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Ideas for lv1-90 new character guide?
Its been a long time since I leveled a char from 1 - 90. The game has changed quite a bit -- with the addition of character growth bonuses, plus weapon/armor for completing certain stories. But I wonder -- what is the experience like for a new player to level up to 90?
So I want to level up a new character with the following restrictions (could change depending on input):
- No gold/equipment from outside characters.
- No side stories. Only main storyline.
- No buffs like VVIP. Only buffs that the character receives while playing.
- Where possible -- no event buffs
- No welcome boxes from the strange traveler
With that said I'd post updates possibly every 15 levels and report back metrics like: how much AP, how much gold, how long it took to reach the level, what my current stats/armor/wep is. Maybe some insight on the MP offerings or how much assistance/boats I see.
Any thoughts? What restrictions would you apply to make this as "fresh" as possible? What information would be interesting/helpful to newbies to report back on? This is not meant to be a character specific guide.
Comments
Your premise is interesting, but trying to recreate a "new player" experience is nigh impossible, due to you already having advanced knowledge of boss patterns and movesets. An example is the early Red Ruins raid: As a veteran, I can solo it on a new character. For completely new players, I'd put money on them getting destroyed the first time.
There are also a bunch of variables(boat oaths, dungeon drops, [time of the] day you play, etc) that could skew individual results. So, yeah, some clarification of what your end goal of this project is would be helpful.
If you just want to challenge yourself while levelling up, that's cool too.
The completion exp they give everyday is currently a big help. Also you get free VIP from the level up rewards.
I was charging through all the story quest aswell as accepting all the side quest, I never "did" the side quest though, some story quest are linked with side quest so I just get free exp.
I rarely had to run the same dungeon more than 3 times and you get free starting with your class set, all the way to level 80. So gearing was not a problem at all.
I did not transfer anything to this character except for the super week boxes I had from other alts.
I'm trying to accomplish two primary things:
I'm putting in the restrictions to counter the usual biases an experienced player would introduce when starting a new character. A big example of that is transferring millions of gold to ease the process. Or as Cessa encourages to get carried. But a brand new player would not have that luxury.
-Facetank to 60
-facetank to 80, ignore anything that says [Raid] unless there's a party
-join the most popular guild in channel 1
-pretend to be a girl and get free stuff from neckbeards
-????
-quit because you're burnt out
When I was first leveling, I was extremely stubborn in terms of being carried. While some moments like that leads to a good thing, other times it tends to backfire.
These restrictions operate similarly to how I play in terms of leveling my character up. I learned how the game works (including the market) with my own wit.
Some bosses are generally easy (free kills in my book), while others will give you a rough time whether its through their BS moveset, or hitting you while you're stunned to the ground. Though, I tend to go after easier bosses and put oaths on them for extra experience. Now, you can progress through the story while gaining levels with little to no trouble, but the issue I see now is that the game caters you too much that you don't get a chance to maximize your skills out.
A recent challenge I did as I leveled was when I did not equip my armor at all, and entered dungeons with just my weapon. I know it may be a big shock to some, but I liked to challenge myself to my limits.
You can get up to level 50 easily just by doing the main storyline and doing every battle under the oath known as season of macha if able. While that may be an extra challenge, it's good practice to know how to dodge an enemy attack. If you die, don't feel down, just reset and try again, you still get a bit of exp and it eventually adds up over time. If for say you die at least 5 times in a row, just stop doing that dungeon and find an easier one to gain a few levels/materials and try it again.
Ideally, you can get a weapon/armor up to +5 without the need of elixirs. Usually that can give you an edge in battle in terms of damage/survivability.
50-60 you can fight Zyagra
60-70 you can fight Blood Fist
70-80 you can find other peeps s2 story battles and do those for free experience.
80-90 you can do autumn reed bed, or if you do not have the story available, world of pain.
60 weapon recommendation is either colru or dreamwalker weapons
70 can either be black elchulus or red elchulus weapons as they are easy and cheap to make. 14 ores as opposed to 20 ores on the other 70 weapons and usually have higher attack and crit.
80 can be either lakoria, or armageddon depending on the class and stats. Heremon and noblesse is kind of slow speed wise. Skeleton can give a load of speed while sacrificing attack, but it's hard to make due to the ore requirements along with needing 3 dark essence where each one takes 20 erg cores a piece.
a +10 80 decisive valor weapon should give you enough of the stats to solo these guys just fine. Give plenty of time and practice and you'll get their patterns down quickly. In my opinion, the hardest one to tackle early on is Ekindus considering he loves to throw knives when you least expect it. If needed, you can bring lights of palala to lift their curse. Small bombs can work as well, but they are less accurate, and can be sent flying depending on other party members.
Some people who come into a game intentionally want to level slowly, but those players are even more likely to look up information about the game and have an understanding of all that they need to do to have the experience you're talking about. What you're doing really doesn't line up with the "typical" new player experience.
One restriction you could add is to not repeat any battles, if you can avoid it. I think the main story has you do Gnoll Assembly Area and The Evil One twice. With that, you can take note of what levels require you to grind an extra level or two to continue the story. Without doing side quests, you're going to run into a lot of grind walls.
Another restriction could be to not use the Mission Board quests(K), but I don't think many people do them as it is.
I haven't created a new character since the Character Growth Goals were introduced. Will you be taking advantage of the EXP, AP and buffed accessories? In addition to that, the Welcome Box and the 2-day VIP capsule are accessible to new players. I can see you forgoing them as a new player might not know about them, but it still seems an odd choice.
It appears you want to arbitrarily limit yourself for the sake of added challenge. That's fine but, like Prototypemind mentioned, I don't think your data will reflect the average new player experience. That said, I am interested to see how feasible a Main Quest only run through of the game would be. If that's fun for you, go for it.
You make a good point. No matter what I do it won't really simulate a new player. Their interactions with the environment will be random.
I fully expect that base XP will not be enough to level at certain points. I want to find out where that is though. In levels 1 - 15 you can level up with just the base storyline. Side-story quests are a waste of time in leveling.
Really it's not to challenge myself. Just wanted to put a twist on the usual level up experience. More of a curiosity. I would not do mission board quests. Keep in mind that the AP shop is only available to players level 40 and higher. Therefore using 2-day VIP would only be for part of the leveling experience.