A few thoughts. Howling Stones has 4 separate wings; the 2 lower level wings will be green at 60/61. Also, get a map before you go there otherwise the first fake staircase or floor trap will send you down to the basement. That trip is no longer a death sentence, but you will have to fight your way back to the main floor and then re-do everything. Also, make sure to get a map for Plane of Hate before you head there because it has 4 tiers and tier 3-4 mobs (level 61-65) may be too much for your tank merc. Blackfeather Roost should be doable, but will be tougher than older zones. Some mobs are much tougher than others. Other good zones around 60 are: Outdoors (easier): 1. Grieg's End. The mobs in the center of the zone are level 56-58, hit for under 200 and stay light blue until level 71. Nothing (except some named mobs) sees invisible. Good stuff. 2. Dulak's Harbor. When you zone in, most mobs will be green or barely light blue, but there are higher level mobs on the boats. Some of them will be clustered, so harmony FTW. Also, killing a mob may occasionally result in a named mob spawning, so be prepared. Indoors (harder): 1. Nadox, which was mentioned earlier, is pretty good to 65, but expect multiples. The higher level area is on the left hand side as you enter the zone and climb up the bridge. Once you see undead Troll pirates, you will know that you have found the highest level mobs in the zone. 2. The lower levels of Chardok are not bad if you know what you are doing, but get a map and try not to get overwhelmed. I would stay close to the Chardok B zone line and alternate between the two zones depending on how things are going. Chardok B mobs are higher level, but don't really hit all that hard considering that some of them will be yellow to you. 3. Old Sebilis. Should be very easy at 60-61, but the main floor will be turning green. You can try going down or just mass-killing everything that moves on the main floor. Again, get a map before you head there. And to be honest, at this point I would start experimenting with other merc types, especially a healer merc. As a Ranger, you will never be a real tank, but higher level mobs hit so hard that a tank merc will die in seconds without heals, so your choices will be: (a) don't get hit (Headshot) (b) get a healer merc and tank light blue mobs. It won't be too bad once you have maxed your Defense/Dodge and purchased a few levels of Combat Agility/Stability. And, of course, your healer merc will always be on hand to rez you. (c) create a second account and complement your tank merc with a healer merc. Plus you get to pick another character to play with
Fletching is meh anymore. I bought stacks of regular arrows off merchants until I got the endless quiver AA (ps get a quiver, there is an EASY luclin quest to get a... (?) 35% one?...someone help me out here). Then I just bought 2 kick arrows off the bazaar and I was set. Im set up in acrylia caverns on my sk/war box, like everyone said, its great, but rangers pretty much cheat with headshot. If you get stuck in AC, click on stuff (statues (port you deeper), wall paintings (port u out) ) =P, place is weird. If u do go HSing in nurga, stock up. Its a run.
Since I cant edit *Quivers increase BOW haste if they have weight red. *When you get http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/spell.html?spell=8020 later on, it fires multiple arrows. It hits multiple enemies, however Headshot ONLY procs on the mob you have targeted. Just a heads up.
Magelo At www.magelo.com As a ranger at your level and way before merc were created, solo-wise many of us did the following kite (using bow/arrow/dots and snare),Root/rot - using snare/root, dot and bowand Fear kite. (animal-types) using snare to slow them down then melee them from behind, constantly refreshing the fear.With tank merc, use jolting blades for yourself as well as Jolt. This helps in reducing the hate you will build up so that the NPC does not turn around and smack ya a few times. Generally though a tank merc does well on keeping their attention. With the above, keeping and learning to use snare/root to keep adds at bay while learning to control your tank merc. In possible situations where there may be adds, do not make the merc the primary tank. This will help keep him only on one mob while the other adds chase you, you snare them then root them away. It takes practice but that is where rangers can shine if using their situational awareness. As you level, you gain better tools on controlling mobs. And one of the things to work on with your gear, you will learn, will be a comb of AC (armor points) and HP (hitpoints), as well as getting hit to increase your defensive skills which are most likely lacking since the tank is taking the beating Again, Outriders also has lots of info, from newbies to the experienced. Happy Hunting.
So buff procs now proc off the offhand? Or do they just proc more because you have an offhand weapon?
Thanks again, everyone, this is lots of really, really valuable information. I look forward to trying out all the different tips. I'm wondering how some of you set up your Hotkeys? There are so many valuable spells/combat abilities, etc., that it's hard to figure out which ones to have constantly ready, especially with the limit to only 8 spells at a time. Thanks again, I really appreciate the awesome generosity of experienced players in this forum being willing to help us newbies.
There is an aa that increases the number of spells you can have on ur spell bar. Its pretty cheap, and you can get another aa in it every few levels(mneomic retention? no idea how to spell it). As for hotkeys, I only set them up for caster character rotations, bash/disarm/taunt macro on warriors and stuff. For my ranger I mostly click. Kick/other kick macro spam on a button, other than that nothing. Once you get the buff extension aas, you only have to rebuff every 2 hours ( 4 hours for some ), so you can leave most buffs off. then ur gems will be its .5 cast dd, other .5 cast dd, dot, hail of arrows, aoe root, single root, heal. I keep the short regen and short dmg shield on them too.
There's an aa for additional spell slots? Cool, thanks! How did I miss that?!? Really appreciate all the help!
Acrylia Caverns at this level is like taking candy from a baby. Loot is not bad, either, although my inventory fills up too fast. Need a bigger bag! Is there any point in trying to sell all the runes in the Bazaar?
by runes i would think not really , the old ones that we used for spell research are outdated and the odd shaped ones are all vendor fodder
A bunch of people miss it, but if you are a newer player, enter the /claim command. Might have a bag in there. If you are a returning player, use the /veteranreward command.
Thanks again, everyone. All the suggestions are making a HUGE difference in how I'm playing the game going forward. I really was pretty clueless. I don't think I'm going to do the Magelo thing just yet, as I would need to get a Premium membership to get a full profile, and since I just spent lots of money on EQ, I'd best not spend anything else right now. Magelo does look pretty cool, though. Randerdanger, I did have a bunch of claims stuff I hadn't taken yet, and I checked and found out I had a nice 32-slot bag in there. Very helpful! Got my Headshot AA last night and looking forward to trying it out on those ugly little grimlings! Happy Hunting, everyone.
You're low level now, but just remember that there's more to being a ranger than headshotting. People will expect you to know how to do more than autofire if you want groups. I'm not insinuating that you won't or can't. I'm merely giving some advice for when you get high enough level to start grouping with most of the population.
Thanks for the heads up, Gladare. Right now I'm focused on the most efficient way to level, but if I do eventually get into groups, that will be a whole new game. And aside from a few things people have mentioned in this thread, I don't really know what a Ranger's primary role in a group would be. Since they're hybrids, a sort of jack-of-all-trades-and-master-of-none class, I would imagine they wouldn't be either the main tank or healer. Support? Puller maybe? I would very much appreciate any advice on how to build up my character so that she is a valuable contributor to groups later on. Many thanks!
Tanking and healing are unlikely roles for a Ranger unless dealing with low-level content. At a minimum, groups would expect a Ranger to provide DPS and Ranger buffs. Pulling and snaring are also common depending on the group makeup -- sometimes there is a better puller available, e.g. a Bard.
Try out the hole. It may be light blue to you at 60/61. I know it's light blue at 65 for sure. But you can stay in this zone until 70ish and get 1K-1.5K AA. This zone is easy, lots of mobs and good money from drops. I would stay here until you max out your AAs at level 70 then move to wall of slaughter.
Spellbar Combat Hail of Arrows when you get it you're best DoT (damage over time) spell a fire DD a cold DD snare/Vinelash Cascade when you get it. Snare will be an ability by then root your best heal Buff best to read the outrider forum Potions HoT Haste Clarity Clickies The BP clickie that takes you to Lesser Faydark is very useful haste overhaste Form of Defense "Worn" Fleeting Quiver or better Precient Fleeting Quiver Try to be level 71+ before July. to take advantage of Greater Unrest and Lost Cazic Thule. IMO you need to hook up with a family or casual guild soon. While Rangers can solo you'd have a difficult time getting better items the higher up you are in levels. By level 85 it can be quite difficult.
If you don't have any other big bags, there's a quest from Secalna Galnor in PoK that gives one, another quest from Crescent Reach in the forge, and a long quest from the housing zone. And the loyalty vendor has one to sell.
I second the Hole. I went to AC at level 61 and got about 250 AA. Then I leveled up in the hot zones with groups (learned a lot about pulling and aggro management). I got up to level 70, then went to the Hole. The Temple area in the Hole is amazing at level 70. Though as a Ranger if you are focusing on Head shots this will not work, unless I am mistaken, you can not head shot undead? Anyhow I was getting about 15 AA/Hour clearing the entire temple area at level 70 doing about 700 DPS, and using a tank merc as an off-tank/gimped DPS.
