Three of us returned a few months ago and started leveling our old characters from the Planes of Power days. We eventually found our way to the Seeds of Destruction zones, and we just finished up on all the achievements for a full set of the Paragon armor. At this point we are mid 80's and wondering where we should go next. I understand the Seeds expansion had tiered armor that can be upgraded. The first tier looks much worse than the Paragon we received from the achievements. Is this stuff worth getting to work up to it's highest level if we have Paragon? Should we other to keep continuing through seeds at this level, or should we move on? If so, where should we head next? Thanks
The SoD armour won't be much of an upgrade, if at all (I don't really remember). The next expansion was Underfoot, but I'd suggest skipping that for now; it has some accessible upgrades, but was a big step up in nuisance value. After that was House of Thule, and it was well designed to guide players through. So find your way to Feerrott, the Dream, and you can start with the quests there. I prefer to kill named in House of Thule for visible quest armor and drops on non-visible, over the Feerrott named, but that's up to you.
The only thing from Underfoot expansion that might be of interest to see is the Arena Boomerang game in Brell's Rest. It's sort of cool to see/do for some folks.
We haven't done any of the Dragons of Norrath stuff. We mainly started off in the old kunark zones (seb to get our feet wet again, and then did the daily HOT zone quest and hunted in those zones. Around level 70 we found the oceangreen hills/old blackburrow areas and farmed the gear in there. We then discovered the Paragon armor pieces as achievements and have been doing that ever since. It looks like the Seeds stuff keeps going, but now that we are in full Paragon I'm not sure if there is any use.
All right. The DoN stuff is fun if you like dragons. (Who doesn't like dragons?) It also gives you permanent bonuses that you can't get elsewhere in the game, up to and including being able to perform more critical strikes, magic damage, and heals.
Do the J5 merc task in Feerrott the Dream. Also do the tasks there and in House to get the augs they give. The gear in the HoT expansion should be what you're going for in the mid 80's. If you have a pet class in your group or just want a shrink clicky, do the task Rumor has it from Sam Napth in PoK. The pet focus on the reward is nice. The mobs hit like trucks but give it a try anyway. Edit: the Sam Napth task is an anniversary task. Not sure when they start or go away but it should be right about now so get it done before the task goes away for a year. Edit2: Sorry. It's been a while. The pet focus comes from the task A Different Perspective from Sam.
If they played through SoD, they have J5 mercs. The aug rewards in Feerrott/HoT are for Heroic characters only. Anni tasks are indeed all great. DoN progression would be a great project. Good rewards and since you outlevel the content by some but not by infinite, it ought to be a fun romp without mobs actually evaporating in a panic when they see you.
Thanks for the update; the Frozen Shadow Earring has EM X, which is decent, although the Imprint of the Enhanced Minion is quite cheap (summoned by a 99+ magician), and has EM XIII.
