Why I think Atlantica’s PvP system is broken as hell.

I have made it no secret that I can’t stand the PvP system in Atlantica. I love the game; everything else about it is awesome. But the one aspect of this game that I can’t stand is Free League and Colosseum League. The system is so broken, that I give up TBS points just to avoid doing it.

When you’re lower level, you don’t notice it. You’re level 50 and trying out FL or CL, and chances are, you will be paired up with someone no more than 5 levels higher or lower than you (or a doppel–mostly doppels). You’re also working with the same mercs for the most part. All have at least one swordie, a viking, and a gunner. Anything else is down to preference. Div 18 up until about Div 10 is, for the most part fair, barring glitches (which have been fixed, so there are no level 150’s in div 18, for example).

It gets dicey around div 6. You see, there are some who have somehow breezed through the tourneys (CL CAN make false div 1’s out of anyone) and then they climb up the ladder…unwillingly. So some people afk intentionally to drop divisions. This is why at times you will see level 130’s in Div 5-6, against level 115’s. Now there lies the issue. You’re 115 and in div 6. You go up against a 130. You’re in at best, level 113 gear. You may not have all the decent mercs yet. This guy, level 130 is in EVIL gear, refined to God Status, so you won’t dent him, no matter how hard you try. He also has several PvP-essential mercs, all pimped out. There is a 2-gear tier difference. I’ll give you a few seconds to think about how that fight will go 90% of the time. The other 10, one or the other goes afk.

The one thing that would’ve made the system a little bearable is if there is a definite level-to-division cap. Sure, you can’t drop lower than division 6 as a 120, but as a 120, you shouldn’t have to fight off a level 140. That’s just unfair and, if you ask me, makes it no fun to do FL (CL doesn’t count, anyone who can spam magic can win that).

Let’s take my level 121 alt, MajorasWrath, for example. I have to do the 120 upgrade quest, and one of the steps was to get 200 fame. I didn’t remember this because Yvi had quite a bit of fame before doing the quest. So I’m doing FL (because fuck CL with the mass LK spam), and I div up. That’s cool, divving up doesn’t bother me too much. My next opponent on the other hand…was a level 135. Majora is 121. She has a few DG pieces, but most of her mercs are unupgraded because I can’t complete the upgrade quest without 200 fame (and RSS, but that’s another rant for another day). He has evil gear, all refined to God Status. He had a Gigas, a merc that I won’t be able to afford on Yvi, let alone Majora, fully upgraded. In fact…all his mercs were fully upgraded. So I’m hitting him and barely putting a dent on him.

It goes both ways. On the flip side, I have gone up against level 105’s. Best a 105 can wear is Divine. That’s a much larger gear difference. There’s also the merc advantage (granted, Majora was leveled during the level up event that gave +10 weapons and a free IM merc, so there’s that, although Romani, my Atilla, is only 102). And while I am happy for an easy win (remember, I fucking hate it and want it done as quickly as possible), I can’t imagine that it’s any fun for them, because I’m on the receiving end sometimes, too.

At 121, I should be matched with someone with like equipment and/or levels. So basically anyone 120-129 is fair game. Can go down one tier of gear, but within the ± 5 levels. In a perfect world, I would fight at the lowest, a 116 (nix gear) or a 129 (DG gear) at the highest. Since Atlantica’s PvP is far from perfect, we’ll have to deal with this. Yeah, once Majora’s done fame farming, fuck this shit.

Earn Free NX: What you should know.

When I came back to Atlantica a few months ago, one of the things I looked into was alternative ways to earn money without spending real money, because it’s just not possible to do that on a stay-at-home mom’s salary (in case you don’t know what that is, I get paid in Apple Jacks). But as we know, it’s harder if you don’t use the IM and don’t have a proper farming character.

*For the record, instrument mains can farm, it just takes a little more elbow grease.

So I looked at that “Earn Free NX” button. I did it a while before, but not since I came back, so I thought that maybe it no longer works and I should disregard that button. After numerous failed attempts to get any offers to show up while in Google Chrome, I opened up another browser and after the offers showed, I started my little one-week experiment. The question is: does it work?

Mission Accomplished!: Final Thoughts on Events

Majora hit 120 with 4 days left in the event to spare. Thanks Mino boxes!

Anyways, we are closing in on the end of our 5-year Anniversary festivities and events. Thursday is the last day, and Majora hit 120 which meant that I could get rid of that weak ass beast trainer. By the way, I decided on a beefier frontline instead of a trigger-happy mid-line.

As you can see, I went for Atilla. She supposedly has the upper hand in TBS, which is what I plan on doing.

WhipM and TBS

WhipM TBS attack pattern is WEIRD AS FUCK. Basically you attack in squares. Did I mention that Heaven’s Fury is a SEVEN BY SEVEN aoe? On top of Heaven’s Fury (which can only be used while in Goddess Mode by the way), you have Lightning Lash at 5×5 range. So for WhipM’s an AOE TBS team is viable. My team is main+witch+oracle (+ tank) for now. What gives Trish the upper hand, compared to, say, a StaffM, is that she attacks multiples with her regular attack. So there is no real reason to wait out till the aoes are in cooldown–because especially if you have a +10 weapon (which most newly made Stormcallers have), they will die. Even more so if your main is Sethed/Beast Souled.

Conclusion: Majora may very well be funding both Yvi and herself in the future.

Sadko

I managed to level Majora enough for her to do at least the level 80 event TBS. I managed to get enough notes to get Sadko, a few of his books, and an upgrade on Majora, and enough to get most of his books on Yvi.

The consensus is that he is useful in PvP and nothing more. I have not tested him out in the upgrade quest for Majora yet, but he may be very useful for sealing the bosses. The order to get his books is something like his debuff (which I can’t remember the name of atm) > Dischord > AOE. Dischord procs pretty often (and I can only assume that it gets better as it’s leveled). If that’s the case, he can very well have some use in pve. The 120 upgrade quest was gimped massively, so I’ll be able to test out Mikau (Majora’s bard) soon enough.

Conclusion: He’s free. And he’s an instrument merc. And he gave me a reason to use the name Mikau (another Legend of Zelda reference–actually my whole form is just one big Majora’s Mask reference). Inconclusive until I do that upgrade quest and test out Discord. But so far, he’s a niche merc.

Halloween Dungeon

I still have 4 days left to try for the rare neck and earrings, but it’s only 4 days, so I’m not expecting much. I can get A necklace for Yvi since she has over 1k fragments.

The dungeon was easy enough. On Majora, it was a little harder, but it got much better when I hit 120 and dropped that BT from my team. Ghost fragment drops were VERY plentiful. The exp wasn’t half bad, and the boss was very easy (was able to two-shot her as Majora when she was under 120 kind of easy–WhipM advantage; she can main snipe like a bowM).

Conclusion: Despite the fact that the exp is decent and frag drops weren’t too bad (compared to the Faust drops), the masks were deemed useless 2 days into the event. Not to mention all those home decoration boxes. I have like 50 of em between two chars. What the hell am I gonna do with em all since they won’t sell?

All in all…

Love Trish enough to get her to 120, Bard isn’t bad, and the Halloween Dungeon was a decent passtime one. I’m happy. How about you?