70 Bst/Shm AA, Gear, Zone Advice

I've taken advantage of the double XP this weekend and gotten my Beastlord and Shaman up to level 70 with just a bit over 700 AAs. I was thinking it was about time to start leveling again and had a few questions for you vets out there. I've been boxing with a cleric and tank merc with the occasional guildy along for the ride along with buffs from the lag pile. (Links to magelo profiles at the end of the post)

Zone: So far I've used a combination of hot zones and zones I knew to be good xp locations from when I used to play in '06. At 65-70 a combination of WoS and the Nest got me 500ish AAs and levels and now I get into unfamiliar expansions. I was wondering if anything like the Nest existed for a solid AA grind without having to do Worgs and Orcs in LP (they were kind of boring when I went with a guildy). I don't want super hard but I do like the instanced dungeon crawl so I don't have to fight with other players for the camp like at the farm.

Gear: Defiant gear has been my go to as I leveled on booth toons but I don't know if I'm missing out on anything special, should I be farming or looking in the bazaar for something better at this point? I'm especially curious about good weapons for the BL that I should keep an eye out for.

AAs: This one is a bit stickier as I know there's a lot dependent on play style but I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing out on any key aa's that I should have or some that I just should just stay away from. I've made sure to get defensive/crit/healing aa's for both characters but there's some I'm not sure (slippery attacks, discordant defiance, etc).

Magelos
Beastlord: http://eq.magelo.com/profile/2797087

Shaman: http://eq.magelo.com/profile/2797086

Thanks in advance!

And 1 added question I forgot to ask. When is a good level to start DON & and the Anguish(?) trials for the special AAs.

A Bazaar upgrade to Defiant is Othni, from the revamped zones. The beastlord should have a Dawnlight Fistwraps (again Bazaar), and you might want to consider epic 1.5/2.0 for them both, which will require a little help at some points. The Hero's Journey also has some minor upgrades over Defiant, from the stages of the Jonas Dagmire's Skeletal Hand quests.

You've mentioned the obvious DSH and Loping Plains kill quests; I can't think of any good exp grind instances for a few more levels (until you can handle Beza/Zeka/Mechmatic Guardian), but Split Paw is a good grind zone for mid 70s. You should also consider the quests for the SoD augs, as the first two (starting with Oceangreen Hils) aren't too bad.

Shaman: Your focuses are about to start degrading, so you may want to upgrade them. If nothing else is available, consider the Defiant jewelry vendor in POK. As far as AAs go, Secondary Forte would be nice to have, but Cannibalization is an absolute must for a Shaman. Shammy spells cost more because the class is balanced around Canni. Also, as a general observation, DOT crit AAs are very powerful and I would try to keep them maxed going forward. The first time I critted for 20K, I scratched my head and wondered why I hadn't invested in them earlier.

BST: Are you sure the Magelo is correct? It says that one of the weapons is "The Alpha's Claw", which requires level 80 to wield.

Hunting: Have you done the dodge augment (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=23668) from the Everfrost LDON yet? You said that you like instanced dungeon crawls and it should be decent XP for your team at this level.

Zones: Best bet would be to hit up Riftseekers Sanctum. Lower Hp, an Damage, compared to the newer zones. Still gives great xp (mobs are level 70-75 - the ones you will be fighting), and an opportunity to get some nice augments - talking about these..
Flameshield Stone 25 Ac, goes in Wrist x2, Chest, Legs.
Ore of Stone Strength 20 Ac, goes in Head, Arms, Hand, Feet.

You could probably stay here comfortably till around lv 76 for level. Or much longer if you plan on just working AA's. Around 76, you can head to Beza and fight the clockworks, Katta an do elementals, or Thalassius, Temple of Bertox, Old Commonlands, Bloody Kithicor, Blackburrow, Mech Guardian.

Gear: Weapons for your Beast, check out Baz for attunable stuff like this (This list goes from best, to worst ratio, Lost Battered Stein being best, Dawnlight Fistwraps being worst) - Lost Battered Stein,
Greater Charred Dagger, Greater Ebon Dagger, Savant's Fist, Bertoxxulous' Crook, Torklar's Great Hammer, Rendsoul, Gnoll Sap, Barrelbreaker, Blightfang, Darkened Enameled Black Mace, Balanced Snake Fang, Dawnlight Fistwraps.

As far as armor, Glowing Othni would be your best if any are available in the baz atm. You turn these into an NPC in PoK, who in return gives you class appropriate armor. Glowing Athlai, would be your second best, again you gives these to the NPC in PoK (These two armor types come from Hardcore Heritage zones). Next would be a tossup between defiant / archaic armors.

A handy tool to help you with gear is this - Raid Loot
With this you can easily find which item is best in slot, what mob drops it, ect.. Can use this in conjunction with Allakhazam to find out all you need to know about what you need.

Also for quick reference you can use - Almar's Leveling Guide for hunting zones. Or open your map in game, and hit the Zone Guide button, enter in your level, and it will throw a list of zones out at you that are in your range. Zone difficulty here goes up by 5 on the search funtion. Level 65, 70, 75, 80, ect... So if someplace is too easy, or too hard, adjust by 5 in your search.

Thanks for the advice all. I went to RSS last night and picked up two AC augs there forget the names. I also picked up the extra crit AAs fro the shaman (still need to get canni but Painful Memories is working for now). Almar's guide has been pretty solid up to this point I just found those worgs to be pretty mindnumbing to grind ><

I'll be shopping tonight for the Othni and do some research for which weapons to use.

Quatr - The Alpha's Claw is equippible at 70 but it doesn't proc and it shows and 1h piercing but I have yet to get any skillups for it ...

Once the double xp is over I'll see what I can do about starting the epics, I remembered needing raids for them so I hadn't bothered to start them yet.

Omens raid = TSS group = SoD solo.

It says required level is 80 - does it, by any chance, have a coloured tint in your inventory window? I suspect it may be acting as you bare hand.

So if it has a yellow tint I get no stats or damage mods from it? I'm feeling pretty stupid if that's the case since I've been using that for quite awhile now :X

Right!