How to speed up levelling?

[Raisen223]

Okay, so I am a level 4 human monk in Freeport, and so far I'm doing nothing but grinding mobs outside of the town. It's netting good results so far, but it is incredibly slow. Are there no low-level quests I could be doing, some other zone I could grind in, etcetera; that I should be aware of? Because I am going at a turtle's pace at the moment.

[Esheon]

Crushbone Belts and Bone Chips should give decent xp at low levels, but for the most part grinding is the way to level.

You could move to EC and look for a group at Orc 1. Same with Cutthroat camps in North Ro. The Per-Level Hunting Guide (http://wiki.project1999.com/Per-Level_Hunting_Guide) might be helpful to you.

[Xer0]

Get high enough to be viable for groups (6-8ish for the lowest CB groups, 9-11ish for commons orc groups) and just grind it out that way. It takes a bit longer because the XP is being divided, however the tedium is broken up and it's just a hell of a lot easier being able to rely on others for aid.

[maskedmelon]

You could head to GFay for some action at Orc Hill, then head into CB after that. EC is terribad for leveling even with buffs from tunnel because there are only so many mobs of the appropriate level and often a dozen other players doing the same thing.

[webrunner5]

Heading to the EC tunnel and getting some damn good buffs is a pretty good way to get to level 10 in EC. :cool:

[TheDoja]

Join Red and get the +290% Bonus Experience from a full group :)

[Jimjam]

Sell everything*, invest in a decent ratio weapon (purchased from a player in east commons) and start grouping in greater faydark/crushbone to kill orcs. Save centurion belts and legionnaire shoulder pads to turn in in kaladim.

* you may elect to keep bone chips you've farmed to hand in in kaladim. If not, sell them to players. Note, when doing quests don't do hand ins at too low a level or you won't get the full xp reward. I think you get the max xp per hand in from bone chips starting from lvl 9 or something. I don't know what it is for CB belts/pads (I save them all up til I am finished with CB, hand them all in to kaladim then consider hitting unrest).

[georgie]

you will eventually getting used to playing 5 hours to get 1 level

[Sadre Spinegnawer]

Okay, so I am a level 4 human monk in Freeport, and so far I'm doing nothing but grinding mobs outside of the town. It's netting good results so far, but it is incredibly slow. Are there no low-level quests I could be doing, some other zone I could grind in, etcetera; that I should be aware of? Because I am going at a turtle's pace at the moment.


lolololol

Welcome to the 16 year old elf simulator. This is how it used to be, friend. Suffer.

[Sadre Spinegnawer]

you will eventually getting used to playing 5 hours to get 1 level

Wait till he hits the first hell level....

[chrystianvz]

Join Red and get the +290% Bonus Experience from a full group :)

[sox7d]

Okay, so I am a level 4 human monk in Freeport, and so far I'm doing nothing but grinding mobs outside of the town. It's netting good results so far, but it is incredibly slow. Are there no low-level quests I could be doing, some other zone I could grind in, etcetera; that I should be aware of? Because I am going at a turtle's pace at the moment.

Have you tried playing literally any other MMORPG?

[loramin]

Have you tried playing literally any other MMORPG?

Well, is't classic EQ leveling "a turtle's pace" compared to literally any other MMORPG? I mean, don't get me wrong, that's part of the appeal of it, but I'm just saying it's reasonable for anyone coming from any other MMOG to find EQ slow.

... unless you were suggesting that OP go play some other MMORPG instead, in which case I kind of agree: classic EQ is awesome, but it's not for everyone.

[Raisen223]

I don't mind the slow speed by the way, I just wanted to see if there were any other ways I could speed it up, because killing skeletons and Deathfist pawns was getting repetitive and boring fast. Thanks for the helpful answers anyways, and no, I like the game so I don't feel like switching.

[loramin]

I don't mind the slow speed by the way, I just wanted to see if there were any other ways I could speed it up, because killing skeletons and Deathfist pawns was getting repetitive and boring fast. Thanks for the helpful answers anyways, and no, I like the game so I don't feel like switching.

Bravo; a willingness to press ahead even though you just did the same mindless thing 100 times, and even though you still have 1000 more times of doing that same mindless thing is EXACTLY the kind of mindset one needs to enjoy a game like classic EQ :)

[Bristlebard]

Okay, so I am a level 4 human monk in Freeport, and so far I'm doing nothing but grinding mobs outside of the town. It's netting good results so far, but it is incredibly slow. Are there no low-level quests I could be doing, some other zone I could grind in, etcetera; that I should be aware of? Because I am going at a turtle's pace at the moment.

Variety is the spice of life in EQ. Unless you want to g on (and can handle going on) a powergrind to try to burn through levels, try to switch up the scenery regularly. There are a LOT of really cool zones in the game that don't get a lot of attention because they are quirky and/or difficult and/or "not worth it." But even without travelling across the world to find a new zone to level in, even just switching camps within a zone can help when the grind is getting to you: switch from sitting at an orc camp to patrolling for wandering wisps, move from blackburrow bridge to blackburrow snake pit, hunt the burynai in kurns instead of the skeletons (but bring some good players with you... haha), etc.

[Buellen]

Sell everything*, invest in a decent ratio weapon (purchased from a player in east commons) and start grouping in greater faydark/crushbone to kill orcs. Save centurion belts and legionnaire shoulder pads to turn in in kaladim.

* you may elect to keep bone chips you've farmed to hand in in kaladim. If not, sell them to players. Note, when doing quests don't do hand ins at too low a level or you won't get the full xp reward. I think you get the max xp per hand in from bone chips starting from lvl 9 or something. I don't know what it is for CB belts/pads (I save them all up til I am finished with CB, hand them all in to kaladim then consider hitting unrest).

I can back up the part of bone chips at 9th level. i turned in 1 back 180 bone chips with my ranger and i dinged level 10. I had always done it starting at level 5 and would take ton of bone chips to get just 9 like 4 back packs.

[ghost182]

One of the turn in quests people forget about is Orc pawn picks. Turn in 4 at the toll booth in WC. If you farm those lvl 1-4 you'll have enought to get you high enough for an Orc group. I always found grouping in g'fay better as the Orc hill group is good low lvl spot that you could do before you'd be eligible for and Orc 1 group in EC

[DrKvothe]

Okay, so I am a level 4 human monk in Freeport, and so far I'm doing nothing but grinding mobs outside of the town. It's netting good results so far, but it is incredibly slow. Are there no low-level quests I could be doing, some other zone I could grind in, etcetera; that I should be aware of? Because I am going at a turtle's pace at the moment.

The stuff right outside of town is mostly level 1, with some beetles being level 2. That's gonna be pretty slow exp at lvl 4. I would head over to Nektulos near the EC zoneline. There should be a bunch of lvl 2-3 (maybe 2-4?) wolves/bears wondering around.

[webrunner5]

It gets worse the higher you go. level 59 might take you 3 to 4 weeks to get through it playing pretty hard. It is not a race. Enjoy the ride and have fun. That is what it is about.

There are Zones that have a lot higher ZeM. CB is one, Unrest, Befallen, etc. Some classes kill faster than others. But grouping tends to take away some of the boredom, talking to others in the group helps.

If you play a class that dies a lot, Ranger comes to mind, Ghetto Gate, you will really want to quit after running to your corpse 4 times a day, 5 zones away. This game is Hard Mode for sure. But because of it, it is very rewarding to know, in the long run, you stuck it out and got to a high level.

It gets better with better gear. A great weapon, and a Fungi, and a nice Haste item on a Melee sure do make a difference. :p

[Sadre Spinegnawer]

btw this is why groups are kind of crucial. just soloing through levels - yikes. going around and forming groups is what makes the grind tolerable, imo

[Ravager]

Don't level too fast! You'll miss much of the content that makes this game great.

[Ossigor]

Problem at like levels 3-8, especially in EC/FP area is a lot of things either become green/light blue or yellow/red so you're stuck killing a crapload of smaller mobs (which isn't necessarily bad for your first toon, since that = more loot) but you get significantly more exp from something closer to your own level. It's somewhat better in other leveling areas. Gfay (Crushbone, belts/pads quests) or Qeynos(Blackburrow+gnoll fang quest) are the quickest areas to get to level 16, even 20 IMO.

The balance between what you can fight efficiently (see: not take too much dmg/create downtime) and the xp the mob gives will change as you level. As melee that curve starts to suck (less so for monk) earlier than it does for casters. And for mage/necro/drui/shm/enc, it pretty much stays flat your whole career as they can solo db/white/yello for the majority of the leveling process.

[Aaramis]

Best tips I can give, although most have already been covered:

- familiarize yourself with high xp quest turn-ins. Most of these have already been mentioned, such as bone chips, red wine, orc belts, gnoll fangs, etc. Many of these are in the 1-20 level range only.

- minimize downtime. This might be stare-you-in-the-face obvious, but less downtime = more time killing = faster xp gains. Gear and buffs make a HUGE difference here. This category also covers the mobs you aim to kill. It is generally faster xp to mass slaughter light blues than to struggle to kill whites and have plenty of downtime.

- some zones have higher ZEM than others. Get to know where to hunt for maximum efficiency.

- some class / race combinations level faster than others. Something to be aware of.

Above all, as others have mentioned, keep in mind that this game is meant to take a long time to level. Mind you, things are much faster now than on classic or even this server when it first started: you can now have a fresh to the server character outfitted in gear that would have taken you a year to obtain previously (or longer) with minimal difficulty. However, things are still slower here than in modern MMOs, and you need to wrap your head around that. To echo many others, classic EQ isn't for everyone - especially the modern generation of instant gratification.

[Jimjam]

Log in to an xp hotspot group, take plenty of bandages/food/whatever. Make some meals in advance (preferably ones that you can reheat in the microwave) and sit there for 6 hours.

Only loot valuable /stackable/low weight items and don't waste time making runs to sell. Just sit and enjoy the xp grind... it helps to play an engaging class :).

[maskedmelon]

I don't mind the slow speed by the way, I just wanted to see if there were any other ways I could speed it up, because killing skeletons and Deathfist pawns was getting repetitive and boring fast. Thanks for the helpful answers anyways, and no, I like the game so I don't feel like switching.

The challenge with levels 2-4 is finding appropriate level mobs. Ignoring monk xp enalty, at Level 1 one needs 1000xp to level and gets 75xp per kill from each L1 mob. At L2 one needs 8000xp and gets 600xp for each L2 and 75xp for each L1.

By L4 one requires 64000xp to level and you still (assuming they are not green) get 75xp per pawn/skelly, meaning you'd need to kill around 850 to level. Conversely, you get 2025xp per each L3 mob that you kill, meaning you only need to kill 32. The problem is that many newby zones have few or no L3 mobs.

Orcs in Gfay spawn at along a wide range of levels and can and are regularly grouped. Just be sure to stay group with players within 1 or 2 levels of your own at low levels because xp is distributed similarly based on level (i.e. A level 4 will get 64/65 of the xp from a mob if grouped with a L1.

Again, this ignores class/race penalties and group bonuses, but should give you an idea how to improve the xp flow: fight things as close to your level as possible.

[Zliz]

Once you get past the initial level 1-10ish hurdle of finding mobs without a very narrow level range (not too low to not give decent xp, not too high to kill you), each level actually takes the same amount of time until level 30, assuming you kill blue con mobs. After that, level 30 and each 5th level after that is a hell level that takes around three times longer than a normal level, and after each 5th level (31, 36, etc.), the following 4 levels take around 10% longer than the previous batch of 5 levels. At 50 it goes berserk with even higher xp requirements.

So, just wanted to give you a little encouragement that the first 30 levels are actually fairly forgiving xp-wise, compared to the rest of the game at least. :)

[Nisei]

By joining Red.

[webrunner5]

One thing to remember on a lot of the Quests, Belts in CB, Orc scalps, Gnoll Fangs, etc, is that if you are a evil class on average it ain't happening. You do NOT have the faction to even get in the zone to turn in, let alone do the turn in.

And it is not even close to trying to get faction. By that time you could have just ground out 10 levels and be ahead of the game. I am not saying don't play evil classes, probably close to half my toons are one, just keep that in mind when you play one. No classes get FD at a low enough level to even bother with any of these quests. And you are really probably not going to inviz, sneak past enough guards, and they hit hard as hell, etc, turn in guy, to bother. I am not saying it can't be done but.. Do Quests in your home city, a lot faster.

[webrunner5]

Once you get past the initial level 1-10ish hurdle of finding mobs without a very narrow level range (not too low to not give decent xp, not too high to kill you), each level actually takes the same amount of time until level 30, assuming you kill blue con mobs.

I do not think you are right about that. If you really think it only takes as long to go from level 29 to 30 as it did from 10 to level 11 you must play on a lot different server than I do. :D

[Zliz]

I do not think you are right about that. If you really think it only takes as long to go from level 29 to 30 as it did from 10 to level 11 you must play on a lot different server than I do. :D
Well, that's what I felt and also what the Wiki says:

http://wiki.project1999.com/Experience#Experience_Requirement_by_Level

In the table you can see the multiplier factor that's 1.0 from level 1-29, and below it says that the amount of XP you gain for killing a blue mobs is "XP = L^2 * C", a formula that scales with your level (and class mod). Maybe I'm missing something, but that's my impression of it.

Actual time to level may be faster or slower as you progress due to your class and the "quality" of your hunting spots (respawn time, caster mobs, kiteability, etc.).

[Sadre Spinegnawer]

This thread cries out for a Downfall parody vid.

"Keitel, Yodl, Krebs, Burgdorf, you can stay and we will form a group. Everyone else can leave."

"But monks sir..."

"What?"

"Sir, monks cannot tank with just a druid healer."

(long pause)

"Why is this game so ridiculously hard to find groups, level and even then we die and spend my few hours I have free finding corpses? And I am supposed to do without any gear!"

(long pause)

"Forget it, I'm going to buy a lvl 95 on live. This is pointless."

[sox7d]

This thread cries out for a Downfall parody vid.

"Keitel, Yodl, Krebs, Burgdorf, you can stay and we will form a group. Everyone else can leave."

"But monks sir..."

"What?"

"Sir, monks cannot tank with just a druid healer."

(long pause)

"Why is this game so ridiculously hard to find groups, level and even then we die and spend my few hours I have free finding corpses? And I am supposed to do without any gear!"

(long pause)

"Forget it, I'm going to buy a lvl 95 on live. This is pointless."

The only reason it's hard to find groups in this game is that everyone is twinked out of their skull and can/will hold any camp with 2-3 people because muh expz.

[Rararboker]

I must be bad at ECquest. Been here for a little while now, maybe a year or a little more?, and I can't twink out my chars with anything useful like a fungi/etc/etc.

And gnoll fangs are possible on some evil race/class combos. I took my darkelf wizard (innoruuk, I know, can't wear solusek ro rings, I'm a dumby) to qeynos at lvl 9. Killed gnolls at the bottom of BB until around lvl 13 and then had enough faction to walk through qeynos and do the hand-ins. They got me to lvl 18-19? Then I headed out because BB was a complete mess with trains. Luckily racial hide is good for avoiding them.

[Doil_Boil]

I must be bad at ECquest. Been here for a little while now, maybe a year or a little more?, and I can't twink out my chars with anything useful like a fungi/etc/etc.

And gnoll fangs are possible on some evil race/class combos. I took my darkelf wizard (innoruuk, I know, can't wear solusek ro rings, I'm a dumby) to qeynos at lvl 9. Killed gnolls at the bottom of BB until around lvl 13 and then had enough faction to walk through qeynos and do the hand-ins. They got me to lvl 18-19? Then I headed out because BB was a complete mess with trains. Luckily racial hide is good for avoiding them.

Making money by reselling items is kind of the slow way of doing things. Rather get an enc or sham to 60 and farm, or a cler/war/monk/rog and get into a money group.

[Rararboker]

Very true. But I played a wizard up on blue. So not many options for cash groups on them. No big deal though, been playing red and this sort of thing isn't an issue there. Switched to a cleric as well. Just sucks not being able to port myself...