I am 26K away from level 32 and therefore Arcane Lore and I am in Teth. I
decide that my best bet is to and kill the double Tusker spawn which
overlooks Teth and get my level that way. (I don't know about anybody else,
but I always like to level doing something cool, like completing a quest,
PKing somebody, or killing really hard monsters). Anyway Tuskers are still
a bit of an effort for me but I can do it, so I head off to Tusker spot for
the third time today.

I have to cast a shedload of buffs and I've been using the Peerless Healing
Kit Oberion gave me to facilitate my Health to Mana's. It runs out on my
final Health to Mana on my final Tusker buffs of the day, how fitting :-)
Thanks Oberion!

I have just started buffing when a level 40 guy runs up behind me. I go to
run and then turn and ID him. He is an Alberion Mindeater vassal so I stop
and go back. He is buffing near the Tuskers and I ask if he minds if I kill
them. He says "fine, go ahead".
I carry on through my buffing sequence and while I'm doing it listen to him.
He is doing a huge buffing sequence which includes stuff I rarely buff. I
wonder what he's planning... I hope he doesn't want in on my Tuskers because
I need them to level.

When I'm finally ready, I tell him I'm going to fight them but I'll keep
them away from where he's resting and he says fine. The Tuskers come over
and I kill them both and make my level. I am sooooooooooo happy to be level
32... I made 400K today which is a lot for me :-) So I grab Arcane and put
in the 215K I've been saving up... the most I've ever had!!!

This takes my arcane from a starting 66 to an amazing 128... safely into
level 3s and easily the highest Arcane I've had on any character ever!!

SIDE NOTE
Talking of which I am short of the following items of jewelry:

Strength III or IV
Quick III or IV
Focus III
Willpower IV
Lightning III or IV
Cold III or IV

If anybody has any of these muled, I would *really* appreciate them,
especially Strength and Quick.

I tell the level 40 guy that I just got Arcane and he says he got it at
level 35. We talk about it for a bit and I check out his stats. I was so
impressed I wrote them down:

Strength 140
Endurance 145
Coord 100
Quick 140
Focus 170
Self 170

I say, "Wow, I'd kill for 140 Strength!" My Quickness is only 90 as well...
this guy has fantastic stats!! I wanna be him! Why am I so slow and weak...
I must be doing something wrong.

Mhali's current stats are:

Str 100
End 125
Coord 70
Quick 90
Focus 165
Self 165

Bear in mind I am eight levels below the guy, so my
coord/endurance/focus/self will probably catch up with his.
There's no way I will have Strength 140 and Quick 140 within eight levels
though :-(

I mention this to him and he tells me, "I started with 80 Focus, 90 Self and
10 Coord, then split the rest of the points. My Focus/Self cost 117K to
raise one point". ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTEEN THOUSAND XP. Mine costs....
18K. And it is only five points lower.

Oh my god.
I suddenly stop envying this guy and start feeling sorry for him.
What a nightmare.
117K.
His Focus and Self will never catch up with mine. His Magic Schools will
forever be many points below mine.
I may be slow and weak but at least I'm good at the things I intended to be
good at.

While we're talking he kills the Drudge Stalkers that are nearby. I was
expecting him to fight the Virindi that are with the Tuskers (which I'm too
scared to attempt) but he makes no effort to do so. It took him as long to
buff for Stalkers as it takes me to buff for Tuskers?! Poor guy.

I tell him I have to go because I want to portal back to Yanshi to try on
all my jewelry I've got muled, now I have Arcane. I bid him farewell and
wish him good hunting and Shurov away.

Just as I'm leaving he pulls out a sparkling thing I've never seen before.
I click on it just as I'm portalling out...

Superior Sparking Atlan Dagger

This guy has saved up his 16 motes for a Dagger - I'm guessing he's an
Aluvian mage (Why would you do that?) - even though Dagger is the weakest of
the Atlan weapons. And then he must've failed the skill check for a
Peerless and is fighting with a Superior.

I feel quite humbled.

Like many people, I have gimped characters. I have a level 24 swordswoman
with no magic on HG and I played an Archer to level 12 with no Magic and
starting 80 Coordination. But I have never played a char to level 40, let
alone a char with significant flaws. I know there are plenty of Source on
HG with worse gimpiness than this. I have HUGE respect for them. But it is
beyond my patience...

I have always wanted to be broken. And no matter how fed up I get with
being a mage, I have been given good advice. My character is as broken as I
could wish to be. I have made the right choices and my char is as good as
anybody elses. Thirty-two levels down the line, I'm still happy with the
choices I made.

I don't know if this guy was or not. Obviously he is enjoying it or he
would've given up playing his mage. He didn't seem at all bitter about it.
I think that's fantastic. It was a lesson in humility if nothing else. And
it certainly makes me very happy to be Mhali.

The Source has such a huge pool of experience to draw from that new
characters we make would rarely be less than perfect. This is thanks to the
people who learned this to hard way. I for one am enormously grateful.

I cast my first level six spell at level 28. How many people can say that?

Alice
Mhali - thinking the grass is pretty green right here today

P.S. This is not intended to insult people who have made char creation
choices different from mine or to say that they are any worse than me. I
think it's great that people enjoy the game with a variety of different char
choices. I'm just saying that I would get pissed off and reroll (I'm
impatient basically) and when I meet people like this I feel really lucky to
have friends like The Source. I started with a great template and that's
mostly thanks to Dhali and people like him who passed on to me the things
they learned from their experiences.