Hello all, I boxed pretty extensively on Ragefire (12 boxes) and Rizlona (30 boxes). I 'quit' because Daybreak banned my main box group for a week due to 'afk grinding', despite the fact I absolutely was NOT afk. I started jumping around and spamming in chat as I watched my boxes get zapped 1 by 1, but I suppose that's all besides the point, I'm just salty about it still. Anywho, I'm interested in starting a 6 box crew here (that's how it always starts out..."I'm just going to do six boxes this time...right!?!") but I have a few questions. #1 Is PEQ perma locked in OOW? Are there any plans to advance to a higher expansion? #2 How long does PEQ intend to be around? I see this server has been up for years already, is there a chance these servers may be taken down anytime soon? #3 With the xp rates of this server: How long does it typically take to level a group from 1 to 70? And how long would max AAs require? #4 Are epic quest spawn rates 'increased'? Or are spawn timers the same as Daybreaks? #5 Are there any 'guilds' that do raid content together with their boxes? What's most enjoyable for me while boxing in Everquest is doing raids with 4 - 8 others, each having at least a box group of their own. ________________________________________________________________________________________ I've done the 1 - 70 / max AA grind for probably 8 groups already; and I have done probably 30+ 1.0 epics and 15+ 2.0 epics. Really hurts to have to start from zero again, but I miss EQ too much, and p99 isn't scratching the itch like I need it to. With this post I'm seeking out some words of encouragement that the time investment required to do these tasks again won't be equal to what I've done already.
#1 Not locked, new expansion about to come out in a week or two. #2 server has been around for a long time so not looking like its going anywhere as this is main test bed for most Emulated servers #3 Normal exp rates with rotating hot zones #4 same or original spawn timers. #5 there are a few guilds that work together/ raid together .
"time investment" You will need to invest some time, but it isn't too bad. Even the Golems in Fear, which are basically perma camped for AoN can be tracked down for a epic drop/rot. This server is meant to be live like to the current era (Omens of War, soon to be Dragons of Norrath) so, spawn timers etc are similar if not the same. There are a few exceptions like being able to play Drakkin and Cresent Reach zone. That being said there isn't as many people camping everything so doing things isn't as bad. I rarely run into people that "have my camp" though I'll admit I'm not doing any GoD or OoW stuff at the moment. I was able to complete 1.0 epics for every class, though wizard and Shadow Knight ones took some time. if you wish to skip the 1.0s you can do that except for Rogue and I think Berserkers at the moment. There is defiant gear up to ornate to help gear you. You can run as many or as little characters as you want on here, some people have 12, some have 72 or more. I started off solo, but now I have 24 myself, Not counting utility characters like traders, Mages for CoH, etc. If you have trouble camping something you could create a character to scout if a certain mob is up (like a ranger to track a mob, for example. I did that for Golems in Fear). Also people tend to announce rots of gear, including for epics, so you can just scoop some of them up. #3. leveling 1 to 70 depends on how you utilize hot zones, ZEM, Lesson xp bonus, etc. If you play only while using lesson (yes you get Veteran AAs to start) the total time spent would be less but take longer in terms of real time. #5. You don't need to join one for a raid. Just ask in ooc and you will usually find someone that will come and assist you (with their army). Ex: Help on an epic kill, get loot from a raid mob, or help with a quest. "start from zero again" I hear you, I had the same feeling when I started. It's not quite as grindy as I remember from Verant/SOE/Daybreak EQ days.
Lesson of the devoted/vet AA's + always having a full box team makes everything feel faster and smoother, for sure. Like...I feel like I've always got plenty of fun content to do and am never really worried about the AA grind. Re: 4: Epic 1.0's are actually worse than epic 1.5's; I did all my 1.0's and am working on my 1.5's, and some of the 1.0 bottlenecks are a little slow; Venril Sathir is a bit of a fight, as is the Plane of Fear stuff. The rest wasn't too bad though. Epic 1.5's, most stuff is triggered or instanced or always up; I've never really run into an issue doing my 1.5's. Re: 5: I think most people raid on their own. Re: Start from zero again; for me, it definitely helped to do my own progression quest and journal it; I was deliberately trying not to rush to the end game and to actually go and level in different zones. My levelling review and commentary is ~25 pages long, and I'm hoping to post it once I'm done with Epic 1.5's and elemental tier content, but depending on how much I get into BG3, that might be a year or two off still.
I would start with one group and get that to 500 AAish, 1.5's and maybe some raid rots and flags before even thinking of starting a second group. Some people go the path of building their AOE levelling crew first but they definitely need help to do that. People who start with more than one group are just making the process to building a fully capable raid crew longer. Rots from most places are often called (including Anguish) so picking up gear isn't really an issue. Some other points 1. Defiant up to ornate exists but don't try to farm it. It's a flat 2pc drop rate from humanoids. Farming it is pointless. Just take what drops as a bonus and move on. 2. This remains controversial but I and other vets (eg Barbatos) maintain Sebilis is a waste of your time. If you love the zone then whatever but it's loot is outdated, its slow xp and cash is meaningless on this server unless you are tradeskilling. LoY zones (which most no one did on Live at the time) are far better xp and drop much better gear. It's also better (from a time spent to max level point of view) to move from LoY to OOW, again as it gets you started on the gear farm. 3. Some people are very pro the LDON levelling approach as the mobs are on the old hit table. The gear is so so but if you don't mind the running from camp to dungeon its definitely doable. 4. Epics at max level obviously (again from an efficiency point of view only) but make sure your loot_settings file is properly up to date as you level. It's really soul destroying to realise you missed a drop. 5. You probably know this but even with e3, old style dungeons remain a nightmare to move a box crew about. If you want to go the progression route then you can just ignore a fair bit of this
Re: 2: I tested my 24 box in a lot of different places at 65 at 300AA and Velious/Luclin raid gear, I don't know which LoY zone I was supposed to test but it definitely wasn't hate's fury? I did these all roaming/killing/pulling 4-10 mobs at a time depending on zone; I never AE'd because my set up isn't really designed for AEing. Sebilis Juggs/Spores: 11-12aa/30 minute lesson Sebilis Top Half: 10-11 aa/30 minute lesson, more obnoxious pulling/roaming. Bastion of Thunder: 9-10 aa/30 minute lesson - water-fire-earth, air is awful Crypt of Decay: 8-10 aa/30 minutes lesson - regroup and evac after clearing Hate's Fury: 8-9 aa/30 minutes, portals are obnoxious and weird clear path with backtracking HoHonor: 8-9 aa/30 minutes – density felt worse than BoT. Tactics: 7aa/30 minutes – Cleared pit + all the minis in 30 minutes. Infected Paw: 6-7aa/30 minutes --- Wiped as well from wall agro/ledge agro. Has unique loot though; rogue/ber frenzy/backstab mod items. Plane of Valor: Absolutely bad. Not enough mobs. 6 aa/30 minutes lesson? Plane of Storms, Desert: Too far apart. 6 aa/30 minutes lesson. I'll do a retest once I've got Epic 1.5's completed at 500 AA spent on all boxes and see what zones work better and also check the elemental planes.
Yes, but you are doing progression and as such OOW is not an option. You want to be in OOW from about 60 on to start the faction and Tier 1 piece farming. I am specifically talking about efficiency to get into 'endgame' raiding with a box crew here. If you do all your AA in Seb then you will have rubbish gear and any OOW mob is going to tear through you. As I already said, if you enjoy Seb then go for it but for someone looking to raid GoD/OOW they should be made aware of the gear pitfall. If you look at the thread Apollo put together with help from a lot of us (http://www.projecteq.net/forums/ind...earing-guide-to-peq-1-70-oow-expansion.16844/) you can see that by levelling in OOW zones you can have your toons pretty much geared to go for at least hitting up 1.5 bosses and goats (with 12, if you get boosted for the flag). 36 pc haste (see the simple ring quest in RCoD), decent armor with some focuses, some of your drops for Anguish key etc etc. It really does save a pile of time. Instead of AA'ing and then having to do a pile of gear farming to be viable in GoD/OOW. For single group AA you aren't going to beat running fire side Riftseeker's around the safe spot with lesson. You are talking 25+ in a full lesson burn, depending on your dps. Ofc pulling the whole of CoD and AE'ing it down in less than 5 minutes then zoning out to preserve lesson gives the most (60+ in one session). Nice to see those hard numbers though, thanks for posting that.
That will, indeed, change gearing up options and is liable to make Sebilis even less relevant (from an efficiency standpoint). Especially if you like the LDoN route of camp > instance > camp > instance etc etc
the don gear is roughly on par with VT gear as far as hp/stats, and has lvl 70 focuses. i figure it'll be a nice way to gear up a new alt then take them raiding.
