Hi Everbody,

So I've really been focusing on grinding my halfling druid up. I've gone from 20 to 28 in about a week or so. My skills are staying up at or near cap for the level, the exceptions being melee & divination. 1HS is reasonable but below cap. 1HB is back in the 40s, 2HB pretty much doesn't exist.

I'd like to push up to 29 for greater healing then slow down and work on learning some techniques for the new spells I have. Some seem pretty straight forward and some look interesting. Also I haven't played with any of the animal spells yet so I plan on spending some quality time in Overthere or the Karanas to experiment and learn those. I've primarily been root rotting with some kiting & playing porcupine.

So what does this have to do with gear? I'd like to get some stuff that will grow with me. So far I'm in a mix of gear consisting of newbie armor from hometown quests (moss toe stuff), some bazaar stuff, and some stuff people have given me. I don't have magelo yet so bear with me.

Chest - Acrylia tunic
Sleeves - ulthork hide, moving to acrylia
Head - othmir fur cap (love this thing), switched to batfang headband when buffing
Feet - Cockatrice boots
Gloves - Moss toe
Back - kunzar cloak
shoulders - can't recall, i think i'm using the ghostly shroud from pok quests
ears - gunthak earring, wispglow earring
wrists - polished bone bracelet, gold electrum bracelet (or something like that)
neck - nothing major, enraged goblin beads i think
charm - tutorial kobold skull charm
primary - moss toe scimitar (hometown newbie weapon) with a coldain velium morning star to practce 1HB, and a groaning mace i'll steal off my shaman when I practice 2hb
secondary - crystalline eye
range - spiritweaver nexus (from tutorial)

I do have some of the planar opal encrusted steins when it comes to buying & selling, as well as a +cha bracelet

So far I've been focusing on +wis, +mana, or +hp as primary motivators. I'd like to start adding focus effects. I'd like to find some questable items but I like bargain shopping in the bazaar.

So, does it sound like I'm on the right track? Any glaring holes? Any suggested items I should be looking/questing for as I move into the 30's? When's a good time to start epics? I've made decent plat so far but I'm not rich by any stretch.

Thanks for looking and I appreciate any advice.

Saibbo on Stromm

Considering the amount of time it takes to PL a toon to mid 50s easily within a couple of days anymore, I think you may be spinning your wheels worrying about a gear plan for a level 30 toon.

Is this your main? Do you have any friends that you could get to PL you?

Thanks for the reply. Yes it's my main, I've only been playing 7 or 8 months and recently decided to focus on one character. I have a friend who could PL me but we have different schedules so it's not consistent. We've done a little bit of it but not much. I'm in a guild but there's rarely other people on these days (usually me & a trader). I think the others are on sleeper ATM. And I kind of like doing things the hard way at least once - I do want to experience EQ at all levels. I've been happy I've been able to get 1 or 2 levels a night soloing and keep my skills up. So I don't see a lot of options going the PL route at the moment. I do see some of my current gear getting a little dated as I progress into my thirties. As this is my first time going into these levels I was wondering what to keep an eye out for in terms of weapons, stats, focus effects & such. Of course I'm not adverse to a PL session if anybody is bored and has nothing to do, but I don't mind working it the hard way either.

Thanks

Just buy from bazaar. I suggest that you do two things:
a) search for +hit point gears that are cheap. Suppose you have +50 hit points for each piece, the total is 1000+.
b) search for gears that tribute for a lot of points. It's not easy to find out which ones are good deals since the tribute points are not shown in item information. Just ask around. If you get a good deal, for every plat you spend you get 10-20 tribute points. Dump the items to thr tribute master in your hometown.

Now use appropriate focus effects (to your level) from the tribute system. You probably want to use extended range, mana preservation, spell haste. If you are heavily into root-dot, add confliction efficiency and burning confliction. However since you are only level 28, you can still melee for a couple of levels.

If you decide to melee a bit, you need is a weapon that procs for more damage. Velium weapons (common drops from Velious mobs) are perfect for your purpose -- they proc a 16 point DD.

For hunting ground at level 28 -- why don't you go to the needlite camp in echo caverns ? That is the best place to train your melee skills.

Tribute on items can be found at Lucy.

http://lucy.allakhazam.com/

Type the name of the item in the Item Search field. Tribute amount will be in the details at the bottom.

For example, Acrylia Reinforced Tunic tributes for 1306.
erchant value is 2 pp 6 gp 0 sp 0 cp

<table class="spellview" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td class="spelllabel" width="20%">Item Type</td> <td width="30%">Armor</td> <td class="spelllabel" width="20%">Appearance</td> <td width="30%">Leather</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="spelllabel" width="20%">Tint</td> <td width="30%"><table width="100%"><tbody><tr><td bgcolor="#000000"></td></tr></tbody></table></td> <td class="spelllabel" width="20%">Color (RGB)</td> <td width="30%">0, 0, 0</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="spelllabel" width="20%">Stackable</td> <td width="30%">No</td> <td class="spelllabel" width="20%">Merchant Value</td> <td width="30%">2 pp 6 gp 0 sp 0 cp</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="spelllabel" width="20%">Tribute</td> <td width="30%">1306</td> <td class="spelllabel" width="20%">Source</td> <td width="30%">Live</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="spelllabel" width="20%">Updated</td> <td width="30%">2006-02-23 05:13:41</td> <td class="spelllabel" width="20%">Verified</td> <td width="30%">2006-07-23 10:30:26</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="spelllabel" width="20%">Link</td> <td width="30%">Allakhazam's Entry (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=8815)</td> <td class="spelllabel" width="20%">
</td> <td width="30%">
</td></tr></tbody></table>

Thanks for the reply. Yes it's my main, I've only been playing 7 or 8 months and recently decided to focus on one character. I have a friend who could PL me but we have different schedules so it's not consistent. We've done a little bit of it but not much. I'm in a guild but there's rarely other people on these days (usually me & a trader). I think the others are on sleeper ATM. And I kind of like doing things the hard way at least once - I do want to experience EQ at all levels. I've been happy I've been able to get 1 or 2 levels a night soloing and keep my skills up. So I don't see a lot of options going the PL route at the moment. I do see some of my current gear getting a little dated as I progress into my thirties. As this is my first time going into these levels I was wondering what to keep an eye out for in terms of weapons, stats, focus effects & such. Of course I'm not adverse to a PL session if anybody is bored and has nothing to do, but I don't mind working it the hard way either.

Thanks

well, even if you don't have the benefit of PLing, I'm not saying you should completely ignore your gear, but in this day and age in EQ, level 30 is a blip on the map. you'll be outgrowing gear like a toddler. I'd take a more progressive approach to gearing, and gear when you notice a great deal or oppurtunity on huge upgrades individually, rather than trying to assess an entire gear schematic all at once.

seriously, hit the hot zones, find whatever gear that comes your way and practice your kiting. you'll fly through the levels so fast it you won't even think twice about your gear until the 60s. when this happens, hit the DoN expansion and buy your upgrades from the vendors.

you could pretty much hang out in Overthere for a while...and once you make 40, assuming you have a bit of plat, you could start buying DoN expert gear. Even though it is attuneable, it is very affordable and has some decent stats for some of the slots that aren't very easy to fill.

For a hat, switch to a Scarred Browband...I think the bazus use those for toilet paper in WoS, cause they go for like 100 plat on the bazaar

Could also shrowd to a gobby and run the Slipgear quest...makes Kobold skull charm a beast with 60 HP/Mana and 20 to some stats...

If you need plat, you can port to SRo and farm the elite sand giants...track will give you an advantage there. I'm not sure off the top of my head what level they are, but hey...worth a shot at some point

Thanks everybody! Great information.

I ran to Thurgardin and bought a coldain velium morning star. haven't tried it yet since I'd like to max out 1HS first. Still getting a good workout with that stormreaper initiate scimitar, at least in terms of skillups. Sometime I even do double digit damage! :) Maybe I need to run over there again and grab a scimitar to play with. Might as well try to do some damage working on the skill ups.

Good point on the whole gear strategy thing. What I've been doing is experimenting with bazaar searches and seeing what turns up. If I see an item I try to watch it for a couple of days unless it seems like a good price. I'll keep doing the one off pieces until I get a bit higher.

Echo is a good suggestion, I haven't been there yet but I probably should try it out. I've been grouping in Overthere recently. Great experience, not so great for funds. Might do a little better soloing, plus I want my skills to stay concurrent with my levels.

I keep forgetting about tribute. Haven't played with it yet but I keep meaning too. Great, another thing to think about in terms of gear selection! :)

Thanks again everybody, I appreciate it!

BTW, almost 32 now.

Just wanted to update - thank you for the scarred browband recommendation. I found one last night in the bazaar dirt cheap. Well under 100p!! Nice upgrade for me.

Also picked up some bracers which add spell range & increased dot damage. Grabbed a mistletoe sickle as well, mainly for skillup practice. I'm getting close with my melee skill in 1HS and this is lower delay than my current.

I'm going to start experimenting with tribute stuff as well.

Thanks again.

Well, speaking of tribute and sickles :) .....

Sickles tribute for 1312 points, and can regularly be bought for 200-300pp in the bazaar. So that's another way to gain some tribute quickly.

Tat