Prototypical returning player post

[Mehrlicht]

Hey folks,

So I'm back in the game on the same High Elf Mage I've played on and off since 2003 (name's Mehrlicht if anyone's on Bristlebane). I'm level 66 now with 65 AA's. If you look me up on eqplayers you'll see my equipment is strange-- some pieces of Defiant from when I started playing again last summer, but also some extremely lame equipment (i.e. my chest is Robe of the Kedge, seriously).

So, the question: what to do? Where should I be focusing on grouping? I managed to find a really nice family guild that is great to group with, but where should I say we go? I don't have much actual knowledge about the progression for each of the expansions. Is there stuff I should be working on? I don't intend to leave the game again, so I'd like to settle down for the long haul. What are the quests that everyone knows about and has already done but that I have managed to miss? I'm also really interested in the soloable pet focii that are available to me. Right now I've got MoD on an Enchanted Harpy Blade.

Thanks in advance for all the help.

[Kraymerica]

Look in the bazaar for the sweeper, Minion of Eternity aka plane of time focus. Either that, or I think there is a pet focus item on the vendor in PoK that sells different levels of jewelry. Someone help me out with that one. For the rest of your gear just look for elaborate defiant in the bazaar, or once you are 70, elegant defiant.

As far as where to go, I would suggest you head to the farm in Dragonscale hills. You can port to the zone from the guild hall, then just head to where the farm is with the bugs and scarecrows and crows. Up the hill nearby is 3 quests you can get that are repeatable and ask you to kill x amount of farm mobs. Ex kill 20 doombugs, then go turn it in for xp, and get the same quest again. You can hang out here all the way to 75 if you want. Then I would head to thalassius for xp. That is the current lvl 75 hotzone.

If you want to solo, you could get a cleric mercenary, and try one of two great mage friendly spots. Splitpaw, or Katta Castrum in the buried sea. Once you get the 71 air pet you might not even need the merc. These places are great because they are all summoned elementals and you can use the special nuke that has a chance to 32k nuke them. In katta you want to head to the brine of prexus camp, an area around a water fountain where the mobs respawn so fast you will never run out of things to kill. A great AA to have here is the theft of essence I think its called. Anyways, has a chance to buff/heal your pet every time you use a summoned nuke.

Hope that helps, sorry its not super specific, this is all off the top of my head from work.

[Mehrlicht]

Thanks for the really helpful information. I really appreciate it. I just have a couple response questions.

By Splitpaw do you mean Infected Paw? (I think it's called that now) Also, what pet should I be using at 66? I've just been using the epic 1.0 pet because I already have that, though I think everyone will make fun of me for that.

Which is "the special nuke" you mentioned? And, more generally, where should I be looking for spells? I have almost all of them up to level 64 and then I have almost none of them. And of course I am not too wealthy, so any moneymaking tips are appreciated. I am surprised at how cheap mercenaries are, but soon I won't really be able to afford those much anymore.

Again, thanks for all the help.

[Merlaina]

At 66 you really should get your new air pet. Almost all spells up to 75 are researchable now (I think there may be some quested exceptions), so if you can't find the spell you're looking for see if you can find a researcher willing to make it for you. Also you get a new bolt and DS at 66, which are also worth picking up.

The sweeper is probably the best focus you can get until 75, at which point you can get the energized wire coil from the guy in the ladies of the light tower in dragonscale hills. You'll have to grind some easy tasks to get it, but I think you can do it in 9 days if you do one combat task and the other 3 non-combat tasks for him. Also at that level they're good XP/AA, so you'll probably want to grind them anyway.

Katta and splitpaw (infected paw) are both great places as a mage. The "special nuke" mentioned is just any spell from our anti-summoned line. At 66 you should have destroy summoned as the best one available to you. After level 70 you start getting AtA spells (annihilate the anomalous, annihilate the aberrant, etc) which, on top of being just more damaging versions of the destroy summoned line, have a 2% chance to proc a 32K nuke. Also, with the Theft of Essence AA any of these spells (including destroy summoned and those before it) have a chance to proc a heal/buff on your pet. Finally, once you get into the AtA spells not only do they work on elementals, but they also work on constructs. These include golems, gargoyles, dervishes, and most importantly clockworks (since SoF had many clockwork heavy zones). These will become your bread and butter for AA grinding later, since they're more mana efficient than our typical nukes, and with all the other little perks they make it easy to solo clockworks/elementals efficiently. For an added bonus, pop a tonic of resonant magic and you get a good chance to proc an added nuke. These spells work best for these potions since they're already fairly low mana cost, and the ATA spells later are very fast casting.

All that said, if I were you, I'd take a group and go check out Plane of Mischief. It not the best xp (though not terrible), but a group of 60s should be able to have a blast in what I consider one of the most fun zones in the game. If you haven't been to mischief before, I highly recommend it. It's so choice.

Lastly, if you actually have a group of high 60's characters available to you, go check out some lesser used zone, just for the sake of exploring. Turn AA on for a while and enjoy the lower zones while you can. Maybe try hitting a different zone every day, just to see the sights. There are a lot of zones available to 85 characters, but it's always more fun to explore zones when they're at least somewhat level appropriate. Loot-wise older zones will show how dated they are, but you can be fine in defiant gear until 75, so don't worry about loot too much. Just see what zones you think are fun.

[Optamos]

Pretty much in the same boat as the OP. I haven't played in years, but my mage is 66. I have my 66 air pet and my new damage shield, but not my new bolt (Bolt of Jerikor?). I have very little cash, but I do have just enough to get the item off of the 50+ level vendor in PoK that has minion of darkness (currently have Summoner's Boon pet focus).

I need some place I can hunt for fun, experience, and gold. Grieg's End is one possibility so I understand. I heard there was an expansion released that was solo friendly. Any ideas what that was and how do I make use of it?

Also, how expensive are mercs and what are those tasks that allow you to hire higher tiers of them? After I buy my earring (w/MoD), I may have about 800 plat. Is that enough to hire a tank merc? With a tank merc, where's the best place to go for exp and gold (since I will need to buy the better gear available on the 50+ vendor since mine is lousy). Thanks for the help, and glad to see the Tower is being rebuilt. It was always my favorite resource as a mage back in the day.

[Merlaina]

You probably should look into the cleric merc over the tank merc. Cleric mercs will heal your pet, making pet tanking much easier, and you have no way to heal a warrior merc (unless you have a cleric bot you're not mentioning). They'll also buff you/your pet and rez your corpses. The tasks to get the better versions are the SoD progression tasks, which you won't be able to start until at least around level 75, and even then you'll be needing a group to help. For now just go with the base journeyman merc. No idea what they cost at your level, but 800pp should cover it or be very close to the necessary amount.

As far as an expansion that's solo friendly, nothing really rings a bell there. I guess SoF was pretty solo friendly, especially in Dragonscale Hills. You might be a little low for there, but not by a whole lot. Go check out the farm and see if you can handle stuff there. If not Grieg's End is a good backup plan. Also when you work the farm be sure to pick up the tasks from the gnomes nearby, as they give extra XP for killing farm mobs and collecting bloody bits from them (well they don't SAY they're bloody, but come on, of course they are. Or burnt).

[Optamos]

No additional bots for me I'm afraid, although I do have a whole host of veteran minions it seems (jester, some type of assistant, etc.). I'll have to play around with them and see how much they impact game play.

Someone in another thread had mentioned how much more exp they got when using the tank merc than the healer merc is why I was leaning that way. Is the healer merc truly the better way to go?

I really need to find a good map of the different zones and what levels they are appropriate for. I may make that my main task tonight before logging on. Thanks!

[Redius]

I'm on bristlebane server, don't hesitate to send me a tell asking for help or advice; i'd be more than willing to lend a hand.

[Msha]

I am a mageaholic, as in I have 9 mages at varying levels And I have this thing with spells, as in I want them all at the levels they are useful.

What you could do is go to noble's causeway and cycle the nameds there, I started doing this already when I had my level 61 pet (although helluva lot easier with the 66 pet), killing packmaster, ridgerunner, agressive murkglider and the named aneuk near packmaster, and a name bazu which I can't remember name on now

Took me less than a week to get all my level 66-67-68 runes and even had a good handful of runes to sell for profit (I have mages on 4 different servers, so I can't rely on my raid geared main for PP).

I can usually kill those without even using a mercenary healer (although I usually did due to the comfort).

With the 66 pet and merc healer, you can even handle some wos and even mpg nameds, where you can get lucky and get 69 and 70 runes.

EDIT: Oh btw, when you have single mobs, consider using your rain spells, as they are often more damage per mana than bolts.
EDIT2: As for merc, tank merc is by far the best up til level 61, at that time merc healer wil be more beneficial.

[Optamos]

Thanks for the advice. I quickly discovered last night (as I was trying to run over to Grieg's End) that I really miss my old map packs I had installed hehe. I need to find a set of maps and install them again I guess. Anyway, I found Grieg's End and ventured around the place some. All of the mobs I saw were light blue. It was a good place to get my feet wet again, and I plan on going back for some more practice.

I also really need to clean out my packs. They're chock full of stuff that I have no idea what they're for.

I pocketed my healer merc (tier 2 apprentice I believe) the whole time. Didn't need it in there, but if I can figure out where Noble's Causeway is I'll plan on using her there.

This is going to take some getting used to again hehe.