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Bought ToD tonight, some advice please
Blakesrealm
Member UncommonPosts: 45
OK I bought ToD tonight and probably will install tomorrow or Monday. I'm just trying to remember what my old login was, that darned hotmail thing I guess (Zone). I was also able to get my hands on a pre-order box for ToD as well, so have the code for that gem, whatever that is.
Any advice on a template for a good melee warrior? I was thinking a Sword wielding guy, with as minimal magic as I can get by with. I know I'll Spec in Sword and Train in Melee Def for sure, but everything else is up for grabs.
Thanks.
PS: I know that if my old guy is still there, doubtful, he was a Sword specced guy with Item, was mid-60s on Frostfell I think.
Comments
There's a bit of debate about templates (isn't there always?), but a lot of the higher-end content now is heavily melee-based. As such, it's typically recommended to specialize both your melee weapon and melee defense. It's actually quite possible to thrive as a low magic character now that level VII spells are on equipment, but the lore requirement for even the racial level VIIs is around 270 (330ish for regular VIIs, which is basically the same skill level it takes to cast those spells). Specializing arcane lore is definitely recommended if you don't plan on taking life magic or creature magic.
As far as stats go, you'll definitely want 100 in both strength and coordination. The third attribute is another point of contention. Due to the benefits of high endurance (increased natural protection, reduced stamina cost for shield blocking, etc.), some people recommend going in that direction. Then again, maxing out your quickness is good way to take advantage of that specialized melee defense.
Personally, I prefer the 100/10/100/100/10/10 route. You won't have to spend as much experience on Healing (it can be a huge pain trying to stay on top of 100 Endurance templates with the healing skill), and a high melee defense means you'll get hit infrequently enough that you won't miss the extra health. It can be a little difficult to start with 10 Endurance, but as long as you invest heavily in it for the first several levels, you should be fine. Explorer Jewelry is a huge help!
Other skills to consider somewhere down the line would be:
1) Magic defense. You won't suffer much from low starting self and focus, because magic defense stats are divided by 7; you'll be behind, but not by much. They've improved the effectiveness of magic defense, so it's much better than it was in the early days of the game. It's also one of the skills that Covenant Armor wield requirements are based on.
2) Item magic. You already mentioned this, but it's definitely a good thing to have. Between portals, banes and weapon buffs, this is one skill that even low magic warriors should have. Regardless of starting stats, you'll eventually be casting level VII spells. It'll just take a bit longer.
3) Healing. Yes, I know, obvious. Some people choose to substitute cooking for healing (cooking costs less credits), but that's not really a good long-term solution. Rations are great when you have little health and are taking little damage, but you'll be grateful for healing when you're fighting chain casters and other nasties. It's not mandatory to have in the early levels, but you'll definitely want it by level 20-30.
One thing to keep in mind is that you don't have to spend all of your skill credits in character creation. It's possible (and usually a good idea) to save the leftover points and spend them later when you have enough for a more useful skill. In other words, don't take item tinkering just because you happen to have 2 skill credits left.
I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but I'll add more later if anything else comes to me. Good luck! (Oh, one thing to keep in mind is that the stuff I recommend, while good for PvE, might not be the best for PvP. You'll want to consult the experts on that.)
Wow thanks for the indepth response, I really appreciate it!
I'm having a hell of a time migrating my account over. I'm 99% sure I'm using the right username, even logged into The Zone and it worked there. But I keep getting an error saying the text entered doesn't match the security code (the image they make you type the text from). I've done it over and over again, with different images/codes and it always says that. Grrrrrr.
I'm going to hold-off on signing up till I can figure out why I can't migrate my account, as the 60 days of free play vs the 30 plus my old characters (aka more money/items than anything else) really make starting over a bit easier.
BTW what server do you play on and what are you character names? I'll love to look you up in game.
Thanks again for the amazing info!
Another question ... Is tinkering still usefull? I recall it being very much in demand, with the ability to break down items and add them to others in the form of bonuses. It has been a long time since I've played, probably haven't played since Sept 03 (I thinK? Was DM out? I had that) so I'm probably remembering it incorrectly.
Thanks again for the amazing help!
Tinkering is still extremely useful. Most of the larger allegiances have at least one tinkerer with a very high, sometimes even capped, tinkering skill (either weapon tinkering, armor tinkering, or both) that is used to support the allegiance's needs. When Decal was running, there were a few tinkering bots that were usually available to take care of this for the general public, as well (typically at a cost). Decal is currently down, so that won't work as a short-term solution; apparently they're well underway with the process of getting it running again, but the speculative date was mid-to-late October. After that, the extension programmers will have to configure their applications to work with the new Decal, so I wouldn't expect anything until at least mid-November.
I say all of this to let you know that finding a good allegiance will be something to consider. Obviously, you don't want to just sell yourself for services, but any guild without its own tinkerer will almost certainly have a list of contacts that they turn to for such things. You could theoretically level up your own tinkerer, but the problem with that comes in the extreme amount of skill needed for a reasonable chance of success. By the time you have even odds of success or failure, you'd be well beyond the point where you should've already been using imbued/tinkered weapons for quite awhile.
As far as your characters go, I'm sure they're still there. Turbine recently put an end to Migration from Microsoft, but they didn't erase any character data. Here's a link to an article on it, with some instructions to follow. It should get you on the right path. If you've already tried this stuff and for some reason you're still not able to recover your characters, you'll probably need to contact billing support via phone (faster but not toll-free) or email (slower but free).
Link: http://ac.turbine.com/index.php?page_id=371
EDIT: Oh, and my character's name is Jenobia. I play on the Leafcull server in something of a roleplaying allegiance; there are a few dedicated roleplayers in our group, a lot of casual roleplayers, and a few real life friends of various people who don't really roleplay much at all (but even they support it).
Thanks yet again for all the info, I very much appreciate the time you spent giving me all the great advice.
Well I'll see if I sucessfully migrated over or not. I had been doing the newer updated migration, via the 3 test method and it wasn't working earlier, but for some reason it went through this time. Maybe it was just a database error earlier on. Either way the account is created and I shall look for you on Leafcull!
I'll probably go by the name Gromda of some sort. I enjoy RPing, so perhaps I'll fit into your alliance, if they'll have me once I prove myself and level up a bit.
Thanks again!
OK he is made, Level 6 now, Gromda Grump. Will look for you, and thanks again.
OK he is made, Level 6 now, Gromda Grump. Will look for you, and thanks again.
I'll look forward to seeing you. Were you able to successfully recover your old characters? If not, I'd be glad to help you get started again. They've made it much easier to start from scratch, fortunately, as the newbie creatures around the starting towns tend to drop relatively helpful equipment. Still, something like a Baron's Amulet of Lifegiving or some Explorer Jewelry would still help, and I'm sure I have that stuff in a pack somewhere. For better or for worse, my friends list is full, so I probably won't notice you log on. Feel free to send me a tell whenever you like, however, and I'd be more than happy to answer any questions you might have and give you as much (or as little) help with gear as you like. Welcome back to the game.
Hey Blake,
You should go to The Dark Lair ASAP... its got low level Olthoi in it, plus they drop a pincer (part of their body) that you can turn in to a collector for 25,000xp which is a ton at your level... plus each Olthoi you kill is worth 2,000xp. The dungeon is just outside of Greenspire near the Redspire portal... check out "The Dark Lair" on ac.warcry.com or www.thejackcat.com for write ups about the dungeon.
In all honesty, you can go from 1-80 in about 3 or 4 days, if you can locate a buffbot and hit the hot dungeons...
Around level 25 or so, if you have a generous patron to give you a really good shield, you can go to BSD and get to around 35 very fast... 20k per kill...
Then go to White Wasps... Level 85, 20k per kill but they spawn at about 10 at a time and cast alot of war magic bolts, but if you have a rended weapon you can kill them in 2 or 3 swings each... bring lots of stam pots ... stay here until 50...
Then go to Fiun.... Level 115, 80k per kill... and there is always a full fellow in there because the XP is nuts... Mages drop them in 1 shot... Melees in 1 or 2 with rended weapons.. and they also spawn quite fast.
I'm not telling this to make you an XP grinder... but merely to get yourself to a level where you can quest and RP with your new guild... and you'll be back at your original level fast, so "you'll be back on the familiar bicycle" or sword character.
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