[EQ2] The Ultimate Newb Thread

[Aria]

Originally Posted by Teljair

Just a small tip, I notice people are talking about questing for AA. To be honest you can level much faster without doing quests, except for a couple HQs that may help you. To get AA just kill every single named mob you see, even if its a ^ it will still give AA. I did this before on an old toon and had 91AA when I hit 70, in about 1 month. When you get into your 30s make sure you go around Steamfont and kill all the solo named too.

So is solo grinding quicker? Or at what point should you stop questing?

I remember in my old static party we did a few quests, but we found it quicker just to run through some ^, ^^, ^^^ mobs. But my question is right now I'm level 12, should I just start grinding on mobs or look for groups? It's been so long since I played.

[Kuriin]

It seems like grinding is the best way to go. Guzrog, myself, and others went through Crushbone Keep for about 4 hours. Got a few levels. Definitely much faster than having to run around a large zone collecting a few items.

I'm burned out on that zone, though, LOL.

edit: Aria, don't bother grouping until you get to about 16-17. Unless you're a healer, you'll probably level quicker solo. God knows it took me a while because my spells are weak as hell and I can't solo monsters above my level. :|

[Presarc]

What server are you all on (I'm too lazy to look)?

I just rolled a character on a new account on Crushbone (level 17 High Elf Templar -- Kelethin).

Name: Nijal

Let me know if you need a healbot to level up or send me a PM.

[Azzikai]

Originally Posted by Aria

So is solo grinding quicker? Or at what point should you stop questing?

I remember in my old static party we did a few quests, but we found it quicker just to run through some ^, ^^, ^^^ mobs. But my question is right now I'm level 12, should I just start grinding on mobs or look for groups? It's been so long since I played.

I guess it is a matter of personal opinion but I always have quests to do. Running an dungeon is another matter entirely (mostly...DFC, as mentioned earlier, has a ton of quests associated with it - HQs included - that give extra XP and AA for mobs you are going to kill anyway) but if I am in an overland zone I'm going to have quests for the mobs in it.

Quests give XP and AA. You have to kill mobs to finish your quest and/or get to the items that finish it so not taking a quest yet going and killing the mobs involved with them anyway is cheating yourself out of XP.

Again, it is a playstyle thing but if you want to maximize your XP to reach 70 ASAP I do not see how NOT questing is going to to that.

[boy-]

I donno, I've been following the solo timeline, and I pretty much ran out of quests. Maybe I'm doing something totally wrong, but I'm level 17 atm, with only level 20+ quests left.

I've been low on quests since 13-14ish, and have had to do +2 yellows at painfully slow speeds. Now I'm quite simply out.

[Miele]

Take for example Crushbone Keep: there are 2 quests near zone in (one inside, one outside), a signature quest with steps to be done inside (Eitholi, blade of the fae), a HQ with steps to be done inside the instanced part (War and wardrobe for "Robe of the Oracle"), one quest from an item (ground spawn) in the Hall of Tactics ("An old piece of steel").

These quests basically carry you through the whole dungeon, no room excluded and range from 20 to 30+ to be completed. Yes it's definitely possible to spend a few nights in CB doing 10+ levels and completing all the quests, honestly I suggest it as it's a quite fun place.

In the end I think it's worth doing the quest that are dungeon related or that develop a certain storyline, I just don't find fun doing those mundane quests for solo players.

I'm playing catch up with my fury, I did 330 quests "only" (they are not a lot) and did a lot of dungeons, mentoring and being mentored etc. and I'm now at 72 AA at level 59, so yes, it's possible to ignore a lot of quests for the sake of AA exp.

[Qhue]

I'm soloing with my Fae and quests are going grey before I can complete them all (this is in Greater Faydark and I'm level 17 currently)

I'm duoing with a friend of mine and we're level 13 in Darklight Woods and the supply of quests seems to almost perfectly match our ability to complete them. Even he commented that the quest progression was really good and he was having alot of fun doing them, moreso than when I tried to play WoW with him if you can believe it.

The only downside was when we tried to go into Neriak itself. I crashed almost contstantly with the memory error and he was lagged to hell and back until we both drastically reduced our graphics levels (me to Balanced, him to Max Performance)

[Braen]

Originally Posted by Presarc

What server are you all on (I'm too lazy to look)?

I just rolled a character on a new account on Crushbone (level 17 High Elf Templar -- Kelethin).

Name: Nijal

Let me know if you need a healbot to level up or send me a PM.

Most of us are on Antonia Bayle.

[Rezz]

In Darklight, I -just- finished the tower of bone at level 19, and my quest log is absolutely empty beyond killing some thexians in commonlands. It could be because I'm playing a powerful solo class or whatever, but intentionally grinding a little bit between quests and what have you still puts me out of quests in Darklight. Gonna start dipping into nektulos now I think.

[Man0warr]

In Darklight, I -just- finished the tower of bone at level 19, and my quest log is absolutely empty beyond killing some thexians in commonlands. It could be because I'm playing a powerful solo class or whatever, but intentionally grinding a little bit between quests and what have you still puts me out of quests in Darklight. Gonna start dipping into nektulos now I think.

Don't go to Nektulos. Head to GFay, theres a few quests near Steamfont zone and alot of quests from the Dwarf and Fae guy on the path to Crushbone. Plus theres a few more quests in the cave right before Crushbone.

After all those you should be ready for Butcherblock, start at the zone in from Gfay. Don't do Nektulos/Thundering Steppes if you can avoid it, horrible zones.

[Cowbell]

The thundering steppes quests can eat my ass. The aaxp those quests provided was like zero.

Skip TS quests.

BB quests are good. Do the ones at the GFay zoneline and the docks. Some good AAxp there.

[Nakilos]

The problem with TS quests is a LOT of them are repeatable, or random assignment quests (where the name is the same, you are just requested to kill something of like 6 different species), and you don't get AA from those. I believe in the patch they are making repeatable quests give AA on the first turn in, which should make zones like that slightly less shit. Otherwise, the layout is fine, there are some ok rewards for the level, and its not terribly hard. Nektulos however remains a clusterfuck of terrible. Its nice to see they are revamping Antonica/Commonlands somewhat. The old world overall needs an overhaul though, but it does get better 30+ as I recall.

[Brikker]

Without reading this entire thread, I'm going to try out the EQ2 Trial once I get my new computer up and running. So, I know what server to play on (the Mistwalkers one) but can anyone shortly describe each of the following classes? I'm leaning towards caster, depending on how close the Bardic classes are to their EQ1 ancestors. And does race matter? I'm assuming not much.

How are:
Wizards
Conjurors
Necromancers
Dirges
Troubadours
Rangers

? I know this has probably all been said previously, but it's a long thread.

[daishinzo]

Wiz = DD nukes and pulls aggro a lot.
Conj = Pet solo/OP class.
Necro = ^^
Dirge = Tough solo/great buffs for melee/highly desired.
Troub = ^^ but they buff casters.
Ranger = Starts slow but I'm now almost 40 and I pretty much destroy anything that doesn't cast spells by kiting.

And race doesn't matter. I picked fae simply for glide and run speed stats.

[Man0warr]

If you can stand how they look, Fae/Arsai are the only choice. Only race with a distinct advantage with racials.