I play late NA time, how do I level and not go crazy?

[jibbles32]

First off, this isn't an angry rant or anything, just an explanation and I am seeking help. I don't really demand anything from the devs as I'm just incredibly thankful for their saintly generosity to keeping my favorite MMO of old alive. ILY devs.

Little bit of story you can skip if you want my real question:
I've seen some posts discussing leveling strategies and they are usually pretty out of date. I remember months ago, there were champ rats in TC side of T2 and I could get a bunch of levels off those and get out of T2. Then in T3 I just tried to defend keeps with counter siege stuff and got lots of AAO bonus exp and rr and inf and pretty much powered through T3, because I want to get to T4. That was in summer and when I free time. Now I'm busy with school and work and such and can only play late when server pop is < 300, and pvp is pretty much dead or extremely one sided.

Real Question:
So what I'm getting at is, what am I supposed to do to level when I'm usually playing all alone or getting stomped by an uneven playerbase.

Sure I can go grind mobs for 1-2k per piece, but thats super slow and boring and exp is destroyed if I group up. I could quest... and get the same amount of exp for running across the map as I could from 2-3 kills (so questing is pointless). I could PQ.... the first (maybe second) stage solo, which is still just mob grinding then I have to go to another one or wait for reset. I could go feed the other side rr and exp and medallions, because if it's our side that is winning, no one is going to come fight me and whoever else is roaming. I could queue for unknown lengths of time for a chance to maybe win, or get smashed for no reward.

Thanks for any assistance and answers you guys can give me, love yall.

[Aethilmar]

Best I've got is use rest XP to reduce the grind and play weekends to get some renown so you aren't totally useless when you hit T4. The loss of BO guard XP hurt a bunch for powering through T2/T3.

I was pleasantly surprised to find some SC pop about 7:30 PST today though in T3 so stay queued while you go through the grind and you might at least have a little fun getting to T4.

[wargrimnir]

Join a guild, make a group, all the usual answers. RvR is not a solo activity.

T2 and T3 are merged. You need to be R16. Then you can find the open battlefront and start a group if there isn't one running. You're bolstered to the same level as everyone else.

It's not easy for late night NA, and we don't pretend like it is. It gets better in T4 where there's usually some RvR. You'll have to put in some work communicating with your other players and getting them out to fight whoever you can. Sometimes a guild will be able to help out with this, they might have a debolster night, or just have a couple that want to level characters as well.

Your alternative is probably to leave your mid-tier toons to accumulate rested XP and play on the weekends during the day where there is certainly enough activity to get through.

[jibbles32]

Gah I know these replies are good they just don't work for me hahaha. I work saturday, and am busy the rest of my day then always busy sunday too with family and school obligations. Plus I cannot find a single guild when I playing that accepts non-40's/T4's and is active hahaha. Oh well, I'll just try and power through.

[altharion1]

Your alternative is probably to leave your mid-tier toons to accumulate rested XP and play on the weekends during the day where there is certainly enough activity to get through.

Wow! Really? You've just told him that a legit leveling method is to not play the game. RIP

Leveling is terrible both EU and NA times, the more you ignore it, the fewer people will level. Thus you get stuck in a viscous circle of no one doing T2/3. This worsens the gameplay experience for both new and existing players.

You've got to be willing to make sacrifices that might go against developer philosophy and your overall idea of how the game should be played, to ensure the game remains fun. Consider that what you want to achieve with T2/3 may not be possible.

If people knew that they could get through T2/3 in a few evenings of light orvr action then so many more people would do it. Yes player turnover through the tiers would be much faster, but more people would be willing to come back and do it again and again.

[Afterlife92]

Find a decent guild try to get powerlvld, farm ruin set, rr shouldn't be an issue to rr40. T2/T3 is waste of time now since you don't really need that inf t3 emp/chaos belt anymore with the conq set released and good t4 inf belts. NA time is even worse then EU.

[Aurandilaz]

Farm mobs until your head explodes and you lose motivation to play, or try find a guild where maybe some high level guy will allow you leech exp when they grind champs.
Stay always queued for scenarios, they can give a lot of exp.
Do some questing, easy exp. If possible, find other people who want go grind exp in the mid tier, do Public Quests with many mobs to kill.
Try to find people with whom to do Ruin gear rewarding PQs in T4 when you hit r28.

Basically you just need to kill enough things to get between ranks 16 and 28, which is earliest level to get contribution in some T4 PQs.

Outside of a "primetime" during EU evening hours, the midtier rvr is pretty dead. Occasionally on weekends you might get bigger actions, but I guess it is pretty terrible for NA players in every tier.

Some of the quests can be occasionally entertaining. Also as said, if you get "rested" you will earn exp faster. It helps for example if you play one char that day, play second next day, and 3rd the day after, by that time your first char should be fully rested meaning you get extra XP rewards.
Also helps if you have characters on both sides in the midtiers; I know xrealming sucks and is the worst thing ever, but when there are only 10 people online in midtier, and you happen to be alone on the losing side, you should honestly just log to the winning side so you can get at least something out of the situation. It's nothing personal, it's nothing "realm pride" related, it's just the path that allows you to reach T4 fastest.

[flatfoot1987]

Tbh it doesn't look like there's a lot of consistent action in midtier even on active EU times. My guess is that people who have T4 toons hop on them instead because the most action is there.

To the OP: simple grinding is the only effective way to make it through and it seems that most people suggest it.

But you can add some purpose to that. My leveling plan was to hit rank 22 (by killing BO guards but that's not happening anymore so you gotta grind something else to that point) and farm Mayhem set - I know it's not the most entertaining way to spend your time but doing it provides some half decent gear with no rr requirement and xp isn't bad either.

You probably gonna have your mayhem set around rank 24-25. From there you can do multiple skaven quests which give a ton of xp and also do epic weapon/helm quests which also give nice xp (3 of em total). That will probably get you to 28-29 range.

At that point you can go to T4 zones and start working towards your Ruin set either with a group or by soloing easy PQs - that depends on your class.

All things considered t2-3 experience is in a bad shape and it's not only about NA times. If you have limited playtime than the only way to make guaranteed progress is to grind mobs and do quests.

Orvr in mid tiers isn't consistent and it's not going to be as long as it doesn't yield anything for future T4 performance. Pretty sure most people would just pass through it if they had the choice. But the devs have a different point of view. Wargrimnir mentioned that they have some plans for T2-3 a few days ago.

This thread probably gonna get a lock once we start discussing this.

[Danielle]

Actually I found leveling through RvR to be extremely fast, just find a buddy to duo/trio with or even a bunch of friends or a full group. My usual benchmark was that I want to have the RvR/scenario gear ready before I hit that level/RR required to use it. Some months ago when I was duo roaming in RvR T2-T3 with Witch Elf/Shaman duo with a friend this was already impossible. XP and RR gain under AAO was so massive I couldn't get medals fast enough to get the gear. Yes, sometimes it's hard to get kills when the enemy outnumbers your realm, but you are getting massively more rewards, and arguably more fun than they are getting from their RvE. Also, it's good practice for when you are roaming in a smaller group than most the enemies are in t4 later on. My big advantage was that I had an AM and my friend had a WH on Order so we could crossrealm if our realm was steamrolling. That being said late night NA I don't know how much activity there even is in t2-t3, is there anything at all or is it completely dead?

[Krima]

Actually I found leveling through RvR to be extremely fast, just find a buddy to duo/trio with or even a bunch of friends or a full group. My usual benchmark was that I want to have the RvR/scenario gear ready before I hit that level/RR required to use it. Some months ago when I was duo roaming in RvR T2-T3 with Witch Elf/Shaman duo with a friend this was already impossible. XP and RR gain under AAO was so massive I couldn't get medals fast enough to get the gear. Yes, sometimes it's hard to get kills when the enemy outnumbers your realm, but you are getting massively more rewards, and arguably more fun than they are getting from their RvE. Also, it's good practice for when you are roaming in a smaller group than most the enemies are in t4 later on. My big advantage was that I had an AM and my friend had a WH on Order so we could crossrealm if our realm was steamrolling. That being said late night NA I don't know how much activity there even is in t2-t3, is there anything at all or is it completely dead?

Completely dead...yes. Me and my brother other day were like..-"Hey lets roll a choppa and a magus for the fun"..we had a blast in t1!! and after that we just got back to our 40s because there was nothing to do.
My guild have lost some newcomers menbers just because we dont have the time to P lvl anyone and we dont do P lvl .. In my opinion: Would be really good for the growth of the game to have a camp in IC for ex full of mobs that gives extra XP...like a farm spot..people can get to 40 in 1 day for example. This game is alll about T1 and T4...

Another huge problem thats happening is..as soon a player reach lvl 32 they que up for scenarios T4..they are completly useless 0 dmg, 0 heals. crap gear..Ive been in scenarios like BFB full of orders high RR players, and destro with 7 players lvl 32-35 jumping around. A fast lvl spot should solve that problem...Once a player reach 40 he can go get some green gear from vendor, place some talismans on it and start the grind to ANIH/MERC ..At least he is not useless in sce anymore..and can survive a little bit more.

Again! IMO,im talking NA time wise : whats happening right now is

lvls 1-15: Lots of fun !!
lvls 15-32: Completely dead...players beging for power lvling..many quit here. P lvl its a must
lvls 32-40: Que up for scenarios on white gear and wait to be carried.