Post by Cinerith on Jan 1, 2007 23:51:32 GMT -6
This guide is for players who want to hit lv40 in less than a week and don't mind doing the same repetitive stuff till they have LDoN's landscape burned into their eyes and they want to cough blood. If you want to take your time and explore and don't want to any spoilers click the back button now.
The baby levels
Henchmen are free. Get a henchman. You gain less XP but your overall experience will be less painfull so you'll end up ahead.
Save money for Haste and physical resistance gear like Archer's/Swordsman's/Brawler's belt. AC is nice too if you can afford it but in Neverrandom Nights 19AC = 0AC to a mob with 1AB because the mobs cheat and roll 5 20s in a row. If exp in an area gets too low and you haven't reached the boss yet consider moving to the next area already.
When you get Haste and some physical resistances and decent AC try Arminath City. If you go splat the moment you enter stick around the lower level areas until you can do Arminath. Arminath is good because zombies are squishy and move slow and have terrible saves. Only thing to watch for are the crossbow archers who fire 1 bolt every 1000 years.
The mid levels
DO NOT ENTER THE LABYRINTH.
Try Miredeep Swamp and watch out for the stone gazes of the Bone Medusas. Take them out at long range with a bow or spells if you can. Also by this level you should be able to ditch that henchman.
When Miredeep becomes too easy farm Knieux Desert East because Dervish Captains drop shards and you get 2-4 per run so it's fast xp. Watch for Blade Barriers and get Slashing resist if you can.
The next stop after Knieux should be LDoN water dungeon. Get Bludgeoning resist and Death Magic Immunity. The water elementals there are slow and stupid and will willingly give you half their HP and let you wail on them while they swipe the air with their pathetic AB. Get as many greater magic weapon/darkfire/flame weapon/elemental enchantments on your weapon as you can and hack away at water elementals who should give 200+xp a pop. Stay there for as long as XP stays good which should be like a good 8+ levels or so. Mages should memorize Wail of the Banshee the moment they've farmed enough ellys to get the spell because it eats them for breakfast.
If you don't savvy that try Lunara or Temple of the Winds. To be honest I don't remember this part very well except that my cleric was using a rapier and a ton of cleric buffs and poking everything to little bitty pieces. Watch out for Acid Fog, Chain Lightning and Fear auras in Lunara South and the knockdown pulse of air elementals in Temple of the Winds.
Epic Levels
At level 18 if you have a decently good weapon go to the Great Glacer and swipe at the first Frost Giant you see. If you miss a lot run back to the portal and farm more elementals for money and XP. If not you can do the Glacier which is one of the funner areas in this level range. Get Cold resistance and Potions or Scrolls of the Restoration family along with a bunch of healing potions because you can't port back to the keep in there. For mages Confusion works very well on the Giants and Kasha's guardians who make up the majority of the mobs there. Some mobs are immune to mind spells tho. Rest in the corners of the map if you need to.
After the Glacier run try Paths of Damnation. Once you step out of the Village Lodge go to the North exit, then the East exit into the Paths of Disease. It's another area with stupid mobs who just lurch around and smack you and try to nail you with DC 13 Stinking Cloud. Paths is the first area that drops gear better than +5 so stick around till you're decently outfitted with +5s and +6s.
The only problematic mobs are Soldiers of Damnation who have high AC so if you have trouble hitting them drink a potion of invis and go farm some mobs in an easier area until you can hit them.
DON'T ENTER TOKAGE KOKETSU UNLESS YOU FANCY DYING A HORRIBLE DEATH.
High Epic Levels
When you hit lv27 or 28 go to Homeland and enter the Temple. Talk to the priest or whatsitcalled (he's the only guy in there afaik) and he'll give you a key to open the door to the crypt. The crypt is to the right of the temple entrance. As the name implies, crypt = undead. If you're a cleric or druid Mass Heal = gg undead. If you're a mage don't use reflex save spells because they have Improved Evasion. If you're melee their HP is low and you should have a weapon with elemental damages by now so it's no biggie even if they're crit immune. The main thing is being able to hit them reliably.
Mages and Clerics should stick around the Crypt for a while since they're pushovers and give good xp but melees especially those with Devastating Critical should move on to Homeland South. Slashing and Fire resist are good here since the majority of the mobs are longsword-wielding Fighter/Bard/RDDs. Mobs to watch out for are Zynos Priests who like to synchronize their Flame Strikes to drop half your HP bar in 1 shot.
Afaik Zynos has pretty good AC so don't bother with it unless you can hit it will or drop a million spells on it. You can effectively hit lv40 in Homeland or you can try Tokage or Celurin for better drops.
Tokage is the Ruby portal area which should really be in the Diamond portal with recommended level 35+. It has a variety of mobs including archers, dex monks, fighters and mages so don't go in unless you have good resists and AC, but the rare drops are level 22 items including +7 weapons with 2 or 3 damages on them (I forget) and the boss drops a cloak for casters so it's worth it if you can handle them. Even if you don't have a use for them you can sell them for money to upgrade your items at the forge. Getting +7 AC in all your slots should be a priority now if you intend to rely on AC to survive. Also, if you can afford it try to get +50 Discipline and +20 to all saves as well so that nothing will knock you down evar.
The moment you enter the Deep Forest of Celurin, Celurin Werewolves will try to zerg rush you. Get Sonic resistance and boost your fort saves and CON if you can so that their sonic howl attacks do 10 damage on you. For crowd control use Great Thunderclaps, Hammer of the Gods, Confusion and other Will save spells because these wolves are strong but stupid. If you don't have any of those options you should still be relatively safe if you stand in Expertise and/or use AC buffs. They have low AC so you should still be able to hit them fine with Expertise on.
Stay clear of the liches and try to make your way towards the temple at the northeast of the map. The liches are hax in so many ways it isn't funny but at least they die to Knockdown and you can sneak up on them too. If you can handle 2 liches at a time you'll be able to handle the whole area. When you get to the Underground Temple take the leftmost path to avoid the Librarians unless you're confident you can kill them before they kill you. This way the only Librarians you'll meet are the 1-2 spawn at the very end just before Dfangris. Use a bow to draw them out because if you're unlucky 2 librarians + 2 doggies + 1 archer + 1 leader = death unless you're uber beyond belief.
Legendary Levels
If you make it this far go to the Planes of Legend ie Serenia and talk to the Mithril Merchant. She sells some pretty good robes among other things. PoL is also the easiest LL area. Mobs to watch out for are Priestess of the Torrents, who come in groups of 3-5 and spam Maximized Ice Storms, and Storm Guard Elites aka dual wielding hammer using blackguards who can KD and sneak attack you to death before you know it.
Plane of Shadows should be easy as well. It's an undead dungeon so Mass Heal is your friend in here. I think one of the drops is a shield with 0% spell failure drops so mages and bards without autostill might want to look into that.
If you're feeling masochistic try Linoth'Mir or Botanica. One of the paths in Linoth has a reroller at the end and another leads to a boss fight that drops a good melee weapon at a pretty good rate (1 per run on average). Unlike most of the other areas on the server where 1 fighter = z0mg pwnz!1 it helps to have a caster along in these areas. As in really helps. As in totally avoid the situations where 6 scavengers are sitting there and the moment you walk up to the gates you eat 6 x 150 magical damage from seeker arrows and promptly die.
Disclaimer: I haven't played an untwinked character in ages so this guide might be full of BS. If you see BS in here tell me and I'll fix it.
The baby levels
Henchmen are free. Get a henchman. You gain less XP but your overall experience will be less painfull so you'll end up ahead.
Save money for Haste and physical resistance gear like Archer's/Swordsman's/Brawler's belt. AC is nice too if you can afford it but in Neverrandom Nights 19AC = 0AC to a mob with 1AB because the mobs cheat and roll 5 20s in a row. If exp in an area gets too low and you haven't reached the boss yet consider moving to the next area already.
When you get Haste and some physical resistances and decent AC try Arminath City. If you go splat the moment you enter stick around the lower level areas until you can do Arminath. Arminath is good because zombies are squishy and move slow and have terrible saves. Only thing to watch for are the crossbow archers who fire 1 bolt every 1000 years.
The mid levels
DO NOT ENTER THE LABYRINTH.
Try Miredeep Swamp and watch out for the stone gazes of the Bone Medusas. Take them out at long range with a bow or spells if you can. Also by this level you should be able to ditch that henchman.
When Miredeep becomes too easy farm Knieux Desert East because Dervish Captains drop shards and you get 2-4 per run so it's fast xp. Watch for Blade Barriers and get Slashing resist if you can.
The next stop after Knieux should be LDoN water dungeon. Get Bludgeoning resist and Death Magic Immunity. The water elementals there are slow and stupid and will willingly give you half their HP and let you wail on them while they swipe the air with their pathetic AB. Get as many greater magic weapon/darkfire/flame weapon/elemental enchantments on your weapon as you can and hack away at water elementals who should give 200+xp a pop. Stay there for as long as XP stays good which should be like a good 8+ levels or so. Mages should memorize Wail of the Banshee the moment they've farmed enough ellys to get the spell because it eats them for breakfast.
If you don't savvy that try Lunara or Temple of the Winds. To be honest I don't remember this part very well except that my cleric was using a rapier and a ton of cleric buffs and poking everything to little bitty pieces. Watch out for Acid Fog, Chain Lightning and Fear auras in Lunara South and the knockdown pulse of air elementals in Temple of the Winds.
Epic Levels
At level 18 if you have a decently good weapon go to the Great Glacer and swipe at the first Frost Giant you see. If you miss a lot run back to the portal and farm more elementals for money and XP. If not you can do the Glacier which is one of the funner areas in this level range. Get Cold resistance and Potions or Scrolls of the Restoration family along with a bunch of healing potions because you can't port back to the keep in there. For mages Confusion works very well on the Giants and Kasha's guardians who make up the majority of the mobs there. Some mobs are immune to mind spells tho. Rest in the corners of the map if you need to.
After the Glacier run try Paths of Damnation. Once you step out of the Village Lodge go to the North exit, then the East exit into the Paths of Disease. It's another area with stupid mobs who just lurch around and smack you and try to nail you with DC 13 Stinking Cloud. Paths is the first area that drops gear better than +5 so stick around till you're decently outfitted with +5s and +6s.
The only problematic mobs are Soldiers of Damnation who have high AC so if you have trouble hitting them drink a potion of invis and go farm some mobs in an easier area until you can hit them.
DON'T ENTER TOKAGE KOKETSU UNLESS YOU FANCY DYING A HORRIBLE DEATH.
High Epic Levels
When you hit lv27 or 28 go to Homeland and enter the Temple. Talk to the priest or whatsitcalled (he's the only guy in there afaik) and he'll give you a key to open the door to the crypt. The crypt is to the right of the temple entrance. As the name implies, crypt = undead. If you're a cleric or druid Mass Heal = gg undead. If you're a mage don't use reflex save spells because they have Improved Evasion. If you're melee their HP is low and you should have a weapon with elemental damages by now so it's no biggie even if they're crit immune. The main thing is being able to hit them reliably.
Mages and Clerics should stick around the Crypt for a while since they're pushovers and give good xp but melees especially those with Devastating Critical should move on to Homeland South. Slashing and Fire resist are good here since the majority of the mobs are longsword-wielding Fighter/Bard/RDDs. Mobs to watch out for are Zynos Priests who like to synchronize their Flame Strikes to drop half your HP bar in 1 shot.
Afaik Zynos has pretty good AC so don't bother with it unless you can hit it will or drop a million spells on it. You can effectively hit lv40 in Homeland or you can try Tokage or Celurin for better drops.
Tokage is the Ruby portal area which should really be in the Diamond portal with recommended level 35+. It has a variety of mobs including archers, dex monks, fighters and mages so don't go in unless you have good resists and AC, but the rare drops are level 22 items including +7 weapons with 2 or 3 damages on them (I forget) and the boss drops a cloak for casters so it's worth it if you can handle them. Even if you don't have a use for them you can sell them for money to upgrade your items at the forge. Getting +7 AC in all your slots should be a priority now if you intend to rely on AC to survive. Also, if you can afford it try to get +50 Discipline and +20 to all saves as well so that nothing will knock you down evar.
The moment you enter the Deep Forest of Celurin, Celurin Werewolves will try to zerg rush you. Get Sonic resistance and boost your fort saves and CON if you can so that their sonic howl attacks do 10 damage on you. For crowd control use Great Thunderclaps, Hammer of the Gods, Confusion and other Will save spells because these wolves are strong but stupid. If you don't have any of those options you should still be relatively safe if you stand in Expertise and/or use AC buffs. They have low AC so you should still be able to hit them fine with Expertise on.
Stay clear of the liches and try to make your way towards the temple at the northeast of the map. The liches are hax in so many ways it isn't funny but at least they die to Knockdown and you can sneak up on them too. If you can handle 2 liches at a time you'll be able to handle the whole area. When you get to the Underground Temple take the leftmost path to avoid the Librarians unless you're confident you can kill them before they kill you. This way the only Librarians you'll meet are the 1-2 spawn at the very end just before Dfangris. Use a bow to draw them out because if you're unlucky 2 librarians + 2 doggies + 1 archer + 1 leader = death unless you're uber beyond belief.
Legendary Levels
If you make it this far go to the Planes of Legend ie Serenia and talk to the Mithril Merchant. She sells some pretty good robes among other things. PoL is also the easiest LL area. Mobs to watch out for are Priestess of the Torrents, who come in groups of 3-5 and spam Maximized Ice Storms, and Storm Guard Elites aka dual wielding hammer using blackguards who can KD and sneak attack you to death before you know it.
Plane of Shadows should be easy as well. It's an undead dungeon so Mass Heal is your friend in here. I think one of the drops is a shield with 0% spell failure drops so mages and bards without autostill might want to look into that.
If you're feeling masochistic try Linoth'Mir or Botanica. One of the paths in Linoth has a reroller at the end and another leads to a boss fight that drops a good melee weapon at a pretty good rate (1 per run on average). Unlike most of the other areas on the server where 1 fighter = z0mg pwnz!1 it helps to have a caster along in these areas. As in really helps. As in totally avoid the situations where 6 scavengers are sitting there and the moment you walk up to the gates you eat 6 x 150 magical damage from seeker arrows and promptly die.
Disclaimer: I haven't played an untwinked character in ages so this guide might be full of BS. If you see BS in here tell me and I'll fix it.