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New Beastlord

Started by Maigraith, November 23, 2009, 05:41:04 AM

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Maigraith

Hi All

I have just come back to EQ after quite a few years break and am going with a fresh start on a new server and new class, and the class I am really keen on is the Beastlord (played a ranger before to 65)

I just want to ask though, knowing that lower levels are dead,if I grab a cleric merc to what level can I solo with a good chance of success before groups are needed more, or is it possible to solo all the way to top level now?  :-)

I dont really want to get into 2 boxing as tbh I just suck at it  :-D so it will be just me and a merc, unless any groups come up hehe

I have lots of questions but this one is just to start and I any advice is much appreciated  :-)

Khauruk

#1
First question - what server are you on?  You may be able to find some help/friends w/ that bit of info.

Second - I've heard that tank merc 'til 55 is the cat's pajamas.  I haven't tried it, but have heard this from a whole bunch of people.  If you just want to level past that point fast, this might be the best way.  I've started an enc now, but I'm lvling it "legit" with minimal PL/twinkness (just some clarity I and lowbie haste so far).

Third - join serverwide.beastlords:beastlords to shoot the breeze/have a ready source for questions/answers.

Fourth - you can solo as high as you want...it just has varying levels of efficiency.  Good general advice - get AAs early now (most people start as soon as they can), they come really fast at low AA counts (and the xp isn't level dependent like it used to be - it's dependent on how the mob cons to the highest lvl player in group and how many AAs you have).  Read up/ask here/serverwide channel for advice on specific buys.

Fifth - if you look at the lvling spot threads on here, assume you can generally hunt there a few lvls earlier.  Spells come a bit faster, and gear's much better than when most of those were written.

Sixth - welcome back!
TURNCOAT!!!!!

Vidyne

Quote from: Khauruk on November 23, 2009, 05:47:55 AM
Second - I've heard that tank merc 'til 55 is the cat's pajamas.  I haven't tried it, but have heard this from a whole bunch of people.  If you just want to level past that point fast, this might be the best way.  I've started an enc now, but I'm lvling it "legit" with minimal PL/twinkness (just some clarity I and lowbie haste so far).
Well after hearing that a while back, I went and picked up my level 10 paladin, bought him a Journeyman Tier 1 warrior, and went to a few places....  with 70hp/tick regen, its difficult to kill the merc at that level, along with his astounding AC/HP.  After a few levels there, I went and got on my 24 ranger, buying a J1 warrior.  (yes... 70hp/tick... makes fungi look like....... and that goes up with level.. although it gets weaker over time)

I went through permafrost, Echo Caverns, somewhere else, and finally City of Mist to get to 51.  It wasn't uncommon to get 1 or 2 levels in a single lessons.  The merc is as high a dps source as you will ever find in a group at that level, barring some absolutely supreme twinks.  He is also unkillable in one on one combat against anything within 5 levels of him.

I met a beastlord in City of Mist and grouped with him.  He had recently come back to the game and said wouldn't we need a healer for the tank?  I said not really.  Between my ranger heals at 45 and his heals at 43,  we kept the tank up on any pull up to 4 mobs.  You don't need a healer for the tank merc at these levels unless you plan on pulling more than 2 mobs at a time and they are yellow+ or severe undercons.  He simply will not take enough damage to die.  A pull of a yellow con and a dblue usually ended with the merc at 50% or 40% life if he killed the yellow first.  That is without any healing on my part to try and heal his massive 8000-10000 hp pool at 45.

If anyone has ever given high level pet armor to a low level pet.... its similar to that effect...  The merc and the pet are both in theory... unkillable.... you would never see a group tank or even a twinked raider alt tank outtank/dps the merc in my belief(before 50).   It is better than a twinked pet because its dps is better in the mid-higher levels and he can be used by anyone.  I think the frog merc I had was tripling for 175s, and usually taking only double digit hits in CoM.

At some points it became a game....  I'd see how many mobs I could train on my merc until I actually could kill it.   There weren't many times I was successful.

Kanan

But, at the higher end, the tank merc's a total moron, and nowhere near as effective as the cleric.

ex.  Doing the top of Mech guardian, the shm would BSOD one of the adds on the pull, and we would be dealing with the others.. and it would go chasing off, the far side of the room after that rooted mob, instead of going after the mob in front of it, that we had a MA ring on.  It would die fairly quickly too.

Clr mercs can often OT mobs that hit for 2k pretty effectively, healing themselves the meanwhile and getting some key heals off on you as well.  I hadn't tried a tank merc when I was leveling up my monk.  He's 56 now, though I've not played him in a month or two and Kez is on a different server, so the cash support's not as heavily there as it once was, so I'm not as willing to try experimenting with the costs of the mercs ;p
Kez's Magelo 85 "Arch Animist" of Final Empire on Povar

Grbage

I recently decided to level a shammy to make potions for me. Grabbed a J1 tank merc and at 65 he still hardly needs heals but the curve is showing he's weakening compared to the mobs. I would imagine by 70 the merc wont be all that good.

Maigraith, bst are darn good at soloing. I mainly soloed to 65 with several hundred aa in absolutely junk gear. Still did a lot of soloing between 65-85 so yes, you can solo to 85 and max aa if you want to. Now there is defiant gear in the game which drops off xp mobs and is tradeable so sold in the bazaar too. The gear is so good compared to what you were used to you'll think you are a god when revisiting the old zones.
Grbage Heep
85 Beast of Torv

Maigraith

#5
Many thanks guys for all the info, it is much appreciated  :-)

I am just exploring the tutorial place at the moment and taking your advice went to POK and dropped my cleric merc in favor of a tank one and omg yes I see what you mean hehe, mobs going down in the half the time and yes his health doesnt even move lol.  I look forward to experimenting more as I level but tank merc seems the way to go till a bit higher  :-D

I have started on Bertox as I am in NZ and was told it was one of the few servers with a somewhat active Oceanic population so thought it would be nice to know there are people around in my evenings even if I wont actually see them for a good while yet hehe.  I have created a Barbarian BST called Maigraith, only early levels but I didnt get much time last night to play so hope to get stuck into it a bit more today.

And it's nice to be back, after having played EQ2 up until recently its a great feeling to be back in EQ though looking ahead to high levels it is a bit daunting as so much has changed since I stopped playing back in 2004 or 5 I think it was  :lol:  but looking forward to exploring again  :-)

Thanks again!

Kanan

hrmph.. another smelly barb around here.

/sniffs delicately & walks off to groom himself

/wink

welcome and have fun.  There's soooo much great info here and some pretty good peeps here too.  Many of us have been playing this class for years, some so many we go "wow, I've been missing that quest part for close to 4 years now ><"

heh ;p
Kez's Magelo 85 "Arch Animist" of Final Empire on Povar

Maigraith

lol thanks for the welcome Kanan, you guys have a great community here from what i've seen so far so very glad i've found you  :-)

wildwaters

Quote from: Kanan on November 23, 2009, 09:42:41 PM


/sniffs delicately & walks off to groom himself

/wink


All we need know is a kimono and a tea hut and we have geisha kanan

>.<

Kanan

... you're just jealous of vah shir flexibility ;p
Kez's Magelo 85 "Arch Animist" of Final Empire on Povar

Tamerov

 I just restarted a Beastlord too, mainly just because (for some reason) I just think they are a fun and versatile class to play. There is a big argument on the eq beastlord forums about how Beastlords are near the bottom classwise and need some type of boost, what I can't quite figure out is if they are talking raidwise, groupwise, or just in general (solo). I don't ever plan to raid so if thats the argument fine but if its one of the other two I am concerned, but as I mostly solo (with a merc) that is my main worry. In that context are Beastlords still doing ok? I understand about the AA's but there are several classes that are heavily AA dependant so thats no big deal, to me at least. Other than that?

Grbage

Solo-Still doable to 85 but it does slow down. In TSS mobs got strikethrough then in SoF they got their attack increased and HP has massively inflated. This means we take more damage then in the past even though the devs have bumped up our post cap ac return some. But, you can still effectively take on lower con mobs which was always the bst bread and butter anyway when soloing.

Group-Still decently wanted there, only thing that has really changed is now when you steal agro from that tank the mob really really hurts if you are not geared up.

Raid-Medium dps and that's about all you bring to the raid. SE was given out in portion form, no one wants sv, paragon is like trying to empty the ocean with a bucket, focused paragon is ok if the fight last long enough to actually start draining those massive mana pools.
Grbage Heep
85 Beast of Torv

Karve

The eq beast forums are murky at best.
2 main threads there at the moment, 1 is for a slight DPS boost to the pet, and the other is for a slight boost to our healing which has dropped off disproportionately.

Both say slight, as honestly thats all that is required. Neither would make the class massively overpowered.
As a soloing beast, I'd highly reccomend teh combat agility an dcombat stability lines of aa's, once these are capped, SoF and to a lesser degree SoD mobs don't damage you anywhere near as much.



Professional Mad Bastard.

jitathab

Up to level 50 the tank merc will be a better choice, you should have no problems soloing to 50, go the TSS route, lots of quests, some gear as well and enough plats to pay your merc.

At 50 on its going to depend a bit on playstyle, but at some point the cleric merc will work better than the war merc. Also you may find no merc at all better if plowing lots of easy mobs, and pocket that extra XP.

I soloed 1-60 in Luclin days, levl 80-85 is best (if repetitive) to to go Mech guardian level 4 in a group.

Alsso depends on how much a rush your in. 50 shouldnt take long at all.

Blarp

there is lots of placers  you can hit to lvl fast, if u dont mind a zone getting old to pump out some exp.  use OoW.   when u hit 60 u can try hitting Nobbles crosway off WoS.  then WoS  (Murk cave) till 65. then MPG soon as u ding lvl 69 RSS untill aboult 500 aa's will not take long  they dont have jack for hp, and  if u did it with a cleric merk  at lvl 69 your lookin at 15% a kill without  any EXP bound's and with all the gear out there for cheap in the baz. u can get the gear for it np. for maybe 10k u can outfit a toon now days. i soloed 81-85 in RSS FYI it was a hot zone at the time and LOTD gave me 20%  not a bad burn at the time. but with the OMM tasks u can get lvled up Very fast now days.