Setup
Getting Started
The Dark Exile is designed for players who like to play a full group using MQ2 and optionally E3.
Download a RoF2 client. Google for it if you don't have one.
Your eqhost.txt should read as below.
[LoginServer]
Host=login.eqemulator.net:5999
#Host=login.projecteq.net:5999
You need at least one EQEmu account. To do so, you first need to register to the forum and then create your account(s).
Download the server files.
Read the server rules.
Read the FAQs.
Optionally download and install MacroQuest 2 and e3. (e3 download)
Create your character(s) - see "Select your Team" - log in and visit the server-greeter in-game.
Select your Team!
Whilst solo playing or two-boxing is perfectly possible, you will need a group of 6 or 8 to get past later targets on your own. Quarm has been beaten by 6 with progression gear. Unless you are the kind of person who seeks almost impassable challenges, you will need 8 for Gates of Discord.
Many new player start out with 6 and then add another 2 characters later on, once they got the hang of it. Catching up two additional characters is fairly quick, since progression mobs have a respawn time of just 90 minutes and are up most of the time. Also, high-level buffs and heal over time spells stick on any level. This allows leveling 2 new characters from 1 to 40+ in half an hour. Once 40 they can group with level 60, and at 44 they can group with 65.
Alternatively, if you are confortable with e3, you may as well start with 8 from the start.
The information below is intended for people who play a group of 6-8.
Tank
You will be perfectly able to get into Velious without a tank. But once toe to toe with King Tormax or the dragons in Temple of Veeshan you will be stuffed without a tank.
​Warriors are currently hands down the strongest option amongst tanks, both for offense and defense.
Paladins and Shadowknights do fine, but you will require more time, gear and AA to progress.
Healer
Whilst you don't need resurrection, since you don't lose experience upon death, you will need two healers for raid targets in Velious and beyond.​
Cleric is the strongest healer, divine intervention is a life saver and costs no ingredients.
Shaman is weakest at pure healing power amongst the three priest classes. However, the shaman custom book, makes them super desired. Has best slow and is hard to run out of mana.
Druids can be used as healers and as dps. Their percentage heal is very strong and causes no agro issues, debuffs make them specially valuable for other casters in the group. Their teleports aren't really an asset, since you get to port to many places directly from PoK. Druids are a good choice as a third healer. During progression, you may get stuck at some hard hitting targets where a druid can make the difference.
Melee
The Dark Exile is not like Lazarus' melee and caster cookie cutter groups. Instead, wild combinations are quite possible. Below is a snapshot. Future patches or expansions may lead to changes. Currently, melee based groups have the edge when it comes to dps.
Bard: Clearly the strongest support class. Weak self-dps, but overhaste and other songs make easily up for it. Selo's Accelerating Chorus affects characters outside the group.
Beastlord: Combined with their pets, puts out a high dps, specially at later stages in the game. Offers ninja slows, heals and ferocity.
Berzerker: Medium dps, as currently two-handed weapons are inferior to dual wielding, specially in combination with the shaman book. Their aura and warcry AA still make them a decent group member for burns. Draws quite high agro.
Monks: High dps, strong burn power.
Ranger: Medium dps, uses melee and nukes to be competitive, comes with ninja heals and a set of useful buffs.
Rogue: With GoD gear best damage dealer, both long-term and for burns.
Caster
Casters and hybrids get a -50 resist adjustments to their casts. Additional debuffs like Malo and Hands of Ro are still very beneficial for them.
Enchanter: Struggles bringing enough to the table, specially with Grim's class buff clickies. Is not required to beat ZMTZ.
Mage: Medium dps. CoH rarely required thanks to in-zone conduits.
Necromancer: Medium dps at best due to dots being resisted more often than nukes.
Wizard: High dps, specially towards end-game with large mana pools.
Recommendation
Play the characters you enjoy most. It is difficult to select a group that doesn't work at all. Maybe stay away from enchanter.
Stizok's recommendations: select a core of warrior, cleric, shaman and bard. Then add two or four dps of your choice.
warrior, cleric, shaman, bard, monk/rogue, monk/rogue/beastloard/ranger (6 box)
warrior, cleric, shaman, bard, monk, rogue, rogue/monk, beastloard/ranger/berzerker (8 box)
If you enjoy a caster group, I highly recommend multiple wizards. This allows for taking down armies of weak opponents and out-damages pure melee based groups for such situations by far.
warrior, cleric, shaman, bard, druid/monk/beastlord/rogue, wizard, wizard, wizard (8 box)
warrior, cleric, shaman, bard, druid, wizard, wizard/mage/monk, wizard/beastlord (8 box)
Kobex' choice:
warrior, warrior, cleric, shaman, bard, monk, rogue, rogue/druid (8 box)
Go to DPS Parse.
Configs
Fine tune your settings to get the best out of your group and make your life easier.
MQ2AutoLogin
Edit your MQ2AutoLogin.ini. Replace the marked text with your own account credentials. Optionally Add your character's name to automatically log them in.
[Settings]
UseStationNamesInsteadOfSessions=1
KickActiveCharacter=1
KickActiveTrader=1
InstantCamp=0
Debug=0
UseAuth=0
UseMQ2Login=0
[Servers]
tde=[] The Dark Exile
[YourAccountName1]
Password=YourPassword1
Server=tde
Character=
[YourAccountName2]
Password=YourPassword2
Server=tde
Character=
Your batch file(s) to launch the EQ client, look as shown below. You can add your whole crew to one file, or just make a batch file per account, if you want to select them individually.
D:
cd D:\RoF2
start eqgame.exe patchme /login:YourAccountName1
start eqgame.exe patchme /login:YourAccountName2
To start your accounts with MQ2AutoLogin:
Start MacroQuest2.exe, which resides in the same folder as MQ2AutoLogin.ini.
Start your batch file(s).
MQ2Melee
Stickmode
There are different play styles. If you mainly play on your tank, and you prefer to position yourself manually, you may want to disable the stickmode from MQ2Melee. You can do so on the command line.
/melee stickmode off
Or you can set it ini file. This is not the same ini file as for E3, instead you find it in the root directory, and it's named something like "The Dark Exile_YourName.ini". You can either edit it manually there under [MQ2Melee], or save your current configuration. You can see your current configuration in-game using:
/melee
And you and save it to the ini file like this:
/melee save
Abilities
For some classes configuring MQ2Melee is rather important. It works independently from E3. For berzerkers for example, it is crucial to disable both kick and slam, since they share a timer with frenzy, and frenzy does considerably more damage than the other two. Thus, your berzeker config should look something as shown below. If you are using E3, then you can setup your melee abilites there as well.
[MQ2Melee]
cripple=20
disarm=1
enrage=1
facing=1
frenzy=1
infuriate=1
kick=0
melee=1
plugin=1
provoke1=4933
provokeend=20
provokemax=1
provokeonce=1
ragevolley=20
rallos=0
resume=75
slam=0
stickrange=75
stun1=4933
version=8.100
e3 Configs
First, you should look into the e3 guide.
I highly recommend to have a dedicated e3 folder for The Dark Exile and not share it with other EQEmu servers.
You can do so by simply making a copy of an existing e3 folder (about 95MB) and then launch the MQ2 in that folder, e.g. "D:\E3_RoF2 TDE\MacroQuest2.exe".
e3 Bot inis
Charm of Exile
Below is a recommendation how to add The Dark Exile Charm damage shield clicky to your configuration found in "E3 bot inis\". The charm is available to you at level 1.
[Buffs]
Instant Buff=Charm of Exile (Classic)
Bard songs
Set a melody and then define this melody. Below is an example. It looks a bit clumsy, because the same highlighted block is there twice. That is because Selos' Acceslerating Chorus on TDE lasts several minutes and you don't want to repeat too often. Idealy you would even repeat the blocks serveral times.
[Bard]
Auto-Melody=travel
[travel Melody]
Song=Chorus of Marr/Gem|1
Song=War March of the Mastruq/Gem|2
Song=Song of the Storm/Gem|3
Song=Echo of the Trusik/Gem|4
Song=Psalm of Veeshan/Gem|5
Song=Selo's Accelerating Chorus/Gem|6
Song=Chorus of Marr/Gem|1
Song=War March of the Mastruq/Gem|2
Song=Song of the Storm/Gem|3
Song=Echo of the Trusik/Gem|4
Song=Psalm of Veeshan/Gem|5
Tanks
For a warrior - level 65 with several clickies in this instance - additional configurations could like like this.
[Buffs]
Instant Buff=Girdle of Living Thorns
Self Buff=Pauldron of Dark Auspices
Self Buff=Veil of the Inferno
Self Buff=Prismatic Ring of Resistance
Self Buff=Symbol of the Planemasters
Self Buff=Serrated Dart of Energy
[Assist Settings]
Assist Type (Melee/Ranged/Off)=Melee
Melee Stick Point=Front
Taunt(On/Off)=Off
SmartTaunt(On/Off)=On
Melee Distance=MaxMelee
Ranged Distance=100
[Melee Abilities]
Ability=Bash
Ability=Kick
Ability=Knee Strike
Healers
Below is an e3 configuration for a level 65 cleric with clickies, including a "Essence of the Shaman - Focus". For starters, you obviously need to adjust the names, and add you own characters to the configuration, so they get buffed and healed. This sample assumes there is another healer available, since this healer does only use HoT on the tank, but not on anyone else.
[Buffs]
Instant Buff=Charm of Exile (Omens)
Instant Buff=Book of Standing Meditation (Priest)
Self Buff=Earring of Pain Deliverance
Self Buff=Xxeric's Matted-Fur Mask
Self Buff=Veil of the Inferno
Self Buff=Armor of the Zealot/Gem|1
Self Buff=Bulwark of Vie/Gem|5/MinMana|50
Self Buff=Aura of Reverence/Gem|1/MinMana|50
Bot Buff=Bulwark of Vie/Stizok/Gem|5/MinMana|50
Bot Buff=Bulwark of Vie/Lisa/Gem|5/MinMana|50
Bot Buff=Divine Intervention/Stizok/Gem|2/MinMana|30
Bot Buff=Divine Intervention/Grimlin/Gem|2/MinMana|30
Bot Buff=Hand of Virtue/Stizok/Gem|1/MinMana|50/CheckFor|Blessing of the Nine
Bot Buff=Hand of Virtue/Lisa/Gem|1/MinMana|50/CheckFor|Blessing of the Nine
Bot Buff=Aura of Reverence/Tigerpuppy/Gem|1/MinMana|50
Bot Buff=Aura of Reverence/Lisa/Gem|1/MinMana|50
Bot Buff=Kazad's Mark/Tigerpuppy/Gem|9/MinMana|40/CheckFor|Hand of Virtue
Bot Buff=Essence of the Shaman - Focus/Stizok
Bot Buff=Essence of the Shaman - Focus/Grimlin
Combat Buff=Divine Intervention/Stizok/Gem|1/MinMana|30
Combat Buff=Divine Intervention/Grimlin/Gem|1/MinMana|30
Group Buff=Hand of Virtue/Gem|1/MinMana|50
Group Buff=Aura of Reverence/Gem|1/MinMana|50
Cast Aura Combat (On/Off)=Off
Pet Buff=
[Cures]
Cure=
CureAll=Pure Blood/Gem|4/CheckFor|Rabies
CureAll=Pure Blood/Gem|4/CheckFor|Insidious Decay
CureAll=Pure Blood/Gem|4/CheckFor|Wind of Tashani
CureAll=Pure Blood/Gem|4/CheckFor|Cloud of Deadly Decay
CureAll=Pure Blood/Gem|4/CheckFor|Poisoned Flames
CureAll=Pure Blood/Gem|4/CheckFor|Heartstopper
CureAll=Pure Blood/Gem|4/CheckFor|Malicious Decay
AutoRadiant (On/Off)=On
RadiantCure=Rabies/MinSick|1
RadiantCure=Fulmination/MinSick|1/Zone|txevu
[Life Support]
Life Support=
[Heals]
Tank=Stizok
Tank=Grimlin
Tank=Bunsta
Important Bot=Spankee
Important Bot=Pinq
Important Bot=Ortesa
Important Bot=Lisa
Pet Owner=
Tank Heal=Holy Light/HealPct|69/Gem|8
;Tank Heal=Complete Heal/HealPct|91/Gem|6
Important Heal=Holy Light/HealPct|45/Gem|8
Important Heal=Weighted Hammer of Conviction/HealPct|39
All Heal=
;Pet Heal=Holy Light/HealPct|49/Gem|8
Heal Over Time Spell=Holy Elixir/HealPct|80/Gem|7
;Group Heal=Ethereal Elixir/HealPct|59/Gem|9
Group Heal=
Who to Heal=Tanks/ImportantBots
Who to HoT=Tanks
Join Heal Chains (On/Off)=Off
XTarget Heal=
[Assist Settings]
Assist Type (Melee/Ranged/Off)=Off
Melee Stick Point=Behind
Melee Distance=MaxMelee
Ranged Distance=100
Auto-Assist Engage Percent=98
[Melee Abilities]
Ability=Bash
[Nukes]
;Main=Ancient: Chaos Censure/Gem|9/MinMana|35
[TargetAE]
TargetAE=
[PBAE]
PBAE=
[DoTs on Command]
Main=
[Debuffs]
Debuff on Assist=
;Debuff on Command=Mark of Kings/Gem|3
[Burn]
Quick Burn=
Long Burn=
Full Burn=
[Cleric]
Divine Arbitration (Pct)=35
Celestial Regeneration (Pct)=0
Auto-Yaulp (On/Off)=Off
Yaulp Spell=Yaulp VI/Gem|1
Auto-Pet Weapons (On/Off)=
Summoned Pet Hammer=
[Misc]
Auto-Loot (On/Off)=Off
AutoFood=Off
Food=
Drink=
End MedBreak in Combat(On/Off)=Off
AutoMedBreak (On/Off)=Off
[Melee Abilities]
Ability=Bash
e3 Shaman Book
In order to use the Shaman book with E3, you first need to adjust your e3 code, or your EQ client with the shamen will crash!
In e3_Castings.inc, in older versions of E3 at around line 70 in newer around line 112, you need to adjust the code, so it looks as below.
/if (!${${ArrayName}[${ArrayIndex},${iCastName}].Equal["The Lord of the Pumas - The Fellowship of the Jaguar"]} && !${${ArrayName}[${ArrayIndex},${iCastName}].Equal["The Lord of the Pumas - The Two Leopards"]} && !${${ArrayName}[${ArrayIndex},${iCastName}].Equal["The Lord of the Pumas - The Return of the Panther"]}) {
|- Check for spells listed in the failureList: reset on zone
/if (${Select[${${ArrayName}[${ArrayIndex},${iCastName}]},${failureList}]}) {
/varset castReturn FAILURELIST
/goto :skipCast
}
}
If you have questions also check out Fippy's comments on discord on, e.g. on Jan 26, 2022.
After that, add the book to your shaman's ini file for one of your melee characters. (Don't target yourself, as the timer is shorter for some buggy reason than on others.) You can add it under Bot Buff= and/or Combat Buff=.
Note: The shaman tends to cast it twice for some reason with these settings.
[Buffs]
Combat Buff=The Lord of the Pumas - The Two Leopards/YourCharacterName
e3 Autoloot
First take a look at "\e3 Macro Inis\Loot Settings.ini". Make sure it's sensibly configured, i.e. it does not auto-destroy blue diamonds. Add the following lines to "Loot Settings.ini":
Coin of Exile - Classic (1000)(ND)=Keep
Coin of Exile - Luclin (1000)(ND)=Keep
Coin of Exile - PoP (1000)(ND)=Keep
Coin of Exile - Kunark (1000)(ND)=Keep
Coin of Exile - Velious (1000)(ND)=Keep
Coin of Exile - GoD (1000)(ND)=Keep
Coin of Exile - OoW (1000)(ND)=Keep
Some items are modified on The Dark Exile server. E.g. most containers are not lore. This needs to be reflected in the configuration, by removing the (L) like this. As already indicated at the start of this section - you should not share this configuration with other EQEmu servers.
Box of Nil Space (C)=Keep
Enable auto-loot on at least one of your characters in their "E3 bot inis\".
[Misc]
Auto-Loot (On/Off)=On
e3 Book of Standing Medition
For 500 Coins of Exile, you can get a books of standing meditation, which allows you to meditate whilst standing. It is similar to being on a horse, just better, because it works in all zones, and you can interrupt your spellcasting, and you don't need to summen a mount.
[Buffs]
Instant Buff=Book of Standing Meditation (Priest)