My friend and I recently returned to EQ Live and have been having a blast so far. We're currently low 60s, exping through hotzones, gearing, etc. We're both boxing 3 toons which has been really fun. My question is - As we continue to progress through the older expansions to eventually make it to more current content - Are there any major quests, adventures, zones, etc we should focusing on as we go? I know that's a loaded question but its been a looong time since we've both played and could use a bit of veteran knowledge to guide us moving forward. Thanks in advance for any insight and direction!
there's a good bit of stuff to gain from completing the quest progression in the more recent expansions. A good way to see what there is to gain is by looking at the /ach tab, you can see the rewards for completing certain quest lines. Some of the recent one's that stick out for me that grant good augs are Legendary Hero of the Call in CotF, Mercenary of Thuliasaur Island in TDS (it doesn't show in the rewards but you get a nice aug from completing them all), and Challenger of the Broken Mirror in TBM. I'm sure there are others but those 3 stand out as still relevant augs.
Yes! There are several not-to-miss quest lines awaiting you! These both increase various stats, and it’s mind blowing to me how many lvl 105 toons clearly haven’t completed them. Muramite Proving Grounds quests. (scroll down to Omens of War subtitle.) http://everquest.fanra.info/wiki/Quests Dragons of Norrath progression quests. http://everquest.fanra.info/wiki/Dragons_of_Norrath_progression http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=3062 http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=3061 Happy hunting!
Ahh yes, the MPG trials increase your max resists and the DoN progression grants an innate chance to resist detrimental spells along with other bonuses from the other AA's. I almost forgot about those since my only new alts have come from heroics which grant those minus the last DoN one which is easily finished off by killing Vish. Those might be easier to get after you get to a higher lvl, especially the DoN one's since they require raid kills.
Be sure, when you are in the right level range, to spend some time in Veil of Alaris' Pillars of Alra zone, working on the Stone Tear. The Tears of Alaris is the only item in the game that I know of that has a modifier for the Defense skill. 10 points may not seem like a lot, but depending on class, it is the same increase you would get by gaining 5 levels, and that is huge. Also, do not neglect your Tradeskills. Though you are too low, now, to make use of it, the Artisan's Prize is one heck of an aug, and your low 60's is a great time to start working on the tradeskilling at least. You will need to nearly complete Planes of Power progression (which would be mostly doable at your levels if you have high level help, these were considered raid mobs for characters your level) in order to get the Aid Grimel quest line done. The other part that you can get done right now would be the Earring of the Solstice. Later on, once you reach the lower-mid 80's, you can work on the third earring, Eron's Jewelry. Keep those three items on you until you get high enough to use the Artisan's Prize, then work on its two tasks. Not really an issue *now* as you are a bit low, but there are a number of Anniversary augs that you will eventually want to farm Anniversary missions for. The White Stone of Power is one example, in which the mission can drop a great aug but you'll need to farm it to get the right aug for each of your characters. There are several Anniversary missions that have that sort of reward. Know what your characters need before going in, though, or you may end up taking the wrong aug on the wrong character.
Both the Dragons of Norrath and Muramite Trials bonuses are automatically granted to characters who are not free to play. The only one that's not granted is the one given to you by killing Vishimtar, and since you can't do that while at that level, there's no actual value to progressing through either of these expansions. For efficient progression, I'd skip them and come back to do Dragons of Norrath later when you can kill all the raids by yourself.
I should have mentioned that all of our accounts are AllAccess and we're of course taking advantage of auto-grant AA. Aside from Tradeskills is sounds like we should just keep at the grind to get to some of the more recent content. I'm a bit concerned with gearing as I've read a few places that Defiant gear past 80 isn't very good in comparison to non Defiant drops. I'll have to start researching some zones that will have decent gear camps for our setup. Thanks again!
Gnomeland I believe you are mixing up not free to play with Heroics. In any case, when I leveled up my cleric from 1 to 105 I had to go back and complete the MPG Trials to get the resist bonus even though I was using a paid full access account. If you purchase a Heroic account MPG trials are auto granted.
True on the gear. But I was wearing all defiant (and possibly even some from Glooming Deep) when I hit 82 and started working in House of Thule. The drops in HoT were fairly easy to get with a group. Really no need to fret about gear in your 60's and 70's. Defiant is most likely much better than anything that was available when those zones were "live".
They are Heroic Char bonuses not All Access bonuses. My lvl 90 non heroic alt doesn't have any of them but my lvl 85 heroic alt does. But ya it's still better to wait until you get into the 80+ range for MPG trials and 90+ range for the DoN raids. You might be able to do them earlier, the max lvl during those expansions was 70. The MPG trials are group missions so they were deff done with lvl 70 groups so you could probably beat them at 70 since defiant gear is probably better then what we had to work with at the time. DoN one's like I said require Raid kills which were designed for 54 lvl 70's. I just hit the Vish raid and at 105 with a zerker and shaman he didn't stand a chance, I was able to burn him before either char got the DT emote. I just looked at Parse and Vish has approx 8 mil HP, I averaged about 200k dps so he died in less then a minute, that was fast enough to bypass the adds/DT emotes. Once your group damage gets to around 100kish dps you should be good to down him, you might have to cure 1 round of the DT which is done by targeting one of the roaming dervishes and saying "shoulder my burden" to it.
Once you get to the level you can wear the gear, most expansions have some easy to get group gear in the entry zones (some of it even tradeable). I wouldn't panic about post 80 gear. Odds are it'll be cheaper in bazaar than defiant.
On the MPG trials there is one The Mastery of Subversion, which requires you to open chests using: "a spellbound chest" must be disarmed/unlocked by casters "a hexed chest" by priests "an ironbound chest" by rogues/bards (Pick Locks). I remember a fairly nasty dot if you broke the chest without using the proper class to deactivate the trap first. Not a big deal at all at level 95 or so, but I think a level 70 would have trouble with this one solo. Maybe someone who did them at current content remembers ways around this? /shrug.
Bring a necromancer. They (should) have the spells to deal with both the spellbound and hexed chests. Just remember that these spells used some silly spell component.
