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| Finacols Secret Bard Guide to EverQuest - 1.3 SOLO QUESTS (7) |
Mar 30th, 2010 8:26:04 pm - Subscribe |
| The Sewer Trials - Plant, Furnace, Lair, and Pool These trials are accessed from Barindu. To get into them for exp and item-farming purposes, find Gamesh near the pyramid-like temple and hail him for a list of choices. These zone instances are laid out similar to LDoN adventures, except mobs respawn and there’s no time limit. The mobs also hit very, very hard, and some are unslowable. Named mobs will not appear when you first zone in, but if you continue killing mobs as they respawn, you will eventually get named to pop. The named can drop excellent pieces of equipment that are on par with Elemental Planes gear. The experience gained in these zones is also very high. In case you have a solid group and want to try to complete the trials for flags, you can talk to High Priest Diru Riwwim in the temple. If you are successful in clearing the trial, then you must hail the Scribe next to the priest to complete your flagging. The Mountain Trials - Vxed and Tipt These trials are also accessed from Barindu. In case you want to get into these zones (and believe me, you do!), talk to the female Nihil worker who is in the river between the temple and the pyramid. The great thing about Vxed is that it makes an excellent kite spot if you like to duo or trio with casters or rangers. None of the mobs near the entrance of the zone summon, except for stonemites. To have the most effective kiting run, you’ll need to a good initial spawn. Get an instance of Vxed and zone in. Walk up to the first landing of the path and look at the two mobs that are waiting there. If either or both of them are stonemites, have everyone quit the expedition (use alt+z to open the expedition window) and get another instance. Once neither of the first two mobs is a stonemite, you’re in business. Mez one mob and bring the other down the hill to the flat area at the entrance, and then use Fading Memories. Start twisting chants on the mob you pulled and run in a circle around that flat area while your partners snare it, root it, DoT it, etc. The run pattern for kiting without using root is a bit tricky to get down at first - be careful that you don’t get hit, because it’s very easy to die to these mobs. At level 65, these mobs give about 10% AA per solo kill, which translates to heaping helpings of exp for a small but effective group. Once you pull and kill the other mob from the initial area, you’re free to pull from three paths for as long as you want, or until enough stonemites spawn in your way to make Fading Memories too expensive to use. In case that happens, just quit the expedition and start again. You’ll want a powerful, traditional group do Tipt. The mobs in this zone frequently summon and can hit multiple times for over 1000. Having two healers is recommended. The named that spawn in Tipt can drop some items that make the effort well worth it, such as an augmentation that gives 2 HP regen and 2 mana regen. Omens of War zones overview: Omens of War brings with it many wonderful new zones and an increase in level cap – this time, to 70. To access the OoW zones, talk to any Priest of Discord (now there’s even one in PoK) and say “I wish to go.” You will be ported to Dranik’s Scar, the first Omens zone. Much information about this expansion is still being hammered out. What follows are some suggestions for fighting in the popular OoW exp zones: |
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| Finacols Secret Bard Guide to EverQuest - 1.3 SOLO QUESTS (6) |
Mar 29th, 2010 8:57:46 pm - Subscribe |
| 2.1.4. Planes of Power and Beyond Planes of Power zones overview: - Experience is awesome - Mobs are extremely powerful (none of those you will hunt hits for less than 250 - most are around 400 to 900) - Playing solo is only possible if you’re a high level bard and very skilled. - Experience is being distributed very much in favour of groups, even compared to getting powerlevel’d. - In case you die, your corpse will be summoned to the entrance of the zone (graveyard) within 15 to 25 minutes. Corpse runs are no longer a pain in the back. - You must be level 46 or above just to enter these zones. - Many zones are locked and have flagging requirements that require powerful guilds. The following PoP zones are easily accessible from the Plane of Tranquility and make excellent experience-gaining grounds beginning in the mid fifties and extending on up to 65. Plane of Innovation (Tier 1 Zone) The zone-in is safe for the most part but since it’s a plane available to everyone, you can expect to find tons of trains from not-so-skilled people, to stay safe, stay at the wall look out for the roamers though (see invis and aggro). Add a melee and a slow caster + healer and you got an excellent team in this area. Occasional moves will help to avoid long pull distances. Plane of Nightmare (Tier 1 Zone) This zone is excellent both for grouping in the fifties. Any of the yard trash mobs are fair game for a group, as are wraiths near the hedge. If you’ve got a good group, you should try your hand at the hobgoblins, as they drop some good stuff. Sadly, this zone tends to have no more than two or three people in it at a time these days. Duoing with a necromancer or druid is quite respectable as well. Plane of Valor (Tier 2 Zone) This zone becomes unlocked when you reach level 60 or when you complete any trial in the Plane of Justice. Experience in the Plane of Valor is much better compared to tier 1 planes. In proper groups you will get 1% experience on every third kill past level 61. Mobs hit for about 600, so a well balanced group is a good idea. Recommended Spots: - Caves left from the Zone in - Castle, either the left or right side, above and below the castle you will also find a camp opportunity ( four spots all together) - At the zone wall in the desert Halls of Honor This zone is unlocked when you reach level 62 or when you kill Aerin’Dar (a raid mob in PoV). Halls of Honor is a good place for traditional grouping, but it is most notable for duoing or trioing with casters. The tall human guards in the shrines in the southeastern part of the zone are good experience, though they take a while to kill. They have a chance to drop spectral parchments. Bastion of Thunder This zone is unlocked when you reach level 62 or when you complete a key quest given by Askr the Lost in Plane of Storms. Group experience in Bastion of Thunder is very good, and there are many named mobs around the zone who can drop high end parchments (including Glyphed Rune Words) and Ornate molds (which can be used in a Plane of Tranquility quest to make powerful armor). Sadly, since the release of OoW, this zone has become almost deserted on some servers. Gates of Discord zones overview: Gates of Discord zones are accessed via the LDoN camps. First, use any camp’s Magus to teleport to Nedaria’s Landing. You can then use the Magus in Nedaria’s Landing to teleport to Abysmal Sea (a no-combat zone with merchants and the like) or Natimbi (the first of the GoD combat zones). From Natimbi you can zone to Qinimi and progress through to other zones. As with PoP zones, many of the Gates of Discord zones are locked and require special flags to progress. These flags are obtained by completing special instanced zones called “trials” and by defeating certain raid mobs. For the casual player, only a few zones are really available. Fortunately, these zones are great experience for the level 65+ bards, and there are both solo and grouping opportunities. Unlike LDoN adventures, Gates of Discord expeditions can be accessed solo – though fighting in them solo is not always an option. In case you die in an expedition zone, if your entire group quits the expedition, the corpses will pop outside in about 20 minutes. Barindu The experience here is not quite as good as it is in the trial zones, but there are several named mobs that can drop powerful pieces of equipment. The named in Barindu tend to be very powerful. Consider bringing two or three exp groups of friends to the zone at once. This will let you take down the harder named more efficiently. Also, a very nice ring for INT casters is an ultra rare drop off any mob in the zone. If you are friends with a wizard, then you might be able to duo near the entrance from Qinimi. The tactics are pretty simple: you mez the target mob repeatedly while the wizard nukes it. You can throw in Harmony of Sound now and then during the fight and can help the wizard regain his mana with Wind of Marr. |
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| Finacols Secret Bard Guide to EverQuest - 1.3 SOLO QUESTS (5) |
Mar 28th, 2010 8:51:14 pm - Subscribe |
| Levels: 50 - 55 Howling Stones Many locked doors as well as harm touching mobs and the lack of a nearby gate make it a rather deserted zone. In case you got a group of friends who often hunt together this is a recommended zone as usually most camps are still free and you have the whole dungeon for yourself. Lock picking get’s useful in case you don’t want to do the dungeon in the same order over and over to aquire the necessary keys. Zone in with your whole group at once since there are mobs right at the entrance - if you are out of luck two skeletons which will have a HT at hand for you. In the east wing (can be reached via the south wing) spawns the boss mob Drusilla Sathir, who can drop the famous Necklace of Superiority. This kind old witch is also required to finish the Chardok Quests. Karnors Castle Many different camps, still it’s hard to find anything that isn’t taken. Bards should have an easy time finding a group though with most of the people in there being casters. Besides Venril Sathir, who drops your bad desired singing steel leggins, there is another interesting spawn in the basement: Verix, one of the mobs for the old version of the Veeshans Peak key quest. Depending on your level it takes a group to kill him, but if you’re lvl 60+, he can be solo’d easily. You can also bring a cleric or a paladin for some Slay Undead fun. As for Venril Sathir - depending on how far your chars are advanced, it can be anything - from a single group to a full guild to take him down, but dont fool yourself...a powerful group with good gear and Aas is needed to take him with six people. Please keep in mind that there is a safe and a train side at the zone in (on most servers), with one being meant for searching for groups and resting and the other one the exit if you got any mobs on you, not respecting this is a straight way into many people’s black list. Old Sebilis The most famous dungeon before Luclin came out. It’s basically the Lower Guk of Kunark - a good resource for rare gems (especially in the necro/sebilite guard area), several armor parts and the basic equipment like Lamentations for example. It’s excellent for AE groups - most normal groups won’t find the zone to be rewarding enough experience wise at later levels, except maybe for the Chef area. It is also a zone well known for farming items, with the krup knights being rather popular since they drop several high level haste items (ultra rare though). Through -cash gems- you can get some extra change rather easy, the first three go to the cleric usually to finance his symbol spell components. “Four Rooms” area still has plenty of treasures, spells and experience for many groups though, Hierophant’s Cloak and many high level spells drop here. Levels: 55 - 60 Old Sebilis and Chardok See above - both can provide a good source for exp and loot in some areas at these levels as well. In Chardok though you should go to the areas located far inside the dungeon, an enchanter may be very helpful, but you can easily take their place if you’re skilled enough. A perfect choice is the graveyard with a respawn time of 8 mins and quite a good chance of finding some nice loot. Velketor’s Labyrinth Spiders, gargoyles and kobolds - you will find what you are looking for. The entrance is the recommended area up to level 55, even at level 60 the experience there is quite nice if enough mobs are around. Further up it continues with spiders and besides a few named and rares you can also find the boss of the dungeon, Velketor himself (in case he is up) or chose the other way and jump down the hole and visit the kobolds in the cellar. With the PoP release, Velketor’s has become yet another deserted dungeon. Only twinks and soloists come here anymore. Fungus Grove A very famous zone to get experience. Your group should close to 60 lvl-wise though. The mushroom mobs give the best experience and are the preferred target of all melees at level 60, since this is one of the zones where they can solo better than casters. The other opponents in the area (fungus beasts and aliens) are much stronger but hardly ever camped. The beasts prob a rather annoying snare spell, while the aliens got a hell lot of hitpoints and drop shards for the Vex Thal Key. Not to forget a very interesting experience quest: You give one of the three shamans (located in the red camp) the items that he will ask your for (can be bought in the shop right next to it). He will then run into one of the three caves and will start to spawn waves of fungus beasts, so that you always will have a few mobs in your camp. A normal group will have to abandon their camp quite often since the mobs will overwhelm them sooner or later. A perfect group though can make the experience of their life time. There are nine –levels- of this quest: Depending on which shaman you chose, you will get weak, normal or hard mobs and depending which items you hand them you will have the mobs respawning rather slow, average or really fast. You can chose what you want to do - slow spawning weak mobs for the gimp groups or a harcore mix of fast spawning harbingers of death- Experience Areas for levels 61 to 70: Most of the areas listed here provide experience for levels 61 to 70. Ssra Temple The lower area is rather boring for a group, the second floor however can be recommended for experience hunting. Be careful with Elite Temple Guards, who are capable of 400dmg flurries. A warrior and a cleric are a necessity in here (unless you got a very well equipped paladin or shadow knight instead of the warrior). The named commanders drop key parts for the Emperor key as well as keys for the High Priest / Creator and the Arch Lich. Other than Ssra, you’ll also want to try zones in the… |
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| Finacols Secret Bard Guide to EverQuest - 1.3 SOLO QUESTS (4) |
Mar 25th, 2010 10:20:21 pm - Subscribe |
| Levels: 35 - 39 Dawnshroud Peaks Awesome experience! But be careful because all mobs help each other in here. The best strategy is to set up your camp near the zoning and pull your mobs there. In case of an emergency the guards can even help you out (don’t pull into them unless you really can’t handle the mobs). It is a good idea to avoid Fungi Shrooms at the beginning, since their harm touches can hurt a lot. The Sambata/Rockhopper cave is also a good option. Echo Caverns Along the way to Dawnshroud Peaks there are holes in the wall in which mobs are spawning, again roamers can be pulled as well to speed up your leveling. This is a very pleasant fighting area since most mobs are located far away from each other which makes it pretty easy to pull singles. Again guards are willing to help you if you get into trouble. However, this isn’t all that great for a group, which usually can kill mobs very fast and they might find themselves without anything to pull. Overthere Relatively safe place, especially if you own a Dark Elf illusion mask. Mobs don’t help each other and it's very easy to find a group. An exception are the Sarnaks - they will be camped though by quad kiters in most cases anyway. The best locations van be found near the skyfire and the overthere zoning, with the corner between those two zone lines being an option as well. Also the corner is a little more dangerous since no zoning is nearby it can be worth it for a balanced group since many more mobs can be found around here. Levels: 40 - 44 City of Mist Many undead and VERY strange pathing. Right at the zone in is the best place to fight until you become familiar with the area. Usually you got exploiting casters or Wizards trying to finish their brain bite quest as only companions in this zone. It will be hard to get a ress in here, so a more defensive playstyle is recommended. Be careful with doors in this zone, since often whole bunches of mobs hide behind them. Wu sticks are dropping in this zone, which can be sold easily and for a very decent price to monks and twinks. Lower Guk This dungeon is dived into two sides: An undead and a normal one, which don’t really like each other. You can get non-KoS to the –live- side by killing mobs on the undead side. Quite a few people prefer this strategy as there are fewer roamers on the undead side. If you haven’t got one yet, go for the supplier/assassin spawn where you can obtain your Dark Elf mask and a light burlap sack. The Evil Eye spawn provides another weight reducing bag. If you got a lot of patience join a Frenzy group and you might get a chance of winning a FBSS. The Lord used to be a good source for a nice tank weapon in the old days of EQ, but Ykesha Swords aren’t really up to date anymore so there isn’t much to gain there. With all the expansion zones, the old dungeons got sort of depopulated so it’s an excellent spot to hunt here with a bunch of friends. Levels: 45 - 49 Dreadlands Very safe for the bard because it's outdoor and you can take full advantage of your run songs. It's easy to find a group and there tons of mobs. The perfect hunting zone for these levels. Besides the most common place, the ridge, you can also hunt at the spider camps (casters will be truly thankful for a chance of receiving a drachnid thyxl) which are hardly ever camped and come close to trivial when using harmony. Chardok This dungeon got way more interesting since the Chardok quests have been implemented. It provides a very nice hunting area for Area Groups (see below) and is a often visisted place by people who are working on their epic. Most of the drops can be aquired already at the zone in. Since the upgrade there are a few more named ones further inside and a town area with level 55+ mobs (they don’t summon, otherwise it would be beyond difficult). The mobs in this area belong to the Brood of Di Zok, which is required for quite a few nice quests. You have to decide - quests or experience, but no one said anything against quests and experience as soon as you are done with them. For raising your faction you will need to hunt in Droga, which is much more difficult after the re-vamp. |
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| Finacols Secret Bard Guide to EverQuest - 1.3 SOLO QUESTS (3) |
Mar 24th, 2010 8:21:59 pm - Subscribe |
| Levels: 20 - 24 Mistmoore Castle Very good experience! You should watch out for hidden tunnels because there are lots of them. Also famous for its trains - it used to be a GM Event zone in the early days of EQ. Nowadays it’s usually full of high level folks working on their Ring of Scale faction. This zone was also one of the uber-exp zones in a recent “hot spot” rotation, so it has seen more use as an early-twenties exp spot. There is plenty of room for you to try to split the mobs, and you will have a maximum of three mobs incoming per pull if you fail. If you are only a few yards away from the zone line it is rather easy to avoid dying, but keep an eye on trains. Sometimes it saves the effort of pulling on your own, but it can also kill you if you don’t act fast. Everfrost A huge zone with many mobs. The disadvadvantage is that it’s easy to get turned around - don’t forget about your ingame map. Not really recommended at lower levels, but a good choice if you are looking for a little change regarding the landscape. Fight the icy orcs at their temple. It is a well known soloing spot, and a group or an adventurous bard can make some nice experience here. Najena Many types of undead that only can be fought by groups. But they give good experience. Attention! Some mobs hide by just lying in the ground and will attack as soon as you get close to them. Besides elementals and ogre guards you also fight magicians in these dungeons. Probably this is one of the reasons why many parts for the magician focus items come from here. You will need to aquire many keys within the dungeon to advance to certain areas. It’s not really worth coming here unless you have a partner. Many mobs are casters and they nuke hard, which means you can’t stand toe to toe and win without a healer. Levels: 25 - 29 Dalnir Three floors that you can only reach by trapdoors. There are some nice drops. If you happen to have a monk friend who wants to get some good mid-level gear the old fashioned way, then this is the place to be. Unfortunately, it’s hard to find your way back so see that you have an evacer in your group. There are exits though on each floor, but they will usually require you to pass the boss mob of the floor you are on. The hardest one of them can be found on the last floor - Kly who procs Ice Comet (1000 dmg) every other hit. Other mobs can drop pretty nice no drop monk armor, also many robes can be found in this dungeon. Hardly any zone has got more named and rare spawns. Frontier Mountains Here you usually kill at the giant fort together with roamers - this makes a nice experience mixture. Forest loops aren’t very rare and still make some nice earrings. This zone has lost much of its former popularity, but it still makes a fine hunting ground. If you have a solid group, move inside the fort and pull to the wall for some fast-paced experience. Levels: 30 - 34 Crystal Caverns Many tunnels and confusig layout. It's easy to loose your way and your group. Be careful because you can fall down in the middle of the zone. One of the pro’s, though, are the large number of named mobs which can be found here, dropping all sort of loot - weight reducing backpacks, cloak of the rygorr oracles and the blackened crystaline robe are just a few examples. Most of the loot is worth 200+ pp at least which is a nice bunch of platinum at this level. Further down you will get to the spider area, with the spider queen herselfspawning there. Kaesora A puller familiar with the zone is very important for your group here. You should have a map because usually you can't go back the way you came from. The complicate layout of this zone is probably a reason for the very good experience in there. Further inside you will find a library, in which a part of the famous Veeshans Peak Key can be found: On the 2nd floor in the first corner that comes into view you will notive - a piece of a medaillon – but do not pick it up unless you intend to finish the key or another adventurer who actually needs it may find themselves waiting for hours for it to spawn again. |
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