Beginner's Guide: Starting Out in the World
Starting Out in the World
When you start a new character, you will begin your adventures in a tutorial area. A small town with quests and guides to help you reach level 10 and learn about the game, how to use your spells/styles, merchants, healers, combat, and more.
Constantine's Sound for Albion, Lamfhota's Sound for Hibernia, and Grenlock's Sound for Midgard.
First Steps
Here's a useful sequence of events to follow when you enter the game world with a brand-new character. This article is intended to give you a quick overview of how to begin playing the game, and each step is followed by one or more "Articles to read" suggestions. Refer to those sections for more information:
- Right-click on the trainer, who will be located in or around one of the buildings next to you when you first enter the game. He/she will probably give you some information, and possibly a quest. (Note that if you receive an item as part of a quest, before completion of that quest, do not drop, destroy or sell it, or you may not be able to complete the quest. Also note that quest items are often placed directly into your inventory along with a message in the event log. In such cases, you will not be required to pick up the item.)(Sections to read: "Trainers" and "Quests and Tasks")
- Familiarize yourself with the interface and set up your Quick Bar. (Sections to read: "Understanding the Interface")
- Go out and adventure until your character gains a level. (Sections to read: "Leveling," "Combat Basics" "Quests and Tasks" and "Items and Inventory")
- Return to your trainer and right click on him/her. You may choose to spend "specialization points" at this time. You will have one chance to rearrange these specialization points at level 5. (See "Specializing Your Character" )
- Return to your adventures and keep playing until you reach the tenth level and are ready to leave the tutorial town.
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If, at any time, you want some help, type /help to bring up the in-game help system. Also, use the
/advice
command to find an experienced player who has agreed to be an advisor and ask (politely) if they would give you some advice. Note that players who decide to be advisors are not in any way affiliated with Broadsword. (Sections to read: "Getting Help") -
By this time, you have gained some experience with playing the game, and you may have some ideas about how you would like the keyboard commands to work. If so, you can customize the keyboard commands to your liking by typing:
/keyboard - (Sections to read: "Customizing the Keyboard")
Trainers
Trainers are special characters whose job is to help you refine and specialize your character. Trainers often offer quests for you to fulfill. (See "Quests and Tasks".) Initially, you'll find your trainers in or near the city where you began, but as you venture farther afield, you'll discover trainers in your specialty in other locations. All trainers of a specific class are alike, so, for instance, if you are playing a Shadowblade in Midgard, you can go to any Shadowblade Trainer for further training. The primary job of the trainer is to help you allocate specialization and realm points. See "Specializing Your Character" for more.
LevelingYour character will gain levels by gaining experience. There are essentially four ways to gain experience - fighting, completing quests, doing tasks and participating in RvR in the Battlegrounds. See the appropriate sections below for more information about each of these methods.
However you choose to gain experience, you'll notice that as you do so, small blue dots light up under your health bar, and the blue bar under them also begins to fill. The blue dots are known popularly as "bubbles" and each represents 1/10 of a level. When the blue bar (labeled "Exp") has filled up and emptied again, you have gained a level. With each level, you may gain some increase in your attributes, such as quickness, dexterity and/or strength, etc.. You will also gain some "specialization" points. You may use these points when you return to your trainer. Also, when you level, your character may have gained new skills or improved in existing ones. It's a good idea to check your Abilities panel, your Combat Styles pane and/or your Spell List panel (depending on your character type, of course) for new options. Update your Quick Bar with new abilities before continuing your adventures.
Your First Ten Levels
The first ten levels differ from later levels in one other significant way: If you die before level 10, there are no consequences, other than that you will return to the tutorial zone entrance point, or to the last place you bound your character (see Binding below). This will happen automatically, or you can type
to cause it to occur a little sooner. After you reach the tenth level, there will be some additional consequences to dying, which are discussed later in the section entitled "Death and Resurrection."
Specializing Your Character
When you speak to your Trainer, you will have the opportunity to spend the skill points you earn at each level. Your Trainer may also offer you specific quests that can lead to additional experience and other rewards. Each time your character gains a level, you will receive "specialization points" that can be used to increase your character's abilities.
You specialize by allocating these specialization points to the different skill paths your character has. These skill paths are listed at the top of the window that opens when you click on your trainer. Specialization is the key to your character's success. Generally, there are several choices of skill paths, and you will want to emphasize the skills you will need most.
There is no one right way to specialize any particular character, although every player has his or her preferences. Because you can't really tell how a character will evolve based on one skill path over another, it's a good idea at this point to find some experienced players of your type of character and ask for advice (see "Getting Help"). Picking an ineffective specialization strategy can result in an unsatisfying character.
Later in the game you will have a chance to respecialize a single skill line once at level 20 and once again at level 40.
However, it takes some time to reach these levels, so it's best to start out with a good "speccing" strategy, generally concentrating on one skill path primarily, and having at least one secondary specialization. There are also special "respec" items that allow you to respecialize; however, these are extremely rare and hard to come by.
You can also use the /respec buy command to purchase one of these single line respecs at any time. The price in gold will be automatically deducted from your current cash supply. However, the price will go up significantly as you level and with each subsequent purchase, so use them sparingly.
You may also use special realm skill points to allocate to specific skills. You gain realm skill points in different ways, depending on the type of server you are on. On the "normal" server, you gain realm skill points by achievements in Realm versus Realm combat, or for completing certain objectives in RvR. Realm points are allocated at your trainer to very specific abilities that may vary from one character type to another.
Death and Resurrection
What's most important to know, when you first start out, is that it doesn't matter how many times you die in the first ten levels. There are no penalties at all. The only consequence is that you'll resurrect back at your last bind point (see "Binding") unless a healer character resurrects you after you die, or the tutorial entrance point.
At level 10 you will begin to lose experience and constitution when you die. This constitution can be restored by visiting an NPC Healer and making a small donation. Some of the exp that is lost is left behind in a gravestone at the location of your death. Return to your grave, click on it to select it and type "/pray" to retrieve it. You will not lose constitution or leave behind exp in a gravestone if you are resurrected by another player.
Binding
At various places throughout the game world, especially in cities and towns, you will find special stones, called "bind stones." If you type
near one of those stones, your character will always return to that location in the event of death. If you are going into a dangerous situation, you may want to consider binding your character nearby. Otherwise, if you die and nobody is around to res you, you'll have a long trip to return to where you were fighting.
Trade Skills
Although combat may form a great part of your experience, there are other endeavors that can yield significant rewards. These are the trade skills, which include armor and weapon crafting, tailoring, spellcrafting and alchemy. Players specializing in these trades can make the most powerful weapons and armor in the game, plus some other useful items. You can choose as many tradeskills as you'd like on one character. Just speak to the tradeskill master of your choice in your capitol city to get started.
Equipment
Your equipment, particularly weapons and armor, is very important to your success in the game. You will want to keep your equipment up to date and repaired. To keep it up to date, first select an item and see what it cons (color) for you. If it is green or gray, it is too weak for you. If it is blue, it is marginal. Yellow and orange are ideal, and the higher the con, the longer it will remain an effective item for your character. Most players won't use red con items, and purple cons are definitely too advanced for your character and won't be completely effective. Also, red and purple con items will degrade faster.
Items do wear out over time and use. Check their condition (CON), and when it gets below about 80%, it's probably a good idea to take the item to a smith or player craftsman and have it repaired.
Store-bought weapons and armor are ok, but if you want the best equipment, you'll get it from monster drops, from hand-me- downs from other players, or from player craftsmen. In fact, if you get your items made by skilled players, then have them enhanced by spellcrafters and alchemists, you can have the most kick-ass stuff in the game! If you want the best, buy player-made!
Another way to upgrade even the cheapest equipment is to take it to an enchanter. For a small price, the enchanter will add some special polish to your items, increasing their effectiveness somewhat.
Lands and ExpansionsIf you type
you can select an overview map of your realm, a large land-mass of interlinked areas. This is known as the classic world or the mainland. This is the most familiar and populous area of your realm, and here you can find dungeons appropriate to any level.
Near your mainland starting area, after you leave the tutorial zone, you will find a glowing portal. This leads to the Shrouded Isles. Shrouded Isles provides vast open areas that can be idea hunting grounds, as well as the challenging and exotic Epic dungeons.
Nearby each of the capital cities is the entrance to the Foundations housing areas. Here players can invest in real estate and sell goods out of their homes. This is one of the best places to find high quality equipment at a good price. Market explorers are located near the entrance and in the central marketplace of each zone, and you can use them to search for exactly what you want. You can either run to the house to buy the item or you can have the market explorer fetch it for a small fee.
The next area you can visit is Trials of Atlantis. The easiest way to get there is via teleporters found in your capital city, as well as various other places throughout the realm. Trials of Atlantis is the source for many very powerful items and abilities, but it can also be quite difficult and is primarily intended for higher level players. While the rewards from this land can be great, the challenges required to obtain them are some of the Realm's most arduous.
Finally there are the Catacombs areas. These are a bit more complicated, as they revolve around tunnels that weave mysteriously under the mainland areas of the three realms. Each of the main entrances to this expansion are located in the capital cities, and there are convenient guides to lead you to them. The mine area within the catacombs has entrances and exits in many of the mainland dungeons. The discovery of these tunnels has also opened up gateways to forgotten sections of the dungeons. These are the instanced wings of adventure, and are marked by a mysterious door that opens to reveal an eerie light. Catacombs also provides access to the Taskmaster program. Taskmasters are found in various areas around the mainland and will give players jobs involving nearby instanced caves.
Beyond the Realm Lands are the Frontiers and the Battlegrounds, disputed lands where members of any realm can adventure and engage in combat. You can reach the New frontiers via teleporters throughout the realms or by zoning in through one of your portalkeeps. At the main keep there is also a teleporter who will transport lower level characters to the battlegrounds where they can challenge enemies of similar levels. These primary keeps are Castle Sauvage in Albion, Druim Ligen in Hibernia, and Svasud Faste in Midgard.
