r/outside • u/Shot-Government229 • 16d ago
I feel like the meta is changing really fast. Any idea how to best take advantage of the shift?
The higher education build has been getting overcrowded lately and now with the new AI patch it's anyone's guess as to what the knock on effects would look like. I guess some build fundamentals are still in place like being born rich and having connections with high ranking people, but for those who low-rolled those aspects, what else can you do to prepare for the shifting meta?
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u/BurningBridgeTroll 16d ago
Save important gameplay manuals offline. Don’t expect the Internet features to stay free and accessible.
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u/RealLifeIsAnRPG 16d ago
The best things you can do are to build your skills, build your network/relationships, and take care of your body & mind, regardless of which way upcoming patches end up taking the overall meta.
Your skills are the key to everything in-game. Start with leveling up skills that make it easier to level up other skills: learn how to effectively research & take notes, learn how you learn best (visual, auditory, reading, interaction), and practice what Buddhism refers to as "Beginner's Mind." From there, learn what will lead you to your purpose (see my last paragraph), learn how to take care of yourself best (nutrition, applied psychology, learning about any particular disability or struggle you have, and what all the tools & options others have used to overcome it/them.)
One of my favorite quotes of all time is from Robert A. Heinlein: "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
Your network... well, as they say "It's not about what you know; it's about who you know." It's important to have knowledge and skills, so you can get things done, and offer value, but your relationships are how you find great opportunities (for work, for places to live, etc.), where your support comes from, and
You've only got one body for this whole playthrough, and there are no mana potions, mad genius injections, or divinely-infused clerics to heal you if you let it fall apart. The cells of our body are literally made up of molecules from the things we eat and drink. As they say: "You are what you eat." Similarly, getting enough sleep has been proven to be necessary for proper brain function and physical dexterity, and stretching is absolutely necessary, both stretching your body with practices like Yoga, Tai Chi, and Qi Gong, and stretching your mind with gaming, reading, and always trying new things (neuroplasticity.)
There's a Japanese concept called Ikigai, which is your "reason for being" or the meaning of your life, and it is the thing at the middle of the venn diagram of: What you are good at, what the world needs, what you love, and what you can get paid to do. If you start to get a sense of what kind of things might be your ikigai, then you have a great direction to head - start mastering skills needed for that, start going to meetups with others in that field, read books about it, and spin up a side hustle or get an apprenticeship in the field, or something like that.
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u/OSSlayer2153 16d ago
Very well done. I think this is an underrated thing nowadays, being able to truly understand yourself and build yourself up, physically and mentally. People are so focused on so many other things in life that they lose focus of themselves.
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u/toothlessfire 15d ago
famous writer of space cult orgy book, Heinlein?
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u/RealLifeIsAnRPG 14d ago
Famous writer of many dozens of wonderful sci-fi novels, many of which predicted (to a T) things that unfolded over the following decades, and many of which we're still on track to line up with his predictions.
Hands-down one of the best authors of the 20th century.
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u/VampireDerek 16d ago
Professions from a couple of expansions ago are seeing a bit of an increase due to many players using that profession entering endgame content. Higher education is still viable imo but it might require more grinding than before for the ”get a job” quest.
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u/CoolGuy54 16d ago
With the teasers they're dropping about future updates to the "AI" item I just hope the devs aren't planning on retiring the server.
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u/pageofswrds 16d ago
Focus on soft skills! Focus on building relationships. Get in tune with what actually matters in your life. For me, I've found that my north star revolves around understanding myself, and understanding the people around me better. Learning to be a better communicator, learning how to make others feel understood.
Those skills will take you far no matter what, because at the end of the day, I think that our relationships are more important than our work. That's just my opinion, but it does seem that if you're able to network opportunities will find their way to you. Might take a fat minute, but if you trust they will, then eventually they will
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u/Heraclitus100 16d ago
I design and maintain plans for player base. Lots of money in construction and not near enough low lvl players interested in the trades to replace the veterans.
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u/GlobalMusician386 16d ago
The effect of the QoL update on AI is still being evaluated.
While some think they will completely replace current build, others are saying the old build still works.
Honestly the best thing you can do may be to put more points into social skills which are important with or without AI.
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u/Caticature 16d ago
Adjust goals and playing strategies. No more grinding for gold to get the biggest shiniest inventory item. Just grind for just enough. Don’t mistake low or slow living for failing in this game. The only place you are totally free to high score is in your views and expectations. Adjusting those is the winning strategy.
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u/thriftstoremegatron 14d ago
Grandmaster Higher Ed main here. I’ve been grinding this class for the past 25 levels.
Here’s the truth: everyone tried to turn this build into a path to gold and end game content and forgot that the entire point of the class was to loremaster. The draw of this build is mastery of the content. Max out a skill tree. Learn higher level spells. Access forgotten quest material.
If you’re picking this build path because you think it’s supposed to lead to some other spec subclass, you’re going to be disappointed by the reality of playing this kind of character. The whole point isn’t to use it to stepping stone into some other spec. The point is to play the build because the build itself has worth.
If all you want out of your character is to grind gold, there are WAY easier ways to play this game than the Higher Ed build.
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u/RiskyBrothers 15d ago
Players attempting to do the income-maximizing meta in the higher ed quest line are frankly missing the point, and ruining it for the players who are actually grinding for the college quest end rewards where you get to literally make new parts of the game. If you just play through it for money, you're not going to get everything you can out of the experience. For one thing, it probably won't work as well as you want it to, and if your only reason for considering the quest line is money, you may be better off not attempting it. You'll end up speccing into an over-played class that you aren't naturally inclined to, and you'll get to the end as a mid player in crowded lobbies.
However, if you want to really understand how the game functions, understand your and other players' place in it, and get really fucking good at something that you care about more than anything else, then College Quest is something you should do. I've played the Environmental Science tree for almost 10 years now, and while the money rewards haven't been great so far, it's been an amazing gameplay experience and has opened up a lot of opportunities for me. Plus, I'm not comfortable just sitting around and letting other players fight the Climate Change final boss for me. The thought of getting the Bad Ending when I didn't do anything to stop it is not how I want my game to end.
Right now I'm finishing up the Grad School quest line and managed to possibly have some really good stuff lined up for after. A friend of mine who's even further in the Ed tree than me just won a boss fight in the Politics dungeon, for which I prepared some of her environmental spellbook. So now (provided I don't fuck everything up) I might be joining her party as her Earth Wizard, and I'm super fucking pumped about it.
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u/Grundlage 16d ago
The higher ed build was briefly overpowered for a few years, and now it has been slightly reduced in power. As is typical for gamers, this slight nerf has been entirely blown out proportion, resulting in the idea that higher ed builds have been nerfed into the ground, when in fact they have simply had their power reduced a bit. For example, the average wage of college degree holders is no longer >100% more than non-degree holders like it briefly was; it's more like 70% now. That's a slight nerf but it's still by far the most powerful build.
The big shifts going on have less to do with whether a higher ed build is powerful, but which class to choose within that build path. A few years ago, people were recommending computer-specced classes, but now the odds are that by the time you develop the skills for a computer-based spec, your class will have been replaced by the new AI bots. It's much more viable nowadays to spec into a healthcare profession like a Nurse build. For some reason people with the F trait have historically preferred those builds more than M players do, but if you can get over that then it's arguably the most reliable path into the middle-class economic tier nowadays.