Can anyone help a noob understand Chardok?

[weaseal]

I have a 57 wiz (my highest char anywhere), decided to try out Chardok because I heard it's a good place to try for 60. I ran in and felt a bit overwhelmed, people spamming macros (something about exp rotation?) and no responses to my "57 wiz lfg". Can anyone give me a quick rundown of how to Chardok?

[Ele]

Make sure you bought your Jyll's spells (AE).

Put your name on the DPS list.

Wait some amount of time (1 minute -> 8 hours) for a DPS spot to open in the XP group.

Cast your Jyll's AE spells when the mobs are stunned and DPS is called in.

If you have a ton of plat you can just buy an XP spot as a proxy. Something like ~3k a pull.

[Sriracha]

the truth can be harsh and disturbing

[Swish]

Basically the blue server XP rate is too slow for some people, who aren't immersed and couldn't care less about shortcuts.

Enter Chardok AOE... designed to help players pay money to get their characters to 60 or make money getting someone else there. It's also a great way to get flagged for handling RMT platinum.

People drawn to this are typically the same people who point at the red XP rate (faster) and say bad things about it...making them hypocrites. You're allowed double standards though if you don't pvp, I think they made a rule on blue about it.

[webrunner5]

Pretty well stated Swish. :D

[firesyde424]

Or perhaps, leveling one character to the high 50's/60's is enough"classic" experience for you because, now that you have kids and a family and a life, you can't really afford the (insert random absurd number) hours it takes to level to 60.

Not and still have a marriage anyway.

[Swish]

Or perhaps, leveling one character to the high 50's/60's is enough"classic" experience for you because, now that you have kids and a family and a life, you can't really afford the (insert random absurd number) hours it takes to level to 60.

Not and still have a marriage anyway.

But you can afford to pay 2k (or whatever) per pull and somehow managed to grind out 100k for the privilege? Interesting. Some might ask how you managed to grind all that "now that you have kids and a family and a life".

[Daldaen]

Chardok is a highly specialized group of 7 members.

1 Cleric - Level 50-60 with Epic
3 Enchanters - Level 58-60
1 Factioned Puller - Necro/SK/Monk/Shaman/Druid (55) with faction
1 Out DPS - Level 59-60 Wizard/Magician
1 In DPS - Level 53-60 Wizard/Magician

The role you want is "In DPS".

The basic way the group works is the puller goes down and creates a large train using pathing in the zone to bunch up mobs and gets healed by the cleric. The Cleric uses DAs to stay alive while mobs stack up on him. Enchanters PBAE stun the mobs to keep them inert while they all come in.

Once all mobs are in the Puller will call the DPS to begin nuking the mobs. They will continue getting nuked and stunned until all are dead.

The EXP group consists of the IN DPS player (this person always remains in the group and must do enough damage to secure the kills/exp for the group) as well as 5 other players. They may be one of the players above doing another role for the group, or a player who is either friends with or paying someone to be a proxy in the exp group.

Because the group requires 7 players, the 6 who are not In DPS must cycle out. This EXP rotation means after every 5 successful pulls you must sit out and not get EXP on 1 pull. The In DPS role however never has to do this.

As in DPS all you need to know is:

Get Clarity/Enlightenment
Stack INT/Mana Gear to the maximum to increase your max mana
When the Puller calls for DPS run into the middle of the mobs and cast your best Jyll's PBAE nuke (56 Ice/59 Fire are best). Face South when nuking to push them into that wall.
Harvest and cast again until oom.

As In DPS you are the group leader and you have to keep track of the rotation. It just cycles each pull, whoever was out last pull you invite and whoever has been in for 5 pulls in a row gets removed from the group for a pull.

[Crawdad]

Basically the blue server XP rate is too slow for some people, who aren't immersed and couldn't care less about shortcuts.

Enter Chardok AOE... designed to help players pay money to get their characters to 60 or make money getting someone else there. It's also a great way to get flagged for handling RMT platinum.

People drawn to this are typically the same people who point at the red XP rate (faster) and say bad things about it...making them hypocrites. You're allowed double standards though if you don't pvp, I think they made a rule on blue about it.

Meh, on Live we used to AE disco in Seb all the time. Chardok is just the natural progression when 1) you know what you're doing and 2) your computer can handle 200 mobs. Doesn't effect my immersion, can't say the same about Red's bonus.. can't even properly gear/spell up.

[firesyde424]

But you can afford to pay 2k (or whatever) per pull and somehow managed to grind out 100k for the privilege? Interesting. Some might ask how you managed to grind all that "now that you have kids and a family and a life".

Heiro cloak and a copy of Torpor? Judging from the number of different proxies we see in Chardok, it's not too far fetched.

[JDFriend99]

Or perhaps, leveling one character to the high 50's/60's is enough"classic" experience for you because, now that you have kids and a family and a life, you can't really afford the (insert random absurd number) hours it takes to level to 60.

Not and still have a marriage anyway.

I'll defend my guildie here in saying not everyone is a plat schemer or Red99 player. I am no longer married as of 9 yrs ago. When I started playing my kid was 3. And a new born had just arrived. I aso was the only one working for 5 yrs and worked 40-80 hr/wk.

I would do my husband duties i.e. clean the entire effin house cause my wife did not, help the kids get to sleep, then takes my suit off and put my wife to bed the fun way, and burn a pot of coffee till 3am playing.

In hindsight I rem this same tactic done by mine and one other guild on skyfire mobs at BW zoneline. I took advantage of this in 99. I was happy to have my necro boosted from 56-60 then. If I had the plat id have it done now.

Redoing 15 lvls again is a tedious task. Those that don't know me, I was once 59 here, I quit for 1.5 yrs and came back to lvl44. What happened I am not certain, but I am painstakingly gringing it all back.

Would I accept a lvl or two boost? Bet you asset I would! Hehe

Oh right.. my kid turns 20 next month and youngest is 17 ... I have time now. Thank Rogean for the ability to relive this game.

[Swish]

Heiro cloak and a copy of Torpor? Judging from the number of different proxies we see in Chardok, it's not too far fetched.

Maybe if you're sitting there soloing/duo'ing on your shaman you can pick up a heiro, but that's quite a time investment as well.

If you're playing casually then chances are you can't afford to fast track anyone unless you've been on the server a few years. That's why Chardok draws the RMT crowd.

[weaseal]

Awesome, thank you so much for the run down. I guess I'll continue to spam my LFG until I get lucky, since I haven't been on the server for long enough to have the kind of pp apparently required to buy-in!

[tristantio]

If you're a solo class you can easily grind about 1k an hour on Felwithe guards from 50 to 56 or so (when they start greening out).

At that point, you'll easily have spent at least 300 hours on them (and have 300k floating around).

Unless you blow plat on gear, you can get quite a few Chardok pulls from that (obviously depends on your class etc.).

Prior to nerfs, there were better spots (staff wielding guards in cab were ~150pp a kill due to dropping Staff of Battle 100% of the time, multiply by red to blue transfer rate and you could grind ~900pp on blue every 5 minutes by moving red plat to blue grinding there).

[firesyde424]

Chardok AoE is a legit tactic to level. If it wasn't, it would have been banned or nerfed into hell by now. Deal with it.

[perditionparty]

People drawn to this are typically the same people who point at the red XP rate (faster) and say bad things about it...making them hypocrites. You're allowed double standards though if you don't pvp, I think they made a rule on blue about it.

http://wp.production.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/files/2014/01/StrawMan2.jpg

[Swish]

If you're a solo class you can easily grind about 1k an hour on Felwithe guards from 50 to 56 or so (when they start greening out).

21pp per drop (sword)
6pp FS weapon

= 27pp

Assuming you get a FS weapon each time (which you don't) you're still looking at 37 guards per hour for that magic 1k.

That's roughly 1 guard every 97 seconds, and assuming you can clear every guard in Felwithe without going oom or needing to heal (which you can't), the long respawn timer will prevent you from hitting 1k an hour, by quite a way as there aren't 37 accessible guards.... more like 16 (at a ballpark guess).

I think the Google ad money you're making off the back of the devs project has gone to your head.

[Matalus]

Someone do the research to bring back skyfire AoE

[Pringles]

Its really not hard to come by 100k anymore, especially when velious launched (velious items selling for way over their actual value when velious first dropped). The economy is so inflated that 100k isnt very much plat to raise anymore. Even before velious, a few trips to Seb or HS at the right exp camps can quickly add up to 100k.

[Spyder73]

I did Chardok for half of level 58 and all of level 59. It was glorious....that being said, it appears to be an obvious exploit. All this crap about "a highly specialized and well oiled XP machine" is dumb. After seeing one pull any reasonable person can tell you EQ is not supposed to work this way. Its an unintended consequence of faction and game mechanics creating a perfect storm of retard XP gains.

But man o man is it nice just power housing through top end levels - its like leveling a Bard and having Selos all the time, once you have tasted that good life its hard to go back to how it was before. Chardok AOE makes every other XP camp in the game feel obsolete.

[eisley]

Its really not hard to come by 100k anymore

whether you agree with this statement or not probably also determines how you feel about chardok PL, and other similar things such as buying epic MQ's

[tristantio]

21pp per drop (sword)
6pp FS weapon

= 27pp

Assuming you get a FS weapon each time (which you don't) you're still looking at 37 guards per hour for that magic 1k.

That's roughly 1 guard every 97 seconds, and assuming you can clear every guard in Felwithe without going oom or needing to heal (which you can't), the long respawn timer will prevent you from hitting 1k an hour, by quite a way as there aren't 37 accessible guards.... more like 16 (at a ballpark guess).

I think the Google ad money you're making off the back of the devs project has gone to your head.

Yea, that fat money i'm making off "their" project (the project that they're making off what was Sony's IP).

I would fill up 4 tink bags and go vendor (thanks firepots) at 210pp per bag, so I guess it was likely 800pp/hour and possibly took a little longer than an hour to clear (although I think the guard timers used to be less than they are now, although I know for sure they were 15 minutes or less last time I played p99).

Paineel guards are another hot spot (start soloing at level 15, can take you to 56 XP wise and it's around 8pp a kill for level 15 to 45 mobs, all on 5 minute timers) that lets you get close to 500pp/hour.

[Issar]

Not trying to poke any badgers or be rude here, but if you have limited time to play, you won't have time to be in a top raid guild. Why then would someone want to pay to rush to 60? Leveling without cheesing mechanics is a big part of the EQ experience. This isn't WoW where you don't begin the game until you are at level cap. Again, this is my ignorance and I'm not passing judgement, just curious.

[-TK-]

Step 1: Level enchanter (easy, and most often rotated)
Step 2: Get high enough to participate in AoE
Step 3: Make money (I did primarily weekends and weeknights sporadically)
Step 4: Spend said money to level other characters and/or
Step 5: Make friends at Chardok, trade pulls on alts, win, win, win

Honestly it's not that hard once you're around it for a bit, or at least that's how it was when I was doing it. I did a lot last year and only got tagged for taking dirty money once and it was quickly remedied because I kept a simple spreadsheet of who pays for what character, from what character, when they proxied, and how many pulls.

[nyclin]

Leveling without cheesing mechanics is a big part of the EQ experience

cheesing mechanics IS the everquest experience

[Shjade]

cheesing mechanics IS the everquest experience

Seriously, this. Not everyone exploits the game to the same extent, but pretty much everyone does it in some way.

[mropey]

But you can afford to pay 2k (or whatever) per pull and somehow managed to grind out 100k for the privilege? Interesting. Some might ask how you managed to grind all that "now that you have kids and a family and a life".

2 Fungis - Done.

[Tuljin]

Chardok sucks, top end of the server is bloated, formerly small guilds now bring 50 people to down a dragon in Western Wastes.

The first month of Velious Chardok was dead, now ppl are back at it after the hype died down and everyone got hip to the fact that Velious XP generally sucks.

Its not the fact that the "RMT crowd" is RMTing as much as the fact that the "RMT crowd" fucking sucks and there are tons of people who get to 60 that shouldn't. Its a shit show and it shitted up the server irreparably.

To OP: Notice how nobody was friendly to you and explained what the hell was going on? People on this server play this whole "Mr. EQ Cool" attitude and expect everybody to know everything about every single single stupid P99 specific phenomenon. Its stupid and old. New server please.

[Scoojitsu]

To OP: Notice how nobody was friendly to you and explained what the hell was going on? People on this server play this whole "Mr. EQ Cool" attitude and expect everybody to know everything about every single single stupid P99 specific phenomenon. Its stupid and old. New server please.

I agree. Question is though if a new server wouldn't be infested by the same people quickly.

[Swish]

2 Fungis - Done.

You make it sound easy.

[maurilax]

Chardok sucks, top end of the server is bloated, formerly small guilds now bring 50 people to down a dragon in Western Wastes.

The first month of Velious Chardok was dead, now ppl are back at it after the hype died down and everyone got hip to the fact that Velious XP generally sucks.

Its not the fact that the "RMT crowd" is RMTing as much as the fact that the "RMT crowd" fucking sucks and there are tons of people who get to 60 that shouldn't. Its a shit show and it shitted up the server irreparably.

To OP: Notice how nobody was friendly to you and explained what the hell was going on? People on this server play this whole "Mr. EQ Cool" attitude and expect everybody to know everything about every single single stupid P99 specific phenomenon. Its stupid and old. New server please.
Dald explained it pretty well...

[mropey]

You make it sound easy.

I didn't say it takes 5 minutes.. But it can surely be done leveling from lets say.. 55-58 about 20 times over if you're dice are treating you right.

[Swish]

I didn't say it takes 5 minutes.. But it can surely be done leveling from lets say.. 55-58 about 20 times over if you're dice are treating you right.

Probably, but by the time you hit 59 aren't you really better off just enduring the pain rather than getting 3% or whatever per pull? For the sake of those 2 fungis you timesinked for (there's better XP camps in Seb)

[mropey]

Probably, but by the time you hit 59 aren't you really better off just enduring the pain rather than getting 3% or whatever per pull? For the sake of those 2 fungis you timesinked for (there's better XP camps in Seb)

Yes. I never said getting Chardok XP by dumping all your money into it was the way to go! I was just stating that 100K can be quickly obtained, and that winning a few Fungi Tunics in your mid 50's is one way of doing that. Would I sell my Fungi Tunics for Chardok XP? Fuck no.