Goru'kar Mesa

This is a large zone, catering for a wide range of levels, as much as Blightfire Moors. It has probably more quests to complete, some of which require trade skills. Important: watch out for the griffon that wanders the area (if it still does after Hero’s Journey was introduced). There is a lot of running around back to Crescent Reach called for in some quests, and quests from different sections of the Hero’s Journey all overlap, which will require some going back and forth between different camps if your approach is not planned very carefully. I have made all these mistakes so that you don’t have to!

Animals and Satyrs (41-45)

This collects together all the 40-45 rated quests in the Mesa. You will have to visit Crescent Reach at least twice, and Blightfire Moors also twice; and kill and loot wolves, bears, snakes and spiders multiple times. Some of the quest series (Dorina and Ciodaru) require relatively high tailoring skill.

First, check in with Pioneer Vulu (the Wanderlust guild quest). Pick up as many as you can of Scout Madu’s armor quests while you are right there, too. Start with the bears and wolves, as they are the lowest level. Gather the three quests from Sorin, in the minohten camp next, the beer task from Tudor and the Vermin task from Laurentiu. Mesa snakes are east of the plateau, near the tuffein camp; diamondback snakes are west of the river. The best way to destroy weapons is to send a pet against the weapon racks, while you are well out of aggro range; if you don’t have a pet, you’ll need to clear around the racks. You will automatically get two of Tudor’s supplies by crossing the bridge and swimming in the water under it; the rest of the items are sold by Liviu (next to Tudor).

Scout Madu, at the entrance to the Mesa, will give you armor quests. You first need to kill wolves and bears from the near area (levels 35-38), then mesa snakes across the river (40-45), mesa recluse spiders (40-45/47). Then a named bear (Ursalua, level 45) and named wolf (Fantoma, level 45); the nameds are tough for their levels; in particular Fantoma has a high damage proc and snare. There is a more supplies quest that should be taken after the three basic quests are done, for the same items. Completing the series gives you the “Madu’s Armor” achievement and a shoulder item.

Gather minohten quests from Sorin, in the big tent. You can get aggro destroying the weapon racks. The Biscuits quest sends you back to run around the mines in Blightfire. There is a Charm of Lore item in rocks in the minohten caves.

Tuffein quests from Costica and Devan; Devan’s must be followed in order. You have to kill the two guards next to them every single time you want to get the quests, so assume that this isn’t a 35+ quest set, more like a 45+. Run around the minohten camp, destroying tents in the same way as you destroyed weapons in the tuffein camp, then kill four scouts (level 40-45). Next kill snakes, treants and spiders (Mesa recluse); snakes and spiders are 40-45, the treant protectors 36-40. Return to Devan.

Next comes wolves and bears (35-38). Return to Devan. We will return to him later.

For Serious Trade Skill Junkies Only

Try to do the Dorina and Ciodaru quests together, as they require running back and forth between the same general locations, and looting similar drops from many of the same mobs.

Ciodaru is in the Minohten camp. He sends you to Kathryn on the plateau (she’s a dryad). The answers you need to give him are: “doing well”, “emerald”, “pure water”, “acorn”, “green” and “earth”. You are given an earring; hold on to it, as it improves with each quest in this series. This starts the most annoying sequence of running back and forth in Everquest I have yet discovered; although I should also say that having Origin AA set to Crescent Reach does take some of the sting out of it. When you are next in Crescent Reach, talk to Jeweler Nailah, who then sends you back to Goru’kar Mesa, to loot some items and return to her. The items come from oozes in the Minohten caves, wisps on the plateau, and mesa snakes. You also need to give her an emerald (bought from a jewelcraft merchant will do) and 10pp, unless you want to make the trade skill step yourself (JC 190 trivial). The quest journal steps are confusing for this; if you do the hand ins, including the emerald and 10pp, you don’t have to do the JC stage.

Dorina, on the plateau with the dryads, gives a series of quests, which have to be followed in order. Follow Simu (minohten camp) for 15 minutes; alternatively run through the spots he would visit, and a circuit of all the tents will get you most of them, then the guard point on the ridge between the camp and the cave spiders, another point on the ridge, then back to his tent, which is the westernmost one nearest the cave. Next you FedEx a letter to Simu; you need to go to the campfire before hailing Simu after giving him the letter. Note that there is a Charm of Lore item in a red flower near the dryads on the plateau, and another with the treants on the outer wall of their plateau.

Next stage is to kill and loot recluse spiders, wolves and snakes (35-45, as before), hand in to Dorina, run and find Simu.

Next step is a doozy. You need to make an item with a trivial of 170 tailoring, with subcomponents at 50 and 92, requiring items from killing spiders, wolves and snakes. You also need to use a sewing needle, blacksmithing trivial 30, which requires two small bricks of steel, which can only be purchased in Surefall Glade. This gives you, in effect, an 8 slot giant capacity 50% weight reduction backpack as a side effect of the quest. If you want to skip this entirely or return later, I can understand - so go to the next section (Nymphs and Dromrek).

Then (for Dorina) you need to visit Alchemist Naeema in Crescent Reach. Kill bears, wolves, diamondback snakes and spiders and return to Naeema. If you are doing Ciodaru together with Dorina, this should sync up with your visit to Nailah.

Ciodaru’s next step is the Second Gift, for which you have to visit Brewer Ishaq in Crescent Reach, kill spiders in Goru’kar Mesa, and return to him with the traditional 10pp ‘gift’, plus a Celesrial Essence (visit Cook Kosey for a mixing bowl, then Poisoner Salihah for a Scent of Marr and a Celestial Solvent - trivial zero for the combine). Be careful to store the quest items safely, as they are consumable: keep your food and drink supplies topped up, or put the quest items in your bank for safekeeping - after you have handed them in to Ciodaru.

Back to Dorina, next: go to Scout Ethaniel in the fens in SE Blightfire. Loot items that drop from inside the hive in Stone Hive. Kill a tuffein raider (50-52) while escorting Simu to Dorina.

Ciodaru now wants you to Protect Kathryn. This can be tricky. Justa round the corner from her, a tuffein thug spawns. If Kathryn takes aggro from the thug, she will attack you with an AE, and your merc/pets will attack her, and you don’t get flagged for killing the thug. So wait around the corner for the thug, and root/aggro it fast!

The next stage is to visit Cook Kosey in Crescent Reach, then back to Goru’kar Mesa again to kill oozes and windwillow treants for drops, return to Kosey, back to Ciodaru - you know the drill. And… repeat, this time with Tailor Panya, for spider and snake drops. While you are in the Mesa, you should forage at least one evergreen leaf from the dryad area. These are very hard to see, so type “/showgrass off”, and scan around the central area. You will need either a shaman or a rogue with a low level skill in alchemy or poisonmaking, and you will also need 30+ skill in pottery to make a Medium Clay Container; this is all to make Dark Green Dye, see the link for details.

After this you get another protect task: two tuffein will spawn, and you need to grab aggro on both quickly, to avoid the dryads stealing your kills. You have to claim the kill on both tuffein to complete the task. If you kill only one, and Kathryn doesn’t die, the second will spawn again 2-5 minutes later, and you get a second chance.

more to come; I’m not going to give up on this series, but I can’t bear taking it any further - it’s not the trade skills, but it’s the Protect tasks that aren’t feasible to complete in one shot at the appropriate level.

Nymphs and Dromrek (46-50)

Now you should collect the remaining quest series from Scout Madu (ask him about “difficult tasks”, then “Dromrek”), for the giants, and find Iulia and Nedelcu to pick up all of their quests; they are dryads on and around the “Serpent’s Eye” island. Watch out for the dark cloud on the south bank, which will cause the dryads to attack you. Madu’s first Dromrek quest just involves running around the giant area. For the nymph quests, the polished stone is in the water surrounding the island, and can be quite hard to see; you have to equip it as a weapon and click on the stones, which will respawn immediately. The burning stick comes from the centaur fire.

The first two tasks can be done without aggro, if you are careful; the next two tasks are kill tasks. Combine these with the next Devan task and the ale task from Tudor (his drops can all come from potameids). Note that all oread’s apart from maidens heal themselves.

The later quests from Devan are a little tougher. Next you should kill 10 in total of different types of nymph (oread, potameid and napaea - 3 or 4 each, levels 40-44). Return to Devan.

Kill four more minohten scouts (level 40-45), then wait in a jail cell in the middle of the camp until you are let out; you are likely to get aggro from tuffein in the camp while waiting. Completing this quest gives you a bracer, and the achievement gives you an updated helm. Now that you have totally destroyed your tuffein faction (which isn’t a problem, really), you need to get another Charm of Lore item from the lockbox in the middle of the tuffein camp. You will need to clear around it, or get clever with box opening tricks, before you can loot the box. As they have a large aggro radius, don’t be surprised if you get five or more on the first pull.

The next Madu quests involve “talking to”, and fighting, giants, level 52 and above. If you aren’t that level yet, then oozes, nymphs and spiders are all light blue, and ordinary giants all dark blue. Or you can find a faster place to gain experience. Make sure that you combine this series with Laurentiu’s “Dromrek Must Die!” task, and part of Tudor’s wine quest. Completing the sequence of killing named giants will send you on a tour of Crescent Reach, Blightfire Moors, Stone Hive - to kill on the upper floors, then run back to Crescent Reach and finally back to Scout Madu again. And then to kill all the named giants over again: although you may be able to invis yourself quickly after clicking the wand without needing to kill. Finally, you will be asked to kill Bigone (level 55 and summons). The reward of the quest is a good one (for tanks, mainly): a choice of augments, which includes an AC +10 aug that can go into a shield. The reward for the achievement for this series is your choice of a shield and a weapon.

While killing giants, watch out for a “Drakkin Youngling’s Sword”, and loot it if you find it, as it is needed for one of the Charm of Lore quests coming up next; there may be a higher drop rate inside the caves.

West of the Mesa

By this point you should have finished the first Pioneer Vulu mapping quest on the east side of the zone, and returned to Regan in Crescent Reach for an update. Now you need to take the quests from Marilena (one of the dryads), more of Laurentiu’s quests (Birds of a Feather and Harping on Harpies), Tudor’s Spirits, and as you will be in the area, you should take the timed task from Scout Madu, “Centaur Troubles, Prove Yourself” (kill mesa widows, highland snakes and harpies). These mobs all have a normal aggro range, and will usually come as two or three; level ranges are mid 40s to low 50s. You can complete the Wanderlust quest quickly with a diversion into Blackfeather Roost, and collect the Charm of Lore item from the red flower behind the griffin at the end of the all pumas and snakes; then head south in the Mesa to the final waypoint - where you are likely to get aggro from the undead lingering dryads there (needed for Tudor). Just zone it off by going back into Blackfeather Roost, or head further back to Madu, where you should eventually lose aggro.

While killing harpies, look for Shrynn in the NW. If you kill the harpies around him, he will give you a quest, the reward for which is another Charm of Lore item. He wants you to kill giants, and that’s where you will find the highland snakes for the centaur quest.

You won’t be able to finish off this achievement (Moving Up The Ranks) until you can clear the potameid spring at the north of the zone, with the level 60 queen. In addition, Tudor’s Spirits still has to be finished; to complete, you must kill a lingering dryad and a tanglewood, swim around the oread lake, and search the buildings in the centaur village (in the latter two cases, the items will appear on your cursor).

Centaurs and ‘Bad’ Potameids

By now you should have good enough faction to approach Ekaterina (I was at amiable), south of the Serpent’s Eye lake. Her first two quests are just run arounds; the “desert passage” is the zone to Sunderock Springs. The first of these quests took me to kindly. The next quest is to kill: murkwater oozes, which are in the river to the north; ring snakes, around the river; and dark widows, near the path to Blackfeather Roost.

The next quest from Klassr involves killing centaurs (at last!). If you are up to it, Legate Cletus at the north of the centaur village guards a box with another Charm of Lore item; unfortunately, he doesn’t count for the kill quest. Then you have to wander around the centaur village; watch out for AEs from the spirit of corruption, which will break your invis. You will have to kill the spirit for the final part - level 55, does relatively high dps on you, and watch out for centaur adds. If you can manage it, you will complete the “Centaur’s Troubles” achievement (reward is a ring).

Now is the time for Laurentiu’s last quest (Cleanse Serpent Falls).

Part One

Part Two

end of part two?

blog comments powered by Disqus