Most Interesting Leveling Zones

[Cilraaz]

I was wondering what everyone considered the most interesting zone at each level bracket. I'm leveling a group of SK, Clr, Wiz, Brd, Enc, and Nec. I'm currently level 38 and (slowly) running the quests in City of Mist. I was just curious which zones people suggested through the leveling process and why, whether it be fun factor, interesting factor, quest reward value, leveling speed, etc, etc.

[Alulien]

35-54 was CoMist. I hated that zone on live cuz I couldn't get a Jade Reaver to drop for the life of me! So downing them Reavers was awesome. The zone has pretty decent loot too with the Chaotic armor turn-ins. I preferred it to Guk and Karnor's just cuz it's a little more open and I liked that with my box group: in those other zones I found characters getting stuck on corners or pulling unintended aggro.

55-70 was PoValor for me. I spent lots of time there on live, so the nostalgia factor was great. Plus the "upper" part of the zone has great hunting - lots of evenly distributed mobs for non-stop grinding. Added bonus is that you need 4 stones for epic 1.5 and they drop randomly off trash here. Stones of Sturdiness (your SK will need these for the Kael armor unless you have help/donor) drop randomly here to, albeit more randomly.

[Cilraaz]

The biggest problem I'm having in City of Mist is that I seem to be leveling faster than I can complete the quests. I'm working to get the parts for the SK and Bard to get the quest dagger from Kseskar, as well as the mace for the Cleric (I'm not sure if the casters would really benefit from any of the available weapons). The Slimy Substances are proving to be a bit elusive. This shouldn't end up being too much trouble, since I'll get enough for the three of them before I out-level the area.

The real trouble seems to be the Chaotic Coins. From levels 30-38, I've only had enough drop for 1 piece of gear. Trying to gear up all six characters (though obviously the SK has massive preference) at that rate will be painful to do by the time I hit 55. I farmed the entryway for a few levels and gathered the Spectral Essences. From there I moved to the slime area directly across from the main entrance to farm the Slimy Substances. Any suggestions on better farming spots in the zone, or are the coin drops completely random across the zone?

I'm looking forward to level 55. I hadn't checked to see what the next group of zones included, but I always enjoyed PoValor on live. Before I got enough gear on live to do PoEarth, I used to grind AA in PoValor with my Monk/Shaman combo. Plus, now that I've checked it, the mask from Hedim looks like it'd be good for my casters. (Side note to anyone who edits the wiki, the link from here to the quest reward isn't correct.)

Would it be worthwhile to go to Old Seb for the aug from Hogrid for any of my characters? Any other suggestions of places to stop for one-off quests?

[Ydiss]

For your first run through 1-70 content, it's advisable to take the time to get as many quests done as you can, even if you out-level the content. But mainly you only need to worry about weapons for melee and a full suit of armour for the tank (might as well get the utility quests done too, such as the Orb of Spirits in Guk for any casters).

This will prepare you for 55-70, which will present a sharp incline in difficulty (for bosses). As there is no armour in that range, chaotic for the tanks is a requirement. But I'd not worry too much about the other characters.

We didn't have the Natimbi line of zones when we first leveled up, so we spent equal amounts of time in Guk, COM and Karnors, to make sure we had a full suit of chaotic armour and all the weapons we needed. We also did the headhunter quest as much as possible (well worth doing this on your first run through, the reward will last you until T7).

In doing this, we didn't get bored as we enjoyed all of the zones on offer. But once we were ready to do Seb/Nag, we were as prepared as we could be. Then, once we hit the bosses in that level range, we only needed to level up to a certain point before we could take them down easily. We were a duo (SK and Rogue) with a cleric bot. So with your group, you probably wouldn't even need to level up as much as we did to take down the bosses in 55-70.

So just get what you need and move on when you feel ready to do so.

[Cilraaz]

So I guess I'll stay in City of Mist to finish up weapons for the SK, Bard, and Cleric. I can float between the 30-55 zones for the armor. I'll have to go get the Orb of Spirits too. I also looked up the Headhunter quest, and it looks like that'll be something for me to do at some point.

There are so many side quests I'm looking at. And this is just in the 30-55 range! Should I worry about doing any/all of these?

• I could probably pick up the neck in Guk while doing the Orb of Spirits.
• There a decent shield in Natimbi that I should probably grab for the SK as a stop-gap filler until a better 2H weapon comes along (probably epic 1.5), since the CoM dagger will replace the epic 1.0, right?
• There's the Iksar Hide Mask. I'm always a sucker for clicky illusions and the stats aren't bad for a slot that isn't filled by the Chaotic armor.
• There's a decent shield for the Cleric.
• I could get the book from Natimbi for the other casters.
• Then there's the Explorer's Badge quests.

I haven't been able to put aside the money for the donor weapon for the SK, unfortunately. It looks like that would make like a lot easier. Anyway, thanks for all the pointers so far!

[Alulien]

Yeah, have to agree: tank > Cleric > dps in order of gearing priority.

In regards to Chaotic Coins, I believe I've got a stack or so on my Baz trader. Hit me up in game and I'll hand 'em over. They drop from the boss mobs in the 30-55 zones, never from trash that I can remember. Heads up, no lock picking necessary to get into the castle in CoMist for the Reavers.

Looks like you've found yourself a couple nice items to work towards. The beauty of the quests is they're relevant for your level so you continue to level while gearing. To give you an example of how I prioritized gearing: Guk neck is Cleric > Necro > Wiz/Enc, Iksar mask is SK > Cleric > rest. I kind of map out who gets what in an order, and work on it... sometimes you'll obtain item X for all your characters while working on item Y for the SK. If that makes sense.

The SK donor v1 sword is ridiculously awesome with the 3k/tick HoT recourse (item shows 1.5k dot but the focus makes it 3k) - as you can imagine this sort of healing is insane for your level. It would trivialize all the content. Now, if you want to just get into raid progression ASAP this would probably be a great way to do it. I'm not saying to not donate (I've got 3 and counting ), just to be mindful of how it will affect your experience on the server.

Oh, and this is a ways out: but I would HIGHLY recommend skipping T1 (Ssra Temple) by purchasing Tokens of Vulak (2.5kpp in Baz) to gain access to T2 (Temple of Veeshan). The key farming to access Emperor is a real pain in the bum.

[Cilraaz]

I hadn't even realized the coins weren't No Drop. I know I have 4 or 5 of them and they've dropped from some trash. The rusty pieces seem to be boss only though. I'll have to look into the Reavers in a few levels, since it looks like they have a high drop rate. I'm not sure how well I'd hold out against them right now, though.

The donor weapons definitely look like killer items. Unfortunately, they're out of my price range currently (wife leash and all) and EQ/THF is my secondary MMO. I primarily play WoW (gasp!) and fall back on EQ during boring times. So my play time here is spotty at best.

In any case, thanks for playing 20 questions!