How to get experience as a petmaster?

[Erlox]

Hey guys, not sure if it fits here, but not sure where else to put it. So after playing Nexus War twice (left and came back after like a year and forgot my account info) and breath 3, I finally got a petmaster to tier 3. Nathaniel is a newly minted lich, currently trying to build up a zombie horde to keep his faction mates and himself safe.

The question is how the hell is he supposed to get experience at the same time? Reading books has the experience halved at tier 3 (or was that a proposed change?), and either way it would take far too much AP to wander about. Engineering in Elysium seems like a poor choice, and I can't exactly wait for people to come attack the faction as my only source of experience can I?

First aid is the typical answer right? Should I spend my 30cp remaining on that? Is it viable in such a small faction, and when I need so much AP to keep my horde going? Or is there some trick I'm missing? And then I'd have to ask someone to either get me a surgeons bag or a lot of first aid kits...[/url]

[kiwimage]

For a factioned lich.

Depends how much you want to stay at home.
If there are others using Sorcerers Might/getting hurt a lot then healing is at least comparable to hunting for ferals I have found. Having a smaller horde would make you somewhat more mobile if you do go hunting though only t3s and some t2s give xp.

Otherwise raiding. Lots of generally high level targets in one place. A PM, especially a lich, on a raid can do pretty much all the killing (with the exception of tanks). Maybe less xp for your team mates though I've found mostly they run out of ap before we run out of targets.


Yeah though it does seem fairly slow and tedious compared to some other classes.
My conduit has 23979xp my lich has 11862xp.

[Thalanor]

Welcome back to the nexal struggle!
First of all, yes it is true that petmasters sometimes level a bit slower than other classes. However, with a few tips its very doable:

- If you don't want to dedicate many CP to healing, get just First Aid for 10CP. Not only does this help with raising morality in case you need to (good factions like ours sometimes cast glyphs vs evil as protection), but also nets some decent XP given how we have a sorcerer's might wizard. We do have a resource building for healing items directly adjacent to the stronghold, so this helps (no 20CP surgery required)

- Smallish factions like this get attacked often enough, you will see The plus side is that this also leaves corpses in the stronghold, which helps until you get servitor (and even then).

- It will be easier once you get ghouls and their ability to raise new ghouls (I assume thats the path you will take), since then you can at times peek through a portal into Laurentia and if there's someone closeby, add them to your pet horde for XP and a free ghoul.
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Real Mages Cast from Mana

[Tomppa]

My own first PM just reached T3, and I have 2 others on the way (lvl 17 and 11) so I don't have actual experience on PM play this breath -yet-, but:

Consider restricting yourself less. Sure, it sounds fun to have a huge horde of ghouls and whatnot running around, but as you said, that's going to severely limit your XP gain by tying you down. What I suggest is to worry about your XP first, and pet defense second - That is, do what you'd normally do to level up (hunt? Read books?) and just spend the leftover ap/mp/what you can spare to keep up a few pets for defense.

Also, remember that a maxed out PM is way more effective and better for a faction than, say, lvl 20 one, so you're also actually helping your faction more (in the long run) by focusing on leveling instead of attempting to put all your AP and MP into maintaining a large horde.

Also, raids. Raids are good for XP. My lightspeaker was my fastest char ever to go from 20 to maxed out, and that was merely for raiding a lot with the wheel.
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"I am your Slave
And you will Reward me
For I shall be Faithful."
(That's from Dracula, by Stoker.)

[Kiralio]

The #1 way is to learn Surgery and pick a faction with a decent population of Sorcerer exits.

Personally I've discovered that as a Lich, just having Ghouls means I'm at 95% effectiveness, so I haven't been in any hurry to max out this breath.

[MerlintheTuna]

Yeah, I feel like the power plateau comes much sooner for PMs than other classes. Get your main pet, and everything else is gravy.

My WM has been using Smithing, and it's worked out okay. I've actually seen a couple enemy raiders complain about everyone having armor, which is pretty gratifying, and it's steady XP. (And Wondercraft is a more relevant consideration for a Lich, whereas I would be insane note to be in Darksoul Cabal.) The XP/AP isn't as efficient as healing, but you aren't dependent on other people, which is either convenient or vital depending on your faction size and alignment.

Alchemy also provides XP now. It's not really enough for general advancement and competes with pets for MP, but it can be a nice little perk once in a blue moon. Hard to get much mileage out of it without transmutation though.

[Meric]

The higher dmg pets will reward greater XP returns against targets. If you plan on getting them and are raiding invest in ghouls/fossil and make sure they are optimally targeted during raids.
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Aiobhill (Wiz) | Athru (LS) | Eleanor (Advo) | Erehlim (Archon) | Fedayeen (IB) | Lamia (Corruptor) | Morrighan (Rev) | Thane (Seraph)

[Erlox]

Thanks for all the replies guys.

Smithing - sounds fun, but we've already got two mastersmiths in our small guild, so it's already a bit crowded haha. We're good and have no myrm exits, so not a big market for guns either. Not many people need bows made for them either. Damn magic weapons, driving honest folk out of work =P

First aid - Does seem a good route, but we only have one sorc exit, aside from myself, and a lot of people trying to heal us haha. I'll see how often people need health in the next few days.

Alchemy - Might be my best bet. Gathering resources might be a bit of a pain, but I'll figure something out. I've got the skill, might as well use it. If First aid doesn't look useful after a few days I'll focus on this and spend my saved 30cp on servitor/save it to get ghouls. Might not be quick, but with raiding it should be fine, right?

Raiding/being raided - I look forward to this. Should be fun. Meric, what do you mean by optimally targetted? Is there a way to target specific people with my horde? If so how do I do it, and who should I target? I haven't run into anyone outside my faction with my horde active, kinda nervous about my first fight haha.

Second question I'll add in here. Should I get servitor for easier/more zombies, or save up and get Ghouls so I have better zombies first? I think ghouls is the right answer, but some reassurance never hurts haha.

[Meric]

[Saint_Jimmy]

[Erlox]

That's really helpful, thanks Meric.

So Jimmy, your answer is both? =P

[MrLimpet]

I would save up for ghouls since they replicate, do more damage and finding corpses for a horde isn't too hard.
The ability to stay in the SH and summon more zombies can be appealing though.
For XP reading up to 1000 books read badge isn't too bad a choice even with the halved XP. You can also go and find some exploration badges for the CP for ghouls.