snakemeister
Shared on Fri, 06/01/2007 - 04:59A short one this time. As I was drifting off to sleep last night, after a Shadow Labyrinth run which ended with my Hallowed Pauldrons dropping, for some reason I found myself thinking about leveling up a new character. I wasn't actually considering starting a new 'toon' you understand, it was simply the mechanics of the process that I was mulling over. Something you see a lot is discussion regarding which is best for leveling - grinding or questing. There are arguments for and against each view, but I'm pretty confident the answer is a healthy mix of the two.
Grinding mobs gives you a steady, continual supply of XP that you can track, quantify and use to estimate your time to level. If you've done some research, grinding on the right mobs can get you some decent loot, although 1 Ragged Boar Tail might only sell for pennies, if you've save up a couple hundred of them, the pennies add up pretty damn quick. Unfortunately, for most people it's almost as exciting as watching paint dry.
Questing keep you moving round, although in the same general area, you're exploring sub-zones; you're likely to end up killing shedloads of monsters for the de rigeur 'Kill 20 of X monster' quests, but at least while you're doing this, you've got short-term goals that you can focus on as opposed to simply whittling away another small percentage of your XP bar if you were grinding. Unfortunately your XP gain tends to be harder to predict and track, jumping up in great leaps as you complete quests and get XP rewards from them, and you rarely (if ever) know exactly how much XP a particlar quest will give you.
Still, as I say, as mix of the two is preferable in my eyes. You should be getting the benefits of the two, while minimising the downsides. Personally, I'll concentrate on the quests in an area first of all, and I'll simply slip a bit of grinding in wherever I feel it suits. For example, if I'm about to level up, I'll probably just keep killing whatever mob is handy at the time to push myself over the edge, or if I want to level up a profession of secondary skill, and I know there are mobs in the area that drop materials I need, I'll hunt them down and spend some time grinding on them.
Most of the above is common sense, and will no doubt be of no use to a lot of people, but it popped into my head and wouldn't go away.
Grinding mobs gives you a steady, continual supply of XP that you can track, quantify and use to estimate your time to level. If you've done some research, grinding on the right mobs can get you some decent loot, although 1 Ragged Boar Tail might only sell for pennies, if you've save up a couple hundred of them, the pennies add up pretty damn quick. Unfortunately, for most people it's almost as exciting as watching paint dry.
Questing keep you moving round, although in the same general area, you're exploring sub-zones; you're likely to end up killing shedloads of monsters for the de rigeur 'Kill 20 of X monster' quests, but at least while you're doing this, you've got short-term goals that you can focus on as opposed to simply whittling away another small percentage of your XP bar if you were grinding. Unfortunately your XP gain tends to be harder to predict and track, jumping up in great leaps as you complete quests and get XP rewards from them, and you rarely (if ever) know exactly how much XP a particlar quest will give you.
Still, as I say, as mix of the two is preferable in my eyes. You should be getting the benefits of the two, while minimising the downsides. Personally, I'll concentrate on the quests in an area first of all, and I'll simply slip a bit of grinding in wherever I feel it suits. For example, if I'm about to level up, I'll probably just keep killing whatever mob is handy at the time to push myself over the edge, or if I want to level up a profession of secondary skill, and I know there are mobs in the area that drop materials I need, I'll hunt them down and spend some time grinding on them.
Most of the above is common sense, and will no doubt be of no use to a lot of people, but it popped into my head and wouldn't go away.
- snakemeister's blog
- Log in or register to post comments
Comments