kymaene wrote:now that i'm on the mainland, i'm finding gorged and vigorous (insert mob type here) mobs that are harder to kill (which i would expect) but give a fraction of the xp and way less ql mats (ranging from ql 12 to 15).
is this the way it's supposed to be or am i doing something wrong? needless to say, i was somewhat dismayed.
again, apologies for the n00b question. thanks in advance for any constructive comments given.
After a few false starts, bringing chars to the mainland too early, I'm fairly convinced that you should grind on kipees in the newblands until you have melee fighting at level 35, have 40 in strength, and 40 in constitution with the appropriate regen skills also at 40.
The reasons are this:
A. With 40 in strength, you can get a choice Q50 weapon from a crafter when you hit the mainland. That 152 max damage / 21 speed (on a 2h weapon, for example) will be significantly better than the 92/21 you had in newbieland. Granted, at level 35 fighting skill you'll only be doing about 124 damage per hit till you level up closer to 50, but that's still 30 points per hit better than you could get with your Q20 choice weapon from newbie land. Also, it gives you a weapon to grow into as you level closer to 50, saving you money in the long run.
B. With 40 in constitution, you have the HP you need to fight the mobs that will yield you more like 1500-3000 exp per solo kill. You need at least 400 base HP, which can be pushed up to 500 HP easy with some +10 HP jewelry (or better) and some armor that has +10 HP stats on some or all of the pieces. Ideally, you will have purchased 8-10 pieces of such jewelry in newb land for fairly cheap (1-4K per piece) before you come over to the mainland.
C. With 40 in constitution, you can also equip Q50 armor, which will make a big difference in your survivability. You *can* successfully solo those mobs that give you 3000 per kill even in your choice Q20 medium or Q20 heavy armor from newb land, but if you brought about 200-300K with you from the mainland, you can even buy the NPC vendor versions of the Q50 armor (med or heavy) and you will get significantly more protection than from your best Q20 armor. I soloed scowling gingos, for instance at level 35 in my Q20 armor from newbland (3000 xp per kill), but its important to note that I had to do those one at a time. Multiple mobs usually meant death unless they were easy to kill, allowing me to go back to the scowling gingo.
D. At level 35 in melee fighting, your skill level relative to the mobs that give decent exp/mat drops is high enough that you have a chance to hit them more often and for more damage, and to dodge or parry them more often for less damage to yourself. Regardless of your armor protection. I tried doing mainland at level 25 and just couldn't dish out the damage or dodge/parry often enough. At level 35, that seems to be the sweet spot. At level 30, I dunno, but I imagine it's worse than at 35. I do know, however, that it takes at most 2 extra hours to grind up from level 25 in fight to level 35 in fight on kipees in newbland. 2 extra hours in newbland for a much easier time on the mainland seems like a good tradeoff to me.
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Since you're already on the mainland, I'd suggest getting a good choice Q50 2handed weap. Pike or longsword, depending on the vulnerability of the tough aggro mobs in your land. One of each if you can afford it. I'd also suggest that you buy some better armor from the mainland vendors. Q40 or Q50 medium or heavy, depending on what you can afford. If you can afford (and can find) crafted Q40 or Q50 then even better.
Get away from the lowbie mobs around your city and experiment with the aggro loner mobs until you find the ones that yield 2000-3000 for solo kills. In Matis lands that would be the gingos, which are vuln to piercing damage. In Tryker lands that would be the Cloppers, which are vulnerable to peircing as well, if I remember correctly. Learn how to pull one at a time (try using taunts) and grind up on them for 2-3K exp per kill.