Burning Woods

[Skol]

Sauntered back here at 52 just for a departure from Bugs n Bats in SolB (49 - 52) and have stayed through 55.

If your looking for a change of pace, or some Kunark Kiddie nostolgia, then BW is your place.  My two favorite locations in this zone are both in the same area, which makes it easy.

The first is the tried and true Giant Fort.  While there maybe better xp grinds out there, I get alot of personal satisfaction wiping out these big fellas and can generally do a 20% xp session on just one cast of KEI, and that was at level 54.  Thats not too bad if you add in the loot that drops, which can easily net ~ 1k in a full KEI buff (3-4 hours or so).

Giants follow this progression, from easiest to most difficult, all from a level 54 BL.

1) Forest Giant Arbor (green to lt. blue)
2) Forest Giant Verdant (lt blue to dk blue)
3) Forest Giant Ancient (all dk blue)
4) named: Gorgul Padclock (uncommon, dk blue and a good notch up on Ancients)
5) Carpenter Grundo (somewhat rare and dk blue, seems to be a notch up on Gorgul)

The Layout (using the .... as spacing tools) =P

.........G

....G.........[ G G ]

.....G........G

........|...|
x.....G...G

Here is my rather crude diagram of the Fort with the two parallel lines indicating the Entrance Ramp.  From this you can see that you have 2 giants spawn at the foot of the Ramp, two to the inside left, one the inside right, one at the far back, and two inside a small cabin at the right rear as indicated by the [ ] symbols.

The Arbors, Verdants, Ancients, and Gorgul can spawn at any of the 8 spawn points at the Fort.  The Carpenter only seems to spawn in the small cabin inside the Fort itself.

The set-up here is easy.  Summon warder, buff and set to 'guard' just to the left of the ramp up, as indicated by the small 'x' on the diagram.  At the foot of the ramp are two random giant spawns, tag the closest one and pull it past you warder so that when it strikes you your pet will be automatically behind it with you doing the toe-to-toe up front, an effective arrangement.

Note:  You will get doubles on occasional pulls, tis life.  Just keep Flash of Light memmed and use it on the add, making sure you back yourself off, giving the big fella a chance to engage the ghetto fear code.  If you FoL it past the point marked 'x' on the diagram the Giant will run off to the Northwest giving you plenty of time to finish the initial battle or to reapply FoL when it returns.  Ive never had a problem ghetto fearing these.

When done, pull the second ramp spawn and lay down a beating, unless both came at once on your first pull, and it does happen on occasion.

Next, move up the ramp and pull the single giant to the near right.  Ensure that when you pull the giant it has a direct line to the rather narrow entrance to the Fort, otherwise it will get caught up on the inside wall, risking potential adds on you.  You'll see what I mean, and how to adjust, once it occurs a few times.  Anyway, pull past your warder and engage as normal.

At this point I generally pull the Giants in the little cabin, as I try and get the Carpenter to spawn, more to kick his ass than anything else, being hyper-aware of potential adds due to their close proximity here.  Follow this by pulling one or two of the Giants to the left, who also add on occasion, and you can grind pretty well at this clip.  However, make sure you get a feel for the spawn time of the Ramp mobs because its pretty fast and will most likely occur before you can clear the fort.

Spells:

I pull with a slow, haul ass down the ramp and past my warder, and attempt to turn around in time to get off Listless Power before I get stunned from the rear (as an Ogre, I hate stuns).  I follow up this initial combo with an early DoT and then have to make a spell decision based on the level of the Giant in question:

1)  If its any lt. blue, I just melee down at this point, not wasting the mana as they drop to the death stroll too fast.
2)  If its a dk blue, I add a nuke around mid-fight to force it into a death stroll.
3)  If its an Ancient (dk blue), I follow my DoT up with an immediate nuke, hoping to get a second one off as soon as possible, if necessary.
4)  If its Gorgul or the Carpenter, I load the slow, debuff, DoT, and multi-nukes on them while using a combination of tanking and pet clericing, as required.

These two hit hard 120s and up, hit fairly fast, and land 'em pretty often, but are not too difficult to take out for our class.  /flex

Loot.

Ah, this is the bonus actually as decent experience and decent loot seem to be mutually exclusive in EQ.  Not so our Giants!  The drops include a TON of words and runes, which I pass on for like 1pp each to help out our caster friends.  The gems/baubles/jewelry are pretty uncommon, but all of the pieceds sell from 40 to 80pp (Ogre CHR).  The weapons (tree flayers, leg choppers (Lore), axe of the ironback, grub mining pick) all sell for 12 to ~50 + pp, though I just destroy the weighted axes because they fetch 1pp or so and weigh a ton.  Even better are the tunics (foreman and lord) which net a good 60 to 80pp a drop, and though they might be uncommon you'll usually walk away with 3 -5 for one session.  Finally there is the semi-rare Treeweave, selling at whatever your Bazaar rate has them for this week.  Finally, the rare spawn, Carpenter Grundo, has the Bronzewood Staff, a nice little No Drop item that looks cool to play around with if you can get one:

10 Dmg 26 Delay, 10 AC, Proc: Stun (which is nice)

All in all, some very good loot here associated with pretty decent and extremely quick-spawning xp mobs.  I find that even with two soloers on the Fort there are still plenty of mobs, provided you dont pull over each other and you throw in a dk blue roamer in the area every now and then.


As for spot 2, its very close.  If you cant get the Fort, just jog under the Fort itself right at the Ramp and head slightly to the right.  You will move off the Fort Crater, past some blown down trees, past a nice wide open space, and to the edge of a 'burned' area.  Just park your warder here and proceed to pull from the myriad of dk blue roamers in the area, from gorillas, to sarnaks (beware the casters), to skeletons, giants, and wasps.  Id avoid the Wurms, unless your real bored, as they generally have more hp than makes it worth the efficiency.  Regardless, you will never, and I mean NEVER, get a wanderer pathing over your area, so unless you are trained it is 100% safe.  I have sat afk for 3 or 4 hours here without any problems, but there are mucho mobs to pull in the area within visual and jogging distance.

Either way your golden.  Just a damned good old school zone with plenty to do and plenty to hunt.

Hope that wasnt too long, but I thought an explanation would be helpful.

/wave

Skol an Baar
Fatty Ogre and his Warder
Scarlet Sun, KB server

[Sanon]

Great guide, used it this weekend at lvl 51.  Most ppl in the zone at one time was 4.  Plenty of mobs and not bad xp.  

Think I will stay here for a couple lvls 8)