OPTIONS(96-100): To me at this point, there is no best place to go. EQ progression has a nice zone by zone guide up to OoW expansion, recommended level for the zone with a rating for the quality of exp there and best of all a map highlighting the mob levels in different areas of the zone usually with a star showing best hunting spots. If you don't like the scenery, zone over to City of Dranik. Paladins can start swarming around 83 with impunity and shredding through these guys to about 85. If you're a new player then you'll be able to find a Mercenary Liaison right in Cresent Reach (granted if you Start there). If you have an enchanter mez the adds and then hold them for one minute after each kill. I will provide some quick ideas if that's not the direction you wanna go. Ah yes. That spot is, like, the ideal afk spot. I also find levitation to be a must as the zone is divided by a giant canyon and you spawn on the wrong side of the canyon. A: No. Worth about half a level in that range. A: Yes they do! You will need help doing it though. Up to about level 35 a red con gave me 10%-25% XP. EQNext (EverQuest Next or EQN) has been officially announced! Split or tank em, however your group is set up. This expansion introduced Mercenaries and basically completely changed the way you level in Everquest. Lower HP, but hit hard. ). Don't bother with one of the far flung camps. Each Stance has different focuses and allow the mercs to be more or less reactive. Jewel of Atiiki(74-78)(Guild Hall>Buy Katta Castrum Powerstone>TP to Katta Castrum>Jewel) - Farming the efreeti here is fun and easy. The first vendor is level 75, and each vendor after that is available every 5 levels. Go through a little valley into the south side of the zone though and it becomes Tier 2. Start off killing drakes, snakes, and spiders. You should easily average about 25% of an AA for each of the light blue mobs while at the South or North Camp. To help you on your leveling journey, this EverQuest Leveling Guide has been updated for all updates and patches as of 2022. It just depends on gear if solo and number of boxes/size of group if not. Thank you! A single heroic 85 is all that is really needed to roll over the content though, which shouldn't be hard to find on any server you're on. Mercenary Leveling and Equipment While mercenaries are quite adept at walloping the occasional moss snake, even the most adroit sell-sword can be taught a thing or two by an experienced adventurer. BEST: (14-18)-30 Blightfire Moors (Crescent Reach>Blightfire Moors) - If you came in at 14, kills snakes and rats that are between the CR zone line and the PoKnowledge book. Inside the city, the Alarans come in groups of two or three or solo. If you have a group, a great place to go is over to the bottom left of the top section of the zone. Get a PL, swarm lower level content, do some HAs. Q: What level do Mercs start charging me money? /autoskill allows you to toggle combat skills to automatically active while attacking (formerly unlocked at 61). At 65 I like to head up to the second levels and kill the higher level guys there. The money is amazeballs though, so if you have a group or are comfortable with your box setup, murder giants. I played a cleric for 9 years until I finally left. The west is a mess and quickly drops away forcing you to gate out one way or another. So make this the exception to my disdain of HA leveling. Abstruse armor is very serviceable. I don't like them and only do them if guildmates beg me to. Some feedback as someone who was reading this hoping to come back: What does paying for live do for me? By this point you should have gear that can hold up and healers who know what's what. A NOTE ON GEAR: Up til now, the Defiant sets of gear have been pretty spectacular. Everquest AFK Leveling Missions. They are essential to following this guide. There are a few provided for you by the game, but the vast majority of the world is gonna be uncharted and you will need reliable maps. There are four types of Mercs to choose from: Healing, Tanking, Rogue or a Wizard mercs. The undead lake is good for paladins and there are a couple of drolvargs mixed in. BEST (68-78): Dragonscale Hills (68-78)(PoK>Steamfont Mountains>Dragonscale Hills) - SEE NOTE ON MERCENARIES BELOW FOR WAYS TO BOOST THEIR EFFECTIVENESS A LITTLE. Spend 48-52 in the area around where you zone in and the northern areas of the zone. I like to use to portal room for quick evacuation. A: Nope, if he dies the "Suspend" Button on his window will turn to "Revive" and you'll be able to rez your Mercenary. This is a picture of the merc window. Once you are 75, start murdering Giants. Join or Create a guild, enter your guild hall from the guild lobby off PoK, find Zeflmin Werlikanin, buy a Fulligan Soulstone of Innoruk and give it to him. Also keep in mind that if you hire a mercenary from a female Mercenary Liaison then your mercenary will be a female. I've done it in as fast as 30 minutes before. There are 2 nameds plus a named treant you can easily access if no one else is killing them. ALTERNATIVES: 30-35 Goru'Kar Mesa (PoK>Blightfire Moors>Goru'Kar) - Almar used to suggest this place as a prime place to level. Your toons are going to get attacked and hit. I'd suggest even if you go this method, you still use MQ2 with afk tools to answer tells while you are away. Chelsith Reborn (98-102)(Guild Hall>Buy Shadowed Sand of the Twilight Sea>TP to Twilight Sea>The Scarlet Desert>The Grey>Chelsith Reborn or Once you do attunement quest from Shard's Landing, Guild Hall>TP to Shard's Landing>Portal to Chelsith Reborn) - I had never tried this place until recently, and I think it's awesome. They aren't that hard and only require a group to do, below is a table of the lines you have to complete and the mercenary tier they unlock. Passive: Your merc will not attack anything. BEST : Plane of Fire (62-68(72))(PoK>PoTranq>Plane of Fire) - Grab yourself a levitate and float your way into the first city area of Plane of Fire. To level up your Mercenaries, simply take them on bounties - they get XP for each fight you beat. The water and earth giants are the easiest giants, and the fire giants aren't too bad. This is a short guide addressing the need of returning players. Dismiss: Permanently get rid of this mercenary. Inside Dead Hills, look for a gnome named Gribble Grobblenobber. I fully admit that there are abilities some classes have that completely lower the bar for entry to a zone or extend the life of a zone a couple of levels. Q: What happens if I don't have the money to pay for my merc? Do her missions as well. In the second city, kill Doomfire mobs until 70. With fire. If you aren't saving for something in particular, consider taking these. I prefer to stay out of the fields if at all possible. A great place to solo for a lot of classes at 105 for AAs. All About Mercenaries | EverQuest All About Mercenaries Mercenaries are NPCs for hire that will aid adventurers in their heroic endeavors. They will drain half your exp and do very little damage. I have never played F2P so I can't tell you how to negotiate that. If you still need to eat up more time, head back to ETWK via the black portal and go to the camp where you buy gear. Also keep in mind almost everything here summons. From PoK>Gulf of Gunthak>Dulak's Harbor, Board the ship Stormwave or talk to the teleporter guy if it's all broken>Dead Hills. Owning any current expansion will also unlock these features. It slows down a lot after 46 but is worth sticking out. Outside the city are critters which can be pretty easily just wander killed. ALTERNATIVES: Hills of Shade(78-85)(PoK>Steamfont Mnts>Loping Plains>Hills of Shade) - This place is heaven for paladins and might be faster for them than Ashengate. Is it really AFK XP if the only people gaining any experience are the mercs that are doing the work? They are kinda tough to pull single, but normally are no more than 2-3 at a time. Some are also scattered amongst the buildings, just use "Find" to locate them. After about 12 though, you can speed things up immensely if you're fighting with your tank merc and he can hold aggro way better after 10. Don't know how popular that still is, but it's still not hard to get anything done. The mob density gets much thicker in both places, so it can be dangerous. While I didnt test this strategy in The Bloodfields, I think that zone also has a fast respawn rate of 10 minutes and 40 seconds, so this strategy should also work there if you can find a similar camp. AFK/Mercenary Leveling Guide for Everquest Levels 1-85 This is a guide dedicated to leveling your character automatically while either fully AFK or partially AFK. There is a quest with the platinum efreeti armor which eventually nets you a Illusion:Specter item that is sick. Although inadvertently getting trained is a risk youre going to take if youre afk; regardless of what xp zone youre in. Finally, while Heroic Adventures in Dead Hills, Ethernere Tainted West Karana, and throughout The Broken Mirror zones might be the "fastest" way to level, it's stupendously boring and repetitive. At 55-62 move to very center area of the zone and kill bigger shades and vampires. Go. I realize that I didn't add directions, just general sense of direction. Based on the information provided my first thought was that the begging skillup RNG was better on higher level NPCs than lower level. He couldn't have made it THAT easy. The cities are a cake walk, though the wandering mobs on the walls in the second city can really mess up your day if you don't pay attention. Once you get there, it's party time. So max out at lvl 82 and grind all your final AAs here. Just get access to the second of his HAs, Artifacts of Great Importance. When you come back Re-summon him and he will be your level again. The old school Journeyman Rank 5 mercenary questline takes place here if you want to do it. Plenty of zone to go around. The South Camp is the starting point. Additionally, the mobs in Wall of Slaughter have a larger agro radius than the Plane of Fire mobs which helps. (Test server people should average 37%.) There is a little city area as well on the far side of the canyon that is a good place to set up as well. There a couple of hallway corners that are mostly safe as well, but you have to kill to them and that can be dangerous. All rights reserved. Once that's done, go through the doors and head to the second level. D damination Level 2 Joined Apr 12, 2015 RedCents 313 Aug 17, 2018 #2 Start in the tunnels and then work your way through the area around the ghoul assassin. This place isn't bad for everyone else in general and is much easier to get to than Ashengate, so it might be a good alternative. When you complete an HA you are given a three hour lockout timer for THAT PARTICULAR HA. At about 52, head further into the zone, through the aquaduct area and start killing rotting peasants, nihilists, and commoners. The temple is a pretty decent camp spot if you have to sit somewhere, though the wall of fire that obscures you view kinda sucks, and you can pull to a wall as well without much difficulty. Stance: You're allowed to set the stance that you want your mercenary to be. Healing mercs heal and tanking mercs tank pretty simplistic. It essentially serves to let you worry about leveling without stopping for AAs. I believe the camp is called Library Camp commonly. 13-28 Estate of Unrest (PoK>Butcherblock Mountains>Dagnor's Cauldron>Unrest) - This is a good place for undead killers, but in my opinion the run out to it is too far and the exp is better in Blightfire. This is Tier 4 for Veil so things hit hard, but not that hard. The Foundation is one of them and might be worth heading to. NOTE: IF THE FABLED CREATURES ARE UP, DO NOT ATTACK THE BLACK REAVER. While you're on that sidebar, read the Returning/New Player FAQ. You will be doing these three HAs on a loop for a while. Head through the city in the mountain area toward Blightfire Moors. JavaScript is disabled. At first, just wait. This is the only stance a Rogue merc will attack on. Fewer mobs for AA/Exp grinding but still very nice and slightly easier for a small group. Hey no time like today. 48-55 kill the mutant floaty guys, shades and crazy humans. At 46 you can fight the goblins at the zone in or move up the ramp to the left side of their courtyard and kill the crusaders and sentry's. Entire house is pretty much open at 26. In both places, just clear the zone. 85% of the zone is undead. Favorite area is the Queen's castle area. A: Where it shows your vitals aka Health, Mana, Energy. To top it all off, it's also a hot zone!! A: When you shroud the mercenary is suspended, when you have enough money to pay for the mercenary you may unsuspend him. I would suggest just not coming here. Not much changes between 'minor' expansions in each leveling guide and you'll notice that the biggest change between leveling guides is Seeds of Destruction. EverQuest Cheats & Guides. You can pull the first floor starting about level 20 and move into the second floor about 24. Lots of mobs to kill here. The shades there are the highest level normal mobs in the zone. At 6-7 go into the middle cave and kill pumas. The exp is ludicrously fast thanks to low HP mobs and repeatable quests. Kill everything. The zone is very well spaced. The mobs hit very hard and you can get overwhelmed very quickly. When you get a new mercenary, it starts at Level 1 with only a single ability. Any commentary is welcome. Some of the Shissar are undead, but most aren't and they have high HP and hit hard to boot. Still do! 1 of 2 Go to page. Depending on your classes ability to swarm pull, these zones gain a lot of extra life for swarm pulls for SKs and the like. Buy the 950 Point Mount that provides levitation. The mobs have too many HP, hit too hard, and don't give up enough exp. For an AFK camp, 100 AA a day isnt too bad. Kill the wereorcs. Usually you can kill 5 or more mobs in the 15 minutes it takes between Upkeep's. Stay at the entrance until you get to 80, then you can push into the north pathway. Never a good idea to go fully afk. Classes with undead slaying/controlling spells can crush this place even harder and faster and thanks to that can really increase this zones effectiveness. You can do 2 pathings in this patch (13.1B): Kill all of it. At 6-7 go into the middle cave and kill pumas. Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with our privacy practices.If you are a resident of California, please view our California Privacy Disclosure. This is a picture of the window you'll see when first purchasing a Mercenary. You can go higher, but it isn't really worth it IMO. At 8-9 go to the last cave that is next to the little paddle thing on the lake and kill bears. The nameds drop pretty sick gear and hit WAY easier than the ones in the Nightmare zones. You can get a little more life out of the zone by acquiring one of the temporary keys that let you teleport up to Grieg's spawn point.