Welcome Back! – Player Tips to Getting Back In

[Cyan]

Sometimes taking a break from an online game even for a short time can leave you with a lot of questions about how to catch back up, and what’s changed since you’ve been gone. We recently posted a quick catch-up page, but would like to offer this as a place for you (fellow players) to consolidate your own tips and comments on how to get back into the game after anywhere from a small break, to an extended leave.

What tips would you give to someone just coming back to Blade & Soul?
 

[studioMagicalFox]

The first tip i would give would be that at first make one character and put everything into making that character as strong as possible. Things go much slower if you are dividing your resources between two or more characters. Use the second slot for a crafting character to support your main. If one takes Radiant Ring/Forge Keepers then have the other take Merry Potters/Soul Cauldron, as one character is not enough to craft effectively without spending lots of gold. But give all the event rewards, daily dash items to your main and focus all your attention on it until reaching level 50 and acquiring reasonably good end-game gear. Then it will be much easier to level your second character.

[Meginb]

Soul Wardens is extremely useful for making the various transformation stones needed for upgrading gear. They also make Soul Shield Primers which give you the best stats on your Sould Shield's fusions. From 45-50+ focus on balancing the critical and accuracy stats for the sake of doing the purple dungeons. The Reflex Sould Shield Primer provides critical defense which is a necessity in pvp as well as doing the Tower of Infinity. Set aside a set of Soul Shields just to stick critical defense on as even having a basic and small amount can make a lot of difference.

 

My advice on purple dungeon order for 45+: Blackram Supply Chain, Blood Shade Harbor, Naryu Labyrinth.

You will be doing these a lot for their Soul Shield sets, upgrade materials and getting the basic/cheapest soul for 10 Attack Power.

 

For the 50+ purples I recommend this order but be aware that some of them (Den and Storage) can have public group issues and  fail due to not understanding mechanics or not having enough damage to get through them: Lair of the Frozen Fang, Avalanche Den, Awakened Necropolis, Heaven's Mandate, Cold Storage.

Do as many of these as you can to get money, materials and Soul Shields for sheer stats to prepare for the more advanced purple dungeons.

 

The advanced purple dungeons include: Shattered Masts, Gloomdross Incursion, Sundered Nexus and Sogun's Lament.

These are more demanding on gear requirements but learning the mechanics are the most important part. I've done completely random public groups with under-geared/under HM level requirement players and still had smoother runs than with higher gear and level players.

 

I'll also mention that you must have Silverfrost Dungeon Antidotes (pick up Silver Cauldron if you want to craft your own and sell them on Mondays) for some of these dungeons as they can be a lifesaver. You will get kicked from Sogun's Lament groups if you don't have any.

 

Frostscale Basin is an excellent way to get some exp for HM levels and is easy enough to solo as a fresh 50. Check prices on various blue drop weapons and other equipment since it'll usually sell quickly and consistantly since some people don't like to farm it themselves. 

[Malign]

Find yourself a good active clan, it doesn't have to be a big one. Running with friends takes the edge off the grind, and it can be great for learning new dungeons and gathering upgrade materials.

 

4-man Shattered Masts is the first dungeon where the 4-man version is significantly harder than the 6-man version due to a difference in mechanics between the two and just the increased difficulty of the mechanics in general. The 4-man version of this dungeon required heavy map attention and good party mechanics. Master this dungeon and you will become a much better player.

 

Gather PVP soul shields for 6v6 and Tower of Infinity. The best way to start this is to combine Naryu Labyrinth 4,6, and 8 with Naksun soul shields and using crit defense primers on all of them. You can no longer get by in pvp with a PVE soul shield set. If you fight someone who has pvp soul shields and you don't you will most likely get steam rolled. Once you have the soul shields I mentioned above try to get 3 sparring soul shields or 3 challenger soul shields from tower of infinity and finish the rest with legendary elder soul shields from the 6v6 reward vendor. Once you have the 5 set of elder soul shields you will likely have plenty of crit defense without using primers use pierce primers on your soul shields for more damage. In pvp, survival is everything/

 

Looking to make some money with a fast and easy dungeon with little rng. Yeti is a good place to start. Currently honorary ornaments and radiant energies are over 10g each and drop pretty often from the 4m yeti run. It's a great way to start building up your war chest for that legendary weapon and 100 completed runs nets you a 7ap stat boost.

 

[Meginb]

With the addition of Midnight Skypetal Plains, you can now get a very good soul shield set (or most of it) pretty easily without ever setting foot in Sogun's Lament or the other Purple lvl 50 dungeons. Midnight Skypetal Plains requires the completion of the main story line, Chapter 31 of Act 4 btw. The entrance for MSP is located in Zaiwei in the area with all of the Purple dungeon portals in the bottom left corner. There's an introduction quest that requires going in and talking to Old Man Cho who is right behind you when you load in. Here's the best guide for the place if you're lazy or have no idea where to look for a good guide: http://www.bns.academy/2016/11/midnight-at-skypetal-plains/

 

You can complete the first 4 phases of the boss with pretty basic gear, I would recommend getting at least 50k health, preferably more though. There will of course be groups that demand high AP but there will be at least a few alliances that are just doing the daily quests which is phase 1-3 and possibly phase 4 if things are going smoothly. You will have trouble with the basic enemies in there if you have under 450 AP though, just a warning. You can get 5 of the purple soulshields just doing phases 1-3 which are better than Sogun's Lament soulshields. Then you can fill the other 3 soul shields slots with Be Ido if you need accuracy.

[Shadzar]

Seems like this place is dead, but I will ask anyway...

 

What is up with Khanda Vihar quests? I got to a point to fight some giant flying guy but can't even get close to attack because I am already dead... Is there something I am missing on this guy on the right side of the map for the "story" quest?

[JoannaRamira]

3 hours ago, Shadzar said:

Seems like this place is dead, but I will ask anyway...

 

What is up with Khanda Vihar quests? I got to a point to fight some giant flying guy but can't even get close to attack because I am already dead... Is there something I am missing on this guy on the right side of the map for the "story" quest?

hmm as far as i remember.  You will need to stand down (not moving) for a while before attacking. as our NPC will cast  their "Soul realm" spell which an introduction to Black skyscraper mechanics.   You will notice screen will turn grey but you can still move. At that time then you can attack boss.

 

Oh and welcome back.  Upgrading is kinda easier now, though path for accessories remains the same.  I recommend you to do MSP (Midnight Skypetal Plains) To get some legendary soul shield.  and learn to run Ebondrake citadel. Assassins are highly sought there.

[Meginb]

The place isn't dead, there's just nothing really worth mentioning right now... people should feel free to ask returning player questions here though, I'm sure someone can offer an answer of some kind like the post above me.

 

Upgrading is much easier and streamlined now, whether you decide to start a new character to take advantage of the new survey rewards or continue with an old character. It's really easy to hit 420-430 AP, the biggest hurdle is 430-500 AP, it's an awkward gap... once you hit 500 AP, things get easier again and remains that way until about 600-650 AP. After that, things start to slow down again. 

[GLoRToR]

I need advice, please.

 

I'm a multi-character type of person. Classes I like... in order of most to least:
Kung-Fu Master: Even if I never quite managed to beat Junghado, likely because of my subpar gear, I do love this class the most.

Assassin: I couldn't decide which one to ditch. I run them parallel, the assassin is a bit behind.

Spirit: This just came out recently, I may even like this more than the K-FM, not sure yet.

 

I did enjoy leveling my Force Master and Warlock as well but they're less interesting for me.

 

The point where I was intimidated is the dragon in the pvp zone before the mountains update. Basically, no warning, red unblockable attack.

I started doubting myself also when I couldn't beat Junghado but people told me that a single true siren weapon is not enough against him. My jewelry is infernal.

 

So I really need advice... maybe I just suck and should give up on kfm? I like the class and put the most effort into it, but I'm really not confident about it right now.

 

Also, what's the maximum number of characters one can run reasonably in this game? It has the best combat I've seen anywhere, really love the design, but teamplay is next to non-existent and it's really poorly made as far as managing time goes.

 

By managing time I mean: I have to upgrade my weapons but they cost gold AND materials that are either rare drops (that you bid for with gold) or you have to craft them (for gold) or buy them (...) but you only make like 10g a day with dailies. I understand that things shouldn't be instantaneous but this is still crazy. How do you do this right?

 

Any and all advice welcome to set the mess in my head straight.

Please.

[mayuri]

hello everyone !

 

returning player here, been a very long time, and alot of content is updated.. i usualy play FM(HM5) with a warlock on the side (45)

i got a few qeustions, 

 

anything special about pets ? how do i get one ? 

where does the silverfrost transofrmation stone recipe drop ? can i maybe solo that place ? (FM HM5 with about 500 ap) 

any good place for solo farming frozen stingers and moonstones ?

[Meginb]

On 1/14/2017 at 3:27 PM, GLoRToR said:

I need advice, please.

 

I'm a multi-character type of person. Classes I like... in order of most to least:
Kung-Fu Master: Even if I never quite managed to beat Junghado, likely because of my subpar gear, I do love this class the most.

This class, Assassin and Soul Fighter are THE hardest classes to play, very ping dependant , take  a lot of skill, practice and of course, good gear.

Assassin: I couldn't decide which one to ditch. I run them parallel, the assassin is a bit behind.

My first comment.

Spirit: This just came out recently, I may even like this more than the K-FM, not sure yet.

Also my first comment.

I did enjoy leveling my Force Master and Warlock as well but they're less interesting for me.

All of the ranged classes are simpler and easier to play than melee.

The point where I was intimidated is the dragon in the pvp zone before the mountains update. Basically, no warning, red unblockable attack.

You mean Blackwyrm, hes a world raid boss and while he does have predictable attack patterns, is annoying to fight if you can't iframe each red attack.

I started doubting myself also when I couldn't beat Junghado but people told me that a single true siren weapon is not enough against him. My jewelry is infernal.

Junghado was supposed to be a hard fight back before the Silverfrost expansion patch, people STILL have trouble with him so there's no reason to feel bad.

So I really need advice... maybe I just suck and should give up on kfm? I like the class and put the most effort into it, but I'm really not confident about it right now.

KFM takes a LONG time to become the monster it can truly be. If you enjoy it the most of any classes, just keep at it. Work on your gear and prepare to get certain Hongmoon Skills which are mandatory basically. There's a lovely guide for KFMs here:http://www.bns.academy/kfm-for-dummies-a-beginner-guide-to-kfm-pve/

 

Also, what's the maximum number of characters one can run reasonably in this game? It has the best combat I've seen anywhere, really love the design, but teamplay is next to non-existent and it's really poorly made as far as managing time goes.

Not sure what you mean here. If you mean, can we have enough slots for every class?, the answer is yes, the slot limit increases whenever a new class is introduced so you can have one of every class.  If you meant, how many characters can you feasably play and still complete dailies and such, that varies for everyone, I currently have 4 chars over 500 AP and can complete the Daily Challenge on all of them, but it takes awhile.

By managing time I mean: I have to upgrade my weapons but they cost gold AND materials that are either rare drops (that you bid for with gold) or you have to craft them (for gold) or buy them (...) but you only make like 10g a day with dailies. I understand that things shouldn't be instantaneous but this is still crazy. How do you do this right?

Save as much as you can, as bad as it looks, it only gets harder from where you are. I would recommend checking out  the information throughout this thread.

 

Any and all advice welcome to set the mess in my head straight.

Please.

 

[Meginb]

On 1/15/2017 at 0:14 PM, mayuri said:

hello everyone !

 

returning player here, been a very long time, and alot of content is updated.. i usualy play FM(HM5) with a warlock on the side (45)

i got a few qeustions, 

 

anything special about pets ? how do i get one ? 

where does the silverfrost transofrmation stone recipe drop ? can i maybe solo that place ? (FM HM5 with about 500 ap) 

any good place for solo farming frozen stingers and moonstones ?

Q1: You can purchase a pet off the market, Hongmoon Store of Dragon Express but all 3 options are expensive, especially right now with the latest patch. You can also hope a pet drops from purple Silverfrost dungeons but they are rare.

 

Q2: The recipe can drop in Lair of the Frozen Fang or you can buy it off the market, currently it's about 7g on Taywong but it probably varies based on your server.

 

You can get Frozen Stingers just by running the purple Silverfrost dungeons, you're going to need money and other materials so you might as well stick to running them daily. Moonstones can be earned from SSP on weekends but is impossible for lesser geared people. It can also be gained by doing Mushin's Tower Floors 9+ but again, can be difficult or easy and it varies based on your gear/skill. There's also doing Battlegrounds... again, something that requires large amounta of gear to do efficiently... I can't think of a good way to get Moonstones other than saving gold and buying them from the market. :(

[Arkragon]

Howdy yall,

 

So I left when Ebondrake Citadel came out and now with all these events and supposedly an extended storyline, I'm curious as to what I should focus on.

I think I'm HM11 with 620 AP and the last thing I remember was being able to do Desolate Tomb a few times. Now there's legendary soul shields and what not and I'm not sure on the new "meta" for FMs and stuff.

Thanks!

[Meginb]

Naryu Foundry is the new Ebondrake Citadel/Desolate Tomb and provides Purple Moonlight Shards for the legendary soul shield set.

 

Midnight Skypetal Plains is the new 24man that has the legendary soul shield sets used for PvE. I explained in an earlier post the requirements and such as well as a guide. There's a purple set of soul shields which are better than Asura but worse than the Ebondrake set in there as well. If your luck with dropped boxes is terrible, you can purchase them from vendors inside the zone with Flowers and 3 types of shards, Green come from Twisted and Asura shields, Yellow come from Oblivion and Ebondrake shields and Purple from Naryu Foundry. Completing Stages 1-5 are required to equip all 8 of the shields.

[MSaitama]

Hello,

i left game a year ago and i'm coming back with my friends. i used to play in Anglers Watch was not that active, want to start all over. So just wanted to ask which server most populated atm Anglers Watch or Windrest etc? Thanks and sorry for bad English and i hope this is right place to ask?

[Meginb]

I *think* Windrest is the more populated server but not 100% sure.

[Kwathreon]

I used to play about a year ago and left when Black Desert got released. I've been thinking about getting back into B&S it's an itch I've been longing to scratch for a while. However here's where I left off: http://eu-bns.ncsoft.com/ingame/bs/character/profile?c=Kwathreon&s=205#

I'm sitting on roughly 400AP, at lv46 and I can't really pull through story quest because I feel I lack damage. Also I don't really know where to focus my effort or where exactly to start catching up. Long story short I feel lost. Any advice?

[Meginb]

Do the main story and sidequests, if you finished moonwater and haven't started silverfrost, the quests there should give you replacement accessories and soul shields. You can grab some of the Naryu Labyrinth shields to boost hp if you need it.

[Meginb]

The evolution overhaul has been a huge boost in fun for me as I test the waters using a new character using absolutely nothing from my other ones.

 

Some advice following this change: The story quest still rewards you with weapons and accessories which you can use instead of trying to grind drops from dungeons, soul shields are also provided this way. So save all your money and use the equipment upgrade path tree in weapon management to see what materials you will need to be saving for when you reach Silverfrost and your new evolution path weapon, Ivorymoon. The story will provide you with the Ivorymoon weapon and accessories by doing the story but if you're impatient and have Silverfrost Valor Tokens laying around, you can buy them from the token exchange vendor in Grand Harvest Square.

 

While in the early levels you can get by with what the story provides you and you can grab some cheap gems from the market, I would suggest a Life Drain on critical amethyst and Additional Damage on Attack ruby but you can get whatever else you like.

 

Once you hit Silverfrost and ultimately level 50, complete as much of the story as you can with your current gear and begin collecting the Lucent accessories from Avalanche Den, Lair of the Frozen Fang and Awakened Necropolis, these places only need HM 2 and 400 AP to do and you may want to look up a guide to get a rough idea of what to expect in there so you don't anger any high tier players.

 

Once you have a full set of Lucent accessories and hopefully at least reached Awakened Ivorymoon weapon plus a good soul shield set (preferably Yeti), you'll be ready to begin collecting Pinnacle accessories from Gloomdross Incursion, Shattered Masts and Sogun's Lament, again, I want to stress about at least looking up a guide for the general idea of boss mechanics in these places since you will need to learn them in case you don't get lucky with an overgeared group. You want to replace your Yeti soul shield set with 5 pieces of Asura and 3 Be Ido or 8 pieces of Asura.

 

Along with the above, once you hit 500 AP and hopefully HM 5 or higher, run Midnight Skypetal Plains (weekends offer double loot bonuses) to begin working on your legendary soul shield set and Dawn of Khanda Vihar (requires completing Ch 1-5 of the orange side story quest line) which offers a massive amount of rewards for how easy it is and has a week long lockout once you complete it. Also, you will only be saved to a Khanda Vihar raid if you were online and present when the final boss is killed, so don't worry if trash or minibosses are killed without you or you disconnect/crash during the fight.

[Nenuviel]

On 28/02/2017 at 4:15 AM, Meginb said:

The evolution overhaul has been a huge boost in fun for me as I test the waters using a new character using absolutely nothing from my other ones.

 

Some advice following this change: The story quest still rewards you with weapons and accessories which you can use instead of trying to grind drops from dungeons, soul shields are also provided this way. So save all your money and use the equipment upgrade path tree in weapon management to see what materials you will need to be saving for when you reach Silverfrost and your new evolution path weapon, Ivorymoon. The story will provide you with the Ivorymoon weapon and accessories by doing the story but if you're impatient and have Silverfrost Valor Tokens laying around, you can buy them from the token exchange vendor in Grand Harvest Square.

 

While in the early levels you can get by with what the story provides you and you can grab some cheap gems from the market, I would suggest a Life Drain on critical amethyst and Additional Damage on Attack ruby but you can get whatever else you like.

 

Once you hit Silverfrost and ultimately level 50, complete as much of the story as you can with your current gear and begin collecting the Lucent accessories from Avalanche Den, Lair of the Frozen Fang and Awakened Necropolis, these places only need HM 2 and 400 AP to do and you may want to look up a guide to get a rough idea of what to expect in there so you don't anger any high tier players.

 

Once you have a full set of Lucent accessories and hopefully at least reached Awakened Ivorymoon weapon plus a good soul shield set (preferably Yeti), you'll be ready to begin collecting Pinnacle accessories from Gloomdross Incursion, Shattered Masts and Sogun's Lament, again, I want to stress about at least looking up a guide for the general idea of boss mechanics in these places since you will need to learn them in case you don't get lucky with an overgeared group. You want to replace your Yeti soul shield set with 5 pieces of Asura and 3 Be Ido or 8 pieces of Asura.

 

Along with the above, once you hit 500 AP and hopefully HM 5 or higher, run Midnight Skypetal Plains (weekends offer double loot bonuses) to begin working on your legendary soul shield set and Dawn of Khanda Vihar (requires completing Ch 1-5 of the orange side story quest line) which offers a massive amount of rewards for how easy it is and has a week long lockout once you complete it. Also, you will only be saved to a Khanda Vihar raid if you were online and present when the final boss is killed, so don't worry if trash or minibosses are killed without you or you disconnect/crash during the fight.

Im a returned player and i ve read what you said, atm im in that part of the midnight skypetal plains... My only problem is there's no1 there! Its completly empty whatever time i go...  How m i supose to get gear from there if im alone? 

[Meginb]

My advice for doing MSP (what everyone calls it) is to wait for the weekend which starts on Friday as it doubles loot from the place and is most popular at that point, there are usually groups without any gear requirements going at some point each day. What you do is watch your faction chat and Zaiwei region chat as well as pressing F7, select Silverfrost Mountains to enter the regions Party Finder channel and wait. Depending on which server group you chose, population may or may not play a factor in getting a group. You must be part of a group before entering the zone to have other people in there with you, some of the enemies are soloable but you won't be able to complete the most important daily quest in there without 23 other people.

[Lilymoon]

Hey hey, 

I recently returned after a very long time and am about to level and gear up my Blademaster. I left when the Silverfrost Update came out and I still have the old Accessories and the old weapon (you can find my gear here: http://bnscoffee.com/character/EU/Topaza).

I heard from many players that I should keep my old accessories - but I'm not sure why exactly and if I should continue to upgrade them or only to keep them until a certain point and then exchange them. Could someone tell me what to do?

For my weapon people told me that I should exchange it for the one I got from the level 45 story q. Why exactly is that the case? Is it cheaper? Or is it just to "save time"? (Because I actually have fun while doing old content - no need to be fast for me)

 

I already tried to find out what would be the best for me by going through the news and the Forum but there were so many weapon changes in between that I'm a little confused now. Any help or advice from experienced players would be awesome!

[AliceInWonderland]

18 minutes ago, Lilymoon said:

Hey hey, 

I recently returned after a very long time and am about to level and gear up my Blademaster. I left when the Silverfrost Update came out and I still have the old Accessories and the old weapon (you can find my gear here: http://bnscoffee.com/character/EU/Topaza).

I heard from many players that I should keep my old accessories - but I'm not sure why exactly and if I should continue to upgrade them or only to keep them until a certain point and then exchange them. Could someone tell me what to do?

For my weapon people told me that I should exchange it for the one I got from the level 45 story q. Why exactly is that the case? Is it cheaper? Or is it just to "save time"? (Because I actually have fun while doing old content - no need to be fast for me)

 

I already tried to find out what would be the best for me by going through the news and the Forum but there were so many weapon changes in between that I'm a little confused now. Any help or advice from experienced players would be awesome!

IMHO, I would definitely keep leveling my Accessories since true boss still better than Pinnacle except the bracelet (Only when you already have at least 2 Legendary to make up for the other stat) and when you do get the legendary accessories, each true boss will gives you 30 Legendary upgrade thing when you salvage them (I forgot their names)

 

As for weapon, IMHO. Keep it, get your Ivory Weapon from the Vendor (I have no clue where, but i hope someone can help you). The reason is, since the path has already been completely erased it will be a rare weapon skin for the future

[Meginb]

The pinnacle Belt, Necklace and Bracelet are better than the True Boss ones, if you plan on upgrading accessories, don't bother with the time and materials for ones besides the True Boss ring and earring since it takes longer to find better ones than those. You can purchase the Ivorymoon weapon from Grand Harvest Square with Silverfrost Valor Tokens, it costs 10 or 20, don't remember which. The only reason not to exchange your current weapon is if you want to save it for use as a weapon skin since they are now reusable.

[Zagaroth]

just buy trove key n you will get all material for upgrade, exelent experience charm, gem, costume, etc

thats the fastest way to catch up to the current  content, then u will be have a high AP,

with that AP, every clan will welcome u, then u can do BT