(N)EverQuest Scrolls

I have spent my accumulated AAs in 64, and have 10 left over from the 30 stored AAs. I will next level to 66 for the new pet; I have most of the 65 spells, and have enough Minor Muramite runes to get all 66. Once there, I will work on AAs again, and look for a new spot. My current spot is Death Row (aka Mavuin Hall) in Plane of Justice, which will start to show green at 66, I believe (note: I was wrong; at 65, Death Row is roughly 50% green, although prisoners are still all light blue). Many other good spots, although with less experience, like Nurga, will suffer from the same problem at 66. It is possible that there may be a new set of hot zones to explore by the time that I reach there. (continue reading…)

62 was a problem for me. The only suitable hot zone was Acrylia Caverns, and Outer was all green, and Inner was starting to get tough on my pet. I was down to 1.0 – 1.2 AAs per lesson in Inner Acrylia; then I discovered that my exp rate on greens in Outer Acrylia was also 1.0 – 1.2 AAs! People wandering into Inner Acrylia could seriously damage my rate there, and there was usually at least one good camp available in Outer, plus the risk was a lot less, so that’s when I ended up. While getting level experience, my rate was about 15-18% per lesson, which is respectable. (continue reading…)

Vellum Parchment Solution

Shopping list for making Vellum Parchment Solution, which is the recommended skill up path for 175-203 research. Other skill up solutions require very similar components – only the numbers in the final combine for gems/metals, Vial of Pure Water and Gnomish Heat Source vary. (continue reading…)

Ding 239! Still 61, and that flushes out all of my stored AAs. The last purchase was to get Persistent Casting 3, which I had held off until defensive AAs were at max.

I have come back to Outer Acrylia. If I pick the section near the entrance to Inner, I have the skeletal minions and shik’nar, which are 50% roughly light blue, and I have the pick of bloodpriest and bloodmage spawns, without so much competition, except for the odd person trying to run to Inner without invis. Exp rate here is around 1.3 – 1.4 AA per lesson.

Dragon Necropolis was both good and bad. The phase spiders are just fine; all light blue, non social, etc. No cash drops to speak of, but two problems: the mercenaries are all dark blue and don’t split at this level, and have a significant aggro radius. That wouldn’t be so much of a problem, if it wasn’t for the beetle swarms. Add those two to the long run from overnight as a shroud in PoK, and the limited numbers of spiders, and the zone just isn’t worth it. Exp rate is around 1.2 AA per lesson.

So I checked out some other spots. Nurga, tier 4, is safe, but again, it’s 1.0 – 1.2 AAs per lesson; it’s advantage is safe afk spots, and an effectively infinite number of spawns to pull, with almost no possibility of adds, if you know the zone.

I ought to check for solo in Plane of Innovation, Plane of Valor (unlikely, but still), and deeper in the Hole.

I will continue in Acrylia, possibly trying Inner for a change, and may also try Ward of Xegony instead of epic.

The AA set for 62 will be: ID2, LR2, PP2, IE2, and Suspend Minion 1. 16 AAs total, so I think I’ll be levelling straight through.

Update, 24 May: stored AAs complete, started levelling to 62. Outer Acrylia gives 1.2 – 1.5 AAs per lesson; the variance is explained by RNG related issues of the light blue/green mix, and the odd power leveller thinking that it’s just fine to pull all the mobs in my area that aren’t actually dead, and training them through me. One lesson gave me 18% in 61.

At 59, Dranik’s Scar is annoying. The caves are a mix of grey/green, with a few light blue rats in one. The various mobs have the full gamut of grey/green/light blue, and up for nameds.

Outer Acrylia is all light blue, although I see that at 62, it is all green. Inner Acrylia has light and dark blue.

I now have 30 stored AAs, and am progressing through 59. My AA rate was 1.5 – 1.7 per lesson, although the higher rates were probably using had C2. With C4 (Tranquility), 1.75 is the norm. Also with C4, I have been getting about 30% per hour in 59 (44% in 90 mins, or 20% in 40 mins).

I did feel a small temptation to get MGB before levelling, but I managed to hold it off. At 60, a proportion of grimlings turn green – a rough estimate from a small sample would be 1/3, so I’ll stick through 60 here, which should only be a couple of hours, based on the time for 59 and 60 being a half level.

At 61, most (more than 2/3) of Outer Acrylia is green, so it’s time to move on. Lesson of the Devoted in 60 gave me 44%; the total time spent in 60 was a little over 90 minutes (which gave me 95%, and included the lesson).

The stored 30 AAs was enough to buy all suitable AAs available at 61 (no new AAs are available at 60), with 3 left over. I need to find an exp zone for 61+; I will test out Dragon Necropolis, which is both a hot zone and, of course, has an augment, and a James the Watchmaker quest there.

I’ll update this to cover suitable exp spots.

I now have 200 AAs. Everything from general/archetype/class that is desirable I have already purchased, and I have 3 AAs stored. My maximum rate of earning AAs at 59 was 1.5 AAs per lesson in the Hole, at the destroyed constructs/gargoyles camp and the spirits of the ruins camp below it. If I timed it poorly, or if there was anyone else even close to the camp, I’d end up with about 1.4 AAs; if I got it just right, I once managed to take 1.6 AAs.

The “hot zone” exp boost for the Hole lasted several days into the new hot zones. On the first night of the patch I tested out Acrylia Caverns, and everything in Outer was still light blue; the exp rate seemed as if it would match the Hole, although I still haven’t measured it precisely. The Heart of the Sky augment dropped several times, as did the pieces for the James the Watchmaker cloak quest. There were several people, all much higher farming the area, so it wasn’t possible to get a clear determination. I came back the next night grouped with my wife’s mage (62, < 50 AAs), and the level range of players was more appropriate; plus I discovered that all of the mobs in Outer were green to her. My epic can hold aggro off my wife's WoX, although if I hold back for a relatively short time WoX will hold aggro. The only other options at 59 would be Dragon Necropolis, which is a very long hike considering that I need to be shrouded to keep pet toys; Dranik's Scar is too low level for decent exp, and has annoying wanderers. Of the non-hot zones, Howling Stones is a possible, but has a scattering of greens, and I would imagine the the North wing is too low for decent exp, which I would need to traverse every time to get to the next wing. The plan now is to grind to the full 30 AAs stored, then level to 61. There are no new AAs at 60, but I will continue to pause each level from 61 to 65 to grind a full set of the better PoP AAs, as detailed in previous posts. I think that I will be using epic pet on the lowest available light blues until low level aggro starts to become a problem, then switch to Ward of Xegony. I will definitely switch pets at 66. I might consider grinding through 65 to get to 66 and the new pet (Child of Wind), before getting the pet damage AAs at 65; I am undecided as yet.

In line with my recent post about beastlord gear, here’s what I can see to gear up a level 60 mage.

Goru’kar Mesa quests (Earth Melded)
hot zone augments
TSS/Crescent Reach quest augs
Watchmaker James quests – head, back, hands
Lavastorm quests – Sooty Miner’s Cloak, Lucky Miner’s Gorget and Glowing Magma Ring, Intricate Tool Belt
DoN armor/augs

Drowned Man’s Hair
Swirling Silk Bracer
Ethereal Silversilk Wristwraps
Necklace of the Arch Scrykin
Shimmering Band
Mantle of the Spellcaller
Chipped Ring of Bloodcalling
Shield of the Silver Serpent
Totem of Fear
Serpent Seeker’s Charm of Lore/Wanderlust Guild Loadstone

Mageblade/Orb of Mastery
ear?? Earring of the Solstice
Hollowed Bone Plated Mask/Elemental Facemak
Muramite Silk Turban of Contention

From a thread on the Veteran’s Forum on EQLive, something dear to my heart. The premise is a naked level 65 beastlord, with no cash.

Goru’kar Mesa Scout Madu quest armor
hot zone augments
Energeiac armor
Don Cultural armor (eg, Vah Anima, plus augs)
Bone Fist Sheath (H2H 20/23 50 HP) 90 crystals (ebon/radiant)
Bone-Studded Loop
Mineral Encrusted Hood
Glittering Cloak of the Ruins (PoR quest reward, also Bazaar)
Direwrought Leather Sleeves
Drachnid Fingerbone Necklace
Sleeves of Constriction
Gorewood Staff
Mantle of the Spellcaller

Taken from EQLive Newbie forum, post by Crystilla:

It will depend how strongly you like questing for items, versus camping a spot for items versus factioning. 

DoDH as you recall had almost all of their missions with guaranteed cursor drops when you won it, plus many also had the extra bonus chest back at the entrance or on the main boss you had to kill to finish the mission. 

PoR was a mini expansion (as the spring ones are) and moved away from that guaranteed cursor loot but did keep the chests at the end:

• there's not as many instanced missions, but there is a variety of zones for the 60+ range that vary in degrees of difficulty (packed mobs requiring splitting/mezzing of dark blues up to mobs that did aoe's requiring group healing as a standard heal tactic to yellow/red mobs again requiring splitting/offtanking/mezzing).  Arcstone – Relic – Devastation – Sverg.
• It did continue the trend toward providing some items that upgraded non-raiders very much like the Spirit cloak mentioned above. 
• The Freeport Arena Charm is part of this expansion.  You can get an instance of the Freeport arena and as your group battles waves and wins, your charm become stronger.  150/150 I believe it went to when you won all 42 events.  You could stop and pause between event waves for as long as needed. 
• There's also a quest which, if you had good PoGrowth faction, with no killing and about 15 minutes of running around you get a very nice item.  ( Different slot for different classes; one was a back item which was negated already with the Spirit cloak). 
• PoR also gave more augments as rewards and drops for missions, which helped to offset and improve upon augments purchased from DoN for example.
• With few instances, there were a lot of named camps where you could get specific visible armor slots to drop with pretty valuable clickies (and given what DoN purchasable armor was at and the rare visible slots from DoDH missions), the molds covered gear around 220 hp/mana.
• Spells were earned by doing a series of missions (for some classes they got one after completing the 3 Takish/North Ro missions; others got spells or 'auras' for finishing up a quest in devastation and even one other one was questable).  When you finished the quest series, you got a specific spell (so you knew in advance what you would get).
• For raiding, a lot of open zone mobs as well as a few instances (so a mix).  The end zone had 4 events only (not like the 9 events and up to 5? mini named in Demi-Plane from the DoDh expansion.

TSS took the game back to some of its roots (only better) in that:

• it increased the maximum level to 75
• created zones for level 1 – 75 to experience in and gear up in; small note here – in some cases the best gear was still in other expansions for the mid-game levels. 
• But tons (and I mean tons) of quests to do
• a new race ( Drakkin) to play.
• Open zones to exp in with some new mob/NPC models to enjoy.
• Lots of pretty good lore about the humans 'kissed' by dragons.
• Gear (single class only) drops from random trash that reached 285 hp/mana while visible armor molds for the higher end dropped from campable groupable named (tier 1 armor) which reached around 240 hp/mana.
• For raids, lot of factioning (which has still been made easier but is still quite intensive timewise), then you raid in instances.  Though there are some open zone targets which also mid-tier guilds can go after.
• Spells in this expansion were also completely redesigned.  Rank 1 spells for almost every spell are available off vendors and you can purchase it instantly.  Rank 2 are slightly stronger versions of the same spell and are drops off exp camps in the open zones.  Rank 3 are again slightly stronger and are only available off raid events.  The rank system has a specific turn in order which you can find on your class boards.  It works like OOW does (where it always seems the good spells are at the back).  Note – not all spells have a rank 1 version and not all spells have a rank 3 version.

TBS is another mini (Spring) expansion and takes an entirely different turn. 

• The Buried Sea deals with the fallout and battles with Seru, Katta, etc.  and while I have no idea how pirates got into the mix, there are some really nice character models (including sphinx's and other goodies).
• A number of open zones (and instanced versions of many of them) though warning, there is horrid lag in some of the zones.
• Again, lots of nice quests including a quest for an aug with 135/135 hp/mana (better aug than Anguish raid ones) which has all the tasks as solo missions that you can do alone or with some others as it's guaranteed rewards you get per person at the end of the solo tasks.
• Factioning is huge here as you are unable to buy spells/gear/weapons from the vendors without having done some missions to 'earn their trust'.
• Currency is new – there are dubloons (pirate) currency and Orux (Katta) currency as well as Phosphites (raid currency).  All spells, gear and weapons (that are on vendors) require the appropriate currency and faction.
• Spells again follow a rank system with the 1st tier purchased from the Pirates series of missions and the rank 2 spells purchased from the Katta series of missions and rank 3 from raids.  These are separate tiers with their own set of gear so that folks of varying levels can work up to the gear level they want. 
• Gear can drop off named mobs in open zones as well as is purchased through the vendors (once appropriate faction and currency are reached).  This 'earn currency' for vendor gear is similar to LDoN and DoN though like DoN the currency is tradable.  The highest group gear nets out around 280 or so.

Here's a list of quests I have polled together on my guild boards to enjoy.

TBS:
1)  Katta Portal Guide
2)  Samanna's Progression Guide
3)  Solteris Access Guide
 – #0 (prestep):  http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4094 (A City in Peril Overview)
 – #1:  http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4051 (Knowledge for Power/Hide & Seek)
 – #1a:  http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4106
 – #2:  http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4052 (Locating the Statue)
 – #2a:  http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4107
 – #2b:  http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4108
 – #3:  http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4053 (Snakes Hiding Something)
 – #4:  http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4054 (Counter Attack)
 – #5:  http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4102 (Confront Emperor Zaarisz)
 – #5a:  http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4109
 – #6:  http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4103 (Where there's a Will)
 – #7:  http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4104 (Slay the Serpent).  Locs for these are:
700, 410,240
730,180,240

-390, 140,410
-320, -20, 410

170, -420, 590
250, -550, 640
 – #8:  http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4105 (Stop the Ritual)
 – #8a:  http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4110

3)  Pottery Quests (start of):
 – http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4114 (gives you Dusty Pottery Piece or Dusty Pottery Splinter)
 – http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4115 (gives you Dusty Pottery Piece, Dusty Pottery Splinter, Smooth Urn Handle)
 – http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4119 (gives you ??)
 – Library Heist gives you Cracked Urn Handle
 – http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4097 (gives Dusty Pottery Chip)

4)  Sphinx Naming missions:
  – #1:  http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4100
 – #2:  http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4111
 – #3:  http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4112
 – FINAL mission – http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4142 (gets Spectre illusion click)

5)  Flora missions:
 – #1:  http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4098
 – #2:  http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4099
 – #3:  http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4056

6)  Final item of the "pottery" quest = http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=67086 (soon to be 5 CHARGE before recharging)
7)  Final item of the "bones" quest (GOOD AUG) = http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=67072  and here is another link with everything outlined including locs and hints http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~leduncan/skeletalhand.html
7)  10% slow for undead mob, 5 min reuse Clickie

TSS:
1)  Single swarm pet quest
2)  Start of clickie circle type items
3)  Sunderock Springs item/augment quest
4)  Upgrade to Slipgear gem-start of Wanderlust (stacks with Wanderlust if you have Tradeskill Artisian charm)
5)  Link to 2 different charm slots (one for tradeskillers, one for questors) on cleric boards
 – Ala's link for the "turn in" one:  Charm of Lore
 – Eqtraders's link to the tradeskill charm:  Artisian Charm
6)  Caster/Priest 6mana regen, +20% dodge clicky
7)  Start of some other TSS tasks on Samanna's message board
8 ) +700 hp clicky (does not stack with cleric hp buffs, but does stack with druid and shaman)
9)  Pacify drakkin clicky
10)  Start of quest for Steppes portal clicky
11) Mana Pres 6 50/50 augment, GM armor usable
12) Continuation of #11 – 1 charge sow potion
13) 30% to fire right click focus, lasts 15 min unmodified
14) 10 charge clicky with 5% added evasion
15) Series of quests with same NPC that warrant the following:
 – 100% weight reduction bag
 – Stat food (not sure on actual stats)
 – 1 charge potion with +50 to all resists
16)  Series of quests with same NPC that warrant the following:
 – 1 charge potion with 60% sow speed
 – 8 slot 100% weight reduction bag
 – Stat drink (not sure on actual stats)
17)  50 hp/mana/end +3Mana regen, +15attack – takes 15 minutes
18 ) One reward is 35ac augMission is currently unsolved
19) One reward is 20ac aug
20) Gobbie familiar with FR and DS
21)  Final Augment from the 3 "disc" series

PoR:
1)  Samamma's reference link to PoR
2)  Deathknell access
3)  Temple of blood access
4)  Freeport arena charm
5)  Black Orb of the Scrykin
6)  Tinkering quest
7)  Cloak of the Spirit hunter back evolving item
8 )  Spirit mark armor
9)  Augment quest
10)  Coldain augment, 3 part MM
11) Start of group missions to gain access to Corruption of Ro event

I had a 10 day break in the middle of this, but I have cleared my 30 stored AA, and, as of this morning, am now 59 (updated on 30 March, 2007). Destroyed constructs and gargoyles in the Hole are still light blue, even at 59, so should do for my next batch of AAs.

Level 56 took about 2 – 2.5 hours; I didn’t time it accurately, but the last 20% took 35 minutes (18% for 30 minutes) – no lesson. Level 57 was over in one day, 3.5 – 4 hours; lesson gave me 28%. As of yet I am still using the same spell set as for 52, with the one exception of Scirocco, from 54; nothing else has been an upgrade. I had one death early on, and am on my third epic pet; one died in a big pull, and one was lost when Plane of Knowledge was respawned. I have gated out of bad pulls (aka other people’s trains) twice.

Update at 59: 58 took me two days to clear. In my last two lessons, I got 21% and 28%. At 59, my spell set has been updated with a bigger nuke (Seeking Flame of Seukor) to replace Char. AAs have been spent on Pet Discipline, Mend Companion, Frenzied Burnout, and Quick Damage 2, with 4 remaining. Next spend will be to complete QD, then I think Turn Summoned, the four elemental forms at level one, and Quick Summoning.

Given the general trend of increasing times required per AA, I am slightly regretting not getting trade skill and resist AAs back at 51. At the time I was getting bored, but I think I could have stuck it a lot longer. Given that the epic is fixed level, that shouldn’t be a big surprise to me. Although the archetype AAs have helped, they haven’t been a massive improvement. Looking forward, I can see Mend Companion having a significant effect on exp times, as well as the mini-pet AAs, before the pet dps AAs that start to kick in at 65.

Update 13 April: I am now back up to 1.5 AAs per lesson, which isn’t as great as 51 was, but is a step forward from 55. Exp location is still the same area in the Hole, although there is considerably more competition for the camp spot. When I started, the Hole was almost guaranteed to be empty at all times; now I can expect a mid-40s group either at ZI or the pit, and a PLer with a 30s tag along in the other spot, plus one or two high 50s at my preferred spot, either PLing or gathering AAs (I presume). I have also found that if you sit a character down just before the drop off into the pit, he will get grouped exp from you killing any of the massive constructs, most of the destroyed constructs (apart from the one in the bedroom), and everything in the castle – but not the zone in set of elementals.

Other AAs at 61, not considered in my previous posts:

Convalescence 6
(Lasting Breath – required Imp Lung Capacity)
Packrat 15 – forget it

GoD+ level 65 AAs:

Pet Affinity 12
FoM Mastery 18
Shared Health 25
Elemental Durability 18
Elemental Agility 18
Elemental Alacrity 25
Elemental Fury 15

Total 131 !!

Note that at 61, there is a DoN spell, Summon: Lava Orb, for 120 crystals.