Am I leveling/questing wrong?

_Kawaii_ - Harshlands

I just hit 61 along with a archer friend of mine and I seem to be becoming less efficient and dying more often than I used too.

Witch also is causing me to lagg behind my archer friend since exp is getting harder to earn and dying can kill my progression.

Do you Venos have any advice for me to play better/smarter?
Mabye some useful skills I should be using more?

I'm light armor spec and use either a shandou cub or petite sawfly to level/quest with.

I have a mix of fox form and mage tree skills.


Thx all in advance!

IceJazmin - Heavens Tear

Welcome to reality 101 and missconception 101.

Archers are one of the fastest leveling classes, specialy after level 60, together with BMs.

Venos are not that fast once you hit level 60 since, as a rule, they are not wanted in Zen parties. And without a Herc you really cannot AOE grind either like archers can solo, even with a Herc, you will still be slower than the archer or bm.

We can do alot solo, but being fast at leveling is not one of them, when compared to other classes played by competent players.

Only thing you can do to be a little faster (although slower than your archer friend) at leveling would be to spend the money to get a phoenix and a herc. Grinding with a phoenix is much faster than with a sawfly....... And running RBs at your level would level you fast as well, although it may be hard to find a party that will take you if you do not have a herc.

Minimono - Sanctuary

haha i hit that road block too but for me its just because i dont have the time to invest into grinding, so its just BH and CS for me most of the time

Brigid - Harshlands

Yes. Archers past level 50 (with Supply Stash bow) or 60 (TT60) can grind extremely effectively. We tend to be able to kill mobs our own level in 10-15 seconds, with very little to no damage taken, and very little to no MP usage.

We can't solo AoE grind, at least not without significant potion/charm costs. Not worth it considering how quickly we can grind without incurring such high costs.

Really though, with Bounty Hunter giving 100k XP per day and CS giving 50-60k XP per day, leveling isn't terribly hard.

Vitenka - Dreamweaver

With a herc, at least, you can solo your bounty-hunter quests. Not many other classes can do that. Use the half an hour you save by not having to stand in Arch looking for a barb+cleric to go thwack things

Without the herc... yeah, you're going to find it hard to AOE grind. It's not impossible, you'll want to use a better phys-def pet though. The herc does it better, of course, but you can AOE grind with a magmite reasonably well.

Your other potential advantage is that you do not need to stop. Ever. No need to go buy pots, no need to regen mana, no need for more arrows. you rely on nothing.

So find an area here the mobs are, say, ten levels higher than you or therabouts and just start killing them over and over as quickly as you can. Ideally find a spot where they pop as quick as you can kill 'em.

Use natures grace and transfusion to keep your health and mana up, and just go hog wild.
You'll kill more slowly (sometimes much more slowly) than other characters in the short term.
But in the longer term you make back some of that disadvantage by (almost) never needing to return to town.

tweakz

Vitenka - Dreamweaver wrote: »

With a herc, at least, you can solo your bounty-hunter quests.

Like Polearm, Gaurnob, Phlebo, Ethereal -please stop.

Not many other classes can do that. Use the half an hour you save by not having to stand in Arch looking for a barb+cleric to go thwack things

That would be pretty pathetic when you can grind keeping an eye on WC/FC.

Without the herc... yeah, you're going to find it hard to AOE grind.

What's so hard about it, and why would you want to?

Your other potential advantage is that you do not need to stop. Ever.

Not for repairs, not to unload your bag,

So find an area here the mobs are, say, ten levels higher than you or therabouts and just start killing them over and over as quickly as you can. Ideally find a spot where they pop as quick as you can kill 'em.

And end up with lucky packs you can't open, impaired xp to coin ratio, no rep, and higher risk of death.

But in the longer term you make back some of that disadvantage by (almost) never needing to return to town.

"Your other potential advantage is that you do not need to stop. Ever."

Hisuna - Sanctuary

Like Polearm, Gaurnob, Phlebo, Ethereal -please stop.

Polearm is impossible. Gaurnob, Phlebo, and Ethereal are not.

Not bothering with the rest of the post.

EDIT: Okay, due to the below post, I won't say it's impossible....but eh.

IceJazmin - Heavens Tear

Hisuna - Sanctuary wrote: »

Polearm is impossible. Gaurnob, Phlebo, and Ethereal are not.

Not bothering with the rest of the post.

Polearm is not impossible. It is not easy and not cost or time effective, but not impossible either. You would be looking at HA veno, using apoc potions and charms, at level weapon, herc, level 79 skills, pet res 10. A LA or Arcane sharded/setup for pdef should also work, specialy if they are sage.

Remember, as long as you can take a couple of hits from polearm, you would be able to "purify" the herc.

Solandri - Heavens Tear

IceJazmin - Heavens Tear wrote: »

Remember, as long as you can take a couple of hits from polearm, you would be able to "purify" the herc.

Have you actually tried this? I've had to resummon my tank pet in a boss fight before. The amount of healing you do during a long fight builds up to a lot of aggro. I think it took my magmite nearly a dozen hits to pull aggro off me when I had to resummon it about 2/3rds of the way through a fight against Qingzi. It was part of my rationale for paying to put roar on my magmite - so in emergencies I can use it to instantly pull aggro / have it reset everyone's aggro.

So I suspect you're going to be tanking for a lot more than "a couple of hits from polearm" if you try this. Edit: I suppose if you don't heal and just let your herc die over and over it could work. That would be a frightening amount of pet food required to keep its damage up though.

IceJazmin - Heavens Tear

Solandri - Heavens Tear wrote: »

Have you actually tried this? I've had to resummon my tank pet in a boss fight before. The amount of healing you do during a long fight builds up to a lot of aggro. I think it took my magmite nearly a dozen hits to pull aggro off me when I had to resummon it about 2/3rds of the way through a fight against Qingzi. It was part of my rationale for paying to put roar on my magmite - so in emergencies I can use it to instantly pull aggro / have it reset everyone's aggro.

So I suspect you're going to be tanking for a lot more than "a couple of hits from polearm" if you try this. Edit: I suppose if you don't heal and just let your herc die over and over it could work. That would be a frightening amount of pet food required to keep its damage up though.

You would need Roar on the herc to pull it off in a couple of hits. With HA, you can pretty much tank it up to the debuff, if you really have to.
The one HA veno I know that did it while back, she tanked Pole herself, using apoc charms/genie skills/sage skills to clear her debuffs and to survive.
A couple of days ago I had the unfortunatly chance of having to dual herc suicide tank pole after some party issues with the tank and the cleric. It was not cheap nor it would had been cost effective (if I had planned it that way), but I had already wined the instance, and it was the last boss I needed, so I was not about to do it again. Needless to say, I used ALOT of pet food afterwards... (still cheaper than getting new wines....)

Vitenka - Dreamweaver

He's specifically asking for 60-70.
The BH there is Fushma, Myriadtail and Zimo.
Fushma is a walk in the park. Any old pet can take him out.
Myriadtail is harder, but well within the capability of a herc.
Zimo was right at the limit of what I could solo with a herc at 63. But I didn't have any channel gear, or much +magic gear then. After 63 it's certainly soloable (though not particularly fast)

And yes, you do not NEED to stop. It's probably a good idea to stop sometimes, for cash and to answer calls of nature

You pays your money and you takes your choice. Me, I'm ambling through the levels and BH is actually making me level up faster than I would choose. (I'd rather have more cash)
It's an option.

As for AOE grinding... It's actually kinda fun once in a while, to test yourself and see how well you can do it. It's not fantastically profitable for coin or XP, though I did find it a useful way to get the last few pet levels whilst raising up my herc. (Mousebashing might be faster, but it's even MORE boring - and you get no coin at all.)

Oh, also, if you stick with the same monsters for a long session then they tend to drop the same things over and over. If you're willing to let the few that don't stack rot away (which I, personally, am not) then you can avoid the inventory problem.



Personal preference? Grab your guild and smash as many bounties and FBs as you can. Kill monsters whilst idle, and then go do more bounties and FBs. That's probably the best balance between fun and XP.


Re: Roar on the herc. Ooooooh.... that might be nice. You'd lose that fourth slot, but getting an emergency "Oh no you do NOT eat the cleric" is tempting.

Sevas - Heavens Tear

Any time you can squeak in an AMP on a boss that doesn't aoe, so much the better. If you need to, use Windrage Incense.

Isala - Sanctuary

Vitenka - Dreamweaver wrote: »

Re: Roar on the herc. Ooooooh.... that might be nice. You'd lose that fourth slot, but getting an emergency "Oh no you do NOT eat the cleric" is tempting.

I have that button. It's called Alpha Male. Joking aside... Right around your level is when I discovered the Huggy Hare. Fun, squishy mob. While they tend to spawn in groups, you can easily defeat them, as they do not melee unless you get on top of them, as they prefer to cast. Since you mentioned that you're a hybrid, I'm also assuming you're LA. Which means you can do what I did. Send your pet at the mob while in Fox Form, double click, wait, pick up drops, lather, rinse, repeat. If you get attacked, hit Leech. You'll eventually level to the point where you get Justice Orders from them. Go to Sanctuary, grab the Justice Order, talk to the NPC, kill Huggies for an hour, turn in Justice Order, Grab Justice Order... lather, rinse, repeat. Huggy Hares drop a ton of DQ, among other various useful things. Now, if you want another method besides grinding... I'd suggest you take the advice of the others here.