Newbie vs The Brick Wall

[*SanguineOrchid]

Okie so I'm still lurking, testing things out and figuring out just what sort of character I want to settle into, what sort of niche I'd like to take up and what not on the server. I favor the villainous mean girls (Ya know, the kind that walk by and everyone that was talking just mumbles under their breath "bish" and giggles to themselves, but at the same time are afraid to insult directly) that being said, I have a few good ideas where to start *points at her drow* and so forth.. The problem is the XP brick wall I keep running into while testing out various builds.

Reading the intro description of the server, it sounds like "Experience will not be made overly hard to get, but monsters won't be overly difficult to require superior builds to play either. There will be multiple ways to gain experience." Yet once in game, I find out that soloing is next to impossible for most builds.

From what I've seen, it appears that the typical leveling path goes something like this
-Bats to 3
-Zombies to 5
-Fey to 9
-Ice lizards to 12
-Giants to 15
-Orks/Devils to 18
-Demons to 21
21+ party or die

Herein lies the trouble, I can't make a character that can handle all of that with vendor gear. Casters get eaten by zombies, Melee gets eaten by Demons, Stealthers get eaten by Devils and everything else that casts invis and waits.

I'm not using random builds here, I like building and I'm not terrible at it, most of what I'm using are fairly strong builds on the other servers I've played through.. I seem able to handle most of this stuff solo before running face first into a brick wall of some sort, usually in the Abyss with an inability to hit the things there or before that point with a character that simply gets creamed in three hits.

Where are the easy non-power build requiring things I can vent my frustrations on with a standard character wearing whatever junk I happened to pick up along the way? What am I missing in this equation? I've asked for advice from a couple of people in game and usually what I'm told is to join a group.. Well.. someone destined to be an evil murdering psychopath that will randomly decapitate old people and kick puppies isn't going to be a prime candidate for group play with random people..

Is there a puff-ball leveling plane that I don't know about or some other set of quests on a hidden npc somewhere? The quests I've found in Sigil through talking with every NPC taper off rather quickly in the xp department.

How do you guys start off new characters and manage to get them to epic levels without extreme gear and lots of help from other players?

[*Reptiller]

"Ye basher aint a wall in tha brick so ye die,ayup" - I mean join a group,yes.

[*Knightoftheradish]

Don't waste money on vendor gear. Get better stuff crafted for less.

[*DM-Stitch(es)]

I have had the joy of seeing you play your drow ;) and personally, it is not easy to make me smile when someone plays a drow (personal preferences and all) but you play her well imo.


We all struggle, let me tell you that in advance :) leveling to 21 is ok to do on your own, but your conclusion is quite correct, to go beyond, you want to party up.

Now...the thing is, we do like to create an environment where rp flourishes and grouping tends to offer a nice platform for rp adventure :)

as for your items...maybe try to look up the crafter characters around? surely for the right price they can help your character to get items he or she requires...

Other than that...keep rp'ing! rp -is- rewarded in your xp pool!

I am not only online to terrorise ;) I also am online to spy...ehm...watch people rp :) and, reward!

[*Mr_Otyugh]

I have so far played a sorcerer, a spirit shaman, fighter and rogueish build. I can say pretty confidently that it runs down to this (on solo... party play I leave out of count):

Low levels:
- You stink unless you have fullplate. Very few exceptions.

Medium levels:
- Spellcasters finally have some fancey tricks and if they rest often they can manage.
- Rogues and non-caster melee characters beware of mind-affecting stuff and giants. Fight smart, not hard. Even normal hide can be really useful and a tad of patience.

High levels:
- Spellcasters, you'll be just fine... if not, switch your spells and/or tactics since you're doing it wrong :P
- Non-casters you'll get short end of stick unless you have HiPS... it's unfortunate, but the power-line between casters and non-casters is HUGE.


---

As for DR issues, get Cold Iron and Alchemical Silver weapons, not just +5 sword from NPCs, yes you'll lose a bit of AB, but make a lot more damage. My rogueish character uses 2 kukris and has fought in Abyss at levels 10-14 with mundane cold iron and alchemical silver kukris being able to damage and even kill a few, yeah I was daring and no... he didn't manage too well at all. He doesn't have HiPS either, but I used a lot of mundane stealth to avoid attacks and wait easy single targets. His items stink and he is poor :P



Economy of server is made to be low gold and high store prices to inspire player to player trading and hopefully more roleplaying that way as well, and I can promise that the prices are a LOT cheaper that way too.

[*Sith Chipmunks]

A mixture of the two suggestions, I would say, as a fellow new player.

I found that the best alternative to those outrageously expensive store items, its finding a crafter. It takes time, yes, but atleast you won't have to spend gazillions of gold on equipment you can get so much cheaper.

Second is partying up. Yes, I know it may seem difficult to find a group if your character is quite openly evil and the other people are quite openly good aligned, but... there are still some out there who doesn't give a damn one way or the other as to what your char likes to do. My own char is very neutral in his way of regarding other people, atleast.

[*Lost and not Found]

Login: Gibberling Gibbering
Character: Nym

- That, berk, doesn't have one of every item, but he does have something of an equipment collection he is willing to depart from, in every once here and there.


And against damage reduction, you also have to consider the amount of the reduction towards the enchantment bonus of the weapon. For example any 5/damage reduction can be countered by a reasonable enchantment bonus in the weapon. Personally, I almost always prefer the higher attack bonus over the damage output per hit.

And the actual differences between enchantments +4 and +5 are quite minimal. Thus in my opinion +4 weapons are enough to get the job done.




From experience, my main character has been holding up the lower end of the stick pretty much throughout his entire career. On top of that I've leveled him up all by myself.

Everytime I hit the wall with my character I simply fought against things that my character could manage against. The experience wasn't always the greatest, but I've never really had to face the issue of running out of jink. The NPC prices have never actually been that high as they seem.

And these days, If you spend half an hour in the bazaar talking with others you can easily get the monster experience rewards doubled for a while.

And I'd like to mention the following additions to the leveling list:
Under Sigil, Ethereal Demi-Plane.

And take my word for it, give all those different planes and dungeons a new chance once here and there. The monsters scale according to your level. Though how well it happens, depends on the location.

With the right build you could reach level 15 in Under Sigil alone.

[*cryptc]

What others have said are all good tips...

Also, keeping in mind not to expect to gain same amount of rewards when soloing generally since partying is given bonuses to encourage it... so when soloing you generally need to fight somewhat easier foes and expect lower xp...

We do try to make encounters so that solo won't be completely impossible however, so open for suggestions on how to even things out more... it will also improve when we have more levelling areas for each level range... for instance zombies in gray waste and under sigil are about same level areas but different difficulty based on build... a first level warlock will have an easy time killing zombies at range for instance

[*Product of Void]

okay something important no one said.

If you rp there is something of an xp well going so when you go hunt you get like DOUBLE the normal xp. Or you even get xp on log in on occasion.

There is at least six or more craters i know of. Just see a bunch of folk and ask.

DO NOT seek to get +5 gear go with +3 or +4. its cheaper A LOT cheaper.

My crafter enchanted a +4 ring last night, so just have to ask

Plus store bought vs characters LARGE discount. +2 str gloves in store 5k, from player probably 2-3k

[*SanguineOrchid]

Thank you everyone for the helpful comments! It looks like I'll be rerolling my drow a bit and getting one of my brothers to roll a new caster minion for her. ( )

It sounds like the best advice is to be willing to suffer through a few bouts of lower xp to get over certain hurtles and to hire more minions in sticky spots. (After all, what Ilythiiri jabbress would actually ask for help instead of commanding it?)