Leves you should avoid early

[goodr]

God there are some horribly balanced ones out there. Some have pure mob difficulty issues. Some have craptastic mob placement. Some have mobs placed near much higher rank agro mobs, etc. For one reason or another, you should avoid these leves, especially as you're in the lower level range. (e.g. rank 23-25 doing rank 30 leves).

If this game hasn't run me off, I'll try to keep this list organized as others contribute. Right now, I'm just listing Battlecraft leves, but if there are any horrible local or fieldcraft leves, I don't mind adding them to the list to warn others.

I had a more detailed list on paper I lost so I figure it's time for a digital copy.

Rank 20

Horizon
Pretty much anything with humanoids or wights.

Rank 30

Nanawa Mines
Tuning In - (pairs of mobs spawn together and some mobs are near higher rank agro balloons and wights)

[Riposte]

Rank 20

Camp Tranquil
Crabs x10
Debatable: Does x8(or was it 10...). I was able to BARELY able to clear it(insanely close) as a Marauder 15.

Sorry for messy format

[Zounder]

Any Rank 30 with Devilets. They have a nasty move that deals ~1000 dmg and can use it in pretty quick intervals.

[qpoiuwer]

There's 2 r40 leves that are a defend-the-point type in Iron Lake and Nine Ivies thing that were impossible to solo at 33... I'll try and check the names if I see them again. Though another defend one I completed fine at Nine Ivies.

For local leves, anything that requires 2 trainings is bad news. One that comes to mind is r25 crp to make floating minnows.

Also not necessarily hard, but I'd recommend avoiding Necrologos: Adamantine Wills in Nanawa unless it has a really good reward. You can spend up to 20 minutes just running back and forth across the map.

[miokomioko]

Any Rank 30 with Devilets. They have a nasty move that deals ~1000 dmg and can use it in pretty quick intervals.

I think this is specifically the one in Cassiopeia Hollow. I watched everyone wipe to it while fishing there. It's probably "Orbs for the Ossuary."

[goodr]

Good feedback so far - thanks!

Nanawa Mines: Necrologos: Torn Asunder
I have another one. It's a silver plate, so it's already tough. But the glowing points are in a room full of agro mobs most of which are green con, but some are red. It's doable, but a serious pain. By doable, I mean you get super luck with the early glowing points giving you the pages you need.

[Grey Jorildyn]

Impish Incantations should be avoided at all costs! I don't think this topic even needs to be about leves to avoid early on, but rather mob types to avoid early on. Here's a few with reasons why:

It's pretty obvious some types of MOBs are much easier for their con than others. A green firefly for instance is FAR easier than a green footpad. So let's try to break it down by MOB type how difficult they are. Would appreciate feedback and opinions on this list too. This is not necessarily a list of what you should or should not grind off of, as some MOBs will be easier with things such as shell and some come in large clusters (for instance while I think Jellyfish are average difficulty, they usually come in nice clusters and if you have shell are a cakewalk to kill).

Tier S (Try to avoid fighting these):
Human Archer - Has a good HP value and some high damage output. Can instant cast a volley attack in a 360 area around the archer that will destroy most casters and take out the majority of a tanks health.


Tier A (Hard for their con, but managable):
Human Gladiator (Footpad) - Has very high HP and def values. Has several instant cast skills (Red Lotus, Circle Slash), some of which are AoE. Spams skills after a few minutes.
Wraiths/Skeletons - High HP and defense values and hit very hard.
Sea Slugs - High HP and has an AoE skill that prevents the use of abilities which lasts quite a while, rendering you very gimped while it continues to beat on you.
Human Pugilist - Has a single target instant attack (Victimize) which does about 5X more damage than their normal attack, hits very hard, and has extremely high damage output.
Gnats - Teleport + Nasty Lightning AoE even with shell on (without it, be prepared to die), high damage output, strong HP, but worst of all has shock spikes which will stun you everytime you attack.
Aldgoats - High HP and hit fairly hard. The knockback + berserk effects make their already high damage even worse. The reset bug that comes after the knockback makes them even more of a problem.

Tier B (Difficult):
Imps - Low HP, but high evasion. Damage output starts out low, but if left unintended may use Impish Incantations which if doing a difficult Imp will likely wipe out your entire party. Currently the most powerful skill I've seen in game.
Human Marauder - High HP and has powerful attacks, but restricted to cone based AoEs. Not nearly as bad as the other humans.
Anglers - Low HP, but extremely high damage output. Countered easily with barbs.
Ladybugs - Nasty AoE if not blocked by shell. These little guys can hurt.
Cactuars - Low HP, but they do have thousand needles.
Puks - They have fairly high damage output and an annoying cone knockback they they love to spam.
Human Assassin - High damage output, but nothing particularly special.

Tier C (Average):
Marmots/Rats/Squirrels - Average health and damage.
Monkeys (Galago) - Same as marmots
Wolves (Dreadwolves) - Same as monkeys...
Wisps - Easy with shell, may be hard without it. Spends a lot of time debuffing you with tham skills rather than attacking. Low HP values.
Funguar - Annoying poison effect, but relatively easy fight otherwise.
Bats - Low HP, but has a drain ability that the majority of damage can be prevented with shell. Can hit pretty hard.
Jellyfish - Low HP and has an annoying bind, but the majority of it's damage will be lowered significantly by shell.
Fire Elementals - Hits hard and has a powerful AoE that can be countered hard by shell.

Tier D (Overconned):
Dodo - Fairly high HP and the debuffs can be annoying, but the long cast times in between make these fairly easy to deal with.
Yarzons - Low HP and weak damage. Their ability can be strong without shell, but shell almost renders the damage negligible.
Crabs - While they have some of the highest HP and def of any of the MOB types, their damage output is low and I find soloing red crabs fairly easy. Their shell move is an opportunity to rack up free damage (physical from abilities only, casters can even do full damage to them while shelled) and healing.
Hippocreffs - Spends too much time stunning than actually attacking. Their ranged attack can be countered with shell, and they will spam it, making them one of the easiest conjurer solos.
Bees - Low damage and HP values, but has annoying abilities like a TP bleed effect.
Coblyns - Very high HP and defense, but no special abilities.

Tier F (If you can find these they are free EXP):
Fireflies - Low HP, low damage, and wastes valuable time it could be spending attacking you with a very weak blind effect that does no damage.
Sheep - No special attacks, average HP, low damage.
Beetles - Low HP, low damage, no special attacks.

Unknown (Needs more data):
Salmanders
Drakes
Piestes
Goobbues
Morbols
Kobolds
Ogres
Boars
Antelopes (very difficult in the leve, but fairly easy in Coerthas)
Ahriman
Toxic Toads
Buzzards (Assumed high tier by because of their nasty AoE)
Wind, Earth, Lightning, Water, Ice Elementals

Did I miss anything?

credit goes to Maylei@Impact Gaming community forums. He posted this on Oct 5. so it needs some updating. Can others fill in if the thread goes in that direction?

[Lucavi]

^ Antelopes/does/deer. Spams ram in the front and hoof kick in the back (both massive damage + knockback), runs faster than flee speed (impossible to escape without bind), attacks quickly, and spams skills at least once every 10-12 seconds.

[Riposte]

Galago / Opo-Opos are not as easy as / the same as the rodents. Am I missing some corresponding rodent attack that equals drop kick or whatever?

[miokomioko]

Nutkick? Nah... rodents are no where near as difficult as Opo-opos. No way, no how. Especially since they made their moves unavoidable.

Also, I'd consider Puks over-conned because you can easily avoid Backflip by side-stepping and easily avoid their other AoE tail-spin move by backing away. Super easy.

I'd throw Aldgoats under difficult as they spam an unavoidable Head Butt (huge knockback) as well as Berserk.


Edit: There are some things that aren't taken into account up there... Monsters get more moves at higher ranks. It says sheep have no moves, which is false, at higher ranks they get that little bubble one. Puk Hatchlings only have Backflip, but any higher-level Puks will have that aoe move I mentioned. You can't base their TP moves on the lowest level ones that exist. Once you get into the 20s and up, you're going to see new moves from old vanilla mobs.

[Darte]

Any Rank 30 with Devilets. They have a nasty move that deals ~1000 dmg and can use it in pretty quick intervals.

If you have THM leveled for barbs, you can solo on 1 star. As soon as devil pops, pop punishing barbs and whack away at at the devil. When he does is insta-rape move, you'll die but he'll end up raping himself in the process assuming you have knocked down his hp to about 50% or so.

[Nevex]

All of them are solable on 1 star with a combination of Punishing Barbs, Shock Spikes, Slow and curespamming as soon as they're available.
Maybe you need Protect to be able to solo the skeleton one at Horizon if you're lower than 18.
Sure you won't get much SP, but if you want the rewards who cares.

There are leves that take much longer than they should, though. The ones where you need to get Necrologos pages as random drops from mobs are a total waste of time and should be avoided unless you really want the reward.

Also... even without barbs Imps are so easy. They have low HP and Impish Incantations misses more often than not.
If you stand close to them they'll use their normal physical attack which doesn't do much damage and triggers Shock Spikes (unlike the ice ranged attack) so they'll either be stunned or waste time casting ice spells.

[Grey Jorildyn]

Edit: There are some things that aren't taken into account up there... Monsters get more moves at higher ranks. It says sheep have no moves, which is false, at higher ranks they get that little bubble one. Puk Hatchlings only have Backflip, but any higher-level Puks will have that aoe move I mentioned. You can't base their TP moves on the lowest level ones that exist. Once you get into the 20s and up, you're going to see new moves from old vanilla mobs.

Yeah, like I said, it's a bit old and definitely needs updating.

Bubble is a pain in the ass for sure. Tail Chase from higher level Puks is unavoidable and does increase their difficulty quite as a result. I also agree that Nutkick is easily avoided, but Arbor Squirrels have an attack (can't remember the name now) that will hit you all the time.

that said, I think a topic like this is worthwhile since mobs do evolve new attacks as they increase in level. At least some mob types do. Dodos seem fairly static, but other families acquire new tricks in the 20s and possibly beyond. Might be worth compiling a list like Maylei was trying to do and tracking mob tiers and additional attacks gained. Would be a fair topic for the research topics list stickied in this section too!

[miokomioko]

I'm 100% positive Tail Chase is avoidable by leaving the AoE range before it goes off just like Funguars' Queasy Cloud. Being able to avoid all their TP moves (so far) is the only reason I continue to exp on them~

[mdkuser]

There's 2 r40 leves that are a defend-the-point type in Iron Lake and Nine Ivies thing that were impossible to solo at 33... I'll try and check the names if I see them again. Though another defend one I completed fine at Nine Ivies.

For local leves, anything that requires 2 trainings is bad news. One that comes to mind is r25 crp to make floating minnows.

Also not necessarily hard, but I'd recommend avoiding Necrologos: Adamantine Wills in Nanawa unless it has a really good reward. You can spend up to 20 minutes just running back and forth across the map.

I got those at iron lake with Wolves and another with water elementals, they are doable with punishing barbs ( not without) and shock spikes as rk33 pugilist ( still died once though).

[Lyramion]

Any Rank 30 with Devilets

Ya always needed to zombie those with punishing barbs



Yaru on me - Cedarwood

Jesus these Spiders are no joke. Hit for tons and the placement makes it difficult to only aggro a group of 2 instead of all 4. Had to Punishign Bard zombie these.

[qpoiuwer]

Guys, anything is doable with punishing barbs, because it's broken. That shouldn't be taken into account.

[Arximiro]

Barbs will be nerfed hard before any relevant mobs come about.

[Purrrfect]

If you want some craft leve info, as of 17/18TAN the r20 leves that involve cotton shirts, leather calligae (from Uldah I think) are just too tough. The Mad Tanner or w/e in LL from Bango Zango r20, leather belts I think, is definitely doable ~500sp per. The same goes for either Harnessing Help or Back in the Harness in Gridania, don't remember which one it was, but likely both. I believe I also tried Busier than the Blades r20 @15WVR and was a complete failure, as expected.

[bruiser]

If you want some craft leve info, as of 17/18TAN the r20 leves that involve cotton shirts, leather calligae (from Uldah I think) are just too tough. The Mad Tanner or w/e in LL from Bango Zango r20, leather belts I think, is definitely doable ~500sp per. The same goes for either Harnessing Help or Back in the Harness in Gridania, don't remember which one it was, but likely both. I believe I also tried Busier than the Blades r20 @15WVR and was a complete failure, as expected.

Agreed, the one where you make Leather Caligae is absolutely ridiculous for the level, you need to be about 23 to do it well.

There's a r25 one for making Leather Vambraces that is also insane, because you need a really high Clothcraft requirement.