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The Tattered Notebook: EQII's hidden gems for low-level explorers
One of the things I've enjoyed with the new EverQuest II update is how fun it is to get out there and explore the new zones. The Withered Lands has lots of nooks to check out, like the Holgresh caves up along the cliffs and the ruins just outside the Combine Foothold. As much as I like epic storylines and lofty challenges, sometimes it's fun to just mount up and scout out some really interesting locations. GU63, however, really doesn't offer any new content for lower-level players, and it's hard for someone under level 90 to get around the Withered Lands and Skyshrine safely. But one of the reasons there's not much new content at the lower levels is that past updates have added in so much already that there's almost too much to see and do. Queue up the Bud Light music, for in today's Tattered Notebook, we salute you, Mr. Low-Level Player. You tirelessly work through the Golden Path, but you deserve some cool hunting spots and gorgeous vistas. Below the cut are some of my favorites!
The Road to Mordor: Six wonders of the newbie world
As I reported last week, I've recently rerolled as a Hobbit Minstrel in an effort to refresh my attitude toward the game, to get a different perspective, and to continue my series in which I go through all of the single-player quests in the game. It's been, in a word, smashing. Having been away from the tamer lands of Eriador for so long, I had forgotten the charm and serenity that these lowbie areas exude. Plus, it's always fun leveling up a brand-new character, since there are plenty of goals and ways to develop your character that your level-capped toons have long since surpassed. As I've been plugging away at Bree-land quests, I began to make a mental list of exactly what's so special about the low-level game in Lord of the Rings Online. The mental list became an actual one, and after a period of milling and refining, I've baked it into a nice loaf of observations to share with you.
15 Minutes of Fame: PvE twinks turn lowbie instances devilishly difficult
From Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? We're giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame. PvP twinking is a fairly well-known, widespread phenomenon in World of Warcraft. The idea is that players stop leveling at the very top of a particular PvP level range bracket, dig in with all the mix-maxed gear and enchants they can muster, and proceed to mop up the battleground kills. Anyone who's run a few battlegrounds on the way up through the levels has encountered that shockingly strong player who tears him a new one. We've even profiled a prolific, multi-level twinker (twinkie?) right here on 15 Minutes of Fame. What you might not be as familiar with -- we weren't! -- is the idea of PvE twinking. Allow us to introduce a hardy band of adventurers on Blackwater Raiders (US-H) that's running each and every instance at the bare minimum level that players are eligible to enter. Ragefire Chasm at level 8? You got it. Deadmines at level 10? Aggro Magnet Central -- but yeah, you got that, too. "It's surprisingly fun playing these classic instances that we've all done hundreds of times at such a low level compared to the mobs," gushes party leader Gilgalad. "It can take hours to clear an instance that typically takes 20 to 30 minutes for an appropriately leveled party. Some of the boss mechanics that are typically a trifle to a normal party become incredibly difficult to deal with when you are 10 levels below the boss. Arugal in Shadowfang Keep was particularly tough and required quite a few attempts before we came up with a strategy that worked."
Doing something nice for other players
This is one of the few forum threads of late that has given me hope in mankind rather than the other way around. Jastiri of Antonidas started a thread asking players what the last nice thing they did for another player was, and relates his/her own tale of running into a new level-15 player who had saved 20 silver and materials to pay a tailor to make 6-slot bags. This "just about broke my heart," Jastiri wrote, who then made the newbie five 16-slot bags and offered 10 gold. The player thanked him/her for the bags but didn't accept the gold, insisting that the bags were gift enough and that he/she intended to pay Jastiri back for them eventually as well. How can you not love that?The whole thread's full of little gems like that that, and was lovely to read. Share the wealth, readers -- what have you done lately for other players?
Breakfast Topic: Is this too easy?
Recently, I decided to do something with all those Emblems of Heroism/Valor that were clogging up my currency tag, and so bought myself the heirloom shoulders and Bloodied Arcanite Reaper. I soon found myself in possession of a level 80 death knight (messing about with Frost and Blood specs, waiting for 3.2 to see if Dual Wielding becomes viable again) and thus, had a dilemma. There's only three classes that can wear the Polished Spaulders of Valor and I have two of them at 80 now. So what to do? Rather than bank them in the hopes that they'll work in the expansion (I don't think they will, because it's not like Blizzard to put out an expansion and then let you cheat your way through it the first time) I decided I'd try another paladin. The last one was horde side, and my burning vitriolic hatred of blood elves made him very, very hard to level. I mean, they twirl around when you jump! I hate that!
Tip: Run Midsummer as a lowbie
Here's a great tip from Darthkurai on LJ: doing the Midsummer Fire quests as a lowbie will net you a ton of nice XP. He grabbed almost two levels' worth of XP at level 40, just for running around to all the different bonfires throughout Azeroth. Bewarned that some of the quests have various level requirements on them (Undercity and all of the capital flames, as he finds out, are level 50 and above only, and of course Lord Ahune is only for level 70s), but doing all of the quests at low levels will net you a good 6-7k XP, which around level 40 will give you at least a ding or two.Pretty good for just running around the world once or twice. Everyone's excited about Ahune and what you can get from him, but don't forget your old alts, either -- logging them on during the festival and showing them the world (while killing on the way with those buffs) can grab you a nice chunk of free XP for them as well. The Midsummer Fire Festival is upon us! Check out WoW Insider's complete quest guide to collect those Burning Blossoms as well as our guide on how to spend them. Also, don't forget to eyeball our screenshot gallery of Midsummer events. Finally, find out how to kill Lord Ahune, and check out our break down of his loot table.
Making/Money: Newbs at Auction
... And we're not talking about selling accounts on eBay. One of the most frustrating aspects of being a new player in an established game, to my mind, is the cost of start-up crafting materials. Hit up any public market area, auction house, trade square or similar as a newbie and you will see what I mean. Even low-level items of any use (i.e. not vendor trash) are sold for seemingly absurd amounts given the time that would be required at early levels in order to generate the money. It can make the start of a new character infuriating and the game too taxing (pun fully intended) to continue. Why does this happen? What makes these things so costly? Why can't we all just get along...? (Oh wait, that's another column entirely)
Patch 2.4 without the expansion
Reader Sebastian wrote in to us with an interesting question: what good is patch 2.4 if you don't have the Burning Crusade expansion yet? He has a lower level character that hasn't hit 70 yet (he's on level 46), and wants to know exactly what 2.4 is doing for him. From what we can tell, not much.You'll still get some of the good interface updates -- so you'll get the buffs to Inspect, the combat log improvements, and all of the other additions Blizzard has made to the UI. All of the talents you have by 46 that got changes will change, too, and of course the improvements to Warsong Gulch are great for characters of almost any level (since almost everyone can go in there). And let's not forget the biggest change this patch: Old Blanchy's Feed Pouch is now an 8 slotter. That's huge.But no, until you hit level 70, the new daily quests and the Sunwell Instances and the new badge loot won't matter much to you at all. But the good news is that the expansion is only $30, and sometimes even cheaper than that. The weather's getting nice outside, so go mow a few lawns this weekend, and then you'll be able to level up and join us all in the land of the Blood Elves where pretty much everyone has gone mad with magical power. Trust me -- it's more fun than it sounds.
WoW Rookie: Lowbie instance guide
Dungeons, known as instances, are special zones where players group together to fight tougher monsters than the outside environment. They are called instances because each group who enters them is given a separate copy of the dungeon and will not interact with other players of either faction when inside. Higher quality loot is available in instances than the environment, in addition to excellent quest experience and rewards. Today's WoW Rookie gives you a guide to the dungeons may enter in your first forty levels or so. Instances are known in most cases by their initials. Notable exceptions will be listed below. This guide also gives suggested levels for completing the dungeons. Entering at a lower level will usually prove difficult and, at times, painful. If you do an instance at a higher level than recommended will garner little experience and rewards that do not benefit your current level.
Fighting in battlegrounds at a level that ends in 1
Nick on WoW LJ posted about something that drives me nuts every time I head into the battlegrounds below level 70. Here's a tip: before you queue up for the battlegrounds, check the last number of your level. If it's anything below a seven, you are not prepared. Don't go in there. Level up, and then go in, because the other side (whether they be Alliance or Horde) is bringing nines, and sometimes even twinks.Now I know that's a tough suggestion to follow-- even I, despite being driven so nuts by this, have wanted to try out my new spells so much that I've taken some level 44s and 22s into the battlegrounds. But the fact is that at the lower end of each ten levels, you're just not anywhere near powerful enough to either do much or survive in a BG. And the people that did show up to play at 29 and 49 and 59 are just being left shorthanded by having lowbies on their team. Maybe teamwork can help a lower-leveled team power past a team of 8s and 9s, but since teamwork is missing in most PuG battlegrounds, I haven't seen it yet. And yes, a well-timed root of any level, or any other utility spell, can save a BG, but it wont if that root gets resisted.Is there a fix that Blizzard can implement? I don't think so-- even if they gave 9s their own BGs, then 8s would complain, and even at 70, gear can be so inconsistent that it still doesn't matter that everyone in the BG is the same level. But if your level ends in 1, please don't even bother going into a BG-- go level up (leveling pre-60 is super fast now), and then come back to actually help your BG team win.
Does anybody pay attention to World Defense?
theflamecrow on LJ had an interesting little occurrence: he was in Darkshore when he saw a flash in the World Defense channel that Darkshore was being attacked. The only problem? He's Horde.Now, most people may think that Horde doesn't have a base in Darkshore that can do under attack, but in fact, they do-- it's the Dancing Troll Village. So apparently some enterprising Alliance had found it and started killing. But here's the bigger question I got from crow's story: does anyone really pay attention to World Defense?I know I don't. But then again, I play on a PvE server, so odds are that anyone attacking a lowbie level like that is just a level 70 on a rampage. But even on PvP servers, do blaring Defense channels really mean that anyone cares? People will protect their guildies, and of course they'll join the fight if they smell blood (or at least someone they can beat in a fight). But do the Local and World Defense channels really point the way to a good PvP clash the way the developers surely intended? Or do they just mean chat spam, and that there'll be trouble if you try to speak to NPCs in that area?
Breakfast Topic: Less money, more problems
We heard yesterday that lower level characters didn't need daily quests, because they don't have money problems. But while I agree that daily quests aren't necessary before 70 (considering that, you know, you can do as many quests as you want while leveling), I'm not so sure I agree about the money problems part. Have you had enough money as a lower level character?I can't ever remember running out of money to train with (although with all of my alts, I usually send about a hundred gold back just to keep repairs and item purchases rolling), but I don't know that I've always had money for a mount at 40. I have a priest right now who's 45 and still running around, just because I've never actually focused on making money long enough to raise the cash. Then again, on my disenchanting rogue, I've always had tons of money to go around, and even sent some up the chain to my main.Is there a problem with funds at low levels? Do you find you have too little cash from 20-60, just the right amount, or even too much? I think the money flows pretty freely throughout the game at this point-- there are enough ways to earn money at almost any level that if you put in extra time, you should have all you need. But how's the tuning if you don't put in the time? For a character just leveling up, does the game give out enough cash to do it all?
A rewarding Tranquilien grind
There's a good little tip on the forums for anyone starting out a Horde alt (maybe to take advantage of the new leveling changes)-- do your 10-20 grind in Tranquilien. As long as you're thorough, you can pretty easily get exalted with Tranquilien (the rep flows freely), and there are some incredible rewards for doing so. Tranquilien Champion's Cloak is the best you can get, and +7 Stamina inside of level 20 is amazing.Just shows how far Blizzard has come in rewarding up and coming players with the items they need to level faster. You've always been able to get rep from other starting areas, and these rewards have been around since Burning Crusade (so this is only news if you're just now starting another alt). But it's cool to look back on all these changes-- increased rep per quest, a new starting area, and better reputation rewards, and see how they all work together to give lowbie characters lots more fun stuff to play with.
Epic gear coming to Scarlet Monastery (and elsewhere)
Here's a little change I missed in the midlevel updates notes: Epic gear will now drop for lowbies. Example number one is the Deadman's Hand, which will drop from Arcanist Doan in SM, and has a proc that "freezes" attackers for a full three seconds. Hawt! Eyonix, who's poking around the forums today after a long absence, confirms that the proc will scale with level, which means it'll be basically useless by 70.But still-- Epic gear for lowbies! What is the world coming to? A quick search on Wowhead doesn't bring anything else new yet that I can see (lots of Epic turn-ins and the old World Drops that we already know about), but this can't be the only Epic they're adding to the lowbie dungeons-- I'm sure we'll see lots more pop up as more people test the PTR and the patch eventually goes live.Yes, giving Epics to folks who haven't hit even 50 yet might seem a little strange-- just how epic can a piece of equipment be if a knockover like Arcanist Doan can hang on to it? But it's more than worth it, as even lowbies running instances should have a chance to know what it feels like to loot a boss-- and find some of those tasty Professor Plums.
Blizzard should focus on more Patch 2.3s, not on new mid-level zones
By now you've heard the news: Patch 2.3 will lower the XP requirements needed to level from 20-60 by 15% per-level. As an extra bonus, Blizzard is adding 60-odd new quests to Dustwallow Marsh. I would prefer they do this than add more zones specifically for mid-level content . New mid-level content is always a hot topic, especially by people who are on their third or fourth trip to the well. We've all got those "If I never, ever, see this zone again, it's too soon" zones. The solution often bandied about is to create alternate progression paths so we never, ever, go back to Stranglethorn Vale. I'm going to put forth a different idea: Fix what is broken. This will help minimize unused zones, and maybe not spread out the lower-levels so new players can actually find groups.Which seems to be the step Blizzard is taking with 2.3. In terms of quest progression and rewards, Blizzard hit it out of the park with TBC. You've got quest-givers nicely clumped together and often they all send you in the same direction. The cash, XP, and item rewards for completing the quests are excellent. When you compare the expansion quests against original Azeroth it becomes apparent how frustrating quests could be. It seemed like completing most of them involved long griffon rides for mediocre rewards. Quests felt like they were, well, I was going that way anyway...
Seeing low level quests again
Tenehuini over on the EU forums has an excellent point: currently, higher level characters have no way at all of seeing which NPCs, at a glance, have lower-level quests for them. What we need is another set of exclamation points, a toggled way of showing which NPCs have quests for us, even if they're below our current level.Aeus says it's a good idea that just hasn't been acted on yet, but I'll add my voice to the crowd asking for action. Before, when lower level quests didn't grant XP or rep, this wasn't that big a deal-- if you were going back to do a certain low level quest (for lore or completion purposes), you probably knew where it was anyway. But since reputation has been buffed on lowbie quests, there's value in knowing where quests are. And there's really no reason for Blizzard to hide that info, anyway-- the quests are viewable right after you talk to the questgiver, so why not throw a exclamation point up there?The only question, then, is what color. Later in the thread, Readbeard comes up with a whole list of exclamation point colors-- green, yellow, orange and red for quest difficulty, and black and gray for pre- or post-level status. As good an idea as that sounds to us WoW veterans, my guess is that Blizzard won't vibe with it-- explaining all the different colored exclamation points to a new player might be a little tough. But still, a toggle-able lowbie quest exclamation should be easy to implement, and would help those folks headed back to the starter areas to pick up experience, rep, or whatever else they want.
Phat Loot Phriday: Everglow Lantern
This twinkalicious quest reward isn't exactly much loved, but it has its place.Name: Everglow LanternType: Uncommon OffhandDamage/Speed: NAAbilities: +3 Stamina Use: Heal your target for 135 to 165. Unfortunately, there's a gigantic 30 minute cooldown on this one, so it's not extremely useful. But in certain situations it comes in handy, and while it's likely you'll ditch this one fairly quickly, for the level or two that you have this paired with a good one hand weapon, the extra healing helps in a pinch. The thing looks pretty cool, too, as the glow spreads on your character, other characters, and in the surrounding area. Kind of fun to carry around at night with all the graphic options turned up, and RPers may even keep it around for those nighttime play sessions. How to Get It: This is a quest reward, that's available to both factions via two different quests. For Alliance, you've got to do Supplies to Auberdine, an escort quest in Ashenvale, and Horde can do Weapons of Choice at Camp T in the Barrens. Horde can get their quest at level 17 (though the mobs are much higher level, around 23-25), and Alliance can get the quest at 19 (though it too will be hard for someone that low to complete. But with help it's more than possible, so if you really wanted to put this on a 19 WSG twink, you definitely could.Truthfully, there are better items you could put on a twink, but speaking as a Mage who brings this thing into the lowbie battlegrounds, there's nothing like getting funny tells when people wonder how you heal yourself. I can only hope the other side wonders, too.Getting Rid of It: Oh right-- this is why I have this section. Because not all the phat loot you get is worth keeping. A vendor will give you 16s 32c for this, or it will DE into a Strange Dust, Lesser Astral Essence, or a Small Glimmering Shard.And speaking of Phat Loot, have you left a comment on our Spectral Tiger Mount contest yet? The contest ends tonight at 7:00pm EST-- if you haven't, hurry over and get it done!
Get an epic mount already!
Malleus from Wildhammer says he's found WoW's Bigfoot. He saw a level 70 on a non-epic mount, and for some reason, thought it was so rare that he just had to have a picture of it.Frankly, a level 70 on a non-epic mount isn't all that rare. My level 66 rogue is still riding around on a slowpoke Undead pony (just because he's an alt I was never willing to spend that much money on), and lots of Paladins and Warlocks just never got the chance or resources to get their epic mount quests done. For a main, it might be a priority to get a fast mount, but for alts, most people are usually pretty apathetic about it.Not that there are any excuses any more. With money flowing the way it is in Outland, 900g is no more than a few days' work. And while a flying epic mount is really the best for gathering professions (nothing more fun than dropping in, grabbing a mine node, and jumping back into the air), an epic ground mount really helps with both grinding and questing-- the faster you get somewhere, the sooner you can start earning XP. Not to mention that for the BGs, it's practically a must. Not having an epic mount after 60 doesn't make you a total freak (Malleus didn't really need to take a picture), but there isn't any really any excuse not to get one either.
Cutting down on grind time for lowbie pets
Mania's Arcania, which is the new home of the Petopia blog, has a really interesting look at a frustrating problem for hunters-- leveling a lowbie pet with a high level character. Say you're 70 and you want a Ghost Saber. Because the Ghost Saber spawns at only 19 or 20, the only way to currently level it is to basically let the hunter tank (or kite, more likely), and simply bring the pet along for the ride.So how could we fix this? One of Mania's commenters has an interesting idea-- whenever a pet is tamed, it is automatically brought within a few levels of the hunter taming it. If you're 70 and taming a level 20, then when the little green ding flare rises up after taming, the pet suddenly becomes level 65, which is good enough to make the pet not so useless. It doesn't quite make sense (why would a pet be so much more powerful just because you tame it?), but it does take out the unnecessary pet grinding. Mania has other ideas that work well, too-- either make the pet experience relative to the pet (not the hunter, as it is now), or reduce the amount of experience needed anyway. Another idea mentioned is to make the latest rank of Growl open to any tamed pet of any level, but I don't see that working-- even if a level 20 could hold aggro against a level 60+ mob, it's not going to last very long.The only other suggestion I'd have is just to implement a different way to level pets-- maybe a turnin or a special quest at pet trainers that cuts down on the grinding time and method. But no matter how you do it, there's no reason hunters should be forced to go through all this just to get the pet that has the look they want.
Reputation no longer diminished by level
Lane points out something interesting that I hadn't yet noticed after 2.0: faction reputation via quest is not subject to level any more.It's true. I just loaded up my 55 night elf hunter, ran a quest in Northshire Abbey, and sure enough, 20 seconds of killing kobolds got me 250 rep for Stormwind. Most players trying to grind reputation for another racial faction (usually for the mounts, but most vendors will also give a small discount for higher rep) were limited to grinding around for tons and tons of runecloth, but it appears that doing lowbie quests will now grant just as much, if not way more, reputation. You won't be able to see the "!" or earn XP for them (if you're doing quests way below your level, that is), but the rep is there and plentiful-- just talk to the questgiver.I've never heard of this, so there's a chance that Blizzard hasn't as well, and that this is just a bug waiting to be fixed. But for now, if you've been waiting to grind up reputation for a mount, just head back to the starting area of your choice, and have at it.
