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

Sorry this is a bit off topic (kinda) and sorry if its been mentioned in the thread already (cba to read 6 pages =P) but is it true that there are plans to remove the AA cap completely?

No idea, to be honest. Never heard it even as a rumor.

Jhandiira@Antonia Bayle wrote:

the only thng I find usefull in the TSO first line is the enhance mount speed and perhaps the enhance riunning speed for in dungeons and such. And bingo 5+5=10 points usefull spend

Jhandiira@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Hi, i took your advice and respeced. Have now 48821 STR and 445 INT and reaver full, next three points go in INT but yes good way to go.

I'm back to INT 448, having 62 AA now. Got to the end of FG this morning and finished all quests I had there. Killed all nameds I came across except the chef and the queen. I don't know why I had such problems soloing the chef. My health went down dramatically fast, graven embrace failed, only my tinkered heart stopper (50%) saved me. The queen seems doable, but since I didn't have completely cleared the room, I got too many adds and died. Shrug, I didn't have any desire to fight my way back anyway. I think I will give it another go at ~30. I'm having severe problems to do the world even quest Revelation (remember the roekillik stuff). That roekillik instance in Bloodskull valley is filled with pairs of linked 3-up heroics, who hit like trucks. The nameds on the towers are 25^^^ linked with two 25^^ and open the fights with a several seconds long stifle (or stun or whatever), which leaves me at 10-20% when it wears off. Dunno if I can do it at level 29; at level 30 I get the orc mines in Zek as new target.

Level 15, 17 APs
I locked at 15, and I'm doing all quests under 14. My plan was to then work to 20, and lock again, but the sheer amount of quests I think is going to prevent that. I've done TD, DW, and just wrapped up CL (up to 15 that is). I only have room for about 20 more quests hehe.
Edit: Nevermind, figured out how to get to GFay. Running through BB was a bit scary though hehe. Now to figure out how to get to Antonica!

Jhandiira@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Very nice, so far for myself i've set the following target when fighting heroics
heroic regular mobs - max same level as me and
named heroics - max 1 level lower then me
Must say that works pretty well, as long as if they are multiple mobs they arent ^^^ aswell
Dunno when i'm gonna try FG might try the start now, really want the zombie L&L so looking for that one. Just finished up most of the quests in thundering steppes, and must say ... damn griffawns are to damn rare !!
But with 48 AA at lvl 22, i'm well on my 2:1 target so pleased about that, before i go to lvl 25 i'm first gonna try and do nek as much as possible and finish some HQ.

*EDIT*
xZAOx don't forget you can also do the starting areas of your opposite allignment well with care though !!! but antonica should be pretty safe few guards there. and dont forget the sewers beneath freeport and qeynos.

xZAOx wrote:

I did several runs to the opposite zones, every ~3 levels, to prevent chaos in my journal. It was pretty hard to keep a few journal entries free for surprise quests I come across, like drops or clickies.
Antonica can be pretty hard despite few guards; the guards in Needle and Gnollslayer keep and especially at the entrance of Sayer's Outfitters prevent you from getting, advancing and turning in many quests. Only Claymore and Windstalker Village as quest hubs are safe, but then again, many of their quests demand you to go to the guarded keeps. If you can go invisible you should be safe, I can't. Graven Embrace (feign death) helped me at times. There are also some quest givers who outright refuse to talk with a Freeporter.
EDIT: Oh, and don't miss to get the griffon access done in BB, it tremendously helps. I did it at 13 or 14 IIRC, on my first quest run. Same goes of course for the horses in GFay.

Ghouti wrote:

Depends on the class of course. When my steel equipment was new and gave me 54% or so mitigation and some avoidance, I could solo all up to white heroics without harmtouching, and yellows with harmtouching (includung nameds). Now at 28, it gives only 48% mitigation and less avoidance, also mobs begin to hit harder, so I have to start to be careful.
Following the nature of my class I usually like linked encounters. But since my reaver healing depends on the ability of spellcasting, heroic mobs who stifle are my certain death.
Ghouti wrote:

I think they share spawns with hovering deathclaws or whatstheirname. You might have to do some clearing. Doing the quests of the Watcher of the Fields? Now THEY can be annoying. Not the worst, though. The worst was the Moth/Butterfly/Ant lady of doom at the docks, followed by the quest that had me farming badgers (don't remember the name); they are darn rare in TS.
Ghouti wrote:

I'm trying to get 100 AA by level 40. So far I'm positive to make it. I have only 2 zones now (EL and Zek, just started), but Feerrott, Rivervale and Steamfont will add soon with tons of quests (especially Feerrott and Steamfont).

Ghouti wrote:

I seemed to have missed the quest starting points for Freepoint sewer (much less Qeynos sewer). I assume the Freeport sewer is Thieves Way? The only level 10+ quest I see for that zone is The Failed Assassin. I didn't find any questgivers on the top side that told me to go down there.

Jhandiira@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Yeah, did the BB-Griffon and GFay-Horse quests . Next visit to BB will be *much* easier now.
I'm an Iksar Bruiser currently (might betray to Monk at 20, not sure yet, AAs are just in Brawler), and thankfully Iksar's have invis because there was one area where I don't think I could've gotten through BB without. I wish FD was a skill though, instead of a CA, so I could train it and get it better, instead of being stuck at whatever percentage it is. The one time I needed to use it during BB it of course failed the first time (with a mob 7 levels higher smashing my face in).
So the keeps in Antonica - I just have to get past the guards (easy with invis), then I should be able to quest fine? So when I land there, just hit up those two villages (Claymore and Windstalker), and that should give me most of what I can get from the zone, correct?
For either of you - Any tips on how to get to Antonica as an evil race? I know how to get to BB if that helps.
And I'm currently sitting at level 15 / 19 APs. I'm shooting for around 1.5 to 2 APs per level. I only have room for 16 quests, and I have a *ton* of level 15 quests. But I also have at least 3 ready collections (but I think the moths will give me boxes which will make it at least 4) to turn in, so as soon as I get everything 14 and under wrapped up, I'll turn on exp and turn those in, and quest till 18 or 20 or so then lock again. I have a couple of quests in Wailing Caverns that I want to be 17-18 or so to do.
It is fun feeling like a badass with so many APs. I'm still very cautious, but I took on three 14^ mobs without *too* much of a sweat. Then again, this game (so far) has been pretty easy in general hehe.

xZAOx wrote:

Go to the sage in the mage tower in North Freeport and buy his book quests (examine them and buy everything that is yellow or easier). Some of them lead to Serpent Sewer and Edgewater Drains (as well as Vermin's Snye and Crypt of Betrayal in Qeynos). Once there, look for "clickies" (items you can inspect - EQ2Maps helps here), which give more quests. Also, some item drops you can inspect for more quests.
ZAOx wrote:

Yep, with invis and FD you should be set.
xZAOx wrote:

The area around Qeynos (merchants, peasants and even guards), both keeps, Sayer's Outfitters (a building in the center), the Claymore and Windstalker village are the most important quest hubs, some of them leading back and forth to eachother. You will find more quests if you pay attention, like Sir Jeager and his squire, who lead to Blackburrow.
xZAOx wrote:

From Freeport you can get there just by Mariner's bells. Go Freeport (any suburb) --> Commonlands --> Nektulos Forest --> Thundering Steppes --> Antonica. There you are, no ship ride needed. If you need to sneak into Qeynos, there is an underwater grate under a tree left of the South Qeynos gate, which leads you to the Peat Bog and further to Vermin's Snye (one of the sewers). From there you get to the Down Below (the newbie sewer) and further to all suburbs of Qeynos. Attention though, guards will kill you, avoid them. The first guards are in the Peat Bog, and of course in Qeynos. The sewers aren't guarded.
EDIT: One more note, don't miss Timorous Deep (the Sarnak starter zone). You get there from Butcherblock by griffon (at beach, a small walk from the docks). Tons of quests there, some with nice rewards. Same goes for Darklight Wood (accessable from Commonlands). In Timorous Deep you start in a gazebo near the upper gate to Gorowyn (ask for help to get there, it's awful...), Darklight Wood you start at the Wanderlust Fair. Do all quests that are level 10 or later.

Just popping in to show some support for this method of play - it's great for an alt when you have a main at 80 that you just group and/or raid with, but want a little side project for soloing. It's also great if it's your main, and you're not in a hurry to get to endgame.
For those with higher level characters, don't forget (like I did, temporarily), that you can log in your higher-level toon to clear a path for you, so that you can get to nameds and/or get to quest updates. Case in point: I was in Fallen Gate with my Inquisitor, and I knew the Zombie L&L book was in there, but it would have taken a serious effort to attempt to clear to it. After thinking about my options for a minute, I suddenly "remembered" that I had a level 80 Bruiser at my disposal, so I logged him in and swept up the trash, so to speak.
One thing to be careful about: if you're after a named that is part of a group of mobs in its encounter, do NOT kill any of the mobs in the encounter, thinking to just leave the named for your lower level toon - this will break the named, leaving him in a gray state, until the encounter resets. But rememeber you can use that higher-up toon to clear placeholders, too.
Another GREAT source of achievement points is to betray - just get yourself kicked out of your starting city, and then, what you want to do is find the various NPC's that give you bounty quests. Not only will this give you access to a couple dozen named NPCs you might never see otherwise, but each bounty quest also awards achievement experience - and they're the only betrayal/faction quests like that that do. There is an NPC in Antonica who will give you bounties to earn Freeport faction, one in Darklight wood to earn Neriak faction, one in Commonlands to earn Qeynos faction, and one in Greater Fay to earn Kelethin faction. However, it seems like if you've already killed a named for Qeynos faction, you can still get the Kelethin bounty quest which would give you Kelethin faction - but the named isn't spawning. So it might be wise to pick up the Qeynos & Kelethin bounties (for NikVik Darkpaw, for example) at the same time, to see if killing him once updates both of the quests. Just plan out your faction hits appropriately - for example, if you want to end up in Freeport, do the quests that kill your Freeport faction *first* (since you won't get any worse than -50,000 anyway, and you're probably there already). Then, after those bounties are all done, begin the ones that will earn you your +Freeport faction.
As for my own personal victories, I took a shot at the scripted encounters in the Chamber of Immortality last night, with my level 34 Inquisitor (62 AP's). I handled the first three groups of 4 mobs well enough... Beat the Lamia, but only barely... And Varsoon was at less than half health when he smoked me. ; )
What can I say, he was a yellow named. I'll get him in a few levels, and definitely before I can use any of my T5 gear.

Jhandiira@Antonia Bayle wrote:
[snip about book quests]
Thanks! I'll check that out again. I looked last time I'm pretty sure, but weren't the books all like 50s? I didn't pay a whole lot of attention, but I remember thinking "Man, these books are pricey" and moved on. Nice to know those are the ones that'll lead me to the sewer though.

Oh, my character grew up in TD . I was born in DW, and immediately ran to the flying carpet and used it to get to TD. The quest rewards for TD blow everything else out of the water. The next place I took care of was DW, and this past weekend I wrapped up CL and GFay. Well, all up to level 15 that is.

xZAOx wrote:

The books range in price depending on the level of quests they give. Sort by price and buy the low ones, which will be the teens level quests. The next books up in price are for the 20's.
This weekend my wife started up a new character doing the quests this way, and we will be playing together (my wizard and her troubador). So far I have gotten to level 17 and 27 AA's, with lots of quests remaining. Overall, it's been a lot of fun and definetly my favorite way to play EQ2.

Jhandiira@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Book quests can be a real real pain in the **** , i think your talking about the book "the second key" (or the third dunno anymore) which has you kill 3 times 20 badgers ... took quite a long time for that
Most books are really a long grind but well at the end they do give AA. Got the griffawns so finished in TS (read on wiki though that after doing a repeatable quest at docks 10 times you get another different one ... might try that although even longer grind ). And with some help from guild friends managed to kill Bloodtalon so thats the biggest hurdle for that HQ

Might well have been one of the "the ... key" books, I did them all three. Overall I like the book quests. Sure, many of them are a grind, but besides AA they give you a visible sign of achievement - the book. I already have a nice little library, with several book shelves and the books sorted by appearance, while the "book heaps" stand below them on the floor. I often smile, when I enter the houses of other people to buy something, and I see their "libraries" with nothing more than a few L&L books. I did Bloodtalon solo, but I already was level 27.

jaguarjp wrote:

I have another soft spot besides liking the low level content... I love being cast as an absolute havenot in a world of filthy rich people, and struggle my way up. That's why I rolled my level locked alt on a different server, where I'm alone and know nobody. Of course I shamelessly use the fact, that the others are rich. Ah, the feeling, when you can buy the first larger bags and crates from the broker. Wonderful, when you buy your first earned 3pp horse at level 13, and the 9pp one at level 18 (can't buy any better since unguilded(tm) ). Great when you can deck yourself into your first steel suit at 22 and say - it's all earned myself. And the absolute best is to simply respond to all people, who send me tells "hey twinkie" and similar, "I'm not twinked".
So I leave my raiding troubie in a realm far away, when I indulge in my role as dark knight Jhandiira.

xZAOx wrote:

use the bells in the old zone. in nek forest you can use the bell to TS, there you can use a bell to Antonica.
And welcome to the levellock world, let us know how you progress

Jhandiira@Antonia Bayle wrote:

It's wise to keep a record for yourself which quests can be deleted easily. Like quests you get in the zone itself so which are easy to get back again or book quests which you didn't start yet. Just remember to restart them again when you need to or have room for them

Went to Antonica last night (at level 15), and unfortunately the guard at the cabin could see through my invis. I don't know if it was because he was 10 levels higher than me, or just that he sees through invis period. So I decided to go ahead and unlock and level to 20.
Wow, leveling is easy in this game. I turned in 2 or 3 collections, then wrapped up the last of the TD quests, and went from 15.7 / 19 AP to 20.9 / 22 AP. This took about 4.5 hours. Super easy. Note that level 13 quests gray at 20 unfortunately. I had a couple for deep in Wailing Caves that I was leveling up a bit before I did, but should've went back no later than 19 I guess.
I found a neat little heroic quest in TD (to get there, when working out of the Mok Rent quest hub, near the ruins there's a pool of water you can swim down in. Talk to the downed aviac there, and then click on the sarcophagi in the back. Run those back to Mok Rent, and one guy will give you an item to take and go click on the sarcophagi again. There are 3, and each one spawns a level 17 heroic mob). I just stumbled upon these by accident, actually. I didn't realize it was going to be heroic (because I didn't pay attention), and I *almost* killed the first guy toe-to-toe at level 17 myself (he was down to about 10-15%). After I died, I checked the quest item and realized I could use it at 25% to finish him off. I didn't get as lucky as my first fight, but after 2 or 3 times (FD'ing when it got too close), I was able to kill him with the item. I tried the another guy twice but had to FD, came back at 18 and trashed him pretty easily, and he dinged me, so that I did the last one at 19 (which was really easy).
Still at 60 something quests hehe. Going to go do all the level 15-20 quests around the world now (which will wrap up all the newbie zones). Hopefully invis will work on the guard in Antonica now, but he's still an elite 25, so I don't trust that if FD fails once that I'll be able to survive long enough to try again. Really looking forward to Crushbone and Blackburrow (from EQ1 memories)! Also going to try to get a Dwarven Ringmail Tunic and start the Greater Lightstone, just for the hell of it . Also should be able to pick up the L&L: Skeletons, pretty sure I already have most, if not all, the needed items for it.