Suggested leveling areas
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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, Storm Giant Chieftan, Aram-Dol, Groduk O'Groth, an enormous elephant, Bronze Statue)
Level 40-50
- Tree of Life (Lightning Dragon, Eris, Death)
- Temple of the Moon
- Mithril Hall (Head Blacksmith)
- Darkhaven Art Gallery (Storm Giant Chieftan, 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 (fallen angel - have Fireshield)
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:
Expanded Info on Levelling Areas
* Levels 3-7: Black Forest south of DH 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: Zenothir's Tower - 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: DAG - Phunbaba always. Level 40+, Storm Giant Chief 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: 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 - if you dont' mind not having av backup, ToM acolytes and high priest are pretty good I'm told that ToM now allows AVs and level 20+ can go there. I'm skeptical, but whatever. * Levels 40-AV: 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 sancs. 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. 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 wanna 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. Bladesingers of course are deadly 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. Dawbringer 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, make them manasluts 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.