by Savanja on Mar 03, 2008
Holy levels batman! You're level 70 (or nearly!) now, a place you thought you'd never see, and now they ADD more levels? I know, I know. I cried too. But it's okay, I made it to cap again and I know if I can, then anyone can!
<!-- if (!document.phpAds_used) document.phpAds_used = ','; phpAds_random = new String (Math.random()); phpAds_random = phpAds_random.substring(2,11); document.write ("<" + "script language='JavaScript' type='text/javascript' src='"); document.write ("http://ads.tentonhammer.com/adjs.php?n=" + phpAds_random); document.write ("&what=zone:25"); document.write ("&exclude=" + document.phpAds_used); if (document.referrer) document.write ("&referer=" + escape(document.referrer)); document.write ("'><" + "/script>"); //-->In order to progress past level 70, you need to have the Rise of Kunark expansion. This is where you will spend nearly all of your adventuring time from here on out. Luckily the developers took mercy upon us and packed this expansion with enough content that the average player will likely never even see it all. This also means that the zones are huge and there are so many quests, you may have some trouble keeping them all straight. That's what we're here for, to give a guiding light and a little bit of hand holding!
Rise of Kunark is comprised of 5 major zones, 4 of which are targeted to the top tier player. The zones you'll be playing in are as follows (listed lowest level to highest):
Kylong Plains Fens of Nathsar Kunzar Jungle Jarsath WastesThese are all overland zones and contain mostly soloable content. The heroic areas (note: City of Mist isn't a zone, it's a heroic island within Kunzar Jungle) contained within RoK:
Karnor's Castle Chardok Sebilis City of Mist Charasis: Vault of Eternal Sleep Charasis: Maiden's Chamber Chelsith
Soloing could not have been made easier. I made my way from 70 to 80 completely solo (outside of raiding which doesn't do much for experience gain). I also didn't have a lot of playtime so I needed to maximize my xp gain while minimizing my downtime. This is easily accomplished with quests. Starting out in Kylong Plains you can find all you need to get things moving on the docks. Grab everything you can because a good portion of the quests you will get from any one area will all likely be for the immediate surroundings keeping your playtime focused. You won't be having to do excessive running around, but you will be doing some so your first order of business will be the sokokar quests to ease travel times.
Grouping is more or less limited to one of the many heroic zones. There are areas in the overland zones that are heroic, but they are few. Smaller groups should utilize the quest sharing options and work on those together in the overland zones, and larger groups should definitely take advantage of their numbers and hit the heroic zones where they may reap the reward of better experience gain. If you happen to spend a lot of time grouping, you'll surely shoot through the top tier of levels, but unfortunately, you'll miss a good amount of the excellent content this expansion has to offer!
Level 65-70: RoK can be utilized in your mid to late 60s, so don't be shy about making your way to the new lands a bit early. During this time you will focus most of your gameplay around the docks in Kylong Plains, Teren's Grasp, and Highton. Teren's Grasp is especially important to gain a good amount of faction with if you don't wish to be traveling to and from the main cities all of the time. This town has everything you need: mender, broker, banker, merchants, trainers, crafting stations, etc all available to you if they like you!
For the grouper, I don't have any amazing recommendations. At the time of writing this guide, Karnor's Castle is still pretty problematic with odd bugs and apparent speed hacking. The few times that I have been in there, it's been nothing but massive adds, broken mobs, and weird pathing. I've heard some have better luck, but since my own experience here has been less than favorable, I couldn't send players into this zone without the warning.
The quests in Kylong Plains will quickly move you through the zone and up in levels with surprising speed. Don't expect to spend too much time here outside of faction gaining and the sokokar quests.
Level 70-75: In your early 70s you'll find yourself quickly outgrowing Kylong Plains and desperately in need of more action. Say hello to the Fens of Nathsar! I happen to love this zone and spent the majority of my T8 time here. There is a crazy amount of quests that can be done, and truly just not enough levels (and time) to do them all.
The first thing that you'll notice in this zone is that no one here likes you. That's okay! With a quick quest or two amongst the major factions you can walk through most areas without being attack. You'll find that the faction areas such as Sathir's Span, Bathezid Watch, and Riliss all have at least one NPC outside of the town that will give quests for positive faction.
Concentrate on quests for each area, complete the bulk of them. If you are looking to simply move though levels and not needing to worry about factions and the desire to do ALL the quests, then the most effective way to do this is by grabbing several quests at a time. Once you can no longer do that move on to a new area, rinse, and repeat!
For good old fashioned grinding, my fave areas were the Mines of Nurga and Bellywhumper Burrows. Just remember to grab any relevant Lore & Legend quests if you're going to be out killing things for fun!
For Mid 70s grouping, give Chardok a try. It has the nice feel of a large overland zone, yet it is still primarily heroic. There is a whole lot of room in there to move around and it's fairly easy to avoid other groups in zone.
Level 75-80: Mid 70s will take you to Kunzar Jungle. Just as with the Fens of Nathsar, faction counts! Zone into Kunzar via the path from Riliss for the lower level area near Jinisk. This will be your starting quest area and a good place to set up camp so build faction here! Some of the better quest lines are at Jinisk, Dalnir's Wheel, and Tabernacle of Pain. You'll find a few that are heroic, but they are always worth grabbing a couple of other people for.
Small and large groups will find much fun in the City of Mist. It's a challenging area, and will likely take more than just a duo or trio to get too far in, but it's solid experience. If you choose to spend much time here, be sure to do the quest line from Tabernacle of Pain as three of their heroic quests will take you in here anyway.
I didn't do a whole lot of grinding in Kunzar since I was very focused on doing guild writs, but the bits I did were centered around the Murkdweller area and that seemed like smooth and steady sailing.
Getting closer to 80, you'll really want to head off to Jarsath Wastes, which is a shame because you end up feeling like you just didn't get enough time in Kunzar Jungle. It's okay though, all those quests are still there if you'd like to go back and do them for achievement experience and coin!
In Jarsath, the big area where you will spend time is the Danak Shipyards. There are quests around there, Howling Stones, Ganak's Battlement, and the Skleross Encampment. Honestly, the quests are as plentiful here as in Fens and Kunzar, so anticipate not heading here until level 78 or so. If you utilize the masses of quests in the lower zones then you won't end up being stuck at level 79.5 with nothing to do but grind or buy collection quests.
There are more grouping zones are this point and you may enjoy either Sebilis (which seems to be a popular choice), Charasis, or Celsith. Close to or right at level 80, you'll want to be sure you find out the requirements for your epic weapon quest line. There will surely be factions or quest lines that you will need to have completed in order to get started. The EQ2 Flames class forums is a valuable resource for epic weapon walk throughs and it seems they have one for every class.
The great thing about RoK is the ability to follow quests to one outpost or camp to another. If you are in a new zone and aren't sure of where to start, the best thing to do is follow the road and you will surely come upon someone who will give you a quest and this will likely keep you going through out the zone and through your levels with some ease!
We hope that this guide was of use to you as a player! If you have any questions, comments, or additions please direct them to our forums! Or if you're shy, I'm always available via e-mail.