New Players

[Bargeld]

Just to put it out there... some of the faction jobs require you to venture into enemy faction cities. SL's final job makes you go to sleeth, and I assume at least one of the other factions is similar. If the guard cr-up and placement doesn't take this into consideration, it may have an impact on the ability to complete those jobs at an acceptable, early level. Using SL as a benchmark, you can try it at level 13, but running the long way around Aetheria and through the front gates of the city, trying to avoid the dragon fear and see invis abilities, it's almost suicide. It's usually better to just wait till 16 when you can take the ferries and get into Sleeth the back way, right next to the job's target. If the guards along that route get bumped to cr35, you won't be able to complete that last job until you are much more survivable, high 20's or low 30's i would bet.

[DeputyDog]

The faction guards are the cr they should be. This is supposed to be a place to explore at that level range.
I could see beefing up the guards around each relic but the rest of the faction areas are not intended for 25+ grinding.

NS City is its own beast and for now I have done some tweaks to make it a destination for the under 20. Some of it may require a group and the buildings may be over powered so leave me some feedback. At the very least, check it out with some sub 20 characters, solo and in groups.

Debating what to do with sunken isle since it seems forgotten. I would like to put a ferry from Frostdale, Falme and Greyshores to there at least, and either decrease difficulty or raise the cr/difficulty. Ideas?

[Bargeld]

Sunken is mainly for farming standand-to-good gear. And +4 books. Unless you have a large, brave group, you really can't go beyond the first map at the intended levels. It's supposed to be a 16+ area, and the cr's fit that, and drops, but the mobs are just way hard... 3 way mixture of weapon types, big hitters, spellcasters, hiding stunners. It's ugly there, even at 25+ if you aren't careful.

[Lokey]

But Malik and I did everything with a pair of recommend button 18s in level 10 gear last time it was redone lol. He even refrained from using the good druid spells.

[Nyeleni]

The faction guards are the cr they should be. This is supposed to be a place to explore at that level range.
I could see beefing up the guards around each relic but the rest of the faction areas are not intended for 25+ grinding.

NS City is its own beast and for now I have done some tweaks to make it a destination for the under 20. Some of it may require a group and the buildings may be over powered so leave me some feedback. At the very least, check it out with some sub 20 characters, solo and in groups.

Debating what to do with sunken isle since it seems forgotten. I would like to put a ferry from Frostdale, Falme and Greyshores to there at least, and either decrease difficulty or raise the cr/difficulty. Ideas?

Got some errors while exploring the new NS city:

spawn error: alliance party18: no corresponding spawn points placed, disabling spawning. (i_spawn) called by nsgoatinn


Happened in other parts of NS city as well.

[DeputyDog]

Got some errors while exploring the new NS city:

spawn error: alliance party18: no corresponding spawn points placed, disabling spawning. (i_spawn) called by nsgoatinn


Happened in other parts of NS city as well.

Ill fix that. Noob dev error. Thanks. Did the named npcs spawn? Act ok?

[Nyeleni]

The named NPCs spawned in inn and temple as far as I could see. And they acted hostile .

[DeputyDog]

Ok. now try them at level 15-20 and see if they are doable. If not solo, then try in a small group.
The 2 clerics could be a pain with all those tanks in front of them.
The tavern is pretty tight quarters so who knows.

[Rufio]

I just soloed all of it with a level 17 earth genasi multicalssed bard.

I knew going into it that all the guards sport slashing weapons, so I was able to pick up some slashing resist gear in ave and tank them no problem (the earth genasi dr helped too). I had an assortment of level 13 ave gear and level 16 gear and was at around 40 ac and 26 ab. The guards had around 26 ab and could hit me, but most of the damage was soaked up with immunities and resists. My first run in, it took forever to kill guards with my katana. I'd do like 4 damage per hit and was only hitting about half the time, so I ran back to ave and picked up a morningstar. That had no trouble penetrating damage resist, so I was off to the races. I hit up the inn, where I didn't have much trouble with the named mobs. They were also using slashing weapons, so I was able to use my pure slashing resist loadout and tank them pretty easily despite getting hit more often. They did dispel my buffs, which was annoying. I eventually found the temple and tried it out. I was able to draw a few of the guards to me without drawing the two clerics, then when I headed to the two clerics, I feared the last of the guards away so i didn't have to worry about them. The heavy flails here scared me a little, and I was able to get 10/- piercing and bludgeoning and 5/+5 dr with the gear i had and my earth gen token, which really helped. They started with an implode and destruction, which scared the crap out of me. I have no idea what the save dc was, but I passed (fortunately my fort score is pretty high at the moment). They kept healing and raising eachother, which was a pain, and the heavy flails hurt, forcing me to drink potions to stay alive, but I eventually wore them down and killed them. None of the named mobs dropped anything for me though, which was disappointing. I tried going into neversummer castle after that to see what was in there, but for some reason there was a level 40 inside killing things.

The exp wasn't all that fast at my level, I could have gone to mezzoliths and been able to kill things faster and gotten a bit more exp per kill, but it is also a lot riskier there. A well prepared build slightly lower in level than mine with lots of slashing resist should be able to go to neversummer city now and kill the guards for some pretty decent exp. It seems like mages and dexers might have a hard time killing the guards efficiently enough for it to be worthwhile, but I suppose it isn't much different than killing giants.

[Rufio]

On the topic of sunken isle. It could be a good alternative to frostdale, but it is so easy to die there. The mobs die faster than fd mobs, so the exp could potentially be very good, and the drops are nice; but the mobs hit really hard and there are a ton of spellcasters around ready to pummel you with ice storms and other spells. Once you get into the boss rooms, the spawns are huge and there is no where to hide. It would take a coordinated party similar to that of an endgame planar run to take on sunken at the levels in which the exp would be worthwhile.

[DeputyDog]

I just soloed all of it with a level 17 earth genasi multicalssed bard.

Rufio Great feedback!

Bear in mind the Inn and Temple were half broken so they were missing the ghael/aasimar and defenders so it might be a little harder after the rebuild today. Im glad the temple was a challenge. The spacing gives the clerics time to buff.

Did the mage in the Goat Inn give you any trouble or was he too far back? He had some insta kill stuff but I think I removed some of it. May put it back. I could give Sir Pepin and Lord Einhard blunt weapons, but they are Paladins so doesnt really fit. If we add other dmg types it turns into sunken where people think its too difficult, so its a tough call.

Giants has been tweaked(or will be after the rebuild today) and may lend some people to spread out. I need to test how the trolls are as they may need some tweaking.

Keep the feedback coming.

(I think the lvl 40 was in there farming) I was in there last night testing the relic defenders. May have to remove that door and wall so they all attack together....

[Rufio]

Oh, I didn't see a mage in the goat inn, and I looked in all the rooms. He could have been invisible back in one of those rooms, my see invis was dispelled earlier in the fight. I might check again. My bard is still parked in neversummer city at the moment.

[Bargeld]

Arawyn(?) Leonsbane or something to that effect. I think he dropped the nice robes... I couldn't id them, but they looked like the right ones, so I passed em on to a lowbie teammate who was at ave. That teammate and his companions had already noticed the difference on the mtn; trolls and KDs!

[DeputyDog]

Yea he spawns. just kicked my butt. Got confused and the pallys smacked me around when they couldnt tuch me before lol.

Off to mess with the mountain now.

[Rufio]

Ok, yeah, I just went back to the inn and found leonsbane. He was pretty tough. I bum rushed him with the other spawns following me to try and get him before he buffed, but he cast premonition, which foiled that plan. Had some close calls, the spells hit pretty hard and I had to down a few potions while absorbing hits from the other mobs. They took me down to near death twice but I was able to pull through and finish him off and take down the other mobs. He dropped a nice level 16 robe, which is the only boss drop I found that wasn't a generic item.