Strategy - Vaniki tips and tricks

[isotopemodeller]

Greetings folks. I have become recently interested in accomplishing Vaniki achievements 'in-level' for the rewards. With a three box + journeyman mercs, I've so far been able to complete everything below level 55, although CT golems gave me a lot of trouble and required a single extra pug (also a boxer) to bring another group along. On the other hand, dragon kills have been surprisingly easy for just my crew of 3.

I thought I'd share some of my tips and tricks I've learned this week and ask the community if there's any more that can make things easier for the solo adventurer:

-I think the first most pertinent thing is that truebox is disabled, so the build and plugins found here are able to be used. KA, CWTN, etc. all available and certainly make boxing easier.

-Brell's Arena in Brell's Rest is a 'monster mission' that boosts your character level to 85 temporarily (or whatever the max is on the server), and instantly grants you the max level bracket achievements (Vaniki rat illusion, 3x weapon ornaments). I've confirmed it can be done as early as level 50. It requires 3 players and is repeatable, so anyone can help you grab the task. All you have to do is step into the mission, walk out, and relog. However, it can also be used for some great gear upgrades if you actually run the mission.

-Journeyman mercs in general are extremely powerful. I mean, like unlimited heals uber tank powerful. I've been able to take down most things regardless of my own player comp with just mercs, switching roles out (1 tank, 1 wiz, 1 heal is standard; but I have needed to go to 1 tank 2 heals, and I usually level with 2 tanks 1 heals). You may bring these into a raid instance as long as you don't form a raid.

-In fact, you can have two or more teams of boxers bring in their own mercs into a dz as long as their groups stay separate and you don't form a raid (however, be warned I have NOT confirmed both groups who kill a target will get the achievement just by being assigned to the dz... we only used this for the especially hard Dread and Fright golems in CT because they DT.... after that we broke into our own dz's since the golems will not spawn in a refreshed dz if on lockout)

-I've been leveling up my 3 box up and down rapidly to do various content. I've learned something that may be common knowledge but here it is anyway: if you level down, your effective level for melee and casting skills remain 2+ your current level, so my monks will be punching slightly above their paygrade. Combined with the fact you can actually do the achievements at +1 level higher (so level 40 achievements can be done at 41), this means you can be a full 3 effective levels higher than the achievement limit itself. Even though most of my power comes from my mercs, I make sure my melees are maxed skills to at least 2+ levels higher before leveling them back down to squeeze that extra dps out of them. The 3-box CT fight took a full hour for me (although if I brought a bard, it would have been faster), so it is worth optimizing.

I'll share anything else I can think of. Interested if anyone has any other tricks to share for doing these solo or with extremely limited numbers, especially for the 55+ achievements, which I'm about to attempt. Are some impossible? Easy?

edit: apparently Brell's Arena thing is fixed

 

[LamahHerder]

Whats the deal with Vaniki achievements?
I thought you had to do them when they first opened, can you do all of them now and get the achievements for other toons?
Is it only for live or do the achievements work for other TLPs?
Need to go find a list of all the ones that are currently doable see if anything interesting

 

[isotopemodeller]

You may still do them and acquire /claim items. You can open up the achievement tab on the server and in the 'progression' category, they are all laid out nicely with each reward and progress tick marks.

Can do them as long as you're no more than 1 level above that which is listed on the reward requirement, and you may level 'down' to meet that requirement with chars that have epic 1.5s and other OP items if you really wanted since Vaniki has no level req for gear and notable clickies. The achievements will only get easier and easier as expansions unlock, up until the server is shut down (it's very very low pop already so who knows...). Things like rogue poisons will be nice for the easiest highest dps to bring along when they release, but to my knowledge, the good buyable ones are from underfoot.

Once you complete an achievement, a window pops up that grants you your claim. That claim can be used on other servers on the account, but only ONE character for most of the rewards (so if you want to bring it to your home or future server, beware they are one and done). IMO that sucks, but you can do it multiple times per account on multiple characters, at least. And yeah, the /claims work on any server including TLP. Some, like western wastes port are really only useful for TLP in fact.

 

[playj]

This is supposed to be accurate list of Vaniki rewards: https://www.everquest.com/news/eq-vaniki-server-faq

I'd have killed for having a WW port like 20+ years ago.

 

[519helvis]

ive been taking a break from test with all the craziness going on there and playing 4 accts on vaniki ... i love the ruleset ... wish people actually played there lol ... would consider staying any idea if there are box friendly guilds/crews there?

im pretty sure test has a higher server pop

 

[Yama]

Hey if anyone is interested in setting something up to go for the achives here i would be willing join up.. have a 6 box at 60-70ish, more than happy to delevel to get the 40+ achievements and then venture to what's available.. maybe we can get 6 or so people boxing 6 or so and see how far we get?

 

[isotopemodeller]

I've been hard stuck on anything in the 55 bracket with my 3 box. I tried throwing two crews of 3 box merc teams at Cragbeast Queen, too. Couldn't keep the tank alive even with 1 defiant geared SK and 3 heal mercs in team 1. Unless I'm missing something, the 50 achievements (which are quite easy with just 3) are as far as a 3-box merc crew can go by oneself.

At this point, I am wondering if spamming the Brell's Arena quest I mentioned to get stacked with solid gear would be best to actually set up a proper level 55 kill-crew 6-box pc group. Obviously, teaming up is an option but the server is pretty quiet, outside of one-off events that happen every once in a while.

 

[jasonS]

I bet you can do CBQ 3-boxed if you gear out your 3 toons well but definitely could do it with a proper 6-box. Look into getting some stalwart armor with some venerable augs for your toons at the least. that will help immensely.

 

[dewdew]

- Shrouds will no longer grant the "Reach Level XX" achievements.

ggwp

 

[isotopemodeller]

- Shrouds will no longer grant the "Reach Level XX" achievements.

ggwp

crud.. striked it out from the list. That was a big one

 

[isotopemodeller]

Have gone back to Vaniki a year later.. what's different:

-no truebox, welcome to 6-box or more
-conflagration gear usable at level 1, including seriously OP procs such as rogue bp which does immediate 200k and then adds to melee swings to do about 400k more
-equally op heal procs on weapons for priests
-some random one-off items like the honed wurmslayer which makes tanks, rogs, and bards virtually immune to melee pre-level 65

and yet, despite all these new tools, I stand before the committee seeking help

I have so far been unable to complete the challenges for Tolling the Bells (deathknell event #1) or Sendaii
I have failed at getting keyed to deathknell because I have so far been unable to beat Daosheen the Firstborn. This and Sendaii herself have mez/charm mechanics that disable my whole group.

Is there any way these fights are 6-boxable? or is it just simply that mez just = immediate cockblock?

 

[fakename]

ive been planning to do a vaniki project. my plan is to try to do what iso is doing except with 18 dudes to try to get as many achievements as possible.

my plan is to make normal groups and level to 120 and farm tob gear. ill likely split up into 3 + 3 mercs to get to 70 then buy some cheap ts gear to level up. once they have their set of tob gear for the main classess i plan to get them gear for their personas. and just persona them to a different class then level to the achievement level and do the achieves for that level then keep going. does anyone have any advice for this ?

also any recommendations for comps i know rog bp is op at the lower end but on the higher end i assume mnks might be better they have a good bp and tend to have better dps but idk maybe the rog bp carries. i suspect the farthest ill be able to get is the tov and cov raids. skipping the rt raid in voa. that raid is probably not 18manable. i wish they had made it luna sarith or beast domain or cob instead.

I also plan to use the 120s for the flagging. like im pretty sure a sk and wiz can ht mb daosheen and stuff like that. that way i can zone in and do the stuff on the personas with out having to de level them. i bought the personas from the store so i dont have alot of persona slots to use

 

[WillardJ85]

Never bothered with the achievements, but for what it is worth... the level cap is 115, twinking is obviously super overpowered so there's no real reason to use mercs for leveling (unless you refuse to sell 1 krono or don't have any loyalty tokens you can turn into plat). I would strongly recommend staying away from the more recent raids, as there is literally only 1 guild on the entire server, so doing any sort of tov/cov/tol raid or later is an insanely big red flag and will probably get you mass reported instantly. The server is quite dead and despitre of that there are still a couple of people hunting 'cheaters'.

 

[fakename]

yeah i was saying 120 because i wont be doing it until next year. my idea was to twink em out with conflag or something similar but still merc em out because imo 3+ mercs level faster then 6 in a group atleast until 60 or 70. when youre trying to level 18 dudes at once. i assumed people would leave me alone unless i was blatantly afk or leveling / aaing in a raid. if they are karenduning over mq though i might just not do it then.

good looking out on warning me though. griklor and tantor arent exactly hard so i didnt think they would raise to many eyebrows. griklor is literally zone in stand on banner go to the guy who gets emoted and go stand in the aura. when the dwarf puts the fire up to protect you nav to dwarf. kill adds kill boss. burn hard at the end and deflect rotation / mez. tantor is person gets emoted to run run person who is emoted to duck duck. kill lings kill bunnys kill tantor. honestly the tbl one is harder to box and i probably honestly cant do that one. the ros one is banner zergable its almost impossible to wipe fully just a dude zoning in to acrimony + shield flash will keep npcs alive forever. once boss is at 30% you can rez zerg it.

actually looking at the list of achieves theres a few i cant do. voa rt, eok gore, tbl stratos, and anything above cov. maybe ill chill after the tbm ones so people are less likely to look at me.

i wish dead servers were more like riz where everyone ignores everyone else if someone else is in your camp you pick over if you can or do something else if you cant. people on aradune are reporting people to get the camp they want in 2025.

 

[Divine419]

the cool thing about vaniki is the removal of level requirements for gear, i had a 35 war on vaniki for achievements with 38k hps, you can twink the crap out of your toons

 

[EvilBarny]

personas are gods there if you play on the server =P

 

[Hambam]

2 groups hot fear raid is doable was able to nab that a couple of times. CoTF raid is bugged, you can beat it with a 115 and get credit for it. The other ones past HoT you really need quite a few for still. We never ended up beating Resplendent

 

[fakename]

2 groups hot fear raid is doable was able to nab that a couple of times. CoTF raid is bugged, you can beat it with a 115 and get credit for it. The other ones past HoT you really need quite a few for still. We never ended up beating Resplendent

good info thanks.


idk why but i thought the ros raid was the skyfire one its the gorowyn one. so my earlier comments about it being hard to wipe to is wrong. i can probably do it with 18 still possibly i have an idea for it. we'll see.

i hit live next year before the server merges and i plan to start my project then but i made the dudes and poped a loyalty plat bag on all of them and in down time between expacs on riz im leveling them i have 6 at 90. and the rest at 60. i only had enough for 6 conflag sets so i have this group overseering for more mats. i plan to use my 90s to pl my 60s in an out of the way zone noone should be in. my plan is to do it in tds since those zones require prog to go into and dont require prog to join the raid so i assume i have the highest chance of noone seeing me in there. i can also level them to 110 grinding in tbm ha's to get some type 5s.

resplendent isnt that hard to automate for the mechanics the healing required though is crazy. it also requires at minimium 6 people on each side for the book and no buffs checks. so i dont think it will be 12 - 18 manable until you can mini burn atleast one tower boss dead before the server notices and forces a balance with the other. once you can do that though its only about the middle because you can send 1 tank and healer to do the other tower and mini burn the other tower then tl out and banner in and go up and help the tank and healer and repeat

if you can do that atleast once you would never need to do the book mechanic and if you can do it 3 times you can avoid almost all mechanics in the towers. if you can do that i would burn the ladyrs tower on the first one the sholoth on 2nd and 3rd wouldnt matter. its the same mechanic on both.

 

[Hambam]

Yeah the only time I really gave resplendent a go was with 30ish mostly real peeps, and I think it was TBL era or so so the gear wasn't too fantastic yet. We didn't make it far though lol.

If you get going lemmie know. I have a very well setup 6 box group and would love someone to group up with on some of the harder ones. Chill Mode on server still does laurions song and the newest hodstack ach's but haven't raided with them for months.