[BDO] Vixxie’s yearbook full of memories

[BDO] Vixxie's yearbook full of memories

Evergreen season: Dosa, the adventure of the vaping hipsters (summer 2024)

Evergreen season: The Scholars and the dual wielding hairdryers (spring 2024)

Evergreen season: Twin sisters in The Land of The Morning Light (winter 2023)

Season 11: taming the beasts (summer 2023?)

Season 10: Valkyrie and Archer (winter 2022?)

Season 9: The Dawn of Dragons Speedboosting Leylhi (summer 2022)

We weren’t extremely motivated for another season. Not because we didn’t feel like playing, because we did. But there were frost flames to be farmed and grinding silvers to be made. And quite honestly, we basically already have alts parked in every significant alt-friendly grind zone. So we planned on letting this one pass us by quietly. But then I spoke to Fughar, and he gave me a disappointed look. He triggered the completionist in me and showed me how my Special Gift UI would look like if I missed just 1 season. So I made a Maewha. And I sat on my big lazy Maewha butt while Sage was doing all the boosting work slaying the evil trees in Mirumok. We started playing at 3 pm in the afternoon, took a break for dinner and a movie for 3 hours. At midnight, Leylhi was level 61, questing session from Brelin to Duvencrune all done, full PEN tuvala, finished the seasonal pass and graduated! Quick and dirty, just the way we like it

Thank you Sage!

I did actually also appreciate the dev’s choice to award seasonal characters with more skillpoints while leveling and requiring less of those points to max out all the succession skills. That’s why this season’s timepiece will be used on my mystic, knocking off those last little levels to 61 and saving me a few afk hours of skill training at the dummies.

Season 8: Neltharhi and Sintorra, the Dragon Ladies (spring 2022)

Drakkarys! No wait, that’s the wrong franchise. Rise of the Dracthyr! Oops, no, not that one either. Dragons are a well-represented and popular creature race in most fantasy games, so BDO had to follow suit with their newest class Drakania. I was sceptic. Because I’m always sceptic. But mostly because I’m a guardian fangirl. After Witch and Lahn, my Guardian Samarhi sees a fair bit of action in the game still. And Drakania being Guardian’s sworn enemy, I instantly felt I needed to take a stand!!! But then Sam told me it was okay to dabble on Neltharhi, so I could teach her some tips and tricks on how to crush all those drakania noobs contesting HER Eternal Mountain of Winter, and so it happened.

Neltharhi and Sintorra got their moonboots on, found the cutest sherpa in Eilton and went on a new seasonal adventure. But it was weird! Because we had expectations of the overhyped new quest zone. And even though the zone was really cool (Hello snow and hours worth gazing into the marvellous horizons from the mountaintops!!!) and the questlines and cinematics just fine, we were kind of bored. Missing some action. Hungry to learn the ropes of a new class, the fighting controls and very eager and put all those ridiculously goodlooking spell effects to work but there was none of that. There were a few mobs around that would make you go *splat* if they even just looked at you. No, there was talking instead. And then some more. The only thing that got action was my finger hitting the R button. Fortunately there was also the occasional snowballfight, burying the other half in a mound of snow, the measuring contest of who had the biggest … wings. And helping Sintorra to get her Slayer unstuck a few times a day. But we finished the season, we were there, we got the mug and the t-shirt. Having to wait 8 weeks for her awakening to hit, I must admit, was a kick in the teeth. We have not bothered going back to check it out, even though it looks great. Following this season up with another, calling it Dawn of Dragons, expecting players to roll an awakening drakania when everyone and their grandmother literally JUST finished leveling one makes 0 sense though, PA.

As a sidenode: did you also notice that my creativity is rubbing off on Sage when it comes to choosing original names? After Truesimp and hitting rock bottom with Gfabuser, Uzarae was quite something. Full immersion on Reapah (booyah!) and then there was Sintorra. Unreal expectations for the next season

Cheers Fughar, for yet another timepiece! Took it quite literally this time and dove back into history to bring home a Valkyrie viking girl, under the approving allseeing eye of Odin.

Season 7: Barbaricco ‘Sumasmash’ The Zerker and Reapah ‘zoomies’ the sorceress (winter 2021/2022)

SUMA SMASH. SUMA CRAAAAAAAAASH. Yes, for the winter season there were smashings to be had and it was SO much fun. Never actually thought I’d be enjoying a juggernaut class as much as I did the berserker. Then again, what’s not to like about a giant hairy hulk wielding two massive axes, stomping, jumping, grabbing, charging and swirling around like a chaotic wilderbeast. F*ck yeah! Barbie even served great purpose as a mount. Reapah sure knew how to tame the ‘fearsome tyrant’ within. Can’t blame her really, nothing like a big wild beast to ride on, amirite? 🙂

You know how cats sometimes hit happy hour and get the zoomies, frantically running from one end of a room to another, jumping up walls, doing saltos, teleporting around scaring the living shit outta you? Yeah, that’s Reapah. But with a massive scythe coming for your head and a big grin on her face when you’re lagging behind yelling “wait for meeeeeeeeeeee”, determined to spin2win into a pack of dead mobs yet AGAIN because ah, yes, Reapah was here too. I think the only ability Barbaricco really could have used was “Toss Partner” from his back. Because you know… When in doubt, throw a sorceress into the fray.

Thank you Fughar, for the timepiece! I decided to jump on the bandwagon and used the token on Miss Postergirl. The truth is I really wanted a character with the Ataraxia outfit set, the Dark Knight was just something that came with it ^_^

Season 6: Psyccho ‘the Striker’ and Optimistic ‘the Lahn’ (autumn 2021)

It had been a year ago since we had a season that didn’t pair up with the introduction of a new class. But we quite liked that because I got Sagichii all hyped up to try a Lahn of his own and I really wanted to see what all the commotion was about with the “S-tier in everything” Striker class. I already had a mystic, so I didn’t expect much of it, but it turned out to be one of the seasons I enjoyed the most.

Psycco and Optimistic started their journey a bit later than usual in the season, smack in the middle of the Halloween events. Which made way for a lot of roleplaying. And we don’t roleplay. Except when…. you know …. Optimistic is a sexy hot vampire girl with sharp, bloody fangs that pierce right through the soft skin of your neck and peepers that devour your soul in the blink of an eye. And Psycco, one part virile human and other part terrifying demon from within the veil, with a ripped up face and a Dracula costume. Ask Psycco where he got his bloody scars from, and he will answer you while fighting off a ferocious awakened gryphon, but we all know he got slashed by Optimistic’s fierce temper. It’s pretty obvious who wears the pants in this relationship. But we don’t roleplay. Nuh-uh. So when you put those two characters together in a spooky but somehow romantic Halloween-like stage, such as Marni’s Playground, for dailies and “fun” activities like getting massively frustrated in a haunted house with lagging reapers and getting our socks shot off in a broken ‘Squid-game’ rip-off Red light, Green light venue… yeah, one gets carried away xD.

And did we actually like the gameplay? Well yes sir, we did. The Lahn delivered, like she did for me. Especially the Nimbus stride made my other half shriek in delight. Taking the scenery route, just to jump off higher cliffs. I get it, I’ve been there ^_^ And the Striker was just as I expected it to be: potent. And effective. And a straight, easy to play A+ student. But personally, after playing very colourful and rich in sparkles & twinkles classes like Nova and Corsair, Psycco felt a bit like a plain Jane. He’s been parked at the Centaurs though, so he won’t catch dust. God knows we are gonna need more gems. A lot more gems.

Thanks to Fughar’s timewalking piece, I also got myself this little cutie: A level 61, very pretty in pink, Shai – which I would otherwise never level.
Currently contemplating whether I will turn her into my main lifeskiller or not. I’ll be damned, grinding guru again on all fronts.

Season 5: Atlanthi and Virtuous ‘the Corsairs’ (summer 2021)

There’s a moment in every girl’s life, where she gets asked what she wants to be later when she grows up. That answer is, without a doubt, mermaid. Right after Princess Elsa and ballerina. And man, did we get to be mermaids. We splashed it with SO much passion. Mobility was awesome, overshooting packs of mobs not so much. But the animations on the submerging and casting mermaid kept us hooked until we hit 61, even through the combat grind. Because obviously eager mermaids can’t read quest texts and we ended up activating a “fast levelling” lane which skipped long questlines (with lots of xp) and got us on the path of “it’s a sandbox, figure it out. Just kill stuff” instead. Something new, for this Summer Season. Ploughing through packs and packs of mobs with 35 new skills of which you have never read the tooltip, is quite overwhelming. Developers went easier on the movement delays though, which made it at least, unlike Sage, playable.

And so you may wonder why also corsair shared the same fate with the previous seasonal characters on the bench. Well because even though levelling up was a BLAST, especially with the cannons and the otter mates in awakening… har.. har…, it turned out that to be efficient in higher grinding spots, you weren’t really weaving in the mermaids spells as I would have liked. I felt like I had to use “all the boring hack and slash spells” and that sucked the fun right out of it. Looking forward to the rework.

Oh… and thank you Corsair Susanna. Thanks to the awakening event, I won a screenshot competition and scored some free pearls!
Just me and my mate, chilling on the beach.

Magycco and Gfabuser ‘the Sages’ (spring 2021)

Ah the Sage! So…. they look like a human and speak like a human, but certainly don’t move like one. Gfabuser (yeah, don’t ask) and Magycco are actually the last members of a now extinct race, called the Ancients, who lived long before humanity appeared. I guess they dun goofed by survival of the fittest. Let’s say quick dodging and moving wasn’t their strong suit 🙂 And what the hell is with that primal male resting stance. Thrust that pelvis boy, thrust it like you mean it.

With the release of the new characters in the game, it became increasingly annoying to navigate quest givers in town, due to the delayed moving and walking animations. I think the developers of the game wanted to have a more realistic feel of body movement. But this Sage felt like he needed a minute in quiet contemplation to build momentum before embarking on his walk of shame. And there is really quite nothing like slightly sidestepping and ending up on the other side of the football field. Probably compared to parking a bulldozer in a tight parking spot. I guess making a bulky character feel like it weights 400 pounds makes sense on a berserker class, but not exactly on a nimble caster and teleporter.

We didn’t even finish levelling Gfabuser and Magycco to level 60. And even though the purple and gold kaleidoscope effects were breathtakingly beautiful and the actual spells were very impactful, trying to navigate this juggernaut around killed it for me. Had a lot of fun dancing to Diana Ross, though. Also really enjoyed Magycco’s hair being dyed white, with the glowy yellow eyes, had a proper Gerald the Witcher vibe going on.
Our sages found their final resting place in the Grana library, and I’m afraid that is where they will forever remain.

Season 3:Sancthi and Uzarae ‘the Nova’s’ (winter 2020-2021)

When the Winter season started, everything looked so promising. With the release of the Nova, we were were done playing in the sand and got ourselves ready to roll .. in the snow. Together with the increased buffs and changes to the leveling servers, we got really hyped for the new season. (Though they totally robbed us from our ‘free’ premium costume. Greedy goblins!)

Uzarae and Sancthi made snowangels, farmed carrots for the many snowmen that came to life and coughed up lots of snowflake particles after going flat on their behinds. Ever tried to navigate icy roads on heels? Where’s those sneaker outfits at? And even though we were announced as queens, true heirs to Calpheon’s throne and imbued with the power of the goddess of blah blah … our Nova’s were really just two glorified nuns. Two smoking hot bitches that set out to melt the many hearts of men.

And of course, it was incredibly fun wielding a bigass fucking morning star. SANCTHI SMAAAAAASH, hells ye. It even got better when I got to ravage Uzarae’s face whenever she started screaming “ongoooooooood”… basically every time she unsheathed her awakening fencing dagger.

But eventually, even Elsa got bored and let it gooooooooooooooooooo, let it goooooooooooooooooo. Which is what we did, too.

Season 2: Scyrocco and Truesimp ‘the Hashashins’ (autumn 2020)

Assassins? Noooo!!. Hash..hasi..shin? Haha-chin? *Hatchie*-shins? Bless you. Okay, so… Desert Rats.
They played with cyclones, got their buckets and spades out in the desert, made sand castles, befriended a couple of bloodthirsty mud dragons and both got their fair share of hypothermia. Scyrocco and TrueSimp (if the shoe fits, haha) graduated from the second BDO Season. If I were to compare Scyrocco with a college student, he would be that clueless high-school drop-out stereotype. And TrueSimp would have been that last chance third-seat rebel that never studied :)) What I’m trying to say is that Hashashin wasn’t really our class.

I never really found my comfort zone in either casting or melee range. But it was fun levelling together again none the less. A bit of a weird season compared to the first, with having to first work our way through a whole Naru gear set for beginner, and then another more advanced Tuvala set, which felt like having to start over with a lot less materials to do so than last season. And there was the fact that awakening for the class came waaaaaay after we finished levelling for it. Eventually, it turned out that awakening was not bad at all but even then so, after a while and some weekly quests, we got tired of playing in the dirt pretty fast, put our shovels aside and moved on to the next flavour of the month.

Extra levelling session: Syllvanhi ‘the Ranger’ and Indulged ‘the Warrior’

So Syllvanhi and Indulged don’t technically belong in the yearbook, because they didn’t graduate as seasonal alts. But after our Lahn and Warlock shenanigans, we got a taste of adventure and decided to level up another team of two: Ranger and Warrior. Indulged did proud by his name and did allow himself to enjoy a particular pleasure, especially that of the female curve. He got his eyes well indulged in Syllvanhi’s shapely décolletage. Of course, when you ask Indulged what he finds the most captivating about his training partner, he will say her beaming elven smile. But it doesn’t take 2000 skillpoints to realize that the big sword he wields, isn’t swung by Syllvanhi’s pretty face. And no, it’s probably not her brains either.

Alas, the combination melee – ranged was great! It took Syllvanhi a while to get a hang of the cannon-tactic but once she got there, it was all she could think of. If it wasn’t for the fact she was pretty weak in defending her grind spots, I would probably still be playing this character more often, but there are simply better alternatives. I am very much looking forward to the reworks in the pipeline.

Season 1: Daiyurhi ‘the Lahn’ and Pyrrow ‘the Wizard’ (summer 2020)

Daiyu and Pyrrow got on like a house on fire! So much fire, that half of Pyrrow’s face spontaneously combusted. That’s the official story. He may also have gotten himself burnt bullying and pissing off his grumpy fire elemental. But they eventually got their graduation certificates and got sent off to the hot Valencian desert for a top secret mission in Titium Valley. Rumor has it, they are responsible for the ongoing genocide amidst the desert Fogan population!

The first season, as a new concept in Black Desert online, was a lot of fun though. It had just the right amount of reward for effort ratio. And it was great getting to know how to play the Lahn class! She is one beautiful, dangerous flamingo, that I still up to this day, consider my main alt. And Pyrrow… well.. he is very… errr… everything but elegant but I guess he’s efficient in his own way. Even while slapping fogans in the face with a broken weapon for weeks and weeks of dailies.

And there we go, another booth full of memories that we will forever take with us on this road called life.