I have a question regarding progression.

Hello, so i have a question when it comes to Zone progression and Adventure Level, gear etc.


So yesterday i was farming skull 2 area Whiteguard foothills at this time i was adventure Level 27 and i was oneshotting mobs and my guildie asked if i wanted to join on skull 5 hunt to build up my xp pool, so why not. We went off to kill bears for about 2 hours i would say, and i gained like 12 Adventure Levels during this time, so really effective. I went from 240hp to 330hp, all this while skilling my main skill (blades like 10 times up to 80) and all my abilities are closing in to 60.

So feeling good about my progression I went off to Serpents Spine Foothills wich is skull 3, But that enjoyment came to a halt really quickly. I was getting ripped apart while doing 0 damage.

The question i have is, where does my damage come from? I mean i can stand in a skull 2 area and probably AFK Level my skills because my auto attacks will take care of the mobs in Seconds without me having to do anything, so its extremely non challenging and boring. But on the other part if i go to a skull 3 area, i struggle. I assume its Down to my Dexterity wich is 31, i have 41 strength (unbuffed) buffed i have like 65.

I dont really understand why i cant handle a skull 3 zone while having doubled my skills Level and stuff 'And what is the gear path i am looking for after copper as a melee?

 

part of what controls whether your hits connect and you can avoid ones coming at you is dex, but part of it is just sheer adv levels and the difference between yours and your target's. in a five-skull zone, with a party, you probably weren't hitting much, which was good because that meant you didn't get much aggro. you were still close enough to get the party xp split.

what color are the nameplates of the mobs in the three-skull zone? that color is determined by your adv level compared to the mobs'.

 

They are yellow. there is just 1 mob there that is Orange and that is the thug and on top of that i am almost adventure Level 45 and i got adviced to go to skull 3 at around 40 so

 

yellow is supposed to be within your range, but if i recall correctly, that range is 20 levels, which is awfully broad at lower levels. sounds like you're close to the edge of handling them, just maybe have to be careful to draw on at a time for a while?

 

Wouldnt it be more effective to go back to whiteguard and pull like 15 at a time then? rather then 1 and 1 mob. i dont know what the XP difference is between a bandit in Skull 2 and 3?

 

@Arcticfox93, at your level, you should be easily handling 3 skull zones. Maybe it was just a fluke. Did you try again?

 

Or maybe it's crowd control that needs work like ice field which slows, gust which will sometimes stun and pushes creatures back which could allow you a second to drink or quick heal. There is so much to try and do and most of all have it be fun. We are not limited on what we can choose

 

As you have said that you are using blade skills I guess you’re are also wearing heavy armor and training corresponding skills, right? If not than it is normal to getting ripped apart with cloth armor in close combat.

But doing 0 damage is stranger. Of course the more skulls an area has the more health/resistance the enemies have but it is unusual that you are doing nearly no damage against yellow enemies…you shouldn’t be able to kill them with auto-attack but while using skills this should be at least whithin range. Did you switched into the second standard chat window (“all-info-window”)? If I’m not wrong there is standing what attacks you and your enemy was doing, if the attacks hit and how much of the damage has been absorbed/reflected. Maybe this will give a hint.

 

That scene is a 4 skull scene.

 

Yes, i am skilling up and using heavy armor I have Deflection at level 60 and Endurance at level 51 Inner strength at 41, glancing blow at 40 (Actively using it as well) and most of my blade skills are 50+ as i've said.

I was told this was a skull 3 zone! When i asked for a skull 3 zone with melee's for a easier time around, thats where i was told to go! i guess if its a 4 skull zone that its harder then i would expect and explains that i do less damage to them since they are higher level then i thought.hmm

 

https://www.sotamap.com/

Take name of place enter here and it will tell you what tier it is ans who you how to get there

 

It is a tier 4, you can see that from the skulls on a pike at the entrance (or even on the overland map).
You can search for tier 3 scenes e.g. on www.sotamap.com.
E.g. the nearby Upper Fortus should be tier 3 (I did however not check it lately)

 

Upper Fortus is a 3 skull-zone, but it has very many archers and mages, so melee folks need a strategy to deal with ranged adversaries who attack from all sides and from the wooden bridges.

There is another 3-skull zone nearby, East Sanctus Forest, that has a lot of wolves and spiders right near the entrance and bandits further in.

 

If they're yellow then they're level appropriate.

 

If you are fighting the bandits in Serp Spine they tend to group attack and are tough to fend off until you are higher. So i would find a level 3 and run around there for a bit. Parts of Nighshade Pass would be good just dont go up to the north from the wagons and be careful of the troll on the bridge. But most of that stuff there shouldnt be too hard. Alot of mages and archers though. Might need to rework your deck too to make your glyphs easier to manage

 

31 is very low Dex, work on getting it up.

Blades, bludgeon and pole arms miss ALOT. Even with high Dex.

Don't lvl your active melee skills over 40 for optimal focus use. Take the first blade skill and the blade innates as high as you want.