u/_Origin

With new servers releasing next week, I was doing some planning and testing and I have a few questions:

• My understanding is that Newhaven is a mess on new servers, as it takes a long time to get to level 8 with that many people sharing a small island, which generates long queue times. Is this the case still or have they fixed this? Why don't people simply go to Rook?
• In case you decide to go the Rook route, do you also go to Targuna at level 8?
• Regarding Targuna, it can't be skipped unless you pay 5k gold, which you won't have this early, can it?
• This being the first server release since Targuna was introduced, do you think it will be crowded too? Will this be a problem or can you simply rush the quests to get the voucher? What about the boss?
• Is there any way to get to Adventurer's Island from Targuna? I guess not, or it would let you skip it via the teleporter, right?
• If you were to use some exercise weapons at server start, would you do so in Targuna or try to complete the island and leave first?

I keep seeing all these posts about Ring Bearer being the most OP card ever and for the life of me I don't get it. Is this some sort of meme I'm missing?

By itself it doesn't give that much tempo, it's own comp is kinda meh and while it supports a couple better builds, its not even essential. I rarely win with it or see it in the winner's board.

Do you think CipSoft already has enough internal data and is just using this as a final check? (Yes, lol)
Do you think they want to keep us from testing, for some reason?

Or maybe these few days is enough time for what this entails?

Whenever I try NSA, I end up hitting these performance drops after a few weeks. My first thought is overtraining, but the way they show up and how diligent I am with intensity makes me unsure.

For context: I’m around 22:30 for 5k. I’ve tried both 6 and 7 days per week, always with 3 ST sessions. I’m very disciplined with pacing. I never go above LTHR, and my easy runs are around 65% or even lower when I’m feeling good. Still, I understand this might simply be too much for my level.

What makes me doubt the overtraining explanation is how these slumps occur. I’ll be improving steadily for a few weeks, feeling great, even hitting PBs in TTs, then suddenly my performance drops sharply. Sometimes it is one bad workout followed by a really bad one two days later. Other times it happens almost overnight. The longest I’ve gone without a slump is about 10 weeks when I first started the method.

That first slump is the only one I’ve fully worked through. I adjusted paces based on HR, and after about two weeks I was running better than ever. The second slump came three weeks later and lasted another three weeks before I stopped for a few months. I’m now about a week into a third slump, six weeks after restarting NSA.

During these slumps, my ST pace drops by about 15 to 20 seconds per km, normally around 4:50 to 5:05 per km. Easy runs are more inconsistent. They can look fine due to HR caps, but some feel extremely slow. I do adjust paces, but recovery takes longer than I would expect, even when I am running significantly slower. Yes, I'm accounting for heat.

External factors seem mostly fine. Sleep and nutrition are consistent and do not appear correlated with performance. Stress or anxiety might play a role at times, but I do not see a clear pattern. That said, once a slump starts, it definitely gets in my head. I can feel nervous heading into runs, which may make things worse. Still, that feels more like a consequence than the root cause. Other than worried about my completely unpromising running carrier, I feel perfectly normal in my day to day.

My plan is to drop to 5 days per week with 2 ST sessions to make things more manageable and build from there. But I would be interested to hear whether this sounds like classic overreaching or overtraining, or if I might be missing something.