The lvl agumentFollow

Best is wherever you're getting the most xp per hour. I dunno where that'll be for you; go try other zones and see how many blues you get in a set period of time.

Dungeons usually have nice bonuses, but I'm not sure if HS has a better ZEM than the planar zones. On the other hand, dungeons usually offer better monetary rewards in raw plat, magic items, etc plus the fun of a good ole dungeon crawl.

No idea if my list is 100% accurate, but Charsis is listed as 10% ZEM. Once you get out of the super high ZEM newbie zones (PC, Befallen, Crushbone, Kurn's, Unrest, Upper Guk) the only mid level zones with a good ZEM are Highkeep & Sol A until you get to PoP, which all have 45%. Most dungeons are 10% and there are a couple here and there with a bit more, maybe 15% or 20%.

As for grinding out Exp: Generally my group tries to go for whatever we can kill quickly as opposed to killing fewer high con mobs. More mobs is more plat, getting to 60 but not being able to afford any of your cool spells is kinda pointless. Obviously a zone where we won't kill faster than the spawn rate can handle is better. Anything that requires more than a few seconds downtime is too boring. Yeah the fight itself may be harder but spending 75% of playtime watching mana bars fill is too boring.

I do wish dungeons had tighter level spreads. They layout of too many old zones is if the beginning mobs are challenging, the ones at the end will destroy you, and by the time you can beat the end mobs the beginning ones are nothing more than a nuisance.

Excellent point. Our guild pefers to hunt in Nadox, the Hole, The Deep, or Old Sebilis over PoN, PoI, PoD, or other tier 1 PoP zones simply because the loot is so much better. One spell from Old Sebilis can sometimes sell for upwards of 10K. There are plenty of gem drops and items to farm in Nadox. The Hole and The Deep both have a nice assortment of loot and unique items.

Once you reach 63, the rarer 63+ spells cost in excess of 10K in the bazaar and in most cases, they cost in the 25K to 40K range. So unless you have stashed cash, those spells will be too costly for you to buy. (My lvl 65 pet spell cost me 35K alone). If you're planning on farming your own spells in the 2nd and 3rd tier PoP zones, remember you will have to roll against others in your group for the parchments.

Descarte Meditations Arch Lich


Edited, Tue Apr 27 14:56:22 2004 by Barto

Taushar may be thinking of Kedge Keep rather than The Deep. KK is a mid-level, 3d, underwater (bring an EB item...or a bunch of stacks of fish scales) dungeon with a very nice ZEM. The Deep is a higher level dungeon on Luclin.

Besides all that...the PoP planes are super super boring AND rough without a good tank and healer. The exp you'll get in zones mentioned above, with sligtly lower cons, but much softer hitting mobs will be quite a bit better than PoP. (ZEMs for PoP public planes (and maybe all?) were nerfed awhile ago due to the mass quantities of soloers blasting through levels. This came about with the group exp modification.)

Nadox is a great place that I will highly recommend. EXP isn't bad even into the upper levels, and the gem drops from there are excellent.

Older places like seb are great too, plenty of mobs, some standard "Great loot" items, spells, gems, etc.

I've heard good things about HS, though never been there myself. Best bet is to explore everywhere, try a PoP plane, head to seb and HS, go play in Nadox, go play in the Deep, GE, whereever. Moving around and exploring is the best thing to solve the boredom of the grind.

If you choose HS, remember you need a key for each toon, and the zi can mean instant agro. Also the carpets are traps, and CR can be tricky if you fall into the pit full of mobs.

Hehe, level ranges (Low, Mid, High, etc) are always subjective and easy to misunderstand :). Deep is 13%*. According to the same source...KK is 66% (and PC is a whopping 133%). Of course, if everything is green to you...you get no exp anyway ;). The Planes are listed as 58% (most), but you will notice slower kills and more downtime, and they are hellishly boring. (I hate PoP for the most part...so I may be biased :))

Best thing is to go to places where you have fun, then you won't even notice the exp either way. If you're bored the whole time, it'll be a drag no matter what the ZEM.

Charsis is 13%, same as Chardok and Seb, as well as several other Kunark/Velious era dungeons of the same level.

*According to the previously posted EQDiva chart