tanithryudo (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tanithryudo) wrote2020-01-08 02:43 pm
tanithryudo) wrote2020-01-08 02:43 pm
Entry tags:
Retrospective and tips for PWM in no particular order
EDIT: A lot of these tips have been invalidated since entering the... I guess it's the mid-game right now. So I've made a bunch of edits as of 1/31/20
Clerics and Barbarians (tanks) are the classes with the least problems finding groups. The others are all pretty much dps classes of some kind, with Wizard the king of general dps and Archer king of 1v1 dps (boss fights, pvp).
The first 30-40 levels are pretty much just following the tutorial. The tutorial sprite will be interrupting you almost every task, and the levels pile up quickly. Just bear with it and zoom through. Around lvl 40-59 ish, the tutorial interrupts will slowly taper off, and I don't think I've gotten any tutorial prompts after lvl 71 ish.
The early cultivation dungeons "Crypt of Shadows" and "Apocalypse Valley", as well as the intro "Dusk Temple: Beginner" dungeon, are all really really easy. There's no need to worry about gear or over-leveling for them, or even needing a full group. The early cultivation dungeons come with NPC healer and tank, so you just need to focus on hitting things and avoiding the damage mechanics. Beginner dusk temple is the same as the actual "Dusk Temple: Eventide" except with enemy damage scaled way down.
-- In contrast, "Cave of Treasures" cultivation dungeon is surprisingly hard for its level, if you go with a group of lvl ~59s. Of course, if you've got a bunch of moonlighting high levels helping you out, then it's a breeze.
When the tutorial gets to the guild intro part, the Quick Apply button will put you into a random guild that has room. If you don't care about participating in guild activities then you can use that (it put me into a portugese guild twice -_-). Or you can just apply to Phoenix, the guild I'm in, which is really active. Active guilds are good in that guild events are really great for leeching rewards for minimal effort.
-- Also, you need a guild to earn/use contribution points, which is required for lvling up life skills: fishing, gathering, cooking, alchemy, luck. To be optimal, put all the points in luck and ignore the others. Food/potions are cheap compared to rare drops.
Equipment rarity goes White < Blue < Purple < Yellow < Orange, and the more stars in front of the name, the better in the same level of rarity. White/Blues should just be dismantled en mass if not better than anything you're wearing. Purples should be donated if not being used. Yellows and Oranges can be sold on the stalls for gold coins.
There's a few yellow level gear that you can get thru gameplay:
-- One is a lvl 69 chest piece for completing cultivation path goals within 2 weeks of making your character (lotus icon in the top menu). I think the hardest part for cultivation path would be to get all skills to lvl 25. Don't promote to lvl 60 after filling up lvl 59, so additional exp will be converted to spirit. Consider doing the same at the promotion from lvl 79 and 99.
-- Another is a lvl 59 weapon, given when you complete the artifact collection (also at the top menu). No time limit, just don't wait til you're over-leveled for it. Most of this is just do X activity Y times. Only the Loyalty requirement is a little confusing -- Easiest way to get that done is to use the red strings from cultivation path rewards on people in your friends list, and have them use it back.
-- Then there's a yellow ring you get at rank 3 reputation. You level up your rank by donating purple items, or spending hero order / honor points on the exchange.
For the currencies: The 2 types of gold ingots are generally bought with money, the locked kind occasionally given out by the server after maintenance days and holidays. Gold coins are pretty much used for the player transaction economy (buying and selling between players). Silver coins and ingots are earned thru gameplay. I don't suggest converting currencies unless you absolutely have to. Just take your time to accumulate silver coins/ingots.
When specializing to sage or demon... basic rule of thumb is sage=PvE and demon=PvP. Also, you can switch between the modes once per day for free.
For non-guild dailies:
Heavenfall Tower - Literal freebie. You get rewards for every floor you already completed before every day without having to do anything. Make sure to push this up as much as you can, to get the most out of your daily blitz freebies.
Paperclip for a Villa - Daily autoplay freebie with no fighting.
Phoenix Creek/Valley - The other freebie for earning money/exp/spirit. Player damage is scaled so level differences doesn't matter when grouping. Make sure you have an AOE attack and leave it on autoplay.
Monster Massacre - You can autoplay this even without a healer in the group; just set auto-rez on. In fact, it's tedious to play *without* auto. Fights are scaled so level doesn't matter.
Exorcist - Starts every hour or half hour so it's best to get in a group shortly beforehand. Note some groups will only search for the elite mobs and then disband if those are all gone. Good place to get gear drops for minimal investment. Also, the 2 scrolls per mob can be sold for a steady income of gold coins.
Path of One - Uh...treat these like dungeon boss fights. Don't expect to pug through them without a good group.
Cultivation dungeons - Getting good drops from here are very very very RNG dependent so don't rely on it. But, it's also the only place to drop sage/demon skillbooks, even if it's rare. So, it's generally advise to do the 2 dailies. (Another option for getting sage/demon skills is to buy from the stalls, and then crucible 3 for a rng roll...)
Dusk Temple: Eventide - A staple dungeon from lvl 59 onwards until you can survive the Dusk Temple: Twilight dungeon. This is the place to farm for purple items to donate, and occasionally pick up the rarer drop. DT:Twilight requires good DPS as well or the boss rages and you all die...basically you want 150+ BR for all dps.
Divine Valley - Actual PvP event held twice a day. I basically afked it for cultivation path/artifact collections and then never touched it again.
Pinnacle - This looks like PvP but actually it's not. You pick someone ranked higher than you, but it's the NPC AI running a clone build of whoever which actually fights you. Push yourself as high in the ranks as you can go by cherry picking fights. Then every day, you will get some honor points based on the highest score you've ever got.
Clerics and Barbarians (tanks) are the classes with the least problems finding groups. The others are all pretty much dps classes of some kind, with Wizard the king of general dps and Archer king of 1v1 dps (boss fights, pvp).
The first 30-40 levels are pretty much just following the tutorial. The tutorial sprite will be interrupting you almost every task, and the levels pile up quickly. Just bear with it and zoom through. Around lvl 40-59 ish, the tutorial interrupts will slowly taper off, and I don't think I've gotten any tutorial prompts after lvl 71 ish.
The early cultivation dungeons "Crypt of Shadows" and "Apocalypse Valley", as well as the intro "Dusk Temple: Beginner" dungeon, are all really really easy. There's no need to worry about gear or over-leveling for them, or even needing a full group. The early cultivation dungeons come with NPC healer and tank, so you just need to focus on hitting things and avoiding the damage mechanics. Beginner dusk temple is the same as the actual "Dusk Temple: Eventide" except with enemy damage scaled way down.
-- In contrast, "Cave of Treasures" cultivation dungeon is surprisingly hard for its level, if you go with a group of lvl ~59s. Of course, if you've got a bunch of moonlighting high levels helping you out, then it's a breeze.
When the tutorial gets to the guild intro part, the Quick Apply button will put you into a random guild that has room. If you don't care about participating in guild activities then you can use that (it put me into a portugese guild twice -_-). Or you can just apply to Phoenix, the guild I'm in, which is really active. Active guilds are good in that guild events are really great for leeching rewards for minimal effort.
-- Also, you need a guild to earn/use contribution points, which is required for lvling up life skills: fishing, gathering, cooking, alchemy, luck. To be optimal, put all the points in luck and ignore the others. Food/potions are cheap compared to rare drops.
Equipment rarity goes White < Blue < Purple < Yellow < Orange, and the more stars in front of the name, the better in the same level of rarity. White/Blues should just be dismantled en mass if not better than anything you're wearing. Purples should be donated if not being used. Yellows and Oranges can be sold on the stalls for gold coins.
There's a few yellow level gear that you can get thru gameplay:
-- One is a lvl 69 chest piece for completing cultivation path goals within 2 weeks of making your character (lotus icon in the top menu). I think the hardest part for cultivation path would be to get all skills to lvl 25. Don't promote to lvl 60 after filling up lvl 59, so additional exp will be converted to spirit. Consider doing the same at the promotion from lvl 79 and 99.
-- Another is a lvl 59 weapon, given when you complete the artifact collection (also at the top menu). No time limit, just don't wait til you're over-leveled for it. Most of this is just do X activity Y times. Only the Loyalty requirement is a little confusing -- Easiest way to get that done is to use the red strings from cultivation path rewards on people in your friends list, and have them use it back.
-- Then there's a yellow ring you get at rank 3 reputation. You level up your rank by donating purple items, or spending hero order / honor points on the exchange.
For the currencies: The 2 types of gold ingots are generally bought with money, the locked kind occasionally given out by the server after maintenance days and holidays. Gold coins are pretty much used for the player transaction economy (buying and selling between players). Silver coins and ingots are earned thru gameplay. I don't suggest converting currencies unless you absolutely have to. Just take your time to accumulate silver coins/ingots.
When specializing to sage or demon... basic rule of thumb is sage=PvE and demon=PvP. Also, you can switch between the modes once per day for free.
For non-guild dailies:
Heavenfall Tower - Literal freebie. You get rewards for every floor you already completed before every day without having to do anything. Make sure to push this up as much as you can, to get the most out of your daily blitz freebies.
Paperclip for a Villa - Daily autoplay freebie with no fighting.
Phoenix Creek/Valley - The other freebie for earning money/exp/spirit. Player damage is scaled so level differences doesn't matter when grouping. Make sure you have an AOE attack and leave it on autoplay.
Monster Massacre - You can autoplay this even without a healer in the group; just set auto-rez on. In fact, it's tedious to play *without* auto. Fights are scaled so level doesn't matter.
Exorcist - Starts every hour or half hour so it's best to get in a group shortly beforehand. Note some groups will only search for the elite mobs and then disband if those are all gone. Good place to get gear drops for minimal investment. Also, the 2 scrolls per mob can be sold for a steady income of gold coins.
Path of One - Uh...treat these like dungeon boss fights. Don't expect to pug through them without a good group.
Cultivation dungeons - Getting good drops from here are very very very RNG dependent so don't rely on it. But, it's also the only place to drop sage/demon skillbooks, even if it's rare. So, it's generally advise to do the 2 dailies. (Another option for getting sage/demon skills is to buy from the stalls, and then crucible 3 for a rng roll...)
Dusk Temple: Eventide - A staple dungeon from lvl 59 onwards until you can survive the Dusk Temple: Twilight dungeon. This is the place to farm for purple items to donate, and occasionally pick up the rarer drop. DT:Twilight requires good DPS as well or the boss rages and you all die...basically you want 150+ BR for all dps.
Divine Valley - Actual PvP event held twice a day. I basically afked it for cultivation path/artifact collections and then never touched it again.
Pinnacle - This looks like PvP but actually it's not. You pick someone ranked higher than you, but it's the NPC AI running a clone build of whoever which actually fights you. Push yourself as high in the ranks as you can go by cherry picking fights. Then every day, you will get some honor points based on the highest score you've ever got.