Hi ! I'm a returning player and have played RO for thousands of hours in the past decades. However because I'm extremely casual, I don't have much ideas what's going on with this server. And I'm not planning on spending IRL money on RO for now. Because Knight has always been a very good choice for farming (access to Bowling Bash, Pierce, high regen from pots, pecopeco, etc) I thought I would make that as my first character. I went to what seems to be the usual Spores then Bigfoot then Orc village, and I'm getting close to job level 50 as a Swordy. However my stuff for now is : a +6 bastar'd sword from npc. And the novice adventurer suit given at the beginning. And that's all. I got lucky and dropped an orc lady card which might help for later. And I also farmed a bit of Stem by leveling an archer. My questions are (not in order of priority) : -1- How to make zeny "fast" from trash loot while leveling without using too expensive stuff / pots ? For instance, if there are some alternate leveling maps that could help me, I'd be glad to know ! Tried to wander to elder willow and such already but wasn't satisfying. Stems being used by alche/bio if I recall correctly, they used to have some value. But here ? I don't know which loots are valuable or not on this server. -2- Is the fact base level is very slow to level up in comparison to job level linked to the fact it's RO "prime" with alternate experience tables ? I played mostly pre-renewal, and after that it wasn't really on official servers. And I would love if this server lasted long and if I could finally find a place. However I am not used to having my base level so low in comparison to job level. Only time I had such a situation was after long hours at Leaf cats. -3- Would you go for Knight or Hunter first to farm for money for the first characters ? That means being able to buy very basic stuff like max safe upgrade NPC lv3 weapons, potions, etc. It's not much money but when you start with nothing it means a lot. Also : any fun spots to xp safely that have valuable trash loot ? -4- As a Knight I am going the old Str / Dex / Vit. Is it still good ? Since, if I'm not mistaken, in renewal there aren't the stats boosts when you reach a multiple of 10 in a stat, are there values that I should have as goals ? For now I pay attention to Dex in priority and then Str and then Vit (something like 30-40 str / 30 - 40 dex / 20 - 30 vit as I'm around level 45). I usually like to later put 10-15 points in Int for the SP recovery boost when using items, and I have no idea how much hybrid with agility could be good here ? Any advice and things to do or not to do ? And I think that's all for now, Wishing that this server lives longer than the last ones.... And hoping to have some fun ! Thanks for reading and thanks if you feel like answering !
1. This is regarding your main problem with a Knight: the stat spread and the equipment focus. Without any decent equipment you're bound to lose money in one way or another once you hit a certain level threshold if you do not party. This is especially true with a sword-based Knight, as there is no access to any ranged attacks (spear has Spear Boomerang) aside of Charge Attack 2. This is actually a boon in disguise. The fact is that your base level determines the experience you gain from enemies (level range = 40% EXP up to 140% EXP), so being at a low base level guarantees you early access (around level 80) to all of your skills (job 50) so you can level more efficiently. I had to learn this the hard way when grinding up my Priest till I mastered Magnus Exorcismus. 3. If I had to make a choice here I would definitively go for Hunter, because Hunter has certain advantages Knight does not, which are attack range, access to auxiliary attack systems (traps,falcon), easy stat spread (mostly between DEX,AGI and LUK, while Knight also needs STR and some VIT) and elemental exploitation without the requirement of a crafted/endowed weapon. The main disadvantage is that you cannot kill mobs as well as Knights can when they have a decent amount of equipment(Arrow Shower is still horrible with the mob limit and the random knockback, traps consume items that need to be carried around on top of arrows, pots,flywings,etc. on a char without STR = low max weight limit and Blitzbeats AoE is tiny). On the other hand, if you have access to a certain level of equipment, other classes become open for farming as well (Wiz,Sage,Crusader, heck even my ME Priest can farm at a decent level already without the equipment I would normally need). Some of these problems can be mitigated by making a Merchant, which requires spending a few hours to level until around lvl 40 where you have maxed Overcharge and maxed Discount so you spend less on pots and earn more from trash loots. 4. depends, VIT only really shines when you have no equipment (cause you take less damage and heal more HP via pots, though your increased HP recovery skill will probably boost way more initially) as a non-rebirth class,even with a Knight. My Priest does so far not have a problem with the VIT being low(around 30), although I'm sitting there with a basic Buckler from the shop, no cards and no upgrades on my armor as well (I got myself a cheap Puente Robe with a farmed Pupa card,though, so my HP is at least above 4k), and so far I must say there were no enemies that hurt that much,even without any extra reduction/evasion. At some point you will probably either want to farm a Raydric card or earn enough money to buy one, and maybe some shield with a slot as well if you're interested in going the spear path rather than the sword one. Once you got access to that, VIT becomes far better, because with the significant damage decrease you actually can feel the recovery boost and the extra damage reduction from soft defense. About DEX and STR, it's actually the main problem of a Knight, having too less DEX means your hit will **** and on top of that your damage will vary too much (the higher the attack of the weapon, the bigger the range of damage dealt without enough DEX to back that up, meaning dealing inconsistent damage; even with a base DEX of about 50 and a total DEX about 70, my Stunner still felt as if the spread was quite big while I was still using it to level on my Acolyte). In my opinion, focusing on DEX is a good way to mitigate the downsides of using a stronger weapon, even more so when soloing/farming, but at the same time you will only gain an averaged damage boost by reducing the overall damage range, so when mixing in % damage boost cards, you will want some STR as well. Finding the right balance between the two stats will mainly depend on whether you use weapon + shield or a two handed weapon. At this point you should also consider which weapon you will choose later of for Lord Knight/Rune Knight so you do not lose money when switching between fighting styles after Rebirth. LUK might actually be worth some points as well if you're keen on using THQ and a two handed sword as well for some extra attack, dodge chance and crit chance as well as status resistance (that curse from wraith/evil druid in GH is nasty). AGI is a wild card here but probably still worthy some points if the rule that it reduces animation delay until a certain threshold also applies to this server. So far I don't have any way to check this fact,though.
Thanks a lot. I have meanwhile been explained how Bowling Bash works on this server and how I should instead go Spear. So I think i'll be going Brandish Spear, and I'm currently leveling a merchant for selling loots / buying pots. I also have learned that *lots* of other things have changed on this server, including how Dancer / Bard deal way more damages with Melody strike and slinging arrow. I'll continue my knight and try to get some stuff by farming with an archer character. I'm still a bit lost but I'll try to figure things eventually. Thanks again for your message and your help.
Killing Verit. Each Immortal Heart worth around 2000 zeny. His card worth 3m (3kk). I was getting 150 hearts per hour using a thief+steal and having a full support priest slaving me.
I would *always* do a max agi (99)/medium str (72)/dex (63)-rogue as first char, while having nothing as gear. 25% more normal (directly sellable) loot guaranteed plus the chance to steal 0,01% drops (like clips from alarm later on). Due to high flee, even without mocking, not much pots needed. 2nd char is *asap* a oc/dc/vending 10-merch ON A DIFFERENT ACCOUNT. = 24% more money from selling or saving 25% from buying pots/meat/fresh fish. Set him up vending, while leveling or leeching. 3rd char: A support priest! This will so much pay out for all other characters (CREATE HIM/HER ON A DIFFERENT ACCOUNT TOO!) First millions of zeny are invested in elemental damascus for the rogue. Order: fire (munaks/bongun/ss/sa/verit/mummy...+27), wind (sohees/byalan dungeon!), ice (elder willow/nine tails/minourus). You can use the weapons for many 1st classes, that might follow. Swordman and merchants for example. And for 2nd classes, while getting the job levels for their specialization (two-hand sword/spear/katar). Some things never change and one is: Byalan/Bibalan! This dungeon always was and still is a very good cash cow, because nearly all card drops are worth some millions, especially from level 4 (marc/swordfish/phen), but even vadon and kukre sell. Oh...nostalgia!