Question - Power Leveling Strategies Question

[afortner87]

Hey everyone,

I’m looking to see what power leveling strategies people are using right now to go from 1–120.

So far I’ve mostly been using the Shadow Knight + damage shield method for early levels, and it works great up through the lower and mid ranges. The problem I keep running into is once I hit around 85–90, swarm pulling starts to feel slow and honestly just gets boring.

What zones do you end up using once you get into that 85+ range?

For a little more context: I have a 120 SK with max AAs and max (non-prestige) gear, but the account is FTP now, so no prestige gear. When I try to swarm in The Grounds, my SK’s health drops really fast unless I start PBAoE’ing the mobs — but then my PL group doesn’t get XP.

Should I be using an outside box just to keep the SK healed?

Also, does MQ2Heals reliably auto-heal the SK if I set it up on a healer box?

 

[Sic]

I've found it much easier keeping a heroic 85 once toons get to 60s, and then 105/106 (conflag) and have them leapfrog

sk is easiest, but paladin can be really handy PLers especially since they can rez

 

[knave23]

I use rangers now, but when I used to use an SK in grounds I would use a merc on.. efficient? the one that does HoTs and the naughty promised heals everyone blocks. The promised heals give you the heal aggro and not the merc. Also make sure you use the new wurmslayer to minimize damage and just face a corner

 

[The Ancient One]

Level 85 you can get a great run at Frontier Mountains. At 120, your SK probably can survire one of the Sarnak camps. Use our Mercenary healer to help your life drains and you should be ok.
Good thing is you can PL your guy from 85 to 105 and also, getting him 105 gear at same zone from nameds.
Hope it helps.
Best of lucky

 

[Redmonkey]

I start my day with the Overseer - each day getting the exp reward. 24 hour ones are better for exp but at least the 12 hour if you can't get the 24. This runs behind the scenes and every little extra helps.

Then I group up the lower levels and my main and go to Teek and get the daily hot zones. So at 85 I would get the level 80 and 85 or even 90 if you can. Then take the group down to the zone, have the main guy kill the 5 mobs and the lower guys sit around and reap the bonus exp for finishing the task. Takes like 10 minutes at the most.

These are quick and easy things you can do when you might not have a lot of time for a full PL session.

*********note*********Since you only have access to an apprentice healer merc (since your a free account) then you do not have access to any stances other than balanced and aggressive. They also do not compare in healing with the journeyman (paid account) mercs. But you could give it a shot.

 

[afortner87]

for my sk being lvl 120 and max aa should I upgrade to the lvl 120 ftp obscured armor or stick with the faded waxing armor ftp gear for max stats ?

 

[hackzimus]

Hey everyone,

I’m looking to see what power leveling strategies people are using right now to go from 1–120.

So far I’ve mostly been using the Shadow Knight + damage shield method for early levels, and it works great up through the lower and mid ranges. The problem I keep running into is once I hit around 85–90, swarm pulling starts to feel slow and honestly just gets boring.

What zones do you end up using once you get into that 85+ range?

For a little more context: I have a 120 SK with max AAs and max (non-prestige) gear, but the account is FTP now, so no prestige gear. When I try to swarm in The Grounds, my SK’s health drops really fast unless I start PBAoE’ing the mobs — but then my PL group doesn’t get XP.

Should I be using an outside box just to keep the SK healed?

Also, does MQ2Heals reliably auto-heal the SK if I set it up on a healer box?

The secret to the grounds is to have a wurmslayer from EoK to negate most of the dmg done to you.

 

[afortner87]

Can you use wurmslayer on a ftp account or is it prestige ?

 

[Warlock45]

You can heroic to 100 if you have the DB cash (with bigger bags a level appropriate heroiced gear that still sucks, heh). With autogrant AA and autogrant spells, and with access to certain missions in CoV, a guildmate took me to 110 inside an hour. I am just returning, but level 100 was good enough to set up shop killing trash in EoK (yellow-red in Lce) turned light blue/dark blue by 110. Did hunter in a few expansions for the bags, moving on to newer expansions. As I understand it ToV mission have boosted rewards currently, and decent XP.

Just curious if there is a reason folks are mentioning 85 over heroicing to 100? I would assume you would want to get as much of the "free" autogranted AA you can before putting work in, but being gone a while maybe I missed something. My goal was just getting the toons up enough to viable mix with the current players (for this server, level 115 max and CoV is top expansion). The autogrant spells stopped at 110.

Otherwise personally I used a druid to PL from level 1, SK for midrange (usually with the druid healing, heh) then just grouped with a ranger for HS sessions, then groups with a borrowed raid tank.

 

[knave23]

Can you use wurmslayer on a ftp account or is it prestige ?

Prestige

Honed Wurmslayer - EQ Resource - The Resource for your EverQuest needs

 

[Redmonkey]

Just curious if there is a reason folks are mentioning 85 over heroicing to 100? I would assume you would want to get as much of the "free" autogranted AA you can before putting work in, but being gone a while maybe I missed something. My goal was just getting the toons up enough to viable mix with the current players (for this server, level 115 max and CoV is top expansion). The autogrant spells stopped at 110.

This is a very good point. If you go any Heroic (85 or 100) on a F2P account then it overrides the AA limit and you get all the AA up to that level (besides the tradeskill ones). That is the main reason I would Heroic a character.

But if you lack funds to pay the monthly subscription then buying a Heroic might be out of range for you too. You could pay for 3 months subs vs buying 1 heroic. And during that 3 months you could rotate the sub so each character gets a month and they can Auto Grant during that month and get AA free that way too. Doing it either way you keep all these extra AA

 

[Joakhan]

I found that the 1-70 path with a FTP 120 SK in LS T1 gear and non visibles + shield and Wurmy is quite trivial and takes at most 1.5-2 hours.

CR - BM - SH - Mesa - SoD zones. It just about keeping the little ones at a level where the bard/mage AE hits everything.

But 70+ gets obnoxious. So I got a heroic 100, put that SK in TBM augged group armor (crypt hunter), and just set it to plow through Alaris zones.

95+ just plop them in with the 125 SK and goes fast. MQ2Grind is your friend.

I have in the past used a 120 FTP Necro, for the remote sphere. SK pulls, lowbies AE, Necro hits remote and FDs. Shards Landing / Grounds mobs die in 1 tick, rather than DS slowboating. Nice up to level 100, but by then you have them in a main group anyway.

 

[Joakhan]

Prestige

Honed Wurmslayer - EQ Resource - The Resource for your EverQuest needs

Prestige, but the effect is not!!!

 

[knave23]

Prestige, but the effect is not!!!

I'm not sure what you mean. It's an equipped effect so you'd have to be able to equip to get the buff or is that a weird loophole I haven't heard of?

 

[Scharnhorst]

Prestige, but the effect is not!!!

I'm not sure what you mean. It's an equipped effect so you'd have to be able to equip to get the buff or is that a weird loophole I haven't heard of?

You can equip the weapon and benefit from the effect, even though the weapon does not provide other stats on a FTP account (which is actually an advantage as you cannot riposte with it, if your toon is FTP).

Edit: you can equip prestige gear on FTP accounts, it just that the prestige gear will provide no stats / do damage. In this case however, the effect on the Wurmslayer still works (probably an oversight).

 

[Canddyman]

Starting out i would use cleric to plvl. First like 50 levels is super fast. Cleric HP buff and blood line RDS spreads fast, pulls a bunch of mobs, and isnt limited by level so mobs would instantly die when they hit the person your plvling.

Then move to a toon that can swarm kill to plvl. Once you get over 100 you can do missions to get fast levels.

I used to leave alts at different level gaps just for plvling. Sucks when all your toons are max level.

 

[knave23]

You can equip the weapon and benefit from the effect, even though the weapon does not provide other stats on a FTP account (which is actually an advantage as you cannot riposte with it, if your toon is FTP).

Edit: you can equip prestige gear on FTP accounts, it just that the prestige gear will provide no stats / do damage. In this case however, the effect on the Wurmslayer still works (probably an oversight).

ohhh TIL! Thanks for edumacating me

 

[hackzimus]

ohhh TIL! Thanks for edumacating me

The old surefire method for PLing was to use the golden pick and just do the grounds until 85, but they nerfed the pick.

 

[pasthiml]

I run with similar to swarm method until 70. I then have a lvl 100 toon to help with aoe, At lvl 80, I move to FM with 2 lvl 110 toons. I also hav2 2 120 toons to help level them to 100,

 

[Joakhan]

The old surefire method for PLing was to use the golden pick and just do the grounds until 85, but they nerfed the pick.

Pick is still decent. Just not as fast as it was to hit.

 

[NALGAS374]

i use my cleric and take level 1 toon to veksar in the back of zone and just use hunter mode until 1-65 with celric chasing outside group casting mark of thorimor.... Then i PL in the grounds with my level 95 SK until he hits 85...then i pL in FM with my 115 SK until 100.... Then i put him in my regular 130 group once he hits 100.....

 

[hackzimus]

A note as well, if you're PLing personas, and you can manage it.

Get a Janns Veil from TBL. I was levelling my 6 box crew with personas and it pretty much trivialized 1-70

 

[Tim2051]

Golden pick + necro and fd

I also have tanks staged about every 10 lvls starting at 80 for mass killing / swarming

I believe there are guides on all of these on the boards

 

[Birdman]

1-120 is a cake walk with the SK explained!
Most people just need to get to the grouping point of the max level toon.
NOW I use a level 85 heroic to push 56-80 AOE in grounds then i use a 110 toon to go from 80-100 then its free game with the 130s.

1-25 in Crescent Reach
25-40 in Blightfire moors
40-50 in Gouruka mesa
50-60 in Steepes
60-80 in grounds
80-100 Frontier mountains
100-110 Depends on your toons make up (cant really give up my spot for safety reasons)
100-130 ANYWHERE you can mass kill with the 120 toons

IF cant do grounds:
50-65 Steepes
65-75 Icefall glacier
75-80 Loping planes / Dragon scale hills
80-85 is really where grounds comes in but smaller pulls
85-90 gets tough to aoe without a good solid sk base or outside heals.

 

[Koko]

All this PL discussion makes me want to give birth to a ftp group!

 

[Joakhan]

All this PL discussion makes me want to give birth to a ftp group!

Why not two?

 

[knightdane]

How i used to PL someone.

Get the characters together, and if none of them had an AOE spell/ability, i would make a bard to group with them to do easy aoe.

And then just use a tank/bard to mass pull, and have a druid do DS on the tank/bard.


How i do it now.

Equip golden pick on character.
Have shadowknight hold wurmslayer and then switch via bandolier to fire beetle eyes. (buff stays most of the time)

pull 20-30 mobs and have 4 aoe aggro abilities ready.

Spam all 4, and then use hitall macro on the lowbie.
after it has hit all, i activate shd DS, which is enough to kill fast now a days.

Rince and repeat until 70.

group with level 100, grind until 85 or so. (with characters out of group healing, and even pulling)

85 and up i group with main (115 shd)

 

[NALGAS374]

1-120 is a cake walk with the SK explained!
Most people just need to get to the grouping point of the max level toon.
NOW I use a level 85 heroic to push 56-80 AOE in grounds then i use a 110 toon to go from 80-100 then its free game with the 130s.

1-25 in Crescent Reach
25-40 in Blightfire moors
40-50 in Gouruka mesa
50-60 in Steepes
60-80 in grounds
80-100 Frontier mountains
100-110 Depends on your toons make up (cant really give up my spot for safety reasons)
100-130 ANYWHERE you can mass kill with the 120 toons

IF cant do grounds:
50-65 Steepes
65-75 Icefall glacier
75-80 Loping planes / Dragon scale hills
80-85 is really where grounds comes in but smaller pulls
85-90 gets tough to aoe without a good solid sk base or outside heals.

To many zones if you do it my way 1-60 one zone....then 2 more zones to get to 100 and Done!

 

[Nerenalist]

Hey everyone,

I’m looking to see what power leveling strategies people are using right now to go from 1–120.

So far I’ve mostly been using the Shadow Knight + damage shield method for early levels, and it works great up through the lower and mid ranges. The problem I keep running into is once I hit around 85–90, swarm pulling starts to feel slow and honestly just gets boring.

What zones do you end up using once you get into that 85+ range?

For a little more context: I have a 120 SK with max AAs and max (non-prestige) gear, but the account is FTP now, so no prestige gear. When I try to swarm in The Grounds, my SK’s health drops really fast unless I start PBAoE’ing the mobs — but then my PL group doesn’t get XP.

Should I be using an outside box just to keep the SK healed?

Also, does MQ2Heals reliably auto-heal the SK if I set it up on a healer box?

I would deffinitly have a healer with you if you are doing it this way. At 85 I generally go to fear itself if you can get in there, and take a druid with you if you have one. If not any healer will do.