Support Guidance for new players - Massachusetts

Hello,

I would like to mention some information which I myself find useful to be shared with a certain part of new players.
I shall talk, from my personal modest experience and knowledge of the game so far, about various features and mechanics of the game.


§. Take your time to explore, understand and customize Settings: you can do this even in character selection window when you should click every single tab bar and see all available options for you.

§. Customize various Settings for a better game experience:
Game Settings:
- you are getting new equipment almost non-stop and seeing such info is almost useless, thus you may wish to disable this kind of notifications;
Graphic Settings:
-customize accordingly with your FPS perception until you can play the game with no heavy loads on your device;
-turning everything off will still preserve a good quality when you play in full screen mode
-you can toggle to full screen by pressing F12 or the button displayed on the top-right corner of the client
Keyboard Settings:
-fully customize all keys for quick slots, mount, teleport, swap essence, character attributes, quests, skills, inventory, map, social features, events, chat;
-there is also a second way to access many of these features by clicking certain buttons, found on the top of the client
Combat Settings:
-numbers related to damage are plain useless and as such you may disable the battle texts
-disable auto-equip essence
-choose to display equipment effects only for yourself or group

§. Do quests steadily, map by map. Do not enter a new map unless all quests for your current map are done.
There is a linearity within the quest line, so you cannot accidentally skip any map.
If you need further help with any quest, you can activate a quest guiding path: simply click any quest objective.

§. After you finished all quests in a certain area, use Teleport to go back to the last establishment you visited.
There is no need to kill all monsters you encounter. Do your quests only!
Use the Travel Stone do go to any other map that you already visited. You may unlock new destinations (i.e. new Travel Stones) going by foot or riding a mount to the next map.

§. Keep an eye out for free chests (with various appearances as you progress through the Capitols of the game). They are likely to reward you with Lockpicks, which you will probably use in the end-game to open more prestigious chests for valuable loot.​

§. Whenever you open your Inventory, you may wish to sort it first by clicking this button.

§. You may wish to further expand your inventory.
Buy extra space for 1200 Andermant. Further space can be acquired easily by subscribing to a Membership.
Otherwise, you can expand the inventory by spending Andermant.

§. Choose at your own discretion.

§. All information about Memberships can be reviewed here.

§. Before level 15, reveal and equip any Item (except for two-handed weapons) with higher CV (Combat Value) than your current items, regardless of its color. Keep using an one-handed weapon and a defensive off hand item.

§. After level 15, you should reveal only Blue, Purple, Orange and Yellow items - all being of higher rarity and quality than the green items.

§. Let all green Items left unrevealed (with the ? on them), sort your Inventory and sell them right away to any NPC, usually to the Blacksmith.

§. Blue, Purple and Orange Items which you don't need (i.e. you find them to be weaker, compared with your current Gear), can be melted down to receive glyphs of power. This can be done at the Blacksmith in any establishment. Use the glyphs to upgrade a certain Item (e.g. your weapon etc.) level and its base stats, but not its enchantments.

§. Rarity, by colors and names:
Green = your gold income
Blue = Magic
Purple = Extraordinary
Orange = Legendary
Yellow = Unique, for set Item

§. You should change your currency bag to show your current amount of glyphs. The higher the item's rarity, the higher amount of glyphs you're going to need to upgrade it.

§. Glyphs can be safely extracted from upgraded items so you can use them later on.

§. As you level up, you unlock new Skills in your "Skills and Talents" window.
You don't have to use all your skills. Just choose the ones which best suits your playstyle.
Also, you receive 1 Talent Point per Level.

§. You can use Talent Points to unlock Extra Effects for each of your skills.
Talent Points are not lost once used. You can reclaim them by clicking the Extra Effect you no longer wish to have, or reclaim them all by clicking this button.

§. Every Skill has up to 3 Extra Effects, unlocked at certain levels.
Under each Effect, is mentioned the number of Talent Points you would need to use that Effect.

§. You can activate any combinations of available Extra Effects. You don't have to activate them all, just choose the ones which best suits your playstyle.

§. You will eventually enter Boss chambers, like Heredur, Bearach, Khalys, Herald etc.
Note what level does the Boss have. If you are not higher with +2 levels, then leave and keep progressing through the quest line.

§. You will return when your level is higher than the Boss level with +2.
Beforehand, buy white essence in large stocks from any "Alchemist and Essence Merchant".
From the same merchant, buy some healing potions (minimum 5).
Choose 1 type and stay with it - sell any other type of potions.
Drag the white essence here and use it only when fighting vs Boss.
You also need to drag you healing potions here.
You can disable the essence usage momentarily by clicking that curve arrow.

§. Kill the Boss over and over again, until your are with +4 levels higher than the Boss' level.
The moment you reach this level difference of +4, leave and resume the quest line.

§. Do the same whenever you encounter a Boss (except for Bearach, because it has the same level with Khalys, 25, and except for Arachna, because it trolls your level; 27 is neither 25 nor 30)(these 2 can be each killed up to 5-8 times the moment you encounter them; afterwards, resume questing).
Exception: whenever there is an Event ongoing, kill the Event Boss as if it was the concurrent Boss found through the quest line.

§. Any Boss is an exp source, but it preferable to play into an experience-wise progression, so your level does not grow too high compared with the lowest level of your quests - and this is because the quests' markers are gone at a certain level difference.

§. Farming in this way will lower the exp you get from the Boss - because you want to kill it a lot of times with slow level progression, and that's because you receive Wisdom as loot.
In that picture, the Wisdom book is the most important loot, despite the Legendary Item or the Mystic Cube.

§. You can spend Wisdom to further improve your character stats, regardless of your Gear!

§. It is essential to do all available daily quests because you receive Wisdom and other important rewards.

§. Here the Premium and Deluxe Membership are very useful, as you can change between various daily quests for free.

§. Regarding the PvP Daily Quest, always select "Play Battlegrounds" 2 or 4, as you only have to join 2 or 4 duels, and not necessarily win a single fight.

§. After the duel is concluded, you will be rewarded with "Honor Talent Points". These can be used in the "Honor" tab of your "Skills and Talent window".
It is preferable to increase either the amount of further honor points received, or to increase the damage dealt vs your opponent.
Assuming you could win duels, then you also should take a red quest available in Kingshill, which rewards Andermant for winning duels.

§. Whenever you finish a daily quest from a column, check if there is any further quest available in that same column.

§. You are likely to loot various types of gems. Also, Mystic Cubes are very rewarding in terms of Gems with quality 2-6.
Gems can be further upgraded by using a Workbench (map symbol), preferably located next to any Jeweler.
If you are lacking 1 or more lower grade gems to create a very high grade gem, you may wish to buy those lower gems from the game shop.

Unfortunately, crafting gems is restricted nowadays (and for no reason I might add), unless you have a crafting recipe, obtainable from a ridiculous quest with Painful or higher prerequisites.

For this reason, I recommend to safely deposit all gems of quality 1-4 into the Locker, but even this requires extra room in the normal Locker or an extra Locker granted by Membership.
Add any 5-6 quality gems to your equipment's free slots.

§. You can safely remove gems from your gear (at the Jeweler) and equip the gems again on any item with free slots whenever you wish.

§. Make yourself familiar with the Drakensang Forum.

§. Follow and save the Drakensang Facebook page.

No more editing.

Have a nice day and please do take care!
Best Wishes,

 

Drakensang Online Guide

Cheers.

 

Hello,

I hope it is ok if I created this thread here, in the Speaker's Corner.
This is intended more like a list of tips for that "certain part of new players", and here I explicitly refer to the players from Silver Sword.
I assumed I cannot create this thread under "Guild Introductions".
I tried to contact you beforehand, but I couldn't find any way to do so.

 

Hello @recomandari ,

It is OK, but there is no really need for it because players almost never read older threads. They are always starting new thread for any question they need to ask.
Apart form getting answers on regular basis, players can use:
- Our Forum Guide and our dedicated Forum Section
- Drakensang Online Wiki


Cheers.

 

Hi @Mal3ficent,

I see your point, but yesterday, when I went to the search bar, I typed variations like "new player", "tips", "guidance", "help" etc., and no appropriate thread for general help (not specialized help, like class etc.) could be found.
Now this thread is discoverable through those key words.

Also, thank you for sharing this link:

It is a very instructive reading.

P.S. Any chance to change the title from "new players" to "Guidance for new player"? It looks like the search bar is accepting text only as strictly written: a search for "new player" doesn't lead to a thread with the title "new players".
Thank you in advance.

Best Wishes,

 

@recomandari ,

These threads are intentionally made inside dedicated corners. They have been made 'sticky' on purpose, so the players would find them easily. No search is needed, because the players should read everything inside.
Also, I would like to point out that this kind of threads, your thread in example, cannot be made by players. Players need to create such threads and guides externally. The only guides allowed on this board are the official guides made by moderators. All other guides made by players can only be linked inside threads/posts.
We cannot police someone's thread if it is edited constantly.

Cheers.

 

I am sorry. I see now that I was hindering you with constant editing. Please excuse me. I am now ceasing all editing.

You are correct of course.
Please remove this thread or proceed as you see fit. I have no objections.

I am very sorry for all the trouble. Your Forum is quite exciting, somehow it was inviting me to write.

 

Please do not suggest to new players that they should use the CV (combat system) for anything, let alone to judge what gear to use.

If you had played this game for more than a minute, you would know that this worthless system is only designed to confuse new players.

 

This is rather strange, because CV system did not fail me so far. When in doubt, I personally compared the items to check CV's system validity, and the new item - with higher CV, was indeed better overall.

 

Because you are not familiar with the system.
A simple example:
you are running a tank in 5v5 and you are carrying the flag ... you have 2 options:
1. Boots with 5 trillion damage and 5 trillion CV
2. Boots with 40% travel speed and 40 CV
Which one is better?
same goes for attack speed and resources (concentration, steam, mana , rage)

 

Option 1. Kill everyone with 5 trillion dmg and deliver the flag safely.

 

Exactly ... except you will kill no one they will smash you like a fly.
Until you ready your 5 trillion damage hit ... which will hit nobody ... you will be stabbed to death by mosquitoes.

 

Read this and all the links provided therein.

https://board-en.drakensang.com/threads/combat-value.71048/

 

Hi there,
I trust you are doing splendidly and enjoying the season.

The threads you have linked above claim that the CV system is not necessary 100% accurate in estimating the power of an item, which is likely to be true. Perhaps sometimes CV says that 2+3=8, but this is definitely a rare occurrence, otherwise the CV system would be already disabled.
Afterwards, there are only suggestions and some 10th grade algebraic - and none of them of any interest to a new player.

However, combined with the Sort Inventory and Reveal Item features, the CV system is 100% efficient in helping the player to instantly assess his loot, and to quickly equip any item which apparently (1% error) has better stats than his currently equipped gear, and this info is nicely and clearly mentioned by the CV system into a single value.
Comparing 2 numbers or even better - 2 arrows, red and green, is very convenient because in matter of seconds, the player has reviewed all his loot after a great work of Hack and Slash and now he is ready to resume the game, having equipped better equipment overall (99%).
Perhaps his stats are now somewhat lower than previously, but that's irrelevant as long as he enjoys progressing through the game rather than wasting all his time with constantly checking all his loot, with great care - not to "lose" any value, which in fact is pure greed and has nothing to do with entertainment purposes, and even worse: this process actually takes a lot of time - to carefully compare how stats are changing accordingly with items which in player's perception are "better", "stronger" etc.

CV system is a very good feature for the Hack and Slash game model, and a good business model as well, due to its rapidity and accessibility.
Whatever "misleading" and "subjective" numbers you may find are completely irrelevant. The player's interest cannot be wasted on an extended comparison between items recently looted, which will be replaced soon enough anyway by the next loot (higher level, possible higher quality, certainly higher CV).

The Official Guide also claims there is nothing wrong with the overall stats development - the character is growing stronger by increasing its CV.

I will no longer discuss the subject of the CV. Please create a suggestion thread for any concerns regarding it.

Critical arguments:

​

Conclusion:

Taking into account that 2019 is almost here, I am quite disappointed to see no development whatsoever regarding this issue.​

Have a nice day and please do take care.
Best Wishes,

 

If you believe everything you read, you have got to hear about this private island I'm selling.


Now that I've got the humor and sarcasm out of the way, allow me to introduce myself. I'm one of the most knowledgeable players on the forums when it comes to the math behind this game.

They didn't link you the best threads on the topic. Allow me.

Back when the CV system was released over three years ago, I did an in-depth analysis of what was wrong with the system from an objective mathematical perspective while another well respected forum contributor (long live BigPapa, I miss your voice of reason) wrote a detailed explanation of the issues with the system from a subjective perspective. In my post, I even went so far as to detail a system that would have accurately reflected the relative power between two characters (using a 2 number offensive/defensive metric)… that was three years ago, but the system is the same today as the day they launched it. Unfortunately, the developers didn't even try to polish the turd they gave us. Instead, they've left us a system that is useless at best, and downright misleading at worst.



I appreciate that you are new to the game and you don't even know how much you don't know, but take it from an expert: The system is best ignored entirely.


One final parting though. Almost all good characters will have a "good" CV, but not all bad characters will have a "bad" CV. Instead of trusting BigPoint (a company that can't even properly balance PvP) on what is "good" for your character, figure it out for yourself, or take advantage of the work left behind by someone who has done the heavy lifting for you.