For newbies ------- Where to level !?!?!
Consider this "The explorer and outsider's guide to SoD":
This might look like a lot to read, but if you are fairly new to Shards of Dalaya, I think spending 5 minutes reading this, will give you a huge pay off. I now have around 20 characters, and pretty soon I'll have my sixth level 65 (and a 50 and a bunch of mid level ones), and I learned a few things along the way - which I thought I would share. If you only like grouping this guide is no good to you. Also if you want to go the absolute fastest way possible, then this is maybe not the best. Some people can make level 65 in a week if they have high level friends to help, but this guide is just for the average player who wants to enjoy the game the way it's meant to be played, and make good fast progress.
I notice in Dalaya's Beginners, one of the most common questions is, "Where's good to hunt at my level?!" Dalaya's Beginners is the place for those kind of questions, so that's cool. But I can't help but wonder why more people don't try to think outside the box a bit. Getting a good group is the best way to make XP, and once I reach about level 40+, I usually start considering joining a group or putting one together. However from 1-40, I find that I can level up quicker by myself (with my duo) than in groups. The problem with groups is that often you have to travel to wherever they are, you have to wait for other people to show up, it is disrupted by people leaving, and most of the time, they aren't very good. They get good later in the game once people have learned how to play well, but if you are playing in a low level group, often they are always on the verge of completely wiping out. All this catastrophe is not good for making smooth progress. If you are happy to duo, then I find playing alone is the best way to get through the levels. I have three main points to help:
1) Steer clear of the popular areas. Everyone who asks "where is the best place" is missing the point, and all of the "level guides" you will find, are kind of the same. There are some places that are really good, but because of this, they are often over crowded and chaotic. With trains all over the place and half the mobs dead when you arrive, they are no longer good! One of the best things about Shards of Dalaya is that the world is huge and full of content, and it's sad that most of this is ignored by most people. The newbie zones are the best place for the newbie levels. I don't like Greater Faydark very much, but Erudin, Newport, Oggok and Grobb are all great. Get out in to the newbie area and start killing and learn your class. There are usually quests from the Guards and a few NPC's like the old adventurers that will really help you early on. Collect everything you find, and work your way through to around level 6 or so.
2) You can now think about moving on. But instead of asking people where is good to hunt, load up Shards of Dalaya Wiki, and find the Zone Connection Map. Not only does this map show you how to get everywhere in the game, but it also tells you where is good to hunt at your level! It is colour coded so for example, if you are less than level 20, then anywhere with green on it, is good for you. As you can see there are over 20 zones like this... which is why I find it a bit silly when people ask where to go, and get the same 2 or 3 answers back. Depending on your time zone, those 2 or 3 places will almost certainly be busy, the other 18 or so zones are empty, trust me. One of my favourites is Greenmist Jungle. No matter where my characters start, I often head there at around level 5 or so. I like the atmosphere and how calm it is, but also, with most of these zones, there are some very easy locations to get good fast XP. In Greenmist for example, follow the path from the Oggok zone line, and after the huts, start exploring the nearby area until you find some Lizard tents. Depending on how strong your duo is, you might want to go and kill the random wandering mobs until you get another level or two. There is another camp like this in Centaur Hills. If you are leaving Surefall, hug the left wall and soon you'll find some stones with lots of skeletons all over the place. This is just two examples, but there are camps like this in almost every zone. The good thing about these camps is that they have very fast spawns and they are easy, static camps. Carefully split the camps by either rooting a mob or feign death pulling or do whatever your characters can do. If you can manage to kill all the mobs without dying, you are set for the next hour or two. You can just sit in the middle of the camp, and heal up, and as the mobs respawn, you just jump them and kill them quickly. You now don't need to move or do anything. Just hang around and relax, alt tab and read the web, and tab back every few minutes and kill the creatures as they respawn. This easy steady stream of predictable exp, can get you through the next 3 or 4 levels easily and quickly. Usually within an hour or so, I am nearing about level 9 and it's usually time to buy some new spells and learn a few skills from my trainer. I then head back to these same zones and find another camp. In Greenmist again, on the far zone wall there are some camps of gorillas. Again, these spawn very fast and if you can kill all of the camps, you can then just hang around for the next few hours killing them over and over, and before you know it you will be in your teens. Groups may get faster XP in short bursts, but when you consider all the screwing around and dying and trains to zone, I am sure you will level faster in the long run.
3) From your teens and onwards, follow the same principle. Look at the Zone Connection Map and start heading to zones that have some blue in their box as well as green. Explore the zone and get to know it, and find another good camp. This game wasn't made by Verant or Sony, it was by clever people who love this kind of game, and most of these camps are designed specifically to be exploited like this. The hard part is taking control of the camp with a full spawn of mobs there, but if you can manage to do it eventually, you are in for smooth sailing for the next few hours until you out level the camp. You can then find another camp in the same zone, or check the map and find another place to hunt. You can still try some of the common areas (I love the Warrens!) but if you get there and it's chaotic, then just go somewhere else. Static camps are quite important because resting and meditating only happens when you are sat down. So people who chase after wandering mobs are not being efficient. Time spent running around looking for something to kill, is time NOT spent sat down meditating back to full so you can kill a bunch of stuff. Even after playing this game for several years, I still find cool places like this to hunt which NOBODY else goes to! For example the other night, I have some new characters around level 10, and again in Greenmist Jungle, if you head directly south and cross the bridge, you get to an area in front of the Temple of Yaralith. There are a few pyramids each with several creatures on. My characters are twinked so this was easier for me than it might be for others, but these mobs were all blue and white to me, and half of them were spell casters with very few HP. I managed to kill them all, and again, I can now sit in one place and have mobs regularly respawning at my feet so I can kill them one by one, regularly feeding me XP. I like to do more exciting stuff too of course... but this easy, steady stream of XP is not to be underestimated. It gives me time to tweak my UI and hotkeys, search the wiki to find good gear for my characters, and generally chill out while the XP comes to me. If you are waiting around too long between spawns, then capture another pyramid as well, and then you can have two sets of mobs respawning.
This same principle can get you all the way to 65. Even in the high levels when everyone is swarming around the same two or three popular XP spots, you will still be able to find several other good places that are empty. If you follow this guide, I am sure you will level faster because there is less running around. The time you spend finding somewhere good to hunt and then breaking the camp, is far less than the time most people spend/waste trying to find groups, running from zone to zone looking for something to do, running around chasing random mobs, running from trains, dying and running back to their body, working off debt etc... You will become better at playing your characters because splitting a camp is challenging, and then holding a camp teaches you how to be efficient. And more importantly, you will get to see more of the world. I know every corner of every zone well, so whenever I am levelling up a new character, no matter what level I am, I know at least several good places I can go to hunt. Sometimes I like to group with people, and even the utter chaos of newbie groups can be fun from time to time
But when I just want to make some progress, I find this to be the best way to do that. Hope this helps.
Consider this "The explorer and outsider's guide to SoD":
This might look like a lot to read, but if you are fairly new to Shards of Dalaya, I think spending 5 minutes reading this, will give you a huge pay off. I now have around 20 characters, and pretty soon I'll have my sixth level 65 (and a 50 and a bunch of mid level ones), and I learned a few things along the way - which I thought I would share. If you only like grouping this guide is no good to you. Also if you want to go the absolute fastest way possible, then this is maybe not the best. Some people can make level 65 in a week if they have high level friends to help, but this guide is just for the average player who wants to enjoy the game the way it's meant to be played, and make good fast progress.
I notice in Dalaya's Beginners, one of the most common questions is, "Where's good to hunt at my level?!" Dalaya's Beginners is the place for those kind of questions, so that's cool. But I can't help but wonder why more people don't try to think outside the box a bit. Getting a good group is the best way to make XP, and once I reach about level 40+, I usually start considering joining a group or putting one together. However from 1-40, I find that I can level up quicker by myself (with my duo) than in groups. The problem with groups is that often you have to travel to wherever they are, you have to wait for other people to show up, it is disrupted by people leaving, and most of the time, they aren't very good. They get good later in the game once people have learned how to play well, but if you are playing in a low level group, often they are always on the verge of completely wiping out. All this catastrophe is not good for making smooth progress. If you are happy to duo, then I find playing alone is the best way to get through the levels. I have three main points to help:
1) Steer clear of the popular areas. Everyone who asks "where is the best place" is missing the point, and all of the "level guides" you will find, are kind of the same. There are some places that are really good, but because of this, they are often over crowded and chaotic. With trains all over the place and half the mobs dead when you arrive, they are no longer good! One of the best things about Shards of Dalaya is that the world is huge and full of content, and it's sad that most of this is ignored by most people. The newbie zones are the best place for the newbie levels. I don't like Greater Faydark very much, but Erudin, Newport, Oggok and Grobb are all great. Get out in to the newbie area and start killing and learn your class. There are usually quests from the Guards and a few NPC's like the old adventurers that will really help you early on. Collect everything you find, and work your way through to around level 6 or so.
2) You can now think about moving on. But instead of asking people where is good to hunt, load up Shards of Dalaya Wiki, and find the Zone Connection Map. Not only does this map show you how to get everywhere in the game, but it also tells you where is good to hunt at your level! It is colour coded so for example, if you are less than level 20, then anywhere with green on it, is good for you. As you can see there are over 20 zones like this... which is why I find it a bit silly when people ask where to go, and get the same 2 or 3 answers back. Depending on your time zone, those 2 or 3 places will almost certainly be busy, the other 18 or so zones are empty, trust me. One of my favourites is Greenmist Jungle. No matter where my characters start, I often head there at around level 5 or so. I like the atmosphere and how calm it is, but also, with most of these zones, there are some very easy locations to get good fast XP. In Greenmist for example, follow the path from the Oggok zone line, and after the huts, start exploring the nearby area until you find some Lizard tents. Depending on how strong your duo is, you might want to go and kill the random wandering mobs until you get another level or two. There is another camp like this in Centaur Hills. If you are leaving Surefall, hug the left wall and soon you'll find some stones with lots of skeletons all over the place. This is just two examples, but there are camps like this in almost every zone. The good thing about these camps is that they have very fast spawns and they are easy, static camps. Carefully split the camps by either rooting a mob or feign death pulling or do whatever your characters can do. If you can manage to kill all the mobs without dying, you are set for the next hour or two. You can just sit in the middle of the camp, and heal up, and as the mobs respawn, you just jump them and kill them quickly. You now don't need to move or do anything. Just hang around and relax, alt tab and read the web, and tab back every few minutes and kill the creatures as they respawn. This easy steady stream of predictable exp, can get you through the next 3 or 4 levels easily and quickly. Usually within an hour or so, I am nearing about level 9 and it's usually time to buy some new spells and learn a few skills from my trainer. I then head back to these same zones and find another camp. In Greenmist again, on the far zone wall there are some camps of gorillas. Again, these spawn very fast and if you can kill all of the camps, you can then just hang around for the next few hours killing them over and over, and before you know it you will be in your teens. Groups may get faster XP in short bursts, but when you consider all the screwing around and dying and trains to zone, I am sure you will level faster in the long run.
3) From your teens and onwards, follow the same principle. Look at the Zone Connection Map and start heading to zones that have some blue in their box as well as green. Explore the zone and get to know it, and find another good camp. This game wasn't made by Verant or Sony, it was by clever people who love this kind of game, and most of these camps are designed specifically to be exploited like this. The hard part is taking control of the camp with a full spawn of mobs there, but if you can manage to do it eventually, you are in for smooth sailing for the next few hours until you out level the camp. You can then find another camp in the same zone, or check the map and find another place to hunt. You can still try some of the common areas (I love the Warrens!) but if you get there and it's chaotic, then just go somewhere else. Static camps are quite important because resting and meditating only happens when you are sat down. So people who chase after wandering mobs are not being efficient. Time spent running around looking for something to kill, is time NOT spent sat down meditating back to full so you can kill a bunch of stuff. Even after playing this game for several years, I still find cool places like this to hunt which NOBODY else goes to! For example the other night, I have some new characters around level 10, and again in Greenmist Jungle, if you head directly south and cross the bridge, you get to an area in front of the Temple of Yaralith. There are a few pyramids each with several creatures on. My characters are twinked so this was easier for me than it might be for others, but these mobs were all blue and white to me, and half of them were spell casters with very few HP. I managed to kill them all, and again, I can now sit in one place and have mobs regularly respawning at my feet so I can kill them one by one, regularly feeding me XP. I like to do more exciting stuff too of course... but this easy, steady stream of XP is not to be underestimated. It gives me time to tweak my UI and hotkeys, search the wiki to find good gear for my characters, and generally chill out while the XP comes to me. If you are waiting around too long between spawns, then capture another pyramid as well, and then you can have two sets of mobs respawning.
This same principle can get you all the way to 65. Even in the high levels when everyone is swarming around the same two or three popular XP spots, you will still be able to find several other good places that are empty. If you follow this guide, I am sure you will level faster because there is less running around. The time you spend finding somewhere good to hunt and then breaking the camp, is far less than the time most people spend/waste trying to find groups, running from zone to zone looking for something to do, running around chasing random mobs, running from trains, dying and running back to their body, working off debt etc... You will become better at playing your characters because splitting a camp is challenging, and then holding a camp teaches you how to be efficient. And more importantly, you will get to see more of the world. I know every corner of every zone well, so whenever I am levelling up a new character, no matter what level I am, I know at least several good places I can go to hunt. Sometimes I like to group with people, and even the utter chaos of newbie groups can be fun from time to time
But when I just want to make some progress, I find this to be the best way to do that. Hope this helps.
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