Hey guys, I am in a good clan on Bartz and we are all very very active. We have recently purchased a few hatchlings and distributed them to our healers thinking that this would be the best option to level them. The problem is we are having trouble finding mobs that give ok xp while not just completely killing the hatchling within two hits before it can be healed... Any suggestions for leveling our hatchlings?
Well, I can share what I did, ad I leveled mine in a week and a half to 55.
I used a star hatching, top weapon, and used shots. Do not party with it, only have a prophet/SE use it (I stayed with my prophet, so I didn't have to party to zerk and then kick every 20 minutes). I dual boxed a SE for emp and recharge, and played the prophet + star myself. Then its just root and shoot. I didn't need armor at all, the hatch rarely gets hit.
I started in Hardins area until they were blue to the hatch, then jumped over to the front areas of Alligator Island, then moved on to the bugbears and formors just northwest of IT pit, and finished off in forsakken plains on shamans and tigers and such. Went much faster than I expected.
I know its a totally different story to do melee hatchlings, bishops are great cause you can just hold undead and stick to undead stuff and the hatchlings never get hit either, otherwise I think its recommended to have a tank of some sort that can hate the mobs so they don't attack the hatch.
Anyways, lots more details over at l2pets.com, I would read their forums to fill in anything I didn't mention. Very useful info over there about all pets/summons.
we took ours to a low level cater/necro (same lvl as dragon)
with hatchling armour, weapon, shot and buffs (VR for the melees) its fairly easy if you go down in a group or 2-4
and all mobs are 4*hp so its good xp even shared
I leveled my Star and Wind hatchlings using my SK's Hate abilities. You can hate the mobs, and let the hatch do all the work. If you have a healer available, then you don't even need heal pots.
Only took me about 2 weeks each to level them. I did have an OOP SE there as well. Hatch gets all the exp if it is the only thing that does damage to the mob.
Just remember that you gotta keep aggro off the hatch; they die quickly.
The other option is to use a Bishop's para Undead skill and just kill undead mobs that way. Takes a little while longer, and you gotta have a decent level Bishop to do so. I have seen peeps on my server do this as well.
I level my Star on fettered souls ... empower and shots, I root the mob. Only drawback is I have to press the pet skill key every time, or else hatch runs to mob and bites it.
I currently have a wind strider lvled up to 61. My SK is also 61.
I have to say tank is the best way to lvl a hatchling. Just hate and let the hatchling kill it.
Start it off at breka stronghold, and then move northwards once exp gets low. Once the hatchling is around 45 or so, it should be able to exp with you because it can take a hit or two. IMO you need hate if you're going to use the hathcling as additional DD because unless you're fighting solo/nonsocial mobs, it is going to get aggro eventually.
It's worth lvling them up. My hatchling has around 300patk at 61 without the best weapon. For a tank, it's almost an additional 66% damage for me, and it can take around 5 or so hits from equal lvl mobs.
mine is twilight, lvl 51, first port of dragon valley (after lvl 42), used my BD to hate/hex/dance and out of party prophet/se, se was for recharges...i went through mp fast, but the hatching went up in level really rally fast
Did any Archer leveled a Hatch? i can't level mine at all... ok i can't afford him any wep or armor right now but i can't still figure out how to level him even with armor and wep.
My first one was a Twilight and i thought great! the cheaper to feed and faster one! but with 1 PAtk and 11 Pdef he died from agros in one hit (two headed bugbears north of DV) and the **** just agroed him not me!. i did the quest one more time hoping to get the hatch armor for the faety dust but i got a Wind and more food and i don't feel like level him even when can be easier than twilight with no wep armor...
I'm not sure if it's wise to even try to level him without spending 19M in a wep and another 19M in armor and spending 22a each shot cause of SS.
So i shoot again, have any archer did this alone and no buff?
I'm not sure if it's wise to even try to level him without spending 19M in a wep and another 19M in armor and spending 22a each shot cause of SS.
Umm... Why would you be spending 19Mil for a weapon and 19mil for armor? You can get them from the pet manager easily enough and for a lot less than that. Top Weapon/Armor combo for a Hatch is going to be around 24mil tops, depending on taxes.
Also, you have an overlord with at least some party buffs, in addition to root. And since party buffs affect pets/summons now, you should be good to go.
I don't know that archers are a good class to level hatchlings with. Seems that they would not be able to hold aggro from any mob against the faster attack speed of the Hatch. In additioin, game mechanics for whatever reason make aggro go to the summons first, especially pets. don't know why that is. Maybe it's because the hatchlings are dragon babies and it's an instinctual thing with the mobs.
I could be completely off base with all of the above comments. I am a server clown for a reason.
Healers are a great class for leveling hatchlings. Well, at least the elves. I've leveled up two twilights recently over the course of a week, and the key is to absolutely not let them get aggro.
Elders and their dark elven counterparts get Wind Shackle, so make good use of it. For most mobs, three cast per (one to pull, one at 1/3 HP, one at 2/3 HP) worked fairly well for me. It wasn't full proof, though, until I went to four casts per mob. That's on 1x HP mobs, for reference.
Up to 40, I very much liked the Dread Wolves at the upper part of Heine. They're aggro and social, but spaced out just well enough that you can kill one and move on safely. Since these are only half HP mobs, you can usually take them down with a single shackle.
Past that the front mobs in the sea of spores (Mushrooms and Wyrms) 'til 45 or thereabouts. Try to find a nice corner spot with not too many around. They're only social with their own kind, but the Wyrms are aggro.
Then it's out to the grounds around Ivory Tower. The Bugbears and Formor work nicely to 50. They tend to clump up a lot, so have your root handy for crowd control to keep them well away from the hatchling. Bugbears are aggro in a bit of a strange way, and they're both social with their own kind.
And lastly, a trip to a new spot. The Pavel Ruins port-in from Schuttgart area, and run slightly north-west. You'll find a spot with just spiders and no golems in sight. The tunnel to the Den of Evil should be visible from this spot. The spiders are not aggro, but they are social and cast poison.
Edit:
About the hotbar for pet grinding. Make sure you have "pet attack" and "pet stop", and also a target macro for your pet (i.e., /target %pet). Battle heal on your bar is also a life saver. Along with the pet macro, having "next target" on your bar also helps to get the mob target back quickly.
Twilight = Weakest and Cheapest
Star = Mage (Better damage/Range)
Wind = Melee (More survivable/Durable)
For decent equip, you need about 2M I think. Thats the Torturer and the equivelant armor from the Pet NPC. If you upgrade all the way I think the max is about 8M for both parts. Strider equipment is MUCH more expensive. If you have trouble keeping one alive, try and max out the armor even if you can only afford a lower weapon. You won't see a huge difference, but it might just be enough to keep it alive until you can fix the 'problem'.
I've gotten mine up to L50 so far by sharing it between my Bounty Hunter and my Warsmith without going any further than the mobs in HV. (Kronbe/Lakin/Drakes) It takes a little work to keep aggro (away/off) and every blue moon no matter what you do it will take enough aggro to die. So get some pet B-Rez. (Lag/3x Spawns on top of you/PK'er) The only real downside to how I do this, is that it's not a 'fast' way to level one. (For that buy lots of shots and get the help of a Healer who can para undead/root.)