This level range is by far is the worst part of EQ. 60-80 and the corresponding aas. Without a powerlevel is what separates men from boys. I've seen countless people drop of in this level range. This is the part of the game that EQ needs to address with a higher level of urgency, imo. 1-60 is fun and efficient, 80+ you can get at least HOT groups, 60-80 is a forgotten part of the game, where many poor souls drown in boredom and eventual departure.
Being a 71 Beastlord, I'd have to agree with this. Although, I have come back after many years. I can't imagine starting a new toon now. Yeah, mercs will get you to 60-65, then what? There are very, very few groups and not every class can solo at these levels. I am grateful that I can, but it's very long, and very boring. I've been trying to get more people I know to start the game again, but haven't had much luck. Still love this game. I'd rather grind it out alone on EQ than deal with all the nonsense on a WoW server, that's for sure. I'm not really sure how they can address this without finding a way to bring more people back to EQ. Which, is kind of the problem in and of itself. Very few real "new" players. They're just coming back, mostly for nostalgic purposes. Upgrade the graphics? Spend some money on advertising? Not sure what would bring new people in.
I'd have to say 75th to 90th are the current "hell levels." You certainly would want to branch out, but two zones offer everything you need for 60th to 75th: The Hole and Splitpaw. These are great places to work aa and if they're overcrowded move to a hotzone or something. 75th to 80th wasn't terrible, but 80th to 90th is a crawl. Note that I'm talking about soloing, moloing, and your average pick up groups.
I have a ton of alts in the 75-90 range. I just end up getting bored with them. The levels take too long. Grouping is really difficult to find if you're guild isn't active in those ranges. Power leveling isn't an option for everyone. So I spend most of my time on my enchanter, which I guess is a good thing.
60-70 isn't such a big deal - much slower than 1-50, of course, but not all that much slower than 50-60. I agree that 70-75 is probably toughest, although 75-80 isn't much easier.
My monk is currently floundering at 72. I could easily get into a Farm group in DSH, but burned out on that. So, yes, I could vault to 80, but that would mean tedious grinding. I normally box the second account for leveling, and I have the mage (who is doing VoA progression now) and my 83 Beastlord (doing HoT progression now) to box with the monk on my main account, but I like running my 100 Bard and boxing the other account. Anymore, the bard pulls, does melody, and I DPS on the Beast or Mage.
75 is a huge milestone if you can get the j5 quest done. Things speed up fast from there. But i know the j5 is not doable without some help.
They aren't 'Hell Levels', they're just the first levels where you actually have to start playing the game as intended.
I would agree with this assertion. That level range is just about when the tank merc becomes next to useless in level appropriate content. I don't understand how folks get "burned out" on the same zones. Did anyone play prior to SoD? Heck, I remember 56-60 in Velketor's Labyrinth and Fungus Grove way back when. Level 59 called and said 'you don't know what a hell level is'. I swore if I never saw another white spider or shroom (or got ice cometed by a freakin' flower), it would be too soon. I get PTSD flashbacks whenever I go back home to Everfrost! I think it's a mind trick. Way back when, the levels didn't seem quite as long as they were (with a couple of exceptions) because, for the most part, you were trooping through them with other people. Remove that social part and things seem to be rougher than they actually are. I love the 70s, since there is such a wide variety of places to go for decent to great xp, it is possible to fly from 70 to 80 without seeing or dealing with another person. If nothing else, the Forgotten Halls are always available so grinding a few hundred AA there (the mobs cap at level 65 which is still in the bonus range for level 70, no?) is always a fallback option. How exactly would 'EQ' address that level range? New content targeted there? It'll be overrun by PLers and farmers or people well beyond that level range looking for the path of least resistance.
Getting burned out is interesting for me. I've been playing the game since 99, so I remember when there were very few zones up to level 50, and back then it took forever to get the levels. When Kunark came out, it was awesome!!!! I made sure to get keyed for all the zones. If I were to be able to check where I've spent most my time in this game up to 2002, it would easily be: Lower Guk, Karnor's, Howling Stones and Old Seb for the higher levels. For lower levels it was Oasis of Marr, Mistmore, Unrest, Karana's. Now, of those, I still bring alts to Old Seb, HS and Guk. Those were great dungeons!! The open zones? Not so much. There's something about the Kunark dungeons that made them great that I can't explain, and LGuk is a seriously classic zone that was such a challenge back in the day (Hell, getting to a camp was a chore sometimes!), it still brings back fond memories. Luclin dungeons were terrible, in my opinion. I don't recall ever liking any of them. Gates Of Discord was a rotten expansion (I think I quit for that expansion like I did for Luclin), and I didn't like those zones either as the names for everything just seemed like they threw Scrabble tiles at the wall and accepted whatever stuck. Omens of War brought it back for me again, good stuff in that expansion. But I digress. I can get bored of certain zones, and at higher levels, when the XP really slows down and I'm forced to stay in the zone longer, I get squirrelly. Interesting thing about that, I've spent months in The Warrens now getting my mage and beastlord leveled, and I don't seem to care one way or the other, but DSH just doesn't do it for me. Maybe it's outdoor zones that I don't like, deep down, I'm just a dwarf at heart.
Level 61 is when you can get 672hp/tic and 289ds buffs (Druid Rk.2) that last over an hour. Unsuspending your buffed merc once the buffs fade on your character effectively doubles the duration of the buffs. Level 79 the best weapons from permanent group content look like this one: Tae Ew Trapper's Blade 1HS ID: 41386 DMG: 30 Delay: 18 Ratio: 1.67 Disease DMG: 1 AC: 26 HP: 391 + 3/tick MANA: 396 + 3/tick END: 396 ATK: 15 Required level of 71. Recommended level of 76. Class: WAR, RNG, BRD, ROG Level 80 you jump to the following with the stat jump occuring in all slots: Blade of Tortured Souls 1HS ID: 120151 DMG: 63 Delay: 24 Ratio: 2.63 AC: 50 HP: 959 + 3/tick MANA: 928 + 2/tick END: 928 ATK: 22 Required level of 80. Recommended level of 85. Class: WAR, RNG, BRD, ROG Whenever the buffs no longer provide you with a satisfactory rate of XP gain make a beeline for Level 80 without gaining any more AA. Getting Level 61 and 80 on any standard server are by far the largest power gains in EQ. FV server has a more gradual gear curve ramping up to Level 80, no clue on the likelihood of getting high end buffs on Test, Zek, Vox and Trak and with a level cap of 70 this thread doesn't apply to the progression servers.
Nairna, Can you please post some of these places that you love for the level range 70-80? I am looking to experience new places. And since you said you may not see another person, I'm assuming these zones are soloable (albeit it may or may not be efficient).
I'm sure it's different for everyone. Like I mentioned before, I like dungeons, maybe it's from spending my youth in the 70's and 80's (the decades, not the levels) playing D&D and doing dungeon crawls. EQ did a great job of bring the dungeon crawl experience to life. But, I digress, first, let's see what zones are available at those levels: http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/zlvlchart.html (Alla's is my go to for almost all my information for leveling) You have to kind of know your stuff, because that zone chart has temporary zones (like the upgraded Crushbone on it) and also states places like racial cities (because some of the NPC's can be killed for XP at those levels), so we'll just forget them. We have to go all the way down the chart to Planes of Power (that's listed as Power on the chart) in order to start seeing zones that offer 'camping' at level 70, but truthfully, those were somewhat raid zones, and though you don't need to be keyed to get in anymore, many of the Named mobs are raid targets, and possibly undoable at 70-80 solo or molo. Below that, we see Gates (blech) and Omens zones with lots to choose from! Dragons Of Norrath also offers zones for doing one off missions for your faction that's similar to LDoN: Go kill a named mob or set number of mobs, turn in faction piece when done. They are fun, and I've done a few for leveling. I've gone back as level 100 to get a bunch of points to buy weapons and shields for my house, but that's off topic. Depths Of Darkhollow is pretty empty these days, lots of camps to choose from and there are those Evolving Items for folks to level up into cool items. Mind you, they're sorely outdated almost totally across the board, and they'd be nothing more than bragging pieces of equipment. Prophecy Of Ro also has some zones, to play in. I've done extensive work on those zones back in the day to get character flagged, and then I quit the game again for a few years. Upon returning and working on alts, I have found zones in The Serpent Spine to be fun, offer quality loots with crafting them, and they are fun. Verigalid Mines is a fun zone, and I've spent many, many hours in Direwind Cliffs. There are some fun quests to do in DWC, as well. I'm spent some time in Valdholme, but it's kind of boring (to me at least). Moving down the chart some, you'll find Seeds Of Destruction. I really hit my stride here doing quests, leveling alts and having an all around great time. From Oceangreen Hills to Blackburrow to the Temple Of Bert, and moving through all the zones in the Void, I've done them all. The great thing about this is you get Chronobines (I believe that's the currency for the expansion), and though by the time you get enough faction to buy equipment from Zeb, you've already outgrown in, those Chronobines can be used to pay your house rent per week. I have THOUSANDS of Chronobines, and I can pay for my house for like a Decade with them, hahahaha! I highly recommend these zones! Travel around, go see the world, fight some monsters, see what ya like. Click on the zone in the zone guide and see if there are some beneficial quests for you to do. By all means, have fun with it. My fun was found in Seeds Of Destruction, but that's just me, we all play our games they way we like to, and you may find Gates Of Discord the best zones (my least favorite). Enjoy!
It all depends on your class of course as to which levels are harder. With caster classes I find 60 to 75 much slower because defiant armor doesn't do hardly anything to increase their dps. I think some people need more of a "just do it" attitude. Some people will spend hours looking for that perfect group that has really great exp, where others will go find some light blues somewhere and just start killing. Ultimately I think the ones who just go kill stuff end up with far more experience than those constantly on the move looking for that "perfect" group.
In the lower 70s, I spent a lot of time doing the HJ quests in The Buried Sea. That'll get you a full set of Hero's Armor (the visible pieces, anyway) and a pretty nice aug if you collect the fingerbones. The XP was pretty good.
This was the case for many, I'd say. I mean, pre-Kunark, if you didn't spend tons of time in LGuk (or Sol B), you probably weren't anywhere near 50 (or you were killing dorfs in Butcherblock). I dunno. When I think about how active LOIO was or how hot the giant fort in Frontier Mountains was or how packed with people the Dreadlands around Karnors was (since no one hunted the snow area due to Gorenaire), the outdoor zones weren't that bad. Also remember that most Kunark dungeons, at the beginning, were only used to teleport out of (since the Kunark evacs could only be case from inside a dungeon). Many of Kunark's dungeons sucked before they were revamped, with probably the best revamp being John Capozzi's job on Chardok. Remember the horrific pathing in Nurga and Droga? I guess it's just perspective. I remember spending inordinate amounts of time in a handful of zones over the years. Howling Stones (I was a rogue at the time), Velks, Fungus Grove (because it was the only zone in the game that a war/rog could solo in, with help from a fungi tunic), pre-revamp Acrylia Caverns (puller for AE groups), and omg, LGuk (where winning the roll on loot was srs biznss). As for what zones I love in the 70-80 range, hang on. In no particular order: - Draniks Hollows (instanced, no competition for spawns, my group could just hang out in here and shoot the **** while XPing) - Ruined City of Dranik (same reason as the Hollows) -Riftseeker's Sanctum (still good XP to 80) -Loping Plains (not gators or undead, treants and bears and frogs by the druid ring. Good for cash loot (bear teeth sell for up to like 70pp each and look up 'faydwer diamond'), rogue poison mats, fletching mats (especially for the druzzil bow, which is possibly the successor to the elemental plane bows, so still useful in this level range), and there's a quest for the 'pile of wood' the treants drop - Hills of Shade (my 87 Paladin has loved this zone since the mid-70s) -Mechamatic Guardian (see Dranik's Hollows but add that the loot is even better, with a chance for some awesome rare zonewide drops (augs, shrink clicky, etc) -Gyrospire Beza & Zeka - 'scouting' and 'did we forget the cheese' versions (see Mechamatic Guardian) -Crystallos (just a great looking zone that's challenging but rewarding. You can kill the goos near the entrance in DSH for good xp until you're ready to take the plunge and go inside) -Forgotten Halls (good solo xp for EVERY class up until around 80) As you can probably tell, I prefer instanced zones since there are few things worse than running out of mobs just when your group hits their groove. You also don't have to worry about your camp being stolen or having to maintain a certain kill rate so others don't think the camp is unoccupied or insufficiently killed. I've had several experiences with PLers who can wipe an entire zone clean (like Griegs) so being able to avoid that is important to me. Another thing to keep in mind is the fact that I play on FV so items you might have to let rot (due to being no drop, like the Humanoid Reductionizer), I can still take with me and bazaar. One last thing is, most of the time, I run 2-4 characters and invite LFG folks when available. That might differ for folks who might be moloing (Crystallos would probably be right out for 70-80). But most of these places are easily moloable, if not outright soloable (Forgotten Halls bats & rats hit for nothing and next to nothing).
Pizacatto/Sleppen/Nairna, Thank you for such detailed responses! I haven't had time to play in a few days, but I must admit I am very excited to get some solid playing time in tonight. PS. Nairna, I also spent an inordinate amount of time in Velks Lab. I remember I quit the game after I got so burnt out from being in that zone every time I played. The funny thing about that memory, is that every time I re-activate, it's one of the few zones I always remember how to return to and I still drop in for a bit.
This is truth, I spent a ton of time in LOIO at the Sarnak Fort, killing giants in Frontier Mountains and who can forget The Overthere. To this day I HATE fighting on hills, just ask anyone in my guild about the epic rants I go on when people are standing on walls with a merc attached to them, hahahaha! There are some zones I do need to check out. Riftseeker's upstairs is fun, I've gotten some pretty good beatdowns in the ice areas. I have never been to Hill Of Shade, Mechamatic Guardian, Gyrospire or Crystallos. Without cheating by looking them up, I can honestly say I have no idea where they are, but will be traveling to them tonight to check them out! Thanks, Nairna!
