A few questions from a returning old player!

After a very long period of not playing any minecraft at all, I have decided to try it out once again and remembered about Wynncraft, which I used to absolutely love playing back in the day. I decided to check out the server after all this time, and it was no surprise to me to see that it was still going strong and with even more content than before. However, this came with a little issue: I feel like a complete beginner again! There are many new systems and mechanics that are completely alien to me and I don't really know how to play around them. Because of this, I decided to create this thread with a few of the gameplay/mechanics question that I've gathered on these last few days.

Now, first of all, a little context:

I started playing here a long time ago... and I mean a long time ago, way back in 2013. Got myself VIP and decided to play with assassin (back when it was still VIP-only), which became my main class. Played until I hit level 75, which was the cap back then, and eventually stopped playing until the Gavel update - which revamped the whole item system and basically broke my entire character. I didn't really want to start over with a new character, and due to getting into other things I didn't feel like dumping so many hours into the game again, so I ended up stopping playing.

Skip to 2020, when I suddenly remembered the server and decided, this time, to start a new character (an assassin once again) and got up to level 50ish while mostly ignoring the new mechanics and playing the game as I remembered doing so way back in the day. Unfortunately my studies started taking a lot of my free time at that point and I, once again, stopped playing.

Now here I am again! I came back to the game last week and have been absolutely loving it as always, but this time I wanted to play with all the new stuff that's around now, but I can't seem to figure out some mechanics and I don't have anyone to ask since all my old friends are not around anymore.

Yes, I have read this thread which is meant to be a guide for returning players, and it has indeed helped me with some questions I had, but some still remain.

I've been beating around the bush for too long at this point, so here are my questions:

1 - What are the %s that show up next to the name (and stats) of some items?
At first I thought they were some sort of new durability mechanic, but then learnt that durability only seems to apply to crafted items. They have left me puzzled as to what they mean, and I have not managed to figure it out.


2 - Regarding the ability tree, is it possible to "unlock everything" (or at least most of the skills) or am I supposed to choose a path and focus on it?
I was surprised to see abilities that were previously usable simultaneously being now mutually exclusive, and this made me question if it was possible to unlock the entire tree in the first place.

3 - How do I deal with/What do I do with unidentified items?
This might seem like a silly question to most, but I'm still not used to having items coming as unidentified items that have to be identified first, and because of this I don't know how to deal with them and have been hoarding many of them inside my bank. What is the best thing to do with them? Should I identify and sell to blacksmiths, try and sell them on the market, or just sell them while unidentified?

4 - Is it worth keeping ingredient items?
Once again something that I'm not used to, I've been hoarding most of the 1 star+ ingredients I find around since I'm not really sure what to do with them, but I am also afraid of selling or getting rid of them because of the thought that I might be throwing away something useful.

5 - Powders and elemental damage - how important are they?
If I'm being honest, back in my day powders were kind of useless, and most people would ignore them. However, now that the game has the elemental damage mechanic, I feel like that they may be more important now. Is elemental damage something I need to look out for? Is it a good idea to carry a few weapons that deal certain types of elemental damage? And should I start dumping a lot of powder into my equipment?

6 - Are crafted items worth it?
Now I know the guide thread I mentioned earlier said that I should focus on combat level first, but can crafted items be used to replace the traditional grind for better equipment? Not only that, but is it possible to get a decent amount of emeralds from them?

7 - How do I get a better emerald pouch?
I did a quest and got a tier I emerald pouch and have been absolutely loving it! Unfortunately, I do not know where to find or get the higher tiers, are they quest rewards as well?

8 - Is the vet tag gone?
I don't even know how many of these people are still around, but there was(is?) a Vet tag for those who had purchased VIP before the EULA changes in 2014, but I talked in chat with some people a few days ago and only had my VIP tag. I noticed that the toggle for it still existed, but I can't seem to get it to show up.

And that should be it, most (if not all) of the big questions that I have about the new Wynncraft. It feels great to be back on the server after such a long time, and I hope this big list of questions isn't scary, and any kind of help and extra tips would be truly greatly appreciated!

 

Welcome back! The past few updates have done a lot to improve the overall experience, so poke around and have fun! Do what interests you! As for the questions:

1: This is a feature in the "Wynntils" mod, the percentage is just the ID- the specific stat's- roll. In the screenshot provided you have the 82% poison roll, that means it's roughly 82% of its max value. The percentage next to the name is the average of those rolls.

2: You cannot unlock everything, you will have to pick and choose. You are not however locked to one path; unless specifically stated otherwise, as long as you have the points for it, you can freely mix and match your tree to your liking.

3: Generally I would say identify everything, and go from there.

4: There are some useful ones, but in general I wouldn't bother worrying about them unless you start crafting, which is entirely optional. Which leads into-

5: It really depends whether crafting is worth it. Leveling your professions is a huge time sink, and crafted items for the most part kind of suck early-game, plus dealing with durability is a pain. High level crafting though nets some powerful stuff with the right recipes, and is a decent way of making money in the endgame if you choose to go for it.

6: Are powders useful? Yeah. I wouldn't worry about too much until you get further in though, equipment gets cycled around fast as you level up, and you cannot take powders back from an item you've already put some on.

7: You just find them in chests. Higher tier chests (such as at the end of a Cave) have a pretty decent chance of spawning them, tiers go up as you tackle higher level content.

8: It shouldn't be gone, perhaps it could be a visual bug, they did just revamp chat tags semi-recently.

 

This, except for number 5 i would say on a *first* playthrough, at least since the update, don't grind or do proffesions or crafting, because it is grindy. Just do quests.

 

Awesome, this is everything I needed! Thank you very much!

 

Don't hoard ingredients and powders, I personally only keep powders that are tier 4 and above. I used to hoard ingredients but I soon discovered that it's useless. You can shift right click your ingredient pouch to sell them. If you get into crafting you will be looking for specific items, and really, hoarding is more of pain than it's worth imo. Maybe keep the best ones.

 

not emerald pouch, ingredients pouch

 

Sell 1eb for 1e?