Dude? ... >.>

Shiro, next time you feel compelled to write a message here with no bearing on that topic, hit yourself repeatedly in the head with the back end of a hammer.


Bashing solo on Astral is really the way to go. No worries about another person dying, the ability to move fast and no problems with communication. Link, get 1 piece of power, unlink, hunt the spawn, kill it, link, rinse repeat. Great exp and I even get some good power. The only snag is waiting for spheres to collide. I hate waiting.

Hermitting around the spheres saves a lot of the time in waiting, as would a cubix I imagine.

I find that bashing either solo or in groups is pretty good either way. Astral seems made for group bashing, with the way that it works. I've done about as much group as I have solo and with a friend there, it really breaks the boredom and monotony. Grouping and killing things finishes them off quicker, means you have to spend less sips. All it requires is for the leader to be competant, and fast. Need to trust each other are healed and so on. Once you get into the rhythm of it, it works well.

There was also a comment not having to worry about the other person dying? I Feel more secure with someone there because if one dies the other can get them out and resurrect them quick.

Good point Angel, the monotony factor plays a heavy role in hardcore astral bashing. I just did about 5 hours of straight astral and am about to pick up a random bludgeon and bash my head in.

I'm going to build a house on astral sooner or later.

People (charis) always complain when I link 3 times when there are 3 people on the sphere but i think its just more interesting. The only way I bash in groups is if there is a group of people on the sphere to act as bait for whatever.

Saggitarius, virgo and libra are very bad places to link more than once cause they just appear in the room immediatly.

Capricorn's layout makes it PERFECT for summoning large number onto it because from two rooms (east/west of the megalith and due south of the node) you can see the WHOLE sphere bar 2 rooms and not worry about blundering in on a goat party. Goats suck cause they knock you down and take you off balance so they're hard to run from, abhorrences suck more because they break a leg (get teamed by four and you'll never stand)

If you're gonna bash do it alone cause other people just sap xp/gold

Tae'dae can bash astral at lvl 40ish


Ps whoever keeps linking cancer - you're SO stupid, it'll NEVER recharge if you keep empty - stop at motes and keep astral a PK free zone, its noones turf so you don't need to fight over it, people are only there to bash or harvest.

If you're prepared to bash in a team, get a mage who has reflect. You can go at 30, just dont expect to live long if you get teamed. They just reflect you every time, and you can normally cop an attack and give one out, before being reflected again. Done wrong, you can have times like I did and have things setting up a shanty town around your body. Done right, you can spend hours and hours at Leo or Capricorn or Aries and not sip once. If you want to go alone, do Capricorn. The goats are harder than some other spheres, it seems, but they seem to walk in on each other less. Just be sure to stand up when they knock you down and drink your frost elixir. If you're a warrior, and cant get a mage, get a Guardian to puella you. And if you're Ixion, you can strut up there naked with a tooth pick and kill a few. If you're Gruhk, you can give something a nasty look and it dies up there, while tanking 5-6 Obesefessors. Gruhk is scary.

ahh, finally a topic I know.

I would like to say that bashing as a group or alone is a acceptable venture if you take the proper steps for safty. Now, group hunting and hunting alone are two very diffrent types of hunting. Both with their ups and their downs. Myself, as one of the most active astral hunters, (yes, I pull 10 hours a day on a school night, upwards of 28 STRAIGHT on a weekened, I can call myself one of the most active) I can say that depending on your NEED is what should determine group or single hunting. If you are below level 40, I say you have no place on astral, if your level 40 and not a tank, get off astral. Realistically, most people belong their at level 50-60 and you proably want a partner at this point because your small and its risky at your size.

In general here's how i've always been about things, note this is just how it works for me:

Alone:

I need exp, I need solitude, or I am going at a slow pace for whatever reason and I don't want to slow people down or be a factor in someone's demise.

Partnership:

I need gold, moderate Exp gain, and I want the safty and entertainment of a partner.

3 or more:

I need ALOT of corpses now. (someone say "lets defile!" or "lets sanctify" with me!) I need ALOT of gold being brought in for a orginization, and I am not worried about the exp or personal gain from this trip.


Final note: As for 3 or more people, you will make exp slower then being alone almost all the time. TWO people who are extremely well coordinated and have alot of experince hunting together and know each other good enough will go faster together then alone. However, you have to be really good with your partner to pull it off. EXP wise, you will almost always be best alone

Acually, i think 3 would be fastest.. IF they are good. Three because: if there is any non-fighter archtype in the group, tanking more than 3 Astral mobs at once is hard, even with puella. And if you're going at full speed you'll most likely have around 4 in the room with you most of the time anyway. In a group of three that will probably not happen often, but it might.
Either way, it's just a theory i'd love to try out one day

As for non group hunting: Spheres like Capri, Gemini, Taurus are best for that as the mobs won't immediatly come to the node room. If there are 4-5 people on the sphere, not grouped, you will constantly fight 1-2 astral mobs at any time. Which is great since you don't have any downtime then as you would normally have on these spheres

Astral, psh. There is nothing to fear there except maybe the scorpions. The true evil lies somewhere else.. deep within the world of Lusternia.. lurking. It is goes by many names but mostly is known as LAG. When it attacks, it swiftly binds your character up so he cannot protect himself then releases him from its grasp just in time for the character to receive the finishing blow and die.

A key to survival up on Astral, if you are starting to notice lag, take a break until its over with... otherwise you could easily die. I find the only reason I ever die up there is because I ignore signs of lag and continue bashing until finally it catches up and I die.