Strategy - Leveling guide for 5 toons - start from scratch (1 Viewer)

[Ceci0724]

HI Everyone,

I may posted at the wrong section, please pardon with me as i dont have the lv 2 access yet.
About to get it, just wanted to plan things ahead...and waiting for the weekend to get things started (looking forward to it!)

Back to the question, I am about to start bouncing around in Norrath again, with 3-4 toons that i wanted to get to around 80 level ASAP, and i may not able to get any PL (no high level toons nearby, even i do, they are not SK / Dru that usually the PL king), while i do have some pp from the old toons (around 80k pp if that could make any change lol)

So wanted to know generally how everyone level up nowaday, when the PL is not available...

Questions:
Shall i use merc to level up or create a full box crew (worrying abt the performance of my computer for a full box crew...)

Also, where should i level up today, killing mobs seem to be the straightforward path, but gearing and spelling seem trouble.

 

[Branson24]

As a new user myself let me say Welcome! I started a new 6 man team. SK, Cleric, bard, 3 zerkers. I have no idea how it will be later in the game but for now, when I have things working correctly, it’s pretty darn cool. I have an older rig with a dual core processor and I manage 6 toons pretty well. The key is mq2eqwire . The best tip I can give you right now is to pay the $10 for it and don’t think twice. I could barely run 4 toons before but with MQ2eqwire I might as well be running 1 with as smooth as it is. Why stop at 4 toons when you can run 6 and have a full group? Best of luck and I’ll help if I can with answers as I grow more accustomed to the programs.

 

[Avian]

Giving each char a bit of plat to keep up on spells is a good idea. I tend to skip the vast majority of low level spells, but you can use PoKscribe to take care of buying spells if you don't mind buying everything.

If the accounts are gold (or even just one) J1 tank mercs are stupidly overpowered until the upper 50's/early 60's or so and can basically carry you if you so choose.

Keep in mind these level ranges are based on me playing with just J1 merc and I haven't leveled a toon (or a set of toons) since I've been a redguides member. So adjust when it seems appropriate, just a general guideline.

I like to actually do the tutorial on new characters, usually. The gear you get for completing all the missions is a full visible set of defiant level gear so it's great starter gear. This will take you to around 10 or so. There's a few bottleneck moments that slow you down in the tutorial doing multiple characters at a time, but it's a good, safe place to familiarize yourself with mq2 anyway. - Following the Hero's Journey will keep upgrading your gear as you go, but admittedly I've never done this, so can only speak for it being an option (no idea if it's a good option)

Crescent Reach - 10-18 (can start at 1 in newbie yard if you skipped tutorial) as you head north the mobs get higher until the undead.

Blightfire Moore - 18 - 30/32 - I start with the snakes and rats at the zoneline and then head straight to the mushrooms around the dragon corpse. Dragoneater pops often and is 50+ plat a kill with nearby vendors. Great place to build up some spell money if you need it.

30/32 - 45/50 - City of Mist - The ZEM has been nerfed a bit in here, but they are still very low hp mobs, relatively.

? - 65/71 - The Hole - You can grind out The Hole for a lot of levels. Mobs get higher the further you go. Decent vendor trash for spell money.

65 - ? - Infected Paw - I like Paw until 75, personally. Great for mages/druids with anti-summoned nukes, too.

75 you can begin doing HA's - Gribble Heroic Adventures in Dead Hills and Marla HA's in Ethernere Tainted West Karana are great places to start. - Also in doing the Call of the Forsaken expansion HA's you get currency you can eventually use to buy a full set of gear from the group merchants in ETWK.

Transition into The Broken Mirror missions in the upper 90's and you can have a pretty decent set of gear moving forward.
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I have a fairly mediocre computer by todays standards and can run 6 decently enough without EQWire - Apparently its amazing at minimizing background cpu usage, but I've not yet used it as I'm still tinkering with things myself. If you're not gold, you're limited to A2 mercs which are pretty mediocre at all levels.

 

[Branson24]

Oh, and I haven’t used mercs yet. The cost will be too much as I need the coin for spells/gear but if you have access to some plat then go for it I suppose.

i did some of the newbie quests in CR for some lowbie gear But now I’m just killing for exp and plat.

 

[Zebadiah]

Greetings! Avain pretty well summed it up. I have found that doing the tutorial (if done right ) you can leave with a level 10 group. Now just to let you know I don't do the grind thing (well not much) I go for the Quests. As my group gets older I use Franklin Teak in POK for gear. You get great exp and armor and the zones are not bad (mostly blue). Doing his quests you can get three pieces of armor (if you do the level quest 3 times). I usually go for the quest level one step ahead (if my group is 20 I do level 25 quest.) and as in Sic's Video I have taken a group of 25's and took out hill giants.

I mostly do the quests in the Hero Journal and follow them. Doing it this way I quickly out grow the zone and am fighting greys to complete the quests. I have one group that has just turned 51 and I am still working the Hive zone.

So all in all its just up to you. What works for you and as long as you are having fun at terrorizing the zones. I say have at it.

 

[Ceci0724]

While I check for some guide, some said could spirit shroud for leveling, has anyone tried that, is it the same thing as like hiring a merc?

 

[Secret Santabot]

While I check for some guide, some said could spirit shroud for leveling, has anyone tried that, is it the same thing as like hiring a merc?

EQ:Spirit Shrouds

Wiki article for EQ:Spirit Shrouds :: Wiki

everquest.allakhazam.com

Its not like hiring a merc. Your character changes into the shroud you choose.

 

[Allurex]

Greetings! Avain pretty well summed it up. I have found that doing the tutorial (if done right ) you can leave with a level 10 group. Now just to let you know I don't do the grind thing (well not much) I go for the Quests. As my group gets older I use Franklin Teak in POK for gear. You get great exp and armor and the zones are not bad (mostly blue). Doing his quests you can get three pieces of armor (if you do the level quest 3 times). I usually go for the quest level one step ahead (if my group is 20 I do level 25 quest.) and as in Sic's Video I have taken a group of 25's and took out hill giants.

I mostly do the quests in the Hero Journal and follow them. Doing it this way I quickly out grow the zone and am fighting greys to complete the quests. I have one group that has just turned 51 and I am still working the Hive zone.

So all in all its just up to you. What works for you and as long as you are having fun at terrorizing the zones. I say have at it.

There is a auto mac work dexent for the tutorial

 

[Ceci0724]

thanks for the sharing everyone, really appreciate it.

Will certainly seek for the franlin thing in pok and try out at those loc suggested, for sight seeing purpose heh.

There is a auto mac work dexent for the tutorial

Thanks for the tips, do you have the keyword pls, i tried tutorial or glooming with no luck.

 

[Redmonkey]

Something else about those Franklin teek dailys (they start at level 20) - they are hot zones and you get bonus exp. So I like to grab 3 or 4 near my level - if you only grab only one then you cannot get another one at any level till next day. After you finish the Teek "kill 5" stay in the zone and continue to get that bonus exp. Nice augs drop in each hot zone also.

In fact I no longer "zone hop" to all the old favorite places to level - I stick to hot zones and leveling is much faster since you get the bonus exp.

Pop your "lesson of the devoted" once a day will get you even more bonus exp. Lasts 20 minutes. Its under your AA tab - special. Its a Veteran's Reward all accounts get now. As is "Throne of the Hero" which will port you back to the lobby.

On another track is you can get one character up a few levels faster and it might make it easier to pl the lower ones.

 

[BlankStare]

Pop your "lesson of the devoted" once a day will get you even more bonus exp. Lasts 20 minutes.

30.

It's a 50% bonus to the base zone experience for 30 minutes.

 

[McFleck]

Avian nails it here. That zone line up will lvl your toons and fill your wallet for spells.
Welcome and good luck!

 

[Ceci0724]

Heh, just a small update here, i created all the toons here...currently settled with 5 (SK, Bard, Clr, Bst and Ber)...kind of trouble to move around with 5, will get used to it...needed to sit tight and go through all tutorial of VV first, i bet.

Spelling and gearing seem to be the next difficult point, how often did you all do the spelling and gearing part?

 

[Branson24]

Movement isnt too bad if you utilize the ”come to me” and the “follow me“ buttons in the group window. You can always run 1 toon to a spot, click come to me and the rest will follow. Follow me is self explanatory. You can also be on 1 toon then right click anyone in your group for an options window. Click ”run to” to have that toon run to the other. The find command “ctrl f” is useful as well. Find the npc, zone line, or group member you want and click them. Eq2nav runs you there.

 

[Ceci0724]

omg, i am really the most n00b for the month,i am stilling doingh the tar, / follow, and got my char struck (bst is ogre), grp mates fell down from CR..(kind of get lost in there). and re running to the group...and reaching pok finally after a good 40 mins...

didnt realize we got so many alternatives, not to mention the click on grp window also amazed me.

Thanks!!!

 

[Avian]

Spelling and gearing seem to be the next difficult point, how often did you all do the spelling and gearing part?

Regearing I honestly don't even worry about at low levels - Let the defiant pieces you get take care of it until you can no longer handle the content you intend to fight in. If you can make it all the way to 70, you can get super cheap TBM gear. Just buy a few Remnant of Tranquility and visit Lyndalin Delwadamain in Tranquility. It's generic gear, but it's dirt cheap. Most expensive piece is chest at 10 remnants.

Buying spells I just buy the ones I generally expect to cast often and skip absolutely everything else at the low end. You will level so fast, it's really not important to be very up to date. Just update your big nukes and heals once in awhile (and whatever specific songs you expect to twist on bard) and forget the rest. - If you're using something like ihcmerc or otherwise that 'just works' while leveling, PoKscribe will get that all up to date in a few minutes just whenever you're already in PoK (but buys a bunch of stuff you will never cast, too). Just using my ranger as an example, he only had 16 spells scribed by the time he was 36.

So my TLDR: Just go with the gear you get until that's not an option - Look through your spells on Zam and figure out which handful you think are genuinely useful and just buy what you need for 10 or so levels at a time.

 

[Branson24]

omg, i am really the most n00b for the month,i am stilling doingh the tar, / follow, and got my char struck (bst is ogre), grp mates fell down from CR..(kind of get lost in there). and re running to the group...and reaching pok finally after a good 40 mins...

didnt realize we got so many alternatives, not to mention the click on grp window also amazed me.

Thanks!!!

Those lifts in CR killed my toons multiple times before I ran them manually up and down them. None of the follow options work well with them. I didn’t know about all these options myself until about a week ago.

Keep asking questions and reading threads. Sometimes people will answer your question and inadvertently help other players by mentioning something they do that the others hadn’t thought about. That’s how i found out about the group window run to me.

 

[Silverspaceman]

When I got back into the game, I didn't have anyone to PL me. I started with a 3-box and ended up moving to a full group while learning KA. I basically just followed the TSS leveling path, which really minimizes travel time and maximizes grinding time. You basically sit somewhere for a few levels, move to the next in-zone spot, then move to the next zone and blast away. I did a lot more running around and it seemed to really slow me down navigating my group to a different zone, then camp, for some % higher xp. TSS zones also have some great PP drops and sellable items for good PP. For Example, in Goru'kar Mesa, there are several items you can loot off named mobs animals at the zone line from BFM in the 40s and 50s that sell for 150pp each. I never really had issues with gear since defiant drops like candy as you go and I did not follow the hero's journey since doing it with 6 people at once was very tedious IMO.

Once you hit the low or mid 60s, you can leave that path and hit up DSH for some great XP at the Farm camp then minotaurs. Past that, it's going to be relatively linear for you with a big slow-down in levels at 70+ and then a jump in difficulty and slower leveling at 80+ - beyond that it all seems the same. Transitioning my group into and past the Underfoot era was really tough as mobs started hitting like freight trains and had tons of HP. I'd recommend getting into HOT as soon as possible since the difficulty doesn't change much, but it's easier to get some xp in the HoT Courtyard or leech some drops in the Grounds. Once you're stabilized in the mid-80s, the game is again linear, but easier as you're over that difficulty hump. Maybe others experienced things differently than me, but 70+ really slowed down and the game was a breeze before that. If you happen to make friends in the 90 - 100 range for that transitional period, they may be able to help give your tank a bit of a boost which will help your tank drag the team along. There were plenty of players on my server who were willing to lend a friendly hand in smashing some named in HoT so my tank could move from defiant into modern gear, which was a huge help.

Gear-wise, focus on the tank, then DPS, then healer. Make sure you have everyone's spells.

I'd recommend keeping an eye out for guild tags and getting a feel for who's got a friendly, open guild. There are tons of players willing to give out gear or help for returning players that will really help in your trip to 110/115.