Lvl5/Boss Monsters in Pre-Searing

Were there any "high-level" monsters in the Pre-Searing Ascalon other than the River Drake and the Scale Monster (Scale Brood?). The only other ones I found were quest related and thus one time kills.

the ones i can think of in presear are north of the wall. others have pictures of those charr, but i didn't get any.

there was an ageing something with a club by the estate
think it was L5

The Bull in the water to your right as you exit Ascalon. Hes level 5 and he is used for the Mesmer quest from teh mesmer chick in the theater to th right.

In Green Hills Country by the Barradin Esate there is a big guy with a club that it Level 5.

Go north of the wall and try to kill the charr. Not easy with just 2 though.

yeah, the Charr are the toughest combatants out there. That's the only thing that killed me in pre-searing.

Well that and when I forgot I was carrying the apple basket and got attacked by spiders.

i think the charr are at least lvl 7. you dont get anything above 5 outside of the northern wall.

Got to tell you I did get to Level 7 without going north of wall with W/Rg and a Strider. Had lots of quests left to do too, so don't know just how far one can go in pre searing.

in theory, you could get to level 10 or so in the pre-searing without getting to the north wall

Wow really? That means the experience will suck when you go to seared Ascalon. Because I am level 10 now and it isn't that easy to level up. I left for the academy at 4 I think. Maybe 5 but I am pretty sure 4.

North of the wall you can fight the level 5 oakhearts to your heart's content. The Charr will likely kick your butt. The skill selection you have to fight them is...lacking.

I'd probably try a
W/R and Mo/R

Get 2 characters with a warthog each.

Troll Unguent on the Warrior.
The Mo/R has as much healing/divine favor as possible, unless you really love Reversal of Fortune and Shielding Hands. (Nothing wrong with that)

I'm not sure what the axe skills are in Pre-Sear.

Just make sure you have decent swords, upgraded armor (do all the collectors) and bring a good shield and troll unguent.

2 Hogs to tank, + your warrior tanking, with some monk healing as well. That's about the best chance you'll have.

I took out my share of Charr north of the wall. The team you want is a Wa/Mo to tank, and a Monk to heal. I was using a Monk/Mesmer since that was the character I was leveling at the time, but a Monk/Ranger, for the extra body, would likely be better.

Just heal like crazy and fight the packs of three until you're up around level 9-10. Then you're good to go.

Peace,
-CxE

Lucky you then,.. I never saw packs of three. For some reason I always ran into packs of 5 in double group staggers. After getting my butt thoroughly kicked because the second group would also attack if i tried hitting the first group, I decided to go for the oak hearts and was a little bit leary of hitting on the Charr. (1 charr healer... 2 axe fiends...2 warriors...they never spread out for more than 2-3 seconds.... and another group was always too close....to hit one you ended up in range of other) It wasn't pretty at all hehe.

i killed a level 5 monster very south. (if you have found the basket with apples, just find your way to go even further south). i forgot the name of the monster, but it was a very easy kill.

there is an oakheart near the apple basket

I was level 8 with 3 quests left when I went to the academy.....I'm a sucker for that River Drake....just had to kill him every time. The club monster at the estate and the bull were both quest monsters so I killed them once and never saw them again.

I'm quite disappointed they didn't have anything tough lurking in the catacombs so us monks could have an edge. I'm equally disappointed that stone elementals didn't drop lodestones and ice elementals didn't drop ice lodestones which, coincidentally enough, are the items needed to get 2 pieces of monk armor. Monks get screwed!

I'm angry at myself for not having found the Charr save for the quest. Nevertheless, leveling up pre-searing is bittersweet. You have all the attributes but none of the weapons/armor/items/skills to go with them and you would have had you been playing that time in post-searing. A 7-10 sword in pre-searing was a pretty rare drop as was a 9 armor non-attribute shield however they're pretty common in early post-searing. You also get thrashed in the arena.

I was only south of the wall. I didn't want to find a partner. Was feeling very soloish during the weekend. I was just under lvl 8 in Pre-Searing before I went to Seared Ascalon. I did most of the quests. I believe staying in Pre-Searing is good because you can stock up on skills and only have to do quests rather than pay for them. I also sold most of my crafting materials and got 650 ish gold out of it. I was able to get most of the armor I wanted for my Mesmer/Ranger plus a couple skills that I didn't find, but wanted.

I realize that the experience around Ascalon in Seared isn't that good, but you can get through the first few missions easier. Hopefully it helps you get to Lions Arch a little quicker in the end. I just need to find the person you can get bags from. I can get the belt pouch, but didn't have time to find the bag person though.

OK so its better to get all the experience you can from doing every quest in pre-searing and going on to post-searing and moving quickly through missions than it is to to get some experience from quests in pre-searing and move on to post-searing and getting good experience from mission but moving slower?

Much like any question related to this game, there is rarely a right answer or even a "much better" one. The key is to know what you're getting and what you're giving up in each situation and decide which options appeal to you more.

If you have no intention of going into the arena and value attributes points over equipment and diversity of skills, stay in pre-searing as long as you can. I found that world to be a much more enjoyable place to be however when I finally did move on, I was much further behind people of the same level. They all had better armor, more gold, better weapons and a better mix of skills.

I would recommend that you spend as much time in pre-searing ascalon as possible only with characters you will use to go soloing with. You can then take the game at your own pace and it won't matter that you don't have as much "stuff" as anyone else because you're doing it all by yourself anyway. People might expect more of you otherwise.