Pre-Searing character guide!

Update - Friday February 10

* Fixed an exploit that could allow players to bring high-level items into pre-Searing Ascalon.

What's the deal with them and presear? So what we have good weapons in presear since they're only going to stay in presear anyway... What are we gonna do RUIN the game cause we have good equipment? Yeah.. =P Cause having a high level presear character is so bad.

Well, back to the topic of the pet levelling - the Aggro pattern is probably different in pre-sear from post sear, as in post searing an aggroed green animal turns red, but reverts to green after killing you (or did during my testing) and I've been unable to level any animal post-searing - I'm now curious as to whether a Warthog could be leveled north of the wall, if they ever spawn that close. So, I am corrected about Striders not levelling this way; I guess that either the pre-searing aggro system is different hey are different from post-searing Moas (unlikely).

Well, in Pre-Searing the green named enemies turned red when they killed you too once, but apperiantly, it's been changed. You might have to test this again, unless you tested this a short while ago. I doubt the aggro system are very different, but we alerady know they're a little bit different.

No, my testing on pet leveling was actually before the rather significant changes to the AI (fleeing AoE, more rooted to areas) and it may be a byproduct of those changes - that's the trouble of testing a game in flux...

Well, testing this takes only several minutes, if I wasn't busy at the moment, I'd try, but I'm busy

Oh by the way guys, I only have to kill 1 more level 20 Strider (he's at level 13 at the moment, still leveling him), and I'll be level 17, woohoo!

Congrats; I'm working on hitting level 15 (14 and 70% I think) but it takes forever for these levels - I need to get faster at boss runs I think, and go solo or find someone to do them with repeatedly. Also leveling a Strider; up to 18 atm, hopefully will hit 20 today.

Wait for 15 to 16 with just boss runs, it takes so long.. Level 17 is different, but still possible. Level 18, don't start it

The Strider I was leveling is level 18 now too Hope it'll hit 20 soon, so I can kill it.

Okay, I tested in post-searing as well; the way animals aggro has changed. The animals no longer go back to green (friendly) after they kill you, and can now gain levels! This wasn't possible previously, but something must have changed at some point.

Someone should try leveling a Pet to level 21. This way, we might be able to get level 24 Pets, which would be so cool But I thought it'd work in post now too, pretty cool. A level 20 Warthog catually stays cute now!

Well it's realy sad there was a trade bug as now there's people with max weapons (and possibly runes, bags, sup kits, you name it) in pre. It seems to have been fixed now but to me this is like the HOD sword all over again (only the lucky ones.....) as ofcourse existing stuff in pre stais in pre.

I think the guide should be updated as some of these items should be very usefull (particularly bags and runes)


And about the Almasy thing...he does seem to ignore pm's a lot (also mine) but I don't realy mind that. But it would've been nice if he'd atleast reacted as it shouldn't be a surprise that lvl 19 warriors are surely going to get a lot of (maybe unwanted) attention. If you don't like the attention then you should consider to either set yourself to DND or just don't enter towns as much (or delete the lvl 19 warrior lol).being a lvl 19 in pre will get you attention, wether you like it or not. You'll just gonna have to accept it. Even me being at lvl 16 in pre gets me hillarious reactions; it was one of the reasons for keeping my lvl 16 pre toon in pre.
Almasy, the way you reacted to me made me think you didn't speak english lol

Anyways, after the max gold weapons thing in pre I've decided to take an extended leave from gw as this trade glitch has realy pissed me off...

I've never hacked, cheated, glitched or used cheap tactics ever in any online game (or in any game whatsoever) to gain an unfair advantage as I've always considered it lame and unfair to others but some decisions that were made in gw seem to have made such an experience impossible. Atleast to me.


Just remember to keep updating the guide

good advice

Diessa, why aren't you online anymore? Me and Leorin miss you man!

Now to the point.. I'll edit the guide a bit, though, most of this guide is ruined anyway. What's the hard part of killing Charr with max damage weapons? The way to kill Charr is basicly the reason I made this guide, since so many people have trouble with this.

People overrate the amount of max damage items in Pre-Searing though. Noone is selling them, noone is buying them. Don't be scared, in a few weeks, noone will even know this exploit ever excisted, since these items will eventually all vanish.

i saw a guy today, showed me his armor.. collectors armor with sup smiting, and sup divine, and he was using a 15^50 3:1 vamp axe and a -2 -2 shield

Only muled over 2 expanded baggies, was considering minor runes when I read the upgrade

My 10-14 sword does the trick so meh

anyways maxie thx for the in game help, prob dont remember me.

can i get better than this for my pre searin necro:

Deadly Cesta 8-12dmg, energy +1 when health is above 50%
Grim Cesta energy + 5, death magic +1 (11% while using skills)

if anyone has got anything better whisp em in game

I decided to take a break from pre - currently level 11, but if I want some more, I'll go.

@ Dragonic. If you're just talking about stats, yes, you can get better stuff. I've found a +2 Energy (while Health is above 50%) and +7% Skill recharge (all skills) Wand, and a 7/7 Skill recharge/Faster casting Wand, which are both very good. Skill recharge on a specific attribute is very rare in Pre-Searing though, so don't count on finding those too much. You'll be fine with these items for now though Everyone non-Ranger and -Warrior is fine without any items at all.

@ islyan. Too bad Just promise me you won't delete your Pre-Searing character! I did this so many times, and I always regreted it afterwards.

Oh and by the way. I'm playing World of Warcraft alot lately, but I'll just be leveling Striders (just to kill them for the xp) while playing WOW, so I'll be in Offline mode almost non-stop, in case you've got questions, just ask them here, and don't wait till I get online in game, that'll be pointless

How do you get past the monk who keeps on healing you?

If you mean for levelling the Charr? You drag enough Charr over to kill the monk. Not sure how well it works nowadays, haven't really tried.

I leveled a strider to lvl 12 before charming him (i was lvl 6, now i'm 10) and just recently it leveled up to 13. I wasn't aware this was possible, as they usually stop leveling after they reach your level. I guess if he starts higher than you he stays higher, good to know I suppose

also: any word on if you can get lvl 21+ striders?

@ Rainy Ico. Don't level up at a respawn point with a Monk next to it, it's kinda hopeless (unless you have so low Health that she doesn't get the chance to heal you, or that the group you're trying to get to the respawn point is big enough to kill the Monk, and I doubt that helps )

@ Epinephrine. Not possible The Charr won't follow you all the way to the gate. Oh and by the way, I think we all misunderstood ANet about nerfing the way to get lvl 20 in Pre-Searing. I've talked to Alex Weeves about the Charr not following anymore, and he says it's just part of the aggro change that's not Pre-Searing only either, and the change wasn't for nerfing the way to get to lvl 20 in Pre-Searing, but just so people could get enemies off them easier when they got their aggro.

@ sno. Well, a Strider levels exactly the same as a normal pet, which I think levels the same as you do. So he'll gain as much xp and will need as much xp as you would if you were that Pet instead. That's why it takes pretty damn long (unless you're using a trick that involves transfering Superior Runes and the -50 Cesta Scrolls also help, of course).

This will not help for the Charr as you'll likely die before you can pull it off but...

You CAN get unwilling monsters to follow you all the way to a res shrine.

It's actually kind of simple...

Whenever you come to a point where the monster wants to run back to it's "home spot" just baby step it past whatever point it does not want to cross.

By baby step I mean let it hit you 2-3 times then scoot back as it tries to hit you again.

In my experimentations with a wolf outside the Abbey the other day the wolf's range that it would willingly wander from it's home spot was about 2-3 times the range of a longbow.

The neat part was that once you baby step it a certain distance past that point (about as far as standard wand range) it resets the "home spot" to that area.

I'll add more if the next time I got to level up a wolf or something. I might also add a photoshop of a map explaining what i mean (that depends on my free time)

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The only PITA once you coax the creature to the res shrine is that the thing will run back to it's last "home spot" after killing you. The wolves go slow enough that most of the time they will agro you when you respawn. Striders will run back too fast and will often be too far away when you respawn. I haven't tested other stuff so I don't know.

What I think >might< work would be to coax the wolf past the rez shrine to try and get his home spot on the other side of the shrine so that the shrine gets in its way to slow it down enough.

I guess it all depends on if you want piercing or slashing dmg which shouldn't be a factor for too many mobs in pre.

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I also complicated matters by trying to add a nearby strider to the kill cycle to help speed up my dying. It would have worked except the strider is so fast it ends up blocking the wolf more than half the time. It SEEMS (as in I didn't watch enough to feel certain about it) that if the wolf is blocked then it looses interest and wanders off quicker. It could have been that the thing was just further away when it was blocked by the bird.

Eventually I'd like to try to coax a couple striders close enough (resetting their "home points") that they'd both hang out. As long as they level evenly then they should both be able to level up at the same time. While it may take twice as long (I have no idea if mobs split exp) it would still be something to do while you have other things to do.

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Good stuff!

The "reseting homepoint" doesn't seem to be true to me. I've tried Charr with babysteps (yes, with enough points in Tactics, I can get them to follow me with enough healing), but they didn't follow. Wolfs on the other hand, do. Got a Wolf all the way to level 15 a while back.

And I level Striders all the time to get to level 18 (that's right, it works, 56% already), and it's just about a good spawn. I can get 3 Striders to aggro me at the same time, if they all spawn next to the respawn point. 3 Striders is very rare though (somtimes I'm rezoning half an hour, just to get that spawn), 2 is pretty common, 4 is something I never seen, but might be possible, even though I doubt it. And you probably wonder "Why 3?". Simple, I leave it on for the night, and next morning, 3 level 20 Striders are standing there

Weird, I've never had that. I end up with one level 20 and a pair of level 1 or 2 striders. Oh, I've also invited the local moss spiders in to speed up the dying - once you have them started well with the first level gain you ping a nearby moss spider, adds to the dying speed.

Whenever I had a wolf and a strider there at the same time the wolf seemed to be getting all the exp.

That makes since because the wolf was lvl 2 and was always outdamaging the strider.

If you were able to get a spawn with all the striders that close the pathing variables might be enough to keep them all even. What I mean is the first one to get to you gets the exp since it will outdamage the other two in getting the first strike in.

I would tend to think that the first one to level to 2 or maybe 3 would be doing so much more damage that even that first strike advantage would be too much to overcome.

Interesting... I can't wait til I have the time to test it more.

I've never tried the Charr so I believe you there. It was just a suggestion to try since several people were asking.

On the same line of thought there are also like four guards there near the healer. Are they new? Wouldn't they complicate things even more so? Or are they wusses that the Charr plow right through?

Yeah, I kinda forgot to tell you my "trick". I've got 5 Superior Runes in my armor, and the -50 Health Grim Cesta. This lowers my Health to 1 since I'm only level 17, so regardless of the Strider's lvl, they always 1 hit kill me. That's why the Striders lvl about as quick as eachother, and the maximum level difference is 2 levels. I wasn't plan on telling this, but I don't want to confuse you when I'm saying the Striders level up as quick as eachother.

And yes, before the AI update that made it impossible to level up Charr while being afk you just got alot of Charr, eventually they'd be strong enough to kill the Monk. Don't get me wrong though, that Monk is extremly strong, and it'd take you a couple of groups to get her down, the archers fall easily, but the Monk is a tough one for those Charr.

Not that telling matters since they fixed the bug. (mad at the bug and not so much the people that were able to take advantage of it)

That does indeed explain it though. LOL

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I do fear this whole discussion could lead to some sort of nerf because it's obvious they wanted people to feel the NEED to move on eventually.

Overall I like presearing well enough... so far...

I mean it's neat to be going back and exploring things I rushed through before. The scenery is also rather nice and peaceful. Although there are some places where the landscape seems a tad patched together it's no worse than post searing and in many casses it is much nicer (Although I have to admit I have not made it all the way through post, YET)

It is also quite frustrating to not have the same amenities that are in post searing.

They should still offer all the standard merchant offerings that as Post Ascalon City has to offer (bags, dye, material and rune vendors, etc...) as it's not like those things suddenly appeared after the searing. If anything those items should be in pre searing but not in post. The city was nearly leveled after all! The traders and trade routes are now totally destroyed or blocked off.

The lack of those items and of any higher level creatures tells me they really don't want people to have anywhere near the same convienence factor in presearing. That to me spells G-E-T-O-U-T. :-/

I've already seen a few discussions about "Why would a level 7 still be here?"

It is rather frustrating.

I think like 20 people used the exploit (even though I didn't really think of this as an exploit myself at first ), and I think me and my friend are the only ones that have the possibility to get to level 20 because of it.

Anyone could get to 20 it'll just take them a lot longer without the -hp stuff.

I still think they should have all the same vendors in pre, just charge 10x as much to deter all but the most determined people from sticking around. Can you imagine raising 5,000g for a bag in pre? 65,000g for a black dye from a vendor! LOL!

I haven't focused on money too much but I have about 2k now and even if I went solid merchant selling drops and trading dyes non stop it would take quite a while (without ripping people off that is).

Anyway, drop me a line in game sometime... Senol Cycosem

Only muled a few bags.. Was too late for the rest

The usual fighting gear.

Yep, I exploited this exploit like no other. I didn't expect this too be bad though. I might've reacted naïve on the post that said "ANet is okay with this, so it's not an exploit", but I believed them, so I didn't really thought I was doing anything wrong untill I saw the "Fixed an exploit that could allow players to bring high-level items into pre-Searing Ascalon." description of the 10 February update. I also brough a Superior Salvage Kit along (not for personal use at first, but the one I was originally giving it to got angry at me because I missunderstood him, so I kept it), so if you need any runes salvaged, I'm salvaging any rune/upgrade for 2K each salvage (I know.. Expensive, but already sold 11)!

Umm, Maxie?

Aren't you still exploiting the old exploit, as it were?

I'd happily be doing the same thing myself if I'd known about it beforehand, but I sure wouldn't advertise it in here!

Watch yourself, mate

This is a protest against ANet. Was the Guild Hall button labeled "This is an exploit, touch it and you're banned"? No it didn't.. I'm not psychic you know, and I seriously didn't expect this to be an exploit untill 10 February, as I told you before. Especially the posts saying it wasn't an exploit made me think about them even more, and I used it indeed.

And is it something bad I did afterwards? Yes it was, apperiantly, but what do you expect me to do now? I spent very much gold on these items, and I don't want to risk not salvaging the Vigor and Absorption runes out, I customized my axe, and the Bulwark is worth half the price I payed for it. And I've never been someone that does things silently (kinda hard with a Shadow Shield in your left hand in the first place, but regardless of that), and I don't plan to do it this time. In my opinion, it'd be unfair if I'd get banned, I didn't realise I was doing anything wrong, and you gotta admit, this wans't as obviously wrong as using a bot for example.

if this thread was a twinkie its definately good enough to eat

They've shown a trend in the past for leaving the nerfed items in existance.

I'd say you have no worries there.

As to the bird leveling... if it bothers them they'll do something to prevent it (like add super monks to every shrine) so I'd say you have no worries there.

About the only negative thing from an ongoing discussion here it that it'll spread the word and more people may start to level that way and in the process gather more attention from Anet.

/shrug

It's a game. Have fun while it lasts and don't worry about it because no game lasts forever anyway. :P

Yes...wouldn't it be alot more convenient if exploits were clearly labeled.
But as it were, exploits are just that: Unintended UNLABELED ways to gain an unfair advantage. At no point while transfering items did you think: 'Hey I am bringing high-end items in an area that is technically closed-off to the rest of the game, where any other method of aquiring these items is impossible'. Furthermore, I am fairly certain the EULA has something about giving Anet the full discretion of deciding what is an exploit or not, and taking action should they choose to do so.......

Unintended... sure.

Unfair? Nahhh. Anyone that knew about the exploit could recreate it.

Besides, even if the gear was an unfair advantage, how exactly is it so unbalancing? Ooooo noooo... the balance in the newbie area is upset. OMGzors! That's like, umm... what, maybe 5% of the games content !1!11!! Heck, it's probably way less than 5% for "most" players out there.

Now as to the motivations of anyone that used the exploit... this (or any game forum for that matter) is probably the least desireable place for a morals discussion but I'll bite...

First keep in mind that all of Anet's patches and fixes are buisness related at heart (programers are not free nor frivilously tasked) and not some moral desire to keep this online game fair to all users. There is no such thing as an online game that will be 100% fair to every user that tries it.

Anet's overall goal (like any good company) is to keep as many people playing and happy as possible. Yeah the PR people seem nice and friendly and maybe even caring (I'm some do care in as much as all people care about doing their job well) but they are trained to do that and their focus is to support the overall goal.

I can think of a few scenarios that would cause them to care about post searing items coming to pre searing and none of them involve pre searing characters having some sort of monsterous advantage during the levels that are already the easiest to attain without the gear.

Bah... it's all speculation anyway. They may have just been dead set against 10 slot bags coming across because that lets the dye rippers hold more before they sear...

It's largely irrelevant anyway. It's fixed. They obviously are not that upset about the items or they would have fixed it by now.

The odds of any normal person that brought a few things back to pre being banned are pretty danged low.

Now if some eBayer brought back 20 maxed bows of all slaying (or wtf ever) and 20 maxed swords of OMGzness to sell to all the freaks that choose to stay in the 5% area forever... then yeah, that account has probably already been shut down.

Whatever.. I'm just happy I'm about to be lvl 18 And besides the runes, I'm not imbalacing anything actually. Look here, it's a link to all Taiwanese and Japanese Pre-Order items, and the Korean Cokeplay items I made. If I'm imbalacing alot, the people with those items are obviously doing the same.

EDIT: Just got to level 18