Specific question about Gribble HA Into the Hills

Discussion in 'The Newbie Zone' started by Jadius, May 15, 2021.

  1. Jadius New Member

    I duo a non-heroic 86 SK + non-heroic 86 Shaman on FV. Currently wearing Recondite and equivalent non-prestige pieces in all slots on both characters. SK is silver with 1k well-placed AA's, with 2.0 epic. Shaman is FtP w/ 200 AA (placed as well as can be...) also with 2.0 epic. He's basically just there to slow, buff, DOT a bit, and drop a heal now and then. I realize I'm limited in what I can do unless I sub and auto-grant, but I'm trying to get to 90-95 before I do that so I can maximize the AA's I get.

    I've been leveling by doing the daily hot zone quest and then running the "Into the Hills" HA which goes just fine, if a little slow. However the other night I attempted to kill Bloodsucker (conned yellow) and he absolutely murdered me. I had a similar experience with Deathcaller Xylok.

    I've done some research both on the forums and elsewhere and it seems that there are tuning issues with the HA's related to people using them to level vs. using current content. Are they all still tuned badly right now? I don't have too much trouble with the trash mobs, the named just seem to be vastly more powerful than they should be. Should I just avoid doing the HA's altogether? I've tried doing the Daily Adventures quests but those seem to be for much higher level characters. What's the best way to get to 95ish without just grinding day in and day out in a hot zone?

    Thanks in advance,
    Jadius
  2. CatsPaws No response to your post cause your on ignore

    You know you can stay in those daily hot zones and keep getting bonus exp - it does not stop when the kill 5 is done. Its just not part of the quest.

    Keep doing the Gribbles if you can handle them- just avoid the named until your higher, that is what I did.

    Now I am many levels higher and have gone back and smashed those named:p

    Every player has different interpretations or views or opinions on HA tuning, retuning, which ones, and how often. Personally I jump around until I find something fun to do and get exp also. Otherwise I get burned out staying in one zone over and over. Every player is different and most of the beginning info on HA is based on raid geared players. So don't pay too much attention to "tuning" cause it was never what they said for me.

    When Clayton Teek gives you a hot zone try to do the Bixie and Tainted Karana ones. Those were far easier for me than Gribbles at the start.

    Don't forget to use your overseer. Get as many quests as you can before you log off each night and when you log back in the next day get the rewards and set up for the next overnight. Always take the top listed experience reward unless you really need one of the others. And always have your merc out - passive or active doesn't matter. Don't bother with the merc aa exp listed for now. These can get you 3% depending on which it is.

    Finally there are other zones to explore and doing quest in almost every zone will get you exp. In your map is a zone guide in the upper right corner - click that and it shows you a list of almost every zone in EQ. The levels are listed too. Look at where else you can go - you might find a sweet spot.
    Sprooce and Jadius like this.
  3. Jadius New Member


    Yep I do know that Hot zones have an XP bonus regardless of the quest. I typically will go to the current hot zone, kill 4/5 of the target, then pop Lesson and stick around for the duration and kill as much as possible. Depending on how sick I am of the zone after that I might go do an HA. I was just curious if there's something more efficient/better I could be doing, and also whether or not it's common to struggle with the named in the HAs.

    I have been overlooking Overseer for sure, I had forgotten about it, I'll definitely start using that.

    Thank you for the suggestions!
  4. Asqelon Apprentice

    I recently started with Gribble HAs with 88 MAG, 88 ENC and 87 SK, all auto-grant AAs in HoT T3 gear. Can kill the named mobs there, though they hit remarkably harder than their brothers in eg. the Grounds. So I can imagine that you have issues with them.
    My plan is to do the 2 Gribbles and 1 or 2 from Marla in ETWK for the next few levels. It is still the best exp imo and rather easy. Although it is repetitive, for me it‘s less of a grind than killing nameless mobs in a zone forever.
    If you can‘t kill the named mobs just skip them, as long as you can efficiently do the HAs (i.e. 45min or less) you will level quite fast.
  5. Velisaris_MS Augur

    I leveled a rogue from 110 to 115 primarily via Overseer. I did it during a bonus xp period, and that boosted the rewards from Overseer. I *think* things like Lesson/potions also work with Overseer xp rewards.

    Overseer definitely helps.
  6. Tatanka Joe Schmo

    I thought I tested it with Lesson, and there was no boost to Overseer rewards.

    Server-wide bonuses (bonus weekend, anniversary, etc) definitely DO apply to Overseer.

    Haven't used XP pots in years, so no opinion on that one.

    I leveled 3 chars completely from 111 to 115 using Overseer, and it didn't take all that long (about 5 weeks) and I was not even remotely trying to really maximize the XP over time. I did, however, have Overseer mission types pretty much maxed, and had all or most of the agents.
    Velisaris_MS likes this.
  7. Hythloth New Member

    Here's my usually plan to level around 85-95ish.

    Get the daily missions from Clayton Teek.
    Right before the final kill/hail of your daily mission, pop LOTD on all your characters.
    Finish the daily and port out to POK, you should have 29 minutes on your LOTD.
    Run to gribbles and finish a mission with LOTD still running.
    That should be a huge chunk of a level.

    If you don't want to mix in the daily missions. You can run Gribbles#1, before the final hail pop LOTD, exit and finish Gribbles#2.

    To mix things up when LOTD isn't running, do Marla Gaslow HA's in ETWK.

    I would upgrade my tanks gears every 5 levels, and my healer/dps's gear every 10.
    Jadius likes this.
  8. Hythloth New Member

    Also, I had issues killing Bloodsucker and other named until I was closer to 95 if I recall correctly.
    Jadius likes this.
  9. CatsPaws No response to your post cause your on ignore

  10. Jadius New Member

    So another quick question about Overseer - I started it on one character and got to the point where I could send all my agents on missions with durations ranging from 6-12 or so hours. The next day I took the XP rewards for all of them and if I remember right it ended up being about 2 or 3% of 86 total for all of the rewards combined. I know it was no effort to get that except some clicking, but that seems kind of low, especially given people are leveling from 111 to 115 solely through Overseer.

    Do the XP rewards increase as you continue further along in the Overseer quests?
  11. Riou EQResource


    It is % based so will stay the same % per level (higher levels of course means this is better relative), but higher level and higher tier stuff can give more base

    Generally there you should get like 5-10% per 12 hour rotation if you keeping up with 2 rotations per day
    Jadius likes this.
  12. Jadius New Member


    Okay great, 5-10% per day is much better (for the effort involved). I must be still in the beginning stages of it and haven't unlocked enough stuff yet.

    Thanks!
  13. Jumbur Improved Familiar

    Keep in mind that 5% xp at 111+ takes AGES if you just kill mobs, so a %based xp-reward through a hell level is pretty good.
  14. Phiyre Augur

    Before wasting time w/ a named like bloodsucker, it's always a good thing to look at the loot table. A lot of these guys drop prestige loot which is worthless for a free player. If you plan on actively subbing, it might be worth while, but if not, chances are nothing will drop that you can use. A lot of loot is like that down the road too so it pays to know your plan (active sub or not) before you go chasing after named, certain quests/augs etc.
  15. Velisaris_MS Augur

    Well, if you're working on Hunter achievements, have to kill the named regardless of loot.
  16. Phiyre Augur

    true, though i saw nothing indicating they were working on hunter ach. i know many people who go the route of hunter ach just get higher lvl than the area and wipe everything out w/ ease.