At the start of FoV I checked out the ministry first, then the merchants in the marketplace. Tiffany had a minor ring upgrade on the first try (+82 HP, +0.12 HP Regen, +7 Critical Chance, 3 charm slots, 3 enchantment slots). I reloaded a few times (a couple to try different dialog options with the other shopper there), but at best she had 2 epic pieces of jewellery (usually not), so the chances of getting something else suited to my character seemed pretty slim. I didn't bother reloading for anyone else, since they also had very little epic class equipment, and there was better unique equipment I would be able to use in the next couple levels (upgraded to the Pride of Rivertown breastplate right away).
Next I checked out the exterior of Lanilor Lane, wanting to get some combat in before starting on too many quests. I did check out the black market, though. Past the great market on my way to the other end of the city, I cleared the Abandoned Catacombs. After talking to the healers in Mardaneus Plaza, though, I went back to the market to check out the healer's house and Phoenix Inn.
The Abandoned Cave brought me up to level 38 near the start (so could equip Rhode's Leggings), and three quarters of the way to the next level by the end (where I found a necklace with +2 Master Herbalist). I had purchased the Longbow of the Leopard earlier, so could equip it as soon as I went up a level, which made a nice improvement in damage.
In Gula's Archaeological Dig I got to level 39 and found a modest upgrade for my earrings (+11 Dexterity, +12 Ranged Damage, +3 Splitting Arrows).
After visiting the Circle of Trust inn, I headed to the Temple of Nimir, which almost got me up to level 40 (a quick stop by the Abandoned Catacombs to kill the first few opponents did so).
The bow Invisible Death was not a huge improvement in ranged damage over the Longbow of the Leopard (min damage went up by 68 but the max dropped by 111; magic damage went up by 23-116, though), but the extra enchantment slot meant my critical chance went from 41 to 57.
Previously I had not tried the Way of the Ranger skill (not usually a big fan of temporary boosts), but with a +5 bonus on Invisible Death, I figured it would at least come in handy for tough fights.
Since I found the key that the bartender Ricky lost, I checked out the top room in the inn, then went through most of the available locations in Lanilor Lane. In Alzbeta's Emporium I bought (and equipped) the Deep Dweller Helmet; that dropped my hit points slightly but boosted my resistances (the +4 Mana Efficiency bonus made a noticeable difference, though an unnecessary one).
After going through the Prancing Seahorse and following Ursula, she dropped a modest upgrade for my belt (an extra 7 HP and .02 HP regen). IIRC the chest there gave a divine charm and one or two pieces of elder equipment. I reloaded to fight Ursula a few times (and the initial section a couple times) and found that the WotR skill was a nice bonus (and made Splitting Arrows more effective at longer ranges).
Returning from that location, the first shop I visited (to sell off loot, maybe in the black market) offered me a slightly better belt (an extra 6 HP compared to the one I just got, and one of the enchantments was a level 10 Magic Damage Aura).
With the elvish language learned I headed to Crow's Nest. Before talking to the tree I put 5 skill points into WotR, and equipped everything I had with a Wisdom bonus (including the Helmet of Arben, that brought the skill up to level 13). Clearing the courtyard and getting into the start of Crow's Nest brought me up to level 41. I didn't even get a chance to get an overview of the layout before running into Tom, and headed back to Lanilor Lane to go through Taurus and
Luxurius' houses.
Since I skipped Madam Eve's place earlier (and was back on Lanilor Lane), I went there next, and checked out the first two rooms. My inventory filled up there, so I headed to the black market to sell off loot (during which I noticed I had 3 skill books in my inventory, so used them after that).
Back to Crow's Nest, I kept to the left this time. In the asylum, defeating Jango brought me up to level 42. I'm not sure why you have the option to let him go (depending on your dialog choices), but I didn't keep playing after trying that path, in case he didn't show up again.
In the House of Secrets I got earrings with a +3 Wisdom bonus (I had some with +2) and a nice epic cuirass (0/8/10 melee/range/magic armour rating, +11 Vitality, and one of enchantment slots had Life Line 10). Equipping the armour increased my hit points by 81 (mana dropped by 63); melee resistance dropped by 8, but I don't get within melee range often, and try not to stay there long when I do (ranged and magic resistance both went up by a negligible amount).
After mostly finishing off the rest of the buildings in the Crow's Nest (level 42.36), I decided to turn in a bunch of outstanding quests. Earlier I wanted to delay turning in too many quests until I was level 40 and could use the Helmet of Arben (+5 Wisdom bonus), then the combat wasn't terribly challenging, so I just wanted to delay leveling until I had explored everywhere. With only a couple main plot areas left (that I could access at that point), it seemed like the time to de-clutter my quest log.
I saved before turning in each quest and (for ones that had more than 1 reward and random gems) reloaded up to 3 or 4 times (usually) to see if I could get malachite gems. Seahorse Salad, A Fraud a Day, A Hunting We Shall Go Once More and The Blighted Beaker each gave me 2 gems.
The first time I defeated Halliwell he dropped the first belt I've seen with a +7% Critical Chance bonus, but it had a +83 Mana bonus, which I don't need (and +0.13 HP Regeneration). After reloading, the second attempt was much more challenging... until I remembered I switched bows
after I saved the first time, so when I reloaded I was back to using Rothman's bow; changing to Invisible Death helped greatly, and he was soon dead again, this time dropping a nice upgrade for my necklace (+3 Splitting Arrows, +12 Dexterity, +12 Ranged Damage). My existing necklace has the same skill bonus, but only +10 Dexterity and Ranged Damage, though has 3 enchantment slots rather than 2 on the new one (not that that is a big loss on jewellery for an archer).
For Mind Over Matter, it took me a dozen or so tries to get 5 malachite gems (reloading periodically while doing something else). I would have given up earlier, but a couple pieces of equipment showed up as quest rewards that were almost potential upgrade candidates (a ring with a couple less hit points than my current rings and only 2 enchantment slots, but with a level 9 Healing Aura, and a belt with +7 Critical Chance, but also a couple less hit points and 2 enchantment slots, one with a level 2 Healing Aura).
In the Eerie Undercroft, the first malachite vein game me 2 gems in a couple minutes; I tried for another 5 minutes to see if I could get more, but was unsuccessful. The second vein gave me 3 gems on the forth try. On the second try Jake dropped some earrings with +3 Way of the Ranger, +11 Dexterity, +10 Heightened Reflexes, 3 charm slots and 2 enchantment slots. Completing The Murders in the Rue Lanilor quest gave me 2 malachite gems (on the second try).
After a couple reloads, the first appearance of a malachite gem in the Maxos Shrine vein was a set of 3.
Turning in Undead Rising (the last quest except for To Find a Wizard) was enough to bring me up to level 46, and gave me 5 malachite gems on the second try. At this point I had 34 skill books in my inventory (which I then used to bring my free skill point count up to 64) and 60 malachite gems (when I started turning in and finishing quests I had 27).
Checking Tiffany, I bought a slight upgrade for my belt (+81 HP, +7 Critical Chance, +0.13 Mana Regeneration and one of the three enchantments was a level 5 Healing Aura). That brought my Critical Chance up by 1 and Mana Regen by 0.1, with a drop of 3 HP and 0.01 HP Regen.
Having collected the complete Shadow Archer set I saved, swapped back to my primary equipment and tried it out, but wasn't particularly impressed. My HP dropped by 204 and HP regen by 0.44 (mana dropped an irrelevant 77). Melee resistance went up by 20, and Conditioned Body by 30, but ranged and magic resistances dropped by 7 (a couple protection enchantments rather than increased mana could have compensated, with a drop of another 120 mana). Vitality dropped by 12, Spirit by 11, Dexterity went up by 11, and Strength and Intelligence remained the same. The biggest improvement was the increase in ranged damage (by 45-87), but that was almost all due to a +5 Ranger Strength bonus, which I could easily max myself (for an increase of 46-77 with my original equipment).
The Order of the Viper set actually fared a little better (ignoring the skill bonuses). My HP 'only' dropped by 68, HP Regen went up by 0.12, mana dropped by 20 and mana regen went up by 0.1. Melee resistance went up by 14, while magic dropped by 7, with ranged remaining essentially the same. Vitality went up by 11 and Strength (and Conditioned Body) by 20, while Spirit dropped by 12.
Since there wasn't any compelling reason to start using the Shadow Archer set, I reloaded and just maxed Ranger Strength (was at level 10).
In the Champion Academy I considered reading a walkthrough to find out exactly where I needed to use the Helmet of Secrets, but the blur effect didn't end up being completely unbearable.
The first time I entered the Antediluvean Vault the fight was a little hectic, but I made it through the first group and started killing them faster, and then got careless and died. Since I began turning in quests I just left on all my Wisdom bonus equipment, and only swapped back to my good bow for combat (and of course the Helmet of Secrets where required). Now with combat becoming a little challenging, I switched to my primary equipment, and then added 2 skill points to Splitting Arrows, 5 to Way of the Ranger and 6 to Explosive Arrows, maxing each.
After my second entry into the vault, the fight ended fairly quickly, and I blew right through the dialog where Bellegar ran away (my ranged attack being assigned to the A button), so reloaded again to catch it. The rest of the vault wasn't too difficult, though a couple times they were able to get some damage in and force me to jump back to heal.
At the end of the vault I picked Behrlihn, turned in the quest and continued into the zeppelin escort briefly to check it out. I will have to reassign the hotkeys to match how I got used to the dragon skills earlier in the game, so reloaded (want to do a couple things in Aleroth first), picked Bellegar and turned the quest in again to see the dialog options doing the quest that way. Reloading again, I picked Behrlihn, then saved before turning in the quest, and reloaded another couple times to get 5 malachite gems (because the 60 I had just might not be enough).
After using the 4 skill books I recently got and unlearning my skills, I had 149 skill points.
When I mindread Chanelle I had jewellery on with +3 Master Herbalist; for Najaad I had +3 Mana Leech and for Joramson +2 Healing. Not that I needed to use the
skill boost mindread exploit, but I had the equipment already...
All that is left now is to run around and talk to everyone one last time, then head out to save the world (or Aleroth, at least).
