Hi all, hope you’re all as excited as me heading into tomorrow with big expectations. R8 is the beginning of the very noticeable power creep not just in players but mobs as well. The zones are very challenging at times and for many people will be a little overwhelming. I can describe some parts of it like being in ET, but in the field.
Take this opportunity to acquaint yourself with friends and form parties heading into the zones. There are very few builds that are capable of efficiently soloing the areas (and even then, only Cleric can do so while sustaining themselves over time). Most of the playerbase is not over-funded or over-geared and so the mobs will hit very hard and be tough to kill. This especially holds true if you’re a magic DPS and trying to deal with some of the tougher enemies that bolster very high magic resistances.
There are unappreciated repercussions of R8 as well, namely the EXP penalty. You should be able to efficiently level in any given area up to a difference of 20 levels up and down now, where previously notable penalties began at around 10 levels. Some Korean players will continue to level in some of the lower level new maps even up to level 320 because of this. You can take this knowledge backwards to lower levels as well, and doing dungeons can be a good source of EXP even 15-20 levels later (e.g. 190 dungeon lasting you until 220, putting you near R7).
It’s an exciting time but do prepare in advance. IMC has definitely designed beyond 280 with better-funded players and parties in mind. I understand a lot of people are running without static parties, but it’s a good idea to start thinking about that now if feasible.
For those looking to get a jump start beforehand, I will also mention that @JiggaJacks will probably be streaming kTOS later and can answer some questions about the content while showing off a lot of the new maps and a general sense of where to go. I’ll be around too in his chat to answer stuff as well as I can.
If you want to use this thread as a general advertisement of yourself looking for a party tomorrow, feel free, but it should be just as efficient to shout for a party in world chat as well.
Good luck Saviors.