returning vet player after some help!

[zornyan]

Hi all, I'm an old AO fan that used to play rather extensively back in 2002-2005, spent a ton of hours on this game as I was only 14 at the time, unfortunately I ended up leaving because someone in-game decided to email me a Trojan virus and keylogger, stealing my account and robbing all my characters blind (had 3 level 120-170 chars and a couple lower leveled )leaving every character but naked and all my items and cash gone.

It was a heart breaking event, and it ultimately left a bitter feeling, but now I've got a pc again I decided to give it a whirl, managed to email funcom and the brilliant staff there managed to track down my account (with the limited info I could remember) and get everything handed back to me.

Well I'm after some help catching up on the last 10 odd years, things are all new again, my main is an enforcer at level 167, and I have a meta and an engineer at levels 110-140.

Obviously they have zero gear, so what would be my best starting position? What big changes have happened to the leveling / progression system? Last time I played shadowlands was fairly new, and I remember grinding to try and get to the 220 cap.

Appreciate any advice, looking forward to playing again!

[Awikun]

Welcome back
Biggest change in leveling is daily missions as they give huge XP reward but can be done only once every 18 hours.
Daily missions agencies are in Rome (for Omnis) or Old Athens (for Clans). Neutrals can pick from any of those.

Look for Callos2 videos/guides on youtube they are plenty of guides you'll find usefull.
Also try to do pvp daily missions everyday. You ll be killed a lot but you will earn Victory Points which you can use to buy different Ofab armor parts.

[Sancus]

Welcome back!
I would suggest starting something new and get familiar with the gameplay as it is today. Profession wise, maybe something that is required at team play close the ending levels?
This should help you to get more teams and get experienced faster.
Of course you can play the current characters you have, if so i would suggest getting into a guild suiting your faction, as that will help quite a bit.

Hope any of this helped you!
Sancus

[zornyan]

Welcome back
Biggest change in leveling is daily missions as they give huge XP reward but can be done only once every 18 hours.
Daily missions agencies are in Rome (for Omnis) or Old Athens (for Clans). Neutrals can pick from any of those.

Look for Callos2 videos/guides on youtube they are plenty of guides you'll find usefull.
Also try to do pvp daily missions everyday. You ll be killed a lot but you will earn Victory Points which you can use to buy different Ofab armor parts.

Ah so missions are worthwhile now? I remember just grinding being viable back in the day , subway to 25? Then somewhere interim, then bprgs? Little circle place in the middle of nowhere standing on a roof with my pets killing stuff.

The last place was shadowlands , near some water, lots of large rock type giant mobs that took days to level up grinding.

Pvp all I recall was the arena area which I used to enjoy with my fixer, and the clan owned areas with towers and defence etc.

These new daily missions solo able? And what kind of xp we talking at say level 175? Half a levels worth?

[vitriolic-v]

There are several types of dailies available:
1) Regular, which are almost always soloable. Doable by "froob" (probably right around or after when you left, playing AO for free became a thing, with access only to classic AO and Notum Wars content; the words "free" and "noob" were put together to make "froob," the implication being that free players were new people just trying the game out, though there are "froobs" who are veterans) players.
2) Elite, which have several phases that give big chunks of XP, but take place in dungeons mostly and are best done in a team (though certainly soloable by some classes in most cases). Doable by froobs as well.
3) Barkeeper -- behind the curtain in the antiques shop in Borealis is a man named John Smith who gives you a choice of one of several different possible dailies, involving Battlestations (aside from towers, Tara, etc this is the other mass PVP option; arenas still exist but are seldom used), tower fields, killing guards, or a 15-30 minute stay at an illegal notum mining operation killing level 1 NPCs. Doable by froobs, even though the Victory Points rewards are useless to them. They still have a daily XP reward that makes it compelling for froobs.
4) DOJA -- certain mobs in SL drop DOJA chips, which can be turned in at Jobe Research in Nascence. (Do "/tell aquest !doja" for a list of what to go after, helpfully sorted by level range.)
5) Alien dailies -- in the mission agency building where you get regular and elite dailies, there's an alien wing where you get AI dailies for alien XP. For missions that are entered from the alien playfield, there is a handy teleporter in the agency building.

At early levels, all of these give a guaranteed level, with the exception of the elite daily, which I'm going to say gives maybe about five levels. At later levels, it tapers off. I don't have any exact numbers, but my feeling is that I started getting just under one level from regular dailies around level 80-100, and closer to three levels from elites around that time as well. As I recall, around 150, all of them together might give two levels.

Pets no longer have a /hunt command, so no afk farming XP. Nanotechnicians have filled this in with their AOE attacks, with cyborgs chasing them around while they nuke, and the players being leveled sit somewhere safe or float in a yalm. In SL, this is done with hecklers (those are the "large rock type giant mobs" you remember), while a high level (unkillable by the hecklers being farmed) enforcer uses mongo to hold aggro, because actually attacking gray mobs in SL causes them to run away now.

You might like to roll a new character -- not reroll, just make a new one -- just to see what has changed. The current starter area is Arete Landing, which I like, but some people say hasn't changed things enough. I suggest doing every quest and looking around for sidequests, and doing "/tell aquest !help" and clicking "quests" to get a list of everything there is to do there. Also, the Subway has been revamped somewhat. Mobs patrol around, have been moved around to accommodate the elite daily done in the Subway, and Abmouth's exploitable pathing has been fixed so you actually have to be capable of killing him fairly now. Oh, and "Illegally Modified Ofab _____" weapons have been added to the cybernetic mobs' loot tables, providing really good expansion-only early-levels weapons. TOTW is pretty much the same, but there are elite daily mission kill targets in it. Same with Biomare, which you may know colloquially as "Foremans," and Crypt of Home, Inner Sanctum, etc.

There is new content as of the last time you were here at end-game. Dust Brigade stuff may or may not be new to you. The Legacy of the Xan booster pack, which once you had to make a one-time-payment to get, but I'm not sure if that is still the case, adds new stuff for TL7 players.

There are composite buffs that didn't exist when you were last here. Now, you no longer have to do Boost Agility, Boost Stamina, Boost Strength, etc, but cast Composite Attribute Boost, which lasts for four hours -- much more convenient. There is one for melee, melee special, ranged, ranged special, tradeskill, and "utility" (B&E, computer literacy, treatment, first aid, etc).

Your best gear path is probably, as mentioned above, Ofab around 50 QLs higher than your level (you could equip higher, if you had all the necessary buffing equipment), implants (you can roll easy missions, loot implants and clusters, find a friendly tradeskiller to make them, just to get started before you have the credits to buy higher ones), and weapons either borrowed from or farmed by org-mates. Check the forums for profession-specific guides (you'll have to make sure forum settings are set to show older posts).

Org bots are probably a lot better than you last saw them. In your organization's channel, do !help to see what commands are available. If you're not in an organization (yet), "/tell aquest !help" for the same functions.

I think the LFT interface is newer than your last play date. There is a "team" button in the default UI toward the bottom right. Click it for a popout, and hit "looking for team" to list yourself as available for play. Others in your level range will be able to see you, depending on their settings -- it can be constrained by side, location, profession, with pulldowns along the top. I keep it to any/any/all, personally.

[Anonimofied]

join a good org make some friends play with others, don't do like I did, play solo because for normal ppl they will get bored to death