Life after the cataclysm... Aka the world after patch 1

[keriann]

LoL you must really suck badly if, as you say, you are incapable of accomplishing anything at all in the game.

I've never claimed to be a genius

[tensalis]

Great Post! Good advice for sure. Here's some things that have worked for me whenever I solo (Level < 50).

-Gotta have as many levels of constitution as possible along with the best self heal avail.

-I use ultra heavy armor, a two-handed weapon (spear or sword), and parry-mode. Its pretty good. The armor took about a day of harvesting and slaughtering Sucklings to afford.

-Bleeding hits are freaking awesome. Accurate Attack1+Bleed is always my opening hit to any monster.

-Have a mega-hit move for carnivores. I personally don't care if it takes huge Stam and HP to use. Accuracy+Bleed+Increase Damage with a two-handed weapon will land some huge damage. Paying 10 hp for using it is paltery when you only have to use the move a few times.

(Wish I'd known about melee aura earlier, gonna have to save up for that)

-When fighting carnivores, its all about how many hits can you escape. With 600 hp, 3-4 hits from a scowling gingo/ragus is enough to kill. However, if you parry and use selfheal2 (or higher) it means that they have to make 7-10 actual attacks to kill you. Using a big two-hander and a megahit, I can always kill one before they kill me. Adding invulnerability and melee aura to this mix is even better since they also negate hits and prolong you damage dealing time.

-Learn what you can handle. Know how much abuse you can take and how much your enemy can take. Try not to get in over your head.

-The Fear spell is your friend. I keep it enchanted on my weapon at all times. If the fight gets to nasty, I fear the critter and run for town. Its also extremely handy for crowd control. If too many critters are on you, fear one or two and kill the remainder while their friends run away.

-Unless fighting things hopelessly below your level (ie, killing Sucklings for Mats to grind on), never ever use default attack. Spam specials like crazy in every fight.

[dguy1]

Great post Zzei!

Just wanted to add a couple things that might help.

1) One thing that helps a lot in melee is to get the first hit in. Its not always possible, but when you can, instead of pulling with taunt, or a ranged spell...run up and whack with your biggest damage atack. Getting in the first hit can save you consideraable downtime with the short fights. This applies even more for large damage slow 2 handed weapons. Kill that straggler!

2) Know your mobs social behaviors. Maybe you can take two Robust Gnoofs at a time..but doing so will increase your downtime...and they WILL help each other. Izams on the other hand, dont..or very rarely anyway...their buddy could be screaming right next to em, and they wont lend a hand. So you rarely have to take on two, decreasing your down time.


Hope it helps a little.

Melodie, tryker girl with a pirate hat

[yy48n19]

LoL you must really suck badly if, as you say, you are incapable of accomplishing anything at all in the game.

Please respect the forum rules and the (what should be unneccessary) request of Zzei in his original post. There has been too much anger and personal attacks flung around in this forum over the weekend to add to it more with pointless insults. I agree with Zzei and others in that we should all be civil in working together to cope with the 'cataclysm' of patch one, as he put it.

I use magic with my characters as well, and the point that keriann and jjm make about it being extremely difficult to level with at the moment is valid.

lol, ooooooh the other Mel posted in front of me!

[eschiava]

Great post zzeii! Lot's of good info there! I only wish I wasn't at work so I could post from my experiences as well if it hasn't all been covered already. Keep up the good work!

[danadita]

I'd like to add a word of caution about spawn rates. If you can clean them out too well, whatever you're hunting will spawn quicker and right on top of you.

[yy48n19]

Magic

I've found that by crystallizing an offensive spell--I used cold 2--and placing it on my magic amps, then loading up sap crystals, I'm able to combine the crystallized spell with my non-crystallized spells for a quick 1-2 punch. For example, I'll pull a critter with a cast spell at maximum range. As it's approachng, I'll cast another spell normally, and once it's on me, I'll fire off the crystallized spell. By repeating this--cast, crystal, cast, crystal--the mob goes down fairly easily, and I don't have to use self heal.

With this technique, I was able to pull vigourous cloppers away from their pack and take them out pretty quickly. I'm mid 20s in offensive magic, and I think this gave me a bit over 1k xp; I'm not sure as I was working off dp and not really paying attention. At any rate, it might be something to try if you are struggling with soloing magic post-patch.

[superyu7]

to fix player crafter problem we need a crafter hall in every city where player crafters can go and "set up shop" and make items to sell or give away.

[zzeii]

Sadly I am a crafter, but I cannot currently craft because of the backpack bug I cannot even get new materials (yes I've tried in all the ways that has been suggested, none worked.)

This is something to ticket to a gm, not use as a counter to an 'idea and tactics' thread.

that would be a good thing to do, but I cannot explore since I get slaughtered at 100 meters from the town.

You must have missed my edit that I added at the end, here it is:

-(this goes for everyone, whether in a group, soloing, heading out to hunt, or returning)Become familiar with your area. Learn where mobs wander, how to avoid them, will help in the highest of mages/harvesters/crafters/melees from getting trounced by a group of wild gingo.

-Think about starting locations. I know for a fact, that Yrkanis has around its northern gate, the LARGEST pack of ragus and gingo that the world has ever witnessed. Leaving town from the south end is much safer. As is starting/respawning at other towns (Natae for example). Matis is just an example, this can easily be applied to any civ.

tanks doesn't work anymore, see above for the lack of proper hitpoints and the constand dying the complaints of the healers that says are unable to heal people even in groups. Also, it's impossible to solo carnivores anymore. which is again, wrong.

I had pointed out they are designed to be hunted in larger groups, and had also suggested if your tank is getting killed in 1 hit, then you should think about hunting something else.

last time I tried the bodocs owned me. and the first time I tried the YUBOS almost owned me. mass = bad. also the 10-15 xp they are worth means too long and boring grinding.

I'm curious. What kind of brodoc are you fighting exactly? I had asked for specifics, not just naysaying.

it can b fun but I don't want to do it all the time, some friends aren't around when I am, and also, recently all the friends I dragged in to ryzom quit.

This has nothing to do with what I posted. I think you are missing the point of it being ideas and tactics.

you have no right to tell me how I should play the game. I did pay for it, I am allowed to play it as I want.

I never told you how you should play the game. Yes you, and everyone else did pay for the game. You can play it however you want. My point was, that games are designed a certain way, and playing them contrary to how they were designed (or are in their current state) will lead to having less enjoyment. Obviously trying to play FF-X as a flight sim will leave anyone unhappy and frustrated.

I am not really flaming you I appreciate the fact you are trying to make a guide to help people that are totally stuck like me, but sadly nothing of what suggested is working for me, or can apply, or I agree with.

Then thank you for the courtesy of posting your bugs, opinions, and lack of pertinant information. (What level fight are you? Server(people are willing to lend a hand if you will let them)?

[flynnkd]

My skills: 86 2h, 68 1H, 73 heal, 66 ele/def, 52 off.

I have hp jewelry(ql50) and armour (QL80+). I use both light and medium armour. With this I now have around 1400 hps.

I carry a 2h slash, 2h blunt, 1h slash, 1h Blunt, shield, 2 daggers.

If I am tanking I equip most of my medium armour, and a heavy helmet. If I am casting I equip light.

Grouping works fine. I was in a group of 6 last night and we were taking down mobs 80 levels above ours (90). We had 3 melee and 3 mages. Position, knowledge and skill is how you do this safely.

Solo: I can still solo, although it can be difficult at times. I was killed by 2 Growling Gingos once because my self heal had not repopped and I simply had a bad run of misses. It just requires you to be AWARE of your surroundings.

People who die to gingos outside Yrk are simply not looking, and impatient. There are several paths through the gingos that minimise your risk, and use of your radar to judge 25m helps immensely. I was able to travel to all the cities of Matis at level 20 when I arrived. I died a few times but it teaches you how to get around. Patience is probably the most important skill here... you simply MUST sit and watch and learn the patterns of your enemies.

I was able to solo run to Pyr by using patience and watching, I know many other people have done this. It took me 500K DP, but it can be done.

I can solo a Scary Gingo now if I start in a healthy state, quite easily most of the time. I can solo a ?Malicious(next level) Gingo if I attack it - first hit is now very important, either with spells or your biggest weapon.

Combat is now so fast that the following things are essential:
- first hit, spell or big weapon
- incr damage
- accuracy
- QL of equipment better than your level
- self heal

Stamina is mostly irrelevant in solo melee now, it is all over long before it will be consumed (assuming you have kept sta to a reasoanble level). Load up the biggest ID and the biggest ACC and strike first. Even Attack After Parry/Dodge are not much good in solo melee it is so fast.

Currently I have been trying to work out how to solo off/ele mage. The easiest way to do this I found out by accident last night. I had grouped with a fellow guildie who wanted to level his healing, which was around 20. We were getting passable exp (was ok for him, I was using 1H to keep levels low). I had during the respect bought the spell Rot, so as a bit of fun I thought I would kill a plant while he healed. Before patch killing plants was poor exp and quite risky, they hit hard. To my surprise I was able to kill a Robust Psy and we got 520 exp each, and with 65 Rot it would take 3-5 casts, which is pretty quick. With my friend healing we were able to move through a field of Robust in very quick time. I moved to a Blooming and we got around 750 exp. We tried the next level Dehydrated?? and got 1500xp but this drained us both completely and I had to use self heal. We tried the next level after that and got smeared.

I tried to solo a Robust later on and got 750 exp. I could kill 2 safely then have to rest to recover HPs, they still hit fairly hard. But I was able to improve my ele skill, solo. Note that I had 1300 HPs (+900 self heal) whilst doing this, I wouldnt try a Robust with less then 1000 hp (actual or combined with self heal).

This isnt the greatest exp, but it isnt bad either. And you only need a level 20 healer to make it quite good....