Well part of the problem is pet classes.. make a lot of money.. so we have pretty good gear.. and once there's no more gear to get... and your alts get geared out...

You literally have nothing to do besides farm pet weapons and obscure resist gear. :)

I once grinded for in Sol B for something like 24-36 hours. I forget the exact time - I just know I missed two nights' sleep. I really wanted level 60. I collapsed for a 14-16 hour sleep the next day and never did that again. Ever.

I could see some mage or necro doing a giant grindfest - summoning the highest level pet possible, giving it overpowered weapons, and cranking out some massive exp with an overpowered pet.

Root sword on a fire pet returns better results than earth pet with mage DS. Rooting capabilites wind up being similar (pets proc weapons alot) but the damage output on fire pet DS + the damage from the sword put this combo over the top.

As a mage, gear isn't the highest of priorities. Sure a few more AC and a bit more mana is helpful, but it isn't going to make or break my toon. I don't claim to have the best gear ever, but at this point, any upgrade is going to come from raids or will cost some insane amount of plat. And with kunark right around the corner, I'm not in a spending sort of mood.

And I'm not really an "alt" kind of person. I have my main and that is who I play. And right now, I don't have a ton of play time, so I can't do the long farms with groups for the few items I could really use (like phinny's water pet focus staff).

And I'm at max xp. So what are my options for the hour or two I have to play? I could go fight people for seafuries (bleh), get a few hundred plat at IGs or specs (which I have been doing quite often, and kinda burnt out on), do tradeskills (dear god no!), or farm item_X to sell in EC. Or I could farm up some pet weaps that will actually improve my toon (in certain situations). I really hadn't thought much about pet weaps until I made this thread, so I've never farmed them, so it is something new and fun for me to do.

As for SHFD, it really depends on the situation and how cheap I find one for. Since it is ranger only, and not even that great for a ranger, I am guessing they will be pretty inexpensive. I could easily see myself using it for a day of grinding in Seb or something like that. Some day where I know I will be in one zone and will be on all day. If it procs for pets on this server, it is TOTALLY worth it. Or give pet one on a raid without massive AEs (aka, times when pets will actually live). Might be useful then.

As for the root sword. In classic, giving 2 of em to a fire pet is FAR FAR FAR superior to an earth pet with non-procing weaps. Not only does the root sword proc a root, but the spell does 50 damage. In classic, earth pet's root does 0 damage. And the best mage DS tops out at 25, whereas fire pet tops out at 43 (with torch I think). So you will see a massive difference in DPS, and the faster killing = less damage pet takes, completely negating earth pet's additional HP/AC.

In almost all situations, the increased DPS from the fire pet will negate the HP/AC advantage of earth pets. This changes once kunark hits, but for the next few weeks this how it is.

The respawn time on Fire giants is like 8 hours.

Didn't hunt Fire Giants.

Most LDCs are blue to 60.

I'm pretty sure he was using giant as an adjective not a noun.

Stun whips +SBDs are the way to go in classic for sure, but that dagger with the 400dd is looking very interesting :) Thanks for compiling that list Odeseus seems quite handy.

Oops, I definitely see why what I said was misleading. Yeah, adjective, not noun =)

Shameless bump by the OP.

Anyway, I did some camping this weekend in lower guk for the SBD and EBS. The patriarch spawned OFTEN for me. In roughly 8 hours split between 2 days I got him to pop 7 times and he dropped 4 swords and 3 sleeves. Very easy camp, but the only problem is that it is also kinda boring. And there really isn't any good sellable loot to speak of.

I spent roughly 5 hours in 2 different sessions at ass/sup camp. In those 5 hours I got 1 mask, 3 bags and 2 belts, but no SBD drops at all. This camp is harder, but the benefit is that you have a chance to cash in a bit on the belts if they drop. Similar to how you could camp for the Kirch Der Pavz or the Gnoll Hide Tome for a few extra plat while farming whips.

Might check out the Obsidian Shard next, or farm up some life tap whips to see if they make any difference at all (I personally have never used them).

Post necromancy:

http://wiki.project1999.org/index.php/Windetched_Staff
+
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=589

Both lore, but can be farmed in the same zone.
100dd proc and rng/rogue weaps so they're not worth crap.