Leveling to 40 in 5 hours... HOW!

gradii · October 2013

I MUST have this info. takes too damm long and some of my toons have builds that suck until high level. so, how are you doing it kenpo!??!

share with us pretty please?

beldin · October 2013

Only tip i can give so far is, if there is an Event with 100% exp Bonus for some hours, get the buff on all character, and if you have some empty character slots, create already new character so that they also can get the buff, since the buff doesn't expire if you don't play the character.

kenpojujitsu3 · October 2013

beldin wrote: »

Only tip i can give so far is, if there is an Event with 100% exp Bonus for some hours, get the buff on all character, and if you have some empty character slots, create already new character so that they also can get the buff, since the buff doesn't expire if you don't play the character.

Yup. I created about ten characters the last time Witchcraft was around, grabbed the buff and parked them until I got/get around to them (2x). Stacked a few 20% XP boosters on top of that so the duration ran as long as the double XP buff did (2.2x). Add another 9% from the 3 stacked Heirloom/Nemesis/Vanguard Primaries (2.29x). Add another 15% from the XP alert bonus (2.44x). And another 12.5% up to level 15 for being here 400 days (2.565x briefly). Then hit the grind.

beldin · October 2013

Ah yeah .. forgot the Heirloom stuff. However ... even with Smashes and doing the best/fastest Quest-Hubs i was like i said more on 20-25 Hours with that. I think you have still some other secrects that you don't want to get fixed if you make it public

Or i'm just really simply that old an slow

gerberatetra · October 2013

One of the top altaholics [both actually, @greeter and @ujjjezebel] are in my SG; they both have 100+ lvl 40s

Both of them seem to use a regen/infernal build, heavy on the crits and using that PBAOE Epidemic a lot. They call it their 'leveling' build and then at 40 retcon the toon to the build they want for the toon and then gear it.

Combined with EXP alerts, Heirloom gear and all the EXP boosts they can get..

I can't say I've seen either of them do it in 5 hours at a stretch but they seem to use the Daily missions to do smash [now grab] dailies and rotate through all their alts in progress.

The total play time to get them to 40 might be a few hours but I have no idea how long.

Now I usually play the build I wanted for the toon all along and mix alerts and in game content. I got to 15+ 40's before Alerts [in think]; so I know where the good 'clusters' of missions you can do in fast groups are.

But other than that my method is the same. All the EXP boosts i can get, heirloom gear and doing Alerts during missions

I can't say how long a toon takes to level for me, I sometimes get interrupted by Rp, swap off toons to keep it fresh and all that..

gerberatetra · October 2013

gradii wrote: »

I'm currently leveling an infernal-AoPM toon who's build is supposed to be like that at 40 as well. took me hours just to get lvl20 though and thats WITH heirloom gear.

The long part seems to me to be the last 10 levels.

But anyway, mix missions in; I skip most of the indoor missions - one because you can't multi-quest those and two if you pop an alert you have to restart.

spinnytop · October 2013

Kenpo probably knows a few mission clusters that let him blast in a big chunk of xp without very much travelling.

shadowzero66 · October 2013

You can also use a "leveling build" to get to 40 and then use that free retcon to change it into what you originally wanted.

EDIT: Massively ninja'd.

beldin · October 2013

Yeah .. Epidemic / Devour Essence is always good for leveling, i prefer Invuln as passive however. I use that mostly at least to kill Kevin Poe and retcon maybe after that

thatcursedwolf · October 2013

My Alerts only character just hit 40 last night, /played was 27 hours, 2 of those hours weren't in Alerts and really didn't add much xp, so 25 hours (no double XP buff at all, 9% from Nemesis gear and the 15% smash/grab buff). So you're not the slowest Beldin.

beldin · October 2013

gerberatetra wrote: »

The long part seems to me to be the last 10 levels.

Only if you have to go to VB. Try to avoid that .. level better to 31-32 in Canda before you go too MI. Do also at least the first quest-chains in Lemuria, they are quiet fast .. then MI -> Canada -> and hopfully the rest on MI.

theravenforce · October 2013

Getting to level 32-33 then hitting Canada is the fastest way I have found, you can really blast through levels there, I usually leave Canada around level 38/39 after doing Justiciar, Constable and Ravenspeaker's mission chains.

I've never needed to level so fast to make a build suck less (except for that messed up Sonic Build which I abandoned after a while), but if I want to level fast I usually mix alerts with high XP yield missions, Heirloom Gear and XP boosts.

kenpojujitsu3 · October 2013

gradii wrote: »

ah, I thought you said you had a way to do it without double xp. double xp can explain most of it, thanks.

That's not the kind of thing I'd post on a forum if I did know.

gerberatetra · October 2013

beldin wrote: »

Only if you have to go to VB. Try to avoid that .. level better to 31-32 in Canda before you go too MI. Do also at least the first quest-chains in Lemuria, they are quiet fast .. then MI -> Canada -> and hopfully the rest on MI.

Oh I know, I only do VB if I need a perk or something for that toon. What I mean is the last yen take long relatively

kenpojujitsu3 · October 2013

gradii wrote: »

My builds never suck. what I meant was some of them take time to mature.

I know what you mean. My Shapeshifter build "Shift" couldn't be done until level 38 because I needed all 14 power picks to make the concept work.

chaoswolf820 · October 2013

kenpojujitsu3 wrote: »

I know what you mean. My Shapeshifter build "Shift" couldn't be done until level 38 because I needed all 14 power picks to make the concept work.

That's the problem with a bunch of my character ideas - they can only really come into their idea form at-or-near levelcap.

beldin · October 2013

For leveling i always take active defense and offense as very last powers, since you don't really need them that much. First things are always AoE, Single Target, Energy Unlock and heal.
Also until lvl 20 its quite cheap to do some mini-retcons now and then if it helps to get rid of filler powers or powers you just take for a while to speed up leveling because the powers you really wanted were not available yet.

roughbearmattach · October 2013

By the way, the xp boost from Kinetic Krunch, though short-lived, stacks with all others, up to 10 times.

If you have a lot of these candy bars, you can have another 10% xp bonus on top of the rest.

nextnametaken · October 2013

gradii wrote: »

My builds never suck. what I meant was some of them take time to mature.

Haha. Bull, your builds are terrible, never lost so many alerts in a row as I did with you in team. When you left we were on a winning streak.

theravenforce · October 2013

beldin wrote: »

For leveling i always take active defense and offense as very last powers, since you don't really need them that much. First things are always AoE, Single Target, Energy Unlock and heal.
Also until lvl 20 its quite cheap to do some mini-retcons now and then if it helps to get rid of filler powers or powers you just take for a while to speed up leveling because the powers you really wanted were not available yet.

Yup, I tend to take an AD around level 29-35 if I am running missions on an offensive passive toon. Much later if not last on a defensive passive toon.

spinnytop · October 2013

nextnametaken wrote: »

Haha. Bull, your builds are terrible, never lost so many alerts in a row as I did with you in team. When you left we were on a winning streak.

Charming as ever.

fudgemonsta · October 2013

Just takes consistency and practice.

I'm happy with my 12 hour average, although that is without double XP buff and through the tutorial. At least half an hour there, always like playing it though.

Doesn't really matter how long anyways, we're still leagues faster then any other game I know.

lafury001200 · October 2013

gradii wrote: »

my offensive passive toons generally have some way of staying alive without an active defense, and/or have con. so I wait on my active defense on those as well. also they tend to kill stuff fast enough that they don't die alot.

currently leveling an AoPM toon which will be a total beast when I can stack more defense, and a power armor toon built around infinite energy and constant assault.

Fair enough. Still I'd like to know how many people take masterful dodge for theme, and how many take it to say f the content.

A few powers are gonna poison the well.

*I understand I will never know the above, just thinking aloud

beldin · October 2013

lafury001200 wrote: »

Fair enough. Still I'd like to know how many people take masterful dodge for theme, and how many take it to say f the content.

There are also not really that much alternates. Unbreakable is very breakable since on Alert, and Resurgance is for me still simply a big heal and no "defense".

And thats it .. or are there any more active defenses ?

jasonfoxx · October 2013

Field Surge.
We really need more active defenses, we only have 4. Compared to 9 active offenses, though we need more of those too.

kenpojujitsu3 · October 2013

lafury001200 wrote: »

Fair enough. Still I'd like to know how many people take masterful dodge for theme, and how many take it to say f the content.

*Raises hand for theme*

beldin wrote: »

There are also not really that much alternates. Unbreakable is very breakable since on Alert, and Resurgance is for me still simply a big heal and no "defense".

And thats it .. or are there any more active defenses ?

That bug with Unbreakable was patched recently. There other active defenses and several other defense options not tagged as Active Defense as well.

beldin · October 2013

kenpojujitsu3 wrote: »

That bug with Unbreakable was patched recently. There other active defenses and several other defense options not tagged as Active Defense as well.

So it will still be refreshed now when reaching 0 ? However on of the problems were simply the higher damage of mobs after On Alert, so if they don't have also upped the Shielding Amount a suspect its still far worse than Masterful Dodge ?

kenpojujitsu3 · October 2013

beldin wrote: »

So it will still be refreshed now when reaching 0 ? However on of the problems were simply the higher damage of mobs after On Alert, so if they don't have also upped the Shielding Amount a suspect its still far worse than Masterful Dodge ?

The major problem with Unbreakable was always that a big damage spike could drop the shield to zero and if that happened Unbreakable stopped regenerating and turned off no matter how much time we had left. Now if the shield is dropped to zero Unbreakable continues regenerating until it's time is up rather than turning off early. Unless we're getting hit with several massive spikes in a short period of time or are simply being swarmed by far more mobs than we should be solo (and aren't killing them to stop the incoming damage) Unbreakable is not far worse than Masterful Dodge. It now excels in places Masterful Dodge doesn't and vice versa where as before the only reason to use it over Masterful Dodge was theme.

beldin · October 2013

Thanks .. good to know. I always liked it more on some toons for style, but changed it on most to masterful because of its broken state.

spinnytop · October 2013

lafury001200 wrote: »

Fair enough. Still I'd like to know how many people take masterful dodge for theme, and how many take it to say f the content.

A few powers are gonna poison the well.

*I understand I will never know the above, just thinking aloud

Well, all my characters currently have MD...and they all took it for theme. None of them are so big and bulky that they couldn't dodge an attack after all. The real problem though with taking MD for "theme" is that the power itself doesn't really have a theme... there's no lightning fast blur dodge... hell, there's not really any dodges at all. You just... take less damage. Theme comes through with visuals, and since MD doesn't have any visuals then there's really no theme to speak of.

Yes, its "theme" is that it raises dodge really high... but that just illustrates the fact that dodge and avoidance also have no visual theme. A character with high dodge and avoidance is visually no different from a character with high defense.

beldin wrote: »

There are also not really that much alternates. Unbreakable is very breakable since on Alert, and Resurgance is for me still simply a big heal and no "defense".

And thats it .. or are there any more active defenses ?

Well there's field surge... if you use PFF. This is truth though... there's not much to pick from, so we can hardly critisize people for all picking the same thing (especially when, ultimately, it hardly has any impact on theme for reasons stated above).

Unbreakable, for pve, is better than MD now, in my opinion. MD will still let some damage through... Unbreakable is complete invincibility.

kenpojujitsu3 · October 2013

Small note: Theme isn't always just the visual on the character.

Example 1): I have Ego Form w/ Nimble Mind on non crit characters. The reason is when I want them to "go all out" RP wise the critical numbers use a bigger font. That resonates with me visually, despite not being on the character itself, that they are really crackin' right now even if the impact graphics themselves are still the same.

Example 2): I use MD on non-dodge characters that are either supposed to be super fast when they focus on it or they have the ability to become temporarily intangible. Yes they don't visually spaz out or become semi-transparent but seeing the words dodge over and over again resonates that they are now through some means (moving, becoming intangible, etc) no longer getting hit. It serves the theme without some overwhelming graphic to directly accompany it.

avianos · October 2013

Champions Online: SpeedRun!

spinnytop · October 2013

kenpojujitsu3 wrote: »

Small note: Theme isn't always just the visual on the character.

Example 1): I have Ego Form w/ Nimble Mind on non crit characters. The reason is when I want them to "go all out" RP wise the critical numbers use a bigger font. That resonates with me visually, despite not being on the character itself, that they are really crackin' right now even if the impact graphics themselves are still the same.

Example 2): I use MD on non-dodge characters that are either supposed to be super fast when they focus on it or they have the ability to become temporarily intangible. Yes they don't visually spaz out or become semi-transparent but seeing the words dodge over and over again resonates that they are now through some means (moving, becoming intangible, etc) no longer getting hit. It serves the theme without some overwhelming graphic to directly accompany it.

I play with the damage floaters off for immersion. If I want to look at numbers and imagine what they signify is happening, I'll go play a tabletop rpg. s( u 3 u )z

kenpojujitsu3 · October 2013

spinnytop wrote: »

I play with the damage floaters off for immersion. If I want to look at numbers and imagine what they signify is happening, I'll go play a tabletop rpg. s( u 3 u )z

I can relate, I feel similarly about PvP. When I want to get competitive I go throw an athletic protector on, get in the cage/ring and spar for real rather than pretend to hit things.

lafury001200 · October 2013

kenpojujitsu3 wrote: »

I can relate, I feel similarly about PvP. When I want to get competitive I go throw an athletic protector on, get in the cage/ring and spar for real rather than pretend to hit things.

As an LTS would you be ok with purchasing a new powerset, say Grappling and Fisticuffs?

If this is the glass bowl we are to be kept in, I want more combat options.

**don't mean to put you on the spot Kenpo but I'm serious. I think new powersets might sell outside of lts and long term gold subs.

***cool ty for the response

kenpojujitsu3 · October 2013

lafury001200 wrote: »

As an LTS would you be ok with purchasing a new powerset, say Grappling and Fisticuffs?

If this is the glass bowl we are to be kept in, I want more combat options.

**don't mean to put you on the spot Kenpo but I'm serious. I think new powersets might sell outside of lts and long term gold subs.

I put a suggestion up a while ago to open freeform up to all (it's the game's best feature and what the core design is based on, not these very poorly made classes/archetypes that got shoehorned in after the fact) with the caveat that powersets be sold instead going forward.

Got chewed out about it by several people, most of which aren't around anymore and openly admitted to not putting any money into the game, but I stand by it. I've spent a lot more for a lot less in this game.

lafury001200 · October 2013

That would serve 2 functions: giving old players an incentive for returning and might cast a wider net in terms of word of mouth and mag reviews.

But that's just crazy talk.

ashensnow · October 2013

kenpojujitsu3 wrote: »

I put a suggestion up a while ago to open freeform up to all (it's the game's best feature and what the core design is based on, not these very poorly made classes/archetypes that got shoehorned in after the fact) with the caveat that powersets be sold instead going forward.

Got chewed out about it by several people, most of which aren't around anymore and openly admitted to not putting any money into the game, but I stand by it. I've spent a lot more for a lot less in this game.

I would support this as well.

spinnytop · October 2013

kenpojujitsu3 wrote: »

I can relate, I feel similarly about PvP. When I want to get competitive I go throw an athletic protector on, get in the cage/ring and spar for real rather than pretend to hit things.

Well I'd rather pretend to hit things, because I have small delicate hands. And as long as I can visually see my character hit things, rather than getting a bunch of numbers and having to imagine that they represent me hitting things, then I feel like I am playing a video game about hitting things.

However, I've never really felt in CO that I was playing a video game about dodging things u3u it's really a game about heroes who always take it in the face... or rather, on the chest. Sometimes on the forearm.

After all, if they removed all the attack graphics, and now all you had was your character standing there not moving while numbers pop up over everything... would that be fun video game times? Because that's what dodging is atm

The confusing part is... well, the system is already in place for a dodge graphic. Take LR, or flip on MD and you'll notice the game makes you perform the block animation when you dodge... why not just swap in a neat dodge motion, and have that play whenever you dodge... maybe even have it become faster/blurrier/more acrobatic the higher your avoidance is at that moment.

Heck, just a little torso bend while you're using your powers would be enough for me.

Why even call it dodge if they're not dodging?

flamingbunnyman · October 2013

kenpojujitsu3 wrote: »

I put a suggestion up a while ago to open freeform up to all (it's the game's best feature and what the core design is based on, not these very poorly made classes/archetypes that got shoehorned in after the fact) with the caveat that powersets be sold instead going forward.

Got chewed out about it by several people, most of which aren't around anymore and openly admitted to not putting any money into the game, but I stand by it. I've spent a lot more for a lot less in this game.

I still think that the right way to do ATs would have been somewhere between the existing ATs and full-bliwn freeforms:

-Superstats (and therefore, the first spec tree) are preselected.
-Inherent Talent is preselected.
-Role is preselected.
-Second spec tree is preselected. It matches the Role, except for Hybrids; in that case a thematically appropriate tree is selected.
-Third spec tree is player's choice.
-A list of 25 thematically appropriate powers is preselected for the player to build from. The player may select powers as if they were a freeform, but they cannot choose powers from outside their list. Normal prerequisites apply.

kenpojujitsu3 · October 2013

flamingbunnyman wrote: »

-A list of 25 thematically appropriate powers is preselected for the player to build from. The player may select powers as if they were a freeform, but they cannot choose powers from outside their list. Normal prerequisites apply.

So I'm understanding this right...like Guild Wars 2? Each class has a substantial list of class specific abilities but players can choose any of them they like to make a build once they've satisfied the tier requirements.

Leveling to 40 in 5 hours... HOW!

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