Suggested leveling areas

Leveling Guide

Preamble Reading

See also: A New Players Guide For Despair

Stat impact to levelling:

• All chars: Constitution and Wisdom - puts baseline on hp and increases levelling speed
• Melee: Strength and Dexterity - carry more and do more damage
• Spells: Intelligence - more mana gains and do more spell damage
• Unknown/Subjective: Charisma and Luck - cheaper potions and may improve levelling outcomes including gains

Hitroll/DamRoll:

• While levelling get up to 40HR as a baseline priority to be able to hit levelling mobs consistently. More DR, more damage ->but get 40HR first.

Suggested Leveling Route

Level 02-12

• Tullfuhrzky Manor (Master Tul, Lady Tul, Collie, Grandpa, Nanny)
• Land of the Fire Newts (various newts)
• Shattered Refuge (Gnome Child/Woman/Man, Gnome Scientist, Gnome Assistant, Reception)
• Coral Depths (5+ with sanctuary and a fair bit of a purple potion you can start here on eels/lamprey)

Level 12-22

• Coral Depths (Crab Guards, eels, lamprey)
• Dwarven Catacombs
• Ofcol
• The Dungeon

Level 22-30

• Mithril Hall (Grocer, Second Blacksmith, Third Blacksmith, Fourth Blacksmith, Lower Blacksmith)
• Darkhaven Art Gallery (Phunbaba, Welmer, an enormous elephant, Spectrum mobs)

Level 30-40

• Temple of the Moon (Kita, Mavel, Xerra, Erutha, Maseen, Revlek, Kyree, feel out the others)
• Mithril Hall (Grocer, Second Blacksmith, Third Blacksmith, Fourth Blacksmith, Last Blacksmith)
• Darkhaven Art Gallery (Phunbaba, the storm giant chieftain, Aram-Dol, Groduk O'Groth, an enormous elephant, Bronze Statue)

Level 40-50

• Tree of Life (The Lightning Dragon, Eris, Death)
• Temple of the Moon
• Mithril Hall (Head Blacksmith)
• Darkhaven Art Gallery (the storm giant chieftain, Aram-Dol, Groduk O'Groth, Bronze Statue)
• The Mahn-Tor Catacombs (ghost, spirits, vault mobs)
• Dragon's Pass (Friar O'Hare - use the Ice Girth/Elemental Shields)
• Dawn to Dusk (a fallen angel - have Fireshield)
• Knights of the Round - A castle guard

Clear buffer

Experience drops after repeat killing of the last 25 mobs in your buffer, the following areas have different mob types in concentrated location to clear buffer quickly:

• Elemental Canyon
• Green Forest
• Coral Depths

Expanded Info on Levelling Areas

* Levels 3-7: Black Forest south of DH Miden'nir and Doom goblins in mountain (don't
go into the belly)

* Levels 5-13: Land of the Fire Newts (really!) - with sanc and spells and the eq I
listed and the warrior around to take out really pesky mobs, you can
very readily kill in newts at level 5 and gain TONS of exp.  At level 5,
killing a newt drone will get you around 5k exp per hit for quite a few
hits.

* Levels 10-25: The Tower of Zenothir - focus on Carnival Men and the Jester in
early levels, move on to Pavle/Believer/Shadow Beast at level 14, add
Juneo and other upstairs mobs at level 17.

* Levels 10-20: Coral Depths - youths, crabs, eels

* Levels 20-AV: Mithril Hall - initially, kill citizens, battleragers, 2nd
blacksmith, grocer, mining machine operators.  At level 25+, forget
citizens and mining machine operators, kill all the blacksmiths other
than buster bracer.  Beyond that, add in AV mobs excluding Entreri and
Bruenor, stun with warrior as needed.  Shimmy temple starting at level
45.

* Levels 13-AV: Ocean Keep - Reef Wraiths are great exp up to level 15-16
or so.  Be sure to have poison cures if you kill there.  Save the vials
for the detects.  Level 20+, you can add in maids in the manor, guards.
Level 25+, add in Roon, Leif, Liis, Deckhands, Senior Officers, Blaine,
the Cook, Pirate Officers, Lady Fenia (500k gold!), Lord Willem (also
gold!), and other mobs.  Use the warrior to clear out crewmen on
Valkryie and stun as needed.  Faragut after level 40 if you are very
careful.

* Levels 25-AV: Darkhaven Art Gallery Spectrum - Innocence, Evil, Anger, Confusion, and Love are
all good right at the beginning.  Disarm if you can, if you can't see if
you can't get the warrior to do it and flee.  Good exp!  Avoid Envy,
Cowardice, and Life. 

* Levels 15-35: Treetops/Canopy - Sloths and Spider monkeys are good
15-25ish, upper canopy excepting Griffons, Orangutans, and Eagles are
very good 25-35 especially the rocs, tangle tree 30-AV but not really
worth it as it hits too hard.

* Levels 20-AV: Darkhaven Art Gallery - Phunbaba always.  Level 40+, the storm giant chieftain in
Arena, Vampire Lord in Tea Party

* Levels 25-35: Still Life of Monarchy - Welmar's feet are always
worthless.  Hands good up to 30ish, mouth always good.  Eyes take
forever to kill but are decent exp, bring out the warrior on the eyes if
needed

* Levels 30-35: Transylvania - initiate vampires, victims are pretty good
exp and great for raising favor for deities that hate vamps

* Levels 40-AV: King's Castle - ranger outside, herald, templars e/w of
king are all decent

* Levels 40-AV: Forgotten Tomb in Blasted Lands - track/astral and summon
to Medusa, kill everything except Medusa.  All good exp, and good gold.
To get out BL, use Isis since you should all be dev, or the statue in
the builder's tomb if you aren't for some odd reason.

* Levels 30-40: Revelation City - snakes in garden are pretty good

* Levels 30-40: The Keep of Mahn-Tor - all the minotaurs behind the colored
doors are stunnable except Tyrgoth, all fairly decent exp

* Levels 30-40: Temple of the Moon - Maseen, Revlek, Kyree, Jafelle, Vrel, Palinor
 
* Levels 40-AV: The Tree of Life - Famine and Pestilence, many others
stunnable.

There are other places to level too, but these are my personal picks.
Always have a large supply (50+) of heals on your character.  Have
sanctuary.  Have the eq for within the next 10 levels ready, along with
anything you might switch to get better stats near level.  Above all,
move FAST.  Don't spend a long time fighting one particular mob unless
you are getting good exp (2k+ per hit) from it, usually slowly dying
mobs give bad exp.  Kill as many mobs as you can, run around really
fast.  Adept styles so you can switch tanks with your warrior as
necessary.  Mage portal is still exceedingly useful, you just have to
get into the right geo.  Use help Area Locations and help Area Locations
2 to find the right spots.  General Geo directions: Souther Mountains is
just south of DH, Azure Sea follow the DH river toward coral depths,
Northern Plains get into Unholy Grounds through the painting, Forgotten
Woods is north of DH, Forest of Tears is West, Ashen Forest is East.
Barren Peaks get into northern plains and stick south, eventually you'll
make it in.  The Blood Sea is ALL (50+) west of dh.  Don't really have to
worry about any others.  For some freaky reason it's easier to portal to
characters than mobs, you might want to astral to the mob and portal back
to your lowbie char.  Purge your buffer at elemental canyon or some such
area every time you level.  Try to level on a different mob each time,
who knows if that actually has any effect, but it isn't hard to do
anyway.  If you do all of this correctly and memorize the layouts of
your favorite leveling areas so you know how to get to where you need to
go, it's conceivably still possible to AV a warrior in under 40 hours.
The earlier levels especially are very easy.  Not counting time getting
EQ, it only took me about 2 hours to get a fathomer to level 14.

Note that this method of leveling works best for Warriors, Rangers,
Paladins, Vampires, Fathomers, Augurers, and Thieves.  I doubt it would
be very effective for Mages, Clerics, Druids, or Nephandi.  Bladesinger
are Deadly player's and therefore level incredibly fast anyway.

Leveling Guide - suggested setup

First off, you need an AV Mage and an AV Dev Warrior.  AV Dev Cleric
helps too but is not strictly necessary.  Make sure skills/spells adept.
Before you actually start leveling, you need to collect all the lowbie
eq you will need.  So, here is a (long) complete list of eq I use:

• 2x Level 2 Travelling Cloak
• 1x Level 2 iron bracers
• 2x Frosty Roseate Ring
• 1x Level 2 Sailor's Hat or Beanie
• 1x Firefly Tail
• 1x Pixie Wing
• 1x Black Leather Eyepatch
• 1x Travelling Boots
• 1x Level 2 Broadsword
• 1x Level 5 Abyssal Shadow
• 1x Iron Chain
• 1x Deerbone Crescent
• 2x Panther Crested Rings
• 1x Woolen Shawl
• 1x Thick Leather Jerkin
• 1x Swordsman's Gloves
• 1x White Scale Mail
• 1x Gold Earring
• 1x Golden Earring
• 2x Level 9-10 Pug. Fishing Pole
• 1x Old Decaying Basket
• 1x Doom Armguards
• 1x Stolen Tombstone Plaque
• 1x each of Level 5-6 Sigils
• 1x Sentinel (low level)
• 1x squirrel fur cloak
• 1x bear fur cloak
• 1x bulette carapace shield
• 2x level 14 swirled collars
• 2x level 13 sparkling silver rings
• 2x delicate silver bracelets
• 1x level 9 eltor hide leggings
• 1x Xvart Idol
• 1x level 19 dk dragonscale leggs
• 1x Golden Staff of Hunter
• 1x Jewelled Crown
• 1x Splint Mail
• 2x Iron-Tipped Boar Spear
• 2x Neptune's Trident
• 2x Sapphire Blade
• 2x Osprey Talon
• 2x spiked collar
• 2x level 26 Sai
• 2x level 20 lion-crested bracers
• 2x level 20 lion-crested neck
• 1x level 20 lion-crested belt
• many birch bark torch
• 1x level 17 golden dragonscale torso
• 1x level Arm Plates of Hercules
• 1x level 19 black silk belt
• 1x iron nasal helm
• 2x blue-silver iron gorget
• 2x level 28 sharktooth neck
• 2x level 28 navy rings
• 1x level 28 sailor's earring
• 1x level 28 bloody eyepatch
• 1x level 19 Dragon's Gloves
• 1x level 26 Oven Mitts
• 2x level 26 Chef's Knife
• 1x Memories of Spring
• 1x Silver Boots of Camelot
• 1x Gloves of the Wind
• 2x Dragon's Tooth Knife
• 1x level 28 Comfortable Leather Boots
• many deadly ridged breastplate
• 1x level 37 entreri's bat cloak
• 1x level 38 soft leather hood
• 2x level 37 Protector of Naris
• 2x level 40 Soulslayer
• 2x level 42 Spear of Athena
• 2x level 45 Sword wi/ King's Crest lots level 46 av eq
• 1x level 42 Ice Armguards
• 2x level 42 golden torques

I'm certain I've left stuff out on this list, but it doesn't come to
mind right now.  Anyway, deck your new level 2 character out in all
this stuff going for max str (must), max con (must), max dex (20+),
max DR, max int, max lck, max wis, max hp, max mana, etc. in descending
order of importance.  Upgrade the eq whenever possible as you advance in
level, keeping your stats and DR up.

Always level dev!  The eq options are so much better, and it's easy to
keep your align steady.  Have your mage and warrior follow.  Set
triggers on the mage to cast spells at targets as needed, for springs,
trancing, etc.

For the Warrior, set him up with low DR high HP eq with a shield and
hold instead of dual wielding.  Have a good weapon available, but don't
wield it.  Set triggers to make your warrior wield and remove weapons.
Now, here is the real crux of the whole scheme - set a trigger for your
warrior to attack and stun a mob, so you can order it to attack/stun a
fairly hard mob and jump in before stun so you get lots of hits in
without taking damage to lowbie.  This works great when your lowbie is
up there in levels (25+) and you are fighting strong enemies.  Stun
takes 50+ mvs per use, however, so here is the reason you need a DEV
warrior - the Dawnbringer trick.  Dawnbringer is the mace wielded by the
mob Tyrgoth in Mahn-Tor.  It has a wear prog where any dev who wields it
automatically gets refresh casted.  Set up a trigger/alias for your
warrior to wield/unwield as needed to regain hps.

For the mage/cleric, build their gear with high mana as they will not actually be
fighting anything.  Max out str/int/wis as they will be carrying stuff
around and you want maximum efficacy of spells, but the main focus is
mana.

See Also=

• Experience Ratings
• Gains