New Player Question

cap1776 · September 2015

Hey folks...

I have been playing just a few weeks. (I swas a founder but didn't play for long, but came back) In that time I have noticed that the game now seems almost completely focused on level 60 and higher characters. I have also found out that there are some game restrictions on accounts that DON'T have level 60 characters. This frustrated me because I want to enjoy the journey TO the end of the game.

So I have two questions:

ONE: Does anyone know why lower level play, which should, IMO, be as important as end game play, seems to be considered by most as a mere impediment to the end of the game?

and

TWO: Taking this factor into account, and since I really could not care less about having a level 60 character, but apparently needing one... Is it possible to run a character up to level 60 solely by running skirmish after skirmish again and again and ignoring factors like actually questing or enchanting or doing anything special to gear...just wearing new stuff as it drops, and not bothering with the missions needed to get companions, mounts or AD? Can it be done without any bells or whistles? If so, considering I only have a couple of hours a day on a couple of days a week, how long might this take me to complete?

With the requisite rush to level 60 I just want to get it over with with a character I will never use, so that I can continue to enjoy the game with my low level character. Heck I may never get to 60 in regular play, as I want my main to do every single quest in the game and enjoy them. I think it's a darned shame everybody has to rush right by so much of it.

Thanks for any help!

cap1776 · September 2015

You misunderstand... I don't want to do anything ast all except run the toon to 60 NO professions...no mounts... JUST skirmishes.. I don't even plan on collecting the chests... No invoking... I am just trying to get the level 60 requirement out of the way. It's not going to be a real character for me... As I said, once I can enter a skirmish, that would be all that I do...nothing at all else...

As far as being called a bot? Is there a method of botting that involves entering skirmishes? I am not trying to break any rules. I am just trying to follow the rules to the letter and make a level 60 character for them, so that I can then actually PLAY the game.

I am not interested in guilds. I am not interested in raids. I am not interested in playing the Auction House to make piles of money.

ALL I want is to take the character that I started, and with my son, who is enjoying his first MMO, take our first characters through every single adventure possible, for the experience of doing so. We are playing to play D&D in the Realms and to have fun. Power gaming is actually an anti-factor in our plans. We want to run a couple of characters that dont matter up to whatever we need to prevent issues and then forget they exist. I doubt that there are any robots interested in this.

I just want to know if it's reasonably possible to do it.

Thanks for the advice.

suicidalgodot · September 2015

One "DON'T": Leadership. Another: Invoking. Both give you XP that'll make you overleveled sooner or later, even though both also give you the Astral Diamonds you'll want sooner or later.

So your plan to rush a char you don't want to play to Lvl 70 is probably a good-ish one: Do LShip and Invokes with that char and transfer the AD over to your played chars...

However, there's little to no absolute need for a Lvl 70 char per se while playing through the storyline. I'ts only helpful to have other classes' artifacts for boosts and the power the have. So if you're planning on doing that extra char I'd recommend making that a Cleric - Class Artifact power is to fill up your action points. It would, furthermore, probably be helpful to make another rush-char for your son, on his account, so he gets AD and a Class Artifact, too.

When you're done with all the story, however, You will find that there's the campaigns starting at level 70, which again, offer some storyplot context, though the narrative isn't even remotely compelling. Still, there is some carried-on plot to go along when you've hit the big 70.

aeragar47 · September 2015

Why do you think that you need a level 70 character if you only want to play the low level quests? The main "reason" to needing a level 70, iirc, is so you can buy stuff from the AH without limits. However, if you're planning on just leveling the non-twinking way, then you most likely shouldn't need to buy anything from the AH--everything that you'll need will drop or be given as rewards as you're leveling.

The only thing that I'd recommend that you buy (although it's not necessary) is a purple mount from the zen store; it'll make your playing much more convenient as you ride around the zones doing quests.

Also, remember that even if you outlevel a zone, you can still do the quests in the zone. The only thing is that the exclamation point (!) icon over an NPC's head that indicates an available quest does not show up once you outlevel the quest; you just need to manually talk to the NPC to see the available quest.

plasticbat · September 2015

cap1776 said:
You misunderstand... I don't want to do anything ast all except run the toon to 60 NO professions...no mounts... JUST skirmishes.. I don't even plan on collecting the chests... No invoking... I am just trying to get the level 60 requirement out of the way. It's not going to be a real character for me... As I said, once I can enter a skirmish, that would be all that I do...nothing at all else...

As far as being called a bot? Is there a method of botting that involves entering skirmishes? I am not trying to break any rules. I am just trying to follow the rules to the letter and make a level 60 character for them, so that I can then actually PLAY the game.

I am not interested in guilds. I am not interested in raids. I am not interested in playing the Auction House to make piles of money.

ALL I want is to take the character that I started, and with my son, who is enjoying his first MMO, take our first characters through every single adventure possible, for the experience of doing so. We are playing to play D&D in the Realms and to have fun. Power gaming is actually an anti-factor in our plans. We want to run a couple of characters that dont matter up to whatever we need to prevent issues and then forget they exist. I doubt that there are any robots interested in this.

I just want to know if it's reasonably possible to do it.

Thanks for the advice.

I am a little bit confusing what you are asking. Hence, I read your post more than one times.
I think what you want is summarized to this:

ALL I want is to take the character that I started, and with my son, who is enjoying his first MMO, take our first characters through every single adventure possible, for the experience of doing so.

If that is all you want, you can just play the game straight and don't need to worry about rushing to level 60 or 70.

What I don't understand is why you care about skirmish that much. They are really boring after a few times. They are only a handful of skirmishes.

Personally, I consider level 1 to 60 is the best part of the game. However, if I need to do that many times and frequently, it can be very boring. For the 3rd, 4th, ... characters, one may not want to do that again.

khaymanbb · September 2015

I add new characters just to re-live the early adventuring. Once they get to level 60 then the fun kind of goes away. Sure, I'll invoke and whatnot just to get them to 70, but I'd rather do all those old quests again. That was the fun part. As well as learning the new characters and their attacks. That is what you need to do with your child. Start from scratch, go through all the fun adventures together. However, I'd make sure to read everything that is said by all the npc's. Most people just power skip through all the talking and go directly to the killing. Ignoring what is talked about takes away the story and plot of the game. Just my two-cents worth...

rollingonit · September 2015

One: Very little has changed from the 1-60 adventure since beta/release. Not sure what you're asking. That "adventure" you are focusing on, still is there. Edit: there were some changes, but from your post I dont think theyll affect you too much

TWO: Id say if all you did was skirmishes. And only played 1-2 hours day. Maybe 3-4 weeks. Depending how long queues were.

As far as rushing through it goes, there are many reasons to not want to and many to. Just different play styles and goals. I dont criticize one that that wants to do either. But GL with your son, hope you and him have some fun quality time together.

ironzerg79 · September 2015

It will take you a crushingly long time to level just doing skirmishes. You're better off just rushing through the leveling content if you want to get to 60 the fastest. If you have ways to boost your exp gain, like the exp boosters, the +10% experience pants/shirt or high level azure enchants, that will help.

If you're looking to get to 60 like that, it'll probably take weekend of consistent play, or a a couple weeks of a couple hours each.

cap1776 · October 2015

Thanks for the answers folks. I have reasons for the idea I had. I thought of skirmishes because they don't ruin content for me. I want to enjoy each new adventure with my primary character, NOT have good stuff ruined by the unimportant end level character.

I am not a power gamer, but there are a lot of things that only seem to come available on the AH. The game seems to be designed around it. One thing I like is the idea of followers, and without the AH, there only seem to be a small handful of what is available. If something comes up on the AH I want the ability to get it. right now, the rules limit my ability to buy anything, no matter how many AD I might get. I have also read some other stuff (Can't remember particulars) that have mentioned that accounts need to have a max level character for them to be able to enjoy that benefit.

As far as the time involved, I easily expect it to take me months to make level 60 or 70, no matter how I do it. So my real play time is pretty much on hold until then. It's a shame, because my son has been playing and subscribing with me, and the hiatus on any real playing until we can get this level 60 stuff out of the way probably means that he will lose interest completely, and I only wanted to play with him. In the end, it may well cause us both to stop playing and unsubscribe fro our VIP accounts, all because we aren't really interested in fast leveling and endgame content.

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