Reign of Shadows Guide for Beginners (or Returning Players)

I've seen a lot of posts and people in General Chat bemoaning the fact that they can't seem to get geared up enough to do RoS stuff. This post is intended to provide some hints and tips.

Initial Gear-Up
When you get into the Luclin Nexus (access from any wizard spire), look near the spire for Tishan's Lockbox, which will have starter gear for you.

Fixing Adornments
If you don't already have it, you will need the Adornment Reclamation ability. The class trainer in your hometown has that for 1c.

You can't see it in the Lockbox, but the gear will have BoL expansion adorns. You will probably want to rearrange adorns, and if you don't like the default adorns, you can pick up extra copies of, say, a helmet, pop its adorns off, and use them elsewhere.

Get one of all pieces of gear, note what thing has which adorns, get extras of an item if needed to round out however many white adorns of a given type you need, then pop off and re-apply the adorns to suit your build and tastes.

Better Your Jewelery and Adorns
Travel to Sundered Frontier. Near the spire is a panda named Yun Zi. Do his little series of quests from start to finish.

This will allow you to purchase the best white adorns (Shadowed Tol'Ren), cyan adorns, and check the jewelry and charms and such vs. what you got in Tishan's Lockbox, because a lot of the jewelry has much better Potency.

Resolve
There are no Resolve requirements for overland or solo zones.

RoS Heroic Resolve Reqs

• Heroic Tier 1 Bosses: 4560
• Heroic Tier 1 Zone Boss: 4575
• Heroic Tier 2 Bosses: 4875
• Heroic Tier 2 Zone Boss: 4890

RoS Raid Resolve Reqs

• Raid T1: 4980
• Raid max: ~5300

But I Need More Potency! (Or HP)
Speak to the recipe salesman in your guildhall, or the Status Merchant in The Bazaar (this way is more expansive!), and purchase the Acrylia Bardings Recipes, and then check the Acrylia Adornments Recipe books and get the ones that you will need, and make yourself new stuff. The Bardings of Health and Bardings of Potency are MUCH better than BoL versions, so boost your POT and HP that way as needed.

If you can't craft these items, ask around and find someone who can. If you commission a crafter to make them for you, they can only make one at a time (the things are HEIRLOOM) and so you sshould definitely tip your crafter well for the time/effort.

Reforging is Broken and I NEED My Blue Stats!
Yes, no one likes it. There are some workarounds.

If you have lots of plat, or are willing to go back to BoL and harvest in, say, The Blinding (easiest harvesting on the moon!), then you should get the "new snacks". They aren't actually snacks, but rather Sage-crafted scrolls that give you a temporary buff. There are 10 minute versions, and 30 minute versions. You can't stack a 10 with a 30, and for my money, the 10 minute are better because although they don't last as long, the stats are double that of the 30 minute scrolls.

Each stack of 25 buff scrolls requires:

• 1 Jumping Creeper -- rare
• 1 Lantern Hogfish -- rare
• 1 Shrieking Mushroom -- rare
• 5 Hardened Zelniak Pelt
• 30 Coruscating Incense

10 MINUTE

• Shadowscream Scroll of Pugulism (+3.80 base autoattack multiplier)
• Shadowscream Scroll of Aptitude (+1833.5 Spell Skills)
• Shadowscream Scroll of Effectiveness (+44.9 Crit Bonus OC)
• Shadowscream Scroll of Skirmishing (+1833.5 Melee Skills)
• Shadowscream Scroll of Contempt (+67.4% Hate Gain)
• Shadowscream Scroll of (+14.2% Block)
• Shadowscream Scroll of Evading (+1833.5 Defensive Skills)

30 MINUTE

• Shadowscream Scroll of Brawn (+1.9 base autoattack multiplier)
• Shadowscream Scroll of Talent (+916.8 Spell Skills)
• Shadowscream Scroll of Efficacy (+22.5 Crit Bonus OC)
• Shadowscream Scroll of Grappling (+916.8 Melee Skills)
• Shadowscream Scroll of Animosity (+33.7% Hate Gain)
• Shadowscream Scroll of (+9.4 Block)
• Shadowscream Scroll of (+916.8 Defensive Skills)

If you are a crafter, do the RoS tradeskill sig line, then cram in as many of the tradeskill researcher missions as possible. These and various instances can drop the Shadowscream Adornments I, II, and III recipe books.

Shadowscream Adornments are HEIRLOOM, so will have to be commissioned if you don't craft them yourself, and they use 2 infusions, 3 powders, and 5 fragments.

Shadowscream Adornments I (TS missions, drop from Fungus King Cremini in Echo Caverns: Fungal Foray [Solo])

• Shadowscream Adornment of Blocking (+23.5 Block)
• Shadowscream Adornment of Blocking 2H (+47 Block)
• Shadowscream Adornment of Defense (+595 Combat Skills)
• Shadowscream Adornment of Modified Power (+148,984 ABMod)
• Shadowscream Adornment of Modified Power 2H (+297,968 ABMod)
• Shadowscream Adornment of Parrying (+595 Combat Skills)

Shadowscream Adornments II(TS missions, drops from a balanzite construct in Echo Caverns: Fungal Foray [Solo] and The Desolator in Shadeweaver's Thicket: Untamed Lands [Solo])

• Shadowscream Adornment of Aggressiveness (+7.2 fervor OC, +44.5 hate gain)
• Shadowscream Adornment of Fading (+7.2 fervor OC, -44.5 hate gain)
• Shadowscream Adornment of Magical Skill (+595 Combat Skills)
• Shadowscream Adornment of Raw Power (+506.1 POT)
• Shadowscream Adornment of Raw Power 2H (+1012.2 POT)

Shadowscream Adornments III(TS missions, known drop from The Needlite Queen in Echo Caverns: Quarry Quandary [Heroic] and The Spelobanzeothitem Savage Weald: Chaotic Caverns [Solo])

• Shadowscream Adornment of Extra Attacks (+11.4 Ability Doublecast)
• Shadowscream Adornment of Health (+61.6 Max HP)
• Shadowscream Adornment of Increased Criticals (+82.2 Crit Bonus, +18.7 Crit Bonus Overcap)
• Shadowscream Adornment of Increased Criticals 2H (+164.4 Crit Bonus, +37.4 Crit Bonus Overcap)
• Shadowscream Adornment of Weaponry (+595 Combat Skills)

(I am unsure if Defense, Magical Skill, Parrying, and Weaponry boost all combat skills, or just the ones you'd expect based on the names.)

Getting Better Gear
There are a number of places to obtain better gear in Reign of Shadows. To start with, some pieces that drop in the timeline and side quests will be an improvement over the Lockbox gear.

However, completing ALL the RoS adventure sig line quests and the side quests gives you the Achievement "Shadows Stalker" grants you a Celestial weapon. A couple of examples:

• Honor Guard (Celestial Buckler)
• Hope's Beacon (Celestial Symbol)
• Yistorilith (Celestial 1H Piercing)

Once you have killed each of the PQ names at least once, the Achievement for doing so rewards a very nice cloak, Cloaked Cavalcade.

The Achievements for completing all the RoS Dropped-Item quests and POI-clicky quests (can only be done after you complete the sig line) each give a nice charm: Claw of Khati Sha and Emblem of Vex Thal.

Public Quests (the ones where large groups of people get together to kill overland x3 names) can also reward Celestial gear. Some examples:

• Choplicker (Celestial 1H Crushing)
• Polished Snapper-Shell Bracelet (Celestial Wrist)
• Shadeweaver's Solidified Venom Necklace (Celestial Neck)

What Are These Scripts On Named Mobs??!
Most if not all of the named creatures you will encounter in RoS have a script associated with them. A super-high-DPS player may be able to blow through and ignore the script, but most people won't be able to do so.

Scripts don't require telepathy to figure out. Look at the name before you rush in to attack and Examine any buffs it has. Once the fight begins, look AGAIN at any new buffs, especially buffs that have an increment (a numeric value atop the icon). Usually the buffs will give you all the info you need to successfully defeat that foe.

For example, some mobs gain power, immunity to attacks, etc. based on the number of adds they have up. The key to these mobs is to kill the adds ASAP.

Sometimes you have to pre-kill mobs in the vicinity before the fight to successfully complete the kill (Chief Broglyn in Echo Caverns is an example: you have to kill all the groups of tegi on the way to him, then, wait a second or two after each group dies and kill the fourth tegi that spawns, called a bogling of Broglyn).

Sometimes you must kill some, but not all of a foe's adds.

Read the buffs!

WTH Is Wrong With My Mercenary??!!!
One problem you will be encountering, especially with healer mercenaries, is that all the zones have a debuff, Chaotic Leech:



Accordingly, it would be a good idea to load up with some cure and heal potions for tight spots!

Mercenary Quality
Mercenaries are working a little differently this expansion. You are now sharing your stats with your merc, but how much you share is based on the quality of that mercenary, i.e., whether it is Celestial, Fabled, Legendary, or Treasured. Open your Character window and look on the Mercenary Tab, the color of the mercenary's name will tell you the quality. If you are color blind, nobody at EQ2 designs for you (but you already knew that!) but you can go to the Merc Stats Tab and at the top under the name the quality is spelled out.

Celestial mercenaries share 80% of stats. The others share less as the quality decreases.

Mercenary Gear
I was surprised to find in the last week or two how many people do not know that you can put any armor on your mercenary, not just MERC-ONLY gear. Also, mercenaries are not limited on what they can equip by class: they all use STR as their primary stat, so youmight as well gear them up in plate if you can for the extra mitigation.

Assuming you did not get the nice merc armor as a RoS pre-order gift, then take a few minutes and gear up your merc from the stuff in Tishan's Lockbox! Your merc can't use any adorns that have a set bonus, like the Tol'Ren white adorns, or the red sets, but you can use the Glory/Juxtaposition/Championship/Witness runes, Chorus of Night and Symphony of the Void on the mercs. And you can load them up with Potency, Extra Attacks, and Increased Criticals adorns.

Thanks SO MUCH Sigrfrida for this! I have made it a Favorites on my computer and will be relying on it.

But Wulfgyr .. EQ2 IS my most enjoyable game .. scrabbles and scribbles N all.

Thanks for this list, Sigrfrida!

the box gear you get in Fordel fits quite nicely on Mercs also

TY

As a returning player who took the boosted 120 to get caught up, this helped a ton! I've still got a lot to learn coming back, but firs thing I do when I log in is going to be putting some gear on my merc then heading to Yun Zi.

This is SUPER helpful! I definitely did not know mercs could use any gear.

I also was surprised to find out the gear in the lockbox has adorns on it. I equipped the bundle of gear that came with the lv120 boost and none of it had adorns. I was struggling with every named in the first solo zone. Still struggling but not quite as much.

Thank you for the excellent summary Sig. Is there really a resolve requirement to see the Status and Currency merchants in the Bazaar and if so, what is it? I finished both the Adventure and TS sig lines and with 4722 I still can't see them. I feel like I missed a step somewhere along the way.

Thanks for this guide
Very helpfull !

dup post. forum lag.

RoS Timeline here.

since my last xpac was KA, starting RoS is complicated.

I noticed Tuesday that the status and currency merchants in The Bazaar (around the corner from the cartographer) were AWOL. I think that the PQ currency we'd been getting was the wrong currency... I'd heard you could spend it in Sanctus Seru, which would mean it was the old PQ coinage. If so, they may have pulled the merchants out until they get their storefronts fixed and the right PQ currency in game.

I can see you "DR". This was a set of suggestions of ways to Get Gud without going elsewhere for three months.

Thank you for confirming that they are, in fact, AWOL. I've seen some folks standing in at the desk where the two bazaar merchants are supposed to be and thought that maybe *they* could see them and I could not. I'll continue to work the new zones and make a trip back to Sanctus Seru to see whether anything was added to those merchants that I can use of the excess coinage on.

cheers

I used the currency merchant in the Bazaar just last night for a T7 item?

I learned today that for whatever reason, you can only see the merchants in City of Fordel Midst 1. Any other instances they won't be visible.

Hm... I'm afraid there is no slot to put VIII runes in the gear that a mercenary can equip.

As Yenk said, there are no slots that the Glory/Juxtaposition/Championship/Witness runes work in for a merc. There is also an issue where the new acrylia accolades seem to only have red adorn slots even though you can make white acrylia adorns that SAY they work in accolades. I think the devs missed a few details. Hope they eventually address this.

I've had several people tell me that you *do* need resolve for the solo zones. I had asked specifically cuz I have a bunch of jewerly that has much higher potency than the lock box stuff, and they said to get the 190 resolve and add adorns to try to make up the potency. I know that prior expacs resolve was not a factor in solo zones, but maybe that changed? Or maybe that chaotic leech in solo zones is the issue vs. resolve?

i'll probably have to pester a dev for confirmation.

Do you know if you can do more than three of the same type of red adorn that gives you the 1/3, 2/3, 3/3 stats?

they are wrong. Examine buffs on a solo named. They have one that specifically states they DO NOT benefit from a resolve package. Simple.
you may not have more than 3 of any named rune set. one of each type