Race to nightmares

This is a mini event where AWOL and Hlopushka will race from character creation to beating Gate Keeper. The race will start as issue 12 hits, so this thread is to gather any feedback or comments that we need to consider. The idea is to see how all recent changes affect new characters, educate people new to the game, as well as highlight the benefits of engaging with community as quickly as possible. So we will not be racing each other as such, since I will be trying to group as much as possible, while AWOL will be soloing until Elites (as those naturally can't be soloed at that stage at least).

So if anyone has any comments regarding what we should be paying extra attention to in order to help new players, please let us know.

The play sessions will be streamed or frapsed and uploaded, the time measured will be time played from character creation is finished and until GK dies. Cutscenes will be skipped to save time and minimize spoilers, total length of the game sessions will then be used to get total time.

I will be hanging out on TS during my sessions and talk as much as possible, so if anyone feels like parting useful knowledge to fellow players, feel free to join in.

You should maybe extend it to fully geared, I would imagine the difference in time because of the changes would be huge compared to starting from launch. Even negating the experience both players will have. Getting to 10.4/.4 was a huge time drain before, and required more mechanics knowledge and skill.

The BB "for all" activity surely makes a huge difference. Back when I used to have a decent amount of time to play Hlop will remember my progression frustration, the game launched bang on my youngest daughters birth and I played as much if not more than most. But because I 90% PVP'd I was way behind the others of the cabal. I basically PVE'd and got 10.4 gear quicker than already epic Venice gear.

It is great for new players I guess and now it is great for me seen as my weekday playtime isn't much more than a daily hour. But I wonder how many long term players have the hump!

I'll have to think about that, perhaps see how it goes up to GK and then decide. I'm worried that any kind of video showing BB grind will be boring as hell, but then again it might have gotten so fast that it will not be a problem.

Hmm, does this mean I need to FRAPS everything? o.O This might take up some serious hard disk! I might look into if there are any streaming programs that don't kill my fps.
I will also be in TS btw, just because I like to chat to people 😀 However I won't be getting helped... It should be interesting to see how well it all goes!

Just upload and delete 🙂 but streaming is better, it also allows for people to join in without actually helping you 😉

I didn't really mean record it all the way, I just thought it would be interesting to know how long it takes. As a general comparison to before.

Hmm i think no franken chopper.
If we're looking at a basic new player experience, then getting sprint VI straight away is a huge difference. Obviously no hand me downs either, so no crafting toolkits from your other toons - though i don't object to cabal mates giving you stuff, but probably shouldn't ask for it ^^

Hmm, what do we think about investigation missions? Normally, I'd just race through em as I know where to go already and they're great xp. If we were new, we wouldn't have that unless we were using TSWDB. Thoughts?

Does not matter, as this is about speed to beat GK. New players will not know a lot of things about the game, they will stop and see cutscenes, explore just to see what is around the hill etc. Spoilers could be a bigger concerns with investigation missions. And to be honest I barely remember them, I have not leveled any toons lately, so don't think I have an advantage over new players using TSWDB.

To beat GK, I'm going to have to group - I can't do elites solo after all. Am I allowed access to sanctuary or just LFG?

Yes elites were mentioned in the OP 😝 I'd suggest LFG just to see if you can get a group, issue 12 should bring more people back to the game after all.

Finding a dungeon group via LFG tool is not a problem, if you afraid about that. I completed all normal and elite dungeons this way. People who say that nobody uses LFG tool are... misinformed.

No one uses LFG for NM. For normal elite, some people do, but not that much.

OK rule summary

Time is measured as total time played from character is created and until GK is dead.
The sessions are streamed or recorded and uploaded to Youtube, sessions are then used to measure total time
No franken chopper and sprint 6
No sending items from alts

Additional rules for AWOL
No grouping until Elite dungeons
LFG tool is used to find group for elite dungeons, if no group pops for 30min Sanctuary can be used

This is a very cool thing!

Since I am levelling Mortypants (my ODO toon) atm (level 6...7 is so close!) and haven't done any normal or elite dungeons with him as yet, would be happy to help DPS for those whenever needed.

I agree that the LFG is underrated. Using that for another character, I was able to go through all but two of the elite dungeons in a day, my cabal helped me with the other two, and then I beat the gatekeeper two days later. Also met some really great people.

Good luck to you both. 🙂

Well, i'll be seeing how the new social system works for elites i guess! Hlop will be asking for groups in cabal i guess, so keep your eyes open 🙂

Yeah... I'll trying to get people for groups using all tools known to me. Which is a lot less than what it probably sounds like 😝 As we have LFG tool, cabal, noobmares and sanctuary in-game as well as twitter out of game, which might be a very good idea to use for those who are into RP to schedule some sessions during leveling.

I did this race already with this character last week and was just aiming for Kaidan permissions,
Which I got under 24 hours intense playtime (started 1:00 pm cest and finished ~ 4:00 am) , a few hours later (only counting game time)
I beat the GK on my second try on fury
Without using any item from my alt.

Thanks again for the help during the elites guys !

OK, so AWOLish has got through GateKeeper with 27 hours 15 mins played - no using cabal or friends, and no group content until elites.

All the elite groups were found using the new Social Window and about 2 call-outs in LFG. It was much quicker to get the elite groups than I'd expected tbh. Everyone was really friendly, but there weren't any offers of advice or anything - possibly because I already knew what I was doing.

All in all, it's been a fun experience. I'll stitch the videos together on youtube - there are some which are only a few mins long due to my system crashing repeatedly, but it should all be there!

28h4m14s with /played

27h49m47s that I've recorded manually

Grats to AWOL!

I was not prepared to Tank GK as I did not expect it to be so "removed from reality" compared to actual tanking. But even then, had not our great cabalies boosted me through elites today, I would have been even further behind as my character was not ready for PuG elites with regard to gear or skills.

So in the end of the day it seems best strategy to join a cabal early on for company and advice, but grind alone until you have skills close enough and then get boosted and have all the skills and abilities by the time elites are done.

To be honest, this was not at all the result I'd expected. Thinking about it though, it does make sense - time you spend interacting socially, whilst beneficial to your overall experience of the game, often gets in the way of actual xp grinding.

I think it has to do with how trivial combat is during leveling, so there is no real benefit to grouping, you can also go for long periods of time without gear upgrades even solo. So there is no trade of, like if you go solo it would take significantly longer to finish quests, while in groups you would finish them quicker as a benefit for spending time grouping. TSW is pretty much a solo game until endgame.

It was very interesting to see though, as even better gear from dungeons was not a benefit because my progress was stopped by the way difficulty is calculated and xp rewarded in TSW. This is at least not as extreme as WildStar where mobs 3 lvls above you would get a buff so you can barely hit them, while they shredded you, but still it forces you to avoid challenge.

I think that you also have to take in to account that your levelling and progression as quite linear. Your ultimate goal was to go from 0 -> GK in as little amount of time as possible. Where are other people may want to run dungeons, test out weapons and explore lore/story intermittently.

My 1st go through was on Elrojo and TBH it was slow as hell. It took a very long time to even get elites done. I had a very crummy deck and had no idea about optimisation of builds and so forth. Not having an experienced cabal at the time, certainly meant that I was left without much guidance. Often advice given was incorrect or absent. It wasn't until I was adopted by a few guys in my time zone who let me in on their 18's when they were 1 short. I remember being super impressed at their 1900 DPS etc.

So I would say that solo is going to be faster as you can be very selfish and determined about what you want to achieve. When you already know what decks to equip as early as possible then most builds and skill can make up for the curve as content becomes more difficult. I remember dying a whole bunch in the Moon Bog and in the hell region of SC, simply because I didn't know where else to go and my decks and skill were low. I mean you literally go to hell in SC, but its the hardest part of the PF. This knowledge gap certainly slowed me down a hell of a lot more than when I went the 2nd time on LadiesKnight.

I would say its also dependent on the player themselves. Good MMO players tend to ask a lot of questions, take time to learn mechanics, do their research and ultimately improve quickly. If the player is receptive to advice and takes it on board then the leg up they would get finding out about gear and synergy will more than make up for some slower levelling.

Still, a very worthwhile exercise and you can be thankful that TSW allows solo progression more than games like Anarchy Online, where its almost impossible to be a new player and progressing solo.

I suspect that a social player is more likely to establish the connections which will lead to long term play.
Solo players (may) burn through content, get to nms and may have learned about builds and gear, but I think many of them don't. It's not really something which slows you too much any more - pre New Player Experience it did, but now hlop was finishing Beaumont in ql3 blues.

I think that the long term conclusions are tricky to pin down, but it was fascinating to see!