Leveling up alts on live server

Discussion in 'The Newbie Zone' started by Alnitak, Jul 6, 2022.

  1. Alnitak Augur

    Day1:
    I have decided to make a few supporting alts. After some consideration I've made a chanter, a druid and my wife made 2 druids (one of them is silver account). Principal purpose is to have porters on all accounts and a chanter for buffing convenience. The intention is to level those up to a current max and gain AA's when opportunity presents itself.
    Obviously, 3 druids and a chanter is not an optimal group, but I am on live server, so options are powerful and available.
    First - in Gloomingdale Mines I have approached the banker and did some equipment exchange.
    Each of the new toons got a mount (Heirloom bank transfer), 4 expansion bags (36,36,40,40 slots bought with EoK, RoS, TBL and ToV currency, which was just collecting dust on my mains) and 1 or 2 Extraplanar bags for tradeskillable materiels collection. Food and drink was 2 stacks of Merchant Feast and Brew each toon. I happened to have some Shissar weapons (picked up in Shissar Temple while clearing AoC instances in the past) laying around, so druids got hammers and the chanter got the dagger. Also, each toon got 6 Trio jewelry sets with Underfoot diamonds a day later ( https://items.eqresource.com/items.php?id=37656&aug11=47095 ).
    All and all, at level 2 the toons had 3500+ HME after clicking https://items.eqresource.com/items.php?id=105981 (that's 3000 HME permanent mount buff).
    I could have started leveling in Gloomingdeep, but I just wanted to go to Crescent Reach to meet my mage for the DS (not really helpful, 15 DS Shield of Flame was the only one that landed on lvl 2 toons).
    So I've popped tank and healer mercenaries and began leveleing up.

    Young pumas and bear cubs (levels 2 to 7) were not a problem and died fast, soon lvl 10'ish gnolls followed and then ogre skeletons and zombies. Overall within about 1 hour of fighting my toons reached lvl 20 and I went to PoK for spells and some more equipment. This ended my Day 1.

    Day 2.
    I have made some new equipment for each of the toons: Repeating Crossbow https://items.eqresource.com/items.php?id=81119 . It's 100 sec recast of physical attack at 31 x level damage. 4 toons casted it sequentially and that was a huge boost to group dps.

    The group went to Blightfire Moor to the NW corner to the skeleton tower. We camped the tower entrance. Trash skellies there are lvl 30 or so, with named Sargents at lvl 35'ish. The group of lvl 20 druids was not at risk there. Lvl 20 Journeyman Tank and Journeyman Healer mercenaries could easily handle 3-4 lvl 30 skellies, while 4 toons fired the crossbows at 600+ damage per cast. At lvl 30 I had moved the group to the NE side of the zone to the "white" rat camp. The rodents there are lvl 30-37, not social, not aggressive. Easy camp. I have started killing rats and pulled more skellies from nearby camp. At lvl 35 the camp turned "blue" with occasional white cons.
    At this time I have taken a break to eat and walk my dog later. Overall I've spent about 1 hour in Blightfire to level up from 20 to 35.
    Later in the evening I moved the group to Dulak Harbor and progressed from the entrance and through all the easier boats to Oceancrush, where I hit lvl 40. That took me about 45 mins. This was the end of the day 2.
    At this point I have all the spells up-to lvl 40 on 3 druids and the chanter. No visible armor except 4 pieces total for 4 toons. 6 pieces of Trio jewelry per toon, Mounts, bags and Merchnt edibles. Now lvl 45 DS Shield of Lava (25 DS) lands on the group, but it is not really helpful. I am too lazy to bring in my high-level buffers (Shaman, Cleric, Bestlord, Ranger, Paladin, Chanter etc) so I will rely on group's self-buffing and mage's DS. Will update once I play this group more. (I plan to move to PoI at lvl 46)
    Quatr likes this.
  2. Trevor Elder

    if you have established accounts already, you could just powerlevel yourself using 1 shadowknight + 1 druid(ideal)/mage out of group, and a same-level bard in group

    just pull entire zones, use AE threat spells, sit bard with chords of dissonance on top of them, and then apply a strong damage shield to the shadowknight once all the mobs are tagged
    Tucoh likes this.
  3. Velisaris_MS Augur

    If you use tank mercs, they'll powerlevel you into the 60's without you doing much at all. You'll level so fast that it's pointless to worry about gear (especially if you're just looking for port/buff alts).
    Dre. and minimind like this.
  4. Alnitak Augur

    You are correct. And typically I would power-level my alts with a shrouded character of a higher level: for this group that would be shroud lvl 60, in which case the tank merc lvl 60 would kill anything in Dulak all by itself. And I may resort ot such strategy later on, perhaps at levels 50-55 in Veksar and 55-65 in Ferubi - lvl 70 tank merc can accept lvl 110+ DS from a mage and a ranger. 7K+ DS is brutal on Ferubi mobs and the experience in there is mad fast for 65- levels. And at 65 I'll pick-up the group with my lvl 95 trader for Fortress Mechanouts PL, as I've done it with my alts before.

    However, up to this point I just wanted to level the group, not power level, and see how quick I can do it in terms of playtime without a higher-level character's direct involvement (besides buffs and gear supply).
    So far - a group lvl 40 under 3 hours of playtime of actually playing the toons (not PL'ing).
  5. Loup Garou De loop de loop

    It appears you are not looking for input on what your doing but that you just want to put this out there for others to maybe use?
    Stymie likes this.
  6. Alnitak Augur

    Basically - yes. And you are welcome to point to my omissions or give suggestions. Perhaps I have overlooked something or made some mistakes.
  7. Bernel Augur

    One way to accelerate the leveling process is hunt in the the various hot zones. Supposedly, they still have the enhanced ZEM bonus even if they aren't the designated zone for the hot zone quest of the day.
    Skuz likes this.
  8. I_Love_My_Bandwidth Mercslayer

    This is a good point. What you really want to look for is a hot zone dungeon. Dungeons have a significantly higher ZEM than non-dungeon zones. Then stack the Hot zone ZEM on top. It's fast XP.
  9. Stymie Pendragon

    Since this is a step by step account of your box group's leveling process, have you thought about hitting Infected Splitpaw around 60ish yet? I find it to be the last bastion of decent risk vs reward experience before having to reluctantly hit the 70+ content.

    I ride Splitpaw to as close to 75 as I can before moving on to "Truckland". That's when the mob damage per swing goes up 50+% while the exp per kill drops even harder than that for some odd reason.

    Thanks for sharing by the way. I look forward to your next update. :)
  10. Alnitak Augur

    Day 3.
    Still on Oceancrush ship in Dulak. 55 mins playtime. The group went from 40 to 46. Mobs started to turn blue, if I return to Dulak I'll probably fight on Windscorn ship - the mobs there are up-to lvl 55.

    Still no armor, no changes in weapons. Added another trio bracelet with round-cut opal and emerald and pear-cut star ruby as type 11 - it has Faerune effect, which makes the vision better and had breathing under water possible (in case I'll decide to run to Veksar under water path or run through The Grey to Shissar Temple) . Not a major or meaningful boost - head armor later will have it anyway.

    I went back to PoK to reload spells, memmed up-to 46 and bought all 47-50 in Library to later.
    Now I will think about next step. Back to Dulak? Head to Veksar? Got to PoI or PoDesease? Or just go clear Acrylia Caverns?
    All except AC and PoD are on Franklin Teek's HotZone rotation, as well as Fortress Mechanouts later on, and it does feel that even if it's not current HotZone those still have some extra ZEMs (as mentioned above).
    Inner Acrylia Caverns has 160% experience rate (same as Ssra Temple, ref https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/zem-information.274705/ ), while PoI has and PoDesease is at 160% according to the list https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/zem-values-listed.265773/

    The ZEMs were "normalized" and the info is conflicting in various sources and since I expect to fight about 1 hour per 5 levels I'll probably just "flip a coin" and go to whatever zone I'll feel at the decision time when I play this group again.
    Unless somebody has some solid suggestion where to go to level 46 to 50. My current list is Dulak Harbor, PoI, PoD or Acrylia Caverns. Will decide later.
    Quatr likes this.
  11. kookoo Augur

    i am using a shaman for that , pull mobs to a spot to be killed , pop a malo totem ( to reduce the mobs resists and get some agro, so the lower toon can land ae dd much easier without having much resists who is a problem when killing red cons. then get a high damage shield after the toon did one or 2 , PB ae dd.
  12. Alnitak Augur

    Day 4.
    The group started in Dulak on Windscorn, then Oceancrush. Very few mobs are white con or higher. Experience was meh. Gated out after the second clear. Went to PoI.
    Mobs are white to red con. Not more difficult than Windscorn buccaneers. Mercenaries do just fine.
    1 hr 5 mins total playing time. Went from 46 to 50. Things starting to slow down. Will need to come up with a plan. Franklin Teek is no help with zone selection for 55-60-65.
    So far: from 2 to 50 under 5 hours self-leveling up. I suspect I'll need to employ the shrouded boost soon.
    Quatr likes this.
  13. Alnitak Augur

    Day 5.
    Returned to PoI. 1 round of clearing, about 45 mins total with the Lesson burn. Group went from 50 to 60. Would stay longer but somebody else entered the zone with 120 SK and started mass pulling mobs (hehe, as suggested above).
    Went to Bastion of Thunder for a round of clearing. Killed Earth wing (south) and went to the yard and cleared mephits. Gated to PoK in about 45 mins to end the day in PoK Library loading spells.

    Day 6. Saturday, longer play time.
    Started in Bastion of Thunder, 2 rounds of Earth-Yard clearing. Leveled to 65 without exp boost. Returned to PoK Library to regroup.
    Things started to slow down too much to my taste, about 55 mins for just over 2 levels. Resorted to PL boosts. Lvl 95 shaman with tank merc buffed with top mage's DS.
    Went to Fortress Mechanouts, current HotZone, first level off the elevators. Bunch of gnomes lvl 78-82.
    Burned the Lesson for 30 minutes, cleared the level 4 times total. About 1 hour and 30 mins playtime. Leveled up from 65 to 74. Returned to PoK Library to chat with Falmonius.
    My mage went to Shard's Landing and to GD, ran to Huber, killed 7 or 8 books, turned in 6 pages, got the tome, gated back to PoK. All in about 15 mins including running. 56% of lvl 74 as the task reward.
    Repeated for "Wood you help me" in Evantil. My wizard ported the group to the tree branch ledge near the quest gnome and one of my druids bound there, easy logistics now.
    Another 56% in about 20 mins.
    5 hours task timer lock out.
    Went to TBM to do Into The Temple for the mirror fragment. Added 10% of the level and unlocked the aug merchant in PoHealth. Bought entire gear set from the frog in PoTranquility for less than 250 Remnants. Nice focus level 110 on the gear, beats Elegant Defiant etc..
    Didn't play small group after that.
    5 hours later - 2 more tasks turn-in. another level up.
    Ended the day at lvl 76 +.

    The group has about 12 hours play time. Lvl 76 now with TBM gear from the merchant.
    Quatr likes this.
  14. kookoo Augur

    that should not happen , when i am pwling alts or friends , i am checking if more are in zone, and be sure to not killing where they are killing if so, or i just go to another zone,
  15. Tucoh Augur

    I had a lot of fun powerleveling a group of f2p buff characters (that I've literally never used...) using an "in-group" druid to cast Tremor (PBAE) on magic debuffed mobs and then a "out-of-group" necro to cast sphere of decay away from them and feign death. The tank then pulls them into the sphere and boom. This is way faster than a damage shield, which means you can power-lvl higher before it starts to become a chore. I can't remember what I did pre-21 to level them up. Bards's dissonance song works well but I didn't have a bard in my group.

    I collected videos of each pull but got lazy and never combined them. The results were pretty spectacular. Sorry to everyone I disrupted and lagged out pulling as many mobs as I could in each zone until they started breaking down.



    Another really effective way to plvl alts/buffbots that many folks don't know about is using Fellowship XP. Overseer makes it easy to slowly march through the higher levels also.
    Hobitses and Quatr like this.
  16. Trevor Elder

    my powerlevel path has been AE + damage shield zones until 56, group with 85 twinked paladin that can solo hills of shade undead until 80, then gates of kor-sha headshotting with 110 rangers until 90, then gorowyn headshotting with 115/120 rangers for higher

    not sure how it compares to sphere, but you can get to 100+ in a day once you get it set up
  17. Tucoh Augur

    I bet that sphere beats the twinked paladin and may get overtaken by the headshotting 110 ranger. Besides the setup time, stuff starts to slow down a lot when you need multiple spheres to kill a mob and when you have to reduce the number of mobs you pull because of damage on the tank. And the setup I had involved a whole group of players (necro, tank, shaman, enchanter) supporting my plvl'd characters. Just mashing through undead with an OP paladin would be way more enjoyable.
  18. Alnitak Augur

    Day 7. Sunday.
    It seems I have settled on the routine: Evantil + Falmonius quick tasks for about 90-95% of the level at lvl 76, then get the daily from Franklin Teek (these days lvl 80 is reavers in Fortress Mechnous) and head to the zone. Get on the elevator and start the Lesson. In 30 mins + Daily task reward it's about 2 levels. Group turned lvl 78 in about 1 hr of playtime. Repeated the cycle (minus the lesson) in 5 hours. Ended the day lvl 80.
    Day 8.
    Did the routine again. Got the group to 83++ in the Fortress.
    Now, things have slowed down a lot. 2 tasks combined give about 45% of the level reward. And most of the gnomes turned dark-blue with a few rare white-cons.

    My current problem - I only have lvl 95 shaman to PL. All my other toons are lvl 120 (except 1 lvl 115). And the merc gets hard time killing even HoT trash - takes too much time to kill, dps is low even with 8K damage shield.
    It seems I'll have to "struggle" my way to lvl 85 and then I'll have to come up how to use that 115 to PL (the problem - it's on the same account as a new toon)
    It seems on Wednesday I'll get new tricks to use on lvl 85 group. So far, playing time about 16 hrs.
  19. Alnitak Augur

    Day 9.
    I've decided to just keep doing what's working to reach lvl 85: TaskAdds to RoF tasks (Falmonius and Wood quest in Evantil) every 5 hours and Lesson burn in Fortress Mechanous with Franklin Teek's task (this month it's in the Fortress) in between.
    Had the group to lvl 84+75% in about 1 hour of play and decided to do one of the Bixie Warfront's tasks for bonus from Clayton Teek. 4 toons lvl 84 with very bad gear were led by a lvl 95 trader shaman in equally bad gear into a fight for their survival.
    Bixie trash in the task was coned lvl 93-95 for that group. They were not a pushover. Max buffed lvl 95 Journeyman tank mercenary with all wonderful ToL buffs was fighting like hero every fight (under 100K HP, less than 7K AC). The shaman was busy healing it full time (I admit, the shaman is just an auto-granted trader, really, really sucky shaman). Some mistakes were made, couple times the group wiped.
    Good thing - the recovery and logistics was simple: summon corpse in the guild lobby, rebuff and ask Clayton Teek to teleport back to the quest-giver.
    The experience reward was not really pleasing - about 40% with Clayton's bonus for about of 1 hour of real fight. Instant Gratification that is not. I had to rethink my plans.

    After the group dinged 85 new option opened up for it - real PL with lvl 115 geared-up monk.
    Today's Clayton's bonus was for Marla's task in Ethernere Tainted West Karana. The group was 3 lvl 85 druids, lvl 95 shaman and lvl 115 monk with the healer mercenary. The chanter had to be benched offline (it's on the same account with the monk).
    Somebody could possibly heal the monk with the shaman and use a dps merc instead, but I am not that good at healing when boxing.
    The bonus task was the second in the progression, so I had to do the first task from Marla to unlock it.
    The monk had no problems at all doing it molo, not even a chance for those lvl 99-100 trash even when they came in a large pack.
    The reward for the first task was dismal, about 15 % of the level for a 20 minute work. And the offline chanter got basically nothing - 0.07 % of the level, but it got currency and the checkmark for the task.
    The second task, which was actually the bonus task from Clayton went similarly - done in about 20 minute by molo monk. The task steps are randomized, I had to kill 8,14,10,14 trash. Had to run around the zone. With the bonus it was 43% of the level for online driuids and 20% for the offline chanter (the bonus was given in full while the base task reward was nerfed). Ended the day close to lvl 86 for the druids and about 40+% for the chanter.

    My goal is to level up the group to lvl 90, when I can replace the shaman with lvl 120 mage, so I can do some real PL to reach lvl 100 as fast as I can. I plan to use daily bonus tasks from Clayton and supplement that with Dead Hills runs, while using Lesson wisely. In my experience DH runs from Skulk and Captain have better experience rewards than Bixie and ETWK tasks. But it depends on Clayton Teek. And I need those bonuses to help my struggling chanter.

    Also, I've put the chanter into the main fellowship. Burned the Lesson in Basilica . I typically get around 100 AA in those 30 mins in there. 3 toons were sharing it with the chanter, which gathered just a tiny sleeve of Vitality as the result (not even a small notch, just a visible green flake). I don't know how many kills that vitality will last. Will find out Tomorrow.

    I expect I'll have lvl 90 group by the weekend to put some play time in it then.
  20. Tucoh Augur

    Other than the 120 mage, 95 shaman and 115 monk what characters do you have?

    Leveling really slows down around now and casual leveling via Overseer starts to get really attractive, but there are still some things you can get done. I know the druids/enchanter are just intended to be support classes, but 3 druids and an enchanter might also be fun to level without powerleveling if you wanted to, especially with an out-of-group shaman healing/buffing/slowing/maloing.
    Stymie and code-zero like this.