[Necro] XP Camps for Fast Leveling (30s)

[zaneosak]

Hey everybody.

I posted a month or so back about necro solo spots and got a ton of suggestions and also cross referenced them with guides on the wiki and stuff. I tried pretty much all of them and found some of my own but the main reason for my post is to try to figure out why some camps are so highly rated, where I found the XP to be just awful.

I ended up just opening up the ZEM and using that to go from 29 to 33, most of my levels are from Highkeep Guards and Unrest basement/tower. The XP is just absolutely insane, 2% a kill, sometimes 3% a kill, undead also seem to have low hp.

I tried the famous Misty Thickey guards at 30, 31 and 32. I am not really counting lvl 30 much cuz of the hell level factor. But I can't figure out why this camp is so highly regarded unless its purely about the plat making aspect. The XP is just bad to me. 1% a kill , 1.5% for Asler (the higher level one) at lvl 32. They also seem to have higher resists which makes me have to wait for mana more.

I guess the main point of my post is do you guys think there is any zones with bad ZEM (outdoor zone) that can out perform a high ZEM zone like Highkeep or Unrest or Upper guk based on something like .... more mob availability, less risk of death, less down time, faster respawn etc. etc.


I know these factors must be what makes outdoor zones attractive versus flat out high XP rate zones. I'm close to 34 so I was hoping I could move to something new, but I am going for speed more than anything and it seems like Undead Tower in Unrest or Highkeep guards are just impossible to beat for Max XP gain. I'd love to hear any ideas for something else though.

The closest thing I have found is maybe Overthere by the Skyfire ramp. I did about 25% in maybe 90-100 mins, but I had POTG from a druid and was killing yellows... so that won't be normal. I am guessing with 34 Lich and the mobs being blue/white I will be able to kill extremely fast there, so I think that might be the ticket (just spit balling here)

Anyway -- just wanted to start a discussion about these different aspects of the many camps in the game at this level range. One thing that is true -- no matter how populated HK or Unrest or any high pop zone is --- as a solo class there is always something to kill off the beaten path.

[Haghar]

Ocean of Tears Erollosi (sp?) sisters is mediocre exp until 34-35 but you absolutely cannot beat the money.

Once you're high enough (34-35?) you can solo the hag tower in Unrest and it is hands down the best exp in the game at that level for a solo necro. Hags will carry you to 40 if you choose, although it can often be camped which is unfortunate as there isn't much else around Unrest.

If you have the balls, Kaesora church area is also good exp, followed by Lower Guk dead side by Sage/Cavalier/Executioner once you hit your low 40s.

TLDR - Dungeons!!! You're a Necro, go into a hole and use that high ZEM.

[Qtip]

Synthrax in field of bone til 38 and then kaesora ramp/church area til 45. At that point move to Lguk

[Asap]

+1 for Kaesora. I'm pretty sure i stayed there from 38-46. Start in the tunnel that leads to the library. There's 5 static mobs and 1 roamer. Once you get the hang of it and a few levels, you can start to pull mobs around the library. The only issue here is the Warders are clerics and will cast GH. I found it best to break charm, undead fear or ST, and finish off. The undead nuke takes to long to cast and the warder will GH itself before it lands. These undead drop plenty of FS, gems, Truesilver (which can vendor for several 100pp), the weight reduction bag, and the 2hs sword that vendors for like 350pp as well. I'm pretty sure I was getting 2% per kill as well.

Once you're in your low 40's you can move to the church. There's usually someone there camping Xalgoz but they never mind if you pull the mobs around the PH. You can also get your fang while you're here. I'm pretty sure I picked up around 20 lifetap sticks while I was here and chanters will buy them up np at 50pp each. The experience slows down 46+ but you could probably stay till 50 if you wanted.

Imo every necro should run through kaesora, at least for a few levels, to get used to charming. Outside fear kiting is painfully slow and boring, and it will not prep you for HS when it comes time. One piece of advice I can give should you take this route is to keep root refreshed all the time. It's definitely unreliable before you get PE at 49.

[Pezy]

Curious what your pre-root strategy for HK guards is?

[zaneosak]

Curious what your pre-root strategy for HK guards is?

Just depends on my level.... but the fact that it is usually camped up the wazoo makes it really easy to fear kite in there. There are risks of respawns at bad times or if snare runs out it runs downstairs and pulls the bank area and you die. The XP was so fast I ignored the risks.

I usually sit in the safe hall in the back (first left after vendor) and pull either the first room with the 6 min respawn guard and the one that starts with "L" to the corner of the safe hall, cast fear, and they usually come back before aggro'ing others.

You can do this with the 2 front guards, the one near vendor and the one heading towards the back steps. You have to avoid the one across from vendor because he's 3-4 levels higher. Just use screaming terror / FD to split if needed.

Once you are around 28 you can do all the guards on the first floor. Again - split with Screaming terror. Once you get the Dooming Darkness snare, the higher slow % stops them from going upstairs or basement.

IF you are too scared to fear kite, you can just use 1 DoT + Pet + Spirit Tap tank them. You go thru 50% of your mana but its still 3% a kill.

[Topgunben]

Halfling guards are really good exp in misty. Once you are able to break the gate you can kill 5 guards every 6 minutes. 4 guards at the gate and one more in the tower. To get the guard in the tower, climb a little ways up the hill and start clicking at the top of the tower until you select the guard. Send your pet in and then pull the guard back. This will save you loads of time and help you avoid Ella foodcrafter. Spears sell for 10pp each and you can sell them in misty through the window at the top of fools gold. Just make sure you are in skeleton form.

Specters in oasis and feerrott are also really good. Probably some of the best exp you can get.

[Stroboo]

In West Freeport, under the arena there are 2 lvl 35 human mobs on a 6:30 timer and another that walks the ring around the arena itself. They drop FS all the time. Great exp/pp camp for the level if you don’t mind the faction hits

[thebutthat]

I liked Crystal Caverns. 30-34 kill orcs at the top of the cavern. 34-39 kill the terrors just past the little dwarf area, 39-44 kill geo's if you dont plan on getting the Phenocyst crystal thing.

[zaneosak]

Halfling guards are really good exp in misty. Once you are able to break the gate you can kill 5 guards every 6 minutes. 4 guards at the gate and one more in the tower. To get the guard in the tower, climb a little ways up the hill and start clicking at the top of the tower until you select the guard. Send your pet in and then pull the guard back. This will save you loads of time and help you avoid Ella foodcrafter. Spears sell for 10pp each and you can sell them in misty through the window at the top of fools gold. Just make sure you are in skeleton form.

Specters in oasis and feerrott are also really good. Probably some of the best exp you can get.

So in your opinion, the lack of bonus experience thru ZEM in these zones does not effect the speed of XP gain because of faster spawns? I did AC in Upper Guk and killed the 5 frog spawns (usually 3 green 2 blue) in addition to the 2-4 AC crocs that are all blue. That XP just seems insane because of the Modifier.

I will try Misty again, it seemed just bad at 31-32-33 , but maybe since I am higher now, I can kill faster and have less resists and in turn gain more XP over time.

[zaneosak]

I liked Crystal Caverns. 30-34 kill orcs at the top of the cavern. 34-39 kill the terrors just past the little dwarf area, 39-44 kill geo's if you dont plan on getting the Phenocyst crystal thing.

Going to try this. Can you invis all the way to the terror area? I am lvl 35 at the moment. I have only been there on my cleric very little so I dont know it super well.

[Canelek]

Going to try this. Can you invis all the way to the terror area? I am lvl 35 at the moment. I have only been there on my cleric very little so I dont know it super well.

Yes, you can invis there no problem at all. You'll also be dubious in the town, just like everyone.

Careful though. Those tentacles hit hard! They have fewer hitpoints than geos though.

Orcs->Spiders->Terrors->Geonids as far as difficulty in my experience.

[Vigilance]

Where'd you guys go in your 20s? I just hit level 20 on my Necro and got the pet (which for some reason is only sold in Paineel/Oggok/Grobb so it was a pain in the ass to get).

I tried Aviak Guards at 19 but they were too much for the level 16 pet to tank. One fear resist would spell trouble, and it seemed to happen a lot. Maybe I'd fare better at level 20 though with the new pet. However, the other problem with them is it seemed like three different people were trying to camp it when I first showed up there, so I imagine that spot is taken a lot.

I'm a human out in the Qeynos area. I've been grinding on Scarecrows in West Karana and that might even be doable for another level since they're probably still blue cons. But I dunno necessarily where to go next.

[zaneosak]

Where'd you guys go in your 20s? I just hit level 20 on my Necro and got the pet (which for some reason is only sold in Paineel/Oggok/Grobb so it was a pain in the ass to get).

I tried Aviak Guards at 19 but they were too much for the level 16 pet to tank. One fear resist would spell trouble, and it seemed to happen a lot. Maybe I'd fare better at level 20 though with the new pet. However, the other problem with them is it seemed like three different people were trying to camp it when I first showed up there, so I imagine that spot is taken a lot.

I'm a human out in the Qeynos area. I've been grinding on Scarecrows in West Karana and that might even be doable for another level since they're probably still blue cons. But I dunno necessarily where to go next.

I hate to say it because it gets so boring so fast but Unrest is the name of the game. I am not sure if you are a twink or have any plat to spend but buy the spell "Hungry Earth" it is level 16, usually sells around 100pp cuz it's rare and very useful.

It's undead only root -- works in Unrest beautifully. You can literally Root+Dot solo anything blue or white or even yellow (if you dont get resists). Send pet at 60% , back him off if he gets in trouble.

The root is like 30 mana so you can keep them rooted forever. Unrest XP is insane and it does get crowded and boring. The only other places I did in my 20s were random Kunark mobs (I am Iksar not Human) and Ocean of Tears has a garg island with very good XP and plat, it is often camped though. Undead root is not necessary here, plenty of room to fear.

[Vigilance]

I hate to say it because it gets so boring so fast but Unrest is the name of the game. I am not sure if you are a twink or have any plat to spend but buy the spell "Hungry Earth" it is level 16, usually sells around 100pp cuz it's rare and very useful.

It's undead only root -- works in Unrest beautifully. You can literally Root+Dot solo anything blue or white or even yellow (if you dont get resists). Send pet at 60% , back him off if he gets in trouble.

The root is like 30 mana so you can keep them rooted forever. Unrest XP is insane and it does get crowded and boring. The only other places I did in my 20s were random Kunark mobs (I am Iksar not Human) and Ocean of Tears has a garg island with very good XP and plat, it is often camped though. Undead root is not necessary here, plenty of room to fear.

Yeah I actually managed to research Hungry Earth. I got lucky and found the mats as I was leveling. I'm not a twink. All I have is cloth lol. Doesn't much matter since Necros can do well naked.

Unrest does sound interesting given the insane xp modifier. My worry was that it would be like you said - crowded. I'm also not sure where to go in there at 20. I assume the yard trash would be mostly green at that point? But going inside...are there even safe spots to solo pull? I read about people doing Unrest at my level but I'm always curious how they solo it given the pulls inside aren't easy to do unless you're like in Tower or something but Tower is more late 20s than early.

[zaneosak]

Yeah I actually managed to research Hungry Earth. I got lucky and found the mats as I was leveling. I'm not a twink. All I have is cloth lol. Doesn't much matter since Necros can do well naked.

Unrest does sound interesting given the insane xp modifier. My worry was that it would be like you said - crowded. I'm also not sure where to go in there at 20. I assume the yard trash would be mostly green at that point? But going inside...are there even safe spots to solo pull? I read about people doing Unrest at my level but I'm always curious how they solo it given the pulls inside aren't easy to do unless you're like in Tower or something but Tower is more late 20s than early.

I am trying to remember what I did at 20, but I just root rotted anywhere I could find honestly. Eventually you will be able to break the fireplace but people get cranky if you try to hold it solo, because there is so many groups.

I am pretty sure at 20 the back room underneath the tower on the first floor is still blue. I camped the back hall between that room and the large side door. I pulled that back room down that hallway, using undead lull and root rotted in that hall. I killed those 3-4 in the back room, the ghoul in the cubby, the skeleton by big side door and there is another cubby behind MR nearby.

If it is a full spawn, I lull pulled the back room referenced above outside towards the water near gazebo to break. Sometimes the bugs annoyingly add but your pet should be able to take them down since they are green.

[Haghar]

A good spot for a solo necro from ~19-22 is the sub-basement of Kurns tower, assuming you didn't tank your Burynai faction. The ZEM there is insane and there are enough dark blue skeleton spawns down there to keep you busy. Also zone line close by if things go South. Hard to sustain more than 1-2 people down there though without killing Burynai, which I don't recommend.

[Karthil]

If your goal is to level as fast as possible per kill taking advantage of high ZEMs, then dungeons with undead will be your best bet (Unrest > Kaesora > Lguk > Howling Stones).

These places also require more inventive strategies for leveling (you'll be charming most of the time).

People like things like Misty Thicket, Specters, and city guards because they provide good xp that becomes great because of how quickly they spawn and the relative safety of the camps. They also tend to have consistent drops that sell for more than Fine Steel (which is what you'll mostly be making money off of in dungeons until higher levels).

Some of it just comes down to where you want to be and how you like to play the class. If you want to fear kite, then dungeons are going to be tricky. If you like charming, they're pretty much the only place to go.

Good luck!

[Psyqo]

I just hit 33 yesterday. Once I get Beguile Undead at 34 do I immediately switch to that charm spell, or am I ok using Dominate Undead for a few more levels?

[Pyrion]

A nice area for around level 20 is east karana, if you like open spaces. Gorge hounds are below 20 and crag spiders go up to 21 i think. They drop a ton of silk, a bonus if you intend to tailor.

For a very relaxed camp do the hermit in south karana. 2 minute spawn time with a chance for an FS weapon about every third spawn. The hermit is an exactly level 20 ranger, no variation.

[Lysander]

I just hit 33 yesterday. Once I get Beguile Undead at 34 do I immediately switch to that charm spell, or am I ok using Dominate Undead for a few more levels?

Higher level spells provide no benefit, only higher level mobs that are able to be charmed. Unless you're charming mobs higher than level 32, you don't need to switch and can save your mana.

[Psyqo]

Higher level spells provide no benefit, only higher level mobs that are able to be charmed. Unless you're charming mobs higher than level 32, you don't need to switch and can save your mana.

Perfect, that's what I was hoping for, thanks!

What I need to try next is keeping a good charmed mob for a longer length of time. I've usually just been charming mob 1 to kill mob 2, leaving mob 1 with ~5% health. I then break charm and finish off mob 1. I'm wondering if it is worth it to keep a pet healed, buffed and equipped with weapons to tackle multiple other mobs.

[zaneosak]

Perfect, that's what I was hoping for, thanks!

What I need to try next is keeping a good charmed mob for a longer length of time. I've usually just been charming mob 1 to kill mob 2, leaving mob 1 with ~5% health. I then break charm and finish off mob 1. I'm wondering if it is worth it to keep a pet healed, buffed and equipped with weapons to tackle multiple other mobs.

I am on a break lately but I have been 34-40 in Kaesora with my Necro and I've never healed a pet ever, it's far too much work and most of the time you can get away with both mobs being even health, if your pet is dying way faster than the other mob, just throw a dot on it. Sometimes you get bad luck but generally, your method is perfect, assuming you are breaking charm with invis on yourself to make sure you get full XP from mob 2. I dont have a circlet of shadows so sometimes when trying to invis break myself when the mob is 5% I mis-time it and it dies anyways and I only get 1/2 the XP, with practice and staying in the same area with same mobs you will memorize the general damage patterns for each mob type though.

Good luck.