Untwinked 1-50 Necro (My Travels)

[Chinto]

First off, I am so glad that I found P99. The community is great, and I am having a ton of fun playing Everquest again!!

When I started again I wanted to play a character that could level fast, and was not heavily dependent on gear. Having played a necro to L65 in live I decided to go with another cackling bone man for my first P99 character.

Knowing it would be going quite some time before I got gear, and that eventually I would be raiding, I split my bonus points down the middle between int/sta. And I choose Dark Elf as my race because of the close proximity to the tunnel and buffs/ports/trade.

After entering the world it took me a good 10 minutes of running around before I realized my trainer was in Third Gate. Finally I alt/tabbed to some maps and found my way. It all came back fairly quickly after a few initial hick-ups. But if your not familiar with neriak there is an in-game map of newbie zones available my hitting your "m" key.

*Starter Tip - Dump your first 5 training points into sense heading. Then make 4 sense heading buttons and move them to hotkey slots 3-6. In options change your movement keys. I used ESDF for movement but more frequently people use WASD. Then change the secondary hotkey for hotkeys 3-6 to your movement keys. This will max out sense heading in the matter of just a few levels and you can remove the keybinds. *

Levels 1-2
Now armed with my newbie robe, dagger, and starter spells I was ready to start killing things. Basically, I hung out in the newbie zone until I killed enough things to go back and buy my first pet spell. What a rush killing spiderlings and moss snakes! I even got WTFPWNED by a fire beetle!! Only level 2 an already doing a CR. Oh everquest you have hooked me again...

Levels 3-4
After getting my awesome pet it was time to go find some bonechips. Decaying skeletons are pretty sparse in Nektulos Forest, so I decided to journey to the West Freeport newbie zone. Here I killed decaying skellies almost exclusively for the much needed bone chips. I kept all the cloth armor and vendored all the cracked staffs etc to the Toxidil in the tunnel. Before I leveled to 5 I had about 10 plat and almost 4 stacks of bonechips.

Levels 5-8
Running back to Nek forest through East Commons I noticed someone auctioning to buy bone chips 10pp a stack. I decided to sell 3 of my stacks to get a little extra plat and I could always get more if needed. Back to Neriak with my 40plat I bought my important spells (fear, pet, tap, gate, and darkness). I also picked up a couple backpacks and some food/water.

Most of these levels I hung out in Nek forest killing black bears, tree snakes, an shadow wolves always killing any skeleton I saw roaming. During this time an Ogre SK came up inspected me and then asked if this was my first P99 character. I told him it was an what a great time I was having, then he dropped a fire crystal staff on me. The 16DD proc really sped up my kill rate and I have my first gear that wasnt newbie fodder!

Levels 8-12
Upon dinging level 8 I gated back to neriak to get new spells and more supplies. I had just enough coin leftover from my bonechip deal to get pretty much everything I wanted/needed.

So it was off to East Commons and the orc camps! My real first memory of EQ was camping Orc1 with other newbs on my human monk back in 1999. I wondered if it would be as exciting so many years later. After a few short minutes the group invite came and I was in the the action! We ripped and tore through orcs for hours, always watchful for that flying death they call a griffon. At the end of it all I had backpacks full of Deathfist belts I knew could be turned in for faction somewhere.

Somewhere in L10 I ran to the tunnel to sell and maybe get a SoW. While looking around I noticed someone buying DF belts - 5pp a piece. I sold my belts and then met an amazing druid. After asking Nisha for a SoW, I was surprised she didnt stop casting after one spell. Looking at my buffs I realized I now had SoW, SLN, Regen, and thorns!! Having played a druid main for years on live I knew that I was now a killing machine. In a matter of minutes rather then hours I dinged level 12!

Levels 12-14
After dinging level 12 I quickly gated back to Neriak and got my new spells with the profits of my DF belt windfall. I ran back to the tunnel and quickly bound myself there.

I sat with my LFG tag on for a little bit contemplating buying some 2int rings for 5pp a piece. Shortly after negotiating a little better price for my rings 8pp for the set an invite to a WC derv group came. After a short time at Dervs we decided to check out befallen. One of the guys had a key and we headed down to the second level. Things went smooth for awhile but then PoW out of nowhere we wiped out. Running back from the tunnel I knew what was in store. Of course, our bodies are behind a locked door and with no gear our chances of CR are remote. Eventually a higher level camp and dragged our corpses up for us. Memories flooded back to me as I remember this being exactly how my first Befallen group in 99 had ended as well.

The rest of the levels were spent bouncing around between derv camps in WC and Nro. I would solo scarabs and such while waiting for groups and it all went surprisingly smooth.

Levels 14-18
It was time to put on my traveling shoes. So I found a kind druid who offered to port me to the Karanas for free and went to go pay a visit to Misty Storyswapper. Misty is a bard who hangs out around the Surefall zone in West Karana. With the spirit of wolf coursing through me I gathered shadows and ran undetected through North and West Karana.

Misty was great and there is a guard next to her along with a couple other NPCs in a nearby field. She drops a lute everytime that sells to the vendors there for 1.5pp. I gated back to get new spells at 16 and then headed back to keep grinding the bard and guard till I got to L18.

Levels 18-20
Misty had build my bank account up enough that I no longer had to worry about buying my next set of spells. So I bummed around Oasis for the next couple levels fear kiting, croc groups, and orc highway groups. Interestingly, I saw a familiar face on the orc highway. Nisha had appeared and buffed our group for hours. In between manastone pulses she gave our tanks HP buffs, regen and thorns. The exp flew by and I was soon level 20!

Level 20-24
After getting all my new spells and dumping all my training points into research I decided to head to Upper Guk. I met a good enchanter and we headed off to make a group. First stop was the Froglok Scryer and I was lucky enough to walk away with a few new bracers! But groups seemed to thin out especially in the off peak hours. So I decided to try to get some solo experience and grind as fast as I could.

So once again I packed my bags and headed over to Lake Rathe. Outside the arena I killed the two aviak guards for hours. The exp was great and they dropped bronze weapons. One tip here is to bind at the merchant by Rathe Mountains zone. I also found a mage to summon a few backpacks for me as my little inky muscles soon grew tired of lugging that heavy bronze around. As an added bonus I quickly maxed my swimming skill coming back to camp from the vendor.

I stayed killing guards with a few short trips over to KFC in South Karana until level 24. The exp was fast and the coin was building up at a nice rate.

Levels 24-29
After getting my new spells and working up my research a little I decided to head back to the Karanas once again. This time I was out to kill yet another bard. Cordillia Minister hangs out at the North Karana spire and is on a 6 minute timer. It was a relaxing camp and I spent a lot of time between spawns researching items and planning future adventures. One side note is a wisp that spawns right at the spire. During this time I must have gotten 20 greater lightstones killing that wisp.

For most of the levels I alternated between killing at KFC in SK and the bard in NK. The exp was steady if not spectacular and the loot especially the gem drops at KFC was nice. I took a few trips over to centaurs and even killed some treants in South Karana. Screaming terror is so nice for splitting pulls. If you do treants they drop emeralds that vendor for 11pp a piece but be wary as they are a handfull before 29.

Levels 29-34
The 29 spells were nice for me, the addition of dooming darkness and blood boil were very welcome. I spent the early parts of these levels killing rangers in EC but that was tough. And they didnt drop much loot. The same could be said about the rangers at the WC ring. In live they were loaded with fine steel weapons and gems. But on P99 their loot table was completely broken and totally not worth the time. Finally I moved over to the toll booth guards in WC and stayed there through 29 and 30 the first hell level. Surprisingly enough I was able to do both levels in one sitting albeit a long one.

At 31 I got bored of murdering the same 2 guards over and over. So I decided to move to Misty Thicket and kill the guards on the newbie wall. This turned out to be a great decision. Early on I killed the two single spawns on the wall, Ferp and Looh. Later on the 4 guards at the gate are easily doable. The spears sold for 10.5pp a piece and shields vendor for 1.5pp. Plus they drop some coin as well so all and all it probably added up to 14pp a kill. I stayed bound at the tunnel and had some kind mage summon backpacks for me. Eventually I just kept the spears and gated to sell. All and all it came out to about 500pp a trip. The platinum was adding up fast!!

With my new found wealth I started looking for deals in auction each time I visited shady to sell. Soon I found myself outfitted in new gear and gone were the days of full cloth!!

Levels 34-39
At 34 the biggest spell to get was Call of Bones. Luckily I found it on a merchant one day while going to the bank in Neriak. With the skeleton illusion you can sell to the vendors right in Misty Thicket. I stayed murdering halfling after halfling until the exp dried up. In this time I found a few players just starting characters on P99. So I let them loot the shields, bought them some gear in EC, and basically passed on some of the good will shown to me by Nisha and others. It felt great and reminded me of what I always loved about the EQ community above all other games Ive played.

Around level 38 I decided as lucrative as the Misty Guards had been it was time to move on. So I gated to the tunnel, got a sow, and headed off to SolB. I stayed camping Royals pretty much until 39. There were a few side trips off to Castle Mistmoore thrown in there but I never cared for MM too much.

Levels 39-44
Again most of these levels were done in SolB primarily at the Royals camp. It was here I met a lot of really good players and we kept the exp meter flying. In off times I would kill undead in Kith (it was always night time on the server then), and make a few trips to kill guards in Freeport.

I put level 40 on grind status and got through that in a day. Then I think I got all the way or nearly to 44 within the next three days.

Levels 44-50
Again I did a lot of soloing in Kith in between groups. I tried guards in Butcherblock but the exp seemed slow. And took the odd trip to East Freeport to kill guards by the docks. The exp was steady and I was getting decent loot but by now I knew that spells and gear would come naturally.

Whenever I could I put together a group in SolB and did royals and BnB for the most part. At 48 a mage and I duoed Bnb and I started just soloing the zone in between groups. It was all a blur and I quickly punched 44 -50 in just a few short days.

Endnotes
I never camped Lower Guk until I dinged 50. And I never killed a spec or hillgiants in Rathe Mountains. Mostly, because everything was so overcamped/farmed and I wanted to level quickly. I missed the fun of doing frenzy camp etc but really its 24hour solo farmed so there isnt any groups for it anyway. And I never did Kedge because well I always hated water zones. So there are a few things I missed on my travels and probably a few things I left out.

Since 50 Ive joined a great guild, seen the planes again, and farmed like every necro has to by law. I still havent killed Cazic Thule, been deathtouched, or slaughtered Lady Vox. With Kunark nearly here there is so much to look forward to doing!! Overall I think Im having more fun in EQ then I did the first time.

See you in game,

Nagilooh
50 Necromancer
Vesica Dei