Levelling

There's no secrets to levelling up, you just have to find some tough enough mobs to kill, and then ..kill them. This guide will give you the ability to find those mobs, and level on them effectively. Will also have some common levelling spots, but hopefully you'll find this useful for finding your own quiet spot nobody knows too.

Another way to level is doing quests, but this is a one-time thing, its not repeatable. So I'll leave that til last.

Prompt

A few options are available for prompts that are ideal for grouping:
  • %T - shows the health of the tank (good for a curing class, and also an indicator of when to start yelling flee)
  • %X - shows the amount of experience til next level

    Fighters and rogues should also use combat style and weapon type prompts (examples, %W and %A) since correct matchup helps get an edge over the mobs that are armed with weapons in later ranks.

    How to form group

    This is well known by most readers, but for the sake of being complete I will say it anyway. To group someone, you FOLLOW the leader and have them GROUP you. The leader can follow someone else once the group has been formed. So you can group "around" some guy to create groups that aren't usually possible due to level difference. To look for groupmates use WHO GROUP, and if you can't find enough, ask other people to check around too. Its possible for a level 1 and a level 17 to be grouped in theory.

    Two people get an exp bonus, and three people get an even bigger one. After that, its not worth more members. If you can't find three people, you can use a PET or a MERCENARY to fill that final slot. You also can use a pet during solo ranking, although you don't get a boost for that.

    How to know what to level on

    Its a pretty straightforward rule - CONSIDER the mob. If it comes out as a "difficult kill" for the tank, you probably are going to need that group of 3. And that would be the best thing for that group to be ranking on. Simple, no? If you're ranking alone, look for the "perfect match" instead. The exp will be a lot lower, but quicker in the long run. Since, you know, you dont need to sleep three times to beat it. If your character is able to tank beyond these recommended limits, by all means, do that. If it is struggling on these, find someone else to tank because your character is difficult to level.

    An advantage of choosing an alignment is that killing creatures of the opposite alignment means more exp points. e.g. an elf gives more exp if your character is evil. So if you want to rank faster do that. But if you want the most possible groupmates, neutral is always the way to go. Its usually faster ranking for lightwalkers in the long run.

    Some examples of popular ranking areas:
    • 1-5, the tower of knowledge should be fine - even solo
    • 5-9, elf valley for evils, goblin village everyone else
    • 10+, emerald forest for evils, drkshyre wood for goods
    • 35+, solace for evils, keep of d'al kaddar for goods (requires good group)


    Of course, the popular spots are where the PK is at, so if you want safer ranking, get exploring with that CONSIDER command. Use the AREAS command to look for areas in your level range, find them, then check out the mobs. Pay attention to alignments, even if you picked neutral, because your future groupmates maybe won't have.

    How to form a GOOD group

    Ok, so you have groupmates. Great! Now you just need to apply it properly. Always put the warrior type tanking with dual parry and dual wield. Failing that, a rogue works wonders in counterbalance with sidestep. Rogues can dual wield for damage in support too, so they're useful to all groups. Mages are good for doing lots of damage and granting protective spells, so they're kind of useful for grouping, but they definitely aren't tanking. A cleric is a welcome addition to any party because he brings healing. A good group has all of these. A really good group has all of these and uses monster spells.

    Some examples of decent groups:
    • Warrior, Berserker, Shaman - tank/ damage/ cure
    • Ranger, Illusionist, Thief - tank+cure/ damage + armor spells/ damage + ok tank
    • Bard, Paladin, Warrior = tank + cure/ damage + cure/ damage


    You rarely get (or need) the "best possible" group though until the high levels, where the mob difficulty pretty much demands that. This just goes smoother.

    Oh yes, and these groupmates are going to need items. You might have to ask for help with what to use in the long run, but in the early levels, remember, hitroll is your friend. People stop at level 9 or so for opals, scrounging the pits and orc mountains also helps. Look out for people who're still using full black-tear / full mithril after level 30. It isn't time consuming to quickly get them a balanced set of mithrils/reds, which is much better damage. Saves a lot of time ranking to get the items right in the long run.

    Weapons

    First of all make sure your tank uses a weapon with a good PARRY defend rating. A mace is ideal. Spear is also a good bet. Swords failing that.

    As for the groupmates, they're not tanking, so for them its all attack.

    Weaponless mobs:
    Pay attention to the way the mob defends, as well as its weaknesses. Does it parry? If it parries, everyone else uses good whips, flails, etc. Dodge? Spears are the only weapon that has any additional bonus against dodge, so spears if you can find them. Sometimes its better to use a weapon against the mob's weakness, like pierce vs a dragon, but that's not a rule.

    Mobs wielding weapons:
    Use a weapon advantage, and have someone DISARM or RAKE the weapon if possible. Mobs with weapons are a lot easier for fighters to rank on than mobs without them, because that makes them easier to hobble and of course, skills that auto-rake (like sideswipe and uncanny attack) are like having extra defences.

    Mercs and Pets

    You can buy a mercenary or a pet. If you buy a pet, it starts at level 1, stays with you forever, and can be levelled up to 30. If you buy a mercenary, it starts at its max level, but doesn't stay with you. So, its better in the long run to buy a pet, if you will be ranking alone or in small groups a lot. Pets have other functions that make them better (like, carrying stuff). But if you're just looking for fastest possible ranking, then the mercenary is definitely the way to go.

    Monster Spells

    As you get higher in ranks the mobs get more difficult to pass, so you'll need some added support. The classical way to go is to find a cleric for his sanc/healing (and this is also a good reason to make one, if fastest possible ranking is your desire, although I didn't write the guide with that in mind). Another way is to use the "monster spells"..

    Monster spells make ranking a lot easier. They come in three forms:
    • Protection Creature (small damage reduction, same as protection)
    • Monster Turning (large damage reduction, can use with prot creature too)
    • Wilderness Healing (3 cure criticals over time, requires monster turning affect)


    So obviously, its really good to rank with these spells. But where, you ask? The easiest place is Jemira in Timaran, who sells them in potion form. Now you know. And how will you afford all these potions? This is a levelling guide, but I'll tell anyway. Do some TASKS for shops - jewelers, leather shops, armorys, and weapon shops all give good tasks.

    NOTE: Its possible to hold and quaff potions while tanking, and I suggest making good use of it with the healing pots, even though you might fumble one or two. You can also give your pet a sack full of potions to help you carry more of them.

    An example ratio of lowbie potions is: 1 beastie, 5-6 repulsion, 16 cures.
    For the high level versions: 1 beastie, 4 repulsion, 8 cures.

    If you have lots of gold to spare, place more emphasis on cures and fight harder mobs.

    NOTE 2: Don't overlook the protection creature potions - this is a common mistake.

    Surge

    Every fourty hours, for two hours, the realms enters a state of surge. This makes the experience points doubled. People tend to congregate for surges for the bonuses. However, everything above still applies. There's perfectly fine ranking without surges if you do it properly. To someone good at the task of ranking, surge is an amazing bonus. To someone who isn't, surge is a requirement.

    Quests

    Yes, if you want experience, you can do quests for them in theory. Also quests help your skill learning go a little faster. If you would rather save them up for the experience points when you really need it, I guess you can.

    Tips for getting to level 50

    Its a social setting, so you can make ranking very hard for yourself if you annoy other people a lot. So if you want the best chance at getting 50 (and who doesn't), then take these pointers:

    • Join a cabal - they'll help you level (in theory) after making you stay at 40 for a bit. You can dip the cabal bank for monster potion money.
    • Learn how to lead the levelling areas. If you want to play some mage character that can't tank, you can make yourself useful by leading the way around. Knowing brownies dryads nymphs, and lady rangers will take you to at least 30 even with newbie groupmates, since newbies go with fighter types. Same for talamaurs butlers, etc.
    • Establish a pool of people you rank with. Then try to keep ranking with them, and consider making gold/training when you can't. If you rank too high you'll leave behind some of your "regulars". Convincing people who don't know you to rank with you can be a lot tougher.
    • Don't waste time with getting eq. If you're getting hit/dam that's fine. But there's no point wasting time decking out your character where exp and levels (new skills, stronger spells) help so much more. It just attracts attention. Even worse is to lose such good eq (for example, because your spellcaster character is still low level and thus weak no matter what it wears), and then try to get another full suit. You might as well just get red dragon and rank.
    • USE DOWNTIME. Just because you have no group. Doesnt mean you have nothing to do. You can train your most important mob and pk skills (defences are ideal, so is word of recall), do tasks for gold, that helps ranking later. Gambling for bigger damroll and rare hunting is worthwhile when there is no group.
    • Don't PK. I know, you're bored and you think its fun. But trust me, if you PK before 50 you are going to draw negative attention, so not only will nobody want to rank you, but you'll have people you've annoyed come and ruin your groups as well, most likely also with their trash high-level alts from certain unscrupulous camps. (I'm not saying I disagree with PK before 50 at all, I'm just saying it makes it more difficult to get to level 50 - which is where the PK is most balanced.)
    • Don't aggravate the higher level players - you'll be in their PK sooner or later. Then you'll just be fodder for a large group of people who all want to kill you.