Official 12x Speedrun Thread: Post Your Record 1-55 Time

[Heezdedjim]

The lowest claimed time for "normal" leveling that I can recall seeing posted around here was 48 hours /played from level 1 to level 50, without double XP. With 12x XP, it seems that something on the order of 4 to 6 hours /played may be possible for a flat out 1 to 55 speedrun.

 

This thread is where you can post your personal best /played and wall clock times for leveling a character from 1 to 55 during the 12x XP period, along with any tips and tricks you may have for getting to the cap in record time, or notes on any problems you ran into, and how you handled them.

 

The only requirements are that the character has to be level 1 with an empty XP bar when you start, and has to be level 55 when you finish. You can use any means you like, but for obvious reasons the fastest times likely will come from those who focus on blitzing the class stories.

Edited October 7, 2014 by Heezdedjim

[-Sullster-]

Good idea. I'm currently 4 hours in and at 35 although I have been enjoying the story and not space-barring through the scenes so by no means a speed run but will still be quite fast whilst experiencing the story.. Will post my 55 Non rushed time doing only class missions probably tomorrow!

[-OBITUS]

A word of advice to those who haven't leveled in a few patches: Makeb. Makeb becomes available at level 47 (if i recall correctly) and has a new bolster available on the entire planet. To activate said bolster, go to the Makeb Orbital Station and click the GSI Tracking Panel (it's located past the gtn on the way to the two shuttles). This will apply a bolster making Makeb solo-able in lvl 10 greens (proven). The better BiS (as far as level) the higher the bolster helps.

 

No this is important because Bioware has applied the 12x boost to the main Makeb story line. On average, you get 30-40k experience with the bigger missions rewarding closer to 60k. Now multiply brethren. On average NOW, you get 360k-480k with the bigger missions rewarding closer to 780k experience. You can level up easily on Makeb.

 

Cheers,

Zeph

[Heezdedjim]

Good idea. I'm currently 4 hours in and at 35 although I have been enjoying the story and not space-barring through the scenes so by no means a speed run but will still be quite fast whilst experiencing the story.. Will post my 55 Non rushed time doing only class missions probably tomorrow!

Non-record times (not space barring) also are welcome. I'm doing the same as you in fact, and I probably will on my three new Imperial characters, because I have not played through those classes before. I think I took around two hours to get 1-15 last night on my new Bounty Hunter, and most of that time was watching the cutscenes. But moved with haste between missions and didn't take any side trips so far except to pick up my advanced class on the fleet.

Edited October 7, 2014 by Heezdedjim

[Heezdedjim]

No this is important because Bioware has applied the 12x boost to the main Makeb story line. On average, you get 30-40k experience with the bigger missions rewarding closer to 60k. Now multiply brethren. On average NOW, you get 360k-480k with the bigger missions rewarding closer to 780k experience. You can level up easily on Makeb.

This is very good advice, and unless someone comes up with something provably faster, it seems that blitzing the Makeb storyline will be far the quickest way to get 50-55 done, thanks to the 12x XP boost being applied to the Chapter 4 story missions on the planet. And, as you point out, the new bolster also makes gearing a non-issue once you reach Makeb. As long as you can get to 49, whatever you have on will work for 50-55.

Edited October 7, 2014 by Heezdedjim

[Rankyn]

I'm going for quantity instead of speed.

I've still got 9 more characters to get to 55 and I'm gonna try to do it by the end of the month.

[SteelPiranha]

This is very good advice, and unless someone comes up with something provably faster, it seems that blitzing the Makeb storyline will be far the quickest way to get 50-55 done, thanks to the 12x XP boost being applied to the Chapter 4 story missions on the planet. And, as you point out, the new bolster also makes gearing a non-issue once you reach Makeb. As long as you can get to 49, whatever you have on will work for 50-55.

 

What I plan on doing tonight is using my synthweaver and armormech to make all levels of gear that they can for my alts and Treek and send it so it's already in their inventory. Hopefully, this will keep me geared enough for class story content all the way to at least 50.

[Heezdedjim]

GEARING UP

 

The levels 1-11 are a non-issue because you can pretty much do the starter planets naked.

 

The levels from 50-55 also are no problem because the Makeb bolster has got you covered. So once you get to 50, whatever you happen to have on will work from there to 55.

 

It's only really the upper-mid levels, mainly from 40-50, that may become an issue.

 

I'm going to try two approaches and see what works:

 

First, I am going to try buying nothing and using only whatever class missions give. This is what I'm doing on my bounty hunter. So far I have had no problems at all up to level 15. However, I grabbed HK-51 at level 1, and I am starting with +350 bonus presence from 5 old level 50 characters with maxed companions and the Human species bonus.

 

Second, if I run into problems at level 30 or higher, I may try grabbing one of the level 31 armor sets from the cash shop and pulling the mods to put into some spare GSF legacy bound sets that I have in the bank. These five piece legacy sets ought to be good from level 29 maybe all the way to 49, and one set for each main stat ought to be enough to cover this level range for as many alts as I decide to run, as long as I can stick with pairings that don't use the same main stat.

 

Trooper may be the only class with a problem here, since all the available companions other than HK-51, and both of the available healers (Elara and Treek) use Aim as their main stat. The obvious options would be running HK-51 and a healing spec character, or just picking up a second five piece Aim set for the companion.

 

If you don't want to spend CC, you also could make your own purple mods for level 30-40ish, or buy them off the GTN, and put together some reusable five piece sets at suitable levels like 27, 35, 43, etc.

 

That leaves basically just barrels and hilts to craft or scavenge from the GTN, if my weapons get so far behind that they become an issue. If I have to buy anything in this area, I may pick up some purple barrels off the GTN around level 29, and try to scrape by with those until Makeb.

 

I'm not planning to level any new tank spec characters during the 12x time, so I likely will use HK-51 and a DPS/DPS setup from 1 to 40, then switch to DPS/Heal with a healing companion and DPS character starting at 41, to offset any gear lag and handle the somewhat longer and higher damage fights that come along in the late mid levels.

Edited October 7, 2014 by Heezdedjim

[-OBITUS]

As noted by some already, gearing will be a challenge primarily because you can knock out 30 levels in an hour. Can you get 100 planetary commendations in an hour whilst leveling? Unlikely so gear will fall behind. I've gotten to level 38 in level 15 gear but it gets harder for some who aren't tanking with a healing comp ( or healer with tank companion). The solutions below might work:

1). Use credits and buy mods off gtn. Works well for alt toons.

2). Make gear from your higher level toons.

3). Stop leveling and do warzones (thus making wz commendations into planetary commendations)

4.) Stop leveling and do flashpoints (with dailies/weeklies).

5). Just **** gearing altogether and find a group to level with.

 

The other issue present is that you level so fast, your class missions become almost worthless for a short period while you reenter the level ceiling. I blew through the first twenty levels in half an hour. I was still on Dromund Kaas. Level at a pace such as to make it to Makeb without hindering yourself.

[Heezdedjim]

The other issue present is that you level so fast, your class missions become almost worthless for a short period while you reenter the level ceiling. I blew through the first twenty levels in half an hour. I was still on Dromund Kaas. Level at a pace such as to make it to Makeb without hindering yourself.

It may be, as you point out, that gearing simply becomes a non-issue because you wind up overleveled for some or all of the class missions where you might have a problem. If you do class missions only and hit the point where they're going grey to you, then you ought to be able to get through them naked.

 

You don't get any planetary comms that I know of from class missions. And I suspect that pushing on through a grey class mission or two, until they go green again, is going to prove faster overall than taking side trips.

Edited October 7, 2014 by Heezdedjim

[KyaniteD]

The oh-so-useless legacy armor and weapon kits may come in handy here. Leveling at normal speed, they're good from 14-20/22 and 31-38/39. With the huge XP boost overleveling shouldn't be too hard and once you're overleveled that makes up for the 22-31 gap. Being overleveled in general allows for more relaxed gearing, probably simple, quickly-crafted greens are good enough, and as long as the mainhand is somewhat up-to-level it should still be easy enough to plow through the mobs.

[jankiel]

I started yesterday, atm I am at 35 with my guardian

[-OBITUS]

It may be, as you point out, that gearing simply becomes a non-issue because you wind up overleveled for some or all of the class missions where you might have a problem. If you do class missions only and hit the point where they're going grey to you, then you ought to be able to get through them naked.

 

You don't get any planetary comms that I know of from class missions. And I suspect that pushing on through a grey class mission or two, until they go green again, is going to prove faster overall than taking side trips.

 

Yes and no. There is a point where even when you are eight levels higher then the quest, your gear will not support. The idea presented is that a level 30 can run a lvl 22 mission with ease. Yes, he probably can but if his gear is **** due him getting level 22 in an hour, he may or may not. Recently on my juggernaut tank, I'm popping through a **** ton of cooldowns to last through boss fights (champion 32's) because I'm in lvl 15 gear. I've since geared myself and I've flown through another handful of levels but just take caution when leveling people.

[Heezdedjim]

The oh-so-useless legacy armor and weapon kits may come in handy here. Leveling at normal speed, they're good from 14-20/22 and 31-38/39. With the huge XP boost overleveling shouldn't be too hard and once you're overleveled that makes up for the 22-31 gap. Being overleveled in general allows for more relaxed gearing, probably simple, quickly-crafted greens are good enough, and as long as the mainhand is somewhat up-to-level it should still be easy enough to plow through the mobs.

If you happen to have full or even just five piece sets of Inheritance and Birthright gear (does anyone even remember those?), with weapons, then I bet they would work just fine all the way from 11 to 49 for class missions alone.

 

The only question would be whether you ever got enough kits to cover more than one class. Sadly they're locked to just one base class, so you can't even trade them to alts of the mirror class. And even with the insane number of credits that I dumped into farming crafting missions over the course of a year or so, I still have not seen even one full set of the Birthright gear, and I think I only have one complete set of Inheritance, with a bunch of useless spares like wrists or something.

 

Still, if you do have them, this might be the one time when they finally seem worth the effort it took to get them.

Edited October 7, 2014 by Heezdedjim

[KyaniteD]

If you happen to have full or even just five piece sets of Inheritance and Birthright gear (does anyone even remember those?), with weapons, then I bet they would work just fine all the way from 11 to 49 for class missions alone.

 

The only question would be whether you ever got enough kits to cover more than one class. Sadly they're locked to just one base class, so you can't even trade them to alts of the mirror class.

 

They are on a 2 hrs bind timer. Returning to DK/Coruscant every 2 hrs to refund them and buy them again keeps the tokens fresh and shiny for the next class and should still be less fuss than replacing all mods.

 

Also, missing pieces can be obtained from commendations vendors on fleet, in Black Hole area and Section X, if one is seriously interested in going that route.

Edited October 7, 2014 by KyaniteD

[TheBBP]

And lo, many Cybertechs were born on that day.

[Heezdedjim]

Also, missing pieces can be obtained from commendations vendors on fleet, in Black Hole area and Section X, if one is seriously interested in going that route.

Did they ever lower the crazy high prices on them to something more in line with their limited usefulness?

Edited October 7, 2014 by Heezdedjim

[Heezdedjim]

They are on a 2 hrs bind timer. Returning to DK/Coruscant every 2 hrs to refund them and buy them again keeps the tokens fresh and shiny for the next class and should still be less fuss than replacing all mods.

It's a good tip, which I did not know about these pieces, although I've heard about people doing this with PvP gear. I would never go to that much trouble for them, but if you want to get the most use out of a single full set of the gear tokens, this is a way to do it.

Edited October 7, 2014 by Heezdedjim

[Eanelinea]

Well, my first 8 toons were leveled to 50 before the FIRST server merge...took FOREVER. The next 13 were leveled via guild boosts, double xp week/weekends and the boost increase things. My LAST toon that will hit 55 is using the combo of reg boost you click on yourself (for non class stuff) and the 12xp + guild boost for her. I leveled from 36 to 39 in two hours.

 

But I have toons on other servers from 1-10, so we'll see how THAT goes.

[Heezdedjim]

New bounty hunter is at level 20 and 3 hours /played as of this morning.

[Heezdedjim]

Bounty Hunter hit level 25 at 7.5 hours this morning. Wasted some time scrabbling together some gear around 20 because things were falling apart a bit.

 

I picked up two of the level 15 Cartel Market chest pieces, one Aim and one Cunning, and swapped the mods over to GSF legacy bound chests. For the rest of the set, I have been just buying green armorings from the planet vendors that sell them for credits. I picked up some level 19 purple barrels off the GTN, which I think will last to 29.

 

I've been finding that the biggest thing, if you're using a healing companion, is to just keep your armor rating in the ballpark so that the healing keeps up with incoming damage. I've been running orange shells with just green armorings in them bought from those planet vendors that sell armorings and barrels/hilts only for credits. Generally this has been cheaper than GTN prices, and works fine even with no mods or enhancements.

Edited October 9, 2014 by Heezdedjim

[Magisco]

Ran my assassin last night. Went from level 18-31 in 3.5 hours. Messed around trying to find one of the stupid taxis on Alderann (always forget where it is) So that wasted half an hour of that time. I didn't watch any of the cut scenes as I already have a sorc healer. Oh and ran one mission on a Warrior. 1-6 in 15minutes lol haha lovin the xp bonus

[JayF]

Good idea. I'm currently 4 hours in and at 35 although I have been enjoying the story and not space-barring through the scenes so by no means a speed run but will still be quite fast whilst experiencing the story.. Will post my 55 Non rushed time doing only class missions probably tomorrow!

 

4 hours and 35? How is that even remotely possible? I'm 37 and 15 hours in. No downtime, got the x12 boost and only doing story missions.

 

What am I doing wrong?

[KTap]

Would need to track by individual class imo, since class missions take different amounts of time for each class.

 

Stealth also has a massive advantage seeing as they can bypass all trash mobs.

 

My personal best so far, with many mistakes, is 8 hours and 4 minutes with a sorcerer - http://i.imgur.com/iSSyBkl.jpg

 

I'd say less than 7 hours is definitely doable solo, obviously less if you have help.

 

Little trick to speed things up - get to about 47.5 before going to makeb, then you can skip that terrible quest that has you running around a giant map (iirc it's A Cure for Armageddon).

Edited October 14, 2014 by KTap

[SlasherX]

4 hours and 35? How is that even remotely possible? I'm 37 and 15 hours in. No downtime, got the x12 boost and only doing story missions.

 

What am I doing wrong?

 

Skip more trash, don't do any bonuses. Make sure you are using the Cartel General XP boosts. It all comes down to knowing your maps, and going strait to the objectives. Run past as many mobs as possible, and only fight what is absolutely unavoidable. If you can convince a 55 to team up with you, it will go even faster. Also if you have a class with stealth it will help out bigtime. Make sure you aren't spending too much time gearing and shopping, dealing with mail, and if the class isn't new to you, spacebar through all the cut-scenes.

 

I played for 4 hours this weekend and got my BH from 12 to 19 and my commando from 34 to 43 in that time frame. Closing out chapter 2 with my commando seemed to eat up the bulk of the time due to excessive travel. Planet-ship-coruscant-ship-station-ship-couruscant-ship-fleet-ship-coruscant-ship-planet. Sooooo many load screens!