A new players observations and goal log

[Dolgan]

Hello everyone. I am a new player, having downloaded Andors Trail about 10 days ago.

I currently have a lvl 21 character and wanted to use the forums to give feedback and record my Progress.

I really like the game a lot. But there are some quests where I wonder why award so much experience, like the 'Flows through the veins' quest.

For a quest where you just have to speak to a few people and takes about 15 minutes to do with no combat, 15k seems a very big reward

Also I think some quests might be best if the person who gives you the quest, also warns you if you are a lot lower than is ideal for the quest, like saying, 'You will find it hard given your inexperience' at some point at the start of the quest dialogue, so the player has fair warning it might be too tough for them.

I like the levelling up early on and think it is well balanced, with a lot of areas to choose from to kill things. Just do not dive headlong into quests too quickly and think of the experience reward. Take time to level up outside of quests too.

I did struggle around lvl 16 to level up, but I was not aware of the Gargoyles at this point, nor had been to Flagstone prison. After a Green Maze trip in my folly, I started to read up on everything I could regarding Andor's Trail and found the best areas to go to for levelling. I had briefly read these forums when I needed help, but decided to go back to reading these forums and take in everything I could.

Tips for new players that I found useful :

- when you lvl, try to put your normal lvl bonus into damage with 1 point into attack every 5-6 levels. It has worked very well for me so far.

- Take increased fortitude at lvl 4. This will take care of your hit points for you, with no need to put level up rewards into increased hit points.

- At level 8 take Regeneration, it is a godsend for a new player at low lvls. Just find a quiet corner and have patience as the regeneration heals you. It will save you a lot of gold by you not having to buy healing potions.

- Plan ahead. Before you enter a new area, look up on here or Richard Faila's amazing Andor's Trail Directory (found here http://andorstrail.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4157). It is worth working out beforehand if you can enter that cave you just found safely or not.

- Do not get greedy at low level and bite off more than you can chew and have to die to get away (see my folly's trying to get to Remgard and explore the green maze below)

- Save the game often. I cannot stress how useful this is. You can fight a monster and kill it quickly, but fight the same monster later on and it does one critical on you and death. Remember to save your game and often and if bad luck does happen, then you do not have to go back far when you reload a saved game.

- At very early levels, try to sell any meat you get for bread. A way to save money and still be able to heal. Oh, if you are going to eat meat, then save the game before you do, in case you get poisoned from it.



I am amazed the game is free to be honest, as it fun and addictive. There were times when I struggled for money and to level up, but that was because I was not levelling in the right areas for me.

I love the quests and how the storylines are unfolding currently. I have had only one bonemeal potion so far, and felt guilty for having it. I have sided with the shadow side though in all the quest I have done to date and look forward to more content involving the battle between the Shadow and Feyguard. In this respect, and just an idea, if you support the side of Shadow, when you trade with someone allied to the Shadow, you can sell things for slightly more and be able to buy for slightly less. An conversely, when trading with someone from allied to Feyguard, have them sell to you for slightly more and buy things from you for slightly less. Make you actions and decisions in game count for a little when trading.

I also like how much you can do on Andor's Trail so far. I have not become bored at all yet and finding the game fun and challenging.

I have found the lack of variety in the helm, shield and boots department frustrating. All the other items have little nice additions on a few of them to aim for, but apart from very high level, there is nothing for shields, helms and boots. I presume this is why so many duel wield, given the shields are so very sadly lacking.


Now for more about what I have done so far, for my log, which this thread will turn out to be.

Current stats are :-

Level 21

Gold : 5k

HP: 48 AC: 167% AD 16-25 DR: 1 BC 36%
MC: 1 CS: 1 IF: 2 Reg: 1

Gear :-

Head: Fine Green Hat
Armour: Hardened Leather Shirt
Neck: Jewel of Fallhaven
Weapon: Flagstone's Pride
Shield: Wooden Defender
Rings: 2x Ring of the Guardian
Gloves: Troublemaker's Gloves
Boots: Vacor's boots of attack

I died a lot early on with the rats, not knowing about the save option (yeah, I know I should have read the instructions first). Once I found it, things were a lot easier. For the new players out there, save your game and often. It is annoying to have lost a lot of exp from dying, when you could have just gone back a few minutes in time to a saved game.

Once I completed the Rat Infestation quest, I found there were lots of places to go to do further quests. Sometimes I bit off more than I could chew, but made a note of where I could level up reasonably safely and where to avoid.

Around lvl 10, I was finding money hard to come by, until I did the Disallowed Substances quest and found the Haunted House. I stayed there for some time, killing the Skeletal Warriors for money and it allowed me to upgrade my items.

A quest all new players should do around the early to mid-teen in levels is the one at Flagstone prison, mainly for the sword, which has great stats.

I tried to see if I could get to Remgard at level 12 but turned back after the first bridge. I knew I had bitten off more than I could chew (you can laugh if you want to, lol)

Having not realised the error of my ways trying to get to Remgard, I attempted to go through the green maze at around lvl 16. I managed to make it to the Leader, but alas I was not successful in killing him after spending a day fighting him, dying and reloading. Closest I came was getting him down to 40 life, and I was on 24 when he did a critical on me. Next time I go in there, I will take more than 3 regular potions of health with me at the start and better items to increase my critical chance and finally get the armour from him.

I have currently done almost all the quests for Crossglen, Charwood, Loneford and Fallhaven.

I am currently at the Gargoyle caves, killing Shadow gargoyle trainers and masters, as the exp is slightly better than skeletal warriors at Haunted House/Flagstone Prison, and there are more of them, meaning I can level quicker without waiting for them to re-appear. Plus the small chance of a ring of lesser Shadow drop and the gold they drop all stacks up.

Gear-wise, I will be looking to upgrade my helm, shield and ring in the immediate future. Maybe getting items to increase my critical chance and have a look at fighting the Zortak Leader once again and this time bring more than 3 regular potions of health as I enter the green maze.

For my level progression skills, I have already taken, in order, Increased Fortitude, Regeneration, More Criticals (not sure taking this was a good idea yet), Combat Speed and Increased Fortitude 2.

At level 32 I will be taking Combat Speed 2 and leaving level 40 free, so at level 44 I can take Duel Wield 1 and 2 together, with a view to take Specialization in duel wield at level 48.

I am still undecided what to take at levels 24,28 and 36. I was looking into Weapon Accuracy, Hard Hit and then Cleave as an option, but every time I see someone's signature and what they have taken, I seem to be undecided. Any suggestions about what to take at these three skill levels is greatly appreciated.

Current goals, apart from levelling are upgrading the items above, try for the Serpent's Hauberk again and do the quest 'Destined for Great Things'.

Thank you for taking the time to read everything.

Stephen

[Zukero]

Hello Stephen, and welcome to the forums.

It's a great post for a first one. I am too weak as a player to give you any advice. Seeing the quality of your post and the details you gave, I'm plenty of others will jump right in and flood you with strategies you could follow.

Just so you know, implementing a complex economy in AT has been brought up many times, and while some discussions yielded very interesting results, it seems rather hard/long to implement, and is not at the highest point in our priority list.

We are also thinking about the best ways to rebalance the early stages of the game (approximately levels 1-15). Have more quests, lower a bit of the XP rewards, in order to have a smoother progression. If you have ideas or feedback about it, make sure to voice them in the "Ideas and future development" section of the forums.

We also agree on your point about the lack of items in some categories, like shields and helmets. We depend a lot on this community to create such content, not only with ideas, but with complete, ready-to-use contributions. Help on that matter will show up soon on the forums.

Thank you for your warm comments on the game, and good luck on your character's progression !

[Dolgan]

Thank you for your kind words, Zukero.

Regarding the trade, I was just thinking 1% for each quest to do with the Shadow/Feyguard storyline, capping at 5 or 10%.

I will look at the 'Ideas and Future Devlopment' section later, to make sure any ideas I bring up have not already been spoken about before.

I look forward to reading and adding to any contribution on equipment when it shows up on the forums.

If anyone does have any ideas for which skills I can take, then please feel free to post.

[Duke]

Welcome to the forum Dolgan! Great post. As far as skills go, I thnk you've done great so far (more crits is ok, but some may steer clear as some monsters are crit immune, but you will benefit with it for those that are not, but it is better than Better Crits) there a so many ways to go, but what I like to do is save up four skill points so when I reach level 30, I can use two of them on Combat Speed and two of them on Dual Wield; this is a huge milestone and beleive me, you will like not having to wait more levels to finish these. Then after that, go for cleave or something else that you like/need.
As for armor, get something that helps crits, lots of good choices that you have access to. And swap out those rings for Polished Ring of Backstabbing to really help your crit build.

EDIT: PS: get a different shield, you'll want one that isn't hurting your criticals.

[r0tt3nj4ck]

I am not advising you abandon this game save.

I suggest you start a new game and get as far as you can stand without spending any skill points.

Save.

Fork the save and add the skill points on different skills to test out different builds.

It's my strategy.

Good luck. Welcome home

Edit: for what it's worth : no matter the different build strategies I have tried, I always* put all of my levelup points on atk. AFAIK nothing else increases this except level up points.

*- on my increased fortitude/regen build I did have to spend three level up points on increasing HP so that I had the minimum for regen to level up with inc fort.

[randerthall]

Hi Stephen I love how you were able to understand the game pretty quickly and your insight to some stuff is spot on.

Based on your stats and skills I would suggest that you take Corpse Eater because it heals you after ever kill. Just make sure your damage is high enough to do so. The best ratio that I learned from the forum is this: get AC and AD.

So every 10 levels it looks like this:
1- AC
2- AC
3- AD
4- AC
5- AC
6- AD
7- AC
8- AC
9- AD
10- AD

More Criticals is only good if you plan on going for a critical build. Better Criticals is a waste of points IMHO because all you need is good base AD from stats. So unless thats your goal, don't spend more points on MC. Based on what skills you have now, I suggest you get more Increased Fortitude and try to get and level up Corpse Eater to maybe 3-5. Fighting Style and Specialization is a great boost to stats so do get that. Cleave right now is only effective IMHO in Lodars Cave but in future updates it will be a must to have. Get Cleave of 2 before you enter the Hirathil area. Evasion and Bark Skin are also good skills to have.

As for the high xp given after quests, I believe it was done to make new player's have an easier time since meat's healing ability was changed from instant to HOT (heal over time) with a chance to get food poisoning.

Hope this helps

[Dolgan]

Thank you for your replies everyone, there is a lot to think about for the way forward here now (Zukiro, I doubt you are too weak as a player to offer any opinion or give advice)

Having just completed the quest, Destined for Great Things, I have saved the game in an unused slot before I took any weapon and armour proficiences. That way I can come back to it split any builds.

I have found recently my ac is lacking, so will put more onto ac for a bit now (along the lines of Randerthall's post). I have been looking at all the posts debating duel wield against using the Quick Strike dagger and ouch, my head hurts. So many arguments for and against. On this one, going to progress as a duel wield and see where it goes. With this in mind I am going to save my skill points for lvl 24 and 28 and take duel wield at lvl 30, then my final Combat Speed at lvl 32. Still not sure what to use my weapon proficiency on from the quest, as Dagger of the Shadow Priests looks like a good upgrade for Flagstone's Pride, but what would I use in my offhand once I get duel wield 1 and 2? Something for me to think about going forward and decide upon when I reach lvl 30.

Updated current stats and gear (before taking proficiencies)

Level 23

Gold : 3k

HP: 59 AC: 193% AD 19-24 DR: - BC 50%
CHS: 40 EFC: 23% CM 2.0
MC: 1 CS: 1 IF: 2 Reg: 1

Gear :-

Head: Hard steel skullcap
Armour: Lightweight chainmail
Neck: Jewel of Fallhaven
Weapon: Flagstone's Pride
Shield: Strong Wooden tower shield
Rings: 2x Polished ring of backstabbing
Gloves: Troublemaker's Gloves
Boots: Vacor's boots of attack

Need to look into what quest to do next whilst I go back to levelling at Gargolye Trainers and Masters.

Thank you for any advice and suggestions everyone, I really do appreciate it.

[Fel]

I have saved the game in an unused slot before I took any weapon and armour proficiences. That way I can come back to it split any builds.

Make a backup of it in another folder if in case you made a mistake of saving a game in that save file.

Happened to me once or twice

[fiernaq]

Dolgan, great first post and welcome to the forums!

There certainly is a lot of debate over which items and skills are best which is IMHO one of the best things about Andor's Trail. I'll try to keep my response brief since I tend to ramble a lot

Cleave - Is better the less Action Points your attacks cost. In other words, it's a much better option for someone wielding a Quickstrike Dagger (2AP = awesome) than it is for someone wielding Flagstone's Pride (4AP = decent) let alone the Giant Hammer (10AP = terrible). That's not to say that it's bad for someone with a 4AP weapon, just that it's better for someone with a 2AP weapon.

Dual Wielding - A couple of options for you if you go this route. First off, I don't recommend 2 Quickstrike Daggers simply because of the stacking of the negative stats... you'd wind up with +40% AC and -40% BC, no benefit to damage, and no benefit to attack speed. At that point you might as well just use 1 QSD and throw a shield on your other arm to at least get some benefits. Far better options would be a crit based build such as using a Dagger of the Shadow Priests as a main hand weapon combined with a Blade of the Defiler for your offhand or a more AC/AD focus build using two Balanced Steel Swords or if you finish the Blackwater quest line and wind up with Blackwater gear then two Blackwater Poisoned Daggers go quite nicely with the Blackwater Leather Armor and Blackwater Cap (don't bother with the BW rings tho).

Stats - which stats you choose depends a lot on the build you go with. For someone like me who is focused entirely on offense by getting the first hit and then killing the monster in a single round, AC and AD are definitely priorities. For someone with a slightly tankier build, you may want to consider putting the occasional points into BC. Taking HP as a level up is generally considered less than ideal but then again it's also sometimes the best option for you at that specific point in time even if it's not the best for your character overall. For level 1-20 players, AD is extremely important since the slightest change in your AD can mean the difference between you one-shotting a monster and just standing there beating on it because it has DR and you do no damage. AC is slightly different as you can base how much you need on the kinds of monsters you're fighting. Look in the directory for assistance with this and if possible try to get at least 100 more AC than the monsters you're fighting have BC (preferably 150 more but at low levels you don't usually have that option without taking too little AD or other stats).

Regeneration vs. Corpse Eater - simple answer: if you use a slow killing but very sturdy HP and BC type build then you'll want Regeneration whereas for a high offense player with AC and AD as primary stats Corpse Eater tends to be better for you. It all boils down to how fast you kill monsters though.

Leveling areas - Flagstone Prison is one of the highest gold generating places you can find early on and also comes loaded with XP and the monsters are considered fairly easy which makes this a great place to grind for a bit even after picking up the sword. The Gargoyle caves that you recently discovered do provide something else though which is health potions and this makes grinding here very useful as well. Make it your goal to use as few potions as possible so that when you finally do come out you can have saved up several hundred potions. The Ring of Lesser Shadow is just icing on the cake for that cave but don't expect to get one any time soon (I've killed over 6000 trainers/masters and still don't have the ring ).

As for equipment, you've got a lot of good stuff but if you are really going for crits you'll probably want the Sturdy Leather Cuirass from Minarra at the Crossroads Guardhouse instead of the Lightweight Chainmail and if you have the Light Armor Proficiency skill already then the plain old Leather Cap is better for you at least until you get to Remgard.

And yeah, doing Remgard before level 30 or the Green Maze before level 40 can be... fun

After the Gargoyle caves, you'll probably want to spend some time in the far north/north-west where you'll find the Iquan caves. First off, you get a wonderful dagger there and second, the XP is the best you'll find up until you start getting into Charwood and the Green Maze. I spent quite a bit of time with the Iquans and can heartily recommend it as a superb place for gaining XP.

Alright, that's all I have for now. Feel free to ask any other questions and someone on these forums will gladly help out.

Cheers!

[ctnbeh13]

While there can essentially be a science to building a new character, and an abundance of options and suggestions to help you in your pursuit, the best two forum members who have contributed the most to this particular topic by starting from scratch seemingly countless times, would be Nyktos and Pyrizzle. If you have some time to review a search of the many examples they have tried, you may just gain a little insight as to what skills you may want to start off with, and those that you might want to save up for, to create a character that satisfies your own checklist.