Vanguard Leveling Guide

Vanguard Leveling Guide by Polkadots

Level 1-50

So, I decided with the free time I have on my hands now, that I would try and provide some sort of detailed guide on where to level when on your own. Allow me to say, first of all, that this guide is a first time sort of thing. It wont be comprehensive and has a lot of amending to be done over time.

Levels 1-10:

Kojan Humans – The first thing you will want to do is complete all of the quests available to you on your starting island. One of these quests will offer to transport you to the main island, but don’t accept until you’ve exhausted all quests on the island. Once on the main land grab all the quests at your current location. Eventually one of these quests will lead to a Master Jin and his line of quests. Make sure to pick up this line and complete every aspect of it you can (some group ones you might not be able to do yourself). Through a little grinding in your down time and finishing this quest line, you should be at least level 10 or 11 and able to handle yourself on your voyage through the next tier.

Make sure to pick up your harvesting quests and skills in tanvu before you leave. At your level you can destroy most of what you get to conserve bag space for money selling items. If you can’t afford jute bags yet, I promise you you aren’t harvesting anything worthwhile either.

Dark Elf –
Thestran Human –
Goblin –
Gnome – Vanguard Gnome PSI Quickstart Guide. Thank misbik for this guide.
Vulmane –
Qalia Humans –

I dont know if all the above can be necromancers or if I missed one, let me know. Would love for some of you other races to give me a quick write up for your starting area to level 10 so I can fill that void. I like it better if its detailed as opposed to “just do your starting quests.”

Levels 11-16: Definitely run Beacon of Al’Hafeez quests from 12-16. This beacon is located south of khal and can easily be found by following the river south while checking your map for the beacons. You can see some of the beacons from the water. Plenty of quests in this area as well as mobs to grind on if you so choose.

Another area in thestra is out near renton keep, in the NE of thestra. You leave renton keep heading north (off road), you’ll see a tall boulder. Run past the rock with it on your right hand side. Once over the hill you’ll see a camp of orc or goblins, i cant remember their name. These are level 15 2 dots all pullable solo, and if you go past the first camp you’ll find a second nearly identical.

Levels 17-20: Once level 17 you can head further south to the other beacons for quests and mobs until about level 19.

I spent this time throughout the islands in the tauthien delta (East of Khal). There are a lot of quests in this area, and also the southern portion of this chunk, from the many bunkers here. This doesn’t apply to dark elves right off, but you can easily grind nearby mobs for the faction. I especially enjoyed the large island in the NE of the delta area. The shores are surrounded by level 18ish 3 dot turtles. They have no social aggro and you can just fear / dot them and let them run away and back to you with no worry. There are also no pats here. Just move in a large circle and you should be fine.

You can also do Misthaven Crossing. This is a cool little zone with plenty of quests that you can run through solo. The completion of quests lines also sends you to a new area that will easily suffice until you are level 20.

Levels 20-22: I found that the cyclops mobs to the W of the upside garrison in the same chunk were great experience. You can pick up a few quests for these guys at the upside garrison and you can kill these cyclops without much worry of adds. You can pull every single one of them solo. Pull them out into the field and just fear kite them about. Keep your head up for repops, but there are only 3 or 4, 1 on each side and 1 or 2 in the middle.

You can also take this time to visit skillren point. The islands up there have a few quests from the garrison you could take care of, plus there are plenty of 22/22 2 dot lizards up there (+ – 1 lvl). You have a ton of open room and the mobs that do come in adds you can easily handle with pet tanking, mez, snare.

Levels 23-25 Shrine of flame ashendreg camps as well as a few item quests from the fairies in the western portion of the zone.

Strand of ancients on the eastern coast of qalia has a great beach with a ton of level 24-26ish turtles. They are not social so it makes kiting a sheer joy. You can go here at 23 and continue to 25/26 with relatively good experience gain.

In the same area are two nice little hubs. Kelendras coven is a great place to go with a group. You should be familar with this area as you came here three levels agoi for your FD spell. You can also travel to the NE and hit skawlra rock. This is a great arae with a ton of quests from the garrison nearby. To get faction with the garrison for you DE and goblins hit ksarvi gulch to the E of khal.

Levels 26-28: I really enjoyed the ruins of trengal keep. I fought along the E and S sides of the castle and simply pulled the mobs starting at one end, moved around the castle, and evac’d out once done so I didnt catch some weird add due to repops. The 4 dot spiders can drop a really nice cloak also. You will want your perception to be maxed here as there are invisible mobs, but it skills up rather swiftly, and once its maxed you really shouldn’t have a worry about adds. Watch the dogs because they are pretty darn fast and come in pairs. Repair merchant is also located near the quest givers to the south of the altar here.

River Valley also seems to be a great hub for questing and grinding from 26-30. You can get quests from the shirdeth mining camp as well as the two camps on each side of the river. The southern camp is a set of tents in about the middle of the chunk, while the northern camp is in the far NE corner.

Levels 29-32: I would suggest you go to river valley if you didn’t before. The quests are insane in number and rewards. Personally, I did zossyr hakrel. I really liked this zone. Plenty of 2 dot 30s and 3 dot 30s to mess with. Fair amount of quests with some niftly rewards. Overall, this might be the zone to hit for a couple levels in this range, because looking back I wish more then anything I had hit up river valley sooner.

You can also take this time to explore the area of southwatch. This is in NW thestra. Plenty of quests and missives here, and you can also take this time to test out a flying mount through one of the quests.

Levels 33-34: I spent this time in the zone to the west of zossyr. Karrus Hakrel is a fun little zone. I basically just ran around the zone killing everything I saw. Be it 2 dots or 3 dots, you can kill it. There are a few named to the top of this zone, in what look like large holes with white mushrooms, just dont jump down there, take the path. You could also spend some time in river valley at these levels. The grind experience might not be great, but if you missed the quests earlier, do them now.

You can also venture into craigwind ridge. This zone is located south of the ahgram chunk in qalia. Once you find the cave with all the quests givers you will wish you had more room in your quest book. There are 40+ quests in this area, and while the item rewards are not fantastic, the experience and coin gain are. This is a tremendous zone hub here and will easily take you from 32-35.

Levels 35-37: Now it gets into zones I really had fun with. Bernaid Hills is a chunk to the NW of southwatch in thestra. Once in the chunk, evac. From the safe spot there is an outpost about 4 min to the east. To get there run toward the treants you can see from the altar and up and over this mountain range. On your right you will eventually come to a path, and if you follow it you will run directly into the outpost. There is also a group of houses to the west of the altar. You can see the houses from the evac point. Around these houses are an absolute TON of undead 2 dot mobs around lvl 36 37ish. This is great grinding. You can pull 1, dot him up, fear him and let your pets take care of him while you move on to the next. Nothing here added when I did it, it was fantastic experience.

You can also take this time to go further North. There is a chunk called the greystone. It is to the E of Old Tranganor. This zone is chalk full of undead. You are also in an area where to the W you can fight in hero’s plain at 37ish, or you can try your hand at old targanor. Good drops but the mobs are tough. If you want a small break or wish to test your skill,s go for it. Only word of caution is some of the casters have hit me for over 2k (@43).

Levels 38-39: Dragons Backbone is located on the far west coast of qalia. As soon as you zone into the chunk from the N you can see your outpost. Nice little place to repair and sell. Once here just follow the coast and the first set of ruins is where I would grind. There are islands off the coast and more ruins further south, but really the first one is the best; its layout is just far more suitable for a necromancer. Here you will find lvl 38ish 3 dot and 38/39 2 dot snakes. Watch the respawn on the mobs as they don’t respawn one by one, but instead they spawn as one group. This is absolutely excellent experience, BUT watch out for adds. Don’t go fearing your fish into other fish. The only issue I have with this area is the fish stun. It can be annoying, but they dont hit hard enough for it to be a danger unless you get overwhelmed.

Seawatch Cove also, and the western part of the river palace chunk (entered from coast). Do the river palace quests first, as they lead to followup quests in seawatch. The arena quests occur in seawatch coast also. You can upgrade 75% of your gear here through quests and most will be good until at least 45.

***One thing to look for while you hunt the minos for the river palace quests are challenges. There are 4 levels (same as your coins). You can easily solo all of them at these levels. Although, be forewarned, the gold challenge is going to take over 10min for you to solo. Perhaps even 20. But you CAN do it.

Levels 40-42: Razad is great, its just great. This is south of khal, just follow the river and its on your east side about 3/4 of the way down the map. Once in the chunk just fight along the river and follow it until you can see sand on your left. Once you can see sand you’ve gone as far as you want to. In the sand near the large cave you come to, is a merchant camp where you can repair and sell. Just grind on the lvl 42ish 2 dots. There are tons of them here. It is great experience and really safe. You are in the wide open, and any adds you get are almost pure melee, so you will welcome adds more often then not.

You can also visit the wardship of the sleeping moon. This chunk is on the SE portion of thestra. You could have come here earlier for 3 dot mobs, but because of the sheer numbers you will need to kill, I prefer to come at this level. The purpose of coming here is for a full wardrobe upgrade from drops / quests if you spend enough time here. I also truly believe the quests for riding griffons (flying mounts) will have something to do with this wardship. You will eventually have a repeatable quest that requires 100 enemy kills for 500 faction (600 if you count kill bonus’). You will easily get one level here and can improve this faction greatly while having a good chance to acquire rare armor.

Levels 43-45: Next, head to New Targanor. Follow the shore around to the south and between the island. You will come to an outcropping between another island about 8 – 10 min down the coast. There will be a large building on a hill surrounded by undead. It is called Fleshrender Pike. This place is a GODSEND. There is a named who spawns at the top and drops a nice LA yellow helm. You can easily stay here until you hit 46. Now the last level will be slow, but you can kill so quickly if you focus you can make a lot of experience, but if you wish to leave when you ding 45, the next area works too.

***On your pulls here it is easiest to mez one while having 2 come at you. Usually I would fear one and snare the other. Dot up the snared one with your pet on him and fear him. By this time the feared add is on the way to you. Rinse and repeat.***

You can also venture off the coast of Qalia. To the NW is a chunk called Stranglewater Shores. The island here is all new. Full of mobs, but most are 3 pulls. Not a ton of casting damage but you gotta watch yourself. Highest mobs are 42/43 3 dots with the occasional 4 dot. Most of the time you can bypass the 4 dots, but not always. Great loot as named get implemented (assumption on loot).

Levels 46-48: Recall and port back to New Targanor. Again head south, but this time that first zone you come to is where you are grinding. All along the coast and up a ways in the hills are all kinds of level 46/47 3 dot mobs. Nothing adds here which is fabulous. Just run in a large looping circle and do your thing. The cool thing about this area is you can either recall or evac and repair and boom youre right back here in minutes.

Levels 48-50: The home stretch and the most fun for sure. Sands of Sorrow is a chunk to the E of razad. Here you will see 5 portals in a large circle (ok it isn’t a circle more of a circle with a weird half X on one side). Anyway, in each of these circles is a lvl 49/50 4 dot named. They all drop great yellow loot. One thing though…none of the gear is for you. The LA is a Sorc’s dream though. GG fire based SDF. Once here, you can either gind on 2 or 3 dots. I chose 2 dots because I had more corpses to necropsy and because the damage shields some of the mobs use kill your minions ASAP. Having more corpses means easy access to minions all day and night. If you want to mess with the named also, have fun. Its a nice break form the grind. Between the bird portal and dog portal (referring to named) there is a camp. Have fun and repair here and sell. If you happen to need to use a mailbox, the outpost of Afrit to the W (another chunk) has a mailbox.

Well there you go. It needs a lot of work so please post what works for you, especially lower levels. Its been a long time, and based on quest experience currently, I would think finding a nice quest hub should get you from 10-15 and 15-20 relatively quick.

You may have also noticed I really like camps near outposts. You are going to have to repair more and more per level as you move up the ladder. Having to travel a long way 5+ times a level might get old. That being said, gimme your ideas of places to grind because I would really like this to be an all out guide for the necromancers to use when they are solo. Quest hubs would be great, as I neglected quests for the most part during my grind.