Yet another returnee...

[Buppy]

Hey folks. I've recenty returned to EQ and I have a few questions.

I recently hit 85 on my mage, but having some trouble finding good spots for solo/molo exp. Been mostly doing Fort Mech or Beza courtyard when it's open, but most of FM is now light blue and the exp seemed to drop off quite a bit at 84, so I'm guessing 85 is even worse. Looks like a lot of Beza is LB too, though it's usually camped so it's not a great spot for me anyway. Groups are pretty hard to come by since most of my guild is either 95 and/or boxing (and I don't want to bug them to basically PL me anyway).

I'm a casual player, not looking to fly up in levels or AA. Lately though, when Beza's camped and there's an SK swarming FM (makes me lag bad enough to not be playable) and I can't get a group I've just been logging out. Not sure where else to try. Zeka seems ok, but with the mobs moving around all the time, I do a lot of waiting to get them single (two at once is a little iffy without merc, and with merc the exp isn't worth it), but I haven't tried yet at 85 with EM8 pet.

So my main question is what are some good zones at 85 w/EM8 (http://eq.magelo.com/profile/2282344), and how much of an upgrade is the 86 pet? Would that open up newer zones like Feerott/HoT/Korasc? (I can already kill stuff there, but it relies pretty heavily on lobby buffs and/or AAs...pretty dangerous and slow.) I plan on stopping for AAs either now or at 86 if that would be better. Which would be better (or would even higher be better)?

Secondary question; I made a silver account and started a bard thinking I'll try doing some boxing. I've heard that mages make decent PLers, but not sure I really understand the method. From what I gather it involves aggroing a bunch of mobs, have the bard tag them all, then let them kill themselves on my DS. That sound right? Also, what would be some good zones to try it out? Bard is lvl 15 atm.

Thanks,
Buppy

[karantal]

I leveled up my bard in much the same way but with an 85 druid PL.

Buff yourself up, aggro a load of mobs and have them beat themselves to death on your damage shield, then just before they die perform some AE damage with the char you are leveling up. I would use AE snare to maintain aggro on the druid, it might be a bit more tricky as a mage.

Ideally if you have an account that qualifies for lesson of the devoted you can make that last for a couple of hours a day, by logging in the bard as the mobs are almost dead and dealing some AE damage then logging out again just after they die.

As for zones, you want undead's ideally. Mobs that wander off on low health will be no good for this for obvious reasons. Also you want social mobs so you dont have to tag every one to get them to chase you.

Getting up to level 50 shouldnt take long at all, then you have the AA's to grind out, try not to move around too much if you want to level fast. These were the zones I leveled up in. At the time Nadox and Griegs were hot zones, you may want to try PoDisease in place of Griegs although as its a PoP zone mobs will hit a little harder and have more HP.

15-25 Netherbian Lair - I used to do the east side 1 pull, then the west side the next.
25-35 Dawnshoud - , Rockhoppers Cave mobs dont run, i think I killed tribals near Umbral zone too.
35-45 Nadox - very good PL spot no runners and loads of mobs close together that are social
45-55 & a few hundred AAs Griegs End - again loads of mobs that dont run.

After that I just followed the hot zones and tried to work on the bards skills so I didnt fizzle every song. My druid wasnt in good enough gear to continue damage shield killing in higher zones for decent xp.