Returning player with several questions

I re-subbed after being gone for awhile. Decided to delete my previous characters since I did not remember a thing. I started a Bear Shaman (Khitan) and am shocked at how fast I've leveled to 36.

I do not have any experience with the faction system in game, so my questions are: can I work on multiple factions at the same time? Is it possible to get both a wolf pet AND a wolf mount, and the same with the tigers? I understand that the different factions have different gear for classes, is there a general rule of what faction best serves different classes?

I've read the manual's explanation about the Alternate Advancement system, but am unclear about it. Should I have been adding points to it already, or is it an end-game system? I see people posting builds on the forums, but none of them include info on AA, is it not as important?

Regarding the Item Store: Can a player get the same strength items in-game? Would anyone who has made purchases recommend specific items? (I do already have the Tortage starter pack and the items from the Deluxe retail game)

In the same category, but specifically about The Coast of Turan packs: What levels can play in that area, and how much game time is added approximately? The large pack seems to include a good selection of items which is the one I'm leaning for.

I'd appreciate any information on any or all of these questions? Thanks!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by milomorai

I re-subbed after being gone for awhile. Decided to delete my previous characters since I did not remember a thing. I started a Bear Shaman (Khitan) and am shocked at how fast I've leveled to 36.

I do not have any experience with the faction system in game, so my questions are: can I work on multiple factions at the same time? Is it possible to get both a wolf pet AND a wolf mount, and the same with the tigers? I understand that the different factions have different gear for classes, is there a general rule of what faction best serves different classes?

I've read the manual's explanation about the Alternate Advancement system, but am unclear about it. Should I have been adding points to it already, or is it an end-game system? I see people posting builds on the forums, but none of them include info on AA, is it not as important?

Regarding the Item Store: Can a player get the same strength items in-game? Would anyone who has made purchases recommend specific items? (I do already have the Tortage starter pack and the items from the Deluxe retail game)

In the same category, but specifically about The Coast of Turan packs: What levels can play in that area, and how much game time is added approximately? The large pack seems to include a good selection of items which is the one I'm leaning for.

I'd appreciate any information on any or all of these questions? Thanks!

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You can work multiple factions at the same time, but be aware that each faction has an enemy faction, so you cant be in one faction that is hostile to the other. So if you joined the Tamarin Tigers you wouldnt be able to join the scholars of cheng ho.
Jiang shi and insurrection factions dont have opposing factions.

Imo for BS:
Tamarin Tigers for dps armour set
Wolves of the steppes for the hammer or any T1-T3 hammer if you dont want to grind
BB for the deaths ward ring
Jiang shi for the HP Crit ring
Get your cloak from house of crom
Necklace from ?
You are good to go T4 with this setup.

BS T1-3 armours are not so good. T1-T3 weapons are all good. T3 accessories are good.

You can have a Tiger mount and a Wolf mount at the same time.
You cant have a Tamarin tigers faction mount and the Tamarin tigers faction cub - its a quest chain and you can only have one. Same goes for the wolf.

You can however get a tiger or wolf mount from T4 and use the faction pet to have Tiger mount and tiger cub.


With regards to the item store. Don't buy any armors or weapons from the item store they are very overpriced and quite easy to obtain in game with the minimum of effort. Personally I buy mostly teleports for traveling convenience, I think the rest is overpriced and a waste of points. Although some of the vanity stuff is good looking.

AA system is massively important. It increases your characters power a lot. Also some skills are necessary for certain raids and hard modes. (for BS its Steadfast faith)
No the AA is not included in any build creator unfortunately.
AA for your BS should be:
Decisive strikes 5/5
Pressing strikes 5/5
Steadfast Faith <<priority for Hard modes>>
Empowered Mending
Sleuth of Bears

You can use other AA depending on the Hard Mode or raid but this is my suggested starter setup. After this get anything that increases your damage. After that anything that increases your protection then the other stuff in no particular order. If youre into PVP then priorities would be a little different. :p

You want to take Visions of the Sky as your first gold perk.

Thank you very much for the info, I think you've answered everything.

Do factions only start at level 80? I'm a returning player as well and my faction screen doesn't have anything. I'm assuming faction rep grind happens later?

The factions are all in Khitai and relevant at lvl 80.

The grind isn't as bad, as it used to be. If you do all daily quests for two weeks or so, you should have reached maximum rank with a faction.
You can speed this up by doing dungeons, since bosses drop tokens that can be turned in for reputation.

Before that, there is only one 'faction' in Turan. That should start at lvl 50. If you have the Turan pack.

The Turan faction is something like a thieves guild and sells nothing of use. So you can just skip them.

Having just come back recently myself...

In case it wasn't clear, don't spend all your AA maxing out pressing and decisive pre level 80. The cost per rank multiplies and adds up fast.

You only need to buy 10 ranks total access the bigger AA benefits at 80(bottom tier)...

You might instead consider buying 10 ranks that cost 1 point (now, or at 80) and having 70 odd points left to spend - you'll have had time to develop a feel for playstyle and do some extra research into the AA trees.

You really don't need to worry about AA's for pre 80 leveling.

Great site.

http://aoc.is-better-than.tv/armory.php