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    SP Farming Guide

    Scaglietti
    Scaglietti
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    Registration date : 2007-08-12

    SP Farming Guide Empty SP Farming Guide

    Post by Scaglietti Mon Aug 13, 2007 2:16 pm

    A very useful SP Farming guide with some small mistakes, the guy suggests a 6 gap but most people would be better off with 4.

    By Kagenutto

    ~~~~~SP Farming guide~~~~~

    1) INTRO
    To put bluntly, Silkroad Online is a skill based game. You are given a choice of 3 different weapon styles, and 4 different "elements" to chose from. Skills are what make your character unique and who you are. While the game is still early and more customization will added later, you are going to want to pick your skills wisely. Now, I'm not about to get into builds, and templates and my opinions in this guide. I'll leave that for other guides. This is just a general purpose guide to help people understand the skill system a little bit better and how to develop their character without being so blind about it. Nothing is worse then dumping a ton of time and investment into a character only to realize you should have done something different 20 levels before hand.

    2) MASTERY TREES
    Your 3 basic weapon skill trees are: Bicheon (for sword and blade skills), Heuskal (for spear and glaive skills), and Pacheon (for bow skills). Your 4 elemental skill trees are: Cold, Lightning, Fire, and Force.

    These trees are also known as your MASTERY trees. You need to raise a mastery tree to a certain amount to gain access to skills within that tree. For example, if you want to Smash and Strike skill for your sword, you need to raise your Bicheon Mastery to level 5. Skills bought within a mastery do not count as masteries themselves. They are just skills.

    Unfortunately, SRO doesn't allow you to max out every possible tree there is. You are limited to 300 masteries. Each mastery tree also maxes out currently at 80, the max level in the game. If things change the future, please make note that level caps have been known to be raised in other games as an online game matures and the balance of low levels versus high levels changes. This section of this guide may not be as relevant then.

    With 300 total masteries you can spend raising mastery trees there are a number of ways to go about building your character. You can max out 3 mastery trees at 80 and leave a fourth at 60, or two at 80 and two at 70, or even 5 at 60, or six at 50, or whatever combination to your hearts desire. Obviously not all choices will make your character the most powerful. What the best route to take when picking mastery trees is for you to decide.

    3) HOW SP FARMING WORKS
    If you ever taken the chance to look over the skills located within the mastery trees you might start salivating at the endless possibilities to which to build a character. However most don't realize the amount of skill points needed to polish up a character. Each tree is a bit different and how you go about picking skills and trees will ultimately determine how many skill points you will need. Most people do not think about this when initially playing a new character, but instead jump headlong into making a new character then proceed to level away while spending points willy-nilly. This is great for learning the game, it's not so great for making a good character in the long run. Most people reach level 20 or 30 and realize too late then are running out of skill points. They realize they can't afford to purchase anything they want and find their lack of ability compared to others of equivilant level depressing. Hopefully this won't happen to the readers of my guide as I will turn you into the ANT! For those that don't know the reference then please refer to the old Chinese story about the Grasshopper and the Ant. Spending a little bit of extra time in the low levels can pay out huge dividends at higher levels, especially in PVP.

    To gain a single skill point in the game you need to earn 400 skill experience. Skill experience is shown by the little yellow bar above your normal green experience bar. You can also view your total skill points next to the yellow bar or in the Skill Window which can be accessed by pressing "S" on your keyboard. Skill experience is awarded by completing most quests, and by killing monsters. This is the same for normal experience as well. The problem is the fact that most people raise their mastery trees of choice as far as it can go when they level. Most people without realizing the ramifications will max out a mastery tree to be equal level to their character level. If their character is level 20, then their mastery tree of choice is level 20.

    There is a flaw to this. One, after a certain level, the amount of skill points needed to raise even a single mastery jumps exponentially. It is very difficult to keep even a single mastery tree maxed out to your current level for 80 levels. Even doing so you will be limited to what skills within a single mastery you can pick. No one wants to be a one-trick pony.

    However, within the game itself are the mechanics to diversify and build a powerful character a tad more slowly. This is done by NOT raising your mastery trees to the max.

    You see, when you kill a monster within the game there is a TOTAL amount of experience that is generated by that monster based off your level versus the level of the monster and it's hitpoints. A monster of the same level as another but with more hitpoints, like champions and giants, will give more total experience. This total experience is then sorted out by a ratio into skill experience and normal experience. The ratio is determined by the level difference of your highest mastery and your character level. If your highest mastery tree equals your current character level, then the ratio is going to be higher for normal experience. This means when you kill a monster, most of the experience will be normal experience and not skill experience.

    As the level gap increases between your highest mastery tree and your current character level the ratio skews more in favor of skill experience up to a level 9 level difference. Beaware, skill experience is more costly then normal experience. Take this for example, with no level difference at level 16 and killing a level 16 monster you shoudl recieve about 100 skill experience and 400 normal experience. This makes a total of 500 experience. If you have a 6 level gap, then you will receive 185 skill experience and 230 normal experience roughly. This is a total experience of a 6 level gap is now 415. If you have the max level gap of 9 between your highest mastery tree and your current level then you would receive roughly 30 normal experience and 220 skill experience which is a total of 250 experience for that monster. Going beyond a 9 level gap no longer changes the ratio.

    As you can see, the value of skill experience versus normal is experience is not equal. Skill experience is worth more. In the furture, I might try to build a table with the ratios and experience values based off the level gap from 1 to 9. If someone doesn't beat me to it. It will be an update later when I get a day off and time to roll a new character.

    SP Farming works by deliberately keeping a gap between your highest mastery tree and your current character level. You gain less normal experience per kill, and as a result level slower, but gain much more skill experience per kill. The net result is that when you finally decide to spend your skill points to start maxing out your mastery trees, you'll have plenty to use at your disposal.

    Why do SP farming? While it seems to make leveling at lower levels almost tediously slow... it is in no way a comparison to how slow you will level at higher character levels. When you reach level 60 and complain how slow it is to level because you can't solo kill anything near your level due to lack of skill points, you'll wish you spent a little extra time at the low levels building skill points. I can easily say that an extra hour spent SP farming at a low level is well worth 5 or more hours of time at higher levels. You spend more time now to save time later. Hence, you become the ANT.

    Also, as pointed out below, another reason to do SP farming a bit earlier is that as your character progresses, the level gap needed to increase the ratio in favor of skill experience earned versus normal experience earned changes. To the point where a 5 level gap when your character is level 10 is similar in ratio to a 9 level gap when your character is 50+

    4) MY SP FARMING STRATEGY WHEN STARTING A NEW CHARACTER
    First off, create a new character. Second, pick BOW as your weapon of choice. I don't care WHAT weapon you plan on using later, it doesn't matter just pick the bow when making a new character. Now get into the game. If you need to do the newbie things like familiarize yourself with the controls and the game, please do so. Once done run outside town and start popping Mangyangs. These guys drop gold, which you'll need and usually plenty of arrows. Sometimes a melee weapon. If you manage to scrape up a few hundred gold, which takes about 10 or so kills, before you find a weapon drop then run back into town. Head over to the blacksmith and buy a glaive or blade. It doesn't matter which. If you have some extra money for ammo and arrows buy them.

    Now back to killing mangyangs, but before that, we need to make a few hotkeys. Open your inventory window with the "I" key and drag the icon of the bow to a hotkey spot on the bottom bar of your screen. Do the same for the melee weapon. You can also add the hotkey for auto-attack from the Action window or you can continue double-clicking on monsters to attack them. Whatever tickles your pickle.

    Now, use the bow to attack with initially and as the monster gets into melee range, use the hotkey to switch to the melee weapon you have. This will save you in the long run on potions, arrows, and downtime. Kill mangyangs this way until you reach level 2. Head into town to grab your quests. However, what you do NOT want to do is spend your skill points after reaching level 2. You can spend your character points however you want. These are points that raise either your STRENGTH or INTELLIGENCE. That's your choice and has nothing to do with SP farming. Now back out to kill stuff and complete quests.

    Continue this until level 5 of killing things, completing quests, and NOT spending any skill points. At level 5, run around the stalls in town and look for a el cheapo level 5 bow and melee weapon to buy that you can afford. This assumes you haven't found a level 5 weapon drop on your own. You are going to need a level 5 weapon since we aren't going to be getting any skills yet. The shops won't have anything until level 8 for you to buy, and we won't be getting the normal level skills like others just yet.

    Now back to the normal fighting and questing until level 8. FINALLY! You can buy a even better bow and melee weapon. I say look around at player stalls for a bit for the level 8 weapons you want. They tend to be a tad bit better and cheaper then the NPC shop. If you can't find anything then just buy the level 8 weapons from the NPC. Back to the grind until you reach 10.

    At level 10 you will now be finding life difficult. You can buy level 10 weapons but it's not going to be that big of a help for the monsters you'll be fighting. NOW we spend some skill points. You should have plenty skill points available to you for your level. Pick one weapon mastery tree of choice and ONE elemental mastery tree of choice. Forgo the FORCE elemental tree for healing for now. If you really, really, really want force for your character then go ahead and spend points. Before you go overboard, we are only spending points to bring each mastery tree we want to level 5. Do not take any mastery tree over level 5 right now.

    Once we have the weapon and elemental mastery tree we want at level 5, spend a few more skill points to gain the first skills available for each tree we picked. For elements this will be called an imbue skill. This level 5 skill is very important as it will give your weapon attacks for a few seconds added elemental damage that is ONTOP of your regular damage. This will make a huge difference. Combined with a weapon skill, your damage numbers will start to allow you to tackle more difficult monsters with ease.

    At this point, you'll also need to start stocking up on MP recovery herbs. Since you now have skills that take mana points, you'll want to replinish them. Personally, I hate sitting down to rest and recover HPs and MPs. I rather use a potion and be a non-stop killing machine except to head to town to resupply and look at stalls for better gear. I like to be constantly doing something with my character and sitting down is boring for me. Not to mention sitting in a highly agro area can be very dangerous. What you do to regain HPs and MPs though is your choice.

    Now back to the grind! Kill stuff, finish quests, and buy better gear as it becomes available. What you do NOT want to do is spend skill points again until level 14. You'll level fast enough off the quests you do.

    Once you reach level 14 though, you'll notice a SHARP decline in your leveling speed. Why? Because your highest skill mastery should still be only level 5 which leaves you now with a 9 level gap. Here is where I and the Koreans differ on SP farming strategy. The Koreans will slowly grind from 14 to 16. At 15 they raise their max mastery to 6, and at 16 they raise it to 7. At this point, they completely stop. They find a nice level 16 SOS or SOM weapon and SP farm like crazy on monsters they can kill in 1 hit. If they happen to level they die repeatedly to get back to the beginning of level 16. They continue this process for several weeks in a row until they reach around 30K sill points. To me that's NUTS!!! It's a game not a job! I can't see myself standing in the same spot, killing the same monster as fast as I possibly can for weeks on end. I'd go crazy.

    Hence why many people make and use bots at this point. It's my opinion that bots are for losers, but do whatever you feel is needed. This is why I diverge in strategies from the Koreans at level 14. Instead of using a 9 level gap here, I use a 8 level gap. At level 16 I used a 7 level gap. At level 18 I used a 6 level gap and have been ever since. I find that with a 6 level gap you gain a decent amount of exps and SPs. You still feel as if you are accomplishing something and still level while not making this game into a job. Of course, this is my personal opinion so you can either choose to follow my advise or not. As I said before, "Whatever tickles your pickle."

    Now, the 6 level gap will change to an 8 level gap once you reach level 30. Why? There is a long lull at this point in which you won't be aquiring new skills within a mastery tree. Also, the total experience from mobs will be high enough to allow a decent gain of exps on a level 8 gap ratio while a 9 level gap ratio would be just too harsh still. Continue this 8 level gap ratio from level 30 to 36 or 37. At which point you should have over 20K SPs and MORE THEN enough to stop the madness of SP farming. Have fun with a super powerful character from level 37 onward!
    SeanRyan147
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    SP Farming Guide Empty Re: SP Farming Guide

    Post by SeanRyan147 Fri Aug 17, 2007 9:21 pm

    not that much info here
    Scaglietti
    Scaglietti
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    SP Farming Guide Empty Re: SP Farming Guide

    Post by Scaglietti Fri Aug 17, 2007 10:20 pm

    This is mainly a guide to explain to beginners what SP Farming is and how to do it.

    And after all SP farming is easy, just keep a 4 to 9 gap and every time you will kill monsters it will be like SP Farming.
    SeanRyan147
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    SP Farming Guide Empty Re: SP Farming Guide

    Post by SeanRyan147 Fri Aug 17, 2007 10:27 pm

    i was confused lol i thoguht you were talknig about actual farming .. i was thinking it sounds good Smile

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