Question - PLing a group to 110 with a 115 Enchanter?

[rouneq]

Need some feedback on the setup I'm attempting to bring the rest of my crew up to 110. Why 110? Mainly for the T1 ToV armor/gear. Once I get all of them to 110 (or higher) I then plan to treat them like a normal group and finish them all out to 115. I've looked through the first page here and while there are some promising posts for future reference on getting to 115, nothing matches what I'm trying to do (since I don't have a high-level tank to serve as the core here). The SK will eventually be the tank of the group, but he's nowhere near ready for that role. Here's the nitty gritty up front. If you want the backstory, stick around after.

Toons:

1) Aforementioned 115 Enchanter - T1 ToV armor with some T2/3 non-visibles. Decently decked out by ToV standards, but over-geared for EoK/RoS content.
2) 108 Wizard - mishmash of gear, but nothing that actually matches the level; priority is on leveling
3) 108 Mage - mishmash of gear, but nothing that actually matches the level; priority is on leveling
4) 95 SK - HoT gear/weapons (including a few raid pieces)
5) 95 Cleric - Some HoT group gear, but really just an assortment of gear I picked up along the way
6) 92 Shaman - Some HoT group gear, but really just an assortment of gear I picked up along the way
7) 96 Ranger - Heroic gear; on the same account as the Wizard

Setup:

Right now, I have the Enchanter (my main) as the core of the group with a healer merc. I'll rotate the Wizard and Mage into the group to serve as the heavy dps and to balance out the exp each receives on the way to 110 (and likely higher by the time the others each 110). The Wizard has a tank merc. The Mage has a melee dps merc with a pet that serves as the tank. That said, the Enchanter can and does tank much of the content I'm working with right now. Next, I'll rotate in two of the other toons to the main group to get them exp. I'm trying to keep them all balanced on the way up so they all have a chance to work on skills as they level. The remaining toons form a second group to dsp down (or otherwise support) the main group. Enchanter is the puller and main assist. Cleric uses eq2cleric and the SK uses mq2eskay. The Enchanter uses RGMercs. The others use Mule Assist. This work mostly ok with this setup. The biggest issue I'm dealing with is getting the SK to consistently assist. Whether in the main group or the second, it tries to tank when I only want assist behavior. Assist acts more like manual, though not consistently. I've had the most success with Vorpal mode, but even then the SK behaves more like a tank and ends up dying more than he should where I feel like I hae to play babysitter a lot (just while writing this up he died three times and would've died a fourth had I not intervened).


Where:

Right now, Chardok Royal Courtyard. Once they are all at least 105, I might look at somewhere else, but that's where I could use some input. Some of the content is still 108 in this location and could support them all the way to 110, but I feel it would really slow down (especially 109). But I also have to be mindful of the Enchanter's ability to deal with the content. This is my first time doing serious PLing and I'm learning as I go. Thus, I'm looking for good content that will carry them to the goal without killing the Enchanter along the way.

Backstory:

The Ranger is actually my first toon ever (from way back in '99) and while I don't need him, I'm making the effort to bring him along. The Enchanter was my alt started a year after EQ was released and became my main when I grew weary of the changes to the Ranger role. The rest were picked up over the years until I finally started playing a full group on my own to do what I wanted. This was all "manual" in that I didn't use mq2 (I used a program to send commands to the computers running the different toons). And then I took a break in 2010 and returned earlier this year. Didn't really want to deal with boxing manually again so didn't bring up any other account other than the Enchanter. Once realized I need more support, back came the Wizard and a new account for the Heroic Mage (I had access to a friends account with his Mage, but I lost contact with him and decided to start fresh). Leveled that trio for a while and then made the push to get the Enchanter up to 110 (and eventually 115) to join my guild on raids. I then started looking into better ways to manage my toons and MQ2 was the logical choice once I realized what I could do. This encouraged me to bring back the remaining accounts and work getting them all leveled up.

Thanks for reading along. The advice is appreciated.

 

[Sungazer]

at those levels your best bet may be running gribbles HA tasks using the chanter to get the task. the tasks ill max out at level 100 so your chanter should be easily able to handle them. you can do the same with all the daily HA tasks which will give you daily bonuses, but the gribbles tasks are the easiest. this should get to you 100+ on all toons. another suggestion would be moving to FM and camping one of the sarnak forts. the mage pet should be able to tank easily enough at that level. you can gear up with both of these methods along the way

 

[Saffron]

Never thought of using a chanter to pl

 

[rouneq]

at those levels your best bet may be running gribbles HA tasks using the chanter to get the task. the tasks ill max out at level 100 so your chanter should be easily able to handle them. you can do the same with all the daily HA tasks which will give you daily bonuses, but the gribbles tasks are the easiest. this should get to you 100+ on all toons. another suggestion would be moving to FM and camping one of the sarnak forts. the mage pet should be able to tank easily enough at that level. you can gear up with both of these methods along the way

Thanks for the feedback. I did do Gribbles for quite a while to get the Enchanter/Wizard/Mage up to 105/101/98 at one point, but when the 100% exp weekend came around, I started hitting it hard with guild members on just the Enchanter and made it to 112. Stuck with guild members until I hit 115 only returning to the other two when I couldn't find a group. I stayed with my Chardok plan and now the Wizard is 111, Mage is 112, SK is 110, and Cleric is 110. All those are also geared in ToV group T1 visible armor. A couple have similar weapons/sheilds with the rest having conflagrant in those spots. I'm now working on the Shaman (108) and Ranger (107). I should get them both to 110 before the current exp bonus period ends. The question then becomes where do I move the crew to next.

Never thought of using a chanter to pl

Enchanter works well in this case due to the overpowered nature relative to the expansion/zone. Though I could do the whole mem blur thing as well. Considering the Enchanter needs AAs it made more sense to keep him in group and have him pull.

 

[Sungazer]

Thanks for the feedback. I did do Gribbles for quite a while to get the Enchanter/Wizard/Mage up to 105/101/98 at one point, but when the 100% exp weekend came around, I started hitting it hard with guild members on just the Enchanter and made it to 112. Stuck with guild members until I hit 115 only returning to the other two when I couldn't find a group. I stayed with my Chardok plan and now the Wizard is 111, Mage is 112, SK is 110, and Cleric is 110. All those are also geared in ToV group T1 visible armor. A couple have similar weapons/sheilds with the rest having conflagrant in those spots. I'm now working on the Shaman (108) and Ranger (107). I should get them both to 110 before the current exp bonus period ends. The question then becomes where do I move the crew to next.



Enchanter works well in this case due to the overpowered nature relative to the expansion/zone. Though I could do the whole mem blur thing as well. Considering the Enchanter needs AAs it made more sense to keep him in group and have him pull.

I spent a fair amount of time in GMM at 110. You can get your none visables and weapons there of a similar quality to ToV T1.

I farmed the shit out of the orcs in the south. there are two viable camping spots for the orcs, one is on a slight incline before the first irc camp, and has access to 2 named spawn points, the other (and better choice is the camp further in near the cross roads that has access to three or four named spawns. and I also did a bunch of the HAs there which give 3 items per completion. There are also a bunch of other named in the zone you might want to check out for specific items.
I did a slow grind. Ground out AAs while overseer gave me levels. The plat drops there are decent, you get on average 100p per kill, though there’s no vendor trash to be seen. There are the occasional 40 slot bag drops, plenty of collection items, and a steady flow of merc gear which sells fairly well.

I moved into ToV once I hit 115 on all. Working though the gear guide in the strategies section posted here in ToV atm, without the gear and levels from GMM I’d probably be really struggling now, but with them, it’s proving easily doable.

 

[rouneq]

Excellent advice. Thank you.