Hello, I have been back playing EQ for about a month now, and everything was going well until I started to get to the upper SoD zones (toskk, warrens) and Feerrott. Now I'm not sure if I am overlooking something, or if things are supposed to be this difficult now, but it seems like the game ramped up in difficulty substantially. My team consists of a SK, shaman and bard, which are now level 85 and have J5 mercs (which I was helped to get). All characters are in full T1 HoT armor (bought). All chars had maxed defensive/healing/offense AAs up to level 80 (around 1600 each)- now at 85 they're going to need a bunch more, but I have a hard time believing that catching my AA up a few ranks is going to make a night-and-day difference. Long story short, the mobs hit hard. At about 37k hp on my SK, if I pull any more then one mob (certainly so in Feerrott), it could mean a wipe (depending how fast I can slow and mez). I've heard that J5 mercs were uber, but my tank merc seems to go down just as fast as if I were tanking with my SK, if not faster. So I'm a little bit frustrated- I kind of expected that if I was adventuring in some of the best gear I can obtain at this level and with J5 mercs I would be able to slay things at a reasonable, relatively safe pace like I've been able to do up until this point (0 problems taking on 5-6 low 80s mobs in Mechamatic Guardian or Bloodmoon Keep unmezzed/unslowed). Are those 5 levels of AAs I need to catch up on really going to make all the difference? Or do I just need to re-think how I'm going to play the game from this point on? Thanks
I hit the same wall with my warrior back with HoT came out. When i came back around FTP time i found it was still a major power jump, but once you start getting HoT gear and AA's things get much more doable. Its sad to say, but my normal group had to use a J5 tank merc and 2 J5 healer mercs on named until the group started getting more HoT armor.
My 80 sk was having trouble ttanking in HoT till I bought some ranks of CA. The difference was night and day.
Yes. If you've only AA's up to level 80 ones, and have levelled past to 85 with no new AA's; then yes you will struggle a bit. Especially if your tank is the SK and his defensives and lifetap/innates are behind. Most content is more or less tuned to you having at least some of the level appropriate AA's to fight it. If you get too far behind then you need to kill easier mobs to catch up. Also as mentioned above, AC augs on your tank will help considerably too.
Quite honestly, tanks are going to have a problem in HoT expansion less than 85, it's not realistic. At 90 they can tank unslowed without any problems. I'd advise going to a previous expansion until you can get a tank (real or merc) to upper 80s.
Which mercs are you using? If you are using one healer merc, try two. If you are using two healer mercs, are they set on the same stance? I have found that having one on reactive and the other on balanced seems to make them work better together, they don't seem to cast the same spell at the exact same time (seems like there are smaller gaps in the healing). Good luck and welcome back, hope it gets easier for you.
My box team is very similar to yours, 85 Mage/Shaman/Bard with J5 mercs and around 1600 AA. I have found that at this level in HoT zones, it is all about single pulling or having the bard mez if there are two or three mobs in camp. With a single pull, the J5 tank merc does fine with just merc cleric heals on Tier 1 HoT trash, and does fine on Tier 1 named with Shaman backup heals. But with adds, it can go downhill fast. EQ seems to be tuned such that, in group gear at 85, you still have to respect a single trash mob. And 3 seconds of distraction or confusion will get you killed on named. Personally, I like this tuning of the difficulty level, because it feels like an accomplishment to survive in these zones. The adjustment is getting away from the feeling like one should be able to pull a train and survive.
At seeds of Destruction, they really started to up the NPC's... in Tosk, you might go after the warboars (they're slightly crippled for meelees to handle (a.k.a. cons "they look rather weak"... the trend tends to be more on the animals being weakened for meelee)... even the mercs get better once you hit 86... (I remember the post in the old forums where they said they added some hidden mitigation and dodge to mercenaries starting with level 86 to allow them to play the newer content more approperiately as the content really takes a jump in difficulty starting with underfoot)... I cannot tell you from a tank perspective, as I play druid.chanter and mage mains, but I do know that level 85 to level 86 REALLY made a difference with mercenary tanks... but if you're having problems with the normal NPC's, look for the NPC's that con as rather weak... spells may not land on them any easier, but meelee really does...
Thanks for all the helpful responses. Sounds like this is a normal hurdle that must be overcome with some patience and practice, which makes me feel better I think I will try leveling my tank merc char (shaman) to 86 to see how big a difference that makes, then work on catching up AAs and finding some more AC augs.
AAs are a huge help for tanks. You should keep cs/ca maxed also make sure your using a sword and board it makes a huge difference now.
If you have/make a magelo, folks can point you in the direction of some easy to get AC augs for your tank. And what folks mentioned about the tank merc becomming a beast again at lvl 86 is true. At the 86/91 mark, they become incredibly stronger for the older content. Steady as she goes (less mass training/multi pulls) is the key.
For the third night in a row, I logged on with hopes of leveling to 71 with my mage. Hole was camped as usual, so tried the farm again. I pull one raven and get a tell, "stop pulling our mobs". I said as in your mobs, do you mean the entire farm? "Yes". I will take another long break. It's very discouraging trying to level over where to level.
Few other camps other than just farm. There's some bones with beetles around it, which was one of my favorite spots. Also Minotaur and clockwork camps. Try out some different spots. Also maybe try Riftseekers Sanctum should be fastish kills there as well, or even maybe Muramite Proving Grounds.
71 is actually a pretty good level for exping and AA. I have never liked the farm because it revolves around those little quests the hole on the other hand is great at 71 if it's not taken. Zones that are good at 71? Plane of Fire, (c2 or 2nd field) sunderrock springs the stepps Vergalid (this one is more of a group situation but with one other player and a pair of mercs you could handle it) Direwind cliffs is also a maybe The burried sea, (work on your quests in heroes journey stuff for this and you will get some pretty good armor) RSS MPG Walls of Slaughter (I have not liked this zone a whole lot but others swear by it) The hive (might be rough cant remember rightfully)
Like others have said, tank is really important. Get the SK AA'd and geared before the others. With bard and an SK, shouldn't have more than 1 mob in camp unless you want more (well, or roamers if in a bad spot). Can also try a higher lvl merc, if your SK doesn't have the AC augs, the merc should tank better. At 85, the SoD zones should be easier than Feerrott / lower house. Can also try easier stuff till you get caught up the SKs AAs . Your box team should be solid, little bit low in DPS but should be able to take on most things you encounter.
Stacks, generally one of the best ways to exp is to kill lots of light blue mobs or mobs that are barely dark blue. I think that you will find that you can probably get exp pretty good at Ashengate. I know it's the level 80? hotzone or the 75 and you're level 85 but both direwind and Ashengate are likely to provide you way more exp per time than Warrens or the Feerott. While you can survive in the feerott at level 85 the way I approach it is HoT is a level 90 expansion, you're not going to have much success with nameds in an expansion unless you're at the level cap for that particular expansion. There's nothing wrong with going to harder zones and it can be a lot more fun but I think that you should maybe make your gameplay more goal oriented. If the goal today is go try a harder group zone because it's fun, try the Feerott or even go to the grounds, the grounds has a fast repop time and lots of nameds. If your goal is to get an upgrade, pick a specific named mob that you can take who has stuff you want. If exp is your goal then go where exp is the best. Sometimes different zones work for different people a good way is to just do a hour in a few different zones and see which faired better. As for the couple ranks of defensive making a difference, It can make all the difference but so can AC augs. If your sk's account is gold I'd go get a full set of quality ac augs, at 85 there's a few that are in good exp camps and most are in camps that will provide some exp. If you go to evilgamer.net there's a good list in the gear section. Between that and http://raidloot.com/Search.aspx you should be able to find good augs, I think that you can manage any of the camps that are in Pre-UF zones. Zones like korafax might be challenging but challenge is not bad. Also if you don't have shield block and are not tanking with a shield that might help you a lot as will getting your SK's epic 1.5 or 2.0 It can be a great help in tanking. A couple good augs to start with are http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=31997 non lore, 25 ac and you can get it into 4 slots! http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=31997 easy to get from dragonscale hills.
