Dragon Nest SEA Boosting Beginner’s Guide

Dragon Nest SEA Boosting Beginner’s Guide by wtfomgbbq

Disclaimer:
I am an active booster in Westwood, and I have had bad experiences with people I boost who do not follow the terms, and scammed me by stealing my rusty, rolling my stamp & codes and finally running away without paying me keys. Any swearing language I use in this post refer to ONLY those noobs (you know yourself if you are one of those). I do also encounter noobs who are friendly and co-operative. Some even pay me extra keys upon reaching level 24. Thank you all who have made my boosting experience a nice one.

Item pricing: All item selling prices quoted here are based on Westwood TH averages on the week of 2nd June 2012, and maybe subject to slight or drastic changes as time progresses.

Abstract:
Hoping to make a Sticky thread somewhere. Just to kill time when there is nothing to do during the imba long server maintenance. Realised that there are a lot of noob boosters and lowbies who need boosting out there, and no guide on it yet. Hopefully this guide will give some heads up on boosting or getting boosted, based on my personal boosting experiences in Westwood. Pretty sure boosting is popular in other servers too.

Introduction:

Boosting has become a steady source of income for most people besides Nests and Chaos Baera/Kamala which have run limits ever since the implementation of the FTG system. It makes use of the Master/Apprentice system and the dimensional rabbit who loves lowbies to generate income. When you have a player who is lvl 23 or below in your party. The bunny drops an additional 2 Dimensional Keys worth a solid 1 gold each when sold to NPCs, or up to 30g a stack sold on TH. Boosters also charge lowbies 1 or 2 keys per run to further increase their income. Most common dungeons ran for boosting are Sigh Canyon (SC) @ lvls 9-14, Raiders ambush point (RAP) @ lvls 14-16 (few boosters do RAP as most people clear SC faster than RAP. My EL runs RAP about the same time as SC, so I prefer RAP with higher drops and board quest rewards) and everyone’s favourite Dark Tower Magic Institute (DTMI) @ lvls 16-24.

Things to note as a Booster:

• Know your dungeons well. Familiarise yourself with what skills to use and when at each mob. Every 10-20 seconds saved means more runs and more income.

Sigh Canyon:

• The first map requires you to destroy only all 3 crystals. You don’t have to clear all the mobs. (I believe everyone who plays DN knows this and will be going like DUH when they read this part. It’s just to make my guide complete )
• Know what skills you have that can bombard the crystals from below. This will save you a lot of time from running up the hill and breaking the barriers. A merc who boosted me @ SC did a nice trick. He ran up the hill furthest from the spawn point to destroy the first crystal. He then used the manticore Gravity Ball skill to snipe the crystal at the opposite hill. Nice
• The second map requires all monsters to be eliminated. The general trick is to lure all the monsters up to the Mino to the hilltop on the right where the kobold archers are, and throw off the biggest AOE skill you have. This leaves you with only the shamans at the portal.

Raider’s Ambush Point:

• At the last area before the portal on the first map, monster reinforcements will arrive and a dark elf sub boss will appear behind you, and you need to kill her off before you can open the portal. If you however can finish the mobs without crossing too far out ahead of the bridge, the portal will open before the reinforcements arrive. This saves you a good 10 seconds.

DTMI:

• Pretty much nothing to say, just kill all the blizzard spotted spiders in any way you can , Just try to kill them before they land their web attacks on you, which slows u down a lot, and watch out for the Royal Chest which appears to the right of the portal before the boss.

• Know the right rates to charge, and other terms you may want or not want to impose:

• 1,2 or no keys? Be aware that your main source of income is NOT the keys that the lowbie pays you, but the loots from the run and the skill fragments that the rabbit drops. Loot from SC is worth less than DTMI, so charging 2 keys maybe more viable here. Fewer boosters are willing to run SC, so the demand for SC boosters is higher, so getting lowbies to pay 2 keys for SC is much easier.
• Most lowbies are not willing to pay 2 keys for a very simple reason. They are left with no keys to obtain skill fragments which are very important to them, worth 2.5g a run. The opportunity cost of paying 2 keys is thus 3.5g, compared to only 1g when paying 1 key. Personally I charge 2 keys for SC or RAP and 1 key for DTMI. You can HARDLY find a booster in westwood willing to run SC for 1 key. So let’s keep the demand there, and not spoil the market for other boosters.
• A few reasons why I don’t and why you may not want to charge 2 keys for DTMI. The competition for DTMI is too high. Even lowbies offering 1 key for DTMI gets invited up pretty soon. Rather than insist on 2 keys, and waste 10-15 minutes finding one who will pay u 2 keys, I personally would settle for a quick party, which could net me 5-7 more runs in that 10-15 minutes wasted otherwise trying to find one willing to pay 2 keys. As I mentioned earlier, your main source of income is NOT the keys. Also, the chance of a lowbie ‘Willing’ to pay 2 keys turning out to be a scammer is much higher. Meaning he will run away before paying you, and possibly even steal your loots, causing you even more losses, and wasting your time having to go back to town and get another lowbie to boost.

Other common terms and to impose or not:

• Besides charging keys, boosters also impose other terms and conditions. Some common ones are:
• No rolling on Incomplete Stamp. I dare say 100% of boosters ask for this.
• Rusty Music Box (DTMI doss drop). Worth 3.3g sold to NPCs. I also dare say 100% of boosters ask for this.
• Low Grade Diamond Codes. Very few specifically ask for this. Usually it just falls under all loot mine.
• All loot mine; No rolling and no looting. Some offer this in exchange for not charging any keys. Personally I don’t think that is a good idea, as I used to offer this term, only to party up with noobs quite often who still loot my stuff and roll my diamond codes and plates. Some still charge keys on top of this. If you get yourself a co-operative lowbie, good for you. Otherwise, if he is going to steal your loot, do you think he is going to pay you your keys??

• Solo or multiple boosting:

When I first began boosting, I used to think that solo boosting is stupid. If you can get 3 lowbies to pay you 1 key each per run, wouldn’t that be great? Now I know better. Personally I feel that multiple boosting is only feasible in SC, when there is demand, as loot in SC isn’t that great compared to DTMI, having 2 or 3 lowbies paying you each run will greatly increase your income. For DTMI, I would personally recommend Solo Boosting now. There are more boosters that lowbies currently in CV. What are the odds you will get 2 or even 3 lowbies to party you? Even if you do, what are the chances that all 2 or 3 of them won’t steal your rusty box or roll your stamp? The more people you party, the higher the chance 1 of them is a scammer. I once joined a booster who tried to get 1 more lowbie to boost. Ran 2 rounds the lowbie turned 24, and he went back to town trying to get another. I patiently waited for 5 mins and still no one joining. I got fed up and left. Don’t end up spending more time trying to recruit people to your parties than actually running the dungeons. As I mentioned a lot of times already, your primary source of income @ DTMI is NOT the keys the lowbies pay you.

• Apprentice? To add or not to add.

The 2 advantages of making the lowbie your apprentice is the 0 ftg consumption which will get you more loot from the runs, and the 0 durability consumption which saves your repair costs. Do however note that you can only have up to 3 apprentices at a time, and you can only delete and add another apprentice every 48 hours. It is therefore crucial not to waste your apprentice slots.
Bear in mind that you are only boosting your lowbie till 24, there after the bunny no longer drops and keys. It is thus a waste to add those who are already lvl 20 and above. I personally only add those lvls 16 and below. Also bear in mind that while you make a lowbie your apprentice, it doesn’t make him co-operative. I have added apprentices who still steal my loot and roll on my stamp. Ended up having to expel him. As 2 other slots were taken up by my friends, this left me with nothing. I recommend bring them for a few runs, to see if they are co-operative before adding them. After that, ask them if they want to unli run till lvl 24, before adding them. Some disappear after turning lvl 15, saying he want to go and change job…. or say he gtg after a few runs.

• Show me the money

Know what’s good to sell and what’s not. I tot this was a given. But it seems there are some boosters who do not pick the valuable items…. Here’s a few stuff that are good to pick or must be picked from the various dungeons:

SC:

• Minotaur Miniature from the Mino sub boss: Most boosters that boosted me did not pick this. They NPC for 33 silver.
• Love Letter (First/Last): Rare drop from Mino sub boss. Its worth a hefty 1.5g… PLEASE pick this.
• White Feather from the Harpy boss: PLEASE pick this. They NPC for 1 gold.

RAP:

• Laughter Box. May drop in multiples, making it significant.
• Cursed Guardian talisman. May drop in multiples, making it significant.

DTMI:

• Rusty Music Box from spider boss <—- ER…… DUH?!
• Talisman of Healing from spider boss. They NPC for 40+ silver each. May drop in multiples, making it significant.
• Ordinary Shell. NPCs for 20+ silver each. May drop in multiples, making it significant.
• Skeleton Pattern shell. NPCS for 20+ silver each. May drop in multiples, making it significant.
• ANY Lvl 24 rare main weapon (For clarification, staff is NOT a main weapon. Ball book and doll is. I learnt it the hard way buying the wrong spiral code). I have seen boosters who boosted me and don’t pick this. Omfg to that. I paid him 1 key but looted a Skeleton hammer and White lion flail. What’s the point of boosting if the lowbie gets more than the booster? =.= PLEASE do. They sell @ TH for 7-10g.
• Iris Staff, Skeleton Gauntlet and Venus Threaded Loop. They sell @ TH for around 2-3g. Other secondary weapons are worth 1g or less @ TH, so you may or may not want to pick them.
• Lvl 24 high grade Life Vitality, Health, Destruction and Magician plates. The cost of making them is 3 rough agates and 1.18 gold, for a total of around 2.5g. They sell for 8-15g, netting you a 5 to 12g profit per plate.

All 3 dungeons:

• Rare Low Grade Crystal Codes. They sell @ around 3g in TH
• Low Grade Diamond Codes. They sell @ TH between 25-40g. Requires 1 seal though. That’s what your incomplete seals are for. NEVER use authentic seals for these, for obvious reasons.
• Any rough gem. They go for anywhere between 10-30g a stack.
• NPC gifts from rabbit. Quite a few a few boosters do not pick these. Do not undervalue them. NPC gifts are like and investment for the lvl 50 cap. To redeem high grade potential pouches and octagonal waters when u need polished jewels.
• High Grade Skill plates. Personally I myself wonder why people buy high grade skill plates. Skill plates are something you get until you quit DN, and won’t replace regardless of lvl cap increase. So I wouldn’t settle for anything less than premium. But the market for them is somewhat there, so let’s cash in on it. A high grade skill plate requires 3 rough or ordinary diamonds to make and 54 silver, bringing the total cost to about 4-5g or 13-15g. They are however harder to sell off than diamonds on its own. So to make or not to make heavily depends on whether you have a TH ticket or not. Here are some high grade skill plates that imo are a must make regardless of whether you have a TH ticket or not:

• Side kick – Warrior (30% AS). They sell @ TH for 60-100g
• Slap Attack – Sorcceres (30% AS).They sell @ TH for 25-30g
• Spin Kick – Archer (30% AS). They sell @ TH for 25-30g
• Half turn Kick – Cleric (30% AS).They sell @ TH for 25-30g
• Heal  – Cleric (2.5% Heal rate).They sell @ TH for 25-30g
• Healing Relic – Priest (16% CD). They sell @ TH for 25-30g
• Gravity Blast – Force User (10% Dmg).They sell @ TH for 25-30g
• Triple Orbs – Force User (10% Dmg). They sell @ TH for 25-30g
• Teleport – Force User (16% CD). They sell @ TH for 30-40g
• Fire Ball – Elemental Lord (10% Dmg). They sell @ TH for 25-30g
• Inferno – Elemental Lord (10% Dmg). They sell @ TH for 25-30g

And many more that I can’t think of at the moment. Just roll on them and check TH for their average prices to see if it’s worth making or not, and update your database.
Most boosters do not pick loots in between runs at it slows their overall runtimes. I do agree with that. But the end loots at the boss stage is no excuse not to pick, while you are waiting for the evaluation and bunny to sit on the box. Some never loot the mains and jewels cos they say they ran out of TH slots to sell them. NEVER do that. You can sell them by shouting @ calderock chnl 1 for cheap prices, or watching out for buyers.

• Cash items to invest in:

Boosting is very inefficient without purchasing any cash items. If you are an active booster. It is highly recommended that you purchase these cash items:

• Weekly Golden Goose VIP pass

Ok this is not really a Cash item per say. It is obtained from merchant pero by using golden goose points gained by flirting with May or Rupert. It reduces your repair costs and increases the gold obtained from selling your rusty, keys, skill frags and other loot by up to 15%. To decide on what value of VIP pass to buy, (ranges from 500 to 2500 GG points) just judge on how many golden goose points you obtain weekly, and buy the maximum you can. This is another reason why NPC gifts from bunny MUST be picked. The rare gift from gold bunny on the other hand I personally prefer to NPC it, as it goes for 2+ gold.

• Pet:

A pet can loot faster than an entire party of 4. It helps to pick stray loots and coins while u focus on killing the mobs. The rough jewels especially. When I run DTMI, there are 2 chests after the first area of each map where u can open. It drops a standard 1.5-2 Silver and has a chance or dropping rough agates. It helps to loot your bunny for BOTH you and your lowbie, while you trade him for the Key. This saves ALOT of time. Most of all, It prevents those noobs from stealing your rusty box. If they can pick my rusty box before my pet does, I give it to them. My friend actually managed to do that once lol. It still does not prevent them from rolling your stamp though. But the rusty means a lot to boosters and you as a booster should know that too. My personal opinion is, if you earn at least 10 times the cost of a horn of life a month, i.e. more than 8K gold a month from boosting, getting a pet is worth it.

• Storage Expansion or Adventure Bag.

To all the active boosters who did not get the storage expansion during the 1 for 1 event. I only got 1 word to say to you: AWWWWWWWWWWW. When Unli running to lvl 24, you will need to store away all your loot after repairs. As for the Adventure Bag, it goes hand in hand with the pet. The pet picks up all sorts of rubbish. You need at least 2 full pages to accommodate it. After 10 runs @ DTMI, all the stray loot I wouldn’t have picked otherwise that my pet looted for me sold for almost 10 gold

• 1230CC Beginner package.

Comes with a 1 row adventure bag and other nonsense cash items you won’t ever need. But only can buy once per char. Just get it so you can pick the NPC gifts.

• Trading House Ticket.

If you can finish your 30 weekly TH slots in 1 or 2 days, please get it. Another alternative is to pass loot over to sell using multiple proxy characters. That’s only feasible however if you are in a Guild and have access to the guild storage, and your guild master is nice enough to let you have 3 or 4 subs in his guild D:

• Seal Stamps

When lucky, you get a decent skill plate from the gold bunny, which you will need to seal to sell @ TH. The incomplete seals are not even enough to seal all the epic low grade diamond codes I get from boosting. You may need to supplement with these. Wait for the 1 for 1 seal stamp event to buy one from Cash Shop or TH.

Things to note as a lowbie getting boosted (The Dos and Don’ts):
Dos:

• Try to find one booster who will add you as an apprentice and unli run you till 24. It greatly increases your EXP.
• If you only manage to find one who will boost you for 2 keys a run, always make sure you have spare keys yourself, so as to still be able to obtain the skill fragments worth 2.5g a key used.
• Try not to leave your booster when you are already 23. Most boosters are not willing to party lvl 23s, thinking they will be 24 soon, and will just run off without paying after you turn 24. If you ever land in this situation, I recommend getting that last level done and over with by offering to pay 2 keys. If they think you are a scammer, offer to pay the 2 keys before the run. They will be convinced.
• Assist in any way you can to help improve the run timings. For acads, wax is very helpful. For most other classes, the best thing to do is simply keep your weapons and follow closely behind the booster. Never run ahead of the booster, especially warrior classes who love to dash ahead. You may lure the mob in a manner making it hard for him to kill it. Don’t even bother to attack the mob. Your pathetic damage is not helping in anyway. You only end up scattering the mob, making your boosters miss their skills.
• Politely ask for certain loot. They are some loot that have no values to the boosters which they will just NPC away or delete to make space. Like rare armour and low grade diamond or agate codes.
• When rolling on items, always wait for your booster to pass on it before you roll.
• When looting, always wait for your booster to run off to the next area before looting whatever he does not pick up. At the boss stage, wait for the booster to open the bunny before picking anything he does not pick. If the party loot setting is round robin, then feel free to loot anyhow. (If u are boosted by 1 with a pet, then too bad for you :X)
• Always bear in mind your primary objective is to level fast, not to farm.

Don’ts:

• NEVER run off without paying, especially if your booster is charging only 1 key. Those noobs can’t see the big picture. They think they gained 1 or 2 extra key(s). But here’s what they really lose out on: they leave the party and try to find another booster. Parties up and heads over to DTMI to repeat the scam, wasting about 5 minutes in the process. In that time frame, you could have ran another 2 more rounds, getting you 2 more board quests pouches and 50 fragments worth 6-7g in total, and another 1g looted from the boss. Even if you were paying 2 keys, it’s still not worth it. The booster you scammed gets pissed. Shouts in CV Cristal stream portal telling everyone you’re a scammer and don’t pay your keys. No one wants to boost you anymore. What do you do now?
• NEVER roll on the incomplete stamp. Even if the booster never mentions anything. As I mentioned earlier ALL boosters ask for the incomplete stamp. Even if he passes, it’s probably cos he tot he was rolling for something else.
• NEVER pick the rusty music box. Even if the loot is Round Robin, and the rusty is passed to you, kindly trade the rusty to him. He will appreciate it. Makes it easier for you to ask for certain loot as well.
• Try not to run off without paying at level 24… I know there are no consequences to that. But is your integrity worth less than 2 keys?

Conclusion

Hope my guide has helped to improved boosting experiences in Westwood. For boosting services you can pm me in game @ L0ui5e or L0ui6e. I charge 2 keys for SC/RAP and 1 key for DTMI. My run time for SC/RAP is around 1:30-1:50 (not a very good timing for SC I admit, but RAP gives more exp anyway.)  And 1:20-1:29 for DTMI. I only ask for incomplete stamp. You can roll everything else including diamond codes. Can’t seal all of them anyway. As for loot, you can pick anything my pet does not pick XD.

26 June 2012 Update:

Did a try run to see how much you can roughly earn in an hour. Ran DTMI 18 times with an apprentice, which took about an hour. Went with just 1 key and 0 gold. Here are the results:

There wasn’t any RC spawn in those 18 runs, so the results are quite a fair gauge. After NPCing or deleting whatever that should:

Now to analyze all the loot that can be sold off TH (based on TH averages dated 26 June 2012 Westwood)

3 Main weapons: 3 x 8g ea = 24g
4 Sec weapons: 4 x 2g ea = 8g
10 Ruby: 10 x 1.4g ea = 14g
8 Sapphire: 8 x 0.7g ea = 5.6g
5 Obsidian: 5 x 1g ea = 5g
3 Topaz: 3 x 0.7g ea = 2.1g
7 Diamonds: 7 x 2g ea = 14g
26 Agates: 26 x 0.7g ea = 18.2g
6 Lebriums: 6 x 1.5g ea = 9g
4 Crystal Codes: 4 x 3g ea = 12g
3 Agate Codes: 3 x 1g ea = 3g
2 Diamond Codes: 2 x 1g ea = 2g

Sub total: 124.9g

Grand total: 294 gold.

So I take about a 20% error margin, and conclude that you can earn between 250g-350g an hour.

Level 50 Cap Update:

Striked out a few parts of my thread that are no longer relavant to level 50 cap. Now that level 50 T4 damage is so insane, there is no need to discuss about what ulti to kill the spider boss anymore, or to level a char just for boosting. Even priests can just go in and spam chain lightning lol….

Major Changes:

• Ancient EQ now drops in DTMI. Certain Main Weapons go for quite abit, like sword, shortbow & cannon.
• Board Quest for DTMI can be taken from level 16 onwards already.

Ok heres the shyt part. Boosting in SC and DTMI does not earn as much as level 40 cap anymore. I would recommend farming based on Kazu’s guide untill you have very little FTG left. Make sure you do not let it hit 0, before proceeding to grab an apprentice for boosting. Refer to Kazu’s farming guide here:

http://forum.cherryc…-by-aikawakazu/

If we were to calc based on the loot I got from the trial run using current prices:

3 Main weapons: 3 x 8g ea = 24g ~5g
4 Sec weapons: 4 x 2g ea = 8g ~4g
10 Ruby: 10 x 1.4g ea = 14g ~6g
8 Sapphire: 8 x 0.7g ea = 5.6g ~4g
5 Obsidian: 5 x 1g ea = 5g ~2g
3 Topaz: 3 x 0.7g ea = 2.1g ~1g
7 Diamonds: 7 x 2g ea = 14g <—- Rough Diamonds still maintain their prices!
26 Agates: 26 x 0.7g ea = 18.2g ~10g
6 Lebriums: 6 x 1.5g ea = 9g ~3g
4 Crystal Codes: 4 x 3g ea = 12g <—- Crystal Codes too!
3 Agate Codes: 3 x 1g ea = 3g ~1g
2 Diamond Codes: 2 x 1g ea = 2g <—- Diamond Codes somehow  too……

Total = 64g…… down by almost half…..

This makes the new grand total to be around 200-250g an hour……. compared to 250-350g from last time.

It doesnt beat farming lvl 50 suffix mats worth 100g a piece, but the motivation behind boosting now is:

Dimension Keys: Use them to run chaos. Skill fragments are worth alot now.
Dimension Fragments: 770 to trade for a High Grade Diamond Code.
NPC Gifts: Flirt with Irine to exchange for High Grade Cassius Pouches. Octagonal Waters can be obtained from Free Adventure points too. They are worth more now.

Do not underestimate the cassius pouches. I spent only abit more than 1K on my 3/7 Immortal EQ for my EL because I had enough vision agates from these pouches to pot my self, and could buy the coffins to make them myself. Took 10 tries to get Agi Int HP x1 and Agi Vit HP x2. Had you bought them off TH with the pot, It would have cost you maybe 5-6K instead.

GDN, Suffix II & X-mas Update (22/12/2012):

The X-mas crazy ducks are a bytch for boosters….. they LAG you up…

As everyone is busy farming essense II, the supply of boosters in Westwood has dwindled quite abit. These makes asking for 2 keys easier. Still recommend solo boosting as your priority is still the bunny. Keys however are worth alot more now. (2-2.5g when sold in TH) But everyone knows 4-5g is worth peanuts now…. 2g back in level 40 cap was worth than 4-5g now.

FTG should be saved for farming essense II. Make sure to fully utilize your apprentice slots when boosting. You can keep 15 ftg left from your last daily quest to before adding apprentices.

As the price of cash items are so damm expensive now… a few of the cash items that I recommended previously in my lvl 40 version are no longer effecient. Namely:

• Pet:

Price of horn has rose from 800g to almost 3K in Westwood, while the value of loot the pet helps to pick has dropped… in order for the pet to be worth it, you must earn at least 30K a month from boosting now……

• Seal Stamps:

Price of 1 stamp is like 150-200g each… hardly anything is worth sealing anymore…. just use your incompletes or dun even bother sealing.

• TH ticket:

Value of loot drops, price of TH ticket sky rockets.. Nuff said.

So what the hell do we boost for now!??:

IMO :

• Dimension Gems (770 for 1 high grade diamond code which is worth 600-650g now)
• NPC Gifts (I still see boosters not picking them… dunno wtf they boost for anymore)
• High Grade Skill plates. Certain plates sell for more than 100g now. Side Kick, Heal, provoke and a few more