City of Mist
First, the usual warnings. This guide and these maps are not 100% correct. Sometimes Verant changes things, and some things we just missed. As we find corrections, we will update this guide.
Second, about the safe spots, they do not guarantee safety. A safe spot is simply a place that we have never seen a mob path or spawn. If you are playing in a group that needs downtime, a raid that needs a break, or using bind wounds instead of a cleric, you can sit in these places and be about 99.9% sure that, as long as you are not dragging agro, you won’t get jumped.
Third, the zone is a mix of live and undead mobs, so neither invisibility nor invisibility to undead will work all the time. Sneak and hide works very well, and while to my knowledge nothing directly sees through all invis, I have second and third hand reports of 2 rogues of different levels standing together and conning the same goo, one was indifferent and the other ready to attack, so there may be a level issue or ability thing going on here. You have been warned.
Fourth, this zone has random drops. There is a table of items that can drop from any non-named mob in the zone. You can tell when a non-named has significant loot because it will run. Nothing else runs. Because of the randomness of drops, loot everything.
Fifth, like most zones, the respawn time on normal mobs is about 26 minutes (from what we have seen), however black reavers are 2 hours. Keep in mind respawns when you set up camp in certain places in this zone.
Preparations
The only thing required for raiding the whole of this zone is a single rogue with a 200 or better skill in Picking Locks. A rogue can obtain this skill level as early as level 40 (Level * 5 = Skill Cap). Most people will tell you that raiding deep in this zone can only be done with groups entirely populated with people level 45 and up, but in our opinion, level 35 is fine to be a part of any raid in the City of Mist, as long as the majority of the raid remains above 45 or so.
There are 3 locked doors in this zone, and one key operated lift that can be picked. The 3 doors are: the door into the Main Temple, the door into the 2nd house of the Sky Level, and the door into the 3rd house of the Sky Level. The lift is in the hall directly behind the throne on the other side of the door into the Main Temple.
If you are going to be fighting black reavers, they proc blindness. Clerics get Cure Blindness at level 4, Shaman get it at level 9. They should have this spell with them for reaver fights. All melees should make a hotkey that says in group or OOC that they are blind so that they can mash this and be cured (easier than typing blind). Melees shouldn’t move while blind.
Grouping
For getting experience or random drops, you can pretty much make up any group that you like. Lower level groups will require a cleric, but as your group raises in level, any healing will do. We know for a fact that a monk and rogue can duo in the zone quite well as long as they bring lots of bandages (or an item that summons them).
As for larger raids, the usual raid dynamics apply. You will need a main tank, warrior is best but paladin and shadowknight can do as long as they know what they are doing. Your tank will need a cleric, maybe two for some of the harder stuff. Your pull team needs a feigner and your rogue. Beyond that, set up your raid any way you like. As long as agro stays on the main tank, all will be well.
The Raid
Plan 1 – Getting random loot and experience.
Form your group, then fight your way to one of the safe points marked on the map above and stay there.
Plan 2 – The Spectral Courier for Shaman, Monks and Iksar Shadowknights.
There is a named spawn in the area of the stables called the Spectral Courier. Shaman need an item from him for their Epic. Iksar Shadowknights and Monks need to gather scrolls from him for creating the Stupendous Tome used in other quests. He can spawn in four locations, 2 in the stables themselves and 2 in the area just across from the stables.
Fighting in the stables is not truely safe. If you are sufficient level, you can sit huddled in the middle of the open area and not agro anything, but with 4 spawns in the front and 3 in the back, its more likely that a normal group will agro some of these when they spawn. Begin pulling this area to the bridge and get it broken. Once the spawns are spread out, move into the stables and plant your butt into the grooves worn into the ground by those that came before you. Some get lucky and can get what they need and out again in an hour or two. Some, however, spend multiple sessions there for several hours never getting the items they are after.
Plan 3 – Reavers and Ghiosk.
Using leap frogging from safe spot to safe spot, or simply charging in, get your raid to the area near the locked door. There are two methods to fighting spawns behind the locked door. The first is more dangerous, the second results in one very bored and likely suicidal rogue.
If you have a rogue that doesn’t mind, send him up sneaking and hiding to the locked door. He is going to sit here openning the door as needed. Set up your camp to either the left or right side of the water, leaving plenty of room for the main tank to position mobs before fighting. The puller will go up, the rogue lets him in, and he pulls mobs out to camp. There are 6 or 8 normal spawns in this room with the last mob to pull from this room is the black reaver.
When a reaver dies, it has a chance to spawn another black reaver immediately, right there. Many times you will only get a single black reaver, or a double, but there are horror stories of having a 7 string of reavers. So be ready for anything.
When the throne spawn reaver dies (finally), Lord Ghiosk will spawn. He spawns agro, so just kill him too. He has a few pieces of good loot, including books needed for the Shaman Epic.
At this point, you can either stay outside and keep the rogue bored as hell, or you can move into the throne room, or even move into one of the back hall corner rooms. If you only have one pick capable rogue, you will have to move inside unless you only want to kill one reaver every 2 hours.
If you have 2 rogues, or move inside, you can now use a rogue to pick the elevator enabling your puller to get into the secret chamber where 2 more reavers are (there can be 4 reavers, but only if someone has recently killed Neh`Ashiir in the Sky Level). A puller level 51 or higher should have no problem splitting the reavers if he knows his stuff (be wary of monks with less than 2 weeks /played but over level 50, feign is likely not maxxed or even close). The first reaver (or first three reavers) are normal, they might have phantom, spectre or wraith afterspawns, but those are easy, just kill them.
On the final black reaver, warn everyone in your raid that at its final death Lord Rak`Ashiir will spawn and he is not to be attacked. He spawns no agro, and so is not a danger, however, if attacked he will use an approximate 1200 point AE damage spell, likely killing most, if not all, of your raid. Pull and kill this reaver, and when Rak`Ashiir spawns, leave him be. Move your camp to another location and pull for experience until the reavers begin to respawn (two hours). Then kill the reavers again. Rak`Ashiir can only exist once in the zone, so if he is still up in your old camp when you pull his reaver, he will not spawn again. There will be another section dedicated to killing Rak`Ashiir.
Plan 4 – The Sky Level.
Since it usually takes 2 hours to get a raid up into sky and kill what is up there, execute plan 3 through the first cycle of reavers. This works extremely well if you use the hall room on the way to sky level as your last camp (if you leave Rak here and come back for him later, this is a good spot to kill him).
After you finish the reavers, move up the hall and stop a good distance from the door at the end. Do NOT open this door. You want to step through the wall to the right on to the invisible walkway (its not really invisible, it looks like glass or ice, and its not slippery). Have all your melee in the front, and casters in the back, have everyone stay to the sides of the hall at all times. Have your tank pull everything inbetween your two lines of melees on the wall. Don’t even attempt to use line of sight spells, and kill as quick as you can. Levitate your puller and send him up to the first building. Have him get a few or all of them. Have enchanters mez his pulls if you have enchanters, and kill kill kill.
When the puller announces the first building empty (really you only need the first room inside empty), have everyone move up fast. Gather in the first room, then bum rush the exit and get onto the large walkway. It is easier to fight on the walkway than in the first building.
The door to building 2 is locked. Use a rogue and pull out to the walkway. this should be relatively fast. Move the camp into this building and let the door close behind you. The Wraith of Jaxion spawns in here rarely. He is for the Enchanter Epic. If he pops, let them do what they need to do if they are ready do to it.
The door out of building 2 is okay, but the door to building 3 is locked. Levitate and SoW the rogue and send him off to open the door. Levitate and SoW the puller and send him off to get the black reaver. Bring the reaver back to building 2 and fight in there. On the final death of the reaver, Neh`Ashiir will spawn. Neh`Ashiir is no agro and is for the Shaman Epic. Neh`Ashiir also has a chance to drop a torch for the Magician Epic. If Neh`Ashiir spawns holding the torch, and you have a mage that needs it, apologize to the shaman, explain to the entire raid that you will be extending the raid by at least 2 hours and kill Neh`Ashiir. When the shaman hands in their piece, Neh`Ashiir despawns and respawns agro, when this happens, there is a better than average chance that the torch will no longer be there. The Shaman will always get his piece when doing the turn in, however the Mage piece is from a table with a half dozen items, so when you see it, you should go after it. Killing Neh`Ashiir spawns 2 black reavers in the secret room above the lift down below.
Once you are done here, give everyone levitate and jump off the walkway and float back down to the first locked door. You are now in an easy position to start the cycle over, or to head in and kill Rak`Ashiir if you have a Shaman who is ready for this. Even if you don’t have a shaman, if you have the other needed forces, you can kill Rak`Ashiir for fun and phat lewt!
Plan 5 – Rak`Ashiir.
The fight with Rak`Ashiir is simultaneously one of the most boring and most fun fights in the game. Simply bring mages and clerics. Rak`Ashiir will repeatedly AE a 1200 point damage spell, wiping out raids in a single cast. However, with enough levels and fire resists you MIGHT survive to actually fight him. Fire pets summoned by mages and backed up by cleric healing WILL survive. Get a few pets up, buff them with all the hit points you can give, then park them next to Rak. When the shaman turns in his piece, Rak will agro and AE, the pets will attack automatically. Make sure your mages and clerics are NOT in AE range. Mages keep their pets targetted and call when desparate heals are needed. Clerics target the mages, assist to pets, assist to Rak`Ashiir and then assist to get his target. As long as the clerics communicate healing and continuously assist pets and Rak, you should never lose a pet. Boring unless you are a mage or cleric.
Now, its exciting when you get accidental adds, Rak agros the raid, Rak falls off into the water, or any other number of things that can cause havok in a simple fight. Just keep on your toes, and be ready for anything.
The Loot
One of the beautiful and sometimes annoying designs of this zone is the random loot. Many items have the ability to drop from ANY of the normal spawns of the zone, and will not drop from Named spawns. Beyond the randoms, however, there are many pieces of loot that drop in the same place every time. Here is a list of what we have found that drops in the zone:
| Item | Class | Slot | Dropped by |
| Atramentous Shield | SHD | Armor: Secondary | Lord Rak’Ashiir, 54-57 |
| Axe of Lost Souls | WAR, PAL, RNG, SHD | Weapon: Primary | Black Reaver, 50-53 |
| Crier’s Scroll | ALL, SHM* | Misc: Inventory | Random Mobs, 0 |
| Crusaders of the High Scale | ALL, SHM* | Misc: Inventory | Lord Ghiosk, 50-53 |
| Fine Steel Ulak | WAR, PAL, RNG, SHD, BRD, ROG | Weapon: Primary, Secondary | The Captain of the Guard, 35 |
| Firerune Brand | WAR, PAL, RNG, SHD | Weapon: Primary | Random Mobs, 0 |
| Gleaming Serrated Blade | WAR, SHD – IKS | Weapon: Primary | Black Reaver, 50-53 |
| Green Jade Broadsword | WAR, PAL, RNG | Weapon: | Black Reaver, 50-53 |
| Head Housekeeper’s Log | ALL, SHM* | Misc: Inventory | Lord Ghiosk, 50-53 |
| Historic Article | ALL, SHM* | Misc: Inventory | Lord Ghiosk, 50-53 |
| Jade Reaver | WAR, PAL, RNG*, SHD, DRU* | Weapon: Primary | Black Reaver, 50-53 |
| Key of Torsis | ALL | Misc: Inventory | Neh’Ashiir, 53-55 |
| Kunzar Ku’juch | WAR | Weapon: Primary, Secondary | Random Mobs, 0 |
| Lost Staff of the Scorned | WIZ | Weapon: Primary | Random Mobs, 0 |
| Mace of the Shadowed Soul | SHD | Weapon: Primary | Lord Ghiosk, 50-53 |
| Master Wu’s Trance Stick | MNK | Weapon: | Random Mobs, 0 |
| Merchant’s Letter | ALL, SHM* | Misc: Inventory | Random Mobs, 0 |
| Obsidian Ring of Quintessence | ALL | Armor: Finger | Random Mobs, 0 |
| Ornate Rune Blade | WAR, PAL, RNG, SHD | Weapon: Primary | Lord Rak’Ashiir, 54-57 |
| Ornate Rune Shield | NEC, WIZ, MAG, ENC | Armor: Secondary | Neh’Ashiir, 53-55 |
| Personal Diary Page | ALL, SHM* | Misc: Inventory | Random Mobs, 0 |
| Priest’s Diary Page | ALL, SHM* | Misc: Inventory | Random Mobs, 0 |
| Ruined Scaled Bracer | Medium/Large Chain classes/races | Armor: Wrist | Random Mobs, 0 |
| Ruined Scaled Cape | Medium/Large Chain classes/races | Armor: Back | Random Mobs, 0 |
| Ruined Scaled Coat | Medium/Large Chain classes/races | Armor: Chest | Random Mobs, 0 |
| Ruined Scaled Coif | Medium/Large Chain classes/races | Armor: Head | Random Mobs, 0 |
| Ruined Scaled Gloves | Medium/Large Chain classes/races | Armor: Hands | Random Mobs, 0 |
| Ruined Scaled Mantle | Medium/Large Chain classes/races | Armor: Shoulders | Random Mobs, 0 |
| Ruined Scaled Neckguard | Medium/Large Chain classes/races | Armor: Neck | Random Mobs, 0 |
| Ruined Scaled Pants | Medium/Large Chain classes/races | Armor: Legs | Random Mobs, 0 |
| Ruined Scaled Skirt | Medium/Large Chain classes/races | Armor: Waist | Random Mobs, 0 |
| Ruined Scaled Sleeves | Medium/Large Chain classes/races | Armor: Arms | Random Mobs, 0 |
| Ruined Scaled Visor | Medium/Large Chain classes/races | Armor: Face | Random Mobs, 0 |
| Runewood Great Staff | WAR, CLR, SHD, DRU, MNK, SHM, NEC, WIZ, MAG, ENC | Weapon: Primary | Random Mobs, 0 |
| Sainy’s Claw | BRD | Weapon: | Random Mobs, 0 |
| Shimmering Partisan | WAR | Weapon: Primary, Secondary | Black Reaver, 50-53 |
| Spectral Blade of Mist | WAR, BRD, ROG | Weapon: Primary | A Mist Reaver, 53 |
| Springwood Club | WAR, CLR, RNG, DRU, MNK, BRD, ROG, SHM | Weapon: Primary, Secondary | Random Mobs, 0 |
| Strange Ochre Clay | ALL | Misc: Inventory | An Army Behemoth, 42 |
| Throneblade of the Ykesha | WAR, PAL, RNG, SHD | Weapon: Primary | Lord Ghiosk, 50-53 |
| Torch of the Elements | NONE, MAG* | Misc: Inventory | Neh’Ashiir, 53-55 |
| Trooper Shield | WAR, CLR, PAL, RNG, SHD, BRD, ROG, SHM | Armor: Secondary | Captain of the Guard, 0 |
| Viik’s Dark Defender | WAR | Weapon: Primary, Secondary | Random Mobs, 0 |
| Wintry Club | WAR, RNG, MNK, ROG | Weapon: Primary, Secondary | Random Mobs, 0 |
| Woodsman’s Staff | RNG | Weapon: Primary | Neh’Ashiir, 53-55 |
| Wraith Bone Hammer | WAR, CLR, PAL, RNG, SHD, DRU, MNK, BRD, ROG, SHM | Weapon: | Random Mobs, 0 |
| Wu’s Quivering Staff | MNK | Weapon: Primary | Random Mobs, 0 |
Items in Italics are used for Epic Quests by the class with the * by it.
If you want more information on the stats and whatnot of the loot, look at sites like EQMaps or Allakhazam’s.
As stated above, most of the loot of this zone is completely random. Don’t expect to get alot of it unless you are hitting the major spawns, and each one of them will drop ONE item from their loot table.
Final Thoughts
The City of Mist is not a horribly complicated zone, but with that said, don’t get over-confident, a simple zone can kill you just as quick as a hard one. If you keep in mind all the tips and hints on this guide, you’ll do great. So get your friends, bring a rogue, and kick some ass.
Ishiro Takagi
Monk of E’Ci
Lochie Mischief
Rogue of E’Ci
*NOTE* – All info concerning the Human Skeleton for the Wizard spell quest is currently not on this guide. That’s because as of yet we have never seen the Human Skeleton with our own eyes. It will be added the moment we do.