Umbrasquall
06-17-2008, 09:28
So you're level 67. Three levels away from the sweet sweet final feats that give us assassins hope in PvP. But three levels? 70 seems so far away still... The reason I posted this is because these last few levels to 70 at least for me were the most frustrating and seemed the longest. There are no quests and it's pretty much pure grind. But if we're going to grind, we might as well as make it as fast as possible. This is what this guide is for.
If you have been following Evii's blog guide, you've probably moved from Thunder River to Atzel's Approach in the past few levels and must have discovered by now that grinding has significantly slowed down, especially solo grinding. You managed to find a few groups here and there (at the cart spawn or with the apes) but none of them stay together for long and eventually you end up trying to solo pull mobs near the fortress again... and dying quite often.
Well this thread will definitely give now and upcoming assassins hope, because I've come across what is possibly the best way to bridge these final pre-70 levels. And it's done the assassin way, solo style.
While you're reading this, there may be times that you will think, this can't be true! It sounds too good to be true. But I assure you that it is.
Neither does this involve any exploits. So if you're expecting something along the lines of casting a reflection spell on yourself and instantly fragging mobs that touch you, sorry to disappoint you. No matter what, this is still a grind-strategy, so be prepared to grind. Okay, now all that's out of the way, let's get to the good stuff.
First what you'll want to do when you hit 67 is to go back to the main camp and get all the wanted posters you can from the main board there (the one with 8 posters on it). You'll get some useless ones but the one we're interested in is the Glacial Saber Tooths.
Next pick up the quest from Hoture (one of the quest-giving guys at the main camp) that asks you to kill Wooly Mammoths for their tusks. You might remember him talking about the tusks earlier but he wouldn't give you the quest due to your low level. Now, we're going to find the Ivory Vale res point. If you already know where that is, good, suicide and spawn there. If not, here's how to get to it. As you walk along the path north you'll see a snow-covered hill rising to your right. There are usually a pair of Pickets that spawn there and there is also a camp where a captain spawns mid-way up on the far end of this hill. Follow the path and you'll end up scaling the mountain over to the other side. There are some snakes and Glacial Sabers
up here but do NOT try to fight them. You will likely aggro a lot and those snakes hit hard. There will be two paths-trenches you will see heading down. One leading to the northwest and one in the east, take the latter of the two. Drop down a stone fortress-looking gate to your left. Keep dropping down (don't worry your shoes apparently have amazing traction on ice) you'll see the mammoths of Ivory Vale. Take a good look because those will be your main dish for the next 3 levels.
To find the res point. Continue through the valley to the very end, where you'll see some Troglodytes standing guard over... nothing. Oh well, you'll notice a narrow path up to the left. Go ahead and climb that and you'll come across the blue circle almost immediately. Yay 2k xp.
Now let's get to business, and this is where it gets really good. Start slaughtering those mammoths. The first thing you'll notice is that they're all yellow-named. Brilliant. That means that they DON'T AGGRO. You'll never get ganked while you level here because even if you are killing a mammoth's neighbor they won't do anything and will just wait for their turn peacefully. This also means that you can ALWAYS start off with a sneak attack, because you can just hide right in their face and do it.
Here's the system.
1. Hide.
2. Position yourself directly behind the mammoth.
3. Sneak attack! Use the middle directional attack to do this. The mammoth will turn red and put it's shield up to the left. BUT, it will turn and thus it is now shielding to the right.
4. Grim corruption. Simple, one key combo.
5. A few more regular attacks.
6. Dead mammoth.
Alternatively, you may use PvP CSS (Cunning Strike Starter) that you'll find in the PvP tip guide that I'll be posting soon, followed by Grim.
It's that simple. Occasionally the mammoth will root you (how the hell do they do it is beyond me) for a few seconds (1 out of 10 tens about), in which case just wait it out since they do pathetic damage 1v1. Note of interest, there is actually a level 71-72 mammoth in a corner that sometimes spawns upside-down/sideways buried in the ground, you can attack it, it's only the position that's glitchy.
Now for the statistics.
The mammoths range from level 69-72, and basically spawn faster than you can kill them, provided that you are sharing the valley with no more than one other person. XP gained per kill will range from 2500 to 3500, depending on your level. I timed myself and was able to kill 18 in 5 minutes (including running around etc.) This meant ~10k xp per minute! It takes a little over 1 million xp each level from 67-70, which averages out to be about one level every 1.5 hours. Amazing.
But wait, it's not over, no far from it.
LOOT:
You'll notice something quite nice about the loot you're getting from the mammoths. Namely they are stackable. Tusks, eyes, tongues, all stack up to 20 per slot. You won't be getting direct coin drops, but if you do the math, you'll actually be making more money than you would be farming in a group at this level. Each full stack of 20 will net you ~1 silver.
This is great because if you're loot crazy like me you'll want to make a trip every time your bags fill up so you don't waste money. Here you can stay as long as you want and still not fill up!
BONUSES:
Remember the poster and quest I told you to pick up? The area also spawns a few Glacial Saber Tooths. Kill them off as they spawn and you'll get 15 in no time, plus a nice 12k xp bonus. The mammoth tusk quest gives an one time bonus of 50k xp, and a nice level 70 vest for when you get there.
Occasionally, a level 73 mammoth boss will spawn. It will be red-named but get this, it will NOT fight back! Probably some sort of a glitch but nonetheless kill it off as it is worth a whopping 4500xp.
Now, when you hit 68 it gets really interesting. You will learn Slow Death Strike IV, and now you're going to put it to use on the mammoths. Whenever it's up (every 25 seconds), start it up on a mammoth. It does 300+ damage per tick when applied and what you'll do is use it and then just run off to the next mob. The DoT will kill off the first mammoth very quickly. This gives a little extra boost to leveling speed, since there's no shortage of mobs anyway.
Also at 68, you may want to suicide so you can sell off your loot, turn in that quest and regrab the Saber Tooth poster. You'll also notice that another poster is available now, namely kill the Troglodytes you've seen earlier. Go ahead and grab this one too, as it is worth a bonus of 17k xp every time.
Head back (or suicide again) to Ivory Vale and you'll see that the guy at the entrance of the valley now has a quest for you. It is to kill the apes on top of the mountain to the east. You can get there by continuing east across the valley from the point where you originally entered.
That's another 60k and some change xp and a change of pace for if you're bored from grinding on mammoths later. Now you can keep up the cycle with a few changes. You'll be fighting the level 71-73 trogs at the edges of the valley when you are bored of mammoths (I recommend during in-game nighttime as you can sneak up on them), as well as the Saber Tooths and apes (there's even another snake quest in the area, a lot of alternatives). (A caveat, the level 73 trogs are pretty hard to kill at 68) If you die, don't worry, the spawn is *literally* right there.
Of course if you want a relaxing way to level, you can just go after the docile mammoths so you don't have to pay too much attention to the game. I basically watched TV for 3 hours from level 67-69, a nice break from the constant vigilance demanded by this class from 1-67.
That's pretty much it. If done right, these few levels will be faster than even 65-67. Here's a highlight.
1. No dying, because you'll never get ganked. (No guarantees on other players)
2. Don't have to wait until night to get sneak attacks in. Also no pulling required. And thus no danger of over pulling
3. Pretty much infinite mobs.
4. Nice, stackable loot.
5. 2 poster quests that are easily repeatable by suiciding yourself due to <10 second run from the res points.
Well, get to it! Or if you're not 67, keep this in mind for when you get there, because it truly is awesome. But do it before everyone swarms the place or the devs decide to change the mobs to aggro or something. And on top of everything, the final reward of your level 70 feats is waiting for you!
Endnote: Technically this area is doable for 66 assassins as well. All you have to do is avoid the level 72 mammoths and you should be fine. You could take on the boss and though you won't die it'll probably take a while.
If you have been following Evii's blog guide, you've probably moved from Thunder River to Atzel's Approach in the past few levels and must have discovered by now that grinding has significantly slowed down, especially solo grinding. You managed to find a few groups here and there (at the cart spawn or with the apes) but none of them stay together for long and eventually you end up trying to solo pull mobs near the fortress again... and dying quite often.
Well this thread will definitely give now and upcoming assassins hope, because I've come across what is possibly the best way to bridge these final pre-70 levels. And it's done the assassin way, solo style.
While you're reading this, there may be times that you will think, this can't be true! It sounds too good to be true. But I assure you that it is.
Neither does this involve any exploits. So if you're expecting something along the lines of casting a reflection spell on yourself and instantly fragging mobs that touch you, sorry to disappoint you. No matter what, this is still a grind-strategy, so be prepared to grind. Okay, now all that's out of the way, let's get to the good stuff.
First what you'll want to do when you hit 67 is to go back to the main camp and get all the wanted posters you can from the main board there (the one with 8 posters on it). You'll get some useless ones but the one we're interested in is the Glacial Saber Tooths.
Next pick up the quest from Hoture (one of the quest-giving guys at the main camp) that asks you to kill Wooly Mammoths for their tusks. You might remember him talking about the tusks earlier but he wouldn't give you the quest due to your low level. Now, we're going to find the Ivory Vale res point. If you already know where that is, good, suicide and spawn there. If not, here's how to get to it. As you walk along the path north you'll see a snow-covered hill rising to your right. There are usually a pair of Pickets that spawn there and there is also a camp where a captain spawns mid-way up on the far end of this hill. Follow the path and you'll end up scaling the mountain over to the other side. There are some snakes and Glacial Sabers
up here but do NOT try to fight them. You will likely aggro a lot and those snakes hit hard. There will be two paths-trenches you will see heading down. One leading to the northwest and one in the east, take the latter of the two. Drop down a stone fortress-looking gate to your left. Keep dropping down (don't worry your shoes apparently have amazing traction on ice) you'll see the mammoths of Ivory Vale. Take a good look because those will be your main dish for the next 3 levels.
To find the res point. Continue through the valley to the very end, where you'll see some Troglodytes standing guard over... nothing. Oh well, you'll notice a narrow path up to the left. Go ahead and climb that and you'll come across the blue circle almost immediately. Yay 2k xp.
Now let's get to business, and this is where it gets really good. Start slaughtering those mammoths. The first thing you'll notice is that they're all yellow-named. Brilliant. That means that they DON'T AGGRO. You'll never get ganked while you level here because even if you are killing a mammoth's neighbor they won't do anything and will just wait for their turn peacefully. This also means that you can ALWAYS start off with a sneak attack, because you can just hide right in their face and do it.
Here's the system.
1. Hide.
2. Position yourself directly behind the mammoth.
3. Sneak attack! Use the middle directional attack to do this. The mammoth will turn red and put it's shield up to the left. BUT, it will turn and thus it is now shielding to the right.
4. Grim corruption. Simple, one key combo.
5. A few more regular attacks.
6. Dead mammoth.
Alternatively, you may use PvP CSS (Cunning Strike Starter) that you'll find in the PvP tip guide that I'll be posting soon, followed by Grim.
It's that simple. Occasionally the mammoth will root you (how the hell do they do it is beyond me) for a few seconds (1 out of 10 tens about), in which case just wait it out since they do pathetic damage 1v1. Note of interest, there is actually a level 71-72 mammoth in a corner that sometimes spawns upside-down/sideways buried in the ground, you can attack it, it's only the position that's glitchy.
Now for the statistics.
The mammoths range from level 69-72, and basically spawn faster than you can kill them, provided that you are sharing the valley with no more than one other person. XP gained per kill will range from 2500 to 3500, depending on your level. I timed myself and was able to kill 18 in 5 minutes (including running around etc.) This meant ~10k xp per minute! It takes a little over 1 million xp each level from 67-70, which averages out to be about one level every 1.5 hours. Amazing.
But wait, it's not over, no far from it.
LOOT:
You'll notice something quite nice about the loot you're getting from the mammoths. Namely they are stackable. Tusks, eyes, tongues, all stack up to 20 per slot. You won't be getting direct coin drops, but if you do the math, you'll actually be making more money than you would be farming in a group at this level. Each full stack of 20 will net you ~1 silver.
This is great because if you're loot crazy like me you'll want to make a trip every time your bags fill up so you don't waste money. Here you can stay as long as you want and still not fill up!
BONUSES:
Remember the poster and quest I told you to pick up? The area also spawns a few Glacial Saber Tooths. Kill them off as they spawn and you'll get 15 in no time, plus a nice 12k xp bonus. The mammoth tusk quest gives an one time bonus of 50k xp, and a nice level 70 vest for when you get there.
Occasionally, a level 73 mammoth boss will spawn. It will be red-named but get this, it will NOT fight back! Probably some sort of a glitch but nonetheless kill it off as it is worth a whopping 4500xp.
Now, when you hit 68 it gets really interesting. You will learn Slow Death Strike IV, and now you're going to put it to use on the mammoths. Whenever it's up (every 25 seconds), start it up on a mammoth. It does 300+ damage per tick when applied and what you'll do is use it and then just run off to the next mob. The DoT will kill off the first mammoth very quickly. This gives a little extra boost to leveling speed, since there's no shortage of mobs anyway.
Also at 68, you may want to suicide so you can sell off your loot, turn in that quest and regrab the Saber Tooth poster. You'll also notice that another poster is available now, namely kill the Troglodytes you've seen earlier. Go ahead and grab this one too, as it is worth a bonus of 17k xp every time.
Head back (or suicide again) to Ivory Vale and you'll see that the guy at the entrance of the valley now has a quest for you. It is to kill the apes on top of the mountain to the east. You can get there by continuing east across the valley from the point where you originally entered.
That's another 60k and some change xp and a change of pace for if you're bored from grinding on mammoths later. Now you can keep up the cycle with a few changes. You'll be fighting the level 71-73 trogs at the edges of the valley when you are bored of mammoths (I recommend during in-game nighttime as you can sneak up on them), as well as the Saber Tooths and apes (there's even another snake quest in the area, a lot of alternatives). (A caveat, the level 73 trogs are pretty hard to kill at 68) If you die, don't worry, the spawn is *literally* right there.
Of course if you want a relaxing way to level, you can just go after the docile mammoths so you don't have to pay too much attention to the game. I basically watched TV for 3 hours from level 67-69, a nice break from the constant vigilance demanded by this class from 1-67.
That's pretty much it. If done right, these few levels will be faster than even 65-67. Here's a highlight.
1. No dying, because you'll never get ganked. (No guarantees on other players)
2. Don't have to wait until night to get sneak attacks in. Also no pulling required. And thus no danger of over pulling
3. Pretty much infinite mobs.
4. Nice, stackable loot.
5. 2 poster quests that are easily repeatable by suiciding yourself due to <10 second run from the res points.
Well, get to it! Or if you're not 67, keep this in mind for when you get there, because it truly is awesome. But do it before everyone swarms the place or the devs decide to change the mobs to aggro or something. And on top of everything, the final reward of your level 70 feats is waiting for you!
Endnote: Technically this area is doable for 66 assassins as well. All you have to do is avoid the level 72 mammoths and you should be fine. You could take on the boss and though you won't die it'll probably take a while.