zone to molo a cleric or shaman from 40 to 60 ?Follow

Depends what they have up for Hotzones...

20-40

Goru'kar Mesa, Blackfeather and Stonehive from TSS are all solid. I see BFR working best for root rotters or kiters (knowing mercs are very strong). I think Stone Hive and/or the right camp in Goru'kar would probably faster/safer for most than BFR.

Echo Caverns low side can be very good. You can stay in Luclin and do a combo of Netherbian Lair, Marus Seru and Dawnshroud to push well into 30s for sure.

With a merc you can use Gulf of Gunthak early and it can take you to 40... lots of other options, most I have said are PoK book handy or close to each other.

Pushing more to 50
Dulak's harbor does 40-50 fine, can hit Torigan Mines and/or Nadox to go 60

Veksar has a lot of undead. Great spot to level a cleric if you like out-of-the-way.

Progression players use Velketor's a lot. Ditto for Lower Guk (and GE).

Towards 60
Old Sebilis (again popular on progression, especially for large pull leveling).

If you want something different, Chardok. The Steppes is a good TSS follow-up to Blackfeather (or instead). If the merc can tank Plane of Innovation... I like Dragon Necropolis and you can run around outside doing Cobalt Scar. There is always the Hole. I have seen level 70s doing AA in Plane of Hate...

Kiting in blackfeather I did 100s of AAs (and then they autogranted lol) on my necro and probably 15 levels. I actually found the harpy levels easier, though the knockdown effect that actually sits you down was something. Not sure root-rotting would work so good there because so many wander (though pathing is repetitive)... but the key is not taking hits. Other places in TSS mobs have the "easier" con thing on them. Places like Icefall Glacier and the Steppes I really have only kited in...

The Steppes has mobs you can kill without aggro from the other beasties wandering about. I don't recall if they are social or not, but I do remember kiting some things through others. Might be a better place to tank/heal kill or even root rot.

People often recommend using the oldest zone you can find XP in that isn't a high-mob-HP Luclin zone (TSS and hotzones changed this equation) for 1-60 because the mobs are low hitpoints and hit limply for the most part. I remember Kael Drakkel being a hotzone and actually being pretty good for XPing in. Merc easily handles the giants as long as you don't pile them on. On progression, there have been times I have used a place like City of Mist well into light blue con range because the speed of steamrolling them meant more XP per hour than harder/riskier things. The Hole has been heavily used for years because of this.

I wonder if zones still have XP penalties and XP bonuses. I remember a list posted somewhere on the web years ago with very specific details about which zones were penalized and which were bonused. I also remember being surprised that Lake of Ill Omen had a significant penalty because I spent a lot of time there in the Kunark levelling up my toon---evidently, the hard way!

I'm not talking hot zone bonuses here. The zones themselves had "ZEM's" (Zone Experience Modifiers.)

Actually, this old EQ forum post has the list but those responding contend the list is defunct nowadays.

Check my link. That says NEGATIVE-14.3%, which was a darn big penalty.

The post is from 2013 but it's clear the list is from much earlier. Note it only goes up to Luclin and LoY. The next poster even comments:

That list is an extremely old list of ZEMs, dating from 2002 or earlier. Ignore it.

I go back to that era and I did spend a LOT of time in LOIO as did others. I SUSPECT EQ nerfed the XP in that zone expressedly to try to encourage players to go elsewhere and reduce the crowding in LOIO. This is all ancient history and I post this not in opposition but more as nostalgia. But I do have vivid memories of in-guild discussions on the topic of LOIO having an XP penalty way back in the days it was popular for levelling.

It's always hard to discern anecdotally if XP is fast or slow. Grouping in LOIO was easy because the zone was so busy and a fast-paced group can yield good xp even in a penalized zone. I've played on P99, which has heavy old school type XP penalties, and even there if you play in a capable group, get a good camp and have a good puller, the XP seems to "fly."

Actually since P99 uses the old files and tries to recreate those days as accurately as possible it might be interesting to check their forums for any ZEM discussions. I might do that when I find some time.

Please keep in mind I have no interest in arguing. This is more for curiosity's sake. Honestly, I only remember good experiences in LOIO so I agree with you there, even when I had to solo for lack of group.

ADDENDUM:

I did search the huge P99 forums and didn't find anything specific on LOIO. But they did remind me the reason Sony instituted ZEM's, or at least one reason, was because players were afraid to play in dungeons and the devs wanted to encourage more dungeon grouping. Hence they boosted XP for little-visited dungeons like Dalnir and reduced the XP for easily hunted open-world zones---like LOIO.




Edited, Nov 28th 2018 12:50pm by Sippin

For the Shaman if you plan on leveling alchemy try Sanctus Seru's perimeter hallway because the mobs in that hallway drop tons of autumn crocus.

Trivial 202
Distillate of Alacrity VII
Distillate of Clarity VII


http://www.eqtraders.com/search/reverse_recipe_search.php?item=7023&menustr=035000000000

Edited, Dec 9th 2018 2:21pm by Trappin