Level Holding?

Why is that a thing?
What are the benefits/losses?

EDIT:
For anyone new who stumbles upon this thread, Level holding is no longer as valuable due some updates, people suggest advancing!

Anyways for details check the link Insipid shared below

Level holding is the act of opting to hold at your current level instead of levelling up when given the chance. Both levelling and level holding have their pros and cons. If you chose to hold, one of the cons is that you will also be unable to increase your maximum health without the use of merits or faction perks. On the other hand, level holding may encourage an opponent to underestimate you.

Check this out for a list of pros and cons:

Level Hold VS Advancement ~ by Accurate [1758158]:
https://www.torn.com/forums.php#/p=threads&f=61&t=15946134

Thanks that helps!

It has a very definite sort of aesthetic quality to it as well; if you look at someone like Beerstein or Jesus, it just looks cool. And it gives you glass cannon gameplay which can be an awful lot of fun. I held at L17 for a while and it made fights interesting and perilous, but it started to negatively impact on my missions and chaining, so that's when I levelled up, and that will be how I gauge whether or not I need to do so in the future.

It's a way to be sneaky, sort of.

The benefits just don't measure up to the value you get by leveling up.

Unless you live for sneaky-ness. Then knock yourself out.

More frequent easy defends from people. My main regret from going past lvl 50.

A point I haven't read being brought out, it also depends on your stats balance.

Do you whore DEF? Then losing on life is a big minus for you
Do you whore DEX? Then why do you need life when you get one shot on hit?

Those are the extreme cases but in general if you prefer Def over Dex, losing the level's life is worse for you.

hmmm? i thought you gain more EXP bc your level is lower than theirs even tho ur true level is higher??? i am confused lol.


btw, i am holding bc i quit for a long time and am f**king weak for my age and dont want to be weak for my age, and also be a level 70+ with <50m total stats

Stats of Jesus:
https://www.torn.com/profiles.php?XID=2013634

Strength
302,902,419

Defense
5,661,056

Speed
200,483,215

Dexterity
1,193,275,076

Total
1,702,321,766

I think getting free busts plays a part for level holders.

also to stay in new players chat

level holder get some pretty sweet benefits including:
faster busts since it's easier to bust a low level rather than a high level
some free defends where people don't look at rank etc
if your stats aren't great then you won't become a chain target/levelling target

idk man they be dumb

Free defends are always brought up, but I can't say I've gotten much in regards to defends. I hold 100% for easier busts while working for unsafe crime merits. As soon as I'm done with those, I'll level up to wherever I should be for extra life to be more useful to my faction for wars and chains.

My understanding is that leveling experience received from any given target is fixed, no matter who attacks them or what the attacker's level might be.

Targets give more leveling experience as they level up, and each level you attain requires more leveling experience than the preceding level.

So, because you have less life while holding, you will lose some fights you would have survived, and therefore, your true level won't/can't level up as quickly while level holding.

´

The best way to level up is... going to HoF.

Level rankings vs Battle stat rankings is best predictor.

You can level up up to 20-25% below your battle stat ranks (best for balanced)... that way you will get more defends and less chance to become leveling target.

Ex:

If You are 1000 in battle stat ranks....

It is safe to go upto 1250 in level ranks.

Edit: For constant druggies ...

You can choose to be 30-35% below your battle stat ranking.

Baldr's ratio should also follow above rules.

Goober's and Hank's ratio are a bit tricky ones... They can hit people way stronger and may lose to counter builds with low stats if not well equipped (Dex builds without moto helmet).

So I would suggest to level up on their own discretion.. If while leveling up, they are losing more, can level hold for some time and pace down.

At any point of time, going ahead of battle stat rankings is a big NO, for any player (Not applicable once you reach level 100)

As usefulness, level holding at 15 is only usefull for those with really low battle stat and that don't want to become leveling targets.
But when you have like 1M+ in each stat (even less), the people who can attack you are way past lvl 15 and shouldn't care about actively leveling anymore.
Otherwise, it's always better to level because your health is an important stat.

Now, some might still level hold because:
- they want easy defense (or enjoy surprising noobs)
- you can still be a chain target (cause you are easy to defeat and give good respect thx to your high level) although i don't think it would be that bothersome. And if you naturally level (and don't actively push it), that shouldn't happen.

I think those are probably the only arguments for level holding. If someone find more, feel free to let us know.

Nope. At higher levels people are unlikely to give you many defends regardless of your battle stats, and you are also unlikely to become a leveling target unless your stats are completely ridiculously shit for your level (there are plenty of weak level 100s these days). So, because there are a fair number of level holders, it IS, in my experience, no problem at all to have, say, a BS rank of #5000 and a level rank of #3000. My rule of thumb is that when Duke gives you a fair number of mission targets of a certain level, it's safe to level up to that same level. I don't mean if he gives you mostly level 60s and a random level 90, I mean more like if 20% or so of your targets are a certain level or higher.

If your level rank is really extremely out of line with your BS you're attacking too much and training too little. That'd be more important to fix than worrying about leveling up or holding.

Same boat here.
Low level players looking for levelling targets who don't use Baldr's or have TornTools installed to estimate stats are few and far between.
I am here for the fast easy busts from unsafe crimes - once I've got the 10k drug crimes complete and 10k computer crimes complete, I'll then decide how far to level up.

Or maybe, depending on how high close to 50B I can get my NW to by that point, I'll see if I can get the "Idolised" rank at level 15 for the lols first :)