I am going to buy this today and i need advice.

[lisa]

I have never played this game,however have played every other mmorph on the market. What i would like to know is i hear about things called decal? and some pea thing.( cant remember name) as a new person is it necessary to use them?

I dont like to be powerleveled,i realyl want to enjoy the game and learn it. What advice would you give me?

What things are essential for a new person to know?

What would be the best class spec to start out with.

Which server is the new person friendliest?

Anything else you would like to add would be great.

[CrazyPoster]

What i would like to know is i hear about things called decal?
Decal is a 3rd party plugin ("macros" if you like), which is not working at the moment. Is not required in anyway to play the game. Forget about it now, in time you will learn about from other players, and might install it if you think you need it - when its working again.

I dont like to be powerleveled,i realyl want to enjoy the game and learn it. What advice would you give me?
- Don't use Decal, don't use buff bots, try to avoid letting other (high level) players buff you. Except when in same fellowship.
- Try to solve quests without reading the hints/spoilers on the net. Sometimes you really need some hints, but try to do that as a minimum. Speak to NPCs, read texts and lores in game. Figure out stuff, explore the world, have fun!

What things are essential for a new person to know?
Some basic stuff is good to know, how to trade, how to make certain stuff, what attacks works on which monsters, how to protect yourself and such. But all this info will usually be told by friends you find in game. If you are not in a hurry like you say, there is nothing you MUST know in advance, but I give one very important advice: try to talk to people, figure out if they are nice and "authentic" before you decide which friends to make and which allegiance to join. Do not rush into any alleginace before you know the person you are going to swear to (this will be your patron) is really interested in you as a friend and a person and is not only trying to gain advantage from you (patrons get some xp from their vassals). The good patron is someone that helps you, and join you for fun anytime. Not only when he/she might feel "ok, I help this vassal this time, then I have more important things to do".

What would be the best class spec to start out with.
Basically divided into: mage or not. Matter of taste. Try different "classes" out, later you stay with one. If ToD expansion you can make 7 toons per server anyway, and you WILL make several toons - you'll see ...

Which server is the new person friendliest?
Everyone is going to say: our server. I don't think there is a "new person friendliest" server, so just pick one randomly. Just try to avoid Darktide (PvP only). If you like PvP you can always join this aspect of the game later when a bit used to the game.

Anything else you would like to add would be great.
Don't stay up every day all night playing. Get some sleep too. Then again you might not be able to let go ... :)


Sorry for spelling misstakes, I am in a hurry home from job.

[Cuaradan]

Greetings, and welcome to Dereth.

CrazyPoster pretty much answered your questions I believe, but as usual, I wanted to add my 2 py worth. ;)

The short answer to your question about advice, is your own words: "I dont like to be powerleveled, I really want to enjoy the game and learn it.". That is the best advice anyone can give you. AC has a tremendous amount of lore and history to discover, and a very large number of quests and dungeons to explore. Taking your time to explore and enjoy the journey is by far the best approach (in my opinion, of course).

As for what is essential for a new player to know, I would have to say just that there are a large number of choices avaialble. AC is a skill based system (no classes), so you have a lot of choices that can be made to develope your character. There are starting templates that you can use, to quickly get started, but these seldom match a person's preferences exactly. So be prepared to try several alternatives, which I think is part of the fun.

And as CrazyPoster mentioned, there are lots of opinions about which is the best server to get started on. I think most if not all are good choices, except for DT, as he mentioned. However, I am partial to Thistledown, since I play there. :p Also, we have an allegiance there that was started only a few months ago, with the goal of focusing on new players and questing/exploring. So many of us are closer to the early levels, and spend a lot of time helping each other. So stop by our forums if you have any questions, or log into Thistledown, and look some of us up in Holtburg. There is almost always someone from Light Lords there.

Good luck, and I hope you enjoy your time in AC.

~Cuaradan~

http://www.lightlords.4t.com/

[Elistra]

A few random things to add...

1) Hebian sells spell levels 1 to 4, that'll do you for a bit. (And Hebian rocks, anyhow.)

2) Get an ust (the apprentice craftsman of Hebian sells them, as do many other vendors). Start experimenting with salvaging, using that ust. You'll learn which salvages do what things, and take the first steps to building a wealth hoard. :)

3) You'll probably mess up the build of your first character. (We all did.) Don't worry about it, this can be fixed over time with the temples of forgetfulness and enlightenment.

4) Best spec? I like playing mage best, but I'm highly biased in that regard, lol.

[lisa]

A few random things to add...

1) Hebian sells spell levels 1 to 4, that'll do you for a bit. (And Hebian rocks, anyhow.)

2) Get an ust (the apprentice craftsman of Hebian sells them, as do many other vendors). Start experimenting with salvaging, using that ust. You'll learn which salvages do what things, and take the first steps to building a wealth hoard. :) I have one,but not tried to use it yet!;]
3) You'll probably mess up the build of your first character. (We all did.) Don't worry about it, this can be fixed over time with the temples of forgetfulness and enlightenment.

4) Best spec? I like playing mage best, but I'm highly biased in that regard, lol.

Will i need to buy regents
How do you start crafting?
And which is best ones for a new person to practice.
I notice i can not use alot of spells with my template,is this cause of race or just cause not trained that magic?

[lisa]

Oh also at level 5 where should i be hunting?
What is average level above you you are generaly able to hunt successfully?
Thanks again for such great advice everyone!

[lino]

Your race doesn't matter when it comes to magics, only the skills matter.
There are 4 types of magic in dereth.
War Magic: Flame Bolts & Co.
Life Magic: Protections, Vulnerabilities, (magic) Healing
Item Enchantment: Temporary improvement of weapons and armor; Transportation (This is propably the only one you can't live without)
Creature Enchantment: Temporary improvement of attributes and skills

At level 5 you should stay around the starter town (holtburg, yaraq, shoushi, sanamar). Try to do some quests maybe, there is one in sanamar for example where you need to help a merchant establishing some trade routes, which should be good for you as you will learn using the portal system with it (and gain some xp; can't remember if you get an item too).

How high above your level you can hunt depends mainly on the buffs you receive/cast yourself and on your equipment. With 1A equipment you can hunt 20-40 lvl above your own, but if you just use what you find yourself you will propably want to stick with stuff around your own level (+-10).
On which server did you start? If you are on Harvestgain I could show you arround a bit or do some quests with you.

[Lancelore]

Lisa,

First of all, welcome to the world of Dereth.

A lot of your questions are answered. And a lot will raise in the near future.
What I miss in the answers is the patron/vassal relation. I.m.o. the most important fact for a new player. Finding a good patron who is willing to learn you about the game, is hard. Be prepared that not every player is interested to spend time on a new player.

But that will not surprise you if you have experience in other MMORP's.

Anyway AC is a great game and has te potential to keep you interested many years to come.

[Supreme Coward]

Welcome to Dereth!

First of all all of the answers to your questions from other people have been brill so far, and generally I cannot top the asnwers to any of those questions so I'll just answer the one that is the player's opion. The one about what class.

Myself I chose mage as my first character. I was completely and utterly going on what I'd learned from non-MMORPGs, that generally say Mages have low health! Completely not the case here. That is most likely why I had died 12 times by level 12. But then again once I had sorted out my character recently, I haven't been dying as much, but still I was dying. IMO Mage is not the best template for starting character because you 'will' die alot. Melees however die, virtually never, even at higher levels if there not hunting in a dungeon with war users they do not die. Personally I think Melee is the best starting character.

Btw if you start as a melee, a brilliant quest to do at the beggining is Sword of Lost Light quest. I don't want to tell you any more, but buy all the rumors from bartenders in all of the towns that you can get gems to from the archmage (this may seem, wha! wth! at first, I know I was, but you'll soon get it). They'll help you along the way to completing this quest and making you much more powerful than all the other low-levels.

Oh and some more tips, in Hebian-To, Zaikhal and Cragstone there are libraries that you can learn a heck of alot about the game's history. Rumors from bartenders are the game's best quest resource in-game. And like Lancelore said, not every patron will spend alot of time on you. They will give you a hand to start with, but look for someone who actually will help you. Especially as your new to the game, you don't want to be stuck with a patron that gives you no help at all. Also look for someone who's in the same timezone as you, otherwise it will seem that they are not helping you if you don't see them ever.

P.S. I probably don't know this because this is the only MMORPG I've played.... but what's a regent? Is that like a king or something?

Oh, and my allegiance is on Verdantine if you want to know, I've played all servers and I would say this is most friendly. Oh but, my allegiance will prolly kill me for saying this..... but I wouldn't join our allegiance at this particular time, we're going through a rough patch atm and it's a horrible experience to see squabbling over /a on your first time to AC. VT is still a kick-ass server and I thoroughly reccomend creating a character there. Holtburg has the most allegiances, don't go looking for people in Sanamar, Yaraq has the least and we, two large allegiances who we don't see because they play to late in the morning mostly and a tiny one lead by a character called Lelaric, I suggest joining his clan if you move to VT as he only has 18 people in his allegiance, but there on all the time facing our 6/900.

P.S. I probably don't know this because this is the only MMORPG I've played.... but what's a regent? Is that like a king or something?

[Elistra]

Will i need to buy regents

For your spells? Yes. I wouldn't recommend going with the old spellcomps system for you right now, it involves a lot of different types of plants, specifically colored tapers and the like. Just use the scarabs and the prismatic tapers, it will save you a lot of hassle.

Lead scarab = level 1 spells
Iron scarab = level 2 spells
Copper scarab = level 3 spells
Silver scarab = level 4 spells
Gold scarab = level 5 spells
Pyreal scarab = level 6 spells
Diamond scarab = level 6 rings, walls, etc. war spells, and the new AoE life spell (Raven Fury)
Platinum scarab = level 7 spells

Diamond scarabs are the only ones you cannot buy at a vendor, you can get those by turning in diamond hearts from Diamond Golems. (I usually go to Qalabar to turn those in, hehe) Alternatively, you can trade for them from other players.

How do you start crafting?

There are 8 tradeskills...

Cooking (4 skill credits to train) - lets you make food and dye armor. This is usually a "mule" skill... that is, a skill had by a character which is not normally hunted on and used to make things for you, instead.
Alchemy (6 skill credits to train) - lets you make health potions, potions which attach a certain damage type to arrows/darts/quarrels, etc. This is generally a "mule" skill also
Fletching (4 skill credits to train)- lets you take arrowheads and the like and attach em to arrow shafts (i wouldn't recommend playing an archer without fletching)
Lockpick (6 credits to train) - This allows you to unlock doors and some chests, allows you to carve keyrings, and keys.

Armor tinkering (4 credits to train, Viamontians start with it as a free racial ability)- allows you to apply salvage to armor, to improve its stats
Item tink (2 credits to train, Gharundim start with it as a free racial ability) - Allows you to make basic changes in a wide variety of items, such as removing rank requirements, changing racial requirements, rasing value, lowering value, and so on.
Magic item tink (4 credits to train)- allows you to apply salvage to jewelry and casting implements, to improve their stats
Weapon tink (4 credits to train) - allows you to apply salvage to weapons, to improve their stats.

You'll be looking at a bag of salvage and wondering what sort of tink skill it would require to apply it. This is indicated by the background color of the salvage bag.

Purple - armor tink
Bright green - item tink
Royal blue - magic item tink
Red - Weapon tink
Aqua - (Ivory and Leather) anyone can apply these, whether they have any sort of tinkering skill or not.

And which is best ones for a new person to practice.

Well, this depends on what sort of character you have. Viamontians get a free armor tink skill, and gharundim a free item tink skill. And if you're an archer, crossbowman, or thrown weapons person, I'd recommend taking fletching but having an alchemy "mule" to make the elemental potions for you. Item tink... this is what you need to make "death items" with. (These are high value items which you carry on purpose, so they'll drop instead of weapons and armor when you die.)

Beyond that, I'd recommend holding off until the mid-levels on getting tradeskills. Most templates won't have the spare credits to throw around until then. Get yourself in a good clan with a tinker or two already there (most monarchs have em, especially). That way, you can get your things tinked without having to spend all those credits to do so, yourself.

I notice i can not use alot of spells with my template,is this cause of race or just cause not trained that magic?

You have to have a school of magic trained or specialized before you can use it. Anyone can learn any sort of magic, but they have to have spent the credits to do so.

[Elistra]

P.S. I probably don't know this because this is the only MMORPG I've played.... but what's a regent? Is that like a king or something?

Given the context, I'd feel justified in assuming regent was a typo for "reagent". lol :p