I’m just about to ding level 28! I finished up the last few quests in Asee-Teph this afternoon without incident. The zone comes to a close as a couple chains lead to the Tensess temple and others to Eljune or to group/raid mobs within the region. Grouping with friends I was able to accomplish most of the quests that I wanted and my gear has yet again boosted my stats to continued comfort. PvP in the zone continued to pick up. I’ve been in many more pvp encounters and I’m starting to push over the into the ‘I win more than I lose’ category. It’s not my build that is getting better, but my stats and my damage because of my level. If I had a better build — and believe me, I could have a better build — I think I would really destroy people.
Moving from the jungles of Asee-Teph to Eljune felt so, so good. Eljune has a Nordic feel to it. It’s that older, worn looking forest with a light dusting of snow on the trees and the ground and buildings that are log cabin-like. Unlike the previous zone, Eljune is mostly flat and easy to navigate. Maybe that’s why it feels a little bit smaller.  Honestly, I love it. The areas I’ve been to thus far reveal that a large part of the zone is shared. It’s like Booty Bay where a neutral faction owns the town and both sides go there to obtain quests, gear, etc. The Free Traders control a bazaar/carnival type thing where many quests and a lot of story unfold.
PvP in Eljune is slower and more methodical. That’s the best way to describe it. In Asee-Teph if you saw the opposite faction you’d throw your hands in the air and charge screaming “AYEYEYEYE DIE DIE DIE!”. In Eljune you think, “should I attack?”.  There’s a veteran feel to it and the pvp has matured slightly. At least that’s the feeling in beta. Every enemy that I see I have been fighting for the past week. I know them all. I know how they react. I know which ones will still jump me without so much as a second thought.
To top off the night I was able to get a Castle of Blight group and complete the dungeon. There are several bosses one after another with only a little bit of trash. The first few bosses are tank and spank and the mobs come in packs of 2-3 for the most part. There’s a ‘scary castle’ theme with undead and cursed things. The final boss is more of an event that you start. You’re given magical chalk to surround yourself in a circle that protects you. You need this circle because the entire room pulses with damage. We took turns using our chalk and stacking on top of each other to survive waves of mobs as the NPC we protected dispelled the curse on the castle. As the waves ended this enormous tentacle/hand erupted out of the floor. The next phase was fighting this hand thing that reminded most of us of C’thun. Another cool fight to finish off a great instance. Don’t go to this place unless your group has all 26+ and good class balance. I have a video of the bosses that I’ll upload tomorrow.
Unfortunately, I find the combat a little too slow for my liking.
Apart from that, it’s enjoyable. Perhaps they’ll do something about the speed :-/
You’re very enthusiastic about the levelling so far but provide no details, which unfortunately is your style of writing. It’s like reading the back of the game box sometimes reading your experiences. Do you get exp from PvP kills? You mentioned you can get gear thru PvP so in your time PvPing are you anywhere near getting any of those rewards or is it a long grind for them? Was levelling 100% from quests or can you grind mobs for an hour and get decent exp? What about instances – how many different ones are there and were they fun enough to run multiple times? Were the instances set up to end a quest line (finish the story) for each zone? Or are instances just random dungeons with little connection to the zone?
Sweet, looking forward to seeing the bosses video.
Bleh – please forgive the hater tone in my last post. Your enthusiasm is contageous and it’s your blog, but without scanning beta boards, the bloggers are often my only insite into a game I’m curious about, and I’d like more details of levelling thru Allods. Yes I DLd the beta but don’t have time to play it for more then 30mins here and there.
Let me assist.
PvP kills give “Combat Glory”, at certain amounts, you gain a title, at which point you can buy that ranks gear. The first title is relatively easy to get.
As long as you play the game with “Fatigue”(bonus xp system, Xa mount per day) just questing will level you fine.
The game has World Mysteries. Certain quest lines complete these and give bonus items such as new skills or rubies (used to purchase skills) Dungeons are tied into these mysteries.
I personally rerun instances for chances at cash shop items(the lowbie one I can solo) but other than that there is little reason. The gear is usually a few levels below the players.
@coppertopper: All you have to do is ask for clarification and I’ll do my best to give it. These are just adventure logs of what I did in game. I hadn’t planned on providing a full run-down of the mechanics unless asked.
Let me try and answer your questions for you.
Do you get exp from PvP kills?
No, but you get glory which is a point value. This increases your PvP rank which allows you to buy gear. I’ve related it in the past to WoW’s earlier Honor system.
You mentioned you can get gear thru PvP so in your time PvPing are you anywhere near getting any of those rewards or is it a long grind for them?
Yes, I have obtained PvP gear. Getting the first rank takes maybe 20 minutes of PvP at most. You buy the gear from a PvP vender. After that, the next PvP rank provides level 25-27’ish gear. You’ll get that after a few nights of PvP.
Was levelling 100% from quests or can you grind mobs for an hour and get decent exp?
My leveling has been 95% from questing. However, I and many others are noticing that grinding is absolutely possible and quite efficient. Many people have chosen to grind a few bubbles per level on mobs with low armor. Each class tends to have a mob they find easier to kill. Find it, grind it, and enjoy if that’s your style. You can level entirely from quests though.
What about instances – how many different ones are there and were they fun enough to run multiple times?
There’s a level 10, level 23-30 (I recommend being at the latter end of that), Level 25, etc. I’ve spoken about this before. There are many dungeons throughout while leveling up and several end-game dungeons and raids that I have been told about. I ran the first dungeon a couple of times to get some drops that I wanted. It’s like WoW’s instances. Run them for the gear, exp, or fun.
Were the instances set up to end a quest line (finish the story) for each zone?
Yes they all have been tied into the zone’s story and several quests and world mysteries end inside of them.
Or are instances just random dungeons with little connection to the zone?
The ones I have come across are entirely worked into the story.
In the future please feel to ask me questions. I’ve also made several posts detailing some of the mechanics you may be interested in. Just do a search on the blog for Allods. My “style”, as you put it, with these Adventure Log posts are more of a quick impression of the zone and my time while playing. They’re not reviews, in-depth looks at mechanics, etc.
As for enthusiasm, I’m not trying to spread enthusiasm. I’m often blamed for getting people excited about games. That’s great if you become excited, but rarely do I promote a game with the intent to rile people up.
If you have any more questions please let me know. I’m happy to assist.
I went to Asee-Teph last night for the first time. My animist is 21 and I went expecting to last about 30 seconds.
In fact, I lasted over half an hour, during which I explored a good deal of my half of the zone. I never saw a single Empire player and, indeed, less than half a dozen League players. I hardly saw any mobs either, although I mainly stayed on the paths. Region chat was virtually silent. I believe one person spoke in half an hour.
I eventually recalled back to Novogorad because since I wasn’t offered a single quest at 21 there was nothing at all to do. I did kill a couple of mobs just to check that I could. They seemed the same as mobs two levels above me anywhere else.
I’m playing GMT hours on US1 so maybe that was why it was so deserted. Or maybe all the action happens further into the zone than I was able to explore. Going to get a couple more levels before I go back and try again.
Wow that’s totally weird Bhag. Mob density is really intense in Asee-Teph. Action has been happening all over for me. Really weird that you didn’t see any mobs.
You need to be level 23 before going to Asee-Teph though. That’s when you can start the content.
The GM’s are selling stacks of 10 Water of Life and Water of Death on the AH right now! Woot!
Stacks of 10 of each? for how much? I would expect it to be a lot…
1 cp! That’s it!
Yep, there’s a LOT of people at the auction right now. They went QUICK. Only a couple Water of Death’s left and they are on 23 hour timers.
What server / Faction are you on?
@Jak
Server One: A1_Gala_US
We’re playing Leagueside.
I want to know if keen got his hands on any waters and if he is now tearing the oponents up!
The best way to see if someone is on is to add them to your friends list. It seems to stay current with who is on and offline. My char’s name is: Keen
And yes, I did. 😉 Blog entry going up in a few minutes.
Odd thing about not being able to get any quests in Asee-Teph before 23 is that you get a quest that sends you there at 20th. That’s how I ended up going there.
Found a talent and stat calculator online, hopefully this helps one or two people if organizing
if deciding what to do*
http://allodsbase.com/en/talents *
Thanks Toastman! Think I wasted an entire stack of water of death the other day just trying to get the perfect talent setup. That talent calculator will save a lot of time.