Brand new player, some general questions

Hey all!

First off, as a dragon, I'm not totally sure where I should put my training points (the stats). Since I'm brand new to the game I'm not sure what scales what. I have no idea what makes dragon breath stronger for example, Primal maybe? So far I've just been doing health and tooth and claw as the safe options, as I'm not sure allocating points to something like strength even increases my melee ability damage (it says increases weapon damage, but I don't know if that includes my claws). I wish that hovering over an ability told me where it draws some of its damage, but so far a lot of damage seems dependent on my level rather than stats (or perhaps some abilities get stronger as you use them like in some RPGs? Not so sure on that one). Also, I have no idea what my stat distribution should even look like in the end given my unfamiliarity of the game and the lack of resources regarding things like ability scaling and just general advice due to the game's low population. Dexterity seems pretty nice if you're going melee, but I honestly have no idea if it's even necessary for me, its not like Istaria has much in the way of "build guides" for me to follow. Some stats may be noob traps for all I know, like in a lot of games I've played.

My second question is in regards to the ancient ascension quest. Now, I know I'm very far away from that (only like level 6 atm lol), but I remember seeing in the tutorial that you might need to get a group together to do so, which seems problematic to me as I've only seen one other person in this game so far, and I think they just left the game open while they went afk for the night. This game seems like its hanging on by a thread, and it would seriously suck to invest a lot of time with it, hoping to get to ancient only to find out I'm never going to get the manpower to do so. None of my friends would care for a game like this. So my question is, can it be soloed?

My third and final question for now, is there a way to target an enemy without clicking on them? Think tab targeting in WoW or many other mmos. I like twisting the camera around to watch the combat because fighting as a quadruped is quite entertaining to watch I must say without staring at my back the entire time. However, clicking anywhere to drag the camera untargets the enemy, and I have a hard time re-targeting the enemy (small enemies) with my body in the way when the camera snaps back. This would be easy to solve if I could re-target the enemy being attacked with a press of a button, is there a way to do so?

Thanks for reading and answering in advance! Any advice you can give me will do.

Welcome to the game,
welcome to our wonderful world of Istaria.
Its worth paying and playing, Sutton. Believe me.
And we are more than you can see atm.
Lots of us are "sleeping atm" for their own personal reasons. RL reasons mostly.

So: -join Istaria discord for company and advise
-search in istaria.lexica for all infos about the game you need.
- how to train(tune^^) dragon? Some wise dragons wrote about that in this forum- its a lot of text, precious infos, worth searching for it. I remember one of them was "Master;-)" Guaran- whose advise you can trust. As I do not have the time to search longer, I could not find in time. Maybe you succeed or Guaran reads this ^^and gives the link to you.

And btw- no matter on which shard you play: If you need help with RoP oe ARoP- you will get all help you need.
Group sounds like a crowd- but only round about 4drags a needed to succeed in the final fight.
Just write here and ask for assistance.

Talking about only 2 players on: If you play on Order and in EU time zone- might be a bit an empty shard.

Try Chaos and US time zones you might get more companionship.
But as said- we are more devoted and passionate Istarians- vets and new players than it seems at first sight-
this game exsists since 2003- and we still love it. And thanks to our dedicated devs-there is always something new
to explore or play.
So welcome again- find out and enjoy

Also I would join the right chat groups this is for order ad least market place. and don't hasitate to ask question, or for other help there. Normaly even on oder there is some one on there. Its also the place to ask if you need serious help as for AROP. This game can however be played mostly with out help, but with patients as its not a fast game.

Welcome to istaria. were the community is friendly.

And remember the stupid question is the one not asked.

oldin on order

!!!Rwr Welcome to Istaria Rwr!!!

Press F9 to target yourself, F10 to target nearest mob, F11 to cycle to next closest. Use the numeric keypad to move camera view around, 4 and 6 left to right, 8 and 2 up and down and 5 to recenter behind you, enter key on numeric keypad will toggle you between 1st person view and 3rd person view.

Being the worse adventurer in Istaria I'm in no way one to advise how to "build" your dragon but don't worry about messing up your tp (Training Points) you can "buy back" points and redistribute them. Buy back is misleading as doesn't cost anything but time (can buy back max of 300 points at a time) so no lasting damage done.

Theres trainers for both adventuring and crafting that will strengthen both your skills and abilities as you do their quests.

Ownership seems to be in capable hands ever since Virtrium took over the game 10+ years ago. While the dev team is small seems to be more a labor of love then just a job, they are all great.

Being small helps I'm sure but Istaria has the best community by far in any game I've played and best dev team in response and wanting to help in any problems that crop up.

Istaria is not for everyone for sure, takes time and dedication to become an ancient, or master crafter but for ones that enjoy not having everything just given to you (as too many newer games do now) Istaria to me at least can't be beat.

!!!Rwr Smaug Rwr!!!
Chaos

Hey there! Welcome to Istaria.

Question one -
I wrote a build guide for dragons for all main types (hybrid, melee, caster) a while ago and put it on my guild website. You can check it out here - http://istaraschosen.com/guides/dragonbuilds.html
It's more meant for high level, but the overall advice should still hold true. As a low level, don't worry too much about your scale composition and aim more for armor. The training points should still be accurate. :)

Q2 -
For the ancient ascension quest, I believe you will find enough people for it. I personally have not been active, but I know a lot of people still play on Chaos (around 30ish average, can get up to 50+ i think nowadays). Order is very small and I guess it depends on the times you're around, so you might have to schedule a time via the forums. Your best bet is the Istaria Discord, which you can find here - https://discord.gg/ps9kZqx

Q3 -
I believe Smaug answered your final question, but I want to add that I usually move my camera with the middle mouse button (I have the ability to rotate my character assigned to that ,I don't remember what that is called though) or the numpad. That prevents untargeting. There's also a camera window you can open from the corner gem menu (that gem in the bottom left) where you can click arrows to rotate your camera independent of your mouse/keyboard. Clunky, but it works if you don't wanna untarget things.

Best wishes and enjoy Istaria,
Racktor

Player base for the game is small, but very dedicated. I've been playing on and off since around 2008 when I was a kid and had never played an MMO before. Ten years later I still play and enjoy it.

If you are on Order, definitely join the marketplace channel like Oldin said. Most Order players are a part of it and there's almost always someone on Order willing to help out. I have no experience on Chaos but I'm certain it's the same.

I play biped characters so I can't help out with building a dragon, but Istaria lexica should have descriptions of all the skills and what affects what, which should help!

Enjoy and welcome!
-Quiliitiila