Was away from the game for a couple weeks with work and family traveling, so haven’t had a chance for any updates. Finally got a few days to play a bit this week, and made a lot of progress!
I did have a few minutes here and there during the last couple weeks to work on my Shaman’s alchemy skill. Looked up the Greater Concentration recipe, and spent about 1k on the mats skilling up. The skillups came pretty quick at lower levels, but slowed to a crawl around 150ish. I did end up with quite a few potions, and found that I could sell the stacks reasonably easily at the CL tunnel for 25pp each. Definitely not a huge money maker, but I can actually at least break even on the combines to help skill up. Plus, they are a nice addition to have in groups without an enchanter.
I logged in earlier this week hoping to get some xp flow and move closer to 60. The first day I ended up at the trusty old Frenzy camp, which I found was slow but steady XP. The out of era loot has finally been removed, which took a bit of pressure off the zone from people rushing to get them before they went poof. A solid group at frenzy on the first day got me a level on my Shaman, plus close to a level on my SK.
The next day, a Friday, I quickly found a group when I logged in at the castle. At first they only had room for my SK, but I was fine with that since he was about to ding. I made my way over, though I had never been to the camp. I did explore over there a bit before after doing a Lower Dogs camp, so I had a pretty good idea of where to go. Found the camp with no trouble. Soon after I joined, I was able to get my shaman into the group as well.
Around noon, we got a 76% exp bonus for the holiday weekend. A horde of people showed up in the zone, and LFG was packed. Luckily we were already established, so I popped a couple exp potions for an extra boost, which stacked to 101%. The XP was amazing! Spent a solid block of time there that day, and ended up at 54 on both characters. I was happy to finally get an upgraded canni spell for my SHM, who had been using the original spell since level 23. Sadly as I was getting ready to head out, a strange issue with the mob pathing or perhaps a train led to a wipe when the chanter was AFK and about 6-7 adds charged the group. Then the cleric /exited when we were on the way back, which was very annoying. However some group member replacements were on the way, one of which had a cleric box that rezzed us all. With that I ended my day, and was close to ding on my SK as well.
Gargoyles and golems, oh my!
I only had about an hour and a half to play today, but found a LD group looking for a tank quite quickly. I headed down, and was able to bang out 10% more xp and ding 55, plus a small buffer into the level. I think the castle camps are about the only ones I will do in Velks any more, as 85% of the mobs in LD are light blue now.
Pretty excited though, nearing the end of the leveling grind! I did pick up an upgrade for my SK hand slot, with some nice AC. Now though, I need to get another haste item. Looking at getting a RBB but I don’t know that I can afford one. Failing that, I plan to see about going to CS and farming the seahorses for a haste belt there. Will have to do some checking to see if I can duo it, but if not I will try to get a group and farm it up.
Welcome Back to Norrath 