(N)EverQuest Scrolls

Recommendations for gear while levelling. These assume that the character is self-funded and not being powerlevelled.

The basic principle is to work your way through quested/crafted armor, and pick up some items from the Bazaar. Worthwhile Bazaar items are old school armor, and weapons. Look for armor with focus effects and without recommended levels, as these were retrofitted onto old zone drops when focus effects were introduced around the time of PoP (a little earlier, I seem to recall – probably mid-Luclin). Level 2 focus effects are the best to get (in most cases), and they will work at least to level 44 on all spells.

Start in the Gloomingdeep tutorial, and stay there up to level 4/5. Get the kobold skull charm from talking to Arias and the other NPCs, a full set of stitched burlap from handing in gloomdeep silks, and any of the random armor drops that seem suitable; the latter are rare drops, so don’t be too hopeful; watch out for ooc’s while you are doing other quests.

Move to your original newbie zone around level 5, after first making lists of all the drops required for newbie armor (from EQTraders and/or Allakhazam). Many of the items can be found on vendors, only a few are no drop rare drops from rare spawns in the EQ tradition. Most items can be obtained before level 8; the exception is usually a weapon with extremely poor stats that requires killing mobs around level 12-14. Don’t spend too long doing this, as the experience isn’t as good.

Return back to Gloomingdeep before 10 to finish some tasks and possibly get more drops. This isn’t essential. Although you can’t enter Gloomingdeep after level 10, if you are bound there you can gate in, up to level 15 or 16 (not sure which).

If you have The Serpent’s Spine (TSS), this is probably the best levelling area, and some of the quest rewards are good for filling out slots. I know that I had a 1HB, ring, cape, hat, and mask, all from standard and easy tasks. Around 15, start the PoK quests, both the new tasks and the old ring/mask quest (both of which can be done much earlier if desired).

Then at 15+ consider starting the cultural tradeskills. As they need 100+ skills in smithing and tailoring, this isn’t going to happen unless you are a keen tradeskiller. The tradeskill quests in Crescent Reach will get you to 54 in all skills for free, and look on EQTraders in the guides section for further advice. I always used to reckon that it would take 100pp to take the average tradeskill to 100, and considerably more for some – brewing was the cheapest to reach 250 (the old max) with. It may be cheaper now, but I doubt it. The Drakkin tradeskill quest NPC is Artisan Irisi, in the raised merchant/tradeskills area on the upper floor in Crescent Reach.

At 20/25+, look at the Kimem quests. If you are in TSS, you will probably be seeing the required drops anyway. Kimem is in the upper forge area. Patterns drop from named mobs, and the blightfire-infused components drop at random from any mob (but are rather more common in the Bazaar).

Meanwhile, fill out and/or replace with Bazaar items according to your class. Weapon dependent classes should consider spending some time gathering pelts and silks to sell in the Bazaar to fund their weapons (Centi shortsword should be reasonably cheap still). Casters should be concentrating on level 2 focus effects.

There are more TSS armor quests at 45 (Goru’kar Mesa) and 70/75 (Crescent Reach again).

This is mainly aimed at newer players, but should work for experienced players who want to run through the early quests and tasks efficiently. Tasks usually give only trivial experience, but the rewards can be useful. If you are intending to powerlevel and twink extensively, then this isn’t for you.

Tutorial – Mines of Gloomingdeep

You start in the tutorial zone, Mines of Gloomingdeep. You have to run through the initial quest with Arias (Jail Break!) and the jailer to enter the main mines zone. That will put you at level 2. Take the Arias: Basic Training quest, and run through it to get the Kobold Skull charm. Take Arias: Rally with Rahtiz.

There are some remnants of the old tutorial zone still around without much purpose – these are the tradeskills and swimming quest NPCs, Frizznik and Pozik. Pozzik will give you a low AC mask, and his lost sword may also be a minor upgrade. Frizznik’s baking is superceded by skill-up quests in Crescent Reach, but gives some very minor stat food. One probable bug: Rahtan used to refer melee characters to another NPC to get their level 1 tomes, but this no longer happens – they will have to buy them in PoK/Crescent Reach.

Start with the rats and bats and spiders quests: Rahtiz: Clearing the Vermin Nests (stitched burlap leggings), Rebellion Reloaded (?); and Vyrinn: Spider Caves, Spider Tamer Gugan. You should be able to clear all of these in 20-40 minutes, and be level 4/5. This leaves just the Arachnidia quest to kill Queen Gloomfang, who is level 7. Stepping out to run the Plane of Knowledge quests at this point may be the best plan (see below). Back in the mines…

Move on to Guards Hobart and Maddoc. Hobart: Battle of Gloomingdeep; Maddoc: Kobold Leadership. Find Zajeer and Kaikachi while killing grunts and warriors. Zajeer: Scouting Gloomingdeep, Sabotage; Kaikachi: Goblin Treachery, Busted Locks. Use the scouting task to get to the fort to execute Sabotage; the supplies crate is to the left as you enter; you will have to kill or pass 2 or 3 captains to do this. Come back to Zajeer and kill goblin slaves on the way. The locksmith is nearby, up the passage to the north. If you still need slaves and slave wardens, go into the pit – Rockfynn is along one of the side passages, and is level 7 (or 6).

While you are in the kobold area, open the barrels – some will gives you free small bags.

Go back and kill Queen Gloomfang if you haven’t already. Reward is a few celestial healing potions.

After this activity the only three quests remaining should be: Hobart: Freedom’s Stand; and Maddoc: Pit Fiend. You can only get the latter after completing the Battle quest (may be level limited?), which also gives you some Gloom leggings. The final quest is Flutterwing’s Dilemma from the main camp.

At this point I would switch to Crescent Reach, although it is certainly possible to spend all your time in one or the other. The value of Gloomingdeep is the charm, plus an easy way to get some very basic armor. Switching to Crescent Reach at this point lets you skip some grinding in Gloomingdeep, and pick up some much better armor. The old newbie quest armors are also better than the gloom armors, although how easy they are to obtain varies considerably with class and location (hint: all berserker quests are excessively easy).

Plane of Knowledge

There are two ways to leave the mines: through the doorway/tunnel into your home city (Crescent Reach), or by saying to Arias: “ready to leave”. This takes you to the Plane of Knowledge. I would recommend the latter for some quick quest experience; take Arias’s advice, and go to find Vivian the True, at the entrance to the Library. Her several small quests give significant exp at low levels. To get to Crescent Reach, go back into the tutorial from your character select screen.

Crescent Reach

In Crescent Reach, pick up Tinnvin: Welcome to Crescent Reach; from Dakkan: Ways of Nature, Snake Sacs, Diseased Spiders. These are only worth taking if you will gain experience from the kills, which means around level 5 or lower. Fathus: Getting To Know You, which sends you running around. Only take one of the council member quests, unless you need faction (or the 1pp per quest reward): Prove Your Worth. Drakkin’s need take the quest for their dragon only; it may be worth other races doing all of the council quests to improve faction, but I have seen no evidence that this will be required (so far). Heshyrr: Heshyrr’s Wisdom. The runes for this are in the far SW of the dragon grove, and on the stones, just NE of the entrance/exit.

Back in the city: Champion Utenka: Ways of Combat; Guard Captain Minka: Love in the Air (reward necklace); Disgruntled Boawb (belt); Reakash: Reakash’s Revenge (mask). These are all run around quests (apart from the previously mentioned killing quests from Dakkan).

Now take Baker Shivra: Slightly Less Than Half of a Baker’s Dozen; Jinkin: Cap of Colour. These are for the mushroom cave (the first cave). Next is Jinkin: Here, Kitty, Kitty! and Baker Shivra: Party Preparation. Both of these are for the puma caves; of course, you should take all four at once. Jinkin’s rewards are potions, Shivra’s stat food. The highest level quest from this range is: Jinkin: Thrills and Quills; the reward is a bracer.

There is one easy killing quest remaining: Vunder the Dark: A Dark Heart. Reward is a 1HB. Vunder is marked as a level 10+ quest giver.

Total time to this point for me was 5 hrs 30 mins. The next Crescent Reach quests are significantly higher level (all mobs are yellow to red). This is a good time to go back to Gloomingdeep and finish the remaining three quests. Overlord Grikan is probably the easiest of the three, and should be level 10. Slave Master Ruga is only level 9, but he spawns two guards when you attack him; if you are high enough level (10 or 11), and pull him to the side of his room, then they shouldn’t aggro on you. The final mob is Krenshin, the level 12 pit fiend. You will get a Gloom tunic as a reward for Grikan.

One tip: stay bound in Gloomingdeep for as long as you can. You can gate into Gloomingdeep (if you are a caster), or use the Tutorial button on the login screen. From there you can use the tunnel exit to reach the Dragon’s Grove in Crescent Reach, or say to Arias: “ready to leave” to enter Plane of Knowledge. this is significant, because the PoK book is a long run through a slightly higher zone away from Crescent Reach.

The next quests are all from Skinner Bezath: No Skin Off Your Back, What a Croc, Rings and Things. Alligators and bears are level 11 and up. Gnolls are higher. If you have some skinspike potions, this may be feasible, but otherwise you’ll need to grind. You can pick either the fort or jail areas in Gloomingdeep, or the puma cave in Crescent Reach.

Once you are level 10, some more quests become active in PoK; check with Vivian the True once more. She will send you to an armor quest NPC (one good, one evil), who I think will refuse to speak to people with a home in Crescent Reach. She also gives a third, neutral quest giver: Castlen Drewe: Haunted Butcherblock, this requires level 11, and the reward is a Ghostly Mantle. Castlen has several quests to give, one per level up to 15/16, and a last one at 19. The armor NPCs give out pieces of the newbie quest armor, and if you have been levelling in Crescent Reach, this isn’t likely to be an upgrade. Castlen’s quest fill out most of the non-visible slots, and are high quality.

While in this level range and passing through PoK, get the Fine Antique Ring. Find Curator Merri in one of the buildings on the good side, and get her Collecting Box (just talk to her). Then you need to combine four items in it. A cockatrice beak, a high quality cougarskin, a tiny rockhopper eye, and an undead froglok eye. You will need to buy the skin in the Bazaar (unless you are already 30ish!), so hold off on this quest until you can afford one; the alternative is a merchant diving trip to the gnomes in Iceclad to see if anyone has sold one to them. The other items can also be bought there; this will be cheaper for the beak than trying to hunt one, or buying one from a vendor. The tongue can be found from frogloks in Qeynos Catacombs near Cubert (fine if you aren’t kill on sight there or can invis), and the eye from vendors in Shar Vahl, or from rockhoppers in the pit under the city. Tongues can also often be found on vendors in many other places. This ring has the mana preservation II focus.

Also consider the mask quest (the Forgotten Pools) for spell haste II. This involves talking to the guys sitting next to the pools on the good side of PoK, and giving in a sarnak blood (Bazaar/merchants again, or a trip to the newbie yard area of LOIO). You then need to make a run into Droga, so make sure that you have a good invis – the 10pp, instant cast cloudy potions may be an option for clerics and warriors.

Classic PL rules

• kill mobs that are high dark blue, white or yellow to your PLee, exp is faster than killing higher mobs that your PLee can’t damage;
• use a DS on either you or the PLee;
• someone in the party needs to be able to heal the PLee (for most methods);
• you want mobs that don’t run; undead are perfect, but you can get by with killing snared mobs that turn if you have to.

Then it comes down to techniques; I can think of 4 different ways to PL.

1) Damage shield on PLee. PLee is buffed as best as may, and has a damage shield – druid, mage, cleric or potion, they all work (so does wiz DS, but it is a lot weaker than the rest). A regen buff of some sort helps a lot, too. PLee pulls multiples, and switches to do (usually melee) damage on each mob to claim the experience, although spell casting and cermaic band damage can work. Getting this damage in can be hard, which is why having mobs at a close level helps, minimising resists. The PLee will need healing. Advantage is that PLee will get decent melee stats, especially defense. The only disadvantages are that you can’t do this with casters at high levels, and that exp is slightly slower than technique 2.

2) DS on PLer. DS yourself, cast non damaging spells or taunt to lock aggro on you, and have your PLee do 1 point of damage by melee, spell, or ceramic band. You have to turn your back to avoid riposte damage on the mob, and can only readily hold aggro on singles. Don’t have a pet up unless you have pet hold. If the PLer has AE spells (rains, tremor, etc), this makes damaging a large group easier. This is fastest, but not effective for keeping up melee skills.

3) Mem wipe. Kill the mob down to < 5% however you can; then mem wipe the mob and let the PLee finish it. It is best to have mobs that turn when low and don't run, or have a root/snarer (this has to be a non-damage root or snare if it is from the PLer). You need good judgement to get the mob low enough. Bards can use fading memories, necro/SK/monk can FD, enchanters mem wipe and clerics Atone. This can be slow, as multiple casts will be needed, and mobs regen fast when it succeeds; some mobs cannot reliably be mem wiped by spell or FD. Pet classes can tell their pet to get lost when the mob gets low enough; this has the same effect.

4) Buffing. Max buff the PLee, then heal as he kills normally. This is slow at low levels, but becomes effective at higher levels. You will need a large HP buff at a minimum, mana regen for casters, hp regen, and str/dex/agi for meleeing. Note that a pet is not level restricted for buffs; they can take Virtue and other high level buffs.

5) Grouping. Group with the PLee, provided they get experience, and kill green mobs quickly that are at least dark blue to the PLee. The PLee can cast or melee normally, or just sit back and soak up experience, depending on the mobs. This works well if the PLee can contribute effectively and safely – as a priest class healing a pet, for example. A 49 PLer can group with a 33/34 PLee – 49, because that is the highest level you can be and still cast all your buffs on someone much lower. A 65 PLer can group with a 44 PLee.

The first four techniques work up to about level 40 or so, possibly 45 to 50 depending on class, after which you really want to try to group the PLee while you kill greens; your share of the exp will be lost when doing this, but is generally faster than having the PLee do the killing themselves. A caster PLed with a DS to level 40 has a big advantage over casters levelled normally: maxed defense. Be aware that only spells up to level 49 can be freely cast on low level characters. Spells above level 49 follow the rule: (spell level)/2 + 15.

Best Technique

For low levels, a DSed PLee works the best for fast experience and melee skills, up to about 40-50. The DS can be cast by the PLee or PLer, or applied by a potion. From 46 up, grouping in PoP zones is the most effective, thanks to PoP ZEMs.

Powerlevelling by class

Classes that can cast a DS: druid, ranger, mage, wizard, enchanter. Necros have a self DS at level 16. Some items provide a clickable DS, but may not be easy to attain for a low level character – 8th coldain ring and up, humming orbs (no drop require smithing skill 188+), golem shards from Ssra (lore), etc.

For a druid, cast Skin Like Nature, Storm Strength, Chloroplast and Shield of Thorns (24 point DS). Share Form of the Great Wolf is a good idea for outdoor zones for the attack increase. If you are powerlevelling a pet class, cast your highest available HP and strength buffs on the pet; unlike players, pets are exempt from the level 51 buff restrictions. Try to only heal between pulls; if you heal during a fight, you are very likely to pull one or more mobs onto you. If this happens, just cast Skin of Thorns (which you will already have memmed) on yourself, and wait for it to die. If the mobs run, snare the last one of a group when it is low.

A cleric can pull mobs with Mark of Retribution (level 54, 20 point DS) or Mark of the Righteous (level 65, 34 point DS), then optionally put Mark of Karn (level 56, 6 point reverse DS) or Mark of Kings (level 64, also 6 point reverse DS) on the mobs (it isn’t certain that MoK actually does anything other than remove some types of damage shield from its target – but it should). Buff with Temperance, and any pet with Virtue. Heal as appropriate. This is remarkably effective, provided that you are using mostly single target fights; which really means from level 30+.

Shamans and beastlords have similar capabilities; the main difference is that beastlords can use Spiritual Light (minor mana/hp regen), but not any more powerful HP regen, and shamans vice versa – plus shamans can haste low levels. Buff the PLee with everything possible; HP, sta, dex, agi, str; then slow the mob and heal. This isn’t as fast as druid/cleric methods at low levels, say below 10/20, but the haste/slow combination pays off very well at high levels – 45+.

Enchanters are overlooked for PLing, but have some excellent tools for the task. Haste and slow, of course – but the level 29 (research only) damage shield Feedback (?? points) makes the low levels easy. Mana regen helps for casters, but the lack of healing, beyond runes and the Berserker Strength line, makes priest classes the best bet for PLees, as they can take care of themselves to a degree. At higher levels, they can use charm to knock down a string of mobs to very low hps, then mem wipe for the PLee to kill. This has to be handled very carefully, both because charm is risky, and because many mobs regen extremely rapidly once mem wiped; so the PLee must be careful to actively take aggro as the mob is wiped.

A very nice spot to practice charming for enchanters, druids and shamans is at the kodiak caves in Great Divide. Bloodmaw, a named kodiak, is your pet, and a remarkably safe one. He is a level 20 undercon with 32k hit points, and will be green at the time you charm him. The other kodiaks seem to range from about level 30 to 37.

I take the Plane of Knowledge stone to GD, cast levitation on myself (or air elemental form for an enchanter), and invis, then run more or less due south west to reach the kodiak caves. The cave you want is the middle of the three all on the same level. Head in (still invis), and straight across the cross roads; Bloodmaw is along with a gnome captive in a room at the back. Take a look around the cave while you are here. A few kodiaks spawn along the main passage and wander around and out, and there are caves to the left and right with several spawns in.

I use a ceramic band, and don’t bother with KEI; I rarely need a break for mana reasons without KEI. If you don’t have a ceramic band, mem a low level damage spell to use to pull.

When you are settled in, charm your pet. For an enchanter, always tash it first, before charm. There’s no need to do anything else. Haste or shielding won’t make much difference to your kill rate. A couple of things you should know about Bloodmaw: he seems to have a very slow regen rate; this may be just a function of his large hit points pool. If he dies, he won’t respawn for several hours (he is usually back up the next day). He is also a quest NPC. If someone comes in to do the quest, I ask them to wait for my current pull to complete, then let them go ahead. Unfortunately, he despawns after the quest hand in. One thing worth remembering is that a level 39+ cleric can heal Bloodmaw; it will take several casts of complete heal while you have him charmed. As a cleric can’t invis, you will need to bribe and fetch your helper.

When I am settled, I head back to the crossroads looking for a kodiak; at first, most will be very red to you. I pull with my ceramic band or low level spell (low MR, so resists are rare, even with the reds). One thing to watch is that kodiaks WILL get stuck in the walls unless you are very careful about guiding them through the tunnels. This means that you WILL take a few hits. If they get stuck, they will pop on you after a few minutes and take a big chunk out of you, usually while you are fighting another kodiak. With limited running around space, this is bad. When they are engaged, root the mob. If you are an enchanter, tash and slow the mob; if you have a druid, snare it; if a shaman, slow it. Keep the mob rooted whenever it breaks. Don’t snare the mob on the pull; they are naturally slow, and they seem to get stuck in the walls a lot more when snared. Snare also generates a lot more aggro, which can mean that you have to kite around Bloodmaw’s chamber for a minute while he builds up aggro.

One other thing to watch is where you sit in the cave. If you are on the room wall at a couple of spots, you will sometimes see an aggro message for a kodiak, which will warp on top of you sometime in the next 5 minutes. Be ready if this happens.

This camp gives extraordinary experience, with very little loot. I was getting between 2 and 6% per kill from 30 (mostly 6%) to 35 (mostly 2%) before the charm nerf; after the nerf a quick test with a level 29 shaman showed him getting around 2% per kill at 29. You will find kodiak pelts (plain ones, not suitable for the coldain ring quest), kodiak claws and kodiak bracers, all of which sell for a few platinum. A rare spawn, Icetooth, who is level 37 and a significantly tougher fight (he can take almost 10% off Bloodmaw’s hit points), also drops a pelt or some claws, which can sell in the Bazaar. I found it very boring, and had to get out into the light in Dawnshroud after a few levels. It is an easy camp for druids, as they can snare their pulls (I do this after engagement) to make breaks easier to handle. For this reason, as well as he inevitable damage you will take from a break at close quarters, my enchanter liked to partner with a druid here.

This is a good spot for both enchanters and druids, although killing strategies are very different for each. At this level range, you need to be killing the cave basilisks found near the Blackburrow zone point, close the the Brell gnolls. Other mobs outside of the caves will be both aggressive and much higher level. Druids can charm the basilisks, or kill them in other ways. Enchanters should charm the gnolls, and use them to kill basilisks. These will start to turn light blue during 41, but are still useable for experience through 42, at a much slower rate. Basilisks drop research items, mostly words, chunks of meat, poison glands, and eggs. The eggs are prized by bakers, as they make the most dough per egg. This is not a profitable camp.

When you arrive in the caves, take some time out to explore the area. There are bankers and merchants to one side, and you should observe the pathing of gnolls both inside and outside of the enclosed area, so as to minimise unseen aggro when you pick a pet. Most of the gnolls inside the walls path into the wall very close to where your potential pets outside the walls path – you don’t want to have five gnolls all aggro on your and work their way out and into the caves to find you. Also check the basilisk caves; only genitors, the ones that drop eggs, will aggro on you if you get close. Beware, because basilisk run almost as fast as jboots, and will stun. As you enter the basilisk area, there are two small caves to the right, followed by one larger cave, and one large cave to the left. When you know your way around, memorise the route out to the Blackburrow zone for emergency exits.

Spell lineup: I use Beguile, tashani, mez (level 4), root (level 4) and a blue ceramic band. You can use your lowest level dot if you wish instead of the ceramic band. You will want to have either jboots or Spirit of Wolf potions. I self buff with my latest sheilding, obscure/shade, clarity, radiant visage and rune III, and buff my pet with obscure/shade, and alacrity/celerity when I have confidence in it. KEI is a waste of time for you. I don’t give my pet weapons, for two reasons: firstly, they don’t seem to dual wield with them; and secondly, I don’t want the faction hit of killing any gnolls. That’s right: we are going to let the pet die while fighting, and won’t try to get any experience from them; I want the gnolls to at least not hate me, so charming doesn’t get any harder.

Stand by the entrance to the basilisk area, and watch for a gnoll; you want one to your left, not to your right where you may aggro other gnolls. Cast mez on it, then tashani and finally beguile. Buff with obscure/shade depending on your level while waiting for mez to wear off. The gnoll will come to you, moving directly away from the wall and other gnolls. Turn and find your spot.

I like to start with the first of the small caves on the right. It is easy for an unhasted gnoll to kill all of the basilisks, and is still close to the exit. Send the gnoll at the first basilisk, and tell it to guard at that location while you root, tashani, slow, use the ceramic band to claim full experience and re-root the basilisk. Then select your pet. Basilisk dies, pet is at 60 – 80% health. Continue exactly the same process for the other three basilisks in the cave. The pet may die on the last basilisk; in which case, nuke it down. If it doesn’t, you can either make the pet sit and wait for the respawn, or carry on to the next small cave until the pet is dead, which will probably be on the first or second basilisk in that cave. You now have gained 5 – 10% experience in around 5 minutes, depending on your level, and mana is at 60 – 80% (Without KEI).

For your next try, haste the pet. Don’t attempt to slow the basilisks, you will barely have time, make sure that you use the ceramic band (or little dot) to get full experience. Stay at the entry of the cave, and make your pet guard at the back. You will work through both of the small caves with a battered, but still living pet at the end, and have time to wait for the first cave to respawn.

The same approach works with the larger caves, neither of which quite have double the number of basilisks of the small caves. You can rest your pet while waiting for respawns.

Most of the time, you will get a pet with low MR, and you will see tashani wear off before charm breaks. These are good pets to have hasted. When that happens, if the pet is low on health, press on and try to have him die killing a basilisk. Or just move back to the gnoll sanctuary walls, and wait for the break, with your pet targetted. Mez, re-tash, and re-charm. On a random charm break, or a charm break with an unrooted basilisk, do not hesitate, do not attempt to recharm. Run to the zone point and zone out and back in again. A basilisk will catch up with you without SoW/jboots and will stun you, and then your pet WILL kill you. You can stay ahead of the gnoll with jboots, but possibly not without. A gnoll will hit you for 95 or 100, which is very hard for the level; and this is why they make good pets. A hasted pet hitting a stunned you is a guaranteed death without a rune, and very likely even with.

I expect to get 34 here in a little over an hour, and 39/40 in around 3 hours, allowing for rest breaks between charms, and waiting for a potential pet to walk to exactly the right spot. One thing about charm killing is that it never will be boring, so long as the experience gain is appreciable.

This worked for me from level 33 to 35, but should scale down well to at least 29. I came here when experience from Bloodmaw in Great Divide began to slow down, and I was bored. Experience will slow down as you hit 35, as a significant fraction of the mobs involved (shroom and lightcrawlers) start to turn light blue.

Charm soloing works best when higher level mobs with high hit points or damage per second and low magic resistance are found close to lower level mobs with relatively low hit points. Then a single charmed pet can work its way through several mobs without a break. Dawnshroud is a good zone for this, as it has a very wide range of mob levels, from the rockhoppers and stonegrabbers down to the shroom and lightcrawlers. For my approach, you want to kill lightcrawlers and shroom using a charmed zelniak; the level of zelniak you charm will depend mostly on your level.

You should ideally have a blue ceramic band and either SoW potions or JBoots. KEI isn’t really necessary; it just means that you can do the entire process without ever needing to med. I can run with just clarity perfectly fine, keeping myself at around 50% mana.

The best place for this camp is outside the Sanctus Seru entrance. Zone in from Netherbian Lair, turn right, and run around to the next zone exit, which is Sanctus Seru. Stay high up on the wall for several reasons: avoiding wolves and lightcrawlers, which will aggro on you; and avoiding the one shroom ring just before Sanctus Seru. Shroom have a large aggro range, and will attack you regardless of your level.

Sit at the Sanctus Seru entrance facing out into the zone. To your left is the ring of three shroom. To your right is an area with lots of lightcrawlers, and beyond it a couple of merchants and the lightcrawler armor quest giver, Kanthuk Ogrebane. Straight out into the zone are a ton of wolf traps, a few lightcrawlers, and lost of different zelniaks.

Buff up with your usual shields, charisma buff, clarity, resist magic and rune. You will want to have either Spirit of Wolf potions or Jboots for this (and for any other outdoors charming). Then cast invisibility on yourself, and run straight out towards the centre of the zone. You are looking for a dark blue or even con zelniak to charm, standing clear of any wolves or lightcrawlers. Other zelniaks will not aggro. Depending on your level, this could be a zelniak or large zelniak. When you find one, stop and cast mez (level 4) on it; resists are unlikely. Then tash it, and re-invis yourself, and start to run back to the zone. The object of this exercise is to aggro the zelniak without running the risk of collecting a train of wolves and lightcrawlers. Back at the Sanctus Seru zone line, stop and wait for your pet to arrive; recast mez, tash and charm. The guards will ignore you, and certainly will not protects you. Dark elf enchanters may run the risk of being attacked by the guards, I don’t know.

I don’t bother to haste my pet; he’s going to kill without any great loss of hit points without any assistance from me. This applies for large zelniaks; if you use a plain zelniak, for instance at a lower level, try using haste.

Make your pet wait out a little from the zone, I like to stand just in front of the guards with my pet guarding just inside maximum casting range. If the shroom ring to the left isn’t camped, bring your pet close to this and pull a shroom. If you send the pet in to the shroom ring to fight, very likely all three shroom will aggro, which isn’t necessary. I always pull here with slow, run back until the spell gems refresh, send the pet in to attack, and stop and cast root, then tash. Then finally cast Shallow Breath (level 1 dot) on the shroom to get maximum experience. If you have a zelniak rather than a large zelniak, you may need to assist your pet with a couple of nukes, but a large zelniak should be perfectly capable of running through all three shroom and the entire lightcrawler camp without any need of assistance.

Once you have killed the shroom, they will respawn in about 12 mins (I think), so go back to your parking spot in front of Sanctus Seru and pull lightcrawlers. I use the same technique, pull with slow, send in pet, root, tash and dot. The lightcrawlers can blind you; resist magic should help with that, but you should never have a lightcrawler in melee range for this to happen – and that should only be possibly on a simultaneous charm and root break, or if one spawns on top of you while pulling.

Loot both shroom and lightcrawlers. Ignore the no drop shroom items, and ignore cracked lightcrawler shells; everything else is valuable. The shrooms sell for between 2 and 4 pp at the nearby merchants, and the lightcrawler shells and legs can be traded in two matching shells at a time inside Sanctus Seru for lightcrawler armor, which is good armor for short race melee classes – sell it in the Bazaar.

If you get through all of the shroom and lightcrawlers, there should also be a few zelniaks and small zelniaks that are worth hunting that come close to Sanctus Seru. If you have a large zelniak charmed, you should be able to take out wolves one at a time, giving your pet some assistance.

Most charms lasted me longer than tashani did, with a few breaks just after recharming. Mez was only ever resisted a few times, and then only on charm breaks. If you stand well back from pet, you should be able to remez; if that fails, the zone line is just a few steps away. Doing this I was getting from 5 – 10% experience on every charm, roughly a yellow in 40 minutes at 33 and 34, including rest breaks and meditation.

One option to carry on from here into higher levels and stay in Dawnshroud would be to try for the 6 shroom spawn points to the left of the Netherbian zone; two (sometimes three) just by the entrance, three more just over the hill, then one more just past the rockhopper caves. There are a few problems with these: the first is that this corner is frequently trained by ignorant people, either with the shroom you are killing or with rockhoppers or even wolves. The next is that the rockhopper caves you need to pass are much higher level and will aggro if you get close; and finally, the spawn rate can be slow with only six or seven mobs to kill. The single shroom spawn can sometimes spawn a named shroom (usually Fungus Shroom, with capitals, I believe). This is mid to high 30s, is usually a caster, sometimes a druid and sometimes a ranger. Expect to be rooted, dotted, or nuked for 440.

You can also camp outside the shroom farm ( a big building near the Greig’s End zone), and use proximity aggro to pull shroom, as well as kill wandering tribals and zelniaks.

Here is a suggestion for a good spot to camp lvls 44 to 49. The zone is the Dreadlands. The camp is in the lost valley just south of the spires to luclin. There is an abandoned empire with a HUGE set of spires and some pyramid type structures. If you head directly south from the luclin spires you should see it within a couple minutes. The mobs you will be camping are plaguebone thieves, a type of skeleton. The best part about this camp is the skeletons are totally NON ASSIST. So you can pull one, kill it, med up and then when you are ready, pull more. This camp is ideal for necro, pal, clerics, and perhaps shadowknights.

Here is what I do as a necro. I make a pet and set him to guard near where the grass meets the concrete. I then use the lvl 1 spell sense dead to obtain my target. I run in the direction of the mob until I can cast a spell, I pull with my undead slow. Once cast I run back to my pet. The mobs are inside the pyramid but no need to enter to pull them, you can pull through the wall. After a few seconds the mob will pop on top of me and my pet takes over. Once slowed and pet hasted its an easy fight. I get 1 percent every kill in lvl 46 and they respawn at a very nice rate.

I saw a cleric and war there duoing and they told me the cleric actually stacks his undead dots and nukes more than heals as its faster that way. Your mileage may vary but trust me, don’t overlook the advantages of a camp that you don’t have to search for mobs, that is safe, and with no wanderers. It’s a great camp so check it out. The xp runs out at 49 I’ve heard but I will definately be there until it does.

From: Iskar, Venril Sathir

This works for clerics, too – most are still dark blue at 50. Pull with a nuke, root, dot, then nuke out, reroot if required, and med.