Beating Gemstone

[Drunken Durfin]

Gigantuous posted a response in another thread that got me thinking:


holy shit. i thought my idea of "beating" Gemstone was crazy.

(capping paladin, maxxing all skills)

In a game that essentially has not end like the ones that most people are familiar with, we are forced to set our own goals. Mine is to cap Durfin, train him up in spells to 120 and 430 and eventually make the top of the Warrior and Dwarven Fame lists (yeah, that part is lofty).

What constitutes winning the game for the rest of you?

[Kitsun]

The two things I wanted to get early in my GS career was a pet kitten ingame and an elemental bow. Insanely, the Dhu dropped a kitten in my lap and I won an ebow in a raffle on the Wavedancer.

I don't think I'll ever be finished grinding for post-cap exp, so I don't have a definite end-state in mind for it.

[Asha]

Cancelling

[Stunseed]

Fleshing out both of my older characters.

Stunseed capped at 2x CM, 2x dodge, 2x shield use or TWC, 100 ranks of MoC and lores. That'll only take 6 or 7 million post-cap experience.

Keyvon capped with 300 spells, fully lored, 1x in edged/shield, mana battery'd at 100 ranks EMC, 24 ranks of MMC and SMC. Then I begin for 1x in PF, and minimal CM training. That'll take about 11 or 12 million post-cap experience.

[Latrinsorm]

100% redux.

[Stunseed]

< 100% redux. >

Nah, that's for my plat Warrior to do.

3x armor, 3x shield, 2x blunt, 2x TWC, 3x PF and 1x MoC.

[War Angel]

To cap one character, any character ....
I get bored easily, I make it to about 30 with each of my characters, and then I cancel for a few months and come back. After 6 months of being gone, it's weird, and I can't remember why people are highlighted, or how to hunt, so I start over.
I think I possibly have rolled up, deleted, and leveled around 50 characters.
My highest level = 56
My goal = 100
My current character = 33
Hopefully, the interesting build of my current character will carry me through this time.

[Kitsun]

... I can't remember why people are highlighted, or how to hunt, so I start over.
.

I started making an excel spreadsheet to put down names of people and where/how/why they get highlighted.

If you hunt one character long enough, you begin to develop muscle memory. Whenever I leave and come back, I'm able to get by the first few hunts even though I don't actively remember what to cast. I just blank out and let my fingers type out commands.

[War Angel]

I started making an excel spreadsheet to put down names of people and where/how/why they get highlighted.

If you hunt one character long enough, you begin to develop muscle memory. Whenever I leave and come back, I'm able to get by the first few hunts even though I don't actively remember what to cast. I just blank out and let my fingers type out commands.

The making notes might be a good idea for highlights, but I usually die the first few hunts after a GS break. I used to play Plat, and have the premium spots filled, and the tactics and signs and stances all mesh together, making hunting very frustrating.
The worst is trying to remember how to disarm the scales trap in order. I always have to look it up whenever I bring my rogue back.
I guess I just have a poor memory.

[Latrinsorm]

< 100% redux. >

Nah, that's for my plat Warrior to do.

3x armor, 3x shield, 2x blunt, 2x TWC, 3x PF and 1x MoC.Yeah but I have a de facto 19 million exp head start because you have to do your other guys too. :D

[GS4Ganimead]

capping Ganimead

[Fallen]

You set goals, as you said. I have mechanics related goals, equipment related, and roleplay related goals.

I keep my mechanics related goals fairly well documented in the post cap goals thread. I will consider Evarin "finished" when he is:

3x Spells
1x CM and Dodge
2x Sorcerer Lore
1x Edged

I've got years and years before I complete that.

[Aphyd]

If you hunt one character long enough, you begin to develop muscle memory. Whenever I leave and come back, I'm able to get by the first few hunts even though I don't actively remember what to cast. I just blank out and let my fingers type out commands.

Heh, I do this too...even when I take about a year off...I still remember exactly what i was doing...not really because of memory persay, but my fingers just know what to do...

I know ALT-Z gets my weapons out, CTRL-Z puts them up, ALT-A uses surge of strength, etc.

And strangely enough, during my longest hiatus from Gemstone (about 4 years), the day I came back I still remembered exactly how to run from the landing to Icemule....even which rooms had ice in them.

It's eerie.

[Aphyd]

But on topic:

My goal is to hit Cap with my warrior..which is getting fairly close now (level 85). Then to get up to 3x dodge and at least e-wave....so I can actually hunt more than 1 or 2 creatures at once.

[Soulpieced]

Unfortunately for bards, all of the post-cap skills are to expensive to ever truly be "finished". I think on top of what I have now, I'd need about 10 million more exp to finish CM and 2x dodge alone.

When I first started, my goal was to have the highest AS in game. Unfrotunately again, that's no longer possible for a bard, nor does AS matter in the context that it used to. I'm working on mana now, and I'd argue that post-cap exp bards are one of, if not the, the most powerful profession in game.

[SpiffyJr]

At first, it was to get to level 20. Now it's to get to level 30. I've had 11 years to do it, I'm just slow.

[TheEschaton]

My goal is to have a capped char in each profession. It'll never happen, but I think it would be awesome.

[Fallen]

All of the semis have the potential to be the most powerful builds in the game WAY into post cap. All of the benefits of a square, with the magic/lores to do massive damage because of the semi CS/TD. Bards have a great edge in their ability to haste themselves, as well as the defensive benefits to their spells.

[Soulpieced]

I was going to amend my post to say semis (primarily bards and rangers) Fallen, but you beat me to it. I just haven't seen any "seriously" post-cap rangers around though. But I'd wager a 2x lore, 2x spell ranger casting spikethorn would be an extremely safe and viable way to kick ass.... on top of wearing hauberk while 2x'd in shield wearing wall of thorns in GUARDED stance.... yeah.

[Methais]

I think beating the game for me would probably be maxing out everything, or at least everything that's useful to me. Right now I'm working on maxing my spells, then I'll move to something else.


If you hunt one character long enough, you begin to develop muscle memory. Whenever I leave and come back, I'm able to get by the first few hunts even though I don't actively remember what to cast. I just blank out and let my fingers type out commands.

This is exactly what happened to me when I started playing Meth again. I couldn't remember much of anything about the layout of the temple or Teras, but once I got there the Force took over, including with my macros and scripts.


Cancelling

WINNAR!

[Stunseed]

I was going to amend my post to say semis (primarily bards and rangers) Fallen, but you beat me to it. I just haven't seen any "seriously" post-cap rangers around though. But I'd wager a 2x lore, 2x spell ranger casting spikethorn would be an extremely safe and viable way to kick ass.... on top of wearing hauberk while 2x'd in shield wearing wall of thorns in GUARDED stance.... yeah.


I'm roughly halfway there. Just not willing to kill my redux entirely to do so, until I'm assured that it's no longer needed.

8x crit padded hauberk.
Working to 2x shield use.
Post-cap might go to 70 ranks in ranger.
Rangers can only 1x in lore, tho.

Admittedly, this is how I've flown from 82 to 88. West Woods and spiking constantly, besides AdG tasks that require me to get constructs. I can still swing most def, but once I got into OTF is when I decided to get lores.

[Soulpieced]

Well, I meant 2x for bards which is really 1x across 2 different bases (for bards elemental and mental). I'm not sure what lores really affect ranger spells, but food for thought.

I'd also argue that warriors and rogues are the worst-off because there are only so many primary skills they can get, and they are damn near maxxed at cap anyway.

[Latrinsorm]

Warriors and rogues have a surprising amount of post-cap work to do. Rogues especially with the locksmithing bit (or combat skills if they already have box stuff), warriors have a long way to go to get 3x dodge (or 3x shield or 3x PF), and with postcap training they can start dabbling in spells (and therefore more armor) without killing redux or go Evarin style and get all that AS MIU business.

There's certainly nothing very flashy, but if you want to talk about lore training there's nothing that great there either.

[Fallen]

Yeah, but they cap out eventually, and not really all that far into post cap. The dodge is the biggest hurdle, and that isn't NEARLY as big of returns as you will see with a Bard/Ranger/Paladin fleshing out his lores or spells. When you're balanced for .75x in spells, and you're fully 1xed at cap.. and you're balanced for .5x lore, and you're 2x...things get a bit overpowered.

After a certain point, a Paladin can learn to fight just about as well as a warrior...but then have his DFs and block rates jacked way up, not to mention crush him in AS output and mass disabling spells while still punishing with their CMANs.

Warriors need work.

[Suppa Hobbit Mage]

Once I capped the game lost it's luster for me. Literally when I hit 100. What else it there to do?

[Stanley Burrell]

Gigantuous posted a response in another thread that got me thinking:



In a game that essentially has not end like the ones that most people are familiar with, we are forced to set our own goals. Mine is to cap Durfin, train him up in spells to 120 and 430 and eventually make the top of the Warrior and Dwarven Fame lists (yeah, that part is lofty).

What constitutes winning the game for the rest of you?

Mastering Guild 'zerking would be more rewarding to me than anything else. I've played level 15+ Warriors since black text on a white background, and "capping" seems utterly... New age.

I've mastered the same Guild skills, some thrice, between characters for years and years now. Except berserk. I'm imagining 5th CMAN ranked berserk is like berserking at 50 Warrior Guild ranks, as opposed to a full 63 (same with feint, perhaps?)

If I mastered berserk, I would do so manually, just like I've done with each and every Guild skill. Never being able to this, perhaps, = winning GemStone. An unachievable goal.

[Latrinsorm]

The dodge is the biggest hurdle, and that isn't NEARLY as big of returns as you will see with a Bard/Ranger/Paladin fleshing out his lores or spells.Compare it to going from .75x to 1x in spells though. That's a CS percentage gain of what, 10%? Tops? Adding another 10% to EBP is a percentage gain of at least 25%, not to mention that as a passive skill it's always on and (including the DS bonus) works vs. every AS attack.

We've done the EBP thing out and if paladins catch up to warriors they can't do anything else lore-related - they can't get past the hard rank limit any more than a warrior can 6x in shield.

I'd certainly like to see more things added for warriors (and have suggested quite a few on the officials) but there is more of a post-cap advantage for warriors than most people are aware of.

[Stanley Burrell]

I'd certainly like to see more things added for warriors (and have suggested quite a few on the officials) but there is more of a post-cap advantage for warriors than most people are aware of.

All Warden has to do is turn tier 5 all-the-time treasure into a nice, steadily fluctuating 4.5 and mod box & critter silver drop averages -- You think people, as a majority, want to stay out hunting?

You want a place to be entitled to always-tier-5-400 on-critter/min' 4k in-box silver drops? Hunt a post-cap ground, FFS. Nerf everything and anything node, too, in said post-cap area.

Treasure accumulation end-game as a way of saying Warriors = The best, because I can turtle and move n, w, s & e shouldn't be the dividing line. If it is, in someone's mind, Warriors will continue to be ass-raped because a few Rifters sit in a room with boxes. You know how narrow that even is, when you contemplate it?

If that's not at all what you're getting at, my B, Young Ericsorm.

[Drew]

I know I'll never hunt once I cap, I barely hunt now. I've earned 4 exp over the past 2 months. If I continue at this rate I'll cap in 80,000 years.

[Stretch]

Could probably put the rogue on auto-pilot and keep running Icemule escort bounties for 1k-2k exp an hour.

I'm frankly a little surprised Tsin bothers hunting anymore. I'd consider Edaarin 'finished' with grinding after hitting 15m exp, which would leave:

140 Armor
3x dodge
2x CM
2x Edged
2x Ranged
2x Ambush
2x PT
50 AS
50 MIU
50 HP
3x pick
3x disarm
2x hide
2x perception
2x trade
50 climb
50 swim
Spells up to 410
2x Pickpocket
35 MOC

Another 2 MM exp past that would get 35 more spells, but what's the point?

[Drew]

Another 2 MM exp past that would get 35 more spells, but what's the point?


Well with 15 more you could get 425 and with the other 20 you could get up to 120 (along with 117). 120 is very nice for TD and 117 + 425 would really up your max AS.

[diethx]

Capping one character. Just one. I've been playing for like 11 years off and on, and the highest I ever got a character to in GS3 was about 65. And now in GS4 my oldest is 53. Heh.

[Hips]

I'd say capping Hips, but everyone knows that will never happen. :)

[Nilandia]

Capping one character. Just one. I've been playing for like 11 years off and on, and the highest I ever got a character to in GS3 was about 65. And now in GS4 my oldest is 53. Heh.
Sounds almost identical to me. My highest character is 54 (Nilandia leveled last night), and I've been playing around 11 years.

I don't really have any goals, though. To me, the fun is all in the journey, and the best fun comes in seeing my characters develop and change over time, and my interactions with others.

Gretchen

[Danical]

. . . I'd argue that post-cap exp bards are one of, if not the, the most powerful profession in game.

^^^^^^

[Valthissa]

Valthissa was created with a specific GS3 goal - have the most wizard spells (900's + 500's) of any giant. We had a (paper thin) backstory to support the goal.

GS4 changed all that with migration, fixskills, fixstat, etc.

While I think the game GS4 is better than the game GS3, it certainly changed things for my main.

C/Valth

for some reason this topic reminds me of Morquendii, who wanted to be the epitome of a physical mage with his claid. We hunted together at times and it was quite interesting.

[Jayvn]

the only way to beat gs is to find something else to fill the addiction void =/

[iJin]

Capping then going on a murder streak.

[iJin]

Pretty much.