The RL-10 roadblock

[Broosser]

Howdy all !!

After just going through this level, I thought I should share some things with you to prepare you for it. Just know before you read the below message that RL-10 seems to be unique so far, so don't think there isn't something to look forward to.

Ok, so RL-10 seems to be what is known in many MMOs as a "hell level". It takes FOREVER to get through it. It took me so long that I actually had to take a break and create another toon to get that good feeling back of leveling. At about .10% per kill (or less), it can really drag on and on (and on and on).

I don't know how it is for black clans, but for white clans there is a major shortage of mobs to kill at this level. In Jinan, the bears are either light blue or white/yellow. They add like crazy and have a high attack rate. Past the bears on the little island (with a bridge towards the bears and a bridge towards the next town) there are some yellow mobs but they also have a high attack rate. The deprived monks are orange at RL-10 and inflict EWs quite a bit, so that makes them a bad choice as well. There's those horse & rider dudes between the bears and the first town from ZZ that have a low attack rate, cast a lot, but they are either yellow (very few), green, or ligh blue (lots).

Another drag for RL-10 is the severe lack of drops. During all of RL-10, I only had 1 spear drop for me and that was a RL-3 spear. During RL-11, I also had a spear drop (RL-4) and one other thing (crap loot). So during 2 full levels (RL-10 & RL-11), I only had 3 drops total from normal XPing. Not very motivational.

But hang in there !! RL-11, the exp speeds up quite a bit. You can move over and start killing the deprived monks. They are still orange, but don't inflict EWs anymore and have a fairly low attack rate. I think I made it through RL-11 in about 1/4 the time it took me for RL-10. The drops still sucked, but the exp gain made up for it.

RL-12 is quite a bit better!! So don't give up! I'm about 36% through RL-12 and so far I've gotten 3 FD level weapons, 1 silver chest, 2 BEs, 2 statues, and some other interesting items. I've moved on from the deprived monks to the other monks that are past them (can't remember the name right now, but they are down the hill on both sides of the 'safe spot' with the stairs on both sides). The deprived monks turned yellow at RL-12 but the other monks are orange and do no EWs, have a low attack rate, and have nice drops. I should have FD-1 by the end of double exp (triple on Bardo since we didn't have double last night). Well, I might not make it since there's 2 hours of server maintenance right now (that's why I'm writing this instead of grinding).

So, don't give up hope when you hit RL-10 and the exp rate hits the speed of snail poop. Grind it out and you'll feel better when it's over and you see exp pick up again.

[dndhatcher]

You should kill small brown bears or big brown bears. Big bears die easier and dont over aggro like the regular brown bears. I have seen as high as FD1 still killing big brown bears.

[Druegan]

Thanks, Broosser, for this word of encouragement!

Seriously.. my main is a HD warrior, currently right at the dreaded RL10, and oh-my-gods is this level a grind unparalleled... I've got all the collection bits I can get at this stage, and I've already been killing bears so long I just want to drown myself in my own pee....

I'd sorta given up on him.. made several new alts on a different server, and have been grinding there mostly.. at least there's a sense of progress, even if it is just reprocessing the same old quests/kills/etc and refining strategies for em..

But after reading your post about there being light at the end of this tunnel, I've started slowly playing with my Main again.. Grinding for an hour or so on the bears, and then taking a break with my other alts. I must say, it's working, albeit my tolerance for bear grinding is low at the moment. He's halfway through it though, and I'm starting to look forward to the other side of the mountain!

Thanks again,
Druegan

[Broosser]

I've pretty much stayed away from the bears. They tend to mob alot (fight one and get 5 adds on you). I stuck pretty much with the humans past bears and across the bridge. They only get up to 3 adds (maximum) and don't hit as hard or as fast as bears. Or I would hunt the horsemen before bears.

[klkc]

anyone know of a good place for a RC5 wt warrior to grind? blood monks pwn me.

[dhrddm]

Giants... twin Brutes... earthworm demons...

[Uncle.Buck]

I'm on the road from RL9 to RL10 and I guess I did not burn out early on the bears. I did burn out pretty bad on the wolf riders and can hardly even stand to look at them now.

So as a result, I am already 50% of the way to RL10 without too much trouble.

The trick as I see it with bears is to either target only Little Brown Bears or Big Brown Bears, but leav the plain Brown Bears alone. The little and big bears do not add very often and if they do it is usually only a single add (two bears total) which I can usually take care of. The plain Brown Bears add like mad and a group of 4-5 can take you down quick, so as long as you stay away from them, bears are good grinding material.

$0.02

[dndhatcher]

I just ran into a roadblock at GB2. There are not enough of the highest level zombies (and I am so dang tired of them). I can do Devas and get the occasion mansion pass but I can only get about 6% per hour on them and I spent alot of time at GB1 on them. I spent 2 hours last night trying different mobs and finally found one I can get close to 10% an hour on. Guess what it is... Powerful Big Bears ... lol

[Broosser]

I'm on the road from RL9 to RL10 and I guess I did not burn out early on the bears. I did burn out pretty bad on the wolf riders and can hardly even stand to look at them now.

So as a result, I am already 50% of the way to RL10 without too much trouble.

The trick as I see it with bears is to either target only Little Brown Bears or Big Brown Bears, but leav the plain Brown Bears alone. The little and big bears do not add very often and if they do it is usually only a single add (two bears total) which I can usually take care of. The plain Brown Bears add like mad and a group of 4-5 can take you down quick, so as long as you stay away from them, bears are good grinding material.

$0.02

RL-9 was really fast for me. The horsemen were all yellow, white, and green at RL-9 and I could go for 30 minutes on them before I needed to med. At 20-30 seconds a kill, the exp was pretty darn good.

[Druegan]

Yeah, RL 9 was fast for me too.. I spent it on bears though.. I think I started on bears at RL 7 or 8.. those levels seemed to fly by.. 10 though... man.. it's dragging... bad... lol. But I'm over halfway through it now, so the end is in sight.

Buck... if you're not sick of bears yet, oh, you *will* be.. lol... They're just as annoying as the wolf riders. rl10-11 is a murderously long stretch.. just seems to go on forever.. But yeah, if you stick to just the small brown bears or the Big brown bears, and avoid the regular "brown bears", you should be fine. I rarely ever get any adds when I'm not killing a regular "brown bear"... and they hit *much* harder than even the Big Browns, which are a higher level.. *shrugs*... think that's a game glitch though.

[Uncle.Buck]

Well, I was sick this weekend bad head cold so my wife let me sit at the computer for several hours. As a result I buzzed through RL10 and RL11 without to much problem now I'm RL12 +40%.

I am however very sick of any bear what so ever and am happy to move on to the depraved monks. They are yellow and take a bit more than bears to knock off but none the less more enternaining than bears..

[DucMan]

What Uncle.Buck has failed to tell you is that he has also spent about a week (well an hour each day at lunch time while at work) doing nothing but buff healling my sorry "donkey" to help me get caught up to him so that we can dungeon together. That has also slowed his leveling process! Thanks for all the help UB!

[Druegan]

Hahaha!

Well, taking a week away would definitely help the "burnout on bears" issue. Really, the RL10 thing is more of a psychological issue than one of game mechanics, I think... although, to be honest, the mechanics part *is* a bit tight...

But congrats on the levelling, and having a partner for dungeon runs should help you both out quite a bit, especially in terms of finances. Cash is kinda a struggle at low levels unless you get really lucky with drops.

[dndhatcher]

It does seem do go in cycles, SM1-6 was slow. SM7-SM12 is fast.
GB1-3 slow, GB4-8 fast again.

Alot of it depends on finding a mob you an kill fairly easy with a safe spot nearby to med at and no boss spawn with low PK likelyhood. Not always easy to do.

[chosonman]

RC9 need a little more to get to 10

[AvaluS]

"hell level"

LOL Today I did my RL 11 in 3-4 hours without any difficulties on Big Bears =)

[umvirusalert]

As a healer i plan on going to CoC at RL10...once my 'super lag' problem goes away though...BTW does anyone know what a dxdiag report is?

[dndhatcher]

Dxdiag is directx, the windows graphics system. You are supposed to have directx 9.0 or 9.0b or something to play the game. You may want to see if you have an older version (get update from microsoft) or need an updated driver from your graphics card manufacturer.

[yoinklee]

ty

[yoinklee]

:p:D

[blister]

Mabey I'm the exception. I got through RL 10 fairly quickly, but When I was grinding I was with a 9 man group with shared exp. Don't get me wrong it took a little longer than normal, but it wasn't the eye bleeding experience you guys are describing. So it may be the point is to team up or go out as a hero group(I wouldn't know much about those never joined one.) Anyway give it a try and see if that helps. So long as you can avoid the butt monkeys that join and just sit there making you do all the work.

[Zabrian]

I guess Nothing more need be said but Ding Dong the bears are dead. so just go kill afew bears its not like they will go extinct on us or anything i mean there are so many and some how they manage to call 5 at a time depending on what your fighting

[EVIL]

if you are RL10, you should grind at 2X events, it will quickly make you into RL11 in no time. also good build.

[umvirusalert]

Ye i kinda got stuck at RL10 with my warrior because i just find the grind a bit boring with the bears...nothing but boredom.

[Uncle.Buck]

Ye i kinda got stuck at RL10 with my warrior because i just find the grind a bit boring with the bears...nothing but boredom.

Eghaaads!! I would kill for the exp at the RL level. I just flipped to CS1 and only get 0.03 per mob. I don't care what class you are at that rate the grind as UBER BORING.

[umvirusalert]

Ya at FC1 exp is 0.04 so not much better...Got my new computer now so started grinding my healer again...so boring ^^

[EVIL]

Eghaaads!! I would kill for the exp at the RL level. I just flipped to CS1 and only get 0.03 per mob. I don't care what class you are at that rate the grind as UBER BORING.I thought that in CS1 it will take 3 kills to get .01%.

[Uncle.Buck]

I thought that in CS1 it will take 3 kills to get .01%.

I think that when the level cap was CS2/3 that was the case. However, since the level cap was raised the rate was adjusted as well. Currently, I get .02-.03 for green mobs, .03 for white/yellow mobs.

[umvirusalert]

Well FC2 mobs that are 2 lvls higher give 0.04 and ones that are 1 level higher give 0.03.

[EVIL]

i wonder how much xp will people get in GL?

[RavenSpear]

This is a godsend for me. A while back, I was absolutely fed up with the excruciatingly small amount of experience I was gaining at RL10. What did I do? Stupidly enough, I made a new character, and got to RL10 with him as well, where the block set in once again. Seething inside, I stopped playing, forgetting about 9d for a while after school started up and I had no access to my PC. Now, with the end of the year on the horizon, it makes me truly happy to know that there is a goal worth reaching after RL10, and that stopping there, while it seems common, is only because that one level has so much inherent problems that it takes forever to get through. Following the end of the school year, I certainly plan to pick up the game again.