CL: Racing to third circle

 > I'd start in the vermine tree. You don't even need the fighter there,
 > just the healer with good proxi and good self-heal.

Two words: DV spawns.

Not that VT is a bad idea... but you would need the 6th* fighter for
those times when you get big DV/GV/Dark Vermine spawns (they do happen
fairly often)

 > My experience is that even "experienced" newbies fall often in the undine
 > hut, and downtime means no exp.

You show me an "experienced" newbie who falls "often" in undine, and
I'll show you a newbie. Anyone who is "experienced" as a fighter (as
far as clikcing skills) should have NO trouble staying up in the
undine hut.


 > I have no idea about baby Noids, since it's rare that
 > anyone asks me to help there.

Baby noids can be good, and I did hunt there quite alot when I was
coming up... but about 3 months back or so I took a newbie freind of
mine there, and the spawns just weren't what I remembered. The exp
there was still good, but since the spawn rate seemed to have been
altered there were better, faster spawning alternates.

 > I'd agree with Noids as the step after that, but LP and RC spawn too
 > slowly in my opinion.

What you are missing here is the 8hours/day part. It's called a loop.
You can't hunt noids all day long, hell sometimes you can't hunt there
longer than 15 minutes. The LP/RC parts are part of that "oh shit, we
cleared here, what do we do now?" loop.

 > I'd also say that Noth requires too much atkus for a 2nd circle fighter, and
 > is too dangerous (e.g. Hel'Noths).

I've seen plenty of 2nd circle fighters on Noth, if your "2nd circle"
fighter doesn't have enough atkus for noth, you are doing something
terribly wrong.

 > Plus, both Noth and RC are far from town, and trip time is no exp.

ok, on trip time = no exp we agree, but uh, Noth and RC are not far
from town at all... Noth is like 3 snells away.. and with even a
crappy PF (NB has like 16 pf = crappy pf)You can be to RC in 2 minutes
tops.


 > When Noids is clear, you can go to midpass for a bit, especially if the
 > healer can keep the 2nd circle fighter up in the areas north and south.

Not a bad idea, nice alternate location.


 > If the 2nd circle fighter can tag without falling in Dark Chamber, I
 > think that'd be a good last step.

If the 2nd circle fighter has the atkus(clicking skill/dodging
abilities) he/she "should" have tagging should be no problem. If the
healer is "uber" as Watson indicated the 2nd fighter should never (or
rarely) fall.

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Baff wrote:

 > Ability to move wordlessly as a group would be a good bonus. Mostly just
 > a matter of knowing each other's playing style.

Why would this be a bonus? Many people like to chat with their friends
while hunting.

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"Jeff Ray" <jeff.ray.DeleteThis@dfrc.nasa.gov> wrote in message
news:jeff.ray-4B60B6.10032409122003@ftp2.dfrc.nasa.gov...
 > Baff wrote:
 >
  > > Ability to move wordlessly as a group would be a good bonus. Mostly
just
  > > a matter of knowing each other's playing style.
 >
 > Why would this be a bonus? Many people like to chat with their friends
 > while hunting.
 >
 > -jrr

Of course, but in this context it'd be a bonus because chatting will take
time, less talk = more racing to 3rd circle.

-Ald<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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NightbirdCL.DeleteThis@hotmail.com (NightBird) wrote in message news:<761311b1.0312090515.2784c53e.DeleteThis@posting.google.com>...
  > > I'd start in the vermine tree. You don't even need the fighter there,
  > > just the healer with good proxi and good self-heal.
 >
 > Two words: DV spawns.
 >
 > Not that VT is a bad idea... but you would need the 6th* fighter for
 > those times when you get big DV/GV/Dark Vermine spawns (they do happen
 > fairly often)
 >

I meant only the 1st chamber of the Vermine Tree. I haven't seen
DV/GV/Dark Vermine there unless they've been lured from the 2nd
chamber. I wasn't thinking of the 2nd chamber for the newbie,
although maybe when they get some experience under their belt, it
might work if the fighter/healer pair protect the newbie in a corner
so the newbie is only faced with one at a time.

  > > My experience is that even "experienced" newbies fall often in the undine
  > > hut, and downtime means no exp.
 >
 > You show me an "experienced" newbie who falls "often" in undine, and
 > I'll show you a newbie. Anyone who is "experienced" as a fighter (as
 > far as clikcing skills) should have NO trouble staying up in the
 > undine hut.

I agree, they *should* have no trouble staying up in the undine hut.
But they DO! Generally they are overaggressive about getting tags,
and have too much "lingering memory" of abilities they don't have
(especially when things get active). It's also how I tell the
difference between real newbies and "experienced" newbies -- they make
different kinds of mistakes. :)

If what you want is to rank as fast as possible, I think you need a
very repetitive safe hunt, which is also *boring*. I once had a kudzu
setup in Noids where only one Noid was accessible at a time, and could
be hit without it getting out. The fighters could each take a turn
tagging, then the strong fighter could kill it. After maybe 5-10 min
of this, the fighters decided to kill the zu so they could have fun
and risk falling. :)

 > What you are missing here is the 8hours/day part. It's called a loop.
 > You can't hunt noids all day long, hell sometimes you can't hunt there
 > longer than 15 minutes. The LP/RC parts are part of that "oh shit, we
 > cleared here, what do we do now?" loop.

I'm not missing that. But swamp ferals, well, feral, and are hard for
2nd circle fighters to hit. Some of the RC wyrms feral as well, and
while nice exp, aren't plentiful, plus the distance overhead is the
*round-trip* distance. Midpass is alot closer to Noids, and tends to
be more plentiful. Plus both LP and RC are favorite spots for 3rd-4th
circle fighters. I think LP is more often cleared than Noids, and
even if RC isn't, when it is you've just wasted the round-trip time.
My experience is that Noids respawns in a comparable time to the
average time it takes to find somewhere else good to hunt (other than
midpass), and the advantages of staying there is then you can claim
precendence when someone else shows up, and you don't have to deal
with the entry again. I suppose you could even have the 2nd circle
fighter go with the healer to clear the outer passages of Noids while
the 6th circle fighter sits in the cave waiting for the spawn.

 >
  > > I'd also say that Noth requires too much atkus for a 2nd circle fighter, and
  > > is too dangerous (e.g. Hel'Noths).
 >
 > I've seen plenty of 2nd circle fighters on Noth, if your "2nd circle"
 > fighter doesn't have enough atkus for noth, you are doing something
 > terribly wrong.

Noth creatures vary widely. Remember we're only talking about 3
people here. And there are spores and bolts. I love going there
myself, but I wouldn't consider it a place which a top healer & top
fighter could make safe & repetitively easy for a 2nd circle fighter.
For the same reason, I didn't suggest orga camp for a 1st circle
fighter. Such places are better for a larger group.

Anyways, IMHO the fastest ways to race to 3rd circle for a fighter are
going to be boring. You'll spend alot of time doing the same "safe"
things over and over. There's an inherent paradox here: someone who
wants to get to 3rd circle as fast as possible is impatient, but
patience is essential in getting to 3rd circle as fast as possible.
:)

Taryn.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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Watson GM <watsongm.DeleteThis@moopenguin.org> wrote:

  > > If I was training specifically for the test and rank whoring like crazy
  > > I think it could be done in about 6 months.
 >
 > This is the bit I'm looking to explore with these questions; I'm
 > mostly trying to get my head around the "rank whoring like crazy" part
 > of the equation, and how things change when a new character has the
 > dedicated help of high level folks.

Its not so much the high level folk, its the high level areas that keep
the ranks flowing. KI had done wonders for peoples ability to rank
fast.

And you know what, thats fine. I think its awsome that many of the
strongest fighters in the lands didnt start right after the rip war now.
Ya it didnt take them as long as it did for older fighters, but so what?

Michael<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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Taryn <taryncl.RemoveThis@attbi.com> wrote:

 > c) Hunt spots with swarms of easily taggable, nonferalling creatures
 > that give vanqs and kills. Don't bother tagging hard-to-hit monsters,
 > that's wasting time; just let the fighter dispose of them. Stay on
 > the perimeter to let the creatures focus their attacks on the brick or
 > rod.

Most of the time you are better going for the big tags (unless you are
WAY over your head). Trust me.

Michael<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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Taryn <taryncl.TakeThisOut@attbi.com> wrote:


Then they suck and wont make 3rd very quick, or their friends are shitty
players.

You shouldnt have any trouble staying alive in the undine hut, period.

 > I'd agree with Noids as the step after that, but LP and RC spawn too
 > slowly in my opinion. I'd also say that Noth requires too much atkus
 > for a 2nd circle fighter, and is too dangerous (e.g. Hel'Noths).

I was hunting noth at 1st circle and pulling in the ranks like you
wouldnt belive. I would leave a noth hunt with 10 ranks some days and
1k in my pocket.

And this was before they tweaked the things so anyone with a sword can
tag them, they used to be MUCH harder to hit, even by todays standards.
Sure I fell a lot, but the healers get you up and I went back in for
more tags.

Michael<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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