To fly or not to fly...

so I just picked up istaria again after my last time playing being in 2013. I never got very far when I did pick it up, because it's a bit clunky and outdated, but I feel like i'm disillusioned enough with new-release mmo's to stick with it for a while this time. I've been racing to get to 30 adventuring/20 crafting because waddling around like a toad is a pain in the butt, but I heard about some chest scale that you can only get as a level 50 hatchling. the question is, is it really worth it? is it BiS or something? and how's the leveling slog to 50 when you're still tiny and flightless?

I have leveled a hatchling to 100 then did the adulthood quest... and I had a dragon that I took to adulthood in the 30s (with help), so maybe I can tell you my experiences of the difference.

Leveling and adventuring, there's not much difference that I noticed. True, your hatchling dragon may be missing a few adult-only abilities, or some stats which get buffed when you ascend, but for the things I was fighting, I didn't really notice a problem leveling as a hatchling to 100 (full disclosure, I usually dual-box with a same-level biped, so I wasn't really solo).

However, in crafting and lairshaping, the absence of flying really makes a difference. Hauling loads of materials around on foot is noticeably slower than being able to fly.

So if you're really into crafting or lairshaping, I'd go for the flying now.

Plus, flying is really cool :)

if you're wanting to ascend right now and don't care for the level 50 scale i suggest leveling your crafting up to 35-45 first depending on what path you're going to choose, because it makes the crafting segments required for the rites less tedious in my opinion. if you want to solo the RoP you'll need a higher adv level as well, but if you have buddies ready to help and crafting scales the basic requirements will mostly suffice (at least for lunus, you'll need your crafting higher for helian- i got off with 34 dcra but i had crafting scales and used expert machines)
anyways, welcome back to istaria :) i hope you find it as welcoming and fun as i do! feel free to message my ingame character (Astair Brightscale) in case you play on chaos and need help, i'd gladly lend a claw or two!

At a minimum, you'll want 32 craft either route, and 40 min for helian. While the rites min requirement is 20 craft, if you can't wear teir 3 scales at least you will find it impossible to complete at lv20 due to the skill needed to craft one of the items - for most people it's easier to just level craft to 30+, especially if its your first time. As others have said though, the combat will still be impossible alone (min level for combat aside final boss is lv50 ish with fully upgraded abilities & a lot of skill - would reccommend 60 for first time though because it's not impossible, but very difficult at 50 to take on two of the bosses (lem and kaa))

The experience of levesl 30-50 isn't largely different adult vs hatchie, though with the ability of flight its faster to access most areas and safer to reach places due to the fact you can just fly everywhere instead. But that's really the only difference, combat wise the extra stats (+200 hp) are negligible.

Crafting wise being a hatchie will only really have an effect if you do a lot of lairshaping, since LSH -needs- the extra mobility to reach resources (namely azulyte). Otherwise it has basically no impact on it - aside from a small increase in movement speed.


The hatchling scale is good - a solid scale right through to level 80 (technically a lv60 socketted and fully crystalled chest scale is better, but people dont tend to have on-teir crystals for sockets until lv100) - though I woudn't say it's worth staying hatchie for, the difference it makes in combat is so small i can never see it, so unless you're like me and one of those people who prefers to 100% everything then i'd say don't level to 50 just to get it. More of a side reward for getting to level 50 first - if you want to do the RoP solo then you'll have to be lv50 at least anyway so it's convenient to pick it up. But if you don't care for that then it#s not worth waiting.

thank you all for your responses! and dang... was thinking 30 adventuring and 20 crafting was a reasonable restriction and not a very generous minimum... will probably end up getting to 50 anyways before I ascend, especially if helian has higher requirements. ah well. will get there eventually c: