Worst Leveling Progression Spots

[skarlorn]

lets move away from "efficiency" and move back towards ignorance.

lets abandon the idea of cruising your way on EZ street and embrace getting crushed by a white con monster in an unused dungeon.

If you had to suggest the WORST places to level, in terms of efficiency, danger, least populated (i.e. hard to get a group)... what would you say?

[azeth]

Tower of Frozen Shadow at an appropriate level per floor without gimmicks/twink items

[Nibblewitz]

Can't wait!

[skarlorn]

I've always found lavastorm to be particularly grueling as a levelling newb

[nyclin]

Also Dalnir or Kaesora at an appropriate level.. Dalnir has lots of tightly-packed mobs and nearly everything in there is a caster of some sort. Kaesora is slightly more forgiving but is also a 1-way dungeon, so you have to bring a porter or crawl your way out.

[Sorn]

I'm an expert at these!

3-9 Butcherblock (going from gfay zoneline towards crossroads)
9-14 Steamfont (near lfay zone)
12-20 Butcherblock chessboard
14-20 Lavastorm
20-24 Lake Rathe (gnolls)
24-30 SK (anything you can pick up)
14-30 Najena (working your way in)
30-37 Iceclad cougars
37-45 Iceclad dire wolves + frost giant scouts + frost giant elites (also in GD)
45-51 EJ by TT zoneline
51-56 I did normal things like kill wyverns in CS, bear pits, etc, so this doesn't count
56-60 (my game plan!) Rat maze in PoM, the two drolvargs outside of KC (ravishing drolvargs), wasps in BW in SW portion of zone, random pick-up raids ( :D ) where I sneak into the exp group AKA have a rogue in group with me

[thufir]

Tower of Frozen Shadow was suggested above, but deserves a second. It looks cool but the xp is just so bad, and frequently you'll be gated by the idiotic key system and have to kill xp greens for awhile to advance. Bonus points if you die on an upper floor where you can't /corpse it and have to waste a lot of time finding a way up to it.

(I liked Dalnir and Kaesora, very good ZEMs and if you have a solid group you can really cruise. They do require you to break past their hard outer shells to get to their delicious chewy centers, so a lot of people don't like these zones.)

Any outdoor non-dungeon zone deserves an honorable mention here. Why xp in a low ZEM outdoor zone when you can go to almost any dungeon and get a better rate of return per mob? Particularly bad is the Gorge of King Xorbb, but hey, if you want to get Runnyeye faction go nuts. All the mobs in the Gorge have a lot of hit points and the evil eye undercons will absolutely ruin your day. The incredibly low rate of xp is just an added "bonus".

I imagine Kithicor is probably the worst zone to XP in in the game, after the Bloody Kithicor event anyway. On green server I desperately want to XP in here before the event ruins it.

And hey, if you want inefficient, City of Mist fits that bill, it just happens to be square on the "optimal" leveling path, for absolutely no reason. I went there twice with my cleric and it crushed my soul with its super slow XP gain. You have a bunch of high 40s full groups competing for xp green mobs, kill six or so and then you're waiting for respawn again. I understand why people come here, but it is probably the least efficient place you could go for the level brackets that go there on this server (high 30s to low 40s would be fine, but that's not how it works here). The Overthere would probably be better.

[fadetree]

Yeah Dalnir has the best exp I've ever seen. Dangerous as hell tho. Same for Kedge.

[Rygar]

For me, hands down, Karnor's Castle (KC) is the WORST place to level. Sooo overpopulated and you are competing for pulls from hands / captain / LCY / RCY / basement / entrance / moat... my exp bar simulated an old man trying to get out of his recliner.

Very similar to the other poster who mentioned City of Mist. Went there a bit and left early recognizing the competition problem.

Swamp of No Hope deserves an honorable mention here for a 'newbie zone'. Level 18 or so skeletons can roam through the level 5 area and one shot you. Its OK for higher level, some under-utilized camps, but as a noob it is useless.

[Loke]

For me, hands down, Karnor's Castle (KC) is the WORST place to level. Sooo overpopulated and you are competing for pulls from hands / captain / LCY / RCY / basement / entrance / moat... my exp bar simulated an old man trying to get out of his recliner.

Very similar to the other poster who mentioned City of Mist. Went there a bit and left early recognizing the competition problem.

Swamp of No Hope deserves an honorable mention here for a 'newbie zone'. Level 18 or so skeletons can roam through the level 5 area and one shot you. Its OK for higher level, some under-utilized camps, but as a noob it is useless.

Disagree with KC. If you're going there LFG or something, then yea, it is horrible. But it can be awesome for solo/duo if you get away from traditional camps. Basement is almost never fully camped. People claim it, and then kill like 50% of the mobs. VS pit is solid too, probably best exp in the zone, but people never camp it cause they dont have a rog, or don't know how to levitate out.

Worst IMO is pretty much anything in velious. Killing mobs with twice the hp and half the exp just doesn't make sense.

[Reis]

Leveling in Lavastorm isn't bad at all if you know what you're doing. Plenty of rock dervishes to kill, they have low hp and can drop decent loot for the level, only downside is it requires magical weapons. Just need to be careful during the pull and set up camp near Najena zoneline.

[thufir]

For me, hands down, Karnor's Castle (KC) is the WORST place to level. Sooo overpopulated and you are competing for pulls from hands / captain / LCY / RCY / basement / entrance / moat... my exp bar simulated an old man trying to get out of his recliner.
I agree with this if you're over 50, unless you go to one of the places that Loke mentioned (VS pit, basement).

If you're 46-50 and find a group in KC though, the xp is quite solid at basically any camp. Both my cleric and shadowknight whizzed through the late 40s here. This zone suffers from the City of Mist problem to a slightly lesser degree. It's good at the right level band but people on this server milk it into xp greens.

[khanable]

cazic thule, level appropriate, untwinked

fuck those lizards

[Spyder73]

Gorge of King Xorbb
Gorge of King Xorbb
Gorge of King Xorbb
Gorge of King Xorbb
Gorge of King Xorbb
Gorge of King Xorbb
Gorge of King Xorbb

[skarlorn]

one of the worst dungeons I delved was runnyeye 1.0 with a level appropriate group trying to kill the goblin king.

so many pathers

so respawn

shamanss

[Landael]

30-37 Iceclad cougars
37-45 Iceclad dire wolves + frost giant scouts + frost giant elites (also in GD)
45-51 EJ by TT zoneline

Whats so bad about that path, as a soloing ranger that mixed in with tigers in OT was the bomb =)

[Lunababy]

EJ was suggested in a ton of druid leveling guides and every single time I went there I regretted it. The vision is so horrible that you can't see beyond 5 feet in front of you and the mob textures blend right in with the trees that you can barely identify them.

It's like leveling in OT with your monitor turned off. Horrible.

[Sorn]

Whats so bad about that path, as a soloing ranger that mixed in with tigers in OT was the bomb =)

I personally had a great time doing those parts as well, but those aren't the places you go if you want a group or wicked fast exp. XD

[Rhambuk]

Kerra isle...

[skarlorn]

Kerra isle...

i have had some good times here as a semi twinked monk!

[Lojik]

Tox 1-8
Beholder 8-15
Kerra 15-20
Everfrost 20-25
Cazic Thule 25-35
Dalnir 35-40
Permafrost 40-45
TT 45-50
DN 50-55
SG 55-60

[hanamil]

Ill agree with anything in Velious. Ive been on 1999 for 4 months and have been to velious exactly once to buy a spell. I almost made the gorge work with my lvl 20 bard trying to swarm but it was too narrow and if I got hit the stupid muddites proc blindness which equals quick death.
I took my 49 mage to runnyeye after this patch to see what was dropping and almost died to wandering mobs which is pretty sad figuring I'm like 30 lvls above the mobs. I did get a ton of drops in there though. They definitely upped the drop rate. I killed the Goblin king and he dropped like 4 items. I cant imagine fighting in there as an untwinked lvl 20-30.

[Jimjam]

1-14 Everfrost Junk
15-23 Permafrost goblins
24-36 Everfrost Icy orcs (mammoths too good!)
36-45 Permafrost goblins
46-51 Everfrost Guards (You're now the master, burn bridges with your local town)
52-60 Permafrost Giants (the Everfrost ones too easy).

Bonus points for attempting to solo Vox with potions to complete 52 :P.

Disagree with KC. If you're going there LFG or something, then yea, it is horrible. But it can be awesome for solo/duo if you get away from traditional camps. Basement is almost never fully camped. People claim it, and then kill like 50% of the mobs. VS pit is solid too, probably best exp in the zone, but people never camp it cause they dont have a rog, or don't know how to levitate out.

Worst IMO is pretty much anything in velious. Killing mobs with twice the hp and half the exp just doesn't make sense.

You can wall taunt like 5 mobs in a big pull from upstairs in RCY. Fun pull if you have the CC. Plus, gives you knights/protectors to kill.

I think you could probably launch eyes through the windows to circumvent the locked door in RCY.

[Sodors Finest Poster]

Does anyone ever exp in that froglok village in Swamp of no Hope?

Lets look at zones that have the potential to cause trains.

http://i.imgur.com/wLidkxS.jpg

[Rygar]

Does anyone ever exp in that froglok village in Swamp of no Hope?

Lets look at zones that have the potential to cause trains.


I actually did attempt to exp at Froglok village but it was HORRIBLE. The mobs flee at 20% and then walk through the huts and agro other frogs, you have no time to stop them as a non-caster. I would up having to pull them down the ramp to below where I was in constant jeopardy of roamers adding me.

I maybe stayed for 20 kills trying to get it to work but then gave up.

[azeth]

Innothule Swamp is pretty horrendous. Lynuga basically wanders on the newb path out of Grobb and is red con kos to some troll classes

[Rhambuk]

i have had some good times here as a semi twinked monk!

It's not a terrible zone but for newbie erudites there are no groups there.
Odus is the worst. Haha

[jolanar]

I'm an expert at these!

3-9 Butcherblock (going from gfay zoneline towards crossroads)
9-14 Steamfont (near lfay zone)
12-20 Butcherblock chessboard
14-20 Lavastorm
20-24 Lake Rathe (gnolls)
24-30 SK (anything you can pick up)
14-30 Najena (working your way in)
30-37 Iceclad cougars
37-45 Iceclad dire wolves + frost giant scouts + frost giant elites (also in GD)
45-51 EJ by TT zoneline
51-56 I did normal things like kill wyverns in CS, bear pits, etc, so this doesn't count
56-60 (my game plan!) Rat maze in PoM, the two drolvargs outside of KC (ravishing drolvargs), wasps in BW in SW portion of zone, random pick-up raids ( :D ) where I sneak into the exp group AKA have a rogue in group with me

That's actually a pretty solid leveling path to be honest.


I'd say Nurga/Droga are probably the worst 2 zones in the game for leveling. Outside of 3 drops there is zero reason to go there and the exp isn't even good unlike other zones like Dalnir that have really good exp to offset the horde of caster mobs. Cazic Thule, Swamp of No Hope, Toxx Forest also come to mind as horrible leveling zones.

[Rhambuk]

Ct was so much fun back in the day.

Mobs that would cheal through walls here in p99 put a sour taste in a lot of folks mouths

[bled12345]

Sol A gnomes are the best, one of my favourite places to level by far. I love the clang when you hit them haha!!!


Seriously though I can't believe runnyeye isn't getting talked about more here. It is hands down one of the most dangerous, most F***ed up, unrewarding brutal zones to try to do at level appropriate.

If you try to dungeon crawl Runnyeye, everything will be going great, then all of a sudden you will open a door and be aggro'd by like 20 goblins of all class types clipping through walls and ceilings at your group from every direction lololol.

Runnyeye hands down, no contest.

[Teppler]

I know i'm way out of the norm here...

But i fucking hate Sol A. So fucking bad. And lower guk. *Shudders*

Was actually gonna post this. I didn't think anyone would agree.

The heals, the fleeing, the adds.

That massive zem isn't worth it by a long shot

[Trelaboon]

oasis and Overthere....no idea why either of those are so popular

[grimmier]

lower guk was always my fav on live. but the pathing and clipping suck here since around velious release. its gotten better but still wind up with crazy agro through walls and floors.

Oasis i never really liked the zone orc highway and the caimen have a lot of spawn spots on fast respawns but feels very slow when you could just go to a dungeon like befallen or upper guk.

EC boring but at least there is the tunnel for buffs. orc camps for belts can be hit or miss as far as groups. speaking of deathfist belts love those as a low lvl great xp on the quest. Sro has the most orc's between 6 camps in the southern end. great if you get a group and run laps between a few.

Never really liked unrest on live, always a lot of trains. Not so much here though, less agro through walls it seems, making this actually fun to hunt in.

OOT has a lot of spots for many lvls but anything aside from seafury isle (gornit 34 - 45, seafuries 46+) is boring and travel time just plain ole sucks.

People mention sol a. the only thing i dislike about sol a is to many high lvl's farming everything that moves for blocks of ore. if someone isn't killing all the goblins its a great dungeon for groups and certain classes can solo quite well inside. with a few escape routes into sol b as well.

Steamfont mtns, never liked the zone. just seems slow to me, same with both fay's. always went and got bound in freeport as early as i could on my elves and gnomes.

WK to damn HUGE and everything is really spaced out. a couple of nice camps for solo classes if you don't mind the faction hits like guards, millers, and barbarians.

[thufir]

I'd say Nurga/Droga are probably the worst 2 zones in the game for leveling. Outside of 3 drops there is zero reason to go there and the exp isn't even good unlike other zones like Dalnir that have really good exp to offset the horde of caster mobs. Cazic Thule, Swamp of No Hope, Toxx Forest also come to mind as horrible leveling zones.

Oh god Nurga, I forgot Nurga. That dungeon is so bad it is a literal black hole in my mind. Droga isn't nearly as awful because of those 3 drops and you can actually get decent XP in some places - mob density is high in the mine area, the dining room, and of course chief and soothsayer.

But Nurga uggggggh, mobs are far apart and yet still aggro from strange areas, and there are absolutely no drops worth having. I was always pretty surprised they waited such a long time to do this one over. Just a terrible dungeon.

Cazic Thule isn't great either, I think the main reason I don't have it as a "stay away" dungeon in my mind is nostalgia. I like the crazy dungeon design, and I like killing the Avatar of Fear, too. But the lizards have a lot of hit points and there are way too many cleric mobs that will heal through walls. Very annoying.

Was actually gonna post this. I didn't think anyone would agree.

The heals, the fleeing, the adds.

That massive zem isn't worth it by a long shot

SolA isn't nearly as bad for these things as some other dungeons that were mentioned. It's tough to master SolA but really worth it. Not just a massive ZEM but the cash drops are out of control for that level band. Occasional OK loots, too.

[Ginzhou]

Runneye is the worst for any zone. If you wander in as a noob, you get stomped, if you try to do any dungeon crawl in there, you get lost and attacked by 20 shaman goblins and charmed by an EE.

[Gumbo]

Worst dungeon I have ever had the experience so far is Upper Guk. I swear I have died more times in that dungeon then I have gained XP. Between the the maze tunnels and getting lost to the add-ons... Seriously, if your character doesn't have "gate" then you are screwed in the dungeon.

[thufir]

Worst dungeon I have ever had the experience so far is Upper Guk. I swear I have died more times in that dungeon then I have gained XP. Between the the maze tunnels and getting lost to the add-ons... Seriously, if your character doesn't have "gate" then you are screwed in the dungeon.

Upper Guk is one of the best dungeons in the game, but yes, you have to learn the twists and turns. (Especially that dumb C bridge early on. I've died many times falling into the water running away.)

But like Solusek's Eye this is one of the dungeons worth mastering, and not even that difficult, just mazey. Nothing sees invis (unlike SolA) so CRs are easy. Loot is only OK but it's very, very difficult to beat the XP you can get here. If you fear trains, you can XP very safely at both of the zone lines to Lower Guk.

[Jimjam]

Upper guk is worth it for the single digit levels at zone in, the spiders and crocs if nothing else!

[thufir]

Sol A gnomes are the best, one of my favourite places to level by far. I love the clang when you hit them haha!!!


Seriously though I can't believe runnyeye isn't getting talked about more here. It is hands down one of the most dangerous, most F***ed up, unrewarding brutal zones to try to do at level appropriate.

If you try to dungeon crawl Runnyeye, everything will be going great, then all of a sudden you will open a door and be aggro'd by like 20 goblins of all class types clipping through walls and ceilings at your group from every direction lololol.

Runnyeye hands down, no contest.
Because you *can* do Runnyeye for great XP at the right levels. It's just tough. And yeah, that dumb EE. I just stayed away from the second floor where it wanders.

Places like Tower of Frozen Shadow, there's no way to turn it into a fat XP factory. It sucks from the first floor to the sixth. And you are a special kind of masochist if you finished that key grind in the level appropriate brackets.

[Gumbo]

Upper guk is worth it for the single digit levels at zone in, the spiders and crocs if nothing else!

I want spiders, I can go to NRO or to EK and if I want crocs then I'll head to Oasis :)

[Jimjam]

Sure, enjoy your spiders that don't drop stackable gems worth over a plat :P. Or your crocs far away from zone lines with docktrains ;).

[thufir]

I want spiders, I can go to NRO or to EK and if I want crocs then I'll head to Oasis :)

Sure, enjoy your spiders that don't drop stackable gems worth over a plat :P. Or your crocs far away from zone lines with docktrains ;).

also, the crocs in uguk are worth about twice as much xp as the ones in oasis.

adventuring in outdoor zones is silly imo unless you are farming something.

[Murri]

Skyshrine ~46-60

Dibs guardian robe if it drops

[Choking Victim]

I'm an expert at these!

56-60 the two drolvargs outside of KC (ravishing drolvargs)

^lol brutal

[Sorn]

^lol brutal

It's literally the worst, do not recommend. The wasps in BW are better.

[fan D]

I know i'm way out of the norm here...

But i fucking hate Sol A. So fucking bad. And lower guk. *Shudders*

? u need your head examined kid

[Halox]

I liked Dalnir
Masochist.

[Sodors Finest Poster]

Sorry for training left in KC the other night.

The isle of Sodor uses UK driving rules and I am used to being on the left.