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Since embarking on this journey, with Acrinimiril and my second playthrough, I have realized my own mistaken assumption made in the previous blog post of this series. The intended result of all this was supposed to be improving upon the area-level cap guide, in an effort to "formulate a more realistic approach to playing the game, while maximizing opportunities for XP and loot, and avoiding grinding." That was my stated intention, from the previous blog post. However, I overlooked the fact that I had also mentioned that this was a secondary motivation, an ulterior motive.

My second playthrough is on Hard difficulty, as I aim to gain the Destiny Dominated achievement.

2bcont, from Mind the area-cap (part 1) blog post.

The problem isn't the fact that I'm now playing the game on Hard difficulty, although I've certainly noticed the difference compared to my first playthrough. The problem is that I'm not playing the way I normally would. In my first playthrough I checked every nook and cranny of the map, leaving no stone unturned. I completed every side quest, every faction quest, even those that weren't particularly important to my Sorcery class character. It is what most of my fellow gamers out there probably would be doing as well, being encouraged by the allure of Achievements to thoroughly complete the game.

The thing is, I did all that in my previous playthrough. This time I have only two achievements left to gain, and I'm not really concerned about much other than getting them, which means slogging through the main questline again, playing all the way through on Hard difficulty, and making sure I pass all the speech checks along the way to earn the A Wink and a Smile achievement as well. I know how the story ends, and what happens to the Warsworn, Travelers, and Bards already, so I haven't been pursuing those quests this time through.

This becomes a problem when trying to improve upon the area-level cap guide. See, where the guide admonishes players to avoid XP enhancing gear, or button-mashing during a fateshift move to get the XP multiplier, it still assumes that the ordinary player will be gaining XP ordinarily anyway during side quests. Here's an excerpt from the guide:

If you like to complete all possible side-quests, finish all outdoors quests in one area, and only then move on to the dungeon quests or another map area...

Area-Level Cap and "Anti-Overlevelling" Guide

Consequently, as I plug through the second playthrough, limiting myself predominately to the main questline, my results will be skewed when compared to the guide anyway.

I think for now, to resolve this issue, I'll continue on playing as I am to gain the two extant achievements, and forget about trying to hit (or improve upon) the guide for the rest of this playthrough. My third playthrough will be much more focused on area level caps, whilst still being what I would consider a "normal" style of play, doing the side and faction quests, and exploring fully, whilst giving consideration to maximizing the area level caps as I go.

For now though, here's a nice graphic I remixed, showing Acrinimiril's progress compared to the guide, with my additions in orange.

Acrinimirils progress 1 area-caps

See Also[]

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