Where does everyone level these days?

[Alenon]

Ive went through the guides and i leveled my main up in 2010, just helping some friends level and i noticed all the good ZEM zones seem to be always dead post 30. The only one i see with people in it is MM and that's just a shitshow. With velious out do people level elsewhere post 30's now? guk, solb, always seem empty aside from maybe efreeti or some farming.

[RDawg816]

Your best bet, if you want to hunt in cool places, is to build your own group. Make friends from 1 to 30 and then bring them to those places.

I've seen people LFG in SolA, LGuk, even The Hole. You can break the mold. You just have to want it bad enough.

As for me, I usually do UGuk>SolA>OT>DL/CoM with some variations thrown in based on class, time, etc. I generally avoid Unrest, Mistmoore, and KC like the plague. :)

[Jimjam]

SolA has increased in popularity these days.

[Sodors Finest Poster]

Velious dosn't change very much. It is not good exp. People stick to the same spots generally in Classic and Kunark.

The experience branch line which most engines travel is Oasis -> Mistmoore (Upper Guk) -> OT -> CoM (DL) -> Kornors -> Seb

Only the most unscrupulous people of Sodor ever purchase tickets to the Chardok Express.

[Speedi]

I leveled from 35-45 in sola, killing those clockwork gnomes. It was really good XP

[Daldaen]

From 1-55~ there isn't much reason to leave classic zones for EXP.

Kunark and Velious have bad EXP mods, and NPCs are harder at the same levels.

[Crawdad]

Velious has a few good spots for the right classes. Druids and Rangers in particular have more options thanks to more animal-friendly zones. Wizards and Druids get a few more quad-kiting spots that are excellent. Plenty of low-effort root rotting spots added for Necro and Shaman, though they didn't really need anything new.

You'll have to find a buddy/bring a friend to most Velious zones though. While leveling in Eastern Wastes I was usually the only person in zone not farming/questing for ring items/drops. Other zones like Wakening Lands will always have people factioning and soloing.

I've done 39-53 on my Druid mostly in Velious. Its a nice change of pace and most zones have a great feel to them. Just expect to find most people doing the cookie-cutter Oasis->MM->CoM->KC path to snoozeville.

[Jmcwrestling]

Cazic-Thule was a lot of fun when I was leveling my main. Would go there with a friend and farm his dark forge (?) pieces in the pyramid and got great concept till about 39.

Also - I miss lguk groups !

[fugazi]

Oasis/OT > Mistmoore > City of Mist > Karnors. Though to be honest, Mistmoore is fun if you're the puller at the castle entrance or courtyard, but other than that all of those zones are pure ass. A /who all soldunga should be the first thing you do when you get online, that place is amazing fun, xp and cash =)

Sadly the Crystal Caverns in the Eastern Wastes are usually deserted, /who all crystal doesn't list who's in that place and as such, you'd have to drag people there for a group. Tower of Frozen Shadows is a grind fest, but can be good fun if you got a few reliable friends. Kaesora is a hidden gem at 35-45, but don't tell anyone else about it! And Cazic-Thule at 28-35 at the alligators is hilarious if you got someone with harmony to pull. An endless amount of mobs with no casters? Yes please.

[bktroost]

Isn't there a LFG tool that takes away all these questions?

[thufir]

Your best bet, if you want to hunt in cool places, is to build your own group. Make friends from 1 to 30 and then bring them to those places.
This for sure. People stay on the pug route because nobody wants to lfg for too long, but if you byog you can go almost anywhere. Blackburrow, SolA, Dalnir, Kaesora, Kedge, The Hole - these are all dungeons that are off the beaten path and amazing xp (well, Blackburrow is only good if you can turn in those fangs, so either get a druid to help you or be a good/neutral race).

If you join a leveling guild you can frequently get together a group in guild for this kind of thing, or at least the nucleus of one. Learn the zones, give everyone a taste of success, and people will be lining up to join you for future runs.

If you really want to just go solo and lfg, being patient enough sometimes gets results. I found on my journey up that the tank scarcity will let random groups form around you sometimes, even in really out of the way places like Permafrost. I think that depends on your class more than anything though.

[Spyder73]

Isn't there a LFG tool that takes away all these questions?

Looking for group for the first 2 hours of a 3 hour play session is classic. GTFO

[Jimjam]

A good way to find groups is /who all x y

(where x and y are the lowest and highest levels you are interested in grouping with).

This will result in showing all non-anon players in this level range and where they currently are. If you see someone in a zone you would be interested in XPing in, shoot them a tell and ask if you can join them / if they can do a LFP check in zone.

[blondeattk]

solb doesnt have a high zem....its just bit higher than ave.

sola, kaesora, kedge keep upper guk are the highest zem zones.

unrest and lower guk have problems with pathing atmo.

generally look for zones without casters in, as they are broke and dont behave in classic manner.

[kjs86z]

Yeah it's pretty much:

Crushbone ---> Oasis --> UGuk --> MM --> OT --> CoM --> KC

[mr_jon3s]

Your best bet, if you want to hunt in cool places, is to build your own group. Make friends from 1 to 30 and then bring them to those places.:)

I tried doing this when I first started playing. I noticed you would level with this group then 1 person would get busy for a couple days, another would get a couple days off and level with randoms. By the time everyone logged on you would have one guy in his teens, another in his twenties, couple that play together always in the thirties, and the one guy who grinded to 50. Or people would just quit.

[Nerrp]

What class are you?

[bktroost]

A good way to find groups is /who all x y

(where x and y are the lowest and highest levels you are interested in grouping with).

This will result in showing all non-anon players in this level range and where they currently are. If you see someone in a zone you would be interested in XPing in, shoot them a tell and ask if you can join them / if they can do a LFP check in zone.

yeah but there is a tool out there that someone made that allows you to skip that process and just see who is lfg correctly. Server doesn't do /who all lfg well anymore.

[fugazi]

generally look for zones without casters in, as they are broke and dont behave in classic manner.

This is true. Wizard mobs will happily blast you with the highest level spells available - something that certainly wasn't the case on live. It can be an advantage if you got a certain setup (anything with reliable stuns and while facing blue cons, charm), but in general it is one massive 'fuck you' to the player if you bother to face these bro's.

My ranger actually died today because of that, because a lvl29 wizard used Thunder Shock on him and blew him off the cliff at the Mistmoore castle entrance x'D

[Lunababy]

Oasis is great for teens to twenties, although slightly slow, it is extremely safe. Unrest isn't super dangerous for the same level range but the exp is out of this world like cats on a moon!!!

30s-40s I can easily recommend Overthere. It is the Oasis of that level range.

40+ City of Mist is nice (solo or group) and endgame 50+ Howling Stones is great but very intimidating.

[thufir]

I tried doing this when I first started playing. I noticed you would level with this group then 1 person would get busy for a couple days, another would get a couple days off and level with randoms. By the time everyone logged on you would have one guy in his teens, another in his twenties, couple that play together always in the thirties, and the one guy who grinded to 50. Or people would just quit.

Yeah, unless you guys try hard to stay with each other, that's how it will work out. I actually got a group of people I had just met on the server to stay with me for a long time, but around 40 we all tapered off. (I made a new static later with RL buddies and that has worked out more consistently.)

Leveling guilds are more reliable for this. You'll have a wider pool of people to draw from.