Now that I've started playing again, I was going through my druid's bank the other day and saw all the pieces for my Epic 1.0 sitting there with dust on them... I'd have to look to make sure, but I think I was just 2-3 kills away from getting my epic when I quit (needed Venril, and the frog in Swamp of No Hope I think, maybe 1 other).

I'd like to finish this off, just to pay off all the time I spent on it back when the epic quests went live, plus it'll clear out some bank space :) With the higher levels and better gear now, are the tougher fights for the 1.0 quest solo'able? At what level can it be done?

Welcome back, Kerech!

Venril is solable today, perhaps as soon as level 70. Before that his lifetap will make him very hard to kill. With a merc it should be quite easy actually.

The frog is a joke, he hits for 200 or so. The problem is, he runs when low on health and is (nearly) immune to magic - very hard to snare him. Fire sometimes lands on him. He is extremely resistent against spells, so you will have to make him die to thorns and/or mellee.

Good luck!

The Venril part should be fairly easy with the resistent veteran reward, his lifetap will land rarely. He will not proc as much as regular Venril. Fay is fairly easy as well with veteran reward, just keep in belly range, stick some dots on him before he runs. On the positive side all the attunable Sof and Sod gear should really help in the hitpoint, mana, resist department. Also defiant gear will help you out.

Thanks guys :)

Ulump wasn't as resistant as I had heard. I was expecting total immunity, but...

[Sat Nov 09 21:40:20 2002] You begin casting Drones of Doom.
[Sat Nov 09 21:40:20 2002] Your Elder Spiritist's Vambraces begins to glow.
[Sat Nov 09 21:40:28 2002] Ulump Pujluk is engulfed by a swarm.

[Sat Nov 09 21:40:50 2002] You begin casting Hand of Ro.
[Sat Nov 09 21:40:54 2002] Your target resisted the Hand of Ro spell.

[Sat Nov 09 21:41:00 2002] You begin casting Winged Death.
[Sat Nov 09 21:41:05 2002] Your target resisted the Winged Death spell.

[Sat Nov 09 21:41:16 2002] You begin casting Hand of Ro.
[Sat Nov 09 21:41:20 2002] Your target resisted the Hand of Ro spell.

[Sat Nov 09 21:41:53 2002] You begin casting Winged Death.
[Sat Nov 09 21:41:58 2002] Ulump Pujluk is engulfed by a swarm of deadly insects.

[Sat Nov 09 21:42:16 2002] You begin casting Hand of Ro.
[Sat Nov 09 21:42:20 2002] Ulump Pujluk is immolated by blazing flames.

[Sat Nov 09 21:42:44 2002] You begin casting Ensnare.
[Sat Nov 09 21:42:46 2002] Your target resisted the Ensnare spell.

[Sat Nov 09 21:42:52 2002] You begin casting Ensnare.
[Sat Nov 09 21:42:54 2002] Your target resisted the Ensnare spell.

So, with Mala in place (-35 to resists), I landed:
2/3 magic based dots (magic -100)
1/3 Hand of Ro (fire -200)
0/2 Ensnare (magic unmodified)

If you plan to solo Ulump, try your magic based dots. (If you've reached level 71, try Fernspur too, at least until Ulump starts to run.)

So 70 is probably the earliest solo? What about dual-boxed with a melee class, each with mercs?

I'd heard that magic-based DoTs might land on Ulump - I already had a note to try that :)

Actually, a tank merc would probably make the Ulump fight trivial well before level 70, come to think of it.

I would say Ulump at around 50-55 ish with tank merc. Almost like doing tantor at 60 as a duo, or an elysian.

I'm starting to think this could be almost easy... I made a level 51 druid on Mayong, just so I could start out with all my spells and decent gear (Khieran on Cazic is broke and woefully underequipped).

Last night I took a tank merc and went to City of Mist and killed Black Reavers with just me and the merc. It was a cakewalk, even with the Reavers conning yellow. 4 Reavers killed and I got my Jade Reaver.

I remember back when Khieran did this part of the quest my guild took 2 full groups into City of Mist to kill these things, and we even wiped once on an overpull. Last night I had 6 fog/mist golems plus a Reaver beating on my merc at one time and we lived.

Got about 1Kpp in loot, plus nearly 2 full levels, plus my Jade Reaver in about 2 hours. This is great :)

After about 6 hours total (including almost an hour foraging), my new druid on Mayong is pretty much at the same spot Khieran was in the epic quest after months of frustration. Just need a couple more corrupted mobs, Venril and Ulump and I'm done.

Ok, Ulump is down. 53 druid + tank merc = dead frog - I was still 50% mana at the end :)

Those higher skill caps, as well as the gear higher hp/mana with all the extra mods, focus, and augs make it a cake walk, lol. Remember how much back in the day superior healing would heal for.... -10%. That tank merc in beta was just overpowering at low levels, it would outdamage even the best geared twinks and stuff, out mitigate them as well. The values were set to an Npc and reflected more like the ld paladins back in the day when they would go crazy. I really felt bad for Pallies back in the day, during really rough events we would make them /q out, so, they would beat all kinds of booty. The tank mercs abilities in relation to players goes away at the high end though. Also, back in the day +wis gear was all you needed, lol.

Well, 8 years after I started the quest... Khieran finally wields the Nature Walker's Scimitar!! :)

Killed Ulump with merc. Killed VS and Faydedar with merc + boxed 56 monk/cleric merc. Fights weren't even close.

Now to finish off my Monk's 1.0... then start on 1.5 :)

Grats, man!!!!

Now you have your very own leafblower :)

Tat

Thanks :)

I put it to good use. Did some LDoNs and got to level 61 :) This is certainly a different game than when I last played. Mercs make a huge difference for someone with a work schedule that only allows hit-and-miss solo'ing.

Congratulations!

Congrats on the Epic 1.0
I have been playing and leaving EQ since October 1999, I created my Druid in March 2000 and he is only level 69. Besides years of breaks, there were the alts.
I find Epic 1.5 very frustrating. I tried for it this year. The event in Frontier Mountains drove me nuts when i tried to track the correct NPC's. I failed the event and gave up. Some guy let me loot a Fabled Bone Handled Scimitar earlier this year, and so I felt a little better.
BUT as a Druid I wish the event was more doable.