I am. It’s fun, there are tons of people around, and I haven’t had a day where I’ve been bored (yet). I know there are complaints about it being a Pay2Win game, but honestly I have not personally experienced any of that. I also haven’t spent any money on the game aside from my original purchase of it. Yes, you CAN purchase items from the shops, but all of the free things you’re given, alongside the event things, means I just haven’t found a need for anything extra. While that might change, I’m not really expecting it to.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Remastered Graphics

stargrace September 14, 2021 0Comment

I turned on the remastered graphics for a bit, and just wow. This game is beautiful! Of course my computer starts to scream and complain after some time with it on (especially in the cities) but it’s still just lovely.

Graduation Nears

stargrace September 13, 2021 0Comment

When I started playing Black Desert Online two weeks ago, I had no idea that there was a catch up mechanic implemented by means of ‘seasonal’ characters. This works almost exactly the same was as Diablo, where you create a new character, level them up, get perks, and then at the end your character ‘graduates’ over to a ‘regular’ one. The current season ends September 15th, and I’ve been trying to learn and cram so much into this short amount of time before it ends, that there’s just no way for me to get a hold of everything.

Thanks to some awesome friends and YouTube videos I did manage to reach level 58 on my seasons character. I also got my free necklace, picked up a T8 horse, and leveled to 58 – I was hoping for 61 but time was just not on my side. I’ve learned how to enchant armor/weapons, and know the basics to unlocking my awakened self, finishing that quest line and getting new skills, too.

I picked up my time piece which I’m going to use tomorrow, and that will turn my seasons character to a regular character, and take a character that I have under level 25 (at this moment it’s my sorcerer) and create her into my season character – adding on the levels and skill points that the guardian had earned. It basically lets you clone your seasons character to one that is under 25. No reason not to do that.

Today I meant to work on the main story quest, but instead life got in the way so I set myself up with some AFK fishing, and horse training. Dancer, my T8 white horse, is now level 24. I also played around with the remastered graphics – which are absolutely stunning, but my computer fans don’t really like playing on that graphic level for too long (especially in cities). I’m looking forward to starting another seasons character, I hear they’re doing a few things different this time (like making enchanting gear easier) which is always nice. Some QoL bits that are always handy.

Anyway, I might be able to squeeze out another level or two before the end of tomorrow, but we’ll see. Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Leveling, Leveling, and Leveling Again

stargrace September 11, 2021 0Comment

Goodness me, another BDO post! I’m even writing this one early. That rarely happens.

Yesterday I was getting a small handle on some game mechanics, and I left my character on overnight doing some fishing. She even earned herself a bit of experience, going from level 24 to 25. What holds me back is my inventory (I have 57 slots out of.. I believe the max is 192 or there about). No big deal, it was still extra income while I slept and I have no issues with that.

Besides the help I’ve been getting from the friend I mentioned in the previous posts, another good friend of mine who I have known for many MANY years now (20-ish) also plays. In fact he has over 20,000 hours of the game displayed on steam – keeping in mind that most of that is probably AFK fishing or training a horse or whatever. No judgement here, I’m basically in awe.

Anyway, he offered to power level my seasonal character because I was honestly a bit sad to hear that the season is ending on the 15th, which is earlier than most people expected. I had slacked for so long that I knew there was no way I was going to ‘finish’ my character. So we rode off on his horse to some place across the map I’ve never been to before, and he used his level 61 character (happens to be the pirate looking one, I forget what class that is) to smush mobs while I stood there and tried not to walk into anything that would eat me. Before I knew it, in less than an hour I had climbed to level 55.

Neat.

Now, you might look at that and think “but Stargrace, what is the point of power leveling you’re going to miss so much content!” – no, the content is still there waiting for me. I can go complete it any time. For me, leveling has never been that much fun because things I want to do are always gated by that leveling mechanic. I enjoy games like EVE where I can explore the entire universe and never feel hemmed in by my lack of ‘level’. Being told I cannot do something (I think it was processing that required level 30? Some sort of life skill in any case) is annoying. I will gladly take free levels from a friend any day of the week.

Anyway.

Now I’m 55, I’m still working on the quests I obtained at level 25, but I feel a lot less pressure. Next up I’m hoping to figure out how to enchant this gear everyone keeps talking about. Pen? I have no idea what that even means. I have Naru gear, and I enchanted the weapon to +7 and the armor to +5 and that’s about all I know how to do so far. We’ll see how long it takes me to figure out the rest.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!