Grind Spots

So for all those unaware grind spots for the early-mid game at least, have got completely removed or changed in some way.
To give an idea on how many got changed/nerfed. Almuj now has 0. Nemract's graveyard one is less effective but works. Somewhat.
And then llevigar's spider spot is in that same boat as Nemract, it's still there but just not as effective.
And nesaak no longer has any grind spots from what I can find.
Imo grind spots really shouldn't of got nerfed/removed. Yeah there was probably a problem with people just using them for fast levelling.
But right now. Quests aren't a very good exp source. And dungeons only work if you have constant access (which isn't all the time due to some guardians being horrible to find.)

Also before anyone says "just use herb cave" using a grind spot in an area much higher level than you, shouldn't be the only/main option

 

Hang on so how the heck do you level up???

 

Uhhhh there's a few grind spots that are still up, just got nerfed. Otherwise. Find a way to do dungeons and quests effectively... Yeah that's as bad as it sounds. (also some areas have 0 ways of grinding exp so you gotta power through them)

 

yeah they shouldnt have removed the almuj wall corruption spike grind spot. That is basically the only way you level up when you are lv 30-40. There is one in almuj still but it has sand machine guns and is overall very hard to grind there.

 

I couldn't find that one.
I'm now trying to find one for 45-55ish that isn't herb cave but there's not many options.

 

frozen golems are gone?

 

If I remember right they aren't classed as a grind spot? Since they're not starred mobs. So they'd probably be there?
Because from my experience in nemract it seems they outright removed all of the exp starred mobs but kept the normal guys in that grindspot if they spawned there. (nemract's grindspot in the graveyard is gone but all the regular mobs spawn there meaning it's still semi effective to grind exp there)

 

actually, frozen golems were indeed a grind spot with starred names prior to 1.20, west of lusuco
Im not sure if they still exist tho

 

I think it is pretty important to remember that grind spots aren't substitutes for content. Having every single region on the map littered with grind spots isn't something we should aim to do (this was the case pre-1.20), because all grind spots do is provide a means of skipping content - they aren't content themselves. There's much better things we can do with the space that grind spots took up, and whilst they may not be in the game yet, this is just preparing for that and solving what I personally think was an issue with the game. (Do note that I didn't make these changes, nor did I push for them, since I wasn't CT back then.. )

 

Well, yes, but there are many levels that you have to completely grind, unless the Quest rewards were heavily buffed.

 

Dungeons - and it is not like ALL grind spots were removed

 

Didn't really think about that, uh

 

Like I mean grind spots were fairly cool, except that there were 2 problems:

- Most people in the lvl 30 - 40 range use grind spots instead of quests or dungeons
- It almost removes the purpose of dungeons, because if people can just grind instead of running dungeons, then dungeons like IB or SST would be useless.

The CT probably wanted players to actually use their content instead of just clicking for xp and skipping the fun parts

 

You also got no items from grind mobs, which probably lead to a lot of newer players just grinding levels but then having super terrible gear

 

Good news they exist, bad news jesus they got nerfed in to oblivion

I found grind spots were an issue to main but were completely fine to try to use to drag a few levels out of if you needed to unlock a quest for a dungeon later on. (which is my problem currently, grind spots are causing an issue where i'm looking for a weak exp source as i'm looking for dungeon keys) I shouldn't have to be put in to that position where I feel like I have no good way of getting good amounts of exp.

A good amount were, which is the problem. (heck i'd say that this might actually encourage people to grind herb cave for exp before they've even unlocked quests for troms which is a new problem since yeah, that can end up as the only way for good exp currently)

There's a good reason why actually. I'll get on to that next

Because SST IB and LS dungeons are the 3 normal dungeon guardians where you could actually argue it's possible to never encounter them and probably never get any keys aside from the quest one's. That's the problem, unless you spend a while hunting for any of those guardians (LS is the only one without issues though due to way too many exp sources) you're now put in the position of "how am I meant to level up exactly?"

Thing is again, there should of been a fall-back plan of "what if the player can't find any dungeon keys?" because saying it now, without double exp you're gonna end up doing the dungeon a few times to level up once, let alone level up a few times.
Let's use level 45-50 as an example. Spider area in llevigar isn't gonna be as good for exp without EXTENSIVE grinding. The only ways to grind exp now, are via quests (which you're probably gonna run out of before you can find enough guardians for a dungeon run for a free level) Dungeons, which require keys or you getting lucky with bombs. Or just deciding herb cave is the only option. That isn't that good when you actually think about it.

Tbh... eh? I personally would always make sure my gear is SEMI up to date even after grinding from a spot for a few levels just so I knew I was prepared

Seriously though, I would be completely fine with grind spots getting removed, if there was a replacement that would of helped players who didn't have dungeons or quests as an option.

Heck idea I just had, could of possibly made grind spots more punishing if you were too under/overlevelled by making it so if you were a certain amount of levels below/above the mob it'd be constantly 0 exp. And it'd always leave gaps of where, you couldn't actually grind exp through grind spots and so the player has to either use quests or dungeons.

 

Some people find dungeons hard, and you have to get keys, etc.

 

no one talking about secret discoveries? ive played through 1-100 a lot of times without grinding extensive amounts:
lv 1-11 at em trail spot, move to time valley spot from 11-25 if needed/no quests
25-50 can be spent just doing quests, a small dry spot at 48-50 where you need to do IB a few times
50-60 should be spent grinding herb, though with the addition of gavel discoveries herb might not even be needed anymore. 50-60 is just a really dry spot for quests
60-70, zero problems here. do CDS a few times, CUC a few times, then quest from 80-90.
91-100 just do the miniquests. youre given one per level, along with the quest every level you will hit level 99, where you just grind mirror cave or do CUR a few times.

almuj spots are not needed at all, and just plain doing quests has an added bonus of giving you 1 stx of le

 

Yeah, I found that I could go from lvl 100 to 101 (for AJF) by just doing a few Secret Discoveries.

 

Yo I was the one that made the decision to remove and rebalance grind spots. I knew it would be controversial but let me explain my reasons for making the changes I made.


1. I removed ALL the barriers from EVERY grind spot. All they did was act as a restriction on your freedom to move around, and they were very annoying imo. The reason they were added in the first place was to prevent camping, but that bring me to point 2.


2. Most of the grind spots got buffed* Not buffed as in the mobs got higher stats, but as in the mobs were made more complex. Most got slight xp buffs, and hp regen nerfs though. I gave most of the spots some spells, and added some ranged mobs. I also made the grind spots have better mob placement. Before they were just a big region with like 1-2 mobs randomly spawning. Now some parts of the grind spots have special mobs that spawn on them, and there are also rare chances of boss mobs spawning in some spots that give a lot more xp than the normal mobs. This was all done to prevent camping. If there was an area where a player could camp, instead of adding barriers I added some mobs on that area that can make camping not necessarily the best option. And the added boss mobs gives more reasons to come down from a camping area for extra xp. And ranged mobs are hard for everyone, but extra hard for people camping because you can’t move much at all.


3. I removed most of the early game grind spots. This change some of you have already guessed why I removed them. They were bad design honestly. The early game is meant to teach the core gameplay mechanics and what you should be doing. But there were a lot of grind spots shoved in new players faces the second they start the game. This creates the idea that grinding is what they should be doing, when you should be doing quests/dungeons/discoveries/Exploring/Anything ELSE before you grind. If you notice the grind spots that are left are either 1 a quest reward, 2, very hard, or 3, hidden. The hard and hidden ones are there for veteran people who just want to level up, and the quest reward one is there because if you are already doing quests, giving a grind spot as a reward won’t stop you from doing that.



I also removed some honestly useless grind spots. There were a lot that no one used, and they were poorly designed, and considering most people have not even noticed that they were removed, I was correct in thinking people would not care about those grind spots.


If any of you think some level range is missing a grind spot you can let me know, but I am very sure all the ones that need one have one or two.

 

Let's be honest why grind spots were removed. Low level grind spots were removed to save money on server hosting since most people would not spend a lot of time there anyways (since lower levels go by so quickly), therefore the monsters are "wasting" server resources (since nobody grinds them), causing unnecessary lag. Perhaps there are other reasons such as for design purposes, and I understand those. However, I think we must face the truth.
Note that I'm not saying Wynncraft is a bad server, nor am I saying that the decision made was a bad one. Personally I'm fine either way.