Alternative Key Farm Path?

[mindcircus.1506]

I just can't do it again...at this point I eat, breathe, and stink like a bandit.

I'm tired of playing "Who can hit the hardest". Big Nose Ted always goes first.I am fully aware of all the bad things Twitchy Jake says he has done.If I have to watch Lieutenant Francis mess up that bomb mechanic one more time, I'm going to start getting very toxic in /g.

Is there an Asura version of the level 10 story that is about the same length as the Human>Raised by Common Folk usable as a key farm?If so, can someone point me to character creation choices needed?

[Reynarth.4819]

Just do any other story path, I'm sure differences are not that huge.

[Rasimir.6239]

I second the one above, just try any that looks interesting. Once you've done them a few times they all go by quickly. Just don't expect a path you haven't played before (or at least not for a long time) to go as quickly first time as the one you've done each week for ages. Being interested in the story helps to make it seem faster, too :) .

[mindcircus.1506]

@"cNd.1096" said:Just do any other story path, I'm sure differences are not that huge.

They are. There is one Charr variant that is close to twice the length of the Human Commoner level 10 story. This is why I am asking.

[Danikat.8537]

I think several of the advantages of the human commoner story over others are irrelevant now anyway. It has shorter travel times because you never go beyond Shaemoor but mounts have made travel a lot less time consuming. Because you're never fighting a group of enemies without at least 1 ally it was easier to do at level 2, but you can't start the story until level 10 now anyway. And because we can only get 1 key per week instead of as many as you can cram into the time you're willing and able to do key runs the overall time to complete the story isn't as important. The human commoner story became the popular choice when people were trying to see how many keys they could get per hour.

I understand still wanting to minimise the time you spend doing key runs, but surely it's better to spend a few minutes more doing something you're not absolutely sick of (and might even find interesting) than forcing yourself through the same story you can't stand seeing again just because you have to spend slightly less time doing it?

If I was you I'd take some time to try out all the different stories and see how you find them. That's 15 weeks of no repetition on it's own, and at the end of it you'll have a list of which ones you consider acceptable. (I recommend picking at least 3 or 4, don't just pick 1 new one to do or you'll get sick of it again sooner or later.)

But alternatively here's some notes from my own experience. I've done all the level 10 stories multiple times and know them all quite well, but I've never worried about which one is quickest or the fastest possible way to complete them so I've never tried thinking about them in that context and my impressions might not be completely accurate.

• Asura - all about the same length I think (slightly longer than human commoner, but not much), Dynamics has a potentially annoying pattern matching mini game, but also one of the better storylines IMO.
• Charr Ash Legion - I don't know if this is the one you're thinking of, but it always seems longer than the rest to me, I always forget about the last instance and expect it to end earlier.
• Charr Blood Legion - I don't like the story very much, but it's probably the quickest of the charr stories and doesn't seem to take me longer than the human ones.
• Charr Iron Legion - I don't think it's a longer story but it has lots of potentially annoying bits where you're using gadgets instead of your own skills and feels slower paced to me. If you do it I recommend picking the Blood Legion plan at the end.
• Human noble - this is about the same as the human commoner one I think, as long as you choose to search the house instead of attend the party, because then you're just clicking green stars instead of having to pay attention to and match up dialogue options.
• Human street rat - It feels like more hassle to me, but I'm not sure if it actually takes longer to complete than the other human stories. There's certainly more running around when you're infiltrating the bandits than in the commoner story. If you do it choose the option to stop the bandits over the one to rescue your friend, that's definitely quicker. (And that guy had more than enough warnings and chances to get out and was never going to learn.)
• Norn - I think Guard the Mists is the slowest of the three and Protect the Spirits is the fastest but I'm not sure. I don't think there's a big difference between them.
• Sylvari White Stag - I think this is fairly quick, especially if you ignore the risen and just follow the stag during Hounds and the Hunted.
• Sylvari Green Knight and Shield of the Moon - Both have slower paced parts where you're waiting on NPCs or scripted events, but overall I don't think they take long to complete.

[Taygus.4571]

asura, statics(I think thats the option furthest right?) is about the same time as human key farm.

[mindcircus.1506]

Thank you @Taygus.4571 and @Danikat.8537 for the helpful responses

[Daddicus.6128]

What I do is let the game choose randomly for me as I'm building the character. There are 15 story lines (5 races times 3 stories each), and you get another choice partway through each of them. So, ultimate, there are thirty different paths you can take.

When I get one I've done recently, I just skip through the dialog. But, I find after a few months, I've pretty much forgotten the majority of them.

One other thing that I find FASCINATING is that they refer to each other. You can see the other warbands you might have joined if you chose one of the other legions, or krewes in Asuraland. One of the Asura stories includes references to Teyo's floating grizwhirl, which is an element of one of the human dungeons. There are tie-ins all over the place. I once played through every single mission in all the storylines, and am frankly amazed at the interactions between the stories and other stories, and also with the world at large (events that stem from story elements, for instance.)

[Ayrilana.1396]

Human commoner is still the quickest one as the other story instances themselves tend to drag on. Humans also have the quickest starter instance by far.

[WDBoldstar.7649]

FWIW, I've been doing Dynamics Asura the past few weeks for my key farm. The pattern matching challenge is a little annoying, but the storyline is a nice change of pace from the bandits, and I find it mostly easier to navigate Metrica than Queensdale, on the whole.

[mindcircus.1506]

@Ayrilana.1396 said:Human commoner is still the quickest one as the other story instances themselves tend to drag on. Humans also have the quickest starter instance by far.Place 10 tomes of knowledge in a shared inventory Slot. Use them in the tutorial instance and WP out. There is no need to actually do the instances.

[mindcircus.1506]

@WDBoldstar.7649 said:FWIW, I've been doing Dynamics Asura the past few weeks for my key farm. The pattern matching challenge is a little annoying, but the storyline is a nice change of pace from the bandits, and I find it mostly easier to navigate Metrica than Queensdale, on the whole.

I will try this one tonight. Thanks @WDBoldstar.7649

[notebene.3190]

@WDBoldstar.7649 said:FWIW, I've been doing Dynamics Asura the past few weeks for my key farm. The pattern matching challenge is a little annoying, but the storyline is a nice change of pace from the bandits, and I find it mostly easier to navigate Metrica than Queensdale, on the whole.

That was awesome, just did that for my key this week. Never realized you got more rewards:

1. Black Lion Chest Key
2. One hour extra at lunch tomorrow

?

[Danikat.8537]

@Daddicus.6128 said:What I do is let the game choose randomly for me as I'm building the character. There are 15 story lines (5 races times 3 stories each), and you get another choice partway through each of them. So, ultimate, there are thirty different paths you can take.

When I get one I've done recently, I just skip through the dialog. But, I find after a few months, I've pretty much forgotten the majority of them.

One other thing that I find FASCINATING is that they refer to each other. You can see the other warbands you might have joined if you chose one of the other legions, or krewes in Asuraland. One of the Asura stories includes references to Teyo's floating grizwhirl, which is an element of one of the human dungeons. There are tie-ins all over the place. I once played through every single mission in all the storylines, and am frankly amazed at the interactions between the stories and other stories, and also with the world at large (events that stem from story elements, for instance.)

That's what I do sometimes. I just hit create, skip to end, then check out what I've got and only allow myself to change it if it's one I've done a lot and I really don't want to do it again. (At one point I was doing the White Stag story a lot, and it went from being my favourite sylvari story to one I didn't enjoy just because I was tired of it.) Other times I have a specific story I want to replay, or a character concept I want to try and then that determines my choice.

I keep thinking about trying to work out 'paths' through the entire personal story with the maximum number of reoccuring NPCs. For example the Statics krewe from the asura level 10 story reappear in one of the Orr storylines, a couple of NPCs from the human dead sister story are in another Orr story, and so on. I want to try to work out an 'ideal' path for each race to maximise reoccuring NPCs, but I haven't actually gotten around to doing it yet.

[Rasimir.6239]

@"Danikat.8537" said:I keep thinking about trying to work out 'paths' through the entire personal story with the maximum number of reoccuring NPCs. For example the Statics krewe from the asura level 10 story reappear in one of the Orr storylines, a couple of NPCs from the human dead sister story are in another Orr story, and so on. I want to try to work out an 'ideal' path for each race to maximise reoccuring NPCs, but I haven't actually gotten around to doing it yet.Take Sylvari: Act with Wisdom, go Priory to recruit Tegwen and Carys, then choose to lure the eye of Zaithan into ambush after "temple of the forgotten god" and ultimately choose to take the tanks straight into the heart of Orr. I one day found myself switching characters and seeing the same name turn up in all of their active story instances, even though they were at wildly different parts of the story. That was the first time I realized how intricate the game's story is woven, and to this day I still love that "side story" (although recruiting Gorr for the order of whispers is a close second, if only for the vacuumatic polarizer I get to play with during Retribution ;) ).

[Khisanth.2948]

@mindcircus.1506 said:

@Ayrilana.1396 said:Human commoner is still the quickest one as the other story instances themselves tend to drag on. Humans also have the quickest starter instance by far.Place 10 tomes of knowledge in a shared inventory Slot. Use them in the tutorial instance and WP out. There is no need to actually do the instances.

that didn't work for sylvari the last time I tried

[Lesser.6495]

Human noble is a fine substitution. There are some semi-skippable spots that makes it slightly faster. In the first mission after fighting the bandits that attack the party, just jump down where the home garden plots are usually located and run straight to the house Faren is being kept. Defeat the bandits at the house and after that, just jump on the table on the ground floor and press F. Faren is close enough to interact with him through the floor/ceiling.In the mission where you rescue the people in the cave near the water pump you can more or less just walk to the top and kill the leader.In the mission with Cin you can always kill the mobs before he demands your help but, except the situation with the spiders, ALWAYS leave one mob alive or you softlock the mission. When Cin moves to the fort, place yourself about in the middle of the battlefield to attack the "third" trebuchet first (right side) but wait until the tebuchets get their mission marker or you softlock the mission again. Just destroy the machines, walk back to Cin and talk to Logan afterwards and choose Zamon's house.In that mission, look which guard is being chosen by Logan (he will kill that in one hit) and kill the other one. Don't go up the stairs where the guards were standing, choose the other path. This way, you can always skip a tiny bit by jumping. Kill the guards outside as usual and talk to Zamon. The last mission isn't special I think.