First off, I'm pretty surprised about WB, his leader skill seemed largely useless at first glance considering you need to be near dead to make use of him. I guess I should probably see about trying a build for him instead of leaving him sidelined. I do agree about it not being a cakewalk off the bat being a good thing, it's the thing keeping me from doing a reroll tbh.
Really surprised about being able to beat those maps without sockets. They seemed to be a massive difficulty spike compared to the previous level. I really should probably ask for some team advice next time I give the game another shot. Probably gonna save stones and hope for a decent pull first though, all those straw hats really got me fuming. Probably the worst pulls I've ever had. Generally my team usually consist of Doffy/INTHawk lead with Zoro, Croc, Brooke sometimes and a GP Usopp. I guess it's probably a bit straight forward a team. I Do have stuff like Marco/Monet but I always feel like I'm sacrificing so much by trading out too many slashers.
As a newbie, your priority should be getting to level 121,which is the moment when you get 80 stamina so you can get some value when gemming for a raid. The best way to do this is while doing Fortnights. I wouldn't really recommend somebody that has been playing for a short time to go past Alubarna, since the story becomes quite a bit difficult after that.
Overall, Fortnights give the best EXP/Stamina ratio for a New Player. Try to grab as many units as possible doing the highest tier you think you can reliably do. There are a lot of Fortnight units whose CD is short enough at skill level 1, so you don't really need to worry about it.
If there is a Turtle Time, try to do it. Evolve your units, leave them at level 50, move on to the next one. Ignore Coliseum, ignore most raids (be sure to grab a Mihawk and a Monster Chopper ASAP though), Be smart with stamina (you level up quite often, try to not waste stamina) and don't worry about spending a gem or two if we get half stamina fortnight.
Before you notice, you should be able to do most returning Fortnights (they ones that last a week) at 30 stamina. Ask or inform yourself about what units are the most important or which fortnight should you run. At this point, you could try to get an Enel.
By the time you get to level 121, you should be able to start doing raid bosses. If you have Monster Chopper and GP Usopp, Mihawk is a piece of cake. Once you've maxed Mihawk, you should be able to farm Monster Chopper (not really necessary), Garp, Zephyr and Ivankov (not necessary either) rather easily. Keep doing Turtle Times, once most of your units are level 50 start leveling the ones you use the most to level 70. At this point, you should be able to do most 40 stamina raids (Buster Call being the exception).
Once you are able to do 40 stamina raids and 30 stamina fortnights, it's just a matter of time before you can farm Doffy.
You don't really need sockets for most raid bosses either, since they were introduced before 4.0.
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EMT0's diary is quite a great source of information for New Players. Since he had previously played a bit before starting with his re-rolled account, he knows what he must do to rush to the top as fast as possible.
His biggest problem is that he is weak to the shinning red tavern button. At the beginning I'd say it's better to use your gems to get more box space and refill your stamina (especially during Extra Island half stamina periods). I know it's hard to resist at first, but you must try!