EQDiva

I'm sort of confused about DoN, I apologize for asking this question half a year after you all have figured it out :lol I keep reading that DoN is basically an upgraded version of LDoN - lots of one group instances that you can enter to gain crystals (instead of Adventurer points I guess) to buy items from DoN vendors - and that these vendors have much better items at much cheaper rates than old ldon. OK, but at the same time I've been reading up on evil/good progression in DoN, which has confused me. Are there instances anyone can do for crystals, or do you have to progress into a chain before you can even start the instances? First I have to build up faction, and then I have to do three tasks (Blood of Basilik, Clearing the Path, Burning Poison - I'm looking at evil progression btw) before I can even do one instace? (Have Note Will Travel Mission ). And it looks like there's only a couple of instances available before you have to get raid forces together to progress? It sounds like you can at least redo this instance and others, but it sounds to me like there's not very many you can do unless you have the ability to progress through large raid instances. So, if I get DoN and build up my faction, are there more choices for instances than what it seems like there are? DoN is hardly an upgrade to ldon if there's only a couple of instances, and it *requires* raids to move very far forward (raids were totally optional with ldon). Thanks for clearing up my confusion!

in case you still need an answer (doubtful) there are several mission givers scattered around the good and evil camps in the caves who give non-progression instanced missions that will result in crystals and tokens.

Don is all faction based. There is evil side and a good side. Pick one and stick with it. Once u start on your path to good or evil you do progression missions. There are also regular ole experience missions also. Depending on what level of difficulty mission you are able to get is all based on your faction with that particular group. Now, the progression missions are different from the experience missions. The progression missions take a bit longer usually than the exp ones and sometimes require a mini raid force or a full raid force to complete. Once u complete a mission you will get a faction token. You turn the faction token into an NPC and it will improve your faction with that particualr group that you got the mission from (i.e good or evil). Also upon completion you get a set numbers of reward crystlas that you spend at the merchant (just like ldon points). You get good or evil crystals depending on the mission u selected. If u you do an evil mission but you are working on good faction, then don't turn in the evil faction token and it will not affect you. The reward crystals are tradable so u can trade em foor good crystals or just plain sell em for cash. You don't have to do progression missions if you don't want to. But to do them is a good idea cause you get perma stat increases, extra buff slots, your DoN song, etc upon completing them. Just turn in your faction tokens and your faction will increase so that you can select the high end experience missions (such as the Nest mission or Creator). Also once u start doing progression missions you have to stay with them if you want to keep your stat increases. If you decide that you want to start working on evil faction then you will lose your stat increases that the good side gave you. Hope this helped some. I get kinda long winded sometimes. Rithim Nblues

Actually I did still hope for an answer, for the sole reason that I haven't purchased DoN just yet...I picked up Omens and am trying to figure out as much about that as I can before I move on to the next expansion ;) The good/evil progression guides are all over, so I knew about it somewhat, but it's good to hear that you can just do regular instances for crystals whenever you want, too. Course, I need to hit 70 before I can get truly decent wearable gear from the vendors anyway it looks like :| Thanks for the response Rithim, Laff

You can start doing them pretty much around lvl 62+.. The easier missions are geared towards the lower end lvls. The decent gear start at around lvl 65+. The best armor that sells is for lvl 70 though. But you could definately start earning and saving the crystals you earn until you make it to lvl 70. A full set of teh lvl 70 armor will cost you alot of crystals to purchase. The rings, necklaces, etc can be purchased before you hit lvl 70 and be wearable and have nice stats and effects. At lvl 65 and you are able to get in on some creator groups or something, the experience moves fairly quickly. You would level pretty fast if u dedicated yourself to doing the missions. at 100 percent aa i would get approx 1 and half aa exp. The missions generally take from 20 minutes to 45 minutes to complete. So exp is decent on the higher end missions. DoN is a recommended expansion for a casual player. Rithim

Are most characters out there on the good or evil faction? Reason I ask is that all I hear is Creator this, Creator that, and I'm under the impression that the Creator mission is on the good side, correct? Since it sounds like such a fantastic mission (for bards especially I guess), are any bards on the evil side? And for that matter, it seems like I hear most about the Norrath's Keepers side in general. I know the crystals are tradeable/sellable, so I could do Creator missions even if I went evil, but on dial up I have a hard time setting up a trader for any extended periods :( Well that's it I guess, just wondering how big a deal it is choosing one faction over the other. I suppose it's time to stop asking questions and just go shell out the 30 bucks for it to find out, heh. (it's just the principal of the thing - how can it still be the original retail price after close to a year on shelves and another expansion post-dating it? so lame, just drop it to 20 bucks already, i'd feel so much better! :) )

On Emarr I would guess 80:20 good to evil players, its prolly very server dependant. I'm a goodie - one of the best aspects of the expansion in design terms is that anyone can do missions from either camp. The faction hits are received by turning in a token that appears on your cursor after a mission success (the crystals go straight into inventory), so if I tag along with some evil buddies I just don't turn in the token. With regards to the equipment available at the crystal vendor, that shouldn't enter into your decision which team to join as both are exactly the same stat-wise tho' they do but have different names. Incidentally, sneak hide and faction song all worked and allowed me to pick up the evil version of the hate weapon too .. handy for tanking :o (iirc all the weapons are lore items). Both camps give the same non-progression missions and the most of the same prog missions too, which is the vast majority. The evil camp has "Drake Eggs" as a one of its (possibly only) unique, for example. I suspect there's an equal number unique to each faction, but I don't know them off-hand. The reason a lot of the talk is about "the Creator" is it is a straighforward mission with very little fuss. Fair number of caster mobs, but everything is mezzable and kiteable iirc. There's a tonne of guides if yer want the detail =) . Rest assured its open to all tho' . HTH luv Yianulla