Help a troubled lowbie in Vanguard by becoming a mentor
by Eliot Lefebvre 
Oct 9th 2009 at 11:00AM
Filed under: Fantasy, Patches, Leveling, Vanguard
Just like the tile says, there's a way you can help low-level players in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes -- become a mentor. With the most recent patch, Vanguard has added a mentoring system to help players of differing levels adventure and interact in a meaningful fashion.
Similar to most mentoring systems, the high-level player's abilities and stats are capped at an appropriate level for the mentored player, restricting them to abilities they would have been able to use at the lower level. In all other ways, however, they'll function as a perfectly normal player, including gaining experience at the rate of a lower-level character. As a result, the tool is both an excellent way for dedicated players to introduce their friend to the game and a method for them to earn a little extra experience in the process. The mentoring system is fully usable if your friends are in the free trial area as well, which is one of the best ways to encourage a player to stick with the game over a longer period.
The patch also included the usual plethora of bugfixes and minor balance tweaks that have come to be standard fare for the MMO industry. Take a look at the full patch notes for the details.
[ via WarCry ]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Elliott said on 11:09AM 10-09-2009
I just resubbed yesterday after a hiatus beginning in January of this year. I started playing in 06, a better part of a year after the game released, and have taken 3 breaks, but I keep coming back. This time it's with my best friend, just like when I started the game. :)
I urge everyone to experience Vanguard. Grab the free trial, but don't start in the Isle of Dawn, start in one of the racial starter zones. You get much more of a feel for the lore and for the world-building. Log in, reach out to the community, and see all of the features that this game has to offer. It's far from perfect, but it has a certain essence that I haven't been able to get from any other mmo, and I've tried tons of others. If you give it a chance, it will sink into you and you will be happy that you have tried the game.
The mentoring system has been something players have asked for for a long time, and a welcome addition. The Vanguard community likes to reach out and seems to understand that with such a small playerbase, they are all in it together. That's why this mentoring system is such a perfect idea for the community.
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Wisdomandlore said on 11:51AM 10-09-2009
I checked out the trial. The classes are certainly interesting (especially the healing classes), but I stumbled on the aged graphics, rigid animations, and awful character creation options. What really got to me, though, was the sheer complexity of the game. The crafting and diplomacy are essentially their own alternate advancement paths alongside the PvE. I just don't see myself being able to invest that much time in the game. Plus, the game seems to be dying, and I have a thing about not investing time and money in dying MMOs.
Elliott said on 12:18PM 10-09-2009
The way I look at it is that there is such a small population that you aren't in any hurry to keep up with anyone. There are those who raid hardcore in the game, but really, it's much more of a putz around and have fun with a small group casually kind of game. Diplomacy can be really fun, and the crafting is the best that I have seen in any game (being able to pick exactly which stats and bonuses you want on any piece of gear). I have learned about Vanguard, that if you focus on the bad, it's a painfully disappointing game, but if you focus on the good, it is a really special game.
I totally understand what you are saying though :)
UltimateQ said on 3:20PM 10-09-2009
It's obvious that SoE wants to try to rescue this game, they are putting a lot of time and money into updates and maintenance. So I don't think they are going to close it down any time soon. I say, invest, invest, invest! Get your friends to invest. Get the game popular.
The only reason it's dying is because people are afraid that it is and are then fearful of investing their time and money in it. If all of the people who are actually interested in the game started to play it, it would be a huge boost to it's player base. After that it would just snowball.
The game certainly needs some graphical love. But I would rather play a game with good mechanics and crappy graphics over a game with good graphics and crappy mechanics.
I don't have time to really play any more games, between school and work all of my time is pretty much taken up, but if I were to casually play an MMO, Vanguard is at the top of my list.
ZombiBambi said on 3:17AM 10-10-2009
I disagree with not starting on the Isle of Dawn. The quests there offer good rewards, and that's where almost all other new players will be.
One thing you could do is start on the Isle, then move to your racial starting area and disable XP while doing the storyline quests. That way you get the best of both worlds.
DrMario said on 7:03PM 10-10-2009
I really wish this game would get the DDO treatment: shine it up, and re-release it. I played this game for a couple of months, and probably loved it more than I did any other MMO I've played along the way. Diplomacy gave you amazing stories, crafting was hard but very worthwhile, and I loved the class mechanics.
What I didn't love was that I couldn't convince a single friend of mine to play it. They all sure are trying the new DDO release though...
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