Altitis Infectus Maximus(Or Why Re-rolling a bunch of alts is good for you)

Now on my fourth(and final^tm) *ahem* character, this was a long process of evolution which began with me thinking "ah cool, I can do everything like FFXI/FFXIV no need to make a bunch of alts." Right then. One of the first things I learned in PG is that loot is randomized based on your skills. Now this sounds great, right? Except when you've tried 9 different combat skills and loot drops dnt check your skill level vs the item drop level(imo it should have a check on the skill level as well... i have 7 skill in pig but kept getting lvl30 pig required drops, ugh). Enter spending three days literally camped out inside a dungeon just endlessly farming to get stuff for the skills you actually want to keep using... and that was just getting armor drops that matched two of my skills - not even farming for the best mods.

So then I made an alt, and it took... 2 days of farming with only two combat skills to get a full suit of decent mods - which was considerably better than 3 days for armor with crap mods that at least matched the skills I wanted to use. And then I trained tradeskills... Yes, those skill mods too. /headdesk

So now, I have a tradeskiller with some decent favor levels to sell and bank for me while i learn the intricacies of crafting....
Another alt with decent favor levels that I primarily run around serb farming deer/pigs/chicken/eggs/skins with.
Another alt with crap favor levels that I primarily run around serb farming deer/pigs/chicken/eggs/skins with.

A final character I'm going to call my 'main' who has two, exactly two, only two, no more than two, no less than two, just two combat skills. He actually gets decent drops :p

I use a totally different approach. I have my training skills and the skill I'm working on. My training skills are Mentalism or Psychology or Animal Handling. I focus my gear set on the training skill and a main combat skill. The training skill can be used 25 levels above the value of the being trained skill. Mentalism and Psychology are good for this because they get bonus levels taking them higher then most other skills can go. Also Psychology have a mod that increase xp earned under the right conditions. Animal Handling is also good, while training the low skill you can also be leveling a pet, and they can be a real beast even if your low skill is really low.

How I decided what to take on each character. My main takes the most skills (8 combat skills, 1 beast skill, other 5 beast skills up to last synergy level bonus, 79 other skills), the next one down takes a smaller set (4 combat skills, 1 beast skill, some other beast skills up to last synergy level bonus, 28 other skills) , the next maybe only takes 3 combat skills and 1 beast skill. And the last only works on 2, with a possible third if something interesting comes up.

But overall if you find a method that works for you, that is the main thing.

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Originally Posted by adrikthorsen

and that was just getting armor drops that matched two of my skills - not even farming for the best mods.

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While probably true for animal skills, esp pig, it doesn't usually apply to regular, humanoid form players. We can craft all the armor with tailoring or leatherworking, choosing the mods for the skills we need with the gems and fine tune it with augmentation. Maybe it'd apply to some weapons, but still. Speaking of which, there are gems for animal skills. So you can craft leather armor with, i.e., deer skill mods on it.

Anyway, I thought this post would be smth like "roll 5-10 full industry alts, make tens of millions and buy everything in the game" :D

Loot is generally based on the 2 skills you have equipped, not based on the skills you have. Occasionally you get gear with random skills, but again this has nothing to do with the skills you have. I still get lycan gear drops occasionally despite never picking up the skill.

That's not been my experience - loot has been very much a random assortment from ALL my learned skills - with absolutely no regard whatsoever to my currently equipped skills - example seeing pig/bard drops MORE frequently than equipped sword/shield skill drops. Also neatly solves the issue of never being able to vendor anything with a new character.

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Originally Posted by adrikthorsen

That's not been my experience - loot has been very much a random assortment from ALL my learned skills - with absolutely no regard whatsoever to my currently equipped skills - example seeing pig/bard drops MORE frequently than equipped sword/shield skill drops. Also neatly solves the issue of never being able to vendor anything with a new character.

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Then your client works differently than everyone else. :p IMO alts are only good for storage, cash, or taking on unique status changes (ie: lycan, druid, etc.) to play with.

You will get some random skill drops, but it is 90% the two equipped skills you use when you kill a mob.

The level is determined based on the area you are hunting. Deer/pigs/etc. in Serbule won't drop lvl 30 gear afaik. There is a logical progression from Serbule->Sewer->Crypt->Under the Hand->Eltibule->Goblin Dungeon->Abandoned House blahblahblah. The gear level scales up with the mob level basically.

I have noticed something strange. I have an alt that already trained Psych to 81, Animal Handling to 73 and now is training Fire Magic. And I was hoping to get mods that have 'Fire Magic +X%' ( X being half of the level) but I have been getting level 30 items with fire magic +5% or 6% or 7%. Now at level 47 I finally got a staff with level 40 fire magic that has 'fire magic +20%'. That is a long way to go to finally getting a decent mod.

There are two different 'Fire Magic +X%'. The big one on Head and Main Hand that tops at 40% and the small one on Off Hand and Necklace that tops at 16%.

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Originally Posted by Grobyddonot

Anyway, I thought this post would be smth like "roll 5-10 full industry alts, make tens of millions and buy everything in the game" :D

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That choice is there if you want it. It requires you to have crafting skills or be in a guild with very strong crafters. It can be very boring actually doing this but you will makea ton more money in a month of industry 4x than you will playing "regularly" on just one character (note : you will need at least industry 50 to start making the good money and that's really material/time intensive to get going. You also need quite a bit of space meaning you need to unlock space and that too takes time/money).


It's something to consider if you are one of those players who wants to try every profession or would rather have time be your limiting mechanic to do things rather than councils.