Zygefgh's Grinding Guide

From LSWiki

Purpose

The purpose of this list is to provide a rough guide on where you can go to grind for combat experience. The areas and enemy types are listed in order of APPROXIMATE difficulty.

This guide is not intended to be an expansive, all-inclusive guide on every combat location in Lost Souls, or a perfect guide on how to grind out experience for every character at every power level. You should eventually outgrow the need for this list and form a rotation of your own that suits your personal style and the powers of your individual character.

Combat Difficulty

The real difficulty of combat in these areas will depend quite heavily on your race, size, attributes, skills, what abilities you have available to you, combat maneuvers, special attacks, bonds, followers, etc, etc, etc. (There's a good reason Lost Souls does not have an 'evaluate' command!) The initial ordering of this list was done retrospectively from the memory of my levelling experience of my level 60 unbonded human Warbreaker who had a few followers (dog, Hakkax chicken, figurine wolf), and who had access to esoteric damage types, guaranteed weapon hits, stun immunity, a heal, and damage resist auras. Most of the time I was also running with Aeda's Blessing and Crystalline Salvation. I adjusted and expanded the list as I approached level 100.

Using the List

Start at the top of the list and when you are comfortable fighting in that area/against those targets, progress to the next area with caution. Slowly expand your rotation this way, so once you clear an area of all applicable enemies, go back to the top of the list and repeat, continuing to add new areas to your rotation as you feel comfortable. If you find the next area too difficult, you can try skipping over it and moving to the one after. Some of these locations are pretty close in difficulty and it's been a challenge for me to determine a solid ordering. You never know where you're really going to hit your stride against some of these enemies until you try to fight them.

Important notes before starting a new area

• I did not include areas/targets that are prone to swarming. At some point you will need to start clearing your kill log and swarms are the best way to do so, however I'm not going to bother with trying to figure out when/how you should do that as it's a complicated thing to figure out. At first, don't worry about this.
• The difficulty of each enemy type has been considered only when facing 1v1. Fight multiple enemies at once at your own risk.
• Obviously, you should avoid enemies such as the wraiths in the Vargan arena if you do not have access to attacks that can affect them.
• Be sure to read the wiki page for a new area before heading to it so that you can be aware of the other threats and enemies types that can be present there, for example: carrying something on your character to deal with webs when entering Spiderwood.
• BE PREPARED TO DIE - you won't get anywhere in Lost Souls if you're too afraid to die. Ultimately, you can only know how powerful your character actually is by testing your abilities in real combat with new enemies.
• The length of the kill log after the recent system change is so long, even a few Og fighters were still in it after a whole week. It's currently recommended to broaden your rotations and kill as many mob types as you can. --Reden

THE LIST

• Losthaven - ruffians & pickpockets (usually won't give any xp, but the thugs especially can be surprisingly tough depending on their race, use caution)
• Spiderwood surface - normal spiders, ice spiders (not giant), barking spiders (watch for poison)
• Losthaven sewer - giant rats and skavens (watch out for enemies assisting each other)
• Shrieking Siren - guards and the Highflop/Highslop
• Halfmoon Bay - bravos (they do not have "bravo" in their name but you can do 'count bravos' to see how many are in a room), guards are about the same difficulty but they will assist each other, and any civvies in the room will assist them also
• Vargan arena -2 (this means down into the tunnels, NOT the wolves in the breeding pit) - everything you find except gungnirs, iyiyik bandits and faun gladiators (unless you're feeling confident)
• Losthaven sewer - Gasdghat, the Grey Mouser, and the alligator (if you're comfortable fighting underwater)
• Spiderwood caves -1, -2, - giant spiders, atterkops
• Gurbodax mines level 0 - kobold scouts, outriders and their wargs (watch for trip-ropes)
• Og - fighters, villagers, wenches (watch for villagers, wenches, and children - they will not only assist the fighters, they can also occasionally trigger swarming when attacked)
• Halfmoon Bay - vendors (only include Cassady and Jerry if you're feeling confident), probably could take Blackdog as well
• Darkhold - General Tusk, Captain Ludwig, the guard captain, the wyvern, niedrisi guards (be aware other orcs/ogres in the room will assist)
• Caves of Sionell - bats, rats, duergar (avoid blobs unless you can remove/resist diseases)
• Vargan arena -2, -3, -4 - all of the previous targets, now including gungnirs, iyiyiki (the bandits are tougher), faun gladiators, chaktrulljai, drakes (avoid amalgamals, they are usually not worth the effort)
• Sloan crater - bandits, witches, bergrisi, skaijotun, eldthurs, suzumei (watch for some enemies in the same room assisting each other)
• Uvmothog - bogualu, duergar, svirfneblin, trulljai, urgai
• Devonshire catacombs - Azurax, Tharakil, Victorio
• Vasbarghad outer plains - peasant skeletons/zombies
• Spiderwood caves -3, -4, -5, -6 - rachnei, lightning bugs, gargantuan spiders
• R'lyeh - cultists, deep ones, abominations (careful with these as they deal/are healed by random damage types), Ithnagl
• Tenereth's Rest 3 - these are the undead enemies, NOT the dana on the surface (he is a friendly trainer named Zid)
• Vargan arena -5, -6, -7 - yeti gladiators (more dangerous when with other enemies), great wolves, wraiths (only if you can deal with the esoteric damage and resists)
• Og - Elder Bilga, Thack
• Gurbodax mines -1, -2 - zohei, zinjas (only if you can kill/behead quickly or soak their suicide explosions), wuja (only if you can break through their shields, or resist elemental damage), the dragon is probably doable for you here also, avoid the octopus in the waterfall, watch out for trip-ropes
• Syllyac - (this will depend on how well your character can handle psychic attacks) vlekthid, guards, nylocs, the Interrogator
  • getting a psychic wall through an active buffbot will strengthen your resistence --Reden
• Darkhold - the vampire
• Muspelheim - slaves, traders, commoners, scholars, soldiers (watch for enemies in the same room as they will assist each other - also make sure you bring some lenses and ID their culture/the named NPCs here, you want to avoid all of them right now, and they have a tendency to wander into a room while you're fighting something else and then joining in)
• Tenereth's Rest 1 - skeleton knights and archers
• Corna - golems, you'll have to fight the entire room for each room in the tower, but only worth your time if you have attacks that bypass their resistances
• Twilight Tower - Tanthalas
• Vasbarghad inner courtyard (NOT inside the fortress itself, just inside the first gate ONLY) - skeleton guards, zombies
• Og - Graoln the Blacksmith, Chief Grog (his damage can be a bit bursty, so watch out)
• Storm Rock - zuth stormwalkers, Mor'guth
• R'lyeh - gogtzulu (it will help if you have some way to resist psychic attacks, they will also assist each other in combat - also be extra careful, it's unclear to me if they actually swarm or if they just wander rapidly in groups - they also seem to have an aggression memory, so once you've killed a few they will auto-aggro on you when you enter a room with one in it)
• Bartziluth (be careful of fire and temporal damage)
• Spiderwood -6, -7, -9 - rhax, xypheskaris (this will be easier if you are not fighting unarmed and can deal damage they do not resist), do NOT fight the colossal spiders
• Vargan arena -8 - wolves, yetis (avoid the garou unless you can kill them *really* fast or are deaf)
• Vasbarghad inner citadel - Fengu, Viktor Gravvas, wights (only one at a time), avoid the ghasts unless you're extremely confident you can take them, they hit like a truck
• Sinbyen catacombs -1 - skeletons, zombies (this is a bit of a jump in danger level but was just barely doable for my Warbreaker at level 63, be VERY CAREFUL about multiple opponents and the possessed and taken that are also wandering on this level, the enemies wander around pretty rapidly)
• Jhan - minor dakshina (these hit a lot harder than they used to, and if you get two or three, or a major/greater show up, or Kali, you'll be in big trouble)
• ...to be continued