Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Leveling Like Mad - And Thanks To Settar

I spent a couple hours Sunday when I got home and then a few yesterday on my last day off playing Age of Conan and managed to go from level 26 to 31 in that time. At first, I wasn't sure I'd make much progress as a lot of my quests involved running around the world and just visiting people for various little deeds. But eventually I wrapped up what quests I had at the time in Khopshef and made my way to the Wild Lands of Zelata outside of Old Tarantia... and it was quests galore all over again.

I filled my log to the point where I couldn't take any more quests between this new zone and some of the gathering quests I was still working on. That's the first time that's happened to me in AoC. Now, some of the quests are gray for me as I entered the area at level 29 but they don't give any less experience upon completion than they would when I was of appropriate level. The mobs I had to kill for them gave less, but not the quests them selves.

So anyone who finds themselves at level 30 wondering what's next, bear in mind that Funcom apparently wants you to do all 3 nations' level 20-30+ areas in order to hit the mid 40s. Bad design? Maybe. But I'm the kind of person who doesn't mind doing gray con quests so long as they give experience and monetary rewards.

The downside? Going through with an alt won't be as exciting as there won't be a new area to explore.

I've also been hearing plenty of reports that leveling slows down big time in the 50s and 60s, as quests start to thin out until level 70 or so. Sounds to me a like WoW's 45-50 gap, and LotRO's 35-45 gap. I'm hoping that with this advanced knowledge I can spend some extra time grinding on mobs for cash and extra experience to help avoid some of this. I'm hearing that it's damn near impossible to have the 3 gold needed for both mount training and the actual mount at level 40, so I'm goin to have to go farming anyway to get that ride, or at least the ability to ride my free Mammoth from pre-ordering.

That brings me to my last point of the day. BIG props to Settar for creating and maintaining a great blog on the Tempest of Set, and more importantly an excellent detailed leveling blog. Settar's Tempest of Set Blog is of immense use to me as a ToS myself, but moreso I'm digging his leveling journals as they help me see what's in store for me in the weeks to come.

Good stuff, Settar. Keep it coming.

6 comments:

Gamer Hudson said...

Did you see this thread? UGH. Man MMO forums are all of the same variety. I cant even think of a class to play now should have never read them

http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=59985

Anonymous said...

Seems more like business as usual on the expectation to do more than one branch area to level up. I managed (now lvl 45) to keep my quest log full through the thirties between Wild Lands and Conall's Valley, I skipped Khopshef. So just 2/3 will do.

Funcom's road map teaser press release this week states that they'll be working on the quest gaps for some levels, so looks like it will be less of a problem soon anyway.

Stropp said...

Funcom made a statement today that they were going to include new content 'soon' for the mid to late thirties and fifties. This should help those struggling to find quests at those level ranges. It seems that this is content that wasn't ready to make release. I've posted the letter on my blog too (http://stroppsworld.com/2008/06/04/age-of-conan-announcement/).

I'm not sure when this content will be released, though they are promising summer. That will probably be good timing for me since my altaholism is ensuring I stay in Tortage!

Bildo said...

I saw that!

I'm actually going to make a post on it later today. Some great stuff in that letter, provided they can pull through on it all.

@Hudson: It's WoW's general forum all over again. Head to TTH for more even-headed discussion. :)

Brendon said...

So far I am level 36 and I have not had a problem keeping busy because I have been doing the dungeons in accordance to my level along with the normal quests that I get. I am hoping there are more quests for level 36 and above in Cimmeria because I have not been there yet. I have only been to Aqulonia and Stygia.

Bildo said...

Brendino, let me point you a couple of posts down to the excellent Leveling Flowchart.

That's a great indicator of where one should go at what levels. You're going to hit some gaps in the 40s or 50s (that's the word anyway, though Destroya in our guild says he had no issue hitting 60 with just questing). So it's probably best to check that flowchart, and DON'T FORGET THE GATHERING QUESTS!

Those are key.

:)