The Hole: An Exp Haven Zone Guide

[Rygar]

TL;DR: This is a user guide that goes into specific details about benefits of this zone and why it is an awesome place to come to. Do your part and make this a more popular zone on P99!



The Hole is my favorite zone in all of Everquest. Something about this zone just intrigues me: It is MASSIVE, excellent exp, challenging, and dangerous. You get that true sense of accomplishment after a successful grouping here and just has that classic feel.

I’d really like this zone to become a more popular place on p99, over the last month I’ve recruited a lot of different people in groups and taken them all the way through the zone for anything from enchanter, shadowknight, and paladin epic drops… all with a group of 6 or less. So I wanted to post a type of user guide to hopefully recruit more people to hang around this zone, make it more of an alternative to Karnor’s Castle or Old Sebillis.

NOTE: ignore the project 1999 wiki mob listings and some of the drops as they contain mobs from the revamp that occurred during SoL, such as ‘a destroyed construct’ and ‘a spirit of the old city’, etc. I’ll get around to updating it someday.

This is an excellent zone to level in from 49 – 60. In an hour or so you can grind enough faction from the warrens to get a key to Paineel (must be amiable to guards, say ‘needz keyz’ to obtain). This is a huge bonus to leveling in this zone: Can bind immediately outside of dungeon entrance with no chance of agro, town in walking distance with bank / vendor / full supplies, and a port/evac location in toxx very nearby. You can buy the actual key to the hole zone near paineel bank for around 100pp, so no annoying key cycle needed to obtain.

Make no mistake, coming here for loot shouldn’t be the main objective (you will be disappointed), you just earn tons and tons of EXP very, very fast.

Zone Benefits:
-HUGE exp bonus
-Can easily pull 1-3 mobs at a time in most places
-Anti-Summon Spells can be used throughout the zone
-All mobs but undead run at 20%
-Named mobs can spawn anywhere for loot drops (exception: a named undead can’t spawn on an Elemental spawn point and vice versa)
-Decent amount of gems selling for 50-150pp drop off elementals
-Can get epic pieces with a single group
-All mobs but golems and undead have relatively low HP / AC for their level
-Currently never crowded. Even if it was, big zone with plenty of camps to get to
-Is located in old world, so bring your MANASTONE!
-Rogue class mobs (Deceiver, Capturer) backstab for 250-350 here. So charm OWNS in this zone
-TONS of high level research components. INT casters bring your concordance of research and leave with spells to scribe or sell
-People love making jokes about ‘Being in the Hole’
-Nearby banking / vendor facilities

Zone Downside:
-Not a lot of people hang out on the Odus continent
-No one sits in there as LFG, mainly bring your own group (you can change that!)
-Golems and Undead are heavy hitters, high HP, and highly resistant (possible to mez, but tough)
-Corpse Recovery can be a pain if you don’t have your Level 1 Rogue here (more on that below)
-Paying to get a cleric to rez you at zone line will probably cost you
-Not a lot of ‘Big Ticket’ items drop here
-Some mobs will complete heal through walls if you aren’t careful (Harvesters and Channelers)
-Indoor zone so no SoW

The Loot:
-Loam Gear drops regular (INT caster gear)
-Withered Leather drops at undead tower (priest gear), but tougher mobs to drop. Some excellent stats and price points on this stuff
-Imbued Granite Spaulders are nice, but ultra rare (have not seen one drop in 3 levels there)
-Smoldering Brand is good newbie weapon, 14DD proc at level 1 and 9/22 (~300pp in EC). Good to even twink casters with a Tolapumj robe
-Lower end gems (Fire Emerald, Ruby Crown, Sapphire Earring, Speckled Granite pebble, etc). No Blue Diamonds or anything like that here

Getting Out:
Shortly after the entrance is a drop off pit that you can’t walk back up from. There are 5 methods to leave:
1) Evac/Port

2) Fight your way to one of the 4 teleporters in zone (2 lead to Paineel observation room, 1 to Neriak, and 1 to Erudin palace). No keys required (I recall this not being classic for the room with 3 teleporters, so is a p99 bonus).

3) OT hammer / gate

4) Enchanter can Gravity Flux you out of the pit if you /duel, but need to fight back to zone line

5) Bring a rogue and do a bad ass castle crawl out… fight to the top, walk across the giant bridge, and fight through the 6-man room with a locked door (lock picking 201 required to open)


Corpse Recovery:
Corpse recovery can normally be a pain, but can easily minimized. Make a Level 1 Halfling Rogue that worships BRELL. Get a port to tox and hide/sneak in to the pool outside the Hole. Get a bind. You can swim down the crack in the upper right of the boulder and zone in. Golems and Elementals and Fiends will NOT be KoS to you, so you can run freely in front of them. Ratmen and Undead will KoS you, but just Hide/Sneak successfully and you can walk through the entire zone. If you get a sow outside you can drag a corpse to the zone line in 5 minutes or less even deep in. This level 1 toon you make can also be a fun thing to explore the different areas on the map and learn where to go in the zone. Try and be courteous to die in an area outside the main pulling areas, as level 1 corpse pollution is kinda annoying.

Class Specific Advantages:
Enchanters: Charm and destroy (Elemental Deceiver for lower level, Elemental Capturer higher level). Have a solid group? Buy a Gold Plated Koshigatana or two for 1k or so as a pet weapon. Your backstabbing pet will now proc up to 194DD against summoned creatures in addition to increased melee output. Even if you wipe you can come back to kill pet to get it back. Either way, charm makes you the top DPS class here. Loam gear also seems extremely attuned to your class.
Druids: GREAT here, good DPS option with anti-summon nukes. Useful to snare runners and backup heals great for when Enchanter pets break charm. Regen helps the melee overcome annoying damage shields too.
Magicians: Great additional DPS / mana effecient with anti-summon nukes, summon weapons for charm pets (muzzle of mardu if high enough). CotH can keep a group together by bringing in replacements deeper in
Necros: Can charm undead here (I think they are 50-53), and the pet destroys all. Hits in the 120s or so. But careful as they can summon when breaking. Undead tower has slightly lower level pets to charm (a fallen erudite)… I don’t believe those summon or hit as hard.
Clerics: Undead / Anti-Summon nukes can help you dps when mana isn’t a problem
Shadow Knight: Extremely useful in undead tower for pulling, as they can Lull the Dead and FD in event of a fail. Also have the HP to absorb the Harm Touches.
Shaman: As mentioned backup heals are great for enchanter, as well as taking over slows / haste. Slows / DoTs work great on the higher HP mobs. DoT root parking CC works amazing as well (only golem / undead will summon you) as there are some camps with open areas.
Bards: Charm those backstabbers on multiple incoming and greatly increase the DPS in your group, then kill pet (plenty to go around)
Monks: Your splitting abilities will actually be needed in certain areas due to high mez resist on certain mobs (see undead tower & golem tower)
Paladin / Ranger: Make better use of those undead / anti-summon nukes. Paladin stuns help on the casters (annoying dispellers and cHealers) and ranger snare / backup root parking is always useful.

Where to EXP in zone (contains notes on epic fights):
See this map of the Hole I edited here, I highlighted my favorite portions. Most pull in the pit or just crawl randomly. Brief explanation of each of my favorite methods:

Entrance:
About 13 mobs before drop off (a 14th paths out of locked room if you are quick about it). Mainly meant to duo / trio or lower level groups. Great option for 49-53 duo teams.

Castle Crawl:
Most stay in the pit area and pull from the castle area, but I like to bring my group in and crawl through to the top. Clear an open room, move your people there. Pull next rooms to there. Repeat. It’s a fairly linear way to the top. Not a lot of people do this and there are a TON of named mobs that tend to spawn in those rooms, usually get 1-3 mobs on incoming (be sure you pull as CHealers can go through walls if you fight them in place). You can work to the top and drop off the edge into the pit and repeat since the beginning will be fully spawned again. Or walk across the giant bridge and pull the 6 man room (I like to send in a suicide cleric with DA, AoE mez, fight it out), Rogue can lockpick at 201 to get you out to entrance area too.

SK Epic fight note: If you are here to turn in mimic key, stay outside castle and clear way to ratman prison. Have SK hand in key to Caradon to spawn Kyrenna, they will both attack. Have SK DoT Kyrenna and FD out of room. It seems like Caradon will revert back to his non-agro self and you can solo pull Kyrenna out to in front of castle. A 59 SK tanked her and we had a cleric and 2 monks. Needed maybe 3 CHeals before the job was done. I have not attempted the Ratman Guard fight here yet with a group of 6, but may need more for that or a warrior with defensive discipline to tank (believe he hits in the 300s).

Observation Tower:
Need good CC or monk splitting (careful as there tends to be a lot of casters), park your people at the sword in the pool and pull. Can clear first level with pulls (careful on very first one, 2 golems agro… split or root park, else attempt mez), then bring group to basement and should be a bad ass room to fight 5 or so Elementals (the look and feel of this room with the green flame is just awesome). The observation room is cool to stand in and look over the old Paineel Ruins too.

Town Entrance:
3 mobs just outside down the ramp with a pather going up to Observation tower. Can pull the interior areas to here with relative safety. Pull all the roamers in the yard just inside, then the Golem + Elemental at the Bank like building. Pull mobs from the barn area and you can move your group into the pool inside with the sword sticking out of it. Pull the mobs from the building interiors (gotta clear out CHealing Harvesters), then work towards the area north, best to avoid pulling in front of the buildings as the dock area has a golem that can agro if you aren’t careful. May not want to bother pulling deeper in the mushroom shop with Polzin Mrid as there are some rooms with 2 golems. But should be plenty of mobs between these two areas that you can pull with relative ease. In the basement of that barn area is a cellar that is pretty big, I’ve never seen mobs there. You could probably camp your toon here or go afk and be fine, but I’ve never tried it.

Docks:
With the Town Entrance area clear, move your group to the north side behind the first building (not the mushroom shop). Go through the entrance way to dock area, there will be a golem standing in a pool. Just stand and look at him and he should agro, careful tho as he brings another golem buddy from the building near him. Then should be a roamer to the right (Flighty Fiend) and usually another elemental. The building right there has a golem and elemental as well to clear. At this point you can take a small risk and have your group hug the wall towards the dock area (pets need to be kept very close or will agro). Rush into the dock area and fight a golem + 2 elementals. You can pull mobs to hear from the nearby buildings with relative safety. I like to get Shadow Knights their cell key from mimic building. You need a good puller and DPS as there are 4 golems before the mimic room you need to clear out.

Teleporter Town:
Don’t see a lot of people hang around here, but is an area with plenty of mobs. You can go through the entrance way to the right just outside the docks, park your group through the entrance way just to the left (best not to fight near the tunnel entrance to docks else repops / roamers may agro). Can make a few pulls here, but then can move in your group and do a crawl through the various building rooms. Be sure not to fight in place, but pull mobs back to your spot to avoid healers through the walls. These buildings can get a little confusing with the turns and have a bunch of golems, so be careful.

A bit about the teleporters… when leaving the Docks area go to the right and you turn left through the entrance way, there is a building / door to your right. Only 1 or 2 mobs in here, at the way top there is an elemental by himself with a door laying on the ground (like it was knocked off its hinges). When you step on this door you teleport to paineel observation room (safe spot). The great part about this teleporter is if things go south with your group and evacer dies, you can probably run up here and get out in time.

The other 3 teleporters I don’t believe are shown on the Hole map from the wiki. Next to that building with the hinged door teleporter is a back wall with 3 bricked up archways. The archway to the far right is a false wall, go through it and there will be a series of rooms with doors. I believe towards the left is the teleporter room. Will be a golem standing in the middle with 3 columns of Purple light behind him and to the sides. As you enter the room, the pillar to the right leads to a jail cell in Erudin, haven’t confirmed the other two (one goes to Neriak and the other to Paineel Observation Room). Can update when I confirm. Can pull from these rooms down here too but seem to be golem heavy.

Golem Tower:
Not for the faint of heart, recommend your group be high level 54+ with a solid tank. Monk puller highly recommended as there is a room with 5 golems to clear. To get here, if you are looking out of the tunnel that starts to lead down to the Undead Tower (just outside of Teleporter Town), to the right is a building with a few mobs, crawl through that building until you reach Golem Tower. The courtyard is (I believe) a safe zone, no roamers. So can park your group there for pulls. First entrance has 3 golems to split. Then side rooms have some elementals and a golem. When those are clear, around the bend straight back from entrance is the 5 golem room. They all agro me when I pull, have not tried to pacify before pulling. On live I know a named Steel Golem spawned here as the middle place holder pre-revamp, but my guild only attempted him once and we wiped on the pull (terrible pathing on live, much better on p99). Can’t find him on any other wiki or boards, if I can will let the mods know.

Anyways, that 5 golem room is optional, but you may start running out of mobs to pull. Can crawl your group through this building too and take out some of the rooms. Careful for the far back middle on the first floor as it is a 5-6 room pull with at least 2 golems. Towards the way top, past the windows is a room with Schnozz the Flighty. Have not dropped him yet to confirm his loot table which isn’t listed on the wiki. I also believe Kejar the Mighty spawns in here as I’ve heard him yelling ‘Gimme Shiny! Gimme Shiny!’ but never put eyes on him. He is a quest mob where you can risk handing in a Shiny Metallic Robe for a Shiny Robe of the Underfoot (but a chance you get back some garbage). Never handed in to him and don’t know what he cons, but may want to charm or sneak behind for turn in if KoS.

Undead Tower:
One of the most dangerous areas in the zone to stick around at, is all undeads that can range up to level 53 (some named and quest mobs con higher). To get here, between Teleporter Town and Golem Tower is a cave entrance, bring your group in here and start crawling down it. Just kill, loot, move down as it is a far run to tower, no need to pull. Ranger epic fight is mid-way down, but have never tried it. Seen a group of 5 do it alone however. A plateau with 3 elementals is just outside undead tower, if you clear this up, all the rest are undead. All undead here are extremely mez resistant, recommend root parking them instead or maybe charming (no feedback on resists). Necros can take them for awesome pets too.

When pulling undead you could have your enchanter pacify, but I’ve seen a LOT of resists. A shadow knight seems to have better success with their undead lull line of spells.

If you are here for exp and to farm some withered leather, this area could easily accommodate 2 groups of 6. I have seen named spawn here fairly frequently with each spawn cycle, if you hang around here for 3-4 hours I suspect you may see 5-8 pieces drop.

A solid group of 6 could handle all the upstairs mobs once broken (there are 16 mobs to kill including kindle who is on same timer, and 2-3 mobs within pull distance in hallway… doubtful your group will stay fully ahead of repops). Pacify/Lull the rooms to pull until they are broken, then simply wait for your repops (best to wait in one of the 3 rooms for full spawn, then move to next room to wait for spawn cycle, etc).

I think the bottom of tower and graveyard could be handled easier than the upstairs. The fallen erudite mobs are easier to kill and mez. When rooms are broken you can stay in one area, kill respawns, move to next area. There is a crypt area that is accessible from a door in the left graveyard, there are 4 fallen erudtes down here that are easy fights. The reason to come down here is for Dartain the Lost (36hr spawn, drops withered leather tunic and other goodies). I’ve dropped him twice, resisted all slows and snare and hit hard with a lot of hp (dropped that EB shield once, Withered Tunic the second time). Also hard to pull as he can snare you early and make for a long walk up, so best to fight him near his spawn. He is behind a locked boulder (201+ lockpicking), but if you are KoS he’ll agro through the door (I believe this to be a bug that needs to be fixed).

If you are here for epic fights, here are some tips:
For Enchanter epic (Ghost of Kindle), she is at the way top of the tower. Your group can IVU and run essentially straight back (short run) through a door that leads to a narrow hallway. If IVU drops in this hallway stand and fight as there is usually only 1, maybe 2 undead to agro, if someone drops in the middle of 5 undead before hallway, best to let them die and drag to your cleric. Keep in mind, if you IVU your enchanter will lose their awesome DPS back stab pet, so consider this if you want to fight your way in. When in the narrow hallway, go all the up until you see a closed door. Let your puller go out there, 1 mob to the left to bring in (High Scale Kirn for shaman fight won’t agro directly in front of you). After that, Kindle’s room is to the left. Kindle herself is indifferent to all and won’t agro/assist, but she has 3 undead in her room. Is possible to lull entire room and pull her solo, but best to play it safe and clear the room first then drop her. Kindle herself is a pushover, easiest ghost mob in the hole it seems.

For Shaman epic (High Scale Kirn) just clear that 1 guy to left when you come out the doors, and the 2 surrounding him in the pool. That is all you need to clear out, surrounding rooms shouldn’t agro. I have never seen Kirn agro on anyone, I believe him to be apprehensive to all. Cons yellow to a 54. I have not attempted this mob with a single group yet.

For Paladin epic (Keeper of the Tombs), he spawns in the graveyard to the left of the tower. Lull / Pacify and clear the graveyard (if your puller is NOT KoS to Keeper you don’t have to lull him, as I’ve pulled mobs past keeper without him agroing, don’t believe he will assist). I haven’t actually engaged him yet, but he does have a pet and conned yellow to a 54. Should be a tough fight but very doable with a single group imo.

For Shadow Knight epic (Ghost of Glohnor for hand in), he spawns in graveyard to the right of the tower. It’s possible you may need to clear placeholders to get this guy to spawn as I’ve been looking for him for a friend for ~10 days and haven’t seen him up, but possible someone took him out in my off hours. I have not engaged in this fight yet (Mummy of Glohnor), but seems like you just need the SK to tank and melee dps him down. Should be doable by a single high level group.

Conclusion:
This zone is awesome, please make your way here and make it a popular place on P99, you won’t regret it. If ever you need your epic drops or want some insane exp friend me (Wedar) and shoot me a tell.

[silo32]

sticky this

[Naethyn]

I leveled 49-60 in the hole. It is still great exp at 60 and it can fit so many groups. Also, after lots of farming I've found the best place to farm the Bow of the Underfoot is the golem tower.

[Aalderon Crystafire]

I didn't read this it yet, but I will. Thank you so much for writing this, I will enjoy it and get a lot out of it I can tell from skimming it briefly. First I just have to say....

YES PLEASE. I've only been in a group there once and it was a lot of fun and great XP - some good items too.

Part of the reason I'm still 59 is because I refuse to to Karnors or Charasis for faction reasons but from what I've been told Karnors is a garbage anyway. Let's please gather every Wizard on the server to the Dreadlands, have them surround Karnors and cast a massive teleportation spell to send the entire zone to Luclin where it belongs.

[fiveeauxfour]

tl;dr this zone rocks!

[Jauna]

No matter how much you sugar coat and hand hold you will never break peoples need to feel safe, I got through reading about half of this before thinking no matter one tries you will go through about 30 people to make a group of 6 which will flop after one death/wipe/someone gets bored

[thufir]

My static group has come here several times. Last time I made it a quest to find the Imbued Granite Spauldors, an amazing shoulder item for tanks. Went down to the prison and killed ratman warriors for a few hours. One actually dropped the Spauldors... which I then discovered, to my chagrin, cannot be used by ogres. Wah waaaah. Shoulda checked the wiki more closely...

Still, a great zone. Difficult for sure, and long CRs if you wipe. Not being able to escape without a gate item/spell/porter/rogue is also annoying. But the coolness of the zone and the high ZEM outweigh the drawbacks.

People should especially consider coming here instead of Karnor's. Karnor's is not nearly as packed with mobs as The Hole is. Here, you'll always have something to kill. Man, would it be great if this became the new Karnor's. I can't actually imagine every possible place being camped here. You could fit three times the number of groups in here as in KC and not run out of mobs.

[shooteneq1]

i know the hole is good xp and lots to do there, ive just never been a fan of the place. not sure what it is but i cant get into it, im not the only i guess since it was always empty on live and i guess here as well. everything you said sounds great.....i just dont dig the place for whatever reason.

[Sorn]

This zone was a blast with Wedar along! Will go back again if I'm not busy when given a group invite.

Just a note, The Hole is a very linear sort of zone and you will know when you're too low for a camp because you will be stopped dead in your tracks by the mobs. Always make sure you have a way to gate/port out!

[Expediency]

Great thread.

Hole is highly underrated. Even on double exp weekend there were plenty of mobs to kill here.

The camp near the first drop down (castle ent?) should be permacamped by exp groups like lcy is, but is usually open for some reason. mobs all damn day.

I have leveled two of my characters here on and off, and there *are* some pickup characters available occasionally but they are casters 90% of the time. You pretty much have to always bring your own tank and melee dps. As the thread noted though casters can do better than usual in the dps department here because of the anti summon/undead spells as well as charming strong mobs.

Other than getting in the keyed door which can be a pain, getting to the hole is arguably easier and definitely safer than pretty much any other option at that level. Its quick too. You port to toxx (total newb zone) and then run through the open part of paineel with nobody who will aggro you.

Druids in particular should pay attention to this thread, the hole was one of the only places post 50 that groups seemed to want my druid (getting in and getting out) and they have skills really suited for use there (anti summon spells)