Hello, Level Cap! - Getting Started on Endgame Content
So you've hit Lvl 90, congratulations! Now is where it actually begins. Your goal now is to hit the nests and raids! Let's set up your stairway to becoming a Legendary warrior. After hitting cap... your main goal is to get geared or get good (or both if you're one of those talented jack-of-all-trades kind of person).
PvE : Gearin' Up
By now, you're hopefully somewhat familiar with the game. You'll be aiming for certain goals with your gear to get up for a nest and eventually a raid.
- Read up : Knowing your class is the most important thing to know. Each class gears differently, builds differently, and plays a different role in the party. Once you know more about your class, you can get to the good stuff.
- Building : Building refers to your skills. During your leveling days, you probably went all whack on that skill build. Use a reset scroll and fix it up. Information that you've read up on your class will be useful here, as well as your time spent playing it. Most class guides will have a generic skill build for you. if you haven't already, learn the general skill rotation for your class and the class's important skills.
- Weapons : Get your weapons in order. These give you damage. Obtain gear from Nests or from Ladder and enhance them. The standard for enhancement now is +10 to +12.
- Equipment : Obtain Nest gear first. You can obtain Raid gear afterwards. Standard for enhancement is +10 to +12.
- Accessories : Get proper accessories; Nest accessories are common and some players use Raid accessories when possible. Technique accessories offer +1 to a chosen skill, but not every class requires one.
- Dragon Gems (aka Jades) : Align Dragon Gems with your class's stacked stat. Elemental gems are recommended on weapons and rings for all elemental or elemental converted characters. You will need Defense-type gems and Attack-type gems.
- Enhancement Crests : Fill your 8 Enhancement Crest slots with appropriate plates. Third line plates can be useful or sold for larger amounts of money.
- Skill Crests : 4 Skill Crest slots. Get the ones appropriate for your class. You can farm Dimension Fragments to trade for Skill Pouches from Stashy, or buy them on the market. Prices range from 50g to 700g.
- Talismans : Get the ones you need and put them in the right order. Magic-grade ones drop easily in your dailies.
- Titles : Some titles give better stat bonuses than others. Some give a boost to elements. Get the right title for your class.
The bulletted points make fair checklist! Make sure to get each of these pieces! And I can't emphasize enough - knowing your class is the single most important thing if you want to become a great PvEr! DO YOUR RESEARCH! Building your skill build right and putting on the right armors and gems will make you ready for the dragon raids in no time!
A freshly capped Newbie should be looking to finish off the checklist above by following these steps. In general, every piece can be bought or made by yourself! Newbies are usually on a tight budget though, so I'll list how to get each one.
A freshly capped Newbie should be looking to finish off the checklist above by following these steps. In general, every piece can be bought or made by yourself! Newbies are usually on a tight budget though, so I'll list how to get each one.
- Of course, you'll need GOLD. -- Check out the Gold-Making Guide and get cracking! Routine farming and dungeon exploring (Daily, Weekly, etc) will rack up the gold you need to get your gear. Do your dailies daily, do your weeklies weekly, farm Apples every 5 days, or grind for gold the old-fashioned way with the "8>town" method!
- Aside from gold, you should get started on your skill build. -- This one is easy! Look up a skill build (See the Classes Guides) - you can find a LOT of thorough guides on the DN NA Forums Classes Section (Hint: They're usually *stickied* to the top of the sub-section)! Reset your build and put in the new one! You can use Skill Simulators to help you decide your build before you lock them in. Skill resets are available from your Level 15 Specialization reward, PvP Rank (Scout), Level-Up Reward Boxes, or at Honest Ed for 600g. NOTE: Don't forget to learn your new skill rotations. Each class has an optimal skill rotation that will require you to use a certain combo to maximize efficiency. Learn it, and use it well, young padawan! These are usually included in class guides!
- After your skill build, go for your armor and weapons! -- Decide the set (I suggest an Epic-grade nest set! You can also choose Nest set weapons or Ladder weapons!) you need and either buy them or craft them. If you're buying, get farming for gold; If you're planning to craft them, you can buy the pieces for a decent price on the market or go collect the pieces yourself! Run the Lvl Cap nest - take your time to learn the mechanics by running it Solo on Easy Mode (where no one can see your mistakes and judge you lol). After you've practiced the mechanics, take it to a team and run either PUGs (Pick-Up Groups - random groups of people) or take your friends with you! NOTE: If you're going with your friends, make sure to learn about Team Composition before going into the perilous nests (You don't want to go in running with a 4-man team of all healers and do barely any damage)!
- Enhance your Gear ... PRETTY STRAIGHT FORWARD. Enhance them all to at least +8, if you can. Jellies will ensure they don't break past +6! They're available from events (suggested for non-paying players!), in the Marketplace (suggested for non-paying players!), in Dragon Eggs, or directly from the Dragon Vault. Make sure to have a good stock of Lustres (Altheums and Diamonds for Epic-grades) to eat up and a fair amount of gold!
- Now, it's time for GEMS! -- Good gems are key! So collect the right gems for your class. Standard gems can be obtained in Level 80 Dailies or from Weekly pouches. They're fairly priced on the Marketplace, as well. Slowly work your way to upgrading your standard gems for Quality Dragon Gems! Quality gems can be bought or crafted with Gem Cores (Obtained by trading in Goddess's Laments from your dailies) and Gem Fragments (which can be obtained by extracting other Level 80 Gems). Doing Dailies and Weeklies consistently should get you gold AND gems.
- Talisman time! -- Basically obtained exactly the same way dragon gems are. Quality talismans are the same too. You can collect them both at the same time for this reason! Doing Dailies and Weeklies consistently should get you gold AND gems AND talismans.
- Getting Accessories -- This is a little harder. Decide what accessories to get on your budget/capabilities (Regular Epic-grade? Techniques? Nest set? Unique-grade? Legendary-grade???) and work to them. If you're new, Techniques and Epics (or Nest set) is usually fairly priced. Techs offer +1 sp to a skill, so make sure to buy or craft one for the correct skill. Techs can be bought (usually on trade forums for a perfect one, or on the Market) or crafted, like equipment. They require an Epic Accessory of matching type These can be trashy/cheap Epic Accessories, as long as they are a similar type (Ring, Necklace, or Earrings). It also requires Technique Fragments that can be obtained by doing Hero's Battlefield (up to 7 times) weekly. Craft together the Accessory and Technique Fragments (for a fee of gold, of course) and you'll get a Tech! NOTE: Some tech stats work better for your class than others! Every time you craft one, it's luck as to whether you'll get a good one! If you have bad luck, maybe try buying one?
- Cresting Up! -- You can buy them, or roll for them ! Enhancement Crests can be found from Weekly pouches (rare), at the end of your dailies (if you're lucky), on the Market (common source), or in pouches from doing your weekly Ladder (most common source). I suggest doing 10 Ladder matches every week (Friday's your day!) to get Ladder points to buy pouches. Skill Crests can be obtained through Stashy by trading in Dimension Fragments (from Dimension Bunnies at the end of Abyss or Chaos dungeons), found on the Marketplace (as always), or more rarely from the ever lucky Golden Dimension Bunny at the end of Abyss or Chaos dungeons. NOTE: You'll find that high-damage or other useful skills around level 32 are the most expensive (because these are harder to obtain - you'd have to find a Golden Bunny at a level 32 dungeon, which no one farms, or get one from Stashy's pouch which is a low chance because of all the skills available in the pouch at that level). Higher level skills like those 50 and up are usually cheap (which is good, because many classes crest their 45 or 50 skills!) because they have a high drop rate in Stashy's pouches (being the only skills available in the 40-50 pouches).
- Now you're all geared up -- Run those nests! Or maybe even a raid? Keep collecting gold to up your gear from here. Go for high enhancements or pick up a U-grade or L-grade raid set! Get U- or L-grade accesories! Collect QUALITY gems and try for "3rd-line" crests (enhancement crests with an additional stat! This can be random - extra Agi, extra Int, or even extra Crit or extra Final Damage!). Nab yourself a pair of wings or a good-stat fashion set! Once you're geared, you can enjoy the nests and play casually with friends or go hardcore with a raid group! WELCOME TO LEVEL CAP PvE !
PvP : Gettin' Good
Hitting Lvl 80 puts you in the same competitive arena as many of DN's top PvPers (who all normally play at cap). You can now get more into PvP than just lowbie fights. The balance for PvP HP and damage is better at cap - meaning you won't end the majority of your rounds due to low HP and actually end with a kill. Goals for PvP are a little different from PvE. You want to work on..
- Find a Mentor : Sometimes a Mentor can help you out. They can suggest builds, show you combos, or offer little tips and tricks they've discovered over the years! If you can't find one - that's fine too! Discover your own combos and styles and figure out the tricks. Chat with some PvPers - they'll be happy to talk about the ins and outs of PvP in detail!
- Building : Having the right skill build isn't only a thing for PvE! Look up, ask, or experiment and make your own skill build!
- Experience : Play a lot, learn your combos and learn your class. Learn wall combos or make your own combo and playstyle. There's a convenient Combo Practice Room that you can set up in the arena! Alternatively, watch some of the top players and see what they do!
- Skill Crests : Skills crests help in PvP as well, though often the crests to get are very different. These are usually chosen for utility (Action Speed crests on skills like the Sorc's Witch Slap or CD reset plates) or for damage.
- Knowledge : Try other classes. This will add to your knowledge of other class's skills. Look up the Super Armor values for specific skills.
- Stylin' : For PvPers, gear isn't a priority. Instead, looking fancy while pummeling faces tends to be. Having a +12 or +13 weapon will cause the weapon to have a shiny color glow. Why not try to get one yourself?
- Getting your Ass Kicked : When you start out in PvP, it might be a bit tough. Get your ass kicked a LOT. PvP a lot, even if you don't win all that much. Again, it's all about experience. Some PvPers have been on the scene since BETA and have obtained their quick reaction or prediction skills from years of experience! Just keep PvPing and have fun!