Hello I've been back playing for a bit, starting out a fresh set of characters. However, my main goal is to level up my original character who is about 60 monk and logged out with the gear he had on shortly after Luclin released. My current challenge is that I'm low on funds and can't really afford to purchase anything. While I understand one of the options is to find a guild, I'd like to understand if what my options are for doing it on my own. My first thought was to go back and do some of the Hero's journey quests to get some items, but wanted to see if anyone had suggestions on an approach that doesn't rely primarily on handouts or help outside of grouping someone in a similar situation.
The game balance is much better now so the plat drop keeps up with the costs you incur per level much better than it used to. Hero's journey would be a good choice not only to get some items but the newer zones from TSS expansion and up have higher plat drops. If you do the daily hot zones from Teek and you can claim 1 of these each time as a reward and they scale to whatever the level you are doing. So you could even do the lower levels and pass that onto your other lower guys. Belt, Cloak or Shoulderpads (for casters / priests) Belt, Cloak or Pauldrons (for melees / hybrids) Which ever ones you don't need you can sell to NPC or maybe in /baz if there is a need for them on your server. You can do a couple of these each day, you just have to ask for them all at the same time as once you do one it resets them all for 24 hours so you can't ask for more if you don't already have them Others will chip in and say just buy a Krono but this is the way I started out when I returned about the same level you are and it worked the best for me. It was tedious, but I did get some plat. Another thing to do is loot everything that drops. Then check baz to see what it sells for and then cross check barter to see if someone is paying a decent price for it. If not, then you can just sell it to NPC or set up a trader if your all access
Yes, you can look in the Hero's Journey for gear. Open /achievements, expand the Hero's Journey tab, and check out Progression, Advancement, and Special. You'll be shown all of the achievements for which you're currently high enough level to request all of the quests. You can also look through the rewards to see what you're most interested in. The quests for Blightfire Moors aren't too bad and will reward you with a full set (or nearly full) of Rough Defiant gear. This is low for you level, but might provide better stats than you have currently. The quests in Goru`kar Mesa are a little more annoying. To complete one of the achievements, you'll need a tailoring skill of at least 100-150, probably. You could skip that line and get most of the pieces that are equivalent to Flawed Defiant gear. Blackfeather Roost quests and some of the Steepe's quests are what's appropriate for your level and reward intricate defiant gear. Alternatively, you can hunt in level 55-60 zones and hope for the random intricate or elegant defiant leather gear. There are also defiant charms, range items, and augments that can drop. It will take a lot of kills to get a full set, though. As for money, if you have some Loyalty Tokens, you can purchase some bags of platinum from the loyalty merchant (I think it requires an All Access subscription) if there's nothing else you want to spend the Loyalty Tokens on. However, if you're not in a hurry, it can give you a better token to platinum ration to buy a Gold Ticket from the loyalty merchant and sell it in the bazaar. You're also high enough level that you should be able to find a zone that drops diamonds and blue diamonds to sell.
Let's see... I would guess you can get a bag of platinum from the Loyalty vendor in PoK as Gialana mentioned above. That will give you 15K pp or so. You can start from getting a set (8 items total: 2 rings, 2 earrings, neck, face, 2 wrists) of crafter Palladium gear. All items have the same stats as below: The full set will give you: 4064 HP, 3104 endurance, 224 gear AC, +160 in STR,DEX,STA,AGI and resists. Then purchase from people 1 of each consumable (food and drink): https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=134273 https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=134277 Together those add: 305 item AC, 2160 HP, 1560 END, +12 HP regen. Overall, you'll gain 6224 HP, 4664 END, 160 stats, 529 gear AC. You can definitely purchase all that under 15K pp. Start leveling up, soon enough even more awesome options will become available.
If you get the food and drink like Alnitak suggested, you'll need to make sure to put them in a slot higher than any other food and drink in order to get the stats from them. It might be easiest to put them in the first 2 slots of a the bag you have in your first inventory slot (top left with default UI). But you'll also need to keep lower cost food and drink in your bags and force-feed and force-drink them. Otherwise you will automatically consume the stat food. If you only have 1 of each, they will then be gone, and you will lose the statistics from them.
With your old account you should have max loyalty tokens (5760) and if your all access you can buy those bags of plat which hold between 14-15 thousand plat each. If your not all access then your out of luck. I would never buy armor at your level. Not from NPC, nor baz, nor loyalty etc, Armor is far to easy to come by. And you will outgrow it super fast. So its like water down the drain. I would also not waste plat on stat food - at least the ones mentioned. They take a high skill to make and are in zones higher than your level to go farm the mats. If you buy them in baz they will cost a ton also. What I would suggest is to look for these quests that are going on now that you can get a reward that will summon food and another one that will summon drink Sprucing Up Shakey If you did want stat food I would go for the lowest mage summoned that players sell in the baz for about 10 plat a stack Ether-Fused Tea is the drink and Aircrisp Apple for the food. When you get higher level you may want to buy the others. On my server the high stat ones go for over 1,000 plat And as mentioned above the plat will start to flow and keep pace with your level. For example your merc might cost XX amount at level XX and oddly enough the mobs will drop enough at that same level to sustain your merc cost.
That's a good point about the loyalty tokens. They will have the full amount and are capped and cannot earn more till they spend. Then when they spend they will continue to earn 120/week without doing anything! On old accounts. New accounts have to build up and its different for free and all access The loyalty vendors also sell stat food that is pretty decent and cheap. But I agree with not buying any armor for this level. I only purchased armor when I got into level 100 and up. Below those levels it was just too easy to farm.
Wow, ok well this helps a ton! Had no idea about the loyalty tokens. 15k should help for sure. I've got good old iron rations in my pack. Had no idea that stat food was a thing. So content at 60 shouldn't be too bad with my old gear as I find more? I'm paid and using a healing merc.
Old accounts might also have several /claim waiting. Some of the claim items you might have could help you out now or later. You may have one or more of these depending on when your account's subscription was active (if you were playing in another DB game with All Access, EQ would be accruing some or all of the claims available to All Access at that time). Gift of Legacies Lost or Legacy Satchel will give you armor/weapons for your level: https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=79622 You might even have a mount or bags in your claims that aren't the fastest or the biggest, but can still give you a bit of a leg up. You might even have a mercenary 'skin' in claim.
Don't try pulling a whole zone or even more than a couple and you should be fine. I know this sounds odd, but let your healing merc off-tank for you. They can handle a fair amount of hits at your level, especially if you have a Journeyman merc. Stat food has been a thing for a long time at least as far back as Kunark and maybe even original. But most stat food was crafted in the early days. Put the stat food in your 'top spots' in your first bag if you have all inventory slots filled with bags or in your general inventory 'top spots'. Then 'force feed' your non-stat food and drink (i.e. right-click to consume until you can't) to avoid using the stat food/drink. This sounds completely daft but it's been the way since the beginning.
