Mid 30's blues

I've spent a LOT of time at a seriously underused camp in Lower Guk.  If you enter the zone on the Live Side, camping at the zone in is a solid camp from 27-34.  It got slower at 35, and worse at 36.  I really need to move on, but the competition for "good camps" is very intense.

Some camps I'd like to work out are SolB "Royals" or BnB, Guk Lord/AM/Hand. Frenzy, or King,   I really want to avoid OOT goblins and seafuries, but they are probably the only game in town for my 40's.

Everquest Classic is a very small game world.  Its important to remember that.  There are only "so many" camps available.

Mostly, I function as puller, that is, grab 1 or more mobs, drop them off in camp and go get more.  My combat skills are suffering because I spend all my time outside of camp, not fighting.  That is the essence of "chain pulling".

Had my first contested camp

So, I was trying to get a group going, and I figured, hey, let's solo a Gaz Squire in Upper Guk camp while waiting.

I did for about a half hour, and got a Collar of Undead Protection.  Almost a BIS.  Then some group comes along and sits at my camp while I'm pulling.  I show up at my camp with 2 mobs, and feign, since I only want one, and they engage it.  Then they accuse me of training them.

Now, I'm a monk, and I know how to pull, which means I know how to train.  I could bring 50 mobs easilly.  Many would be grey because that area is just meh, but I digress.  What do I do?  I say "Go ahead, have the camp." and I move on.  Why?  Because I'm not going to take content from a lower level group who wants it.  Even if they were being douchebags a bit in /say. "Needs of the many" and all that.

Double XP Weekend

Daybreak gave us double xp for the weekend.   I benefited, going up 7 levels.  I had some pretty awful groups along the way, but when I got into a guild group, it was all smooth sailing.

I do feel the double XP cheapens the experience on Phinigel, so I wish they hadn't done it.  I like "earning" my levels.  But it was super much fun, either way.

X2 XP continues until 2AM CST tonight, so I get another chance to eat at the easy xp trough, maybe push myself closer to 30(or all the way).  I really enjoyed pulling lower guk.  The mobs are finally 35+, so feign death isn't quite as simple as it was before Lower Guk.

Phinigel XP Rates and Levels

The EQ forums are aflutter with people complaining XP is too slow.  The developers reduced xp substantially on the server without telling anyone, then they started selling XP potions.  Many see these two events as closely related.  I tend to have rosier colored goggles.

How bad is the xp?  I've got 41 hours played and am level 19.  I wasted probably 3-4 hours working up feign death, so I might have been 21 if I'd been more efficient.

There are lots of level 50's now.  I played 41 hours of Everquest in the first week of the server.  And I'm a pathetic loser casual to the "Elite" players.  These guys have 120+ hours in already.  Everquest is not a good game for adults with jobs and especially not for those with job and families.  I'm not convinced I'll hit 50 with 120 hours, probably significantly slower.

The XP is at least 1/3rd slower, and some are saying 2/3rds slower then on the last round of Progression servers.

I see some upsides though.  Better skills, both the numbers and the keyboard skill from playing a class more hours.  More time to get gear, and more time to use the gear.  Example, why farm a collar of undead protection if I'm just going to ugprade it in 10 levels?  If 10 levels is 2 hours, obviously don't do it.  If 10 levels is in 40 hours, maybe yeah, go ahead and get one.

A boring night of "Arentak has fallen to the ground"

Having recently achieved level 17, I had a new skill, Feign Death.

This skill started at level 1.  I tried it out about 100 times, and it went up to 3.

So I used skill points to get it to 20, and then got a much better rate of skillups.

I ran around freeport vendor scraping stuff while hitting feign every 9 seconds.   It was an entire night's worth of time spent, 4 or 5 hours, but I did max the skill at 90(for level 17).  This is one of Everquest's more tedious processes.  I feel for those clerics power leveling to 50, and getting there with an abjuration of 76, and they lose an entire mana bar trying to cast one resolution.

Anyway, I also keyed sneak to my hotkey, and mend(almost maxxed mend via skill points anyway), so all three are now maxxed.  Sneak is important as I can use it to get vendors I can't normally use, like goblins in SolA or Runneye. Waiting to redo it 3 or 4 times because I have a low skill wasn't something I wanted.  While I could have hit another level or two if I'd have skipped it and just xped, Im pretty happy.

I also ran around and did my yellow and orange sash quests.  Killing monsters while feigning constantly is annoying btw,  But I had to remind myself, the goal was the skill, not anything else I'm doing.

List of levelling locations for Arentak the Monk

1 West Freeport (Newbie Yard)
2 West Freeport (Newbie Yard)
3 Commonlands, West Freeport (Newbie Yard)
4 Commonlands, Greater Feydark (Orc Hill)
5 Nekulos Forest (Lego Camp)
6 Crushbone (Trainer Hill), North Ro, Greater Feydark (Orc Hill)
7 Crushbone (Castle Entrance)
8 Crushbone (Castle Entrance)
9 Crushbone (Castle Entrance)
10 Crushbone (Castle Entrance)
11 North Ro(Crocs)
12 North Ro(Crocs)
13 North Ro(Crocs)
14 North Ro(Crocs)
15 Upper Guk
16 Upper Guk
17 Upper Guk, OOT Undead/Gargoyles
18 Upper Guk, North Ro(Crocs, Orcs)
19 Upper Guk
20 Upper Guk
21 Upper Guk
22 Upper Guk
23 Upper Guk, SolA
24 Lower Guk(Live Side), Upper Guk, SolA
25 Lower Guk(Live Side)
26 Lower Guk(Live Side)
27 Lower Guk(Live Side)
28 Lower Guk(Live Side)
29 Lower Guk(Live Side)
30 Lower Guk(Live Side)
31 Lower Guk(Live Side)
32 Lower Guk(Live Side)
33 Lower Guk(Live Side)
34 Lower Guk(Live Side), SolB (Window room)
35 Lower Guk(Live Side), SolB (Window room)
36 Lower Guk(Live Side). SolA(soloing light blues)
37 Lower Guk(Dead Side)
38 Lower Guk(Dead Side)
39 Lower Guk(Dead Side)
40 Lower Guk(Dead Side)
41 Lower Guk(Live Side), Lower Guk(Dead Side)
42 Lower Guk(Dead Side), The Hole
43 Lower Guk(Dead Side)
44 Lower Guk(Dead Side), OOT Elite Goblins, OOT Seafuries(awful xp)
45 Lower Guk(Dead Side), OOT Elite Goblins
46 Lower Guk(Dead Side), OOT Elite Goblins, The Hole
47 OOT Elite Goblins, The Hole, Sol B(soloing), OOT Seafuries(soloing, still awful xp)
48 The Hole
49 The Hole, Lower Guk
50 The Hole, OOT Elite Goblins, Trakanon's Teeth
51 Old Sebilis
52 Old Sebilis
53 Old Sebilis

Everquest Monk Unarmed Damage Table

Level(skill) - Level(skill): Dmg/Dly
1(10) - 2(14): 3/38
2(15) - 3(29): 4/38
3(30) - 5(44): 5/38
5(45) - 6(59): 6/38
6(60) - 8(74): 7/38
8(75) - 9(89): 8/38
9(90) - 11(104): 9/38
11(105) - 14(119): 10/38
14(120) - 17(134): 11/38
17(135) - 20(149): 12/38
20(150) - 23(164): 13/38
23(165) - 26(179): 14/38
27(180) - 30(194): 15/38
30(195) - 34(209): 16/38
34(210) - 38(224): 17/38
38(225) - 41(239): 18/38
42(240) - 45(254): 19/38
45(255) - 50(269): 20/38
50(270) - 55(284): 21/38
56                         22/38

*Note, when you first ding to 6, your HtH is 50, so your damage is only 6.  Once your HtH hits 60, damage would go to 7.  The formula is Floor(HtH skill/15)+3.

The delay is always the same(38). Epic will change delay to 26. Discussion of this damage formula and evidence in terms of parses located here.

There was a long-published chart showing fists at 20/26 at level 50.  It demonstrated lowering delays from 1 to 80.  That chart is not accurate.

Crushbone and Ding Level 9

Today I spent two hours in Crushbone bashing Orcs upside the head with my elite fists or my cracked staff.  I gained two levels and a few backpacks of crushbone belts.

A good group makes all the difference in the world.  This just isn't a solo game.  In the past, I've experienced a lot of bad groups, and that really pushed me to going it alone.  But a good group is so much better then being alone.  Its not hard to leave a bad group if desired.

I started at level 7, outside the castle.

We were pulling Legos, Emnisaries, Centurions and Slavers.  Once the tank(*cough* Ranger) left, it was me and a cleric and 4 cloth wearers, so I was puller/tank.  It went well.  Aggro was obviously an issue.  I found that wielding a 5/32 and 4/28 1hb seemed to generate more threat then being barefisted(7/37).  Since most of the dps comes from clothies anyway, my dps kinda doesn't matter.  This observation about aggro fits the story, that melee aggro comes from swings and hits, not from damage.

I also got quite a few Crushbone Belts, which were good xp on turn in.

Now that I'm 9, my skill will hit 90, which means base damage 9 fists.  Its getting hard to turn that down for faster swings, even just to train up 1hb or 2hb.

I'll probably pull/tank in a lot of groups.  This raises the issue for me, how will I function when I have to do a baby care cycle?

First night on Phinigel

I had a very hard time deciding on a class.  Recent nerfs to Necromancer and Magician pets helped me rule out those classes.  Also, the guild I joined <The Broken Wave> seemed to have Necromancers coming out of all openings.  So I rolled a Monk.  For the FD family-friendly ability.

I went with a Quellious monk.  I like the Golden Idol of Quellious.

I started up in freeport and soloed to 3.  It was slow.  There were jokes about level 2 being a "hell level."  I hit commonlands in a group to 4, and then I did level 5 in nekutos at an Orc camp.  Level 6 I did in Crushbone and North Ro.

Grouping was far superior xp.  Soloing was awful xp.

I played as hardcore as possible, got about 11 hours of playtime in, and was level......7.