I have a few questions, but first some info: Context: - I just made 3 Heroic level 100 toons with 3 Merc's. I am multi boxing a full group of 6. - I play on a live sever. Bertoxxulous. - I am a lifelong EQ2 player. So my assumptions are based on this world view. - I have leveled many EQ1 characters to level 65 simply by grinding mobs. I rarely do quests, but I will happily do them if the XP gets better at higher levels. - I saw an EQ1 video of someone grinding mobs at 120 and they got 0.17% XP per kill. Terrible, I don't want to grind that much. - I saw an EQ1 video of someone saying OverSeer Quests were the best way to get XP. Super lame if true. I'd hope mobs and quests are the main way. Questions: 1) In EQ2 you stop getting mob XP at level 100 and are forced to do the Signature quest line to gain experience. Does this happen in EQ1? If so, at what level? 2) Assuming I must start following the expansions quest line at some point, is a good place to start Rain of Fear? (it's level 95-100) If so, where and how do I start the quest line for "Rain of Fear"? If not, where and how do I start if the correct expansion? 3) Perhaps this should have been the first question, does EQ1 even have a signature quest line (or main story) for each expansion, similar to EQ2? 4) My Merc's seems to be heroic themselves. Is that true? They suddenly have gear and look different. What's the deal with my new Merc's? Any additional information on my path to max level would be great. Thank you.
2) Yes, the best thing to do is start following expansions' quest lines. As for which expansion to start with, I cannot say. I guess Rain of Fear is fine. 3) I've never played EQ2, so I can't compare things. Basically, for EQ: Start with the beginning zone in each expansion. Get the mercenary and partisan quests for that zone (use the Achievements window to find them). Do those quests. Then move to the next zone in the expansion. Rinse and repeat. EQ Resource and Allahkazam's are helpful, For those links and more, see Fanra's EverQuest Wiki. 4) Mercs are always the same level as you are. Gain a level and they gain a level. Lose a level and they lose a level. Any gear you see on them is just for appearance and does nothing. You can get gear for them that does help them, but it does not change their appearance any. See: https://everquest.fanra.info/wiki/Mercenary_equipment There is a lot of information out there. I recommend: Beginning players' guide Intermediate players' guide Advanced players' guide
I would go back a few expansions so you can cruise thru them and get some Heroic AA's. You will likely need some of the other knowledge you gain from doing this in later expansions. Like how to attune your characters to zones. So start with COTF https://everquest.allakhazam.com/wiki/eq:Progression_Through_Call_of_the_Forsaken Or just look at your /ach (you can type that in the chat line) or click the "achievement" button on your character screen. Go to the expansion list on the side and click which ever your interested in. There you will see different category like mentioned above, the mercenary and partisan quests. Then you can google for walk thru of each one. EQ resource is another good walk thru since for many of these it includes maps of each step. But every expansion has a walk thru - like for the one you mentioned you would just google "rain of fear walkthru in eq" or "progression" and use any of the returns or all of them Bonzz has some good stuff too. Overseer is a good way to get exp but it basically runs in the background. Its passive. Not something you sit and watch. You set it up to run for 6/12/24 hours and go do something else. When the time is up or you remember then you collect the rewards (exp/collections/etc) and set it up again.
Ah, forgot to check. Anniversary is on right now and you want to make sure you get all your guys the Drunkard's Stein before it ends on May 10th. Its the best port in the game. This is a walk thru of the short version just to get the stein. The real quest can be done but its very long. First, go to Brasse in Plane of Knowledge, next to the brewing vendor (Berina) by the small bank. Buy around 20-30 Ogre Swills from Berina; drink a couple till your drunk. At level 100 you already have the alcohol skill but you need to be drunk to ask for the quest. Hail Brasse, and follow instructions - she likes Ogre Swills, so give her one, then give her a full stack, although this part may not be needed - you’ll know after the hail. You should get the Pub Crawl shared quest, along with anyone else in your group. Next, go to Abysmal Sea (use the Magus in the Guild Lobby first go to Nedaria and then that Magus will send you to Ab Sea.). Galdorin Visigoth is directly ahead of you (west), down one level in the brew pub area. Make some hot keys for each one of these on its own line and this is the order you will need: /say my stinky stein has rough dirty lips /say but she loves a deep carouse /say beer or ale are her great trips /say no matter how many vows /say I make or break, my drinking glass /say reminds me of my lovely Brasse. Now hail Galdorin and wait for him to start singing. When he says the line then you click your hot button basically repeating what he said. If you got it then he will smile at you. And go to the next line. Sometimes he is stubborn and won't start singing so then you need to throw a bottle at him. Target him, click a bitter brew, put the bottle in your inventory, and right click it. It will throw it at him The stein will automatically appear on your cursor after the last line if you were quick. If not, no problem you can try again.
In EQ, the equivalent to the Signature quest line is the Progression achievements which include the Partisan (usually story-based), Mercenary (usually kill 10 rats type), Mission (often with prerequisites in partisan and mercenary), and Raid related achievements that are cumulative in the Champion, Paragon, Master, and others under the General achievements for the expansion. You do still get XP for kills in EQ. However, raw amount of XP you need for a level vs the amount of raw XP you get per kill (white con or higher) do not follow the same trajectory with an exponential number of kills per level needed. Completing achievements for the expansion gives a % of a level and, for some, that % increases substantially the higher your level when you complete. For example, collections at level 100 give less % XP + AA than completing the exact same collection at 120. I've been noting the difference in the number of AA given. At level 100, you get 10 AA for a collection but 21 at level 125. There is a similar rise in the XP%. But, it is easy to see the XP per kill does increase because of AA which are always at the same amount for level 51 raw XP no matter the level of the character. The exponential increase in raw XP per level vs the amount of raw XP you get per kill, though, is why it appears the kill XP drops off in CoV and later (110+). Overseer, like quests in the task system, gives a % of a level vs a raw amount which is also why it appears to be a better option for XP gain than just kill grinding. But, if you have a newly minted 100 that skipped early content, all those quests and such from the earlier expansions as well as most Event content, including the Anniversary quests, will give you a % of XP (and often a number of AA), even if the kills are all grey to you. The % of XP to level might be more than a lower level character as well. A newly minted level 85 or level 100 has far more avenues to gain XP for upgrade than someone who has been playing through all those levels without a boost. You have oodles of achievements for XP you can get. You are not limited in anyway to just the 100+ zones, especially as you hit the expansion where the kill XP trajectory falls off vs the XP needed per level (i.e. 110/CoV). Check the View Reward that some of the achievements have. You can get some pretty nice rewards for some of the lower level ones, too. Doing the raids in the lower level ones might be more possible with your group than the higher as well.
This is great information. Thank you everyone. I really appreciate the details on quests to complete and how XP works and scales.
You make your own adventure you can choose to do any number of things to improve your characters explore the eq button and figure it out that's half the fun of it.
This is the item I was talking about. https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=100107 This item is still valuable today, but the mobs you have to kill are trivial to 125 so players can not level up the tear. The only ways to do it after you get too high in level is to repeat a trivial task, farm fragment drops or buy fragments from overseer. It is going to be more enjoyable to level this as much as you can by playing the VoA expansion while in level. So my suggestion for what to do at L100, is to get the tear as soon as you can. Then open your ACH window and click on the Veil of Alaris expansion tab. Do the things in that expansion until you out level the ability to evolve the tear. Once you get too high to level the tear, pick another expansion further down the list and work on that. Empires of Kunark had some progression stuff that gave you an AA that blocked negative buffs in EoK/ROS, and although they are no longer important past those expansions, doing that while leveling may be rewarding. RoS had key fragments you can farm which, again, not useful anymore, but may be a good way to spend some time, because you'd earn your way into the temple while leveling, which is more fun than going back and doing it when it's trivial. Anytime you are not sure what to do, know that you can complete progression efficiently as a 3-box, so pick an expansion and do the progression in the Achievement tab (Except in the burning lands, that progression wont be fun). Alternatively, if you prefer to grind XP instead of doing progression quests, same thing, but do Hunter and Collection items, Hunter being the more valuable choice since you can get collections from overseer. If you're into tradeskills, EoK and ToV both had Tradeskill based quests, but you need to have 300 in all tradeskills to do them, and likely 350 to finish them.
Get some better gear in the baz and go to TDS. Gribbles are like driving nails through your feet for fun. Just start right into the 101 expac
