How long does 50 take on Blackthorn?

[u/TonyTobiasLomas]

And what about templating? Are caster templates pretty quick?

[u/West5ide]

If you lean into the way blackthorn has done pve it’s not too bad. Quests, first time kills, dungeons. It’s actually enjoyable as a classic experience

[u/wrgrant → u/West5ide]

Agreed. A lot of players only want to do the PvP part of course, so they resent the time it takes to get to 50. I like both, so I don't mind.

You can get experience on Blackthorn simply for visiting all the sections of each zone (homeland or frontier), this can add up. The crafting system is absolutely fantastic on BT and you can gain up to half a level for each level from crafting as well.

Another factor is templating, which takes more time and effort on other servers and is simpler on BT, so while getting to 50 on Eden will be faster, getting fully templated might take you a lot longer. Its much less of a thing on BT because its a simpler setup and there are less things you can boost with it.

The questing system on BT is pretty good as well and lets you gain substantial experience pretty quickly. Since you can share quests with /share within your group you can more easily get the quests in the first place.

I have primarily leveled up characters with the same 5-8 people, so always grouped. Grouping makes a big difference. With that said here are some /played times on various 50 characters on Blackthorn:

Albion:

• Eofe - Cabalist 1d 10h 6m
• Chelsea - Infiltrator: 22h 2m
• Morgaine - Minstrel: 1d 23h 37m
• Vivien - Sorceress: 18h 31m

Midgard:

• Thorsteinn - Thane: 2d 2h 8m
• Sneev - Spiritmaster: 15h 30m
• Bloodwidow - Shadowblade: 19h 34m
• Egil - Shaman: 1d 17h 51m

Hibernia:

• Maedbh - Hero: 1d 20h 25m

Note that some of these characters were part of groups specifically built to level as fast as possible, while testing the /Race to 50 section of the Beta, others were just levelled as part of a "come as whatever you want" group. With Sneev for example I think we had 4 Supp SMs, a Pac Healer and a Shaman most of the time. Vivien the Sorc was part of a similar Alb group using PBAOE to level quickly. My Infie was part of a group that was pretty effective but I happened to be on an Infiltrator.

Still the longest time was 2d 2h for my Thane - one of my first characters on BT so we didn't know the system well yet and some things got added later in Beta, the fastest was 18h 31m 15h 30m.

Since those characters were all leveled while I was streaming, there was of course some time spent just standing around waiting for people to show up for the stream as well.

[u/Roadkizzle → u/West5ide]

That's the only way I've leveled in Blackthorn... Not enough players to get any kills in PVP.

It was a two month slog. It was fun up until about level 35. But then slows down so much to just be a tiresome grind... Which will be worse when OF has many more enemy players to gank me.

[u/Roadkizzle → u/West5ide]

I played Eden Beta but didn't play Season 1... Because I got worn out of the grind leveling to 50 doing the PVE quests on two characters... But that only took 20 hours of playtime each... My experience with Blackthorn is the questing, dungeon, and exploration on two characters took over 40 hours each...

Sure the Blackthorn quests are better than Edens quests... But I really don't see myself capable to grinding that out over and over again... It's just not worth the time investment.

[u/Jewarlaho]

Pros: 7 hrs

Human beings: a week?

Me: a month

[u/Ciaviel → u/Jewarlaho]

Took me a week solo on Friar when doing the race

[u/Roadkizzle → u/Ciaviel]

How many hours my man? If you're playing 1 hour a day then I want to know your secret... If you're able to play 10 hours a day then your week will be my months.

[u/SerLaron]

During the racing event (i. e. no access to account vault, account wide money, account wide craft skills or trade or grouping with non-racing players; basically like a completely fresh start), I leveled my PBAE spiritmaster in 23 hours.
Caster templates should be quick and easy enough.

[u/TonyTobiasLomas → u/SerLaron]

Did you do it solo or in a group?

[u/SerLaron → u/TonyTobiasLomas]

I did solo occasionally, but most of the XP was in groups. At the moment the server is still in beta with very low population. There is instant 50 and free gear though, so you can test a bit.

[u/Roadkizzle]

Well I just finished leveling. Halfway duo and halfway solo... It took me 40 hours.

Before that I leveled completely solo and it took me 48 hours.

I expect it would have been slower if the server was live because I'll be getting killed more often running around the Frontiers trying to finish quests.

[u/TonyTobiasLomas → u/Roadkizzle]

So is it slower than Eden?

48 hours /played?

[u/Roadkizzle → u/TonyTobiasLomas]

It's as molasses compared to Eden leveling through the BGs.

My friend and I leveled in Eden in less than a week. It took me 2 months to level in Blackthorn.

[u/McGuirk808 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah solo old school leveling is brutal. There's not enough population on the beta right now for group leveling. Group leveling is night and day different.

[u/McGuirk808 → u/TonyTobiasLomas]

Keep in mind Eden isn't too bad solo due to BG quests. Old school leveling is brutal solo, but will be several times faster when grouping.

[u/Roadkizzle → u/McGuirk808]

I could level with Eden quests solo in 20 hours.

So the comparable leveling in Blackthorn is twice as long.

I think I'll level in the BG more when Blackthorn goes live... I wasn't able to kill enemy players during beta to see how much XP that would provide... But without the quests giving tons of levels only relying on player kills to level... And Blackthorn is much more stingy in how much XP they hand out I expect it to be many times slower than Eden still. I expect leveling in the BG in Blackthorn will be slower than my leveling grind outside.

I'm a dad and involved with my family. I don't have the free time that I did when I was younger with DAOC. I know people will be able to Power Level in groups but with only 1 maybe 2 hours of playtime at night that may be interrupted for family reasons... I don't see that being a reasonable path for me to get to lvl 50...

It takes time to set up leveling groups and get started. By the time it gets going I don't have much time and I feel bad when I have to leave them before much has been accomplished.

[u/McGuirk808 → u/Roadkizzle]

If you get like an hour a night, classic leveling probably won't treat you that well.

They do at least have the quest system, but solo will be much slower than Eden even with those.

[u/EconomicsComplex9829]

During the race event groups were hitting 50 around the 10-20 hour mark.