Firesday, 2/3/1033

Bibiki Bay. Level 35. Defeats =0

I changed my mind. I said I was going to go to Gusgen Mines last time, but my time here in Bibiki Bay was so nice I just had to stay longer. Actually, there's not much to add in this entry that I didn't say last time. The experience here is still fast and very safe. I may even stay until I hit level 37.

I went out a little further from the docks this time around, since most of the Efts are only Even Match or lower. They still make good pets though. Out in the fields, I also started using bunnies and Dhalmels as both pets and prey. Both range from Decent Challenge to Tough. Every once in a while I would take on a Raven as well. Almost all Ravens I saw were Tough, and those fights were definitely more difficult. It was hard to tell if a Raven was only one level higher than me, or 3 levels higher. Every fight is pretty routine, as the pets usually hold hate very well. I eventually even stopped eating roast mushrooms and my pets held hate just fine anyway. It might be time to look into other food options. I wonder if it's too early for Tuna Sushi...?

Leave is a very fun and useful ability. I got to play around with it for the first time during this adventure. Aside from the obvious use - to get rid of a pet before it uncharms - it has some other useful properties as well. First, it seems that if you charm a pet and fight with that pet near it's roaming area, and then use Leave, the pet will stay in that area and regenerate it health at an extremely fast rate. This is extremely useful, as it allows a Beastmaster to reuse a pet relatively soon after fighting with it. (Before, I would have to wait for several minutes for a pet to heal, even after the new update.) Also, perhaps more importantly, if you use Leave on a pet outside of its natural roaming area, it will despawn and soon respawn inside its usual area. But the cool thing about that is, it might respawn at a different level! So now, for example, of all the Efts at the docks were decent challenge, I could charm them, move them outside of the docks, then hit Leave, and they might respawn as Even Match! Using both this and the rapid healing property, I could theoretically keep a stable, so to speak, of Even Match pets that I could reuse whenever I wanted. Granted, this would be a of more use in a dungeon or small area; when outdoors it can be kind of annoying to run back to your pets if the prey is far away.

Nevertheless, Leave is really cool. I am still learning how to use it most effectively. My biggest problem is accidentally hitting Leave on a pet outside of its roaming area, which unintentionally causes a perfectly good Even Match pet to despawn. However, using Leave allowed me to fight at a nice pace, and for the first time in my solo career I hit a chain #4. If the last stupid goblin would have just blown himself up, I might have even hit chain #5. These high chains are still a little rare because outside of the docks the enemies in Bibiki are somewhat spread out. But I was regularly hitting chain #2 and #3 while taking it slow, so there is lots of potential here.

The only problem I had with Bibiki is that sometimes the area can become crowded with adventurers. This slows down the experience for everybody, which is a shame. This time I had to compete with another Beastmaster (who was apparently getting powerleveled), a small party of anonymous players, and a solo dragoon in his 40s. I tried to move further into Bibiki but I quickly ran into an Incredibly Tough goblin and thought better of that plan. I toughed it out to level 36 and decided to make camp for the day once I got a minimal buffer. Hopefully when I return there will be less competition. If not, I guess I could try a place like Sea Serpent Grotto...