(N)EverQuest Scrolls

Following on from the survey I did of level 55 solo spots, I wanted to repeat the exercise for level 70.  The 55 article was based around using an enchanter with a tank mercenary, which is kind of extreme, but extreme mediocrity, not making any use of the special abilities of an enchanter; in fact, playing the enchanter as if it were a sub-par melee character.

The reason I took on the level 70 exercise were that I had a pair of knights I had been leveling, more or less together, through the high 60s.  They had been both sitting at level 65 for a while, collecting AA, intending to be geared up on the Time raids that had been running for several years on Antonius Bayle.  Then some random idiot (Gemmedsoul/Stankonya) caused the Time raids to be cancelled, because he started entry level public SoD raids in the same time slot and lured away most of the higher levels that supported this institution.  Cue lots of arguments about how he claimed to have agreed this with the Time raid organisers – who hadn’t heard anything from him, etc.

Since 65 the knights had been at the temple camp in the Hole.  They are a relatively high AA SK/paladin pair (same account, so they don’t play together); both have over 700 AAs, and have been sitting out in the Hole from low 60s.  Over several lessons, the SK has been ranging between 4.74 and 5.42 AAs/lesson, and the paladin 4.04 – 5.50; that’s killing the exact same mobs, which are 80% undead.  They have basically the same gear (Elaborate Defiant with hot zone augs and DSH/LP drops), except paladin uses a Dawnlight Zweihander and SK has 1.5 (which reflects the difference in ease of getting epic 1.5 for those two classes).

If anyone is wondering what a low AA character would manage, I’d guess at them getting double the AAs I was seeing, based on the AA boost scaling.  If that was with a merc, then they’d still be getting more than I was, after allowing for the 40% take of the merc.

Live (SK)

1. Hole (temple) 4.24 – 6.24 (AAs/lesson)
2. Splitpaw 4.84
3. Plane of Fire 4.24 – 4.43
4. CoD (rats) 4.02
5. Dragonscale Hills, ribcage camp 3.66
6. Tower of Solusek Ro 2.92
7. Plane of Valor 2.87
8. HoH 2.74
9. Tactics pit 2.65

Undead (Paladin)

1. Hole (temple) 4.04 – 6.00 (AAs/lesson)
2. WoS murks  3.89
3. CoD undead 3.56
4. Arcstone 3.28
5. Hole (live mobs) 2.79
6. Splitpaw (live mobs) 2.66
7. Monkey Rock 2.55
8. Veksar (highborns) 2.46
9. Barren Coast 2.26

Comments per camp:

Arcstone

The Arcstone number is poorer than I was expecting, but they were dark blue, whereas the Hole will turn green at 72.

Barren Coast

The camp is south of the main NPC camp; lots of wandering mobs, including some harder named. There is a quest to collect 5 skulls for Buccaneer factions from Petula (No Traitor Like an Undead Traitor). Roughly 7% AA per kill, mobs have high hit points.

Crypt of Decay

Rats.  I could have done slightly better there – the swarming flies gave me a surprise, and I had to remake my pet (SK) mid-lesson.  See also the numbers for the paladin on undead; dodging the event there adds some fun to the equation, and having the instant ivu AA is handy, too.

Dragonscale Hills

I cleared the camp in the first 15 minutes, then had to run off to get more mobs.  It had respawned by the time I got back, so respawn time is probably about 25 minutes.  SK could tank 3 at a time without problems.  Don’t forget to add the quest experience to this – I couldn’t quite finish the collection in one lesson, I think I had 18 bug kills (20 required).

Halls of Honor

Pretty poor, but no surprise considering the other PoP zones of around the same level I have been including.  Still going to take a look at Valor soon, though.

The Hole

The trick to getting to the temple camp quickly is to have DA/Harmshield (AA version to save on fizzles).  If you don’t have this, invis and dodge contructs/undead to the start of the city (the first undead) from the normal entrance, then bear right to the lake, and drop down the waterfall to where the Echo of Nortlav hangs out.  There are two stone wards on fast respawn (under three minutes) there, which usually have some afk/mercenary campers there.  Loot their corpses, and just follow the tunnel past gargoyles and constructs to the temple.  I can kill the entire temple at 70 easily; at 71, the temple, respawns (roughly 25 minute respawn time), and the two passages as far as Jaeil the Wretched.

Monkey Rock/The Buried Sea

Enough undead there at the south tip of the island, in and around the tower there and on the beach to the SW; mostly dark blue.  Respawn about 25 minutes.  They just have a LOT of hp (dps and damage dealt is about the same as anywhere else).  16 kills, versus about 50 in the Hole.  Pathing is poor on pulls, I lost a couple into walls that way.

Paw

That was at zone in, and deeper but where there are still few wanderers.  Definitely better than CoD, but basically the same exp as the Hole.  The main difference being that almost all mobs were dark blue, a couple light blue, and one white (at 70). Note the massive difference between SK and paladin here.

Plane of Fire

Camp was C1, I just cleared the first wall and middle bridge.  In about the last ten seconds I was trained by the entire rest of castle, one charm bird, and some doofus who presumably thought he was immune to charm.  Didn’t affect the rate of exp, though, <3 Death Peace AA.

Mobs were all dark blue, level 65 I assume, 21% AA/kill.  It’s a good spot, but I think Paw is probably a little better for the 71-75 run – slightly higher level mobs will stay dark blue for longer.

Plane of Valor

Razorfiend camp.  Again, strictly in line with the other mid-range PoP camps.  It’s not too hard to clear this camp, even with SK dps, before repop.

Tactics

That was very weak exp for an area that auto pulls, hits fairly hard, and has moderately high hp.  I ought to check out HoH and Valor at 70, I suppose; I haven’t been there so far because I was using HoH undead on my paladin in mid 60s, before I rediscovered the Hole, and it was getting slow there.   70 might be a different story with the SK on live mobs, however.

Tower of Solusek Ro

This actually worked out better than I expected (still not worth the effort, though).  That’s tanking 2 at a time with Steadfast Servant, no merc.

Veksar

Wasn’t quite as bad getting to the camp as I feared, but the exp wasn’t great.  Easy kills, fast(ish) respawn, can tank several at a time.

Wall of Slaughter

Undead murkgliders.  Camp is in tunnels in SW, they run really fast, so either be quick with root, or always fight 2 at once.  I could just barely clear them all before respawn, which was about 19 minutes 30 seconds.  All are 65, and so dark blue at 70; better exp/kill than most places (21%), about the same as in Arcstone.

18 kills (may have included one or two after lesson dropped) –  558 dps, 304 weapon, 135 slay, 107 dd, 12 bash.  Total damage 873757.

Looks like I used Holyforge in there, too, I can see crippling blows.

About Knights

How much weaker the paladin is on live mobs is sort of expected; he really has no advantage on tanking these relatively low level mobs (highest were dark blue).  What is interesting is that the SK, in basically the same gear, gets almost exactly the same exp on undead mobs as the paladin does, despite his massive dps advantage on live mobs.

The spread over a large number of sessions in the Hole is interesting.  Some of that is due to a decline in AA boost rate as they gained AAs – there’s a range of 661 up to 868, so far.  There’s the obvious implication that the gain in power from accumulated AAs doesn’t compensate for the decline in boost; there’s no expectation that it should, what is interesting is how close it comes to making up for the drop.  But a lot of it comes from the fact that minor variations in mob levels, pull patterns due to wanderers, and general RNG stuff, can make a significant difference to exp gained.