On my level 92 magician, I have two buttons. The first one is labeled "Engage" and consists of: assist main, pet attack, force of elements, malo, gargoyle servant. The second one is labeled "Nuke" and has a few nukes and another gargoyle servant. Someone else can probably pick this apart to make it more efficient, but this is what I have…

Spell lineup "combat"

1. Maloseneta
2. Blazing Sands
3. Bolt of Molten Steel
4. Ruinous Servant
5. Rain of Daggers
6. Spear of Magma
7. blah blah

"Engage" hotkey

Line 1. /pause 5, /assist main (targets the target of the group’s designated Main Assist, then pauses for 0.5 seconds) Note: this requires your group leader to set someone as the Main Assist or the targeting – and your entire macro – will fail.

Line 2. /pet attack (sends pet to attack the target)

Line 3. /pause 15, /alt activate 8800 (activates Force of Elements, then pauses for 1.5 seconds)

Line 4. /pause 44, /cast 1 (casts Maloseneta, then pauses for 4.4 seconds)

Line 5. /cast 4 (casts Ruinous Servant)

One click, which allows you to switch to your alt and click some other things, then switch back to your mage and click…

"Nuke" hotkey

Line 1. /pause 34, /cast 2 (casts Blazing Sands, then pauses for 3.4 seconds)

Line 2. /pause 44, /cast 3 (casts Bolt of Molten Steel, then pauses for 4.4 seconds)

Line 3. /pause 44, /cast 6 (casts Spear of Magma, then pauses for 4.4 seconds)

Line 4. /pause 30, /cast 4 (casts Ruinous Servant, then pauses for 3.0 seconds)

Line 5. /alt activate 8800 (activates Force of Elements)

This documentation here should be sufficient to understand if you just look at what is going on. If anyone else is reading, the key ideas to working with macros are…

/cast # is going to cast whichever memorized spell is in a certain gem, #1 at the top and going down.

/pause ## always goes before /cast # – it’s just backwards. The ## for pause is the number in tenths of a second. The pause should be roughly equal to the spell’s casting refresh time, which should be equal to its casting time. Add a few tenths of a second to account for lag. This will take some experimentation. Try first with a large /pause such as 60, and make sure that your macro continues on to the next Line. Then shave some time off of your pause. If the pause is too short, your next Line will be skipped. Do some tuning and find the sweet spots.

/alt activate #### activates a particular AA. Find your /alt activate numbers here.

EQtraders always has guides at: Complete Tradeskill Guide, which includes pointers to the trade skill trophy quest (do it as soon as you have completed the Crescent Reach basic tradeskill quests).

Other options are:

1. Gather poison making drops and make extracts from them:

In Crescent Reach next to the freebie quest guy buy about 10 stacks each of:

• Formic Acid
• Waterbane Powder
• Neutral Wash
• Solusek Nodule

3. Go to the bazaar and buy all of the stacks of these that you see for a reasonable price, or vendor dive, or collect drops:

• Caladium
• Delphinium
• Laburnum
• Larkspur
• Muscimol
• Oleander
• Privit

4. From 54-300 combine 1 of each item from #2, with any one of the plants from #3. This will make an extract. The extracts from later expansions have trivials over 300 so you can cheaply power level your poison making to the cap with this technique (Bazaar price dependent obviously, but I recently did it for almost free with this technique).

5. If that doesn’t get you to 300, then use extracts with the following recipes:

Secondary Poisons: (Archer’s Bane, Fighter’s Bane, Messenger’s Bane, Monk’s Bane, Myrmidon’s Sloth, Quellious’ Trauma – these range from I to XVIII)

• Tier appropriate suspension fluid (look it up on eqtraders, search for recipes that use that extract)
• Tier appropriate _____ poison vial (look it up on eqtraders, search for recipes that use that extract)
• Emulsifier
• 1 extract made in step 4

All/All Poisons: (Scorpion’s Agony, Spider’s Bite – these range from I to XVIII)

• Thick suspension fluid
• Emulsifier
• Tier appropriate _____ poison vial (look it up on eqtraders, search for recipes that use that tier of nigriventer/gormar venom)
• 1 tier appropriate _____ nigriventer venom OR _____ gormar venom (look it up on eqtraders).

Or (54 – 260):

Strike of Ssraeshza XVIII – trivial 260 – total cost approx. 1.5 plat per combine
Recipe:

• Distilled Grade A Choresine Sample (5g from Craftkeeper Irus Tindlefoot in Shard’s Landing)
• Stylized Sealed Poison Vial (5g from Craftkeeper Irus Tindlefoot in Shard’s Landing)
• Emulsifier (found on most poison merchants, I usually origin to Crescent Reach for mats)
• Celestial Suspension Fluid (found on most poison merchants, I usually origin to Crescent Reach for mats)

Credit goes to Tinyfeet on the EQ forums.

For amusement, there are also some of rogue trade skill related quests still available, although these are now mostly useless.  See post on Safehouse.

And, for completeness:

Rogue Redemption gives the Burning Rapier, which is required for the Master Sketch quest.

• Feral Guardian Channeler- Self Divine Barrier
• Totem of the Wurines – Self Divine Barrier
• Rune of Healing – AE pulse Heal
• Tear of Tranquility – Neg 5000 Hate clickie
• Timeshear – rewind clickie
• Kelp Covered Hammer – 2k heal clickie
• Mask of the Ancients – 4k heal clickie
• Mark of Searing Dawn – Undead Mez trap, no level limit
• Goblin Frost totem – Single target corruption cure clickie
• Star of Eyes – instant cast identify clickie
• Firestorm Torch – AE low damage fire rain, for breaking roots
• Fabled ball of golem clay – 8min 5pct damage mitigator for 90k
• Hobby Horse- all stackable 5mana regen but you cant move mount
• Cowl of the High Priest- Clickie myrmidons 8
• Mithril-Runed Tunic – Clickie 800 HP cleric symbol
• Fabled Torque of the Wyrmlord – Clickie brell-line HP buff
• Wistful Tunic of the Void – Clickie – Clickie Focus-line Hp buff
• Fabled Belt of Marvelous Visions – Clickie 30 pct melee haste
• Purified Sunshard – All Stackable 10pct undead type 2 slow
• Bark-Inlaid leather Tunic – 5tyck targettable spell and melee damage shield song buff
• Symbol of the Planemasters- all stackable melee proc nuke buff
• Dancing Blade of Fire – Clickie swarm pet
• Silver skin gauntlets – 150 Hp rune
• Bladestopper – 1800 HP rune
• Everliving Bramble Tunic – 1892 DD nuke
• Woven Bramble Tunic – 1892 DD nuke
• Icy Tunic – 1k DD nuke
• Turquoise Buckler – Clickie reflect(Very fun to use on Argath mission)
• Bone Earring of Evasion – Clickie IVU
• Stormeye Band – Clickie 27 HP all stackable DS
• Nimbus of frost – clickie 10 HP all stackable DS
• Arachniphobia Nimbus – Poison Proc buff
• Kiss of Erollisi Marr – 10k mana pump
• Fabled Shield of Coral – Clickie No-Fail Evacuate, so you dont accidentally leave party members behind
• Shield of the Immaculate – Clickie Disease cure
• Dreamcatcher Nimbus – allstackable 2mana regen
• Polymorph wand:Steamsuit – 27 AC 200 HP all stackable
• Polymorph wand: Simple Gnomework – 14 AC all stackabel
• Polymorph wand: Plaguebringer – 12 mana regen
• Staff of Forbidden Rites – Clickie 90pct rez
• Holgresh Elder Beads – Eye of Zomm
• Crushbone Fetish Choker – Circle of Life 3
• Beast Fur Shawl – Circle of Mana 3
• Totem of the Leopards Paw – MGB Melee proc buff
• Lucky Charm Totem – MGB Caster proc buff
• Radiant Totem of Ancient Krithgor – MGB Healer buff
• Protective Mimic – 1pct spell and melee shielding buff
• Curious Companion Compactor – Pet shrink
• Sand Eroded Shell – Pet Savage Spirit
• Mysterious Belt of Daggers – summon dagger clickie
• Vicious Rabbit – Swarm Pet
• Hazy Crystaline Box – Anti- Hate generation buff
• Rocketeer Boots – Gravity Flux level jumping clickie

And can add:

Wanderer’s Sylan Leggings – root

And from darchon (which partly overlaps:

Epic1 – DoT Clicky
Blade of the Tempest – DoT Clicky
Sporecaller – DoT Clicky
Orb of Clinging Death – DoT Clicky
Woven Bramble Tunic – DD Clicky
Everliving Bramble Tunic – DD Clicky
Staff of Forbidden Rites – 90% Rez Clicky
Mask of the Ancients – 4k Heal Clicky
Kelp-Covered Hammer – 2k Heal Clicky
Epic2 – Nuke Debuff Clicky
Ring of Pooled Energy – CoL 3
Weight of the Dark Denizen – CoM 3
Stormeye Band – DS Clicky
Eyepatch of Plunder – 30% Melee Haste Clicky
Shadowed Storm Sphere – 2-3 Mana Regen clicky (same line as Beastlord SE)
Wistful Tunic of the Void – 300ish HP buff (same line as shaman focus — part of unity)
Torque of the Wyrmlord – 300ish HP buff (same line as brells)
Orb of Duskmold – 700 HP buff (same line as symbols)
Bracelet of the Shadow Hive – Moving Shrink Clicky (its bardmode casting)
Ring of the Ancients – 0.5s Shrink Clicky
Blackflame Sphere – RGC Clicky
Wand of the Vortex – 2 slot Dispell Clicky
Holgresh Elder Beads – Eye of Zomm clicky
Ornate Velium Pendant – +100 Faction Clicky
Preserved Chokidai Vocal Cords – Talk through bear pet clicky
Orb of Satisfaction – AE Summon Stack of Food
Wand of Everlasting Water – AE Summon Stack of Water
Manastone – Just because lol….

Divine Fetters of Ro – old PoR Raid
Rod of Alsa Thel – Special clicky for Sepulcher

The bolded ones I use often, I’d say once a week, some far more often than that.  The others are just items that… I don’t use often but I’m generally glad I have them on me when I need / want them.

Rez clicky is ungodly useful for raiding and for battle rezzing in groups
Eye of Zomm is amazingly useful for pulling / scouting
Dispell is great cause I never load the spell
DDs / Heals are nice to use when you are OOM or can’t cast a spell due to stupid interupts/lockouts
Stormeye is extra 29 DS for when I am powerleveling, speeds it up a bit
Shadow Hive is great, I love casting while running.
CoM/CoL are nice bumps in raiding when I remember them, but honestly I forget them more often than not
Epic…. i honestly just keep it for pulling, more often than not I am using it as a quick 0.8s cast time spell to gain aggro on something at a distance (especially when I don’t want it snared so its slow… or damaged so that it doesn’t summon me)

Posted by darchon:

If you want to solo exclusively:

• Level 64-65 in PoStorm frogs charming.
• Level 65-70 mabye PoStorm frogs, likely rooting rotting is best here though
• Level 71-76 Icefall Mammoths charming.
• Level 76-86 Restless Alligators in loping plains, charming.
• Level 86-91 Animals in Al’Kabor (requires T3 HoT group flag) charming.
• Level 91-95 Alligators in Beasts’ Domain charming.
• Level 95 Quint Kitting Windsong.

Quint kiting is only faster than charming if you have decent gear though due to the mana cost.

Level 65-71 is kinda rough iirc cause OoW, DoD, DoN and PoR didn’t have any good charming locations.  And by then Karana’s Rage is pretty bad DPS.  So likely you will want to root rot, or group for this period of leveling.  71-95 can be done solo charming though.
Quadding is only viable at levels 34-65 and 95 IMO.

And:

Spells for Quinting:

Heliacal Flare (5 target – 12 recast)
Lunar Chill (5 target – 12 recast)
Crashing Hail (4 target – 12 recast)
Twincast
Wildblaze / Frostcloak Aura
Harvesting Inferno

AAs for Quinting:
Entrap 4
Storm Strike 15 (I think thats maxed)
Veil of the Underbrush
Improved Twincast 4

These are just the spells / AAs I use often.  You should have all your nuke AAs maxed probably before doing this but… basic premise is:

Cast Aura
Cast Entrap on 5 mobs then run circles to ball them up.
Cast Heliacal -> Lunar Chill -> Crashing Hail
Repeat til all are dead

First, to find the EQ customisation file, it is eqclient.ini inside your main Everquest directory.  Most guides out there are pretty old, but this one seems to be reasonably comprehensive on the standard values (which I am now going to ignore).

Everyone should change this first setting – screenshot type.  A BMP screenshot is going to be 5 MB or so; converting to JPG will bring this down to around 500 KB, which is a good saving, especially for those times you fat finger the keyboard and take an accidental screenshot.

In the [Default] section, add:

ScreenshotType=[BMP|JPG|TGA|DDS|PNG]

In this case, therefore:

ScreenshotType=JPG

Next, you may have heard of the April Fool stick figures?  Well, you can enable them for fun, or for faster performance on raids:

StickFigures=1

There are times when it may be worth messing in the [VideoMode] section, but be careful, as a mistake can easily make things worse.  The time to do this is when you swap a video card, and the options offered in the settings dialog need a little tweaking.

I know that this next config tweak isn’t for eqclient.ini, but it’s worth knowing.  If you want to set individual auto join chat channels, you can do it, of course, using the /autojoin command in game.  But if you can’t remember the password of an old channel and don’t want to lose it, just take a text editor to your character’s ini file.  The file name will be of the pattern:

UI_<charname>_<server>.ini

For example:

UI_Borek_antonius.ini

Look for ChannelAutoJoin, and edit.  There is another character file, with the pattern:

<charname>_<server>.ini

Take a look if you are curious.

Earthcaller ranger epic 1.0

Serpent of Vindication Time Tallon Zek enchanter

Truncheon of Doom warrior, Sebilis from Froglok Armsman

Willsapper from Vaniki in Dragon Necropolis – has a fabled version

Amulet of Necropotence from golems in Fear

Neriad Shawl (bard/enchanter) water elemental, Siren’s Grotto

Veil of Flames mnk/brd/bst/rog/ber fire elemental, Diabo Xi Xin, Vex Thal – and has a fabled version

Ball of Golem Clay Korascian Warlord in Plane of Earth, has fabled version

Girdle of Living Thorns spikecoat, Tunare in Plane of Growth, fabled version

Abashi’s Rod of Disempowerment Abolish Enchantment, mnk/nec/bst/ber, Vulak’Aerr, Temple of Veeshan

Wristband of Secrets Devour Enchantment, casters, Aten Ha Ra, Vex Thal

Defender of the Ancestral Spirit Immobilize, Chamberlain Escalardian, Plane of Air

Shield of Striding priests, Levitation, an enranged disciple, Cazic-Thule

Shield of the Immaculate Cure Disease, an eerie chest, Plane of Hate

Symbol of the Planemasters Pestilence Shock, Sarryrn, Plane of Time

Gloves of the Crimson Sigil Call of Fire (proc) melee, Aten Ha Ra, Vex Thal

Akhevan Shadow Shears +15% tailoring, Shei Vinitras, Akheva Ruins (fabled version)

Hammer of the Ironfrost +15% blacksmithing, Xerkhizh the Creator, Ssraeshza Temple

Umbracite Swarm Orb shrink, +15% alchemy, shaman, Diabo Xi Va Temariel, Vex Thal

Shadowsong Cloak Harmonize, bard, Shei Vinitras, Akheva Ruins

Voice of the Serpent Resonance, bard, Disiple Yelwinz, Ssraeshza Temple

Tiny Cloak of Darkest Night Shroud of Stealth, bard/rogue, Katcha (Tarmok event) Fungus Grove

Memory enchanter, memory Flux (replaced at 83); Vyzh’dra the Exiled, Ssraeshza Temple

Shiny Brass Idol single charge of Divine Aura, Hagnis Shralok and Vopuk Shralok, Highpass Hold

Divine Hammer of Consternation Divine Aura, cleric/paladin, Praetorian Myral, Grieg’s End

And a few more from the thread, including some specific Fabled versions:

Circlet of Disguise, Vex Thal from Kaas Thox Xi Aten Ha Ra, human illusion, has fabled version

Anklesmasher, Loremaster Piza`tak in Chardok, snare

Swarmcaller, Sentry of Sathir in Karnor’s Castle, RNG only, slow (Tagar’s Insects)

Fabled Willsapper, Vaniki, Dragon Necropolis, 20% slow

Fabled Journeyman’s Boots, Drelzna, Najena, run speed

Fabled Mana Robe, Trakanon, Sebilis, mana clickie

?? Fabled Shield of the Water Dragon, Faydedar, Timorous Deep, mana pres focus

?? Fabled Secrets of the Planes

Fabled Fire Idol, Fiery Thought Leech in Mons Letalis, AC 25 slot 7 aug

?? Fabled Chrysolite, Azureake in Cobalt Scar, aug

?? Fabled Wurm Meat, Shardwurm Broodmother in Great Divide, aug

Fabled Rockhopper Spirit Fetish, Ancient Rockhopper, Mons Letalis, aug

Fabled Obtenebrate Short Sword, Crypt Devourer and Crypt Wurm, Charasis, snare WAR/RNG/BRD/ROG

Fabled Shrunken Goblin Skull Earring, Grachnist the Destroyer in Warsliks Woods, atk buff

Fabled Ball of Golem Clay, Korascian Warlord, Vegarlson, the Earthen Badlands

Fabled Girdle of Living Thorns, Tunare in Plane of Growth, Spikecoat

Some of these I would now consider obsolete, notably most of the augments.

Arrows can be for pulling, which needs maximum range and nothing else, or for damage. For non-rangers (and rangers without Endless Quiver) arrows also need to be cheap. The cheapest 150 range arrows (1 damage, non-magical) are Class 2 Wood point arrows (field, wooden, parabolic, small; trivial 56); these will be good for pulling, especially when you need to do no damage. The highest damage magical arrows made from vendor components are 8/100, Class 6 Steel Silver Tip Arrows (silver tip, steel, ceramic, small; trivial 202). And the highest damage 150 range arrows are Class 2 Steel Silver Tip Arrows (6/150 magic; silver, steel, parabolic, small; trivial 202).

Now for ranger arrows. These are expensive to make, so you need to have endless quiver. The damage arrows above are a good start, but there are two stand-out arrows: Mithril Champion Arrows (11/150 plus 3 fire damage); and Class 7 Drakebone Drakespine Arrows (13/125). Blessed Champion Arrows have higher damage by a very minor amount (+4 fire instead of +3), but require Tunare deity. The alternative to Champion arrows are the Guardian arrows – exactly the same, but cold instead of fire, and deity Karana. If anyone is skilling up fletching by making these arrows, they will have a lot left over, so it’s just fine to use them for pulling or damage, or just selling in the Bazaar.

Update: it seems that the current best is CLASS 8 Steel Braxihorn Arrow (17/125).

New players to Everquest should play the Tutorial, at least once. The tutorial consists of the zone called “Mines of Gloomingdeep”, which is actually two zones. The first is a private instanced zone, containing Arias and the Kobold Jailor, and is where your character first enters the world of Norrath. The second zone is part of the open world, and has a quest arc that will guide you from level 2 (you ding 2 just as you complete the initial familiarisation quest in the private instance) to levels 10 to 15.

At 15 you will be forcibly expelled to the Plane of Knowledge, and you can’t reenter this zone after level 10. But there’s no real reason to stay any longer, as Crescent Reach has better facilities for growing your character from level ten upwards, and some would prefer it from level 2–4 onwards as well.

This latest version of Mines of Gloomingdeep has been revised for the launch of Free To Play. Changes are to add a new quest that links together all the main quests in the zone; a few new NPCs are added to explains topics that were omitted before; and some of the gear drops are updated to be identical to Defiant. In addition, there are additional items on the vendors (Gate spell, hurray!), and there is now a mercenary liaison in the zone.

Gloomingdeep was taken from Everquest sometime around the Dragons of Norrath era; although there was an earlier version with much less content and a simpler layout, and some other aspects are obviously added from Depths of Darkhollow. There are only a few potions (Divine and Celestial Healing I and II), … There are also no guild masters, so you can’t spend training points.

Installation
Install using the Everquest Launcher; the size (of EQ, not the Launcher) is approximately 8 GB, so allow time for it to come down. This launcher is significantly faster than older Everquest patchers.

and… Installation Problems
Make sure that the shortcut is pointing to Everquest.exe, and that you installed to somewhere other than ‘Program Files’. If you have problems with the display window size, edit eqclient.ini, look at the [VideoMode] section near the end. Otherwise, it’s liable to the same installation procedures as full Everquest – you will need to have Direct X 9.0c installed, and you may need to jump through some hoops to get multi-core CPUs to work properly.

Character Creation
Once you get past the log in, you’ll want to create a character. You can allocate statistic points, but I suggest you don’t bother; with modern gear, stats are mostly irrelevant (the exception is if you are playing on a Progression server, which is Gold tier only). You have a choice from 4 races (16 if Gold) and 4 classes (and 16 if Gold). The automatic name generator will only rarely find an unused name, so be prepared with original names!

First you can watch an intro movie, or press Esc to skip it. The movie is just static images, each very blurry. I’d advise skipping it.

There’s a chance that you’ll hit the messages about “That zone is unavailable” and “Your personalized tutorial zone is still loading. Please click on Enter World again in a few seconds”; just keep trying – it may take some time if the servers are loaded!

You zone in to a private instance zone at level 1, and run through a series of pop-up windows that are intended to explain the interface controls. You start with one task: “Jail Break!”, once the initial pop-ups have been read and dealt with. This requires you to move around and find the Kobold Jailor, melee and kill him, then loot the corpse and give the key to Arias – which is covering a lot of essential ground.

If you don’t like the layout of the windows, and the default layout isn’t great, feel free to drag them around, and start the conversation with Arias. When this is complete, you will know to click on an NPC to target it and for conversations, to press ‘h’ for hail (which will get you some introductory text in most cases), and how to auto-attack and loot.

Your inventory contains the usual bread cakes, skin of milk (both x20), Bandages (x20), Backpack, Gloomingdeep Lantern and guild note (of no use to you until you leave Gloomingdeep). You may also have a melee tome, which you can right click to learn.

As you enter the main mines after completing Jail Break!, you will find two tasks in your quest journal: The Revolt of Gloomingdeep, which is the big task that collects together all (or almost all) of the tasks in the mines; and Basic Training.

Your bank has another Backpack – and has 24 slots, plus the two shared slots which are only available if you are Gold. You can equip the backpack straight away.

What To Do?
Start by completing “Basic Training” (I give details of all tasks below).
In the main cave, pay attention also to the optional tasks: hail Poxan to be told to fetch his sword (Poxan’s Sword, 1HS 4/28, which can be useful in some cases); he returns you a Kobold Leather Mask (AC 2). Frizznik can give you the rat steaks task, too – but ignore what he says about right click to eat and increase your strength; you can’t sell them, but they are free food and add 5 HP, but only while they are in your inventory ‘above’ any other good (like the bread cakes).

Remember to re-equip your weapon after handing it to Absor for an upgrade! (part of Basic Training)

You then want to connect with Rahtiz and collect your next tasks: “Cleaing the Vermin Nests”, then “Spider Caves”, followed by “Arachnida” (see below).

Details: press ‘q’ to auto-attack. Scribe in your spell book any spell or tome that Rytan gave you, and check the spell vendors for any other spells that you can use; you may also find some on the vendor (Wijdann). You create a hot button by pressing ctrl-o, right clicking on a blank button, giving it a name, then Accepting it; you can put it on your hot keys bar by left-click and hold on the button, then click on a blank space in the bar.

You can add combat abilities (which you learn from tomes) to your hot bar; first right click the tome to learn it, then bring up the Combat Abilities window (either from your EQ menu, or by alt-c) and assign the new ability to a button by pressing the “S” button; drop the new hotkey on a hotbar or the combat abilities window. This is explained in the Basic Training quest; repeated here in case of information overload.

While you are in the rats and bats caves, use your /open hotkey to check all the targetable barrels. The bows you find will sell for more than 1pp, and you can sometimes find bags and even backpacks in them. Once you have some money from selling to the merchant, check to see if any of the spell merchants have anything you can use (i.e. spells).

Back in the main cave, and every time you return, go to Rytan for the “bless” buff.

At this stage, hailing Rahtiz again will offer you two tasks: “Rebellion Reloaded”, and “Arachnida”. Take both. You can also take two tasks from Guard Vyrinn (next to Rahtiz): “Spider Tamer Gugan” and “Spider Caves”; again, take them both, although they are significantly higher level. Vyrinn also gives “Arachnophobia (Group)”, but you need to be level 4+ to see it. Finish Spider Caves and Arachnida.

At this stage you should be level 4–5, and have a full set of Stitched Burlap, and you can move on to the kobold area. Save Gugan and Arachnophobia for later, and check out the guards leading to the kobold mine: Guard Hobart and Guard Maddoc. You can get tasks from Hobart at level 4, and Maddoc at level 6; save Hobart’s group task to last. If you don’t already have a full set of Stitched Burlap, either collect more silk for Vahlara, or buy some from Wujdann.

Start with the first kills for Battle of Gloomingdeep; you will need to be level 7/8 or in a group to finish this, so start with the easy ones around the pit. Work your way to Dig Site 2, which is where you will find Zajeer and Kaikachi with some more tasks for you. Take them all.

If you can invis or are a race (like ogre) that has good kobold faction (just con them – target a kobold and press ‘c’; so long as it doesn’t include “scowls” or “glares”, you can move around in complete safety), you can easily complete “Scouting Gloomingdeep”, “Sabotage” and “Busted Locks”. If not, you need to level up first.

You will want to get to level 7 or 8, depending on class and friends, before completing any more tasks. Just kill anything that is dark blue or higher – spiders, lurkers, warriors, grunts, diseased rats, and goblin slaves.

It is probably easiest to finish “Goblin treachery”, then “Spider Tamer Gugan”, then “Arachnophobia”, then “Kobold Leadership” – and if you can do that, you will have finished “Sabotage” and “Scouting Gloomingdeep” as well.

Grind some more by killing until you are level 9 or 10. At this point you should be able to complete solo “Freedom’s Stand”, “Flutterwing’s Dilemma”, and “Pit Fiend”.
And after all that? Try seeing how high you can level. There will come a point where even Krenshin doesn’t give you any more experience.

Gearing Up
You need gear to build up your character to handle tougher mobs, not just levels. Start by getting the Kobold Skull Charm from the initial quest (Basic Training). Then you should get a set of Stitched Burlap, which looks like leather when equipped. You get chest, legs and arms from completing some of the tasks (“Spider Caves”, “Cleaning the Vermin Nests” and “Basic Training”); the rest come either from handing in Gloomingdeep Silk to Vahlara, or buying back ones that other players have sold to the merchant, Wijdann. Which means that starting with the spider cave quests is a good idea.

You can get bags, a bow, and arrows from opening barrels, so make that /open hot key. Melee can get a haste item for range (Spiritweaver Voodoo Doll; only 5% haste, or Kobold Quicksteel Orb from Slavemaster Ruga and Overlord Grikan – 10%) dropping from named mobs, and casters can get a Mana Preservation item (Spiritweaver Nexus). Tip: Rufus can also drop the two main range items, and he is much lower level.

Your next step will be to upgrade your visible armor. Some of the tasks (“Freedom’s Stand” and “Battle of Gloomingdeep”) give chest and leg items appropriate to your class – plate, chain, leather or silk.

Other visible armor items drop from random kobolds, more frequently from named mobs.

For weapons, you will get your first upgrade during “Basic Training” from Absor. After that, you need to find a Chunk of Bronze (random from mobs) and/or a Chunk of Iron (same) to hand in to Absor in return for a better weapon. After that, weapon upgrades drop from named mobs – Ruga and Overlord Gnikan.

Money
There’s not much you might want to buy – spells, potions, and just possibly Stitched Burlap early on. The answer is easy – open barrels. The Forlorn bows that drop sell for more than a platinum, and the staffs that drop from Spiritweavers sell for over 4pp (with high charisma!).

Quests/Tasks
Basic Training
Hail Arias and Learn About the Find Path
Hail Absor and Learn About Weapons
Hail Vahlara and Learn About Armor
Hail Xenaida and Learn About Maps
Hail Rytan and Learn About Spells
Hail Prathun and Learn About Communication
Hail Arias to let him know you have completed your training

This is pretty much self-explanatory – but remember to “/say others” to Vahlara, people seem to misread this step; she gives you some Gloomingdeep Sleeves appropriate to your class (and same stats as the basic Defiant sleeves). Remember that saying “bless” to Rytan will rebuff you at any time (every 26+ minutes). On completion, ding level 2 and get the Kobold Skull Charm.

Hot Bars
Speak to Basher Alga
Learn About Hotbars
Reward is A Worn Totem, which can be clicked from inventory and has a small run speed effect.

Mercenaries for Hire
Optional task from Elegist; you have to both hire a mercenary and hail him again afterwards, with your merc unsuspended, then kill a nearby kobold.

Achievements
Optional task from Scribe Farquard.

Kickin’ Things Up A Notch – Augmentations
From McKenzie the Younger, in the rats and bats cave. He gives you an aumentation (henceforth called ‘aug’), Steatite Fragment, which gives your weapon extra damage when used against kobolds. As you are likely to get a weapon upgrade while fighting spiders (Chunk of Bronze/Chunk of Iron), save this for then. You can move augs between items by removing it using a distiller, but as this costs 1pp, you can save money.

Cleaning the Vermin Nests (Guard Rahtiz)
Kill 8 Cave Rats
Kill 4 Cave Bats
Destroy 4 Vermin Nests
Speak with Vahlara in the slave revolt camp
(Opt) Speak with Wijdann to sell your loot
This can all be done in the first, non-aggro, section of the tunnels and first chamber. Bats are level 1, rats level 2. Destroy the nests by creating a /open hot key and using it; remember to loot the nests and use or sell the contents. While doing this, you should also look for and look the barrels and piles of bones. When the task is complete, Vahlara should give you some Gloomingdeep trousers.

Rebellion Reloaded (Guard Rahtiz)
Deliver 1 Class 1 Wood point arrow to Guard Rahtiz
If you have been looting barrels, you should have (at least) one of these, so give it to him. You get a quiver and 9 gold, plus some experience (more than for some of the earlier quests). Sell the quiver for 1p4g2s9c. Remember that the bows from the barrels are also worth more than 1pp.

Spider Caves (Guard Vyrinn)
Gather 4 pieces of spiderling cocoon silk
Deliver the silk pieces to Vahlara in the slave revolt camp
Combine this with the next task – you need to /open the cocoons to collect these. Your reward will be a Gloomingdeep tunic.

Arachnida (Guard Rahtiz)
Kill 12 Gloom Spiders
Kill 4 Gloomfang Lurkers
Return to Guard Rahtiz with News of Your Success
Carry on into the spider cave – directly south from where you were before. Kill spiderlings (level 2) as well, to collect the Gloomingdeep silk needed for armor from Vahlara; they also seem to count as spider kills for the task. While killing, you should find a Chunk of Bronze – hand this to Absor for a weapon upgrade. Try to complete the spiders (level 3) and get some armor before moving on to the lurkers (level 4). Again, you should reach level 4 while doing this, and then level 5 on hand in. Another weapon upgrade, from a Chunk of Iron, is a possibility while doing this. Reward is some experience and 1p7g.

Spider Tamer Gugan (Vyrinn)
Find the Anti-Venom Violet
Deliver the violet to Vyrinn
Gloomingdeep Violet drops from Gugan, who is level 6. Approx 20% exp at level 7.

Arachnophobia (Vyrinn)
Kill Queen Gloomfang
Speak with Guard Hobart to receive your reward
Probably need to be level 4 to request this, and the queen is 7. Reward is 5 Celestial Healing potions, some exp. There can be a chest to open next to the Queen.

The Battle of Gloomingdeep (Hobart)
Kill 5 Gloomingdeep Grunts
Kill 10 Gloomingdeep Warriors
Kill 5 Gloomingdeep Slave Wardens
Kill 1 Gloomingdeep Spiritweaver
Speak with Guard Hobart to receive your reward
Work on this one first, at least until you level and can get tasks from Maddoc. Spiritweavers are level 6. The reward, eventually, will be a pair of class specific leggings.
While killing around the mine, you can work your way towards what is marked on the map as Dig Site 2. East of there is a pool with two more revolt members with a mission: Revolt Scout Kaikachi and Revolt Scout Zajeer. You can also swim underwater from here back to the main revolt camp.

Freedom’s Stand (Group) (Hobart)
Kill Overlord Gnikan
Speak with Guard Hobart to receive your reward
The Overlord is level 9; your reward will be the class appropriate chest item; he can drop random armor, weapons, or range item. You should be able to get Gnikan with just one add, from the side room, if you fight him at his spawn point; it will be much harder if that is a spiritweaver, so try to kill it first. The two others in his building can add, and a spiritweaver in the other side room will heal him, so best to take that out first. There can be chest to open next to him.

Scouting Gloomingdeep (Zajeer)
Go east down dis tunnel until you gets to Dig Site Two
Head south until ya spys da main pit Dig Site One
Follow da eastern wall along da rim o’the pit, den enter da next tunnel ya cross
Contine goin’ east, den take da first left into da north facing tunnel
Report back to Revolt Scout Zajeer with news of your reconaissance
If you can invis, this one is easy; or if you have ok faction – I was surprised to find that an agnostic ogre did. Otherwise, you’ll have to fight various Gloomingdeep Captains (level 6) along the way. Combine this with sabotage. 30% of a level for completion.

Sabotage (Zajeer)
Set the makeshift lantern bomb in the kobold supply crate
You are given the bomb when you take the task, so defer this until you do scouting if you are short of inventory space. Give the bomb to the crate just as if it were an NPC, then watch the effects. This gave about 60% of a level.

Goblin Treachery (Kaikachi)
Kill 10 Goblin Slaves
Kill Rookfynn, the Goblin Shaman
Hail Scout Kaikachi with news of your success
Level 5 goblins and the named is level 7. Killing slaves reduces your faction with the kobolds. Reward is a Potion of Invisibility and some exp (20% at level 9).

Busted Locks (Kaikachi)
Infiltrate the Gloomingdeep Jail
Find the locksmith’s master key
Deliver the key to Revolt Scout Kaikachi
The key is in a chest in Slavemaster Ruga’s room, and drops from the Gloomingdeep Locksmith. You don’t need to kill anything to collect it, so long as you are free of aggro to loot the chest. Gives you about 30% of a level.

Flutterwing’s Dilemma (Rashere)
Find Flutterwings’s unhatched sibling
Deliver the egg to Flutterwing
There should be three eggs when you kill Slavemaster Ruga (in the jail). Reward is probably about 50% of a level. When you pull Ruga, his two guards will spawn, and will attack you if you don’t pull him far enough away. The simplest approach is to kill the warrior at either side, then pull Ruga to that spot. I have also seen people pull Ruga to the jail cells next to him.

Saving from Slavery
Escort the slave back to Arias
You get the quest from the various (non-goblin) slaves in the jail area. Reward should be a chunk of iron (for Absor weapon hand-in).

Kobold Leadership (Maddoc)
Kill 4 Gloomingdeep Captains

Pit Fiend (Group)
Destroy the demon lurking in the central mining shaft
Probably need to be level 8 to get this task. You need to go to the bottom of the pit, and kill Krenshin, a bazu type mob; level 12. He can drop a range item (there are three possible).

Other Rare Named Mobs
Rufus – grey rat, level 3. Drops range items; PH cave rats.
Sliver – kobold
Selandoor – kobold, probably level 8; drops ?
Brokenclaw – kobold; level 8.
Ratasaurus; up to level 7; PH is diseased rats.

Bugs
No fire beetle eyes (for druid Flame Lick, etc).
Gloomingdeep counts as indoors, so Camouflage, Harmony and Spirit of Wolf don’t work.

Useful Customisations
Use the Options panel (alt-o) to turn off – auto-duck and, if you prefer, turn off show helm.
I also turn of Voice Chat in the Options window, as it never works for me.
“/assist off” to disable auto-attack on /assist.
“/toggle inspect” stops you from inspecting yourself by clicking.
Rebind attack key from q to something better (I like num pad 0); again, in the Options panel.
Put forage/track on movement key binding.
Hot keys for bind wound and open.
F11 to show the lag meter.

Current subscribers will be classed as “Gold” tier under the new scheme. $15 per month, 8 character slots per server, 10 bag slots, 2 shared bank slots, etc. Gold users also have access to in-game support (/petition), and the two TLP servers (Fippy and Vulak). Recurring subs (not month-by-month) get 500 Station Cash per month. Only Gold accounts can use “prestige items”, which are high end group and raid items from recent expansions, as well as most augments (!).

All accounts are given House of Thule for free, no need to buy extra expansions just to play. Veil of Alaris must be bought if you want to access its content or features – like level 90+ or to purchase the new guild halls.

All Free and Silver accounts are limited to four races (human, erudite, barbarian, gnome) and four classes (warrior, cleric, rogue, wizard). They can also use only rank 1 spells (level 71+). Additional races and classes can be purchased in some way. They will also receive some forms of in-game advertising.

Free accounts can have 2 character slots per server, and 4 bag slots. They are also restricted to 250 AAs, 100 platinum per level, 30 Loyalty points per week and Apprentice tier 1/2 mercenaries.

There are other restrictions on house/guild hall/guild ownership and use of the “broker” function in the Bazaar (setting a character in the Bazaar as a buyer), and also on use of mail and chat functions, as you might expect.

Silver accounts can have 4 character slots per server and 6 bag slots. They can also have 500pp per level, 1,000 AAs, 60 Loyalty points per week, and any Apprentice mercenaries (but not the better Journeyman ones). Use of housing/guild halls/guilds is unrestricted, as are chat functions.

You can convert a Free account to Silver for $5, or the equivalent in Station Cash. Any previous subscribers or purchasers of any expansion will automatically be Silver, and any previously created characters will be allowed, even if they aren’t one of the allowed races or classes.

Most restrictions can be unlocked through a purchase; this presumably will work through a Station Cash purchase in the marketplace.

Content Changes

When you use the find command, as well as seeing a wisp trail in game, there will also show a trail on the map. You can also create a destination for your wisp by right clicking on the map. Zone lines have been added to the find command and you can request zone to zone paths, including Hero’s Journey zones, your bind point, and various other options.

Player made maps will be stored in separate directories that won’t be over written.

You can now search individual zones for specific label text.

The Mines of Gloomingdeep tutorial quests have been revised, with 13 new tutorials added and an overarcing task, and a new tutorial NPC in the Plane of Knowledge, located near the Loyalty NPC (near the Crescent Reach stone), which will cover topics like AAs, power sources, etc.

The Hero’s Journey (sometimes called Golden Path) is a development of the Achievement system, starting with quests in TSS zones – Crescent Reach onwards, which has 5 new achievements added. It is mostly existing quests, but with improved spawn and drop rates, and some rewards have been adjusted (up to level 70 quests). It will take you up to level 80 through TSS, Dragonscale Hills, the Buried Sea and Seeds of Destruction. There are some achievements for things like the Dragons of Norrath progression, the Skull of Den Lord Rakban from Depths of Darkhollow, Breakdown in Communications (GoD), Jonas Dagmire’s Skeletal Hand (TBS), and the augment quests (presumably from SoD, but possibly the SoF one as well).

On first login, players will received a book on their cursor. This you should keep and it will give you level appropriate information about Hero’s Journey zones, quests and starting NPCs.

This takes the data from the new SOE status page at http://www.soe.com/status/ and displays it on your phone; you can select data for a single game and refresh that display if you wish.

It runs on iPad as well as iPhone – it probably won’t run on iPhones using OSes older than 4.1. Now that it’s shown up in the store, there’s a couple of minor tweaks I will make and resubmit. Any suggestions or bug reports are welcome.