Druid solo'ing at lvl 30 - weird gap

[PatriotPanda]

Hey All,

I just hit 30 with my druid and there seems to be a weird gap in the hunting guides. All the guides recommend killing mammoths in EF until ~32 - which would be great if the competition for them wasn't crazy. I find myself with HUGE gaps between kills b/c of the number of other people farming them. I went there several times in the last 3-4 levels, during off and peak hours, and found this to be true every time. I hit lvl 30 in WW at the giant fort.

I primarily (almost exclusively) solo on my druid, since I often play during the work day while working on the other monitor.

Are there any tucked away / lesser known spots to level a 30 druid at - even if the xp may be less efficient than EF?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts / experiences.

Panda

[RDawg816]

Go to GD. I believe you can kill the tizmaks at 30. As they green out you can work up to kodiaks, etc.

[Jimjam]

The double spawn of split paw gnolls near the hermit in south karana might be good (obviously you can find a big elephant to charm if you want).

Bind at south qeynos so you can hand in their skins when you have a full set of four (good quest xp up to 40s).

Always lot of snow cougars up in iceclad, not sure how many more levels it will be good for though.

[Ravager]

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

The double spawn of split paw gnolls near the hermit in south karana might be good (obviously you can find a big elephant to charm if you want).

Bind at south qeynos so you can hand in their skins when you have a full set of four (good quest xp up to 40s).

This one was my favorite on my druid. A set of 4 skins was worth a full yellow of exp around the low to mid 30's.

[Sorn]

IC cougars are the best, exp is crazy! Then dire wolves around the rings/near the EW bridge. Charm and fear-kite. You don't necessarily have to break charm every time (you can just chainkill forever and it's just as good) but the cougars in that spot are neverending so you can if you want. As a wood elf druid, I am dubious to them without wolf form, but they DO social. It's just easy to med. Watch out for the occasional wandering shadow guardian.

Another place to bridge the gap is OT. With fear kiting you can take on much higher level stuff than others. They really start greening out at low forties right by the SF ramp. By then you can hit CoM (ehhh, if you want) or EJ (more animal charming!).

OR, if you want to stay in Velious, go to EW and find the walruses near the Kael entrance. Similar to the IC cougars, there are lots of them and you can charm/fear-kite. These are KoS to you no matter what, so be careful with adds. They aren't QUITE as plentiful and the spawn time isn't as fast, but they also have a lot more HP and they're mean. It's a big open area full of walruses, can't miss it. For extra bad-ass points, charm a snow griffin and murder them all. There are lots of other animals in EW as well.

Walruses would take you to mid forties, EJ is pretty decent til about 50 (though not exactly the most efficient way of doing it). You can quad-kite wyverns in CS starting around 46 (especially if you have a lumi staff), but there's always a lot of competition for those and you get to AFK for 15 minutes after every quad or so.

If you're into doing weird stuff that isn't your standard quad-kiting or animal-charming, you can go to CS, charm a shark, and aggro-kite wyverns. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] Use ensnare and flame lick to keep aggro locked down.

[Gumbo]

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

IC cougars are the best, exp is crazy! Then dire wolves around the rings/near the EW bridge. Charm and fear-kite. You don't necessarily have to break charm every time (you can just chainkill forever and it's just as good) but the cougars in that spot are neverending so you can if you want. As a wood elf druid, I am dubious to them without wolf form, but they DO social. It's just easy to med. Watch out for the occasional wandering shadow guardian.

Another place to bridge the gap is OT. With fear kiting you can take on much higher level stuff than others. They really start greening out at low forties right by the SF ramp. By then you can hit CoM (ehhh, if you want) or EJ (more animal charming!).

OR, if you want to stay in Velious, go to EW and find the walruses near the Kael entrance. Similar to the IC cougars, there are lots of them and you can charm/fear-kite. These are KoS to you no matter what, so be careful with adds. They aren't QUITE as plentiful and the spawn time isn't as fast, but they also have a lot more HP and they're mean. It's a big open area full of walruses, can't miss it. For extra bad-ass points, charm a snow griffin and murder them all. There are lots of other animals in EW as well.

Walruses would take you to mid forties, EJ is pretty decent til about 50 (though not exactly the most efficient way of doing it). You can quad-kite wyverns in CS starting around 46 (especially if you have a lumi staff), but there's always a lot of competition for those and you get to AFK for 15 minutes after every quad or so.

If you're into doing weird stuff that isn't your standard quad-kiting or animal-charming, you can go to CS, charm a shark, and aggro-kite wyverns. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] Use ensnare and flame lick to keep aggro locked down.

Follow everything Sorn has said if you want to charm or kite but depending on how fast you want to gain XP. I would suggest root/rotting Specs in Oasis from level 39-49. Just slap 'em with a root, esnare and 2 dots and repeat... Most you have to worry about is either root ending or breaking.

[ZiggyTheMuss]

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

The double spawn of split paw gnolls near the hermit in south karana might be good (obviously you can find a big elephant to charm if you want).

Bind at south qeynos so you can hand in their skins when you have a full set of four (good quest xp up to 40s).

Always lot of snow cougars up in iceclad, not sure how many more levels it will be good for though.

This. Gnoll skins took me to 38 very fast. A friend who was a little more obsessed than me insisted the exp was still good to 45 but I noticed it slow down a lot around the 38.

[PatriotPanda]

Thanks for the input guys - think I may go give GD a shot.

[Pyrion]

Frontier mountains should be good xp and nice loot as well. You can root rot giants or join a PUG, very fast xp to be had that way. And starting at 34 if you insist to solo you can quad giants, if your mana pool is sufficient.

[Tuurin]

I think I charmed Grimalkins in LOIO around the windmill until around 31 or so, and then moved to Iceclad and charmed cougars outside of TOFS until they started turning green (maybe like 35-36?). Nice thing about the cougars is that you don't have to run around looking for them (like mammoths) which is such a waste of time. Pretty much nothing but dark blue cougars on the north end of the TOFS island, plenty of space to run around and you'll pretty much never get any adds if you use your head. And if the #$%^ hits the fan, just zone into TOFS and start over.