A thank you to Razkle for the recommendation, I definitely enjoy this zone. Exp here seems to be far better than Grounds and Shards. From a design perspective, the take on the characters in this zone were a nice breath of fresh air vs. the typical cubes, zombies, skellys, etc. The candy house and water maze are definitely trippy but again, nice to see something different. So, yes, getting to the beach is a pita, I figured it out by exploring and will outline in more detail below. Because this zone is a little different, I enjoyed the exploring/killing before figuring out how to get to the beach. Besides the zone being empty all the time, you are very secluded from anyone being on that beach. My highest level is a 101, the rest of my group are mid to high 90s and found this very easy (fight-wise) to get to and hold. My crew are in decent, not great gear.
No mounts since this isn't an outside zone but exp is worth it and you will get decent drops for any lower level toons you're PLing.
How to get there:
There are tons of named in this zone, they pop frequently and often and they all see invis. Again fight-wise, very easy. I found it impossible to get through the castle part of the zone unless you keep the group together. Once you get past the castle, then you can invis your mage to the beach and coh the rest over.
If you look at the map of the zone (EQResource) you'll zone in close to Guardian Ather (#13). You'll be making that first left and go along the right wall to the tree entrance next to Wisp of Hope (#24). Go inside, and continue fighting mobs as you go up, up and up (the casters saw invis). You'll get to a door that leads you to an extremely large chamber of water, you'll have to cross this to get to the entrance of the water maze. This area is where Nesseum (#15) is on the map. Once you make it to the entrace of the water maze, you'll be out of aggro and safe to keep your group here while the mage gets to the beach. I was able to invis my mage through the water maze, don't make the first left, go right (if I remember correctly). It wasn't too hard to run through the maze and find the whirlpool. Go in the whirlpool and you'll be brought to the ship (you're almost there). Get top side and touch the steering wheel. There was a named close to the steering wheel but I didn't aggro her. After touching the wheel, you'll be on a relatively safe part of the beach, out of aggro range of most mobs. I pushed my mage all the way to the edge of the beach, behind the rocks and coh the rest of the team.
I did get my group to the spot where Razkle recommends but that spot is where Maiana spawns and while she is easy to fight, her debuf or whatever it was, is annoying and she is on a 5 minute timer, so I just keep my group at the zone-in spot. The mob closest to you is on a 5 minute timer and as Razkle mentioned, there are tons to fight here. Even though it's not a high traffic area like grounds, there is plenty to fight and exp is better imho.
If you don't have a mage, it can be a little tricky to get through the maze and the ship but I found the zone extremely rewarding in exp, some decent drops and overall very worthwhile. Make note, the Visage looks just like a Mutineer's head, don't throw it away (like I did). If you have Ninjaloot on, keep in mind the Huntsman Quiver and Visage are lore and decent money makers.
