Crusty Mage contemplating resurrection

[Calebe]

Welcome back JT. As you has heard from others and seen the game is very casual friendly now. A lot to do and so many zones to visit even if for no reason then to see you have seen them will keep you busy if you go the old fashion way of running zone to zone (or use a horse). In any event just seeing the zones new and old is an experience.

Some must have spells are the RS (raging servant) series of tempoerary pets. Don't last long but they are a potent to off tank an add and use when you get a Gift of Mana (GoM) proc. You will want to train in GoM when you can and buy the spells for those pets. They are a huge game changer for a mage, and something to look forward to getting. AA wise the Companion of Necessary (CoN) aa and twin cast are must have aa's as well as GoM. There are a lot more of course to keep you busy, those are some of my must haves for what it is worth.

Gear wise a lot of really good group gear is available that you can solo. Do progression for SoD expansion and you can get a decent pet focus as well. So a lot to do and see. Raiding is still a huge part of the game as I know your well aware, but the group game gear wise as a caster isn't to bad at all. Melee needs help, more AC needed on their gear, but for a mage things are at a high point for now (I am hoping they keep it that way). As Baramos said don't let EQ overwhelm as it has so many (myself included) in the past, but keep it as a fun hobby and your set. SoD expansion was a sort of reset in that many guilds have beaten the expansion and are on semi equal playing fields. It has been farm mode for a lot of guilds for 9 months now or longer. I am not sure how long public (we are a public raiding guild on Tunare) have been in Tower but we have more people to gear then most, over 100 active raiders, and even with that many some gear goes for 1 dkp and some to alts. The long delay in the expansion release has caused even our public raiding force to lose people. People are just plain bored, and getting burned out. We can still field 60+ a night, but we were fielding 80+ a few months ago (people don't have to raid and the number flucuates). So grouping happens but finding some with lower populations and mercs can be a challenge. As a mage soloing or mercing/moloing however you want to put it is done a lot.

In any event welcome back and enjoy the game.

Calebe

[Jaytee]

Calebe,

Thanks for saying hello! I've run into the group issue already. First it's just more convenient and efficient to solo than group with less than stellar groups. I joined one group that was in FoS and after 10 minutes had pulled all of 5 mobs Although I have run into a couple folks who remember the name and have invited me to their groups and it has been sensational xp. I am 77 and 55% to 78 at the moment!

[Jaytee]

Ding 78 - 10% in and got several Void A tasks completed. Shivv was kind enough to help me and Zcroak do rings, cure mancer and a couple other quests. Then we did the first 3 progression tasks with another friend. I even did my first two guk MM's and wow - turned AA totally off for the first on and I went from 91% into 77 to 3% into 78. On the second turned AA to 100% and got 6 AA for one 18 minute mission and the mithril 2 hander via roll!!!! Wow. Thanks to Orchox for getting me into the first Guk mission, it was a blast man and I hope to do it with you again.

During my session I hit plane of sky, killed all the bees but no stone for my harmshield ring...blah. 3rd day in a row I have killed those bees.

Finally I went to Paw with Elrique and hit up one of the 4 essences for the aug and pucked up two augs I used right there one 50/50/50 and one 40/40/40.

Great time last night!

[Calebe]

Ah the harmshield ring, forgot all about that. Think I will have to try to get one thanks for the reminder.

Calebe

[Baramos]

For an alternative route to DA you can also get http://lucy.allakhazam.com/item.html?id=86635" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

There's another one like that, too. I forgot the name, though.

Bara

[Jaytee]

Ding 79!

2 more levels to the big pet. Any suggestions on where to go for the XP? TBS pirates are - ok but I hate the zone. DSH is great but going lower xp as I get higher.

[Falino-Luclin]

Gyrospire Beza is very easy to solo with a merc and is pretty decent exp. The entire outside area can be single pulled, and the mobs aren't very difficult. You can also get an instance if you have 3 people (mercs do count). The Mechanical Guardian is good exp also, but is instanced only.

[Jaytee]

How would I get to that area...I assume somewhere in DSH? I'm at work and can't look at the eqmaps sites =/

[Kraymerica]

Jaytee,
When I was a young mage, you were the uber bestest mage ever and I would dream of one day being as awesome as the great Jaytee!
I am currently on hiatus going back to college, but welcome back anyways.

Have fun and enjoy Norrath. Mages are rockin lately from what I read, like the old epic pet domination days. Mages 4 life!

-Kraymerica

[Jaytee]

Thank you and hopefully you will find a little bit of time to squeeze into Norrath during college (but not to much like I did!)