Level grind is still brutal

Saturday I logged on with an hour to play.  I was camped out at Elite Goblin isle.  Took me 20mins to get my group there, and we xp'ed for 40mins and I had to go.  I made 4%.

I may quit before I ever hit level 50, since at this rate, it's going to 30 hours or more to go from 47 to 50.  If I can tough it out, Kunark will get better, so many more places to go.  But then again, have to go 50-60.  Ugh.

Note, 14 days ago I posted how I was 46.  2 weeks and I've gained one level.

Revenge! Vox down! Naggy down!

So last night was a productive raid night.  Over three hours we cleared Nagafen and Vox.  Naggy dropped 2 CoF's, and Vox dropped 2 Eyepatches, some of their best loot.  There was other crap too, a white hide, a golden plated yakinasha, dragon bone bracelets and weight reducing bags.  Oh, and some gauntlets of fiery might that I bid on, but didn't win.

As a monk, I was of course, a puller.  Oddly, as the lowest level monk, I ended up doing all the dragon pulling.  Exciting work, got me 2 corpses.  Once, a tentacle terror blew me into the pit, and on the Naggy pull, I ate an AE before disengaging after leaving on the tank, then someone's fire giant broke charm and hit me twice, which gave me low hp aggro, and Naggy ate me.

Pulling is perilous work!

Planar Level

Ever since the end of double xp, leveling has been tough.  XP goes sooo slowly.  Its no longer possible to gain a full level in one sitting.  With a high DPS group (2 necs and a chanter all charming specs for DPS), doing non-stop pulls in OOT goblins, I was getting one yellow every hour at 44.  So 5 hours a level.  Its even slower post 44, and with more normal DPS.

It does help me stay focused on just one character.  I obviously won't have time to level any other chars.

I just dinged 46 after a long day at OOT Goblins on Sunday.  My entire family was sick, so I played EQ in between nursemaiding everyone.  Do you know how fucking hard it is to pull while burping one baby with another on your lap waiting for her bottle?

Pull, feign, assist, deal with babies, mob hits 30%, go pull, rinse repeat for 7 hours, DING.  I did give up about 25% of my DPS by not mashing Dragon Punch and Flying Kick, but whatevs.  I was still #1 DPS, so suck it Paladin and Rogue and Bard and Enchanter and Cleric.(see why it was slow xp?  No real DPS, just me)

I'm hoping to push hard to 47 so I have a nice fat xp margin for dying in the planes.

Vox broke me

We raided Phinny and Vox last night.  Phinny died quick,  and against Vox, so did I.

She melees for 410, and double attacks.  Two rounds and I'm dead.

There were lots of problems, mostly centered on our organization.

We did get her down to 38% before wiping.  As a proud member of the "pull team", I ate 6 deaths.

1st Raid, pushing up in levels

On 12/28 my guild killed our first raid target, Phinny.  It wasn't hard by any means.  We also roamed about in the Hole as a private instance, slaughtering the content.  Due to bad coding, Yael does not spawn in the instance.

I was level 36 at the raid, and over the next week, and double XP weekend, I pushed on to 44.  I managed to get an FBSS, and returned to help others get one to 44.  At 44 though, the Frenzied Ghoul camp in Lower Guk starts to get to be poor XP.  Playing in the early morning, I was able to pull a lot though, which helped.  I just dinged 44 this morning.

I also ran out of XP potions.  They were half price over christmas, so I used all my daybreak cash on them.  I kind of like the non-stress of being out of them.  When I had a potion, I felt very intensely that I needed to race hard to xp.  No tradeskills, no chatting, just pull pull pull.  Now I can relax a bit.

An issue I've had is being unable to play late at night, I tend to just fall asleep instead of playing.  But then I can wake up early and play.  This will be challenging as my guild raids at 10PM my time.  I need to be awake at 10PM-2AM.  Sort of the worst time ever, literally, as its too late to sleep before, and too early to sleep after.  I plan on just limping through my post-raid days with 3 hours sleep.  Its a 3 day a week schedule, so I may only raid 2/week.  We'll see how it goes.

The babies have not been a challenge so far.  They usually wake up once, around 1 or 2AM, and I can bring them out to my laptop area, change diapers, and feed em while playing, as long as I'm not pulling.  If I'm pulling, then its harder, since I normally use keyboard to move, and mouse to turn, using just one is more dangerous, plus since I"m distracted I don't notice "x mob as begun to cast root" type messages, so my feign gets broken more.

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.