KoL - Trendy

So just recently, on November 15th, the new, special challenge path run was released for Kingdom of Loathing. Personally, I really liked Way of the Surprising Fist, so I was hoping for this new run, Trendy, will be as good and rewarding.

Well, here's what the description says for Trendy. "You're a slave to fashion -- a prisoner of style. You cannot use any item, skill or familiar that has been unavailable for more than one year. This includes Mr. Store items, holiday content, expired raffle items, and all other limited-time stuff."

I thought that if that's the only restriction, I probably wouldn't have too much of an issue with this run, since Way of the Surprising Fist had greatly reduced the amount of meat you gain from it. That was the major issue with that challenge path run, so with the meat gain un-nerfed, there's nothing to worry about. >_> ... And holy crap, was I wrong.

I've learned to become quite dependent on some skills and familiars that are already out of style now for ascending, and even with what I am allowed, I am still missing quite a few rather major things for speed ascending. I'm far from being a good speed ascender, but being that my ascensions have been taking roughly 5 to 7 days, I'd like to consider myself somewhat competent in effectively perming skills frequently enough. But after jumping into this Trendy run, there are several major flaws for me that are keeping me from ascending as fast as I was. >_<

1. Lack of spleen familiars
 - Holy crap, was this a huge oversight. These are the spleen familiars that I have. Llama Lama, Baby Sandworm, and Rogue Program. None of these are available in Trendy as of November 2011. >_< The only one that IS allowed is the Pair of Stomping Boots, which I don't have. So unless I can make wads, no adventures for me from spleen items.

2. Lack of good MP source
- I'm not ENTIRELY short of MP, but no Rogue Program certainly hurts, as is the lack of my Stocking Mimic, and Mini-Hipster too. Right now, I'm using my Pet Cheezling since I decided to do this as a Saurceror, but it isn't exactly the most reliable source of MP. The only familiar I usually use that gives MP is the Slimeling, which is definitely nice to have, if I have equipments to feed it. Except for the fact that...

3. Can't summon Sugar Sheets
- Usually I give the fairy type familiars Sugar Shield to increase its weight by 10 lbs, which would both increase item drop rate, as well as the MP recovered from the Slimeling. Without it, it seems so weak, especially for the equipments I'm expending on it. Even aside from this, my familiars are still fairly nerfed due to...

4. Can't use certain skills
- Particularly the Turtle Tamer buffs that I've grown to be reliant on to power up my familiars a lot. Jingle Bells, especially for recovering MP, and Curiosity of Br'er Tarrypin. ... Oh geeze, I just realized Inigo's Incantation of Inspiration can't be used either. Other skills I have that I can't use are... Summon Stickers, Summon Love Songs, Summon Brickos, Summon Tasteful Items, Unaccompanied Miner, and a few other minor skills like Vent Rage Gland, Rainbow Gravitation, etc. Shouldn't have wasted my time getting the Epic Weapon for Turtle Tamer just for Empathy of the Newt. ._.;;

5. Even old VIP clan furniture are off-limits
- Well, the April Shower is still available. But the pool table was very helpful to have, especially on day 1.

6. Leveling is slow
- I have less adventures, and because I am a lot more reliant on my Pet Cheezling right now for MP, and have no access to Llama Lama, Baby Sandworm, Baby Bugged Bugbear, Mini-Hipster, etc. stat gains are definitely slower than what I'm used to.

Geeze, this is quite a lot of stuff I'm having to go without. At least I'm in Hardcore, so pulling equipments that are old isn't an issue for me. Makes Softcore a lot less worth it to me, if I can't even use the Crown of Thrones, Greatest American Pants, and other IotM I have.

Right now, I'm waiting for day 3, and I haven't even gotten Liver of Steel yet. D= Turns out my Jabañero Saucesphere is only Softcore permed though, so that certainly doesn't help with my MP management. I actually grabbed the Cola equips this run too, which I haven't done in forever. So many things I'm doing differently in this run. @_@ It's kind of scaring me. If it's taking too long to do the Trendy run, I may just do normal runs after December, since I'll also be losing my Pumpkin Patch in my campground too.

I'll most likely be staying in aftercore after this run in preparation for this year's Crimbo event. While waiting for the event to start though, I may be working on some clan dungeons or go for my third run down Fernswarthy's Basement, since I am a Sauceror. Either way, expect to see another update on KoL when the Crimbo event starts.