Casual Players Guide to Luclin

If you are a casual player, Luclin is NOT going to be kind to you, but hopefully my experience returning might help you get through it.

First a little about my play style. I like to Solo, I'm happy to get in groups because there is only so far you can get soloing gear wise, but I practically never raid beyond a public quest. I've been playing since Day one of EQ1 and taken a number of breaks, usually purchasing every other expansion and a 3 month membership, then going back to free and quitting for a year. I picked up BoL when it was announced which allowed me to experience the previous expansion content for a good month. Starting BoL I have 7 110 characters and 8 110 tradeskillers (one 55th level that I keep at that level for some friends that only play a few hours a month). Finally I did NOT but a premium edition.

For BoL I went back to my first ever character, a Conjurer. The named fights all took forever getting through the solo content, it was painful, but by the end I was ready to get into a group and try some heroics only to find no one would take me in a group without at least 125k potency. Looking at my character I was sitting at 98k and that was with practically the best of everything you can get from the solo timeline. WTF?!? I asked in chat on a few occasions for advice and dutifully kept slogging through the solo dungeons, managing to snag a couple master level spells I couldn't use but was able to sell, and I got some mixed advice and figured out there are definite haves and have nots in BoL. Some people suggested keep doing the solo content and you can get some awesome gear (I did and actually have a few pieces that are really good, doing the weekly missions helped alot). That managed to get me up to ~100k potency.

And this is where you are stuck as a true casual player and here's how to get out of this mess.

Finally someone told me that the problem was that I didn't spend the extra $50 to get the mount for each of my characters. At first I thought they were just being silly, but quickly found out they were right. My level 10 mount was earning me almost 500 potency. Skygge (droppable version) gives 13k. The purchasable once start at 6k i think (but don't quote me, I don't have it) and are upgradable when you finish the quest line and I've seen one Cerulean mount linked that was granting 20k potency. Skygge does drop in solo dungeons from the rare exquisite chests occasionally and I was fortunate enough to find one on my alt, but my main ended up selling collections and 2 11+ master spells I managed to collect in my runs and then buying loot rights to get one. I bought it for 3.5 million plat, and a week later bought another one for an alt for 1.5 million, today (1/2/2020) I saw one go for 500k at an off hour and once someone even offered it free to the first person who responded (I wasn't quick enough for it).

SO step 1 is get a better Mount. If you are casual like me and don't want to pay the money, watch your server auction channel for Skygge and keep doing solo's hoping for the exquisite chest.

So that got me to a ~108k potency which was still way under what anyone would take me into a heroic mission, but the next piece of advice was to pay for diety infusers and use the infusers I was saving for a rainy day (or at least saving for gear that had better than a 1062 prime stat). Infusing is EXPENSIVE and this is again a huge problem for the causal player. I entered BOL with one of my characters have 150k platinum and between all 8 I had probably 500k plat. Infusing a SINGLE item to max has a random cost to it because each attempt costs more and the more you fail the more times you have to keep infusing. On average it cost me about 40-50k plat to infuse a single item to max, and that only put a tiny dent in my potency deficit. On my main who was still rolling in cash from the master sales, I managed to upgrade every piece of gear to its max diety value and continue to do it and I finally have a 128k potency (as of me writing this, now i see people requiring 135k potency... sigh).

So step 2 is going to be a hurdle again for any casual player. I got lucky in that I was able to find some valuable stuff early and sell it on the broker. If you are a free accoutn you will have to annoy people in the auction channel by selling your good stuff there. That includes any masters or red gems you can get your hands on, even if you could use them. Long term the Red Adorn is going to be more valuable, but 125 potency or immunity to stiffle are going to do you no could if your still taking 15 minutes to kill a named mob.

Step 3 - Join a guild. I belong to one where no one plays and it makes me happy because I don't want to be guilted into groups and raids that I don't want to do. I play on my time not someone else's. Having said that, if you have a good guild they will sacrifice and drag your scrawny butt through a heroic when you don't contribute.

That's it. 3 steps. Arguably the all suck, but you can at least agree the first two suck. Collect shiny's along the way, jump into the PQ, and the solo dungeons, paying attention to your weekly missions (Daily missions are fine, but you'll quickly stop seeing value in them, really the random exquisite is going to do more for you getting to Heroics than anything else short of guilting guildies)

Final thoughts - Start with your best DPS character. When you hit a solo dungeon at <90k potency it's a serious slog, its even worse when you try to get your Guardian or Defiler through who have no DPS OR potency. If things go well, they will get into heroics and maybe earn some crap for your alts to get their potency up. In the strictest sense, EQ2 is not pay to play because with a lot of work you can get in to the game, but Daybreak did create a huge hurdle between people who bought the more expensive upgrades and you, and it is NOT going to be easy to get over. If you have the money and aren't stubborn like I am, buy the upgrade and save your sanity, if your like me, its going to be a rough road, people are going to say "do the solo's, it worked for me" without quite understanding that really it was their raid gear from a previous expansion and their purchased mount that made thier play experience way easier than yours.

Neplusultra - Fallen Gate

This is an articulate, non toxic explanation of the problem a lot of players are having.

FWIW - this is the first expansion have bought as standard rather than premium. My toons were raid geared, etc. I was shocked, frankly, at how hard it is to get over the edge to a "heroic ready" level of pot. People are saying 130k is enough for pot but on my server, people ask for 135 and upto 145k to do heroics. Im at 128k pot with a solo looted mount, everything infused, plat infused, all gear from quests etc obtained...you get the idea. The difference, simply, is the mount from premium which is something like +9k more than the basic solo mount.

I know the game is increasingly/close to purely pay to win; but i think its a bit much to need to pay (premium) to be able to open the door to starting grouiped content.

I'm so rusty i reported my server as Fallen Gate, and not Halls of Fate...

Well written and analytical not accusatory - good.

I have never been to the new areas so I have no idea if it reflects how things actually work there but I suspect it does at least for players that have poor gear and little coin. We are not told whether the reactivated conjuror that found it so slow had a good mercenary - or any at all. We are not told whether the conjuror had any better than basic quality spells and gear starting off, We are not told if the conjuror had done the epic 2 line or equivalent. We are not told if the conjuror had the panda quest gear available - other threads say this is a must-have before starting BoL.

I say this not in criticism - there is only so much that can be discussed in one post - but to point out that we do not know if the difficulty plowing through BoL was because of the content or because of the character. Conjuror is a dps class it shouldn't be that slow. And I am focusing on the comments about how slow and painful BoL was not about what it takes to get into a heroic group. Obviously quality of mercenary isn't relevant to that, for example.

The OP states this very well.

Do you want to shell out another $100 for a better mount or 100 hours to skill up and salvage enough to make infusers? I am gated at the "Get a better Mount or Spend 5 mil plat on crafted infusers or Go back and work my adorning up to make my own" step. My main toon is just over 120k potency, same boat OP was in...

This xpac is a plat sink, otherwise no Heroics for you!!! Is that really what the Devs wanted??? Pay to Play? Ah well I'll buy the mount in a few weeks if nothing changes LOL.

Fair questions about my character. My Conjy is my 110 (well 120 now) Sage and had Expert level spells for everything, a few masters, no grandmaster or ancient spells because I wasn't paying to upgrade. Finished just the Signature solo time lines in the last expansion and killed a bunch of dragons for mount gear. My mount I can still see if I switch over, he's still holding all my mount gear until my new Skygge is high enough to wear it.
Mount - Planes of Magic Signature mount - Imperion Harbringer of of Power - 874 potency (I think I said it was 450, must have been a different character that had that) Rank 7 with Dragonscale or better health, potency, harvesting gear
Mercenary - Evania Val'Sara - Rank 15 with Dragonscale or better merc gear, 9 accolades ranging form Dragonscale (1076 primary) to 832 primary stats.

Again, I'm casual, I came in with pretty decent gear and spells for someone who doesn't play consistently. I do all the things I can solo, and get the best gear I can out of that. I'l do a PQ or jump in a group, but most of my gear is just what you would expect from a casual player who put time into the gear.

Luclin is quite friendly to solo players. And overland solo gear is better than Normal Heroics. But EQ2 has a wide learning curve and some of the things that are 2nd nature to vets may get lost in the info deluge that new & returning players are hit with.

Re-Post from another thread I was in:

This is one of the most solo friendly expacs in many years. The gear coming out of the overland dropped quests is better than the "Normal" Heroic zones. I think the main issue is that a lot of people are unaware of how to use the Achievements Page and to relate that info from Wiki.

https://eq2.fandom.com/wiki/Blood_of_Luclin_Timeline

Using the guide above for the "Dropped Quests" ? I got 3 new pieces of 165 Resolve Gear and 1 piece of a rare 180 Resolve Gear in an afternoon of gaming. Far better than the 1 in 6 chance of a decent drop in a Heroic zone.

It is basically...per zone, kill this mob until an item drops. Save that item until you have 8 items. Right click the item to get a new quest that takes you to another zone. Kill 20 mobs / questline...get a piece of 165 Resolve gear. Infuse, infuse, infuse.


---------------------------
Join or even set up PuG Raids to go kill overland Triple Ups. We got a weekly mission done late last night doing that. 2 groups in a raid...almost full with 3 mercs. Took awhile..would have been better with more help but it was late. But weeklies & group achievements give everyone a new item.

Use that Achievements Page to set up your solo play. Use wiki to let you know what needs doing. Get better gear than current Normal Heroics.

I've redone my aa's (which didn't help my dps much, but did practically double my hp). I have completed all of the dropped quests. All of the Overland quests from clicking on the hidden objects. All of the tradeskill and solo timeline and done every solo dungeon multiple times (some probably a lot more). I've done every solo weekly and every daily while picking up both the daily and solo quest for it. I've completed all PQ's and overland raids a number of times (the overland raids don't drop anything). I even have most of the collection quests complete including the ones from my overseers which have been going out 10 times a day. BoL is extremely kind on leveling, it only took a few hours to get from 110 to 120, especially compared to Planes of Magic, but it is not kind if you didn't pay to get the boosts to get 130k+ potency. If you think its easy, I suspect you fall into the category of people who paid for the expansion or came in with significant raid gear from the last expansion. No judgement, just an observation.

One last thing I had not done which will help your potency, Reforge to add potency.

Reforging doesn't give you much Potency no matter what you reforge, so it's better to use your reforging for other stats, alas.

Thanks for this write up Pariah. I’m at the ‘just done the sig line and at 95k potency. Ahhhhh’ mark.

Guess I’ll be trying to get Skygge to drop and do the clicky quests. I’m pretty disillusioned and disappointed because I have no clue how to make up the shortfall to 135k potency.

If any casuals have been able to get from sig line to heroic grouping I’d be delighted to hear how it’s done.

I think BoL is actually pretty friendly to casuals. The key to this expansion is achievements. I'm very casual and am at 135k potency and 3425 resolve, which is plenty for starting heroics. I got there by completing the signature line, completing achievements, infusing from daily/weekly quest drops, and plat infusing.

doing the creature collection for each zone and all zones in the expansion give you some nice jewelry that helps a lot with potency. All soloable, but takes time of course. At the moment I'm trying to get recipes for the current level infusers. Apparently they come via overseer quests but I haven't gotten one yet. Getting a potency one of those would help a lot.

I posted this in another thread, but it makes sense to share it here, too. Here's a list of the BoL Achievements that I know give rewards and are fairly easy to get (the only ones that need groupage are the PQ achievements and achievements calling for the death of overland heroic names):

• A Bridge To The Moon (rewards 165 Resolve charm)
• Is There Anybody Up There (rewards 165 Resolve charm)
• Triumph: Blinding Destroyer (rewards 165 Resolve charm)
• Another Runner in the Night (rewards 165 Resolve ear)
• Wrack Em Up (rewards 165 Resolve neck)
• Great Space Coaster (rewards 165 Resolve ring)
• Tree? I Am No Tree! (rewards 165 Resolve ring)
• Blood of My Blood (rewards 165 Resolve ring)
• Triumph: Aurelian Coaster (rewards choice of 165 Resolve 1H or 330 Resolve 2H)
• Triumph: Brutally Wracked! (rewards choice of 165 Resolve ranged or buckler)
• Triumph: All Together Now (rewards 170 Resolve cloak)
• Triumph: Moonage Daydream! (rewards 170 Resolve cloak)
• Triumph: Lightside Explorer (rewards a Familiar Crate)
• Triumph: Blindingly Killing (rewards 772.2% Potency Barding)
• Triumph: Brutal Coaster (rewards Brutal Barding!, a selection of Sanctum barding)
• Triumph: The Blood Seeker (rewards Chronochamber Spark green adorn)
• Triumph: Wracked! (rewards Wracking my brains. containing red weapon runes)

You also have a chance at rare but nice items from stuff like the dropped item quests and the clicky POI quests that require you to kill 10-20 easily soloed local critters. For example, the dropped quests give you an Empyral Mission Reward Crate: it never lands in your inventory, but here's the loot table for it:

• Umbrallium Alloy Plated Bangle -- 150 Resolve wrist
• Umbrallium Alloy Coated Medal -- 150 Resolve charm
• Umbrallium Alloy Polished Earring -- 150 Resolve ear
• Umbrallium Alloy Studded Cloak -- 150 Resolve cloak
• Umbrallium Alloy Buckled Belt -- 150 Resolve waist
• Umbrallium Alloy Studded Shroud -- 150 Resolve cloak
• Umbrallium Alloy Polished Stone -- 150 Resolve neck
• Umbrallium Alloy Spiked Stud -- 150 Resolve ear
• Umbrallium Alloy Spiked Ring -- 150 Resolve ring
• Umbrallium Alloy Coated Wristlet -- 150 Resolve wrist
• Umbrallium Alloy Riveted Sash -- 150 Resolve waist
• Umbrallium Alloy Bone Earring -- 150 Resolve ear
• Umbrallium Alloy Sapphire Ring -- 150 Resolve ring
• Umbrallium Alloy Fire-Etched Band -- 155 Resolve ring
• Umbrallium Alloy Plated Buckle -- 155 Resolve charm
• Umbrallium Alloy Coated Buckle -- 155 Resolve charm
• Umbrallium Alloy Fire-Etched Cuff -- 155 Resolve wrist
• Umbrallium Alloy Polished Ruby Chain -- 155 Resolve neck
• Umbrallium Alloy Spiked Torque -- 155 Resolve neck
• Umbrallium Alloy Coated Band -- 155 Resolve ring
• Umbrallium Alloy Etched Bangle -- 155 Resolve wrist
• Umbrallium Alloy Plated Wristlet -- 155 Resolve wrist
• Umbrallium Alloy Studded Belt -- 155 Resolve wrist
• Umbrallium Alloy Plated Chain -- 155 Resolve wrist
• Necklace of Stars -- 180 Resolve neck
• Umbrallium Alloy Threaded Pants -- 150 Resolve legs
• Umbrallium Alloy Studded Hood -- 150 Resolve helm
• Umbrallium Alloy Studded Pants -- 155 Resolve legs
• Empyral Standard Crit Bonus Infuser
• Empyral Standard Ability Mod Infuser
• Empyral Standard Potency Infuser
• Empyral Standard Stamina Infuser
• Aurelian Coast Rockhopper -- familiar (Treasured)
• Dreadfire Shadowbeast -- familiar (Fabled)
• Baleshadow Construct -- familiar (Celestial)
• Necrotic Reishi -- familiar (Legendary) Shadow
• (Temporary 4 Hour) Familiar Experience (100,000)
• (Temporary 4 Hour) Familiar Experience (12,500)
• (Temporary 4 Hour) Familiar Experience (25,000)
• (Temporary 4 Hour) Familiar Experience (50,000)
• (Temporary 4 Hour) Familiar Experience (75,000)
• (Temporary 4 Hour) Mercenary Training Reduction (10 Day)
• (Temporary 4 Hour) Mercenary Training Reduction (20 Day)
• (Temporary 4 Hour) Mercenary Training Reduction (30 Day)
• (Temporary 4 Hour) Mount Training Reduction (10 Day)
• (Temporary 4 Hour) Mount Training Reduction (20 Day)
• (Temporary 4 Hour) Mount Training Reduction (30 Day)
• (Temporary 4 Hour) Research Reduction (10 Day)
• (Temporary 4 Hour) Research Reduction (20 Day)
• (Temporary 4 Hour) Research Reduction (30 Day)
• (Temporary 4 Hour) Research Reduction (40 Day)
• Bladimir Black -- Overseer Agent
• Wizard Flurggledinn -- Overseer Agent
• Cleric Sararah -- Overseer Agent
• Galen Stormwolf -- Overseer Agent
• Doric Silverhew -- Overseer Agent
• Garith Oldfoe -- Overseer Agent
• Grumpy Little Stelve -- Overseer Agent
• Inquisitor L'Morr -- Overseer Agent
• Seargeant Marcus Carpenter -- Overseer Agent
• Milo Burningsun -- Overseer Agent
• Selmo Koriat -- Overseer Agent
• Young Mitchem -- Overseer Agent
• Councilor Wrathburn -- Overseer Agent
• Gretacia Windsong -- Overseer Agent
• King Grorlif -- Overseer Agent
• Magnus Frostheart -- Overseer Agent
• Mina Szekle -- Overseer Agent
• Morac the Builder -- Overseer Agent
• Rittan D'Sal -- Overseer Agent
• Rosamond -- Overseer Agent
• Familiar Cage
• Eliminate Warlord Ix Acon -- Overseer mission
• Exact Revenge on the Drakota -- Overseer mission
• Eliminate Venekor -- Overseer mission
• Eliminate the Gang Lord -- Overseer mission
• A Dark Ceremony -- Overseer mission
• Slay the Evol Ew Chieftain -- Overseer mission
• Eliminate Klirkan X'Davai -- Overseer mission
• The Throne of Emperor Fyst -- Overseer mission
• Reacquire the Idol of Solusek Ro -- Overseer mission
• Convince the Guardians -- Overseer mission
• The Kra'thuk's Magical Properties -- Overseer mission
• Rob the Fool's Gold Tavern -- Overseer mission
• Treasure in Shortwine Burrow -- Overseer mission
• Liberate Lady Laravale -- Overseer mission
• Save Orxilia Calogn -- Overseer mission
• Save the Valkyrie Princess -- Overseer mission
• Save the Vision of Vox -- Overseer mission
• Keeper for the Keep -- Overseer mission
• Captured in Bramble Woods -- Overseer mission
• Save Lira Singebellows -- Overseer mission
• Find the Goblin Banker's Loot -- Overseer mission
• Find the Golden Idol of the Drafling -- Overseer mission
• Recover the Stolen Scrolls -- Overseer mission
• Retrieval for the Crown -- Overseer mission
• The Word of Thule -- Overseer mission
• Thexian Treasure -- Overseer mission
• Valuable Runes in a Dirty Place -- Overseer mission
• The Thexian Wizard's Wand -- Overseer mission
• Umbrallium Alloy Dagger -- 150 Resolve
• Umbrallium Alloy Crossbow -- 150 Resolve
• Umbrallium Alloy Greatstaff -- 300 Resolve 2H
• Umbrallium Alloy Plated Hammer -- 300 Resolve 2H
• Umbrallium Alloy Ingot -- 150 Resolve secondary
• Umbrallium Alloy Wand -- 150 Resolve
• Umbrallium Alloy Silvered Wand -- 150 Resolve
• Umbrallium Alloy Snake Wand -- 150 Resolve
• Umbrallium Alloy Mace -- 155 Resolve
• Umbrallium Alloy Spiked Crossbow -- 155 Resolve

Thanks Sigrdrifa, this is perfect and will give me something to work on today!

Sigrdrifa - yet another long, on-topic and very helpful post from you. Thanks.

I got the infuser recipes from an exquisite chest in a solo instance. Had another exquisite drop in the next instance and it had a lvl 104 master 8(. I think I got the recipes because it was a normal named and not the final boss of the instance. final bosses seem to have the previous expansions loot on them. Next instance I got a lvl 104 master from the final boss's exquisite chest

I was so frustrated trying to get geared for heroics in CD, I'm just relieved that there are more accessible methods this expansion! I'd like to think that this list will help others avoid some frustration. You will still need to infuse and reforge, but at least you can get the Resolve.

Like you I have been playing from the first as a casual soloist picking up casual groups in zone was a fun way of meeting people, even join a great group till the leadership changed hands and through out the non raiders. EQ2 came out and I started playing as a healer. After being kicked out of several groups for not killing I went back to soloing. Now I am 74 years old and find the game has evolved so much that I am so far behind the learning curve that I feel Day Break is trying to push out the casual player in favor of the big raiding guilds. I bought the new expansion just find out I can't do the prelude quest as I am not an expert. I know I should join a guild but don't want be tied into raiding,at 74 I have a trust problem with grouping so I am my own worse problem.

Compared the difficulty of getting geared up enough to run Heroics, BoL is much more accessible. Not that Heroics are easy, mind you. The bosses have a bajillion hit points. We did the Sombata T1 yesterday. Never died, but it took a long time to kill the bosses. ( Kill the priest first in the paired boss thing. We figured they had to go down together...wrong) .

But 2 weeks into the xpac and already running heroics? That is nothing compared to the CD gear up.

I said this in another post, but it would be nice if someone (hint hint!) made up a "Beginners Guide to BoL" for the wikia, aimed at new/returning players, and it included this information, it included information about the panda quests, it linked to infusing information, and how to gear up for the still-hard-as-heck-if-not-properly-kitted-out prelude quest (I only succeeded by being level 114 duo both wearing CD gear and with PoM fount). If it's all in one place, a link can be posted in threads about "what do I do?"