Use the slider at 100%, love it; was Turning off combat and quest! xp, love it

Discussion in 'General Gameplay Discussion' started by ARCHIVED-Levatino, Dec 15, 2008.

  1. ARCHIVED-Levatino Guest

    "Turning off combat and quest xp" isn't accurate anymore, instead we now use the slider set to 100% to gain maximal aa thus leaving combat and quest XP on!

    Before we can begin the guide, some explanation on some key game features is needed

    I use acronyms for zones in my guide; if you aren't sure what they mean you can look them up here.
    L&L = Lore & Legend, quests you can start by examining an item certain mobs can drop. More info can be found here. Need some hotspots?
    Tradeskill; the skill to make items out of harvests you can use for yourself or for others. Also on EQ2 Traderscorner you can find several guides on how to tradeskill
    MC = mastercrafted; items made by players with the use of a rare item.
    npc = non player character.
    char = character.
    nodes: this are the things you go harvest from. You use them to get the raw materials for tradeskilling.
    transmute: an extra harvest skill that everyone gets; the skill to break treasured, legendary, fabled gear up in parts. These parts can then be used by adorners to make adornments which can be used to enhance gear or weapons.
    adorning: A secondary Tradeskill that allows a player to create Adornments. Info about recipe books can be found here. If you already have an adorner on your account and server you play on, it isn't necessary to level one up. Cause it's expensive to do so but if you haven't it might be worthwhile.
    tinkering: Tinkering is a secondary tradeskill which gives you tools or bonusses while crafting. Info about books and recipes.
    slider: you can find this when you press L, a screen pops up where you can allocate the AA points. In the above left corner of the screen you see a slider, you can move this from left to right and back again. Totally left means slider at 0%; none of the xp you gain is converted in aa. Totally to the right means slider at 100%; all the xp you gain is converted into aa points. Slider in between this two means the percentage the slider is on this percentage of xp gained will convert in aa. So for example set the slider to 40%: means 40% of all adventure XP earned (mob kill, quest turn in) goes to AA; 60% goes toward adventure XP
    racial traits: there are two categories; innate abilities and abilities you can choose yourself. The abilities you choose yourself can be done every 10 levels in what you reach it in first. So in either tradeskill or xp. On level 10; 20; 30 and so on you can choose a new ability. However for example if you reach level 10 tradeskill first you don't have a new choice when you reach level 10 in xp. So in the end you only have 9 choices, not 18! The innate abilities are set in stone, you can't change or adapt those. For some people this can be gamebreaking so if you want to make a new char for this style of playing it might be worth to check this out. For more info check here. You can set your racial traits in the first tab when you press "L"
    grandmaster choice: Once every 10 levels, you are given an opportunity to choose mastery in a single spell. You're given a choice of four spells that you obtained in recent levels. The spell that you choose will be upgraded to Grandmaster tier, making it one of your most powerful spells. Because it becomes so powerful, you should choose mastery in a spell that you'll use frequently and that matches your playstyle. Grandmaster is a special rank, which is only granted to a few spells. The four choices presented to you are different each time you choose a mastery spell (once per 10 levels). Referring to our previous example, the Vital Intercession spell is offered as a mastery choice to Templars at level 14, so the Grandmaster tier of this spell is shown as being available in the spell's table.(source eq2 wiki). You can set your grandmaster choices in the first tab when you press "L"
    Also I'll use terms as T1; T stands for tier as in series of levels and 1 defines the rank of this tier. So for example: T1 armour is armour you wear from level 1 tot 10. T2 armour means armour you wear from level 11 to 20, T3 armour you wear from level 21 to 30 and so on.

    The Guide

    Install Fluffy Quest UI-Mod
    http://eq2.fluffy.dk/ui.php and follow instructions how to install it
    Bookmark these sites
    Follow these steps
    1. Start up somewhere in the world.
    2. Use /claim, the 1 day gift is a free bag with 12 slots. Bags are your friend, cause you will loot a lot.
    3. Do the Harvest quest in the area you started, the reward is a box for one of your bank slots (to heavy to carry around) for your harvest stuff. Plus the quest is a good thing to level up your harvesting skills. This quest can be combined with the first step in "A Gathering Obsession". It can be started in the Isle of Mara. (prerequisite: you must be lvl 5 either tradeskill or adventurer) Each step can be done in each tier and it pays well 18 gold per step completed.
    4. If you see shinies harvest them as well. When you have them in your bags, right click them and add them to your collections. If you already have collected them, keep it so you can sell it later on.
    5. Do some questing until level 10 (when you reach it press L and set slider to 100) and then stay in the area you started in and harvest and max your skills out! Also don't forget to kill things cause each kill can give you a chest, and with smart loot, you are likely to at least adept all spells.. and if lucky get a few masters. Plus as an added bonus the things you don't need can be sold later through the broker (if not no-trade) or be transmuted (if treasured or higher)
    6. All skills maxxed out? Perfect! Now we can go to the next step.
    The Journey begins, but we have to do some certain things first to make life easier on the road.
    1. Go to your starting city
    2. Decide if you want to stay here or not (my chars always want to live in either Qeynos or Freeport (depending on allignment), but it's just personal choice. Every city has everthing you want. But an extra motivation for changing city to either Freeport or Qeynos is, that you then can do every quest in game cause as a Gorowyn citizen for example I couldn't do certain quests in the Freeport beginner area. If you do want to move go to the Ambassador (Typically this person is located near the guild registar) and ask for movement (not betrayal!). He will then point you in the right directions, the Ambassador will give you your citizenship papers and send you to the Ambassador in your destination city. Follow this ambassadors directions; you are now a proud citizen of the city of your choosing.
    3. You are in the city you have choosen (either you moved or not) now the first thing we do is purchase a home. Go to the housing area (in Freeport or Qeynos go to the villages) and buy an inn room (this will also give an extra broker slot)
    4. Talking about the broker go to one... and use your bound spell there. You will have to visit him/her lots so if you use your call to... you better come up near a broker Tip: If you are Freeport, choose the broker in SFP, everything near, banker, craft devices and bells.. (what more do you want?)
    5. Use /claim again if you have the 3 year award. It contains a special broker chest you can use to sell loot on broker cheaper (lower broker fees) Also 40 slots so that's good as well.
    6. If you have items you can't use and aren't no-trade you can put them on the broker now, set the price and hopefully people will buy it from you. Also things you harvested can be sold but it might be wise to wait until you started your tradeskill career to put them on the broker. Cause you might need them for your combines.
    7. It's time to visit the tradeskill tutor (in Qeynos and Freeport; they are in the villages, in the other cities they are in the tradeskill area) to start our tradeskill career. Follow his quests so you get a basic idea how to tradeskill. The tutor also has the Advanced T1 books for sale. These are needed to make your own MC armour. This books can be to expensive if you just started so either let another of your chars buy them and put them in the shared bank or if you are in a guild, ask a guildbuddy of yours to get them and put them in the guild bank for you. Go to the banker right click and choose guild bank. If you're just starting and aren't in a guild then look how much they cost all together and go out kill stuff so you can get some money and for things to sell (also check the broker maybe people have bought things from you) when you enough have money gathered go back and buy the books.
    8. Craft a full set of MC armour. And while you are busy make some bags and boxes for yourself as well. (you can't have to many of them) You have an extra broker slot, you have bank slots and you have two house slots you can put them in.
    9. When you have reached lvl 9 in tradeskill, go back to the tutor, you can now choose a new path in tradeskilling. Make up your mind on what you want to do. Do you want to make your own armour or weapons, or do you want to make spells for you to use. Or is jewels more for you? Read into the guides and the wiki page I gave in the beginning to make a good choice.
    10. Log off and visit ZAM; use browse, quests, Lore & Legend books. Make a lists of every book and where to find it. Comes in handy! Although you don't need the books anymore to start the quest it still gives you an idea where to find these monsters to get the updates. Do the same but now for heritage quests. (this will give you already a small guideline of the zones to visit and on what lvl). Tip: copy paste it to a writer program (Word, Writer) and print it out.
    The necessary things are done, now what?
    1. If it's your alt and you don't mind supporting it, have at least 3 gold on you
    2. Go to TD; Remember the 3 gold? Well before going to the starter area, visit the language guy at the dock (buy all the language primers of him) Handy cause now you know you can start every quest you encounter in a long while.
    3. Do quests there up to lvl 12 then return home and do all quests up to 12 in your city starters area, the opposing city starters area (watch out for guards), CL, DLW, Ant, GF, New Halas and the sewers.
    4. When you finished those set slider to 0 and lvl to 12 (why 12?, cause you then can wear MC T2 armour) so harvest for rares so you can make it yourself or someone in your guild or to sell on broker so you can buy the necesarry armour. A bonus to start up in TD, quest loot is good and if you don't have your mc armour yet is very good to progress in. But MC armour is a musthave. you will wear it for a long time.
    5. After you leveled to 12, set the slider to 100% again. You notice that when you gain aa you will have no problems to finish quests up to lvl 17. So go finish them as far as you can go (you'll notice for yourself how far you can reach). Do this in the zones you already leveled questing up to lvl 12. But don't forget to go to the dungeons (WC, BB)
    6. Don't forget to visit the broker and banker!
    For the following there is not a special order but you do them at the same time or will do until you can level. i'll try to put the most important things first.
    • Try to get your mc armour and weapons as soon as possible. Don't forget rings, earrings, wrist items and so on. Guild trade skillers are your best friends. Just give them the rares (don't forget fuels and other resources!) and they will happily make you the items.
    • If you have some money on the broker it's time to visit your local sage (bookseller) Bookquests are your friend for aa. What I mostly do is buy every book the sage has. It will cost and not every book is needed in the beginning but you can store them in your chests in the bank
    • While in your home city. Visit every possible npc and look for quests (quests are your friend) If Qeynos/Freeport don't forget to visit the towns and the npc's there!
    • On your encounters with the monsters in eq2 you sometimes loot a lore and legend item for that specific monster. Inspect it and you will get the L&L quest for it. Don't forget to inspect again to check it of the items list for that specific quest
    • You also sometimes find a merchant in distress; save them and they sometimes sell you a special catalog book for that area; is extra quest for aa! You only have to do this once for every area.
    • Do the quests until lvl 17 in the zones the two wiki's say you have to go. If you are good watch out for guards in CL, evil watch out in Ant! If you have a higher alt you can use him/her to kill some guards so traveling in the zone and to get quests can be simplier.. Or you have to wait until you are above lvl 25 so you can kill them yourself or run by them and have enough hitpoints to take a couple of hits while you get the quest updates.
    • When you visit DLW, don't forget to go to the starter area. why? Well lots of collectables there! First find your own, but then collect to sell on broker! What you are looking for are cracked bones, scuffed shards and spotted butterflies. They sell for several gold some even for one plat. If you don't have a main to support you this is a must go. (thanks praor1 for the tip!) This is worthwhile everytime you visit DLW go here for collectables hunt.
    • In the meanwhile don't forget to return home once and a while. Visit broker to see if you sell and to sell new stuff. Also look for big bags in guild or on broker. Big bags are your friend. If you are a cloth class, don't forget to get some equipment with STR cause you'll need it to carry the bags and it's fillings!
    • Also get some chests for your bank slots! The bigger the better!
    • You'll notice the books will also send you to the sewer sytems of both cities. don't forget to go there. lots of quests in there. Also drop items that start quests
    • Some books are the history off the (fill in race) quests. This are quests where you have to visit places. some are easy, some are harder. Try to finish them when they are white. If not at least blue.
    • You'll notice, books are bag fillers (so that's why you need big bags and STR) why are they fillers? Well you need the book for every update to progress the quest. The history off books you will carry until you are lvl 30! And there are a lot..
    • Empty your questjournal until you only have quests lvl 17 and higher including book quests!
    • Set your slider to the left (0%) and grind up to lvl 17.
    • Set slider to 100% again
    • Finish all the quests in CL, Ant, GF, DLW, TD, New Halas, BB, WC, SH, FG and the sewers up to lvl 22 (You may even start some in BBM, Nek Forest and TS)
    • Done then set slider to 0% and grind to lvl 22.
    When you reach 22 (you'll finish TD, DLW, lower and second sewer systems, Greater Faydark, New Halas, Antonica and CL but also Wailing Caves and BB) get your next MC armour set. (T3). Don't forget to set slider to 100% again!
    You may have noticed there is a system. First we leveled our char to level 12. Then we quested up to questlevel 17 before we leveled our char to 17 and quested up to questlevel 22. This system will repeat itself for the next tiers.
    So if we look at this in a more abstract way. The system for every tier is this:
    Level to [L]2 where [L] stands for the tens digit in the chars level. Then get your mc armour for that tier. Do quests up to [L]7 where [L] stands for the tens digit in the quest level. Then level our char to [L]7 and do quests up to [L+1]2. This repeats itself everytime.
    So if your char is at level 22,32,42,52 and so on get your new armour for that tier. You will then do quest up to 27,37,47,57 and so on. Level your char up to 27,37,47,57 and so on and do quests up to 32,42,52,62 and so on then you loop to the beginning of this sentence. It sounds more complicated then it really is.
    In addition to this system, there are people arguing it's better to level to [L]4 and then to [L]9 instead of the system I have laid out. This is due to to the fact you have a Grandmaster Choice on every 4th level in a new tier. I notice that I still have all the benefits when I level to [L]7 but I can understand their points. So it's personal choice and to be fair should also be mentioned here cause there isn't a set system in stone.

    Most important guideline, have fun!

    (please if you have suggestions pm me or post in the thread so I can add)

    Last edit: found that as a citizen of Gorowyn I couldn't do certain quests in Freeport or Qeynos; as citzen of Freeport this wasn't a problem. So if you want to do all quests, change citizenship to either Qeynos or Freeport no matter where you start in game.
    also thanks to Lasai, praor1, cloudrat, Kerberos, Stay, Beldrin, juwel, Alvane, Xaevyn and bluja000 for their tips, suggestions or advice.
  2. ARCHIVED-Kezzik Guest

    Yup-I only play like this now.
    I love it when an alt is in their late teens and has 20-30 AA's. My Main was always about even between level and AA. With my alts they run quite a bit more AA and I can tell the difference and it just makes it that much more enjoyable for me.
  3. ARCHIVED-Cusashorn Guest

    I just wish they would allow the option to disable acheivement XP so that I can play at my own pace and try to earn as many points strictly through questing, named NPCs, discovery locations, collections, and treasure loots.
  4. ARCHIVED-Levatino Guest

    small update, lvl 12 with 14 aa. Going strong, curretly traveling to TD again to do the lvl 12 quests there then to DW and then back to CL and begin of Wailing Caves.
  5. ARCHIVED-Kezzik Guest

    I'd like to hear updates as you progress. Being a great solo class, I am interested in how you do in wailing caves and when you start hitting Stormhold and Fallen Gate. Have fun.
  6. ARCHIVED-swedago Guest

    I am very happy with this option as well.. at 68th I had 140 AA. I have 5 level 80s and I can tell you leveling them up, they were not as strong as this new toon.
  7. ARCHIVED-floofers Guest

    it is amazing how much stronger AAs make a low level toon. My Ranger was 55 with only 38 AA. I'm 62 now with the pally and have 65. Not the best, but with two AA lines maxed and some of the KoS tree. I'm really enjoy it. I was soloing lvl 67 mobs at 61!
  8. ARCHIVED-Harovan Guest

    Sometimes I enjoy playing so. For a little extra immersion I turn off the map (by removing the hotkey) and now the minimap too. It's actually fun to navigate through zones just by looks. Sometimes this can even get pretty hard, think Feerrott. It also teaches to listen to the quest giver (look for ... west of here, etc.).
  9. ARCHIVED-Levatino Guest

    small update. Am now lvl 12 with 15 aa all in the int tree so 4 4 6 now. And I just killed a yellow 13 3 up. Ok it was in the instance beneath the Lighttower in Antonica. (Also cleared the little zone) and I hardly got touched.
    It can be that this yellow 3 up wasn't as good as a 3 up in the caves or BB will check that later tonight, still i felt very powerfull
  10. ARCHIVED-Levatino Guest

    update. just gained my 17th aa point at lvl 13. INT line is now 4 4 8 on to to get reaver next.
    and killed a yellow 3 up in the caves, so no coincedance. Gives a lot of might feelings. :D
    Anyway later tonight hope to get my first points in the reaver line
  11. ARCHIVED-Kordran Guest

    Leapoltis@Crushbone wrote:
    That's primarily because the lower level mobs were never balanced for players having achievements; you only really start to see that in the T7 instances, and of course once you hit T8 everything is balanced assuming that you'll have a certain number of points.
    I don't know where SOE has it on their list of things to do, but they really should revamp both lower tier itemization (again, since the first round was kind of half-baked) and mob difficulty. The way things are now, lower level dungeons and instances are just ridiculously easy, even in treasured gear and adept 1s.
  12. ARCHIVED-Levatino Guest

    Kordran wrote:
    you are right the lower lvl's aren't balanced for achievement points. But I don't think SOE will and should change the mobs. There are more people having no achievement points at this level then there are people who do.
  13. ARCHIVED-Rorasis Guest

    It would be nice if I could divert my combat experience to AA. I dislike the endless questing. I find dungeon crawls to be more entertaining.
  14. ARCHIVED-brightwhite Guest

    +1
    I LOVE being able to turn off quest and combat xp now
    Some of the low levels zones are so pretty and nicely done I love not leveling out of them so fast
    Great job devs!
  15. ARCHIVED-floofers Guest

    Riliszkas@Splitpaw wrote:
    I would like that as well. I tanked about 10 rooms of SoS last night before my PuG fell apart. It was a blast, I was having a really good time. Plus it was really my first real time getting to tank an instance that wasn't FG, RoV, RE, or DFC. Discos got me 1.5 AA....But being 64 with 65 AA kind of sucks, I need more AA! And I feel like I quest a ton, 324 quests completed so far....
    I started a Troll Brig the other day and just discovered the writ giver in Gorwyn. They give a decent amount as well.
  16. ARCHIVED-Levatino Guest

    brightwhite wrote:
    QFE
    Yes the low level zones are greatly done and also the lore is great.
  17. ARCHIVED-Levatino Guest

    update.
    had computer problems, sure always during the holidays.. but that's fixed.
    Lvl 15 now with 25 aa int still 448 now 9 points in reaverline. Can currently beat up a even 3 up heroic, but narrowly can only become better... Also beat up a 19 1 up heroic, was feeling very heroic.
    Like to add that it's positive now you can go bell hopping, very easy now for a low lvl to travel from CL to Ant and reverse. More quests to do, only look out for nasty guards ;)
    Ok onwards to lvl 20
  18. ARCHIVED-Levatino Guest

    Update.
    Am now lvl 20. Finished TD and DW. Some quests still to be done in Ant and CL. Currently busy a lot with book quests. The history of the "insert race" books and the quests in the sewers of the cities. Currently at 37 AA almost 38, so that means I'm almost finished with the reaver line. curious how it will work in early T3 and FG and SH.
    After reaving going to the STR line. Want to finish that line. Hopefully I can get that done before going to Zek and EL
  19. ARCHIVED-Cenoldar Guest

    I am enjoying the feature as many others are. Currently, I have a level 28 SK who is at 49AA, and with over 45 quests to finish up in the quest log before I unlock and move on.
    I've found the trick is to get to level 12, lock exp. Then get a full set of mastercrafted. This will last a long time, and at the level, the MC set will go far. Here, you run quests in four areas: TD, Freeport/Qeynos, Kelethin (there are quests near Steamfont that any faction can do), Darklight Woods (if evil), and finally the opposing town's sewers for item dropped quests, as well as go hunting in the newbie zones for any nameds you can find for AA.
    After finishing up quests at this level, ratchet to level 18. You can then finish up the late T2 quests and get T3 quests.
    Then, grind to level 22, and grab a new set of mastercrafted. Here, you can then do Splitpaw and since mobs scale to your level, you will be doing quite well, especially with the equipment at its max effectiveness. After finishing up quests that are doable, grind to 28 (took me 45 minutes) and do the same.
    I'm guessing that once I finish up all the T3 quests at 28, I should have a SK with around 75 AA. After T3, quests thin out, so the returns on exp locking do diminish.
    The one bad thing is that this takes *lots* of time to run around and chase down the quests. Taking this time isn't for everyone, especially when it appears that you don't have the levels to show for it.
  20. ARCHIVED-Grobi Guest

    is there still the 100 aa cap before lvl 70 ?