>Is it viable to stay in the area and go caimans, crocs, boars/thugs? The progression seems to be decent to around 200ish.

By the time I went to Throne with my last extended stay, I was hunting hatchlings with around 200 ranks. My father had similar skills, but slightly lower, and he used to hunt boars. They both seemed to teach the same range (up to around 240) from the comparisons he and I made.

I would not go to thugs until you've mostly capped out hatchlings. Thugs were still able to cause significant injury and bleeders to my father and I both, until approximately 250-260 ranks. You should then be able to stay in thugs until 270-280ish range without issue. 270 is about when I changed areas, so I'm not sure exactly how high they teach.

As for the croc -> boar/hatchling transition, I know that when I nearly capped out lower weapons on crocs, I was able to jump right over to hatchlings with minimal problems. Granted, this was with 35-40 agility at the time, so that might change things.

I'm not sure if you can jump straight from crocs to boars/hatchlings defensively though, as it's been a few changes (read: years) since then.

Hope that helps.

-Master Ndin

My father was catching his shield up in boars, because it was subpar and I showed him how effective shield can be.

I know I was getting hit more often with 220 shield than 250 parry when dancing with 4 at melee, but I don't remember if all the damage I sustained was solely from melee attacks, or if I took some hits from ranged as well during shield stance.

I know when my father had around 190-200 shield, he used to run back to the trellis with bolts lodged in him quite often. I'll have to ask him what his shield ranks are at now, and how often he still gets hit.

As far as we've been able to figure, river boa's seem to flex. There were commoners that did fine in there with 150 ranks, and people with double the ranks getting slaughtered. There wasn't a whole lot of testing done though, so I can't really guarantee that is the issue.

-Master Ndin