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 Leveling Q&A...What is expected if you join MIF/Newbie guide

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IMQUICKILL
Druid
IMQUICKILL


Number of posts : 154
Age : 54
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Registration date : 2008-06-06

Leveling Q&A...What is expected if you join MIF/Newbie guide Empty
PostSubject: Leveling Q&A...What is expected if you join MIF/Newbie guide   Leveling Q&A...What is expected if you join MIF/Newbie guide Icon_minitimeSun Mar 20, 2011 9:45 am

MIF is primarily a leveling focused guild.

Okay, what does that mean?

* It means that you should gain levels efficiently. If you want to join the guild, we will look and see if you have leveled at a reasonable rate. A "Reasonable" target is level 50 within your first month, level 100 within two months and level 150 within 3 months. If you want to be impressive, you should be leveling faster than "Reasonable." Once you are in the guild, we expect continued leveling - though we know it will slow somewhat.
* You can do other things too (SE hunt, Arena, et cetera) - but please keep leveling.

Leveling goals:

1-200: 10+ levels per week
200+: 5+ levels per week

How do I level quickly?

* Learn how the game works. Your first goal is to always spend stamina wisely.
o When you attack a monster, you should kill it in one hit whenever possible. See the * One Hit Guide for more info on how to do that.
o Wait to go hunting until you have maximum (or almost max) stamina.
o Wear at least one whole gear set (such as Plague, or Deep.) You get a 20% XP bonus called "Elite Hunter"
o Get buffed (or buff yourself) when you are about to go hunting: Adept Learner and Librarian both give an XP bonus, varying by level.
o Doubler is nice, but is not critical at the lower levels and lower amounts of stamina. It just saves walking and finding mobs.
o Always hunt all of your stamina after getting buffed. If you have less than 2K stamina (and/or are less than level 186) and hunt with Doubler, turn it off at the end of your hunt and keep killing mobs until you are down below 20 stamina.
o Repair! Repair! Repair! Keep your gear in tip-top shape. Gear loses stats if you do not repair frequently.
o If you have several thousand max stamina, you probably want to consider Doubler450, 500 or 750.

Won't I level faster with Berserk and Fury and Death Dealer and Extend and HF and EVERY OTHER BUFF YOU CAN CAST ON ME?

* Well, are you one-hitting without them?

Yes....

* Then you don't need them and buffing you with them will slow someone else's leveling, or prevent them from casting useful buffs on someone else. Don't be greedy, don't be an idiot. Only ask for what you really need.

Where do I put my level-up points?


* Damage.

Okay, but I put 100 in damage already. What should I put them in next?

* Damage.

Is that all you can say? Isn't there another option?

* Damage.
* Okay, maybe - if you really like doing lots of math on your own with no further advice on good gear from anyone here and using obscure buffs there is a tiny minority theory that you can do sort-of okay putting all points in Defense. Nobody in MIF is following this theory.
* Nevermind. Just put it all in Damage. Really.

So, what's this whole Attack, Defense, Armor, Damage thing anyway?

* Excellent question! When you attack a mob, your stats are compared, the game rolls some random numbers and determines whether you hit the mob, whether you kill it, whether it hits you back and whether it kills you (and repeats as needed for multiple rounds.) If you have an attack about the same as the mob's defense, you will hit about half the time and miss about half the time.

* To reliably hit a mob ~98% of the time, you need to have an Attack more than 10% higher than the mob's Defense. So, if it has a Defense of 200, you need an attack of more than 220.

* To reliably kill a mob with that hit, you need to have Damage higher than the mob's Armor + HP (enough damage to punch through the Armor and take away all the HP.)

Okay, so I'll still miss sometimes. How can I avoid getting killed back?

* Defense works similarly the other way too - if you want to avoid getting hit back, you need a Defense at least 10% higher than the mob's Attack.

* If you don't have enough Defense to avoid getting hit, you need to have more Armor (or less attractively, Armor + HP) than the mob's Damage.

I really don't pay attention to stats - I just get the best sets and I one-hit everything and they can't hit me back. Why should I care?

* Things get tougher as you get higher level. First elites can't be one-hit, then Champions, then regular mobs. The first teeny, tiny test is the Mushcaria Beast at level 111. You can just kill other things instead - unless you need to kill the Lenzwer Pale Stag for that quest. 145+ things start getting tough again until you get access to the level 150 gear.

* You should get into the habit of preparing gear setups before hunting around level 185, and expect to change out gear frequently.

* You can't one-hit the level 149 Desvictus Horror without truly stupid amounts of potions and buffs. The easy, cheap solution is to keep killing the Emerald Tree Viper at 148, then take the portal.

* At level 186, the difficulty of one-hitting goes up exponentially and requires a combination of pre-planning, potions, high-end buffs and changing gear almost every mob. Not pre-planning = you die. A lot. 2-hitting is a reasonable alternative, particularly if you have less than 3K or 4K max stamina.

* You may want to kill Champions or Elites

Champions? I just make a group. It's easy.

* Easy, and you usually waste a crapload of your stamina and the guild's stamina. Plus, you have to wait for enough people to join your group.
* Hunting champions after level 140 becomes increasingly difficult.
* you should focus on building multihit setups to kill champions after 140.

Huh?

* When you make a group, it costs you 20 stamina and it costs each guildmate who joins 5 stamina (that's the same as buffing with Doubler.) If you get a full group of 18, you are spending 105 stamina on a single kill. 20 for you, and 85 from guildmates. We could cast a lot of leveling buffs or get a lot of XP and gold from killing regular mobs for that much stamina.

That's a lot of stamina! Okay, what do I do instead?

* See if you can 2-hit (or 5-hit, or 10-hit) the Champion instead. (turn off Doubler, by the way.) Put together a high-defense or high-armor setup so that the Champion can't hurt you, and have enough damage to punch through his armor and take some of his HP each hit.
* Make sure there is a reason to kill the Champion or Elite. Do you need to kill him to complete a quest? Is the item drop really valuable? BTW - 'really valuable' is measured in FSP, not gold.
* If there is a good item drop, be sure to use a Find Item potion. FI250 is cheap in the AH, and FI800 isn't terribly expensive.
* When hunting elites for drop, use high level (potion preferred) FI and 4L.
* Sometimes you really do need a group. That's fine! Just be sure you really do need it.

Mob? Monster?

* Either one is a generic term for a non-player creature in the game. 'Mob' in gaming dates back to at least 1990 on text-based MMORPGs

Okay, I have some FSPs. Where do I spend them?

* There are lots of good ways to spend FSPs to improve your character.

* First, increase your max stamina. Opinions differ, but you should have at least 10x your level in max stamina, preferably at least 20x your level (so, if you apply at level 100, you should have at least 1,000 max stamina, but 2,000 is better. Why do we care? With more max stamina you need to be buffed less often. It is a more effective use of resources.

* Stamina gain. Regain stamina faster and level faster.

* More backpack slots, at least a few more. Eventually enough to hold your resting gear while you hunt.

* Like to sell stuff? An extra AH slot can be helpful


* Continue increasing max stamina so that you only hunt with all your stamina once a day, or every 2 or 3 days!

* After maxing stamina gain, consider XP gain.

What you don't want to spend your FSP on early in your career
  • Don't buy gear. Most gear will only last a few days if you level up as stated above. Use what you find when hunting.

  • Don't upgrade the gear you use at low levels...see previous rule

  • Don't buy a bunch of high level buffs or potions. You can easily one hit with guild gear and basic hunting buffs


How much max stamina should I aim for?

* There are different opinions:
* At the low end some say 10x your level.
* At the high end some say 20x your level, or higher.
* IMQUICKILL's word on the subject is "more!"

Why do I really need more max stamina?

* Initially you need max stamina so that you don't need to spend (someone's) stamina on buffs so often. I would much rather cast AL on you if you are hunting 2,000 stamina than if you are hunting 750 stamina. Later, if you have enough stamina your gold profits from hunting will let you afford high-end potions and still have gold left over to turn into FSPs. Consider it a "virtuous cycle" - spending FSP on max stamina lets you get more profit from a hunt, which lets you get more FSP from hunting, which lets you buy more max stamina and other upgrades.



How do I know when to use which potions and higher level buffs?

* By looking ahead at what creatures you will hunt, and seeing what will keep you from 1-hitting (if anything.) First, try adjusting your gear to see if that will fix the problem - or at least get you partway there. You figure this out in advance so that you can buy the right potions while you still have time and look for cheap deals on potions. Common problems follow:
* Not enough Damage
o Start with a Berserk (Ber) potion. Cheapest are Ber175/200 ("Blood Fist" and "Dragons Blood") Next is Ber300 "Berserkers potion." Finally, Ber350 "Potion of Fury" is a last resort, as it is MUCH more expensive at ~1 FSP.
o Fury buff. Fury is pretty wimpy for the stamina cost: only half as effective as Berserk, so only use it if Ber300 is barely not enough.
o Counter Attack (CA) buff. CA costs quite a bit of stamina to cast, but is rather effective. The BIG downside is that it costs YOU extra stamina while you hunt(!) and the extra stamina cost is "rounded up" to the nearest whole stamina. You need to pick an "ideal" CA level for the Doubler you are using.
o Holy Flame (HF) buff. Awesome against Undead. Useless against everything else.
o Death Dealer (DD) buff or potion. You HAVE to maintain a good kill streak for DD to work. For max damage bonus (20%) you need a kill streak of 60 for the level 175 buff, or a kill streak of 400 for the level 25 potion.
o Enchant Weapon 1000 (Potion of Truth) or Enchant Weapon 1500 (Potion of Greater Enchant Weapon.) Expensive, and VERY Expensive(!) respectively.(around 600K for 1000, and 14-15 for 1500)
* Not enough Attack (I keep missing!)
o Dark Curse is your friend. Generally the DC200 potion (sludge) in the AH. Eventually (maybe) DC225 (Black Death), at around 40-50k.
o CA also improves your attack - see above.
* Need more XP
o Librarian potions (Potion of the Wise, Bookworm.) Use them when you have enough max stamina to justify the cost. At 3k, you should be able to afford Wise. At 8k, you should be able to afford Bookworm, around 1 FSP.
* Doubler
* Depends on your max stamina. Here is an initial guide:
o 1000-2500 max stamina: Doubler100 (x3) or Doubler 150 (x4)
o 2000-5000 max stamina: Doubler500 (Potion of Acceleration)
o 4000-infinite max stamina: Doubler750 (Potion of Greater Doubler)
* No way to 1-hit, even with expensive potions and buffs
o Sublevel. Instead of killing the impossible-to-1-hit creature, stay 1 level lower and take a 20% XP penalty. Still more effective than 2-hitting.
o Wither 350 potion (fatality) will generally let you 1-hit 70% of the time. Not as effective as subleveling, but it can be stacked with things like Spectral Knight (SK.) If you are just BARELY not 1-hitting, Bloodthirst also helps ~30% of the time by doing a small amount of extra damage. If you are already 1-hitting, do NOT ask for this type of buff, it is a waste of stamina!

What is this Ideal CA Level thing?
The Counter Attack buff gives you extra attack and damage, at the cost of additional stamina. All of these round up to the nearest whole point. The entire idea of an "ideal" CA level is to get the most damage and attack for the least cost. An extra point of damage isn't much, but an extra point of stamina cost per combat can add up quickly! The fraction of a stamina used interacts with Doubler, so you need to adjust the CA you use for the Doubler you use.

Doubler 450
CA40, CA80, CA120

Doubler 500
CA36, CA72, CA109, CA145

Doubler750
CA25, CA50, CA75, CA100, CA125

If you can't find exactly the CA you need, see if a slightly lower level of CA will work. For example, if you are using Doubler 750 and CA50 is not quite enough damage, but you cannot find CA75, you may have enough damage with CA72 - which will have the same stamina penalty per combat as CA75. Also note that it can be more efficient to sublevel (hunt creatures below your current level) than use a high level of CA.

Any alternative approaches?

* Yes! It seems counter-intuitive, but with Doubler750, Deep Pockets, Defiance and Wither350 it can be more effective to just die a lot.

WTF! Die a lot?!?! Dude, I hate dying!

* Yup. The math works. If you are using Doubler 750, 2-hitting costs you 32 stamina. If you die, it only costs you 1 stamina and you lose 4x the BASE (not doubled) XP you would get from killing the creature. Weird, yes. Costs you less to die, and you have that stamina to go kill something next time. Even without Defiance, if Wither350 lets you 1-hit and you otherwise die when it does not activate, you are effectively 1.15-hitting. With Defiance, the numbers are even better.
* Just remember to "bank" with someone frequently (send them gold during your hunt)

Any way to make the interface easier?

* Yes. While 3rd party add-ons are generally banned by the Cow, they have looked at one Firefox script and said it does not have bannable features (they haven't endorsed using it, they just said they won't ban YOU for using it) - there are others floating around, but you risk having your account terminated for automation. So stick with FALLENSWORD HELPER.

So how do I do it?

* It is a 3-part process:
* Install the Firefox web browser
* Install the Greasemonkey add-on so that Firefox can run scripts
* Install the unofficial FS Helper it is under RESOURCES > FS HELPER

If using either FireFox or Google Chrome, go to location above and follow the instructions for installing it


Last edited by IMQUICKILL on Fri May 13, 2011 8:51 am; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : additions and colorizing for better exposure)
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