Grinding Guide

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Grinding Guide

The original is in Spanish, my humble adapted translation follows. You'll also notice it is a knight levelling thread, but imho the "rules" stated are applicable to every class for purposes of group levelling.

1- Always grind in groups. This is the most important. Grinding in groups you benefit from several advantages. You'll progress rapidly since you hit a mob with more players, this leads to finishing mobs at the expense of one single opponent hit, or even none. You'll deal more damage to Mobs since you lower their level by being inside a party. You'll win more XP points since GRP experience is based solely on the number of players hitting (contributing to hit) the same mob. You'll have more fun because you'll be doing it with other players, making friends among you realm mates will also benefit in RvR situations and, why not to admit it, when you search for some item to add on your inventory. Grinding in groups will also tune your RvR skill, you'll experience the difference between solo targeting an adversary, and multi-targeting, you'll learn about other classes skills as they test them beside you; and if you are a conjurer, you'll train on assisting multiple allies as you learn that conju support also pays on XP. Resuming, this is an online game thought to be played as a group, and it's rewarded to do so.

2- Instead of translating this point, whose perspective is deeply attached to the Ra server and on grinding efficiency, I'll say something slightly different. It's more efficient to grind inside the Wall, but gaming experience wise it's recommendable to do it outside, specially if grinding in groups. Point is, if you, and your grinding mates, want desperately to attain one more level to hit the WZ after for some fun, better do it inside the Wall. If you, and your friends, want some distraction from killing sprees while levelling, better do it on WZ. Grinding on WZ will also benefit the group on providing some interest experiences against higher lvl players: like giving you some hints on what you can use to counter them from early lvls, watching how some skills are more used for war purposes, and forcing you and your mates to start planning cooperative gameplay to overcome a higher lvl adversary (even at 50 you are not supposed to kill em all... trust me ).

3- Hit everything from very easy to hard while grinding in groups. The fact is that GRP experience is independent from mob lvls, it solely resides on number of different player hits (and contributions with spells, mana, heals, enchantments). So, the more Mobs you hit, the faster you gain experience.

4- Don't rest near saves. Resting near saves is a waste of time if that save is close to your grinding spot, it will be faster to revive and continue grinding then sit to replenish. Necro isn't an issue specially because you can reset it with the same number of mobs either you are solo or in group, and as you will notice, in groups it will be much faster.

5- Use attack configurations while grinding in groups, and don't waste your mana or points on defence buffs. While grinding on groups you'll notice that sometimes you barely need one hit to finish a mob, maximizing that hit efficiency will have a greater return XP wise. Naturally this "rule" isn't applicable to conjurers, nor when grinding on WZ and wanting to have some RvR experience from time to time (still, if grinding is the objective, better to tune it on dmg dealing). Having said this is recommendable to use slower weapons (to max 1 hit dmg dealt) and choose rings and amulets to enhance it. Have present however that efficient grinding configs may not be the most efficient to RvR, but that is up to you to discover.

6- Let everyone hit the same mob. Don't be greedy it won't pay off, let your grinding mates hit it as well, it will increase GRP experience and insure everyone has a fair XP return on group levelling. As a basic rule of thumb, let the defensive classes hit it first, and the offensive finish them after, more often then not only one hit/spell of each will be enough to finish the mob. On a big group normals are enough, if a player is recursively having difficulties on landing a hit let him lead the charge, bottom line make sure everyone is feeling it pays off, because it does when properly done.

7- Hit the closest Mob. It looks like a redundant thing to say but as a matter of fact it's not easy to do so since you can only look in one direction. You'll have a fine training to WZ only by trying to fulfil this rule. Use your right mouse button to observe the surroundings even while charging the mob, having a good spacial awareness is a key skill on WZ and you'll never regret having it better then your adversaries. Sometimes it helps having a player leading the charge, other times it helps having a ranged class immediately "aggroing" mobs on their range to the party (provided they won't kill it until everyone hits it! )

8- Quit offensive mode between Mobs. Hit CTRL immediately before you reach the Mob (or activate skill for that purpose) and hit it right after you finish it. Offensive mode diminishes replenishing rates on HP and mana, the less time you are on it more mana and HP you will gather. This will also provides a good training for RvR and PvP, many times this little "trick" allows you to win battles simply because you have more 100 HP and 100 mana then your adversary.

9- As an additional point, observe the usage of area spells as soon as you are able. The system is simple, one player gathers (often a ranged with low profile or sanctuary... or in the absence of them a good old knight) the Mobs of an area by "aggroing" them, the rest of the players drop their areas on the spot. This grinding option is sometimes more rewarded then the "1 hit kill", but it is dependant on the lvl, the classes and the number of players present.

10- Item loot is easier. Have you experienced a 4 hours pointless solo hunt for drops? Don't. Pack up in a group and clean every Mob you find from easy to hard, from pb2 to pn2 or pp2, your group will soon have enough items to supply the entire realm, and who knows? You might have the luck of finding careless adversaries on your way!

My thanks to the original author of this simple guide. I did knew all of this I'm writing but as the original post highlights, many other players don't, even some with high level characters.

Truth is some classes have it easier then others when solo levelling (and even try to justify the existence of some spells for that purpose) but this is a cooperative game, and if you haven't noticed before, it pays off being played cooperatively, from knights to conjurers...

Now quite the "oh, it's so boring to grind" and play "that last one arriving pays all the beers!"

Cheers!