Having Trouble Leveling Up

[jscott991]

I really want to love this game (it looks beautiful), but I'm having trouble leveling up as a force master.  I'm level 16 now and my progress has basically ground to a halt, making me wonder if this class is really for me (I usually prefer ranged to melee characters in these types of games).

 

The basic problem is that it takes forever to progress through the PvE content because I take too much damage as I'm trying to kill something so I have to stand around waiting to heal.

 

I thought the class played pretty simply: stack embers and then blow them up for damage.  But that doesn't seem to work with many enemies (particularly those that have ranged attacks of their own).  I take tons of damage and that really slows my progress, or makes it impossible to beat powerful enemies (or multiples of even regular enemies).

 

What is a good leveling build?

 

What could I be doing wrong at this low level?  Did I miss some equipment or upgrades I should have gotten before Chapter 14 (where I am)?

[sephy Kun]

That is weird. You should be roflstomping everything at that level even with the training weapon that you get from chapter 1. 

 

Force master and summoners are the easiest classes to level up 

 

Maybe you did miss a weapon or something. Probably the stalker weapon you get at level 7-8 

You can either

 

carry on with the main quest and they'll give you a weapon eventually

 

Or go kill stalker jingashi at foshi pyres, take his essence and get the weapon from the wheel of fortune at the hill next to the boss

Or press f5 and search stalker bangle and buy it

 

Ps: you can't make a build at level 16 anyway and it should be so easy for a force master to decimate any mob below level 45 that you shouldn't even need a build

 

Edit: tell me exactly what keys are you pressing when fighting a mob?

 

[jscott991]

I'm using the classic control scheme (the one that doesn't use the mouse buttons -- which is annoying, but I can't stand having to hold down a key to use my cursor as a cursor).

 

So I'm using R (the attack that builds embers) and then almost exclusively 1 and 2.  1 blows up embers and 2 consumes 5 focus.

 

I don't do much else.

[sephy Kun]

1 hour ago, jscott991 said:

I'm using the classic control scheme (the one that doesn't use the mouse buttons -- which is annoying, but I can't stand having to hold down a key to use my cursor as a cursor).

 

So I'm using R (the attack that builds embers) and then almost exclusively 1 and 2.  1 blows up embers and 2 consumes 5 focus.

 

I don't do much else.

Oh jeez

No wonder you're dying lol

First off Switch back BNS mode since you don't even need the cursor. Targets are selected automatically and the cursor shows up automatically when you actually need it (for example when you open your inventory and any other tab and even when pressing esc) 

 

You will not get far in the game if you're going to play in that mode, and honestly i don't get why you would even want to play in that mode, since 90% of the game experience in bns is it's smooth and enjoyable combat and you're basically throwing that in the trash for something you don't even need.

 

And why haven't you thought about using frost palm with blazing palm? You must always always use those 2 together and between every skill. It'll make your attacks faster since it cancels animation and each has a different cool down than the rest of your skills which have a global cooldown

frost palm is really important when leveling up because it can root any mob and most bosses in their place 100% of the time you're fighting them (unless you stop attacking for some odd reason) AND it gives you 10% increase in defense everytime you use it, which stacks to 100% eventually

 

So here's what to do

1-switch back to bns mode

2-start using frost palm with blazing palm, not just blazing palm alone (very important)

3-learn to kite, it'll help you alot. Even against range mobs, since you can just attack them with lb+rb while kiting to their side and when they get frozen (rooted) they won't be able to attack you or target you

4-when you finish chapter 17 press K and use the recommended fire build that will pop up, it'll switch your skills up, most importantly your [2] skill to blazing beam which only costs 2 focus and deals a ton of damage. When you do get that skill, use it with frost and blazing palms so it'll be lb+rb+2 in the span of a second, and when there are 5 ember stacks use lb+rb+1 once then go back to lb+rb+2. Use fire stance c and frost stance F to regain focus. This should be enough to kill anything in the game as you level up and insure that you almost never die

[sephy Kun]

Also, while you level up, your main quest will eventually give you full sets of soul shields (those pizza pieces which are basically your armor) make sure you equip the entire set so you'll have some passive protection

[jscott991]

I don't know if I can play BNS mode.  Outside of the combat, it's just extremely annoying.

 

I don't understand why I can't use my mouse buttons while having a cursor.  It's just strange design.

 

I'll give the rest of this a try.  I don't think it's actually any different from what I'm doing except more frost than I usually use.

[RanMaster]

Combat heavy MMO, not your usual point and click.

I play with a controller to be honest. =/

[sephy Kun]

6 hours ago, jscott991 said:

I don't know if I can play BNS mode.  Outside of the combat, it's just extremely annoying.

 

I don't understand why I can't use my mouse buttons while having a cursor.  It's just strange design.

.

You'll get used to it, you have to.

Otherwise i don't think you'll ever be able to do any of the content above level 45, let alone any level 50 dungeon :/ i mean you're dying even at level 16. i can guarantee you it's mainly because of normal mode and it's not going to get any easier

[jscott991]

Ok, I'm trying BNS mode.

 

So Blazing Palm is left, Frost is RMB, Impact is 1, and DragonChor (or whatever) is 2.

 

Should my attacks basically just be LMB, RMB, and Impact?

 

I have to say I'm not noticing any difference.  I'm fighting Inferno Poggles or whatever in the cave with Pokey.  Their fire attack is seeking and they just tear me apart while I'm doing LMB, LMB, RMB, LMB, LMB, 1.

 

I do decent damage, but I just left a battle with two of them having lost about 600 HP (from 821 to 252).  Strafing back and forth doesn't do much since their ranged attack seeks.

 

I'm doing about 35 per hit with LMB and RMB, about 124 per hit when I have full embers.  They do about 100 per hit.

[sephy Kun]

41 minutes ago, jscott991 said:

Ok, I'm trying BNS mode.

 

So Blazing Palm is left, Frost is RMB, Impact is 1, and DragonChor (or whatever) is 2.

 

Should my attacks basically just be LMB, RMB, and Impact?

 

I have to say I'm not noticing any difference.  I'm fighting Inferno Poggles or whatever in the cave with Pokey.  Their fire attack is seeking and they just tear me apart while I'm doing LMB, LMB, RMB, LMB, LMB, 1.

 

I do decent damage, but I just left a battle with two of them having lost about 600 HP (from 821 to 252).  Strafing back and forth doesn't do much since their ranged attack seeks.

 

I'm doing about 35 per hit with LMB and RMB, about 124 per hit when I have full embers.  They do about 100 per hit.

And i just tried normal mode again today, i couldn't move while doing my normal rotation and it was really hard to get the training dummy in the hit box, it was too weird lol.

 

No no you don't go left and right to avoid their attacks, you go to their side while they are frozen so they can't target you anymore, but i guess that won't work with 2 at the same time

 

Are you sure you aren't just undergeared? Do you have the soul shields and weapon from foshi pyres?

 

If you have them then There are still a couple of things you can do i guess, keep doing the main questline till you reach chapter 17 and from there press K and scroll down to your dragonchar skill and spec it into blazing beam, and from there you'll fight mobs using rmb+lmb+2, it'll make your life easier.

 

If you don't have enough skill points just level up once or twice and you should have it by then

 

You also mentioned you have to wait till your HP recovers? So does that mean you're out of dumplings? You can buy a few from f5 (press f5 and search dumplings) if you don't have them, they are really cheap and you should have the money for it if you did hajoon (or whatever his name was) training quests

 

 

[jscott991]

Because dumplings are so expensive from the regular merchants (didn't think to check F5), I've never used them.  I have some, I just have chosen to stand around regenerating (which takes longer than any game I've ever played).

 

I'm using a soul shield from Chapter 7 (Stalker) and a bangle from Chapter 11 with one upgrade (+60 damage).

 

Besides Pokey, I think I've done every quest up to chapter 16.  I couldn't defeat Pokey (not even close), but I don't think I missed any equipment rewards.

 

Edit: Are you sure Frost Palm freezes something from being able to target me?  It looks to me like it just slows enemies.

[sephy Kun]

45 minutes ago, jscott991 said:

Because dumplings are so expensive from the regular merchants (didn't think to check F5), I've never used them.  I have some, I just have chosen to stand around regenerating (which takes longer than any game I've ever played).

 

I'm using a soul shield from Chapter 7 (Stalker) and a bangle from Chapter 11 with one upgrade (+60 damage).

 

Besides Pokey, I think I've done every quest up to chapter 16.  I couldn't defeat Pokey (not even close), but I don't think I missed any equipment rewards.

 

Edit: Are you sure Frost Palm freezes something from being able to target me?  It looks to me like it just slows enemies.

yea merchants sell expensive garbage for no reason, it's really dumb lol. you can get anything cheaper from the market place from f5

pokey is a dungeon boss and he's annoying and not even worth killing, you're doing fine don't worry. try doing it on any other class except summoner, it's 10 times harder

and yes i'm sure. frost palm applies chill stacks on target and after 3 chill stacks it'll freeze the target making them unable to move or turn around. you just have to move to their side or behind them and they won't be able to do anything to you. if you keep attacking, they will keep getting frozen indefinitely. some bosses are immune to that though. 

i'll make a leveling build since i got nothing better to do atm

[sephy Kun]

against single target (good for open world and bosses)

https://bnstree.com/tree/FM?b=r145R9bpx
priorities for putting skill points as you level up
1-blazing beam
2-fire soul
3-fire palm and frost palm
4-second wind
5-impact

6-short fuse
7-rest of the skills

how to play: just spam lmb+rmb+2 and then lmb+rmb+1 after 5 ember stacks (and when you spec it it'll apply burn which will boost the damage of you skills alot) use tab (second wind) if you get stunned or KD'd and use tab (frost armor) to recover HP. use short fuse (C) to recover focus and divine viel (frost stance C) to fight agianst ranged mobs

x and v for more damage which you won't really need
against a group of targets clustered together (good for dungeons -except for boss- or if you want to finish quests faster) cons: eats up alot of focus if there aren't more than one target and it may not be safe
https://bnstree.com/tree/FM?b=HJ3HkjZag
 

1-dragonchar
2-fire soul
3-flame palm
4-phantom grip

5-metoer shower

6-second wind
etc

what you do here is just get a group of mobs together, press 4 to keep them in their spot and just V+lmb+rmb+2 and they'll all be dead. use divine veil if they can still attack you and you'll be fine

 

you can put the rest of the point as you level up in whatever you want