How should I catch up?

Discussion in 'The Newbie Zone' started by Wharghoul, Jun 3, 2018.

  1. Wharghoul Journeyman

    Hello all, I've recently returned and have taken my 85 SK/Wiz/Chanter trio to 100. Currently the SK is almost full crypt-hunters and the chanter and wiz are wearing the level 100 Marks of Valor gear.

    I can do TBM HA's and I'm working on the Lesser Spirit Armor achievement, but I'm wondering how best to level up. Should I farm TBM until all my chars are 105 and in Crypt-Hunters then try to start into EoK zones? Or is there something I'm missing. I'm on Firiona Vie server and have considered rushing to 105 to try to buy a couple pieces of 105 required gear, but I really don't want to end up getting killed in the HA's.

    If anyone could offer some advice, like which zones to hunt in and what gear to go after, I would really appreciate it.

    Also, I'm still looking for a guild so if any FV officers read this and are interested in a returning player, hit me up!
  2. moogs Augur

    Welcome back. FV obviously has a lot more options in terms of gear, provided you've got the cash to spend. I have a cleric that I'm working on (went from 100 to 103 this weekend) and it's using the marks of valor visible gear and the TBM vendor invisible gear. (You have probably done the mission 'Into the Temple' to unlock the vendors.) I might have a piece or two from Brothers' Island in TDS. This is good enough to survive most of the AOEs when my group is fighting in EOK zones.

    106 is my goal (re-gearing to a full set of Conflagrant). On FV you can take Conflagrant and convert it to raid gear, which is pretty nuts. Another good option is the gear from the revamped Sebilis...that's required 105. Here is one example: http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=128609

    My main group is 109 (druid, enchanter, magician) and the cleric mostly tags along for XP. At 103, the cleric is still making nearly 50% of a level with a lesson burn on the 3 Gribble HAs even though the XP has been nerfed severely. The 95 daily quest is worth a few more % of XP, so that's worth doing. The rest of the time I'm grinding trash mobs in Lceanium.
  3. Lazipuppy Journeyman

    I'll suggest that you focus on leveling and gearing up your sk, exp in eok is much better then tbm, move to eok when you can. If you don't want to spend too much in bz, the easiest camp in eok is bi'faak in frontier mountain(the named is relatively easy and pop a lot), you'll get a lot eok t1 stuff doing that camp so you can gear up your wizzy and chanter.
  4. Lazipuppy Journeyman

    As moogs mentioned, dh ha for lesson burn is also good if you can run it fast enough. I'm not sure if 100 sk with tbm gear can do it efficiently(your tanking power and dps need to pass certain threshold to make it work) but you may want to give it a try, the trick is try to pull as many as possible on your sk, then use wizzy and chanter to ae them down.
  5. Wharghoul Journeyman

    Awesome, thanks guys. Will TBM gear allow me to tank in EoK?

    I occasionally still run the gribbles, but have been focusing on farming the remnants and finishing the progression. I can usually run two full DH in one lesson, so I pop it right as I finish the first one and then breakneck as quick as I can through the next two.

    If I get to 105 with mostly autogrant aa's will I be okay, or should I focus on a couple hundred AA's per level?
  6. IblisTheMage Augur

    Only autogrant to 106, then 100AA until 25k AA or higher.

    Never go back to TBM or Gribble.

    Go to Frontier Mountains, find a place to pull singles, and work your way up through the camps.

    Pretty soon you should be able to take this spot: , when you do, you will end up in EoK T1 gear pretty fast.
  7. Wharghoul Journeyman

    Thanks Iblis, what level do you think I can head to FM; 105?
    IblisTheMage likes this.
  8. Zhaunil_AB Augur

    You can easily go to FM once you survive a single-pull skelly in Lceanium at the outer NE corner of the wall to test your tanking ability against.
    IblisTheMage likes this.
  9. Eaedyilye More stonehive bixies.

    FM is a good place to hunt at 105. I was 105 the first time I went there. I had an EM 18 pet at the time and I moloed 2 named that day and killed them.

    I'm on FV, look up Knights of Infinity. They're always looking for people and it's a big guild, so there always will be people to play with if you desire, plus people are always will to help with progression.
    moogs likes this.
  10. Lazipuppy Journeyman

    Since you've been farming remnant, another thing worth mentioning is if you can survive already, don't spend too much on type9 aug, they obsoleted after tbm, and the sell back suck.
  11. IblisTheMage Augur


    Go now! Be careful, pull singles, use 2 healer mercs (one balanced, one eeactive, remember to block slow heals on all your toons!!!!!!!!!! <— most important part). It should be possible now at 100, and you seem to have some good classes. Use the group rune of the enchanter before pulling, combats will likely be long, so slowing and cripling is on the table.

    If you can do with only 1 merc, then do it, but most likely it will be a while, until you get levels and gear and AA. Abstain from dps mercs, they suck and cost xp. Make sure to run GINA and GamParse. I would suggest you use IS Boxer as well.
  12. Wharghoul Journeyman

    Thanks guys, a little update: I've hit 101 on all three chars. The enchanter and wizard are gearing up in marks of valor gear and funneling remnants to the SK who is coming along nicely.

    I plan to burn lesson in DH and then run some TBM HA's until 105, occasionally picking up a new piece of gear if I can find upgrades at a reasonable price in the bazaar. At 105 I'm going to go try FM. I've gotten several new cooldowns and abilities over the last ten levels and want to get a good feel for them.

    I want to thank everyone for their response. Returning is a difficult process with a very daunting laundry list of things I should get done. Thanks to everyone's responses, I can work on progression while enjoying the journey.

    Any more advice for a returning player would definitely be welcome.

    Thanks again!

    - Slashrot 101 SK
    moogs likes this.
  13. Wharghoul Journeyman

    So I hit 102 after farming out a couple hundred AA's at 101. The TBM HA's just became very difficult! From 101 to 102 the difficulty spiked quite a bit. I'm going to focus a few hundred more aa's and farming remnants to gear out the wizard and chanter before moving on to 105.

    I think I'm also going to look into some boxing assist programs, see if I can tighten up my strategies. I had tabbed over to the chanter to tash and slow and the sk got two rounded by a single trash mob. I thought being in full TBM crypt-hunters would make me viable in TBM but the nameds just smoke me.

    Maybe I'm missing something.. IDK.

    I'm not certain what the point of my continuing to update this thread is, other than maybe another returning player can read it and get something from it.

    I've managed to make a couple million plat selling old gear that had been sitting in my bank from before I transferred to Firiona Vie (I was too lazy to destroy it and just kept auto-banking until I got around to spring cleaning lol!). Anyone have any recommendations on what early purchases I should keep an eye out for?
  14. IblisTheMage Augur

    On my channel I have a series of videos explaining my approach to IS Boxer, maybe you can get some ideas to your own setup.

    Have you tried FM?

    EoK is the best expansion in a decade, and it could be easier that a TBM HA, if there are spikes in TBM dificulty levels.
  15. Wharghoul Journeyman

    Going to check out your videos (I think I found them by searching Iblis everquest on Youtube) then head to FM. I'll let you know how it goes!
    IblisTheMage likes this.
  16. Chorus Augur

    I skipped TBM and took a break for a year. When I came back, had a mix of t2/t3 TDS armor on my group warrior and was able to do maybe 1/3 of the named in lceanium;however, my group relied on cleric mercs and it took 2 of them to keep me viable until about 1/3 of the gear was replaced on the warrior with t1 drops. Handling 2 mobs was also extremely difficult if they couldn't be mezzed at that point, but once you get some gear and AA, it smooths out. So it is doable with TDS gear, but it is very tedious.

    Also, getting the tanks weapon upgraded was a huge factor in aggro management. My bst had 2 drops for him occur first, and then aggro would bounce a bit. I also used his pet as a backup tank, which I would let take aggro periodically to let the healing catch up. The HP difference in gear is substantial between those 2 expansions, plus not having a recent shield hurts too. Overall though, it was fun. It felt like an actual challenge, whereas now, with nearly a full set of t1 EoK gear and maybe 1/6 of my aug slots actually mounted, I feel like i'm skating through stuff again much too easily. So it will happen for your group, but may need to drop back an expansion to grab some aa and gear if it's too frustrating.
    moogs likes this.
  17. Wharghoul Journeyman

    Thanks Chorus. So you're group was 105 during all this?

    I'm still going to try it at 102 but I think I'll have to stay away from named for a couple levels.
  18. Chorus Augur

    Yah 105, I came back about 4 months before RoS hit and was up and running by then. I was also max AA for TDS prior to my break. My 3 crew consists of bard/war/bst.
  19. Wharghoul Journeyman

    I went to Lceanium and started on the spiders, they are difficult to get single so I went to the East side of the evac point and started pulling Cockatrices and Yetis. The fights are tough, but not as tough as TBM HA's. I haven't seen a name yet, but honestly I don't think I could take one just now.

    I'm now level 104 and getting excited for all the new armor at 105! Though I may wait until 106 to get some of that armor instead. We'll see, it feels wrong having moved through two levels without getting an aa's, and I'm excited to see what opens at 105.

    Shout out to the couple people who said hi to me in-game and recognized me from these posts, especially Bobi, you rock!
  20. Teldiin New Member

    Going super nerd here. What is burn lesson? All I seem to find while searching is ways to use it.