Helping newbies level

[Bad]

I always thought there should be an Npc/Npcs in town or somewhere close (Maybe Drinking at Rips?/ In Druids grove etc.) or one of the quest inns; of equivalent power to Ottum, someone that you can hire with gold or an item. So that there is a non animal emp. option to help lowbies level.

It won't make a diff to vets with wands and helper toons etc. but would be a great help to truly new players.

[moe]

erm, not to be a wet blanket, BUT. . .

are we talking about "Power Leveling" here - or newbies learning the server? IMHO newbies have no business power leveling - you miss everything. I've had many lowbie toons on this server, from the magnificent to the barely survivable. Just following the tags and quests give you most of your levels. Trying to level without tags and quests could be a bit of a drag (so many low xp producing mobs) Power levelers generally aren't interested in collecting loot/gear (which any newbie would need)

If we are talking Power Levelers - those aren't newbies.

But then, I've never liked Henchmen. If you can't "do it yourself" why did you go adventuring?

If someone has better formatted guide, please point it out to me (I likle formatting - lol) But this is the guide I use.

Lowbie Leveling Guide

[AuBricker]

New players -- lacking gear, gold, subbies, and sever experience -- might find a "do it yourself" leveling scheme both frustrating and boring. Having done lowbie quests innumerable times and learned them by heart, it is easy to forget that new players might find the quests we sleepwalk through to be a bit more challenging. And some quests, Razhid or Shadow Pontiff for example, can prove overwhelming for some classes even when played by experienced players unless they know the "quirks and tricks."

A new player not desiring assistance -- a hired henchman for example -- is under no obligation to accept one. But other new players might find it exceedingly dull. We might be in error if we assume all new players might best enjoy the same play-style when learning the server that we might. Why not allow such players access to henchmen if such is easily added to the game? The greater the variety of options open to new players, the broader the range of experiences, the more likely we will retain new players.

[gladi8or]

I think Bad's idea is really smart. Who cares how someone levels? That's up to them. Keeping people on the server is way more important. In time, after working on a toon or two they may then understand the value of bonuses from tags and go from there.

[horbag]

i have learned the moste from runs i could do on my own pace, without other people running ahead and spawning stuff because they already know everything. the 4 hour toyshop run i did at least gave me time to see what worked, what imm i needed, what damage type things took, and sometimes i do think *if only i had another hand to help* so i like this idea of some NPC that could help. don't get me wrong, real people are more often a big boon but not when it comes to figuring out stuff like why you keep on dying 100 times over befor you notice that in toyshop you need confusion imm and FoM and wich monsters i needed it for instead of just being told you need it and not know the why


(using toyshop just as an example here)

[moe]

Hey, I am ALL FOR having a "Caster Henchman" that I could use to get past Razhid, MOC, and the Zhents! lol That's where all my build stall (because none of them are Casters - lol)

Don't get me wrong. I am just not a FAN of Henchmen. I don't care if they have them or not. One of the biggest benefits of Higher Ground is enabling variation on playing styles. More Power to Them!

And AGAIN, if they want to add a capable Caster henchman for those pesky 30-35 quests (Dragons too) I am ALL FOR IT! hahahaha I'll pay 1 Million Gold Bounty for EACH run I use them on. (Zhents all counts as ONE run - hahahaha)