Looking for hunting advice

[Urrzen]

Hello everyone,

I am looking to try and get some updated advice on where my little group should hunt to try and gain some "decent" xp.

I 2 box a level 67 beastlord / 67 mage (both have all spells up to thier level) and my wife currently plays her 67 cleric.

We have been playing it "safe" and have been grinding up in PoV golems for the last little while (they are still db to us), but, I have been thinking that there has to be a better spot now as xp seem to come very slowly at this hunting spot.

We are looking for a spot that can help us level up to 70 a little faster.

Another part of this question as well, my wife is thinking on 2 boxing as well, and was thinking on adding a SK into our little trio. So, once her little sk grows in levels, where would a good spot be for our little group to grind?

Thank you for any help / advice ahead of time

Urrzen

[Shieara]

Well, normally I would suggest that you check out the current hot zones.  However, I am not a huge fan of Cazic Thule or the revamped Splitpaw.

Sooo.../ponder

Of the new zones, I think the Steppes might work for you.  I don't have any specific camp suggestions, but I like the setup of the TSS zones for the most part and normally it's not hard to find something.

You also might try BoT.  I'd leave the giants alone, but the bees upstairs are not that hard.  The only bad thing is that some of them are clerics.  Might not be an issue with mage and beastlord pet stuns.  You could try giants also if the bees are easy.

Maybe Chardok B?  It's been awhile but I think they would all still be dark blue.  The bad thing is it sucks to get down there.  I also like Veksar, but it has been pretty croweded recently.  It might settle down now that the hot zones have changed.

You can check out WoS as well.  I'm not sure how viable it would be to tank with your beastlord.  Depends kinda on gear/aa. 

[Gunzak]

PoV is a nice safe zone that is usually empty.  The golems are all DB until you hit 68 and dont hit harder then about 500.  You can also receive large numbers of EPs but since you have all your spells the only benefit would be to save em for the SK.

The BoT bees would all be lb at 67.  Also about half the giants are lb at 67 as well.  I decided to leave PoV and check out BoT one night and haven't come back since.  It was a serious exp drop but I did get a Spectral Parchment and Ethereal Parchment while there.  Its possible the BoT beez would be good experience even at 67 because they would die rather quickly to your trio.  The giants only hit slightly harder then PoV Golems but they do not run unlike PoV Golems so you will take 20% more damage there.  The nice thing is that your mages damage shield will also be of more benefit since the mobs wont run at low health.

If your gear is ok you could try WoS Murks.  Before I left I was planning on heading there.  A beast with under 8k fully buffed was able to solo there so with a Bst/Mag/Clr combo they should be easy for you.  The Murks are all level 65 so they will remain DB until you hit 71.

You could also do GE or Cazic Thule.  I have no idea how good CT is but GE should still be good now that its a hot zone.  The mobs will all be lb to you but you can kill very fast here.  Solo I can knock out over 40 an hour so with 3 players you can do even more.  I did 68-70 in GE on my old beast when it wasnt a hot zone and had a 20% exp penalty for being a Iksar.  I made 4-6% reg experience an hour there.  With three in your group youll get less exp per kill but you will also receive a group exp bonus, hot zone bonus and you wont have a 20% exp penalty for racial selection anymore.

Regular WoS mobs might be ok but I think at 67 a lot would be lb to you.  The mobs past the gate would be better exp but then without a puller you will get 2 every pull until split.  I would stay away from the named in WoS though.

I believe now that Hole is a hot zone the ghosts really far inside would be ok exp.  They are all going to be lb to you but I am told they are still good exp and dont go green until 72.  I have node idea how good they are with a 3 person group compared to solo though.

[Taiglin]

Go to the Steppes and fight the gnolls in the SE corner of their area near Toegnasher or whatever his name is.

[Tiroon]

As Gunzak said BoT bees will be all light blue now and no longer the great XP place they would have been for your group at 66. They are still reasonable to do because you can get XP, cash loot and EP/SP's at a good rate with your classes at virtually no risk. The healers among the bees will be no problem - you have way too much DPS for that to be an issue - just make sure you pull them with slow so they don't dispell you.

BoT giants could be fun if you want to buy the mage Dire Charm.

Fiends in PoV are still very popular on my server and they are level 63.

One place I'd check out is Grieg's End. The place can take you to 70 and was a decent zone even before it became a hot zone again.

Another possibility are the Dranik Hollows instances. They will take a little getting used to and you'll need to see what strategy works best in the places where you get adds but all else failing you can resort to CotH pulling for the tricky places.

[Taiglin]

Another place is Arcstone. Get the earing, ring, and aug quest from Relic and go to town. I was 2 boxing in Arc (bst/dru) back at 70 w/o problems. Even the named mobs.

[Phumog]

Could even camp "Chef" in The Steppes for the TSS arms.

[Urrzen]

Thank you all very much for your replies.

The wife and I have decided to head up to BoT for the time being, one important piece of information I left out was that the beastlord account does not have the PoR and TSS expansions (yet, coming this month).

The other factor we are also looking at is my wife adding a SK into the mix as well, so we will have a group of 4 at all times. We wanted to add a tank type into the group so it will hopefully allow us to take on some "harder" content in the future. But, I guess now my next question is if adding a SK would be a good choice, or, should we add a pally / warrior instead?

Our thought was that by adding a SK, we now have a form of snare that can help with runners, and the ability to FD if a pull goes bad.

Any advice on our group ideas would be very much appreciated.

Thanks
Urrzen

[Gunzak]

Well a Beastlord can get a pet snare with AA called Hobble.  The SK would have a much better snare and an ability to pull which you currently lack.  The SK can pull with snare then FD to split mobs for ya.  He can also tank for your group and use lifetaps to heal himself back up.  The Sk also gets a pet but its a joke.  I did a 69.1 mission with a SK as a puller when we couldn't find a Necro and he did a good job.  I had to kite the mobs but he would split em so it wasn't hard.

As for a Paladin I have trioed a Creator DoN mission with a Pally, Mage and myself a Beast.  He tanked and healed with the Mage and I did dps.  Even on 2-3 pulls it wasn't too bad though he was very well geared and had over 400AA.  The Pally gets good buffs, heals and can tank very well and has LoH for an emergency but no ability to pull.

The Warrior can tank higher level mobs but you arent really gonna need him for spots your gonna duo with your wife.  He would also lack buffs and any pulling ability.

If your happy with BoT there are lots of named you can do there once you get gear and AAs.  I tanked the storm named at level 65 with a Cleric healing me.  Only had about 5-6k buffed at the time.  This was just after OoW came out.

[Phumog]

IMO SK all the way. You will be adding a more reliable snare and the ability to split pulls.

[Gunzak]

Ok I have tested WoS Murks, PoV Golems, GE and CT.  Except GE these are all duo.

First WoS Murks.  I could only get singles on the first 2 kills.  After that I got a 2 pull and ran to the zone line.  On the 2 I did kill my Druid made 2% reg each kill and my Beastlord made 5-6% of an AA each kill.  I will come back at a higher level since im too scared to try doubles for now.

PoV Golems are 2-3% AA per kill for my Beastlord and about 1% reg every 2 kills for my Druid.  They die fast and the zone is usually empty.

GE was about 2% AA per kill for my Beastlord.  I didn't bring my Druid.  I did get a belt and a 40mana/40end aug.

CT was about 2-3% AA per kill for my Beastlord and about 1% every few kills for my Druid.  All the mobs are lb but they must have a real nice exp bonus.  Mobs also die real fast but multiple pulls are almost all you get here.  Would get 2-4 mobs per pull but unless one was a healer 4 mobs weren't a problem  Also had 5 10ac/45hp augs drop.

[Gunzak]

A quick update.  I tested RCoD and Sol Ro and both were easily 2 boxed with my Beastlord and Druid.

Sol Ro was all 2 pulls except the first 2 roamers but never had any problems.  Slows were rarely resisted and were 100% effective as none of the mobs mitigated slow at all.  Max hit was in the 600s but average was far lower.  Druid kept up fine even on double pulls with just the 1.5k fast heal.  I got about 4% AA each kill to both my Beastlord and Druid in Sol Ro.  I used the Efreeti Heart to get alt flagged for the zone.

RCoD was all single pulls and the mobs conned Dark Blue to White to my 68 Beastlord.  Slows were mitigated but never had much problems getting them to land.  Damage was not too bad but they would occassionally get some high spike damage and had to spam heals.  My Druid used his 1.5k fast heal and 3k slow heal and had no problem keeping up.  Mobs were slightly better experience per kill as they ranged from 65 to 68 here.

This now leaves me with WoS, RCoD and Sol Ro for dark blue experience spots at 68.  GE and CT being hot zones are also ok experience even though they are light blue mobs.  I am going to test out Nobles Causeway next since I believe the dragorns are dark blue and there are a few named I can take there.

[Gunzak]

Ok did the Drunt camp in NC.  All the Dragorns are DB at 68 and most will be till 71 as they are almost all level 65.  Drunt is the only mob who is lb at level 68 and is easily 2 boxed by my bst/dru and could be easily soloed as well.  The Dragorns do put out some heavy spike damage.  They dont hit harder then around 600 but they triple a lot and can have a hard time keeping up with my Druids heals.  Once he gets Karana's Renewel, his 5k heal, these will be much easier.

Also at the Drunt camp is the Aggressive Murkglider which is also easily 2 boxed.  You have to kill 2-3 murks to pull him solo but the murks don't hit hard.  They are all lb at 68 though except the named murk.  I got 3 Lesser Muramite Runes, 2 belts and 2 necklaces while there for about 2 hours so not that bad.

I also went back to Sol Ro for a bit and I got a Spectral Parchment to drop as well as an Ornate Silk Boots Pattern.

So that gives you NC, WoS, Sol Ro and RCoD as DB spots.