Is it a
Fact that you get less exp with a 10 gap than a 9 gap?
Anyway... some people seem to be having problems understanding some things...
Level Gap:
Your level gap is the difference between your combat level and your highest mastery.
Example:
You are level 18 with the following masteries:
17 bicheon
0 heuksal
0 pacheon
0 cold
13 lightning
17 fire
0 force
Looking at the masteries above, lvl 17 is your highest mastery. It does not matter that two skills are at this level, it is still your highest mastery. So your level gap would be:
LEVEL GAP = COMBAT LEVEL - HIGHEST MASTERY = 18 - 17 = 1
The smaller your level gap, the more exp to skill exp you get per kill.
The higher your level gap, the more skill exp to exp you get.
Farming
Some people say farming is when you get a 9 gap to get more sp. I disagree. To me, farming is when you stay at one level to gain sp from a certain monster/s. This would involve having a goal set for the amount of sp you want and deleveling over and over to the level needed to reach this goal. You could actually farm with a 1 gap, but you will be pathetic farmer. When farming, you want to maximize the sp you can get with a 9 gap.
Can I farm with my masteries at level 16?
I would say: No. With such high masteries, you will gain almost no sp. Not only that, but you will level up so much quicker that deleveling will be needed much more often. If you are going to farm at the stronghold, you need a 9 gap. I saw someone post that they were like level 18 with level 19 masteries. This means your level gap is -1. This is not good at all for farming. What you would want to do is get to level 20. There is a quest to gather curst hearts. You will need probably 100+ hearts. Every 10 hearts can be used to take down 1 skill or 1 mastery. Once you do this quest and have enough hearts to bring your masteries down to 7, you can delevel to level 16 and begin farming.
Are soldiers or chakjis good for farming? I get like 300 skill exp per kill.
Not really. With 300 skill exp per kill, you get 3 sp every 4 kills. I, on the other hand, get 139 skill exp per kill. This means i have to kill like 9 archers to get the same amount of sp.
Here's the catch. When you are fighting, it may take you like 5 attacks to kill the monster. That means to get the 3 sp, you need 20 attacks (4 kills * 5 attacks per kill). I only need 1 attack per archer. This results in 9 attacks ( 9 kills * 1 attack per kill).
Not only do I need only half the attacks to get the same amount of sp, but I get my skills faster. When you compare the attack speed of every weapon, you will see that a bow attacks at the highest rate of speed. This means that by the time you hit the monster 3 times, I may already have dealt my 5th attack.
Then you have the advantage of long distance. A bow is the only weapon that has a range. This means while you are spending 3 seconds in between each monster to chase the next one, I just stand in one spot and shoot the next archer.
The bandit stronghold is the absolute best place in the game as far as spawn rates are concerned. Just in one spot, you will find like 6 archers. When I farm, I take them each down in one shot of the bow. By the time I kill the last archer, the first one is just about to spawn. It is almost a nonstop slaughtering of archers.
Advantages of a bow at the stronghold:
Faster attacks
Huge supply of monsters
Long Ranged Attacks
Archers take less attacks to kill
Less potions are used
Do I have to be level 16? I am level 19
You don't have to be 16 necessarily, but 16 is when you will gain your greatest amount of sp. You get more sp from archers the lower you can get your level. People start at 16 since a degree 2 bow will just not cut it. Also, the amount of regular exp is higher at lower level, so farming while in degree 2 = LOTS of deleveling. Most people delevel to level 16 and farm until 18-20. This is when you begin deleveling.
Some other comments, remarks, etc.
TwelveEleven wrote:
The only way to sp farm succesfully(at low lvls) is to do what this guide.
says. You CAN however choose to spfarm at lvl 30's as you get way more xp/sxp there, but it's really hard to get a 9gap in the 30's and it takes way longer. But your choise. (Since you don't really have to have a soX weapons in the 30's I would still recommend it) And you'll be richer in the 30's lol
You can farm effectively while in the 30's, but it is NO WHERE NEAR as effective as farming at the archers. Also, the drops you get may be better, but you will spend way more on potions and repairing armor. I actually find that I make more money at level 16 from mobs than I do from level 30s monsters (rabbit picks up gold
)
When you go to the stronghold, expect to be KSed. Do NOT complain about being ksed when you go there. When people read guides like this, everyone decides to go farm at the stronghold. The truth is, that there are only
FOUR (more like 3.5) spots to farm at the archers. The archers spawn at the East and West parts of the stronghold. There are two spots in each of these sections, one to the North and one to the South. If you get a farmer that know what he is doing into each of the four locations, odds are that there isn't a single archer left for anyone else. When I farm, I actually take up like 1.4 of these 4 spots. I actually kill them so fast that I don't have enough in my spot, so I have to kill archers in the spot next to me to maximize my sp gain. Some farmers are not as good at farming, so you may be able to steal a few from them. However, you will have a much harder time trying to get an archer from me. I have actually seen 6 people in the spot I wanted, and KSed every single one of them until they all left.
I hate KSers and bots, but at the stronghold... everyone is subject to being KSed. There just aren't enough to go around. I've made a bunch of friends there(other farmers) and now I have to go elsewhere to avoid KSing them. There have actually been times where I had friends in each of the four locations, so I couldn't farm. If I were nice to everyone, I would NEVER get any farming done. So unless you know what you are doing, I'd say don't bother going to the stronghold.
Go for the ONE-HIT.
You will farm so much more efficiently if you can kill the archers in one shot. People can't ks you and you get way more sp. Pure Int characters can get away with an SOS +3/5 bow and kill them in one hit. Pure Str on the other hand, will most likely need a SOM +3/5. Once you can kill the archers in one hit, there is really no point in getting a stronger bow. I've had level 50s+ try to ks me just to show off... but they CAN'T. Every time they turn to kill one, I have already killed it and moved onto two other archers. How hard you hit does not matter once you can take them down with one attack. From then on, it's your skill and technique.
Party bonus in a distribution party does double with GT. You get 139 skill exp per archer at level 16 in a dist party. With a GT, I get 278 skill exp. That's exactly double. If it just doubled the regular skill exp and not the party bonus, I should have 267 skill exp per kill instead.
Regular Skill Exp
128 + 11 = 139
Skill Exp with GT and Party Bonus NOT doubling
(128 * 2) + 11 = 267
Skill Exp with GT and Party Bonus doublling
(128 * 2) + (11 * 2) = 278
Using a Bow
No matter who you are, I would use a bow from level 1 to around level 15. At degree 3, you can start using whatever weapon you want. If you are going to farm on archers, USE A BOW. If you plan to farm elsewhere, a bow would still be better, but other weapons could be used. If you did not intend on you character being a bowman, then just leave your pacheon m astery at level 7. Later you can get rid of this with the curst hearts quest.
If you are just filthy rich...
Then get a SOM/SOSUN bow. You will have enough fire power to fight bandits. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe if you can one hit bandits, you will get sp much faster then you would from archers. Bandits also spawn like mad in the stronghold, and give more sp and better drops. It seems (on Oasis anyway) that a SOM will cost around 100m and a SOSUN around 150-200m. The price just seems to keep going up. This means you will probably be able to make a profit when you sell it. A decent SOS will cost around 15-20m. Most people can't even afford this, so I you have a SOM/SOSUN, you will have a huge advantage.
The-Battalion wrote:
NPC : Computer controlled character.
NPC: Non-Player Character. Basically a character that is controlled by the game. All of the shop keepers and people you get quests from are NPCs.
(wasn't saying that you were wrong, just showing what each letter in "NPC" stood for.)
That's about all I can think of for now... as far as a beginner's guide is concerned. If you have any other questions or think I made a mistake, just leave a post.
(just 
<---Big Thanks to DeShin (^_^)
