How to level a batch of academy members on low-level raid bosses alone on several windows: how many characters to take, what buff and gear they need, and which bosses of levels 20-35 to farm in order.
Situations often arise when a heap of academy members has to be made urgently in order to level the clan (either the clan leader asked, or, as with me, I play alone and want so badly to learn the clan skills). If you play in a live clan, this takes no effort at all: gather a crowd, take a high-level warcryer for the buff and off you go, killing all the small raid bosses in a row. But if you level solo, you have to think about how to do it faster and more conveniently on several windows. So let's look at all the variants of levelling on windows.
Strange as it sounds, the success of a raid at small levels depends directly on how the server is set up: on some servers the small bosses and their minions behave by the book, their cancel is cast long and visibly and can be interrupted, and buffers can stand behind stones and trees without catching the raid curse; on others the regeneration of the small bosses is raised so much that even a crowd cannot farm them, or the archer minions run all over the field, the cancel is instant and the raid curse has a huge range. So first find out how it is on your server, and if everything suits you, go and level the academy members.
How many characters can be levelled at once? The more the better, as many as your computer can pull. If there is a warcryer with level 4 vampiric, we take 8 characters of small level; if there is no warcryer (as with me, I always leave the levelling of a warcryer for later), we take a prophet and a shillien elder. On servers where the newbie buff is extended up to the second profession (and on some even up to level 60+), and there are many such now, you can get by with a single prophet, since the newbie buff from the NPC contains a newbie vampiric of the first level, which corresponds to the highest (fourth) level. On classic servers you have to think a little, since haste is buffed only at level 19; but haste can be replaced with a shop potion (that is, if the prophet is a newbie too), while vampiric is really needed.
Equipment. In principle anything will do: we stock up in a shop on parts of the Brigandine set, and the rest as it comes; we take more shots and healing potions just in case (to be fully insured, give everybody a few white healing potions as well). As for weapons, I make D duals for everybody, but if there is a top D weapon, that is better still. Do not forget to give everybody a Scroll of Escape. Can you start farming raid bosses before getting the first profession? You can, but you should not: you will pick at every boss for too long.
Raid bosses up to level 30
We gather the whole crowd in the dark elf village at the gatekeeper, and that is where we will begin. And we will farm only those raid bosses that stand not far from the teleport points of their locations, since the speed of running to the bosses matters to us; more than once it turned out that I ran to a boss longer than I farmed it.
- The first boss is Madness Beast. The boss is so weak that even a heap of minions does not save it. Next, optionally, Zombie Lord Farakelsus; optionally, because it has a healer in its guard, and as soon as the healer respawns a couple of characters have to be switched to it, and urgently, so that it does not heal the boss itself. It is worth trying, if only to find out whether you can cope with a healer. The next is Sukar Wererat Chief, with a healer too.
- Then Serpent Demon Bifrons: it has spearman minions that have to be run up to; sometimes it crits for half your HP. Then Greyclaw Kutus, which is very sluggish, though its minions hang debuffs. Tracker Leader Sharuk: spearmen among the minions.
- Unrequited Kael: among the minions there is a little bird that constantly hangs root; there are no other problems. It drops a heap of D armor scrolls. Mammon Collector Talos: the only raid boss on the territory of the dwarves; a heap of weak minions, and the boss itself hangs root.
By this time all the characters should be about level 25; watch carefully so that before reaching 26 everybody gets buffed once more with the newbie buffs at the NPC. And not only for the vampiric but also for the heal cubic, with which farming is much more comfortable: you can even stop watching the HP of your characters.
- Soul Scavenger: an interesting raid boss, worth visiting simply to "get acquainted" with its manner of fighting. It constantly hangs sleep; it happens that all the characters but one stand asleep. A buffer has to be assigned to kick the sleeping characters. Patriarch Kuroboros: I added it solely so that you get acquainted with the mechanism of cancel, see how it is cast and try to interrupt it. A hint: it is interrupted by crits, and for that all the characters, except the one the boss hangs on, must hit it in the back. Partisan Leader Talakin: if you coped with Kuroboros, then this is your place now: solitary, with mass stun and cancel in the kit, and a bonus of 32 D armor scrolls on top of the drop.
By this time you should already have one newbie destroyer of level 32 (or have one in reserve from the previous raids), which will be the main damage dealer, and the rest are just extras: for the overall damage, for interrupting the cancel from the back, for distracting the boss from the destroyer while it drains its HP under the limits, and so on.
- Tirak: nothing difficult. Elf Renoa: also an easy boss; first of all bring down the boar minion. With this the bosses up to level 30 are over; I skipped all the inconvenient ones and those far from the teleport points.
The last bosses before the second profession
And only a little is left, since at level 35 you already have to go and do the three quests for the second profession, so we quickly finish off the remaining ones.
- Agent of Beres, Meana: a very weak boss, 32 D armor scrolls as usual. Cat's Eye Bandit: optional, it is a long run, but the boss is made very funnily, purely in looks; 3-4 D weapon scrolls in the drop. Skyla: one of the weakest bosses, nothing interesting, only experience. Corsair Captain Kylon: a merry cripple whose minions hit rather hard; it may even turn out that you do not bring it down at the first attempt.
That is in principle all; after you level the first academy members and get used to farming with them, next time everything will go on automatic, and you will surely want to take some newbies into your team, so that it is not so boring. But that will be another story.