User:Diaz Ex Machina/Pre-Searing Guides - Legendary Defender of Ascalon

The Legendary Defender of Ascalon (LDoA) is a Title that can be achieved only by Prophecies characters, and due to the huge amount of farm involved is one of the most boring Titles to obtain, but also one of the best to show on your character. To obtain the Title you have to bring your character to level 20 before leaving Pre-Searing. Since this area has very few mid-to-high level enemies it’s a bit tricky to get enough experience to level up after the first few levels, but there are a few methods that make such a task possible. This Title can be achieved in less than a day with really intensive farming, but most people prefer a more relaxed approach to it, spending about 15-20 days to get their characters to max level. Other players prefer an even slower approach, letting years pass before achieving their LDoA Title. Is it worth it to get this title? Well, it depends on your playstyle. If you're looking to complete your Hall of Monuments this is one of the easiest titles to get, thus being a very popular title. Many get the title only on their first/main Prophecies character, others - like me - try to get LDoA for all their Prophecies characters, but it is just a cosmetic choice. So, if you don't mind spending some time grinding and farming XP give it a try, maybe it will be the chance you were waiting to create that new Prophecies character!

How to get the Title

It is very important to know how to maximize your XP earnings when pursuing this Title. I will now explain step by step what you should do to get LDoA as fast as possible.

1. Create your new character

My suggestion is to create a freshly new character for this title. You may have a character in Pre-Searing, but probably you have already completed many of the tutorial quests, and for a good XP maximization this isn’t very good. The best professions – both primary and secondary – for XP maximization are Warrior, Ranger, Monk, and Necromancer, since they have access to three profession quests each, while Mesmer and Elementalist have only two. This obviously does not mean that Mesmers and Elementalists can’t achieve LDoA, they will just need a bit more farm compared to the other four professions.

2. Get your Imp ally

The 2008 Guild Wars Update gave low level characters a very big hand in the form of the Igneous Summoning Stone. This item summons an Elementalist Fire Imp ally that lasts for one hour or until slain. It has the same character level of its summoner and is a very great help throughout the whole farming phase until the character reaches level 20, when the stone becomes unusable. This upgrade is available at the Guild Wars Online Store for €4.99, get it if you can afford that price, because it’s one of the best things in the early stages of the game. To get the item in-game just type /bonus in your chat and press Enter, it will appear in your inventory.

3. Accept and complete the first quests

Maximizing your XP income will require you to save nearly all your quest rewards for later, since those rewards do not scale down with your character level, while the XP you get from killing enemies does. This is not a big issue, since for getting your character ready to farm mobs you will have to accept only one quest reward.

[Profession] Test

As soon as you spawn in Ascalon City exit through the main gate without accepting any quest. Out in Lakeside County you will find in front of you your first teacher, who varies depending on your profession. Talk to her/him, s/he will give you a simple task involving killing some level 0 skales. Do it, then go back to talk to your teacher to get your first two skills. This should be the only reward you should accept at this point, since getting more would only increase the amount of farm needed at higher levels.

Adventure with an Ally

Another reward you could get, although not really necessary, is the one from Adventure with an Ally, given to you by Lina the Healer, just outside Ascalon City. This quest is very simple, just form a party with someone and Lina will give you some XP and the Resurrection Signet skill, which lets you revive a dead team member (not allies or pets though). This skill is handy when farming in the Northlands, which usually requires two characters to do it faster enough to do a good XP farm, but an expert player may prefer saving this bunch of XP for later.

Warning

To get the reward from Adventure with an Ally you will have to form a party with another player, but that would probably make you lose the chance to get the quest Gwen's Flute from Gwen; this is a very important quest for later, much later in the game, so be sure to get the quest from Gwen before forming a party with anyone else.

4. Get your new equipment

The only way to get better armor in Pre-Searing is to get new armor pieces from item collectors. This new armor is definitely better than the one you start your adventure with, so it's worth the work of getting the trophies from the dead enemies and then finding the collectors that will exchange that junk for a nice armor.

Collector’s Armor in Pre-Searing

Item	Collector	Location	Trophies
Belt Pouch	Brownlow	Lakeside County	5 Skale Fins
Head armor	Professor Yakkington	Regent Valley	50 Red Iris Flowers
Chest armor	Hatcher	Fort Ranik or Regent Valley	5 Unnatural Seeds
Hand armor	Savich	Wizard's Folly	3 Icy Lodestones
Leg armor	Varis	Fort Ranik or Regent Valley	3 Spider Legs
Footwear	Karleen	The Catacombs	5 Gargoyle Skulls
Small Equipment Pack	Professor Yakkington	Regent Valley	50 Red Iris Flowers

The Belt Pouch and the Small Equipment Pack are the only inventory upgrades that can be easily obtained in Pre-Searing. To get more inventory spaces you will need to find two Charr Bags, which we will talk about later.

Weapons

About weapons, there are few things that you can do to get some better than the starter ones.

• Use those dropped by defeated enemies;
• Get them from collectors, in exchange of some trophies;
• Buy some from Arthur Ayala in Ascalon City;
• Get them from quest rewards.

Obviously the last option shouldn’t even be considered until higher levels. The best thing in my opinion to get some nice weapons is to buy them from Arthur Ayala, since his Rinblade and Ascalon Longbow are very good when farming the Northlands. You can further improve them with the drops you get from charrs in the Northlands, although you will need a Charr Salvage Kit, which is hard to obtain. Another option is to get the bonus weapons from the Game of the Year Edition of Guild Wars. These weapons have max damage and come with nice inherent bonuses, along with some very unique skins. The way to obtain them is similar to that of obtaining the Fire Imp ally, but you will need the GotY upgrade for your game, if you don’t have it already. It is purchasable in the Guild Wars Online Store for €4.99. It is a good deal for new players, thus money well spent.

5. Get more skills

To get new skills you have to accept some quests around the area, but you don't need to complete them to get the skills. This means you can get all the skills from your first profession without completing any quest, and that's a very good thing.

Profession Skills

Profession	Quest	Given by	Given at
Warrior	Grawl Invasion	Warmaster Grast	Green Hills County
	The Vineyard Problem	Little Thom	The Barradin Estate
	Warrior's Challenge	Duke Barradin	The Barradin Estate
Ranger	The Ranger's Companion	Master Ranger Nente	Regent Valley
	A Test of Marksmanship	Ivor Trueshot	Regent Valley
	Unnatural Growths	Aidan	Wizard's Folly
Monk	A Monk's Mission	Brother Mhenlo	Ashford Abbey
	Protection Prayers	Grazden the Protector	Green Hills County
	The Blessings of Balthazar	Brother Mhenlo	Ashford Abbey
Necromancer	The Necromancer's Novice	Necromancer Munne	The Catacombs
	The Accursed Path	Oberan the Reviled	The Catacombs
	The Power of Blood	Kasha Blackblood	Green Hills County
Mesmer	A Mesmer's Burden	Lady Althea	Lakeside County
	Domination Magic	Vassar	Foible's Fair
Elementalist	The Elementalist Experiment	Elementalist Aziure	Wizard's Folly
	The Supremacy of Air	Ralena Stormbringer	Foible's Fair

The quests written in italic are those that can be taken even if that is not your primary profession, while the others can be accepted only if that is your primary or secondary profession. Many players choose to get the skills from The Ranger's Companion as skills from another profession, since they give you access to Troll Unguent, a nice healing skill, and to Charm Animal, which lets you take an animal companion, a great help when farming XP. Ranger characters should instead go for The Elementalist Experiment, which gives you access to Fire Storm, which is very useful against clumped up mobs of enemies.

6. Farming XP to level 10

All this running around getting items to exchange with collectors for new items and getting skills to use with your new character should have got you to level 3-4. Now it's time to start the first boring part of this adventure: farm till level 10 (and even beyond it). I will explain the two best methods to do this as quickly as you can, one for solo players and one for players with high level friends in Pre-Searing.

Charr at the Gates

In Ascalon City Prince Rurik will ask you to help him, killing a bunch of charrs that managed to get past the wall and into Lakeside County. This is the best way to farm XP for solo players. The quest consists in Prince Rurik waiting for you just outside Ascalon, as soon you see him he will start running with a couple helpers - a monk and a guard - directed toward the Northern Gate; at the gate four charrs of level 4-5 will be waiting to be slain, and the valiant Prince and his amazing friends will eagerly slain them all for you, letting you leech all that experience without arguing a bit. Now that the furry threat has been dispatched, you will go back to Ascalon, discard the quest, and talk again with the Prince, who will ask you to do that same thing again. Do it a couple hundred times and you will reach level 10 without having to do anything but following those three stooges and watch them kill big kitties for you. You can also speed up things by fast traveling to Ascalon when only one charr will stand on his feet, doing so will reset the quest and let you get out of town without having to discard and accept again the quest from the Prince, he will be outside the city with his friend waiting for you. Just be alert, doing repetitive tasks will numb your senses and cloud your mind, many people tend to forget to discard the quest and instead complete it at some times during the grinding. That won't ruin your progress toward the title, but forces you to use the second farming method, thus finding someone to help you out.

Slay the Charr Bosses

In the Northlands you will find many high level foes, from Oakhearts (level 5) to many types of charrs (level 7-8). Just this would make the Northlands the best area to farm for XP, but there is something better: you will find four level 10 charr bosses just waiting to be slain. The problem is that it's pretty hard to do this alone, because those enemies are really dangerous if faced by yourself. This is why the best thing you can do is to find someone with a high level character (19-20) to whom tag along and go kitty hunting in the Northlands. The run is pretty easy and quick for a high level character, especially if s/he has still access to his Fire Imp (the Igneous Summoning Stone can't be used once reached level 20), and aside from earning you a lot of XP it has also the best drop chances in Pre-Searing: purple weapons, armors salvageable for runes and insignias, Charr Bags (the only 10 slots containers in Pre-Searing), and the Charr Salvage Kits (the only way to salvage mods from items in Pre-Searing). This farming method is the best method to get XP until you reach level 14, after that level you won't get enough experience from those runs and would be better to farm the high level baddies from the daily quests.

7. Farm XP to level 16

Now that you have reached level 10 a new way of farming is available to you: daily quests. Lieutenant Langmar in Ascalon City will give you a new quest everyday which will earn you 1.000 XP just for completing it (obviously these dailies have to be completed), and will earn you way more XP by killing the bad guys that they make spawn, since those mobs will be of a level high enough to let you earn XP from their deaths. Now, you have two ways to farm these quests: you can just get a new quest every day, complete it and get your reward, or you can get the said quest, slain all the mobs that said quest makes spawn, fast travel to the nearest location and start farming again. This second method will earn you way more XP than simply completing the quest once, but is as tedious as every farm run in the game, thus many people prefer to adopt the first, more relaxed, longer method. One of the quests Langmar will give you consists in rescuing Farmer Hamnet, who got lost in the Wizard's Folly. This is the best mission to farm foes, since it will spawn a mob right outside Foible's Fair, thus letting you kill that mob, enter and exit that location, farm the mob again, and so on until you reach level 16 - or go crazy. This is a hard grinding method and could drive some people mad, you are all warned, but is also the fastest possible way to farm XP in the Pre-Searing area.

8. Completing quests and getting rewards

Since the beginning of this guide I told you to never ever complete the quests you get in this area (aside from those first three quests, the one that gives you the Resurrection Signet, and Langmar's dailies). Why is it so important to wait until this point to complete those quests? The answer is: because the XP reward from quests does not scale with your character's level. When you kill an enemy the XP you get depends on the level difference between you and said enemy: if the enemy's level is higher than yours you will get a ton of XP, while if its level is lower you will get just a handful of XP. When you give in a quest to get the reward, such reward will always be the same, whether if you're a puny level 1 character or a mighty level 20 hero. This is the reason why we waited so long to finish those quests. Now you can go and finish every single quest in this area and get a bucket load of XP! This should get your character easily to level 17, aside from earning you some juicy new weapons and off-hands. You will also get your secondary profession - be sure to have done all the profession quests available to your character before choosing though -, which will give you access to more skills to use. Now that you have become a great hero of your hometown, it's time to farm the last tons of XP to get to maximum level.

9. Farming XP to level 20

Go read again point 7 of this guide. Yep, you will have to go farm again like you did before. No new quests, no new enemies, just the same bunch of baddies and rewards from Langmar's daily quests. It is fairly quick though, since the hardest part is usually getting from level 16 to level 17, which we managed to make easier with all those XP rewards.

10. Legendary Defender of Ascalon

Congratulations! Now you are a true defender of your homeland! Go brag about it with your friends at the pub and get some relaxation from all that crazy farming. But what now? Well, you can choose to leave Pre-Searing and go explore the world, or you can stay there and help others getting their title while goofing around with one of the craziest communities in this game (trust me, many perma-pre players are really funny). You can also farm dyes or Gifts of the Huntsman with your new max level character, a job that will earn you so much money you won't believe. It's all up to you, stay or leave, it's your choice!
And this ends my guide on how to get LDoA. I hope this will come in handy for new players as well to veterans who never cared about this title before. Hope to see you in Ascalon then, see ya!