Hello friends! I have returned to EQ after a decade hiatus, took a break from the MMO gaming all together. I have a lvl 60 druid that is stripped exept for no drops, gave everything away when i left game. After a few days just learning the basics back and buying some survivable gear Im ready to go start leveling my druid up and work on some AAs. I left in the beginning of POP, in which the only content in POP I remember doing is zoning into POD and killing flies with some friends. Can anyone direct me where i can go thats relatively safe to solo, so that I can relearn my combat and spell casting abilities again while gaining xp. Ive noticed, there is really no one under 75 lfg, so solo is all i got till i get to lvls where most are grouping. But thats ok because i need to familiarize myself with the game and combat and this will allow me to do. So if anybody can point me in the right direction pre POP to relearn the game mechanics it would be most appreciated. Thanks
AFAICR, gargoyles in PoN and suits in the HoH basement were decently soloable around that level. Either quadding or root/rot. Also, in Luclin, the mobs which can drop druid gear in Umbral Plains (Elysian Remains) were definitely doable.
Welcome back to everquest. Since you have been gone for awhile, you might want to learn about mercenaries. They are essentially a "pet" that can take on different roles. If you can zone into either,Plane of Tactics, or Halls of Honor, both would be great and very easy spots to relearn how to pull and kite. I say these zones as they are zones in which it is very easy to pull without getting multiple adds. I would bring a dps melee mercenary to help kill faster, but some would advocate solo without them so they don't steal some experience. I am 90% certain that gargoyles in PoN summon, if they did then kiting would be a pain. Some more notes about Halls of Honor, HoH. Most npc's in the zone don't summon. However, the named can summon. In the basement there are two types of suits of armor, black and white. One kind of armor is snareable and cannot be mezzed, and the other is mezzable and cannot be snared. Unless you had a tank mercenary it would be best to do the soldiers close to the entrance.
I am 100% certain the gargoyles in PoN do NOT summon. Quadded them by the boatload back in the day. As to HoH basement, it was pretty simple. Lots of druids hunted down there. It's easy enough to tell which ones can't be snared (the white ones). With your calm spell (don't remember the name at that level), you can single pull everything, so just leave the white ones. Then you can root/rot or quad as you wish. If too many whites spawn, then pop a tank merc (not an option when I did it) and take them down the normal way. Back then, I would pull the whites in groups of four, once the room was empty of other mobs, and speed-quad them (unsnared). Since druids can't mez, that's really immaterial.
When I used to kite in HoH, I'd just kite the move speed immune ones. Wasn't really hard. bit tougher than kiting while snared but no biggie..
Exactly. Run speed in PoP (for mobs) wasn't near what it is in newer expacs. And druids automatically have run speed buffs, so staying ahead of them is no biggie.
I was a root/rot specialist but the Northern Section of Garu'kar Mesa and the first part of The Steppes might work for you. Just watch out for the Fae in the Mesa and the Goblins in the Steppes.
first field in PoF, charm a spider or horse and go to town. or if you want to be lazy pop a warrior merc and dire charm one of the little ones. keep working you way further in the zone, castle one mobs are 65 and castle 2 mobs are 68, you will be 70+ in a week or less.
I know this is an old post but I've been looking for xp spots too as a druid. Saw a lot of suggestions for the gargoyles in PoN. How do you even get to them? Everything sees invis and there's stuff everywhere blocking your path to the area where the gargoyles are at. I've never been able to make it over there and I've tried a dozen times. I try going around things but there's no room to get past anything. Always pulling aggro.
Lambro, my new buddy, let me help you with this one I wish there was a way to find my old post describing how to get there, but it was quite a few years ago, and might not even still be here When you zone in, you're in the middle of the west side of the zone (if not and I have my directions mixed, rotate so the side you zone in on is in the west, LOL!) Get SoW and invis and lev, and follow this route: North along the west wall, then east along the north wall, til you hit the chasm/river gorge. You can get there, but there may be some see invis mobs, just take it slow, and con everything you can see along the way. Once at the chasm, don't be TOO close to the north wall, or you may agro some of the mobs above you. Aim across the chasm, and angled a little to the south. Make sure you have lev, and make sure your view is not angled down (i.e. you want to get across as high as possible). Once across, head for the east wall, staying south of the hedge maze (you'll see it on the map). Once at the east wall head south, being careful for a couple see invis mobs at the cave/zone to some instance I forget (PoN-B, maybe?). Once past that, head south til you hit the SW corner of the zone. There's a castle/fort, and the gargs are in/around that. There's enough room on the east and west sides of the fort (on the outside of it) to kite snared gargoyles. As I said, there's see invis mobs sprinkled around this route, but you can make it through. Once you do it a few times, you'll know what to look for and how to wait/get around them. I NEVER was able to figure out a workable route to the south, which would obviously be a much more direct route. Worst case, have Egress mem'ed, and bug out and start again if you need to.
Thanks! I actually kind of figured it out going South. I followed the wall down til the werewolves. Then I went away and around them. Crossed the canyon. Then went back to the wall. Soon as you get to the castle area there's a big patch of spiders waiting for you. Red cons to me. I was able to harmony them and get past them. Whew.
Molo with a rogue merc. In Halls of Honor, at the entrance, there are little Wrulon pups you can dire charm.
Thanks for the tip! Right now BFR is a hotzone so I just went there. Don't remember doing it back then either and was amazed to find a bunch of non aggro animals all over. I instantly started quad kiting and omg this is so quick and easy good xp as these animals don't have many HPs. Any tips on charm killing? I used to do that back in the day and I like doing it but for some reason I can never charm anything. Always fails. And if I do get lucky enough to land it, it literally only lasts a few seconds. I'm spending more time burning through mana trying to charm something than I am actually doing damage to anything.
Druids get a spell to decrease magic resist, but only for animals. Forget the name. Use that on any animal you want to charm. (there's also an item, icon looks like a shell, has a click-cast of this same spell, if you need to save a spell gem. No, don't remember the name of that item, either ) Pick your target, debuff MR, snare, don't charm yet, wait til you have some other animals handy. So, round up some more, do the same debuff and snare. Now, charm one, and tell it to attack one of the others. Forgot: Before this, round them up nice and tight, like when you quad. After the charm and command to attack, keep making circles to keep them tight. At first, they will ignore your pet and keep chasing you, but at some point, they will turn on your charmed pet. Next, BEFORE THAT PET DIES!! cast invis to break the charm. Now, charm another one, and set it on one of the others. But not the one which is mostly dead. Not yet. Once most of them are mostly dead, start using your charmed pets to pick off the low-HP ones. At the end, you should have one left which is mostly dead, and you can finish that off with nukes or DoTs. With some practice, this will result in XP at a faster rate than even quadding
You are awesome thanks! I've charm killed like that before back in the day but honestly never used the MR debuff spell on animals when I did it. At least I don't think I ever did. So that alone is very helpful and I didn't even think about using that! Thanks!! I have been using that spell though for quad kiting. BFR they kept resisting every other spell til I hit em with that. Now to find a zone with at least dark blue mobs cause BFR animals are now light blue. Ding 60!
I don't know how good the xp is at 60 but I did a lot of XPing in Plane of Nightmare back in the day. My favorites were: Quadding werewolves, which are easy to get to. Ravenous nightstalker is their monicker. Charm-kiting using blood ravens. A good camp spot is on the way to the werewolves. Plenty of ravens to charm and you can sic' them onto treants and, indeed, werewolves, if you have a mind to. Fun thing to try is charm a raven, buff it up and send it to attack the foreboding guardians that protect the entrance to Terris Thule's lair. It's a bit of a challenge since they do summon and you'd have to split them. They're flagged as level 65 but I think they're weak for that level. I can't swear this is still true, but I seem to remember if you cast from max distance, should the raven die or break charm, they don't summon you. I guess summoning has a range? I used to do a similar strategy in Plane of Storms, charming frogs, IIRC. Quadding (later quinting) and charm-kiting are class-defining skills for druids, in my book, and a lot more fun than (ugh) root-rotting the necro way lol. I had a lot of fun in this zone back in the day this is why I recommend it, especially if you want "not too challenging" while you learn the intricacies of quadding and charm-kiting. Has a great atmosphere as well... nightmarish but quite relaxing. Happy hunting! PS: If you want to piss off shadowknights working on their 1.5 epic (which as a good druid, you should want to do), you can pull "a gloom nightmare", the cool-looking stallion that hangs out on the plateau near the hobgoblins after the river. Normally you have to make the long dangerous journey thru the hobgoblin-infested tunnels just to get to that plateau. But if you charm a raven and sic' it onto the horsie, he'll kill the raven eventually and then come after you. He takes a while to show because he seems to run the tunnels, effectively, to get to you. But then you can snare and rot him, or if you're really skilled, have another charmed raven to engage.
The Pon charm kiting with crows works- a suggestion, put a snare or even a root on the mob that you're making your pet so when it breaks charm it makes it easier to recharm and pull victim mobs to it when fighting instead of the sic 'em attack style. I spent less time with 2 mobs facerolling me while trying to recharm.
Thanks for the tips! I've always enjoyed quad kiting. It's so easy and fun to see them all die at once and it saves tons of mana. That's what I was doing in BFR as soon as I got my newest AoE that does 800 damage or so. Easy good xp til they turned light blue. I might try PoN now that I know about the magic resist debuff I can use on animals. I hope it helps cause my charm always wears off so fast.
Beg, borrow or steal a luminiscent staff. This is an essential aide for maximal quad-kiting experience. Whenever I made a new druid on a classic server I'd be setting aside plat for this from day one. Oh, the werewolves are charmable, too. I guess they're considered animals. So you can reverse kite with them as well.
Thanks again. Had no clue about either of those lol I just looked up that staff. I'm level 60 now so it probably wouldn't be that good for me now would it? Only doing 150ish damge when my current lightning spell does over 800
