Enchanter 51+ solo/duo spots

[nordbear]

Hey!

Managed to get my enchanter to lvl 51 yesterday and are now looking for some inspiration on where to go next. I’m mainly looking for a dungeon that’s not overcrowded where I can solo or do the occasional duo/small group. Since this is my main it would be a plus if there are fine steel/gems drops or similar, but maybe all higher lvl dungeons got those? Places that I’m considering are:

CoM lvl 2
The hole
Lower Guk
Howling stones entrance (maybe I’m too low?)
Sol b

I got theft of thought so a place with casters would be fun, I guess that rules out CoM. Any pros/cons with the above spots or anyone could recommend some other place?

[commongood]

I've personally not done much in Lower Guk or Solb so won't comment on that.

CoM should be good solo or duo exp on ramparts. Not sure if 51 is pushing it a bit. It will also likely be fairly crowded.

The Hole might be good but for soloing I never had the gall to go past the entrance mobs as I didn't know the zone that well and dying is bound to happen. And entrance is often camped. You can, however, make a brell worshipper to corpse drag yourself and get out of most pickles.

Howling Stones - as I'm sure I won't be the only to point out - is pretty much enchanter and necro heaven for soloing/duoing. I'd say more than 50% of mobs in there can be ToT'd which is a great bonus and the exp is just very good. Bonus is you can use OT-hammer for easy access. 51 is not too low for entrance. Depending on gear and bravery you can even try sneaking your way into North. HS is often populated but from lvl 53 and beyond (you can do it now at 51 but it might be a struggle on crit lul resists) you can solo in entrance, basement and North and I found that there's often mobs left up in at least one of those spots. Also... you will die in HS. You will die a lot. But it's worth it.

[Beinen]

If you have the gall... the hole is awesome exp. The entrance is okay, but it gets better further down!

CoM 2nd floor probably your best bet honestly. You have a really safe bind on top of roof, the mobs are the same level as the HS basement mobs, and once you have the rooms broke its very easy to maintain. Also, it has the 3rd floor and typically plenty of mobs to go around. - Sometimes HS is camped and at 51 you only have a few choices.

HS basement exp is about the same as CoM 2nd floor. However, you make a mistake or two in HS and then you have a short(or sometimes long, difficult) CR.

I did L guk in my mid 40s and dont think it'll be great exp after 50.

I heard the bards in HK are good at 50, bloodgills can take you to 52 maybe and someone also once recommended to me the giants in BW.

[commongood]

You could also get a CotH to PoMischief once you hit 52 (you can do it at 51 but the mage will be sad when you get low level aggro and you will very, very likely die). Mobs in the forest are still decent exp at 52 and you can do rats in basement all the way to 60. Very good ZEM.

[Beinen]

Also, theres like parrots(i think are the right mob) in TD that are really good. Druid/enc snare/fear kite and theres a mob to charm that does major BS damage.

[Tecmos Deception]

Howling stones is perfect for a 51 chanter to solo, duo, or group. Make sure you've got theft of thought up at all times, unless you're literally only killing the entrance golems!

Watch my videos! Like half of them are in HS, lol. I started there at 50 maybe? Edit - nope, looks like 52 is my first video in HS. But the entrance is doable at 50 for sure, basement at 50 (or 52 if you want to be a bit more safe), north at 52 (or 54 if you want to be more safe) for solo. At 51 you could do north duo or group. West might be a bit nasty if you're not careful what all you try to mez, some of the stuff in there might resist a mez and come at you with a mean harmtouch.


Hole is too hard at 51 to go in past the entrance really. The level range of mobs is wide, so when solo or duo, you're going along fine and suddenly you're fighting a level 54 or some shit that you can hardly get slowed. But entrance is ok at 50ish, just be careful with the named mobs.

Upper floors of COM are ok. The zone is cool imo, bind in the middle, levitate all the time, fighting up in the air and whatnot. I'm not a big fan of solb or lguk. They're kinda more loot/farm zones than XP zones, especially if solo. They're busier too. Can be nice if you get a duo with a cleric though, camping efreeti or whatever, but 51 might be a bit low to do that.

[Beinen]

If Techmos said go to HS, then go to HS. Theres a lot of good information in his videos, i recommend watching them all from start to finish. Sometimes when i was watching i would learn something or a refresher on something and would write in notepad.

Side note; I think COM is a lot more popular now a days than when it was you made Noman's COM videos.

[pasi]

Howling Stones is a fine place as mentioned above. Anywhere with decent availability and caster mobs is good news.

I disliked CoM since there's minimal casters to drain from.

HHK Nobles is probably your best bet until 55, but it's also one of the best areas (delicious ZEM) for a lot of classes. Not always available.

King/Tactician on Live-side Guk was a good solo option that was pretty much always open pre-Velious. Doable at 50, but ToT makes it a lot easier. You should always have disease/poison cure potions on you, so the shaman mobs aren't very threatening. There's a zone-out 5 feet from the camp if shit goes bad.

Nothing crazy exp or money wise, but availability is good. When I was playing, Tiaras were 8k and Frog crowns were 1-2k. Looking at wiki now, it's more like 2k/700pp. You can make level 1 trolls to carry lore crowns if you care about the cash. If you really wanted, could probably kill pH for Froglok Summoner in Uguk as well.

[nordbear]

Thx a lot for the replies guys! I did 49 and 50 at HHK nobles in like 4 hours but I'm not sure that I can stand staring at that green wall for much longer..

Think I will go check out HS entrance if you think thats doable at 51 and maybe resort to CoM/HHK for a lvl or two if HS is too hard for some reason.

Do you guys have any tips regarding HS, like the best way to zone in, where I can sit and med by entrance and basement? I think Tecmos mentioned that you can sit on the top third north(?) stairs by entrance but I might be mistaken.

@Tecmos I watched most of your videos 2 or 3 times already, really enjoyed them and found them very educational, so thx for that :)

[Aaeriele]

There's also the ogre guards in neriak foreign quarter. IIRC there's 4-6 of them on a 6:40 respawn and the faction hits they give don't extend to anything else relevant.

[Tecmos Deception]

Thx a lot for the replies guys! I did 49 and 50 at HHK nobles in like 4 hours but I'm not sure that I can stand staring at that green wall for much longer..

Think I will go check out HS entrance if you think thats doable at 51 and maybe resort to CoM/HHK for a lvl or two if HS is too hard for some reason.

Do you guys have any tips regarding HS, like the best way to zone in, where I can sit and med by entrance and basement? I think Tecmos mentioned that you can sit on the top third north(?) stairs by entrance but I might be mistaken.

@Tecmos I watched most of your videos 2 or 3 times already, really enjoyed them and found them very educational, so thx for that :)

I zone into HS with bedlam+rune up, and while IVU (so you need to calm or kill or mez the scorpion sitting on the orb). That way, if there's 2 undead up, the most dangerous combo at the entrance because of two harmtouches, you don't get bothered at all. If you just move north immediately after zoning in, a lot of the time you won't even get aggrod if stuff is spawned and can see IVU.

You can't sit anywhere in the entrance area I don't think, without aggro, especially if you're not 60. They changed pathing up a bit. But with improved invis and knowing spawn timers, you can sit up near the golem spawn points pretty safely barring a train or something. Basement has a pretty safe spot too, where you'll see people sitting or corpses collected.

51 is certainly fine for the entrance, and basement too although be a bit more careful because the casters can be a pain compared to the golems. They're only like level 43-44ish, so you'll hardly see any resists at 51 after tash. I like to pull them with AOE mez cause they'll basically never resist even without tash, then tash and charm and root, use lower-level slow (languid pace is it?) to try to keep them even on HP so you can finish them both off with 1 cheap nuke at the end. Mind the east pather :)

[kjs86z]

You'll learn a lot soloing in HS. Tecmos pretty much summed it up.

Entrance for sure til comfy. When it feels stupid-easy, drop down. Once basement is mastered, head North (at 54).

Nice thing about HS is you'll have some opportunities to change things up and tag along w/ groups that are without an enchanter. Kinda acts as a way to give yourself a break from the tough soloing while still making the xp bar move.

[nordbear]

Thx for the replies guys! I did try HS for a bit yesterday and it sure feels doable at 51. Yesterday I was on a laptop with no mouse so it got a bit hairy though, hopefully it will be a bit easier on a regular PC.

Is it two roamers by the entrance and one on the east ledge? Yesterday there were two skellies there (both of them reminded me that harm touch is a thing) but I didn’t stay a around for that long to see them respawn.

[Aaeriele]

Yeah there's two mobs that circle around the entrance area.

Stay away from the East side - nothing good comes from hanging out over there. If the East roamer aggros on you, it will almost always result in a train from the rest of east (which you may not immediately know is coming - it takes a LONG time to path all the way through east and south before it just shows up later and wipes you).

If you aggro the east roamer, even if it seems like it initially shows up solo, mez it ASAP and then camp and wait a few minutes for your mez to wear off so that any and all aggro can reset. That's the only guaranteed way to avoid a sudden death later.

[commongood]

Also be aware that if you have a charmed pet standing on the east half of the platform, at level 51, your pet will aggro the east roamer once it roams out.

[Aaeriele]

Yeah. Basically if you're hanging around at entrance, just stay the heck away from east.

[enjchanter]

Yeah. Basically if you're hanging around at entrance, just stay the heck away from east.

Or charm it like a child of chaos and kill all of basement in one swoop !

[kjs86z]

K its time for a Howling Stones xp guild.

<Stay Away from East>

[Beinen]

Or charm it like a child of chaos and kill all of basement in one swoop !

At what level should one consider charming this(Hexbone, i believe)? closer to 58+?

[Baylan295]

At what level should one consider charming this(Hexbone, i believe)? closer to 58+?

Pretty sure charming that bad boy is purely a fun game. It doesn’t make much sense to charm it if you are doing anything at the ent/basement because suddenly you’ve added a summoning mob to whatever you’re killing. It will wreck ent and basement but will up the order of magnitude significantly. But it is bossy to destroy the basement with a single pet

[Beinen]

Naturally... however, one time someone told me to avoid sitting near east not to aggro him, unless of course you're a badass and charm him. Then i see the comment here, i was just wondering when people start to charm him. Also, is he really a good pet or just an easy to find because he paths so close to entrance and there are better things to charm?

[Baylan295]

Naturally... however, one time someone told me to avoid sitting near east not to aggro him, unless of course you're a badass and charm him. Then i see the comment here, i was just wondering when people start to charm him. Also, is he really a good pet or just an easy to find because he paths so close to entrance and there are better things to charm?

As far as I know he’s a generic East mob. He’s just nasty because he’s a random level 52-53 mob surrounded by level 44-46ish mobs (they go green around 57-58, but give XP to 60). The rest of entrance it’s actually very safe to sit in many places if you keep good timers and watch the center spawns. Probably some of the easiest XP for an enchanter level 51+ - but the East pather will absolutely wreck for a while, and you don’t have access to the charm spell I like to use when I’m dealing with summoning mobs (Boltran’s) nor the mana pool to really use it effectively until 58ish.

[kjs86z]

This might be super obvious, but remember to bind up on the cliff in OT above the entrance to HS. Don't push the limits, take your time, and if shit is going South just play it safe and gate.

When in doubt, gate out!

[Aaeriele]

When in doubt, gate out!

This this this. Corpse recovery in HS is so much more annoying than just breaking in again and getting a new pet.

(This is also a strong argument against using any kind of pet gear when you're getting started, and honestly even later on as well - using pet gear means you're invested in that particular pet, which means you're a lot more likely to make bad decisions in the name of trying to save your investment.)

[Baylan295]

This this this. Corpse recovery in HS is so much more annoying than just breaking in again and getting a new pet.

(This is also a strong argument against using any kind of pet gear when you're getting started, and honestly even later on as well - using pet gear means you're invested in that particular pet, which means you're a lot more likely to make bad decisions in the name of trying to save your investment.)

Follow up on this: be a good guy and don’t steal someone else’s pet kit if they die. They’re not thay expensive but are a pain in the ass to assemble. If they’re around, just return it. If not, save what you can for a day or two to help them rebuild.

I didn’t use anything but a torch to get all the way to 60.

[Tecmos Deception]

At what level should one consider charming this(Hexbone, i believe)? closer to 58+?

I wouldn't use a level 51+ pet to xp ever.

East trash mobs range from like 50-55 iirc, but they're usually 51-53. What the east pather is varies, level and mob type, potentially even a necromancer.

At 60 with tash, 50-51 charm easy, 52-53 generally aren't bad but when they break they do tend to mess you up a lot more than the <52 plus they have a decent chance to resist a stun or mez when you're trying to get thing sunder control again which is the real danger. 54+ (or is it 55? God, I haven't played in ages) stuff can't be charmed without dictate.


A cr in hs might not be a walk in the park, but I'd prefer tk do one there than in Seb or whatever. Double invis is great, easy to find just inside entrance for a clarity (cleric duo with enchanter and you can double invis each other with sunskin!) and protects you from all trash aggro in East, and all except some slimes/nameds in the rest of the dungeon. You can drag bodies out of wings from the tunnels sometimes. You can save keys on corpses inside the zone when you do die for future use. Etc.

When you're set up to solo/duo in a wing eventually, you can cultivate the mobs spawned between the wing entrance and your camp to all be undead (or live that don't see invisible, I guess) and not pull them any more, so that you can easily walk back into your corpse if you die.

[nordbear]

To continue the HS discussion, what would be the best way to farm cash while exping in here? I know the usual answer is “get to 60 and then farm cash” but for me it’s much more fun to kill stuff when I know I might get an item to drop or some decent vendor trash in the process.

[commongood]

To continue the HS discussion, what would be the best way to farm cash while exping in here? I know the usual answer is “get to 60 and then farm cash” but for me it’s much more fun to kill stuff when I know I might get an item to drop or some decent vendor trash in the process.

I'd honestly say North is where I'd go if my goal was to exp and have a chance at a bit of loot. The Sepulcher Spectre can drop the Adamantite Club which is easily the most valuable drop in North - think it's probably still a 3k item(?). While grinding through 54-57 I think I got like 3 or 4 clubs on my shaman, soloing. Each of the named in North (with the possible exception of Crypt Keeper but I'm not sure) can also (rarely) drop 55-58 spells. I've only ever gotten one to drop though (Talisman of the Snake, booo), but you could potentially get a Bedlam or whatever.

Other than that I don't think HS is really THAT great of a money spot if your main goal is to level. I guess get a group in South and you can get good drops but if your plan is to solo I wouldn't risk messing about in South until probably 58+ (Tecmos could weigh in better here) and if you haven't corpsed keys (something I can never be arsed to do) then a CR in South is much more of a pain in the ass than a CR in North.

Edit: I guess CR'ing doesn't have to be made into that dramatic a thing. If you can get a rogue to pick lock it or whatever. But I like being self-reliant and when I'm really exp'ing in North I will have my 60 necro camped out and if I die I can just log him on and solo a sperm for a key and run in and drag.

[Tecmos Deception]

Yeah, north has a handful of stuff off the nameds that will sell for a few hundred plat, plus the adamantite club. 51-54 spells drop like candy, but aren't too valuable. West drops are basically the same as north except for the last boss who has a couple items worth a few k, but they aren't his common items.

South is where you can start to make real money. It's not like it used to be, but there are a several drops worth like 300-500pp, the fingerbone hoop and steel-hilted flint dagger (rare but big drops), and 55+ spells sometimes.

East is like... probably about the same overall farm loot quality as south, except that it's harder because you'll usually have to use a 51+ pet and the nameds are tougher (one is even 56, and therefore immune to stun and mez... and is a shadowknight to boot so he likes to dot the shit out of your pet, which can make charm breaks extra challenging).


You don't need help getting through doors in HS. There's keeping keys on corpses (and being OCD about not letting them rot or logging with one on you). There's the stalking probe trick. There's getting summoned to the other side of a locked door. For CRs, keep cheap charisma gear and stalking probes and peridots and foot+water and stuff like that in your bank. If you absolutely need to do it solo, you can get that stuff from the outpost bank to do a CR yourself.

[Phenyo]

Yeah, north has a handful of stuff off the nameds that will sell for a few hundred plat, plus the adamantite club. 51-54 spells drop like candy, but aren't too valuable. West drops are basically the same as north except for the last boss who has a couple items worth a few k, but they aren't his common items.

South is where you can start to make real money. It's not like it used to be, but there are a several drops worth like 300-500pp, the fingerbone hoop and steel-hilted flint dagger (rare but big drops), and 55+ spells sometimes.

East is like... probably about the same overall farm loot quality as south, except that it's harder because you'll usually have to use a 51+ pet and the nameds are tougher (one is even 56, and therefore immune to stun and mez... and is a shadowknight to boot so he likes to dot the shit out of your pet, which can make charm breaks extra challenging).


You don't need help getting through doors in HS. There's keeping keys on corpses (and being OCD about not letting them rot or logging with one on you). There's the stalking probe trick. There's getting summoned to the other side of a locked door. For CRs, keep cheap charisma gear and stalking probes and peridots and foot+water and stuff like that in your bank. If you absolutely need to do it solo, you can get that stuff from the outpost bank to do a CR yourself.

new videos when?!

[nordbear]

I'd honestly say North is where I'd go if my goal was to exp and have a chance at a bit of loot. The Sepulcher Spectre can drop the Adamantite Club which is easily the most valuable drop in North - think it's probably still a 3k item(?). While grinding through 54-57 I think I got like 3 or 4 clubs on my shaman, soloing. Each of the named in North (with the possible exception of Crypt Keeper but I'm not sure) can also (rarely) drop 55-58 spells. I've only ever gotten one to drop though (Talisman of the Snake, booo), but you could potentially get a Bedlam or whatever.

Other than that I don't think HS is really THAT great of a money spot if your main goal is to level. I guess get a group in South and you can get good drops but if your plan is to solo I wouldn't risk messing about in South until probably 58+ (Tecmos could weigh in better here) and if you haven't corpsed keys (something I can never be arsed to do) then a CR in South is much more of a pain in the ass than a CR in North.

Edit: I guess CR'ing doesn't have to be made into that dramatic a thing. If you can get a rogue to pick lock it or whatever. But I like being self-reliant and when I'm really exp'ing in North I will have my 60 necro camped out and if I die I can just log him on and solo a sperm for a key and run in and drag.

Yeah, north has a handful of stuff off the nameds that will sell for a few hundred plat, plus the adamantite club. 51-54 spells drop like candy, but aren't too valuable. West drops are basically the same as north except for the last boss who has a couple items worth a few k, but they aren't his common items.

South is where you can start to make real money. It's not like it used to be, but there are a several drops worth like 300-500pp, the fingerbone hoop and steel-hilted flint dagger (rare but big drops), and 55+ spells sometimes.

East is like... probably about the same overall farm loot quality as south, except that it's harder because you'll usually have to use a 51+ pet and the nameds are tougher (one is even 56, and therefore immune to stun and mez... and is a shadowknight to boot so he likes to dot the shit out of your pet, which can make charm breaks extra challenging).


You don't need help getting through doors in HS. There's keeping keys on corpses (and being OCD about not letting them rot or logging with one on you). There's the stalking probe trick. There's getting summoned to the other side of a locked door. For CRs, keep cheap charisma gear and stalking probes and peridots and foot+water and stuff like that in your bank. If you absolutely need to do it solo, you can get that stuff from the outpost bank to do a CR yourself.

Thx for the info! North sounds like a solid option then, could even use one of those clubs for my monk.

Also manageg to get my hands on a copy of wandering mind. As far as I can tell it’s pretty damn good as long as there are stuff around to tap. Do you guy think it’s worth keeping memed (effectively giving me only 1 swap) or is it more of a nice to have when grouping?

[Baylan295]

Thx for the info! North sounds like a solid option then, could even use one of those clubs for my monk.

Also manageg to get my hands on a copy of wandering mind. As far as I can tell it’s pretty damn good as long as there are stuff around to tap. Do you guy think it’s worth keeping memed (effectively giving me only 1 swap) or is it more of a nice to have when grouping?

I found having only one swap to be really challenging until I got a VP charm staff (which most people will not have access to). Two, so you can keep charm up most of the time, was my preference.

[Aaeriele]

I don't consider charm to be a swap slot spell. >_>

[Baylan295]

I don't consider charm to be a swap slot spell. >_>

When I was doing non-summoning mobs it would get swapped for different sized nukes a lot at the end of a fight...

[Tecmos Deception]

I've rarely kept both tot and wm up, but it was only in groups where I didn't need to be slowing or tashing (sham for slow, grinding lower level stuff that didn't resist anyway), so I had room for using another slot permanently and wanted more Mana cause I was pulling a lot. Or when about to solo something I knew I'd need a ton of Mana for. Etc.

[kjs86z]

Charm definitely becomes a swap slot.

mez / aoe mez / stun 1 / stun 2 / tot are 100% on first 5 always

Last 3 are constantly changing between root, slow, tash, charm, buffs, bedlam, rune, invis, nuke, etc depending on whats going on.

disclaimer: i am average at best

[Baylan295]

Charm definitely becomes a swap slot.

mez / aoe mez / stun 1 / stun 2 / tot are 100% on first 5 always

Last 3 are constantly changing between root, slow, tash, charm, buffs, bedlam, rune, invis, nuke, etc depending on whats going on.

disclaimer: i am average at best

Always (well, almost always) root until you are dealing with summoning mobs. Then substitute for memblur.

[bwe]

What's a good level to start memming two stuns instead of one?

[Baylan295]

What's a good level to start memming two stuns instead of one?

Level 20, IMo, though one of the best encs I know regularly runs with just 1 stun. I used level 4 stun for almost my entire career because of the extremely short cast time. Only after I stared regularly using Boltran’s did I change, because level 20+ pbaoe stuns last long enough to recast Boltran’s with a GCD clickie.

[kjs86z]

I always run the 2 longer duration stuns.

Nice to have, especially on higher stuff where aoe mes resists are a thing. When I see more than one red resist message (myself) I just blast out a second stun....because ya just can't be too careful in those type of situations.

Also very helpful in scenarios where mobs can CH, gate, dispel, etc. I suppose you could spam mez to interrupt casts....but I always stun for some reason (I suppose it "feels" better).

[Izmael]

I spent several hours on at least two occasions with a level 53 east roamer as pet for duo exping in West, pretty sure it was at level 58 or 59.

We tried to get a sizeable sample to be able to draw conclusions, and the conclusions were: it's fun as hell, but the exp rate is slower than with a level 50 named pet.

If you push for the best exp rate (and at level 59 that's what people usually do), you get closer to the limits of what your team can possibly do - saving time on single pulls and just YOLO pulling 6 mobs (or 10), going for that named kill when you're only 50% mana, stuff like that.

Having such a high level pet in these conditions means that you will invariably end up CR'ing every once in a while. Even if you got HS CRs down to an artform, it still a long break in the exp flow, then you have to find/recharm the guy, rebreak all the pops, etc etc.

If you want the best exp in HS - get a level 50 pet and pimp him with the best proccing weapons you can afford to lose.


Also I wouldn't recommend going in HS as low as 50 or 51. You will probably ding 60 in HS. 10 levels is a lot of time to spend in one place. I would try some areas out of the beaten path places for a few levels, hell - why not even grouping with some noobs in KC for a level? It's an EQ classic after all and sometimes it can be refreshing to speak to people who aren't deeply hopeless EQ nerds. And then go to HS at 54 or 53.

Guk is still ok at 51, Sol B is as well.

[Aaeriele]

I generally only run one stun, using other options as backup plans for inopportune times (e.g. wand of allure etc). However this is more viable at 58+ when you have Fetter; before Fetter the longer casting time on earlier roots makes it more desirable to have fast-casting oh-shit buttons.

I don't generally run AOE mez except in a swap slot when initially breaking larger pulls.

[nordbear]

My current setup at 52 is swap/swap/mez/root/stun/stun/aoe mez/tot. 2 is most of the time charm and 1 is tash/nuke/buffs. Think it’s pretty solid so far, would be nice to have wandering mind up but will need experimenting in what to remove (if worth it at all).

Regarding stun, do you keep the lvl 4 memed? I always have color shift and skew but maybe it’s better with flux and skew to be able to get off a stun quicker?

[Tortok]

1) fetter
2) dazzle (root in when no stunnable mobs, e.g. Giants)
3) color slant
4) charm
8) Tash

5/6/7 depends
other mez (lvl4, dictate, low resist), aoe mez, both runes, ToT, Mana Sieve, Boon of the Garou, stuns, calm, blanket, buff swap ins...

[Hibbs]

I feel like I'm pretty set in my ways but I usually use something like

1) lv4 mez
2) AoE mez
3) Tash - swap slot - buffs and such
4) Root
5) Slow - swap slot - mosty lull
6)ToT
7)Aoe stun
8)Allure

Looking at it, it really looks like its a mess but we make it work pretty well lol
This is mostly what I've been using for soloing in HS