Thalone
10-26-2014, 09:01 PM
Executive summary: Without repeating any quest over heroic levels 1-20, by the time I was done base level 17 quests, I was short only 11k XP from taking level 20. I am not aggressive with my wilderness explorers/kills; if I had been, I likely would not have been short thanks to that XP. Several of my Monster Manual entries were also close to the next XP reward.
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A number of people on the forums have mentioned that they do one-and-done lives, and I thought it would be interesting as an exercise to see how that works out in detail. I've done five lives in a row now without repeating any single quest. I can conclusively say, especially with recent PRR/trap bonus XP changes, you can hit level 20 without repeating quests (or repeating very little if there are certain quests that you hate or can't manage), without XP pots, without XP weekends. I did have a Greater Heroic XP tome, 4% ship buff bonus, perma-Voice, and an elite streak throughout.
Skipped quests:
Twilight Forge/Titan. I could theoretically dualbox this if I got Monk on my second account (Abundant Step to cheese the blue levers), since it's rare to see this run at all, much less at level. But it's in an XP-rich area and not worth the effort.
Reaver's Fate. Posted a group at-level; no one was interested. Tried soloing it, but I'm not good enough to do it on a melee versus all the air elementals. Let it drop as not questing = not getting XP.
Litany of the Dead. Given the effort needed to complete a sigil, running this is on a one-and-done life isn't particularly logical. Consequently, Abbot was also skipped.
Stealer of Souls. Since I didn't do explorers, I didn't have the required gems.
Shroud. Didn't want to sit forever to fill an at-level group.
Skipping VoN 5-6 is also a possibility, depending on if enough people are interested at level.
My levelling "plan" for one-and-done is to do quests for BB as much as possible, subject to minimising the running around between zones, and the amount of banked XP space I have available. Doing a heroic life, I'll typically have trap skills, which is even better since this update due to the increase to 30% bonus.
Level 1 I typically "skip" by using saved Daily Dice rolls. This may or may not work out for other people, depending on how quickly they TR, but 8000 XP is a pittance in terms of the amount needed to cap, and won't throw the subsequent numbers off too much. My personal experience is that if you take about three weeks to go from 1-20, the Daily Dice XP earned should get you pretty close to level 2.
During levels 2-4, I just run through base level 2 quests solo--I don't like managing an LFM for two-minute quests. This will typically put me somewhere between level 4 and 5.
Character is level 4. After base level 2 quests, I start PUGging. All base level 3 quests, including all of Waterworks, STK, Catacombs, and Tangleroot.
Character is approximately level 6. Do base level 4 quests, including all four Depths quests.
Character is level 7 or close. XP extravaganza... Do base level 5 quests, including Bloody Crypt after flagging, the level 5-6 House K freebies, and all of Three-Barrel Cove. There are four or five quests in 3BC worth about 14k XP. There is so much XP at this level, I've started banking without farming, while having started out behind the curve. If memory serves, banking continues until I take level 15.
Character is level 8. Do base level 6 quests, including all of lower Sorrowdusk. Ignore the Delera's chain for now, but do Valak's Mausoleum. Chronoscope is surprisingly easy since the PRR changes, if you can rotate healing sources (pot/wand).
Character is level 9. Do base level 7 quests, including Delera 1-4.
Character is level 10. Do base level 8 quests (character level 10), including all of upper Sorrowdusk, VoN 1-4, Necro 2 including Shadow Crypt.
Character is level 11. Do base level 9 quests. Fit in a complete run of Threnal at this point (partial BB), because if it had been done earlier, the banking ceiling would have been hit. [This was my first time in Threnal since the Coyle nerf; and it's not quite an AFK-fest... I went AFK for 15 minutes, and when I came back, the room was full of spawns--instant red alert when I started moving. Still, worth 6k now, as opposed to 3k before the update.]
Character is level 12. Do base level 10 quests (skip the level 10 Sands tomb--too much running for the BB XP). VoN 5-6 if I can find a group for it.
Character is level 13. Do base level 11 quests, including all five Necro 3 parts.
Character is level 14. Do base level 12 quests, including DQ1 and DQ2. I ended up duoing these, and they were surprisingly easy since the PRR changes if you know how to time your blocking/scroll healing. With heavy armour and a heavy shield, Lailat was basically doing zero base damage on blocks; only her alignment damage was getting through. Guard damage also helps, e.g., Night Hag's Heartstone. This was also where it felt like the banked XP started falling away from the ceiling.
Character is level 15. Do base level 13 quests, including the three max level 15 Cannith challenges.
Character is level 16. Finish off Gianthold saga and the Necro 4 flags.
Character is level 17 or slightly behind. Do base level 15 quests.
At this point my character is not quite 18. Vale, Spinner chain, Wheloon. I prefer doing Wheloon first as I like having Cannith Boots of Propulsion to cheese Devils/Rainbow/Lords of Dust traps.
Character is level 19. Do base level 17 quests. This should be very close to cap.
This netted me over 3500 favour at level 20.
----
A number of people on the forums have mentioned that they do one-and-done lives, and I thought it would be interesting as an exercise to see how that works out in detail. I've done five lives in a row now without repeating any single quest. I can conclusively say, especially with recent PRR/trap bonus XP changes, you can hit level 20 without repeating quests (or repeating very little if there are certain quests that you hate or can't manage), without XP pots, without XP weekends. I did have a Greater Heroic XP tome, 4% ship buff bonus, perma-Voice, and an elite streak throughout.
Skipped quests:
Twilight Forge/Titan. I could theoretically dualbox this if I got Monk on my second account (Abundant Step to cheese the blue levers), since it's rare to see this run at all, much less at level. But it's in an XP-rich area and not worth the effort.
Reaver's Fate. Posted a group at-level; no one was interested. Tried soloing it, but I'm not good enough to do it on a melee versus all the air elementals. Let it drop as not questing = not getting XP.
Litany of the Dead. Given the effort needed to complete a sigil, running this is on a one-and-done life isn't particularly logical. Consequently, Abbot was also skipped.
Stealer of Souls. Since I didn't do explorers, I didn't have the required gems.
Shroud. Didn't want to sit forever to fill an at-level group.
Skipping VoN 5-6 is also a possibility, depending on if enough people are interested at level.
My levelling "plan" for one-and-done is to do quests for BB as much as possible, subject to minimising the running around between zones, and the amount of banked XP space I have available. Doing a heroic life, I'll typically have trap skills, which is even better since this update due to the increase to 30% bonus.
Level 1 I typically "skip" by using saved Daily Dice rolls. This may or may not work out for other people, depending on how quickly they TR, but 8000 XP is a pittance in terms of the amount needed to cap, and won't throw the subsequent numbers off too much. My personal experience is that if you take about three weeks to go from 1-20, the Daily Dice XP earned should get you pretty close to level 2.
During levels 2-4, I just run through base level 2 quests solo--I don't like managing an LFM for two-minute quests. This will typically put me somewhere between level 4 and 5.
Character is level 4. After base level 2 quests, I start PUGging. All base level 3 quests, including all of Waterworks, STK, Catacombs, and Tangleroot.
Character is approximately level 6. Do base level 4 quests, including all four Depths quests.
Character is level 7 or close. XP extravaganza... Do base level 5 quests, including Bloody Crypt after flagging, the level 5-6 House K freebies, and all of Three-Barrel Cove. There are four or five quests in 3BC worth about 14k XP. There is so much XP at this level, I've started banking without farming, while having started out behind the curve. If memory serves, banking continues until I take level 15.
Character is level 8. Do base level 6 quests, including all of lower Sorrowdusk. Ignore the Delera's chain for now, but do Valak's Mausoleum. Chronoscope is surprisingly easy since the PRR changes, if you can rotate healing sources (pot/wand).
Character is level 9. Do base level 7 quests, including Delera 1-4.
Character is level 10. Do base level 8 quests (character level 10), including all of upper Sorrowdusk, VoN 1-4, Necro 2 including Shadow Crypt.
Character is level 11. Do base level 9 quests. Fit in a complete run of Threnal at this point (partial BB), because if it had been done earlier, the banking ceiling would have been hit. [This was my first time in Threnal since the Coyle nerf; and it's not quite an AFK-fest... I went AFK for 15 minutes, and when I came back, the room was full of spawns--instant red alert when I started moving. Still, worth 6k now, as opposed to 3k before the update.]
Character is level 12. Do base level 10 quests (skip the level 10 Sands tomb--too much running for the BB XP). VoN 5-6 if I can find a group for it.
Character is level 13. Do base level 11 quests, including all five Necro 3 parts.
Character is level 14. Do base level 12 quests, including DQ1 and DQ2. I ended up duoing these, and they were surprisingly easy since the PRR changes if you know how to time your blocking/scroll healing. With heavy armour and a heavy shield, Lailat was basically doing zero base damage on blocks; only her alignment damage was getting through. Guard damage also helps, e.g., Night Hag's Heartstone. This was also where it felt like the banked XP started falling away from the ceiling.
Character is level 15. Do base level 13 quests, including the three max level 15 Cannith challenges.
Character is level 16. Finish off Gianthold saga and the Necro 4 flags.
Character is level 17 or slightly behind. Do base level 15 quests.
At this point my character is not quite 18. Vale, Spinner chain, Wheloon. I prefer doing Wheloon first as I like having Cannith Boots of Propulsion to cheese Devils/Rainbow/Lords of Dust traps.
Character is level 19. Do base level 17 quests. This should be very close to cap.
This netted me over 3500 favour at level 20.