Best Ranger Armor Quest?Follow

I'm almost lvl 50 and wanting to start questing for some new armor. I've found there are several sets of armor a ranger can start questing for around lvl 50, I was just wondering what you might consider the best...taking into account both armor stats and quality of the quest itself.

I've been thinking of going with the Forest Stalker's armor, but have run into some problems. The quest is in Kael Drakkal, and a friend and I went to go scout it out yesterday. First problem was I'm KoS there, so we had to go invis, and didn't get very deep into the zone. Secondly, I couldn't get much info about where in the zone the items i need drop, the lev of the mobs, and where to go to find a group to hunt these with. The main drops I need are peices of Corroded Chain Armor, and I think it drops in some temple, but not sure. I also need other items for each peice of armor, like crushed black marble and am hoping these items also drop in drakkal. I'm not sure of the rarity of the corroded armor and other drops to know if this is a very time-consuming quest.

I also suppose that since I'm KoS I'll need to raise my faction with the giants, or just go invis the whole time? Will the mobs I need to kill for drops be giants, and if so should i still bother raising my faction? How would I go about doing that?

My friend also mentioned that this quest can be done by killing dwarves as well, though that's all the info i gleaned, maybe the quest can be started in more than one zone, such as one with dwarves?

I'm new to the whole questing thing and don't have any eq manuals. I went to Alakhazam's but the synopsis of the quest didn't offer much info, just who to talk to and what they ask you to bring them, and the player comments just amounted to arguments about AC/HP vs ATk for Rangers.

I'm wondering if I should stick with this armor quest or if others such as Golden Leaf or Ranger Twilight are better, with better quests?

Very simply there are three levels of velius armour quest:-

In ascending order of armour quality

Thurgadin

Skyshrine

Kael

These require killing Giants in Kael Drakkal, Assorted scaly things in Halls of testing, and More Scaly stuff in ToV.

You'll have to check the lore as to why

The easiest and lowest is killing in Kael Arena for drops of Corroded Chain (since you are a ranger). You then take these with the appropriate gems to the correct person in Thurgadin and are rewarded with the armour. You need to be at least "warmly" to the Coldain dwarfs to do this. You will become KoS to the giants and get more so. Strangely they don't like you killing them.

You cannot get to the arena with invis or camo since the entrance guards see through it. You will need a good group or - at 50 more likely 2 - to do this. The mobs you are fighting cast, gate and summon so it is no cake-walk at that level. (I have seen the whole place cleared by 2 65's but that is the difference between 50 and 65).

The Forest Stalker armour you speak of is made from "Ancient Tarnished" armour pieces which drop in the hardest of the 3 - ToV. This requires a serious raid force and a lot of people willing to trash their CoV faction. You might find open raids there on your server or raiding alliances going there. It is unlikely that they would take a level 50 in there. You are looking at requiring serious resist gear or the AE will eat you. I think that this is seriously beyond you at 50. You would also of course need to work Giant faction until you were Ally. Killing dwarfs would do this. A lot of them. An awful lot of them.

The Runed Scout's Tunic which is the Thurgadin ranger bp is nothing like as nice as the Kael one but then it is probably within what you and some friends can accomplish.

Golden Leaf is the Skyshrine ranger gear and is between the kael and Thurgadin. Unfortunately, while not as hard as ToV proper, HoT will still require raid force and a level 50 is borderline for inclusion. And the drop rate is not good. it could take multiple raids to get a single piece of chain. (Given that you'll be competing for what drops with other chain classes)

In all these there is no "quality" to the quest. It is just a matter of bulk killing the target mobs until quest pieces drop and then doing the hand in. There is no real story or sequence to it.

Also bear in mind that the Velius quests are 3 expansions behind. Much nicer things drop elsewhere. The Cryptrobber's Chestplate from LDoN sells cheaply and yet is superior to even the Forest Stalker. I can already hear you saying "But I want to quest it not buy it"

You will probably find it easier to quest individual items rather than the major sets. Try looking up Leuz's task for a nice bracer (also yields nice rewards for the other classes youo'll need help from).

Also you could mix and match - buy the bp while doing some other quests. There are the Coldain ring quests which will occupy you for a while and the ultimate reward is decent. The Di'Zok Signet ring is another one but it requires enormous amounts of faction work.

There are probably PoP quests which would keep you amused as well but i know very little of them. Although this one springs to mind as an example Aid Fimli



I'd agree that the Twiglet armour isn't that wonderful being more 35-40ish than 50.