Dungeons and Divination - Finishing the last two Skills

Had a landmark week last week.  On Thursday, 120 Dungeoneering.  Friday, 99 Divination.  Saturday, got the "of Daemonheim" title.  

Getting 120 DG took a long time.  I've always played solo or duo (on those occasions when my wife joins me at Daemonheim).  She's got her 99 cape, and is getting closer and closer to the 120 as well.  When Dungeoneering first came out, I liked it, but didn't spend any time on it.  All my bonus experience went to it, like penguins, and Juna, and I wound up in the mid-80 levels without having played it.

After that, I started soloing dungeons.  Don't have the temperament to play in a team.  When daily challenges and sinkholes came out, well, it certainly made gaining exp much easier.  Not to devalue the hard work of those that came before, but I'll take what I can get.  As long as it's from honest playing.

Getting the "of Daemonheim" title wasn't quite as major as maxing a skill, but it was a solid effort.  I missed the easy week.  Remember?  The first week, when players could do Hard Mode on small dungeons?  By the time I began, it was Hell Week.  That was the week when every hard mode floor was a Large.  Finally, it settled to mediums by default for solo and duo adventurers, and larges only for bigger groups of players.

Regardless, I finally did all 60 floors.  Picked up all the cool drops along the way... the Primal gear, the Blood Necklace, the Hexhunter Bow, Celestial Catalytic Staff.  I know, some of that stuff was nerfed when EOC came out, but who knows - some day that Hexhunter might be a mighty weapon again. 

By the way, I've seen plenty of Night Spiders since the EOC, but have never seen a Shadow Silk Hood drop since then.  Before that, I've had 3 SSH drops.  Does anybody know if they aren't dropping any more?  Or is it just a super-super-rare item now?

Been working as hard as I can on Divination, which came out 8/20/13.  At this point it's been nearly three months.  Wow.  I wanted the Max Cape back, thought this would only take a short while.  After all, with so many 99's already, it shouldn't be that hard to do another... right?

 Actually, levelling to 99 is a lot more time-consuming than I remembered.  No idea how the first players to 99 got there so fast.  Now that I'm face to face with how much time and effort it takes, the upcoming Inventor skill seems less and less interesting.  Maybe that'll change once the skill is out.

In the meantime, it's been a long slog.  Especially levels 90-95.  Getting out to the desert behind Sophanem is a pain.  Wiki recommends not even training there, but going back to the old place on Dragontooth Island  just isn't any fun.  Even if it's faster.    The final rift out near the Poison Wastes isn't exactly 'convenient' to get to, but it's not as bad as Sophanem.

I've been pretty grateful for any and all exp lamps and boosts along the way.  Using the Jack of Trades Aura daily, getting about 10k exp for just a minute or so of effort.  Any Squeal of Fortune prismatic lamps go directly to Divination as well.  Best of all, the prismatic pendants.  They were released a year ago (13 November 2012).  Knowing two new skills were on the way, I've been stockpiling them.  Plus the recharge gems.

At level 96, I used them all.  The new system of storing bonus experience is pretty cool, and every pendant from the past year went on Divination.  Came to something like 1,200,000 bonus exp.  Yes, that's over 1 million exp points.  As long as it lasts, all my Div exp is doubled.  I went from 96 to 97 in one single day.  It was a very long, very dedicated Saturday, but just the same, it was one single day.  By Monday night, it went to 98.

The bonus exp ran out with about 400k to go.  Slow and tedious again.  But while the bonus lasted, it was a lot of fun.

It feels really, really good to have all those goals done.  Haven't decided what to work on next, there's still plenty I haven't done yet.  For the moment, I'm rebuilding my bank.  Spent close to 100 million gold buying memories to speed up training.  And, I have to admit, some spins on SOF to get the exp-boosting Divination costume.  Got all but the headgear.  It helped.

Now I've got the Max Cape back.  Since my current look sports a lot of Gold - thanks to Super September and the super-hero costume - it's set to a matching gold/yellowish theme.  The costume is pretty much a mash-up of several different pieces.  When gold gets old, it'll be time for a new color scheme.  The cosmetic overlays are totally impractical, but a lot of fun.

At the moment, I've earned back around 20 million gold, and going strong.  After that?  Who knows... it's a big world!