I always wanted to reach ‘end game’ in World of Warcraft. I’ve got so many ‘max’ level characters in EQ2 that it always surprised me that I didn’t have any in the only other game I’ve played for as long as I have, which is WoW. My priest has slowly been inching her way towards 80 – and I do mean inch. From 71+ the best way to gain experience seems to be through doing quests (remember I have no heirloom gear to provide bonuses) and I’m just not a great quest person. Sure, I get in my moods where I’ll want to do nothing but quest, but for the most part I find them boring and tedious. Especially if you spend a few hours doing nothing BUT grinding quests.
By the end of the night the priest managed to clutch onto level 76 – which means just ONE more level and I can finally purchase the skill I need to fly in Northrend. Excited? YES I am. Flying makes things so much easier.
I spent most of my time questing in Dragonblight and Zul’Drak with Manos, though I was sure to pick up at least one random dungeon for the day to get my two tokens. I completed Ahn’kahet: The Old Kingdom, as well as Drak’Tharon Keep. It was my first time in each instance, and they went pretty well. I also picked up a few upgrades which is always nice. Healing is a little easier now, and instances don’t bother me quite as much as they once would have. I still don’t know what to do for every encounter but I’ll learn as I go along. That’s one of the downsides to still being relatively ‘new’ to the game. I don’t have the faintest idea about tactics for a lot of places. Thankfully I do pride myself on being a good healer, and that has gotten me by in most cases. I make sure that I’m stocked up on mana potions, food that increases my buffs, and potions that may help me out. I pay close attention to both the health bars as well as what’s going on in front of me because as I’ve been learning a lot of damage is avoidable if you simply move out of the way. Hard to know when to move if you’re not looking at the screen. This is almost refreshing, as EQ2 requires me to pay attention to little more then health bars and detriment windows. I don’t have to physically move too many places to avoid spikes jabbing me or missiles flying at me and the like.
One thing that I’ve noticed, and even WoW can not escape from it – is the running involved in every quest. Zul’Drak is HORRIBLE for this. I’m working under cover for the scourge, and it requires running from the NPC quest giver, to the scourge base, doing quests there, and running back. Basically back and forth between the two places which are a relatively good distance apart (and remember, I can’t fly) popping on a disguise and making sure it doesn’t fall off while I’m talking to the other side. The story is fun, and I’m not finding the quests themselves too annoying but the traveling between the two points is something I could do without.
I’m hoping today I can climb my way to level 77, and then it’s just three more to go. We’ll just have to see. Until later, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!
Star you’re right, questing is the way to go after 70. I was (with XP boosts) doing 1 level/day grinding dungeons, I got that up to 3/day (and yes, this is in the 70s level range) by switching to questing.
Really? I find that I get about 10% xp for one dungeon, if that. It’s much faster (and profitable) for me to quest my way through then grind dungeons. But maybe that’s just me. There’s no down time for me between dungeons that’s true (I play a priest, always a spot available) but it’s incredibly slow going for xp.
Actually, Dungeons are probably the best way I have found to level up. Course, if you do it that way, you’ll end up skipping some of the really cool quest chains and story lines, but with the Looking for Dungeon cue, getting into an dungeon is pretty easy.