EQ TLP - Vaniki (Level-Locked Progression)

Kirun

Buzzfeed Editor
<Gold Donor>
18,680
34,786
Monks are always a popular choice but I've come to think they're often a bit overvalued. They don't bring real adps and the upkeep for them is a lot higher than other classes. Basically, under optimal and even just mostly ideal settings, a monk is great. Under suboptimal and especially low effort settings, they get really bad. Keeping your epic clicked for example. Ranger, meanwhile, even though headshot shouldn't even be a consideration... is an incredibly low maintenance and low effort alt. Archery is the least effort by far of any box; even a wizard is gonna be more effort. Gear options are significantly easier than rogue and monk. They get piles of buffs and then a consolidated hours-long self buff. So when you compare monk to ranger for example, be fair and compare shaman buffed monk who may not be clicking shit to shaman and self buffed ranger with guaranteed damage uptime.

Bard is nearly always the safest 3rd to add to any duo if you ever aren't sure. Very very few makeups do not benefit. They always scale well and are always a strong class, so unless you have some kind of weird pet based shit (where they still aren't really bad), it's the safe choice.

Druid is an underrated one to consider with knight + shm. You are basically losing a bit of dps over a necro and later direct mez cc, for more potential healing and utility. I'd probably just go nec, myself, but druid is one to keep in consideration along that same line of thinking.
Monk epic clicky is only really a thing for how long though? 3, maybe 4 expansions? Plus, there's always Gina. And once you have /autoskill, a monk is practically 80% of the way to "optimal". A mostly AFK monk with autoskill is going to put out a hell of a lot more DPS than a Bard(although, like I said, that gap narrows a lot come TSS+) and also beat out an /autofire Ranger, especially in GoD+. You go Bard if you want more utility and some extra tricks - plus, their ADPS/buffs benefit both the SK and SHM. You go Ranger if you want less DPS, some slight ADPS utility, and the ability to never really have to worry about positioning.

I agree that Druids tend to be underrated because they were mostly played by fat housewives who wanted to pretend they were a "pretty" wood-elf - ruining their reputation as a useful class. Problem with Druids is that they need to stick to places where they can charm and just like Enchanters, require a not insignificant amount of attention.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user

yerm

Golden Baronet of the Realm
5,998
15,467
Monk epic clicky is only really a thing for how long though? 3, maybe 4 expansions? Plus, there's always Gina. And once you have /autoskill, a monk is practically 80% of the way to "optimal". A mostly AFK monk with autoskill is going to put out a hell of a lot more DPS than a Bard(although, like I said, that gap narrows a lot come TSS+) and also beat out an /autofire Ranger, especially in GoD+. You go Bard if you want more utility and some extra tricks - plus, their ADPS/buffs benefit both the SK and SHM. You go Ranger if you want less DPS, some slight ADPS utility, and the ability to never really have to worry about positioning.

I agree that Druids tend to be underrated because they were mostly played by fat housewives who wanted to pretend they were a "pretty" wood-elf - ruining their reputation as a useful class. Problem with Druids is that they need to stick to places where they can charm and just like Enchanters, require a not insignificant amount of attention.

There's more than that. The epic is just the more glaring example. A ranger can autoattack melee just as well as a monk after the age of archery so that's a wash. The issues are also things like monks being often more difficult to find weapons for, and not having those adps buffs by themselves. Comparing a ranger buffed monk to a ranger buffed ranger isn't a fair comparison if looking at a 3rd character. I'd throw in beastlord but those are monumental workloads compared to others, while ranger is nearly always least or tied for least workload.
 

Ecko

Trakanon Raider
72
8
Autoskill at level 1 is huge too now. Monks aren't too bad to position for either. I stopped using my epic on my monks on Rizlona around PoP (and was constantly up due to 'help') so not sure the epic will be that useful on Vaniki once we get to level 60 and can have access to better weapons. Positioning isn't too bad for a boxed monk either, so can pull a mob in and set the monk going.

Druids are awesome too, my main 3 box on lice was a sk/dru/brd combo with 3 dps mercs. Got shit done! Druid attack debuffs are better than slow imo once slow is mostly mitigated. Decent heals, decent dps, mana regen buff, ports etc. Not bad choice at all.
 

Cymbaline

Trakanon Raider
39
29
why are people so tribal and defensive over servers... "muh server is better then urs.. urs is dead server with bad rule set ima never playing come here it is awesome"... surely it benefits everyone that more servers are popular... this years yeli players are next years mischef 2: Electric boogaloo players, when they are ready for something different.....
 
  • 1Moron
  • 1Faggotry
  • 1Like
Reactions: 2 users

yerm

Golden Baronet of the Realm
5,998
15,467
why are people so tribal and defensive over servers... "muh server is better then urs.. urs is dead server with bad rule set ima never playing come here it is awesome"... surely it benefits everyone that more servers are popular... this years yeli players are next years mischef 2: Electric boogaloo players, when they are ready for something different.....

The same reason we all like to mock you for being an autistic moron with a stolen name who makes 90% retarded posts and the other 10% like this one aren't even good.

Because it's fun.
 

Rajaah

Honorable Member
<Gold Donor>
11,233
14,911
41-50 in exactly four hours in Veksar. I know a bunch of people got it done faster too.
 

Ikkan

Molten Core Raider
271
406
What I'm curious about is how many large box crews will show up on Vaniki when truebox is fully removed. I know I'll be one of them, but not sure how many else will make the move.
 

Sieger

Trakanon Raider
316
364
Pretty representative. Vicc is one of the most well-geared people on the server and still missing slots it looks like. The other guy is wearing a combination of Gloomingdeep and the Lavastorm/PoK quest gear, which is the same as what I've got. We're basically using a patchwork of whatever we can scrounge up.
I've had full 40-50+ hem gear in every slot since like week 2. I haven't been raiding much so my very top end pieces will be inferior to people who were doing the various killable Velious / Luclin raid targets, but there is zero reason anyone should have empty slots or Gloomingdeep by the end of the level 40 lock. There's like 4 good zones in GoD, ChardokB, Veksar and a couple high level LoY zones that all drop stuff in that hem range, with a mixture of haste items, good focuses etc. We farmed all that stuff basically to full gearing within a couple weeks of server launch.
 

Rajaah

Honorable Member
<Gold Donor>
11,233
14,911
I've had full 40-50+ hem gear in every slot since like week 2. I haven't been raiding much so my very top end pieces will be inferior to people who were doing the various killable Velious / Luclin raid targets, but there is zero reason anyone should have empty slots or Gloomingdeep by the end of the level 40 lock. There's like 4 good zones in GoD, ChardokB, Veksar and a couple high level LoY zones that all drop stuff in that hem range, with a mixture of haste items, good focuses etc. We farmed all that stuff basically to full gearing within a couple weeks of server launch.

I've had pretty terrible luck on drops. I got all of the quest gear from earlier in the thread, and all of the available Natimbi gear, very quickly. Unfortunately I ran into a few roadblocks with other things dropping. Ended up giving up and buying a bunch of things on Bazaar to fill things out since I was having such shitty luck farming them myself.

I'm still in Gloomingdeep pants/hands/feet, as those are the things that I've had the worst luck with / haven't seen suitable replacements for in Baz. Everything in Baz is either barely a Gloomingdeep upgrade, or is vastly overpriced and I'm better off just getting something better myself (if they'll freaking drop). Range item is also kinda shite, it's the bow from Veksar which I use as a stat item rather than a weapon. Ears are LoY and 10 HEM so I need to rep those too.

I'll take any suggestions on pants/hands/foot/ear stat items for Shadowknight that are farmable and aren't LDON. I've totally avoided LDON and will probably continue doing that.

Edit: Updated equipment, still looking for some decent SK pants/hands/feet, preferably that I can farm myself
 
Last edited:

Ecko

Trakanon Raider
72
8
I've had pretty terrible luck on drops. I got all of the quest gear from earlier in the thread, and all of the available Natimbi gear, very quickly. Unfortunately I ran into a few roadblocks with other things dropping. Ended up giving up and buying a bunch of things on Bazaar to fill things out since I was having such shitty luck farming them myself.

I'm still in Gloomingdeep pants/hands/feet, as those are the things that I've had the worst luck with / haven't seen suitable replacements for in Baz. Everything in Baz is either barely a Gloomingdeep upgrade, or is vastly overpriced and I'm better off just getting something better myself (if they'll freaking drop). Range item is also kinda shite, it's the bow from Veksar which I use as a stat item rather than a weapon. Ears are LoY and 10 HEM so I need to rep those too.

I'll take any suggestions on pants/hands/foot/ear stat items for Shadowknight that are farmable and aren't LDON. I've totally avoided LDON and will probably continue doing that.

Edit: Updated equipment, still looking for some decent SK pants/hands/feet, preferably that I can farm myself
Greaves of obscurity or thurg legs should be obtainable at 50, Veksar hands/boots should also be doable at 50, no idea how busy Veksar is these days though

I am expecting some of the lower level PoP TS armour to be available, might be worth keeping an eye out for it. Guess will be expensive though!
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user

Rod-138

Trakanon Raider
1,137
888
I’ve seen some of the legendary names on yelinak. Not sure if it’s the real trailer park supervisors or an imposter, but I seen em
 

DickTrickle

Definitely NOT Furor Planedefiler
12,920
14,824
Seems like Vaniki is a full-time job type server. Just looking at the bind rush discord, raids every day and plenty of farming for gear and resources.
 

Animosity

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
6,500
5,494
Seems like Vaniki is a full-time job type server. Just looking at the bind rush discord, raids every day and plenty of farming for gear and resources.
Its definitely making me rethink playing there. Thought it would be a bit more casual.
 

Ecko

Trakanon Raider
72
8
It's as casual as you want it to be. If you wanna go all out hardcore you can, if you want to be casual pete you can also. I'm definately in the second category. Think i put in about 12 hours or so in the past 2 weeks prior to yesterday.
 

xmod2

<Gold Donor>
721
1,147
It released with GoD unlocked, so there is a lot you can work on. Leveling is really fast, but you have VT keys, emp keys, plane flagging, your epic, etc. Add gearing on top of that and an abundance of possible low hanging raid targets, and there is plenty to keep you busy for the ~4 weeks the server has been up. It also felt like rare spawns were broken for a bit after the last event. It took way longer to farm emp keys than I've seen before.
 

Louis

Trakanon Raider
2,836
1,105
I’ve seen some of the legendary names on yelinak. Not sure if it’s the real trailer park supervisors or an imposter, but I seen em
unknown(1).png

I may have been one of those imposters.
 
  • 6Worf
Reactions: 5 users