Every so often podcasts tend to fade, much like blogs, Facebook and Twitter users. This is just human nature. We are creatures of habit and we bore easily. I am here to say that I have found my interest once again in podcasting. Even though I have not been making new shows I have been playing EQ2 quite a bit over this recent hiatus. With all the new changes that will be coming next month with the Sentinel’s Fate expansion pack much of the previous shows are going to be kind of obsolete.

Take for example the show#1. When I wrote that show I was learning podcasting at the same time I was auditioning to get into the Virgin World collective. I feel that I over produced the early shows. I also was still learning the EQ2 game itself. I chose to do those shows to help others enjoy this game and not to struggle much like I did. I now know so much more than I ever did about the games mechanics, classes, features and even podcasting itself. This makes the past podcasts seem outdated and rough at best. Take for example the Lore and Legend show that is mostly outdated since you no longer have to obtain the quest starter the way you once did. The show on Combat basics is going to be outdated as well come next expansion. Show 3 has changed much since the Sinking Sands had its mobs and encounters raised to levels 55-60 and many of the epics have been changed to just Heroics.

My show on Leveling is irrelevant now due to the many mechanics changes over the last year. Even the last show about Transmuting is going to be vastly outdated next month. This has been very discouraging to me since the goal of the show was to keep it is relevant as possible. I had always claimed that I would just go back and edit the old shows and bring them up to date. I still may but some of them will be drastically changed I might as well just re-record the whole show. Even if I do re-record I will leave the old shows intact for historical purposes.

All in all I will be releasing a show soon about the reboot of the podcast so stay tuned and be prepared to hit the ground running once the Sentinel’s Fate is released. I am in beta and will be ready to make you ready come February 16th.

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.

Taken from the EQ-IQ Guide to Guilds…

A guild is a player-founded and player-run organization within the game. Guilds, like the people who form them, have many different modes of operation and goals. Some guilds exist purely as a social network of players who enjoy gaming together, while others work long and hard to reach end-game content and to become rich and powerful.

Guilds are not for everyone. I was not in a guild for most of my EQ playing career. I have only been part of a guild for about a year now. The reasons I joined a guild were simple. I wanted to have the opportunity to experience the end game content and to avoid pick up groups. With a guild you are more likely to finish a dungeon crawl than you would if you were in a pick up group of players you do not know. As some may have experienced in there own journeys in the game is that most PuG’s end poorly. Everyone in the PuG has no obligation to you or your goal within a zone. Usually when a PuG formed it’s in the interest of the group’s leader to obtain his or her goal. Once they obtain the goal the group tends to fall apart more often than not. With a guild you still can experience these things but most of the times you are likely to see the groups last a bit longer.  This is because a good guild will weed out the selfish or bad players which tends to enhance the game experience for all in the guild. 

This comes full circle to the first paragraph where I said that a Guild is a play run organization. That’s the key word here, Organize. When forming groups or raids from a guild, they are usually organized. What I mean is there is a goal set as to why your are going to do the content, whether it is for loot, killing named mobs for AA, completing quests, etc… One of the main reasons so many PuGs fail is the lack of the group members understanding these goals. If the group leader just needs to kill one mob for a quest completion then he will have little interest in finishing the zone or helping others with their goals if no one has let him or her know what you need or want. With guilds this communication should be disclosed before the group gets started. In a well ran Guild you will find this to be the case.

Everyone will join a guild for various reasons. Some people love the social aspects of MMO’s and look for guilds that tend to have very active social community.  Some like to role-play and should find a guild that tends to or requires its members to role-play. There are guilds for hard core raiding. These Guilds are not for the faint of heart but are more for people whom are very extroverted and high achievers. There are guilds that balance the raiding, role-playing, crafting, etc… It will take some research and in game discussions to find the right guild for your play style. Most well organized guilds with have what we call a Guild Charter. This is a document that outlines who the guild is, their goals, expectations and how the Guild is structured. If you find a guild that does not have a charter then I would avoid joining them. Anyone whom has been running guilds within MMO’s regardless of the game should know they need one.

Advantages and Disadvantages

This topic kind of goes along with why would you want to join a guild. For one there are many advantages in joining a Guild in EverQuest II. You get a discount on many items in the game by using status in addition to plat. Status is earned by doing certain quest in the game such as Heritage Quests or city WRITS. You can also earn status by killing certain Raid mobs as well as selling of items that are dropped in game for status to a status vendor. You then use this status along with plat to purchase things like mounts or player housing at a discount rate. Many of the discounts also require the Guild to be of a certain level. Yes Guilds have the same level system as a player does, more on that later. Now some mounts just require you to be in a guild just to buy regardless of discounts or not. You are also allowed to purchase titles that others cannot. This is not much of an advantage unless you’re a title junkie. There are hundreds of titles available in the game and some people love to have these.

Other advantages are you get to meet other people on a regular basis. For those whom love to socialize this is a big draw for them. Many guilds become like family to some players. Along with that you will be able to form up regular groups and become familiar with each others play styles. This makes it easier to complete content in the game.

Guilds that have Guild Halls will also bring much advantage with their Guild Amenities. This will be covered later but the Guild Halls can hold certain Amenities that make life easier for players. Some of these amenities help with travel. You can use the Guild Hall as a central place for your travel or getting around in Norrath. You get a Call to Guild Hall spell that will transport you to your Guild Hall. The Cool down is 15 minutes. Much better than the Call to City Spells, this has a cool down of 1 hour. From here if your Guild has the transportation Amenities you can get to just about anywhere in the game world fairly quick. You can even go right to your own house from the Guild Hall and even access your vault right form the Guild Hall Door. There are many more of these amenities which I will cover soon.

Now for the disadvantages, yep there are defiantly some. The disadvantages are different for both the player or the leader and their officers but many are shared. The number one disadvantage is DRAMA. This is strictly my subjective opinion but you will be subjected too much drama when you are part of a guild. No matter how hard a guild tries to curve drama it always rears its ugly head. What is drama? Drama are the events in a guild usually started by a disagreement with a player towards,  a policy, misperception or other conflict that becomes public within the guild chat, webpage or voice channel. Just as in real life guilds can bring us politics, religion, clashes of personalities and much more. This is a guild leader’s nightmare. Guild Drama just simple ruins the fun for everyone and if the leaders do not deal with it swiftly it can break apart a great guild in a hurry. The best guilds run with the least drama. Drama makes people not want to play, leave the guild, and gives the guild leader massive headaches!
Here are some good reads on Guild Drama:

http://priestlyendeavors.wordpress.com/2007/09/24/guild-drama/
http://ulduar25.com/dealing-with-guild-drama/
http://g0thicicecream.wordpress.com/2009/01/14/raiding-in-eq2/
http://mmohub.org/news/how-to-prevent-elitism-stop-drama-in-your-guild/457/

Common disputes that lead to drama:
 I never get any Loot!
 I never get picked for the raid!
 No one ever helps me!
 Why was I skipped over for promotion?
 Why am I not in the main tank group?
 Why is he the Class Leader and not ME?
 So and so doesn’t do anything.
 Girls can’t tank.

Some more disadvantages are you may feel guilty if you don’t help out on the guild raid or that guild member’s plea for another player to help out on a difficult quest when you are in the middle of a quest or crafting session. You can begin to worry about your perception towards other. Some guilds require you to donate plat and status to help the Guild funding. Yes Guilds are not completely free to run in game and even out of game has costs. Many guilds have Websites and use other third-party applications. This will require you to sometimes be a little technical savvy. Many Guilds use and require, when grouping, voice chat systems like Team Speak or Ventrilo which require you to download and setup. This can be a challenge for some players with little computer experience. Heck this can be a challenge to even the PC savvy users.  I still think that there are many more advantages then disadvantages but that is just my opinion.

Catch Show #14 about Guilds

Show number 11 returns after a long hiatus with a look into The Gods of EverQuest II. The host covers the mechanics and benefits of following a God and explains how to get started. Host also covers the basics of the miracles, blessings, pets and cloaks that each God has to offer. The host also recommends which Gods are most suitable to each of the 24 classes within the game.

Links:
The Gods Acording to Wiki
Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

Email:
EQ-IQ@EQ2-Guides.com

• The “/clear_mailbox” command will now allow players to delete all mail, including ghosted mail from their character. NOTE:  After using the command the mail icon in the Spell Effects window will remain until the player logs out and then back in.
• An issue that was causing researched spells from research assistants to not be granted upon completion has been fixed.

The real life train is at full speed. Nothing bad just way too much family activities like weddings, birthdays, picnics, work projects and such. It’s been one of the most demanding and busy summers I have ever had in recent memory. This has kept me from Podcasting and playing EQ2 of late. I just wanted you the listeners that follow the show and site that I will be back as soon as I can.

Before the real life busyness hit me I was in the middle of recording several shows at once. If that original plan works out you will see an increase in the frequency of shows and when times get tough or busy I will have a backlog of new shows to post. I would say it’s a buffer of sorts. I have wanted to do this for quite some time but whether due to laziness, playing EQ2 like crazy or the current real life activities it just has not happened. I will return soon. But I can’t commit to the date and time. That would only add unnecessary pressure to an already stressful time of the year. I do see the shows resuming very soon though. For now I hope all of you are enjoying the summer!!!!

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

So you want to power level and get to 80 as fast as possible? Why? Is it because your friends are all 80? Do you want to RAID? Is this you’re second character and you don’t care to see all the content you already have done before? First off the first excuse can not be used since EverQuest II allows players of higher levels to mentor down to any character level to play with friends. The second reason is more valid but comes at a cost as you will see. The third reason is also valid since you may have explored all the content in EverQuest.

There are some consequences to leveling too fast and with EQ2 leveling from 1-70 is already very fast contrary to what some may think. One of the major draw backs to power leveling is that you will most likely lack Alternate Achievements (AA) which has become almost necessary as new expansions have come out anticipating that players will use them to make the content progression easier. Currently AA’s are not leveled as fast as you can gain adventuring levels. This may change soon according to SOE. Because of this players can be level 80 but only to find themselves with less than 100 AA out of 200 possible. AA’s can improve your survivability in a number of ways. Some improve mitigation, taunting, rescue abilities which are great for tanks. There are many important improvements to class abilities and combat arts. This ranges from improving recast times, reduce resistibility, improve debuff’s and buff’s, improve damage, Area of Effect mitigations (important in Raids) and much more. AA’s make a difference and many guilds require you to have a minimum number of them to participate in progression Raids. Somewhere around 140 – 150 AA seems to be the norm for most hard core Raids. But rest assure you need as many as you can get. AA’s are leveled via discovery experience, killing named mobs, completing quests and turning in collections. As you can see it can be much harder to power level this aspect of your character in a quick manner. Yes you can have a level 80 mentor you which improves AA experience quite a bit but this may not be practical for everyone

Another thing that will be very badly out of whack will be your skills such as, Disruption which improves direct damage for spells. Focus is used my spell casting classes to better your chance of completing spells without being interrupted. Deflection is very important to the Brawlers and is used to avoid damage. Ministration is important to Priests as it affects the effectiveness of Heals. One last example is Aggression which is a key skill for fighter classes. This is how well your taunts will affect monsters. This skill affects the chance that a taunt will be resisted. There are many more skills which all depend upon the class you are. These skills take more time to rise and some of them are vital to the class. You can have to total of 400 points at level 80 (Un-modified by equipment). The only way to raise these skills is to use them. By leveling too quickly these skills can be neglected and very low. Some times lower than 100. Think about it. If you are not using your taunts often and you just kill the mob using high DPS from a level 80 wizard then you will not raise your Aggression. The same goes if you are a Mage and never use your spells all that often because you are being power leveled you will have your spells resisted much more at level 80 if this skill is not near 400. Yes you can get your expert (formally know as Adept III) spells but this is only part of the equation that determines the resistibility of your spells. I think you get the picture.

Then there is gear. You may be prepared for this challenge once you are at 80 if you have a main character that has been doing The Shadow Odyssey Shard runs. Since you can trade or share shards between characters on the same account. But for those who do not have the luxury of shards you character will be a little gimp. To raid at the end game and survive some of the group content you really should have Legendary Gear at a minimum. You can get some of this off the broker but the better gear will require you to complete quest lines and do heroic content. The best gear which is fabled is obtained by Raiding. Again do not expect to can hop into Palace of Ferzhul, considered one of the harder zones, in Mastercrafted gear. You will get owned. You need to progress in the content once you are 80 and earn shards to buy your shard armor. This is not as important as the other items as discussed earlier but it can be a reason why some people may not ask you to join certain high level TSO content. Just because your level is 80 and you can zone in to a zone does not make you ready to survive the instance. Just keep that in mind.

Another very important thing is player skill. If you power level or level too fast how will you know your character? Do you really know how to use your entire abilities well? Do you know when to use that rescue ability? I know from my own experience with my Fury and Defiler. Both heal differently and I was very use to the Furies fast casting heals. The Defiler on the other hand have much slower healing but also uses wards instead of regenerative healing. Also the Defiler is a debuffing machine which is a new concept for a fury. Let’s say you have never played a tank class before. If you level too fast you may have issues once your 80. Tanks are expected to lead groups and raids. You need to know your class and abilities along with the zones you quest in. Some classes are not required to be overly concerned with this. Classes like Wizards and Warlocks can be more forgiving. They are important to a group but could get away with not knowing their class more than let’s say fighters and healers. But this will catch up to you as well once someone runs a parsing tool on you and find out that your dps is lacking to a fury when you should be out dps a healer on most occasions. The more you play your character in real grouping situations the better you become as a player. If you have shoot by the levels it will still take some time to be good at your class unless you are a gifted individual.

In closing I would like to say play the game however you want. I just wanted to point out some of the disadvantages of power leveling from my own experiences. I have been locking my current alt’s level while I complete all of the content in a given tier. Right now I have a 19 wizard who has gone thorough Timorous Deep, Darklight Woods, Commonlands, Greater Faydark and now finishing up Antonica questlines. This type of game play is discussed in the EQ2 Redux podcast as well as a thread in the EQ2 Forums. Currently I have 30 AA which is great for a level 19. This play style is not for everyone but if you have rushed through the content it can be fun to take your time and enjoy all of the content available. There is no pressure for me since I have a well equipped level 80 character. This just keeps the game fresh when the fast pace raiding game starts to burn you out. Look for a EQ-IQ show on Character Development in the future. I would love to hear about anyone else’s experience with their character development.

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

Show number 10 continues the series dedicated to heritage quests with the search for the infamous Manastone. This was once a very prized and overpowered item in the old Everquest days. The show talks about the lore behind the Manastone and the quest that will take you from the shores of Karana to the depths of the Ruins of Varsoon with a showdown with Lord Varsoon the Undying the great necromancer whom is in search of immortality..

Links:
Allakhazam – Walkthrough
EQ2i – Walkthrough
Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

Email:
EQ-IQ@EQ2-Guides.com

Taken from the EQ-IQ guide to Stilettos Order’s Intercepted

As with all Heritage Quests the goal reward is an item that was usually a item that was highly desired during the original Everquest days. This quest is no exception to this rule. The reward is the controversial Manastone. The Manastone was a rare drop from an Evil Eye mob in the Lower Guk zone. This is the same mob that also drops the Bag of Sewn Evil-Eye which is a reward for Foomby’s Stolen Goods Heritage Quest as well. The drop rate was sometimes reported to be some where around 1 in 100.

The Manastone was a much overpowered item in the game and was soon nerfed around the time the Kunark expansion pack was released. It was also removed from the loot table of the Evil Eye mob and stopped dropping altogether. Now the funny thing is that Sony did not remove the item or actually really completely nerf the Manastone itself. What they did do was prevent it from dropping as well as prevent it from being used in any new zones other than the original pre-Kunark zones. This nerf was also extended to any old world zone that was revamp as well. This means zones such as the Commonlands, Lavastorm and Desert of Ro zones will not allow the Manastone to be used.

So why was Manastone considered so overpowered? Let’s look back at the early days of Everquest when mana regeneration was very slow as compared to the way it is today. For those healers or mages that were lucky enough to own this Manastone they would never run out of mana. Forgive me if I am off a little here but from what I understand from my reading the Manastone itself would sacrifice 60% of your total heath and then take one third of that add and it to your mana pool. So try to imagine that you had 6000 Hit points. Take 60% of that to get 2400 hit points sacrificed. Then divide that by 3 to get 800 mana. Now cast a Heal over Time spell that uses 400 mana. You just got back a net of +400 Mana and full heath as a result of your Heath over Time Spell. You could then click on the Manastone again and then heal. This all adds up to some very fast regen. These are not exact numbers and are used to illustrate how powerful the Manastone was in a time where mana regen was very slow. Today the Manastone still remains in Everquest mainly as a relic of the past. At times after it ceased to drop it could be found on in the Bazaar going for as high a 1 million plat. With today’s faster mana regen and the revamping of the old world zones the Manastone is now just an old relic of a forgotten time.

For more on the Manastone see show 10 on Stilettos Order’s Intercepted.

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.

Show number 9 covers the ever popular story of the Everling Family and the adventures of the Nektropos Castle. The topics include the complete walkthrough of the zone and the lore behind the Castle itself. With over four heritage quests that involve the castle along with 4 instances this zone remains relevant in all levels of EverQuest 2.

Links:
Map of Nektropos Castle
Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

Email:
EQ-IQ@EQ2-Guides.com

With my inability to deliver a show as often as I want as well as posting content on the site here I have now added a new tool to keep you informed for those who follow this blog and the EQ-IQ show. Yes I am now Twittering. As you can see in the sidebar I have added a tool to keep you up to date on my progress on the shows or what I am doing when it comes to video games in general. You know sometimes I do like other games. For those of you out there that do not know what Twitter is let me give a quick summary. It is a social networking tool that ranks up there in popularity as My Space or Face book. I do have a Face book page for EQ-IQ but still just don’t get the hang of that just yet. With Twitter it allows me to send out short thoughts where anyone who is following me can read. Or in this case even those whom are not following me. What this allows me to do is keep you out there aware of what it takes for me to do these podcasts as well as the blog its self.  Because Twitter forces me to make it short and simple I am more motivated to post a twitter than to sit down and draft up a post such as this one.  Now that I have an iTouch and I have a Twitter application that allows me to update the Twitter while I play it makes it even easier. Thanks to Brent at Virgin Worlds for his recent plug for Twitter which has allowed me to give it a try for this show. So far I like it a lot. I hope it keeps you informed as to whether or not I have pod faded. If I can’t find the time to Twit then I give up…

Do I have any insight? No it is just a feeling. If you notice in game a few things Sony has done lately seem to all involve ICE and how it interacts with the game in its current state. Some think Velious was the best expansion for Everquest 1 with awesome content. We have to dig deep back into the forums to discover that the developers stated way back when the game was created that parts of Velious had melted as a result of the Cataclysms. However the majority of it is still there. Let’s also remember that a substance called Velium makes up a lot of the structures and caverns in Velious which resembles ice and is very translucent. Even if most of continent has thawed out you still have areas that will resemble ICE.

Here are a few reasons I think Sony will be bringing us Velious in 2009. For one during Frostfell they had the Frostfell village covered with frozen water. This water was ICE and you actually slid on it. Was this a test for what the EQ2 game engine can do for a possible Velious expansion? What about all of the artwork and new rewards that were all ice based? Some of them were simply an ice textures overlaid on existing artwork. Again was this a test on how they may re-use existing artwork for Velious? How about the recent Game Update 51, minus the fighter changes, Sony slipped in some small changes to the way ICE based creatures are rendered. Also if you go to Everfrost and check out the ICE you will notice the ICE itself is now far more translucent. You can now see though the ICE much clearer than before. Again is this another test that Sony is conducting?

Other reasons why I think Velious is next? Ever since Rise of Kunark there has been a focus on Faction and as most of us know there were three main factions on Velious and they were Dragons, Coldain (Dwarfs), and Giants. The Giants hated both Coldain and Dragons and you had to kill both to gain faction with them to be safe in their city. The dragons hated giants, as well as the Coldain. Last but now least killing giants gave you good faction with both Dragons and Coldain. Even if these factions no longer exsist I am sure Sony would create some new ones.

No one can deny that many people like the Nostalgia of EQ1. Some feel if you want the old world just go play EQ1 while other like myself want to see the old world reinvented with updated graphics and new stories. I also do not believe that all of Velious would be ice if the developers remember what they have said about the continent thawing out quite a bit during the Cataclysms. Since Sony did not go the Nostalgic route with the last Expansion Pack. I would bet they will introduce another one this time since we all know Nostalgia sells.

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.

Everquest lore has always had gods to worship. In the Everquest 1 days you were able to pick you deity of choice from character creation. When Everquest 2 was first released the gods were absent. The story behind this lies in the departure of the gods over 500 years earlier. With the Echoes of Faydwer expansion pack some of the gods have returned. With each expansion pack a couple more gods have also returned. There are currently 14 gods in the game 5 evil, 5 neutral and 4 good. You can choose to serve or follow a god that you are aligned with.   

The benefits of worshiping a god are nice. You get powerful spells and abilities called Blessings and Miracles. These are limited in use because they tend to be very powerful. The Miracles last for 10 minutes and the Blessings are only usable for 20-30 seconds but are usually a difference maker in a raid or when in a sticky situation. I guess that’s why they are called miracles. Now you are allowed to use each miracle and blessing once every hour and you only get two uses. You’ll need to find an Altar to worship in order to obtain the abilities again at a cost of Favor. Favor is basically faction and works as currency to use the blessings and miracles. You will also get a Pet that behaves very much like a wizard’s familiar in that its only purpose is to enhance one of your main attributes such as Strength, Agility, Stamina, Intelligence and Wisdom. You also will receive a Cloak once you have fully devoted you allegiance to your god. These have some nice stats as well. Each god will provide a different set of blessings and miracles that will not always benefit your class so it is important to find the right god to get any real use from them. 

You will need to be level 25 before you can seek out your deity of choice. Once you are ready you can head over to the Butcherblock Mountain Docks where you can talk with a Deity Historian which will lead you to the Prophet for your deity. These NPC’s also serve as merchants to buy the base Altars and books for crafting advanced Altars such as the Deity Altar Crafting, Advanced Deity Altar Crafting and Decorative Deity Shrines that Carpenters can craft. Altars are used to house your blessings and miracles. This is where you will go to get you abilities and to donate or sacrifice treasured items to the altar to increase favor which you can use to get your abilities. The better the altar the cheaper your abilities will cost.  The best altar that can be crafter is the Imbued ones while the best altar in the game is the Ordained one that is dropped from Mayong Mistmoore which is NO-TRADE. Better altars means the abilities will cost less.

Once you have made a decision to follow a particular god you will need to locate the Prophet. The Prophet will start you on a series of devotion quests. There are five in total and they are available at different levels of your character development.  By completing each devotion quest you will be granted rewards such as an Altars, Pet, Cloak, miracles and blessing along with some favor. There are five miracles and five blessings for each god. These are unlocked upon completion of each of the devotion quests. The 1st, 2nd and 4th quests are usually Soloable while the 3rd and 5th ones tend to require some assistance since they are heroic.
 
There is one more benefit you will receive that is very rare. Every so often one of the Avatar’s will descend to Norrath if enough favor has been collected by worshipers of that god. The Avatar will remain on Norrath for 1-3 days or until they are killed. Only one god’s Avatar can remain on Norrath at a time. If the Avatar representing your god is up, you can approach them and receive a small 5-hour buff.  Another important note about gods is even though you have completed your entire devotion quests does not mean you are stuck with the god. You can just visit another prophet and begin your devotion to your new god. The other important note to this is you keep your cloak and altars. Now the altars are not usable but the cloak still is. For more information of gods check out the next EQ-IQ show.
 
More information on The Gods…..
Which Deity For Me?”, Part I: The Benevolent Gods
Deity 101: A Quick Overview of the Deity System of Everquest II
Deity 102: How the Norrathian Gods Came to Be

Show number 8 covers travel in Everquest 2. As with most MMO’s travel is the most important function within the game and Everquest 2 is no exception with its many unique ways to get around. The host covers the concepts of Runspeed, mounts and magic forms of personal travel within the game. Topics also include traveling from zone to zone as well as within the zones themselves. With the introduction of Guild Halls travel has become even more accessible.

Links:
www.jimbluemusic.com

Email:
EQ-IQ@EQ2-Guides.com

Finally the fastest class in Everquest II is now the Bard. Now this does come with a cost and that cost is in the form of precious Alternate Achievement points. As I have discussed in past posts and podcasts runspeed is the statistic that governs how fast a character can move in game. You can modify the runspeed by spells, abilities, AA points, Items and racial abilities. With that being said a Dirge or a Troubadour can obtain the runspeed cap of 100%. As long as you follow the rules of how runspeed enhancements stack you can achieve runspeeds as shown here:

The bard could even run faster and reach the cap if you added the Girdle of Escape that’s stacks with the Journeyman Boots which puts you over +100%. Just remember that the fastest mount in the game is the Ykeshan Warbear Mount at +65% but costs a whopping 50 void shards, ouch! Even with AA points and Items the Bard still out runs the fastest mount. Now this does come at a cost of 18 AA points which could be better used in other areas of character devlopment so it’s just a matter of preference. Also keep in mind that these enhancements to runspeed do little for the other classes that are grouped with you unless they stay within the bard’s song radius. If the Bard is the fastest who would be the second fastest class in game? That would be a Half Elf Warden with max AA’s and the Journeyman Boots plus the Girdle of Escape for +85%. Please keep in mind these stats are for PvE servers since PvP servers have a different rule set for runspeed. Also for those whom may wonder about the crafting epic reward Earring of the Solstice? It does not stack with spells since it is an active modifier and as we know active runspeed modifiers do not stack with each other.

It seems that according to the stats on my site leveling is the number one topic that is being googled. Since that is the case I am going to tailor some posts to leveling in Everquest II. Some of this information is already available in the EQ-IQ Leveling Guide and Show #5. I am going to revise certain sections of the guide and add to it with my weekly posts.  Today’s discussion is leveling in your 20’s.

Things slow down quite a bit from the first 20 levels when compared to the Timorous Deep and Kunark starting area. Its not that leveling itself is slow but the solo content is sparse in this tier. The quests in general do not flow as well as the Kunark zones which there are none for level 20-68. Nor are there as many quest hubs in these zones. Hang in there because once you make tier 4 things start to open up once again and you will be flooded with plenty of content to level in.

The tier 3 zones are the most accessible zones in the game. They are basically the central hubs to access just about every other major zone in the Norrath.  There are three major tier 3 zones, Thundering Steppes, Nektulos Forest and Butcher Block Mountains. Don’t think for a moment that because you are evil aligned and the Nektulos forest happens to be off the Commonlands that you have to progress your adventuring here.  You can take the Mariner Bells from the Antontica and Commonlands Docks which can take you to either the Thundering Steppes or Nektulos Forest. You can also use the boats on the Butcherblock Docks to go to either of these zones as well and vice versa. Unlike the tier 2 zones traveling is not automatic. To travel using the griffons in each of the tier 3 zones you will have to do a simple quest given to you by the griffon master. No matter which of the zones you plan on adventuring in I highly suggest you complete the griffin tower quests in each of the tier 3 zones.

The Thundering Steppes

The Thundering Steppes found off of Antonica is a very popular zone and is well laid out for questing and adventuring. You can also get here by boat from the Butcher Block Mountains and from the mariner bell on the Nektulos forest docks. There are 3 major quest hubs here and 3 minor ones. The Docks provides a lot of options in the form of quests. There are a few quest givers that will send you to other zones and many of the quests have sub quests you must complete before you can complete the initial quest. Also very nice is the Far Seas Requisitions which can be found table on the dock next to Taskmaster Deldrin. There are six which you can pick up all at once and when you finish them you can get four more Special Contracts. Other hubs which are recommended are the Antonica Gate, Griffin Fields, Bridge Keep and Coldwind Cove. There are a number of drop items that will start quests here as well as items within the zone which when clicked will also give quests.

This zone also contains the Split Paw Saga adventure pack zones. You will have to do a claim on an object called A Darken Shard. Once you do this you can start the Splitpaw content. Beware of getting too close to the camps of Knolls guarding the numerous bone tepees throughout the zone as they will capture you and you will have to go through an instance to get out. This instance scales to your level and will only pull you in alone even if you are in a group. I guess you could recall out if you did not want to fight your way out. The Splitpaw dungeon is most excellent for XP and adventuring and remains good up to level 45. This zone is also home to Lore and Legend books for the Centaur and the Giants. As for Heritage Quest three of them start here “An Axe from the Past”, “Hadden’s Earring” and “Stiletto’s Orders”. For more information I recommend the following link – Thundering Steppes Timeline

Nektulos Forest

Nektulos Forest found off of the Commonlands and can also be reached by the docks from the Thundering Steppes is quite different. It’s a dark and gloomy place that rings with and evil overtone. You can hear many ominous creatures howling thought the zone. There are some nice quest hubs here as well starting either on the Docks or from the Commonlands zone-in gate. Some people don’t care much for this zone. I for one like it but can understand why some don’t. The zone is very restrictive when it comes to traveling. You feel closed in. If you want to go from the east side of the zone to the west you will have to go all the way south before you can wind your way to the east. This gets old real quick.

This zone is also home to the Bloodline Chronicles Adventure pack that is rarely played by groups since there are 11 stages and most people are at different stages of the quest line. There is one quest line that is soloable and very highly recommend is the D’Morte Burial Chambers. You will need to claim your D’Morte insignia band and examine it to access the zone which is located near the docks side of the zone. This has 14 named mobs that are soloable and provide AA. It’s a must to do while around level 30 before you leave the zone. Don’t forget that the Lore and Legend Treant book is located in a tent on the beach near the docks. Nektulos Forest Timeline

Butcherblock Mountains

Last but not least is the infamous Butcherblock Mountains located on the continent of Faydwer. This is a well designed zone with plenty of quests and content to get you all the way to 30 and then some. If you start in Kelithin then this is really easy to get to since it is a zone just off of Greater Faydark. The main quest hubs like the other two zones can be started by either the Docks or the Greater Faydark Passage. There are other areas such the Gorowyn Research Camp located north of the docks along the beach is another great hub for quests. In the middle of the zone you will have the Irontoe Brigade series where the fort is split into an East and a West side divided by mountains but accessible via a mining tunnel. Other important quests here are the deity quest starters for Solusek Ro and Quellious. Also the Lore and Legend Kobold book is located on the Docks. As far as the heritage quest go you can also start the War and Wardrobe quest around level 30. Check out Show #6 for a walkthrough of this quest. Butcherblock Mountains Timeline

Group Content

For the group content you should find that Stormhold (Antonica), Fallen Gate(Commonlands), Crushbone Keep(Greater Faydark) and Cove of Decay(Thundering Steppes) to be appropriate for some pickup groups. There is a very popular dungeon called The Ruins of Varsoon and also a place you should seek in the Thundering Steppes but you should wait till you are at least 25 before getting into a pick up group. This zone is killer for XP and is highly recommended. Oh and let’s not forget the Splitpaw Saga content in Thundering Steppes as well if you’re lucky enough to find a group.

Stormhold Timeline
Fallen Gate Timeline
Crushbone Keep Timeline
Cove of Decay Timeline
Ruins of Varsoon
Splitpaw Saga

The main Heritage quests that are appropriate for tier 3 are The Return of the Light, and These Boots Were Made For…

See you all in Tier 4……

Zombies are just re-animated dead creatures. Zombies are mindless and have no consciousness. They always seem to crave flesh. Even if it’s their own flesh. They are usually associated with those whom play in the world of necromancy. You will find the zombie in just about everywhere in Norrath so completing your Lore and legend should not be real tough.

Getting the book to begin the quest on the other hand can be challenging to some if you’re under level 30. The book is located in the Fallen Gate which is located in the northwest of the Commonlands zone. Very close to the Nektulos Forest zone in. There are lots of triple up heroics here but if you are careful you can get the book without a group in your 2o’s. Most of the mobs will not see through invisibility or stealth. If you’re a class that does not have these you will have to either get a group with someone to help or wait till your level 30 when you can buy a Totem of the Jaguar that will grant you invisibility.

When in the Fallen Gate head to the First Gate and turn left. Follow the passage way till you come to a lager room. Continue to stay to the right and go through another passage way that leads to an area called Pool of Percelia, Stay left and go into another westbound passage which turns into Little Neriak. Be careful since the Overseers can see Invisibility. The book is found by in a pot near the tents along the southern most walls at (174.74, 18.4, -45.76). 

Once you read the book you will be presented with the quest. You will now need to locate some zombies. As with all Lore and Legends updates you will need three automatic updates and five uncommon drops. It can take a while and sometimes many kills before you get any updates or drops. The key here is at least get the non-drop updates. If you have plenty of Plat then you may just find all of the drops on the broker. Since zombies are extremely plentiful this should be very cheap. If you don’t want to spend any money to get the drops then you should hunt zombies in the Darklight Woods very near the Tvattar Post just outside the Bridge to Neriak. There are lots of various Stout Cadavers and Fallen Rangers that re-spawn extremely quick.

Other great locations are the Fallen Gate where you got the quest, In Antontica at the Ruins of Caltorsis, The Graveyard in Freeport, Stormhold in Antontica and many more locations. Below is a list of the drops you will need and the quest reward that you can place in your house!

The New Year is here and now is the time for the EQ-IQ show and its home web site to really get in to full speed ahead. I came up with the idea for trying a podcast around January of 2008. I spent most of the first six months designing a goal of what the show and its web site would represent. In June I released my first show and was quite pleased at the response I got for it. I have since released a total of 7 shows at an average of one per month. I did underestimate how much time it takes on producing a show of quality and accuracy. My first intent was to have this site (eq2-guides) as a place where you could also obtain some handy written guides that went along with my research of the EQ-IQ shows. That also is very time consuming and takes a lot of preparation. This is what has lead to the shows being release in such a long cycle.

Now that the New Year is here I will be making a new resolution for the year. From now on I will release at least one show each Monday every two weeks. Some time more but at least one every two weeks. Along with these shows I will from time to time release full guides that were used to research the show topics. These will be released when done with no time table. That should give me the time in between shows to brush up the content and format the guides so they are complete and not rushed like I feel some of the guides were in the past. In addition to a bi-weekly show I will also be posting an article on this site every Tuesday and Thursday at a minimum. This will range from topics or categories like, Options, Game play, Tips, mini walkthroughs, guides and more. This will keep my interest and help ensure that I will maintain my goal of a 2 year run. I may go beyond 2 years but for now I want to see how consistent I can be over the next year.
 
I have many more concepts I want to introduce this year. I would like to add the Video Tutorials and start a new Podcast on the Everquest universe later in the year. But unless I can be consistent and keep a set schedule I doubt I should take on anymore Podcasts. Happy New Year to all and I look forward to new shows and content in the New Year!
Dave

Show number 7 in the EQ-IQ show covers another learning series topic about the basic combat mechanics in Everquest II. Covering topics such as the type of attacks used in EQ2 like Auto-Attack, Combat Arts, Spell Arts and more. Cover topics such as the Con system and how to determine the mob encounter difficulty. More topics include how the Heroic Opportunity system works in game and much more.

Links:
http://eq2sday.mypodcast.com/

Email:
EQ-IQ@EQ2-Guides.com

Lore and Legend quests which are also known as Enemy Mastery quests involve the study of various creatures to learn more about them. In order to gain knowledge about these creatures, you must find and study various body parts. You can find these body parts for by killing the type of creature you wish to learn more about. You do not need the book to progress the quest. You obtain most of the Lore and Legend quest by finding a book and then reading the book until a quest becomes available. The quest will scale to your level so no need to worry. However some books can only be found in higher level zones and the mobs related to these books are quite high and may not always be found in lower or more common zones in Norrath.

Each of these quests will require you to kill mobs that are described in the books. As you kill these mobs you will need 3 Quest updates that will automatically update with a non inventory body part. This is most likely to prevent someone from just buying them all off the broker like you can with the remaining body parts. You also need to obtain 5 other body parts but there are uncommon drops from the mobs and you will need to examine them while they are in your inventory to get an update. This will also remove or consume the item from your inventory as well. The good thing is you can buy these items of the broker if you do not wish to farm them. Just keep in mind some of the drops are rare and can command a lot of plat for them. The good thing is if you are killing other mobs and have not found the Lore and Legend book you can save the un-common drops for your other characters or for when you located the book.

The rewards for each quest will be a Book to place in your home and a Trophy along with one of the following combat abilities which you can use against the mob. Below are the abilities for each of the four archetypes. Cost and damage scales with level.

Sinister Strike – Scouts		Master's Rage - Fighters		Master's Strike – Mage		Master's Smite – Priests
Decrease Mitigation of target vs slashing, piercing and crushing damage by X Inflicts X - Y melee damage on target Must be flanking or behind		Decreases Deflection, Parry, an Defense of target by X. Inflicts X amount of melee damage on target		Direct Damage Spell that does X amount of elemental damage		Decreases Slashing of target by X Decreases Attack Speed of target by X Decreases Piercing and Crushing of target by X Inflicts X amount of divine damage on target

Show number 6 continues the EQ-IQ quest series with another Heritage Quest (War and Wardrobe).  This is a lower mid level HQ based on the infamous Robe of The Oracle that was a part of a couple of the Everquest one quests and one of those was the Rogue Epic quest. Sony uniquely ties in the lore of the quests form the original Everquest with the story of the lost Robe of the Oracle. The show gives a walkthrough of the quest taking you from the Butcherblock Mountains and into several classic Everquest 2 zones on your way to recovering the robe made famous in Everquest 1.

Links:
West Karana Oracle Article
EQ2 Wikia – War and Wardrobe
Allakhazam War and Wardrobe
EQ2 Wikia – The Everling Lockets
EQ2 Wikia – An Order of Orc Tongue

Email:
EQ-IQ@EQ2-Guides.com

Who needs a mount in Everquest II when you can run? Believe it or not you can run faster than the fastest mount in the game. Those mounts are the Wargs, Rhinos. Nightmares and Mistrunners. They all clock a 52% runspeed boast. Okay I know the Glorious Steed +55% is the fastest but that only lasts 1 hour and is limited to those whom can worship MITHANIEL MARR. But even then you can out run that mount with your own two feet.

For one a lot of races in Everquest get a +5% bonus to runspeed. Some classes also get AA points and Spells that enhance runspeed. Spirit of the Wolf from the Wardens and Mystics can grant you as much as +45% with full AA points. So with just a racial bonus of 5% + a buff from a Warden you can run at 50%.If you are a Warden you have an AA line called Hierophant Movement which can add another 10% to your runspeed giving you +60%. All you need now is to finish the Heritage Quest that rewards you with the Journeyman Boots and get another +10% bringing your runspeed to +70%. Are you kidding me?

I know that not everyone can be a Warden or a Bard but if you are you are one of the lucky ones. You can still get quite boost to runspeed if you were a Human Wizard for example. Here you get no racial benefits or spells that enhance your runspeed. You can buy Totems. At level 20 you can get Spirit Totem of the Wolf+24%. And once you reach Level 65 you can get Spirit Totem of the Chokidai +45%. There is off course the Journeyman Boots giving you +10%. So even if you are one who does not normally get any runspeed boost you can achieve as high as +55%. If you are a level 80 crafter you can get your epic and get Earring of the Solstice giving you +45%. This doe not stack with the Totems but at least you don’t have to buy them.

Let’s look at some examples for how fast you can run on a PvE server. PvP servers have a different rules ets allowing many items to stack that won’t in PvE.

Half Elf Ranger –> (Racial +5%) + (Fitness AA +10%) (Shroud of the Forest +8%) + (Enhance AA: Pathfinding +46%) + (Jboots +10%) = +79%

Fae Warden –> (Racial +5%) + (Enhance: Spirit of Wolf +45%) + (Jboots +10%) + (Band of Panic +10%) = +70%

Karen Dirge –> (Racial +5%) + (Harbinger’s Sonnet AA +8%) + (Selo’s Speed of Sound (55) +44%) + (Jboots +10%) = +67%
For more on this topic check out EQ-IQ Show #7 and download the full guide to Travel in Norrath.

EQ-IQ Show #5 Leveling

Show number 5 covers Leveling in Everquest 2. This includes discussions on how to level efficiently by equipping your character with the appropriate gear, potions or charms for a given tier. Covers all of the tiers in Everquest 2 and recommends where the character should adventure at a given level covering both Solo and Heroic content from levels 1 to 80.

Downloads:
Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

Links:
http://www.eq2alchemy.com/potion.html
http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Solo_Timelines
http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Heroic_Timelines

Email: EQ-IQ@EQ2-Guides.com

EverQuest 2 Wiki (http://eq2.wikia.com) coined the phrase timelines. There vision of a timeline is a series of quest that tie other quests together within a given tier of EQ2. Sometimes these are a series of quest within a zone and sometimes it is just a series of quests such as the Claymore quest line that spans multiple tiers and zones. This is a great way to determine what content you should be working on in a given adventuring level. I highly recommend you check the site out for detailed timeline breakdown.

I highly recommend that you first explore the zone you plan on questing in for a given tier. While you explore you will gain discovery XP and AA points (Tier 2 and above). You should make a mental note of the names of the places that flash on your screen as you explore. Also it is a good idea to take notice on the mobs and their location within the zone. This will be beneficial later when you go back to take up the quests for the zone. Now it may not always be possible to explore the entire zone at times since most zones progressively get more difficult as you make your way to the end or far side of the zone. Some mobs just roam a lot or can see through stealth and invisibly spell’s.

From all of my prior experience and research involving leveling it seems it is best to do a combination of solo XP grinding, collection/adventuring quests, discovery as well as some pick up group content such as a dungeon or a raid. Not only does this help to minimize boredom it also helps you develop you character by gaining the ever so important alternate achievement points (AA). These points are used to specialize your character by spending the points earned from quests, named mobs and discovery experience.

If you want to maximize your leveling experience you should always follow these important notes:

• Make sure you have level appropriate food and drink. Food and drink are used to regenerate your Health and Power pools. The faster these recharge the less downtime between encounters. Buying food and drink of higher tier will do little good since all of it scales down according to your adventuring level. See the chart below:

From: http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Drink

• You Gear should be at minimum level appropriate. I mean that if you are level 15 you should be wearing level 10 – 19 equipment. The mobs will eat through your equipment if it is not at the very least within the same tier as the mobs are.

• Make sure all of your Combat arts and Spells are upgraded as high as you can afford. Its beyond the scope of this guide to discuss the combat system but the following chart can give you an idea of the types of upgrade you can expect to see:

From: http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Spells_and_Combat_Arts

• If you are lucky to have veteran rewards you can use some of your XP potions for a boost during a dedicated leveling session.

The Level Bar as shown here is divided into ten sections. The light blue bar on the bottom indicates the small increments of xp. When the blue bar fills up you will have gained 10% XP towards the next level. This is indicated by the gold bar on the top half. It is divided into 10 increments that represent 10% each. When this bar fills up you gain a level.

When leveling you should pick up as many quests as you can. Most zones have a central place for quests unofficially called hubs. These quest hubs generally have more than one quest giver. Once you complete the final quest task you will usually be sent off to the next quest hub or quest giver in the zone. In some cases they can send you out to the next zone all together.

Gathering all of the shinny’s or (collections) from the ground in each zone will also give great XP and AA when you complete the collection and turn it in. It is also very profitable to collect these and sell them on the broker. You could then use the profit from the ones you don’t need to buy the ones you do need form the broker.

The other great way to level fast is to group and venture into the Heroic content such as Blackburrow or a similar dungeon. This is just simply because you can kill bigger and better content that rewards you more XP than you can get while soloing. Also as a group you are able to kill the mobs faster meaning you get more XP faster. Pick up Groups form all the time on most servers. You will have to make sure you level appropriate chat channel is turned on or you will miss the pickup group request. The most efficient group configurations are groups of 3 or groups of 6. There is a bonus to XP when you are in a group with one of those setups.

Everquest uses a tier system that affects everything from Items, gear, Tradeskill, adventuring, zones, etc… The tiers are organized as such:

01-09 (tier 1)
10-19 (tier 2)
21-29 (tier 3)
31-39 (tier 4)
41-49 (tier 5)
51-59 (tier 6)
61-69 (tier 7)
71-80 (tier

See EQ-IQ Show#5 for more on this topic!

EQ-IQ Show #4 Lore and Legends Part I

EQ-IQ Show #4 covers a preview of Game Update 47. The host covers part one of two of the Lore and Legends Quests. This show discusses the mechanics behind the quests and the rewards as well as the location of twenty of the books and the best places to hunt the mobs for the quest updates.

THE QUESTS COVERED: Orc,Gnolls,Goblin,Zombie,Treant,Centaur,Skeleton,Elemental,Giant,Werewolf,Ghost,Kobold,Siren,Golem,Evil Eye,Fairy,Minotaur,Nightblood,Bixie and Efreeti.

Links:
http://www.jodygnant.com/
http://www.jetpackmissing.com/

Email:
EQ-IQ@eq2-guides.com

I am here and very much alive. No Pod fading here! It’s been two weeks with no updates but I have been very hard at work on the next couple of shows. As I said in my last show there would be times I did not get the show out exactly within two weeks. This is one of those times. Real life got in the way and I became very sick this week with a strong cough. Which meant no voice. I am almost over it now so I should be recording soon.

The next show is going to be covering the Lore and Legend quests. The main topics to cover are a description of the mob, where to get the quest, what level should you be, where the best locations to hunt the mobs are and what type of reward will you receive. At first I felt there was just too many of these to fit into one show so I was going to split it up. I since changed my mind I felt I could get these into one show. That made the show not ready for release since I was now missing some of the researched content. And I did not want to just throw together a show unprepared just to make a self imposed deadline. I want the quality of the shows to remain high so a couple more days of preparation is worth it. I have been saying all along I have several shows I am working on but the problem is they all incomplete. Soon I will be in the opposite situation where I will have plenty of show content ready to record.

I will be putting out at least 2 shows this week so stay tuned!

EQ-IQ Show #3 Zone Series (The Sinking Sands)

Show # 3 is the first in a series of shows that cover Zones. This show the host covers the Desert of Flames zone The Sinking Sands. Some of the topics covered are the named mobs, quest lines, collections, harvesting locations, points of interests and much more. The show also has a quick walkthrough of the zone with tips on where to solo and what to watch out for when traveling in the Desert. Game Update 46 is also discussed as well as the live event Gathering Tempest. A special shoutout goes to the new EQ-IQ sponsor Daonii!!

Downloads:
Comming Soon!

Links:
http://nostalgiatheguild.org/
http://www.journeyswithjaye.com/
Guild Recruitment listing (EQ2)
Guild Recruitment listing (EQ1)

Email:
EQ-IQ@eq2-guides.com

It’s been a while since I posted an update. This week’s show will be evolving once again with some new segments. I have not given them a name just yet but they will be more or less sections that cover quick topics in both Everquest and Everquest 2. Some of those topics could cover a small zone, small quests or even a tips and tricks. Tipa from West Karana also had a good suggestion in that I should introduce a topic that compares the original Everquest zones with the new ones found in EQ2. I think I will call this segment “Then and Now”. I figured it would not always be good to devote the whole show to just one topic. The core of the show will always be the main subject of the show and reside at the second half of the show. I am also still looking for some listener segments that I can also insert into the show. I would love some in both Everquest and Everquest 2. Please send me an email if you’re interested. 

Also I am proud to announce I am now a part of the Virgin Worlds Podcast Collective. Thanks to Brent and Troy whom I have consulted during my development of the EQ-IQ show for allowing this to happen.

This week’s show will be covering the mid level zone of The Sinking Sands. This zone was introduced with the Desert of Flames expansion pack released in 2005. The zone was most closely tied to the Desert of Ro from the original Everquest. I am about ready to start to record the show but need to brush up on some of the content. Stay tuned!

EQ-IQ Show #2 Quest Series (In Honor and Service)

Show # 2 is the first in a series of shows that cover quests. The host covers news about the community’s reactions to the Living Legacy promotion as well as some of his in game activities around Nostalgia the Guild adventures in the original Everquest. The main content of the show covers a detailed walkthrough of the Heritage Quest called In Honor and Service.

Downloads:

Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

Links:
http://nostalgiatheguild.org/
http://www.journeyswithjaye.com/

Email:
EQ-IQ@eq2-guides.com

Show #2 will be available June 15th and will be the first show in the Quest Series covering the Heritage Quest “In Honor and Service”. This tier 2 Heritage Quest is idea for new players wanting to earn some excellent status points for your guild. The level requirements are low in comparison to other Heritage Quest’s and you can successfully do this quest with two or more friends around level 16-20. Of course anyone of higher level can always earn the status and Alternate Achievement points at any level but as with all quests they are usually more fun to complete at their intended level.

Some classes can solo this quest as low as 16-17 especially if you are a crowd controlling class such as the Enchanter or Coercer. The quest can get quite tricky towards the end as the encounters are linked with 3 to 4 mobs engaging all at once and some are Heroic. This quest is fun and there is a ton of lore however some stages of the quest can leave you wondering where to go next. I will try to help with that problem with the Podcast this week as well as the written step by step walkthrough guide full of spoilers.

Also this week I will be covering the News and a possible new and exiting announcement of the shows future home! Can you say Collective?

 {vidavee id=”10220″ w=”360″ }

EQ-IQ Show #1 EverQuest 101

This Inaugural EQ-IQ Podcast introduces the host Dave and discusses the basics of Everquest 2 covering topics like the history of expansion pack releases, the lore, Classes, Races, Quest types and much more. This is the first of a bi-weekly podcast that will be aimed at guiding new and veteran players alike thru the world of Norrath.

Links:
http://eq2.eqtraders.com/articles/news_page.php
http://eq2.allakhazam.com/

Music:
www.jimbluemusic.com

Email:
EQ-IQ@eq2-guides.com

While doing some research for some upcoming shows I came across some very cool Quest tracking sheets made by ripchi from a website called Council of the Five. (http://www.ripchi.com/cotf/index.htm)

These are very useful and will be mentioned in the upcoming Podcast. 

ka·ta·gel·o·pho·bi·a — n.  1.  The fear of ridicule.

When in the EQ2 chat channels have you ever wondered what the hell RoV or even BB meant? I became tired of always asking people in the chat channels “what is RoV?” Of course this makes me look like a noob (new player) so I pulled together some of the most common abbreviations used in the EverQuest 2 chat channels. I compiled this list from many different site forums as well as the chat channels themselves. Feel free to download this sheet and print it out. This list defines the more common abbreviations used for the Zones and Dungeon Instances of EQ2.  Enjoy!

Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

 

Use Download Link for PDF version