The Qeynos Experience

[Messianic]

Nearly all of my characters were leveled in Faydwer or the Deserts of Ro on live - I have very little Qeynos experience, and everyone I know tells me it's better. So I really wanna check it out.

So, I decided to twink a druid and level him for fun (and since none of my other characters are much help if I wanted to PL a friend). I made a halfling, did 1-5 in Misty (those level 4 large bats all over the newb area made it very quick and easy, I think I was level 5 in about 50-60 minutes played). I bought my level 5 spells, camo'd up, and made the run to Qeynos.

I know of the Gnoll teeth quest, the bandit sash quest, and the rabid grizzly quest - i'm gonna do all of those and see how I do (I have something like +290 in HP gear and + 250-300ish in mana gear, and a great weapon). Are there any other cool things I should do while i'm leveling in that area?

[Extunarian]

I think you nailed the big 3 quests in the area for levels 5-20. I have started 2 characters in that area and have done gnoll teeth to about 13, and then mixed in the grizzly once I could kill it (11 or 12?) while still harvesting teeth from the gnolls outside of paw in qhills. Then moved on to bandit sashes once my eyes were ready to fall out from the grizzly skin turnins.

You could also check out erud's crossing for some whisp kitinga around 14 for a break from chasing the grizzly around.

[Dantes]

Go to the bank in Qeynos and get killed by a guard on the way there. That's a "must do" part of the Qeynos experience.

[Ashimar]

My suggestion would be to stay away from the PoD, Crows Tavern, or anywhere by the
pond right by the Entrance. Lt. Dagorok will wipe the floor with you, even at lvl 50.

Dantes is talking about Guard Quedal. Once your high enough level to SoW, he'll be more annoying than anything.

[toddfx]

I admit I have pretty much missed out on Qeynos leveling experience as well, and it makes me sad! I have always enjoyed the design of Qeynos and the Hills, but tended to stay away because of how lonely it felt over there in Western Antonica.

I am planning a redemption journey as well though. My monk is past due for his Qeynos headband quests, so at least I have that to look forward to still.

[Rooj]

There is a greater lightstone (and lightstone) turn in in North Karana.

[Striiker]

My suggestion would be to stay away from the PoD, Crows Tavern, or anywhere by the
pond right by the Entrance. Lt. Dagorok will wipe the floor with you, even at lvl 50.

Dantes is talking about Guard Quedal. Once your high enough level to SoW, he'll be more annoying than anything.

I've never had issues with the guards in Qeynos. I have heard of people messing their faction up with a guard or two if they only do the Gnoll Fang quest and don't do the Moonstone and Honey Mead quests. They all apparently help to balance things out so that you don't suddenly become KOS to some of the factions in and around Qeynos. Is this what you are referring to with these guards and other NPC's?

[Ashimar]

I've never had issues with the guards in Qeynos. I have heard of people messing their faction up with a guard or two if they only do the Gnoll Fang quest and don't do the Moonstone and Honey Mead quests. They all apparently help to balance things out so that you don't suddenly become KOS to some of the factions in and around Qeynos. Is this what you are referring to with these guards and other NPC's?

Not sure about Honey Mead, but moonstones do not balance out
negative faction hits with Corrupt Qeynos guards (Quedal, Lt. Dagarok)
Moonstones only give you more positive faction with the ones that are
postive as a result of the Gnoll Fang quest. You have to do other quests
if you want to up your corrupt guard faction. (Orc scalps in HighKeep)

I have a 16 WoodElf druid and i brought him to qeynos at about lvl 3 before
i turned in one fang to cause negative faction towards Corrupt guards.
I was KoS automatically. to Corrupt guards.

Im not sure if its the same for Halflings. Could be dubious. But atleast ya know who to watch for.

[Messianic]

Not sure about Honey Mead, but moonstones do not balance out
negative faction hits with Corrupt Qeynos guards (Quedal, Lt. Dagarok)
Moonstones only give you more positive faction with the ones that are
postive as a result of the Gnoll Fang quest. You have to do other quests
if you want to up your corrupt guard faction. (Orc scalps in HighKeep)

I have a 16 WoodElf druid and i brought him to qeynos at about lvl 3 before
i turned in one fang to cause negative faction towards Corrupt guards.
I was KoS automatically. to Corrupt guards.

Im not sure if its the same for Halflings. Could be dubious. But atleast ya know who to watch for.

It's druids generally because of their limited selection of good-aligned deities. Instant-kos to SK/Necro guilds and most evil-aligned guards - IIRC, Lt Dagarok has a mean harm touch.

I think Druids/Rangers who are supposed to start in Qeynos (Karana worshiping druids/rangers who are half elf/human) actually start in Surefall glade, partially because of that kos issue - could be wrong there. Would suck to make a character, stop to read your newbie note and get owned by some wayward guard. It happened apparently for a while on this server...

Thanks to everyone - because i'll be so close to Halas, does anyone have any ideas for there? The wiki has some interesting info on quests in Halas (http://wiki.project1999.org/index.php/Quest_Halas), but I know there's a lot of scattered info out there among so many players...

[shuklak]

I'm going to provide another side to this story.

Well, I am playing my first character, starting in qeynos because I really enjoyed that in classic. Having gotten to level 14 the grouping has been mildly tough. blackburrow is okay, but it was funner in the past. I was in a couple bb groups but it seemed like we were getting light blues with our evens and the exp was dismal. this was in the snake pit area around 12-13.

I also did bandits which was good. but overall, I found grouping to be a bit difficult. someone told me to check out oasis. I couldn't get their until today, but when I looked at how many people were there it was staggering. it seems like most of the server was there!

unfortunately, the player distribution, for whatever reason, greatly favors the oasis area. qeynos is the definition of "classic" to a player like me. thats where I "grew up" in eq. but the funnest part is the groups, which were hard to come by.

[Gorgetrapper]

People only go to the oasis areas because it's safe and they get buffs by higher level people. Qeynos is hard to travel to for lower levels but in my eyes, it's a MUCH better place to be because noone is there and the exp is better.

[Swindle]

Since you are twinked cash is not an issue, but if you want to earn some cash turn in the Gnoll Fangs at Halas for 5GP per fang plus an item as well as the same great XP. You can also kill the 2 Gnoll Hunters and turn in the two staff halves to Corin in Surefall. XP is poor but he pays up to 11pp per turn in, with a typical average of 3-4pp. Me and a friend ran a Troll and an Ogre up there and can now buy/sell in Qeynos and buy/sell/train in Halas. Halas required a druid wolf-form to turn in our first 50 fangs, but after that we were good to go. My favorite area to start up new characters.

[shuklak]

Since you are twinked cash is not an issue, but if you want to earn some cash turn in the Gnoll Fangs at Halas for 5GP per fang plus an item as well as the same great XP. You can also kill the 2 Gnoll Hunters and turn in the two staff halves to Corin in Surefall. XP is poor but he pays up to 11pp per turn in, with a typical average of 3-4pp. Me and a friend ran a Troll and an Ogre up there and can now buy/sell in Qeynos and buy/sell/train in Halas. Halas required a druid wolf-form to turn in our first 50 fangs, but after that we were good to go. My favorite area to start up new characters.
awesome... did not know that about the staves. and I just happened to delete both the bottom and top half today. whoops!

[fugazi]

I thought Halas gave less xp per fang turn in compared to Qeynos?

[Ledzepp02]

I did the bandit sashes for a good few levels in my teens as well, definitely was worth it as a first toon

[Messianic]

Today, I did a fang turn in - 1 putrid bear hide and 20 fangs got me from 40% into level 6 all the way to 97% into 7, and the moonstone exp topped me off and got me just barely into 8. Cool stuff. It's been an enjoyable place to be, too - seeing new sights, learning new things, etc.

It's true, there's far fewer people on the Qeynos side of the world - and it is because there aren't usually level 50 druids/mages/shaman to buff people there as there are in EC. And sadly, Halas becomes even more irrelevant once Kunark comes out - In one sense, I wish there had been a wizard or druid port to Everfrost to increase the number of people grouping in permafrost, or another dungeon there, or some reason to make that side of the world more populated and relevant apart from Vox.

My first character was a barb warrior (a la Braveheart) who never made it past level 3 (i fell off the ferry and had to swim back to shore) - my first thought was whether or not my character would freeze to death in icy waters, but apparently that hadn't been programmed into the game), but I always thought Everfrost/Halas was in the top 5 coolest (pun not intended) places in classic.

[Striiker]

Not sure about Honey Mead, but moonstones do not balance out
negative faction hits with Corrupt Qeynos guards (Quedal, Lt. Dagarok)
Moonstones only give you more positive faction with the ones that are
postive as a result of the Gnoll Fang quest. You have to do other quests
if you want to up your corrupt guard faction. (Orc scalps in HighKeep)

I have a 16 WoodElf druid and i brought him to qeynos at about lvl 3 before
i turned in one fang to cause negative faction towards Corrupt guards.
I was KoS automatically. to Corrupt guards.

Im not sure if its the same for Halflings. Could be dubious. But atleast ya know who to watch for.

If you are turning in Gnoll Fangs you get the Moonstones which you can turn in to one of the guys in the nearby bar. He gives you some Blackburrow stout I believe. Sell these and then purchase Honey Mead in quantities of 4. You then go and give these to Tumpy Irontoe who wanders in and out of the bar. This will balance out your negative faction hits with the corrupt Qeynos guards etc. In the end, it didn't really cost you anything as the money you get from the Blackburrow stout pretty much equals the cost of the Honey Mead. Here's a sample of the Honey Mead part below along with the faction adjustments. I have great faction with all guards and merchants so I am guessing the negatives do not outweigh the great faction from killing Gnolls and fang turn ins etc. I believe that if you don't do this part of the quest, then you will become KOS to some of the guards and it makes life miserable..

You say, 'Hail, Trumpy Irontoe'

Trumpy Irontoe says 'Heh? What's yer name? ______? Never heard of ya. Now quit breathin' on me and buy us some [drinks]!'

You say, 'What drinks?'

Trumpy Irontoe says ' Yeah. Gimme a. er. honey mead.'

You say, 'What is honey mead?'

Trumpy Irontoe says ' Yeah. Gimme a. er. honey mead.'

Give him 4 x Honey Mead.

Trumpy Irontoe says 'Beh! Thanks, Skippy. Why don't ya buy yourself one? And. . . get me another!'
Trumpy Irontoe says 'Beh! Thanks, Skippy. Why don't ya buy yourself one? And. . . get me another!'
Trumpy Irontoe says 'Beh! Thanks, Skippy. Why don't ya buy yourself one? And. . . get me another!'
Trumpy Irontoe says 'BWAH hah hah! I knew you wasn't the loser you. . . appear to be! I will have to tell [Kane]. . all about you. Maybe get you in the gang!'

Your faction standing with Circle Of Unseen Hands got better.
Your faction standing with Merchants of Qeynos got worse.
Your faction standing with Corrupt Qeynos Guards could not possibly get any better.
Your faction standing with Guards of Qeynos got worse.
Your faction standing with Kane Bayle got better.
You gain experience!!

[CHusk2]

Aye,

I always level in the Tox/Qeynos/Everfrost area because it's where the nostalgia is for me. Plus the quests in the area are awesome and Qeynos catacombs is hard core for lower level players.

I used to hit up the Warrens a lot, but i'll be holding off on that one for a while. I still remember my first character (erudite cleric) trying to beat down a wolf & Holly Windstalker walking up & beating my ass down...... I didn't know you could hit for 60+ damage with a rusty short sword.

Long live Qeynos!

[Messianic]

Aye,

I always level in the Tox/Qeynos/Everfrost area because it's where the nostalgia is for me. Plus the quests in the area are awesome and Qeynos catacombs is hard core for lower level players.

I used to hit up the Warrens a lot, but i'll be holding off on that one for a while. I still remember my first character (erudite cleric) trying to beat down a wolf & Holly Windstalker walking up & beating my ass down...... I didn't know you could hit for 60+ damage with a rusty short sword.

Long live Qeynos!

Warrens isn't available on this server =)

[Lagaidh]

qeynos is the definition of "classic" to a player like me. thats where I "grew up" in eq. but the funnest part is the groups, which were hard to come by.

I think this is true of where any player started first. My first toon in live (which stayed my main for all 6 years I played) was a dwf pal. I identify true "classic" as a mix of Butcherblock, Greater Faydark and then the Deserts Ro with Oasis across the pond.

My wife started her first toon, which lasted for just 5 days, in Halas as a bar shm. She still feels the classic pang for the Everfrost/Qeynos Hills areas even though she barely played in them except for that first week of having a toon on my account to try it out.

I've often attributed this phenomenon as the catalyst for why EQ has such a hold on me that no other MMO could even come close to: it was my first MMO. I learned on EQ and it remains my favorite.