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"Wasting" Experience? How so?

AuthorMessage
Historian
May 06, 2009
633
This is a topic I would like to talk about.

In our game, and like many others, we have a leveling system. This system entails that we need to gain X amount of Experience, which is granted through quests, to get to the next level. Every now and again, we will reach a specific level that will give us access to new items, spells, areas, Worlds, Houses, pets, PvP etc.

So what I've heard around here and there is there are players who believe an in aspect of "wasting" experience. From what I've heard and read, that is where you're Max Level and you are no longer collecting Experience. So here's what frustrates me just a little bit (or at least makes me scratch my head and scrunch my eyebrows), who does one waste Experience?

From my understanding, the only purpose of Experience is to get you to the next level. Outside of that, it's pretty useless. It can't help you get any new insentives or new prizes. So it really confuses and bothers me when players say they are wasting Experience. I've heard players will immediately stop playing as soon as they hit that level cap. In my mind, I go "Why?"
At one point, I was like an experience conscious player. I wanted all the experience the game offered and I would hault my play time when I got toward to max. When I started doing Azteca (and maybe this developed in Avalon), I stopped that experience conscious behavior. I learned that there is going to be more Experience than what my level will be able to carry. I was no longer willing to sacrifice content, spell quest, new areas, new items over Experience. So I'm looking to understand why players value Experience over content and seeing new things.

I'm more looking for some understanding not so much complaining or trying to get at anyone. So I'm looking for answers to where is this mentality is steming from? Why do you need the Experience you see when you get to max level? Why do you value Experience over content and hours of play to just spend time on? It is a game after all.
I think that it's far greater to reach a new level and have all this eccess Experience you don't need than to do all these quests and spend all this time and collect all this Experience and never Level up. I don't know how much time KI spends on making Experience equate to your current level and max level, but I like that they make sure we even get to the max level than to almost get to it. They make sure we get to the max and leave all this extra Experience we don't need because we have enough. I can guarantee it that a lot of players who are haulted at Level 90 in Azteca will reach Level 95 before really getting into Khrysalis and when Part 2 comes, there won't much farther into it and then when 3rd Arc comes it's the same situation. We are coming very close to a point when we need 1 Million Experience just points to Level up (which causes for lots of Experience points).

So I'm just asking why players put themselves in this rut and believe in wasting Experience.

Archon
Feb 07, 2011
3175
I am one such player~ I stop as soon as I cap at the max level.

Why? It's not that I believe the XP is "wasted", per se~ I just see it as an opportunity to work on my other wizards. Plus, if I'm going to spend 6 hours grinding away in some dungeon anyway, I want credit for it.



-v.

90
90
88

& the rest

Explorer
May 17, 2010
92
I do a compromise. I basically finish the world/area so I get all the content and drop opportunities but don't turn in the final quests and side quests. That way I get credit for that work and even a tiny 'leg up' during the next expansion.

Hero
Aug 23, 2009
723
Once I hit the cap I keep going as I've always been one who seeing things through to the end, stubborn I guess. I don't really see XP as being wasted since KI always makes sure there is plenty with each release and that the cap is hit before end of the current story release. Plus with GH-WT and WY it adds to story content and provides break from grinding. I guess for those who are XP fanatics they want every scrap of XP to "count" for some odd reason even though we all end up at the same place they just choose to get there later.

Explorer
Jun 10, 2012
95
Part of me agrees with you; I've never understood the need for "rewards" to play. For me, the fun of playing is the reward.

Nevertheless, I did park my sorcerer when she hit the level cap mid-Azteca. Why? Because I play solo, and being overleveled for wherever I am has been crucial to my ability to do that. Losing that would mean losing the ability to play the upper levels.

Adherent
Jul 03, 2010
2634
I park my wizards now. I did not park my Life wizard and I was 2 full levels behind my Balance wizard which did not have to park to get sharpened blade and potent trap.

I also really like the break from AZ it was just getting to much or a grind for me. It has also given me time to decide that I won't continue on with the Balance and just take the Life though if possible.

We currently have 2 wizards parked waiting for the update in AV - another world I could do with out.

Mary StarGem

Delver
Apr 21, 2012
252
Cunning Finnigan S... on Nov 10, 2013 wrote:
This is a topic I would like to talk about.

In our game, and like many others, we have a leveling system. This system entails that we need to gain X amount of Experience, which is granted through quests, to get to the next level. Every now and again, we will reach a specific level that will give us access to new items, spells, areas, Worlds, Houses, pets, PvP etc.

So what I've heard around here and there is there are players who believe an in aspect of "wasting" experience. From what I've heard and read, that is where you're Max Level and you are no longer collecting Experience. So here's what frustrates me just a little bit (or at least makes me scratch my head and scrunch my eyebrows), who does one waste Experience?

From my understanding, the only purpose of Experience is to get you to the next level. Outside of that, it's pretty useless. It can't help you get any new insentives or new prizes. So it really confuses and bothers me when players say they are wasting Experience. I've heard players will immediately stop playing as soon as they hit that level cap. In my mind, I go "Why?"
At one point, I was like an experience conscious player. I wanted all the experience the game offered and I would hault my play time when I got toward to max. When I started doing Azteca (and maybe this developed in Avalon), I stopped that experience conscious behavior. I learned that there is going to be more Experience than what my level will be able to carry. I was no longer willing to sacrifice content, spell quest, new areas, new items over Experience. So I'm looking to understand why players value Experience over content and seeing new things.

I'm more looking for some understanding not so much complaining or trying to get at anyone. So I'm looking for answers to where is this mentality is steming from? Why do you need the Experience you see when you get to max level? Why do you value Experience over content and hours of play to just spend time on? It is a game after all.
I think that it's far greater to reach a new level and have all this eccess Experience you don't need than to do all these quests and spend all this time and collect all this Experience and never Level up. I don't know how much time KI spends on making Experience equate to your current level and max level, but I like that they make sure we even get to the max level than to almost get to it. They make sure we get to the max and leave all this extra Experience we don't need because we have enough. I can guarantee it that a lot of players who are haulted at Level 90 in Azteca will reach Level 95 before really getting into Khrysalis and when Part 2 comes, there won't much farther into it and then when 3rd Arc comes it's the same situation. We are coming very close to a point when we need 1 Million Experience just points to Level up (which causes for lots of Experience points).

So I'm just asking why players put themselves in this rut and believe in wasting Experience.
I think it's because when you reach max level, you stop collecting experience, any other experience you earn will not be copied when the level cap is raised, therefore, it is gone and as a result, wasted. Because you earned but will not help you.

Survivor
May 03, 2009
2
People want to get to the level cap faster, and with an easier time. When the level cap is lifted, they have to do harder quests in the new world. That is why it is much easier to level with the old exp than the new, being it is far easier than the new world.

Delver
Mar 10, 2009
236
I do it not because of losing credit, it is because I learned that my player will be weaker when she starts the new stuff. I learned the hard way when my younger ones reached the current "New" areas almost 8 levels stronger. It made a world of difference on how much easier it was to tackle those tough bosses because they had new skills and life and all the other things that go with getting a new level. Out of curiosity I take one through because I just have to finish 'reading the chapter of a good book' and find out what happens but after that I stop because not doing so puts a handicap on any character that does.

Survivor
Jul 08, 2009
37
Funny that you brought this up. After 'wasting' experience between DS and CL (basically all of GH), I vowed to never do that again since my wizards were considerably behind newer characters.

I have 4 wizards 'parked' at promethean. Two have completed Azteca; two are in Pitch Black Lake. I just decided this week to do the following with the two in PBL: complete the main quests of the game so they can go on to Khrysalis, then do the side quests as far as I can but wait to turn in the XP until the level cap is raised. It seemed like a good compromise.

The reason I changed my mind is that I have two more wizards (yeah I have a bunch) in Mangrove Marsh and I really wanted to get Sharpened Blade for them so they can scream through all of their side quests once the new world comes out. I also realized that if my prometheans hadn't finished Azteca, they couldn't get Shadow Magic until they did finish and could access Khrysalis.

It's all about time for me now - if my characters are higher leveled, they'll get through battles that much faster.

Defender
Jul 10, 2009
186
What I've always figured is that if you wait for the next world to come to finish the current one, then after it comes out, you still have to finish it, while everyone lese is on the new world. I quest through the current one, so I can do the new world while everyone else is still doing it. After all, KI always plans the amount of experience you get per quest.

Haley MoonHeart, Promethean Thaumagture

Archon
Sep 17, 2012
4162
I have never "parked" a wizard at the cap before this world. This one is different though. You reach the cap by the time you get to Shadow Magic without doing any side quests. They have already said part 2 is coming early next year. It's not like Azteca where there was a wait of a full year before the cap rose. The quests left over are worth several levels of experience, and it only took a day to get from 90 to 95, so it's worth waiting on this one in my opinion. They should have calculated the experience better. I already finished part 1 in test realm, so I know what I have ahead of me. I choose to wait this one out because I know the arc after the Eclipse Tower isn't hard but has a lot of experience that would be "wasted" by completing it now. It will take me another day to complete part 1 even if there is no one around to help. Why finish it tonight and then wait a couple months for something to do, when I can finish it in a couple months in a night AND get the experience and levels for it?