RO Nostalgia

I've been thinking of getting back into Ragnarok Online (Matt's screenshots have been making me nostalgic) when I'm not busy with work, FFXI, or trying like hell to come up with something non-crap for tGA (i.e. a couple hours per week), but it's been a sod of a long time since I've played, and the game has changed a lot, so are there any quick and easy guides out there for the game that don't require a lot of in-one-go concentration (i.e., that I can read during green time at work)?

Most importantly: If I want to be a bard, do I have to be an Archer first, or can I pick a class that I actually like, and then switch to Bard when I hit 40? The Archer and Hunter classes look like they suck pretty hard and I'd rather go through the first part of the game as a Swordy (which I played back when I actually liked the game for real)

EDIT: or maybe a Merchant, it would help with getting Zeny :p

Uhhh, i'm pretty sure you need to be an Archer first, and you can probably get some good guides at www.gamefaqs.com

Dammit.

Be a swordsman, then a Knight.

I'm not Conan the Barbarian, I'm a bard. Even in FFXI, I'm a bard.

Don't tell me you're considering PAYING for RO.

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Originally Posted by Citizen Bleys

I'm not Conan the Barbarian, I'm a bard. Even in FFXI, I'm a bard.

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Don't bards cast magic spells by dancing and singing?

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Originally Posted by Doomgaze

Don't tell me you're considering PAYING for RO.

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For a month or so, just for after-work nights. I don't always have something to contribute to tGA, and I need at least 4-6 hours for a proper FFXI session.

Joel: Playing music. Not dancing.

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Originally Posted by Joel

Don't bards cast magic spells by dancing and singing?

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xDDDDD

Yes, we all know Bleys can't get enough of that dancing.

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Originally Posted by Citizen Bleys

For a month or so, just for after-work nights. I don't always have something to contribute to tGA, and I need at least 4-6 hours for a proper FFXI session.

Joel: Playing music. Not dancing.

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Yeah, so... if you just want a diversion, why not just play on a free server, so you can actually see your bard by the end of the month..?

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Originally Posted by Doomgaze

Yeah, so... if you just want a diversion, why not just play on a free server, so you can actually see your bard by the end of the month..?

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Where do you get the free server clients? I was thinking of maybe playing this every now and then, while playing FFXI too.

Generally whoever's running the server will host the version of the client they require, or at least let you know where to get it. Now, I'm not one to advertise, but maybe Raf can point you in the right direction (as we all know Frenchmen have no morals so it'll be ok :D)

That *ahem* is not the best server in the world, probablly far from it, but it's the only one I've played on other than the official beta and it wasn't too bad.

Not that I'm suggesting that one for Bleys, of course... yeah.

Alas, the machine it was running on is now resting in peace, so it's going to be down for an indefinite amount of time.

Private servers are illegal, don't advertise them here. ~Krang

EDIT: Ah haha my bad, i didnt know i wasnt suppose to advertise, just PM me ^^;

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Originally Posted by Doomgaze

Yeah, so... if you just want a diversion, why not just play on a free server, so you can actually see your bard by the end of the month..?

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Because free servers are buggy and unstable and generally suck, and I can still see my bard by the end of the month if I bot. And since I don't give a damn about RO, there's really no reason not to bot. It's not like bots are hard to find.

Good luck botting an archer to bard. Most people that I see making bards need tanks, or support in making them. They aren't really a powerhouse class until later on. And even then they still rely on others. And if you are gonna bot there are a few GMs that hunt for bots all day long. So you gotta watch out for that. :p

You could pay hourly, I know a few people that do that.

Ew, botting. If I were you, I'd save the money and find a good private server. Doesn't take too long. I can recommend a couple, or give you a huge list to choose from.

But yeah, you have to become an archer first in order to become a bard... although I don't see why you'd want to. Their skills suck, espcially if you don't have a large group to work with, which essentially is what they're for. They're all support. All their skills come with heavy penalties (moving very slow, and I think with some attacking cancels too). So basically they're an archer with a guitar. Hunters are much better. Make a falcon hunter (99 luck).

And archers don't rely on others at all if you do it right. Pfff.

I'm just saying, those int/vit bards rely on others while an archer.

What sound better? I shall kill this beat with my mighty _____

Sword
or
Lovlely musical number plaied on my chello

Everyone has their own preferance. Bleys doesn't like Knights, you do. Bleys likes bards, you don't. I personally hate knights, they are boring. I like the thief class (sin and rogue are fun) and I'm working on making a battle blacksmith. 8 more job levels to go!

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Originally Posted by Lord Krang

Good luck botting an archer to bard. Most people that I see making bards need tanks, or support in making them. They aren't really a powerhouse class until later on. And even then they still rely on others. And if you are gonna bot there are a few GMs that hunt for bots all day long. So you gotta watch out for that. :p

You could pay hourly, I know a few people that do that.

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See, the thing is, I don't give a damn about RO. If a GM catches me botting, they delete my account. Before I get bard, playing's just a dull, boring level grind anyways. I stop botting once I get bard, because the game will be worth playing then. Until then, if I get my ID deleted for botting, so what? I PM Lionx or Elyse and get a private server where I can level as though I were botting, except entirely legit.

Total risk = 0. Worse comes to worse, I stop playing and do something productive with my time, such as masturbation.

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Originally Posted by Citizen Bleys

Worse comes to worse, I stop playing and do something productive with my time, such as masturbation.

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Now we're talking.

I played RO a year or so ago for about a month. I was pretty tempted to bot because levelling was so tedious and boring (to me.) Instead I decided to just not play at all.

FFXI is more fun, yeah, but like I said, it requires lots of time per sitting, whereas I can play RO for a half hour and then stop if I want.

RO instead of FFXI for me on work nights means I actually get enough sleep to not go on a killing spree when people are too stupid to be allowed access to air, leave alone the internet.

Before you say negative things about the Bard/Clown class, you should look at about how much damage Vulcan Arrow can hit for. It's like the Lord Knight's Spiral Pierce but with range~

Personally, my favorite classes are agi/luk falcon based Hunters, and vit spear Knights. Bards are okay, but they're a pain to level up solo.

Beating various monsters over the head with a lute WAS amusing.

Bards in RO have better music than FFXI however >_> I seen some play on my friend's comp and thought he was playing music in the background til i found out it was a Bard.

If you really want a Private server just PM me, didnt know i wasnt suppose to put a link to one up there.

Level 20 in one day, easily. And because botters can't pick up their drops, I'm raking in Zeny like there's no tomorrow.

Maybe my patience has just been increased by 6hr+ FFXI parties, but I'm not finding levelling nearly as tedious as I used to. Learning how to use a bot would be more of a pin in the hoo-has than the trouble it would save me for maybe 10 levels (since I'm still exping easily at 20)

Of course, I did spend a good 4 hours playing yesterday because I spent an hour seeking after getting my muffin hat and then decided that I wouldn't be able to stay with an exp party long enough to make it worthwhile in FFXI

EDIT: And actually, Archer is more fun than the jobs I used to play in RO (Mage, Merchant, Swordy), so all seems to have worked out.

Private servers are a lot more fun, since you can actually get things you would only dream of in the official rubbish, that and people don't really bot, and if they do they're banned pretty quickly.

That and having less people means people in the community actually know each other, and have less of an inclination to killsteal and generally rip you off in every way possible.

But go for the bard, if you don't mind spamming Throw Arrow or Double Strafe, since your songs don't work on yourself, and you get a whole one, maybe two attack songs.

Ok, you get Frosty Joke, and with a full dexed Wind Throw Arrow that accumulates a lot of damage for little SP.

Great, now I want to get back into playing RO again.

So bleys you're not playing on a private server? If you're on iRO Chaos look me up, I'll give you a good bow and some other stuff that I don't need.

I am on iRO Chaos, but thanks to cleaning up drops left by bots, I have a bow that I think is going to do me juuust fine until level 33 when I can get an Arbalest. And even then, it'll have to be a slotted Arbalest that I can load full of drops cards, if I can find any merchants that carry them.

Do you have a merchant? I could stand to sell my level 1 n00b bow, I'll never get decent value for it from an NPC since it has cards as well.

I have a merchant, but I don't really use him for vending. I only have level 1 vending, and I get disconnected if I leave him vending for too long.

As for drops cards, I don't see them that often. They're probably pretty cheap though (under 10k I'm guessing). The bow I wanted to give you is a +7(I think) Ancient Double Boned Crossbow. It has a Mummy card (+20 to hit) and two Skel Worker cards (+15% damage to medium monsters). But yeah, do whichever you feel like. :p

I bought a +9 bow...free drops from botters are one thing, but I wouldn't want to risk a slotted bow on anything more than +7, especially if it already had cards in it.

I paid 20k for each of my drops cards, btw >< Good thing that there are free drops from following botters around, I seem to get screwed out of zeny on a regular basis.

20k? I have no idea. You shouldn't listen to me about prices, whenever I actually DO vend I always either vend too high or wayy too low. I sold a pet headgear for 100k when it was actually worth a couple mil. The market changes so much it's hard to keep up. With the OBB quest going on a lot of the headgears that used to be around 20mil have dropped atleast to half that. It's hard to find people to ask what the prices for things are, but I seem to have better luck asking people in Payon.

Problem is, in this new iRO, the only way to get around is to spend a couple k a shot on teleports. I base myself in Prontera now, and had to teleport to get there, because one map out from Payon in any direction is chock full of aggro Elder Willows that kicked my ass into outer space as a novice every time I tried to make the run to pr0ntera, and in my mid-teens as an archer, I got aggroed and killed trying to get through to Morroc.

(almost frighteningly enough, I remember the ways between Alberta, Morocc, Pr0ntera, and Geffen almost exactly, but with the new mobs, the only path I can make in one piece is between Pr0ntera and Geffen. Geffen's useless to me unless I want to become a mage, which I don't. I still haven't seen Morocc yet since I quit almost 2 years ago)

So, yeah. Checking prices in multiple cities can be an expensive proposition anyways. I'll try just flagging down a random merchant someplace. I'm sure I'll get screwed, but less screwed than I would via NPCs.

Easy way from Prontera to Payon. Go one two south of pront, then one to the east to "Poring Island". The only agro on that map is angeling I think, and that's a 30 minute spawn. You go south from that map, there are Peco Pecos there. They aren't agro, but if you fight one any other Peco on the screen will attack you. You go east from there to the Payon guild castle map where there are no monsters at all. Go east from there and you're in Payon. :p I hardly walk anywhere anymore because I have enough zeny for the kafras or my friends warp me. Or I warp myself with my battle priest.

Yeah, but the thing is, the paths I always *used* to take, which were safe then, are filled with aggressive Elder Willows, which urinates me off. Elders weren't even aggro 2 years ago.

I haven't even *tried* to make a Payon->Alberta warp. Might do it soon, though, at least you don't lose exp (or at least not an appreciable amount) when you die in RO

You lose 1% base and job exp when you die. The only time you don't lose exp is when you're a novice, or you're at 0%. When you're a low level it doesn't really bother you. But once you're higher and it takes you freakin forever to level it really sucks. My guild leader is level 97, he died 3 times the other day. That 3% he lost was atleast an hour of work. Hell, I freak out when I die, and my rogue is only level 79. I don't really mind dieing, it only bugs me when I'm really close to leveling.

Edler Willows became agro last year sometime, I think it was when Amatsu came. Amtasu also screwed up almost all the good maps. Monsters are all over the place and the places that used to be awesome for leveling (like geffen tower level 1 with all those poison spores) are now hell. Geffen level 1 has hunter flies along with the poison spores. Hunter flies are a bitch. Payon to Alberta isn't too hard, I don't think there are many agros on the way there. South two maps and then east until you hit Alberta.

If the Payon -> Alberta warp is too expensive, do Payon -> Izulde (follow the path Matt gave) then take the boat to Alberta which, if I remember well, costs only a couple hundred zeny.

Pront -> Morroc safe way should be (using Emperium.org's data): South, South, West, South, West, West, South

Considering how easy it is to get zeny these days (thanks, botters), I usually just teleport.

Is it still possible to transfer items/zeny between your own characters? I remember there was a way 2 years ago, but even if it hasn't changed, I don't remember how.

Items are transfered using the Storage that the Kafra gives you, and unless they put in zeny bills or a bank, you can't transfer zeny, you need to ask a friend to hold it while you switch chars.

RO was too addictive. I'm glad I stopped playing it.

Ah, well, items work, too.