Experience of a mid-level player

Discussion in 'Feedback' started by Ysold, May 7, 2021.

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  1. Ysold

    Ysold Avatar

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    I've been playing for over a year now and let me start by saying I'm having lots of fun and hope to stay here for a long time to come. I love gathering and crafting, but I also like to make some progress in hunting mobs. And that's where I'm more or less running into a brick wall at the moment.
    Partly that's my own fault: I play 3 characters (archer/tamer, melee/swords and a stealthy character I'm at the moment equipping with death magic) so I spread my activities probably too much. But all 3 characters are pretty much stuck in lvl5 zones. My tamer can do the easier parts of Ulfheim and can do Crags Foothills; and my melee/swords character can do reapers/trolls, but that's it. Moving forward is mostly hindered because I can't find ways to generate enough XP to develop skills. Hardened skellies or elves in more than duos are still a problem my characters, except for my archer/tamer. But my archer/tamer needs way more XP to advance than my other characters.
    Yes, I locked at lot of skills by now. Yes, I'm using foods/devotional buffs/some 3-days buffs/potions. Yes, I have decent gear (but not good). Yes, I learned some tricks by now to manage mobs.

    What I'm really missing is some nice level 6-8 zones to hunt in and to progress in naturally. And there aren't any at the moment, really. There are 4 level 6 zones. The mobs there are either too easy, or too hard AND too many of them. There are 2 level 7 zones and 4 level 8 zones. All have the same problem again: either mobs that are too easy and too few or mobs that are too hard AND too many of them. I mean, I might be able to tackle one elite skeleton or 2-3 hardened ones, but why put them in groups of 8? So, any of these zones aren't really suitable to generate XP. I find myself doing more and more gathering to generate adventuring XP by way of meticulous collection - but I can't imagine this is what you intended as the obvious way to progress.
    There are 60+ level 5 zones, and a lot of really amazing and lovely zones amongst them!
    And 10 level 6-8 zones.

    Perhaps it's telling that I don't meet many other people who are where I am: level 90-100. Most people I meet are either far ahead or far below. I really crave some good midlevel content. I figure you're concentrating on new high-level content. Of course, the most loyal players are the ones that are at home in high level content. But for a game that is viable in the long term, I think it's important too to make it possible for newer players to keep progressing and make the transition to join that happy bunch. That will only help to create a larger steady player base.

    Having fun anyway, but getting slightly frustrated.
    Ysold.
     
  2. Turk Key

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    You are, I assume a solo player. It is difficult when you find that more and more this game is for group play only. The problems for solo players take a back seat now days. You can, however progress more effectively. Experience maintenance is probably the most important thing to do. I know I might come off as being a know it all or holier than thou. I am a mid to high level player now 130 adv. Lots of cash and have just about everything one could want. I had the same problem as you when mastering level 5 and on. It was a slow go and most frustrating time for me. Although managing experience is most important, there is a whole lot of advantage to be gained with gear management too. Maximizing the attributes on your gear to the play style you choose is paramount. There is something to be said about solo progress. It's yours and carries it's own reward. A little slower, a lot harder, and IMO more rewarding that group play. Not to belittle group play it is fun too, but a different kind of fun. Both are rewarding in their own right. So what am I saying? Work on your gear, don't spend any experience till you have a big pool. Patience. As to the gear, best to seek help. So many crafters out there that have some pretty good stuff that they will never use and cannot sell. I am one of them. So if you want to look over my chests of gear, I would be happy to oblige. Then for experience, there are a few areas that you can do over and over with a good experience gain/loot drop that will maximize your time. If you are interested, PM me here on the forum. I would be happy to share my experience and perhaps some of my excess gear would be helpful.
     
  3. Asclepius

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    @Aldo has give excellent advice do take it onboard. As a solo player also I can agree that it is a long hard slog at times - I don’t know how long I spent in the level 5 forest just south of Owl’s head. Right now at lvl 130 I’m doing a similar apprenticeship in Tartarus. The XP and loot are pretty good there. But it does happen eventually, you find yourself knocking over the mobs more easily, then it’s time to move on.
    For me the sweet spot is to find yellow mobs (slightly higher than your level) that you can kill fairly easily. That gives the best XP/effort return.
    I agree gear is important - nicely crafted and enchanted/master worked gear will help a lot. Best of luck!
     
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  4. Superbitsandbob

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    At 90-100 you have hit a bit of a soft cap with regards to content. You can still make progress but it takes so much experience to continue to increase skills it becomes a real grind as a solo player. I knew some players (at that time anyway, not sure how viable it is now) that changed specs to something like Fire (I did it myself for a bit) just to get over the hump by AOEing loads of stuff down. That or join an XP focused control point type thing for a period of time. Not fun but maybe a necessity. Maybe someone could power-level you for a bit if you know someone? At roughly your level with some AL buffs I could solo Tartarus zombies or Upper Tears after the revamp but that was 6 months ago and focusing on Fire spec and defence.

    The problem you will face after that though is the content has been made even harder but not in a creatively challenging way. Just chucking the kitchen sink into scenes or making up some mega sprinting zombie type things. With the ongoing "balancing", you may find it harder and harder going forward depending on your spec. Also the better equipment to upgrade with just gets higher and higher in cost.

    The answer was probably scaling scenes but this doesn't seemed to have been implemented much beyond the newer high level one.
     
  5. Alley Oop

    Alley Oop Bug Hunter Bug Moderator

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    i remember being slowed for a while around that point too. things other people suggested will help but to a degree you just have to grind through it. the way i made it feel less like a grind was by setting myself other goals (that i'm still not all done with at 130). learn all the recipes. get all the collectible heads. find all the books. quest. get every zone on your scroll list. get patterns for all the droppable gear. a lot of artifacts are really common now but there are still rare ones: go get a creepy dolly. (ooh, the lower section of upper tears is good for that: only a couple of higher level barbarians well spaced out.) ANYthing that doesn't make you feel like you're just checking off your quota of xp.
     
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  6. Violet Ronso

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    For once, I don't thing I need to provide tips or tricks on how to progress further. The feedback is well deserved, the 6-9 tiers scenes are lacking.

    I think what might have happened is players starting doing CPs and other very rewarding scenes, and did some kind of jump from T5 to T10, and this was to the detriment of other players who could have enjoyed those missing tiers.

    Give the players more T6-9 scenes, I think it's time with all the balance passes!
     
    Last edited: May 8, 2021
  7. Ysold

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    Thank you all, it's especially good to know that it's not just me and that I'm not having these troubles because I'm a lousy player :)
    I joined an XP party once and it was a disaster, but I'll give it another try. And for the rest I'll be patient and grind my way upwards!
     
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  8. Time Lord

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  9. Vesper

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    If you're watching levels remember that the xp from 92-100 is the same as 1-92. You can use CP groups but of you enjoy solo play... CP groups are going to numb your mind, and are not indicative of what fun group play is. There deffintly is a soft spot for scenes right around where you are, I ran into that years ago as well. What I did was find a small group of friends to continue progressing through content in a manner similar to how I was playing solo.
     
  10. Belladonna Rose

    Belladonna Rose Bug Hunter

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    its just a matter of finding a zone you can work through easy to medium and build up xp. Turn everything off and only work one or two at a time. It will come. I am still not that great and i been playing since the game went persistent and still have a rough time of it. Just gotta do what makes ya feel comfortable and have fun with it. If its not fun then its not worth it
     
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  11. Cora Cuz'avich

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    I think finding a spot is less an issue than the lack of spots in that level range. There is a large lack of content that is suitable to players in the "Shroud Doldrums" of level 85ish-110ish. (The exact range is going to depend on build.)

    Yes, there are scenes in that range. Yes, there are t5 scenes that give good xp and rewards. But this kicks in right as the leveling curve starts to get steep, and I suspect a lot of players (that aren't interested in parking in a control point for days on end) drop out after a while, because the scenes that are an appropriate challenge aren't many, and they get old fast. I managed to stick around, but my play time went from a few evenings a week to pretty much just a few hours on Saturday or Sunday because that was about how long the same scenes over and over could keep my interest.

    I think the devs need to address this problem sooner rather than later. Given that they lack the manpower to add new content at least somewhat in line with the speed we can consume it (and that new content often only serves a subset of total players, depending on scene difficulty) I'd really like to see them take 2-3 months and finish off the scaling scene tech, so that it can be applied to older scenes. It seems like a fairly easy way to introduce content pretty quickly, as the scenes already exist. I'm sure it's still a bit of work to add the tech to existing scenes, but I have to think it's faster than new scenes from whole cloth. But how fun would a t7 Crags Foothills be? Or a t8 Elysium Mines? Or better yet, all those really cool uncloned t3-t4 scenes nobody ever visits after they've leveled past them, unless there's a blessing in there or a daily that drops a desirable artifact. I used to spend sooo much time in Blackblade Foothills, but once Elysium was an option for mining, I never went back. It's a dang spiffy scene, why not make it worth revisiting?

    Anyway. That's my 2 COTOs.
     
  12. Gadfrey Zukes

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    Well said. This was my experience as well. As a solo player, I still find that I am bored quickly with the scenes with decent challenge (usually around tier 6 with buffs depending on monsters). I am a casual player that does not really pay attention to min maxing. I’d be in game more if there were more quests or new content in those tiers.
     
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