The items worth camping for, the drops that carry a trio well past their level, and the focus and click effects that follow you all the way to 50. A working target list, not a full loot dump.
Two ideas run through this whole list. First, the revamped starter zones drop gear well above their level range, and drops arrive already tiered up when you farm at higher difficulty, so a piece looted at D3 or D4 starts at +3 or +4 instead of base. That is the difference between gear that carries you to 25 and gear that carries you to 50. Second, farm the effect, not the item: a proc, focus, or click can be pulled off a cheap donor and moved onto better gear later, so some unremarkable drops are worth camping purely for what you can extract. See the exaltations guide for how that transfer works.
Blackburrow, Crushbone, Befallen, Najena, and Splitpaw were all revamped and run in roughly that order by level. Every one is a launch-week target, and the low ones in particular drop above their weight.
The headline is the Hardened Bark Breastplate off the Saber-tooth Overseer out on the island, a 19 AC chest with endurance and saves that most classes can wear, and he respawns fast enough to camp. The Splitpaw Commander drops the Nullhide Lariat, a stun-proc whip whose proc extracts at +4, worth pulling even if you never swing it. Note that several items long miscredited to Najena actually live here: the Keg Mallet, Sharp Claws, and the Refugee Shroud shrink click.
The one to chase is the Slave Trammel, and it is boots. Base they are 20 AC for all classes with a small AGI and DEX penalty that reads like a trap, but push them to +2 and the penalties fall off and they land at 24 AC, matching a Planes chase set forty levels later. Leveled to cap they run 28 to 30 AC, and they drop off ordinary orc slavers, so farm three pairs: wear one and stash two in your any-slots. That is a pile of armor class at a level where nobody else has any. Crushbone also runs the Screaming Mace chain, which hands a monk a proccing weapon at level 10 and the proc moves on with you after you outgrow the mace.
The deepest of the low zones and one of the best. The Pristine Studded set off the named carries a trio to 25, and farmed at D3 or D4 it starts plussed, which is why people have killed Nagafen in leveled Befallen gear. The standout donor is the Golem Metal Wand off Kobrasatajj: its Pillage Enchantment click strips damage shields and buffs off a mob for free, and higher difficulty throws shielded mobs at you constantly, so level it to +4 and pull the effect onto something you wear. The Shimmering Ruby Stiletto off Korven in the basement is the best early backstab weapon in the game, and its Ignite proc extracts later. Get your Befallen set to +4 before you leave for Lower Guk.
The talked-about drop is the Kitchen Toolbelt, a 10% haste belt off The Tenderizer at a level where haste items should not exist. Najena also drops the pet focus every pet build wants, the Flaming Fist monk weapon, and a run-speed boot off Drelzna. One quirk: locked doors here make you hold the key on your cursor.
A five-band maze entered from South Karana, with raised rare and drop rates throughout. The entry band holds a shield carrying Mana Preservation II, the one item in the zone nobody argues about and a strong early focus in a shield slot. Deeper in, The Brute drops the TornEar Thumper, the best two-hand blunt anyone has found before planar gear and a favorite exaltation donor. The sleeper is a secondary-only one-hand slasher in the fast band with a better ratio than most early quest weapons, worth a detour for any dual-wield build. Opinion on the zone is split: solo players report dense pulls and named up most laps, groups report bad trains. Go in solo or bring a puller who can chain.
These are worth a detour while you level your first trio, because the effect outlives the item. Each has to be leveled before you can pull the focus or click out, and the exact bar is disputed, so budget +4.
Ghoulbane off the froglok shin lord in Upper Guk is the classic chase, and the placeholder grind is as brutal as ever, but there is a quest route now that runs through Najena, Unrest, and Mistmoore if the camp burns you out. The Ebon Scythe off Asszrkalar near the Befallen entrance is early best-in-slot for warriors, berserkers, and shadow knights. The level-30 answer is the Sporali Defender's Blade out of Runny Eye, widely called the best weapon you will hold until raid gear.
The paired Lower Guk camp drops the Flowing Black Silk Sash and the Short Sword of Ykesha, and the FBSS is still the haste item of record. The best early backstab weapon is the Shimmering Ruby Stiletto off Korven in Befallen's basement, with double the backstab mod of anything else reported and an Ignite proc that extracts onto better gear later. It is no trade, but it drops early enough that players have pulled it at level 13 solo. The endgame rogue answer is the Efreeti War Spear from the Plane of Sky, unlocked across three Efreeti in sequence.
Early on, raw hide drops freely in Blackburrow and the Pristine Studded set off Befallen's named is the reliable step up, with the Hardened Bark Breastplate beating both for the chest slot. Through the twenties, Najena and Befallen plate and leather beat anything in the bracket, and Highkeep basement adds bronze and ring mail. Rubicite is back in Cazic-Thule, but temper expectations: the drops are thin, and Befallen's Pristine Studded beats rubicite for most slots. The rubicite piece worth chasing is the breastplate, because its regen effect works from any slot once extracted. From 40 up, the Indicolite set out of the Planes is the melee chase set.
Higher difficulty does not change the loot table, it raises the plus-tier and merge value of what drops. Each tier doubles the merge points: D0 counts 1, D1 counts 2, D2 counts 4, D3 counts 8, and D4 counts 16. A single D4 drop is worth sixteen D0 drops when you are pushing an item toward +10.
That is why the rule is D0 or D1 for leveling and D4 for farming, and why maxing one gear set to +10 is realistic on a casual schedule if you farm at the top tier. More on spending in the motes guide.
Score your three classes in the Forge, save the build, and see what other players are running in the build database. The route that pairs with this list is in the 1 to 50 leveling guide.
One email when Kunark launches, new zone and item guides go live, and major patches land. No spam, and you can unsubscribe anytime.