Levelling::: Basil vs. Prob

[Basil Dreadflint]

OK, we ahve all made mistakes, and learned new things, levelling our first pirate.
I was asked to explain what I did different with Prob, than with BAsil.. It isn;t something that I can put into chat , so I'm putting it here.

Basil:
Did mostly questing. No one explained the need to do things in order,, If there was a quest in his list, I did it. So, the Pearl quest is always there. Basil did his first BB when he was level 24, it was for a guildmate, and did his own when he was level 25, and beat it. (This was when the BB was easier than it is now.) Basil then had nothing to do but level. At this time, I can't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure that none of his weapons were higher than level 15 or so. All I had for him to do was work weapons, get gold, and buy the rest of his War Fleet.
Then they came out with his seconnd major update: the new weapons quests.
He started the Cutlass, dagger, and pistol the first night they were out, but couldn't do the Staff, cause he was still shy of level 15, that I do remember. But, within 4 days, all four weapons were his, and it back to grinding weapons to raise skill levels.

It wasn't till he had most skills around level 20 or so , that I learned to keep skill levels low, and you get better rep. From then on, I didn;t spend his skill points, unless I felt I had to.

Basil reached level 40 about 3 months and a week after I had started playing him. At that time, he had Mastered sailing, cannon, and Cutlass,,,,, and was close on pistol. Daggers, doll, and staff were around level 22 or 23 each. Nades, however, were only level 14.
Nades became a major pain. When your Notoriety is level 40, there isn't much that can earn you rep. I learned that I had made some real mistakes here.
Since that time, I have finished mastering everything but nades. I've given up, and went back, and given up again. Now I'm trying again to level nades with him.. (Just reached level 22 today.)

Prob:
HAs been a different story altogether. I have deliberately not spent his skill points. When his weapons reached the mid teens, I stoppped spending his points entirely. I have spent points to buy the new skill levels, as they open up, but do not spend more than one point on each. Of course, there are always exceptions. If you want to heal, cure and fight at the same time, you must spend on attune, and the skills. Broadsides is useless if you don't strengthen it.

I held his weapons skills in the mid teen equivalants, as long as possible.. Some went higher, and others lower, but he earned max rep on each attack till he was near level 38. At that point, I did begin to see a little drop in the rep earned.
Nades were the first thing he mastered. Not going to be in the same position as Basil was! The other 5 weapons, I kept evenly matched. As soon as he hit level 20, staff was his only weapon till he finished the second staff quest, and got it to thesame general level, as his other weapons.
Prob barely did any Pearl questing until he was level 32. At that time, he was less than 8% total on the Pearl. Even when he started the PEarl quest, it was done in spurts. One task group, then back to weapons, then back to the Pearl. He did do other quests as they became available, all the weapons quests, within a few days of each other. A few other quests, especially the skeleton quest, which generates over 5K in rep.

But, at the time I'm writing this, Prob is just shy of level 40. He has mastered EVERY weapon, and is just shy of level 23 sailing and is level 18 cannon. The first skill Basil mastered, the last for Prob. But, Prob has 70 unspent skill points spread througout his 6 weapons and sailing and cannon. Most of his weapons are playing at the level 15 skill. Until he mastered each weapon, he was still earning good to high rep for each. Obviously, now he is earning zero, but that is what happens.

Prob is about 90% complete with the Pearl quest now. And yes, it is boring to be shooting low level ships, chasing rock crabs, and searching barrels when you are high level, but it is Soooo much easier to do. I figure Prob will hit level 40 within the next few days. I'm not sure if that will happen before or after the Boss Battle.. It will be close. When he hits 40, he will only have cannons and maybe one level of sailing left. He will have reached level 40 about 5 weeks faster than Basil did, with the same amount of playing time per day/week.

I plan to bring Purvis ingame regularly, real soon. I think with him, I will be exclusively weapons until I near the very end. He is now level 13, and is only 1% on the Pearl. I plan to not Pearl quest except by accident.

I don't know if anyone will find any of this interesting, or useful. I have been asked by a few, how did Prob level so fast, so maybe they will get something out of here. Basically, keep your skills as low as you can, but still accomplish your tasks. Balance all your weapons, and keep them balanced as new ones open up, don't Pearl quest too early, and (something I'm having a problem with, I miss Basil, and am already feeling sorry for Prob) don't feel bad when your pirate is almost done, he or she is still there: and someday,, you will be bringing them out for the next story chapter!!!!

Basil/Prob/Purvis/????as yet unnamed????

[Pierre La Grand]

This is totally true. I started playing the game two days after they started it and was the third person to reach level 30 at the time. (I know this from watching the leader board everyday) I gave up on that av at level 36 because he was leveled so badly. We were the ones that had to learn everything the hard way. I learned my lesson from that one and pretty much leveled my three level 40's the way you just said. It was winter back then and I had more time to play than now but I still notice a difference with each pirate how much faster i can level them. I am now working on a pirate that just got level 39 and I still get decent rep points considering the level.


Scottie founder and guild master of the marauders

[davy redflint]

aye i did the same with rachel, did the bb at mid lvl 39 to get the rep points, still hav some weapon to master. see u in the game prob. need a new pirate but none lelf lol.

[Truehazzard]

Basil, this is excellent, TY for posting this here! Hopefully people won't look at me crazy when I suggest they save their skill points anymore.... LOL

[Bartholomew Foulsteel]

I find it very interesting and very valuable. Thanks for posting this.

Question--do you run the risk of mastering all skills and being stuck at sub-40 notoriety?

[Sarah]

Bart, yes, I think you can master all weapons and still not be at 40 nort, (may not include sailing and cannons) but if you've saved the Main story quest til the end, there are plenty of rep points to rack up. Run on sentence much?? LOL

[Basil Dreadflint]

Bartholomew,

I don't think that is mathematically ppossible.
Prob is less than 3000 points from 40, still has 7 levels of Cannon to do, and 2 levels of sailing, plus, the finish of the Pearl quest will get him about 3500 more or less.

So, I don;t think you can master aall weapons and skills, finish the Pearl quest, and end up below Notoriety 40.

Basil

[TDSChristy]

Thanks for the post. Adding this to the my " Things I wish I had seen when I first started playing pirates" list. An excellent V.I.L!!!

[John Edgefoote]

Good Post - John is in almost the same boat (I finished the Pearl questing, but have been avoiding the BB), but I'm going with your plan for Slim - I guess grinding is inevitable, it's just a matter of when you do it - at the end, when you get little rep, or at the beginning. I also plan to keep my skills level - again, I didn't figure that out with John until @ lvl 32, and it was NOT fun trying to level them all up. Now they are all above 20, with only staff mastered and cannon nearly so. It does kind of stink having to avoid BB's with friends for a while, but I'm determined to hold it off until at least lvl 39.

Slim is level 12 now, so hopefully he can become a contributing member of the clan soon.

[Sven Niscadae]

Well dagnabbit. I think Sven is going to run into Basil's situation. I'm just a questing fool. The main reason I like to play MMORPG's is to quest, and Disney makes it a bane. I would have thought it should have worked out nicer since the quests' progress & the levels you get them seem on par with each other.

I should maybe stop spending skill points as I get them too. But but... they're so... available.

[davy redflint]

my first lvl 40 pirate, master all weapons except g-nades were lvl 18. this was before the bb was fix and there were no extra quest jewelry, tat, etc. so if u master all weapon u will be at lvl 40. my recent lvl 40 has only master sailing, dagger,sword, and all quests done , rest of the weapons 21 to 23.

[mongo]

I started the quests on my 2nd pirate when I was level 18 and grinding weapons was getting boring (but I am doing pretty good at keeping them even). But the lure of some easy rep and unlocking grenades proved too strong. So now I have another weapon to grind but I'm doing it far earlier than my first pirate (my level 40 pirate doesn't even have siege charge).

My next detour will be the PDF teleport and then it will be taking all the weapons to 15 and then probably some more questing to get him up to 30 for the last weapon. And then finish off the rest of the quests.

[Basil Dreadflint]

Originally Posted by TDSChristy

Thanks for the post. Adding this to the my " Things I wish I had seen when I first started playing pirates" list. An excellent V.I.L!!!

A running joke with Basil, VIL, is a "Very Important Lesson". Basil used to post VIL's ecery day , in Guild chat. They varied from the mundane, where to go to find Brigands, Thru to the profound, A level 32 Seabeard can kill a level 18 pirate in one stroke, and included some amusement, Don't attack 5 enemies at once, you will lose!

I think Lars, (My fourth pirate) will be more active sooner than Purv initiallly, and might go back to posting daily VIL's. I kinda let that slip on Prob, but did enjoy doing it.

Thanks to all who have responded so far. I'm glad to hear that I didn't just post this to the ether!

[Basil Dreadflint]

Prob Turned 40. Mastered!

At the time he turned level 40, He had mastered all 6 weapons, was level 22 sailing, and 18 Cannons. He was about 86% complete with the Pearl quest. the 22 cannons is approximately 14K rep, to master level, and the 18 cannons is about 21K or more in rep,,, and the finishing of the Pearl quest is about 6K. So, to answer the questions below, I don't see any way that someone could Master all weapons, and get stuck at a below 40 notoriety.

[Basil Dreadflint]

Prob mastered cannons today, he has now mastered EVERYTHING! In doing so, he ended up with a total of 81 unspent skill points!!!!
That is an average of 10 points per skill/weapon. Essentially, this means that he reached level 40, mastered all skills, with an average skill level of only 15.

Even at the end, he was still earning full rep, 100 points plus bonus, for sinking ships.

I plan on making one further entry to this post. After finishing the Pearl quest, which he still hasn't done.

OBTW, he did NOT do any of the clothing quests.... I'm still holding out hope that an update someday will increase the Notoriey levels. No sense wasting that rep for nothing other than clothing.