Guide - From character creation to .... YES!!! another Guide

[bizmark]

Bare min for EoK should be 106 in full conflag or better IMO. FM at goblins in the mountains maybe or sarnaks near a zones edge. Beasts domain is green to a 110 for maybe there? Or a zone off of Argath? Shards Landing? EoK hits hard. at 115 f2p my war can pull 3-4 yetis easy but there was a time when 1-2 had a chance to wipe me.

 

[fhrost0213]

One small update - this line:

"Using the same way to make them hit lvl 57. Why 57? because at 57 you can group with a lvl 85 char."

You can actually get XP at 56 with an 85. I just tested today.

 

[Wraith6911]

Realized that it has been quite some time since I posted an update on how this squad has been doing.

So after my disastrous initial foray into EoK we backed up into the previous zones that I had been rolling. We went back to Deluge and ground out to 106. It was a bit slow, but it was super safe and we made some more cash. At this point and with my team makeup it really didn't matter how many adds I ended up with if I was pulling recklessly. I was even pulling the guards from around the entry area when I discovered that they had no faction hits. Once the squad picked up 106 I went shopping in the bazaar for my paladin.

While it was quite costly - I put him in an almost full set of conflag armor head to toe and updated some non-visibles as well to beef him up as much as I could. Put a new sword and shield on him as well. In fairness I did this all the impatient way and got it all done in one swing rather than watch prices for a couple of days etc, but I wanted to get back to action. After that set of upgrades ( with buffs from team) my tank was pulling 185k + hp with somewhere close to 5k effective armor I believe between armor / avoidance.

So we went back into Lceanium and this time I went out the east gate and set up near chickens. Oh the differences that were made! My paladin was easily able to handle the mobs and as long as he was standing everyone else did their jobs. I can even handle adds with the use of a few cool downs even without the rest of the team upgraded yet. I started hunting down the named chickens and there is one named yeti in the area and upgrading the team piece by piece. The entire team has picked up 108 so far. I was stifled a bit with all the bad juju floating around, so I like many have been laying low for a while just to not draw any un-needed attention to our community or my main set of toons. But I have eased back into it and so far no issues. I am a bit behind on the capital gains - so I will need to farm out the area quite a bit to catch up there, so the team is behind on spells / skills atm. But we are handling this area quite easily - and with the current bonus xp going on I may just tack on 110 in this area while farming for upgrades for the rest of the squad. So far shaman has new chest - boots - gloves and the cleric has new boots as well.

With everything else that has been going on I have not been running all my teams - so team 2 and 3 have not made any progress as of late. But they are moving slower since they are purely FTP squads.

 

[Redmonkey]

I skipped Lcea at the begining as it was just too tough but the mobs in FM, even the named, were much more doable.

 

[Wraith6911]

It is a difficult zone to break into to be sure. Quite the steep difficulty curve over the Deluge zones. But there are also so few people in it on my server that I can easily be out of the way and generally left alone. I plan to do some adventuring in FM here soon though.

 

[Veiwmaster]

Hey all just checking if anyone has ideas for levelling areas with solo monk 109 and on?

 

[Redmonkey]

FM (Frontier mountains), Overseer, Daily hot zone from Clayton, Sathir's .............

 

[Wraith6911]

Team update time.

So the team has been spending time in Lceanium and in The Overthere. Mostly trying to target areas that overlap with a few names so we can update the rest of the team. Found a decent spot in northern Lcea that overlaps drolvargs and giants. Managed some more of the armor pcs and a decent little melee weapon for the bst. Either spot has been solid xp and the team has cruised to 110. We have tackled a few names in OT as well, but nothing seriously noteworthy as of yet. I will say that that named golem is quite a beast and the paladin spent several times during that fight in the purple club. lol

I dipped into FM for a few minutes one evening, but there was quite a few more people there so I ducked back out. Given all of the recent drama I tend to stay away from people as best I can. I don't AFK my teams - and generally I have my loot set up where I am not littering the ground with bodies, but I just don't want any extra attention right now. At this point I have given some thought to grinding instances on the bigs just to keep them well out of the way - but we shall see.

I have gotten a little bit braver and have been running my Gnomercy team at the same time. I have a thing for stupid themes, so this is my all gnome FTP team. Probably a horrid concept - but sk - clr - enc - mage - mage - nec. They have picked up lvl 70 and are cruising along in Dragonhills since it is mostly abandoned aside from PL squads these days.

Team three is still on the bench atm - I need to gear them up better before heading into HoT. My little FTP war gets his arse handed to him in tougher spots right now. That team is running a solo shm healer and in this range he seems to be struggling a bit. Especially due to the lack of AA. But I am not spoiled or anything ....

 

[B_I_G__D_A_D_D_Y]

I got a FTP team to the upper 80s still wearing Elegant Defiant. But they were like swiss cheese even on Light Blues. So I farmed them Veil of Alaris T2 gear from the lower end of Valley of Lunanyn and from Sarith City. The stats are like 5x or 6x higher and now the cleric has a chance to actually cast a heal before they die! It probably took me 80 hours of play time to farm every slot for 6 characters. I had to use my 115 SK to actually do the farming for them. I would raid the lowbie team and they gained 4 or 5 levels just from the raid experience. So now they're all like level 95 and the new gear is already obsolete! SMH!

 

[Deltin]

Team update time.

So the team has been spending time in Lceanium and in The Overthere. Mostly trying to target areas that overlap with a few names so we can update the rest of the team. Found a decent spot in northern Lcea that overlaps drolvargs and giants. Managed some more of the armor pcs and a decent little melee weapon for the bst. Either spot has been solid xp and the team has cruised to 110. We have tackled a few names in OT as well, but nothing seriously noteworthy as of yet. I will say that that named golem is quite a beast and the paladin spent several times during that fight in the purple club. lol

I dipped into FM for a few minutes one evening, but there was quite a few more people there so I ducked back out. Given all of the recent drama I tend to stay away from people as best I can. I don't AFK my teams - and generally I have my loot set up where I am not littering the ground with bodies, but I just don't want any extra attention right now. At this point I have given some thought to grinding instances on the bigs just to keep them well out of the way - but we shall see.

I have gotten a little bit braver and have been running my Gnomercy team at the same time. I have a thing for stupid themes, so this is my all gnome FTP team. Probably a horrid concept - but sk - clr - enc - mage - mage - nec. They have picked up lvl 70 and are cruising along in Dragonhills since it is mostly abandoned aside from PL squads these days.

Team three is still on the bench atm - I need to gear them up better before heading into HoT. My little FTP war gets his arse handed to him in tougher spots right now. That team is running a solo shm healer and in this range he seems to be struggling a bit. Especially due to the lack of AA. But I am not spoiled or anything ....

been a very long time since you updated.

how are things going?

 

[Sinickal]

Absolutely adore this Guide and the additional contributions Thank you esp. @MrPatate and @jfrazi - I'm just behind you!

 

[allandallis235]

The team has slowed forward momentum somewhat, but I have added a second group and have been dialing them in and getting used to a totally FTP team. Though I may break down and give them some $ and gear to get them moving. They are following the same path that this group used - just staying in areas longer before moving on. I think this will be beneficial once I get into the higher zones for the tank to be slightly higher than expected. I may chrono the tank at some point just to help the team, but probably not until the 80s to maximize the free AA's.

Really like this thread. As I was aging my F2P group, found that I could reference most of what is said. I think the key is that you'll need to stay in an area a little longer if the toons are not gold/autogrant (oh, named mobs will be more touch and go too). Probably should have picked up on this sooner before I had to drop-back an area or two. Around mid 80's is where I noticed my F2P group was starting to struggle. However, it can still be done and it's a fun and rewarding challenge if you're not in the biggest of hurries.

 

[Sinickal]

Hey all just checking if anyone has ideas for levelling areas with solo monk 109 and on?

Have a look in Beast Domain. Currently have a 110 mass killing to PL an 85+ to 95, and it's full of green/light-blue mobs, the apes are particularly easy take down. Easy to get to GH>Argath>Beast Domain

 

[Virkilian]

I really can't thank you enough for writing this guide. It's been super helpful in coming back to the game after being gone for almost 5 years!

 

[hackzimus]

I'd like to mention a good set of spots from 60-75 if you're rolling SK's and Warrior tanks in your group and want the anguish BP's

Bloodfields: near the center over bridge area and kill discordlings - can do this till 65
Wall of slaughter - the 3 room 4-way by MPG 65-75

Both camps start off tough but eventually if you keep up with defiant gear you'll cruise through them. They arent the fastest exp or the best money but you'll gain Dranik loyalist faction that is required for the BPs.

60-75 i am now indifferent but I did this on test server that has a faster exp rate so I can certainly see someone getting close to max ally, especially if you need to stop for AAs cause you dont have autogrant.

 

[Hulkman]

For level 75-85

Go to Hills of Shade - Tons of mobs and a lot of undead . The top of the village near ocean line.

Swarm pull there and EXP moves like crazy fast

 

[jmastema]

I've been toying a lot with the idea of making a heroic six bot "theme team". Like dwarf/gnome only or dwarf/halfling or some other such nonsense to amuse myself. Either way, it seems I'll be back at Gribble for this? Say it ain't so.

 

[519helvis]

i like themed gruops . im currently running an all troll gruop with SK/BST/SHM/ZERKx3. gives the levelling path and the game some flavor i guess ... im sure ill swap a bard in at some point but for now im having a blast. and yes this guide is a wonderful thread i like the updates!

 

[hackzimus]

Adding an update for some decent levelling spots. MPG at the Odiumate camp was one of my favorite spots 70-75. A good amount of mobs in range to keep the pulls flowing. I found riftseekers was good if I wanted to keep my crew in chase mode, other than getting the 25 AC augs I didn't spend much time here.

With defiant gear 75-80 in Valdeholm while it was a hotzone was very decent, I set up in the area behind the the named that drops the summon throwing knives bad in the far north of the zone, or in the center of the pit and mass killed. I also tried Zeka/Beza which worked decently outside the towers.

A key thing to add is at 75, do the TBM entry quests including the first mission. This unlocks the merchants for Remnants of Tranquility which has the best gear for levelling up. I kept my tank outfitted in TBM gear and my dps classes had the weapons. By the time I had the quests done for TBM intro I was 76.5, and stole the remnants from an old box crew to gear myself up.

From 75 -110 I did the Gribbles when they came off cooldown or for my lesson burn. by lvl 95 if I kept everyone geared up I was able to pump the DPS hard enough to get all 3 done within 1 lesson burn for a massive exp pop.

80-90 I upgraded to HoT T1 gear and went into HoT Front Yard and The Grounds. Both zones have good amounts of single pulls incase you are lacking any level relevent CC. I moved spots frequently but there are plenty of locations to set up and go.

88-95 - If I was bored of the grounds I jumped into Fear Itself. Not only was this a hotzone but plenty of mobs, easy to get single pulls and the exp was very solid. Just set up along a wall and go ham.

95-100(102) - Shard's Landing was a great location at these levels. Fast repops, good number of nameds which helped me gear up my crew. Theres many camp spots so as long as someone isn't swarming you can usually find a good place to kill.

100-105 - Eventil or the Plane of Shadow. Eventil had a good number of single pulls but large runs between pulls... PoS was packed tighter but a higher chance for multipulls so have your CC ready.

105-110 - Nothing new here, Frontier Mountains. If you can't get a spot at a Sarnak Fort you can kill the gobbies by the droga zoneline. The only tricky part about the droga zoneline is the 2 guards at the gate summon at 100% so be careful if you take some damage and your healer gets aggroe.

At 110 I've stopped to max my AAs. If you are a low dps group or haven't outfitted yourself in ToV attuneables yet I'd do Droga ,Chardok, or Kor'sha. Each zone is good for roam and kill, theres a couple spots in Chardok which are decent to set up camps in like the Drogmor room to the south and the palace area. Kor'sha has some good camp locations but you need to be mindul of respawns for roamers.

Once I got my tank kitted out in ToV gear and started to mow through mobs at these EoK camp reliably I moved to Sathir's Tomb. This zone can net you 200 AAs per hour without lesson in a decent DPS group. My group is around 350-500k dps, with a 300k hp tank. If you lack dps the entry area is a good spot. If your dps is higher the first Sarnak room is nice and I've grinded this location quite a bit. I stayed away from the 3rd room where the sarnaks and undead fight for the most part. I'd sometimes set up in the hallway between both rooms if I needed more mobs to kill but the pull in the center is rough if there is a named up. The risk reward wasn't justified for me despite being able to make it work.

Once I got my AAs maxxed on the SK the plan is to grind to 111 maybe 112 and start the ToV progression.

If you are struggling with dps, make sure you get good gear for your level. 110 try to outfit in ToV or CoV attuneable gear. Next, especially if you're FTP, get the Hdex augs from TBM for your DPS classes. This adds 18-20 type 5 augs for 580-600 Hdex on your melees. This took my zerker from 80-150 avg dps with spikes of 250-300 on braxi/dicho combo fights to 150-200 as an average with spikes in the 400-700k dps range. the rogue also sustains closer to 150dps with burn spikes into 300k with no assassinate. This was a bit of a game changer for my group which is melee heavy.

 

[Wraith6911]

So I got the rug pulled out from under me a bit - and stepped back a bit. My original mains team is 110, but I will not use MQ2 on them right now. These accounts are legally old enough to drink and I just can't see risking them. Both of my other 2 groups, the cats and the gnomes got suspended in the last big wave (and my pocket cleric I used to heal them from outside the group) so I took a break.

With my bigger teams "marked," and not wanting to risk my original accounts I did what any self respecting gamer would do. I deleted EverQuest and ...... umm hell no. I made a new group of FTP accounts over the course of a couple of weeks and just got them really rolling. Everyone hit 20 last night and went back to PoK for spell updates.

Not the min-max comp - but it seemed interesting at the time - paladin / shm / brd / rog / rog / rng. I love paladins, always have - and now that I can't use my big guy without risk I made one I won't cry (as much) if he perishes. The ranger was honestly because none of my teams have really had one - and his buffs should help the rogues later. We should also have a lot of cross heal potential for the levels where shaman falls off with the paladin and the ranger able to toss out emergency heals. Originally I was going to go all frogs! But frogs cannot be brd /rng so we adopted a couple of wood elves, they are close to being green I guess.

So here we go again! The only thing I wish I would have done this time around since I was taking more time anyway was using the biggest tutorial macro ever for a full set of armor out of the gate on everyone. But mostly because I am trying to not trade anything from my "safe" accounts to these guys. digital finger prints and all...

Unmaintained - Tutorial.mac [Macro] Longest Tutorial Macro I've seen.

2023 ESA Winner Yet another tutorial macro? But wait! There's more. So of all the macros I realize that the majority of people just want to get the skull and port to pok. Well I was a bit bored and decided to go ahead and take it a step or 20...

www.redguides.com

Don't get to play quite as a much as I used to - but I am back in action. I was actually thinking of trying to spend as much time as possible in instances this time around and making big use of Cannonball's

Quest / Event - LDON.mac - LDON Adventures

2021 ESA Winner LDON.mac v1.0 by Cannonballdex June 10, 2021 Credits: TreeHuginDruid, CWTN, earthsnemesis, Kaen01 and others on the forums at Redguides LDON Aventures Available in Commonlands, South Ro, North Ro, Butcherblock & Everfrost You need...

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The less I am out in the open the better. Still a bit skittish right now to be honest, but if I am going to play, this is how I want to do it. I don't want to speak to real humans, you never know where they have been!

 

[Wraith6911]

The whole team tacked on 40 last night. At these levels it almost does not matter what you do - where you go - you will keep moving along. So I did a mix of LDoN's and Blightfire so I was not in just one place for too long. The LDoN missions are an interesting change of pace - but I cant lie that Blightfire xp mod is just so high that it couldn't keep up with what I could do open field killing. And I didn't lose a bunch of time to traveling. Once I got all the I-D-10-T errors out of the way though the macro posted above works great (just pull down the NAVs that Cannonball posted in the disco section)

Going to go find me a nice out of the way area to work on the 40s and stock up some cash. I have not stopped to gear anyone as of yet - just updated some spells every 5 lvls or so. One thing I did notice this time through the lower tier is that I was far too busy in my INI files for KA. It is not that I am in a hurry, I am generally about the ride and how the team gels as it grows. With that said though - using canni on a low level shammy is slower than just sitting down for a minute out of combat it seems. And honestly - skip the debuffs and add DPS. Trying to malo / slow / cripple mobs just burns through mana. Just toss a dot and melee with the gang. The bard runs the buffs and mez's things - dont even have a DPS section for him yet, just melee. Just let his buffs push the rogues. Just little tweaks to my normal set ups have turned into more killing and less down time waiting for the frog to slowly convert his life to mana an then burn half of it trying to heal himself again.

I am not playing every day like I was before - but the team is moving well. Why I am also looking a bit more at my efficiency while at the keyboard. Let's not waste what little time I have - probably have another 20 levels before the debuffs start to out weight just killing it faster than it kills me.

 

[Wraith6911]

The team is now 51. We started the 40's in the Mesa doing the critters - saw a few more people that we would have liked which is to be expected in that area. So we dashed over to one of my fav spots in velks and did spiders on the ground floor. One other person in zone - had the whole bottom to ourselves and easily cruised from 45-50. Did not make as much cash as I would have liked, but still plenty to update all the spells. Dialed in my INI's for a new level range and went straight back to velks - but this time I moved the team up the doggos on the top floor.

I love that area - plenty of mobs in a small area. And I hate that area sometimes - so many mobs in a small area LOL. Had our first wipe as I did a horrible pull and ended up with 2 names at once. The bard went down like a cheap prom date and it was all over once things started to break loose from the mez. Thankfully we had our camp fire down - so we ported back and recovered and then pushed on to 51. Decent cash to be made in this area once we can reliably pull the whole floor before it respawns, right now we still need a bit of down time. Should be able to easily move to 55+ up here. It is probably not the most ideal area as the mobs can heal and what not. But so few people care about coming up here anymore I rarely have any competition for the spot and with the QoL agent ability we can just sell once the bags are full without leaving and safely camp down in the corner until next time.

 

[Wraith6911]

So we spoke too soon! For any of my past groups I have rarely had to share any part of Velks, but apparently everyone else figured out the doggos up top! The only down side really is the other person is an AFK'er type that kind of makes the rest of us look bad. There are invisible weapons flying around the room from toons that have been sitting so long they are AFK invisible and immediately clobber anything that spawns. They finally moved on however, so I had a good run on the camp last night. The team is all lvl 54 and a half now. Was hoping for 55 but ran out of time. I have also secured a few thousand plat at this camp which will be plenty for updating spells/songs and keeping the crew rolling.

Still keeping the ini's very simple - the bard mezzes / melees / and twists. No additional in between things atm such at bellow etc. Shaman dots / slows / heals - no fancy debuff the world, no point at this level. Honestly the busiest file right now is probably the ranger - just due to have more spells to attack with right now. He dots /snares / and I mixed some blasts into his rotation - currently he is my lead DPS'er on the squad, but I know the rogues will over take him later.

Playing the paladin myself - so I only run tank mac about once an hour to redo all my buffs while I refresh my drink then I take back over. Plus I can soothe pull - havent figured out how to macro that yet :P

**EDIT - we got our hands on the camp again yesterday and got the team to 55 **

 

[Wraith6911]

Have been super busy so I have not been able to get into any good marathon sessions. But the team is 57 - we moved over to Grieg's End. Decent exp / fair money / and generally abandoned at this point so I don't run into those pesky humans. The main focus right now is all paladin - he is getting all the drops that are upgrades to beef him up. So his armor is rainbow brigade but he is handling the mobs and adds a bit easier. I have noticed that we are not getting decent defiant drops. As in I believe in the last 2 levels of grinding we have seen 2 drops. Makes it a bit trickier to upgrade the team as we go - but really at these levels a naked rogue with the dagger from the tutorial will out put enough DPS to give things dirt naps.

I will probably take my first xp break at 60 to get a couple of AA's on the team. Mostly just some QoL things like extra spell slot and a few class defining adds. But the team is still working great - paladins are magnet agro so that is never an issue. The two rogues and ranger bury things decently quickly even without good gear and the bard's buffs and mezzes keeps us safe. I do know we will run into some main heal issues with the shaman eventually - but right now he is keeping up just fine. Hoping that the paladin splash heals will buffer once we near the 80s and shammies fall off a bit.

 

[q8reflex]

Have been super busy so I have not been able to get into any good marathon sessions. But the team is 57 - we moved over to Grieg's End. Decent exp / fair money / and generally abandoned at this point so I don't run into those pesky humans. The main focus right now is all paladin - he is getting all the drops that are upgrades to beef him up. So his armor is rainbow brigade but he is handling the mobs and adds a bit easier. I have noticed that we are not getting decent defiant drops. As in I believe in the last 2 levels of grinding we have seen 2 drops. Makes it a bit trickier to upgrade the team as we go - but really at these levels a naked rogue with the dagger from the tutorial will out put enough DPS to give things dirt naps.

I will probably take my first xp break at 60 to get a couple of AA's on the team. Mostly just some QoL things like extra spell slot and a few class defining adds. But the team is still working great - paladins are magnet agro so that is never an issue. The two rogues and ranger bury things decently quickly even without good gear and the bard's buffs and mezzes keeps us safe. I do know we will run into some main heal issues with the shaman eventually - but right now he is keeping up just fine. Hoping that the paladin splash heals will buffer once we near the 80s and shammies fall off a bit.

Don't forget to get your pally that DA hammer in Grieg's End.

 

[Wraith6911]

Been forever since I dropped an update on the new squad! I play a lot of P99 currently ( and got pulled into a Rift group) but I still move my teams on the side. This team has picked up 65 and I set AA to full blast to build up some key quality of life upgrades - extra spell slots - AA canni on the shaman - Sonic Disturb on the bard for easier pulling etc.

They made their first 10k plat officially yesterday, so proud. Which is mostly gone now after buying spells up to 65, but they crossed the threshold. The eclectic team mix is working better than I thought it would - with the paladin able to do cleric style buffs - shaman support buffs - ranger attk buffs for the rogues - and the bard pumping mana full time we have surprisingly little down time. I have the shammie set to full heal / slow only to conserve mana, plus things dont live long enough to warrant his dots currently. For now the ranger is the star of the show DPS wise - but I know the rogues will pull ahead later as we actually get gear. Right now only the paladin has a full set of armor - everyone else is missing bits and pcs. But if the tank lives, so does everyone else.

Have not even considered a chrono for them yet - still a bit small, and I don't play everyday like I was. Feels like it would be a waste. If my Rift group slips and I pick up the action more consistently I may - but not until we hit 80s most likely.