Journal Entry #5

Hey all time for the next leveling journal!

OVERVIEW

Levels Covered This Session: 70-75
Feat Build: Click HERE
Groupings: Both Large Group and Solo

At 70 I noticed some of my quests were getting more into the orange/yellow range and decided to head off to see what I could get done. At the south end of the Atzel complex I found a quest-giver and a large amount of mammoths. I couldn't get any of his quests yet but had one to get ivory tusks and set out down the ravine blasting my way through. One thing to take note of is that your quest items only drop off of adult and Aged mammoths, anything but the "Young" ones. Since the mobs are non-aggressive you have to hit them to initiate combat, unfortunately their hitboxes are right in the middle of their rather large bodies, so AoE'ing these guys isn't really a good option. I just nuked them down with lightning strike, moving from mob to mob as quick as possible. I was already farily close to 71 from a previous AoE groups (movie coming out next week) and I hit 71 killing my last few mammoths. Since I leveled I was ready to go see what quests the guy I had passed had to offer, but not before grabbing the rez point down here (you'll find it at the bottom of some stone stairs in the ravine with troggs spawned near it). He handed me a request to kill apes and get their heads. I headed past the guy and up the hill to my right, where at the top I was greeted by two paths, I took the right (the left is some undead spawns) and found myself in MINEFIELD of apes. There are tons of them, both around and on the stone ruins in the middle, I spent the entirety of 71-72 grinding these guys, returning to the quest giver when I had completed another part of the ape chain (there are three I believe). If it's clear I strongly suggest grinding at least a level here, and if not try switching instances to find a less contested-for "Ape Field." At 72 I got into a group with three others leveling it Atzels and hit up the fortress again. Pulls are huge, respawn rates are insane, you can loop through this place without ever needing to stop (I was getting just under 1 million xp per hour). After an hour and a half or so, I had hit 73 and decided to move over to Kheshatta in Stygia...

While some may consider this too low to make the change, I was in need of some different scenery and i DO plan on going back to the zone (tomorrow in fact) to finish up some quests. One thing that may surprise you, as it sharply contrasts the zones you've recently leveled in, quests are EVERWHERE! It's like Tortage all over again, the only deterring factor of this zone is the enormous gank fest (at least on a pvp server). If you can, get a group to help you AoE the battlemaster camps in the south or try soloing some quests. I did a little of both to get me to 74. At 74 I wanted to save my quests for the rough levels ahead so I spent a good few hours grinding out 75. It was kind of boring but there are some good camps of "Set" humanoid mobs, as well as abundant hyena camps on the east border. After my boring (yet fruitful) few hours of grinding these guys, I hit 75 and prepared to head back to Atzel's (lots of new ranks of your abilities at 75 by the way).

Thanks a lot for reading guys, I planned on having videos up for you tonight but they aren't done being approved on aocmovies.com so I thought I'd better put out some reading material. Hopefully the movies will be ready and linked here by tomorrow!

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