Defender of Ascalon

Legendary Defender of Ascalon is a title that you can display for prestige. It is awarded per character for reaching level 20 in Pre-Searing Ascalon.

This title is meant as an incentive and reward for "perma-pre" characters; however, you keep the title if you leave pre-searing.

Defender of Ascalon title track
You will earn the "Legendary Defender of Ascalon" title if you reach level 20 prior to the Searing.

Note: Progress for this title is not shown until the character reaches level 12 (Title Track in your Hero panel).

Guide
The most important thing if you want to start working on this title is to understand how the experience gained from killing monsters decreases as your character gains level. Please read the Experience article.

Step by step

 * 1) Advance to level 10. There is not remotely enough XP from quests to do this, and you can only gain XP from mobs if they are no more than 5 levels below you.  The vast majority of foes in pre-Searing Ascalon are level 3 or less, excluding those foes in the Northlands.  The following are strategies for dealing with the stretch from level 8 to 10.
 * 2) *At level 8, there are many level 3 Black Bears, Bandit Blood Sworns, and Ice Elementals in Wizard's Folly in proximity to Foible's Fair, but you will gain only 16 XP per kill.
 * 3) *You may wish to delay accepting the rewards from quests until about 30,000 XP has been accumulated (roughly halfway through level 8). This allows you to get through level 9 through quest experience rather than seeking the higher level bosses or higher foes in the Northlands.  Note that it may be less tedious to actually complete the quests at lower level, as you will get more XP from the foes you kill, but do not talk to the final person to accept the reward until you have acquired enough XP.
 * 4) **For a list of all quests available in pre-searing Ascalon, click here. Alternately, see Pre-Searing quest XP for a list of only the quests that award XP.  Nearly all of them are required to reach level 10 when you have 30,000 XP.
 * 5) **Note: Some quests cannot be completed without claiming the reward. Such quests should be abandoned and postponed, especially if quest items occupy a valuable slot in the inventory.
 * 6) *At level 9, the options for XP from foes are few:
 * 7) **The Northlands have the vast majority of the foes higher than level 3, but you will need someone open the gate to gain access.
 * 8) **The quest Charr at the Gate spawns level 5 foes near the gate to the Northlands. It is possible to repeat this quest by defeating the foes, or allowing the allied NPCs to do so, and then abandoning the quest rather than turning it in.  Make sure that you have the foes in your danger zone in order to collect the XP.  Alternatively, you can map back to Ascalon City while one foe is still alive, eliminating the need to abandon and reacquire the quest.
 * 9) **There are a few foes higher than level 3 in the other zones: an adult drake in the river outside Ascalon itself, a warrior boss skeleton in the dead end above the pit in the Catacombs (go to the right), and a Oakheart in Regent Valley in the southeastern corner of the map. This is a very slow way to gain the needed XP.
 * 10) Complete the daily Vanguard quests offered by Lieutenant Langmar in Ascalon City.
 * 11) *During these quests, some regular foes 2 levels lower than you spawn in the same zone as the quest objectives. You can speed up the leveling process by seeking out and killing these foes, and then rezone to cause them to respawn.
 * 12) *The Vanguard quests reward 1000 XP, and 101,000 XP are required to progress to level 20 from level 10. Thus, ignoring XP from foes, this would take 101 days.

Death-leveling (Optional)
This is an alternate way to gain XP at higher levels, and was once the only method to gain XP in pre-Searing Ascalon after reaching level 16. Note that repeating Vanguard quests is a faster way to achieve the title.

This involves leveling an opponent monster by allowing it to kill your character over and over (typically while the player is afk). The monster gains experience from this (at twice the rate of players) and levels up. The monster must be located near a Resurrection Shrine in order not to lose aggro before your respawn.

Once the monster reaches an appropriate level (preferably within -3/+2 of your own level, at least your own minus five) it can be killed for experience. Remember there is no death penalty in Pre-Searing. Remember, too, that if your character is dead when the monster dies you will get no XP from the death and all the leveling will have been wasted. For this reason health degeneration attacks are not recommended. For more information, see Death leveling analysis.

Monsters commonly used for death leveling are Striders in Ashford Village and Moss Spiders and Striders near Barradin's Estate. A more complex but ultimately much faster method is to lure several Charr walking patrols in the Northlands close enough to the Res Shrine (where they get stuck) to death level them (stationary groups and the running patrol cannot be lured). This method requires some time to set up as a single Charr patrol may not be strong enough to defeat the NPCs defending the shrine. However the set up is easier than it first appears because the paths from the shrine to the main ruins are effectively a trap for the Charr from which they will not usually find a way back to the open. Using that feature it is possible, with practice, to lure more than one patrol together. See the guide in the External Links section for details.

You can speed up the frequency of being killed (and consequently the experience gained by the foe) by
 * removing all armor to reduce your AL.
 * aggroing more than one foe at a time (but only one of them will level up).
 * wielding a vampiric weapon (giving yourself -1 health degeneration). As of April 2006 they no longer drop in presearing but can be purchased from people who found drops before the update.
 * repeated life sacrifice (which means you can't go afk).
 * using the warrior skill Frenzy, causing you to take double damage.
 * repeatedly activating the warrior skill Healing Signet just before getting struck and canceling it with the escape key after being struck, causing you to have -40 armor without getting healed.
 * Turning your back to the enemy and running away as it hits will result in a critical hit.

Warning: After 10 hours of no activity at all (no movement, no keystrikes, no inputs, etc.) you will be automatically disconnected from the server with an error 059. Also beware that sometimes after 24 hours you will get kicked off the game regardless.

Tips

 * For a complete list of available XP quests, see Pre-Searing quest XP. This list includes XP break-down by profession, the XP rewards for each quest, which quests can be lost, total XP possible from quests alone, and a few tips.
 * Setting your pet to "Heel" will prevent it from attacking, preventing it from killing your foe before you are ready to do so yourself and giving your foe a small amount of experience. Additionally, since high-level foes will generally kill you several times while you are working on killing them, having a pet limits the amount of time they spend healing while you are dead (as they will be busy attacking the pet and will not have time to gain natural health regeneration.) As a mild bonus, if you didn't already death-level your pet before adopting it, your pet will gain experience along with you.  In this case, it will almost certainly end up with the "Hearty" evolution.
 * If you wish to use the Charr in The Northlands to death-level, in addition to the link below, invest some time providing service in Ascalon as a Gate opener. Eventually you should find someone who knows how to do it and is willing to take the extra time to give you a hands-on lesson.
 * To leave Rurik behind in the Charr at the Gate quest, bring Rurik and his forces just behind the last curve in the road and veer to the left quickly, so that Rurik is no longer in your danger zone. From the hill you can then pull or aggro the Charr.  Once you engage in battle, Rurik's helpers will leave him standing on the road and come help you, assuming that you are close enough to them.  If you do not need any additional help with the Charr you can also leave via Ashford Abbey for slightly longer run to the gate while eliminating the chance that Rurik will follow and you will have to abandon and then re-take the quest.