Are you glad you invested so much time in your capped character?

[Jason13828]

Hi everyone,

Some of you may have seen my recent Appraisal Thread where I was asking for a rough guess of how much my soon to be capped Empath and Bard will be worth.

I am asking that because the last couple of months as I approached this goal of mine for many many years (soft goal, whenever I got the itch to come back for a few months here and there) I found I was enjoying the experience less and less. The amount of frustration hitting the late 80s and early 90s has subsided as I've gotten my legs under me and can hunt them spectacularly in OTF and (at least in the test instance) in a non-insane SoS but the...fun (for lack of a better word) isn't quite there. Hunts take a lot longer (mostly because finding 26 adepts or seers is not super fast when all you find are janissaries and heralds!) and the stress of one wrong war griffin screech and champion ambush/disarm can eat up 15 minutes recovering from.

All this has led me to consider just reaching cap and selling the characters and starting over (with the ability to purchase some nice gear).

I am curious, if given what you knew 10+ years ago when some of you capped, if you realized you'd still be prowling the (mostly same) hunting grounds and just banging out additional skills for medium increases (training in your 3rd weapon style or a random elemental lore just for some small slot-machine bonus) if you would rather have abandoned the character with some cool benjamins in your pocket and gone back to a more peaceful early character existence. I say that, not having characters that are well known or involved in any RP, and who has a few 20-50 characters that I don't feel like I don't need to "worry" as much when they go out and can still have fun with when they are back in town.

I ask this knowing it everyone plays the game differently and for a myriad of reasons but...it does help when I hear other people talk about their experiences or opinions.

Would anyone care to chime in?

Thanks!

[Archigeek]

Unfortunately you probably can't get that much nice gear for the cost of a just capped character. If you have a lot invested in the character, just keep it and start over with a new one if you want. You don't need great gear to start, and if in a year you still want to sell and spend the proceeds you'll be in a better position to do so.

[Palcron]

It depends a lot on the person. For me, I've tried rolling up alts here and there, but none ever stuck. I always ended up feeling like I took time away from one goal or another on my main. I suppose that is the basis of my enjoyment: a combination of large and small goals. Capping was a big one, as was grandmastering the rogue guild. Now, it's a lot more small things like BP gains, new skills, titles, gear, etc.

I think that if you're more into the RP aspect, it's probably a lot easier and more fulfilling to roll up multiple characters, or to ride one out for a while and then start something new. There are infinite ways in which you can create a story, so it almost seems like a waste to focus on just one.

Hunting is boring. It's been boring for a long time. It probably always will be boring. I just find ways to focus on things that I haven't yet achieved. New AS/DS highs, skills, titles, gear, etc.

I've spent so much time on my single character that it feels like an integral part of my story. I don't think I ever could sell him, so I don't view him as possessing any monetary value whatsoever. Because of that, I don't see him as a means through which I could acquire better gear for a new character. Items and gear, sure, I'll sell all day to buy something else, but I see my main as being effectively worthless to anyone but me, thus, not worth even bothering to sell.

[hamsquatch]

Palcron just started a cult and I’m in.

[malmuddy]

I am curious, if given what you knew 10+ years ago when some of you capped, if you realized you'd still be prowling the (mostly same) hunting grounds and just banging out additional skills for medium increases (training in your 3rd weapon style or a random elemental lore just for some small slot-machine bonus) if you would rather have abandoned the character with some cool benjamins in your pocket and gone back to a more peaceful early character existence.

I agree with what others have already posted, and wanted to focus on this comment that you made. Everyone has different priorities once capped, but what I think most people do is go for the skills that make them more powerful. Spell training, harness power, combat maneuvers, physical fitness, dodging, perception, survival, and direct lores are things that are often not fully trained for freshly capped characters. As those skills get trained, you get better at killing things and are dying less often. Whether or not adding these skills is worth the time and effort is a personal choice, but I personally have found the journey fun and rewarding. The phenomenon you describe of training in skills that provide minimal return is very real (i.e. the warrior training in sorcerer lore), but in my experience you don't get there until many millions of XP past cap.

Something else to consider is whatever the Ascencion system is going to be, assuming we get there at some point. It could breathe some life into the post cap experience for those that find it stale.

[Jason13828]

Thank you very much for the responses offered! I am glad to hear some people are so emotionally invested in the characters they took time to craft and develop into the story of Elanthia. I know this game is more than what I've made of it and I like to hear others are taking advantage.


Unfortunately you probably can't get that much nice gear for the cost of a just capped character. If you have a lot invested in the character, just keep it and start over with a new one if you want. You don't need great gear to start, and if in a year you still want to sell and spend the proceeds you'll be in a better position to do so.

Archigeek - I think we have pretty different experiences. The nicest thing any of my characters own is a 60million silver set of armor for the bard that I just got a month ago. I'm sure if I reinvested some of the capital from the sale of two capped characters I could get some more nice things!


I agree with what others have already posted, and wanted to focus on this comment that you made. Everyone has different priorities once capped, but what I think most people do is go for the skills that make them more powerful. Spell training, harness power, combat maneuvers, physical fitness, dodging, perception, survival, and direct lores are things that are often not fully trained for freshly capped characters. As those skills get trained, you get better at killing things and are dying less often. Whether or not adding these skills is worth the time and effort is a personal choice, but I personally have found the journey fun and rewarding. The phenomenon you describe of training in skills that provide minimal return is very real (i.e. the warrior training in sorcerer lore), but in my experience you don't get there until many millions of XP past cap.

I think maybe a lot of the...need for those very small upgrades in training are probably mitigated by my MA and always hunting with a second character. For instance my level 99 bard/empath already have almost no issues warding/bolting things in OTF/SOS. I have no interest in hunting in the rift as the mechanics of that place seem god-awful and hellbent on a frustrating experience. I know some people probably gain a sense of pride that their characters can solo such a place...but that wouldn't be me.


It depends a lot on the person. For me, I've tried rolling up alts here and there, but none ever stuck. I always ended up feeling like I took time away from one goal or another on my main. I suppose that is the basis of my enjoyment: a combination of large and small goals. Capping was a big one, as was grandmastering the rogue guild. Now, it's a lot more small things like BP gains, new skills, titles, gear, etc.

I don't know that I feel any attachment to these characters. I never quite cemented their personalities because I dipped in and out of the game so much over the years and for such large portions of time. I've rolled up many alts and I feel just about as committed to them (if they are fun to play, which most are!) as these soon-to-be-capped characters. The only thing I'll miss is their utility (loresinging, 225/130/healing/foraging/skinning). But other than the loresinging new characters should get them back without too much of a grind. Thank god I didn't spend much in the way of time on guild skills for the Empath because that WOULD be a huge deterrent to selling her away.

[bunnymustdie]

I really like playing my main character, her build is one that I find very enjoyable and I'm ok with the time invested in her.

I have alts who I do not enjoy hunting on as much, and I find the time invested in them a bit more dubious.

[drumpel]

My only capped character, I created him in around '97 and I finally capped him about 8 months ago. So, just a shade over 2 decades!

I had a handful of breaks between playing him and some others and I even took overall breaks from the game that spanned anywhere from 3 to 24 months at a time. Every time I came back something had changed for wizards - generally nothing good. The one that really stopped me from even RPing anymore with him was when they removed the ability to SUMMON a specific familiar and put in the stupid fucking familiar talisman crap in place. I struggled getting his familiar summoned and hated the extra work they put in place....I just finally gave up for a while really playing him. I just kept him in the 80s level range for years and just had him work on doing major enchant projects for my other characters. Then out of boredom I put him through forging and I actually, as odd as it sounds, found it relaxing. He's mastered crafting, THW, OHE and OHB. Once 917 was updated it was one of the actually good, decent spell change that helped at times instead of doing the same old - bolt, bolt, bolt.....creature still not dead....bolt, bolt, bolt..... Slowly over time with forging, foraging (yes, foraging. With lumnis active and doing 3-4 dozen foraging tasks for other characters a day you can push out 20K exp a week doing just that), enchanting and a little hunting I finally capped him.

I can't say that I'm glad I spent all this time over all these years getting him to cap. Honestly, I feel like I've been punished more along the way with the EL Review that was laughable and then extra nerfs to spells and the forced to hunt and then play the Lumnis contest of waiting on pulses to try and maximize your essence gain; they all suck.

I honestly feel a lot more content playing my mutant warmage character. I developed a entertaining back story that defines his skills and abilities and hunting him with limited spells at his disposal as a warmage means I have to learn new creatures to hunt and rely on different tactics....not just run into a room, disable and rapidly bolt or dish out an onslaught of 917. I need to feint, self cast 909, keep haste active, keep 902 up on his weapon, keep creatures stunned and be mindful when the room starts to swarm. Too many targets at once and trying to cycle through all of them to hit and try to stun and watching his limited mana....it can be harrowing at times. Thankfully having scale armor, 520's 5 CER padding and topping out at almost 190 health he can take a pretty good beating...plus the small amount of redux helps some. This feels more like a challenge and I find it more enjoyable over my capped wizard.

Maybe you need to find an off the beaten path of a build to do or create a back story that defines a character and go from there....

[Bryce]

Congratulations!

[azim17]

Im with Palcron and the others on this. As someone who has had a very post cap character once, it is rewarding but also boring.

I think if I did it over again I would have the "main" uber type guy for RP, invasions, etc. While keeping a smaller more fun/easy tinkering type guy to work on and experiment with. I do think as you cross into the 20m, 30m, 40m type xp ranges you realize the numbers arent what keep you going, it is the backstory, sense of purpose and overall RP.