advise on joining US military

• go reservist or state

Same amount deployment missions, much better treatment and safer bases. You can go full time reserve and enjoy a better benefit than regular army shmucks.

• look into MOS identifier training

bug your recruiter for this. In my case(vehicle mechanic), the MOS identifier was '-H8'. You are above your peers because you got trained to do more stuff. Any and all training you can take, take. It all adds up in paycheck and nobody will fuck with you just because you have little extra pin on your chest. It's stupid, but people in general are stupid.

• fuck the top 25 job

Your recruiter will push you for these MOS, they are in demand, thus they get more points for shipping you in such job. What this means is that you're stuck. You will never be able to change MOS until you re up.

• look into sign up bonus

Some of this shit can be tens of thousands of dollars. Also, if you got friend who wants to come, you get a bonus for signing someone else. Get that bonus and split with your friends.

• learn the creeds and coc

In every unit you'll be at, you must know your job creed, soldier's creed, infantryman's creed, and your chain of command(boss names). There will be a lot of shit you need to memorize, don't be the one to get caught not knowing stuff you should.

• do research on what banks your basic/ait has

You should have a bank account for banks in your training base. No, Chase or Bank of America or US Bank are not in all of the bases.
It's bullshit, but get it set up online so you can close those account later. I couldn't close my account in fort jackson until years later I decided to cave in and buy a plane ticket there to be physically there to close it.

• Army Knowledge Online

make sure you pick an easy username and password to remember. Fuck the recruiters who tells you to make a secure un/pw. Fuck, put your last four ssn. There are ton of shits you will have to know, don't make more than you need to. Also, put their help hotline number on your phone. You will need it. You can change all that shit later after you get assigned to your unit.

• Armystudyguide.com be familiar with your regulation

Your success is 100% based on your knowledge of your references, not your actual skill. This is a problem, but not something you can fix. Know your army regulation numbers and memorize them. Shit, I'll tell you right now. AR 670-1 (uniform standard), FM 21-20 (PT), and FM 3-22.9 (M16). Know at least those three regulations back to back. Trust me on this.

• don't bring electronics

In training, they'll be taken away. Some training facilities are allowing them, but do yourself a favor and save the headaches. It will be a headache trying to get your shit back should anything out of the ordinary happen to you.

• stationary

Stationary were allowed when I was in training, which I admit was 10 years ago. Bring notebooks and pencil, so you can draw/write and not be bored out of your mind. Religious books such as bible is also okay.

• your recruiter is not the most knowledgeable person about military

Take what he tells you with a grain of a salt. Take what I tell you here with a grain of a salt. Every unit has their own standards, things are gonna be different. which leads to...

• BASIC and AIT life

some places will put your entire platoon in a wide ass open room and you might end up living with the dankest stank ass mother fucker, with two working laundry machine for 2.5k troops. some place will let you stay in a private apartment room. Don't expect nice shit to happen to you, nothing is guaranteed.

• mail

your family and friends are allowed to send you sweets. please have them do. You don't know it,
but you need them.

My old games and my high school crew

I have a story about this. Me and my group of high school friends were made of: myself the exclusively console kid, two 75% pc gamers who mainly played MMOs and FPS, and two dudes that played every games. I tried to spread my fighting game and beat em up enthusiasm to the rest of the group whenever I could. One of the idort kid, let's call him Far, was a social but the butt of the group since he said whatever the felt like saying and did whatever he did. He was not a bad kid at heart though. Anyway, my effort reached a fruition I guess because everyone seemed to enjoy games like D&D 2: Mystara and AVP the capcom arcade game. PS2 Launch comes around, and one of the mainly PC gamer bud buys Bouncer out of his savings. He was a 17-year-old with no work, he was really hyped for it to buy it from what little he saved out of lunch money. Then we had an all nighter one day at my place, and the kid forgot his Bouncer home probably because we were drunk as fuck from booze. From that day on, he proceeded to accuse Far for stealing his game. College time comes around, everyone was separated onto our own schools, hardly anyone met each other any more. I never went to college, and I stayed in my parents for a few more years. I decided I had to do something for my life and joined the army active duty as a mechanic. As I cleaned my stuff out of my parents' home, I noticed Bouncer and few games that weren't mine. I didn't pay them much mind, my parents weren't going anywhere and they didn't care to leave my stuff alone so I felt like I could return them when I have chance in future. 4 years later, I come home from my Army contract, and I found out that the kid passed away because he did too much drugs.

I don't have any contacts left for those old high school friends. I still have the game in my possession, hoping that I can return to the right owners one day. I'm so sorry guys.

How to save money early on in Ragnarok, pt 1-potting alt

A quick heads-up is if you have novice poring as your pet, your recovery rate doubles. You can also multi client a priest, which is free.

My two cents on potion alternatives that I personally liked;
1-meat with hell poodle or spring rabbit carded accessories heal as much as orange pots;
+it's cheap to set up and readily available in almost every cities
=added statues ailment, don't count on it, though
-weight cost
2-Ice creams with snowier carded accessories heal as much as yellow pots;
-need to have access to Jawaii
+ice cream drop activates really well on the go from kills of every monsters at 40% rate on two accessories as opposed to getting drops from a specific race
+cheap cards
-not as weighty as meat but still weighty to carry
3-fish and sushi with sea otter carded accessories heal about as much as red pots;
+card comes from a weaker monster
+not that weighty
=drops proc seperately, meaning you have 12% proc on two accessories which is passable but they only come from killing fish race
-Have to go to amatsu to restock
4-sky deleter carded armor;
=great for low level mobbing, but not so great after 80s
+cheapest pot alternative under lvl 80
-takes armor slot which really is better used for resists, flee or hp max increase aide
+allows one to be overweight and continue hunting
-disables natural regen
5-witch's pumpkin hat  gear combo, mainly with alarm mask;
-neither hats are that cheap for beginners
=no NPC to readily buy cookie from, but the drop rates are great anyway
+the loot pays for itself in about a month because cookie sells for good price
+the added defense against demon and undead really comes in handy
+no upgrade needed
6-rune headband;
+no upgrade needed
+good availability
-only a moderate rate of recovery tool for HP
7-rideword hat;
-have to upgrade to +9 for its true value, making it expensive
+well balanced HP and SP recovery makes it one of the most efficient tool
8-vanargand helm;
=doesn't require +9 upgrade for use, although that is what you probably want
-one of the more expensive hat of the game
+novices and super novices can wear one without link if you ever decide to make one
9-pirate's folly;
+cheap
-not as good as the other hats
10-turkey in your head;
+can use at endgame
-expensive
-have to upgrade for it to be useful
+pretty much permanent Increase Agi buff
-egg availability is terrible, and the hat doesn't produce it that well either
=really bad if using mainly for HP recovery, but it's actually a great hat otherwise
11-Horse king;
+it is a costume so the effects stacked with Rudolf when the effects were in
+The hat were free
-the effects are only seasonal
12-St. Patrick's Hat;
+produces green ale and drinks them too
-have to upgrade for its true value
-seasonal
13-Rudolf headband;
-seasonal
=hat can kinda go high in price depending on the market, not as bad as turkey/vanargand/rideword, though
+carrots are so cheap and light, they can be carried in the thousands
-14-Hunter Fly carded weapons;
+really good hp recovery
-each cards are expensive for newer players, and are heavily botted, so it is near impossible to be farmed manually
-goes to weapon slot which bogs down DPS



I've also heard good things about Easter Egg Shell, but I don't think that is really something OP is asking for.

Now, for the alternatives that were TOTAL WASTE of time and money in my opinion and why;
Umbala spirit-it's really expensive. So much to the point that it's better to just pot with whites.
Lunakaligo-used by pretty much battle priests only, and they usually can't carry that much aroud to begin with
shinobi and blazzer card-mainly just produces apples and potatoes, the good stuff don't drop often enough.
Any accessories card that produces lvl3 food; horrible production rate
Pizza Pie of Plenty-1% production rate and heals as much as a red pot. Total joke.

Personal memo

the thread that helped me forget 4chan:
http://boards.4chan.org/v/thread/275120498#p275120498

Breaking free from curse

Everyone who spends any time on the Internet frequently has at least one site to settle in. That could be anything, really, from a simple news site, to social network sites to forums to image boards. It may be an exaggeration, but I feel it isn't wrong to say that anyone who isn't doing work, but still on Internet is bored. It is natural human behavior to find a place to pass time, and other people who share a common interest. I was no different, and I had a need to set my home, if you will,  down somewhere.

That site for me was 4Chan. Not the first place, mind you. I guess now is a good time to talk about how I got there. When I first learned of Internet, I thought it was only made up of commercial and informational sites. I enjoyed reading updates of various anime and game sites very much-because 90's Japanese cultures were phenomenal-but I disliked how long I had to wait for new contents. Soon after, I discovered message boards, and my mind was blown away. Instead of waiting for days to get contents, messages popped up by hours! I begin searching through subjects that interested me immediately after. I started my internet no-life on Final Fantasy Worlds Apart, a miniature messageboard that was ran by some British guy who knew Japanese, and it was about the FF game series which was really big at the time. Then, around Final Fantasy Tactics or 8's release, I lost my interest, because of the drastic change the series has gone through. So, I moved to a few messageboards that were of my remaining interests, like fighting games. Sites like Orochinagi, Shoryuken, and SNK-Capcom still holds my user IDs, I'm sure. The problem is that Fighting game sites are competitive by nature, and so are the forum goers of fighting games. Although I was eventually able to adopt to the way things work down there, the path was hurtful and forum hierarchy annoyed me greatly. Around this time I found imageboards as I have been actively looking for porns. Then I got to old 5chan which, I liked, but eventually closed down for the Admin's personal reasons, and I followed the mass migration into 4chan alongside other users. I felt that being anonymous, I got to speak freely about my opinions.

It took me a decade, but I now see how untrue that is. Continue on another part due to post limit.

More on

Ragnarok Online - About Axe Mech raising.

It's hard to find information on the current RO, because we're basically playing a black sheep episode compared to other officials. Other official server is playing 14.3 or later(Morroc reconstruction and 3rd class skill add on, job level expansion to 60), and we're playing 14.2. So a lot of guides are replaced since it's outdated for their servers. Your best bet is to find 150s on ROPD, befriend and talk to the 150s, and find your own opinion of it. I had to consult many mechs before me until I settled on a solid plan that suits my style.

Giant Axe and Hurricane Fury have high natural ASPD and can be enchanted for, so that's an option you can consider as opposed to defaulting to Pile Bunker. Bellum Guillotine has best raw damage on AxeBoomerang,
Sea Captain Hat[1] is a great hat exclusively for Axe mech with axe tornado and axe mastery aide. Ghost Ship Anchor Earrings are accessories that reduct the main 4 elements 5% exclusively for Mechs. Downside is that they are cash shop items, not cheap.

further research material:
http://www.inven.co.kr/board/powerbbs.php?name=subject&keyword=%B9%CC%C4%C9%B4%D0&x=22&y=8&come_idx=1957&iskin=&mskin=&p=1&query=list&my=&category=&sort=PID&orderby=&sterm=

The Novice Guide

-Why the Guide, and why here?
-The guides at major guide sites such as GameFAQs are horrendously outdated and generally more for private servers based on pre-renewal than say, the official server, so I went through some crushingly wrong steps. I want to prevent others from as much pain as possible, because Novice is a long road to take.
As for why writing it here, the very nice Perma Novices of our forefathers have published their guides on the official site and major guide sites, unfortunately and unintentionally causing immoral merchants to overcharge such noted gears. Think about it.. should Smokie Card really be more expensive than a say, Muscipular Card? The Merchants will skew price at any chance. By posting the guide here, I can relay the informations to people who matter--my guildsmen--while hopefully keeping the merchants ignorant of things they can overcharge with. Finally, it also serves myself as a memo of info.

-Why should I care, if I'm not a Novice?
Everyone has to go through a Novice phase at trans; called High Novices. Although they have 25% more HP and SP than a normal Novice, their strategy are the same as normal Novice counter parts. You can save time when you get there, and perhaps you can impress your other trans friends while at it. Also, for those wanting to be a Super Novice, one has to stay as a normal Novice until level 45. Finally, most strategies employed by a Novice that does not involve the Play Dead skill can also be done by someone else of other classes.

-What's good about rolling a Perma Novice, anyway?
Novices have no exp death penalties, and respawn at 1/2 max health. This means, for those novices and super novices who are not planning to get the death-free buff of +10:
free travel back to last save point; and spawnpoint-exploit grind at Beacon Island, and other world towns; and relatively stress-free playstyle wherein it's completely ok to fuck around.
Another thing about Novices is that, since there hasn't been any class changes yet, it's possible to exploit the class change quests to move around for free. Notably, free travel to Einbroch and Amatsu. Novices are allowed to carry weight-free equipments. For High Novices, this means neat things like the ability to park 3 Fabre cards in his/her Novice Cutters for 300 extra HP. With Adventurer's Suit(+700), that number becomes +1000 extra HP and those cards are inexpensive.
Finally, while doing a story based quests and talking to NPCs in general, Novices are treated differently than another class character would be.

-Strategy
-Novice-only skills
Play Dead! Play Dead, to my knowledge, will bypass every PvE attacks, to include MVP skills. To use it offensively, the Novice should cancel hit animation of self during attacks with a Play Dead. If timed correctly, the mob will carry on as if it never noticed it was hit. As long as the Novice has enough SP, s/he can hunt every creature that is not aggressive. Lag is a factor on this strategy, as is base AGI.
On PvP, a Novice can use PD to trigger a Hunter's trap, and take no damage from it. However, most people at this point, are aware of the direct counter skills to Play Dead: Provoke; and Dispell, so it is unwise to Play Dead in WoE settings.

-Skills in General
Novices too can use normal skills. There are three kinds of skills:
(1)skills that activate while you attack something;
(2)skills that activate while you get hit; and
(3)skills that have to be manually cast.
The (1) and (2) skills have to make contact to activate, meaning "miss" does not trigger the skill.
Generally, the first two kinds of skills are free of SP for the Novice, thus, are much more practical on the Novice than the last one. SP doesn't come easy, and not only that, they tend to be more well-known so are more expensive on the market.

-List of notable Skill-granting gears that Novices can wear:
Banana Hat(Provoke)(1) 50kz - 200kz
Fish Head Hat(Endow Tsunami: Water Enchant)(1) 5mz-10mz
Kettle Hat(Deluge or Water Ball)(1) 1mz-5mz
Lesser Elemental Ring(sense, find stone, item appraisal or greed)(1) +
(1st Aid, back slide, leap, sprint)(2) 5mz-10mz
Carmen Miranda's Hat(Charming Wink)(2)
Asprika(teleport)(3)
(Adjective) Wig series(hiding)(3) cash item
Bell Ribbon(Angelus)(3) cash item
Ice Cream Hat(Frost Diver)(3) cash item
Observer(sense)(3) cash item
All in One Ring(teleport and Heal)(3) cash item

-Set combos that grant skills:
Angel set(Assumptio)(2) 800kz-2mz for the set
Lude and Quve card set(Endure or Increase Agility)(2) 3mz-5mz for the set
Owl Duke and Owl Baron card set(Lightning Bolt)(1) 15mz+ for the set
Monk card set(Rideword, Cookie, Fur Seal, Wast Stove Cards)(Signum Crusis)(1)
Merchant set(weapon perfection)-insignificant rate and duration, not worth it

-List of notable skill-granting cards:
Bloody Knight Card on Weapon(Meteor Storm)(1) 30mz-40mz
Bongun Card on Accessory(Bash + knockback)(1) 50kz - 500kz
Chepet Card on Weapon(Heal not on self)(1) 5mz-10mz
Gazeti Card on Accessory(Cold Bolt)(1) 3mz-5mz
Hatii Bebe Card on Weapon(Frost Diver)(1) 60mz-70mz
Greatest General Card on Accessory(Summon Spirit Spere[atk+3])(1) 300kz - 1mz
Hydrolancer Card on Accessory(Spell Breaker)(1) 50mz-70mz
Kasa Card on Garment(Fireball or Fire Bolt)(1) 40mz-60mz
Maero of Thanatos Card on Weapon(Decrease Agility)(1) 3mz-8mz
Metaling Card on Weapon(Divest Weapon)(1)100kz-500kz
Mutant Dragonoid Card on Weapon(Fire Ball)(1)15mz-25mz
Owl Baron Card on Accessory(Lex Aeterna)(1)10mz-15mz
Owl Dude Card on Accessory(Impositio Manus)(1)1.5mz-4mz
Poison Toad Card on Accessory(Envenom)(1) under 50kz
Stormy Knight Card on Weapon(Storm Gust)(1)
Turtle General Card on Weapon(Magnum Break)(1)
Wander Card on Garment(Snatch)(1)4mz-5mz
Wickebine Tres Card on Accessory(Divest Armor)(1)3mz-7mz
Wind Ghost Card on Accessory(Jupitel Thunder)(1)3mz

Alarm Card on Footgear(sight)(2) 500kz-1mz
Aliza Card on Armor(charming wink)(2) 1mz-4mz
Amon Ra Card on Footgear(Kyrie Eleison/guard)(2)
Anolian Card on Armor(Improve Concentration)(2) 1mz-2mz
Antonio Card on Armor(Teleport)(2) 20mz-40mz
Clock Card on Armor(Guard)(2) 100kz-500kz
Dark Lord Card on Footgear(Meteor Storm)(2)
Detadeurus Card on Armor(Magnetic Earth)(2)
Errende Ebecee Card on Accessory(Pneuma)(2) 7mz-10mz
Geographer Card on Armor(Blessing)(2) 500kz - 1mz
Grand Peco Card on Headgear(Gloria)(2) 50kz - 300kz
High Priestess Card on Armor(Assumptio)(2)
Ifrit Card on Accessory(Earthquake)(2)
Ktullanux Card on Armor(Frost Nova)(2)
Loli Ruri Card on Armor(Heal on self)(2) 10mz-12mz
Margaretha Sorin Card on Headgear(Lex Divina)(2) 5mz
Muscipular Card on Shield(Heal or Increase Agi on self)(2)
Shinobi Card on Accessory(Cloaking)(2) 5mz-10mz

Poison Spore Card on Accessory(Envenom)(3) 20kz - 100kz
Obeaune Card on Accessory(Cure)(3) 100kz-300kz
Horong Card on Accessory(Sight)(3)
Joker Card on Accessory(Steal)(3) 1mz-2mz
Smokie Card on Accessory(hiding)(3) 1mz - 2mz
Marine Sphere Card on Accessory(magnum break)(3) 1mz-3mz
Pirate Skeleton Card on Accessory(discount) 5mz - 10mz
Stapo Card on Accessory(stone fling)(3) 20kz - 500kz
Vitata Card on Accessory(heal)(3) 5mz-10mz
Creamy Card on Accessory(teleport)(3) 1mz-5mz
Seeker Card on Shield(stone curse)(3) 1mz - 2mz
Sidewinder Card on weapon(double attack)(3) 5mz-10mz
Assassin Cross Card on Garment(Cloaking)(3)
Frilldora Card on Garment(Cloaking)(3) 5mz-10mz
Lord Knight Card on Headgear(Frenzy)(3) impossible for use until 200 SP is available.

As you can see, price does not reflect practicalities.

-PVE survival
Most mobs are aggressive. However, there will be many mobs that will change its mood from aggressive to passive, after chasing a Novice for a long distance. Most of the time, this can be seen after the monster displays /swt emote. For that very short moment, a Novice can use PD exploit or a long range skill to damage the monster, and go back to running away until it is "tired" again. The moment you see a "target ring" cast on your toon, Play Dead. You will be able to avoid most every PvE attacks. Use Play Dead to get back up from laying, and an aggressive monster will move towards you. This is useful in a party when you need to pull a mob away from your friends,
and when luring a mob into natural corners of a map you're on.

Build Strategy
-Dodge Novice
focus on agi and luk. This build type has the best survivability. Pet: Lunatic or Poring
-Critical Novice
focus on str, dex, and luk. The most well rounded buid. Pet: Chonchon Set: Grand Peco + Peco Peco Combo
-Wanna be Super Novice
focus on int and dex. Heavily relies on defensive skills. Slowest to level, most rewarding. Pet: Drops, Munak or Baby Desert Wolf
-Looter and High Novice build
focus on Agi and Str, use HP adding equips and cards. Fastest to level. Pet: Peco Peco

-PVP
Novice will not beat anyone on 2nd Job and above. That is just the way it is.
A Novice generally has easier time on Mages and harder time on Acolyte and Swordman.
Current iRO support all item use to include fly wing, if a Novice is on a match with melee type, the Novice should expoit this, and use magic scrolls.

-Novice, or Super Novice?
As you can see above, in theory, most skills that Super Novices naturally have can also be done by a Novice, although it takes an insufferable amount of play time to reach such feat. Also, the way a Novice casts a skill tend to be unreliable. A Novice has Play Dead, and Super Novice does not. If all else fails, and someone gets sick of playing a Novice, he can change class to another class that most complements his build. Super Novices cannot, however, they do get to use more skills at once, which is their strength. A Super Novice generally will beat a normal Novice on PvP. Generally speaking, Super Novices are regarded as the worst of the final classes, one only recommended for those who like Novices. However, it begs the question, if someone likes Novices, why would he stop playing as one?

Please comment on the guide and let any mistakes known.