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Snakespeare
07-06-2010, 01:47 PM
I wrote this because I read a review that said the low levels are boring after you run out of mana and just auto-attack. Well, those reviewers may be MMO players with 10 years experience, but they don't know how to be low level. It takes a raw noob to know where the fun can be found in low level play, and it's not auto-attack, nor is it leeching. It's figuring it out for yourself and accomplishing things for yourself that make the game fun. So here's my post:

Fellow Noobs,

You may see in these discussions various recommendations to have high level players level you up (basically, hiding behind them while they do the dungeon), sort of like hitchhiking, and other recommendations to "leech".

Is that what you really want?

Wouldn't you rather play and earn your own treasure?

OF COURSE YOU DO! :-)

So, how do you do that? That's what this thread is about. How to advance through the early levels on your own power.

RUN AWAY, RUN AWAY! j/k

Seriously, if you have a bird or an elf, stay out of range. This is pretty good for the first few levels. I have managed to take out Meathead by myself at level 4 by running around like crazy and shooting everything I've got at him. If he never gets a solid hit on you, then you don't need to chug down the healing potions.

DRAW OFF THE SUCKERS

You can stand at the edge of a doorway and wait for a zombie to notice you. An exclamation mark will appear over his head and he'll say "LLWWAAAYY". Just step back to the previous room and wait for him. Then you can take him in single combat. This is a good strategy for first level bears. (Bears have a lot of pride, so think of it as mano a mano!) Then step up to the doorway again. A room in the early levels is usually four big squares. Even Meathead doesn't leave his square until you get into an adjacent one. So, use the squares in the same way, drawing off the suckers. But don't go too far away or they will wander back and heal. But this will work for you, too, if five zombies follow you out, just go far enough to send them back again. For elves and birds, you can shoot one once from the doorway to antagonize them out into the previous room.

JOIN A TEAM OF YOUR PEERS

This is just about the only way to advance a bear in low levels. In the Window for joining a game, you can see whether there is a high level player in there. It shows the level of the highest level player. So, if you don't want a leg up, don't join that one. Find one that has a few players and they are both low level. Hopefully one will be an elf and she will keep your points up while you fend off the attackers.

DON'T FEAR THE REAPER

There is no penalty for dying a lot. It's just a nuisance to have to run back. Healers don't get to revive people at low levels, so don't ask. (Don't ask healers for things, anyway. It's bad form. If a healer doesn't heal people at low levels, just remember not to play with them.) Just respawn and go back. Will people think you stink because you die a lot? No. You will not lose face over a low "kill to death ratio". There is no such thing. When I see someone with hundreds of kills and very few deaths, I figure he didn't earn the kills himself. When I see a player with a lot of deaths, I know they are fighters, not leeches.

BUY A LOT OF POTIONS

Do a dungeon over and over. Sell any duplicate items. You should be able to afford enough potions to keep repeating the dungeons. Before long, you will be high enough to buy an expansion. There's really no need to horde your items. You only need what you can use. Look over those broken axes. Maybe save one of them and sell all the others. By the time you get high enough to use them, you will probably want to use something else. Don't keep them just for data collection. There is data on the wiki. (And any that isn't there yet should be added.) So just liquidate most items and buy potions. Best potion price is just outside of town. I guess she's a duty-free zone or something.

TRADE BETWEEN CHARACTERS

This isn't working as well as it should. If you are in a dungeon of your peers and you are, say, a bear, but you get a staff for the wizard, just give it to her. That's how we do tabletop games. Tap the name, tap the Give Tab, scroll and find the item, and tap it. If more people do this, before long you will start getting. Remember, "... in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make." People won't all start doing it until some of us do it all the time. So, if you have no use for something, pass it to someone who needs it. BUT don't initiate a trade during combat. You'll die before you have a chance to complete it. LOL!

OTOH

If you start a dungeon and someone high level comes in, I'm not saying you should kick her out! LOL!

OTHER SUGGESTIONS

So that's all I have for now, but please post other suggestions for extrememly low level play. (I mean really play, not watching someone else play.) ;)

Ogediah
07-06-2010, 05:22 PM
"Will people think you stink because you die a lot? No. You will not lose face over a low "kill to death ratio". There is no such thing. When I see someone with hundreds of kills and very few deaths, I figure he didn't earn the kills himself. When I see a player with a lot of deaths, I know they are fighters, not leeches."

Yes they will. If you can't hold your own in a level, you need to be in a lower level. Rez's are expensive and can be time consuming and distracting to cast. Everyone in this game also depends on each other, so if you can't pull your own weight, it makes it harder for other. If the healer can't do anything but try and keep you alive, the healer suffers, then the ret of the group suffers. If you have a retarded amount of deaths to kills, I will be inclined to think you have a poor playing strategy. If you continue to die during a match, i will probably leave or boot you.

Didn't earn the kills himself? are you kidding? You cant "leech" kills. You can however amass large amounts of deaths leeching. Believe me, KD count DOES matter.

Snakespeare
07-06-2010, 06:14 PM
DON'T PLAY OVER YOUR LEVEL


If you can't hold your own in a level, you need to be in a lower level. Rez's are expensive and can be time consuming and distracting to cast. Everyone in this game also depends on each other, so if you can't pull your own weight, it makes it harder for other. If the healer can't do anything but try and keep you alive, the healer suffers, then the rest of the group suffers.

Thank you. That's an awesome point! I highlighted it so it wouldn't get lost in the other point, which is also important. But since we are talking about starter levels here, I believe dying a lot, at first, isn't an issue. But yeah, after you learn some strategy, you won't die as much.

tjornan
07-06-2010, 10:05 PM
Didn't earn the kills himself? are you kidding? You cant "leech" kills. You can however amass large amounts of deaths leeching. Believe me, KD count DOES matter.

really now? I bet almost all the experienced players would disagree. What if i was lvl 45 and went to the first campaign? Thats not earning them. Thats the same as leeching almost.

tryser
07-06-2010, 10:21 PM
Haha, this is great, I'm lvl 14 and I love playing with other people of similar lvl. I don't care about how strong my character gets. Although a good crossbow is nice, fun is always better.

Royce
07-06-2010, 10:25 PM
"Will people think you stink because you die a lot? No. You will not lose face over a low "kill to death ratio". There is no such thing. When I see someone with hundreds of kills and very few deaths, I figure he didn't earn the kills himself. When I see a player with a lot of deaths, I know they are fighters, not leeches."

Yes they will. If you can't hold your own in a level, you need to be in a lower level. Rez's are expensive and can be time consuming and distracting to cast. Everyone in this game also depends on each other, so if you can't pull your own weight, it makes it harder for other. If the healer can't do anything but try and keep you alive, the healer suffers, then the ret of the group suffers. If you have a retarded amount of deaths to kills, I will be inclined to think you have a poor playing strategy. If you continue to die during a match, i will probably leave or boot you.

Didn't earn the kills himself? are you kidding? You cant "leech" kills. You can however amass large amounts of deaths leeching. Believe me, KD count DOES matter.

Nobody cares about K/D anymore, seriously. I know you and like 2 other people who still think it's meaningful.

To the OP, nice post.

Away
07-07-2010, 02:37 AM
Nobody cares about K/D anymore, seriously. I know you and like 2 other people who still think it's meaningful.

To the OP, nice post.

I cared about my K/D ratio before (had around 1k kills and no deaths), but stopped caring after the Ancient swamps.

ratava
07-07-2010, 03:39 AM
Hey, brilliant OP !!

I also read a review about the low levels. I disagreed that they were not fun but agreed that low lvls can be crucial for hooking new players into the game, that's when an MMO becomes a bit more interesting than just a 1-stop game IMO. Funnily, early levels are usually the best: Learning everything, seeing new things etc at their highest often.

Agree, "run-away" is my favorite attack button ; ) I enjoy lvling but also enjoy not dying, that way you are playing a good game and running-back is the price of death, as well as gobbling too many pricey potions.

Gameplay is most fun when it's not too hard or too easy so usually playing with peers makes the best challenge to skill ratio. Although having a bash on higher levels with higher players a few times on new levels is good eye-opener jsu when ur char is becoming bad-*** : D

Also happy to give items away, I don't need if playing in a team that's working really well for everyone and you might get an item back that's of use: Win-win.

My additional tip to NEW players: Use the chat feature, give a heads-up on what ur doin and learn some of the mmo stuff hen playing is really helpful eg pulling aggro, buffing, regrouping etc & also have a few laughs!

Ogediah
07-07-2010, 10:59 AM
really now? I bet almost all the experienced players would disagree. What if i was lvl 45 and went to the first campaign? Thats not earning them. Thats the same as leeching almost.

You don't know what you are talking about. Kills don't count if you can't get xp in a level.


Royce, I don't beleive they are good necessarilly for a ranking system, but it does give me an indicator of who I'm playing with.

Snakespeare
07-07-2010, 11:00 AM
Thanks for the props. :)

I added another beginner strategy that I recalled during play.

As for the K/D rabbit trail, I'm really talking about the 20 to 30 deaths you have to endure when starting, not high levels. So, to adjust what I said, I guess I would say, "Don't worry about having to re-spawn a lot at first. If you look at the really high level players, you will see hundreds of deaths. It's not anything to be concerned about at low level." Better?

Ogediah
07-07-2010, 04:54 PM
I'll put it this way: You shouldn't be striving to play for a certain KD ratio. Your record will however tell how you play. Its not about striving for zero deaths as much as it is learning a good gameplay strategy that keeps you and your group alive and working well together.

Kingofthebear
07-07-2010, 07:39 PM
Yeah I played completely differently than I do now. I didn't start trying to get the best items and farm for pinks until I hit level 35. Before that I spent all of my gold on potions (I liked to keep 500 of each type). There was a period around level 8 where I ran out of health, had no health regen, and had no pots. I kept just doing the first level over and over until I could kill enough easy mobs to buy 5 health potions. You start there, not by hanging out with town asking for hand outs. Get good at the game before you try and be great.

Snakespeare
07-08-2010, 12:26 PM
Case in point about "leeching":

Today we were running through the Balefort levels, most of the players were between 15th and 20th, when a level 45 ursoid came in for the last level. Basically, he ran ahead and took out most of the bad guys. I tried to keep up and pull my own weight because I wanted to have that boss fight with the King of Hearts, but this high level son-of-a-bear kept taking them out before I could catch up. The level was finished in about 5 minutes. I did get some shots on the King from my super-cool Assassin's Forest Crossbow, and a combo as well. But I didn't go to the next level with him.

The dude kind of ruined our fun. He should have started his own game and put on a password if he wanted to do it solo. But maybe he wanted an audience. And he probably just liquidated all the treasure drops he got. That's kind of lame, isn't it?

Barbamitsos
07-08-2010, 07:02 PM
When u have 4 lvl 45s like me ure bored to exp on ure own. Id rather get boosted.
All add:
MrKidib

Ogediah
07-09-2010, 02:45 PM
Case in point about "leeching":

Today we were running through the Balefort levels, most of the players were between 15th and 20th, when a level 45 ursoid came in for the last level. Basically, he ran ahead and took out most of the bad guys. I tried to keep up and pull my own weight because I wanted to have that boss fight with the King of Hearts, but this high level son-of-a-bear kept taking them out before I could catch up. The level was finished in about 5 minutes. I did get some shots on the King from my super-cool Assassin's Forest Crossbow, and a combo as well. But I didn't go to the next level with him.

The dude kind of ruined our fun. He should have started his own game and put on a password if he wanted to do it solo. But maybe he wanted an audience. And he probably just liquidated all the treasure drops he got. That's kind of lame, isn't it?

Most upper levels think they are doing you a favor running it quickly for you. You may not get the kills, but you get the xp and drops if you stick with them. they don't get xp or kills and usually the drops are worth less in lower levels. They aren't trying to ruin your fun, just trying to help :)

Away
07-10-2010, 06:16 AM
I'll put it this way: You shouldn't be striving to play for a certain KD ratio. Your record will however tell how you play. Its not about striving for zero deaths as much as it is learning a good gameplay strategy that keeps you and your group alive and working well together.

This man (or woman) speaks the truth.
All MMORPGs require teamwork from every player, and it is rather greedy if one player decides to only care for themselves even though their team is struggling.

Snakespeare
07-10-2010, 11:01 AM
When u have 4 lvl 45s like me ure bored to exp on ure own. Id rather get boosted.
All add:
MrKidib

I am sure that I speak only for myself. I have never heard anybody else complain about it. And really, I wouldn't have even mentioned it except the dude ran ahead and took out the riff-raff ahead, and I was hard-pressed to keep up. I know others weren't even trying to keep up. I didn't mean any offense and I hope none was taken. I guess it is just within the topic, alternatives to leeching, so I wanted to add the idea. Some people, like me, would rather die ten times to Harpo and Groucho at 17th level than call in a level 45 friend. When you defeat them yourself, it's very gratifying.

Mr2hitk0
07-16-2010, 12:48 PM
Definately. I'm lvl 15 and Sometimes I do enjoy playing with lvl 17-25's because I can pull my own weight. I can heal/fight, even though I do die alot I always contribute my part to killing the stuff

Snakespeare
07-17-2010, 12:58 PM
As far as kill to death ratio goes, I saw someone with over 4000 kills and only 8 deaths in Towne. How can this be? He was up into the mid 20s with only 8 deaths and all those kills. Now, I don't know what the facts are, but I can tell you one thing for sure, he never killed Harpo or Groucho or Dead Eyes. He must avoid ranged bosses. I just don't see how it can be fun for someone to avoid all the hardest combats. Probably clears the hallways and rarely enters a room... my best guess. But I'm not judging, I'm only saying, it's not for me, and this thread is for people who want to advance on their own skills, therefore, dying a lot is not really a bad thing.

Snakespeare
08-02-2010, 02:14 PM
++Half a month later++

So, I am seeing that mid 20's with only 8 deaths might be possible. It has to be an alt with a lot of gifts from your main character. Because the ranged bosses will kill you unless you chug healing potions constantly. I got to level 20 with about 1000 kills and about 8 deaths, myself, with no leeching, so I take it back.

cry
08-02-2010, 02:16 PM
AO2 + 3. = Level 45 with 100 kills.

Barbamitsos
08-02-2010, 02:23 PM
Snakespeare when lvlin 3 chars to 45 by doin all instances u dont think about not leechin ffs

cry
08-02-2010, 02:27 PM
^ That. ^ That. ^ That.

Snakespeare
08-02-2010, 02:31 PM
Snakespeare when lvlin 3 chars to 45 by doin all instances u dont think about not leechin ffs

I don't understand...

... or maybe I do. Due to impatience, I have been tempted to ask a high level friend to take me along for some powerlevelling. Is that what you mean? I havn't yet, because I just feel like not doing it. Maybe someday.

This is about what is fun for you or what is fun for me, and I just have fun doing things this way. Other people have fun by powerlevelling. That's cool, too. No judgements here. Just "style of play".

cry
08-02-2010, 02:40 PM
If your wondering. Barbs incoherent post just ment; It is hard to level 3 charactors to level 45 without leeching, FFS = here I will give you the first and last word and three of the letters in the middle word and you will get the acronym; For F__KS Sake. Got it?

Snakespeare
08-02-2010, 02:42 PM
Ah, to each his own. No judgements, I swear.


.... and .... maybe I don't want all my character to look Egyptian. I love the whole skull on a stick and throwing nightmares and drain life!!! How cool is that?

cry
08-02-2010, 02:43 PM
Hard-Work =/= Leeching
Leeching I CHOOSE YOU.

Snakespeare
08-02-2010, 02:52 PM
OK... I'll bite...

PL = play
Work = what I am supposed to be doing instead of typing, right now...

Iambirdman
08-02-2010, 04:20 PM
If your wondering. Barbs incoherent post just ment; It is hard to level 3 charactors to level 45 without leeching, FFS = here I will give you the first and last word and three of the letters in the middle word and you will get the acronym; For F__KS Sake. Got it?

It's not hard I did it and had a blast, what's the point of leveling an extra character if you don't have fun doing it

jonboy
08-02-2010, 04:23 PM
@cry, ah the I want it now and don't want to do anything for it.

Yardsalez
08-02-2010, 04:26 PM
People wont listen they will still join tomb of mynas its easiest for them to leech

Snakespeare
08-02-2010, 04:35 PM
IDK, I think maybe the silent majority are playing the levels, and only a few are powerlevelling.

Remember that in my OP I said that this is a reaction to reading a review that said it was "boring" at the middle levels, and that you had to respawn too much. My thrust is simply that, yes, maybe for someone who is WOW-weary and basically jaded by all things, then maybe yes, this might be boring, but for a rank newbie, it is anything but boring. The reviewers were quick to list all the MMORPGs they had endured. Poor fellas... Their parents FORCED them to "play", which was like work for them. It just hits me right here... :( hahahaha

bmc85uk
08-02-2010, 05:15 PM
Nice thread Snake, always happy to see people encouraging others to play the game properly.

Power levelling should/will always be a viable option in MMOs, however you wouldn't catch people in other games power levelling lower characters in dungeons fit for themselves, they mentor lower players in areas fit for their lower level, if not slightly above. I love going back and helping people in dungeons; but it just seems so much more of a thankless job in PL due to the pick-up nature, not to mention the fact that a sense of well being is the only thing to gain from it with drop rates being so messy in the early campaigns, oh well!

And for those saying K/D ratio counts, sure, it counts for showing you how many kills & deaths a player has, but it's not strictly indicative of their ability, that's like saying your salary is a measure of how good your life is.

Money =/= Happiness.
Good K/D =/= Players value as a team member.

kavanah
08-02-2010, 05:30 PM
++Half a month later++

So, I am seeing that mid 20's with only 8 deaths might be possible. It has to be an alt with a lot of gifts from your main character. Because the ranged bosses will kill you unless you chug healing potions constantly. I got to level 20 with about 1000 kills and about 8 deaths, myself, with no leeching, so I take it back.

I got to 3k kills with 0 deaths. Was in menu screen after creating my own game at lvl 40ish and had someone enter the game, and pull an archer on me. It killed me as I hit my red potion. Now I still play conservative, but I'm sitting at 55ish deaths.

Saw one guy 30K kills and less than 100 deaths. That was the most impressive to me...

GaZz
08-12-2010, 10:58 AM
Thanks for letting me tag along today in AO1 Snake (and a few others) :D

(Wasn't sure how long it would be before i got asked to leave (lvl 13 in AO1)

Snakespeare
08-12-2010, 12:27 PM
Well, I wasn't the Host, so it wasn't my call, but you did not seem to be only tagging along. You were spamming Heals and Reviving people. I'm sure as long as you do that you'll be welcome anywhere. :-)

Kingofhurtz
08-12-2010, 04:15 PM
Well thought out snakespeare. I commend for trying to help :D

GaZz
08-13-2010, 10:12 AM
Well, I wasn't the Host, so it wasn't my call, but you did not seem to be only tagging along. You were spamming Heals and Reviving people. I'm sure as long as you do that you'll be welcome anywhere. :-)

Its only fair since I was getting free exp :D

Snakespeare
09-09-2010, 11:57 AM
I am bumping this thread back to the first page because it has a LOT of play tips in it.