Doddler's RO Journal
Viewing category: MVP
How to MVP
By Doddler on November 12, 2007 in category 'MVP'
Today's issue is a special issue, brought to you by Hidae-Dono. Why, do you ask?
This is the first time I've actually been accused of cheating in RO, much less something like using an MVP hack.
The story is, I eventually tracked down the pharaoh MVP time by camping the sphinx 5 entrance. Hidae and his LK kaeru were mvp'ing it in a duo, where Hidae would support kaeru by aid potioning. I haven't had much LK competition, but luckily my bowling bash hits for a good 4k higher than his, making me win in a stand up fight. We battled against pharaoh 5 times in a row, and each time I won.
I guess I can understand why they would suggest that there was foul play involved. However, they need to know that I am a battle hardened jRO baldur vet of three full years, where server populations hit 5000 and MVPing is the most competitive game you'll ever play. Pharaoh used to be my middle name, and taking him down efficiently was my game. We killed him so much on jRO, that we even got his card.
There is a lot more strategy in hunting an MVP than most people probably realize though. Sphinx 5f is a linear map, as in its mostly one path that winds out around the center. By carefully examining your opponents actions, you can gain an edge in hunting.
There are usually two types of people who hunt mvps. The first type is the type that teleport like crazy across the map until they land next to the mvp, and the second type usually run across the map in some methodical pattern until they find the boss monster. For reference, I fall into the second category.
For the second type, when you see an opponent running, you can presume a few things. One, that the mvp is not where he came from. Two, that he either knows where the boss is, and is running towards it (more likely in party situations where one person may have found it already), or that he is going towards a part of the map he hasn't looked yet. In either case, you know more about where you don't need to look, and a better idea of where you should be going. In a linear loop map like Sphinx 5, and you see someone running the loop ahead of you, you just confirmed for youself that everything between you and him does not have the mvp. In this case, I usually try to warp ahead of him or to the end of the loop and run backwards.
The first type is the type that teleports like crazy. Their actions can also guide you. If a teleport-hunting player suddenly starts walking, you can guess that either a) he's given up on teleport hunting and going back to the other type of looking, or b) he knows the position, its close and its no longer worth teleporting. The opposite is also true. If a teleport happy player is seen warping away, he either hasn't found it, or its been found a long distance from your position. Sometimes a player who normally searches methodically across a map begins teleporting. Usually in this case, you can imagine its because a party member has found the mvp elsewhere, or he was unable to find the mvp and missed it somewhere along the line.
Using those guidelines, you can get a better idea of what your opponent is thinking at an mvp, and use his actions to give you a higher probability to find the MVP first, and if not first, get there soon enough to keep you from losing the fight.
Maybe I hunt pharaoh too much on iRO too. :p
And now for today's episode of "Doddler Fails At OCA".
**Drum Roll**
Damn I hate my luck. Thats wormtail card #2... I'm already stacking duplicates of wormtail, pecopeco and steel chonchon. Why can't I get duplicate GRs? 
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More of the Same
By Doddler on November 11, 2007 in category 'MVP'
Aaah, back to the norm.
**drum roll**
Well... I've gotten worse.
I decided that my OPB's wern't selling, so I decided I would open the ones I had.
By market value, thats about 6.3m worth of OPBs... will it be worth it? I guess its not a big deal, since each OCA I've opened was worth about that much, and I get all kinds of crap from them.
It's amusing being able to put an item like that on the skill bar for easy usage.
And here we go.
**drum roll**
Well damn. Only thing thats kind of cool was the funeral hat, which I've never actually had before. After wearing it for a few minutes though, I figured its pretty ugly and put it in storage.
I've been sort of hunting Lady Tanee and leveling my lif at the same time. Sometimes random things like this pop up.
Yay. Its not much but finding rare stuff is always fun.
So I've been doing Lady Tanee a lot... did I ever mention how much I hate her? Atleast she gives sort of decent drops. I'd have made so much more money if it wern't for the kafra shop foods though...
Its show-off time!
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A Story of One Not In His Right Mind
By Doddler on November 9, 2007 in category 'MVP'
Today, annoyed that neither Mistress or Lady Tanny were giving me the challenge I was craving, I started up on the drawing board for a far more ambitious project. Todays target would be Vesper, and it would be solo on LK.
The test was certainly hard... however, I lucked out this time around, because while I was contemplating how I would complete the elevator, a small three man party came by. I stowed away on the elevator with them and stole their MVP.
I must admit that this was very rude, and I do to some extent regret doing so, particularly because I'm sure they're very upset with me (apologies to them if they read this), for the following reasons:
1) I killed the MVP they were working hard to get to.
2) I probably wouldn't have been able to get there without their help.
3) I may have gotten their team killed with monsters following me when I first realized where they would be fighting Vesper.
So I did eventually get MVP, but my goal was not to compete, it was to solo, so I would wait another two hours for it to spawn.
In this shot you can see Vespers near mythical ten second interruptible cast meteor storm, a skill so rare that this is likely the first recorded instance of it ever finishing casting.
I am victorious! 
However, it was not really a good victory. For one, it was basically a Kafra Shop extravaganza. I'm sure gravity profited from my Vesper attempt. I won't go into details, but its not pretty.
After doing it once, I think that wearing a brutal for tanking vesper was likely the wrong approach. The mob was far more dangerous than he was, and if I were to attempt it again, I would have to use a peno stone buckler (that I have yet to make). Vesper's 7k crits didn't phase me nearly as much as the 3-4k elemental attacks from the billions of dimiks he summoned.
No drops though, but I'm proud that I did manage to completely solo him. All was not lost however.
I managed to get this rare gem from a passing Archdam. While not particularly valuable, it does give the trip some meaning, and might help cover the some 1000 whites I used. 
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'Tis the Season for Mad Rares
By Doddler on November 8, 2007 in category 'MVP'
So apparently I enjoy some kind of mental abuse, because I just keep coming back to Mistress and Lady Tanee. Mistress isn't so bad, but Tanee is crazy. I imagine some time durring development, a meeting took place as follows:
- Developer A: "I feel that there's not enough in our game to appeal to masochists. Leveling is hard but normal people are doing it successfully."
- Developer B: "How about we make an MVP that is incredibly hard to find, and when you DO find it, it always teleports away. After it teleports, it can also heal itself to full health, making it extremely frustrating."
- Developer A: "I like where this is going. We can also give her an amazing card so people will have no choice but to subject themselves to our torture machine."
- Developer B: "Brilliant!"
At least, thats how I think it would have gone.
Today was a pretty successful day though, as I found lots of neat things worth some good money.
I somehow found another Bao Bao headgear. Apparently they're quite common from Green Maiden.
And while this wasn't the Alice card I was looking for, it was certainly a pretty nice surprise.
It sells for a pretty nice amount. The item description is wrong, so I'll have to bug them on the iro forums about it.
My attempt to go kill valk mini's with Snowballs! didn't go very smoothly. To be honest I'm pretty bad at supporting. Snowballs is crazy though, with her brisingamen + mjolnir + meginjard cart ram, doing 16000 damage hits at 187 attack speed. Beats the crap out of the dps output on my LK...
I finally found out who was constantly killing White Lady, and I think we came to a pretty good understanding. I should be able to hunt it while she's not around now, which is good enough for me.
And I finally gave in and got Gym Passes for my biochemist. At least its a permanent, helpful boost.
Bonus:
Getting stuck in a wall. 
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