Seeking advice for gaining levels quickly as an enchanter.Follow

I was considering making a Erudite enchanter (I stopped playing EQ shortly after the Ykesha expansion was released) and decided to come here to seek advice as to how to gain levels extremely quickly (I was thinking about possibly making a new character). I used to have a level 52 character however I will be starting from scratch (level wise) if I start playing the game again. I really do not want to have to invest the amount of time I spent getting there (and on previous characters) on a new character. I have never played as an enchanter other than during experiments (learning to use their abilities should not be a problem though). I think that charm abilities are the most interesting types of abilities in the game. I have experience with soloing and grouping however I would prefer to focus on either very rapid exp soloing or performing quests due to time constraints. If I could get a character above level 50 then grouping would become more feasible since I would not have to worry quite as much about rushing to gain levels (though fast leveling beyond this would be helpful as well). I should have access to a few of the Veteran AA abilities (I could get the double exp one from the start). Although this may sound like an extreme task, I want to figure out a way to reach level 50 with 30 hours of total play time or less (I prefer less than 24 if possible).

It appears to me that there are only about two ways to accomplish this plan (if even these would work) the first is the one in which I hold the most interest.

1. Are there any quests that I could use to level up very quickly (to at least somewhere in the 39-44 range)? If needed I could get access to large sums of platnium to buy quest items. Do not worry about lack of skill growth. I could fix that problem with a combination of using skill points and fighting in certain zones. If you do not want to post the quest here I can receive a message or could provide an e-mail address to which one can send a list of quests that could provide this type of level up rate.

2. Utilizing charm soloing. I know that charm soloing now requires one to actuall do some damage to get substantial exp. This sounds like a problem however the fundamentals of charm soloing still seem fairly sound otherwise. I would prefer something even faster than charm soloing if possible though. Padual Caverns (spelling?) and Unrest seem to be excellent for leveling however I am less certain about the possibility of sustaining fast leveling beyond those zones.

Other methods that someone could recommend would be helpful. I do not intend to buy a character off of Ebay so rule that option should be ruled out. Although I could get powerleveld by a high level character I would consider that similar to a last resort (mainly because of the need to have highly flexible playing sessions). Do not worry about any type of faction hits when recommending a strategy.

Edited, Tue Mar 21 19:06:48 2006 by ReadyYourStrikeForce

I disagree. For strictly leveling, get the second to latest expansion (Depths of Darkhollow) and do monster missions until you hit the level you want. If you haven't played an enchanter to a high level, you'll be pretty terrible outside the MM and it will take a long time to master a difficult class, but you'll reach your goal.

Of course, you will need at least 2 other people in which to do the MM, but other than being power leveled, that is probably the quickest way to level. Too bad you missed most of the double experience anniversary.

Edited, Tue Mar 21 19:22:45 2006 by Addikeys

If you have expansions OoW and beyond there are a lot of tasks you can get to progress quickly through the lower levels. I used the ones given in Toxulia (missions are in Stonebrunt) in the mid 20s.
Alternative to grinding in Paludal.

I think you can get about a yellow of xp per medium tasks which take 1+ hours to do.

In the 40s try the tasks in Gunthak.

Also be aware of what the Hot-Zones are and look for action there. Some places (like gunthak at the moment, unfortunately) are ridiculously crowded though.

Gotta agree with everyone before me.

As for now compared to "way back when", leveling definitely is easier now. 1) No more hell levels. They restructured those levels for purposes of gaining levels more evenly. 2) Guild lobby now exists. With the guild hall, instead of doing a corpse run, you can run to the guild hall, pay a few plat to a merchant to purchase a level appropriate soulstone, hand that stone to a summoning priest (located in the same room as the merchant) and your corpse (actually, all corpses you have in the game) is summoned to right beside you. Most of the time there is at least 1 cleric available in the guild lobby doing ress's. 3) Equipment available in the bazaar these days helps to twink lower levels so they die way less often due to better ac/stats. Although it takes time, even level 10 toons can farm stuff that sells to tradeskillers in the bazaar that can fund better equipment. 4) Temp is your friend. Temp is a cleric spell to increase the maximum hps on your toon, so get a temp on a lvl 20 and go run rampant through level 20 content with much more confidence. Temp can usually easily be had in PoK. 5) Speaking of POK (plane of knowledge), this wasn't in the game back in the Ykesha days either. POK is the central transportation hub. "Stones" that are portals to many zones across the expansions eliminates travel time greatly. Also, if you remember the boats from before, those are broke and now there is a mob standing on each of docks to simply port you to the other end.

I'm sure there are other great changes since that expansion that I haven't touched upon, but these reasons alone mean you will progress much faster on a new toon than you likely did on the toon you had before you left the game.

As for being a chanter (mine is level 65), get a blue ceramic band (probably not as many in bazaar as there used to be, but find a friendly pottery tradeskiller and you should be able to get one). This casts a 5 point damage spell (our level 1 Shallow breath spell actually). This toy is very useful for charm experience. A: It gives minimal hate so your pet can grab aggro way quicker. B: It does the required damage needed to minimize the exp your pet shares with you for each kill.

Also, there are 2 schools of thought for charming. 1) Pick approximately even pets, don't buff, let pet and mob beat each other down evenly (throwing a damage spell in if your pet is falling behind or slowing the target to accomplish same thing). When both are near death, mez the target and quickly tash it so that potential blur from mez doesn't put the mob into super regen mode. Break charm (any kind of invis or using Hide if you got it) and kill pet, then turn around and nuke target also, giving you full exp for both kills instead of sharing exp for only the one. Note: There is currently a bug in the game where in some zones your pet remembers the mob was the one doing all the damage to him and not you and so he poofs when you kill him, giving no exp and no loot. 2) Pick a good pet, haste and buff him and rip through as many targets as you can before he is near enough to death that you can break charm and kill him too.

While charming, NEVER let the target go unrooted. If root breaks reapply it. Try to find/obtain equipment to extend the range of your spells. The farther you are from your now ex-pet as he is charging you the more time you have to handle the situation.

I also second the suggestion to go hang out at TheRunes.net. Awesome chanter sight. Kudos to Juwel for maintaining it.

Lvling a chanter up ASAP is a very bad idea unless you have played a CC class before.......if you MM up to 70 and then start grouping outside MMs you'll be lost and your groups will end up hating you.......

I would suggest hotzones and charm soloing that way you get a feel for CCing charming and grouping.

This is sort of unrelated, but (i only have through GoD) is a task, and what is involved in completing an avergae one?

Very...uhm...politically correct, Jonwin.

I need to learn from you.

Alwayslost, Yes but did you rate me up?
I dont consider what I said politcally correct, I was just being friendly. I really do want to know his server, and if he chooses povar would love to know his name.
Elneclare and I have played chanters a bit. Interesting class and a great class to duo with a bl!

No Jonwin,
I apologize for not doing the rate-up, I am not rate-up oriented myself, and miss the damn thing often.
I guess I read more into the post than I should have and I agree, politically correct was a poor term, it didn't quite cover the idea I wanted to get across, and I have since lost the thought...

Oh, I nearly forgot:
NEVER /shout Ding, 60! in PoK as a Chanter. ;)

Well said Kelti.