Black Desert - Open World Sandbox Action Combat.

[Jinn]

I HAVE STUMBLED UPON A CROSSROADS!!!

So after questing a bit in between a couple grind sessions I noticed that there are a few "Crossroads" quests where you can pick to either aid the original NPC that gave you the quest or listen to the Black Spirit and more or less betray the starting NPC. The rewards vary depending on who you decide to complete.

The rewards for helping the NPC give an assortment of contribution exp, energy regen, potions, and a choice of some consumable item.

The rewards for "betraying" the NPC and siding with the Black Spirit in both cases grants 2 Skill points.

I decided to look into which would be the better option when choosing a reward and I discovered something that has opened another fork in the road for my BDO playing experience...
There are soft caps for Skill points and Contribution points, those being 500 and 300... or was it 350 ...respectfully. Once you hit the soft cap for skill points (not sure if it's the same for contribution points) exp gained for further skill points becomes substantially harder to obtain - says people.
If this is indeed the case, wouldn't it make the most sense to avoid questing entirely? (aside from the main Black Spirit chain - says people.) Once hitting the soft cap you would potentially have hundreds of additional skill points available to you. Locked behind Amity gains for NPC, chains, and running around the world discovering all the NPCs.

So here I sit... deciding whether to grind to that 500 soft cap or to continue unlocking/completing quests as I make my way from town to town.

[Rulke]

Guess it all depends on how "hardcore" you want to be.

[SamanosukeShiva]

anyone made guild yet?

[Rulke]

^Talk to Senji. His Tera guild is in BDO now. He's not running it this time but still playing.

[Jinn]

We're all on Orwen server if you'd like to join us :D

[SamanosukeShiva]

whats your guild name? inv family name: underblade

[Senji]

PM me for guild.

The soft cap for skill points is 500. Some people skip the quests until soft cap to force them later. I just roughly did some quests until late teens, then pure grind. For a fast 1-15; grind the imps/goblin starter camp spawns for fast exp since the respawn rate is juiced.

[Jinn]

PM me for guild.

The soft cap for skill points is 500. Some people skip the quests until soft cap to force them later. I just roughly did some quests until late teens, then pure grind. For a fast 1-15; grind the imps/goblin starter camp spawns for fast exp since the respawn rate is juiced.

Speaking of Juiced, when I was fighting them goblins later night there was the word (VIOLENT) above some goblins name plates. They were larger then their normal class counterparts and colored differently. Their mini map Icon was noted with a red spikey ball instead of the standard red dot. Are these considered NMs?

[Senji]

Elite. Don't know if drops are any different though. There are NM/World bosses with drops to hunt.

[Burningthought]

I'm having the time of my life with this game. I've been switching between grinding and doing quests. I kept catching myself spamming through quest dialog that I've already been through but Im going to take my time.onnmy alt and really enjoy your everything.

[Rulke]

^ yeah, I am going to go full on immersion in this game too and read everything. Been a long time since I've done that (see ffxi days)

[Jinn]

Any of you pre-order the game after the 26th? No access to early head start if you did...

See reddit rage threads for details D:

[Prothescar]

Whole lot of borderline illegal activity going on over there

[Prothescar]

Whole lot of borderline illegal activity going on over there. Bait and switch, false advertisement, etc

[Siya]

I've been following it on reddit. I was going to buy the game which I would no doubt have fun in as me and my gf liked the beta. But what Daum is trying to get away with is funny, and a lot of people are trying to defend them. Also find it absolutely ridiculous that people were ending up on the wrong server due to technical problems and were told to start over on the right server ( http://forum.blackdesertonline.com/i...acement-issue/ ).

[Burningthought]

I've been following it on reddit. I was going to buy the game which I would no doubt have fun in as me and my gf liked the beta. But what Daum is trying to get away with is funny, and a lot of people are trying to defend them. Also find it absolutely ridiculous that people were ending up on the wrong server due to technical problems and were told to start over on the right server ( http://forum.blackdesertonline.com/i...acement-issue/ ).

Daum seems a little amateurish but overall the game is a blast and it's actually stable aside from a few minor issues. I think that comes down to the PM/CMs. I think they're just new to the being the face of a service thing and they're not very good at clearly explaining everything in detail instead of being blunt and vague. Some of their responses on the forums also come across as passive aggressive and they don't provide a lot of empathy for people having issues. Really stark contrast between the way SE runs things versus Daum.

Anyways...

I just hit level 28 tonight and the combat is starting to become less forgiving. If I mess up a pull (funneling mobs together for aoes) or if I don't use the right combo of skills it can hurt my HP/MP and efficiency. Skill control is really going to separate the kids from the adults here. Mob grinding in a party definitely brings back memories, there's not a lot of down time between pulls but you can definitely boost your xp rate with some decent communication and a game plan for choke spots.

I gotta get into the habit of using the damn mounts. I hate the idea that I have to keep up with it, and make sure shit doesn't attack it and keep it fed. At the same time it sucks having to walk a couple minutes back to town to unload and pick up more pots.

[Burningthought]

I felt like this was worth the bump. They're giving out GM apologies (item that has a bunch of buffs like +exp, +energy +hp/mp regen and many more) for people who had issues not just with Serendia, but also preorder item claiming. They're also increasing xp by 15% for 4 hours for the headstarters before the servers open up to everyone. And those plebs who didn't research the preorder shit are getting them too.

[Rulke]

I felt like this was worth the bump. They're giving out GM apologies (item that has a bunch of buffs like +exp, +energy +hp/mp regen and many more) for people who had issues not just with Serendia, but also preorder item claiming. They're also increasing xp by 15% for 4 hours for the headstarters before the servers open up to everyone. And those plebs who didn't research the preorder shit are getting them too.

I thought this was funny. I guess not being able to read entitles people to cry about stuff. Oh well, good for Daum I suppose.

[Siya]

I don't know when the packages are named "Explorer's Package" then it lists "Explorer's Package headstart date: xxx" makes it pretty easy. You shouldn't have to research and dig/look at twitter to know when you can play, it should say directly on the page (like it does now).

[SamanosukeShiva]

Anyone know why some weapon, like Liverto is so much more expensive but is not really that much better than say Basteer/Yuria?