Gearing up 80+ without bazaar possible?

What would be some ways of gearing past elegant defiant without bazaar?

Tired of easy mode FV, I am thinking of leveling up some characters(necro first needs least gear, then Sk and shaman) on Trakanon where I already have a 85 Heroic Bst and Mage.

Thus defiant gear should be no problem as bst and mage can help out.

The big problem will be the jump from 300-400hp/mana gear to 900-1000 hp/mana gear. What to do here and past it?

I looked at this thread for inspiration: https://forums.station.sony.com/eq/...-is-my-next-step-for-armor-at-80-plus.205118/

I bought a few Glowing Reis pieces (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4847) as upgrades, but the pickings are slim as Trakanon has 6 traders tops compared to 400 on FV.

Also picked up some Rustic pieces from VOA, which are similar to Glowing Reis: http://everquest.allakhazam.com/wiki/eq:Veil_of_Alaris_Armor_Guide

Formal VOA2 87-92 is not available in baz, I doubt I could take down the named in Lunnanyin. Anything past that (ROF1 or COTF 1) is out of question.

I suppose, I could try to start at HOT1 armors: http://everquest.allakhazam.com/wiki/eq:house_of_thule_armor_guide

One idea was to do Heroic Adventures at 85, but could defiant wearing characters have a chance to complete them? Let's take Heroic mage, bst and say a defiant wearing necro , add 2 wiz mercs and 1 cleric merc, is that a viable idea?

HA really is enticing because it would offer a clear upgrade path to 100, but I doubt woefully undergeared characters can take on HAs.

I came back as lvl 75, raid geared. I then went to SoD and got the heroic journey items and merc upgrades. (It was hard. As my gear was 500ish hps and no heroics etc... Managed well as a duo though + 2 mercs).
Once I had soD complete (around lvl 86-87 now), I went to HoT T1. That is current heroic char armor/gear. Completed HoT T4 gear/armor (lvl 95) and can handle Alaris T1 "easily". (Waiting on expansion for RoF access for the woman, or would be trying HA's now).

Big thing has been weapon upgrades, AA, and being 1-2 lvls higher/zone. Going w/o bazaar, this is how I managed. I'm not sure if I can select lvl 85 or 90 options for HA's, but we're ready to rock when we can try it.

If you have CotF, then heroic adventures for currency will help a lot - from 85+. Apart from that, you should be able to hunt nameds in the House and Grounds (perhaps) with your Heroic characters.

Apart from that, the above advice is pretty good - be a couple of levels over the content, and move through HoT/VoA for armour progression drops.

I did for the most part. Grounds was and still is a popular zone on my server. Named mobs die often there, and half the time items rot because people don't need them. They announce in ooc that X is rotting at Y location (most of the time).

So you can try hunting there or just hanging out there for upgrades. If I remember right, most items are level 82?

Beyond that, assuming you have the expansion, heroic adventures is the way to go for item progression outside the bazaar. Complete adventures, get alternate currency, spend that currency in tainted west karana.

There are merchants for level 85, 90, 95, and 100 gear. Alt currency costs go up as you purchase higher level gear. I'd suggest getting some level 85/90 gear to fill in equipment slots in dire need, and then saving up for level 100 gear.

if your using mage / bst / necro its your pets that will be tanking, not you .. so what pet focus you have will be more important than what gear your wearing ... as long as your not running low on mana during fights, which should not happen on fights with yard trash mobs.

In HA's you should be able to clear the easier ones no trouble, may have to leave the named mobs up, but you do not have to kill them to complete the missions for the points.

Thank you all for help!

I too think pets are the way to go at first, as tank would be hugely challenging to start with. I have EM13 summoned Focus saved up.

So which 85 HAs would be good ones to try with 3 pet classes (and I assume two j5 wizzes and 1 J5 cleric)?

When do HAs scale? That is is it 85 HA until 89? At least, can I start 85HAs at 86 (when I get to use the EM13 focus)?

Again my gear would be really bad, mostly heroic and some elegant defiant.

Dead Hills is generally recommended, although others may be able to give suggestions for specific HAs there and elsewhere. I'd say that you really need to see which one(s) can most easily be single pulled, although with a necro this may not be a big problem.

I believe you'll get a "Level 90" HA as soon as one of your group members is level 87.

HA's scale to the highest level person in the instance

Currently the best (debatable) heroic adventure for time vs reward (xp, currency, vendor trash, alt currency) is "Scouting Ahead". It's the second mission available from Gribble in Dead Hills.

It's also one of the simplest to box. It's one linear path, very few roamers to watch for while pulling, pretty easy to pull (necro pulling I assume), with one of the easiest named of any HA. You won't be able to do the named until you get the 94 earth pet, and that's a maybe with two healer mercs.

I never really did that HA until after I was 100.

I currently box a raid bard, wiz x2, mage x2, and healer merc by the way. So I'm pretty familiar with pet tanking. But with recent changes I have no idea how good/bad pets are prior to 96.