Level 85 heroic character progression

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by took2summit11, Oct 8, 2018.

  1. took2summit11 Augur

    Hello, I am boxing 2 level 85 heroic characters, pal/nec. I have gotten them to level 87 now doing solely dead hills HA’s.

    I noticed dead hills armor stops at level 95. I was thinking of doing it until 95 then moving on, however I noticed TBM HA’s have armor options from 85 all the way to 105. My question is as I progress, should I keep doing Dead hills until 95 and then move to TBM missions, or should I just move straight to TBM and start earning the currency there? Alternatively, is there a better option than either of these 2?

    Thank you
  2. Qbert Gallifreyan

    Call of The Forsaken (the expansion you're playing currently) was a level 100 expansion. You'll be able to get gear to level 100 from those missions. I can't really speak to the rest of your questions as I avoid heroic adventures other than for hunter and collectible achievements.
  3. Ecchicon Elder

    This may not be the best answer to your question but it is worth pointing out that TBM currency is buyable.

    Have you done all of the progression in Feerrott and the Grounds? I think heroic characters get a full set of augs from those, which is quite nice. In fact, I think the AC augs are 30 AC which is pretty decent.

    Running CotF/Dead Hills is tedious to some degree, but you will get a good amount of value from the xp and currency there. Perhaps the most important thing about the currency is that it can be used to upgrade and replace quite a few augs.

    Regardless of what you do, I'd recommend trying to get as much of the RoF (Rain of Fear) gear as you can for level 92. I think that it can easily last you until the TBM gear is equipable.

    Summary: Hold off on TBM because there is a bunch of other meaningful stuff to do and the TBM currency is buyable/tradeable.
  4. Conq Augur

    Go to TBM. Remnants of Tranquility are droppable and usually for sale in the bazaar. The armor and augs are different, but there's plenty of info out there to figure that part out.
    Conq
  5. Gnomeland Augur

    For time optimization purposes, TBM expansion is better in all respects than COTF because:

    • TBM expansion currency can be traded
    • TBM expansion adventures are more generous for currency
    • TBM expansion adventures are usually shorter
    • TBM expansion basic equipment - on which you put the augments - are relatively easier to obtain
    • TBM expansion augments are useful even in EOK
    • TBM expansion equipment is better than what you can get from COTF

    HOWEVER, there are two issues that might keep you in COTF:

    • Rares in TBM expansion adventures are often over tuned. We're talking rare monsters hitting for close to 15,000 or so at 85 here. With only a two box, you might struggle to kill them.
    • Daily adventures are usually set in COTF, and those make COTF adventures worth running.
  6. Rickate Augur

    Other than FV/Brekt, TBM is pretty much always the best gear for a Heroic character until you hit 105 and unless you start joining groups probably 106 and you can buy Conflag. It's not Prestige in case you drop to Silver, you can target any slot and can convert TS drops (or Krono) into more gear and even get a refund on Remnant purchases as you level up.

    Comparing Level 90:

    CotF Marks of Valor (originally dropped in House of Thule expansion)

    Lucid Stormheart Sleeves
    MAGIC LORE NO TRADE PRESTIGE INFUSIBLE
    Purity: 50
    AC: 123 HP: 1490 + 6/tick MANA: 1430 + 4/tick END: 1450 ATK: 10
    STA: 25 + 8 STR: 22 + 3 WIS: 26 + 4 INT: 19 + 4 DEX: 14 + 7 AGI: 36 + 8 CHA: 36 + 7
    SV FIRE: 41 SV COLD: 29 SV MAGIC: 22 SV POISON: 40 SV DISEASE: 55
    Heal Amount: 9 Spell Dmg: 17 Clairvoyance: 29
    Worn Effect: Cleave VII - 20
    Focus Effect: Fire Damage 25-60 L90
    Slot 1, type 7: empty
    Slot 2, type 13: empty
    Required level of 90.
    Class: RNG

    TBM Remnants of Tranquility

    Preserving Dredger's Sleeves
    MAGIC NO TRADE INFUSIBLE
    Purity: 50
    AC: 123 HP: 1663 + 3/tick MANA: 1192 + 2/tick END: 1192 ATK: 12
    STA: 24 + 6 STR: 29 + 6 WIS: 19 + 5 INT: 14 + 5 DEX: 29 + 15 AGI: 29 + 7 CHA: 19 + 4
    SV FIRE: 37 SV COLD: 37 SV MAGIC: 37 SV POISON: 37 SV DISEASE: 37
    Worn Effect: Cleave VII - 26
    Focus Effect: Fire Damage 52-73 L110
    Slot 1, type 5: Extravagant Spitegem of Deftness
    Slot 2, type 7: empty
    Slot 3, type 9: Extravagant Spitegem of the Valiant
    Slot 4, type 13: empty
    Required level of 85. Recommended level of 90.
    Class: RNG, ROG, SHM, BER

    Or can take a different priority for Type 5 and if you're low on Remnants/Plat can wait until 90 and buy the Req 90/Rec 95 version of the augs as opposed to buying the 85/90 version and selling it back once you reach Level 90 and have enough Remnants to get the higher level version. Specifically at a multiple of 5 is they only time they are close, the Level 85 CotF gear simply isn't worth getting for a Heroic character and you can already equip that tier of TBM gear. The 90/95 TBM gear is even better but annoying to post the accurate stats at Level 90.

    The main drawback of TBM is gear is that until Level 105 you won't get the Special AA clicks, but other than getting 8% Overhaste for a melee (or 17% Overhaste if you go the Krono route for Ancient Cloak of Flames) it doesn't have all that much impact and you can gradually get the clicks by for instance doing the Daily HA task from Clayton Teek and/or poking around Bazaar. Variety of options to get 8% Overhaste, including 220 Marks of Valor for most melee classes and 260 MoV for the other melee classes.
  7. Gnomeland Augur

    In short, just do both. Focus on TBM expansion, but do COTF daily adventures for the few pieces you need from COTF, like type 7 augments.
  8. took2summit11 Augur

    Wow this is fantastic information thank you everyone, exactly what I was looking for. Since I already started COTF I may stay here until 90 so I can buy most of the level 90 equipment. Once 90, I will move to TBM based on general consensus. That being said, I will mostly be just boxing my nec/pal with some mercs, I hope I will be able to make it through most of these adventures? Are there some that are easier/better to focus on?

    Last question, what is a daily adventure? I see comments saying they are normally directed towards COTF. Are these worth doing, what are the rewards, where do I find them?

    Thanks again for all the reply’s. I am definitely looking to optimize time spent to gear up/level but trying to avoid PLvl so I can also learn my classes. Kind of a hybrid between taking my time and rushing :D
  9. CatsPaws No response to your post cause your on ignore

    There are 2 types of daily adventures. There is outside the lobby an NPC named Franklin Teek and next to him is his cousin Clayton Teek. Franklin will give you daily adventures up to your level and maybe one higher. They are in different zones, mostly older zones but all are kill 5 of some mob. You get plat, armor and exp for doing these. They change when the server is down or when they feel like it. Get more than one at a time cause if you finish one and go back the same day you will be locked out. Cousin Clayton gives daily HA or Heroic Adventures. These are level 75 min and he will port you to the quest givers where you get the task and at the end you will get bonus exp. Mostly newer zones.
  10. Rickate Augur

    Things to do once or occasionally:

    1) No Heroism Without Fear: http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=7485 if you're Gold J5 merc is by far the biggest upgrade and it's really easy

    2) Ralkor Stoneclaw: ctrl-f in Plane of Knowledge, sells really important Distillate of Alacrity X and other useful potions for both characters, otherwise you're either severely under performing or relying on out of group buffs

    3) Mirao Frostpouch: ctrl-f in PoK, sells really useful Cloudy Potion for your Paladin

    4) Angler Winifred: ctrl-f in PoK, stack of 1000 Fresh Fish and 1000 Water Flask

    5) /baz: Philter of Major Translocation, 175pp is likely the lowest you will ever see them, gate potions that stack to 20 for the Paladin

    6) /baz: optionally Food by AC, Drink by AC for the Paladin, buy the best you can afford and if you want to save plat right click from time to time on the Fish and Water and gain the stats from the good food and drink in a higher slot without consuming them, take note of required level, there are a couple of food and drink that won't provide stats until you reach that level

    7) /baz: Extraplanar Trade Satchel, if it doesn't fit in this 32 slot bag it's an upgrade you can equip or relatively speaking crap, player to player transactions rise with inflation and blow away the value of everything else you can sell, Extraplanar pretty much meets all your storage needs, worst case give the Necro a bunch of stuff, kill the Necro, sell/bank the items and rez the Necro as needed or alternatively if Gold, FD the Necro, camp the Paladin and log on another character, /buyer any items for 1pp, Necro /barter sells to your own character and then switch back to the Paladin

    Things to do each day you play:

    1) If you're not doing anything else stand in the Lobby or PoK, wherever a large group of people gather on your server, with mercs out and passive, you will start your next play session with hours of enhanced power, if you want to /trader use the Necro (account), buffs on the Paladin are way more important.

    2) Franklin Teek, outside the Lobby, at Level 86+ you can request the Level 90 task, at 91+ the Level 95 task, the 2 or 3 highest tasks you can request are really fast and easy daily XP and as mentioned request all the missions you want to do at the same time, any zone with a Franklin mission drops at least one non-Prestige aug randomly from any mob, handy to fill empty slots, grab these missions whenever you don't have them, even if you don't feel like doing them that day, when/if you do feel like doing them you can complete the missions you already have and then get the missions again.

    3) Clayton Teek, outside the Lobby, you will get 2 adventures and/or messages that you are not the correct level for the Task, if you don't get 2 it means you have a lockout from the previous day (day starts midnight US Pacific time) whenever /taskt expires you can get that daily mission, these expire in 42 hours, some missions you will be able to get the Bonus task but be barred from the mission because of your level, some missions you will not be able to complete, optionally as long as you meet the required level you can ask for group invite or /taskadd to the mission in ;general or even offer plat for either of those things, it's really good XP Level 100-105 and gradually better XP as you get closer to Level 100.

    HA that you won't be able to do reliably and efficiently with 2 toons and 2 mercs:

    Dead Hills: Captain Russell Cooper, he probably won't give you any missions so for starters someone higher level has to request, Excavating an Answer frequently has inanimate objects that don't scale to your level and are really inefficient to deal with, The Descending Tower sometimes has the inanimate object issue and consistently has the most difficult fights of any Dead Hills HA, Clearing the Path is the only "normal" HA from Cooper at your level.

    Neriak: Lark D`Tradis and to a lesser extent Rozz T`Ver, a Neriak Enchanter trash mob can chain mez your entire group, your best option is to turn your computer off and don't log on until the Return Home option is available, I think that timer is only 5 minutes these days.

    Bixie: Ambassador Crizlyna, Assault the Main Hive, Stop the butterfly slaughter variant, you can use lev/invis to see if you have this step (butterfly on ground on upper level to your left if you've just entered the main hive) once you breach the main hive, it's impossible or at least highly improbable at your level.

    Occasionally you will run into other specific issues, some things that I found easy enough with 2 Mages you will be able to handle with Paladin/Necro, some things I found hard/tedious you might find easy enough. If you run into a mechanic and it seems too hard and/or time consuming it's quite possibly true, you're not missing out on a tactic, the mechanic simply doesn't scale. Some named also have issues most commonly with DoTs and Bard Songs, if the mob seems too hard again you're quite possibly not misunderstanding a mechanic, it's just not scaling to your level.

    Necro:

    Preserving Sponsor's Sleeves: 9 Remnant of Tranquility, even if you can't afford the Slot 5 and/or 9 it doesn't matter, it's a massive upgrade
    Epic 1.5+: you'll eventually want it, much more time consuming than 9 Remnants but put it on the list
    Oozing Bone Spike: drops from named that might spawn during In Defense of Health, if you get the version that starts with a Whistle of Summoning consider possible tactics
    Anything the Paladin can't use: if you're doing something difficult get some buffs in PoK/Lobby, you gradually want to improve your gear and if you're not in FV/Brekt you will get things with Marks of Valor or loot No Trade items the Paladin can't use, if you're on FV/Brekt you will occasionally have to give some thought to upgrading the Necro but your ability to handle content pretty much entirely revolves around improving the Paladin

    Paladin:

    Overhaste: Ancient Cloak of Flames (17%, Krono), Elaborate Band of the Devoted (8%, 320 Marks of Valor and a required Level 90 upgrade), Ring of Forgotten Ancestors (8%, 260 Marks of Valor, similar stats to your Heroic gear)
    AC augs: House of Thule missions which are pretty much required if you drop to Silver and don't want to frequently rely on PoK/Lobby buffs, most likely the best use of most of the Paladin's Marks of Valor if you stay Gold, in the long term you're going to want those AC augs to also have Heroic Dex or Agi, some will suggest only Heroic Dex, some will also include Heroic Sta
    TBM gear: other than Fire Focus sleeves for the Necro and maybe aug the Arms, it's generally going to be more useful to spend the Remnants both characters earn and whatever Remnants you might buy from selling Tradeskill items on the Paladin.

    Fundamentally the Paladin determines what you can do and the Necro determines how long it takes, improving the Paladin and being able to handle more things is almost always going to be more important than how long it takes, especially since other than Fire and Pet Focus and Necro Epic it's small increases in killing speed as you upgrade the Necro while improving the Paladin can be very much pass/fail, can the merc(s) keep the (Lobby buffed) Paladin alive? Other than using Krono to rapidly gain AA and/or gear you can't easily move the pass/fail line so those constant small upgrades on the Paladin are the key to tackling new content and not taking a step back when gaining levels and doing the same HA.

    There is ample content you can do to improve your characters and/or for fun, if you're having problems killing named before your mercs run out of mana you can get a Jayruk's Vest and do some faction work with your Necro but for the most part the efficient path to catching up to the bulk of the player base revolves around gaining levels and then going back once you're high level and smashing the content for whatever items you find useful or enjoyable.

    Chances are efficiency and catching up is at least the path to fun and ideally the path itself is also fun. If you just want to play essentially a single player game with other players as background noise that occasionally give you buffs, buy your drops, sell you theirs or give you an occasional /taskadd then you should at least check out the various expansions and see if you would rather do that content when it's level appropriate and switch to AA as there is likely limited fun in mindlessly killing low level mobs for various items from older expansions that remain relevant.
    Quatr and snailish like this.
  11. Outlander Engine Elder

    Do dead hills until you get a Blood Drinker's Coating for your paladin. It's a nice little item to have.
    http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=113371

    As you approach level 100, keep an eye out for castaway gear in the bazaar. Castaway is the tier 1 droppable armor from TDS. You'll need a Synthesis Chamber for 13k plat to convert the castaway into class specific gear, but it's slighty better stats than TBM.

    http://everquest.allakhazam.com/wiki/eq:The_Darkened_Sea_Armor_Guide

    Here's my comparison between TBM and TDS gear for my warrior at level 100.

    [IMG]
  12. took2summit11 Augur

    wow Rickate, and everyone else, thank you very much for your detailed answers. This is all invaluable information that I will use to push my chars up.
  13. Rickate Augur

    Castaway Bracer of the Zealot
    MAGIC ATTUNEABLE INFUSIBLE
    Purity: 50
    AC: 169 HP: 2741 + 4/tick MANA: 2557 + 3/tick END: 2636 ATK: 24
    STA: 26 + 10 STR: 23 + 9 WIS: 22 + 9 INT: 20 DEX: 28 + 11 AGI: 27 + 11 CHA: 23 + 9
    SV FIRE: 45 SV COLD: 45 SV MAGIC: 45 SV POISON: 45 SV DISEASE: 45
    Heal Amount: 23 Spell Dmg: 23 Clairvoyance: 33
    Slot 1, type 7: empty
    Slot 2, type 13: empty
    Required level of 100.

    Crypt-Hunter's Exarch Bracer
    MAGIC NO TRADE INFUSIBLE
    Purity: 50
    AC: 229 HP: 2425 + 3/tick MANA: 2401 + 2/tick END: 2401 ATK: 12
    STA: 20 + 10 STR: 20 + 10 WIS: 20 + 12 INT: 15 + 11 DEX: 25 + 28 AGI: 25 + 12 CHA: 20 + 10
    SV FIRE: 46 SV COLD: 46 SV MAGIC: 46 SV POISON: 46 SV DISEASE: 46
    Heal Amount: 2 Spell Dmg: 1 Clairvoyance: 2
    Slot 1, type 5: August Spitegem of Deftness
    Slot 2, type 7: empty
    Slot 3, type 9: August Spitegem of the Sturdy
    Slot 4, type 13: empty
    Required level of 100. Recommended level of 105.

    Crypt-Hunter is slightly off, I didn't adjust the base armor to 95.2% of the stats if you were Level 100, raidloot.com calculates 95.2% of the augs for me (set player level to 100) so it's something like 3ac and 15hp lower depending on how rounding is handled. The Type 7 aug will also be affected so you lose another ~2ac and up to a dozen or so HP relative to Castaway.

    Castaway is not better armor than TBM, Castaway BP is possibly better depending on your valuation of Heroic Dex, the distribution of AC is wildly different between armor sets that the best non-7/8 AC aug(s) fit in most slots as is the case for Remnant of Tranquility and some Cultural armor sets and pretty much every other armor set in the game. Paladin Crypt-Hunter 53ac Wrist vs 115ac Chest or 217% of the Wrist. Paladin Castaway 169ac Wrist vs 350ac Chest or 207% of the Wrist, most armor sets are similar ratio. Paladin Crypt-Hunter + August Spitegem of the Sturdy at Level 100, 229ac Wrist vs 291ac Chest or 127% of the Wrist.

    raidloot.com eqresourse.com magelo.com shamanscrucible.com/forum/ maybe there is even an active serverwide channel for Paladins and you can drill down on specifics relative to your circumstances, if you stop at Level 100 or lower for a long time and anyone on your server is doing Veil of Alaris T2 raids you can get PAL Deflection Discipline Duration 2 on the raid BP from 6 wins (min 3 different raid days) without affecting the loot of anyone else participating or Cleave IX - 25 from the Arms which you will never ever get from group gear because the Devs place raiding on a pedestal and the initial implementation of melee focus was flawed and never adjusted.

    As a tank you probably "have" to give up on Cleave IX once you reach Level 105 unless you do more recent raids than Alaris, the mitigation cost exceeds the DPS benefit. For melee DPS, Veil of Alaris T2 Raid Arms for 51 Rebellion Chits will forever be better than every pair of 5000, 6000 or 10000hp arms that weak players use to pad Magelo stats. Cleave IX actually starts with Seeds of Destruction raids but Veil of Alaris simply has much more favorable loot mechanics and the raids remain pretty trivial.

    As you get into much more advanced loot decisions you want to get the word out that you would happily join any Alaris+ raid (when raid currency starts) and if your resources allow even indicate that you would be willing to pay for the privilege until you reach the point that you genuinely contribute to the success of the raid. At this stage of your character progression Remnants are a great path from Heroic to Level 105 or 106, if you come across a piece of gear from looting it, /baz, ;general xxxx rotting in yyyy, ;general doing an open zzzz raid in 20 minutes send tells for invite it's quite possibly a good idea since even if slightly worse you can run to a zone a lot faster than you can accumulate the Remnants for a fully augged piece of TBM gear.

    If resources allow send a tell to the people selling PL and ask them if they can beat Alaris T2 raids, if they can't do that they probably also suck at PL so best to avoid them entirely. I spend almost all my playtime on FV where loot rules radically impact item acquisition, no clue if it's common on other servers for players to possess sufficient game knowledge to be motivated to organize raids on old content and if they do if the attitude is "why not give an empty spot to a low level Paladin and Necro" or the attitude is "Level 105+ for invite".
  14. Outlander Engine Elder

    I'm going to quibble slightly. I didn't mean to imply "go buy a full set of castaway". I'm saying watch for good buys on castaway to fill in slots you don't have the remnants for, especially in places where the stats are clearly equivalent or superior. The greaves would be another slot where TDS may beat TBM. I just don't think 10 hDex at level 100 is going to be that big of a deal.

    If you can get the remnants cheaply, go for it. I couldn't.

    Personally, I hit level 100, donned a few castaway pieces, filled in non-visibles with bazaar and CotF marks of valor gear and went and cleared tempest temple progression. I acquired about 5 more pieces of castaway and a fused coral weapon or two. Sold what I couldn't use and moved on to Frontier Mountains. By the time I hit 105 I had banked almost a full set of EoK Cohort's pieces from the Bi'faak camp.

    I tried a few TBM HA's at level 95 and 100 and found them to be an extremely frustrating experience. Getting crypt-hunter drops at level 100 required help from my raiding friends. The named were simply too strong for my WAR/DRU/ENC trio. As for purchasing remnants, they were available, but it was a lot cheaper to buy the castaway armor and keep on leveling.

    The leveling was going so well that beating my head against TBM content at level 100 just didn't seem like a good use of my time.
  15. snailish Augur

    There's a lot of really good information in this thread. Looking it over made me think... kind of daunting if someone is returning to an 85 heroic and wanting to progress to the population.

    Maybe it's time for a "Heroic Gloomingdeep" to go along with the quest chain they already put in with the Heroic character spawn point. It could literally be a cut and paste of the lowbie tutorial, with a few added layers possibly (i.e., anything new that needs explained), that hard pushes your XP to at least level 100?
  16. Gundolin Augur


    Is that House of Thule?
  17. Gnomeland Augur

    They could just expand the hero's journey. It already goes up to about level 80. Just make it go all the way up to 105, then keep it at 5 below maximum each new increase.

    They could have achievements in there like:

    Perform 10 Daily Kill Quests
    Perform 3 Daily Hero Adventure

    To tell you the different opportunities you should be aware of.
  18. Gialana Augur

    Adding to what Catspaws said, the daily heroic adventures will roughly double the completion experience and alternate coin of whichever heroic adventures are on offer. Clayton Teek will offer two random Heroic Adventures per day, and you'll have around two days to complete the heroic adventures. The heroic adventures he offers will come from CotF, TDS, TBM, and EoK expansions, but he will never offer any of the adventures given by Gribble in Dead Hills.

    Since there are more heroic adventures in CotF than the other expansions, Clayton Teek offers them for the bonus experience more often. Also, the CotF HAs give most of their experience upon completion, whereas the HAs from the other expansions give most of their experience through mob killing and barely any upon completion. That means that the bonus experience when he offers an HA from the CotF expansion will be much higher than from the other expansions. However, with the HA changes since the release of RoS, the bonus experience dwindles for the CotF HAs after level 100. I think the bonus experience for a CotF HA for a level 110 character is 3 or 4 AA.

    When I was going for experience, I ignored all of the daily HAs that weren't from CotF. But if you're doing the later expansions' HAs for alternate currency, then it would be worth doing them when Clayton offers the bonus for them.