The One About Airforce Three

Someone emailed me the other day asking me why was it that a Level 100 Elite La Ventisca Recipe will produce a Elite Level 92 La Ventisca and not an Elite 100 type armor.

I think there's a slight misconception here. Ok, you see, an Elite La Ventisca Recipe says this:


Thus, one might assume that it is an Elite Level 100, but this is not the case. Now let's look at the finished armor:


From the description, it shows that it is Level 92, yet exclusively for Veteran.

Thus, it has the stats of an Elite 92 armor, but can only be worn at Level 100 (Veteran). Hope this helps clear up the confusion - of whether such similar recipes are Elite 92 or Elite 100.

Since we are on the topic of elite 92s, from what I understand so far, Elite 92 armor recipes drop from normal mobs at Katovic Snowfield. I haven't explored enough to know if there are any other mini bosses that drop them. The old man over in Los Toldos (will be unlocked when you do the Baron Quests) sells only Elite 92 weapon recipes, and not Elite 92 armor recipes. Rafflesia and Chaos Boneless at the Secret Temple Super Fight do drop Elite 92 armor, but since they are raid bosses with a rare drop rate for these armor, thus, the hunt for Elite 92 armor recipes will still need to be at Katovic Snowfields.

"But Katovic Snowfield mobs are painful and I don't have good armor!"

Not to fear! There is always the Airforce Three way to go. Some of you probably already know this, but this little tip is more for the casual gamer who wishes to conquer Katovic region.

What is Airforce Three?

Airforce Three means to have 3 levitating characters like wizards, Emilia The Sage or M'Boma.

With levitating characters, most of the Katovic Mobs will be unable to target and hit you 80-90% of the time.

Hurrah for levitation! Time to start training them wizards! ;)

The One About Vergo... Cursed?

I've been hearing some players speculate that Vergo The Cursed is bugged and thus, un-killable. But this is not actually the case. There are a few things to take note of:

1) Vergo The Undead

Why is it that the HP bar of Vergo The Cursed gets to zero and Vergo is still not dead?

This is because he goes into an 'undead' mode, whereby he will start to regenerate HP at an incredibly fast rate. Once he goes into this undead mode, his regenerated HP will remain a ???? mystery. This is the case in V2.1.18. From what I have heard from IMC, in V2.4 onwards, the possibility percentage of this undead mode has been reduced significantly and most of the time, Vergo will die swiftly without going into undead mode.

Despite his HP reflecting 0, be aware that his HP is regenerating and you will need a VERY strong party to continuously hit him. If people start leaving, Vergo's HP regeneration speed will exceed that of the damage done to him and it will be back to square one.

And yes, the people who enter the scene when Vergo is in undead mode, will see Vergo's HP as being maximum, even though the people who have been there from the very start will see it as zero. Don't panic: This is normal. This merely means that Vergo's HP is regenerating and remains a ???? mystery.

2) Need Moar l33t 92 weaponzzz

Frankly speaking, you will need Elite Level 92 weapons to be able to easily defeat Vergo The Cursed. Vergo has a DR of 57, while the best Elite 84 weapons give an AR of 52. Except the fact when you +5 or if you manage to enchant the Elite 84 weapon to a +3 Attack Rating Option, otherwise it is not possible to efficiently damage him. FYI, Elite Level 92 weapons will be much more easily attainable once we hit V2.4.

Does this mean it is impossible to defeat Vergo The Cursed in our current version V2.1.18?

Nope, it is still possible. But you will need a very large number of strong players in order to take him down and even so, you might probably have to whack for about 2-3 hours after his first physical death before your party can take him down. The thing is, you cannot afford to have players leaving halfway through the raid because the HP regeneration which will restore him to his all-powerful self again.

Ideally, in order to prevent his insane rate of HP regeneration, it would be good to stun him with say, Wizard's Hole Of Darkness, and of course to have good tankers and many high damage ranged attackers to complement.

3) The Sweet Spot

Talk about backdoors that programmers just love implementing...

There is a certain sweet spot on the cliff that permanently stuns Vergo. If you are one of the lucky 1% to be able to find it... then it just might be time to buy a 4D lottery ticket.

I heard that one of the factions in Cervantes actually managed to find it once and only once. Their tanker fighter was never able to find it ever since. Nevertheless, despite being unable to find Vergo's sweet spot again, this same faction managed to take him down a second time using some extremely well thought-out strategies (which I am afraid I am sworn to secrecy about - after all, it's their secret, not mine). Even so, it took them 3 hours after Vergo went into undead mode to take him down.

Well, hope that helps answer some of the burning questions on your mind regarding Vergo.

P/S: Just for the fun of it, I tried using Irawan, equipped with a Level 100 Knuckle of 3 Kings to solo Vergo on the test server. It took me a good two hours after he went into undead mode to take him down. ;)

The One About Enhancement Boosters

Someone emailed me asking me what are the statistics and success ratings for enhancement boosters. This data doesn't come officially from IMC or from IAHGames, but just some tinkering and testing done on my own in the test server.

Enhancement boosters have a maximum cap for the various AR/DR of equipment, meaning to say that the enhancement NPC will only accept up to a maximum number of enhancement boosters for the different base AR/DR of equipment. The table below shows this relationship:

Base AR / DR of equipment	Max amount of Boosters required
1 ~ 8	1
9 ~ 13	2
14 ~ 17	3
18 ~ 20	4
21	9
22	11
23	13
24	15
25	17
26 +	20

Then there is the enhancement level success rate, which I'm sure all of you are much more interested in knowing! Ok, the important point to note is that ONLY when you use the maximum number of boosters allowed for that particular equipment, do your chances of success double. So say, I wanna enhance a +10 weapon, the chances are like... 1.56%. If I use 20 enhancement boosters, which is the maximum allowed, my chances are doubled. If I use less than the maximum number of boosters allowed, my chances increases slightly, but do not double. (Gee, I hope I am making sense here.)

1.56% X 2 = 3.13%

Enhancement Level	Success Rate	When max amount of boosters are used
1	100%	Unable to use boosters
2	100%	Unable to use boosters
3	100%	Unable to use boosters
4	100%	Unable to use boosters
5	50%	100%
6	25%	50%
7	12.50%	25%
8	6.25%	12.50%
9	3.13%	6.25%
10	1.56%	3.13%

Yep, hope this is of use to you folks out there.

Oh wait, before I end, thanks for answering all those previous comments on my behalf, Leonson. I couldn't have said it any better myself. I've said it before and I'll say it again - You're my blog hero! (:

I was feeling a lil' philosophical on my way home earlier and it just occurred to me that buying a virtual item is akin to buying shares on a volatile stocks exchange market. You never know when the index will go up or down. It is a risk we all take and alas, it is something that we have no control over.

I was having a chat with one of the IMC guys, Sam about Emilia The Sage and he was telling me that the reason was Emilia The Sage was immediately taken out off the cash shop RNPC listing in kGE merely a few weeks after she was released was because once she reached veteran and was able to increase her INT, she was undefeatable. 3 Emilia The Sages levitating during colony war, 3 Emilia The Sages taking turns healing and reviving one another, 3 Emilia The Sages Proton Splashing Together. One hit K.O. No one could even get near them. Melee classes were totally useless against them. No saving throws whatsoever for the enemy. kGE gamers were outraged and raised such a huge outcry that she was immediately removed.

Never underestimate the power of a proton splash.

Did you know that a proton splash has around the same damage as Elemental Strife (Lord Of Elements Stance)? Not to mention proton splash has a longer range and shorter cooldown: 7 seconds as compared to Elemental Strife's 60 seconds!

I'm closing the chapter of Emilia The Sage after this entry. After all, we all have to move on. Yes, me and my 5 Emilia The Sages will get by just fine... :)

The One About Colony War - Part 2

Recap about Colony War - Part 1 here.

As promised, I'm back with more updates on colony wars. The very first colony war which takes place on 8 June 2007, Friday, 2000hrs-2200hrs (GMT+8), lasts for two hours. Based on community feedback of whether or not these 2 hours are optimal, will we then decide the duration of the next colony war.

1) First Colony War - Free For All!

The first colony war is rather significant since ALL territories are unoccupied and free for all factions to attempt to occupy. After a territory's colony has been occupied by a faction, this is a whole new ball game with different dynamics and politics altogether. I will talk more about this in my next entry on Colony wars.

Coming back to Colony War 101, if you press ALT + Right Click on any colony, you will be able to check out its stats. (For those of you who are new to GE, pressing ALT + Right click on any monster in GE enables you to look at its properties and which elements those monsters are weak against.)



















2) Pre-Requisites For Colony War Participation

You need to be in a faction. That's all. Any faction is able to take part, regardless of faction level. There was a rumor going around earlier that the faction level needs to be 52 before being able to participate in faction wars, but it is not true.

After that, all you need to do is to walk up to the colony and give it all you've got on your skill list! Or you could also summon a Valkyrie to help you out in the siege. However, do note that if you summon continuously, only the latest siege weapon with which you summoned will remain.






























3) Colony - I own you!

So after a fierce struggle, the colony has fallen to your faction! A notice will be given whenever a colony is occupied:















(My fave part) The faction name will also be marked on the world map!



















Another significant benefit of owning a colony is that all members of that faction enjoys faction colony's protection of an improvement in HP by 10%:






I'm looking forward in eager anticipation to seeing which of your factions will become legends on the world map on that fateful day of 8 June 2007.

Legends for a week until the next colony war, that is. ;)

The One About Colony War - Part I

Colony War is just round the corner and the schedule for the first 3 wars are as follows:

First Colony War: 8 June 2007, Friday, 2000hrs-2200hrs (GMT+8)
Second Colony War: 17 June 2007, Sunday, 2000hrs-undecided (GMT+8)
Third Colony War: 23 June 2007, Saturday, 2000hrs-undecided (GMT+8)

I've been getting a lot of questions about what colony wars are all about. I guess I should start with the basics.

What is a colony? A colony is this tall pillar that is available in certain maps in the world.
























For the very first colony war, colonies will be open to attack on all the maps that have a colony in it. Factions can start attacking these colonies. Once the colony has been destroyed, the colony will belong to the faction of the last person who hit and destroyed the colony and they have to defend it till the timer for the colony war has ended. His/her faction will now rule that map and enjoy certain HP and attack boost bonuses. Their faction name will be written on the world map, such that the world will know that they are ruling that map.

Aight. That's all for today lest information overload takes place. ;)

Read Colony War - Part 2 here.

The One About Baron Mode

The bad flu that has been going around IAH has finally spread to me, despite how badly I've been trying to avoid. On the bright side, it hit me only after POBT began and playing GE is all the medicine I need! I've been reading on the forums about how many are wary of starting characters in Cervantes because it is a PK server and there are various wild predictions that Cervantes will be over-run with high level players camping newbies or low levels just so that they can get that baron mode high attack bonuses. Well, that crystal ball of prediction ain't going to materialize! Simply because of that misconception about Baron mode.

That Misunderstood Pre-Requisite: Family Level = 6

So most of us know that in order to "baron" (force PK) someone, you need to fulfill that pre-requisite of having a family level of 6. Many people are under the impression that a family level of 6 means your character level is 6. In reality, a family level of 1 = 10 levels.

Thus, if my
highest level character = 19, my family level is 1
highest level character = 34, my family level is 3

However, if my highest level character = 30, my family level still remains at 2. Until that character reaches level 30+ ; only then will my family level be considered as family level 3.

This effectively relates that family level 6 = character level 60+ , which means that I need to be of character level 60+ at least to be able to "baron" (PK) someone! And on top of that, the other family that I am trying to "baron" (PK) must also be of family level 6. This automatically rules out the misconception that high level players will be camping lowbies.

On a side note, since we are on the topic of family level, your family level is directly proportionate to the family protection percentage you get. A family level of 2 will improve your HP by 2%.







Further to that, let's say you already have a level 60+ character, and you start re-training another character from level 1 again. Your family level will be still regarded as level 6 and your level character open to attacks from other families of family level 6 and above. In summary, your family level will be based on the highest leveled character that you have in your barracks, regardless of whether they are part of your team of 3 or not.

Although in this way, you can say that high leveled characters can still 'camp' low leveled characters, but considering that you already have at least one high level character of family level 6 and above, this would probably indicate that you have had considerable experience in playing Granado Espada and would know enough about GE to be able to avoid such attacks, or at the very least be able to bring out your other high leveled character to challenge that person on a level playing field.