Thread: Bullets vs Techs - leveling statement

Since I was bored this weekend and had nothing better to do, I thought I would get an answer to a question that has been brought up over and over again about which one was harder to level. A rifle bullet or a line tech (zonde, barta, megid).

Unfortunately I already had barta at 31, but megid was only 30 and 10% so I decided to use that. For bullets, Burning shot was at 30 and 1%. I already had two killer shots to 31, Dark Shot, and Frozen Shot to 31 so I could not use those. Grav Shot was 27 so that would have taken too long to test properly.

I used a Psycho Wand 3/8 on a level 120 male neuman fortetecher on Sleeping Warriors S2 (w/ Leo and Tonnio) to level Megid.

Leveling took 8 hours or real time to get to 31. I gained an average of 6% per run through of sleeping warriors and it took between 15 and 25 minutes per run depending on how much the instant kill of the megid, how quickly Leo and Tonnio decided to blast (if they blasted at all) and what map I got. So over all it took around 5 hours (6% per run averaging 20 minutes not including the inbetween time which made it 8 hours of real life time) to get the 90% on Megid needed to get to 31.

There are a few ways I could have "improved" my leveling method.

1) I could have used 1* weapons instead of a Psycho wand, less damage = more casts per creature which = more percentage per run

That's silly because it would take me longer per run and I would have needed to recharge more often instead of using about 1 photon charge per run. It probably would have averaged out to the same amount of time spent, but less runs.

2) I could have chosen a different map with more bunched in creatures such as White Beast or Sakura Blast ineast of Sleeping Warriors.

For one thing, running sleeping warriors gives me a chance at relic edge (got 3) and svaltus edge (got 1) which I needed for other weapons I wanted. Sakura Blast is a problem for megid since it's an uphill downhill map (it's perfect for barta though). White Beast is annoying with the Ollaka, plus the Komazli putting my NPC to sleep is more annoying than the Svaltus on the last block on Sleeping Warriors. Plus no boss fight to eat up 5 mins at the end of the run.

I'd rather level my dam-spells on Sakura Blast or White Beast (Kakwane knockdown is annoying, but not that bad).

3) I could have not buffed myself. Although I didn't mention it, I used level 21+ retier and shifta / zodial for Tonnio and Leo. This goes with #1 in that I could get more levels per run, but the runs would take longer so it probably would have nullified in the end.

For Burning Shot I also choose Sleeping Warriors. A level 120 male neuman fortegunner (same character obviously). I used two 3/10 Mizurakihoh and 4 0/10 Kiujibahoh. Since I don't have patience to wait out a burning shot on 4 svaltus I used virus traps and boma megiga when I got to that part. Each run I got anywhere from 20 to 25%, however runs with the rifle took me about 90 mins hours to finish. I used no NPC and no other bullets except to kill the Svaltus at the end of the run. So overall it took me about 9 hours of real time, but 7.5 hours of bullet leveling time.

Now before we say it takes 7.5 solid hours, I needed to swap pallet before going to the 4th block to include my grenade launchers this would probably cancel out with the time I spent buffing as a techer. Since I had no way of breaking groups of boxes (megid is real nice about breaking lines of boxes), this also took additional time and the fact that I was not using rifle for anything but the golmoro on the last block. This would likely take about an hour to 90 minutes off of my total bullet leveling time. So I'll say about 6 to 6.5 hours of bullet leveling time.

I know plains overlord with it's safe spots would have been a quicker and easier run for rifle bullet leveling, especially since using the rifle against de ragan would not have caused as much problems as using a rifle against Svaltus, but I wanted to use the same run that I was leveling megid on for a more honest comparison.

So my conclusion is to say that they both level at the same rate (zonde/megid and rifle bullets). The advantage for bullets is that you can level them in any mission equally. The advantage for techs is that you can clear runs faster while leveling. For bullets you can level in a group without negatively affecting the other people in the party. For techs, you likely will need to solo as the more creatures you hit the better they level. Hitting one creature with zonde to try and level it is a sure way to go insane.

Anyway, time for the cliff notes leveling Megid from 30 (and 10%) took 5 hours. Leveling Burning Shot from 30 (and 1%) to 31 took what I'm averaging to be 6.25 hours. Using the same character (male neuman level 120 fortegunner 15, fortetecher 15). Leveling was done under non-optimal conditions so results may vary.

If anyone wants to do a test in a different location and post their results, I'd be more than happy to see your results. Obviously I was bored this weekend and had nothing but free time. Not everyone would be able to waste two days leveling things to 31.

Hopefully I will be able to repeat this test with Grav Shot and Zonde if I don't get those both to 31 while waiting on this new skill leveling update.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: desturel on 2008-03-10 09:39 ]</font>

Nice work. So, all in all, bullets and techs pretty much level at the same (sucky) rate.

Good job. Next time though, you can pack up your leveled bullets and start with fresh ones from the NPC.

On 2008-03-10 09:49, Dhylec wrote:
Your work is commentable. Once the PA leveling is adjusted in the coming week/s, most of what you show here is out the window. ;]

Of course which is why I decided to do this now. ;]

I've been chugging along with Dugrega, but it's only at level 24 right now. Depending on when we get the skill update, I might not be able to finish it to 31 before we get the modified skills. I'm also unsure how well trying to hit three Svaltus with Dugrega will go over, but I'm willing to try.

I guess Dugrega runs won't take as long as rifle only runs, but will definitely take longer than megid runs (Neuman Protranser 15 since I haven't leveled up fortefighter yet).

No, bullets easily take five times longer to level up in game time. Most techs level up quite fast.

For someone whose main is a Fortegunner, leveling up technics feels the same as leveling skills: fast, except for a few (Megid, Absolute Dance, etc.)

Really, if you think techs are on par with bullets for leveling speed, you don't know anything about bullets.

On 2008-03-10 10:06, R2D6battlebot wrote:
The difference not shown here is that when youre trying to speed level a technic like Megid, you go to an area with fairly closed in spaces, like Groves hallways or White Beast. Sleeping Warriors is way too huge to expect creatures to be nice and line up for you, and when youre only hitting 1-2 targets at a time of course its going to take 8 hours.

Not true at all. This shows that you haven't leveled techs properly.

First, I have mentioned that these were not optimal conditions, but I'll mention this again to get it out of they way.

Second, EVERYTHING in sleeping warriors charges you head on. Getting all of the creatures in a straight line is as simple as walking into a corner and letting them rush you down. You do not need to chase them down. Golmoro are the only ones that tend to side step a bit, but most times they will jump right back into the megid path unless Tonnio or Leo are drawing them off to some unknown location.

Grove of Fanatics fails for two major reasons. Armed Servant (Ozuna) and Bysha type-Otsu32. Both of these enemies will walk around in cirles making it extremely difficult to tag more than one at a time. They don't just randomly walk out into a hallway so you have to chase them into a room AND they start pelting you with foie (although on S2, I take no damage from foie from an Otsu32, I will take about 50 points of damage from Ozuna which is enough to interrupt my spell casting which makes everything take longer.

For Ozuna I'll switch to cards instead of wasting time casting megid. For Otsu, there's not set way to get them all killed with one megid.

White Beast is just as bad with ollaka and Gohmon. Ollaka like running around in circles meaning most of the time you'll only get half of the pack with one megid ball. Olgohmon spawn in a pyramid formation. Megid isn't wide enough to hit all of the Olgohmon at once in some of the pyramid formations, plus they take half damage from techs meaning more time wasted trying to kill them or hoping for the incapacitate to kick in. Add to this Komazli which cast sleep and freeze. You can only have sleep resist (preferred) or freeze resist on at one time. So you will get frozen every so often, especially if you are standing in a hallway waiting for things to charge you down. Kakwane and Sageeta are best for Megid leveling, but Kakwane tend to run through your megid and knock you down. It's better to use a dam tech like Dammegid or dambarta vs groups of Kakwane to prevent them from getting too close to you.

Sakura blast is a MUCH better place to level line techs, but because it is uphill and downhill there will be times that you wind up hitting the bottom of the hill and not killing everything thing. Fighting for higher ground constantly gets to be a pain, but like with Sleeping warriors, Booma, Sageeta, and Ubakrada rush you down straight on so you don't have to worry about how wide an area it is. That they are also ice monsters makes this a great place to level barta meaning barta would be quicker to level there. This does not apply to megid or zonde.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: desturel on 2008-03-10 10:38 ]</font>