Getting my butt whooped

[Chaosthunderbear]

Hi all, my 55 beastlord is my main.  Here lately I have been having trouble, everything that is a dark blue con chews me up.  I have accumulated about 30000 worth of armor and my defense is maxed but with only 971 ac I get eaten quick.  Is there any place I can hunt and not get whooped or do I need to just group for awhile till i can afford better armor and such? Any help would be appreciated.

                                                                                       Thanks ahead of time.

[Kroshx]

Could try Dulak, supposed to be good for 55. Also, maybe try Veksar, but stay at zone in.

[Sanois]

At 55 I was taking the Bloodgill mobs at the zone in of veksar fairly easily. 

[Fightclubx]

wich dark blues are you talkin about?

[Gunzak]

One thing you have to remember is that if the mobs are dark blue they are level 50.  You might wanna try killing mobs that are light blue as they will be easier for you.  They wont be as good experience but you can kill faster and probly earn experience at the same rate.

At 55 I did Velks Lab and stayed until low 60s.  Even though its no longer a hot zone its still a quiet place to level up.  The mobs dont hit hard, zone out is close by and you can collect large amounts of silk and velium for tradeskillers.  The mobs used to be DB till you hit 61 but with the new con changes I have no idea what they are.

I believe the bats and rats in Dranik Scar will be ok experience till high 50s.  They don't hit hard but they are social.  You will also get tons of gems and occassionally an aug to drop.  You can also take the random mob near the zone in but these mobs can proc some nasty dds.  Again i don't know what they con now since the changes took effect.  I no longer play EQ but i do enjoy reading this site.

I would stay away from Grieg's End and PoP zones until level 62 as your pet will be too weak to handle the mobs till then.

[Grbage]

Beasts always have excelled at plowing through lower level mobs that still give experience. Fighting dark blue mobs at 55 will be hard to handle unless you have a lot better gear. Personally I was using acrylia until 55 and did not replace my last piece until 60 so it is a matter of picking your fighting location.

Best places for us to solo are old world content that still gives experience since the mobs have a lot less hp's and don't hit nearly as hard. At 55 I would of been doing gnolls in JPF they did not give a lot of xp per kill but you can sure plow through them. You should start seeing some turn green at 57 to give you a level range for them.

[Khauruk]

At 55, I was staying on the boats in Dulak farming cash for upgrades.  6 levels plus some AAs kept me in plat for a good while.  yeah, they'll be getting low level, but you can readily own whole boats, and make loads of plat.

You won't be able to do much in the way of dark blue mobs anymore - it's just how our class works.  W/ ooc regen, it might be worthwhile to do dark blues and med inbetween, but I just find that wildly boring.

[Sanois]

I did Veksar from 55 to 62, at 62 I started doing BoT for something different to do.  I can solo north with the use of healing potions.  I had 60 AAs when I started that process.  I am 66 now and have 70 AAs.  It depends a lot on gear and play style.  I do have to med after each kill and was very low on hp and mana when I was soloing at 62. 

[kymell]

At 55 I was in Dulak, usually the armory or one of the boats... It really depended on how much effort I felt like putting forth that particular day. The great thing about Dulak is not just the decent exp  but the drops sell well. Lots of gems from crap gems to Blue Diamonds.... The Iksar blood as well was collected and put on my trader which at the time sold pretty decently. (500 a pop)

[Khauruk]

Dark elf blood sold really well too - I never got more than a couple iksar blood, but the DElf stuff I had scads of, and made lots of cash from it.

[Tiroon]

The Hole, Chardok, Sebilis and Grieg's End are about to become hot zones for 40, 45, 50 and 55 respectivly. All fun zones in their own right.

I'd suggest getting keyed for Old Sebilis if you're not already and poke your head into those dungeons to see which one is doable and fun to you before the crowds move in.

[Gunzak]

The hole would be an easy solo zone as the mobs are real light hitters.  At 55+ you will have to go in pretty deep to get any descent experience though.  Also make sure you bring a gate potion here as you wont be able to get back out if you drop into the pit area.  Most mobs are slowable but some have insane resists and it would be faster to just not bother, like the ghost mobs.

Grieg's End would be good experience at 55 in a full group but I doubt you could solo it pre 60/62 unless you had very good gear.  When I started playing again I brought my Beast/Druid combo here around 55 on Firona Vie, where all gear can be purchased, and even with real nice gear this zone was real hard.  Once I hit 62 GE became a real joke though.  The mobs hit in the 170 range and are fully slowable but you don't get your 50% slow until level 60 and you don't receive your level 60 pet until 62.  With Alacrity, Sha's Advantage and Spirit of Arag you can plow this zone.  And yes you can stay here until level 70.  I did 68-70 here on my old Beastlord on Stromm but it was boring as hell.

I never did Chardok or Sebilis so I have no idea on those places.  My last Beastlord I pretty much did PC untill 25, EC until around 30, Gunthak till low 40s then did a split between EC and Velks till 63.  With the old con changes the higher level spiders in Velks were all db till 63 and the lower level spiders were db till 61.  At 63 I moved on to GE and PoS and stayed till mid 60s.  At 66 I did PoV and BoT either solo or duo with my Druid.

If you want to group, PoV would be a nice spot for you at 55.  All the Phlargs are 61-63 and all the Golems are 62 so you can stay within the db range until you hit 68 here.  Also even with the stupid ass exp chages EQ made if you group members are all within 55-67 you will still get good exp in PoV.

[Grbage]

Seb and Chardok are not easy solo zones at 55 for bst from my experience. In both of them you have to be able to handle multiple mobs and runners. Dying even with 96% rezzes and/or corpse runs greatly cut down on you xp/hr. Now if you take a few others along with you they are fun zones.

[Hatsumi]

I stayed in the Hole from about 51 until 55.  I know that's kinda late to move, but even though the exp had slowed considerably, since I never had to med, i just kept running around killing elementals and the next thing I knew, I was 55.  (Plus, I could easily take 3 at a time, so it made things a bit faster.)  I moved to Chardok at that point and just fought the stuff at the zone in.  By the time I got to that fortress looking thing, stuff was respawning at the entrance, so I'd just run back, rinse, and repeat.  I didn't like it in there.  Exp was ok, but after about 1/2 a level, I moved to Acrylia Caverns.  Since I was only 55 when I started there, I had to stay in the little room to the left of the zone-in because the 3 static spawns there are easily single-pulled.  I would then wait for wanderers and such, but I stayed very cautious.  Once I had my 56 pet, AC became much easier and I'm still there now.  Nice thing about the Hole, Chardok, and AC is that (at least on my server) I usually have the whole zone to myself.  :)

- hatsumi
Bakemono - 58 Beastlord - The Tribunal