Noimad96
Swashbuckler
I'm not the greatest at formatting so I'll put these in a numbered list. These are things you
may not know about leveling your various weapons. I'm not giving locations, but just general rules of thumb that will help you gain rep faster I wish I had known these back when I played the Disney version as a kid._________________________________________________________________________________________
1. Do not level your damage skills, or passives that make you do more damage!
As soon as you get access to a broadsword, try to use it. I say try because you may not get the enemies to aggro properly for you to "mob" them. With the voodoo doll, make sure to level your attunement so you can hit multiple targets. Voodoo is actually one of the easiest to level if you play your cards right. Before you ask, it isn't worth it to use sweep until you get a broadsword. It does too much damage. Grenade and Voodoo staff have built in AoE, so you're good to go there. Which brings me to my next point...
5. How to kill with your dagger and pistol!
________________________________________________________________________________________________It may seem faster when you are killing things faster, but you actually get more rep the more hits you get in. I try to keep a good balance of kill speed and number of hits, you have to find your own rhythm!
2. Whatever you're using, use a bad one!
As I said, more hits means more rep. That rusty cutlass may not look the greatest, but in the long run, it's the way to go. Given the current state of naval combat, I'd even say use a light sloop to level your sailing reputation and go straight for the war class ships. (Someone correct me if i'm wrong, but i believe rep earned is based on the number of broadside skills triggered, not the number of cannon balls hit.) I have a video of me taking on a Death Omen in my light sloop.
3. Kill things about 5 levels or so above you! (In notoriety)
This may change, but given the current state of combat, you can easily take on higher level enemies, and I find 5 to be a good balance of kill speed and number of hits. As the game updates and the combat gets tuned a bit, this may change and I'll update the thread it does.
4. If you can hit multiple targets at once, do it!
As soon as you get access to a broadsword, try to use it. I say try because you may not get the enemies to aggro properly for you to "mob" them. With the voodoo doll, make sure to level your attunement so you can hit multiple targets. Voodoo is actually one of the easiest to level if you play your cards right. Before you ask, it isn't worth it to use sweep until you get a broadsword. It does too much damage. Grenade and Voodoo staff have built in AoE, so you're good to go there. Which brings me to my next point...
Since your dagger and your pistol are solely 1v1 weapons, it's a bit slower, but you still want to maintain your high hit, low damage trend. For pistol, don't use take aim. I wouldn't even skill it until you're ready to dump your points in. You just want to use your basic lead shot. For dagger, you have two options. The painful way, which is to get good at the combo and use your combo, and the masochistic way which is to just use the first hit of the combo. Less damage means more hits. I'd just use the full combo though. It's much more fun. Lastly...
6. Save the best for last!
We all have a favorite weapon. My personal favorite is the voodoo doll. Such a versatile little tool, and I really like the attuning. It makes a new kind of spell type other than DoT, AoE and Single Target. I like to call it multi target. It blew my mind as a 12 year old! but I digress. You may feel the urge to level your favorite weapons first. If you do that then the ones that are left will just feel like a horrible grind. Better to just keep the reward of your favorite weapons on the horizon.
This concludes my first tips post and my longest post to date. If you feel I missed something, or have some of your own rules of thumb to add, please do so. As for skill build, I honestly think that's up to the player, though to a seasoned player there are definite optimizations and point wasters. Since you stuck with this pot to the end I can give you a bonus tip. (That's my way of saying I forgot one and I'm too lazy to go add it.)
Bonus Tip: Find a healer! Something tells me the combat isn't going to be easy mode forever!
Edit 1: I made a new toon my last play time, went to Fort Charles immediately, and had my sword to level 8 within the first 20 minutes of my play time. You may get lucky and find a healer there like I did!
Edit 2: Since most enemies don't track you well currently, the broadsword isn't the best way to farm. For single target sword rep, use a rusty sabre or something similar. After extensive testing I found the third combo move of a sabre, rapid strike, calculates as 3 hits (shocker) in the reputation algorithm, (or whatever fancy thing I should call it.) You get these 3 hits for about the same damage as a cleave from a cutlass, meaning you get a 3 for one! So don't just look at damage values. The combo type matters as well! Long edit, shoot me for gun rep.
Edit 3: After doing some testing, and falling into a good rhythm, I decided that for sailing and cannon rep, using your starter sloop, rushing the warships is a bad idea. It just takes too long for not enough rep. Instead I found that rushing the middle class ships was the best way to go. They only take a minute or so with good broadside switching, and yield only slightly worse rep. You can easily do three or four middle class ships in the time it would take to take down a war class ship, so that's more rep overall!
Edit 2: Since most enemies don't track you well currently, the broadsword isn't the best way to farm. For single target sword rep, use a rusty sabre or something similar. After extensive testing I found the third combo move of a sabre, rapid strike, calculates as 3 hits (shocker) in the reputation algorithm, (or whatever fancy thing I should call it.) You get these 3 hits for about the same damage as a cleave from a cutlass, meaning you get a 3 for one! So don't just look at damage values. The combo type matters as well! Long edit, shoot me for gun rep.
Edit 3: After doing some testing, and falling into a good rhythm, I decided that for sailing and cannon rep, using your starter sloop, rushing the warships is a bad idea. It just takes too long for not enough rep. Instead I found that rushing the middle class ships was the best way to go. They only take a minute or so with good broadside switching, and yield only slightly worse rep. You can easily do three or four middle class ships in the time it would take to take down a war class ship, so that's more rep overall!
Thanks for reading, and happy plundering!
-Noimad96-
Last edited: