An alternative to lvl30 then Darkzone farming.

[RimBlock]

All over the place there seem to be lots of post with people racing to level 30 and then farming the dark zone for the top tier loot and getting owned by roving gangs who have been farming a lot longer and are better equipped.

Since I started playing (a couple of weeks ago), I decided to take a different route...

My main character is now lvl 29 (68k xp to go until lvl 30).  As such I am now at the top level in my dark zone category, do not have to deal with the 30+ level farmers and have quite a few less people to deal with as most just shoot through on their way to level 30.  I can also build up, over time, my stats and get better weapons for the bosses whilst building my DZ rank.

Sure, I don't currently get gold drops but I am waiting for the patch and then the top category to thin out a bit before venturing in to it....  Plenty of time to farm the gold after that.  I also cannot completely upgrade my base PvE as the XP would knock me in to level 30 but price is a small one from my view.

Anyone else playing this or another alternative way other than farming / rogue / rogue hunting at lvl 30 ?. 

 

[ADK-Joker]

Embrace the Grind.

lvl 30 / lvl 57

 

[TheDarkZone]

I think you are losing out with this strategy.

1) Other than materials, there is nothing worth farming that you are not going to replace ASAP once you hit level 30.

2) You cannot do any of the daily or challenge missions to start earning Phoenix Credits.

3) Bosses will not start dropping Phoenix Credits until you hit level 30.

4) The Dark Zone is nowhere near as bad as some people would have you believe it is. There are not tons of roving rogues killing players who just hit level 30 everywhere. And if you find a group like that, just leave the Dark Zone and get into another server.

 

[Blazzen67]

listen to TheDarkZone, he knows what he speaks of the game really starts at level 30. Phoenix credits, High end weapons, gear, and blueprints. challenge and hard daily missions, and starting tomorrow, weekly activities, incursions, gear sets. you wont be able to experience any of that till you hit level 30

As for the dark zone. I went solo there yesterday and didnt run into any rogues, no one trying to mug me, and i gained a few DZ levels. its no where near as bad as some make it out to be.

 

[Xeromaus]

29: No phoenix, no HE worth keeping (perhaps none at all), no dailies. 30: Everything is unlocked. Hit 30 before continuing.

You may find a PvE gearing grind to be easier, I know I sure did.

Right after I hit 30 on my main, I spent time hunting down random spawn PvE named npc's like bullet king and the rest. Their drops gave me a LOT of boost overall. This was before the spawn nerf however, and unless you saved them for later (yeah, telling you now is bad, sorry), they don't respawn now after being killed.

Right after that, I spent time grabbing all the intel. It doesn't seem like that would do much for you gear wise, but there's a lot of large chests out there that give level dependant gear when you find them, and a lot of them are tucked away in hard to reach spots with intel. Same goes for side missions and encounters, finish it all.

Once I was done with all that, I was full purple gear, and hard modes were roughly on par with normal before. I ran them all for the trophy (complete each mission on hard mode), and got a surprising number of gear upgrades out of that as well. I had no problem dipping into the easier challenges (Lincoln and Lexington) after that, being able to provide an improvement for my squad, and finding a lot of HE pieces after a few runs of each.

 

[RimBlock]

Thanks for all the replies.

I will happily admit that the DZs top level felt a little easy last night and we were luck to get anything we wanted to keep out of 20 items worth of extractions.  The shops also tend to have nothing of interest now including the exotic weapons trader at the base.

We are now 29/29 with 56k/45k/17k and 27/28 (not sure of my sons stats) level & stats wise and with this patch coming today, hopefully the herd at lvl 30 will get thinned out somewhat.  I understand the patch will also fix the dailies.

I am looking forward to the dailies, fully upgrading the base and maybe giving the incursion a try.

 

[BuLLeTSpOnGe]

I am a little turned off by the dark zone too, as being ganked for gold drops really sucks, and it is rampant.   After 30 though, it was a lot of UN assembly runs to fill my purples up to snuff enough to do hard mode dailies.  Hard mode dailes really kicked it off for me though, and farming phoenix creds to work on gear eventually led me to the tedious Lexington Challenge runs.  I run Lex at least 10 times daily, have tons of phoenix creds, and two different spec sets of gear in gold. 

 

[RimBlock]

...  I run Lex at least 10 times daily, have tons of phoenix creds, and two different spec sets of gear in gold. 

But doesn't that get a bit monotonous ?.

The one negative thing I have felt with this game so far (excluding frustration at bugs) is how fast you can get to PvE lvl 30.  I have never ranked up so fast in any other game before, well... to memory  :wink: .

 

[Yurika889]

I also am staying at 29 for a bit. Possibly only a day or 2 to get at least some more adequate gear so I wont feel so behind at lvl 30.

 

[RimBlock]

So, post patch, we decided to pop our cherries and go to level 30.  Did the last two PvE missions and then went in to the dark zone.  We were both around 30/28 and the last PvE missions were fairly easy with the equipment we had.  

We don't have gear ranks now (post PvP lvl 30 needed ?) but encountered lots of players in the dark zone, mainly doing their own thing.  Helping each other out and someone even revived me in a battle.

Usually we see 1 or 2 groups on a nights play at lvl 29 but we saw 10+ groups within 30 minutes last night.  

The problem came when a group of 3 rogues just ran around hunting everyone.  They had a gear score of 200+ and we had no chance of scratching them.  after running, being chased, hiding, running again when spotted and one shot and I was dead.  I respawned in the safe house and they just hung around outside waiting for me to come out so they could kill me again.  I logged off in the safe house and logged back in a few minutes later to find myself in exactly the same safe house with them waiting around outside again.  After a distraction from my partner, I got out and exited the DZ via one of the checkpoints.

So first experiences were busy with players all over the place, lack of loot as so many players farming and wondering why gear score 200+ players were on the same category as a 29 lvl DZ player.  I thought the new patch was meant to split people out more so lower level players weren't put up against people they could not possibly defeat.

Any advise on getting a DZ server to switch if I hit that issue again ?.  Playing with people like that is just not enjoyable.

 

[TheDarkZone]

Any advise on getting a DZ server to switch if I hit that issue again ?.  Playing with people like that is just not enjoyable.

I would say just step out of the safe house, take the death, and then respawn at a different location. 

 

[Xeromaus]

But doesn't that get a bit monotonous ?.

The one negative thing I have felt with this game so far (excluding frustration at bugs) is how fast you can get to PvE lvl 30.  I have never ranked up so fast in any other game before, well... to memory  :wink: .

I do the same thing, sometimes running it even more. At the very worst, a few of those runs are carrying a few low level players through, showing them the best way to dominate the run, where they're safe hiding, etc. At best, you're trying for a new personal best time with higher level players. For me, either of those break the monotony, and one or the other happens every 3rd run at worst, and constantly when it's the daily.

 

[RimBlock]

Well they were not around the server I was on last night so that was good.  

Had a fairly good time.  Did a couple of hard dailies and they were not so difficult with just two of us.

Did a couple of dark zone runs which were interesting but will post those in the 'Stories thread'.

Overall a better experience last night.  Almost went rogue when a stray bullet hit another agent fighting the same AI as us but luckily I only got a warning.  Guess my DPS is too low for that player to have even felt the hit  :smile: .

Loot drops, even gold, have been pretty disappointing though.