[BoberJones]

Preface:
EXP FROM 50-60

So to start, I'm just putting the EXP from 50-60 found on the wiki, this just lists out what level and what is needed for next + the total for everything before, mine is omitting 40-50 for the totals on the sheet, aside from the 1-60.

To start, I think that EXP on Korvara is kind of hard to really do once you hit the 50-60 mark, and I have a few reasons why I think this, and to be honest, I've done a lot of grinding, and I will say that I will probably never want to LE again unless I have to for a craft, so I can see why people who don't like to grind and don't want to LE feel in this regard, because it just takes too damn long.

First suggestion:
Spawns. Really, I can't expect much from this because the more spawns probably = the more lag, the server is running for both the main continent + the last continent, and requesting it be a different server wouldn't really be feasible. The only thing I can imagine is that on Korvara server the saves from the main continent would be unable to be opened, but this leads to many problems because of donation stuff, etc. etc. that is not feasible.

My actual suggestion is that Spawns have a % chance to cause a respawn to happen in the area when a pack of monsters is killed, this way people aren't waiting around to kill mobs when only (IIRC) 8 spawn in a given area at a time.

Another issue in part with this is the 8 packs at a time or however many there is, for at the peak time there is about 3-5 parties grinding a given place unless it doesn't seem appealing for w/e reason (volcano sometimes, sea of clouds almost always). Places that give fast EXP or very large EXP are crowded (wastes + meteorite). Given that is the case 1 party can expect to get 1-2 packs a spawn at any given time. 

I suggest the rate of packs goes up a bit from 8, to like 9 to 11. Alongside this adding a % chance to respawn a pack will make it so grinding isn't killing a few mobs and waiting there for the next. Along with this system, a good way to not say, have dozens of packs at a given time is to track the respawns with the limit, if 4 things exist on the floor upon respawning, just respawn how many you need to fill it up.

Second suggestion:
Somehow make Korvara monsters give more EXP, or make Korvara chars require less EXP.
So even while leveling and having the boots, the gloves, the bonus from Talents, the class bonus and with blood-soaked, the most EXP I saw was a 70 pack of snakemen. I know blood-soaked went off but I didn't know how many, I also know I got the 10% bonus for a one-shot. This was around 141k exp for this single pack, which was really good. Now, this was around the time it was icly barred but I had ic permission to go there, and with the wastes, you can get anywhere from 40-60k~(? not too sure) a pack from my experience without blood-soaked. 

Combining this with the spawn rate and multiple parties around it becomes really difficult to grind the 1 spot that has good mobs for grinding.

Preemptive counter: 'Just RP'
I do be RPing, on my alt I've done more RP than grinding and I've gotten about 2 maybe 3 rp rewards for RPing. RP EXP is 10% of your req for the next level.
RP rewards happen every 2 hours afaik or longer.
It'd take 20 hours(less with bonuses) of being online and rping to level up once. It is a nice bonus to the EXP, yes, but if you want to just get to 60 or just get to your LE and then 60 again to be there, it will take you a long time if you mostly rp. 

Another counter: 'Don't LE'
Given the game is SL2 entirely and not a new one, LE is a part of unlocking things, that is just how it is. You need to LE for crafting, you need to LE to be min-maxed if that is your thing and you need to LE to get extra EXP if you want to commit to LEing again. Also, in order to respec you would also have to LE unless you want to buy it with points (which I think you should support dev regardless of the benefits)

My final this is what you might say counter: 'Well its rp-focused, grinders shouldn't be rewarded / grinders shouldn't be able to get strong and ignore rp'
the slippery slope of leveling and exp is that if a pack is good or strong it is good to grind. it is the same with making leveling easier. when it gets easier the grinders can grind more, but so can the rpers, and at the current moment, I think the current playstyle has had rpers mostly running things and that's good. these suggestions are for people that want to rp and not grind, and also for people that want to grind and not have it take so long. i don't have a real counter to this argument because its a good point, and sadly the only way to make one side better is to make the other better as well.

all in all, 2 hot takes in 1 night, somebody get me off this forum, I'm supposed to be a recovering contrarian

• TL;DR:
  
• buff spawn rates, add % chance to respawn packs on kill
  
• increase EXP gain in Korvara / lower EXP req
  
• 3 counters you may have that I might have answers to:
  
• just rping won't level you up without you losing your mind or taking forever
  
• not LEing is hard even for crafters, its a part of the game so its hard to not LE
  
• it is rp focused and ppl that don't rp shouldn't have an edge over those that do, making it better for rp ppl makes it better for grinders. make it better for all so we can all not take long to get to where we want.
  

(these are all my opinions :tm:, and some details may be inaccurate as I'm new here, etc etc, please be as nice as you can be)

[Shujin]

Not going to say much about this as I am one of the people that thinks that the grind is SO easy and fast that it might as well not exist but...

Let me atleast throw you a tip that you have not mentioned and where I see many people sleeping on:
Use the Training Talent. with the memory shard increasing physical stamina and any normal build nets you enough to do a minimum of 2 Training fights to a maximum of I think 4 maybe even 5 if you meme hard.

thats another +10% tnlv (Pre bonuses) that you can do alot more than you think. Have some decent HP regen food to go with it, maybe even one of the traits and you blast through that level range in no time, without even setting a foot in a dungeon.

You'd be surprised just how effective that is.

Again just throwing a tip out there, as I see many people sleeping on it, without actually saying anything for or against this.

[Snake]

I really don't mind that gap, honestly.

In Sigrogana, the hospital, colossal tower, crazy dungeons and etc made such thing laughable, I don't think this should be the same deal with Korvara.

[BoberJones]

I really don't mind that gap, honestly.

In Sigrogana, the hospital, colossal tower, crazy dungeons and etc made such thing laughable, I don't think this should be the same deal with Korvara.

I don't think adding things that make it laughable is the answer, just features that take the grinding down for people that don't have time/don't want to. 

On a side note, the training method is really good at a later level when 10% of your exp will be more than a pack of mobs and you can still fit it in with the grinding, I didn't know about it. I still think that something that makes it easier is done, however, something that either increases the rate of spawns/amount of spawns or reduces the number needed to level because towards the 55~ mark it starts becoming really draining to get to 60, esp before LE (with the exception of the training method, that probably makes it better). 

I think the real gist of my suggestions is more availability to spawns because of the number of people grinding or around, because honestly if people were more willing to start conflict over contested spawns it'd be fine to limit them, but from my experience, most people just see others and carry on, and trying to limit space for grinding icly causes ooc issues.


Tbh on Sigrogana, you can fill book + stamps in a day, two days taking it easy. For me, on Korvara it has taken nearly 2 weeks to fill up all the stats for the book + a level 6 craft, and I'd say I was grinding a lot for about 7-8 of those days, 2 of them I attended events and just didn't grind at all and the others I was mostly rping. While I don't think it should take 1,2 or even 3 or 4 days to fully kit out, it taking two weeks for somebody mindlessly grinding to appease numbers brain, I can only imagine what it is like for people that don't grind as much and have to LE for features.

[Autumn]

I would rather the gap between 55-60 not be as steep as it is by only a little bit (maybe like 200k less EXP per level in that state), but the rest of the grind, 1-55 is completely fine.

[Rendar]

1 - 55 is easy as heck.

It's the last few levels that really are just a slog.

It used to be worse, but it got toned down some (and Crazy dungeons exist on Sigrogana).. so..

[Collector]

Honestly? I LIKE the amount it takes.

SL2 isn't a difficult game, but there are lots of ways to make your grinding experience faster, and less time consuming. In Sigrogana, this escalates into grind builds that clear fights in under 20 seconds, gear acquisition becoming almost trivial, and a loss of 'in-character' players. You want a max-level, full book character? Go snag some mercs, a crazy key, and about 20 hours of your time. Congratulations, you now have a min-max ready character!

Korvara is different.

You hop into game in-character, and there's no OOC state to protect yourself from the horrors of player interaction. You're presented with two options with which to spend your time; go roleplay it up and make some friends in-character, piss off the local Don, and get dragged into a conspiracy plot, or you can go grind. There's nothing saying you can't make some connections while grinding, but I'm confident when I say that most players don't put the bulk of their roleplaying into the grindfest; at most, it's a good way to meet a couple people and move towards 'regular' roleplaying. It takes a lot of time to get the most out of either option; you want a mix-max ready character? You can either grind your life away for a couple weeks to a month to get your perfect :veteranplayer:, or you can just do it every now and then while making those aforementioned in-character connections.

One of these is a LOT nicer to the 'always IC, always evolving' world Korvara was intended to be. You don't incentivize roleplay in a roleplaying game with a big, flashy 'ROLEPLAY HERE' banner, you incentivize it with mechanical systems. As far as I'm concerned, this was one of the best moves Dev has ever made; I've heard SO many anecdotes about finding characters in seemingly random places and just... roleplaying with them. Experienced it, too.

I've also seen silent protagonist, 4x mercenary grindlords bash their face into spatials for several hours, instead. Their ideal of a perfect book is possible, but discouraged by the grind and the systems in place here. If that's the kind of content they're looking for, Sigrogana serves as a perfect alternative for that to exist already.

Making mechanics and a full LE book the 'end-all-be-all' or even BEGINNING of the time spent on Korvara sounds... shallow and awful. Even if you do grind for ages and get your full book and :veteranplayer:, it's not going to give you much more than what you'd get with a regular 60. It also doesn't stop someone from simply saying NO to mechanical combat, either.

TL;DR: Korvara is heavily incentivized to be more roleplay-centric because of the time investment required to do things.

[adamkad1]

Maybe they shoulda just disabled the stat bonuses part of the book too.. Crafting could be took off too but that would require changing how it works so I dunno about that. But seriously, if there was no book to fill, the only grind would be for gear

[Snake]

I can't wait until Cyphelle gives Legend Inks and all those grindmongers cry salty tears.

[BoberJones]

think it all depends, there's a slight incentive to LE, but most people do it for the level 6 crafting. me, personally I don't do much crafting or grinding for crafting stuff, but from my experience, doing that is about equal to grinding mobs for EXP. same thing, different feel and different reasons. people want to be able to make stuff for others or themselves for rp, people also want to be strong for rp, or see numbers be adjusted. all I know is I'm likely not LEing any time soon if I don't have to because the effort you have to put in will detract from anything you are doing in game. i will say doing the training and """Robbing""" people with it was very fun, because I got to rp what I wanted, get exp and be goofy in fights and see if the build I made worked