Level 92 and Level 40

Well - been a busy couple of days on Maple. My crusader, once he hit 92, went down to Gobies to try that out. I found that while I don't have the accuracy issues others might, solo it is not very fun nor efficient. Exp is probably on par with Duals, but the cost is much higher. To make it worse - I died here (but only lost 2% or so because I had just leveled)

After that, I went to Dragon turtles again. Here, I gained a solid 12% in a bit less than an hour (probably between 40-50 minutes), but again it was pretty expensive (~300 honsters used). Some of that time, I trained with Tim (level 110 axe-crusader) and we talked about how best to split the screen.

In the end, I have returned to Duals for now. I need to gain more money more than a slightly faster Exp rate - and duals are still running ~12%/hour - so they are hard to leave. That - and I just found my 5th set of steelys there... so profit is good.

My lizard - Illithik - has now leveled to 40 and finished maxing out thunderbolt. I figure I'll continue at Carnival PQ until he gets enough maple coins and then start branching out to other areas. I might just keep him at CPQ though - since it is a fun change from the regular training.

My crusader is in need of upgrades. Currently I am focused on Attack upgrades, so the following are at the top of my list:

1. Improved sword - A Fraute at 110atk+ or any improved katana (102+). I'm actively looking for katanas, frautes and even spartas that I can afford, for scrolling, but it seems that everyone is buying them up lately.

2. Improved glove - Not much I can do here until I hit level 100 and I pick up a 10atk + korben. Still - I'm on the watch for something better - so if something comes along, I'll snatch it up.

3. Pink Adv. Cape/Pink Gaia - This should be an "easy" upgrade, but at the same time will be expensive (and currently more than I have). I'd like an equivalent of a 3 atk cape (3atk with any stats or 2atk, 6str or better). 3 atk capes run from 17mil (2dex, no slots) on up to 150mil (10 luk, no slots), with ~40mil for a clean one. 2atk, 6str capes are around 20mil, 8str goes up to 30mil and I haven't seen one with 10str.

4. Attack Shield - this is of course the most expensive item to improve, mostly because there are very few scrolled kalkans, those that are scrolled are not for sale, and the scrolls themselves are exorbitantly expensive. For now - I'm thinking this will just have to wait until later on - so I'll just benefit from super-high defense until I can afford it. I haven't decided if I'll pick up scrolls here and there in order to make the hit less severe.

After all of that - I could improve my boots up to the level 100 boots - so it might be worth picking some scrolled ones up or just find a few pairs to scroll myself. I would also need to pick up the scrolls though. I will certainly need the level 100 top and bottom. For now, I'm inclined to buy a pair that are scrolled - but will see what the prices are when I get to that point. These would be scrolled for Str (top) and Dex (bottom). I wouldn't really need the Dex - but since they boost speed a fair amount, and it would add to avoid on the side - I figure it will be more value than just straight defense.