Choosing The Levels?

[Ameila]

I was just sailing this morning on my new war sloop, when I saw a boardable barracuda. I had just signed on, so the little box on the bottom right corner had my sword in it. So before boarding, I kill the mercanary (the only one i saw) with my cannons. Then, i board it. There were about five hired-guns with venom daggers, that sadly, killed me.
So i went sailin again with my voodoo doll (my highest lvl weapon) in the box and boarded again, with about five mercanaries! again, i die.
THEN I thought about it. And had my nades, (my lowest lvl weapon) in the box.
Again, I board it. but this time there were five lvl seven thugs?!? I saw a pattern.
Could even the highest level flagships work to your advantage?
Hope it works for ye!

[Steely Jim]

Definitely worth testing out, I suppose, but I don't think it will end up being the case.

I've haven't specifically considered this effect from readied weapon icon, but I do adjust my readied weapon icon around a lot, usually to change the "relative strength rating" color of the mobs at a certain location.

However, I preface everything these days with the cautionary note that we have recently lost a huge percentage of available flagships. Unless anyone can say they've seen the Navy Bulwark, Panther, Greyhound, or Centurion flagships lately; or, perhaps the EITC Ironwall? All that is left is the Colossus (Dead Man's Trough/Isla Tormenta), the Barracuda (primarily attached to Brigand Bay/Isla Perdida), the Man-O-War (Smuggler's Run/Kingshead), the Kingfisher (Scurvy Shallows/Rumrunner's), the Corvette (still primarily around Outcast, but with more tendency to use its entire travel range), and the Sentinel (your guess is as good as mine right now...it can usually be found near the seam between the Leeward Passage/Dead Man's Trough/Isla Tormenta, but I think it might actually still respawn in Boiling Bay).

In any case, I have always boarded the highest level Navy ships after putting my doll in the readied weapon icon (I also regularly take out opposing high-level helmsmen with grenade on long volley while still on my ship...although I admit its a waste of coin). I was into my 20s before I really sailed with a crew, so I use to say that was my crew...my first mate Dolly, and bunch of wee round lads from Singapore. For me, though, 17 Grenades are one of my higher skills (23 Sailing, 20 Cannon, 18 Dagger are higher) and 15 Doll is my 2nd lowest (only 5 Staff is lower).

Finally, I have always seen that sort of variety for each level of flagship. In fact, I sometimes have had trouble figuring out exactly how the game is determining what level to give a ship; I often saw higher level crews and better loot from level-18 Centurions than I did from level-20 Centurions. An even better example of mine would be the Man-O-War because there were many times when I'd swing over to meet 5 level-29, so many that I just got in the habit of readying the Doll before going over, and yet there were still times I'd swing over to find extremely low level crews too.

Things may have changed with the 30 April update, but my best guess would be that it doesn't depend on the readied weapon icon. I'd be willing to do some testing of it tonight, when I get on, and I'll report back what I find out.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by Ameila

I was just sailing this morning on my new war sloop, when I saw a boardable barracuda. I had just signed on, so the little box on the bottom right corner had my sword in it. So before boarding, I kill the mercanary (the only one i saw) with my cannons. Then, i board it. There were about five hired-guns with venom daggers, that sadly, killed me.
So i went sailin again with my voodoo doll (my highest lvl weapon) in the box and boarded again, with about five mercanaries! again, i die.
THEN I thought about it. And had my nades, (my lowest lvl weapon) in the box.
Again, I board it. but this time there were five lvl seven thugs?!? I saw a pattern.
Could even the highest level flagships work to your advantage?
Hope it works for ye!

YES! bc for the cutlass quest i got all 5 of my pirate lore pages from a cuda off the coast of peridia (had to sink 8 ships to do this though) anyway most of the time i got hired-guns and thugs and grunts but this one time i got a ship FULL of mercs there where 6 i literally had 1/2060 health left by the time i left that ship

[Angel]

I see it changing all the time when I do the colossous. I get from lvl 10 Sargent up to lvl 37 Officers. All times I solo boarded with my staff.

[Ameila]

Originally Posted by Steely Jim

Definitely worth testing out, I suppose, but I don't think it will end up being the case.

I've haven't specifically considered this effect from readied weapon icon, but I do adjust my readied weapon icon around a lot, usually to change the "relative strength rating" color of the mobs at a certain location.

However, I preface everything these days with the cautionary note that we have recently lost a huge percentage of available flagships. Unless anyone can say they've seen the Navy Bulwark, Panther, Greyhound, or Centurion flagships lately; or, perhaps the EITC Ironwall? All that is left is the Colossus (Dead Man's Trough/Isla Tormenta), the Barracuda (primarily attached to Brigand Bay/Isla Perdida), the Man-O-War (Smuggler's Run/Kingshead), the Kingfisher (Scurvy Shallows/Rumrunner's), the Corvette (still primarily around Outcast, but with more tendency to use its entire travel range), and the Sentinel (your guess is as good as mine right now...it can usually be found near the seam between the Leeward Passage/Dead Man's Trough/Isla Tormenta, but I think it might actually still respawn in Boiling Bay).

In any case, I have always boarded the highest level Navy ships after putting my doll in the readied weapon icon (I also regularly take out opposing high-level helmsmen with grenade on long volley while still on my ship...although I admit its a waste of coin). I was into my 20s before I really sailed with a crew, so I use to say that was my crew...my first mate Dolly, and bunch of wee round lads from Singapore. For me, though, 17 Grenades are one of my higher skills (23 Sailing, 20 Cannon, 18 Dagger are higher) and 15 Doll is my 2nd lowest (only 5 Staff is lower).

Finally, I have always seen that sort of variety for each level of flagship. In fact, I sometimes have had trouble figuring out exactly how the game is determining what level to give a ship; I often saw higher level crews and better loot from level-18 Centurions than I did from level-20 Centurions. An even better example of mine would be the Man-O-War because there were many times when I'd swing over to meet 5 level-29, so many that I just got in the habit of readying the Doll before going over, and yet there were still times I'd swing over to find extremely low level crews too.

Things may have changed with the 30 April update, but my best guess would be that it doesn't depend on the readied weapon icon. I'd be willing to do some testing of it tonight, when I get on, and I'll report back what I find out.

Yes, I very much agree that flagships are disappearing. I think this did happen with the april update, however. [or at least one of the newer updates]
I did test the theory again tonight and with my low lvl nades, got lvl seven thugs.