Expedite the leveling path to 50.

I understand that leveling on this server is quite fast, relatively speaking.

However, it is extremely boring, especially as someone trying to roll a stealther. The prospect of leveling any kind of alt and having to repeat the process seems pretty terrible, too.

The server is allegedly slowly bleeding players, and I can't help but feel like one of the hurdles preventing new people from trying out this server is the really tedious PvE burden that is placed on you before you get to play the part of the game you actually want to play. Spending another 40 hours or so doing mind numbing solo PvE as a Nightshade is not something anyone wants to do.

Actual suggestions to fix this:

Remove the cap on collection task turn ins, increase it massively, or add dozens of new collection tasks so that you can literally bounce from camp to camp every single level to have a smooth, consistent path to 50. Alternatively, just say fuck it and increase PvE experience across the board by 300-500% so straight grinding gives a greater sense of progress (and actual progress).

The actual amount of XP given for killing mobs is pitifully low. For reference, 1-50 still takes a solid 8+ hours of hopping between BG kill tasks on live. I don't think that's an unreasonable pace for an extremely top-heavy private server, and I imagine people who enjoy making alts would also like this.

Thanks for listening, even if you think my post is shit.

Tue 13 Aug 2019 8:36 PM by Moid

Assassins are about the worst class to level on Phoenix. I leveled both a Ranger and Shade and the Ranger was such a breeze in comparison to the Shade due to chain ranged killing. Fact is I used the Ranger to farm XP items for my tanks and the Shade and the Ranger still levels faster. But leveling is only half the battle with stealthers. After 50 you have the problem on gear and of the various classes stealthers are among the most more difficult to template.

I doubt you will get any sympathy from Uthred here, he seems to have a very peculiar design for the server and there are just some things he isn’t going to budge on. There were changes at the beginning to reduce the level grind some what but I haven’t seen any flexibility in that area since so I suspect you won’t receive a positive response or any response.

Tue 13 Aug 2019 8:53 PM by A_Liav

At this point I think changing the collection task items to be a 100% drop rate would be enough to make the leveling experience more engaging, and probably shave several hours off of the process.

Understandable though I guess if this has been asked about before and is unlikely to ever change. Oh well.

Tue 13 Aug 2019 9:18 PM by CronU

imo you won't need 40h on any char by now.
since launch the exp you do got massivly increased. not by increasing the base exp, but with mob type bonuses, realmtask bonuses, instance bonuses you can by now reach bonuses from 500-1000% xp with ease. (dont forget that the 5% guildbuff xp and the 10% exp potion xp get calculated AFTER all those other bonuses.
stealthers might be an exeption because they are unlikely to be grpd.
But even then... with xp turn in + realmtask (1.5bb every 30-45 mins) + 0.5 bb for mobtype tasks if you know how to grind them.
thats an rly fast way as well.
i just leveled my rm and it took 20h played. also included in this 20h played, is the time where i was just standing in uppland waiting for the rvr task tick to get xp.
If you are not solo but with friends, that also got good instance bonuses, you can even reach lvl 50 by ~8h played. Yes this might be something a new player wont experience on their first char. But the first char take the longest anyway, since you have to learn how this server works.
The second char will always be way way faster, maybe even just half the time of your first toon.

Tue 13 Aug 2019 9:22 PM by ExcretusMaximus

I've solo levelled over a dozen classes to 50 and group leveled another eight (I'm disabled and need to burn time somehow), and not a single one took me more than 27 hours played.

If you think that is "too long" to level, then there's no helping you. Even if you double it, it's still reasonable.

Leveling groups build a sense of community and add an atmosphere of activity to the world that new players need if they're going to stick around.

Tue 13 Aug 2019 10:45 PM by A_Liav

Hard disagree.

People like to say nebulous things, such as that the current leveling place "fosters a sense of community".

Right now I'm solo leveling as a Nightshade because there are 0 groups available and my most efficient path forward right now is to hop from collection task to collection task.

The current leveling speed is way too fast to foster a sense of community or anything like that. At the same time, it's an extremely tedious solo grind for new players, particularly melee and more particularly stealth.

I've played many games with far better PvE than DAoC and more importantly, far slower leveling than this. I've done straight grinding for several thousands of hours over my MMO career in games like EQ.

Playing a solo Nightshade and being forced to do this mind numbing shit is doing nothing for my sense of community.

In a vacuum your statement might be true, but this is a top heavy private server for an extremely PvP focused MMO.

Wed 14 Aug 2019 1:24 AM by A_Liav

I'll recant my previous suggestions. Leveling is honestly not quite as bad as I thought it was now that I've found 3 separate resources to cross reference for collection task locs.

The information available on where to find collection task items is outdated and you have to cross reference several resources at times to find accurate locs. Once you know exactly where to go, it is really not as bad as I thought it was.

I do have to say that I think, for the health of the server, the leveling process could still stand to be streamlined a little bit more. Low level grouping is all but dead, especially during off hours and especially as an undesirable class like an NS.

Soloing is my most efficient route right now but it was pretty frustrating until I figured out the path that I need to follow. /shrug

Wed 14 Aug 2019 2:22 AM by Numatic

A_Liav wrote: ↑
Wed 14 Aug 2019 1:24 AM
I'll recant my previous suggestions. Leveling is honestly not quite as bad as I thought it was now that I've found 3 separate resources to cross reference for collection task locs.

The information available on where to find collection task items is outdated and you have to cross reference several resources at times to find accurate locs. Once you know exactly where to go, it is really not as bad as I thought it was.

I do have to say that I think, for the health of the server, the leveling process could still stand to be streamlined a little bit more. Low level grouping is all but dead, especially during off hours and especially as an undesirable class like an NS.

Soloing is my most efficient route right now but it was pretty frustrating until I figured out the path that I need to follow. /shrug

This is the problem for new players. Lack of knowledge. It gets faster and faster to lvl to 50 each time I do it. I just recently did it on my SB completely solo in less than 20 hours. Once you know where to go, what tasks to get and what mobs to kill, it's extremely fast. Compare that to uthgard, I quit my SB at 39 with 4 days /played.

Wed 14 Aug 2019 2:38 AM by Freedomcall

lvling here is not quite fast, this is super fast.
I remember lvling an enchanter in uthgard.
I literally spent 10 hours to make my lvl49 chanter to ding 50 in a full bomb grp at fins.
That is when expediting is needed.

Wed 14 Aug 2019 2:48 PM by Moid

A_Liav wrote: ↑
Wed 14 Aug 2019 1:24 AM
I'll recant my previous suggestions. Leveling is honestly not quite as bad as I thought it was now that I've found 3 separate resources to cross reference for collection task locs.

The information available on where to find collection task items is outdated and you have to cross reference several resources at times to find accurate locs. Once you know exactly where to go, it is really not as bad as I thought it was.

I do have to say that I think, for the health of the server, the leveling process could still stand to be streamlined a little bit more. Low level grouping is all but dead, especially during off hours and especially as an undesirable class like an NS.

Soloing is my most efficient route right now but it was pretty frustrating until I figured out the path that I need to follow. /shrug

I suggest that you help others by posting references to the resources you’ve found. It might help others and the game.

Wed 14 Aug 2019 3:46 PM by Ashok

CronU wrote: ↑
Tue 13 Aug 2019 9:18 PM
imo you won't need 40h on any char by now.
since launch the exp you do got massivly increased. not by increasing the base exp, but with mob type bonuses, realmtask bonuses, instance bonuses you can by now reach bonuses from 500-1000% xp with ease. (dont forget that the 5% guildbuff xp and the 10% exp potion xp get calculated AFTER all those other bonuses.

Wed 14 Aug 2019 6:09 PM by Moid

Oh look, you did get a response to your post. They only did that to prove me wrong though.

Wed 14 Aug 2019 7:26 PM by cantgetright006

The issue I find is it's boring as hell to level! It was boring on live and it's boring here. At least on live we had buffs to speed it along if you were solo. But here on melee and non pet classes it's pull and sit. Killing the same mobs over and over mind numbing bore! RVR to me is the end game and the best part of this game. It's what got us all hooked! So let's get people out there as fast as possible. There is no new blood in DAOC so we have all seen this stuff before so speed the leveling up faster. I don't play DAOC to pve! I could play WoW or FF for that and they are better at it.

Wed 14 Aug 2019 9:39 PM by A_Liav

Maybe I'm dumb but where are these instances for leveling players where I can get a 500%+ xp bonus? Is this stuff that is available as level 30-40ish? Is it soloable, because finding groups is next to impossible as a stealther?

It's cute to eyeroll about this stuff but this information is not easily accessible to someone just hopping into the server.

I'm sure the devs look at my post and think I'm simply crying about xp being too slow. Like I said before, I'm used to grinding and xp rates far slower than this. The fact is that groups are basically non-existent that I can tell.

Like most people, I came here to RvR. Solo leveling is what most new players to this server have to look forward to, and it sucks.

LET ME EMPHASIZE THE FOLLOWING:

I appreciate the devs and the fact that this server exists at all. I am happy that I have an outlet to play DAoC that is populated and has devs who seem like they care a lot and have put a ton of effort in. All I am trying to do is say that my experience sucks thus far because solo leveling is unenjoyable, and grouping is pretty hard to come by. I'm at 21 hours played and level 42 so far. I consider that a really good pace, but it has been nearly 100% solo, boring, and tedious despite the occasional LFG chat spam.

This is a top heavy server with a somewhat jaded playerbase, so it makes sense that established players don't really care too much. I think it would be better for the health of the server if the leveling process were improved. Simple as that.

Wed 14 Aug 2019 10:13 PM by CronU

A_Liav wrote: ↑
Wed 14 Aug 2019 9:39 PM
Maybe I'm dumb but where are these instances for leveling players where I can get a 500%+ xp bonus? Is this stuff that is available as level 30-40ish? Is it soloable, because finding groups is next to impossible as a stealther?

There is no instance with such an high bonus. There are by now 2 lvl 50 Instances, called Darkspire and Halls of Helgardh. Those two give you 1% xp bonus for every cleared run. The bonus of all grouped members of the grp gets added up.
So if player 1 cleared it 5 times, playered 2 cleared it 123 times, player 3 cleared it 34 times and player 4-8 has never been in this instance so far, the whole grp (all 8 members) are getting an instancebonus of 162%.

A_Liav wrote: ↑
Wed 14 Aug 2019 9:39 PM
but it has been nearly 100% solo

To be fair, you seem to know daoc for a long time now.. and you picked a stealther... as FIRST character after joining the server.
That is by default of course and absolutly reasonable the hardest class to get grps. And as always known solo exp sucks compared to grp exp.
As said the first char is the hardest, since you are still learning how everything works here and then picking the hardest to level character.. well nothing more to say.

I'm happy with all the exp incentives that got implemented. It made xp'ing way way faster. And imo even faster exping is close to i50... which noone likes (something you can clearly see when you watch all those dead i50 servers in the past). So this is a fast way to exp, by not being to fast.

Wed 14 Aug 2019 10:49 PM by A_Liav

I have to level two characters anyway, which is part of the problem. It doesn't matter if I level my stealther first or not, it still takes forever considering you aren't allowed to box on this server.

All I play in this game are stealthers. I will end up having to level an Animist to 50 or something the moment my NS hits 50 to be able to make money and actually afford a decent template to do RvR, or level crafters, or do much of anything.

At my current pace I will hit 50 around 30 hours played, then I'll have to invest another 20+ hours in leveling a farming alt.

I'll have spent 5+ days doing tedious nonsense to get to the only part of the game which actually matters, which is RvR. It's just unnecessary. I'm not asking for instant level 50, I'm just asking for something better than what we have now.

Edit: Btw, how are instance xp bonuses relevant if the only instances people run are 50?

Thu 15 Aug 2019 1:14 AM by cantgetright006

A_Liav wrote: ↑
Wed 14 Aug 2019 10:49 PM
I have to level two characters anyway, which is part of the problem. It doesn't matter if I level my stealther first or not, it still takes forever considering you aren't allowed to box on this server.

All I play in this game are stealthers. I will end up having to level an Animist to 50 or something the moment my NS hits 50 to be able to make money and actually afford a decent template to do RvR, or level crafters, or do much of anything.

At my current pace I will hit 50 around 30 hours played, then I'll have to invest another 20+ hours in leveling a farming alt.

I'll have spent 5+ days doing tedious nonsense to get to the only part of the game which actually matters, which is RvR. It's just unnecessary. I'm not asking for instant level 50, I'm just asking for something better than what we have now.

This! On Alb it's a necro or cab just to support 1 character. So that's basically 100 levels of boring tedious pve just to get to rvr!

Thu 15 Aug 2019 1:40 AM by Marneux

How about implementing /level 20-30 on account with currently a level 50 in that realm.
It would take like 15 mins to dev and 10 to the worldbuilder to implement this stuff.

You only have to also implement in that Code, " /level " characters to not be allowed in any battleground. In that way you wont get a massive amount of players leaving rvr for thid chars.

If a player want to go a bg he have to level Up from 0.

The Xp is the biggest shit in this daoc. Even the high level raids are shit. But atleast they are needed for stuff.

Thu 15 Aug 2019 1:41 AM by gotwqqd

You should have made your farm bit first
Doubled up on turn in items for your main
And you would have all kinds of good gear for the hard solo leveling class

Thu 15 Aug 2019 1:52 AM by A_Liav

gotwqqd wrote: ↑
Thu 15 Aug 2019 1:41 AM
You should have made your farm bit first
Doubled up on turn in items for your main
And you would have all kinds of good gear for the hard solo leveling class

Honestly, even if I had full stacks of collection items it wouldn't do much. You have to run around and turn them in, then spend 20-30 minutes grinding the last 20-30% of a level so you can turn in the next collection and repeat.

There's a ton of wasted time running around the world turning the items in. I do have to wonder how much more palatable the leveling experience would be if collection turns in just gave a flat 10% of a level every time.

At level 46 I'm getting less than 50% of a level for a collection, so that's a solid 45-60 minutes of grinding as a solo NS to finish off the level.

If I had rolled my farm character first it might save me 3-4 hours off of what has become a 20+ hour grind. Not significant enough to make it any less tedious.

Thu 15 Aug 2019 2:00 AM by gotwqqd

A_Liav wrote: ↑
Thu 15 Aug 2019 1:52 AM
gotwqqd wrote: ↑
Thu 15 Aug 2019 1:41 AM
You should have made your farm bit first
Doubled up on turn in items for your main
And you would have all kinds of good gear for the hard solo leveling class

Honestly, even if I had full stacks of collection items it wouldn't do much. You have to run around and turn them in, then spend 20-30 minutes grinding the last 20-30% of a level so you can turn in the next collection and repeat.

There's a ton of wasted time running around the world turning the items in. I do have to wonder how much more palatable the leveling experience would be if collection turns in just gave a flat 10% of a level every time.

At level 46 I'm getting less than 50% of a level for a collection, so that's a solid 45-60 minutes of grinding as a solo NS to finish off the level.

If I had rolled my farm character first it might save me 3-4 hours off of what has become a 20+ hour grind. Not significant enough to make it any less tedious.

You are so off with your numbers
Moving around is less than 5 min at the worse

Thu 15 Aug 2019 6:41 AM by CronU

A_Liav wrote: ↑
Wed 14 Aug 2019 10:49 PM
Edit: Btw, how are instance xp bonuses relevant if the only instances people run are 50?

Maybe you should stop reading others posts with such a rage, take your time and think twice before you post an answer.
Explanation so everyone understands it:

The Phoenix Staff implemented (by now) two lvl 50 PvE Instances. For PVE Fun, farming Feathers, farming ROGs. Yes for those instances you need 8 people, there is no solo version of this instance, since we are still playing an MMORPG.
After every clear of such an instance, (normal runs take 30-45 minutes) (dont expect such a fast time on your FIRST RUN, since you have to learn everything.)
everyone of the grp gets 1% accountwide 'Instancebonus exp'. (and now to quote my other post)
The bonus of all grouped members of the grp gets added up.
So if player 1 cleared it 5 times, player 2 cleared it 123 times, player 3 cleared it 34 times and player 4-8 has never been in this instance so far, the whole grp (all 8 members) are getting an instancebonus of 162%.

Thu 15 Aug 2019 7:00 AM by Sepplord

A_Liav wrote: ↑
Wed 14 Aug 2019 10:49 PM
I have to level two characters anyway, which is part of the problem. It doesn't matter if I level my stealther first or not, it still takes forever considering you aren't allowed to box on this server.

All I play in this game are stealthers. I will end up having to level an Animist to 50 or something the moment my NS hits 50 to be able to make money and actually afford a decent template to do RvR, or level crafters, or do much of anything.

At my current pace I will hit 50 around 30 hours played, then I'll have to invest another 20+ hours in leveling a farming alt.

I'll have spent 5+ days doing tedious nonsense to get to the only part of the game which actually matters, which is RvR. It's just unnecessary. I'm not asking for instant level 50, I'm just asking for something better than what we have now.

Edit: Btw, how are instance xp bonuses relevant if the only instances people run are 50?

IT matters a lot since the animist can easily farm collection items for your assassin, which makes the levelling of the assassin MUCH faster.
You claim it doesn't matter much, but that is factually incorrect. On my Hunter i didn't have collecion items in the lowlevels, but had stacked up from lvl20 onwards.
From ~lvl15 i saved my phoenix eggs and when i turned 20 i started turning in items, and if it didn't lvl me up alone, i used a few Eggs for the missing XP and turned in the next item. IIRR i went from 20 to 28or29 in under an hour without even killing a single monster.

Having the animist at 50first also allows you to easily have buffpotions on your NS during levelling. Especially at lvl30-35 it is basically like having a shaman in group, without needing to split XP. Look for combined forces potion in housing.

There's also the chance of trading powerleveling with a 50animist.

What are the benefits to directly starting on the stealth?

Thu 15 Aug 2019 7:51 AM by cantgetright006

Sepplord wrote: ↑
Thu 15 Aug 2019 7:00 AM
A_Liav wrote: ↑
Wed 14 Aug 2019 10:49 PM
I have to level two characters anyway, which is part of the problem. It doesn't matter if I level my stealther first or not, it still takes forever considering you aren't allowed to box on this server.

All I play in this game are stealthers. I will end up having to level an Animist to 50 or something the moment my NS hits 50 to be able to make money and actually afford a decent template to do RvR, or level crafters, or do much of anything.

At my current pace I will hit 50 around 30 hours played, then I'll have to invest another 20+ hours in leveling a farming alt.

I'll have spent 5+ days doing tedious nonsense to get to the only part of the game which actually matters, which is RvR. It's just unnecessary. I'm not asking for instant level 50, I'm just asking for something better than what we have now.

Edit: Btw, how are instance xp bonuses relevant if the only instances people run are 50?

IT matters a lot since the animist can easily farm collection items for your assassin, which makes the levelling of the assassin MUCH faster.
You claim it doesn't matter much, but that is factually incorrect. On my Hunter i didn't have collecion items in the lowlevels, but had stacked up from lvl20 onwards.
From ~lvl15 i saved my phoenix eggs and when i turned 20 i started turning in items, and if it didn't lvl me up alone, i used a few Eggs for the missing XP and turned in the next item. IIRR i went from 20 to 28or29 in under an hour without even killing a single monster.

Having the animist at 50first also allows you to easily have buffpotions on your NS during levelling. Especially at lvl30-35 it is basically like having a shaman in group, without needing to split XP. Look for combined forces potion in housing.

There's also the chance of trading powerleveling with a 50animist.

What are the benefits to directly starting on the stealth?

So that's basically 100 levels of boring tedious pve just to get to rvr! Maybe you should look at it that way. Because that's how A_Liav sees it. That's no matter how you look at it, that is the way it will work out. You have to play 50 levels of a character you don't want to play ( that's 100 levels of boring tedious pve ) to play the on you do want to play! And in the long run it doesn't speed up anything when you count the time playing the animist!

Thu 15 Aug 2019 9:01 AM by gotwqqd

Millennials

Thu 15 Aug 2019 9:02 AM by Sepplord

cantgetright006 wrote: ↑
Thu 15 Aug 2019 7:51 AM
So that's basically 100 levels of boring tedious pve just to get to rvr! Maybe you should look at it that way. Because that's how A_Liav sees it. That's no matter how you look at it, that is the way it will work out. You have to play 50 levels of a character you don't want to play ( that's 100 levels of boring tedious pve ) to play the on you do want to play! And in the long run it doesn't speed up anything when you count the time playing the animist!

That's a viable argument, but history has proven that i50 servers have never attracted and/or held a meaningful population. Like it or not, getting invested into your characters and not having every class available on demand is a net positive.

I also disagree that it is boring for 100levels. Optimizing levelling, getting back into the game, learning about the servers uniquie mechanics etc...all is time that can be intresting. Yeah, starting up the game and grinding mobs without paying attention to alternative XP-sources and how to utilize them is boring...and much slower.

Getting temped is a bigger hurdle, and imho one where something could be done to help new players.

Thu 15 Aug 2019 11:45 AM by raghh

1-50 takes 10-12 hours, get over it....

Fri 16 Aug 2019 2:50 PM by chryso

Are you seriously complaining that turning in the xp items is too hard?

Now I have seen everything.

Fri 16 Aug 2019 8:02 PM by cantgetright006

raghh wrote: ↑
Thu 15 Aug 2019 11:45 AM
1-50 takes 10-12 hours, get over it....

Where is the area that you get 4 to 5 levels a hour on a sin solo? I been in groups that we would be lucky to get 2 or 3 a hour of steady pulling. Solo ( and on a sin you will be most of the time ) some classes could pull off 2 or 3 if lucky. How about proof! Just make a vid of yourself going from 1 to 50 on a sin in 10-12 solo or never post that nonsense again!

chryso wrote: Are you seriously complaining that turning in the xp items is too hard?

Now I have seen everything.

Sigh! Where are you getting that?

Fri 16 Aug 2019 8:25 PM by chryso

Sorry, that was another poster. Not you.

Fri 16 Aug 2019 9:56 PM by cantgetright006

we cool m8