This is a "well, duh!" post but I wasn't aware of it with my first character and maybe an even noobier newby than myself can make use of it.
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When arriving in the big city it's hard to subdue the urge to go kill the big bads lurking outside. Things work the same as they did on the island. What we're looking for here are the quest icons and indicators.
To find out if you're near a quest click M for map and then see if any orange hollow circles appear. If they do, a person in that direction has a quest. (Hint: circles don't appear for the hole map; just where you are close to.) If the orange is solid, that means the next step to completing a quest is found there.
Run around the entire city gathering as many quests as you can. You can gain several levels simply by running wares and deposits for merchants. Finish all the quests in every area of the city that you can to gain items, money, and xp. Once you have done so, you should have a long list of quests that involve collecting items, killing things, and finding places outside of the city.
The reason you should do this before heading out is that many of the quests require similar items. If you kill a rat for one quest, the rat counts for each "kill a rat" quest. Sometimes two people will want you to slaughter a beast, another will want a quest item found on it, and a fourth will want something entirely different.
It might seem like a lot of running around. But there's nothing like having a level 19 fury killing rats, snakes, and beetles for a city quest and kicking yourself while you're at it. (Hey, at L19 you're bada** enough to kill a level 5 rat and kick yourself at the same time.)
***
When arriving in the big city it's hard to subdue the urge to go kill the big bads lurking outside. Things work the same as they did on the island. What we're looking for here are the quest icons and indicators.
To find out if you're near a quest click M for map and then see if any orange hollow circles appear. If they do, a person in that direction has a quest. (Hint: circles don't appear for the hole map; just where you are close to.) If the orange is solid, that means the next step to completing a quest is found there.
Run around the entire city gathering as many quests as you can. You can gain several levels simply by running wares and deposits for merchants. Finish all the quests in every area of the city that you can to gain items, money, and xp. Once you have done so, you should have a long list of quests that involve collecting items, killing things, and finding places outside of the city.
The reason you should do this before heading out is that many of the quests require similar items. If you kill a rat for one quest, the rat counts for each "kill a rat" quest. Sometimes two people will want you to slaughter a beast, another will want a quest item found on it, and a fourth will want something entirely different.
It might seem like a lot of running around. But there's nothing like having a level 19 fury killing rats, snakes, and beetles for a city quest and kicking yourself while you're at it. (Hey, at L19 you're bada** enough to kill a level 5 rat and kick yourself at the same time.)