The Hole

Not quite at the level cap.
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Duftin Fizzlefoot
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Joined: Sun Dec 02, 2012 1:12 pm

The Hole

Post by Duftin Fizzlefoot »

Hello all,

I know that the Hole has been mentioned in many threads for its extremely good AA grinding. I've found this definitely to be the case, having gained somewhere around 400 or so down there. At level 67, it's definitely a sweet spot. With a merc and pet, I can get between 20-30% AAxp per kill going from the stone wards to the temple entrance. On occasion, if there isn't an active group coming out that far, I'll take out the templebound spirits, gargoyles and fallen heretics just inside the temple entrance. Unfortunately on my server (Luclin-Stromm) the stone wards seem to be perma-camped by some AFK folks. :x It's frustrating to me, because I would never do something like that, and there appears to be a guild that rotates the camp in and out.

I don't want to go into how great the area is, because that's well known, but I did want to get some opinions on how best to utilize this area from those who have done the same thing. To give you an idea, I go down with a geared air pet and tank merc, and can grind about 10 or so AA/hr, with very little downtime. If there aren't a lot of people in the zone taking mobs, I'll use my daily lesson down there and get ~18 AA in the half-hour span of the Lesson being active. Here are some questions:

- Should I forego the merc and just go with the pet? I tried it a bit this evening (same geared air pet) and had no issues with the mobs. The AAxp was great (35-45% per kill) but it seemed pretty slow.
- What pet do you recommend for this endeavor? The air pet seems to make sense, with the stun and light hitting mobs, but would a water or earth work better, from your experience? Does the answer change with merc and without merc?

Thanks for any feedback you might have.

Duftin Fizzlefoot, 67 Mage on Luclin-Stromm

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Vincentt
Conjurer
Posts: 120
Joined: Mon Oct 29, 2012 10:59 am

Re: The Hole

Post by Vincentt »

Yes, sir, I would definitely dump the Merc, they take 50% of the xp and don't provide a grouping 20% bonus. If you can kill 1 mob solo faster than you can kill 2 mobs with the merc, and maintain your downtime, dump the merc.

I used to swarm the undead in that temple with my paladin when she was 71-72, the xp is simply incomparable to anywhere else I've seen in the game (for a paladin). At 71 you could probably do the same with that air pet, your AA rate (assuming you're under 4k) could go to 24-28 per lotd burn. At least that's what I was doing. Mobs' low hp allows you to pull 5+ at a time and most of them pummel themselves helpless onto your pet's DS. Beyond 1 nuke from you (AE), you could probably just heal pet w/o retribution --- I think pet heals is still 0 aggro. Hope this wasn't changed. Pour all your AAs into your pet's defense if you haven't already.

My advice - if you're going to try and "mage swarm", is start small then grow your swarm till you figure how the right size for you. Let your DS do all the work, if possible get a ranger's cloak of scales line on your pet, adds to the DS. As your AAs grow so will your speed. Spend your plat on HoT potions.

At 73 you'll definitely move on, whole zone greens out. Hope this helps.
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