So, I've been getting the itch to return to EQ, and my main is a 92 or 93 monk. I tried boxing for a long time, even 3 boxing at one point. That being said, it ended up feeling like "work" more than "fun," so I dropped it in favor of the single account. I don't have tons of time to play long hours like I used to (familiar story, eh?), and may get some interruptions from the family, so I can't play for hours straight. Has much changed in the past year or so that make it more viable to solo/molo? I remember doing Heroic Adventures, but trying to do them boxed or molo was slow, and I miss the old school method of just killing mobs for exp. I'd like to be able to molo at times and perform group content when I can for exp (levels and AA) and some gear, but certainly have no intention of raiding. Overall, I'd like to explore the new zones, gain experience and upgrades to loot (nothing raid of course), and certainly group when I can, but I suspect I'll still need to solo/molo much of the time because of my time constraints. Are these goals realistic, or is advancement in the game still limited to group/raid settings? Is exp for level/AA still reliant on HA/quests, or can you grind mobs for exp the old fashioned way? Thanks.
As a monk, I'm pretty certain you can molo a dh ha. However, if you have limited play time, I'd suggest doing hot zones. All the xp you'll see that's viable will be in a HA, followed by finishing a hot zone task. If you were to grind, killing mobs, I'd suggest going to a hot zone, or some place that gives quick kills and some xp.. The newest content being released is all for the highest level(s) at the time; CotF was up til 100, TDS was 95 - 105, roughly, TBM is scaled to levels in HAs, but the mobs in regular zones are all 100+, and the Kunark2 xpac will be 100+ I, personally, still grind, but am glad they've added HAs. It makes it so, so much easier and faster. When Grounds was a hot zone, I remember spending an entire night there grinding and probably barely made an orange. In a group in Shards, ~Lv.98, 3+ hours of kills gave me about 2 blue.. Picked up some good drops, but going for xp isn't worth it.
You should be able to molo to 105 easily enough, and given the right gear and AAs you can even molo stuff in EoK. Since we have not had a level increase since TDS, TBM and EoK really require you work on improving your gear. Trying to get an occasional group when doing more recent content, watching for items rotting when you're online, and wise spending are the best ways to be able to make get thru the game on an erratic playing schedule. It also helps if you can find a guild or friends in-game who you can do things with when you are online at the same time.
Thanks for the info. I'm not necessarily trying to avoid group content, but 1) it's hard to get people to group with you when you're only lvl 92/93 when they are all lvl 105, and 2) I know that I might not have a 4 hour session to run through a tough dungeon. I miss the old school dungeon crawling in Guk and Sol A/B, but I also know I'm just limited on time. I also hope that there's some hope for "catching up." I don't want to spend all my time grinding out AAs and finally get to lvl 95 when the lvl cap hits 110, and then when I get the AAs and levels up to 100, the level cap hits 115, etc. Also, if I recall correctly, the HoT zone for 90 was House of Thule and Valley. I think I can molo HoT, but Valley mobs hit really hard. I'm hoping I have some options for exploration and killing mobs with variety. I just don't want to log in every night and do the same exact things over and over (a HoT zone, 1-2 HA's, and then log out.)
Hot zones are now in rotation monthly, with 3 specific zones per level range. So instead of Valley being the hot zone for the next 9 months+, it's a rotation between 3 that change every month. On the same hand, if you're doing hot zone tasks AND 1 - 2 HAs every time you're logged in, you're in the right direction.
I think the Partisan/Mercenary quests in HoT are great for Molo at the 92-95 level range, You might even want to ding 96 for the top tier zones. I don't remember any of the Partisan/Mercenary quests having a time limit so they work good with taking breaks as required, and provide a bit of variety from the just kill xp grind. If you are wanting to just grind I'd suggest working on named/hunter in Valley or HoT. Good luck and welcome back.
So, it turns out I'm 95, not 92 or 93. I guess I made more progress than I remembered last time. Still, I picked up the 85 Hot zone quest from Teek, and I was getting my owned by light blues. I was not expecting that from an 85 Hot zone. I'm going to re-sub soon so I can use my J5 mercs again. Without them, I was pretty useless Subbing should also give me a chunk more AA with the auto-grant feature, I'm sure. It certainly can't hurt. Btw, what are Partisan/Mercenary quests? And at 95, should I just be doing the 95 hot zone/Teek quest, or should I do the 85 and 90, too?
Check the xp given for Lv.85; if it's worth it, do it. I can't do more than 1 Teek task in a day. I used to run all three: 85, 90, and alt, daily on my first toon. But it kind of burnt me out
If you look under /ach you'll get your achievement log. About six from the bottom is the House of Thule, within the House of Thule you'll see "Quests" if you click on quests you'll see a number of quests you need to complete to get Mercenary of and Partisan of... for each of the zones within the expansion. The Mercenary quests in HoT are just your basic kill quests, like kill 4 snakes and 4 rot dogs and return and hail Ruppoc, while the Partisan quests in HoT are generally a little more elaborate where you'll need to move around find things (and kill things). The experience is not as good as the Teak Quests but it gives much more variety. This is a link to the first set of quests; http://hot.eqresource.com/questsnpchotlower.php If you grab all of Ruppoc Rockjumpers quests when you zone in and then just work on Researcher Breoro's quests you should naturally get the kills to complete Ruppoc's quets without working on them. I'd just keep grabbing the Mercenary quests over and over for the added xp. Also the faction is nice. If you can find someone else in the zone you can also run the missions which are instanced but I think even at 95 you'll have trouble doing them molo. Anyhow just an idea of things to work on, if getting to 105 fast is your objective this probably ain't the way. But if you are looking to have fun at your own pace Morrell's Castle, and Al'Kabor's Nightmare are some fantastic zones to work through.
