Talk:Perseverance/@comment-43864192-20200203230841

First, sorry for writing such a long comment, but it really was a journey for me.

After winning the M4 GT4, I saw that I had 99 cars in my garage, and the Perseverance SE was sitting in my local Event Archives reel for about 3 months with the rest of 8.1 free for me, so I decided to go ahead and do this rather impulsively. This was, interestingly, my first recommended PR SE that I would be doing. Because I'd read that this was a hard event, I decided to do the first 3 stages on the first day, which for me was Tuesday. the first two were fairly easy, and were done quite quickly.

Then came 3.2, with me still struggling with the handling of the car. For me, that pretty much marked the start of the frustation era (if one can call it that) for me about this event. Sliding everywhere with no upgrades, I needed quite some time to get past it, with some doubts about me completing the event already in my mind. 3.3 was the last I could do on that day, and then I got stuck at 3.4, really getting frustrated. I wouldn't do it till the next day, by the slidey nature of the stock car. In fact, until I'd learned how to use the curbs as rails, I was getting stuck there for quite a while. Then, the cut-and-block-ridden 4.1. The needed method was quite frustrating and unusual as well, I just couldn't see myself doing it. I then upgraded to all 1s and then the slight advantage at the Parabolica and better handling was somehow enough to make this happen. The rest of the 4th stage was relatively easy, and I was then done with it on the next day. After that, I didn't do this event for Thursday for the quizzes on Friday, and for Friday as it was a busy day for me.

Then the real kicker for me was 5.2, me already trying this on Wednesday for some time. Really hard, the car kept sliding very easily, and I couldn't manage to even catch Victoria with these upgrades. This is when I had real doubts about me being able to complete the event, and then I decided to leave the optimal strategy (I was following SMR and ME7 for the strategies), and just upgrade to the recommended PR. I didn't do anything on I did that for 5.2, and the seemingly small effect on Victoria was enough to follow and then overtake her. The rest of 5th stage was fairly easy. I then proceeded to do the same for the 6th stage and with two of the third stage upgrades yet to finish, I was at 68.4 PR. come 6.4, and I've never been happier for having chaotic AI. Every time, 2-3 of there people kept going off at the top of Raidillon, Victoria included most of the time. Then it was a matter of keeping it clean and taking Blanchimont near-flat.

Then, another usual culprit: 7.2. Ended up being fairly easy at 3332333, as one needed only 5 braking markers for the circuit, and 7.4 was also rather easy, me finishing the lap in about the last second. Then, I just upgraded the suspension to 3rd level and tried 8.2 for a few times, ending usually at 177-178 kph average. I did do 5.2 to 8.1 in about the same weekend, the courtesy of it being, well, a weekend. Then, after Monday's jobs were done, I decided to watch some videos for better lines and give some more tries for 8.2. I needed 30-40 attempts to get this one, losing out by silly mistakes, but it still felt doable every time. The final attempt was quite fun, getting the final corner right that time. Then PTT for 8.3 and catching Magnus at the hairpins. In the end, 8.4 needed another 30-40 attempts for the right line through the corner, and that was about it.

In the end, I'm quite happy to get my 100th car, and my first recommended PR SE car, only at all 3s (70.3 PR), like many others.