(N)EverQuest Scrolls

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.