Yet another returning thread(sorry)

Discussion in 'The Newbie Zone' started by RedFalcon, May 2, 2019.

  1. RedFalcon New Member

    I've been playing on and off for some years now, but have never been able to get a good handhold on the game again. I haven't been at level cap since Secrets of Faydwer(80), to give you an idea. It seems like all of the content has turned into full group instances or mobs that kill my merc in seconds.

    I'd like to stick with my Druid main character if possible, and only play 2 accounts(total) with mercs.. am I being unreasonable? I don't really like controlling 3+ characters. It doesn't seem like a lot of Druid+ combos work. I've played Druid/Paladin(no slows), Druid/Shaman(no tank, from what I hear mercs get weaker and weaker from this point out), Druid/Magician(decent utility, but I can't really do tasks..)

    Is one of those combos more viable than I'm giving it credit for? Am I misunderstanding the more modern addons(which seem to want me to do tasks and only tasks)? Is there another class I should try? I've read the various guides on EQResource, Almars, etc and they haven't been working well for me.

    Ideally I'd like to get back to cap(or near it) before I lose the ability to play again.

    I know it's tempting to say 'well join a guild' but I have a condition that means I can't really play consistently(or that well) and don't like subjecting people to that.. doesn't mean I don't still want to see the game.

    Thanks for reading and any input you may have.
  2. Scorrpio Augur

    I took druid/chanter duo with tank and healer mercs to 105 (when it was cap) rather easily...
    RedFalcon likes this.
  3. Qbert Gallifreyan

    I (paladin) used to duo with a druid for years and that worked just fine. It would work even better now with the revamped druid dots presumably. Druid attack debuffs are roughly equivalent to a slow, so you don't truly need it (and the paladin can slow with a proc fairly early on (see willsapper, hammer of the war machine later, belt procs later, etc.).

    All that said, with the pally, they can stun mobs to mitigate a very high percentage of damage if that's the drawback . . . just have to pick stunnable mobs.
  4. CatsPaws No response to your post cause your on ignore

    OK I am a casual player. I do not raid. I have my own guild. So this is not some pumped up Arnold in the game advising you what to do. Although I play many hours I do tons of stuff like tradeskills and quests etc.

    Most of the players who say tank mercs are no good in higher levels are raiders and taking on the latest expansions. Other people play in the wrong zone for their level and wonder why EQ sucks.

    Example my J5 tank merc and J5 healer merc do fine with my 108 ranger and 108 chanter taking on the named in FM. I have a 106 paladin in there also but I am just not that good at 3 boxing so its mainly his caster merc we use. Am I late to the game in that zone? Yes I am - most players were in at level 100. I tried, I wiped, I came back at the higher level and now I can fight in there. This is what playing in your level is about. Where people say you should be may have been where they were and good with their play style but not so good with yours.

    Its best if your a paying account so you can get those J5 mercs at 85. I would suggest you stick with your druid and run a tank merc - make sure you get the merc some armor and apply his AA as soon as you get it. You can heal him. Next I would go with the chanter for slows, mind buffage and tons of other good things they can do - mez, doppelganger etc. You could even run a second tank on the chanter but a caster merc might be more useful.

    Work on augs, armor, goodies with clickies that enhance your combat. All my characters have the cloth cap that is so easy to get during anniversary and casts a little group of things to fight the mob, also get the Necromatic dragon bone and the diplomatic papers and a couple other things in anniversary quests. These are doable at level 80 and can help your combat.
    RedFalcon, Fluid and Shanarias like this.
  5. BlueberryWerewolf Augur

    It is definitely my experience in this game and elsewhere that "[this thing] is worthless" usually means "[this thing] is not maximally optimal". You might have a slower go of things finding your own way, but there are multiple ways to play the game.
    RedFalcon, Shanarias and CatsPaws like this.
  6. Shanarias Augur

    The way I see it, the only *wrong* way to play this game is being inconsiderate of the other players. In other words, some of us just want to "smell the roses", some of us want to get to the level cap as quickly as possible. None of those are wrong. They just differ from one another, and there is room for any of those styles. GRIEFING, on the other hand, is a wrong way to play. Joining a group or raid when you don't have a clue is wrong, as it affects the other members exp, etc.

    Have fun. FV is an interesting server on its own, whether you are a raider or not. VERY helpful players abound there.
  7. BlueberryWerewolf Augur

    I would caveat that joining a group or raid when you don't have a clue is fine if you're up front about it. Not everyone has all 20 years of experience playing the game, and most people I've come across are happy to show people the ropes when they don't know something.
    Annastasya and Shanarias like this.
  8. RedFalcon New Member

    Thanks for the insights. I guess I need to focus on gearing and finding whatever the appropriate niche I *can* fight with my character combos is(and choose a second account character to focus on.)

    I've been trying to knock out some anniversary things(as suggested) while it's ongoing, but I didn't know which quests had the good rewards(it's a lot of information to sort through.) I'll have to dig through everything tonight and see what's possible for me to complete.

    Druid(Tank merc) and Shaman(DPS merc) is the route I'm feeling best about at the moment.

    My Druid's 88 for what that's worth - the last decent amount of XP I've gotten was repeating some task in the Rain of Fear version of Eastern Wastes by aggro kiting some non-summoning magic books that I could solo pull.

    From here on out(90-110), are there any good tasks/factions/armor grinds that are key to progression that 'everyone' knows about? That sort of thing always ends up in a blind spot for me.

    Edit: My Druid(Vomi) played with Shards of Chaos on FV around 2002-2004 on the off chance this reaches anyone I used to know. Hi!
  9. Gana Augur

    The 6th anniversary has a 10-dose xp potion that is doable once per character. That is one of the good ones. It's easy, but possibly time consuming.
    RedFalcon likes this.
  10. Tucoh Augur

    Druid/Paladin and Druid/Mage would be fine.

    Druid/Shaman will be awkward, but if you get good at using root CC a lot of the content will be doable.

    If you're willing to 3 box, good combos with a druid open up a lot because their caster ADPS is considerable.
  11. bigpapa Augur

    I would stick with mage + druid .
    so easy to pull with druid snare and COH from mage

    relaying with a tank merc you will hit a wall later . mage pet will be better than your tank merc and you can control pet too.

    you are still playing your druid { vomi } in FV? will send you a tell if so, there
  12. Fluid Augur

    Yeap, J5 Mercs are the ticket. I've mostly solo'ed/molo'ed a Druid up to ~78 on a free account. It became tedious using an A4<?Silver> Merc at that stage.. Much easier to use a J1 on a paid account and promote them to J5 using the level 85 quest. I don't think you have said your circumstances. A side note, the AAs needed to progress were what killed it fun wise.

    You could still do it w/o paying for two accounts and boxing, but you would need another PC to group with. Grouping in itself with another human being if you can do it is probably the best but toughest to accomplish.

    I always mess up on the names i.e. LDoN, Dailies, et cetera, but I can remember Gribble in the Dead Hills! :) Very easy to get to from the PoK, just a zone stone and a boat ride kind of thing with a bit of running. You don't have to kill everything there, they stuff some killer boss level MOBs in, just do the ones in the list, sneak around the rest. You do HAVE to complete the quest. The experience comes mostly from completing the quest. IIRC, you get near zero from killing a dozen or two MOBs but ~20% when you finish the task. So, 20% a day, level in less then a week of casual play, Can't max your character there but figure with a level every 5 days or so, you would be over 100 in 60 days.

    I'll titrate it a bit so I can give a better answer next time it comes up. Pretty simple to just down grade the Merc to see if they still survive.
    RedFalcon likes this.
  13. Fluid Augur

    Just a Merc follow up. Here and in other threads I have made statements about the relative strengths of Mercs. Just jerking around, I took a level 61 Druid with a level A4 Merc tank Merc into Split Paw after this post. Character and Merc got seriously spanked by a level 66 Air Elemental. It was an OK fight that could have been won. Fight was constant healing with trying to switch targets to apply DOTs on MOB between heals on Tank. Elemental stunned the Druid which prevented casting and things went south really fast after that. Druid was rooted too, so no chance to run/escape. Only thing that prevented death was a split second before Tank dropped, stun broke and character AA gated out. The problem with these types of fights with a weak Merc is you are in harms way constantly. You can't step back to get out of the way of AoE spells because you are constantly healing.

    So a quick trip to your local Merc vendor and a level J1 Merc later I went back to Paw. This time it was not almost a joke, just demonstratively easier. The same exact elemental, Druid still had to DOT the MOB and harm shield the Merc but that was about it. Merc finished the fight at 74% health and there was never any danger of losing the fight. Didn't even have an armor buff or any other buff up on the Merc. Only 2% of a level experience but then Paw isn't exactly a dungeon known for fast leveling, more about loot. Meh, need 50 red conned kills per level at 61.

    Once again, I had about the same experience with other characters and with using J1 Mercs on level 85+ characters. It's not that you can't win a fight or continue to level, just that it becomes tedious at some point. Best partner is real PC fully equipped and maxed. Next best would be the best Merc available as soon as available.
    RedFalcon likes this.
  14. IblisTheMage Augur

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  15. Azareale New Member

    Personally I found that a SK / Druid combo works best for me; although a Mage / Druid combo should work just as well. It would also be better if you're on the FV server to make it a little easier to get your hands on gear which would otherwise be No Trade on the normal servers; plus the permanent increased xp overall helps too.

    Past level 80 things will get hard if you're F2P since the mercs tend to become wet tissue paper tanks around that level unless you subscribe and get the J5 mercs. Bear in mind that once you unsubscribe you lose the J5 tank and also the ability to use the stats on Prestige gear.

    Slows are great but to me (personally) the combo you have now seems to require a lot of work, i.e. you will need to slow, dot and heal a lot between the toons. I have a healer merc on my SK (eliminates me having to heal with my druid until the merc becomes oom), this frees up switching quite a bit as all i need to do is pop aggro spells on the SK, then switch to Druid for reptile, thorns and a couple dots on the mobs, then switch back to the SK to tank properly. On the druid I have a tank merc but he's more of a "Oh crap ! succorsuccorsuccor" so both toons don't die. He stays alive just about long enough for me to succor out of a bad situation.

    Hunt around for alternative locations aside from those mentioned in the guides. I found almost a lot of those locations hard going, do-able but relatively slow mainly because of my gear and aa limitations. I found it easier to find locations with light blue cons since they hit softer and I could pull multiple mobs to make up for the lower xp returns.
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