New Druid Advice from the experts

[Jimjam]

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

How long will it take a low-level Druid (without a ring) to level from 17-22 ... ten hours? The wiki reports list nine players who got their ring in under ten hours, and the majority got it in five hours or less. The less lucky ones needed 6, 8.5, 10.5, 18, or 50+ (!) hours, and there are also reports (all ten hours or less) where no ring was acquired.

The right thing to do would be to put all those reports into a table and do some math ... although that would still be flawed, because some reports are for single spawn points, and some (most?) are for the double spawn. Instead, since there seems to be roughly the same number of ring/no ring cases, let's just double the time of the ring cases. Now it's 10 hours or less for the majority, but the unlucky ones will need 12, 13.6, 21, 36, or 100+ hours.

In other words, most will get the ring while they're still getting XP, and if they stick around a few hours longer, even the 12/13.6 guy will get a ring before they leave. But, if you are that unlucky person who needs 100+ hours, you will level out of LOIO long before acquiring a ring. Like everything in EQ, it's a chance.

Still ... even in that worst case scenario, all you lost by going to LOIO was a minuscule amount of plat (I can't believe the plat drop difference between LOIO and Warrens is that significant), and a similarly small amount of faction (remember, a high level character can clear the Warrens in about half an hour, so at most it will take them maybe an hour to match the guy who leveled from there 17-22).

What level are these players? I know it is a popular spot for encs and bards to farm. Will a teeny druid keep a single spawn turned over anywhere near as fast as an enchanter pet or bard is killing 2+ spots? I also wonder what reporting biases there are for ring acquisition times.

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

Yeah that's the part that is tricky, ph will be hard to find around level 20 as there's a dozen possible PH and probably 30+ mob in the area. Without AE you basically have to hope there's already a courier up or just kill random stuff and hope you get a courier eventually but you probably won't get many that way and it is about a 3% drop rate.

I was 44 when I did it, not sure how the exp is around there. Worth a shot if it is decent but I'd bolt the second it slows down and come back in the late 30s or even 40s.

Considering there's 6+ actual PH, I wonder if the best way to farm it would be bard swarming everything or have a wizard just gflux everything and PBAE every 30 sec.

There are a tonne of spawn points where the courier can pop. Just because a courier is up and you kill it doesn't mean the respawn will happen at a point you are familiar with.

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

Goblin you have to kill 120 mobs per hour and you can't go take a piss without risking having to start over.

mobs will attack you for 10 mins before they get bored, so if you need a pee break, take the PHers you have identified to a quiet corner, give them a bonk to reset their aggression timer, make sure your pet and DS is down and enjoy your quick break.