Alternate levelling areas, brought to you by Promathia!Follow

Relatively short post this time, but in my recent wanderings I've come across some new spots to level, and the level ranges for these areas are pretty ideal, so I thought I'd share.

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First, show of hands. Who here likes Qufim? Especially if you're going through it for your fifth or sixth time like I recently did, you know that little stomach-clenching knot of fear you get whenever you think of that damnable island with its sadistic and horribly-placed undead spawnpoints and its precision-timed "/sh OMG 4 WIGHTS, 2 BANSHEES, A PUGIL AND 3 GIANTS TO ZONE!!!11 SWEET JESUS, THE HUMANITY!!! OHHH, THE PAIN!!" every 1.85 minutes. How much would you pay to bypass it entirely? Well, shoot me a message and I'll send you my paypal account, because:

Carpenters' Landing (Northern San d'Oria entrance) - Excellent spot for a high teens-mid 20s party. The entrance is a trap door located almost directly across from the carpenters guild. It's a small area with lots of spawns nearby, and several good "safe spots" to camp near the zone to North Sandy. On the low end you have bees and beetles, then there's lots of orcs and funguars too. Be careful though, thunder elementals tend to spawn here a lot (thunderstorms are common in Carpenters' Landing) but they usually stick close to the boat dock. Flytraps might be worth trying too, but they like throwing around status effects (I've seen Slow, Sleep and Paralyze, and I suspect they can Poison as well). You'll also see the odd Glide Bomb (grenade-type enemy) as well as formation-bats (avoid these, they like Jet Stream a little TOO well). The area can probably support no more than two parties since it's a relatively small location, but its proximity to San d'Oria is incredibly convenient. I'd put the mob levels approximately on par with Jugner Forest. I was able to farm (albiet slowly, everything was EP) there as my 27 WAR, so I'm estimating the mobs to be decent levelling for 18-23ish?

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So, you've managed to wriggle your way out of Qufim by enjoying San d'Oria's newfound sanctuary, but now you're experiencing painful flashbacks of 30-goblin trains and dead bodies as far as the eye can see. Yes, you have Kazamitis. There's only one cure for this dread disease:

Bibiki Bay - This tranquil area is a bit out of the way, being located near Mhuara. Follow the coastline on the beach just west of Mhuara and keep going west til you get to the area with the bard quest song runes. Keep following the beach and you'll see a cave entrance right on the water at the far west end of that beach. It's a bit out of the way but for a high 20s party there is no better levelling. You have a smaller selection of mobs to choose from, but how sweet they are! Island Rarabs (yes, Random Rabbit Clone #8223) are an interesting new diversion. Besides the bunny standards Dust Cloud (cone-AOE blind), Whirl Claws (AOE damage attack), and Foot Stomp (single-target big-hit attack), these devious bunnies have learned to grow their own crops. Wild Carrot will heal them for around 120 HP, but it looks pretty cool and 120 HP isn't much in the grand scheme of things. Marine Dhalmels (now you know why they have the incredibly long necks... dhalmels are native to the seabed where their elvaan-style necks allow them to reach the surface for air) are FANTASTIC levelling at around 28-29. They have the exact same specials as your typical dhalmels and don't vary in any way from their mainland brethren, and are a fast and easy 200 EXP kill. There are also the Batallia-variety of Goblins a little further in and to the right through the canyon (but don't go too far! The mob level range jumps from 20s to 60s in a matter of a few steps if you go too far down the canyon path!) There are also some pretty wicked looking new gecko-like enemies called Efts. Don't be fooled by their "Very Tough" ratings. These things will eat you alive with their powerful attacks and VERY evil Dispelga specials. They don't aggro but they link like mad, so hands off unless you enjoy seeing your butt sticking in the air. At level 28, rabbits were mostly IT with the occasional VT. Almost all the dhalmels were IT, while the goblins were about 50/50 IT/VT. Also, one small word of warning: Stay away from the pier if anyone is fishing. It's almost comically easy to fish up Krakens in this area, and you don't want to be nearby when that happens. This area can probably support three well-spaced parties at any given time. The nearest home-point is in Mhuara, but it's not that far a run to get back to your party if you die, and you won't have to face the nonstop Goblin Locomotive Co. in Yuhtunga/Yhoator.

So far those are the only new hot levelling areas I've found, but as I explore I'll try to keep this thread updated. My party had a fantastic time levelling in Bibiki Bay today, it was great to go to a new area and fight new mobs for a change.

Edited, Fri Oct 1 10:59:04 2004 by Saboruto

Some info on the newer places:

Organized my first full CoP XP PT, and promptly told them: let's go level in Uleguerand Range! Our levels were 56-57.

We got there, fought a Uleguerand Tiger that conned VT. The ******* kept spamming AoE paralyze, and it took longer than usual.

What's next? Snoll - the frozen counterpart of bombs. We decided to fight one that conned VT as well.

The battle is goin' ok, the bomb isn't hurtin' the tank too much, but it's takin' a bit longer than usual. Around 1/3 life, it decides to suicide and does some sort of Combustion move.

... I was out of range at the time.

1200+ DMG to everyone in it's AoE Range... everyone died but me. Fun, fun! Raise II all around. >< We left and went to Boyahda Tree.

Didn't get a chance to fight Buffalo or Worms, Bats, and Rabbits in the area. If you have better luck, let me know.

So to sum it up: bombs are evil. Always.

Didn't know whether to do Barfira or Barblizzara ... confusing as hell when you have a FROZEN bomb... didn't know if it was combusting due to fire or ice?

We expected an explosion, just not one for 1200+ DMG...

Ice bombs = EVIL. Blowing up is one thing (you expect that by now), the AOE Frost it can land on you drains massive HP per tick and gives you an insane AGI penalty on top of that. No WHM = don't go into Ulgerand Range, unless someone has WHM subbed w/Erase. You'll need it.

Thanks for the tip ^^
I may try to get a Carpenters party tonight with my Drg!

You use Barblizzara for the icey bombs. We tested this out during an exploration of the range. It's frozen counterpart to Self-Destruct did little damage to us when it exploded.

Also, the Ancient Bombs in Oldton Movapolos have an AoE burn. It SUCKS. It not only drains massive HP but -22 INT.

Anyone else noticed a trend in CoP? There are now massive DoTs that can be inflicted.

not sure what level they would be IT at (were to weak to my rdm50), but there were worms a plenty in Attowha Chasm and I sure do love the maze and Korrolookaa tunnel xp personally. We need to figure ou if this is a good xp spot....

Attowha Chasm (or however you spell it) has worms and hecteyes in some of the first areas and into the hallways.

You can zone into it from the Maze of Shakrami.

The Hecteyes conned EP to my level 48 RDM. They're magic users, so silence them if you can. Overall they seemed pretty weak. Stoneskin/Phalanx lasted a while.

Some of the worms were EP, some TW.

In Bibiki Bay the Hobgoblins there are good XP fodder for parties around 70. There are also Efts/Dhalmel's further in that are great XP fodder for mid/upper 60's parties.

Where exactly is the north sandy entrance into carpenters landing?

I've looked for trap doors nearby and have yet to see one. All the doors I have seen have the 'no entry' sign on them and they are not selectable.

I also saw a log with a blue halo around in near the carpenters guild. Does this have something to do with it? The halo vanished @ 1AM game time. Waiting to see when it comes back.

They all conned EP to my RDM-45. Im guessing the worms are 9-10 levels below me (therefore 35sh, good for 26-28s to PTs on) and the Hecteyes can just add a level or two on those numbers.


And as for the originial poster fearing Krakens, no worries, they patched fished up monsters so they only attack the person who fished them, no matter what. (Unless your puller were to actually hit the Kraken, then youd have a problem, but if your puller is competent youre fine.) The reason they made this patch because some idiots enjoyed sneak-fishing level 35-40s Sea Bishops and stuff onto level 20s in Qufim.

Only problem I can see is prying people off of Kazham and onto a new, unknown area... unless you have a LS with 6 people around lvl 25, that is.

For those in the mid 60's (64-66) you can kill goblins in Bibiki Bay. Simply follow the path to the west and south until you come to an alcove on the right. Up there is a cave with a couple of Tartaru Eft (don't bother, they will messy-wessy you up). You can kill the goblins in the surrounding area. Once you hit 66 you can move a little bit further south to take the next tier of gobs. As long as you keep barfira up you should be ok, and by the way the point of fighting gobs is to let it blow itself up. :)