What Level Should I Be At?
 

The best advice I can give you is to stop doing the Black Pearl quest until you're in your 30s.

You can finish it in your 20s, but you'll find that your overall rep will outpace your weapon rep, making it more difficult to find level-appropriate mobs. Also, you will wind up with fewer HP than someone at the same level who didn't do the BP quest, because they got rep from their weapons, and will have higher weapon skills and the higher HP that comes with it.

The game is designed to have you do some things with help. Some things are virtually impossible to do alone, or take many times to succeed. The higher your rep & skills the better off you will be doing other things alone. Be prepared to die many times. Accumulate gold so you can repair your ship and buy tonics (never sail without Bartholomew Watkins is my motto).

I agree with Bilge. My first pirate rushed through it and was struggling to finish the weaponry. My second pirate I waited until I was 25 to start and it made it easier. My 3rd is doing it whenever and my 4th hasnt even started yet.

I did the same with Ruby and I have to stop myself from doing it with Mali. Ruby's 29 and PITIFUL lagging on sailing, cannon, and cutlass. I'm embarrassed. Good thing she's got a pretty face.

I plan to work more on Mali's skills.

Wenches, remind me I said that next time she's on.

"WHEREVER YOU'RE GOING , STOP AND CHOP! STOP AND CHOP!"

LOL i am basic and all my weapons are seven and your weapons are like one ahead of me and i am level 13 except for dolly

I'll agree with the other posters who are saying put the quest on hold. My first pirate finished the quest in his high 20's with some help in spots. But that being said, I was higher level when I got to Gunner (I got the PDF teleport just after finishing Gunner which seemed ironic considering how much easier it would have been).

With all of the weapons feeding it, your notoriety should be about double your weapons (and try to level them around the same rate). It looks like you're racing through the quest. After you recover the Pearl and give it back there's nothing to do but level weapons and notoriety.

Get your level up a bit (say up to level 23 to get the Padres teleport) before starting back on the quest. The higher you go, the easier it will be. For my 2nd pirate, I'm not planning on starting the pearl quest until after level 23 and have the 4 teleports. He's currently level 13 and still has to recruit Pidgley! There's enough to do with side quests to keep things interesting while you're working weapons.

If you're more of a solo pirate, work on the weapons and sailing. But to level the doll your choices are kiting (attuning something and then running around in circles trying not to get hit) or attuning an ally while they kill things- but you can't do that yet. Cannons are hard to do solo because you have to sail to a spot, get off the wheel and then take a cannon and blast away. But I am finding more ships are circling rather than sitting there nicely while you sink them. Better to tap your guildmates for cannon work.

You should really get the pistol up to hex eater shot at least. That will let you work the other weapons on the vodoo using enemies.

One other thing- your hit and vodoo points are going to be much lower than most other pirates at your level. Getting the weapons more in line with your notoriety level will help you from waking up in jail so much too.

And work the grenades as soon as you get them.

Thanks for the tips! If I stop working on this quest, what else do I work on to get my level up?

Sorry for the dumb questions. im still trying to figure this all out.

I guess I will go against the tide on this. My last guy I did everything solo, so I know its possible. I also had quite different stats, where my pistol and cannon were always leading stats.

I recall a few places there were some tough quests to do solo, such as brigands at the level that quest came along.

I started another one and have seen a few changes in things, but not really much a hold back so far, from what i can see. There also new stuff now adding to the things available.

What exactly are you stuck on may help.

As stated above doing it early has some draw back's suck as doing a ll the padres stuff , and then getting padres totem.

Just kill enemies with whatever weapon needs leveling the most.

On Ali I, like many others, rushed through the story and finished at 26, I think. It wasn't bad, but all that's left is leveling and it gets pretty darn boring after a while, especially when you're high or mastered almost everywhere, and nades are in the low teens... LoL

On Piper I haven't even started the story. She's now at 20, with all available skills at 12. I'm still not looking forward to nades (it's going to take a while to get them level with everything else), but at least I can try to keep them even so I won't be stuck with them, and them alone, later. :tongue8:

Just remember that whether you work alone or with help, gold drives everything. Johnny McVane on Tortuga and Josie McCready on PR pay 140 for killing different enemies. Sam Seabones adds an extra 25 for killing 2 skeletons of any level on any island. Bartholomew Watkins on PR pays 35 coins each for sinking 3 ships. These quests are renewable with every login. Merchants, gypsies and the occasional NPC also offer quests if you need structure for your killing. You can sell some of what you earn for gold, but in my opinion they are an awful lot of work for the reward. Whatever your strategy you gotta have the gold for weapons, ship repair & upgrade, and tonics. Of course you can always try gambling.

Thanks! I've been doing smaller quests here and there and helping friends out to help gain notoriety. It's working! Thanks for the advice!

No one has said you can't do it solo. I did about 95% of the story quest solo. It would have been MUCH easier with help in spots but it can be done (and the boss battle CANNOT be done solo as it stands- the officers would be tough even with a staff and the frigates would shoot you full of holes before even starting on the towers). I think the big thing everyone is pushing is just to slow down on the story quest for a bit.

Try some of the Jewelry and Tattoo quests. When you get to a higher level, there will be the weapon quests and the Undead Skeleton quest. Take some of the side quests from the NPCs on Port Royal (can't remember their names). Make a little gold on the side and gain some notoriety and also kill some beasties for a reason other than rep.

Your skill levels seems low to me when compared to your overall noteriety, but the whole system is rather wierd. Keep in mind I've only done around 5% of BP Quest and my skill levels are shown below. I've had no problems with any of the quests given to me so far. Looking at my stats, you can probably guess what I've been doing with the remainder of my time:

Overall Noteriety: 20

Sailing: 17
Cannons: 14
Cutlass: 9
Pistol: 7
VooDoo: 10
Dagger: 6

im at the scary mary part of the bb and its getting easier i waited until i got the padres tp to start the second list

my stats are

Notoriety: 25
Steel Cutlass: 14
Triple Barrel: 12
Witch Doll: 12
Main Gauche: 12
Grenade: 11:pirate41::pirate41:
Sailing: 8
Cannon: 12

i try to keep all my stats at the same lvl because i dont like to work on one weapon for a long time
:pirate41: :degen:

i am on gordon greer and my stats are:
noto:15
iron cutlass: 5
pistol:3
cloth doll:10
small dagger: 2
sailing:10
cannon:5

i will start to work on keeping them at the same lvl.

I am one for the saying, never say never.

I agree on the most part what people are saying, slow down and work on skills and such. There is no way anyone is going to do this solo with stats low like that.

If I got skills for the points I paid into them, I think it can be done solo though. Did do it twice solo, before. If I put points into barrage I should get the stats, instead of being forced to work notoriety up to 40 to get the full stats.

You are going to want full stats on canon balls to do this, so that is likely going to push you up to higher levels alone. I would recommend myself in the 30's. Doing all the jewelry and tattoo quests etc. almost puts ya there anyways, while doing the boss battle quests.

Lower stats just means using doll on soldiers, easily done, just more time consuming. Best to work it up to get drain life, so you have two forms of healing. Frigates solo don't do the damage they are doing in crews now. With terrible cannon ball damage I make it to the last set of bridges, and that's with shooting forts twice as much as I should have to.

I finished the black pearl quest at 26 and my weapons needed work. so i stopped before doing boss until i got all my weapons 15+ then i started working on it and it turned out easier than ever! and at your stats i really think u should stop and work on leveling your doll which is very important. Maybe until your lv 23 you should start gunner so you dont have to run around and sail back and fourth

hav a lvl 30 pirate only 10% of the black pearl quest done. just doin weapons and jewelry and tattoo quest. most weapon 15 to 18 except staff 2 and g-nades 11. seeing how far i get with out the pearl quest. lol

I'm pretty advanced on everything EXCEPT my cannons. I think on my cannons I'm, what, level 2? And my overall notoriety is 20. And my sailing is 10. I'm pretty good with weaponry, but I'm lagging on cannons. Now that my unlimited access, well, "died", I guess I can work on levelling up my weaponry until I lose my lazy streak and head to Target and buy a pirates online card...

dont listen to them rush through the boss it clears your journal so u dont have stress about needing this and that
i beat boss at lv 26
now my skills are as follows
notoriety: 37
cutlass: mastered (25)
gun : 19
doll: mastered (25)
dagger: 15
grenades: 9
staff: 21
cannon: 20
sailing: mastered (25)
i rarely use my grenades

If not to help you on boss battle, I would still consider working grenades with ship battles about to come out. Toughnest with all I could get in it already on the new character.

LOL

Rush, do listen to us. It doesnt seem that this person has even hit level 40 yet on his first pirate yet. Listen to the experienced pirates.

Yes doing the boss battle clears your quest journal, and youll be wanting stuff in it to do from that point forward. Have you seen the cries for more content?

I do not boast about my knowledge or experience like some of the newer pirates. But I have 3 level 34+ pirates, and a totally mastered level 40 pirate to draw my experiences on. I've been around the world in POTCO many many times.

My first level 30 pirate I beat the boss battle fast, and all I had left was leveling... it got boring, I abandoned him, and learned how important it was on the following pirates was to take your time on the quests and to work and level your skills first. It also makes doing the quest 10 times easier.. which is another excellent reason to do it this way. Rushing through the story quest is a quick road to boredom.

Well, whether or not you rush, you're still going to spend a lot of time leveling if you want to master everything. It's really only a question of when. :laughks2:

Luckily I've grown to like leveling, though, as I'm sure I've said before. When I finally "finished" Ali, I started right up with Piper (she's now a 33 with all skills at 20, and still zip on the BP - LoL). :)

And how much. Leveling weapons first is easier because the reps come faster.

Its true, irregardless, theres going to be some time spent leveling either way.
It was the mundane process of leveling my level 40 pirate that taught me its easier if I level the weapons first. Easier in regards to the amount of time spent on leveling weapons.

UGH - would love some opinions - i think i know but i need a sanity check.

I am a LVL 24, my stats are:

Pirate doll-17
Sailing-15
Steel cutlass-12
Tri-barrel pistol-12
Cannon-11
Dagger-8 (i need to work on)
Grenades-2 (i need to work on)
Teleports: have all 4

And does this heading at the top of my Journal: Story Chapter: The Black Pearl (20%) mean that I'm 20% done? I know that seems obvious . . . Am I too far or not far along enough for my skills. I'm wondering if I should stop those chapter quests and get my grenades and dagger skills up to something less pathetic.

Thanks in advance!

From a direct game questing approach with a goal of mastering your pirate.
(im not a pvp'er)

I think your doing pretty good quest wise if your at/around 20%.

An hours or so work on those grenades at a quiet kingshead... and youll gain a notoriety level, and several grenade levels. But bring a friend for company, and to teleport back and forth for reloads :)

Other than that i'd say your doing fine. Your already on the right track planning to bring those lower level weapons up to speed. Work on evening up the weapons skills, and continue to mix a little leveling time amongst quest time. You still have weapon upgrade quests coming on the Cutlass, Pistol, Dagger, and Staff when you eventually get that. Also keep in mind when it comes to the boss battle at the end of the quest, Sailing and Cannon skills are paramount (unless you have someone else sail, in which case cannons would be key).

Mine is-
Notoriety: 26
Cutlass: 13
Pistol: 11
Voodoo Doll: 15
Dagger: 10 (working on this right now)
Grenade: 12 (& this)
Sailing: 14
Cannon: 10

X

You should always take time between quests leveling up your weapons a bit that will help your Notoriety to go up witch is something you'll need.

Also do other quests such as the tattoo quests, they give great experience in the long run and if you get into a weapon quest even better.

you could be right ut also beating the boss faster also gives you more time to help weaker pirates