New returning necro looking for help/advice for the new TLP

[Jaxyn]

SO I will be returning to the game full time and been reading up a lot here in the forums to catch up. BUT I made a test DE necro on Mischief and WOW have things changed. I had to relearn a little bit of how to play and found out Nektulos has completely been changed even from the last time it was changed (at least I think so, newbie log was nowhere near where it should be) anyways. I made it to level 5 but it seemed like it was taking me forever to get there. I am not expecting to be level 60 in a day BUT I am wondering if I am just thinking the wrong thing when it comes to playing in the newbie zone. And if there were any folks that had some strats they were willing to share to help me speed up the first 10 or so levels and how to get cash to get spells. I realize that in the first week there will be a jillion people trying to level in Nektulos so I expect competition and KS'ing to be rampant but hoping the community has some ideas to share that would help keep me away from the hustle in the starting zones and allow me to level reasonably fast. Here are my experiences so far.

Level 1-2 fairly straightforward kill whatever you can get aggro on with lifetap keeping to white and occasional yellow cons. I focused on skellies for the bonechips and possible cloth drops not sure if selling all the cloth is the smarter way to go since I have been tap tanking the entire time and the little AC bump might be worth it.

Level 3 got a little more difficult as all the newbie stuff turned almost entirely db except the occasional spiderling or drakelings but they conned yellow and ate me fairly quickly even with a pet helping DPS.

level 4 got even more so as I ventured outside the newbie area and found a mix of cons not as much white cons as i would like seems yellows are around but hard to find consistently tons of DB skellies/spiders/dogs. Snakes were the most common white con but tree snake poison is a total time killer if I get hit and black mombas are under conned and social so I trained myself more times that it was worth.

Level 5 same as level 4 only even less whtie/yellow cons I am too low for orcs that come 2/3 at a time. The halflings or HE casters are too high and just eat my lunch if I get more than one and if I manage to get one solo it isn't mana or time efficient.

So looking for expert TLP help here. What am I missing? seems I could be doing some things to speed this up. I am using DoTs when I get them to speed killing, pet taunting while face tanking since they regen faster than I do. just can't seem to find consistent stuff at the right levels to grind on AND that is without any competition right now no one is in the newbie area except me. If anyone has a strat to get from say 1 -15 that is superior I am willing to be re educated. Thanks.

[takhizis]

TLP's are all about grouping if you are looking for the quickest, or simply just efficient, grind path.

Whatever newbie zone you prefer to lv4-ish.
Move somewhere close and get to 8-10 next. (The 4-10 grind was the worst to me, second only to the 26-30.)
Then move to Unrest. Unrest into your early to mid 20s. Courtyard to First floor to Fireplace/2nd floor to Basement.
Afterwards is UGuk/LGuk.
Once you hit your 30s, you have a lot of choices available. But also very few "best" ones.

Everyone will be in LGuk farming items and DE masks. It is also one of the fastest grind zones in terms of xp and mob count, especially with all the picks that will be available.
Naggy's lair farming giant drops. Perma-camping Efreeti for his booties. Efreeti is also one of the most solid 40-50 grind spots if you have the right group for it.
Sea Fury Island farming AC rings for JBoots.
People generally hate Kedge outside farming poor Phinny, the server punching bag, and Squallsurge. It is usually pretty empty and I enjoy camping there because of it.

If you are trying to be strictly solo, you can do that. But given the frantic nature and fast paced xpac unlocks, you will be hard-pressed to keep up running strictly solo. Our solo efficiency plays out better on a longer xpac cycle and with less stringent xp penalties. The grind is definitely going to be a grind, doubly so if you solo.
Your ability to solo will not be readily apparent until you get your first real lich spell in your 30s, Call of Bone. Until then, you can safely, albeit ashamedly, use chanter clarity.

If you have the cash and do not mind dropping it on a once a server bag, I recommend grabbing whatever special bag they will have available. It will help you collecting enough vendor fodder to get your early spells until you can start farming drops, gems, and pp later. You can usually snag the one on the market now to claim at server launch plus the "new" one they will replace it with when the new servers launch.

[Jaxyn]

Thanks for the reply. You are kind of confirming my suspicions a bit. I know grouping is far superior to soloing from an exp gain standpoint I was just looking for ideas to solo on while LFG as that seems to be somewhat hit or miss even on TLPs. I most likely will not be guilded unless there are some good straight up leveling guilds on the server on day one. I was thinking journeying out beyond the commons or Ro would be dangerous as I don't get bind until 12 and want to save CR time. ALL of the leveling guides are for well after the original expansion has opened as they mention things like pet toys and going to Kurns or Paludal Caverns as options which I know won't be there. I made a couple of other race (Erudite, Gnome) newbie necros to try those areas and thought they had harder starts than DE did by a mile less middle level mobs forced to travel well away from home to where there is most likely to be activity so that would mean you need starting money for bags (LOVE your idea on a retail bag hadn't thought of that) and several levels of spells since if you leave you won't be coming back often or easily until you can bind and run one way and gate back. I haven't found a place where mob levels arc with mine, at least not in any number, so that I can maximize solo efficiency while waiting for a group. It seems they are mostly in clumps (1-3) then (6-8) then (10-14) all the mobs that are leveled in between just seem to be totally random and so few that it makes it deficient to kill them really. I was just hoping some TLP vets would give me the sort of inside game on "go here kill these, sell loots, buy spells" then "go here, kill these, sell loots, buy spells" that wasn't on the beaten path for how to make money for spells and/or researching the spells I will need to kind of get out of Nek/Commonlands to Unrest in a day or so.

[takhizis]

Starting as a dark elf or human will put you next to the main hub for EQ until Luclin is out. But you can get to FP/CL and bind using the binder NPCs at every starter city and LDoN camp. So you could roll a gnome or erudite or dark elf or human, whatever your pleasure, and run to the CL tunnel and bind there. You will still get access to the Origin AA, so popping back home for spells will be easy once you get gate.

Until you get a good snare or someone hits you with a sow, you will be pet/face tanking mobs when you solo. Fear without a good snare is not reliable at all, and kiting without a good snare is simply not very useful. In the case of fear kiting, mobs will out run you trying to cast dots, out run your pet, and either grab friends to come murder you or simply run out of agro range. You can experiment with funky pathing areas and find somewhere this is an option early on.

- There are tons of undead that path along the northern edge of Nektulos Forest to take you to lv5 or 6, plus the small camp at the stone by CL zone line. The newbie log is still there, it just looks different.
- Befallen will be good once you get your first undead nuke until you are lv10-ish. It is dangerous deeper in, most people will simply set up at the entrance to zone out in a hurry.
- You can try out the random undead camps in CL, NRo, Sro and Oasis. Those will vary in level depending on the zone.
- Unrest is good from lv10-ish til your 20s. The CY and outer rooms of the first floor will be your safest pulls, but if you are feeling brave you can move upstairs or down into the basement.
- Najena has lots of undead to murderize. You can start delving into there in your early 20s.
- LGuk has so many undead. You can try and sit on some smaller named camps as you level up through your 30s.

Solo'ing until your 30s will be inefficient as all get out because of a lack of a real lich spell. Allure of Death is just not great and it does not scale well past the level you get it.
You can experiment with charming undead too. It is very powerful. Not enchanter OP, but damn close. It is a viable option to solo or group.

A piece of advice, do not wait for a group. Lots of people have really ignorant ideas about what necros do or are capable of, and most will simply ignore you unless they know how useful a necro can be. In addition to that, many people who recycle through TLPs have a very concise idea of the current "power" classes and only pick those to group with for the super-duper ultra extra uber warp 10 mach 17 xp grindage.
Make your own groups, and be very proactive about it. If you are playing during the normal "peak hours," you should have lots of people to hit up for groups.

I hope that is a better response to your question.