Well, its friday night, and no one wants to group. SSRA is packed (despite the nerf) and mines are camped. I moved a cothbot to juggs, played around with charming a shroom (they were too high MR to deal with) and ended up in Umbral Planes. Its nice to get 2% per kill, but places like ssra mines have so many mobs and so easy to pull that you end up killing more mobs and I think in the end winds up being better exp, unless youve got a nicely rounded group for juggs. Might try velks castle or DN rat city, but both of those I would think especially DN would be difficult to box or require a group. If anyone finds any other good spots let me know please.
I had a myconid warrior for a pet, I had to blur like 10 shrooms before i found one that was charmable, then when I finally did it resisted 9 out 10 stuns and charm wouldnt last longer than 40 seconds top. Seemed pretty high MR
The reason I absolutely love ssra mines, is because its perfect for taking small afk breaks, I usually charm one of the first 3 mobs, then clear the mines, kill the pet, ivu back and repeat, as a smoker who cant smoke inside its great. Problem with juggs is that if you do get a frog, youre committed to not leaving the computer for like 3 hours to make it worthwhile
If you have a druid or ranger, I take my charming afk breaks by ensnaring the pet and just camping out for 15 min.
Darch and I tried out the rat city in DN. It was about 110-120% of an AA per toon per hour in a group of 6 level 60s. We tried the area near Zlandi and the fire elementals, but preferred the rat city due to the very high mob density. We pulled big trains, left 'em unslowed, and let the DS do its thing while the (pretty crappy) charmpets nibbled 'em down. Our DPS wasn't ideal by any means -- SK/dru/pal/enc/enc/clr -- but we kept most of the spawns in the rat city down for a while.
I tried plane of hate 2nd floor and it sucked. Only half of the mobs are 55+ so the xp wasn't consistent. After about an hour I got 40% as per toon in a full group: bard, cleric, SK, Dru, enc, bst. Also snaring was near impossible with the high MR so we had to pull pretty far to allow mobs room to run. There's some pretty cool fashionquest drops and it was a fun change of pace but the xp was terrible. Also, it ended with a train of 10+ mobs and an emergency exodus. Great stuff.
Summer / family / events, combined with reduced motivation from playing a lot for years on end, is probably our main issue. (Never really did any AEing, occasionally joined a revs group -- which is why I'm low AA still)
I was told this change was becaue people did pbaoe in that zone, and other player complained that the npc for quests etc wasnt up. So Sony did something to stop it
I treated my exping like a WoW daily. Log in, grab a rev, grind out an AA, and call it. Mines still seemed okay, but that's also full clearing / almost full clearing mines.
Yeah, the mines were still about 1 AA per toon per hour for me in a trio, keeping almost all the spawns down except the front room. The key is to get deep for the higher-level skeles. The second floor is the best exp I've found in Ssra since the patches, though.
I just have this hilarious picture in my head of Nukem at 3am hunched over a computer googling "PBAOE exp luclin", in this mental image he is wearing glasses
Just curious @Pithy, @Walex or others... Where would you go to exp a 58 Enc with a 60 Mag/Clr as support? Enc is baz geared, so there's a bit of risk of him getting eaten when charm breaks. I leveled my original trio in Seb back in Kunark, but I've not found a good Luclin 58+ spot. I'm ok with a little risk...that is what the mage epic pet and cleric rez are there for, but trying to find that perfect balance has been elusive. The completionist in me is dying that I have KEI in his bags and can't seem to find a good spot to grind out 58-60 for him. Kael/Seb weren't great before and with the change they've slowed even more...even with him solo and the other two supporting oog.
I can’t specifically say what I do here on TAKP for downtime as I’m just getting back into the server and have A LOT to do still. However, I was pretty much maxed out or felt maxed out on Al’Kabor. Thing that kept me going we’re finding new things to climb like the library in PoK and the Statues in FV... lol. Spent most of my days checking out “off the beaten path” zones or helping others get quests finished up, etc. Honestly, I think it’s the core group of people in the server that keeps me coming back.
I think the straight and narrow path from 58 to 60 these days is Ssra. It's the busiest exp zone on the server, so you could probably find groups. It has a good ZEM and lots of high-level mobs. If you have OT hammers on your casters and a faithstone on your cleric, you could bind your toons in SD at the tunnel to the Grey to shorten your corpse runs. (If you charm, wipes are gonna happen.) There are several options for charm pets in Ssra. You might start out with a low-damage pet, like a Shissar Spirit Binder. About 75% of those mobs are level 53 or under, so charmable with Boltran's. The level 50-51 ones are charmable with Allure, which can last up to 21 minutes (triple Boltran's duration). As you get more comfortable charming, you could gradually ramp up your pet's damage and the associated risk of wiping. You could haste your pet, give it two different one-handed weapons so it dual wields, give it a worn haste item like a Muzzle of Mardu or Tolapumj's Robe, or charm a harder-hitting pet like a shadowknight Shissar Revenant from Rhag 1's room (see this map).
I'll try it again. My last attempts to find even a group spot for 1 toon left much to be desired, and I ended up trioing in the mines, but at least I knocked out my Ssra shards at the same time.
Both of those buff themselves with shielding spells that increase their MR. A spirit binder makes a much better beginner's pet imo. Also, whatever spells they cast when charm breaks seem to take forever to cast.
If you have the keys, or if you feel like taking the few hours to get them, HS is actually quite good for leveling up to 60. It is no SSRA, but that is where I took my trio from 50-60 pre-luclin days. The mobs hit for less and have lower hp then Luclin era mobs, so it is a little easier. The bonus is that HS is an awesome zone that is fun to explore. Fair warning though, wipes can be annoying, there are traps you will want to learn and until you do you should keep levitation up, and some of the skellies harmtouch.
Not to hijack the thread... Several people were encouraging following my post, so a quick update. Today, I killed 4 Guardian Wurms in Skyfire. I was well-buffed and confident; nevertheless, the first one killed SK Epictetus before it died to BST Hobzz off-tanking. I was a second or so slow on the first heal. Then I rez'd and put Aego on Epictetus instead of PotG and BST AC buff. Her AC must have been high 1300s before, but was definitely 1401 after. She tanked the next three successfully. Epic's Combat Stability and Combat Agility (dmg mitigation and dmg avoidance respectively) are both at rank II. Hobzz' were at II and III respectively. (and I killed for another hour to bring him up to III/III. I conclude: A good plate tank (Bazaar geared) with II/II (18 AAs minimum) can tank GW's with a DRU healer. My pucker factor was very high, but I'll calm down as I get more reps. Epictetus is not min-max tank -- HUM SK. OGR-WAR would be better. Thank all of you for the encouragement/support. The loot table for GWs is different, so some new spells will be for sale in Bazaar.
Congrats! That's a big accomplishment. Does this mean people are going to have to farm their own fragments now?
I'm going to continue at the same camp (NE corner, P3000, N3900, east of that dragon platform) for now, additionally taking the GWs that wander into my path. No change for now.
Awesome job! Hopefully you get some high demand spells and make some good $$$ for all the pearl fragments you have supplied to the server!