Shattered Kingdoms

All right.

So I would call myself a seasoned player. Not ancient, seasoned. Almost five years and I think I can figure out how to level. I decided I would try the new leveling system and at first I loved it. You can get to journeyman so quickly!

But then you get nearer to expert and its as if a wall hits you. Suddenly, it takes HOURS and HOURS and HOURS to get a single level. And this is expert. This isn't grandmaster. Its become grinding at its worst. And I tried to reason, saying it was probably the class or the area, but it isn't I've tried THREE characters now and I'm still having just teeth-clenching issues.

So what's wrong with what I'm doing? I'm going to opposite auras. I'm leveling on things equal to or just tougher than me. Why does it take an ENTIRE DAY for me to obtain ONE level now (others may find it easier, but its become honestly this for me) when I'm only Expert 1? Perhaps its because I'm by myself when leveling. But either case, I understand Dulrik's reasons for curving levels. But my god. Can you do it at a higher level? I mean expert for some is when you're JUST getting good leveling spells or skills.

Could the learning curve be set at master? Why? Because I believe you said no one should have any other reason to get anywhere beyond master. Make it ungodly difficult at master onward then. But my goodness. Mid-Veteran to Expert?

EDIT1: The way it is right now just isn't worth it. And that's from someone who enjoys leveling characters. No progress after hours just isn't worth it at all.

EDIT2: PS: I love the new questing system.

I tried the new leveling system too. I leveled slow the first few levels, then sped up right quick and slowed down around veteran. Once I hit expert though I sped up again, all the way to master. Some key features I found to leveling is using bonanza's for your advantage. I didn't try to level hard until the days you get extra expee. I also exploited the best areas at the best times for my character. I did not save up any areas for when I hit champion or master. All in all, the leveling curve is fine imho.

At first I wasn't use to it. I always lvled up in like two or three areas till master, then hit ToM till gm. My first char coming back I hit master in 100 hours, but after a third char, I hit master at 60 hours. You just need to explore more areas and use it to your advantage. Btw, discovery xp is really useful at certain points. I used it for appr 5 and vet 5 lvls. All in all, the system is not too bad, I would still prefer the old one, but that's because it was too easy to lvl.

Personally. I flew through my levels, It took me about 35 hours to hit Expert4 or so.. I'm only Mentor(2) now and I'm stacking 81 hours behind me. Levelling at Mentor and above, I agree, has been turned pretty much into straight grinding. I've tried several different methods, and am finding as many areas as I can, but still have trouble.

Then again, I always found the last 10-15 levels the hardest even before the change

I did something different this time too, i reached master veeerrrrrrry quickly, then, I did all my quests through master, and used tlaxcala through champ, worked out fine:P

I beat my record of 60 hrs to Mentor with 32 hrs :/ but after that, I was headed to master extremely slowly. No quests or anything like that, It was just pure grinding. Also it was a fighter class, now Im playing a caster class and its hell. I mean 40 hrs to jman.... I can not imagine what its going to be like mentor-master. IMO the curve helped some class' and screwed the others.

That isn't exactly correct. Casters (Especially priests) have always leveled slower than other classes given players of equal skill, due to the reliance upon spells that casters have in leveling, while fighters can just kill one NPC right after another without needing to rest as often.

In my opinion one of the biggest things is that its much harder to dark-auras to level as compared to light-auras for the levels affected by this change: There's no ToM OR (insert demon city) for dark-auras, nothing even comes -close- to being comparable. Add in the fact that you're leveling a caster, and things start getting even more mind-numbingly slow, and THEN you hit the familiarity gap because there's no Expert-and-beyond area for darkies that lets you gain even one level's worth of experience without gaining at least one tick in familiarity.

This is so true.

Again. Influential Cha, Opposite aura killing, new leveling areas are currently meaning nothing. Can someone maybe give me a tip? Or am I right to say that the curve needs a little tweak?

At expert I always pounded away at the Chancel and Garazul. It was slow, but fairly steady.

solution..

play elves.
and do quests.