Leveling - The Grounds - 3 BOX farming guide 90+

[Sadrian]

Before I get started I gotta say that credit goes out to kcrobk who mentioned this that I am about to share in a previous thread.

I am currently using a 92 SK, 90 Cleric, 87Wizard combo to level in HoT grounds. There is a spot in the SE corner of the zone next to an NPC named Plomaedis that is safe and excellent to pull to. I have my pull radius set to 300 and with my SK pulling and a cleric/tank merc running. If nobody trains you you can afk in this spot indefinitely. The pull rate is good and at 300 you don't really pull any named or more than 2 mobs at a time (which is very rare). I run the cleric merc because shit happens and the tank merc because I have had bonecrafters trained into my pull radius and they just love to mez the main tank (my sk).

You can bind in several locations safely nearby and your new heroic wizard has a beautiful The Grounds portal that drops you nice and close.

Good luck!

Getting to The Grounds is quite simple but requires invisibility in order to avoid having to fight your way in. (If you have a wizard in your group -> just port directly to the zone)
PoK -> Feerrott, The Dream -> House of Thule -> The Grounds
When you enter The Grounds, invis and follow the red line I have drawn on the map. At the end of the road I have painted a green dot in a yellow circle. It is a mob that sees invisibility so it is important to make the clear turn as the red line indicates.

At the end of the red line you will see this guy standing next to the wall:



This is where you are going to set up your team.
Apply the following to the The Grounds section of your KissAssist_Info file:
"MobsToIgnore=Plomaedis,fourth missing bonecrafter"

The spot is very good because it is located quite far into the zone and is nowhere near as popular as 4-5 other spots so even though the zone can be quite populated you will mostly still be able to go on without notice.
Another good point is that named creatures are far out of range from this spot so there is zero risk of pulling one.

The spawn rate is quite good so you will not run out of targets unless your group is quite powerful. And if that is the case I have a workaround to that as well.


VERY SAFE SETUP:
PullRange=300
It is very rare to experience getting an add with this pulling range.
Having a messer is generally a good idea at these levels.

WHEN IT GETS TOO EASY:
PullRange=350/400
If you experience that you have progressed and your characters take down everything in a 300 pullrange, change it to 350 or even 400.
It opens up the pulling options a lot and adds an entire new dimension to this spot.
You will get up to 2 adds pulling with these ranges so a messer is a must even though you do not get any nameds.

Tips n' Tricks:
- If you happen to be around your computer; watch out for the /ooc chat where it is common sense in The Grounds to shout up if you have named items rotting.
This happens very often and is a good opportunity to get some gear without lifting a finger other than movement.
- If you happen to have a wizard in your group it has a portal directly to this place
- I use warrior, cleric and wizard merc for this spot and it works very very well.
- If you play actively at some point an option for extra EXP is to go and see Giladan the Botanist in the center of the zone who offers an easy killtask on the creatures you kill at this spot
- It is very important not to have AutoAssist enabled on your tank merc. Otherwise you will face problems when pulling "a souring treant". Put your tank merc on "Assist" ingame and MercOn=1 + MercAssistAt=100 in your .ini

 

[kcrobk]

Man this is an awesome write-up! I'm so glad that people will have a real guide for this spot. I did some great leveling here for sure.

I will give you a big thanks when I get to my PC!

 

[eqgeek]

Gah! That is my secret spot! No named here unless you pull super fast. Even at level 100 I still don't make it over to the wasp PH before repops.

Keep in mind that the trees cast, so if you have a merc tank or pets, they may run after the mob when it casts.

 

[Sadrian]

Keep in mind that the trees cast, so if you have a merc tank or pets, they may run after the mob when it casts.

The solution is the last line of my guide ;-)

- It is very important not to have AutoAssist enabled on your tank merc. Otherwise you will face problems when pulling "a souring treant". Put your tank merc on "Assist" ingame and MercOn=1 + MercAssistAt=100 in your .ini

 

[eqgeek]

Yeah I reread and saw that after I posted. Hard to edit on my phone. Great write up. One issue you may have is the daily kill quest brings folks near here. They never really bothered me, except one time someone tried to train us.

 

[tarb]

Is the grounds doable for a whole group at 86?

 

[Crystane]

Nice writeup, I happened to come across similar. My setup is Wiz,Pal,Shm with mercs Wiz,War,Clr. I have the 89 War merc at aggressive and let the Wiz and Shm chase my pally. I get 5 tasks from Giladan and run around slaughtering along my way. Clr merc is 92 and wiz merc 90, I can handle nameds just fine. I have my Pally simply on MQ2Melee and let him steal aggro forth and back with the war. Shm does heals on all but the MA. It sure is dependant on your pally's gear. I was able to start doing this when he was at 55K HP only self and grpclr,shmbuffed and 5300AC. Most the time on fighting I switch to wiz and if 3 mobs I take the challenge, on 4 mobs I simply evac. I like to travel along some walls, makes sure you got your back clear. Careful on the smal passages, War merc likes to aggro some mobs thru the walls. In this case I simply wait till war merc and wiz merc brought the mob down. Most of the time the mob warps thru the wall to the grp, then its simple single kill. I dont fight Garden Sentinels btw.

Here is my KAinfo.ini for Grounds.

[The Grounds]
MobsToPull=List up to 25 mobs. Can be partial names Example: rat,snake,bear or ALL for all mobs
MobsToIgnore=Spensur,Giladan the Botanist,Garden Sentinel,Gardener Aerith,Groundskeeper Seamus,Plomaedis,fourth missing bonecrafter
MobsToBurn=List up to 10 mobs. Use full names i.e. Beget Cube,Helias,Raze or NULL

So have fun, Crystane. Gredits to Sadrian pls, but I dont mind to get Cents eighter after him.

- - - Updated - - -

@tarb

I d suggest Old Bloodfields for you at 86. Nice camp spots, fast spawns and Hotzone. Best way to find out is of course, go to grounds and try. My suggestion is lvl in Bloodfields till 89+, feed in dailys, usually there are higher lvl folks helping you out in Grounds and Valley. For the dailies I use a Wiz bound in lvl 80 hotzone, simple burn thru 3 merc Wiz and my wiz, Bloodfields the same, but tricky and evac likely if more then 2 mobs at once(Stuns help to avoid Dmg till mercs burned thru), Grounds and Valley I looked for help and while waitin on help I started to pull single mobs at entrance in grounds. Had Wiz-Clrmerc combo and 2 wiz mercs. Since that worked out at 90, I switched to War,Clr,Wiz mercs combo, even easy to handle without any macro runnin.

Crystane.

 

[Sadrian]

Is the grounds doable for a whole group at 86?

Hi tarb

I would suggest this one untill at least 88-89 quite depending on which gear, AAs, classes, setup etc. you have

 

[tarb]

Yeah thanks, thats what i was doing, just looking for that next spot

 

[dulak]

Not a bad spot. I tried it out earlier today. Zone is still a bit over camped for me though. Also, the coin isn't as good as another place I'm currently utilizing. Very nice write up though. Redcented this shortly after it was posted.

 

[PallyDPS]

Just wanted to add that this is a fantastic spot. The respawn rate is great and the pulls are fast. The loot drops are great. In an 8 hour semi-AFK session, made approximately 105kpp.
A couple additions: The optimum pull radius for me was 375 until I hit higher levels (92+). Setting pull radius to 425 got me "An Angry Wasp" named every so often, and was a fairly easy kill for my 3 box /w mercs team.
Dropping a campfire down is very nice here as well and saves you a run back from PoK, however be warned that if you wipe, there is a snake that spawns near the campsite that will agro, so be ready for this when going CR.

 

[nicesandwiches]

I bind just next to plomaedus or whatever his name is - just out of aggro range for the snake. Also, if you are a range or caster, grab a levi and stick yourself on top of the hedge between plom and the camp spot - again, this is just out of range of the snake.

 

[dulak]

Anyone have an estimation of how long it'd take to go from 95 to 100 at this camp?

 

[Dutch_SK]

I have lived in EB for years and I think the exp is comparable.

Back then I was running with a mage with healer merc and 4 HS rangers (pre-nerf!) and slaughtering in there.

It took we about 2 -3 weeks on and off, my guess if you keep it running 24/7 around 8-9 days.

This is just an estimation mate, but its pretty slow, moving to VoA zones will speed it up a lot.

 

[Crystane]

Got a toon from 95 to 100 this double exp weekend in grounds. So I assume Dutch's estimate has it pretty much nailed on normal exp.

 

[imdall]

That is a great spot. but heavily camped. if you go back towards the path there are 4 spawns(a troublesome snake x2, pile of refuse and a aqua dervish) between the path and the wall. its not as good as this post but it keeps u pretty busy and no named spawns. and u can camp with no wanderers. I have 3 boxed(warrior shammy mage with cleric rogue wizzy merc) it for a couple days while tweeking my kissassist to fit my characters and made decent plat and good aa exp. switched to regular exp getting about .30 exp per kill.

 

[MNkenr]

Thanks for the Write-up. I setup as you described, and it is a nice, consistent, calm grind spot.

The zone is a HOTZONE and always has other players present. Because this spot pulls no names, other players are never around here. I will AFK grind here, then when active move over to a nearby named spawn area until going AFK again.

Thanks again for the write-up and information.

Cheers,

MNKenr

 

[Tank Life]

I know when I swarm, I pull this entire east wall from north of map to south where your camp is. It would be very easy to spot our an afk group here.

My suggestion is to makebsure your at your computer for several hours to see how if ppl come by on your server before leaving them go all night.

Good writr up!

 

[runcade]

I have used this spot from 86-95 with great results in a full group. The only issue I have seen is the treants and sometimes the dervishes have a long melee range that is outside my tanks so they will often run up after being pulled and start hitting the tank and the tank just sits there for 10-15 seconds before moving closer to attack. If I manually move him closer he will start attacking right away. Any ideas on how I can fix that? I have noticed it in other zones on large mobs that seem to be able to melee from farther away.

 

[ctaylor22]

Bump up your MeleeDistance I set mine at 75 or greater for this zone.

 

[Incognito]

This is a good spot. It was actually too easy for me, and the xp seems to drop off pretty quickly at around lvl 92. I have to assume it is no longer a hot zone, can't see a way to get 100 here with any amount of time. But it could be done 88 to 92 with decent xp. The camp spot is perfect; it is boxed in by a troublesome snake on one side, an aquadervish on the other, a living heap and a souring treeant in the front (towards the lake). As long as you stay within a small radius carefully placed you will not get wandering/spawn aggro. There are plenty to pull, and the respawn is fast. I took PallyDPS's advice and set /maxradius to 425, and CT's advice /meleedistance 75. This is a good spot but you will outgrown it quickly.

 

[dulak]

I got to 100 there on 5 toons. Took a REALLY long time. Gave up on this zone due to it being over camped.

 

[lowres09]

Sitting in this camp at 91 now and seeing most of the mobs are LB. I think I might try to find another spot.

Still, the pulls are fast, respawn is very quick, LOS is no issue here. I haven't found any mobs that are terribly difficult for my 5 box team.

 

[Inkie]

Get to the Beach or Sanctum Somnium would be my votes.

 

[jackstraw01]

Not sure on your server, but the server I'm currently playing on people are always complaining in general about botters in The Grounds. It seems people like to use the grounds for their paid powerleveling service and will make a big stink about botters or perceived botters (basically anyone that is hindering their paid powerleveling service) in the grounds. That being said, the grounds appears to be great for XP but I'm not sure it would be a good AFK xp spot. Too much potential drama and potential negative attention.

 

[thomasmgp]

just got here and set up in this spot. Looks like another 6 boxer in zone and someone getting power leveled and thats it. Not as crowded as I thought it was gonna be. This place is completely faceroll. My cleric on horseback is still above 90% after 3 cycles. If you are boxing a full group just go ahead and set that pull radius to 400. I had mine at 300 and ran out of pulls. Even with it at 400 I was at my max radius before they started respawning.

 

[unhing3d]

nice camp i'm at it now. 2x 1vl 85 on full exp % get about 0.5% xp per kill and the lvl 100 gets 6% AA per kill, which takes group with 3 wiz mercs about 20 seconds

 

[unhing3d]

nice camp i'm at it now. 2x 1vl 85 on full exp % get about 0.5% xp per kill and the lvl 100 gets 6% AA per kill, which takes group with 3 wiz mercs about 20 seconds

got lvl 89 in a few days of camping this spot from 85. XP drops to around 0.2%@89. Will be moving on when lvl 90 as it'll be too slow but AA xp would probably be good. lvl 100 gets around 7% AA xp per kill i'm not sure how fast that is.

 

[unhing3d]

Oh and also got around 150 diamonds and 110 blue diamonds and then 20-30 misc gems in that time

 

[ChatWithThisName]

I've found that Shards landing is good exp spot at 90 with a good group. The "arena" area being the ideal location if you have your pick of the zone.

 

[unhing3d]

I've found that Shards landing is good exp spot at 90 with a good group. The "arena" area being the ideal location if you have your pick of the zone.

thanks for the info and thanks for the OP been a great spot took about 6 hours for 89-90

 

[Sum1]

I've found that Shards landing is good exp spot at 90 with a good group. The "arena" area being the ideal location if you have your pick of the zone.

on my server the arena is perma-camped by people doing Tears of Alaris (even though it's basically worthless now). Be careful if you expect to farm there afk. Bad idea.

 

[ChatWithThisName]

I always provide information under the assumption that if the user decides to afk they already understand the risks involved. But I guess there's no harm in throwing out the caveat.

Tear can be a useful item to acquire while leveling, until such a time as something better comes a long.

 

[unhing3d]

on my server the arena is perma-camped by people doing Tears of Alaris (even though it's basically worthless now). Be careful if you expect to farm there afk. Bad idea.

thanks for the heads up. If i'm going AFK I set up my camp and then log on to my pc from my phone, so i'm basically semi AFK+. My job allows me to have my phone remoted on to my PC most of the day and I can respond to tells or watch the map for anyone trying to throw a spanner in the works. When it's not possible to keep watch over my camp I log.

 

[deadassgoat]

Is the grounds doable for a whole group at 86?

Yes!!!! my team of 3 (bard,zerk,sham+clr tank and dps merc) straight up destroys this zone!

 

[MrPatate]

The ground should be pretty good XP at lvl 86, specially with a full group.