Gearing up on the Nag server without a sugar-daddy

[IcterusGalbula]

<p>I've been preparing a toon for PVP on the Nag server for months.  Most of my toons are on the Vox server and are based in Kelethin.  However, in August I decided to create one toon on the Nag server and put him in Neriak.  I wanted to do it for the challange.</p><p>Somebody had said I should lock early and do every quest I could.  So I did.  But I couldn't create all of my own gear with one toon and I hit level 10 far too soon somehow.  My toon was still in Tier 1 treasured gear when he hit level 12 with no stockpile of MC gear waiting.  So he went into Neriak months ago, has never come back out and is now a level 29 chef (still a level 12 adventurer).  Part of the problem was he did Level 1-9 quests instead of just quests Level 10 and above.  Another problem was he turned in collections, which I've since learned is a big no-no.</p><p>I rolled two more toons: one for armor and one for scrolls (alchemist).  Both harvested and one also went around doing Level 10+ quests.  The quester reached level 9.99 with about 45 Level 10+ quests completed.  Then 2-3 days ago while harvesting in a Tier 3 zone he stumbled into a portion of the map not previously visited, gained experience for exploration and dinged 10 without me meaning to do that.</p><p>So he has since retreated into Neriak as well.  He now has a full set of MC gear and Adept 3 spells waiting for him to hit Level 12.  I'm thinking of maybe getting him 2-3 Masters before he steps back outside ready for pvp.  After reaching Level 10 and retreating into Neriak, he tried reading "History of the..." books while dead to get AA without the adventure experience and found that feature of the game has been removed, or at least it did not work for me.</p><p>He was able to go from level 10.0 to level 11.5 by turning in quests inside Neriak and reading the "History of the..." books.  However, he did not reach level 12, so I need to determine whether to try to equip him for level 11.  I'm sure he only needs to run to the Fair once and turn in 5-6 quests there and he will probably ding level 12.</p><p>My third toon on the Nag server is level 8.  He currently is the only toon free to leave Neriak.</p><p>Raising money without a sugar-daddy (high-level toon) has been a lot harder than I thought it would be.  It seemed my toons would harvest all the way to level 20 without ever finding a blackened iron cluster.  In other words, they could raise their mining skill enough to mine in ButcherBlock without ever finding a Blackened Iron Cluster in the Commonlands.</p><p>Prices for many things on the Nag broker are low, so things are cheap, but that also means I cannot charge much for my stuff either.</p><p>The best way I've found to make money is to farm monsters for "Enigma of the ..... Volume 1" books and sell collectables from the Level 70 collection.  One of my toons killed a named or two, but I generally did not want to do that until I hit level 10.  In retrospect there probably is not much point in holding off.  Many Tier 1 named monsters are probably grayed out by the time a toon hits level 12.  I have found one or two legendary items by killing the Tier 1 named, so it wasn't a complete waste.</p><p>Except for Enigma books and Level 70 collectables, my chef might make more money than the other two toons, believe it or not, which means a lot of grinding at the stove.  My chef has not looked into making Tier 1 and 2 totems, but I suppose he should checking into doing that.</p><p>I've tended to save most rares to equip my own 3 toons.  I'm attempting to equip all 3 of them and my reluctance to sell rares is one reason I'm having trouble making money.  I have tried making spells and gear out of some of the rares, mostly making Tier 1 stuff.  But Tier 1 items don't seem to sell well at all on the broker.  I've got sets of armor for sell at 4 gold per piece and they've sat there for weeks.  I suppose I could lower the price to 2 gold per item, but then it would probably be better to just transmute the stuff instead of selling it.</p><p>I'm not complaining.  Just describing what I've experienced.</p><p>I'll probably get one toon ready for pvp just as the level-locking cap is moved to level 30.  But at least he will be well equipped and will have a stock-pile of about 25 quests in reserve for more AA.</p><p>Perhaps it would have been better to level my chef outside, have him get ganked over and over for awhile, then have him become the sugar-daddy to my other two toons.  But I did not want to go through that.</p><p>After all this huge amount of time put into preparing one toon for Tier 2 pvp on the Nag server, I'm not looking forward to reaching level 22 quickly and getting hammered by the level 30 lockers with far, far more AA than me.  But if that is how the game will be set up, I guess I'll have to deal with it.  At least I might not get ganked too much in Tier 2.  Then again I wonder how long it will take the current Tier 2 lockers to level against their will into Tier 3.</p><p>Just wanted to share my experience gearing up without a sugar-daddy in case it might be of any value to new players.</p>

[Bloodfa]

I've got one question, and please don't take it as offensive, but are you running solo or have you guilded one of your characters?  I only ask this because I'd like to know a little more before making a suggestion or two.

[IcterusGalbula]

<p>My Tier 1 characters have generally run solo.  A few times I've shouted out asking for help with a Level 11 or 12 quest.  Sometimes people will help, sometimes not.</p><p>In all the months I've been on the Nag server I've only received 1 guild invite.  The guilds that advertise seem to only want players level 20 and above.</p><p>After dinging Level 10 my 2 toons have done nothing but craft.  Once I get 2-3 Masters for my one Level 11 toon I might look into finding a group to run with.</p>

[Naglfar]

<p>wow, the life of a low lvl locker seems a little bit boring. Months before going out pvp ? You shouldn't be so afraid to fight... </p><p>bah,  everybody find fun where he wants <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/1cfd6e2a9a2c0cf8e74b49b35e2e46c7.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></p>

[Ba]

lol Iwas gonna say the same thing. Months of prep for a level 12 toon? Each to his own I guess.

[IcterusGalbula]

<p>As I said in the original post, I'm doing this for the challenge and am just reporting the facts of my experience so as to give new players a glimpse of what it might be like.</p><p>P.S.</p><p>I forgot to mention that my Level 11 toon also has 10 legendary Tier 2 adornments waiting for him and powder to make 7 treasured Tier 2 adornments.</p><p>The infusion of air has been very expensive to buy.  My chef is a transmuter too, but none of my 3 toons have been able to obtain many Tier 2 items to transmute.  I could perhaps use some of my rares to try to create Tier 2 powder and infusion of air, but I've needed every rare for armor and jewelry and spells.</p><p>Obviously a high-level sugar-daddy would really help in obtaining rares much more quickly.</p>

[Tev]

<p>I am also very new to a pvp server.. my experience has been just to play one character as far as questing. She does craft, but i use a low lvl char (like lvl 5 to 6) to go out and get resources for crafting.  With a total of three crafters i can pretty much make anything my main needs.  She is around lvl 16 now and I feel good about it. I never hid away.. but i do feel like i am crafting or harvesting more then I am playing my main.</p><p>When I get sick of crafting and harvesting i just go out and do whatevers fun and dont worry about getting ganked.  So let your fighter get out once in a while.. its good for his/hers sanity! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src=" width="15" height="15" />  Life is too short to worry about gankers =)</p><p>PS i have found maybe 5 blackend iron thingies in the commonlands.  It is very hard to find iron though, i find i have to go out for a couple of days in a row just to get a decent stock (which runs out fast). Cant complain though, with no money or sugar daddy its free, just takes my time.  So keep looking, you should hit some blackend iron soon! Your turn is coming lol.</p>

[Bloodfa]

<p>If you want to get invited into a guild, something well worth its' weight in plat to be completely honest, and the majority of them have a 20 or 25 requirement, I suggest taking a toon to 20 or 25 without the months of prep-time.  You'll find that even though that toon may be somewhat hampered in PvP by not having "the best gear" or "insufficient Achievement Points", that can be made up later on.  It literally can take you a couple of days to hit it.  Once you're in, if you want to bring in your lower alts, that's generally not a problem.  Proving that you're willing to make some sort of a commitment is all that most want.  Life becomes so much easier when in a guild, even when you're at newbie status.  You'll accumlate Guild Status for quests, writs and PvP, thereby moving you up in rank.  Guildies toss stuff in the Guild banks for lower level toons all the time.  Tradeskillers will make you gear for cost of fuel if you supply the rares, saving you from the need to make 6 alts to gear 1 toon.  The time and money saved far outweigh the loss of 1 toon at T3, a toon which you may want to level up later on and will do much better when being helped by guildies.  Trying to be a one-man army is only making it harder on yourself unnecessarily.</p><p>Some examples of the benefits to be reaped: you're working on gearing up a toon for the next tier, but only have 4 palladium clusters.  You ask a guildmate if they can make you the jewelry for that tier.  Said guildmate has known you for a few weeks, and others have commented either in guild chat, officer chat, or Ventrilo, that you're a great tank to have around.  You don't run, and are willing to try to hold the enemy at bay while the rest of your group's survivors try to escape, or you don't ignore requests for assistance from guildies in your range, or ... whatever, some positive feedback.  The guildie making your jewelry may surprise you with an extra piece of mastercrafted gear, getting the rare for you themselves and making a gift of it.  Or a tinkerer puts items in the bank, or provisioner, or woodworker keeps it stocked with totems.  These things add up, not to mention that finding a group is much, much easier. And more solid.  Grouping with guildies means you've run with them in the past, so you can expect Player A to do Action B in Situation C.  Survival rate increases dramatically.  Ever seen an unguilded Dreadnaught?  If you do, it's probably a 35 leaching at the docks in Sinking Sands, who doesn't play well with others (read as "not wanted in a guild because they suck and can only try to get in one shot on somebody too busy fighting non-greys&quot<img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />.</p><p>Summed up, anything lost by meeting the minimum requirements for one toon is offset tenfold in your first week or two.  </p>

[ThomasGrey]

<p>I started pennyless as well, in late August, but did it differently than you.</p><p> 1st character I played solo til level 16 before resigning him to the forge as an armorcrafter.  It became obvious to me very early on that running solo in T2 would result in a great deal of frustration.  It was hard for to find a guild that actually was actively questing/AA leveling in T2.  So I opted to roll a new character better suited for pvp, and to level past the locked crowd.</p><p> 2nd character I leveled past the lockers all the way to T4, then locked him from level 33 to level 36 to catch up on AA...currently level 37 with 33 AA's, catching up nicely considering I had 20 AA's at level 33 before locking.</p><p> 2nd character I put in Legendary/MC from head to toe for the first time in T4, at level 33.  Its just not worth the cost of outfitting in MC if you aren't level locked.  I play casually and I can still blast through a tier in 10 days of non locked play.  Save your resources and cash until you are certain you'll be in a tier for more than a couple weeks.  I've been T4 for almost a month due to level locking, so I'm getting alot of use out of my MC/Legendary gear, and in turn I'm farming Legendary gear off of level 25/26 named mobs at the same time.</p><p> 3rd and 4th characters, I've outfitted a couple level 12 alts I thought would be pvp only toons, but honestly that style of play puts me to sleep.  T2 locking/pvp mania isn't all its cracked up to be....reminds me of an FPS with 4 buttons to jam while trying to get the kill.   T4 pvp for me is so much more engaging.....first because I know this character very well after playing him for months, second because i have many more options(ca's) to consider in pvp, third because there is alot less mass gankage in T4, 4th because I don't go out looking for pvp, rather I go out to gather AA through quesing/killing named mobs, and thats where I find situational pvp, fighting the other faction that is also looking to gather AA in my tier.  </p>