It's a BST's Life!

When I first started playing BST, NMs were my bane. Whether it was because other players were giving me a hard time or because an ogre was on the loose, I shunned NMs for the early part of my BST career.

Later on, they became a challenge, and it felt good to defeat any NMs that I stumbled across. Nowadays, they are an obsession: I have to strike them down -- whether it be alone or in teams -- for both booty and bragging rights.















A few weeks ago, I bumped into the NM above at least four times while hunting Ram Leather for my Alchemy mule. Although his drops are all but worthless market-wise, I needed some sixteen stacks of Ram Leather, and this NM provided a lot. He also happens to be the placeholder for another Ram NM, whom I did not get the chance to meet.















Or so I thought. Originally, I was only inching close to him little by little for a picture, but suddenly, the NM spun around, caught sight of me, and attacked! Although I wanted to run away, Bloodtear Baldurf kept using "Draw In" to effectively trap me in place.

At this point, I decided to "Charm" bind the NM only a few feet away, hoping that Masani could come rescue me before I became Ram food. Luckily, she reached me with about ~200 HP remaining, so the moral of this encounter is do not leave home without your jug pets.















For the time being, this NM is my current bane in terms of both competition and drop rates. With a three day respawn period, the ability to link all nearby Leeches, an "Endrain" effect on its melee hits, and the ability to spawn anywhere on the ground floor of the Bostaunieux Oubliette, one must possess insane patience to earn his or her Bloodbead Ring. 

Currently, my group is 3/12+ on claiming the NM and 0/3 on the drop (twice with TH1 and once with TH3). To make matters worse, the NM has the same name as the nearby Leeches, so the only way to differentiate this NM from its kin is by the NM's blue skin and position on "Widescan."















On a side note, never tackle a NM, when possible, without your trusty Adventuring Fellow. Now that Liabelle can reach level 70, I will be spending more time with her to further customize her gear and improve her effectiveness. That is all for now!