New Beastlord on live. How should I gear him for pre-85 grind?

Discussion in 'Hybrid' started by Foxpaws Dragonlover, Mar 27, 2019.

  1. Foxpaws Dragonlover Lorekeeper

    Just jumped back into EQ after 14+ years and decided to start from scratch with a Bst. The old twinking items I normally would have expected to grab are no longer around. Some friendly people did set me up a bit of plat and some Rec. level 20 defiant armor pieces. Beyond that, are there any items/weapons/gear I should try to find on the bazaar to help my grind or are the quest rewards these days much better? I remember velium weapons used to be a great twink item, but that was like 2003.
    Any suggestions to make the level grind as smooth as possible would be greatly appreciated.
  2. Mazame Augur

    Go the city and buy a Melee Merc. Then go have fun the merc will PL you to 50ish. by PL I mean he will tank / dps and out preform any gear you can get at those levels. it will save you all lot of plat vs trying to re-gear every 10 levels.

    At 50 you can do the daily quest from POK for gear as well as look for defiant gear as it stats are better then anything dropped pre 85..
  3. Waldagar Augur

    Tank merc can PL you to 70 ;-)
  4. Foxpaws Dragonlover Lorekeeper

    Melee merc? Most of the posts/guides said to grab the tank merc for the pre-85 grind. Is it because I'm a Bst and the Scaled pupper can tank well enough on his own? Granted the best merc I can get is the T5 Apprentice.
  5. IblisTheMage Augur

    My guess is that is what is meant, tank merc.
  6. Mazame Augur

    I meant melee merc ( it is more DPS then the tank merc and at low level tanks just as well. )


    Yes most post tank merc because they think it will tank better. Having played a lot with leveling toons I have found that from level 1-25 Every merc can tank. So then you ask what is the best DPS. most people have found the Melee merc to out dps the caster merc. At higher level this can change based on group make up but at low level the melee merc is the best. Also because you are a bst you will get buffs and heals that you can use on the merc once it hit 25 if you see it having issues. Also haste ( a bst buff ) works better on a melee vs a caster as you will find with a lot of your buff they favor a melee.
    If you see your merc dieing all the time to a single mob then I guess you could change it out for a tank merc. but I not had any trouble from 1-50.

    Using a merc from 1-50 and no other PLing you can hit 50 in a few hours depending how much you push and how fast you want to get threw it. If you are to gear your self and not use a merc then you will need a new set of gear every 10 level so the cost from 1-50 and the time to do it on your own imo is not worth it. I just let the merc PL me.

    After 50 the merc with have a harder time staying alive. So that is when you can switch to a tank if you enjoy casting and want to play a healer / caster bst. Or if you like the mele part of a bst you can get a cleric merc and play the melee/ tank roll and have the merc heal you (I prefer the latter).

    That should get you to 75 or 85 depending on what your gear is like.

    85 -95 is the hard part as soloing / moloing becomes work.. This is when you will start to learn the class because you will have your spells and the mercs start to go down hill. You will get mostly die a lot more as you learn how to pull what can handle and what you can't.
    This is where you will also want to do the merc quest for the Journeyman merc.
    This is also where you will find other people ( heroic toons ) or toons they levels to group with. Keep in mind most ppl you group with at this level will also be learning their toons so it make it a ruff ten level.

    at 95 you can then group with 110 and so this is where I would look to join a guild. The guild will open the door for you to get to know more people. These people will help to get you better gear. find groups more often / and more will have higher level toons to help you get quest and mission done.
    With a guild of active people you can go from 95 to 110 in a few weeks depending how hard you push. I do know people that PL toon from 95-110 in an afternoon but I don't recommend it for a new player.
    I say get to 95 as fast as you can to open the to be able to group with the most people. then from there enjoy the game and level at what ever speed make you happy.
    IblisTheMage likes this.
  7. AnzoRagespirit Augur

    The only issue with using a tank Merc pre-lvl15ish is even being a tank their agro generation is abysmal. You're still gonna take some hits.
  8. IblisTheMage Augur

    You can group with 110 at 84?
  9. code-zero Augur

    I think that as the high end the grouping range is 30 levels. My 89 shaman can group with my 110's and has been able to ever since I created him as an heroic character as an 85
    Brohg likes this.
  10. Mazame Augur

    Depends on what you are doing for reg zones you are correct. http://everquest.allakhazam.com/wiki/EQ:Grouping_Level

    Instances tend to have a 15 level spreed on them. or a Req level on them. for example GMM you can go there as a 80 something and grind in the normal zone with you higher level friends but you wont be able to do any quest or missions until 95. The reason i had listed 95 as my target point for doing stuff with max toons is because at 95 all quest / mission from TBM, EOK, ROS, TBL open up. so you can do more then just grind. you can work on progression / run missions etc that often give better XP then just grinding.