Question - Buy or Grind?

[whytdrumer]

Quick question. So I am looking and building out my box team and I have a Sham, Wiz, and Bezerk all around 55 currently. I'm trying to figure out if it's worth...

1. leveling these three toons by hand to 110 and then grind AAs. (Free but time consuming)
2. Upgrade them as heroic characters for $35 each and grind to 110 and the AAs (total cost $105)
3. Buy level 110 toons with maxed AAs ($350 for all three)

These would not be my main characters but mainly boxed. Down the road I will probably play them more to learn each class specifically.

Thoughts?

 

[microscope]

I paid for heroics because my original plan was to just grind the whole way, but the grind really slows in the 50s and in the 60s even more, and in the 70s and 80s it is massive. So I gave up and bought 2 heroics. I then used those to power level the rest of my group up to 85 ish, and then joined them all together and continued on to 100+. I think overall it was worth it and saved me some time. But the grind from 85-100+ is still a long ride too, so you need to be prepared to do that even if you pay. I did a lot of Gribbles which was decent exp, but it still took a really long time and was super repetitive and boring. The only thing that kept me sane is that I enjoyed the constant tweaking of my Kiss inis. Also the gear you get with heroics is garbage so you need to spend the time to replace it all or you can't even do gribbles. I hit a brick wall around level 90 ish where I could barely kill anything in there. So I spent a bunch of time and plat to buy a full set of gear (RoF or something) and it made a huge difference. I mainly just needed it on my tank. With that, I could grind gribbles and my other characters got any gear that dropped along the way and I started making good progress.

I think buying three 110s for $350 seems like a decent deal (assuming they are all on different accounts). It depends what you want to do though. For me, I had never seen the game from about level 80 onwards, so I was happy to explore some of it. I did a lot of gribbles but I also did some full progressions. If you are only interested in getting to top level and then grouping with friends or raiding, then I would just buy the characters and be done with it. Also a level 110 can power level future characters SO FAST.

p.s. I actually quit EQ Live though once I reached 110. I am an idiot, I bought the expansion on 6 characters... and then a month or so later I was bored by it. It was ok but I have more fun on emulator servers because I can play entire raids by myself which I prefer, and it costs me $0. So I regret buying all those expansions now, but it was an interesting experience seeing modern EQ.

 

[eqtrader74]

I'd go 3 if the money isn't an issue.

Option 1 is how I mainly do it now. I've leveled a few dozen toons to max FTP and it goes pretty quick. But that's with the advantage of having a group I can play already, so I'm not bored, and plenty of toons to help PL go smoothly. Once you've got your PL setup rolling, the +50% exp group buff pots are nice if you have the cash to burn.

However when I first came back and was trying to level my group of 70s, it was very painful. Even with MQ2 it seemed like we barely crawled along. So I broke down and Heroic'd everybody + added a tank class as everybody was recommending. At this point, years later, I'd say it was not worth it except for the tank. I did use the heroic aug quest augs for a long time until the group could handle EoK named.

Option 2 isn't a big time saver if you have any high level toons that can PL instead. Getting to 1-85 is 1-2 days with MQ2. 55-85 should be a 4-8 hrs depending on what kind of PL setup you can run. Plus all the heroic stuff isn't too useful beyond 90 except the free bags and the heroic aug quest for a newbie tank. I use the heroic mount on some FTP guys too, but it's easy to get a much better mount if you're doing any progression in expansions later.

Option 4: Making another account for new heroic and getting an 85 Pally is also a nice PL setup. They can group with 56 (or 57 can't remember) toons right away, then just send them to dragonscale hills or a similar zone and let the pally smash greens. Goes very fast and if the Pally is 100% AA exp (Gold account) you can do quite a few groups before you worry about out leveling the useful window. Then get a necro to sacrifice you back into the level you want.

 

[wymranar]

I was in a similar situation not too long ago.
-When I first got back into EQ I started fresh with 3 heroics. It took time to get back up to speed, but starting from 0 was incredibly tough, so I'd say it was worth it.
-Like others have stated, you're going to want to focus a good portion of your efforts on your tank. With brand new characters, the heroic aug tank quests are a huge timesaver.

-After that, I turned around and leveled up 3 new toons WITHOUT any help from my other 3, now max level, toons.
-It took A LOT of time to get them to 115/max aa. Like around 2 1/2 Months.

-Now that I have a full group it makes things infinitely easier. My group isn't optimized for PLing, but it's such a game changer when you're leveling new toons.
-I think a lot of people have forgotten how difficult things are when you're starting from scratch, even with VV/MQ2. Without those additional tools it would be unbearable

 

[jande]

The buying toons feels like a risky option to me, you do not know what DPG will do in the future / what the original account owner can do. Remeber that if anyone has the secret question they can reset the email and take the account back.

 

[Redmonkey]

#1 - I have at least 6 characters I was going to "grind" AA and level up for my box set - all around level 40-60. They sit around and only get some attention now and then. So boring. 2 of them are shaman.

#2 - I have yet another shaman that I went 85 Heroic on F2P. Got him to 109 with very little effort doing HA daily during game bonus time. I do have 2 other 109's that he grouped with so kind of pl. Although the Heroic was free he is now a subscription account. He was meant to be part of my back up group but turned out to be a blast to play. Yes, he did need some polishing as far as equipment etc but it was so easy to do with the higher main characters helping and once I went paid on him then I auto granted all those AA.

#3 - I doubt I would buy max level characters. Like Jande said, risky like a bad burro that can come back on you and give you heartburn.

For my situation I prefer #2. I have a couple more free Heroics I am going to bump up instead of taking the long haul. I might do this even if I had to pay to go Heroic if I could save up the cash.

Although I will start them out in Gloomindeep to get the cool things in there and then go Heroic around level 10.

You don't say if your main are available to help raise the crew so that would be another consideration.

 

[surfdog21]

Brother, just get the heroic 85 and level from there! Buying accounts always has a risk. Easy to grind out levels for the most part after 85'd!

Either way though...we got you! Always here for ya!

 

[Woola]

I don’t know what server you are on or if you have any desire to come to the test server but here is another option. This will apply to any account that has “gold” status: 1. Log into EQ and create a character on the Miragul server and enter world. 2. /testcopy the character. 3. Log into the test server. Viola instant Heroic Character will full gear, spells, etc. All characters on Miragul start as heroic and if you /testcopy and play on Test you don’t have to spend any DB coins or additional money to create a heroic character. But again, this does not apply to FTP accounts, only Gold accounts.

 

[Sic]

I don’t know what server you are on or if you have any desire to come to the test server but here is another option. This will apply to any account that has “gold” status: 1. Log into EQ and create a character on the Miragul server and enter world. 2. /testcopy the character. 3. Log into the test server. Viola instant Heroic Character will full gear, spells, etc. All characters on Miragul start as heroic and if you /testcopy and play on Test you don’t have to spend any DB coins or additional money to create a heroic character. But again, this does not apply to FTP accounts, only Gold accounts.

This is a pro-level tip

 

[eqtrader74]

That's a great tip.

Also, if you're not worried about sharing your server, sometimes other RedGuides members can help PL, sharing fellowship for bonus exp or rolling some named for gear.

 

[whytdrumer]

Thanks for all the insight everyone. Love this community. I'm on FV. I'd love to connect with anyone on there so just PM me. I have several 110 toons that I've leveled so I could easily use them to level. I'm just looking at it from a time standpoint. PLing takes time. I don't play for hours a day. It's taken me a while to PL the current Sham, Wiz and Bez. It kind of gets boring after a while haha. Regarding the few toons I bought, I make sure they don't have a SQA set and I go in and change the email and password so it's pretty secure. I'm thinking of just upgrading my existing toons to 85 then they can group with my 110 team and I can level them faster.

 

[Woola]

I was on FV and power leveled all my guys in these spots. Dead Hills from 85 to 100. From 100 to 105 Scorched Woods. 105 to 110 OT.

In Dead Hills look for the zone out location by Tower of Rot. (It’s marked on the map). There is a spot between two Titans of Rot with static spawns. These mobs are between 100 to 102 and take only a few seconds to kill. They respawn in less than 30 seconds. I would use my war, Zerker and cleric (even though the cleric is really not needed) the other 3 group members are the plvlee’s. Set your pull radius to 100 and the circle on the map should cover those static spawns. I would set up there, go to bed, wake up and they are level 100. Also I would get a lot of gems and ether essences for TS. (You will need to put the Titan of Rot on your ignore list since they cannot be killed)

In SW set up at the exit of Chardok. This is an exit only and no one comes out the exit since they gate out of Chardok. There are plenty of sarnak just outside, fast respawns and rarely any traffic in the area.

In OT there are too many options to list the ideal camping spot. However, I preferred the corner of the map where the green named sarnack spawns around the building. There is only one saber tooth cat in the area, which helps your puller. Using these methods and some exp pots I took some heroic characters to 110 in a few days.

 

[whytdrumer]

That's some great advise right there.

 

[Tical]

I don’t know what server you are on or if you have any desire to come to the test server but here is another option. This will apply to any account that has “gold” status: 1. Log into EQ and create a character on the Miragul server and enter world. 2. /testcopy the character. 3. Log into the test server. Viola instant Heroic Character will full gear, spells, etc. All characters on Miragul start as heroic and if you /testcopy and play on Test you don’t have to spend any DB coins or additional money to create a heroic character. But again, this does not apply to FTP accounts, only Gold accounts.

Sorry to bump this old thread...

Is this still a thing?

 

[Redmonkey]

Sorry to bump this old thread...

Is this still a thing?

How did you get past this?

 

[Sic]

Sorry to bump this old thread...

Is this still a thing?

No, miragul is no longer a server. Had you tried the steps in this old thread you'd have seen