LDoN Newbie

[Nekokirei]

Are there any guides or threads or links for what to do/expect in an LDoN? (either BST specific or non-BST general it's all good) I've never done an adventure--heck, just purchased the expansion last weekend.

*Personal experience, anecdotes, etc input from the board very much appreciated too!* :D

A guildie is putting together a group for this week-end, and he's cool about my total lack of knowledge w/LDoN, but I don't want my name to go in the unoffical LDoN dictionary as "Nekokirei- pronounced 'neh.ko.key.rhey:  1. what *NOT* to do during an LDoN; 2. an expression of pure stupidity 'what a Nekokirei'".

Dont' know if it helps but I'm level 40, he's 36 (likely 37 by the time we go).

I'm not sure if there's any more information needed, if so, I'll be glad to post it. :)

Thanks!

[Lizsolo]

Not much to stress on.  It's just another grind  - with a purpose of sorts. :)

Things to be aware of in no particular order:

- 7 level spread in your group.  So when forming up a group, be aware of your current youngest and oldest group members to be sure you don't invite someone that can't adventure with your group.

- The group leader will take care of getting your mission.  When he accepts one, a window will pop up letting you know where you're going.  You can just close that window - nothing for you to 'accept' there.

- when you zone into the zone that contains your mission (ie LFay if you got a mistmoore adventure) follow the blue line on your compass to the entrance to your dungeon.

- don't zone in the dungeon until told.  Lot of groups (in my experience) assemble at the dungeon entrance and finish buffing and medding before going in.  Once ONE person goes into the dungeon the clock starts.  No sense burning minutes just medding.

- Missions are timed.  You have 90 minutes to accomplish your goal.  If you don't have it done in 90, you get 30 more minutes in there to either grind exp or complete the mission and get 'pity points'

- There are 4 mission types
  - Collects - collect x item drops from dead mobs to win
  - Slaughter - Slaughter x mobs to win
  - Rescue - Fight your way in to a point in the dungeon to find out where the NPC victim is, kill mobs around them and escort them to the zone.
  - Assassinate - Fight your way in to  point in the dungeon to find out where the boss mob is,fight to it and keeeeel it.

The first 2 are most popular.

Unless told otherwise, stay the heck away from chests and targettable mobs laying on the floor (traps).  

When I join a group I typically check roles.  Am I slower?  Who's doing crowd control or are we off-tanking?  Who's puller and who's MA (not always the same person)?  Etc.  Just figure out what you need to do and go have fun!

[Kitana]

first of all you will want to unlock the magi.  They are the NPCs who will transport you between the various LDoN camps.  To do so, go to your home city.  Upon zoning in you will receive a yellow emote whispering the name of an NPC for you to talk to.  Find them, follow the text, and read carefully because you will be quizzed on the information later.  They will then tell you who to talk to next.

Go to the nearest LDoN wayfarer camp (butcherblock, everfrost, north ro, south ro..) and speak with one of those NPCs mentioned by the person in your home city.  They will ask you some questions to make sure you were listening earlier ;p and after this you will be given a stone and will be allowed to port from Wayfarer camp to Wayfarer camp.

As far as adventures are concerned, your group leader will select an adventure from the Adventure Recruiter for your group to complete.  You will have to run to a nearby zone and then a magic compass will appear showing you how to get to your particular adventure entrance (will not be the same location every time).  From the time the first person from your group zones in, you are given 90 minutes to do one of the different types (ex: kill # of mobs, rescue NPC, kill named, collect # items).  When your adventure is successfully completed you will be awareded adventure points which you can save up and later spend on various items, spells, or augments.

If you fail your adventure, you have 30 minutes to complete it for a reduced number of points.  Sometimes items drop off the named NPCs so groups may wish to continue after a failure, or may want to get some more exp.  When the timer runs out, you will be ported out of the adventure.  If you die and go linkdead no worries.. you won't lose your body!  Your corpse will be appear outside where you zoned in.

Maps for the LDoN zones can be found at http://maps.eq-toolbox.com/.  If you want to know more feel free to ask - but this should be enough to get you started  :D

[Lizsolo]

Oh - a quick note on the magi stone thingy.  You need it to use the "Ldon Ports" to quickly get from one adv camp to another.  You DO NOT need it to go into a dungeon.

[arcticbeast]

Make sure you use assist!

Using F8 can lead to wipes  :oops:

[Trixzie]

I didn't see anyone saying anything about this, so I will mention it.

Once mobs are killed they DO NOT respawn. Following the path you took back to the exit should be no danger at all, as there will be no mobs to spank you on the way out.

[Starree-TP]

I lead my very first LDoN the other night.  My question is, how do you select a certain adventure?  I right clicked on the 'adventure recuiter'? and just recieved an adventure to collect items.  Would be nice to know what you are going to get first.

[Kherash]

Bst usually plays 2 roles: 1) Slower or 2) Dps. Some high-end Bst can MT a LDoN also. Just figure out your role (Ask group) and then setup your spell slots. Always buff up the group and have pet rdy to go. One more thing: HAVE FUN. I love LDoNs. Best expansion since Velious.

[Jequec]

In case there is no other form of CC, you can use positioning of your pet to help "cancel out" an add.  To do this, you slow whatever mob WASNT directly pulled, slow should be enough aggro to make it zoom over to whereever you are standing.  Send in pet and wait for rellic to go off, which is usually enough aggro for your pet to steal the mob off you.

Pet pulling is another handy thing, I've found it especially useful in Nro.  I know there's posts on the topic on these boards, but a basic rundown would be sending a green (on normal LDoNs that means our level 49 summon spell) pet into attack, and because of the low level other mobs will not assist.  Then you either /pet hold or spam /pet back off until it gets out of range of the other mobs, you then gank aggro with a slow of your own and voila--your LDoN group gets a single (and you don't need to do the tactic up above!)

Didn't check out your level--but Paragon is a welcome addition to any LDoN.  Different uses of it, depending on group performance.  You can either use it when crap hits the fan as an emergency heal/mana shot OR you can use it whenever it refreshes as an extra mana-topper.  

I could blabber about dungeons for awhile, but I think practice makes perfect.  Don't listen to anyone saying that "higher/lower level needs to zone in first" (I heard both alot in my younger days)

Good luck!

[Tastian]

"how do you select a certain adventure?"

You don't/can't.  You can select normal or hard.  Then it's just a crap shoot.  Seen 12 resuces back to back.  Gotten collects first shot 5 times in a row.  It's just random.  I know for a fact I've had multiple LDoNs where we spent longer waiting for a mission we wanted to take than actually doing the mission once we got it.  Usually just give it 3 or 4 tries well buffing is getting set up going for what we really want and then take the first do-able one after that hehe.

[Jaeren]

Lots of good information here, moving it to the library :)

[Nekokirei]

Thanks to all for the great advice.  It was very, very useful for the LDoNs!  I'm now a LDoN addict thank you very much.  :shock:

Only managed to knock out 4 and dinged lvl 42 (yay me!), and was fortunate to have great teams each time.  In all of them, the MT and myself were the lowbies--my guildie buddy went LD before we started the 1st and never returned.  So, when we went for the 4th as a Hard it moved really quick as the other 5 in group were 4-6 levels higher than me and MT.

I only wish I'd paid more attention to the last paragraph in the guide DiosT posted in the Beastlord Guide, Levels 1-55.

As a Beatslord, remember to *wait a bit* before you start assisting the main tank/main assist. It is not uncommon for a MA to have the wrong mob targetted at first, and to take a second or three to get the right one, the one he wants to kill first. Assiting with this macro too early would send your pet attacking what might be the very, very wrong mob and result in a wipe. So leave a few seconds for the MA to target properly.

I sent my warder in on the wrong mob once.  While I don't think we would've wiped, we definitely could *have*.

Again, many thanks to all the replies, it really helped me out a lot.  Anyone playing a character on Stromm in the 42 range, send me a tell if you'd like to LDoN. :)

[Jequec]

Howdy, might I advise a separate hotkey for assist and attack?

I know my #1 is "/assist whoever"
and way up at #6 is a "/pet back off" followed by "/pet attack" macro.  Then you assist, if you see the big blue ring in front of you, go to town.  If not, let the tank keep doing his tankish business.

Also, "/assist off" is useful for not breaking mezzes when the tank switches to a mezzed mob.  Of course you have to press a/q whenever you want to hit, but oh well.

And grats on 42--couple more for spiritual light!