The Spirit Realm

First off, again, thank you to the group for providing such good info and advice. I started playing in 2001 and took several years off after Planes of Power, returning this year. I am now lvl 80 with 600 AAs and have a lot of gear from the special lower guk/blackburrow instances. My problem was an absence of augments, which I have not remedied thanks to this group. As an aside, with the advice from this group I was able to solo with a healing merch the aug camps in the lower zones and then, in turn, DSH (Dungore - with a group), MPG (Blind Hunter -- rare mob, but easy), RSS (both camps -- fun and challenging and I had some help along the way), Deadbone Reef (Gali -- very long camp), Valdehome (Royal Crypt Guard -- died here a few times and finally got lucky) and Dreadspire (Student -- again had some help along the way, and solo I died/ran for my life several times when I pulled three dogs -- chuckle). Next on my list is a return trip to Valdehome for the rare aug and a return visit to Ashengate for the Crest of the Scarlet Legion (I didn't get too far into the zone last time). I do not plan on even attempting to camp Alex for Stonewarden. Am I missing any a paladin of my level with a merch should have and can get solo?

Now that I have my aug spots filled with at least 20ac augs (except my charm), I have a few questions.

When do I start replacing my 20ac augs from RSS? Specifically, I have the new hotzone augs: 10ac/80hme and 10ac/45hm, should either or both replace my 20ac augs from RSS? I group when I can, but spend a lot of time soloing with a healing merch. According to eqplayers, my max HPs are 22,040 and ac is 3498 (although it is higher when I use a shield and when I use SoT).

Any advice would be appreciate and thank you again for what you have all built here.

Good hunting.

Justinious

Off the top of my head you are missing the DoD instance - illsalin enforcer medal easy for you to do with a friend and the FC ac aug.

I personally would recommend keeping the 20AC augs until you can get something bigger than that for AC. Your HP doesn't seem to be hurting much at all, so I wouldn't be as concerned about the additional 80hp, but you AC does need some work.

One of the problems with the groupable gear is that the HP is usually quite good, but lacking on the AC end of the spectrum. That remains true with the SoD gear I've seen so far. It would be helpful to see a setup of your gear, making a quick magelo would allow for some more in-depth suggestions for your gear. I would work on the task aug out of Oceangreen Hills. Its a little lengthy, but you can probably solo most of it with a merc, just stay careful on your pulls and pull everything to a wall to avoid adds. You will also see some rank 2 spells along the way and might even pick up a few for yourself.

Post a magelo profile and I can give you a lot of ideas.

15 with avoidance would also pass. I can think of two of those off the top of my head.

So far I've been able to do all the Ocean green tasks for the aug with just me and my Merc with the exception of the BB tasks. The undead reavers spaced in with the normal gnolls make moving thru the zone difficult and many of the camps are difficult to single pull and mobs run making it tougher on a pally. Still need a few of the later unlocked tasks due to horrible drop rates on the bone dust for tabron and a couple other of hte collect quests.

Following up on my prior question on when to replace my 20ac augments and where I should go to upgrade, many asked for my Magelo. I didnt' have one, now I do. Here it is: http://eq.magelo.com/profile/1415094.

Again, I primarily solo because my play time is irregular. I started Justinious in 2001, took off a few years after Planes of Power and came back early last Fall. I have used this forum's "one group AC aug post" and soloed those that I could, but have yet to tackle FC or Ashengate (I don't think I'll be soloing those) or the mission augs (The Last Migration quest is the top of my list). I am not flagged for Crystallos and doubt I will get that done.

Any advice on where I should focus my upgrades (for augs specifically, but gear if you see anything) would be great. I am working on the Oceangreen Hills augment quest line.

Good hunting and thanks.

Justinious

When i see your Mageolo, what make me cry its your avoidance and your shielding then your AC.

Its sad to see the poor shielding/Avoidance on SoF/SoD/Lguk armor pieces and thats why i dont want to use these 'crap' like i love to call them.

Now about AC augments, you can find a list somewhere here...Frostcrypt augment, Crystallos augments, Guardian Augments and the new augment rewards in OceanGreen/Kithicor are all very good and you can solo some of them.

You really have 3 options when it comes to your visible slots, and all three are going to require grouping with others to accomplish them.

1) Cultural + bazu/LB - This will net you the 2nd most total hp, the most ac, and the least heroics (but not too far off on the heroics that matter most) - shyra is obviously the easy target for bazu's, and at 80-85, is exceedingly easy, but like any possible target, no mercs can be used, you will also have to shell out the most cash to make this unless you are a tradeskiller than can make the parts yourself

2) SoF Tier3/4 gear - This will net you the least ac, the second most heroics, and the least hp - if you can get crystallos keyed and get a couple of friends to dedicate some time to farm cores and then camp crystallos, this would be the fastest route to gear probably, you also get the bonus of being able to camp some ac augs at various stops along the way

3) SoD gear - This will net you the second most ac, the most hp, and the most heroics - but the mods are horrible and will require careful planning on accessory gear and probably sacrificing some ac augs for avoidance augs - the bonus with this, is its more current and probably a lot easier to get people to camp the stuff with you, because people are already camping the stuff - its also the cheapest - BUT, you'd have to level to 85 to take advantage of most of the good gear and you're aa exp rate will suffer greatly if you are soloing anywhere for aa exp

You pretty much need to pick one path and work on it, mixing and matching will waste your time, and there really isn't any bazaar options or dropped single piece gear to replace any of that with. I'd suggest doing SoD gear, grinding whatever aa you think are essential to get, then grind to 85.

For augs though, here's the suggestions:

1) Blessed Shard (Yxxta) This one is only if you ever get a piece of slot 8 gear or SOE wises up and gets rid of the 7/8 distinction, very easy, you + merc could kill the lizard and insect probably

2) Mechanic Guardian augs - Fragment of Heavy Steamwork Plating - random drop from ANY mob in zone, you can easily solo the lower levels with you + merc healer, as its random, it might take awhile, but its something you can do by yourself, Colepotera Mechanical Beetle Eye - this drops from a named on the top floor, and you'd pretty much need a couple people to camp it with you with your gear level , BUT, its really solid experience in a fully group, so make a group, kill the whole top floor, and hope the fragment aug drops from a random mob while camping the other ac aug

3) Bayle's Heraldic Crest + Blood of the Fallen - both of these are solid quest augs, and are not hard to do, just take awhile, but you get faction for the new expansion which you need anyway

4) Fabled Fire Idol - don't worry about this now, but keep it in mind, because when fabled comes around, you might still could use it and its super easy, just can take some people awhile to have it dropped

5) Crest of the Scarlet Legion - if you're smart, you might could do this with just you + cleric merc, but get a friend to help so you don't have to worry, this is the ashengate aug - the mob is like, 10 mobs from zone in, and there is no reason not to camp it

6) Forged Frosteel Ingot - This aug is even easier to camp than the ashengate one, break the camp and just camp it till it drops

7) Illslan Enforcer Medal - Very easy to do now, pretty much a joke, just grab some people and run through the mission quick, its an autoreward, so don't even have to rely on the rng

SoD augs - the 30 ac augs from kaesora you'd probably need to be leaching in a group pretty much, but you can probably get in a group camping FoS and get the two 25 ac augs there, which have good hp on them.

I'd work on those as you can, stuff like geartop and sparkbolt will require a lot meatier tank than you, but if you can get a good group there, you can get steam cores for crystallos visible gear.

Varuun's Battlehardened Targe
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO TRADE
Slot: SECONDARY
AC: 122
STR: +25+5 DEX: +35+3 STA: +9+3 CHA: +25+2 WIS: +31+4 INT: +25+2 AGI: +23+4 HP: +730 MANA: +705 ENDUR: +705
SV FIRE: +29 SV DISEASE: +34 SV COLD: +28 SV MAGIC: +20 SV POISON: +19
Combat Effects: +4 Spell Shield: +1% Avoidance: +3 Accuracy: +4 Stun Resist: +2% Strikethrough: +2% Attack: +15 HP Regen: +1 Mana Regeneration: +3 Damage Shield: +2 Clairvoyance: 4 Spell Dmg: 3 Dmg Shld Mit: 1 Heal Amount: 1
Required level of 85.
WT: 10.6 Size: LARGE
Class: PAL RNG SHD BRD BST
Race: ALL
Slot 1, Type 7 (General: Group)
Slot 2, Type 3 (General: Spell Effect)


I have the same shield, and Im purely guessing, that with the Heroic stats this shield isnt that bad. Heroic (Dex = AVD, and AGI = AC I have seen some parses that 1 Heroic AGI = 5 to 10AC) I think, and would seriously consider replacing mine.

(especially since Sanghor is 23 over cap avoid)

the lguk gear is a starting place, you would be better served to use the warped steel and core/essence it (or go with the new sod stuff)... that route actually takes a bit of work and although people scoff at it I know a warrior geeked out in the crystallos visible armor mixed with SoD non visible and she eclipses 4k ac and 30k hp, while I know a knight won't hit those exact kind of numbers- it doesn't mean that it is straight up impossible. A little less lazy and a little more effort goes a long way. Posting questions is a good start and working to knock out the ac augs is on point. Rerolling a toon because you want to be able to tank 800 hp gear and bypass working for real stats is laughable. I agree that bazu/lastblood is an awesome route to go because I still wear that stuff and my ac is by no means slacking- switching the gear around to maximize focii has been a pain but that is besides the point. I sympathize over the shielding situation but knowledge is power, if you are low on shielding try running circle of drakes with a few friends for the +shielding aug, do the same with anguish runs you can gain 6-7 shielding that way. When you do snag those augs feel free to go with the new SoD shield for the higher ac. The thing that amuses me most about people who are die hard on sticking to the group route because they would rather not raid is the idea that their gear should be on par with raid gear. If you raided the high end you'd realize that even with the beefed stats that allow a raider to easily tank group gear he doesn't need he gets his ass handed to him just the same tanking the content that is relevant to him. There is no "easy" mob to tank when you are tanking stuff relevant to your game play, in both situations the mob needs to be slowed and you need to be healed. If you could easily tank stuff you'd get bored really fast, try throwing on some raid gear and then tanking for a set of groupers. After about 20 minutes it gets old because you have nothing that you are working for, and the challenge of avoiding death is missing and you end up playing games of how many mobs can I pull and actually survive. That challenge, I consider to be the driving force in eq. There is nothing better than to be the last one standing when you should have died- when the mob purples you and you stand back up and LoH yourself. Or back in the old days when you were scared of running through Kithicor at night- that stuff is what makes memories. Just consider the named mobs in blood field as an equivalent to offtanking high end raid stuff, a high end raid that you beat your head against a wall for 2 weeks to figure out the script. The stumbling block of such content drives the challenge to beat it. I'd rather try 100X to kill a named and fail because it was difficult, then to camp an easy item for 30 hours because the mob isn't hard to kill but its drop rate is retarded. Unless you are pulling out all your tricks and clicks that you have worked "hard" to get... you're just gonna get bitch slapped until you actually have those aa and clickies available.

For fun look at the shields from TSS and compare it ot the + shielding in SoD. Since they are trying to make the weapons equivalent I think it is a proper comparison

Shield of Fire and Fury
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO TRADE
Slot: SECONDARY
AC: 145
DEX: +22 STA: +35 CHA: +30 WIS: +30 INT: +30 AGI: +28 HP: +455 MANA: +465 ENDUR: +465
SV FIRE: +35 SV DISEASE: +35 SV COLD: +40 SV MAGIC: +35
Shielding: +3% Spell Shield: +5% DoT Shielding: +5% HP Regen +4
Required level of 75.
Effect: Improved Parry / Block V (Worn, Casting Time: Instant) as Level 75
WT: 6.0 Size: GIANT
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Slot 1, Type 8 (General: Raid)

Riven Krithgor Battle Shield
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO TRADE
Slot: SECONDARY
AC: 140
STR: +30 STA: +35 CHA: +30 WIS: +22 INT: +22 AGI: +28 HP: +465 MANA: +455 ENDUR: +455
SV DISEASE: +36 SV COLD: +34 SV MAGIC: +32 SV POISON: +43
Shielding: +2% Avoidance: +10 Stun Resist: +2% HP Regen +4 Mana Regeneration: +4
Required level of 75.
Focus: Mysaphar's Boundless Preservation
WT: 5.5 Size: GIANT
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Slot 1, Type 8 (General: Raid)


The FC shield with 2% shielding is more common and the other shield is hella rare so yea... I know the ac is lower on the group content and a shields ac is the most important stat but the heroics do bring up the group shield in addition to its +300 hp over the Tss stuff. Just something to consider when you feel as though you are being ripped off on stats. Oh and consider the group weapons now... when people were using Eulogy and Boff the gap in weapons had people using blade of disruption... I think I'll end on that one.

Good luck getting the various augs etc
Just adding to this thread because I was amused

cheers,
shiftie