So I just started playing Live for the first time in like 20 years. Ever since The Combine released as one of the first TLP servers / seasons, that's all I've done because of my nostalgia from 1999. Needless to say adapting to Live has been quite an experience for me!
I play a Rogue and I don't box, so it's just me and my mercenary. I was gaining exp in the Valley of Lunanyn and I got a Fragment, and it turned into the Tear. I saw the end result with the Defense modification and I became immediately determined! I leveled my Tear from level 1 to 10 in the Valley of Lunanyn before I actually looked it up and saw the quest: Fear Begins At Home: ( https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=6014 ) in Shard's Landing that rewards a Fragment each run, so I went there after having leveled my Rogue from 91 to 98 in the Valley.
The lowest citizen undercity mobs are level 96 and 97. All of the council mobs are 98, the same level as I was, and I could not assassinate them. I thought for sure I wouldn't be able to handle it as a solo Rogue with a mercenary, but I managed to grind out to level 100 while doing the runs for the task that rewards the 5% Fragment piece and some exp too. Once I hit level 100 it got tremendously easier since I could now assassinate the council mobs too. What I gained from my experience...
1) The level of the mob in comparison to you has nothing to do with how fast your Tear will level up. At level 101 all the mobs were still dark blue to me and I didn't gain a single % when my Tear went from level 19 to 20. As I noticed at levels 17 and 18, it was about 1% per 70+ kills, and that's probably a low estimate!
2) You will want to make a "prompt" hotkey for the task and NOT forget to get the task before making the run to the other side of the zone. It sucks!
If you are around my level (98 to 101) and doing this repetitive task 200ish times, here's what I took from it:
My annoyances of note:
a) Having to zoom in fully and face upwards to walk up the pseudo ramps to the top bedrooms. The other option is running to the side of the structure itself and using an "actual ramp." That option just didn't feel time efficient for me. The actual ramp is what the council members use as they path back and forth from the council room to their bedrooms.
b) The curtains obstructing my view, causing me to zoom in and zoom out incessantly... (especially as a Rogue needing to use any of the various methods to maneuver behind them when doing so and having to switch camera angles).
Other things to note:
a) The mob aggro radius is awful, you can practically kill one right as another walks by at times. This is very helpful when you need to go down to the round "Council Table" and kill them one by one, but my suggestion is to attack them in their chair where they sit. If you attack them from the side / back, the closest one will most likely do nothing. However, if you try and pull a mob away from the table itself, they have the worst pathing and will run around the whole table likely aggroing any number of others sitting around the table with them. It's fairly counterintuitive but just walk up or send your pet in to attack while they sit in the chair. At most you'll just get 1 add instead of 3 or 4.
b) You won't run out of mobs that count toward the task no matter how quickly you can kill down there. Citizens, council members, taskmasters, enforcers, named mobs, etc (pretty much stuff that will attack you) all count toward the task. (the conscripts do not and you will become an ally to their faction very quickly doing this task over and over).
c) When a mob actually drops a Fragment you will be elated! 1 drop = 1 less run you will end up having to do.
d) Yes, you just simply need to zone or relog in order for your final result of The Tears of Alaris to be able to convert into an augmentation. I'm pretty sure you'll be happy to zone the heck out of there once you've accomplished this!
e) Yes, the Overseer Merchant does sell Fragments for 10,000 Overseer Tetradrachms. I never bought one. At 5% per Fragment, that would be 200,000 per level, and 2,000,000 just to get your Tear from level 10 to 20. (I suck at math but I believe that would be the case).
f) You will feel VERY accomplished when it is all done and you have your completed Tear!
Edited, May 15th 2024 9:57am by Ersatz