Beginners guide (WORK IN PROGRESS) - 1/6/14
Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2014 9:57 pm
Last Updated: 2-26-14
I'm just starting out and thought I would document my progress to help those out there that are also beginning their adventures into The Hidden Forest. I'll most likely skip over some things that you may really think are necessary. Please post them and I'll try to add them to the guide as time goes on.
I played EQ from almost the beginning until a little over Planes of Power released. I quit for a number of reasons but wanted to get back into it years later for the fun of it. However jumping in after so many expansions left me way behind.
STEP #1 - Installing the game
Please refer to viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1763
This would also be a good time to setup WinEQ or whatever EQ windows manager you might want to use.
Step #2 - Logging in
Do you have an account already? Read about public vs. private accounts and how to set that up. viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3266
Step #3 - Character creation
A few of these options you won't have to worry about. One is the start tutorial button and the other is the starting location. No matter what you have selected you'll log into the Hidden Forest starting zone without a tutorial.
Step #4 - Starting out in game
Upon entering the game you'll notice that the User Interface (UI) looks crazy. Take a few minutes to setup things the way you want. There are so many UI enhancements and it also depends on the client you're running. If you don't like the look you can change it. I basically moved items to the sides and created a few more chat windows to get all the damage clutter out of my main chat window.
The large EQ icon you see will open up lots of options and menus.
First Quest!
When you're ready you'll notice that you have a quest log! That wasn't there when I quit playing. To open it back up you can click the EQ icon and find it in the menu system or hit Alt-Q (Thanks for letting me know mystickitty).
Off to find the queen! You have to get close to her and hit H to hail. You'll notice that your quest log advances. If she doesn't respond try getting closer. This quest chain leads you around the zone to get you familiar with your surroundings and see what's available. When you hail each person you'll notice some of the words are a different color. You can click on these and amazing things happen. Take your time and make sure you read everything because most of it is pretty important. While you're speaking with her be sure to tell her your name and get a gift! When you're all done with the quest chain you'll get a wonderful cash prize! Make sure to also chat with Murgot (Big red mushroom) and understand the epic 1.0 and armor quests. You'll be collecting these quickly.
Gear up
Time to get some gear! Go back to your armor specialist and find your specific armor set. Grab every piece because it's free! If you have a bot or want to create one remember that you can always return here and give the bot some starting armor. There are a few great bot reviews so I won't make one here but will instead provide the links when I come across them again. You may also want to grab bags from Umbo (The miscellaneous seller by the armor merchants).
Buffs
After gearing up I was ready to go hunt. Make sure you get your Sune buffs! Some wonderful person game me a few additional buffs because I had a crazy 160pt damage shield and over 6k hit points. Most of the time there are nice people around that you could politely ask for a buff. This will help you level so much faster. My level 1 enchanter started with 19hp and 27 mana. With Sune buffs: 99hp and 27 mana. After equipping all of my starter gear I was to 200hp and 159 mana. Not too bad for level 1. Again that's nothing compared to being buffed by a high level player.
First kills
Initially I created a beastlord because I've never played one. I took him into crushbone, killed one mob, and instantly hit level 3. You'll level very quickly. I must have attacked something that conned yellow or red because on another toon I hit level 2 after a kill. I had level 10 within minutes and all the crystals needed for my epic 1.0 so I went back and grabbed it. On a non-buffed Shadow Knight it took me 30 minutes from stating the game to getting level 6 and my epicl. I also collected a few supplies needed for some armor. The new piece of armor is much better than the free vendor stuff you just put on! Hold onto those patterns and materials and don't destroy one if you get an extra. You could also give that extra piece of armor to a bot you've created.
I went back to crushbone and wiped out the main bosses and reached level 27 very quickly. Again, those uber buffs I got made this possible. Normally this would take quite a bit longer. At level 20 all of those NPCs in the castle were conning red and hitting for 40ish. I'll see what it takes to do them without buffs. I had leveled so fast my attack skills were very low. Luckily back in Shadowed Grove you can go to the cave and find dummies to hit. Start attacking something and go get a snack.
Current level and what I'm doing
This is the point where I'm currently at. I thought I was invincible (originally I didn't notice I got those extra buffs and thought they had come from Sune) so I ran into lguk at lvl 27. If I had those buffs I believe I would have triumphed with ease, but alas I got slaughtered by a few pesky toads.
After I got level 30 I went back with a bard bot and some more of those uber buffs. I was doing amazingly well until I get into an area with 3 red wizards. They tore me down pretty fast and I had to train the zone.
My brother and I are going to test out boxing. Our first goal is to learn MQ2 and get past Kael and TOV. Our group:
Class / Level
Me
Cleric / 38
Rogue / 38
Enchanter / 38
Him
Warrior / 38
Wizard / 38
Necromancer / 38
We immediately grouped together, got our starting gear, buffed up with Sune and player buffs, and ran into Crushbone. We ran around letting things beat on us and die which quickly got us up to level 20. We're going to attempt doing it without buffs next week. We're using MQ2 to set the tank to attacking and holding agro, the wizard, chanter, and rogue to kill the tanks target, and we're manually playing the necromancer and cleric. We may change this up a bit. I have it setup so I can click a button on my cleric and have my enchanter cast AE mez, debuff, or just cast a dps spell on the target.
We've finally gotten into the lvl 30-55 zones. We've played around a bit in Karnors Castle, City of Mist, and Oasis of Mar. One thing we were noticing is that the warrior was taking quite a bit of damage and I would have to spam superior healing to keep him up. Also, it was taking quite a bit of time to down mobs. It felt like a raid which was kinda fun. We completely forgot about the new armor you can get. I highly recommend looking into the Chaotic armor quests.
Here are some helpful links:
Chat commands: http://www.jaburt.com/eq/eq_commands.htm (Thanks Donrexu)
A good post that helped me learn a few things: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8142 (Thanks mystickitty)
I'm just starting out and thought I would document my progress to help those out there that are also beginning their adventures into The Hidden Forest. I'll most likely skip over some things that you may really think are necessary. Please post them and I'll try to add them to the guide as time goes on.
I played EQ from almost the beginning until a little over Planes of Power released. I quit for a number of reasons but wanted to get back into it years later for the fun of it. However jumping in after so many expansions left me way behind.
STEP #1 - Installing the game
Please refer to viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1763
This would also be a good time to setup WinEQ or whatever EQ windows manager you might want to use.
Step #2 - Logging in
Do you have an account already? Read about public vs. private accounts and how to set that up. viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3266
Step #3 - Character creation
A few of these options you won't have to worry about. One is the start tutorial button and the other is the starting location. No matter what you have selected you'll log into the Hidden Forest starting zone without a tutorial.
Step #4 - Starting out in game
Upon entering the game you'll notice that the User Interface (UI) looks crazy. Take a few minutes to setup things the way you want. There are so many UI enhancements and it also depends on the client you're running. If you don't like the look you can change it. I basically moved items to the sides and created a few more chat windows to get all the damage clutter out of my main chat window.
The large EQ icon you see will open up lots of options and menus.
First Quest!
When you're ready you'll notice that you have a quest log! That wasn't there when I quit playing. To open it back up you can click the EQ icon and find it in the menu system or hit Alt-Q (Thanks for letting me know mystickitty).
Off to find the queen! You have to get close to her and hit H to hail. You'll notice that your quest log advances. If she doesn't respond try getting closer. This quest chain leads you around the zone to get you familiar with your surroundings and see what's available. When you hail each person you'll notice some of the words are a different color. You can click on these and amazing things happen. Take your time and make sure you read everything because most of it is pretty important. While you're speaking with her be sure to tell her your name and get a gift! When you're all done with the quest chain you'll get a wonderful cash prize! Make sure to also chat with Murgot (Big red mushroom) and understand the epic 1.0 and armor quests. You'll be collecting these quickly.
Gear up
Time to get some gear! Go back to your armor specialist and find your specific armor set. Grab every piece because it's free! If you have a bot or want to create one remember that you can always return here and give the bot some starting armor. There are a few great bot reviews so I won't make one here but will instead provide the links when I come across them again. You may also want to grab bags from Umbo (The miscellaneous seller by the armor merchants).
Buffs
After gearing up I was ready to go hunt. Make sure you get your Sune buffs! Some wonderful person game me a few additional buffs because I had a crazy 160pt damage shield and over 6k hit points. Most of the time there are nice people around that you could politely ask for a buff. This will help you level so much faster. My level 1 enchanter started with 19hp and 27 mana. With Sune buffs: 99hp and 27 mana. After equipping all of my starter gear I was to 200hp and 159 mana. Not too bad for level 1. Again that's nothing compared to being buffed by a high level player.
First kills
Initially I created a beastlord because I've never played one. I took him into crushbone, killed one mob, and instantly hit level 3. You'll level very quickly. I must have attacked something that conned yellow or red because on another toon I hit level 2 after a kill. I had level 10 within minutes and all the crystals needed for my epic 1.0 so I went back and grabbed it. On a non-buffed Shadow Knight it took me 30 minutes from stating the game to getting level 6 and my epicl. I also collected a few supplies needed for some armor. The new piece of armor is much better than the free vendor stuff you just put on! Hold onto those patterns and materials and don't destroy one if you get an extra. You could also give that extra piece of armor to a bot you've created.
I went back to crushbone and wiped out the main bosses and reached level 27 very quickly. Again, those uber buffs I got made this possible. Normally this would take quite a bit longer. At level 20 all of those NPCs in the castle were conning red and hitting for 40ish. I'll see what it takes to do them without buffs. I had leveled so fast my attack skills were very low. Luckily back in Shadowed Grove you can go to the cave and find dummies to hit. Start attacking something and go get a snack.
Current level and what I'm doing
This is the point where I'm currently at. I thought I was invincible (originally I didn't notice I got those extra buffs and thought they had come from Sune) so I ran into lguk at lvl 27. If I had those buffs I believe I would have triumphed with ease, but alas I got slaughtered by a few pesky toads.
After I got level 30 I went back with a bard bot and some more of those uber buffs. I was doing amazingly well until I get into an area with 3 red wizards. They tore me down pretty fast and I had to train the zone.
My brother and I are going to test out boxing. Our first goal is to learn MQ2 and get past Kael and TOV. Our group:
Class / Level
Me
Cleric / 38
Rogue / 38
Enchanter / 38
Him
Warrior / 38
Wizard / 38
Necromancer / 38
We immediately grouped together, got our starting gear, buffed up with Sune and player buffs, and ran into Crushbone. We ran around letting things beat on us and die which quickly got us up to level 20. We're going to attempt doing it without buffs next week. We're using MQ2 to set the tank to attacking and holding agro, the wizard, chanter, and rogue to kill the tanks target, and we're manually playing the necromancer and cleric. We may change this up a bit. I have it setup so I can click a button on my cleric and have my enchanter cast AE mez, debuff, or just cast a dps spell on the target.
We've finally gotten into the lvl 30-55 zones. We've played around a bit in Karnors Castle, City of Mist, and Oasis of Mar. One thing we were noticing is that the warrior was taking quite a bit of damage and I would have to spam superior healing to keep him up. Also, it was taking quite a bit of time to down mobs. It felt like a raid which was kinda fun. We completely forgot about the new armor you can get. I highly recommend looking into the Chaotic armor quests.
Here are some helpful links:
Chat commands: http://www.jaburt.com/eq/eq_commands.htm (Thanks Donrexu)
A good post that helped me learn a few things: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8142 (Thanks mystickitty)