Earliest a Mage can get their own focus items?

[NegaStoat]

If you can get a stacked Invis + Invis to Undead placed on you, you can make your way up to the half portcullis location by the tentacle terrors where the first Dark Elf mage spawns and safely summon a pet in that curved hallway near her, and start at that point. In your low 20's, always use Cancel Magic to pull with as it has a greatly reduced aggro area spike that leaves other nearby spawns docile to your pull.

I leveled a magician there from 20 to 26 from that first mage described above to whacking the other mages and elementals in the nearby chamber, then killing the other mage spawns in the Crystal room. Exp was pretty okay during that stretch and I got about 1 focus item per full level of killing, with several of them being repeats that I couldn't loot. As mentioned above the drop rates off of Cazic gators is much better.

[mcoy]

The above is how I got my foci on Green. Although, I waited until level 24 so I had the vendor earth pet. If I recall correctly, I found 2 of them, and the other 2 were trades with others in zone when I had duplicates rotting.

-Mcoy

[Sabin76]

Note that you can single pull the crystal room, but there is a chance to spawn a higher level magician (level 24?) that can wreck you once set up if you are in your low 20s. The two out front are something like level 18, so easy once you get in between them.

I spent a lot of time there before heading to Sol A and I can tell you that in that time I saw several sets drop off of the DE magicians, but not a single one drop off of the goblin magicians.

[tadkins]

What level can the CT gators be done solo? From what I'm reading about Najena I'm honestly getting kinda nervous now, lol. But I've also never been to CT. Hard to pick one hehe.

[loramin]

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

Honestly on Blue people sell the focus items pretty cheaply in the tunnel (like 50-100p). You certainly can try to get them all solo, but it might just be faster to farm up the plat and buy

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

What level can the CT gators be done solo? From what I'm reading about Najena I'm honestly getting kinda nervous now, lol. But I've also never been to CT. Hard to pick one hehe.

Level 28 (https://wiki.project1999.com/Cazic_Thule_Alligator_Pit) ... but that's as a Druid (with Harmony to get singles, and charm for when you get doubles). As a Mage it will be a lot tougher, because Mages have no tech for getting single pulls.

I'd either wait until you are a bit higher, or else bring a friend (a Druid would be an excellent choice).

[tadkins]

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

Level 28 (https://wiki.project1999.com/Cazic_Thule_Alligator_Pit) ... but that's as a Druid (with Harmony to get singles, and charm for when you get doubles). As a Mage it will be a lot tougher, because Mages have no tech for getting single pulls.

I'd either wait until you are a bit higher, or else bring a friend (a Druid would be an excellent choice).

Thank you for the info. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I'm guessing I can reliably earn my own focus items around level 35ish in that case, hehe.

[loramin]

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

Thank you for the info. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I'm guessing I can reliably earn my own focus items around level 35ish in that case, hehe.

Depends on how much time you want to spend in Najena. Personally I leveled my Mage up on Green, so it was an awesome dungeon: great XP, focus item drops, and as a bonus I could wait in line for JBoots.

Even without JBoots it's still a great dungeon, and even with the low drop rates there you're likely to pick up at least a few items if you start at the lowest level possible, and stay there until you stop getting XP.

But also ... IMHO you really don't need all four items. I acquired all four myself, but the only one I ever really used, all the way to 50 (when they stop working) was the water one. I could have just as easily used the earth or fire ones also I think (and just leveled off different mobs), so I'd argue that as long as you don't get the broom, you can stop looking after your first drop.

[tadkins]

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

Depends on how much time you want to spend in Najena. Personally I leveled my Mage up on Green, so it was an awesome dungeon: great XP, focus item drops, and as a bonus I could wait in line for JBoots.

Even without JBoots it's still a great dungeon, and even with the low drop rates there you're likely to pick up at least a few items if you start at the lowest level possible, and stay there until you stop getting XP.

But also ... IMHO you really don't need all four items. I acquired all four myself, but the only one I ever really used, all the way to 50 (when they stop working) was the water one. I could have just as easily used the earth or fire ones also I think (and just leveled off different mobs), so I'd argue that as long as you don't get the broom, you can stop looking after your first drop.

I don't think I ever really hunted that place at level in a legitimate sense. Every time I tried it ended up badly. Lots of adds with powers, random red-cons that like to jump in and such. I spent time there on my 40 necromancer on Green a while back brute forcing everything, but that's about the only time I really found success there. So I'm just a little bit scared there. It's why I considered CT as an alternative but that's another place I've never actually been to.

For the most part I'm using my earth pet for soloing, and planning to use water when in groups. I'm not really sure what the fire and air pets are for to be honest. But I also know that the focus items are needed for the epic later, right? I know it probably sounds like a joke, "this friendless guildless nobody thinking he'll ever get the epic", but it is something I would legitimately love to try and earn one of these days. So it would still make sense to try to earn all four?

[loramin]

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

I don't think I ever really hunted that place at level in a legitimate sense. Every time I tried it ended up badly. Lots of adds with powers, random red-cons that like to jump in and such. I spent time there on my 40 necromancer on Green a while back brute forcing everything, but that's about the only time I really found success there. So I'm just a little bit scared there. It's why I considered CT as an alternative but that's another place I've never actually been to.

For the most part I'm using my earth pet for soloing, and planning to use water when in groups. I'm not really sure what the fire and air pets are for to be honest. But I also know that the focus items are needed for the epic later, right? I know it probably sounds like a joke, "this friendless guildless nobody thinking he'll ever get the epic", but it is something I would legitimately love to try and earn one of these days. So it would still make sense to try to earn all four?

I believe the epic only requires broom and shovel ... but as a "friendless guildless nobody", there's truly no point.

Some classes you can literally buy the epic for (on Blue at least), but the Mage epic doesn't have a multi-questable part, the way those epics do: it requires multiple drops (some extremely rare) from top-end raid mobs. It is literally impossible to acquire them without a raid force, and even if you had a raid force, you'd still have to compete with other raid forces for those mobs ... and then compete with every other Mage in that force to get to loot it [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

In short, I can safely guarantee that without joining a top-end raid guild (or somehow becoming amazingly good friends with one) you can not complete the epic.

But as for Najena, it's 100% soloable: just start at the beginning and crawl your way through. There are a few places you won't want to go, but if you notice that your pet suddenly has 3 skeletons when you go into a certain room, you should still be able to gate out in time, and avoid that room next time. Once you learn it, you can easily solo to/from the crystal room.

[Windez]

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

Depends on how much time you want to spend in Najena. Personally I leveled my Mage up on Green, so it was an awesome dungeon: great XP, focus item drops, and as a bonus I could wait in line for JBoots.

Even without JBoots it's still a great dungeon, and even with the low drop rates there you're likely to pick up at least a few items if you start at the lowest level possible, and stay there until you stop getting XP.

But also ... IMHO you really don't need all four items. I acquired all four myself, but the only one I ever really used, all the way to 50 (when they stop working) was the water one. I could have just as easily used the earth or fire ones also I think (and just leveled off different mobs), so I'd argue that as long as you don't get the broom, you can stop looking after your first drop.

I will 2nd all of this. Najena solo was some of the most fun I had on my mage, and as you level you can really explore more and more. It's also really different than most other soloing you'll do as a mage since there will be a lot of fights where you have to take on two mobs at once and you can't really run away. Since you're on blue you'll also be able to take advantage of the regen component of the phantom armor line which rarely gets any utility normally.

Also remember that the mages there are just like you and easy to kill without their pet and buffs, so only the first round will really be hard.