The Steppes

I've just recently come back to the game after a 4 year break and it seems 4 years ago i logged out in this zone ive spent the last week or so here soloing as a 65 rngr just going to AA's I've made close to 150 aa's in the last week (mostly due to exp pot's)as long as you pay attn you should be fine here the animals leave rangers alone and both the gnolls and giants are far enough apart that its a simple snare or bow shot to draw them out and then root and shoot the main thing i've noticed here there are a lot of roamers so just watch the timing/paterns and you should have no problem

"a domesticated bear" spawns during the group task "Sweeping the Steppes : Goblins" when at step "Slay the goblin's pet bear 0/1". It dropped nothing special : Amber, Ruined Bear Pelt, Medium Quality Bear Skin.

Not sure why this is listed AFTER Sunderock since it has lower mobs in zone.

Hi,
Just afew notes form a Woodelf Ranger who just leveled from 67 to almost 70 here (moved to Icefall at 69.7) This an excellent zone for kiters. I parked myself on the level area facing the Gnoll camps, with the lake/island to the right facing the gnolls, and pretty much stayed there except to explore a bit at level 69.

Loot
Not a bad zone; the Gnolls usually drop various herbs and plants, I guess for poison making or some such (I'm not a crafter)and anywhere from zero to 50 pp. They may also drop Darkfell Fangs, for a quest in CR from Warden Jakar. He gives exp for turnins of 10 fangs, so I kept all mine. Once in a blue moon a spell will drop. I saw 2 the whole time. Also rarely Frosted leather and metal for an armor quest. Maybe once or twice did a piece of Defiant armor or weapon drop. Higher level gnolls also can drop Cartography Tools, for a lvl 70 quest that begins with Cartographer xxxxxxx, found on the hill near the Ranger merchant.
The Timber Lizards don't drop cash, but do drop claws and teeth that resell well to the Ranger spell merchant in the grove. They also drop Serpent Spine geodes, which sell well. The Hill Giants don't drop squat to speak of, have a ton of hps, and I usually avoided them. They hit me for a max of abt 1100.
If you get in trouble w a gnoll, pull him to the Grove Guardians (centuars) and they will finish him. (Except Toegasher, they wouldn't kill him)

The Timber Lizards wil not assist and were not aggro; you can stand on top of one and fight his buddy and he ignores you. Panthers will REALLY assist each other, and assisted a Wasp spider when I shot it. They were not aggro to me however, infact were amiable. Wolves were amiable, snakes and spiders, and lizards indifferent. Toegasher was indifferent, and has a quest if you care to talk to him.

Gnoll archers, sharpshooters, scavengers were all aggro, as were all the rest, but all can be snared and are meelee mobs. The Gnoll Captain was pretty tough for his level (67 or so) and moves VERY fast; fast enough to outrun wolf form anyway. Most can be single pulled, unless they are right on top of each other. Most do not see invisible, but the Captain sometimes does, ditto for the sharpshooters.

I have little or no experience w other mobs in zone, but I hope this wil be of use to someone. I enjoyed the time here, and it was a good area for grinding out exp., and not too dangerous if you keep you eyes open and watch your pulls.

Good hunting
Gwihyr Wolfrunner
70 Ranger of Prexus

To get to the merchant, head to your left as you face the gnolls. He is in the grove at the foot of the mountain.

Has anyone gathered any information other than the Rebuilding the Portal quest on the Portal of War? Where does it lead? What kind of raid targets are there?

ancient silk armwraps pattern dropped off a named not listed, forget the name sorry.

was in the heat of battle and just slipped my mind. plus i forget stuff very quick.

thinking its like the thurg/tier # dod stuff.

no info on it yet.

was pure caster only item.

(NOTE: These observations are made by a Ranger 69 of Tunare. The conning, factions and such are based on that. I kinda think if you are a SK or such, you might have a bit more problem with the glade animals, etc.. Always check first...heh heh.)

Place sure beats the heck out of Vxed and Tipt for soloing. At 69, fighting the lizards and snakes were decent XP, the db versions are about the third step up middle zone. Db versions gave me a tick of blue like the craggies in Tipt, but here I dont have to rezone and drop the expedition all the time to get a good set up...grin! Was really pleasantly surprised, my very first kill in TSS, a crowned mamba, yielded crushed diamond dust...woot! (Heads up, this mamba has one heckuva poisonous bite, I lost 20% of my hp - 1200 points there and abouts - before the poison wore off, was soloing so I didnt have time to cast enough cure poisons to see how many it takes...ouch!)

No info on the goblins/gnolls (not sure which they are) in SW corner of the zone, will check them later.

As a ranger of Tunare, the wolves in zone actually con amiable to me, all animals con at least indifferent, even the glade guardians on the west side where the ranger spell merchant is.

Lizards and snakes are not social. Unsure about the spiders in SE corner of zone, want to try it out but there was someone parked near the zoneline and didn't want to chance overrunning her with like a gazillion spiders in case they are...will try later.

The cats near the HGs in NW corner are social as reported by someone in zone.

Even though the centurions (glade guardians), treants, bears, cats, and HGs intermingle along the W to NW portion of zone, you can pull a single HG and none of the others really care, probably glad you got him out of their neighborhood.

I pulled a HG and snare/rooted to fill him full of arrows, did this because I tested him hitting me...oh man that hurt, kinda felt like I did way back when in I was hiding out in the tower in NK when I was level 20. These suckers hit so-so hard (top I saw before I got away was 840) but are very fast, but are soloable by rangers with snare/root and the ol reliable Druzzil Nuclear Bow and Arrow set, though it does take a bit of time. At level 69 got two ticks of blue for one HG (alot better than the craggies in tipt, and I had a whole lot more room to run). Was able to run around and keep him on the go without worrying about the bears, centurions, wolves, and other assorted glade creatures in the area. One thing these HGs dont have that their cousins back in Rathe do is money...heh heh. If you are looking for quick cash, these arent the folks to give it to you.

BTW, watch this area. There is a ridge that comes out from the west wall that cuts the north south in half. You'll know it because this is where you see your first HG. Just north of the ridge is alot of HGs together, with the burly guy there as well. Be careful, there is a named HG on top of the ridge, conned yellow to a 69. Nope, didnt go up to ask him what he as doing. Funny thing, I say conned yellow only because thats the color that came up. When I tried the actual right click, it only gave me his name, nothing else.

On this note, got some good news about conning to see if something sees through invis. They changed the message a bit, the cats DO see through invis, and you will get a con message if you are camoed that says you believe this creature can see invisible things. Nice touch.

One thing I noted was alot of the drops are normal ones, but then you get the pearlescent or whatever adjective thrown in, went to a merchant to check the price, average 34plat + for these drops. Not bad, but wont sell them. Carapaces, furs, and the like might end up tradeskill and want to keep my stockpile...lol.

And fletchers/bow folks take heart, I do believe there are new bow recipes out there, foraged two different types of treant branches. As we all know, the treant branches foraged for PoR gave us the Druzzil Anti-Everything Long Range Artillery Bow.

Hope this helps, please add or correct as you will...so far I am enjoying the heck out of this one, I can actually SOLO here! WOW!!!


Edited, Sep 21st 2006 at 3:40pm EDT by Tarmuar

Watch out for a burly hill giant. He hit for about 1k, but did so a good 8 or 9 times in one round on myself and a few other group members. Yikes! He was near the Brightfire zone too.