Greetings! I am an old player returning to the game, and I have started up something new to me - a conjuror. I've read a lot of posts here and on EQ2 Flames for advice on AAs and such, but the gear listings are pretty lacking. Everything I can find seems to refer primarily to raid and mark-based gear as opposed to stuff I might actually find while levelling. Something important to know about my request is that this is a secondary character, and I am not looking to just PL her to 90 immediately. I want to go and explore places and enjoy the journey not just the destination. What I am looking for is advice on what stuff I might try to farm up as I level (L34 ATM), and/or special stuff to look for on the broker. I do have considerable resources to draw on (cash, friends) to help out, but i am primarily looking for stuff I can find on my own. So far I have started off by getting 100% expert or master spells as I grow. Sadly my gear choices are pretty generic and probably lacking as I don't know what to look for. So. 1. What should I try to find, gear wise? Crafted is fine and I can certainly get that, but quite a few of the guides talk about Quicksilver, Molten, etc - when do those start to appear? 2. Where can I get it? 3. Advice on challenging and fun places to hunt. 4. Extra question - what governs the mana regain of my pet? In repeated back to back soloing fights my (Earth) pet mana will slowly draw down and down and down while mine maintains pretty well. I am constantly casting, but I don't ever really have any personal mana issues - unfortunately I have to sit and wait for the pet to regen mana otherwise I am afraid it won't be able to taunt. - Primordial of Najena
with how they screwed up itemization the best thing you can wear until you are high level is mastercrafted . farming fabled really wont help and will actually slow you down because any peice worth using is from end game content for that expansion you are in
There isn't many items with pet effects until T8 (lower I know of are from Lavastorm - mid 40's - "Caller's Hoop" and "Necklace of Stone") At your level, try to find groups for Kaladim, some nice caster gears - for the level - drop there.
Having recently hit 81 and having lived off of solo-quested gear thus far, I think I have some good tips for you. In the 30s and low 40s, you're basically best off looking on the broker for gear. Focus on ability mod gear. In your high 30s you should be able to find items for just about every slot with +20 ability mod, reaching 400 ability mod fairly easily. That will be the biggest boost to your damage. Once you hit your mid 40s, go to Everfrost and do the solo timeline there (http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Everfrost_Timeline). There are some great items to be had, like a necklace with +50 ability mod that I wore until lvl 80, a great wand, and a cloak that I'm still wearing at 81. Once you're done here, head to steamfont and do the gnomes questline. The end result of it is hopplewithe's steath suit, +40int +20 ability mod chest item. You can buy this off the broker too, but that's not nearly as much fun Also, stop by lavastorm - there is a nice crystal sphere that drops off of mobs by the lava pools fairly frequently, +24int +32 ability mod. Get two of those. This gear will take you through the 50s and into your 60s. In the 60s do the kingdom of sky solo questline, it gets you a set of legendary conji armor and a cloud mount. The conj armor kinda sucks, but it will take you through the 70s if you push it. By then you'll probably be geared pretty well from quests you do in kunark and moors of ykesha. The most important things for your conj will be aa, especially pet-buffing aa. Once your pet has 10% dmg absorption, +25% hp, +20% defensive skills and +40% offensive skills you shouldn't have much trouble taking on triple-up nameds solo, as long as they're not orange. I have 173aa at lvl 81 and truthfully, I wish I had around 190 by now (so don't be shy about setting your exp slider to go 70% to aa and keeping it that way for the next 50 levels or so).
The most important thing is levels, and an Expert/Master pet, to be honest. AAs can always come later.
xal i have to disagree having done aa at lower levels on 6 different characters and done aa later on all solo my brig assassin sk 1of my conjis my illy and pally all got aa much quicker at low levels . i actually did some math on it but i wont be sharing it here for certain reasons. the best thing to say is , if you are low level and like doing the quests dont skip them, enjoy doing them and get as many aa from them as you can because there is so much content that you can have more than 160aa by lvl 52 without doing an AA xp grind , all from quests. redoing my conji i have 163AA at lvl 39 and my assassin has 123AA at lvl 22 due to how much content there is at lower levels but you dont have to push it that far. just do what is fun
I don't have any math to show, but I've leveled a total of 8 characters to level cap. I've tried both methods, AA as you level and rush to 90, and I gotta tell you, doing the AA as you level was BY FAR the better method for me. It wasn't even close. I ended up deleting one of the characters I rushed to 90, and the other is still sitting at 208 AA. I think the problem with doing AA at 90 is that you lose so much XP. Sure, you can Chronomentor, but that comes with a definite XP loss. You can run it gray, and lose all the XP but what comes from the quest. It's just a lose/lose. The only gain is your levels over the mob and the relative power you have. It seems that yes, you end up being able to kill the mobs faster, but you don't actually gain AA any faster because travel time doesn't change much and you gain less XP from combat. Overall, it's at least a wash, and perhaps a bit faster to just do it as you level.
Xalmat wrote: I would argue that so can levels. I think it's a question of playstyle, if you want to raid ASAP then rushing to 90 may make sense, but otherwise it's just a lot more FUN to have a lot of AA at lower levels. Makes questing as you level more fun.
If you want to spend most of your time solo, then there's no need to rush to 90. But, unless you play on an ultra-populated server like AB, if you actually want to encounter other players and group with them then you pretty much need to be 90.
One thing I found when levelling up was a neat fabled staff in The Living Tombs. It's key ability is a right click to heal your pet for 40% of its maximum health. Pretty handy for tough mobs when soloing. http://www.lootdb.com/eq2/item/-2109048931
That item has a long and storied tradition in Conjuror lore . . . noteably how rare it was when 60 was the level cap. I still have mine in a bag, I just can't bear to part with it. Certainly, it can be valuable as a leveling tool if you can get your hands on it early enough. However, in current endgame gameplay, with all the AA's, potency and crit bonus available, a 40% heal just isn't what it used to be. I can heal my Mage pet for 30% of it's live with my pet heal already - and cure it at the same time . . . every 2 seconds.
Well I got the staff as a fluke, really. I zoned into The Living Tombs, jumped down and cleared right at the base of the entrance. Named guy popped and kicked out a metal chest with three (3!) fabled items - the staff and two master spells. Was an incredible coincidence but I wasn't sorry at all about it. - Primordial of Najena
Indeed, the Yeddahd's Caduceus used to be a pretty downright awesome pet heal. It's especially fun on a Plane Shifted Earth pet (I've gotten some rediculously large heals that way). Nowadays though it isn't all that hot.
