The void shard system was introduced with the release of The Shadow Odyssey expansion pack in late 2008. A void shard is an item used in the form of currency or traded to certain merchants for items such as Armor, Jewelry, Weapons, Charms, Mounts and so forth. To earn these shards you need to complete Quests or kill certain mobs within TSO instances. You will typically earn between one to four shards per instance per day. There are over 20 instances from which you can earn these shards. Some are more difficult than other zones. 

The concept of using shards as a currency that is used for purchasing rewards is not completely new to Everquest; many of the recent world events like Frostfell began using a form of shards as quest rewards, which are then used as a form of currency. A similar system was used in the original Everquest expansion Lost Dungeons of Norrath. Some love it and other despise this system. This is due to the nasty fact that you will have to grid these instances over and over and over, especially if you have alts. The good thing is that shards are Heirloom so you can trade them to your alts as long as they are on the same account. It takes quite a bit of shards to get some of the better gear in this expansion. With this expansion pack more that the previous it is important to progress your gear. For example some of the higher level instances can be difficult to complete even for a fully Veeshan’s Peak geared raider. This is because Sony added Critical damage to the mobs in these instances. This means that you can be one-shooted much more regular. Once you obtain your tier two armor you begin earn gear that mitigates this Critical damage. This opens you up to get your fabled TSO armor that allows you to progress in the content which leads to better gear which in turn leads to better survivability in tougher zones.

Armor and jewelry are the main focus for most players when spending shards so let’s go over some of those concepts. The Shadow Odyssey has two main sets of armor. A Legendary set and a Fabled set. These sets are broken down into tiers between these sets. Tier 1 and 2 armor sets are Legendary while Tier 3 and 4 are Fabled. These sets are also shared between archetypes and sub-classes. If that was not confusing you also have 4 generic sets; Plate, Chain, Leather and Cloth that are used by their respectable classes. The other types of armor are the Class specific ones such as for Sorcerers or Clerics. That means the Warlocks and Wizards use the same armor and they can use the cloth vesions as well if they choose too. Now this is why you need an abundance of shards to fully gear out a character. A full set of tier one armor will cost you 44 shards. Now here is where it gets expensive. Tier 2 armor will cost you 126 Void Shards plus you Tier 1 Piece. You can get these slightly cheaper if you can find a shard armor crafter which I will go over later. Now for Tier 3 armor you will once again need to trade in your tier two shard armor along with an armor pattern and some shards. To get these patterns you need a mold which drops from boss mobs within the X2 raid zones. This will cost slightly more shards than the tier one costs. For Tier four the great news is you do not need to trade in any gear to get your armor; however you will still need a number of shards as well as plat. This works similar to past expansion packs where the boss mobs drops patterns found in the highest level raids zones of TSO. Now don’t think you are going to just skip tier 1 – 3 and hop into these zones in VP gear. Maybe avatar gear but many don’t have that. This gear should not be confused as a progression from tier three just because it is called tier 4. It’s not a direct progression from tier 3 shard armor but more of a progression from Veeshan’s Peak Raid armor from RoK. Also it’s fair to mention the new black market vendors added with Game Update 53 sell many fabled items that come from all of the TSO zones for a bargain price of 150 shards. This is a controversial topic for many hardcore and veteran players. Some feel this is another step in making EQ2 easy street. Clearly though is you have the time and many alts you can gear you characters very well with out ever raiding. However to be the best you need to raid to get the best gear in the game.

For more on the Shard System see the upcoming Show 13: The Shard System.

Tier 5 is where things seem to slow down again but to be honest there is not a whole lot of solo content here in this tier. You are approaching the end game content of the original Everquest II release. In the beginning of this tier you will most likely still be adventuring in Steamfont Mountains.  The Feerrott is also still relevant here until level 45. You will probably start to get tired of these zones and that’s ok since you will now be able to head out to a couple of new zones as well as some new heroic or group content. For more on zones that were covered prior Click Here. Let’s take a look at the core zones of tier 5.

Everfrost

Everfrost (40-50) was the homeland of the Barbarians. The city of Hallas use to reside in this winter wonderland. The city is said to have been lost since the shattering but some feel the city is still here somewhere in Everfrost’s icy waters. This is a really nice looking zone and is the only zone overland zone that resides in an arctic or snow environment, unless Vellious is the next expansion pack. This is a nice change of pace from the look and feel of other zones in Everquest. Everfrost was revamp recently in a game update. Much of the heroic content was removed and scaled back to be soloable. This update also added many new quest and quest hubs as well as making the zone easier to travel. There are 5 main valleys that are all connected by a series of tunnels. There are over 70 quests that can be completed in this zone by using the quest hubs that are located on the docks and 3 other major hubs throughout the zones various valleys. There are also several dropped items that give quests along with clickable items all through the zone that gives quests as well. There is on Heritage quest that involves Everfrost. Be sure to pick up An Eye for Power from Master T’Lys whom spawns on the docks facing north during the night time hours of Norrath. While you are hanging out in Everfrost you can check out a cool solo instance called The Forbidden Sepulcher (38-42).

Lavastorm

If Everfrost is a little too cold for you then Lavastorm (40-50) may be right up your alley. This zone is the extreme opposite from the icy winter wonderland. Here you have an active volcano that resides in the center of the zone. Lavastorm was revamp recently as well. New quest lines were added for charters level 40-55 as well as high-end solo content for levels 77-80. Also added were mount stations similar to those found in Looping Plains. There are no quests needed to access these mounts. They make travel around this hostel land much easier and safer. The zone works its way counter clockwise in almost an upward spiral all the way to the center volcano and the heroic shared dungeon of Solusek’s Eye (45-50) where the infamous dragon Nagafen resides. There are also new teleportation pads located on the docks in the Shrine of Thunder and to the far north halfway into the zone just west of the Temple of Solusek Ro, one in the far west in Solusek’s Valley and one more pad located at the entrance to Solusek’s Eye . You need to visit each pad once and bind to it. Lavastorm has some key heritage quests and a very important language quest called To Speak as a Dragon where you will speak with the Dragon Lord Nagafen and learn the language of the dragons which will be vital to many Deity and Epic Weapon quest lines later on.  Even with the revamp there are not as many quests here as there are in Everfrost. There are barley 50 solo quests for levels 40-57 here. The rest of them are intended for 77-80. Most of the quests take place on the docks and with the goblins located in the south and east of the zone. Very little quests exist on the west side of the zone. Two heritage quests can also be started here, The Lost Legend of Lavastorm (48) and Saving Soles (49). Oh and I almost forgot to mention that thisis where you pickup the Lore and Legend updates for the Efreeti.

The Sinking Sands

Once you hit about level 45 you can go out to The Sinking Sands (45-55) and the content of the 1st expansion pack. I love this zone and if you go and listen to Show #3 where I walk you through this zone. I know some veteran players do not like this zone but to me this is a good change to the normal lush green zones in the game. Now I agree I would not want to see much more desert zones from this point forward. There is a lot of good content here and should easily get you to level 50. You can make you way to the City of Maj’Dul and do a series of quest here. Also if you want to live in the city you can work on you factions with one of the courts of Maj’Dul. This will allow you live in the city and be able to purchase the advanced combat recipes for your tier 6 Expert Spells (formally called Adept III). With roughly 40 soloable quests here most of the quest will be found on the docks and in two camps along the beach. Travel in this desert is made easier by flying carpets located all over the zone. You will have to visit each of these carpets and attune to them much like you had to with the mounts in Lavastorm. The Cyclops Lore and Legend book can be found here in the zone near the giant spiders.

Rivervale

Rivervale was once the home to the Halflings but has now been over run by evil creatures like many of the old world homes have since the shatering. Even though Rivervale (35-45) has a lot of Heroic mobs and encounters you still have a nice little quest hub located in The Fools Gold which is the large build in the center when you zone in. There are about 6 discovery location and roughly 40 quests. Some of which can be heroic. The heritage quest By Hook or By… starts here in addition to the Lore and Legend book for the Nightbloods. These are found in the buildings located in the zone. Again this zone has a lot of heroic mobs so it may be a poor choice for soloers. I think 3 players well equipped should have little problem with this zone.

Group Content

Obelisk of Lost Souls

For the group content you can still work your way through Rivervale (40-45) until your mid 40’s as well as The Obelisk of Lost Souls (35-50). This dungeon has many ways to enter it. The easiest way is to go to the Feerrott and enter via the Tower of Vul in the middle of the zone. This bypasses the Cavern zone, but if you die you will respwan in the cavern and will be locked out unless you do the access quest. The other way to enter this is by killing groups of shadowmen in Antonica west of the druid rings, Commonlands, Nektulos Forest in the far northwest of the zone, Thunderring Steppes, and Zek. This is a very confusing zone that still requires you to unlock each of its four levels. The zone is very maze like and will require you to run from one end to the next to camp mobs to unlock the next level. Still a good zone to quest in if you can find a group. There are a bout 12 named mobs in here for those whom need that AA.

Permafrost

Another good dungeon to venture into and plenty of pick up groups will form is Permafrost (40-50). This zone is located once again at the back end of Everfrost. This is bar none one of the more exciting Dungeons’s and yields very good XP for those in the mid 40’s.  Even though there are less that 20 quest that originate here and less than 10 named mobs it is still a fun zone. Be careful sometimes the epic mob Vision of Vox can be up.

The Temple of Cazic-Thule

Another excellent Dungeon is found in the far deeps of The Feerrott. The Temple of Cazic-Thule (42-48) with roughly 20 quests and 13 named mobs which is pretty standard for content in the old EverQuest release is still a nice change of pace. The only thing that stinks is this zone is very deep in the Feerrott and there just is not an easy way to get there. you can also get the Lore and Legend book for Lizzardman here are well.

Klak’Anon

Let’s not forget Klak’Anon (45-55) former home city of the Gnomes and is now over ran with Clockworks. This dungeon is located in Steamfont Mountains. This is a really fun dungeon and you will usually always see a pick up group in the chat Channels. There is one raid zone here and one group instance called Court of Innovation which has a few named npcs to kill for AA.

 The Tower of the Drafling

Located in the center of Rivervale is The Tower of the Drafling (40-46) is another nice dungeon that is very rarely enters unless you are on the heritage quest By Hook or By… or the Ranger Epic. There are not many quests that are started for here but there is some good AA to be had and the Lore and Legend book for the Bixies. You don’t need to go here to get the book since you can get this in Greater Faydark as well. Examine a lamp on a wall at to get 5 quests. There are only 3 named mobs and one discovery but still worth checking out.

Solusek’s Eye

Last but not least you can quest in the large dungeon in Lavastorm called Solusek’s Eye (45-50). There are over 7 levels to this massive zone. Home to many important quest lines. This was the end game dungeon before any expansion packs were released. Only about 15 quest start In this zone and moist of them are item triggered throughout the zone. Not a very efficient zone for questing and not a whole lot of pick up groups are ever formed. Most people will hit this dungeon up if the need updates to quest such as Speak as a Dragon and Sol Ro deity devotion quest updates which require you to visit Lord Nagafen deep in the bottom of the zone. Also one of the only places to complete the Lore and Legend updates for the Efreeti. There are however over 20 named mobs here which is great for AA

Transmuting was introduced with the Echoes of Faydwer expansion which is one of two secondary Tradeskills that anyone can learn even if you already have learned a primary Tradeskill such as alchemy or Carpentry. The other secondary tradeskill is Tinkering which I will cover in a later guide. You cannot however have both secondary tradeskills so you must choose one or the other. You can however reset your secondary skill if you find that you do not like it later. Let’s explain what Transmuting is before we discuss anything else. When you take the profession of Transmuting you receive a new skill called Transmute. This skill will allow you to break down items or loot found in the game into the four primary items. These are Mana, Infusion, Powder, and Fragments. These items along with a fuel are what you must use to create Adornments.

Adornments are items that are created only by players and are used to modify armor, jewelry, symbols and weapons. You do not have to have the transmuting skill to create adornments since all Tradeskill classes can make them. You will however need to acquire the components to craft them which are obtained via the transmuting skills or the Broker. All you need in addition to the components are Tradeskill books for you respective class called Enigmas. Each class, including transmuter and tinkerer, has recipe books that allow them to make specific adornments. These adornments will modify the item such as a sword or armor by adding stats like +2 to slashing or adding a proc that replenishes power. Some adornments add to your stats like Health, Power, Intelligence and Wisdom. Some of the modifications can be really great. Once you adorn the items you can not remove it nor will you be able to trade it any longer since it will become ORANTE. You can however replace the adornment with another one. High end adornments are very highly desired at max level. You may think that would make Transmuting sound like a very profitable secondary trade skill but it can very costly and frustrating to get to the levels where the max level adornments sell well. This will also cost you a very large fortune of time and money with little return on investment till you basically hit max transmuting skill.

There are three places where you can get started with Transmuting. You will need to find the Master Transmuter in Butcherblock Mountains docks, Kelethin, or Gnomeland Security in Steamfont. While you are there getting your transmuting started you should also buy your six Transmuting Abilities. These are used during the crafting process to improve Durability (quality) and Progress, much like tradeskilling. Unlike the primary Tradeskills which follow a level based system of 1-80, Transmuting is skill based. The max skill points you can obtain is 400 at level 80 Adventuring or Tradeskilling. The maximum points a character can have is determined by you adventuring or Tradeskill level, whichever is the largest. This is the same for all skill based attributes such as fishing, harvesting, slashing, etc… The formula is as follows: (Level * 5 = Max Skill)

First you should find your Transmute Skill Icon located in your Knowledge Book, (Press K), and place it onto your hotbar. Next you need to acquire some items to mute. The general rule of thumb is that you can only transmute items that are Treasured, Adept I, III and Master spell scrolls, Legendary Gear, Fabled Gear and Master Crafted Gear with the exception of most carpentry items. You cannot transmute items that stack, are bought from npc’s, consumable, LORE, ORANTE, NO VALUE etc… Once you find items such as Adept I spells which tend to be a very common item that drops or can be bought from the broker fairly cheaply, you will need to click on your Transmute Icon and then you will get an arrow icon which you will then need to click on the item you wish to Transmute. If your skills meet the minimum requirement to mute the item your cursor will turn light blue.

If you do not meet the requirement it will turn red and give you a tool tip explaining either the item is not transmutable or you lack the skill points. If you meet the requirements you begin to transmute the item and a progress bar will begin to animate and takes a few seconds. Once you compete the mute you will get one of the four components. This will depend on the quality of the items being muted. See the chart below. You will also have a change to gain a point in transmuting. You are at the mercy of the Random Number Generator (RNG) here. The RNG is very streaky and at times you will roll off several skill ups while other times you will never seem to get a skill increase. Transmuting items is the best way to raise your skills until 100. After 100 you will have to actually create Adornments as well as break down items to gather up enough components to create them.

It can be confusing at times to understand what level the item needs to be in order to raise your skill as a result of transmuting. I have a chart below that shows in dark blue the level of the Items being transmuted and the light blue column shows what the minimum transmuting skill level required to break the item down.

The closer an item level is the minimum level you can transmute, the higher your chance of getting a skill up. For example if your skill is 50 and you transmute an item which level is 14 you will have about a 70% chance of a skill up vs. if you were to mute a Level 13 item which will yield a lower chance. You will however always have a 25% chance to skill up with any level item you can transmute.

After your skill is 100 you will now have to start making Adornments. You will need to use the Enigma of Transmuting recipe books made for Transmuters to increase you skill. You cannot use any of the Tradeskill specific Enigma Recipe books to increase your skills. The following books are broken down into eight basic volumes and eight advanced volumes. You only need the basic volumes to raise you skill. The advanced books are use the more rare components to make fabled adornments and would be a waste of money while leveling your skill. If you wanted to raise your transmuting skill which sits at 114 you would need to make adornments from the Enigma of Transmuting Vol. 3 until your skill is 150.

There is not much else to transmuting. Keep in mind that leveling this skill can be very difficult. You cannot do it cheaply and quick. It’s either cheaply and long by farming your own treasured items from the various tiers or the costly way by buying the treasured items from the broker. This is the more costly way but if you have the plat to burn this is the fastest way to getting those high end adornments made. For more on Transmuting and Adornments check out the following links:

EQ2 Wiki Transmuting
Zam Guide to Transmuting
Adornments Refrence

Taken from the EQ-IQ Guide to Nektropos Castle.

One of the most deep and fascinating lore stories in Everquest 2 is the one that involves the Nektropos castle and the story of the Everling family. The core of the story revolves around Lord Rikantus Everling whom was a citizen of Freeport. His father left him a shop that dealt mainly with rare or unusual things that were cursed, supernatural or other wise unique in nature. The shop had some tough time in the early going but became very famous and attracted a very affluent client base making the Everling’s very rich. The timeframe which this all occurs seems to be in the later half of The Age of Enlightenment. This age according to EverQuest lore was when the Erudite’s founded the city of Erudin on the continent of Odus and the Erudite’s civil war occurred. If this is the case the story began a very long time ago. So long that it predates the original EverQuest timeline over 800 years ago before the current EQ2 timeline. As far as I know The Everling’s were human so I did not know humans lived so long. Oh well it is fiction I guess. You won’t find any trace of the original Everling Shop since about 300 years ago Sir Lucan D’Lere ordered that section of the city to be destroyed with no record of any new shop being built. Now it is not entirely clear when Rikantus himself lived. I could only guess about 300 years ago. He is found today in EverQuest 2 but only as a split persona.

Rikantus was married twice in his life. The first wife was Alana and they had two sons, Maltus and Ollix. Maltus had a daughter named Alexa. This is debated since I have seen some contradictions about weather Alexa was the daughter of Maltus or actually Ollix. These players have a lot to do with the Nektropos Story line which you will find out later during the walkthrough and the guide that will be done very soon. In Freeport a great epidemic came over the city and many citizens were struck with insanity. Both of Rikantus’s sons were overcome by the epidemic so Rikantus had to lock them both up within his home for there own safety. For some reason a personal servant named Plimptos whom was sworn to serve Alana as a child had freed the sons from their rooms. This unfortunately led to the deaths of both sons as a result of their insanity. Even though Rikantus could not prove that Plimptos was the culprit he began to call him Pelleas which means whelp. Rikantus according to lore had never trusted or liked Plimptos, which makes me wonder why he kept him around after Alana’s death. Rikantus’s wife Alana died shortly after from a broken heart. Now if you ask me, I am not so sure Plimptos was responsible especially if he had sworn his life to protect his beloved master Alana. More on this thought later.

Rikantus became convinced his family was under a curse that he had received from one of his supernatural objects which he sells. He tried feverishly to identify the cursed objects to no avail. Dealing with these curses became his priority which led to some forbidden alliances. One of these alliances led to the construction of Nektropos Castle. During Rikantus’s travels and his obsession to eliminate the curse he developed a relationship with The Ebon Mask. This is a guild of assassins which is located out of Neriak and you can to this day visit the Guild Hall of the Ebon Mask which is still located in Neriak. Because of the good relationship with the guild Rikantus was able to get permissions and help to build the ever famous Nektropos castle deep within the Nektulos Forest. The castle walls were not just built of ordinary stone. They were built to the specifications of the Flesh Bound Tome which called for magically-imbued black stones that were shaped by Teir’Dal masons. Rikantus had hoped to building this fortress would both protect his family from the curse, as well as protect the world from his hoard of cursed artifacts. He also moved his family’s graves to the crypts within the walls of Nektropos Castle.

During the construction Rikantus met his second wife Theeral. Together they had six daughters, Ouch, poor guy. He really is cursed. Their names are Sheila, Deirdre, Crysta, Elise, Jenni and Melanie. They had all grown to become women when they pleaded with their father to send away the family guardians that were recruited to protect them. One night the guardians returned and murdered all six of the daughters. You will see this acted out in Nektropos Castle: the Return. Once again Rikantus blames the servant Pelleas for the deaths of his daughters. No proof can be found only the accusations of Rikantus. Never the less Rikantus had Pelleas locked in his quarters and sealed in by magical means to starve to death. You will come across his room in the both Nektropos castle 1 and 2 instances. Frustrated that once again his entire family was wiped out, Rikantus was determined to retrieve his daughters’ souls from the Ethernere. This is sometimes referred to as the Void, A place where souls go before moving on the next phase of there existence. Rikantus once again makes another questionable alliance this time with the Mage/Necromancer Varsoon. As one may know Varsoon was always looking for total immortality so this would be a natural person that Rikantus would seek to unlock the entrance to the Ethernere. The problem is that somewhere along the way Varsoon withheld important information to the rituals and as a result Rikantus’s soul was ripped into three parts, two of these exist in Norrath today. You can find one in the Evernight Cemetery in Antonica; the other is Antiquitor Kantus Mor’Tael, a merchant in Maj’Dul, leaving the core soul of Rikantus in the Ethernere. He is actually seen if you go talk with Antiquitor Kantus after completing the Nektropos Tribulation instance.

Well enough of the Lore behind the castle and the Everling family. There is more lore you can find from the book quests in the third instance of the Castle. I guess you can say this is a sad story for someone whom has brought much of the pain upon himself. Was Rikantus good? Was he Evil? There was one more mention in lore about a trip Rikantus took in search of a very important cursed artifact that his father had spent much of his life looking for. This led him to find and become a worshiper of the sub deity Ullkorruuk within the plane of hate. Looking slightly at that lore you will find the Ullkorruuk was once a member of Erollisi Marr’s elite guard. She betrayed him and her Plane of Love to become the Lady of Betrayal. You will find an altar to her in the Chapel room within the Castle in all 3 instances. Kind of fitting for Rikantus wouldn’t you say? Evil or not I will let you decide as you venture through the story yourself.

Download the guide which will be released soon for a detailed walkthrough of the Instances of Nektropos Castle. Also Show number 9 covers much of the story found here as well as a walkthrough of the main instance.

Druids are the class that deals with all things nature weather you are good or evil. There are two classes that make up the Druid and they are The Fury and The Warden. In the healing department both Druids can heal. They will not top the parse list during a raid but in my opinion parsing heals is very misleading. The true measure of a good healer is the ability to keep the group alive or to recover when group members fall. Druids have good fast casting direct heals and heals over time that only complements the other priest healing methods. Healing with Druids can be scary for both the Tank and yourself since you will have to deal with spike damage but a druid is more than capable of dealing with it.

Before we talk about the differences lets talk about the similarities. Both have the ability to breath under water but the Fury has a group version of this where as the Warden does not. This is good for some instances in the Split Paw Saga. They both enhance the group’s runspeed by 20% with Spirit of The Wolf. The Warden however can enhance their Spirit up to 45% with AA’s. Portals are a staple of the Druid as a means of travel. They have 9 druid rings that they can port anyone to as long as they have been to the rings and harvested the mystical bush. When it comes to Crowd control the Druids both have a root and a snare. The advantage goes to the Warden since they have a Single target Root that snares on termination and they also have an encounter root that also snares on termination. The Fury only has a Single target Root and a Snare that must be cast separately. Both Druids have Instant Resurrection Spells that can save a target who is going to die. This will resurrect them with some health without casting your long casting Resurrection Spells during a fight. Speaking of Resurrection, both Druids have similar Resurrection Spells. The Warden however gets a bonus to their spells in the form of some Heal over Time attached to the end of a revive. When it comes to getting out of sticky situations both Druids get Save Spells that Snare, stifle and reduces Hate. The Warden gets another good one in the form of a group Evacuation Spell. Some more similarities is that both can cure aliments, add Melee Augmentation, buff Agility, Power & Health Regeneration and last but not least enhance resistances and boast health and power.

So what is the deference between the two Druids? Well the Fury is more offensive and the Warden is more defensive. The Fury is more or less a hybrid Mage/healer while the Warden is more of a pure healer but with AA’s can become Melee as well, although if you solo you won’t last long since you only can wear leather in my opinion. Lets take a closer look at these differences. Furies have four main damage dealing spells that cover the four major types of damage that are Divine, Magic, Heat and Cold. The Warden also has four spells but is limited to only Heat and Cold damage.  The Fury is more suitable for multiple mob encounters where the Warden is better suited for Single mobs. Either way the Furies nukes are far more powerful than the Wardens. The Fury gets 3 dumb fire pets, Ring of Fire (55), Call of Storms (65) and Ball of Lightning (80). The Warden only gets one Nature’s Ally (55).

In Raid situations the Warden is generally in the Main tank group due to the Buff Increases to Crushing, Piercing, Slashing and Ranged.  The Purity spell is great for one minute keeping Hostile effects off tank. So no need to waste your power on Cures. It does however have a long re-cast timer. The Numbing Spores is awesome since it is a permanent healing proc, again very useful to the Main Tank. Wardens have Agility buffs which are good for the Tank or Scouts. Wardens provide good Physical mitigation as well. So you can see they are really meant for the Main Tank group. The Fury is better suited for the Mage group or casters in general since they have many buffs for Intelligent and power regeneration. But there is not very much in useful utility when it comes to Furies. They are generally in the Mage group for there limited benefits for Mages and to spot heal the other groups in the raid as well as nuke their hearts out when not healing.

Which one heals more efficient and is generally considered the better overall healer? Let’s take a look. The Fury has 5 direct heals and the Warden also has 4 direct heals. Ok you may think the Fury has more heals than the Warden. Let’s take a closer look. The Fury has two main lines of instant heals, Salve and Elixir. The Warden has two as well, Bloom and Florescence.  Let’s compare the max level large heals of the Fury and Warden. Grand Elixir instantly heals for 1667 and Grand Florescence heals for 1021 plus a Heal over time for 10 seconds of 131. That’s 131 x 10 = 1310. When you add that to the instant heal of 1021 you get 2331. The Warden over all is a more efficient healer as they do not use as much Power to deliver their healing. The key here is that the Warden’s heals get Heals over Time to most of their healing where as the Fury does not.  The Warden also gets a very good Heal and Power over time spell called Hierophantic Genesis (50) but has a long re-cast time. So to summarize the differences Wardens have more efficient healing with excellent crowd control in the form of their roots that snare along with buffs that help survivability by enhancing Wisdom. Remember Wisdom helps mitigate against magic damage. Furies have better spell damage, get offensive group buffs. Furies also heal faster at the cost of more power and typical can find themselves out of power much sooner than a Warden. Just remember both are fun classes to play and both can heal. They just do it slightly different form one another.

Tier 4 is where things start to pick up again. There are some good choices from which to choose to level in. There are four overland zones to choose from each with a distinct look and feel. Also more Heroic content begins to become available for the grouping kind. The problem with a lot of these zones is they do not start at the beginning of the tier. Some of them start at 35 and overlap with tier 5 zones so you may need to finish up in Butcherblock Mountains which has mobs up to level 35 or head on out to the Enchanted Lands which is a very popular zone for this tier.

The Enchanted Lands

The Enchanted Lands were known as the Misty Thicket and Kithicor Forest back before the shattering. This was also the original home of the Halflings. You can get here by way of your local Guild Hall or Nektulos Docks mariner bells. This is a level 30-40 zone which is rich in quests. It is nicely laid out and has some good quest lines to boot. You can get here by the Mariners Bell on the Nektulos Docks. You arrive at the docks which is the main quest hub of this zone. You will also find Foomby’s Stolen Goods heritage quest here as well as Bristlebane’s Profit for those who want to start on their deity quest. There are over 21 discovery locations, 21 Named mobs and you can also pick the Lore and Legend: Goblin and Siren books here. So AA is very plentiful here it’s just the quests tend to dwindle around level 37.

Zek, The Orcish Waste

Zek (30-40) which used to be the Jaggedpine Forest is another excellent zone for this tier and is quite often out leveled before you can get here to adventure. You can get to Zek via the Mariners Bell on the Thundering Steppes Docks or your Guild Hall. There are a ton of quests that exist here and there is no shortage of XP to be had here. If you follow the quest lines to the end you can make level 40. One good tip is to just run around and kill the catapult operators for great XP. They are located just inside the zone. The main quest hubs here are located as you would expect on the Warship Dock and Fort right when you zone in. The other good hub is located in the north west of the zone in the area called Three Toe’s Watering Hole. There are a lot of Object-Triggered such as the Tombstone Quests as well as plenty of Item-Triggered Quests dropped quests. There are 14 discovery locations, 20 named mobs and the Avatar of War spawns here near the Deathfist Citadel in the far north of the zone. The Rescue of the Green Hoods and Training is a Shield heritage quests also start here.

The Feerrott

Once you hit 35 you will be able to head over to The Feerrott (35-40) which is found from the mariner’s bell on the Thundering Steppes Docks and your Guild Hall. I like this zone but many people do not like this zone at all. You can easily get lost in this zone and if you thought you felt claustrophobic in the Nektulos Forest you’re going to fill like a sardine here. This is an interesting zone when it comes to quest for there are two different quest lines. One for the good aligned and one for the evil. Good and evil people can work together on them regardless of your alignment. I see why many people do not like the quest here. They are not as many as the other zones in this tier. Most of them are acquired in the two main quest hubs after you come off the docks and venture through a small tunnel. This will offer you a quest that will take you through many important landmarks in the zone. You will also find the quest hubs in camps on the left and on the right. There are over 25 discovery locations, 27 Named mobs which include the infamous Acrimoniad Epic x2 that drops the runspeed enhancing Girdle of Escape. Also noteworthy is the Avatar of Fear whom spawns in the Cave of Fear near The Temple of Cazic-Thule. The Heritage Quest – The Screaming Mace starts here if you can get lucky to find the rare drop from Agony which is also a very rare spawn.

The Steamfont Mountains

Steamfont Mountains (35-50) which is found on the content of Faydwer is another zone that starts mid way into tier 4 at level 35. Some people claim this zone is just an extension or a copy of Butcherblock but the quest lines here are really well done and very interesting. This is also the place where Gnomeland Security Headquarters resides with some excellent quests. You can get here by many zones within Faydwer. The most common point of entry is from Greater Faydark. When you zone in you will find the fist quest giver at the crossroads due east of Greater Faydark. From here you will be sent to the main quest hub Gnomeland Security HQ. There are over 25 discovery locations and 28 Named mobs here. The Lore and Legend: Clockwork & Minotaur are also found here as well as the Heritage Quest ‘The Staff of the Observers’.

Group Content

The group content starts to get spread out and a little backwards if you ask me. Most of the dungeons that are level appropriate are in the tier 3 zones. The ever popular Nektropos Castle is located in the far northeast part of the Nektulos forest. I highly recommend this dungeon. For one it’s a lot of fun and there are a few of Heritage Quests that involve this zone as well as the only place currently to obtain the Fairy and Ghost lore and legends books and lots of named mobs here with 28 of them to kill. You can start the adventure pack The Bloodline Chronicles (30-40) here as well which has over 23 named mobs. You will have to claim Ring of T’Haen  to start the quests. There are some zones that are soloable but the main content is purely group orientated. It is a must that you claim your ring and head over to the D’Morte Burial Chambers. You can solo this and get 14 named mobs for some nice AA points. If you can get someone to mentor you could make a killing in AA’s. Check out the Dire Hollow (33-36) and Underrot Caverns (35-39). These instances are near the main river near the Timber Falls in the Nektulos forest.

Another fan favorite is the Runnyeye Citadel (30-40) located in the Enchanted Lands has over 26 named mobs. This is a good dungeon to quest in and there is generally always a pick up group available for this zone. The zone is also home to the Evil Eye Lore and legend book so make sure at least go there for this.

Once you are in your late 30’s you can start looking for groups in the Deathfist Citadel (40-50) located in the far northeast of Zek. This is most excellent experience and not to mention you will get a lot of AA points here due to the shear amount of discovery locations at 23 and 14 named mobs.

This is also where you can start you adventure by killing 28 named mobs in The Obelisk of Lost Souls (35-50). This dungeon is another realm and there are many ways to get here. The most direct way is from The Feerrott. There is a temple in the middle of the zone. The other ways are by killing groups of shadow men in numerous zones such as Antonica or Commonlands. This will open up a portal to the alternate entrance of this zone. Last but not least is the Overland zone called Rivervale (35-45) this is mostly heroic and is geared for groups but has 12 discovery locations and 2o named mobs. There are lots of Epic Mobs here as well. It’s too bad this zone is not quested in much and I very rarely see any pickup groups for this zone. One more thing here is that The Ruins of Varsoon (25-35) is still good till 35 as well as the Split Paw Saga.