Albion Online

[Cakedaddy]

Spent a few hours traveling with Stranger. He took me into the more dangerous parts of the world and we saw some good action.

He kept pressuring me into the PvP areas and I was reluctant. But when we won our first fight, I was ready for more. I think we ended the night 3:3.

The PvP we were doing was the safe PvP. You don't lose anything, and only the victors get to loot the dungeon chest. The first fight, I know I left a bunch of damage undone because I'm a newb. As we progressed, I got better, but still need to get better.

The PvP is legit. Very fast paced. Must use tactics, focus fire, manage energy and cool downs, etc. It seemed pretty good at pairing you with enemies. 1 out of the 6 fights was no contest with them hammering us. Other fights came down to 10% health buffers. Just barely winning or losing. We were often out classed as far as equipment (they had better stuff), but with our tactics and/or builds, we stayed competitive.

The PvE was standard hack n slash level fun with the fights going quick and lots of enemies to plow through to get to the chests. The dungeons were were in were easy for us. But they were profitable, for me at least. He let me loot 90% of the stuff. We even hooked up with a random large party and cleared a larger group dungeon with pretty good loot payout.

I liked the balance of action, risk, and reward. The risk was low. Worst thing that happened was our gear was damaged (but can't be destroyed), and/or we couldn't loot the chests at the end. Action was fun and felt balanced. 2 of the 3 fights we lost were so close and I would have been really happy with a rematch. 1 out of the 3, they were just way too strong. But it didn't bother me because it was still fun. There was one fight where we just couldn't take out their healer. So close a couple of times though. And eventually, they got stranger, so that left me in a 1 v 2 situation. That's when their brawler stopped fighting, and left me and the mage to 1 v 1. We went back and forth and I ended up getting him, but was so low that their brawler took me out with a hit or two. But I liked the sportsmanship, or maybe they were just toying with me and didn't expect my damage burst at the end. Don't know. But at least I was able to kill the mage!

I like that I've only got maybe 16 hours in the game, with a LOT of that just fishing and resource gathering, but I'm already competitive in some PvP scenarios. I would LOVE a stat breakdown after fights with damage dealt, etc, so I knew how effective I am. But for now, I'm just assuming that Stranger is doing most of the work.

For combat, there are 7 keys to manage. Q, W, D, R, D, F, 1 are mapped to your hot bar with your spells and potion. Just need more practice for the muscle memory to take hold. More practice for a better feel for cool downs and remembering to keep the spells rolling as soon as they are up.

Fun stuff so far. Including our trip through Satan's butt hole.

[TheCatt]

Finally got Level 3 gear. Did a dungeon, got stuck on the final boss. Did another dungeon, joined up with random person, we cleared it.

[Cakedaddy]

They have twitch drops that reward you with skins and tokens and emotes. No idea of the value of these items. I have it running in the background.

[TheCatt]

Finished the tutorials. I'm still a bit unclear on learning points and such.

[Cakedaddy]

num-lock is Auto run.

[Cakedaddy]

From what I understand, learning points are shortcuts. You earn them passively by playing. I don't know the rate for free to play people. Once you reach a certain amount of points for a skill, you are able to spend learning points to bump you to the next level immediately. I have not used any, because I don't know how fast I get them and learning at the low levels seems pretty quick, and I don't know if I'm doing what I really want to.

[TheCatt]

From what I understand, learning points are shortcuts. You earn them passively by playing. I don't know the rate for free to play people. Once you reach a certain amount of points for a skill, you are able to spend learning points to bump you to the next level immediately. I have not used any, because I don't know how fast I get them and learning at the low levels seems pretty quick, and I don't know if I'm doing what I really want to.

Yeah, got it now. So you can advance a skill at only 20% using learning points, instead of building the whole thing. I accidentally set some stuff to atuolearn, and now I have no points

I keep finding mats I cannot harvest. Guess I need to level up the earlier skils and get better gear?

Are you doing premium?

[Cakedaddy]

Better gear is needed to harvest some materials. Higher skill is needed to use better gear. Use low tier gear on low tier resources. Then upgrade as your skill increases.

I will hit the market and look for the tool I need to be able to harvest them. Say, a tier 5 pick axe to mine Titanium (or something). When I click on the Tier 5 pick axe, it says at the bottom that I can't equip it. Click on the 'i' next to that, and it will tell you what skill you need to use it. It will probably be some level of the pick axe skill. So, you can use pick axes, you just need to level up that skill to use the better axes. I upgrade to the next Tier as soon as I can and harvest the harder stuff to maximize skill gain. So you aren't learning 'new' skills to use the better items as much as you are leveling up the current skill to use the better items.

There are also books you can find/buy that give you instant famed (XP) for anything you have equipped. I've seen 1k and 10k fame point books. The 10k books are about 16k silver. They warn you "Make sure you have the proper gear equipped before using". So I'm assuming you equip the pick axe, instead of a weapon. But you'll also learn whatever shoe type, shirt type, etc. Everything you have equipped gets 10k points.

[TheCatt]

Got it. Still in a T3 world.

[Cakedaddy]

Also, not doing premium.

[TheCatt]

Got PKed in a yellow region, so I don't think I lose anything except the 3 minutes it takes to revive?

Do yall join factions?

Should I leave Lymhurst for somewhere else?

[Cakedaddy]

I had someone take shots at me as I ran by on my horse, but it didn't amount to anything. That's the only consensual PvP I've seen. Was also in a yellow zone. But ya. From what I understand, you didn't lose anything. Maybe some reputation? And it would take 5% off your equipment health that you'll have to pay to repair.

I have not done factions.

I don't know the benefits of one area over another. We are in Highland, so being there would make it easier to join our dungeon runs and stuff.

[Cakedaddy]

I'm making about 100k per hour fishing in tier 5 zones. I'm running into Martlock to sell everything. I was just using a fishing pole. I just bought a full fisherman's outfit and the consumable buffs and will try with those next to see how much of an improvement there is.

[TheCatt]

you'll have to pay to repair.

That sure gets pricey fast sometimes.

I'm making about 100k per hour fishing in tier 5 zones.

That's a shitton of $$. I don't think I've made $100k total yet. Certainly not net of repair my shit fees.

[TheCatt]

Alright, I moved. I tried to travel plan go with just my top tier 4 resources, but it would have cost all my monies. So I sold everything, and it still cost $18k.

[TheCatt]

Cake, I bought premium, so your wife might get 500 gold or something?

It also never occurred to me to just buy level 4/5 gear. I've been running level 3 like an idiot, and the one piece of T4 I found. Also bought an ox.

[Stranger]

Do yall join factions?

Im currently factioned with Thetford, the swamp people. You can change up factions at will but you lose some of the rep you built up with the current. You flag up whenever you want but you can PvP in any region. Same loot rules apply. You basically go around and take the bases on the map with the flags on them. You build up rep with the faction and can buy faction specific stuff with it. We should all chose the same faction to join so we can run together.

I'm currently in Caerleon, the capital city in the middle of the map. made it no problem through 3 red zones to get there. I feel most people arent really out to gank. Ive got basic T5 gear on and even did a solo dungeon in a red zone, went a little slow but i finished it.

[TheCatt]

You basically go around and take the bases on the map with the flags on them.

Ah, so that's what those mean.

We should all chose the same faction to join so we can run together.

I chose the town that Cake told me to move to.

I'm scared to leave yellow Wearing T5 gear that's like 40% of my net worth.

[Stranger]

Gotta earn back some silver, spending 600K on a full T7 set is heafty.

[Stranger]

I chose the town that Cake told me to move to.

What town is that? Martlock? i dont mind changing factions.