New Druid Advice from the experts

[Jimjam]

Originally Posted by DeathsSilkyMist [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I've been trying to tell Loramin this for pages now. You can get XP and Plat. You don't need to stop XPing and do plat farming exclusively.

You keep mentioning Warrens. As this is a new druid thread I just want to mention it has a green colour leather armour (soft wicker) which some untwinked druids may appreciate the appearance of.

[bcbrown]

Originally Posted by Jimjam [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Perhaps i should rephrase my question/ if xping exclusively in plat rich locations then by what level do you (or any other posters) estimate the druid will have saved enough pp for a ggr?

I was able to afford a lumi staff at level 46. Looking at the pitiful gear on the magelo of that druid at 52, I probably spent about 2k on other gear and subsidized alts to the tune of maybe another 3k. I luckily wrote down where I mostly leveled:

0-10: Misty Thicket
10-12: North Ro
13-19: Nybright Sisters
19-28: Gargoyles
29-32: Warslik Woods, Forest Giants and Brutes
32-40: CT gator alley

Until CT those are decently good plat spots, but I definitely didn't have enough for a ring at 32. I'd estimate 35-45 depending on how singleminded you are about maximizing plat camps and how much other gear you buy.

The problem with trying to grind for cash to get a ring early is that you'll miss out on a lot of the fun charm camps from 20-40. For a self-found charming druid I'd recommend embracing the poverty and charming up through CT gators, spend your 40s grinding for plat, then moving back to charming in the low 50s.

[kjs86z2]

is porting for money not good anymore? not enough people playing?

[loramin]

Originally Posted by Jimjam [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I wouldn’t agree it is no plat. Targ shields, finely crafted weapons, sarnak treasures, gems and cat tusks should drop while fighting in the area which is enough to cover the spells and consumables. Obviously doesn’t compare to gargoyles though.

@Loramin, I didn’t mean stop XPing to farm plat, i meant focus on plat rich xp mobs like wisps (which also are huge xp thanks to the GLS quests) and move on as you outlevel them (eg to gargoyle island).

Perhaps i should rephrase my question/ if xping exclusively in plat rich locations then by what level do you (or any other posters) estimate the druid will have saved enough pp for a ggr?

I'll repeat: as a rule, I believe that farming plat/gear as a low-level character is a bad idea.The lower-level toon spends the exact same amount of time, only to get a small fraction of the plat a higher-level toon would. That plat won't help you level faster, because all you can get with "dozens of plat" is a few more stat points. It's a waste time.

But again, rules have exceptions. Most people farm plat for JBoots well before 60, and they're not wrong to do so: the plat farming time will be made up for by the reduced travel time. Likewise, a Mage with a focus item or Shaman with an epic (from their guild) can use those items to save more leveling time than it took to acquire them.

But with the ring, you're not even losing anything (other than the dozens of plat a level 20 can farm), because you'd be doing the exact same thing (killing mobs for XP) anywhere else.

The only difference between a Druid that goes to LOIO at 17, and kills until they get a ring, vs. a Druid that goes to the Warrens (or anywhere else) is that the latter will have dozens more plat, and maybe some minor gear or faction (which, again, a high level character can farm much more easily) ... while the former will have a ring that helps them level faster for 25 or so levels.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Originally Posted by bcbrown [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I was able to afford a lumi staff at level 46.

I'm glad to see you took the XP + Plat leveling path for the most part, and was able to afford a Lumi Staff at 46. That is why I suggest doing that path.

Originally Posted by kjs86z2 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

is porting for money not good anymore? not enough people playing?

I'd imagine you could make decent money. I don't see a lot of DaP on Blue these days, so there should be less competition if you focused on porting. Less people looking for ports though with lower pops.

Originally Posted by loramin [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The only difference between a Druid that goes to LOIO at 17, and kills until they get a ring, vs. a Druid that goes to the Warrens (or anywhere else) is that the latter will have dozens more plat, and maybe some minor gear or faction (which, again, a high level character can farm much more easily) ... while the former will have a ring that helps them level faster for 25 or so levels.

I wouldn't make it sound like everybody gets a Goblin Ring who camps it while leveling. They don't. If Goblin Ring was as common as you claim, it wouldn't be worth 5-6k in 2025 after 10+ years of people farming it. Everybody would have one as the leveled from 12-24, which would drive down the price.

Originally Posted by Jimjam [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

My mage did that camp from like 12 to 24 and saw plenty of couriers but no ring. Seeing bloodstone rings in inventories gives me ptsd.

[loramin]

Originally Posted by kjs86z2 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

is porting for money not good anymore? not enough people playing?

It's the same as it's always been I think. But Druids can't even start porting until level 29, and even then they only have five ports;it won't be until 44 that they get all the rest.

So yes, a Druid could level without the ring to say 34, turn down a bunch of customers that they can't port, but still port enough so that ... after hours and hours of just porting and not really playing the game ... they could eventually afford to buy the ring, and use it from 34-45.

OR ... they could kill stuff for XP at 17+, get the ring for free, and then benefit for not just ten levels, but twenty or more.

[loramin]

Originally Posted by DeathsSilkyMist [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I wouldn't make it sound like everybody gets a Ring who camps it while leveling. They don't. If Goblin Ring was as common as you claim, it wouldn't be worth 5-6k in 2025 after 10+ years of people farming it. Evetybody would have one as the leveled from 12-24.

Random chances are what this game is all about. If something is rare you kill a mob a lot to get it, and if it's ultra rare you kill a whole hell of a lot. That's EQ.

Here's the truth: if you go to LOIO at 17, kill until you don't get XP anymore, and then farm greens for a few hours after that, the odds that you will acquire the ring are very high.

You might well get it even without having to kill any greens! But if you do have to kill greens for a few hours, the amount of time the ring will save you in the next 20+ levels will more than make up for it.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Originally Posted by loramin [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Here's the truth: if you go to LOIO at 17, kill until you don't get XP anymore, and then farm greens for a few hours after that, the odds that you will acquire the ring are high. You might even get it without having to kill any greens! But even if you do have to kill greens for a few hours, the amount of time the ring will save you in the next 20+ levels will more than make up for it.

This is probably incorrect. Again, if Goblin Ring was that easy to get, it wouldn't be worth 5-6k in 2025 after 10+ years of farming. Everyone would have one for cheap. That's how the economy works. I'll trust the prices over a simple claim.

[bcbrown]

Originally Posted by DeathsSilkyMist [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I'm glad to see you took the XP + Plat leveling path for the most part, and was able to afford a Lumi Staff at 46. That is why I suggest doing that path.

Yes, I did, and I regretted it so much I moved to green, rerolled a new druid, and charmed straight through from 20-40. I've tried it both ways and especially if someone specifically wants to roll a druid in order to charm, they should... level by charming and not worry about money.

Originally Posted by kjs86z2 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

is porting for money not good anymore? not enough people playing?

Ah right, forgot about porting. I was trying to think where I made my money on that druid and it wasn't adding up. Pretty sure at least half of 40-46 was in CoM, and that couldn't have netted more than a couple thousand. I must have made several thousand porting, maybe as much as half of that toon's lifetime earnings of ~10k. I just looked up the thread I made about porting and your advice there, like usual, was spot on:

Originally Posted by Toxigen [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Bind at "Hammer Hill" in Overthere.

Make a /ooc macro advertising ports. Try to get a potg or C2 (gift of pure thought while you're underleveled) from a friendly 60 druid or enc.

Keep leveling in OT (root rot/nuke is pretty good with big boy buffs, but I highly recommend charming animals). Hit that /ooc port macro every so often. Eventually hit level 44 (will probably have to venture elsewhere as it'll green out...I highly recommend charming in gator pits in CT), get Cobalt Scar port. Stop there and port for cash and stack dem chips til you're able to fund your first alt with a full set of twink gear.

[loramin]

How long will it take a low-level Druid (without a ring) to level from 17-22 ... ten hours? The wiki reports list nine players who got their ring in under ten hours, and the majority got it in five hours or less. The less lucky ones needed 6, 8.5, 10.5, 18, or 50+ (!) hours, and there are also reports (all ten hours or less) where no ring was acquired.

The right thing to do would be to put all those reports into a table and do some math ... although that would still be flawed, because some reports are for single spawn points, and some (most?) are for the double spawn. Instead, since there seems to be roughly the same number of ring/no ring cases, let's just double the time of the ring cases. Now it's 10 hours or less for the majority, but the unlucky ones will need 12, 13.6, 21, 36, or 100+ hours.

In other words, most will get the ring while they're still getting XP, and if they stick around a few hours longer, even the 12/13.6 guy will get a ring before they leave. But, if you are that unlucky person who needs 100+ hours, you will level out of LOIO long before acquiring a ring. Like everything in EQ, it's a chance.

Still ... even in that worst case scenario, all you lost by going to LOIO was a minuscule amount of plat (I can't believe the plat drop difference between LOIO and Warrens is that significant), and a similarly small amount of faction (remember, a high level character can clear the Warrens in about half an hour, so at most it will take them maybe an hour to match the guy who leveled from there 17-22).