so i made a character to push XP up to tinka. his name is shikome zue, named for a kind of japanese sword hidden in a cane, inspired by the sword lucy liu carries in kill bill vol1, which i saw the other night.
kome is an item only tank, and since his only real mission is to earn XP for his mistress, i went ahead and PL'd him a bit. after giving him all the white wasp wings and olthoi claws my other characters have collected, and a few buffs in the olthoi arcade, he is 24th level after about 4 hours of game play, and hasn't had a single death. it's revolting.
now i see why some choose to UCM. i still don't apporive of the practice, but if you are just going to buff up and hit the same dungeon, you might as well not be at the keyboard. anyway, in a few more levels he'll be able to hit the arcade and then some other place after that. playing him isn't much fun. i have taken item tinking with him to start out, tho i still haven't made a decision about what to with his other credits. at the very least, he will make a nice mule since he is so strong.