Levelling in AE

Sold! Cracking Skulls it will be. My 12th attempt.

For those wondering whether this is efficient: During the time it took me to level 7-10, some guy standing in AE looking for a farm made it from 1 to 3.

Don't have the arc number on me at the moment but I'll suggest Outbroken while you're still low level.

Cracking skulls was a blast. I particularly want to point out the awesome attention to detail. I just plain grinned when completing a mission triggered a friendly ambush of PPD to run around picking up after me. That was a nice touch -- it really moved things from "go hunt kill skulls" to "this is a story that relates to a world outside it". Made level 11, decided not to bother putting anything in slots for one level. At 12 I plan to at least replace all my IOs, maybe start picking up some dual/triple aspects to frankenslot and get a little more oomph out of my fairly frail abilities.

And yes, Outbroken (#379017) is up next. (That'll be the 13th.)

While you are still low level might I suggest mt arc:

A Hero in Need...is a Friend Indeed! #375018

It's intended for level 5-14.


WN

That was awesome, except that the last mission was... I have no clue. Bugged? Incomprehensible to me? There were these Arachnos thingies that floated around and had no perceptible effect on the world.

I'm pretty sure I'd done Hero in Need before, but it was a long time ago. So that'll be #14. If I'm very lucky, that'll get me to 12, at which point my enhancement situation will improve a lot.

Followup: Yup, that got me to 12! Also, and this is the BEST part about ADHD: I'd totally forgotten how it went, so it was fun all over again. Amusing writing.

There was a typo, though, which I have since forgotten, but I think there's a mission-accept text that says "thing's" when it should be "things" or vice versa.

Okay, went out and farmed WW for a bit. Got some set IOs for blind/deceive/spectral wounds, and also for radiant aura (just in case). Put plain level 15 IOs in everything else, except the spot in Hover I'm saving for a Kismet +6% tohit. (In a fit of irony, I have one... But I rolled it at level 10, where it's worth about 20x what I expect to pay for an 11-14 recipe, so I'm still waiting on that.)

My total bonuses on Deceive went from 46.8% enhancement (accuracy, endredux, recharge, endredux) to 112.8%, and that's ignoring range (I care why?). 33.6% confuse and accuracy, 21.6% recharge, 24% endredux. Yes, I went for 5/6 Cacophany. I have a couple percent more recovery than I used to, a bit more regeneration, and my powers cost less. Also, spectral wounds now has +36% damage instead of +0% damage. Life is going to be a lot nicer.

So with all that done... On to the next arc (the 15th)! It's called "The Dead and the Damned" (#87912).

Levelling in AE is always fun. I played a fortunata to level 40ish just playing arcs from PW's thread (occasionally mixing it up with a DC or random search)... it was good times. I just went enhanceless at the start and made my own IOs from tickets at 20/30/40 (could have probably stretched that a bit out).

As for the inevitable shameless plug: as long as you're low-level, "To Dream of Nothing" #374644 could use a few plays... it has received zero since Dr. A's second contest back in early '10. I'm definitely looking for feedback on that one still!


-- Z.

Okay, that'll be #16! I warn you, though, The Dead and the Damned was a pretty awesome mission (for me), so it's a tough act to follow.

Level 13, got a level 16 basilisk's gaze triple for <20k total price of salvage and recipes, hah.

Made a vanity SG so I will have something to do with my gratuitously huge supply of inf. I'm trying to drop off a full load of arcane common 26-40 rolls (alchemical silver!) after each run, and also do a stack of recipes if I've got the tix. Just got a level 13 res/def recipe, which oughta be worth something.

Wow! Okay, that was an awesome story experience. VERY nice; you earned that 5-star.

I was a bit ambivalent about the allies; as an ill/rad, I mostly just had to be more careful with them around in order to avoid picking fights before I was ready. They did save me from an ambush, though!

Pretty cool. ALMOST made level 14. Since I'm close to a level, I picked a short arc next; "Chris Jenkins: Attorney At Law" (#204942). One typo ("that's gotta worth" should have been "that's gotta be worth", I think?). Short and fun; nothing insanely surprising or detailed, but nice attention to detail, and some funny lawsuit jokes. That got me 14 (Hasten, yay!) and time to go kick WW around a bit.

Okay, back into the game. Gonna try a series, Occulus Internecio (parts 1, 2, 3). Starting with Part 1 (#282586). Yeah, it has elite bosses, but hasten+AM+blues makes me a lot more able to handle that than I used to be.

First two arcs were really fun and fairly awesome.

Third arc... Too hard, at least for me. Mission #3 has an elite boss with mez protection. Got someone to come help, managed to clear that, managed to clear another map with him and some stuff.

Last mission has three defensible objects which have a life expectancy of around 5 seconds from "when combat starts" to "when you must have gotten the aggro of everything". Can't do it unless/until I come back with PA.

Made 16th now. Next up: Bricked Electronics (#2180). At 17 I may take a brief break to Make Moar Money and also get some better enhancements.

Okay, that appears to be... Let's see. Bricked Electronics was #20. Got within a fraction of a bubble of 17, so I picked something short -- the Easter Basket (#35335), which claims to be the first in the "Marcone Playtime Bunnies" series. It was exactly what you'd expect -- a bunch of underdressed women with rabbit tails kicking things a lot. Made 17, off to play with WW for a bit.

Summary so far: 21 arcs, made it to level 17. Soloed all but about one and a half missions. Life is improving as I get a little tougher.

Okay, 22nd arc: Not Her Father's Oak Island (#75249). "Treasure hunt style story" it says.

I'm enjoying reading about your experiences, seebs. You've got me wanting to do this myself now.

It's... I dunno. It's fun in a way that I am having trouble describing.

BTW, "Not Her Father's Oak Island" was fun. Really enjoyed it; good variety of maps and content, interesting scenery.

I think... Basically, in the normal game, I'm presumably playing-to-level. Levelling is the thing. There's not a whole lot of story continuity in a lot of stuff. There's travel time. There's stuff like paper missions, which can be amusing, but fundamentally it is Always The Same. The stories are limited to a fairly narrow range of kinds of stories the devs usually want to tell, and are usually stuck at single-mission length. There's a few exceptions (Midnighter arc, Welcome to Vanguard, etc.), but for the most part... A lot of mission content is sorta samey all the time.

MA arcs... I mean, they aren't always good writing, but they're nearly always new. Also, they tend to use more interesting maps. I remember the first time I did "Two Tickets to Westerly" (#374002). I had never seen the Oranbega map before, and was utterly amazed by it. And the writing was great. (Still one of my favorite arcs.)

So I get... More variety here. I don't know whether I'm going to see an adventure that might as well have been described as "What's in the closet of Fanservice Lass" or a really great piece of writing. I don't know whether I'll get something that compares unfavorably to some teenager's Ranma self-insert fanfic, or something that makes me wonder whether I've finally identified Jim Butcher's account.

Custom enemies are often interesting, although it's certainly possible for them to be too hard or too easy.

Mostly, though... I'm just loving the stories.

17.5. A ways to go yet before 18. This is... Not the high point if an ill/rad troller's speed at killing things and getting XP for them. PA and Lingering Radiation will help a ton -- lingering, especially, for the painfully slow rate at which I currently kill bosses and EBs. This build is looser than it might otherwise be for now, since I'm skipping powers like Mutation and Group Invisibility which are only usable on teams.

Edited to add: #23 will be "The Arc Flash Task Force" (#334251).

Arc Flash was fun. It did a very good job of capturing the feel of classic TF missions, with a bit of humor in it. Had fun, enjoyed the backstory and clues. Made 18, but haven't actually used PA yet because I haven't encountered anything tough. Up next is Going Rogue (#174436). I liked the description and it looked like an interesting story.

My arc A Wake For Dead 6 is 5 to 15, might be good for a run too.

Got distracted by I21. When I came back, "Going Rogue" gave me "AEBadDoorError" or something like that, but I restarted it and it went well. Fun and well-written, I enjoyed it.

Right, level 19 now, three-slotted PA (put in some lowbie call to arms since they were cheap). Up next: Lesbian Hellion Liberation (#208830). Comedy sounds fun right about now. There's a dire warning about bosses, so I may get myself sorta whupped, but PA will help a lot with that.

Converted a bunch of tickets to alchemical silvers. In the IO part of the world, got a bid out on a miracle +recovery proc and some more out on kismet accuracy procs. Gonna be revisiting some of my other enhancements in a bit -- still got a lot of level 15s that I could benefit from upgrading.

Edited: Whoops, the !@*#ing filter has eaten that arc. Repicked Dream Paper (#1874).

Was cool. Neat story, lots of cool stuff to read. Last mission was a bit slow because I spent basically the whole time fighting Anathemas, and without mez protection, that meant a lot of time spent making sure I had confusion up, etc.

Up next: "The Most Evil Crime Ever. Really." (#307252). Will likely make 20.

Didn't make 20, as there were some shortish missions, but the writing was delightful. Very well done. Silly, and fourth-wall-breaky, so if those bug you steer clear, but if you like that kind of humor when it's well done, well. This was well done.

Next up: My Science Project (#219014).

Loving this thread! Making me want to do this myself.

What method do you use for picking out Arcs? Do you just go with the 1st one that sounds good? I tried doing that but most often ended up getting a poorly disguised farm.

Storming Citadel is very short, if you haven't played it already, i think it hasn't been killed by the profanity filter fiasco.

Eco.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."