-
Hello, I’d like to talk about an important issue I found in kToS, which is the lack of balance between the different methods of leveling. The balance is necessary because each player has their own preferences on leveling methods, and also helps preventing the game from being stale.
-
The first method I’d like to talk about is doing quests, both main line and map ones. They’re pretty simple, (do what a random NPC told you to and receive exp cards) I find some interesting. However, there’s a limited number of quests, evidenced once the Orsha and Klaipėda merge, assuming the player were doing quests in both routes like most were. Some higher level maps don’t have quests yet, but surely will get them.
-
The second method is running instanced dungeons and missions, which were added later. Dungeon runs are pretty simple too, if you want to gains levels this way you’ll kill all monsters and the boss(es) within the time limit. Missions are just like that, but have additional objectives. The EXP they give is very nice, but you’ll eventually run out of dungeon and missions runs (5 runs per day for each) rather quickly, and they depend on a group to be done quickly, as they have a time limit. It’s hard to find enough people to run dungeons at late night in Korea, and even when you do, you’ll most likely end up doing them with people several levels higher than you.
-
The third and last method of leveling is grinding. With the kToS rates, grinding doesn’t feel rewarding at all, considering the other two options are strictly better at leveling than it. The problem comes when you’ve run out of quests to do and you’re out of mission/dungeon runs or during the late night, what is the person supposed to do in order to level? Kill 3000 monsters to get one level in maps with a density that doesn’t allow it to be done fast enough, all while getting hit for at least 2k by some really tanky mobs in later maps?
-
This is a problem in eyes, especially when some cherish grinding a lot, just like others prefer dungeons and missions. There should be a balance between these leveling methods not only to please the people who like each one of them, but to not put a break on the player’s ability to level.
why would you post it like that? makes it super annoying to read.
im just gonna re-post it here:
“REMOVED”
EDIT: as you edited your post, i’ve removed it from mine
I have a problem with posting Word formated texts here, I edited the OP after I realised that.
In Korea i might agree, since when here is night there is basically day time, and most are working/studying.
Here on the other hand, you will find lots of people during night time, some during the day, but i believe that people to dungeon with will have lots.
I may be wrong here but the thing on grinding is, there is 2 different types of maps, fields and dungeons, fields the mob is really weak, i am not sure if their exp are proportional to their difficult, while on dungeons, the mob is more tanky and cause more damage.
Other thing to consider is, your elemental resistance, if you have it med to low, you will feel hard the hits, be it field or dungeon mob, in the dungeon you might die in 2 hits depending on the mob and level, i experienced this on the dungeon are of Tyla Monastery, note that in tosbase the map layout is different from when it was on iCBT, and Nuorodin Falls to Istora Road was dungeon type maps, now they are field type.
It’s not sure actually. Based on an interview, they don’t seem to want to add quests to the higher level maps, if you mean the 200+ ones, aside from very few.
That’s due to a time difference, and not really something that could be solved.
They were testing some things with dungeons, making it so that it finds people that are close to your level (I believe around 20 lvl difference), for an amount of time (I think it was like 5 minutes), before searching for a party that has a larger gap in levels. I believe that fact that you were playing late in KST, plays a part in having difficulties finding a party of a suitable level. You can also use the party finder tool to manually find a party.
I agree here, its all quests and then a very exp curve for grinding at the later levels. But what you should be doing is partying up, and taking on maps that are more rewarding.
Actually. Till 200 it’s liek a tuturial.
Yes, dungeons give lots of exp now.
But then again if you know where and when, you can easily farm Exp.
Don’t run aroudn solo on high level maps! It’s faster to grind with a few mates.
Some things people tend to miss:
-Farm a few minutes around the red kepa, channel hop too. Will give materials, loot and nice exp. As kill exp will get you up to level 25ish swiftly. Level there till 11 job or so, then rush to mine for job change. Then go back and level some fast levels around red kepa area.
-Now you will be higher leveld when you hit the first dungeon. At around level 35~40 without any Exp cards used. (keep them)
-Rush quests, kill low level mobs if you can. The first open dungeon (not the instance one) is crowded in many areas. Where people rarely go too.
-You’re now able to get to the Second Floor of Tenet now, trough a warp quest you should leave up.
-Farm on Egnomes. Either the area where everyone is (with the knock back altar) or go north. There’s lots of them too and less people, as now quest up there. Less spawnrate too … but at your level you want to just kill a few till you can get rank 3.
Most classes with somewhat good aoe skills or dot damage, can level in these grindy areas better then in the instance dungeon. If you cant take egnome damage … go back to grendels and co.
–
And this shema of.
Quest, Grind in Spots good for your class, instance runs, grind again. Is all day xD.
My top time was under 1 hour for level 60 on a sword high peltasta. Without equip or moeny from other chars ^^.
I don’t know if they remove them, but on the Red Kepa there are 2 npcs after some quests that give repeatable quests (one give 10x other 5x) and both reward Exp Cards, the one that give 10x give also a necklace at the last time.
This. IMC, please make grinding on normal maps a viable way to level up as well. I’m sure many players would want that, after all that was one of the most fun aspects of RO.
Why grind when you have Orsha?
If the reason Dungeons are getting buffed so high for XP is because of how few people run them. You maybe forcing your players to do content they really don’t want to do as often.
There is something that’s really nice about being in the outdoor maps grinding away at your own pace that the instanced dungeons don’t have. So dungeons need to have something that’s their own thing. Something that’s fun and compelling that only find in dungeons. Earth Tower seems to start to play on that idea. I just think you don’t want to jack up the XP on instances that aren’t as compelling just so your players will do them.
If they don’t like them as much as the other content you should address the fun factors first. People should want to do the dungeons without considering XP. And that can be a tall order it’s a pain to get groups sometimes but you’re addressing that with the finder which is great. But once you get the group you’re still matched with other humans they afk sometimes, you have to get enough of them to do the content, and sometimes people have internet problems or have an emergency. And the dungeons themselves are largely linear. You need cool mechanics or challenges in the dungeon to make up for that–not just big rewards.
Addition: I want to further point out that this is even more important for your casual audience or I should say your time constrained players. The people without a lot of time will be trying desperately to keep up in XP with friends or guildmates. So they’re going to go for the highest XP possible. And if instanced dungeons are winning XP by a large margin. And that player doesn’t want to do instanced dungeons. Well that guy or girl isn’t going to have a good time.
This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.
Please let this change. I’m scared this game is going to be awful on release, just because they followed the Korean version.
Fix the Cash shop, fix the leveling, fix the class balancing, fix the buff limit… These are the things that will bring about this game’s downfall.
This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.
This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.
The cash shop wasn’t an issue = Broken
Leveling is awful with your main option being dungeons or extremely calculated use of EXP cards to avoid bad grinding areas.
Class balancing (as of iCBT2) was awful with some classes being completely OP.
Buff Limit is debatable but since there is no way of controlling which buffs you keep and which you don’t it’s not a good feature. And as for the Krivis/Scrolls I don’t like that because it’s forcing a certain class path.
This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.
I know.
But it takes longer to go quest there.
Then to grind swiftly.
And i want to enjoy orash line later on xD. Not rush it like the other.
- you get more silver from grinding.
–
For everyone else.
Killing a 90 hp mob gives around 65 base/50 job exp (red kepa).
Killing an egnome 2k hp gives around 420 base / 300 job exp.
You can overkill 90 hp mobs easily, getting 2 or 2,55 the exp.
Which would result in around 130/100 till 165/140 exp per kill.
Red Kepas are level 12. So they give full exp till level 27.
To reach level 27 from level 15 on. You need to gain 180k exp.
1384 small mobs around the red kepa (with 200% overkill, which is easy for most classes).
One red kepa gives as much exp as 6 such overkills.
The last time i did that … i finished in under 10 minutes with my mage (was even faster with swordys or cleric. But archers sucked at that xD). Channel hop, kill everything with energy bolts, earthqaukes and AA (overkill as much as possible) then channel hop again. Always kill “big redkepa” if its up.
I had around 700 materials then, which can boost an gem nicely. And are worth around 60~140k silver.
If you stick around that area and the first batch of a few thousands isnt killing stuff simulaneusly. YOu could grind there till level 37, get overkills around 255% mostly and still get levels swiftly.
Ohh and yes. YOu actually need to kill less or more mobs, based on the exp rate multiplier they will use. This just base value.
Last cbt2 in the beggining it was 3 rates. Later on even 6 times rates i think …
That’s why leveling my swordy at egnomes, was so crazy batshit.
A kill getting me around 3k base exp … I needed to mob 2 1/2 times to get a level up around 40ish. Level per minute… or less.
I read what you said, and then explained to you why your opinion doesn’t agree with mine. However if you wish to ignore me that’s fine too.
Yeah, the current kToS situation is at an extreme which marginalizes some parts of the game. It’s better for player to have a variety of ways to level with similar rewards instead of one dominating by a huge margin.
Back in iCBT1 there were more blue mobs and they were more rewarding, which added some excitement to open world killing. Densely packed zones like old demon prison and post-buff dina bee are way more fun than the sparsely populated ones where there’s not enough mobs to give a full party a workout. There should be enough dense zones to have lots of variety among them - a lot of the complaints about demon prison were just about the dark prison visuals, and similarly, a lot of the rush to leave crystal mines is because people who prefer flowery outdoor levels don’t like being in an underground cave for too long. The only solution is lots of options and variety so you don’t “need” to stick to stuff that’s not your personal taste.
Given the choice between being miserable for 50% more exp or having fun for less exp, most players will choose the former and complain constantly, so it’s up to the devs to keep rewards close or have time-limited bonuses and events to drive traffic around (limited dungeon runs per day are one current attempt at that).
It’s still scarce, there was already side quests in a few maps, and they only added a few more side quests (after they decided to ramp up the EXP scaling).
I expect they will continue adding more side quests every now and again, and then raise the cap to 350, making it dry levels from 280-350, and continuing the story to 280. But I don’t think it’ll really ever be as easy as it was from 1-200, but it’ll have to get a little easier for newer players to catch up when they add new content.