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#1 Dec 02 2004 at 3:17 PM Rating: Good
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1. Currently I'm actually finding levelling slow. I hardly ever grind for exp at all, most of my exp is gotten through quests. Yet I'm finding it a painfully long time before I level up. I just hit 18 and already it felt like I was trying to run through mud. I've done pretty much all of Elwynn Forest's quests, and most of the non-instanced/non-elite Westfall and Redridge quests. However, I'm currently stuck because I'm not nearly high enough for instances and elites in Westfall and Redridge.

Is there something I'm doing wrong? Level 18 at the moment.

2. I'm dying quite a bit recently. Somehow it seems like everything I fight links, and links badly. I'm having difficulty running away from one mob camp only to find myself in the middle of another, and I end up dying.

3. Is it just me or is mining and blacksmithing really hard to skill? Both are currently at about 90+ and I'm still trying to eke skill out of copper, and when you need 10 copper bars just for 1 skillpoint it gets a little bad.

Much thanks for any help :)

Edited, Thu Dec 2 15:24:44 2004 by Whren
#2 Dec 02 2004 at 3:35 PM Rating: Decent
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Quote:
Yet I'm finding it a painfully long time before I level up


And you were a 75PLD on FFXI? Smiley: confused

Being ex-FFXI myself, it made me chuckle...

Anyway, on to your question...

I am currently running the Dwarf route, but have a very good Human Rogue friend who is, himself, level 18 and running around Westfall. He's still got a bunch of open quests, so could it be you just haven't found that one magic "seed" quest to get rolling? You know how Bliz so creatively leads you from one quest to another, maybe you got off-track?

Check Alla's Quest by Zone, see if you did them all...

If you really did finish them all, but feel a bit unprepared to move on, or really enjoy Quests, there are a bunch of level 18-19 Quests in Loch Modan you could do...

#3 Dec 02 2004 at 3:49 PM Rating: Good
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1) Are you just killing the monsters releated to the quests? Do you pass up all those other creatures you pass? Should be killing everything you come across.

If you're killing everything and you feel you're leveling slow, then there's nothing anyone can do to help you there.

2) Be more careful in what you target and where you are. Smiley: grin

3) I don't mine or blacksmith, I skin and leatherwork. But they all work the same in skill gains. If the item or recipe is gray you won't be getting any skill points from it, if it's green it will take a couple to get a skill point from.

If you're going for straight skill gains, only make or gather yellow or orange items.
#4 Dec 02 2004 at 3:57 PM Rating: Good
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Quote:
Are you just killing the monsters releated to the quests? Do you pass up all those other creatures you pass? Should be killing everything you come across.


Well, no, I'm just killing the quest-related monsters ><; /headdesk
#5 Dec 02 2004 at 4:00 PM Rating: Decent
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I just leveled to 19 yesterday night and I also smith. I completed most of the Westfall Quests and have started a number of Lakeshire quests and am halfway to 20 and have found tons of gear and mining resources along the way so dont worry:D:)

Try and see if Westfall gives you any more quests and after that you can run to Lakeshire, but the road can be dangerous at times,(wolves!) and as soon as I got there I got at least 8 new quests and got right back into the swing of things.

As for links and dying, I solo a lot and have experienced the same thing from time to time. I think its normal, but I have potions and lay on hands as well as the occassional magic heal to keep me going. I also have to say that if you are the legendary Whren from FFXI (yes just about every PLD I know on Alexander server read your posts!) then all I can say is you have nothing to worry about lol :D

Hope it helps, good luck:)
#6 Dec 02 2004 at 4:12 PM Rating: Good
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Whren wrote:
Quote:
Are you just killing the monsters releated to the quests? Do you pass up all those other creatures you pass? Should be killing everything you come across.


Well, no, I'm just killing the quest-related monsters ><; /headdesk


Can't tell if this is supposed to be a sarcastic reply or a serious reply.

Something else to consider is what level of quest you're doing. If the quest is gray or green in your quest log, you won't get as much exp for it.

Yeah, it seems obvious, but alot of times it's the obvious things that are overlooked.
#7 Dec 02 2004 at 4:21 PM Rating: Decent
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1. As for finding leveling slow, I cant really say anything that hasnt already been posted, Make sure youve done all your quests, kill anything and everything that you see (well,the things that wont eat you..)

2. Have you tried the buddy system? When im in a dangerous area i try to find someone else around the same area to buddy up with.
Saftey in numbers! You dont even need to be in a party if you dont want to, Just hang around eachother for mutual protection..

3. Well i dont mine or skin, But if its anything like herbalism i would suggest trying out a new area to skill up in.
#8 Dec 02 2004 at 6:25 PM Rating: Decent
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154 posts
Loch is a good place to do quest, I have got from 18 to 20 there during beta. Most of the quest should be easy to solo at lvl 18.
#9 Dec 02 2004 at 6:38 PM Rating: Decent
Whren (yes folks, she is that famous), I know how you feel. I just got my mage to 20 and level's 18-20 seemed the hardest for me. Mostly because by then, I had pretty much exhausted the quests in the Loch, but was too small to handle the ones in the Wetlands.

Also, it was hard to find mobs in either spot that fit well. Most in the Loch are 18 and lower, and the wetlands is pretty much 21 up. It seemed that I had found a hole. It took a long time for me to level between 18 and 20 just because I had to take it slow and pick specific mobs and wait my time out grinding.

As for mining, well, I mine and engineer, but I can feel ya on the mining. I can only tell you to notice where in your area you can get Tin, because it will carry you through. Mostly because you get points when you mine tin, plus when you smelt tin, and also when you smelt bronze (takes one tin and one copper). Of course, after tin, you pretty much fall all apart because next is silver and good luck with finding any of that.

I wonder, on the mining point, have you tried swimming? Ive found some of the best mining spots are underwater. If I had a quest anywhere in the Loch I would swim by the mining points rather than run around the lake. Also, since your going to have to grind a bit anyways, go find a spot with a tin vein or two near it and pick that spot to grind. That way, when they pop, you get them.

Edited, Thu Dec 2 18:40:26 2004 by KnightHawkRP
#10 Dec 02 2004 at 6:45 PM Rating: Decent
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Horde has a snag for those levels, in order to get the most out of your quests and xp you have do the quests in barrens and silverpine as you level up. If you just do one area you will run out of quests before you can reach a lvl for newer quests. Also theres the Wailing Caverns in Barrens, its an instance and can provide quite abit of the xp needed to get over the hump so to speak.
#11 Dec 02 2004 at 7:19 PM Rating: Decent
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185 posts
Whren, I don't mean to hijack your thread but how do you like playing paladin in WoW as compared to FFXI?

I have a level 55 taru paladin in FFXI but have decided to try something different and play rogue in WoW.

I really enjoyed all your posts in the FFXI-Paladin forum and learn alot from your wisdom. Just interested in your opinion on the differences/similarities of the WoW paladin. There is a part of me that wants to try it.

Thanks.
#12 Dec 02 2004 at 7:24 PM Rating: Decent
Im going to echo the Friar on that one. After 55 levels in FFXI, I was all ready to go Pally in warcraft, but my friend that is also playing suggested I try something different, and he went pally instead.

But as much as I am loving my Gnome Mage, I cant help but feel a twinge at not playing a Paladin. (PS. It helps to tell yourself that your just playing the game to get a feel for it, so when you wont mess up when you start as a Paladin)
#13 Dec 02 2004 at 9:12 PM Rating: Good
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Well, It looks like everyone beat me to it. I am also an ex FFXI paladin. I just wanted to say another thank you to Whren for teaching me how to hold hate so many moons ago. I was very excited to see you post in here.


In answer to your question, every class CAN solo, but it's not going to be the fastest. So far the non-elite quests seem to work best in pairs. The mobs are grouped so that you usually get 1-3 mobs at a time. With a pair you should have no problem with 3 mobs even though soloing 2 the same level is a challenge.

As a priest, i'd just have to say it could be much worse. ;)


Quote:
I'm not nearly high enough for instances and elites in Westfall and Redridge.


I'd say go for it for the Westfall instance. Even if you don't win you get some great XP and drops. I started doing them at level 15, and boy was that exciting. We died constantly, which was traumatising for me as a healer. I did that for 4 days and came out 5 levels higher, 4 gold richer, and carrying some really nice blue and green items.


So with that in mind come party with me! Preists are your friends! Much easier to cast spells under a power word: shield.
#14 Dec 03 2004 at 12:45 AM Rating: Good
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SeomanP, it was a serious reply. Every time I quest I usually avoid all other monsters and just go for the quest-related ones, then when I'm done I hearthstone back or avoid everything on the way back to town. ^^;;

Thank you everyone for the suggestions, I've decided to explore a bit instead of just sticking to the human areas and hopefully I'll level a bit more that way.

Also, yes I'm the Whren some of you know; been playing more of WoW lately because the HNM drama and other crap in FFXI is turning me off a little. So far I don't claim to be very experienced as a WoW paladin yet and I'm sure there are tons more who know better, but I do have a few comments regarding the differences between paladins on both sides for those interested.

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Role
The ffxi paladin was structured to be solely a tank, and nothing but a tank, from levels 1 to 75. There is little else a ffxi paladin can do except take hits for the party, and the job as a whole is one of the most focused and cookie-cutter jobs in ffxi. It's entirely possible to be a paladin in ffxi and not have to make any decisions on your own how you want to develop your character, because in that game there is really only one way to go.

In WoW, however, things are a little different. From the get go, a WoW paladin can heal, take hits (if they manage to get the mob looking their way), deal pretty good damage (there is one Paladin ability that procs Holy damage for 200-300 damage later on) and buff parties fairly well. Because in WoW you don't party as often as in ffxi, when you DO party you might be a little confused as to your role in it (I know I did). It depends entirely on your party; some have you along as their healer (entirely possible too because WoW paladins have some nice healing), some have you along as party support and jack-of-all-trades, some even have you along for damage. In that sense the playstyle might feel a bit more like an ffxi rdm or warrior sometimes. WoW paladins even get an MP regen spell, like Refresh.

For me, it was like being dunked in water when I tried a WoW paladin out, because it is almost nothing like an FFXI paladin. In WoW you are something like a hybrid class, in FFXI you are anything but a hybrid. The first thing that differentiates a WoW paladin from an FFXI one is that the WoW one does not have the set-in-stone role that the FFXI pld has. For ex-FFXI plds interested in trying WoW paladin out, prepare to feel like a more melee rdm.

Hate
I wrote about hate in an earlier post, so I'm going to quote it here because as an FFXI pld we were used to being scientists of hate/enmity/aggro/threat:

Quote:
Coming from a heavy tanking background in FFXI, hate in WoW was something of a shock. It's not as focused as in FFXI and bounces around a lot lot more. Generally, damage is a good way to get hate, a little more than in FFXI (blm does a few k MB and mob doesn't flinch from pld). Hate in WoW is slightly shakier than in FFXI where no one other than the pld gets touched for 7 hours of exp.

Also in FFXI, if your party or character has claim you get a boost on the mob's enmity list (why a level 5 character being power levelled will still get hate while being plvlled). Over here there's no such thing because there is no claiming system.

Cure hate is much less potent in WoW than in FFXI. I heal my party members for half their life and still don't get hate; if I did the same thing in FFXI I could probably hold off quite a bit.

FFXI also has 2 kinds of hate, spiked hate (increases quickly, deteriorates quickly too), and consistent hate (increases more steadily, takes longer to deterioriate). Up to this point I don't know or think that WoW has a similar system; I have no idea about hate decay in WoW yet.

In FFXI, the more you hit the enemy (excluding the amount of damage taken), the more hate you had. Basically, every hit added a certain amount of hate, no matter if it was hitting for less than someone hitting more with a longer delay weapon (why tanks in FFXI generally use 1 handed weapons, to ensure shorter delay and more hate). In WoW, however, it seems to be the opposite -- where the total damage taken has more influence on hate than the number of actions done to the mob.


For that matter, WoW paladins are ultimately not able to hold as much hate as warriors, although in WoW we are also able to perform other duties so I don't think that's a bad thing.

Range
There is one thing FFXI plds have that WoW paladins do not; a ranged attack. I know I was really accustomed to walking near a mob and casting Flash, provoking, or Banishing it, but in WoW paladins have no ranged attacks at all. This feels a little cumbersome at first, but eh, you get to live with it after a while.

Helping others
In FFXI one of my pastimes was walking around raising and healing random people I met who needed the help. You don't really get to do much of the same thing in WoW, because 1) no one really needs raises at low to mid levels, and 2) HP and MP regens on its own. Because you don't have ranged attacks it's harder for you to pull a mob off someone else who is trying to run away. I felt like I wasn't able to really help people around me as much as in FFXI, and it was a severe dent in my gameplay experience for a bit because helping people in this manner gave me a lot of pleasure in FFXI. However, I guess it's also something you have to get used to. Being able to raise at a low level (I got mine around 13) is nice though, even if you don't really use the spell at all.

Job maturity/Roleplaying
In FFXI your pld had to reach about level 50 to 70 to actually feel like a paladin, with similarly paladin-sounding job abilities and spells. Before that you felt like a gimped warrior with white magic, and only later were you able to actually feel like you were a holy knight (even 'Cure IV' doesn't sound very paladin-like). In WoW, even though you get dressed in some pretty ugly armor for the lower levels, the abilities you get are already paladin-sounding. Seal of Righteousness is one of the very first few abilites you get, Seal of the Crusader coming later, and your Judgement ability. Our healing spell is called Holy Light. So for those interested in actually feeling like paladins, WoW paladins do the job much better and faster (than waiting 60 levels in ffxi for your job to mature).

Edited, Fri Dec 3 00:45:56 2004 by Whren
#15 Dec 03 2004 at 1:17 AM Rating: Good
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Quote:
Range
There is one thing FFXI plds have that WoW paladins do not; a ranged attack. I know I was really accustomed to walking near a mob and casting Flash, provoking, or Banishing it, but in WoW paladins have no ranged attacks at all. This feels a little cumbersome at first, but eh, you get to live with it after a while.

You can't use throwing knives or a crossbow or anything?
That would be a little annoying...

#16 Dec 03 2004 at 12:55 PM Rating: Decent
Thanks Whren, as always your post is informative and well written. Its comforting to know we will have you around in this game as well.

On the matter of ranged, I know its not a lot, but look for an engineer that knows how to make EZ throw Dynamite. The EZ throw doesnt require you to know engineering, like most of the other explosives, and has a decent punch.

Its also not too hard to come up with the materials. 4x Coarse Blasting Powder, 1x wool cloth. You get 1x Coarse blasting powder from 1x coarse rock that you get with mining Tin I think. I havent bought that schematic yet, but I know when I do if you bring me the materials I would be happy to make them for free.
#17 Dec 03 2004 at 1:55 PM Rating: Good
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Also, here's another hypothesis I have on the hate system in WoW based on my experiences in the Deadmines instance just today:

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We had 5 people, I was a level 19 paladin, and there was a level 21 paladin in the party as well. She was using a 2 handed axe and I was switching out between 2 handed and 1 handed swords (I'm sorry, I love my sharp pointy objects too much :/). During the first part of the instance I left the tanking mostly up to her and she did fairly well with it. As we progressed further in, however, I was getting a little bored so I thought I'd use the opportunity to observe how hate worked.

The 21 paladin was holding hate mainly by spamming her spells and abilities; Hammer of Justice, etc etc. I had tried that before but I felt they were not really getting the hate I wanted, so I was keen to find out what Seal of Fury did.

The only job ability that explicitly stated it was meant for hate was Seal of Fury. The description read: Causes melee attacks to cause additional threat.

This got me thinking whether the effect would be similar to enmity+ in ffxi, where a hidden hate effect would proc every time a hit connected. I used it first with my 2 handed sword, which had a fairly long delay almost similar to the 21 paladin's axe. I was not really able to take mobs off her, for she hit harder for the same delay as I did.

Then I swapped to a 1 handed sword with a 2.30 second delay, not very much faster but still faster. With Seal of Fury on I sometimes could get hate a little more easily after a while. However the results were not very consistent at this point. Halfway through the instance I received another sword, with a 1.something delay and lower dps than the first 1handed sword. This was significantly faster, and the next fight that ensued I found that hate was easier to get. The results varied:

- sometimes I could hold the mob from start to finish from the 21 paladin for the entire battle. If I engaged the mob for a few hits before she did, this was very common.
- sometimes I would hold it, and then lose hate to the 21 paladin, and get it back shortly after, resulting in her only getting hit once or twice for the entire duration of the fight.
- sometimes I would only be able to get hate from her only halfway through the fight. If she attacked first this was also common.

But this was an improvement over me using the 2 handed sword (which was a decent one) where I was not once able to grab hate from the other paladin. Which leads me to start thinking that Seal of Fury activates something somewhat similar to the FFXI enmity+ system, with hate activating every time you successfully hit. Today was the first time I felt like I was able to get the hate I'm used to, in WoW, without resorting to straight damage.

Of course, the results of my little observation session are mostly inconclusive and I'm probably well wrong. But I thought I'd just post this here so more experienced people can tell me I'm wrong :x

Edited, Fri Dec 3 14:14:15 2004 by Whren
#18 Dec 03 2004 at 2:45 PM Rating: Good
OK, well I will address the OP's initial questiuons/concerns.

I too found a little slow down through 18 and 19. Not drastic...but I had a full quest log and there were some I just could not complete.

What I did was dump the quests I had accumulated that were red...and a couple that were green and I knew did not lead to other higher level quests. This made room for new. I went to another zone...I am a tauren and was in the usual crossroads area...and went to the undead area (silverpine forest). In your case, you could head up to the dwarf areas.

Anyway, once there you can start picking up nested quests that can propel you right up. It is also fun because the zones are new and fresh...you also get to add to your repuation for a new area.

Once I hit 20, my levelling seemed to pick up. I also was able to go back and knock out a bunch of the quests that I had had for a while.

Regarding dying...well, that is actually simple. You really need to control your environment. That means, know an escape route if one is needed. If there are some baddies there, kill them and go back every once in a while to clear the path after they respawn. If that is too frequent, then find an alternative path, maybe over some hills (but be sure to look at what is on the other side before using it).

Better than having a good escape route, however, is controlling the pulls and conditions. Kill your way to the mob you need rather than serpentining through the other mobs...so once you get the guy you want, the area is relatively clear. Anticipate adds, and if the linked creatues are too much for you to handle, group up.

Trade skills should get harder over time. I do not want it to be as easy to get from 100 to 150 as it was to get from 50 to 100. That would be pointless. Tradeskills should get more expensive and take longer. It should (and does) get to the point that seeing a trsadeskill point requires some effort and is welcomed almost like a level.
#19 Dec 03 2004 at 6:02 PM Rating: Decent
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185 posts
Thanks for responding Whren. As always great post.
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