Journal Entry #4

OVERVIEW

Levels Covered: 62-70
Feat Build Click HERE
Played Solo (For the most part)

As I left off heading to Atzel's approach in my last entry, that's where I'll pick up! To get to Atzel's you'll need to run through Lachiesch Plains, I got here by teleporting to my guild city. After you arrive in Lachiesch you'll run west and then north, exiting into the zone of Atzel's Approach. Once I zoned in I noticed a few exclamation points on my mini map, as well as some Wanted Posters, I went through and grabbed any quest I could. First I was off to kill Atzel Conscripts, I found a couple good AoE camps here and no one else was around (surprisingly enough), so I AoE'ed a few bars on the mobs before heading west to kill Troggs for another quest; for this quest you should note that there are VERY few troggs down below where you first see them, you'll want to run along the ridge/ramp above them and into the mountains, where you'll find plenty. Here you can also a VERY decent AoE spot for the 60-62 ish range, the weird naga-snake things :) They come in large packs and some of them, the ones called "Matrons", hit quite hard, so don't be afraid to stun one or root the group and back up to buy your HoTs some time to tick. I stayed here until I levels to 62 and then went south along the ridge until I reached the Troggs. I killed enough for my quest and returned to the quest giver. I went back the same route I had come through, killing snakes along the way, and then returning to the trogg village. Here I torched their settlements for my quest (Thanks to the group that let me complete my quest before setting up their AoE!), and then returned to the quest giver a second time. I soon realized that Atzels might better suit me in a few levels, as all of my quests were red. So just before I hit 63, I headed back through Poitain to Thunder River...

Once I entered Thunder River I gathered the new quests that had become available and was happy to see a quest log mostly consisting of orange quests. One thing to note about high levels though, is that grinding on efficient pulls of mobs makes up much more of your xp gain than quests. So while in Thunder River I focussed on finding good grind spots, and doing quests only if they weren't too far out of the way. Here in TR I went from 62-65, before heading to Atzel's again. Since TR was almost entirely grind for me, I'll focus on some particularly good grind spots for getting tou through your early/mid 60's. If you head south from the first settlement in TR, you'll go across a series of bridges, once you exit the last bridge you'll have a path leading up to a settlement, and one leading down towards the water. As I was 62 almost 53 when entering, I took the low road and headed down towards the boars. Here there are 3 main spawn points that you can circuit between for VERY efficient xp. I stayed to grind boards until hitting 64, at which point I headed back to the intersection and took the high road. Above you can find a large complex of spawn points for humanoid mobs, as a 64 I went up into the rock/mountain structure where the camps are higher level. They are really good xp with one small problem: casters. Two types of mobs up here are ranged casting mobs which do a good amount of damage. to avoid some frustrating deaths use line of site as your friend, then drag the rest of your pull to where ever the casting mob is at. I ground this out for a couple of hours, got a few bars past 65, then headed back to Atzel's. Note: If this doesn't get you enough xp or you want a change of pace, there are some good camps of slightly higher level mobs (picts) in the eastern region of TR.

New quests and newly available wanted posters everywhere! As a 65 you are in a prime spot to grind this zone right up to 70+ (I'll be staying here until 72 most likely), grab any quests you can and get ready to head to the very northwest of the zone, where EXCELLENT camps of mobs lie waiting for you :) The camp can be difficult to find but to get to it you need to go up to where the snakes were. You'll want to go all the way to the north of the snake camps to the side of a fairly steep hill. they'll be a path-ish place you can run down press up against the mountain face, run down it to get into the Atzel camps. As a bonus you'll notice several quest indicators in the area, can't argue with some bonus xp! At this point I ran around the far northwestern camp (the one you visit for the quest that asks you to "destroy palasides"), the pulls are large so be ready with pots/vitalizing jolt, and don't forget to use Vital Shock if you're specced for it, it can save you! The quests all around this first Atzel's area are great xp and even with a short attention span you can pump out a level or two here without much trouble. After hitting 66 I expanded out to more Atzel mobs, heading towards Atzel's Fortress across the wooden bridge. I ran around in here grinding my way to 67 on various camps (each kill gives A TON of xp). Here you need to be careful of the sentries as they stun you which can be devastating if you wait to long to heal or get something up. Some of these Atzel pulls can be found in my latest video.

After I hit 67 I grouped up for the first time in quite a while, we had a group of 2 ToS's, a PoM and various others that switched in and out. I was at the low end of the food chain for mobs here, and was therefore apprenticed until I'd made a level or two here. The xp and respawn rate here in a group is ridiculous, we were pulling 20-30 mobs per pull and killing them all in just several seconds, the TLoS feat puts out amazing damage when it's coming from 5 other group members that you heal (expect new videos with footage of this to some out sometime this weekend). I AoE'd with the group up to 70 and then logged off, if you need a spot to grind yourself and do not have a group, a hill leading up the mountains from the place where you grind the "sentry" mobs yields a HUGE amount of lynx and bear mobs with good xp and respawn rates.

Coming Soon:
1) FotD 5 Write Up
2) Two new videos to be finished and released this weekend in high quality for download, marking the beginning of my involvement with the folks at www.aocmovies.com

Thanks for your time!

Settar