Ring of Scale Leveling Guide
It's a common trend in Everquest during the later expansions for people who are just starting out to be overwhelmed by all of the changes in the game and how much progress they have to make in order to catch up. Luckily though it doesn't take nearly as long for you to do the lower levels anymore and with the addition of Mercenaries and Defiant gear you'll breeze through these levels really quickly.
You can also drastically increase the speed of which you level by making sure your account is gold (meaning you're subscribed to the game) as this will give you Auto Granted AAs as they become available. Additionally something that I highly recommend you do is make one or two more accounts (at least) and box some characters.
There are multiple different third party software programs available to players in Everquest to help you box and I cover them all in detail in my EQ Boxing Guides. If you've ever wanted to be a boxer, there's never been a better time to give it a whirl. With my guides - you will learn how to box.
Regardless of your decision to box or not the following guide assumes that you're just a solo player with a Journeyman Tank Mercenary. Until level 90 - 100 at which point you'll need to start boxing or grouping to proceed in level. We'll cover that more when we get to it.
Although my guide assumes you aren't Free to Play you can still use them if you are. Just instead of leaving each level location at the levels I suggest you may want to stay there a level or two longer since your merc is weaker. With the release of The Serpents Spine most players start out in Crescent Reach, which is where this new leveling guide will start us.
Follow the link below to be taken to a more in depth guide about each location for that level range.
(Fastest) Crescent Reach
(Easiest) Crushbone
(Most Money) Paludal Caverns
15 - 35 Blightfire Moors // Gorukar Mesa
15 - 25 Paludal Caverns (Most Money)
10 - 30 Unrest (Weakest Mobs)
20 - 35 Castle Mistmoore
35 - 50 City of Mist
30 - 45 Gorukar Mesa
30 - 50 Lower Guk
45 - 55 Nagafen's Lair
46 - 60 Old Sebilis
46 - 60 Chardok
35 - 55 Ocean of Tears (Weakest Mobs)
45 - 55 Dulak's Harbor
That just about covers it for all the locations 1 - 50! The next batch of locations are going to be a bit tougher for you and you should check The Bazaar for any gear that's available for you to use as well as turn on your Auto Grant AAs which you can find in the AA window in the top right. All of these locations should be easily possible as 1 character and a Mercenary.
If you can't Auto grant AAs along the way you'll need to stop and grind them otherwise progression will get really hard later. Levels being more important than AAs "always" is complete nonsense at this point in the game, without at least the most important AAs for your class you'll end up getting rolled. Luckily though, as far as I understand it, auto grant AAs should always be a part of Everquest now even on Special Ruleset servers.
RoS Leveling Guide 50 - 80
The next few locations are mostly going to be focused on providing you with a decent amount of platinum from both vendor loot as well as raw plat drops. You should have been able to hodge-podge together a set of Defiant gear from mob drops by this point.. but we're going to need more.
Gearing your character is going to become extremely important over these next 10 - 20 levels. I want you to understand that getting platinum for gear and to pay for your Mercenary is just as important as getting experience for levels at this point. We're not going to be able to depend entirely on our Tank merc anymore so it's important that your character can start holding their own.
50 - 60 Old Sebilis
50 - 60 Chardok
55 - 70 Crypt of Decay (Boxer/Group; Undead Enemies)
50 - 60 Veksar (Harder Difficulty; Undead Enemies)
55 - 60 Howling Stones (Boxer/Group Only)
50 - 65 Grieg's End
50 - 63 Acrylia Caverns (Best EXP/Worst Money)
50 - 60 Siren's Grotto (Best Money/Slightly Annoying Zone)
60 - 70 Plane of Fire
65 - 70 Wall of Slaughter
60 - 70 Crypt of Decay (Boxer/Group; Social)
60 - 65 Siren's Grotto (Best Money/Lowest EXP)
60 - 65 Dragon Necropolis (Boxer/Group; Decent Vendor Trash; Antisocial)
70 - 80 Dragonscale Hills
70 - 80 Riftseeker's Sanctum (Boxer/Group)
70 - 80 Muramite Proving Grounds (Boxer/Group)
70 - 80 Icefall Glacier
70 - 80 Direwind Cliffs
RoS Leveling Guide 80 - 100
Now is when it starts to get much tougher! You'll notice that Heroic Stats start popping up more and more on gear. You should read my Heroic Stats Guide which will explain much more about these stats and which ones you might want to focus more on.
Also now that you've gotten one character to level 80... It's much easier for you to get another one up to your level. I very strongly recommend you pick up another character or two just for the bonus mercenaries. If you ever hope to reach max level and get all your AAs - unless you want to be a total mooch to people it's so so much easier through boxing.
80-85 Oceangreen Hills (If Solo) // Loping Plains Worgs (If Boxer/LFG)
80 - 90 Old Commonlands (Antisocial)
80 - 85 Field of Scale
80 - 85 Oceangreen Village
80 - 85 Katta Castrum (Relatively Weak enemies)
80 - 90 Fortress Mechanotus
80 - 90 Gyrospire Beza
80 - 90 Gyrospire Zeka
85 - 95 House of Thule, Lower Floors // The Grounds (100)
85 - 95 Feerrott, The Dream (Headshot, Decap, Assassinate enemies)
85 - 90 Toskirakk
85 - 95 Kaesora Library
85 - 90 Korascian Warrens
90 - 100 Valley of Lunanyn (Headshot, Decap, Assassinate enemies)
90 - 100 Beast's Domain
85 - 95 Rathe Council Chambers (Antisocial)
90 - 95 Erudin Burning (EXP Tasks + Decap/Assassinate enemies)
Depending on what class you are, how good your gear is, how many AAs you have and whether or not you're boxing determines where you should go to level up at next. If you're not boxing or able to group with other players from here on out things are going to start getting pretty tough for you.
If you haven't already now is one of the best times for you to gear up through The Bazaar. Unless your server is extremely low population you should be able to get at least half a set of VoA/RoF gear which will greatly assist you in the levels to come.
One thing Solo players will want to keep in mind is there's an NPC in PoK nearby the Guild Lobby entrance named Franklin Teek. This guy offers daily quests which require you to do some killing in Hotzones which'll give you a nice break from all of your daily grinds for EXP.
95 - 100 Shard's Landing (Relatively Weak + Normal Enemies)
93 - 100 Valley of Lunanyn
93 - 100 Beast's Domain
95 - 105 Grelleth's Palace (Field Killing/Groups and Boxers only)
95 - 105 Evantil The Vile Oak (Field Killing/Groups and Boxers only)
95 - 105 Valley of King Xorbb (Groups and Boxers only)
95 - 105 Chelsith Reborn (Groups and Boxers only)
95 - 105 Heart of Fear (Most Antisocial Groups/Boxers only)
95 - 105 Dead Hills Heroic Adventures (Gribbles' tasks Group/Boxers only)
95 - 105 Ethernere West Karana (Field Killing + Relatively Weak enemies)
RoS 100 - 105 Locations
We're in the final stretch! This is when things start getting really really hard and if you're not appropriately geared, AA'd or prepared you're going to get rolled. This is the last time that I am going to offer you this practical advice as it'll start to sound like I am preaching - pushing past this point as a solo player without help will be extremely difficult and very improbable.
Most regular players will end up quitting before they ever hit max level because of how much time is expected for you to just sit there and grind indefinitely. People might disagree with my advice, but as a guide writer my job is to tell people how they can accomplish the task easily, efficiently and (hopefully) while having fun.
Know what I am going to say next, huh? That's right - start boxing. Whenever you hit a wall in EQ, make another account or two and go back and start leveling them up. Go to a few zones that make you feel nostalgic and you'll find that by power leveling your new box they'll be in within groupable range with you in a few days (maybe a week).
Then you can have a bunch of fun getting really fast EXP and slaughtering enemies in a zone that cons Light blue to your main - level up your boxes and get them up to help you blow through this content. What's your complaint, you don't want the extra work? Use Third Party Software to help you box. Don't know how to set it up? I got a butt load of EQ Boxing Guides to answer all your questions.
100 - 105 Katta Castrum: Deluge // Tempest Temple Goblins
100 - 105 Brother Island
100 - 105 TBM Heroic Adventure Farming
102 - 105 Caverns of Endless Song
103 - 110 Castle Degmar
103 - 110 Thulisaur Island
104 - 110 Combine Dredge
103 - 110 Sul Vius: Demiplane of Life (Glorious Cistina)
103 - 110 Sul Vius: Demiplane of Life (Vizier Albert)
103 - 110 Sul Vius: Demiplane of Life (Guardian Jenat)
103 - 110 Sul Vius: Demiplane of Decay (Remnants of the Darkseer)
103 - 110 Sul Vius: Demiplane of Decay (Master of the House)
Need gear while leveling? An amazing way to get both gear and EXP are the Gribbles Heroic Adventures right now. They should be easy enough for you to hack your way through even if by a thread. If you can do that enough times you can get decent level 100 gear (prestige or non prestige) which will make your journey much easier.
Those of you using this guide while also playing on the Firiona Vie server can gear yourselves up with The Broken Mirror group gear. The gear is both level 100 or level 105 depending on which augmentations you put into it. Since everything is droppable on FV it makes finding the augs to outfit an entire set of gear extremely easy and requries NO flagging or questing on your part!! For more information about the TBM Heroic Adventures head on over to my TBM Heroic Adventure Farming Guide.
RoS Leveling Locations 106 - 109
These locations will be some of the toughest we've encountered yet. Keep in mind that I am telling you the best locations to level at - Ring of Scale is extremely difficult content and arguably not that great of a place for you to be leveling up at 106 - 109. It would be much better if you hung back in an easier EoK zone like Lceanium and Scorched Woods; or a tier 2 zone if you can handle it like Kor-Sha Laboratory/Chardok.
Additionally, TBM zones would be a really great place for anyone extremely under geared or under AA'd. It's actually an easier expansion than TDS is. The mobs have less HP and don't generally whoop you as hard as the later TDS zones do. I highly recommend my Sul Vius: Demiplane of Life locations if you wanna get some gear/augs before trying to tackle some TBM Heroics (which you can use to completely gear out 100 - 105).
Need better gear? I highly recommend Ring of Scale Conflagrant Tradeskill Gear for 106 - 110. It's the best non-prestige gear you can get your hands on and you can fill out every single piece on all of your characters! It's attuneable so you can buy it from The Bazaar and people are commonly making it because of how awesome it is! For more information about this gear head on over to my Conflagrant Gearing Guide!
105 - 110 Scorched Woods
105 - 110 Lceanium
106 - 110 Kor-Sha Laboratory
105 - 110 Crypt of Sul
105 - 110 Crypt of Decay (Upper Floors)
105 - 110 Crypt of Decay (Lower Floors)
RoS & TBL Leveling/AA Locations
110 Howling Stones
110 Sathir's Tomb
110 Gorowyn
Everquest Farming & Endgame Guide