Power Levelling
Power Leveling and Favor Point Farming Theorycrafting
stolen fron Divas lol - H
Due to the intense interest in power leveling and favor point farming that has spread like wildfire throughout our guild I have decided to write a document to summarize the ideas behind it. We will begin with the theories behind power leveling and reasons for it and then transition into the methods of FP farming used to maximize leveling fast thro...
Phase 1: Why Power Leveling?
Without going into huge detail and tons of mathematical formulas the basic premise of why one would want to power level is to acquire skill points at the highest possible rate. The easiest way to understand this is by drawing a comparison between the slow leveling PvP template that has a goal of maximizing SP gained per level vs. the power leveler.
The slow PvP Template trying to maximize BSI often has a poor energy and stamina typically in the 120-300 range. For this example we will say that they level every 3 days based on their energy and stamina (we all know this varies between 2-5 days/lvl). That means in 1 year they will level approximately 120 times which will yield 600 skill points. If they gain an additional 4 sp/lvl from quests and blessings then they will obtain an extra 480 skill points. This totals just under 1100 skill points in 1 year.
The power leveler on the other hand has very high energy, stamina, or both. In their case they level 2-3 times/day. For this example lets say they level 2 times every day since this is the lower end of the spectrum. In 1 year they will level up approximately 725 times which yields a whopping 3625 skill points. Even if they only level 1 time each day that is still 1800+ skill points. Add in demi blessings and possible 1 extra sp/lvl from questing and you can easily add in an extra 2 sp/day which is an extra 725+ per year. This totals to 2525-4350 skill points per year.
It is extremely clear with those simple examples that BSI does not matter. It is a thing of the past during the early months of the game. The power leveler will overpower the slow leveler in no time and unless the pvp template changes his stats he will be left in the dust forever. For more reading feel free to checkout this 100+ page thread on the forums, but I pretty much summarized it in the last 2-3 paragraphs. http://174.37.115.166/cforum/showthread.php?t=32124
Phase 2: Stat Goals for Power Leveling
These choices come down to personal preference and playstyle. We will begin with the ideal template and then progress to various options and their advantages/disadvantages. The idea of power leveling is to maximize your ability to refill for the maximum amounts, and also to farm FP to continue refilling as frequently as possible. I will omit stats regarding attack/defense since after achieving the energy and stamina requirements you will be pumping up attack and defense forever.
Template 1: The Pure Power Leveler
Energy: 2000
Stamina: 1000
This template can destroy everything in the entire game. You can refill for the maximums without needing to equip any generals. You will level extremely fast and after achieving these goals you have tons of options for farming FP. Once all of your quests are completed you can focus solely on leveling fast. You can use all your energy on the 20/35 quest for maximum experience per skill point or use it to fortify serpents to farm a ton of FP. Your stamina can be used to farm legendaries, farm serpents+skaars+ragnaroks for FP, or for war+battles.
Template 2: The Power Leveler
Energy: 1667
Stamina: 833
This template is the exact same as the pure template above. The only difference is that you will be using the generals Hyacinth to refill for the full 2000 energy and Solara to refill for the maximum of 1000 stamina. It also has the advantage of allowing you to return to pumping attack+defense 667 skill points earlier than the pure PL template.
Template 3: The Energy Leveler
Energy: 2000
Stamina: 300
This is probably the least favorable build for power leveling. Energy may have the highest experience per skill point but if you only do the 20/35 quest then you will severely cripple your skill point acquisition from questing. The same will occur if you are farming serpents for FP rather than questing. It's greatest use is if you are beginning from level 1 since energy is fastest early on and then once you are at the cap you can focus on raising stamina to be able to quest and farm FP at the same time. This can however also be a solid template goal for a pvp wall build to use to convert to power leveling.
Template 4: The Stamina Leveler
Energy: 300
Stamina: 1000
This build is a favorite among players converting themselves from pvp templates to power leveling templates. Since pvp builds often have high attack they do truckloads of damage to monsters. This high attack allows them to use minimal stamina to farm serpents for FP, refill stamina, and then farm more serpents. After hitting the 1000 stamina mark they can then return to their attack+defense stats while leveling much faster due to being able to farm FP and refill. The 300 energy allows them to have a full day to regen naturally and also to continue questing at a decent rate to farm additional skill points. However it does not have the flexibility or speed of the pure power leveling templates since it can not use both stamina and energy for fp farming.
Phase 3: Methods of Character Progression
I will omit the ideas of power leveling if you are beginning from level 1 since obviously none of us in the guild are level one. I do know we have some lower level players that are power levelers since level 1 so I will include a brief bit about the earlier stages. The bulk of this guide will be how to transition from a pvp template to a power leveling template should you want to.
Sample 1: Players that are low level and started out by power leveling you should have a basic idea of your stat progression. If not then get stamina up to at least 150 so if takes 12 hours to regen naturally and then pump energy directly to 1667 or 2000. After energy reaches its goal then crank stamina up to 833 or 1000. The 150 stamina will allow you to farm 1 dragon for FP every level up since their sweet spot is 150 stamina spent and damage doesn't matter.
Sample 2: Players that are pvp walls will have the toughest time transitioning. Their best bet is to pump energy to farm serpents for FP via fortifying however this will destroy their quest SP. If they have Xira then they are in luck and can focus on pumping stamina to 1000 (833) and farm serpents through attacking since Xira will give them enough attack to do solid damage. Another option is to continue questing with energy and farm dragons with stamina for FP since dragons are stamina based.
Sample 3: Players that are offensive or glass cannon pvp templates will have the easiest time transitioning. They already hit monsters for a ton of damage due to the high attack. Simply farm serpents for FP, refill stamina, kill more serpents, pump up your stamina to 1000. Continue to use your energy for questing for extra skill points. After 1000 stamina (or 833 if you want to go for 1667 energy next) you can choose to pump energy to 2000 or go back to attack+defense
Sample 4: Players in guild that already have high energy and stamina should continue cranking up their energy and stamina until they hit either 1667 or 2000 energy and 833 or 1000 stamina depending on which power level template they want to go with. You'll be more concerned with the FP farming strategies in this guide below since you can already farm FP like crazy.
Phase 4: FP Farming To Maximize Leveling Speed
So this is the part you have all been waiting for. You have assessed your character development and the direction you want to take it and maybe have decided you want to convert to a build that will dominate all aspects of CA after some time. Let me stress that you can Not convert to power leveling over night. If you don't buy FP and farm it all naturally it will take months to fully convert your character over. I will use my own conversion as an example.
I had a BSI of 8 at level 225. After contemplating converting for several months I finally started to transition at about level 280 since the gauntlet (lvl 300 BSI of 8 means nothing against a level 1000 with a BSI of 3.5) loomed in front of me but I didn't begin FP farming until recently. I began my fp farming 44 days ago with a stockpile of 186 FP and a starting stamina of 330. As I write this guide I now have 328 FP and 596 stamina and my BSI has dropped to 5.19 (not that I care about BSI anymore but I know people worry about it). I have been averaging 1 level a day and every few days I gain 2 in a single day. Without delving into statistics it is pretty clear at how effective FP farming can be even if you start out as a pvper. I have never purchased FP, this was all done through FP farming from monsters.
You must also be patient when farming for FP manually. There will be streaks where you have terrible returns for a few days (10 FP from 60 serpents) and also days where you have outstanding returns (30 FP from 60 serpents). The average for me usually seems to be about 10 FP per 40 serpents or 25% return. I also spent a good deal of time losing FP during my initial conversion. It wasn't until I reached 500+ Stamina that I finally started to gain FP over the course of the week instead of losing it from all the refilling. So if you don't have 50-200 FP to start out like I did you may get stuck waiting to refill sometimes due to a lack of FP, but don't worry as your stats improve you will start to profit.
I spend all of my energy on questing and to maximize my skill point acquisition speed through questing I follow this guide. http://174.37.115.166/cforum/showthread.php?t=31141
I spend all of my stamina on serpents since I have high attack (1200) and it only takes me 10-40 stamina to reach the sweet spots for FP drops. Players with low attack will find Dragons to be a better target than serpents starting out. For more about the statistics on FP farming read this guide to decide what monsters will be best for you and your current stats.http://174.37.115.166/cforum/showthread.php?t=30977
The Monster Sweet Spots At A Glance:
Serpents: Purple 160k Damage and/or Fortification Red 240k Damage and/or Fortification
Dragons: Gold & Red 140-150 Stamina (damage does NOT matter)
Skaars: 1000k Damage (1 million)
Ragnaroks: 1000k Damage (1 million)
Some of the information in this doc ref fps farming is now slightly out of date due to serpents being nerfed... Plus I have found that Skaars drop one fp for around 560k damage
Phase 5: Where Do You Find All of These Monsters?
FP Farmer Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=292454452416
Apply to the group, once you do you will have access to the application, it is awesome.
Serpent Farm Event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=137037149697905
A fantastic event summons tons of serpents every day.
JET Serpent Group: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_203488339677447
An alright event usually only has maybe 2-8 posts/day for serpents.
Serpent Hunt Online: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_183576085011605
Another ok group for serpents usually 2-8 posts/day like the JET group.
CA Festival Monster Event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=178141222230955
Contains links for all festival bosses but you can pull an extra 10-20 serpents/day from it. As well as tons of skaars, rags, and dragons.
You all should know the official CA Forums monster help section. Tons of serpents, dragons, skaars, and rags for you every day.
Public Monsters: http://apps.facebook.com/castle_age/public_monster_list.php?monster_tier=2 Thank you developers for making farming FP easier than ever by drastically increasing the supply of all the old monsters through the make monster public option.
Phase 6: Extra Tips for FP Farming
1) Especially on FP Farmer it is wise to friend summoners of monsters and add them to your army. The mercenary spots fill up very quickly so you will miss out on a lot of serpents and dragons if the summoner is not in your army.
2) For festival monsters always attack near-dead monsters first since you will always be near the cap of 10 alive at a time. Attacking the lower health monster first increases the chances they will die sooner and you will free up spots to hit additional mobs.
3) If you are going to have extra stamina before a level up from refilling make sure you find a nice skaar or rag to hit with 150 or 250 stamina hit using Barbarus or Orc King to dump the stamina before leveling up. It is an easy way to hit 1 million damage for FP drops and launch you into the next level minimizing wasted stamina. If you are 5 exp from leveling up and you launch a 150 stamina attack and gain 600 exp it drastically cuts down your time needed to reach the next level.
4) I keep all 6 of the above links open in separate tabs when I am playing so I can easily refresh them to hit new monsters as they appear. It makes it a lot less time consuming not having to re-open each one over and over again to check.
5) For serpents Dolomar, Kaiser, or Lotus are your best generals. You can add "&action=attackDragon5" (without the quotes) to the end of the CTA links you open to do 5 stamina attacks on serpents. The idea behind this is to use small attacks while using a high crit chance general to hopefully use less stamina per serpent. To reach 240k on a red serpent if you are doing 31k/attack you would need 8 attacks or 40 stamina. However if you use Dolomar and do 31k, 93k crit, 31k, 31k, 62k crit you will only use 25 stamina and 5 attacks. You always want to minimize stamina spent on serpents as long as you reach the damage or fortification needed.
6) If you attack a serpent and receive the "must be a member of XXX's army to join..." message meaning the monster is full you can still enter the battle. Simply fortify for 10 energy to tag the monster and enter the battle and then you will be able to attack the monster normally. This works on both normal and festival serpents. I have not tested it on anything other than serpents.
7) Do Not discuss FP farming and power leveling on the CA forums. People discussing power leveling and FP farming openly on the forums that the devs monitor is what caused the massive nerfs to FP drop rates from serpents and dragons. You can see the pre-nerf and post-nerf drop chances on countdown's guide linked earlier in this document to see the effects of not keeping this underground.
