Buffing for Adventure?Follow

I just started EQ in March and have a 30 BL and 20 Ranger. I recently started LDoN and have begun doing adventures. I have been grouping with the same people who are also newbies.

We have recently been grouping with the Ranger, a druid, a BL, and a cleric. We rock on just regular grouping or hunting, but seem to be missing a little something in our adventures.

After more failures than successes, I'm starting to wonder if maybe we need to stop by PoK for a little extra buffing. Now I have only used the buffs that either my character or the people in my group have, or from those nice high level people that do run-by buffings. So I am not familiar with all the things that are out there.

I guess my question is what good buffs are out there for a 30 BL and a 20 Ranger? (Mostly for my Ranger since I learned my love of tanking) I hear so many in PoK offering lots of things, but do not know what exactly each one does. So I don't want to be getting anything that is not worth my time or my platinum.

Oh, and another thing if you all may. I heard that the adventures are given based on not only the group you are in, but what buffs the group has on at the time. Is that true?

Thanks.

Just a note but, if you love tanking, you may want to reconsider the ranger. You can tank to some extent but few groups will seek out a ranger as a tank and you'll find it harder and harder to tank without sponging mana.

That said, it is possible. One of my friends plays a ranger and we've done three person LDoNs at lvl 60 (lvl 65 proved beyond her gear), the lower lvl 58ish trolls in Nadox, and other stuff with a druid healer. It's just going to be an uphill battle.

Adventures are based solely on the group's average level at the time of the request. Classes, buffs, equipment, etc don't factor in at all.

Yeah re-roll that ranger NOW if you want to tank. Make a war/pal or SK.

Temp is probably the best buff for you guys, HoS (harnessing of spirit) from SHaman is pretty nice too.

A couple of thoughts - first is that if you are going to LDON with just the 4 of you, you should consider filling the other 2 spots to improve your chances of success. Adding an enchanter and a bard for example would help with crowd control; adding a rogue (DPS and traps) and a caster (wiz, mage, necro) for damage spells; adding pally for pulling and stun to keep agro plus shm for bufs, and so on.

With regard to bufs at your ranger level (20), don't think that you need to be running to POK for bufs the way you will at say level 50 LDONs. I did plenty of group bufs in LDON and really didnt see a lot of outside bufs until 40s or so. Note that picking up say an enchanter will get haste bufs - your 4 person group is missing some of the group buffing classes.

Also, while the Ranger and BL can tank at your level, they are better used assisting say a War/Pally/SK who have better tanking stats normally IMHO.

My main (54 Chanter) is 117 and 15 in LDONs and started at lv 23 - 2 of the losses were with 5 person groups and 3 more were 6 person groups who lost 2 or more to LD over the course of the adventure (about 1/2 the rest are Hards which I wouldnt try without 6). Playing with a full LDON team will improve your success rate greatly compared to 4.