Project 1999 - Iksar Faction Challenge

Iksar Faction Challenge - fix factions with good cities as an Iksar. Unsure of how many factions I'll be fixing, but I'm focusing on the important ones for now. Why? Because it's fun, and there's a lot of bad information regarding faction on the wiki. I hope to fix that.

I'll be using this thread to chronicle my iksar faction progress. I'll update it from time to time to show what I've learned, and compile general information for getting faction on P99. Useful information for fixing certain factions is much appreciated =).

Currently I'm using log files and a parser I built to track faction hits.

Why fix faction?

There really is no good reason other than wanting to. Iksar warriors are the only iksar class that doesn't get invisibility or feign death to get them through KOS towns. SKs, necros, and shamans have no real need to fix faction for any good class quests, to my knowledge, and monks can simply buy the items they need for epic, spending less than 4k. The benefits of fixing faction are all outweighed by the time it takes to do so. Considering that faction hits are front-loaded, and it takes 900 to get from scowling to dubious but only another 700 to get all the way to kindly, it's a long process.

Some factions, such as most of qeynos, can be fixed incidentally if you level in the right places, such as blackburrow in this case. There are also orcs in EC, which are a popular spot 6-13ish and can get you to dubious with north freeport guards (but not the bank). Even so, there are better places to level as an iksar, so there's not much opportunity to level while doing this.

That said, there is one very good and very easy faction to fix. You can do the brandy quest in south qeynos just by getting an invis to the quest guy and eight stacks of brandy. Doing this will fix a few factions, including your freeport banker rep. Invis (or flop as a monk) into the north freeport bank, and you can safely bank without the bankers turning around and killing you.

General Faction Information

Scowling to Indifferent: 1400 faction hits or less
Scowling to Threatening: 700 faction hits or less, more than 500
Threatening to Dubious: Took another 200 past threatening, 900 total.
Wolf form: Raises scowling to apprehensive on affected mobs such as east and west freeport guards. I'm guessing this is worth approximately 1000 faction hits.

Easiest way to track progress is by using /log. This logs all chat output to a log file in the logs folder in your EQ directory. You can write a simple parser to count the number of times a particular line of text, such as "Your faction with x got better", or just open it in word and count that way.

Specific Factions

Ashen Order (Freeport Monks) - I killed over 1400 orcs in commons before I found out that freeport monks aren't on ashen order faction like they should be. Instead, they're on Silent Fist Clan, which is Qeynos monk faction. This will be fixed next patch.

North Freeport Guards - 1400 faction hits brought me to indifferent. Several mobs in North Freeport, including at least bards and bankers, are still KOS. There is a series of hidden tunnels under Freeport that you can take to skip going through west Freeport.

Qeynos guards + Silent Fist Clan (monks) - 917 gnolls and I am now up to Dubious with non-corrupt qeynos guards and apprehensive with monks. I'm actually up to amiable with some qeynos merchants at this point, probably because they started dubious, also possibly because of orcs I killed previously. There are still qeynos factions that will kill me.

Note that apprehensive is too early to do monk headband quests. When asking Phin about the white headband, I receive the response "I have been watching you, and appreciate the help you've given to the brothers and sisters of the Silent Fist, but I feel that such a vital matter should be left to one of our more trusted members."

Note also that there are still some mobs wandering about Qeynos Hills who will attack. In particular, Holly Windstalker seems to be on Protectors of the Pine faction, and is threatening. In addition, there's a powerful SK, Niclaus Ressinn, wandering about.

Merchants of Qeynos, Guards of Qeynos, Coalition of Trade Folk, and Antonius Bayle - the Rohand's Brandy quest can get you these factions fairly easily. Acquire 8 or so stacks of Brandy. Then either invis or FD flop into south qeynos, and go inside the building right in front of Erud's crossing dock. Upstairs is Captain Rohand. Hand him brandy 1 at a time until desired reputation is reached. This will fix your faction with most of Qeynos, and supposedly also fixes bankers in North Freeport, which is a huge plus.

Note that doing this will completely destroy your Circle of Unseen Hands faction. It cannot possibly get worse. Also note that the casters wandering around are on Order of Three faction, and will destroy you if they see you. South Qeynos is not a fun place for an iksar to be. Finally, note that the bards in south Qeynos are also out to get you.

Guards are now amiable, many merchants are up to warmly.

Silent Fist Clan Again (More Gnolls) - Finally, after 1680 gnolls, I am now kindly considered by monks of Qeynos. I have completed the headband quests and now hold a purple headband. In addition, all non-corrupt guards and merchants in Qeynos are warmly to me.

Halas - I kept the gnoll fangs from the previous step, and used invisibility to get into Halas. From there, I was able to stealth behind Lysbith McNaff for Gnoll Bounty and turn in the fangs three at a time. I had 24 stacks to turn in, which got me up to warmly with all of the guards and most of the guilds in Halas. Merchants are still dubious, and there's one 27ish bard (dark blue at 30) in the bank who I have to avoid, but I'm free to come and go in Halas. I haven't explored the full zone for scowling targets, but a few remain.

Note that a guard paths right over Lysbith, and he would have killed me with Lysbith's assistance had I not accidentally timed my jump to dubious correctly.

Freeport Monks - Again, these guys are mistakenly on silent fist clan rep. This will only be true until the next patch, but their faction can be raised to kindly probably by killing 1600 orcs. With kindly silent fist, they allowed me to complete the sash quests.

The problem here is most of east and west freeport are still scowling. Bankers are apprehensive, and north freeport guards like me, so I can bank using tunnels, but west and east freeport are off limits unless I flop. However, these factions are not particularly important. Tunnels connect to north freeport, where the only dangerous area on the way to the bank is the easily avoided bard guild. Tunnels also connect to the docks should you wish to travel to ocean of tears, though I have yet to use this route due to the ease of accidentally running by the rogue or cleric guild and dying.