Heroic Characters

You can buy a heroic character for 3,500 SC ($35, without any special offers). To do this, first create a character (or use an existing one), and press the “Heroic Character” button on the character select screen. Your selected character will instantly become 20% into level 85, with all (almost - not trade skill ones and a few other minor exceptions) spells (but only rank I) and AAs up to (and including) Underfoot granted, including the trials of Mata Muram and Dragons of Norrath special AAs, but no tradeskill AAs (or the Spell Casting Subtlety line). You should take note that there are still several AAs from more recent expansions that are available before level 85; for example Spell Casting Mastery rank 4. You will also have all skills and abilities set to max for level 85.

Upgrading

If you have an existing character, you can go through the same process and upgrade to a Heroic character. The advantages are that you will get a ton of AAs, bringing the total to over 4,000 for most if not all classes, and the opportunity to get a Journeyman tier 5 mercenary super easy (this quest is available to any character, not just heroics), as well as the decent augment set from the House of Thule tier 1 partisan quests. The gear, perhaps surprisingly, is weak compared to available Bazaar gear - 800-900 HME versus 1,200-1,300 for Rustic (from Veil of Alaris) or Glowing Reis. Heroic is equivalent to the tier 1 House of Thule gear.

If you character is over level 85 already, there is a small advantage to using the heroic upgrade: getting all the skills maxxed and the two bags.

Why?

$35 to SOE is something to think twice about, but has different value to different people. If you already have a character, should you upgrade? You can use auto-enable on any character to get the same AAs, so the AA grind shouldn’t be a consideration. You can also buy better gear in the Bazaar, if you have the pp (and with Loyalty points, that may not be a big deal). So here’s what you get for the upgrade that’s significant:

85 levels
all skills maxxed
DoN and Trials of Mata Muram AAs
access to augment rewards from House of Thule quests
two big bags
a mount
all rank 2 spells

Spells will need replacing as you level, and the same goes for skills. Bags you can buy, either from the Bazaar, with Loyalty points, or with Station Cash.

The bottom line: if you already have a level 70/75/80+ character, you don’t get all that much for $35.

If you are a Gold/All Access subscriber, getting a free 500 Station Cash every month, it may be worth upgrading your principal characters automatically; or it may not. Your call.

Don’t Move!

Once you log in, you will see a rewards window, and will be given the option to accept a pre-assigned pair of hotbars (the choices aren’t brilliant, but are OK). The reward include a full set of gear, two large bags, some stat food and drink, power sources, jungle raptor bridle, 15,000 platinum and 100 Bayle Marks.

Your first task after updating your equipment, should be to review your active AAs and set up the hotbars to your liking. This will take some time unless you have already played that class to a higher level than 85. Next, select spells for your spell sets.

Your mercenary will already be updated to level 85, but you may want to rehire to select a different mercenary type.

Finding Your Feet

If you haven’t played for a long while, back up and roll a new character (not heroic!) to run through the Gloomingdeep tutorial, and you may also want to try out your heroic character in a much lower level zone. Try some of the Hero’s Journey zones and quests if you haven’t already done them: Jonas Dagmire’s Skeletal Hand augment quest is a good one that should be easy for you to complete with a decent reward.

Once you are ready to move ahead, your first priority should be to upgrade your mercenaries to journeyman tier 5. This involves completing a quest in Feerrott the Dream. If you zone in to the Feerrott via the Oggok stone in the Plane of Knowledge, you are given the option of going to the low level zone, or to Feerrott the Dream. Your zone in point is very close to Investigator Drolmer, who gives out the quest No Heroism Without Fear, which opens up the journeyman tier 5 mercenaries to you (if you have an All Access account). This can be completed with a mercenary, probably by most classes (I have done it with an enchanter and with a bard, each with a healer mercenary); failing that, a simple duo with mercenaries should be sufficient. This quest is available to all characters.

The normal mobs in the Feerrott can be quite hard for a newly minted heroic character, although the Drolmer mercenary quest involves only weak mobs, and so should be possible for anyone solo, even with a J1 mercenary. Close to the zone in, there are a reasonably large number of weak snakes; or you could find your way to the House of Thule zone, and work on the kill quests there, as the mobs in the courtyard seem easier than Feerrott mobs.

Now Get Started

Several quests in the Feerrott contribute to the “Partisan of the Feerrott” achievement, and these should reward augments to heroic characters; a group may be needed. The quests for the mercenary achievement are also worth doing, which also reward the special heroic augments. You will need to complete the Feerrott partisan series to gain enough faction to buy rank II spells for 89 and 90, although these are now available in the Plane of Knowledge Library.

These quests are given by Rupkerr and Dark Alchemist Illian:

Some quests in the House of Thule Lower Floors should also reward augments.

The partisan quests for House of Thule, lower floors, are from Groot at the entrance, and Researcher Breoro in the first room of the house.

If you’re doing these, you might as well get the kill tasks for the same general mobs from Ruppoc Rockjumper at the zone in.

The Partisan achievements for Veil of Alaris should be the next stage in progression for your character; in particular start with the two (no killing) quests:

These will get your Alaran language skill to max, which allows you to do later quests.