Well, the inquisitor reached level 70 yesterday, and it took about 10-11 hours (her time is posted on the left) an hour or two (maybe even more, but I’m just guessing roughly here) was spent in transit between my leveling areas, and putting things on the broker, and goofing off talking to friends. The rest was spent leveling. Yesterday I took Lithe (as my inquisitor is called on the Oasis server) through Vaults (Barren Sky), and to each of the islands in Kingdom of Sky (for the discoveries) and then finished up in Palace of the Awakened (which has a LOT of named and discovery in each room, especially on a server that barely has anyone playing the hours that I do). Sadly, it will probably take me at least another 12 hours if not more to make the 71-80 grind, as I have yet to find a way to do it ‘quickly’. One method that I’ll probably try (more for gaining shards in preparation of 80 and aa then experience) is to run through the TSO instances – at 75 she can start getting the shard quests, and at 79 she can get the daily double quest. Since almost every instance (minus the Guks and Fens) mentors to some degree it works out nicely.
Again, I wouldn’t suggest this method of leveling normally. It’s not ‘fun’ unless you’ve already done the content numerous times before and are just interested in preparing for the next expansion. It leaves your character without a lot of achievements, but as I’ve stated, that’s really not a concern of mine. I’m looking forward to having a level 80 healer (in specific) on Oasis again, since I have moved mine off (not that I regret moving them off, I just enjoy playing a healer). I should be able to gain enough shards to get a set of gear made by the time I reach 80, and then it will be time to work on my epic (which I don’t think I should have too many issues with) in time for Sentinel’s Fate.
I can still squeeze out a few levels before I have to do any quests, if I can help it, I want to avoid RoK quest grinding all together. I’ve got a few more KoS instances that I can do (Halls of Fate, and the other Bonemire instances) that should help a little. I’ve been out of vitality since day 1, so that makes things slower then I’d like, but they still move at a steady pace.
I suppose one of the ‘best’ things I like about leveling up in this manor is that I don’t have to dedicate a whole lot of time towards getting where I want to be. I see a lot of people upset that games don’t ‘start’ until you’re end game – and I want to state here and make sure people know that this is NOT the case for EQ2. There is constantly things to do at all levels and the only reason I am eager to reach the ‘end’ in leveling is because I’ve already done this 13 other times, and I want to prepare (yet another) character for Sentinel’s Fate in February. I think it’s important that people know there’s constant game play in EQ2, and it’s not all about the level 80 stuff that I tend to talk about on this web site. As a veteran player my views (and I have no shame in this) are biased.
I also managed to get a little World of Warcraft time in, as well as some LotRO which was quite fun. My hunter inched towards level 41 (and snagged it, after a friend ran me through Uldaman) and my minstrel is almost 27. Those seem to be my three ‘main’ games at the beginning of 2010, and it’s been going pretty well.
Today I plan on picking upĀ my ipod touch (32g) from the post office, and then hopefully I’ll be pestering friends for app suggestions (grins) and playing with that most of the day, maybe I’ll manage to squeeze some work in too I suppose. I hope everyone has a fantastic day no matter where you find yourself, and I’ll see you in Norrath!