Hitter Leveling Guide!
To start off with, you want to focus on the mace skill to start with, if possible. At the very least, you'll need mace skill up to level 3 before you hit level 75. So, grab a 5x adm. mace if you can, or an adm 2-hander if not. Start fighting things at:
East Havenwood (Ratling Run) - East of Leinster
This area is directly to the right of the first room you end up in after leaving your house. Head right, and up a little, until you come out and see some mobs. From this point forward, you'll be running a circle around the city. Head up, then left, then down, then right, killing everything as you go. You'll pass through North Havenwood, West Havenwood, and South Havenwood as you do this. Once you get to South Havenwood, hang out there killing enemies until you get to level 20-25. Then you need to head back north, and make your way back to that first room you ended up in after leaving your house.
There's an NPC in this room that will teleport you to various spots. Find Murias, and head there. In this area, you'll be fighting Bounty Hunters. The way to defeat a Bounty Hunter is to use an orb of holding to freeze them in place for 5 rounds. There is no way to increase the number of rounds an orb works for. You'll be hunting these guys until you hit level 75, so take care to recharge your Orb of Holding before you run it out of charges.
From Level 75 to level 250+ you'll be fighting in Drear Valley. Drear Valley is East of Monmouth. You'll need a
Magical Mace and Orb of Holding in order to solo this area effectively. You'll be fighting only the Aegiscians. You'll need to use your OOH on them at the beginning of each combat. Among other spells, the Aegis will summon elementals with huge amounts of health and many attacks. They're not fun. Also, the Aegis can fear or confuse you for far, far too much time. 20-40 rounds a pop. The Magical Mace does extra damage against certain enemies, the Aegis being one of them. It also consumes 5mana each round, so stock up on mana crystals as needed. If you run out of crystals, you'll take 50 damage each round until you unequip the mace, or get more crystals.
Level 250+ to 400ish will take you to the desert. It's important at this point that you have 4000+ hitpoints. If you have less, you'll have to keep fighting Aegis's, until you get there. Just north of Asgard city is the Ascetos Desert. At this point you'll want to switch over to a Bonecrusher as your weapon. You can make due with some lesser weapons, but the BC should really be a goal. At first, you're going to avoid everything except for the baby dragons (wyrms). When you fight a wyrm, you guard the first round. The wyrm will move close to you and then stop, and you'll get a free round of hits on it. It's important at this point to be actively working on getting level 5 myst spells. You need to be able to cast Illusionary Foe before you move on to the next section.
400ish + will mostly involve you killing knights in the desert. The knights are evil minions, champions, and protectors. Before you start swinging though, shift your alignment to neutral if it's not already. You can check this by clicking on yourself, selecting look at, then going to the attributes tab. There's an entry with your alignment. If you're too good, you'll need to go to Enid's Safe Haven, and kill enemies there until you reach neutral. If you're evil, go to Festering Hate Pool, and kill enemies until you reach neutral. The reason that it's important to be neutral is that if you're good, the evil minions will do lots of extra damage to you, and if you're evil, the champions will do lots of extra damage to you.
From this point on, you can just farm knights to level all the way to 1k. Likely, you'll take a lot of breaks to run dungeons for loot, or just to stand around in town.
Ascetos Desert - Around Arimathor or N. of Asgard - Level 200+
Start with Wyrms (Baby Dragons) and a Bonecrusher if possible.
Guard 1st Round and you will get a "free" round of attacks.
Be over 3k hp before leaving clouds in AD (click your toon in cloud to cast before leaving combat)
Ascetos Desert - Around Arimathor or N. of Asgard - Level 400+
Around level 400, you can switch to Knights.
Need to be Neutral alignment to start.
Invuln is highly recommended. (Either potions or Master Thaum)
Start fight with Defenselessness if possible.
1st Round, just bash away.
Starting with Maces is recommended although 2-Handed Swords or Clubs will work just as well. You will need Mace skill to at least Lev. 3 by level 75 when you move to Drear Valley and start Aegis.
It is recommended to have at least Lev. 3 Thaum by 200, lev. 4 being better, by level 200 when you move into Ascetos Desert. You will also want Club skill preferably GM'd by 200.
Other skills to work on early include Critical Strike and Acrobatics.
On your way to 400 getting Mysticism GM'd will allow you to Ill. Foe and kill knights easier.
These are just recommend progressions as you level, there are other places to go this is just what i have found to be easiest. Feel
free to explore and find what works for you.
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Note that while gearing up, the maximum current strength score for an asgw is 41, and to get from 40 to 41 requires six additional items. Looks like an in-game cap to keep folks in line.
Amulet:
Amulet of Combat
Rings:
Ring of Strength (2) or a Ring of Endurance
Baldric:
Fin Sash
Helm:
Any Mundane Helm. Possible magical upgrades:
Helm of the Predator (100), Helm of the Khan (750)
Cowl:
Finvarra's Cowl, Thurisaz Cowl, Mythril Cowl
Armor:
Mythril Plate or Chain, Plate of Invulnerability
Belt:
Finvarra's Belt, BoCarry, BoStrength
Pants:
Mythril Greaves or Leggings
Feet:
Finvarra's Shoes/Boots, Boots of Nimbleness
Arms:
Finvarra's Bracers, Bracers of Defense
Shield:
Adm. Tower Shield
Weapons:
FIVES Adm. 2-Hander/Mace, Magical Mace (75), FIVES Bonecrusher (200)