The Perma-Valker Manifesto

[rebel]

Intro

In my first char I raced through Valkyre just getting the drachma and
then left. With a new char I tried to savour the experience.

A 'Perma-Valker' (PV) is a char that, in the short-to-medium term, you are
keeping at level 20 or under - i.e. they can still go to Valkyre at anytime.
Valkyre (VK) is often considered the 'newbie' or training continent, so
hanging out there is like chatting in the theatre corridor (which
depending on the quality of the actors, can often be better than
the play).

This post has some casual notes about this for anyone else interested
in this topic. Please add your experiences and tips.

The design of the MUD is permanent levelling towards 9x40, so the
perma-valk path is a dissident one, working to your own plan rather
than kowtowing to the arbitrary and autocratic rule of the MUD
immortals (we love you really

Making a PV is whimsical, and some people don't like whimsy
or actively hate anything fanciful.

My PV is great on a mobile phone internet connection to
liven up boring bus and train journeys, etc. If the train goes in a
tunnel and I lose my link, it doesn't matter, if my char dies he is
waiting patiently for me in the newbie graveyard when the link
returns.

Maintaining PV also allows immediate interaction with people new
to the MUD, a welcoming committee of sorts, a volunteer tutor mode,
if you will.

While there are geniuses who have chars with levels 8x20 or levels
15+7x20, getting a PV much higher than 4x20 (or 15+20+20+20)
gets increasingly difficult and mathematically improbable due to the
low XP cap. This is especially true if you are playing another char in
groups and soloing occasionally your PV on VK.

Therefore, when selecting your class order, be aware you will need
certain basic skills to make things comfortably playable.

Essential skills/spells

* Armor spell: 'armor' (cleric 1) replaced by 'stone skin' (cleric 11) or
'bone armor' (necro 11)

* Half damage spell: 'shield of faith' (cleric 6) replaced by
'sanctuary' (cleric 17) or 'wall of flesh'
(necro 19)

* Recall spell: 'word of recall' (cleric 11) and/or clan recall (any
level, 500k coins)

* No flee spell: 'web' (mage 4) or 'arms of the abyss' (necro 16)

* Shapeshifting: ferret (druid 4), Tree (druid 13)

* Break webs: Squirm (thief 15) or reign of the spider (any caster
class or bard 20)

Sanctuary for the win

You will notice that from this set of minimal skills, getting cleric
to 17 (or necro to 19) is the highest level required to get them
all. Therefore having cleric in the first three or so classes is
recommended.

If like me you made an unsuitable class order (Cleric 5th), you can do
smaller mobs on VK unlit, for medium sized mobs you can use 'shield of
faith' and for the large mobs brew a sanc potion.

The components for sanc potions are pretty easy to find once you start
looking for them. When the MUD has been up a few days they can be
found in the shops but also left around on the floor everywhere.

A painless approach is to just collect the bits as you come across
them into a container, then occasionally brew several to empty the
container.

* A clear white potion - brew in VK Chemist or BH Alchemist
* The blessing of a god - brew in VK Chemist or BH Alchemist
* An eerie-glowing potion - brewed by an old alchemist in Tower of
Nexialism (SS)

A friendly bard player sometimes gives out sanc or aegis charms, these
are great because they work until they crumble. Aegis charms must be
activated off VK (but then you can hometown quickly back)

The same approach can be used for other charms that are for spells
above level 20. However, spectral shield charms are perhaps better
hoarded for if and when your PV joins into a non-VK group that is
doing fire areas like Matterhorn Valley. It is also worth having
purple and red minidemon brooches in your inventory for these
occasions also.

A potion of pure darkness is an aegis potion that can be often found
in the BH potion shop as it often pops in coliseum and in the chaos pit.

The immorts hand out aegis when they announce their arrival and/or
departure, be prepared ahead of time to kill the big mobs like it is
Christmas as that free aegis goes a long way on VK.

Raising the dead

Players who are level 15 prime and below do not really need to be
raised, there is no penalty or problem. Death is just a free recall.

Raising level 16-20 prime players who die on VK is not impossible. Two
main approaches:

* A velvet covered wand has six charges, and can be reforged/refreshed by
using the item 'mana flux' and the empty wand.
* Using a portal from the 'gate' spell to get the player off VK. You
need to get the portal open and push the downed player through the
portal. Now you can try to find a friendly cleric or other player
with the raise spell to raise the downed player.

How to gate off VK:

* If universal fargate is up, any player with gate can make a portal to
VK, they just cannot come through it if above level 20, you however
can still use it though to push the downed player through.
* Gate spell if you get to mage 18.
* Gate charm from a helpful bard player.
* A wand of quicksilver

The non-VK end of the portal should be a player not an innkeeper, as
an inn is a safe room and pushing a dead player there means they are
now stuck in the inn and cannot be raised. If it is AH day/Universal
fargate day or you have a wand of quicksilver, abusing Whatta or
Unmace as gate targets works well.

The last paragraph does not apply however to the magical item
'sacrificial lamb' which works in safe rooms too. 'use lamb
player-name' turns the lamb into a small version of the player char
which then corpses instead of the real player char.

To 15 prime or not

With a PV, there are advantages and disadvantages to keeping
the first class at 15 rather than 20.

If you level above 15 in your first class (also referred
to as prime), you gain five more cheap levels, increase the XP cap,
and gain a regen point from having another level 20.

If you stay at 15 prime, you the keep loot-free death in newbie
graveyard, do not lose xp on death and keep the hometown command,
which is a free oneway fargate. Also several mobs ignore you that
would otherwise be aggressive, making some runs easier to survive.

Doing this however, does blur the meaning of the class order.

Imagine a character that has a class order of level 15 thief followed
by level 20 mage. Is this character a thief or a mage?

Consider also a second character who has mage 15 followed by
thief 20. Which of the two characters will be better at blasting?

You cannot automatically say the mage prime character is better at
blasting. E.g. the first character will be able to cast 'fireball'
(mage 15) at the minimum mana cost of 15, enabling it to cast more
fireballs than the second char.

PV in groups

Taking the dragon off VK and joining an XP group is possibly the most
controversial part of PVs. I have a non-PV char, which I into groups
most of the time so I don't have a massive experience in this area.

There is no reason why a PV char should slow down a group in the same
way a regular newbie might. With man-back triggers, minidemon clasps,
a charm of spectral shield and a modicum of attention, the PV should
be able to avoid most of the standard newbie deaths.

The downside of the PV is that he/she cannot self heal for extended
periods, but they should be able to last a few rounds to call for
heals or to run away. Including stone skin, my PV currently has AC of
-6.7 (my non-PV avatar character has less than -4 AC including
spells).

It is less suitable for a PV to join an Epics group as PVs cannot join
the BH army to get honor points. BH or SS XP areas like Matterhorn,
Castle or Ogres, with fast kills over numerous mobs are very suitable for
the PV's low cap.

PVs cannot take an ostentatious or grandiose role but they can
positively contribute to the group such as by adding to the damage
and helping with tasks like blinding and singing. Being often immune
to mob aggression, they can call for help if they are the last one standing
in an accidental engagement-style megadeath. The group gets another
human brain which is only taking a very small share of the group XP.

Runes

Making runes for your PV might seem needlessly extravagant
and wasteful, and I agree that putting a tomb jade or a rhodochrosite
rune on a perma-valk char would be madness. However, some gems are quite
unpopular and relatively cheap to pick up.

Avatar characters often want and need to socket Tier 3 max-stat runes
on their light and torch equipment, leaving tier 2 +stat gems quite
unpopular. They are still very useful on a PV though.

Likewise, some tier 1 runes are a waste of a slot for higher level
chars but are useful on a PV. For example, kicking is often a
waste of a command for a higher level char but when my PV runs out
of mana, kicking is better than doing nothing. I put a zircon and
quartz rune on my PV char, which makes kicking a useful extra
little attack. The same theory can be applied to some of the other
tier 1 runes.

Drachma Equipment

A large majority of the non-VK MUD quests, even really easy ones, have
a minimum level above that of the PV and most drachma equipment is
1x40 max-level or more.

The fish-scale buckle and the +stat clasps are available to PVs,
as well as some cloaks and other items.

However, I think here is where I do draw the line, beyond spellbooks
like track and T&D entry, I would try not to spend drachma as a
PV.

If in the long run, you decide your char will level above 20, perhaps
because you started a new PV, you may rue any needless
drachma purchases you made. You can pop new equipment easily, win new
gems eventually, but spent drachma cannot be unspent and finished
quests cannot be re-undertaken.

Miscellaneous Equipment notes

A grey robe can be easily forged, that is once you get past all the
blinding mobs in the School of Cholemry and lock yourself in the
washroom, you can sit there and kill the junior students all day.

As you can see on the quest page, the sloth shaped brooch is a quest
reward. As such, you can only do that quest once but you can wear
two. Often people grow out of theirs and sell them on the auction, so
do snap a second up when you can.

It doesn't seem to be worth the time to pop the VK-only temp
equipment, as it seems to poof in the newbie graveyard.

The forges on VK are really good, jing-jit disk and bone helm are
especially good items.

If you are low on DEX then link mail of the sun is easy to forge and
gives 2 DEX points. Otherwise, body armor with more AC are easy to
find to pop or buy off VK, such as the wolf pelt tunic.

Lyme is a nasty place but Lyme Town is safe to shop in; the Lyme armor
shop has some great starter equipment such as the steel torc and the
polished steal bracer.

Holy equipment is very powerful and not just for immediate
newbies. Make a speed run to the temple and it is no hassle to use
them all the time.

The web spell is easily broken at PV levels and are only suitable
for the smallest mobs. Damp moldy scrolls give much more powerful
webs. They are cheaper in the VK shop than the BH scribes shop.

Unless you are super organised, you will run out of recall scrolls
sometimes, until you get word of recall, clan recall works just as
well, especially if the VK clan recall point is at South Gate or
somewhere else as useful.

Low-rent secondary chars

Perma-valk is all about being nimble, so if you have a non-PV main
char, then it is worthwhile keeping your PV char as low-rent as
possible, so you can get out and rent your PV without fear of rent
costs and just in case you end up renting him/her for a long time and
half forgetting about the poor chap.

The VK locker is among the cheapest storage in the game. It is
slightly uneconomic for someone racing through VK towards level 40 but
for a PV it works great. I use mine to store my sanc and
aegis potions.

Carrying level appropriate (such as deep blue spherical) ioun stones
instead of magefours saves rent.

For +int reading gear, a pair of rose colored glasses has a rent cost
of 12 coins so is well worth hanging on to after their primary purpose
as a spellbook prerequisite is finished.

A forest green cape is a nice 0 rent container, sold by Steikal in
Aisholm Guilds (Ah) for the princely sum of 35 coins yet it can hold
399 weight.

The carpet bag from The King's Bazaar (BH) can only hold 85 weight but
it is also zero rent.

An amphora is not as large as a keg or the elite decanter but it is
larger than a waterskin yet still 0 rent.

Conclusion

Give more views and tips below. Never forget that VK has to be
the best continent because it has the most clowns!

[Teron]

A great intro on perma-valking. Good work.

A few notes:
- a class order for a PV can be drastically different from an off-valk character. For example, picking thief prime is almost useless, because stab damage is limited and you limit yourself to mv-spending circles instead of strikes. Or, you can safely pick a caster class and still get high ac, just getting slightly less hps with higher mana regen.
- web is also a cleric 17 spell, which makes cleric, who has a 20cl peri, a required class somewhere within the first 3-4, depending on player experience and druid/necro position
- players share group exp, corresponding to the total amount of their levels, so a 8x20 sponges as much exp as a 4x40, but contributes much less damage and/or heals
- while a newbie can and should afford track/embalm/reign to get rid of high-level webs, he can also buy a -0.5 +stats robe*. For example, a 20lvl thief can use a -0.5 +7 stab dam robe. While the benefit of this is negligible, this is an investment you are still going to make, if you move the char off-valk one day.
- as far as I know, a sloth-shaped brooch loads in some newbie areas randomly - unfortunately, I can't remember, where
- at 15th level not being aggroed is very helpful, because you can make good solo xp in otherwise hostile areas, such as quicklings, Lycan'thropia and BH Jungle with tree demons, which are very good exp areas for 20 levels. Then again, it does mean you go off-valk to exp.

As far as aggro mobs on the runs are concerned, being invis and having darkness/darksight cast on you should help with most dangers.

* Newbies still can use a bare -0.5 crimson robe or a mystical cloak without additional stats.

[Yasik]

very good indeed
quite outstanding

[Marvel]

While this was quite a lengthy post with many good points, I would like to point out some essential concepts:

* The only primes that matter on Valkyre are these with prime skills or spells that arrive before level 21. That means that the only realistic PV primes are: bard, thief, and necro. The rest of them don't matter except with regards to prime-only equipment (such as a loop of burning coals for mages). Make your prime decision based on these aspects.

* Warrior is next to useless for Valkyre. Only tangible benefit it provides is bloodrage, which in and of itself is a fine benefit. And of course STR in classo, but for Valk, the only stat that truly matters is DEX.

* Fluidity, morning glory, and asp form are all epic, moreso for Valk than any other. You can do all of Valkyre with just these three things, and not even need any other classes. There's less ways to get fluidity than there is to get sanc/aegis, so I would always prioritize getting fluidity above sanctuary.

* Pets help immensely. They deal damage and help split damage. You don't need sanctuary if you have fluidity + morning glory (roughly equal to sanctuary) and 3 pets assisting you. The pets essentially help absorb hits and help deal damage.

* Lion chorus is indispensable if you are going the pet route. Bard primes get an extra +1 dam from chorus (everybody gets +3dam at 12 bard, while bards get +4). +4 dam or +3 dam to every attack (yours and pets' attacks) is no joke.

* Monk strike is nice, but for Valkyre, kick does more damage. Loading up on kickdam benefits you a lot more. Good tip there on the runes.

* You only really need -5 AC to solo anything except possibly the raging earth elemental on Valkyre. Anything beyond -5.3 is pretty much just a bonus or overkill, especially if you can trade some AC for other benefits like kickdam, hit, damroll, spelldam, and the like.

* Don't use temp eq if you plan to stay on 15 prime. If you do choose to go to 20th level, you can probably reach -8 AC on Valkyre with epic equipment and temp eq. Especially if you smuggle temp eq from Lyme over on the 16th of every month. You can chop on that day. Fun times!

* If you're working on making jing-jit disks, then what you really need to know is Autumnal Forest specific things. Giving some coins to the mage (like 10,000) and he will remove all your chilled str (from warty), or use a poultice of warming. Use asp form and arms of the abyss to defeat maimed elf.

*** Asp form is best utilized if you assemble a set of shiftable +hit and -poison equipment. For example, you can get bat wings (personal items) and then slap sloth brooches on them for shiftable +hit on neck.

[Teron]

Marvel, why do you think thieves are good for Valk?

As a thief, I constantly run out of mvs and it makes circle a limited resource - yes, including refreshes as a th/dr.

Also, the autumnal mage needs only 5k gold, unless it was changed in the last several weeks.

[Marvel]

Marvel, why do you think thieves are good for Valk?

As a thief, I constantly run out of mvs and it makes circle a limited resource - yes, including refreshes as a th/dr.

Also, the autumnal mage needs only 5k gold, unless it was changed in the last several weeks.

I said "like" for the coins. Thanks for clarifying the exact number. MVS are never limited on Valk, you can simply go to Tisa and buy 10x 10 clear-blue potions. Exploring an area to 100% with track, mounts, march of heroes, and wearing +age eq all boost MVS. Circle with runes and stat bonus we and a process stabber does the most damage of any combat skill on Valk. Thief levels also very useful for search, disarm, and some of the best eq on Valk like troll hide leggings.

[klobber]

Interesting reads. I can tell you as a new player it's helpful to see some advice. My recent experiences have been rather frustrating at 5x20. In general I think you're better off if you follow the route to Nx40 with your first character and then do this with a secondary.

Level 20 vs 15 Prime
Huge difference - as a primary Cleric I am a great deal weaker in most areas because of all the mobs that turn aggressive and the additional spells that they use. In areas with roaming/tracking mobs I have to web and flee from the ones that are too hard to keep them from interrupting an easier fight.

AC
My AC is -5.6 w/ spell and I've been told a few times that most of my equipment is garbage. I get destroyed by everything in the Gang Hideout and about half of Autumnal Forest unless I land a blind. I usually take 100-150pts of damage per round (before sanctuary/fluidity) in these areas with a supplication splitting the damage. Low level cleric's don't survive taking those kinds of hits.

Equipment
There certainly is some decent equipment available on VK but beyond that you're limited to what other players give you or sell to the shops (or garbage). There seem to be spurts where players sell a lot of items to the shops and then spurts where lesser items either don't pop or get left on the ground in higher level areas or given to lower level alts. This is another place where level 15 prime is an advantage - you can roam through high level aggressive areas and pick up other people's leftovers.

[Yasik]

Personally, I favor survivability, thats why my perma-valker is Wa/Mo.
Warriors get free AC bonus (-0.3 total), I did not know this long time, so it is quite easy to reach good AC, I run in -7.0 with Stone Skin, but heard about ppl making -7.3, and I know my AC-set can be improved even further, but with quite rare eq (neck collars from panther in BH Volcano (wtb x2, btw)).
With Ozzy being Wa/Cl I soloed ALL VK mobs except only one - raging elemental. Can chop almost anything, except Ersa and the trolls, prolly the stag too. 2 man can do anything, if they know what they doing.
Too bad VK groups close to non exist. Sad, nice eq can pop.

[Marvel]

In terms of the AC bonus for prime warriors, you get .1 at 20, 30, and 40. You have .1 bonus for a permvalker. Doesn't seem like much to me. But yes, simply getting to -7 allows you to do stupid things on VK and get away with it.

In response to Klobber, you have to kill faster or go heavy tank or pet mode in order not to have to magestyle (flee and blast). Your classo only allows you two options: Monk style or magestyle. Sounds like you don't like to magestyle though. And a lot of equipment issues is mainly because people don't know what to look for or don't focus on the right things. For example, if trying to monk style, you want atr 18 and Dex 18. No other stat matters. Load up on handdam, hit, ac, and get to -5. There are a lot of really neat eq items that have been added lately in new newbie areas. You don't need elite items. You can get copper serpent bracelets, forge tri-metal bracelets, forge celestials, pop platinum bracers, buy maul titan bracelets from bigger players, search out white gold bracelets and the list goes on just for monk style eq.

[klobber]

Just wanted to mention that most of the items you mentioned for hand damage don't show up in the EQLIST by keyword. You can set up the list to filter by AFF_HAND_DAMAGE and they don't show up either. There are 13 items that do show up that are usable at level 20 - 2 worn as shields, 3 worn on arms, 4 on hands, 1 on wrist, 1 on body, and 2 runes. Looks like you could get a +11 at once with 3 runes. No idea on how many of these items would be realistic for a VKer - I'll probably ptest and see how hard they are to get.

This is one of the reasons why I said that I don't think new players should Perma-VK. There's so much equipment out there that doesn't show up in EQLIST that you won't find sticking to level 20 areas.

[Marvel]

That is because all the items I listed, apart from celestial bracelet aren't handdam or dam. Dam and handdam are the same when barefisted. I listed reasonable wrist items that a Valker could expect to get, with incredibly helpful stats, +hitroll, str, and ac were all the selling points of those listed items. As we are talking about Valk, I'm going to go ahead and point out two very important things:

A) Not everything able to be worn by a Valker can be gotten by a Valker (aka, the eqlist is wonderful but not a replacement for exploration in areas you can play in)

B) Not all equipment is on eqlist because there is a variety of factors, but the biggest one is the item is marked NO-EQLIST in order to force exploration.

The serpent bracelets used to be listed, but the CP's and bracelets are all from Mandelbrot's Mansion.

I want to stress that what seems quite obvious to veteran players isn't the case for new players. There isn't handdam or dam in every slot, amongst other factors. You want to maximize your eq effectiveness. For example, the best shield ac for Valk is -.8, unless you have some epic avatar to cycle super hard mobs for super rare pops. If you needed 2 dex, you might go for 2 quickling bracers, .1 each, but the best Valk wrists are .3 (unless cycling mean trolls for .4 and the like). You are giving up .4 ac for 2 Dex, whereas a bronze quickling shield is .5 and 2dex, at a discount of .3. Apply this concept across the entire eq range, and that also explains why some people think some eq is crap. They are using their knowledge of optimization of slots but failing to explain the why behind it.

[Teron]

Adding to the point that some eq a valker can't pop: a shield of lightning, -0.8 +dex, 1ma or 15th or 20wa or 15ba.
Loads in the Clouds on BH on a 300-500k mob that would be extremely hard solo, I think, unless you use burnt scrolls and rods of black iron and stuff.

So that'd be the best choice of shield for newbie ac, if you don't have 18 dex. Interestingly, I've seen it in the shops recently. Unfortunately, I bought them both, because my lowbies have 17 dex and it's the best option for them, unless I find really awesome eq with dex.

As for those with 18 dex, a green crested shield -1.0, any 15, that loads on an adult green dragon in the BH Jungle seems to be the best choice. Unfortunately, it is too not soloable by newbies without scrolls/help.

So, all in all, I'd consider -0.2 as a good trade for 1 dex on eq and it depends how hard the +dex and ac eq is to get. Since its noticeably harder to get a good shield, use the best option you have and compensate it with dex light or qbracers, depending on what stats you need on light/wrists.

[*juggleblood*]

I went through all the Mandelbrot Mansion pops and removed the no eq list flag. I'm not sure how the eq list works exactly, so I don't know when they will start appearing there.

[rebel]

A great intro on perma-valking. Good work.

very good indeed, quite outstanding

Thanks for these and the other nice comments and tips.

Pets help immensely...

I completely forgot to mention that Peri and other pets are a good
thing at this level. So thanks to Marvel and everyone else who
mentioned these.

Interesting reads. I can tell you as a new player
it's helpful to see some advice. My recent experiences have been
rather frustrating at 5x20. In general I think you're better off if
you follow the route to Nx40 with your first character and then do
this with a secondary.

A great reply, thank you Klobber. I agree that a high degree of skill
with the MUD is required for a PV. Having a second character for
seeding the PV with equipment doesn't hurt either. However, I have
seen you on Vk and you rock so I think you are doing everything right.

In areas with roaming/tracking mobs I have to web and
flee from the ones that are too hard to keep them from interrupting an
easier fight.

Well the prime example is the Holy Cleric in Autumnal Forest, but that
makes the zone a bit more challenging. Autumnal Forest is one of the
premier areas of VK and I guess it is meant really to be a small group
area, i.e. it is meant to be very hard to solo.

I get destroyed by everything in the Gang Hideout and
about half of Autumnal Forest unless I land a blind.

Gang Hideout is the 30 drachma 'big boss' of Vk, you are meant to
either form a group or to stack up on wands and/or potions. See above
regarding Autumnal. I would not worry if you find them hard or
impossible solo.

My AC is -5.6 w/ spell

More than acceptable for a cleric. My 5x40 cleric barely gets AC to go
below zero most of the time. Clerics are not meant to be hit at all,
they use cunning or they can stand behind big warrior and then run
away if the warrior dies.

The cunning approach is that if you can heal yourself faster than the
mob can, then you will win eventually. For several of the big eq mobs,
if I can survive 2-3 rounds then retreat in good order, then I can
just keep repeating small skirmishes while protected by aerial servant
and using the nightmare supplication pet which stops the mob from
regenerating.

Before that I was very crunchy indeed, especially before getting
aerial servant (level 31); it is hard work, I know. As I said above,
Cleric was my first char which I rushed off Vk so you could say I
failed to make it work on Vk!

I've been told a few times that most of my equipment
is garbage.

You must have been talking to some very rude people!

There certainly is some decent equipment available on
VK but beyond that you're limited to what other players give you or
sell to the shops (or garbage).

Yes, unless you have an avatar char to collect stuff for you, getting
the best PV stuff requires patience and groups.

you can roam through high level aggressive areas and
pick up other people's leftovers.

Wombling for the win.

2 man can do anything.

Pretty hard to form groups on VK, but when they do, they rock. 2 man is
very effective on VK.

a shield of lightning

It does come up in the shops a lot. Pops fairly reliably in eq groups also.

a green crested shield

I today checked using eqlist and 'identify' spell, it 0.8 too which I
think is max for any PV shield.

However, that is still a good item, and easier to get than shield of
lightning. Popped for me after first kill, maybe I was lucky. I had a
go at green dragon with both my PV and my Avatar char. Very quick kill
in the Avatar case.

With my PV, Green Dragon is thick but doesn't splork you in one round,
even unlit as I was ('unlit' means I had no 'sanctuary' spell).

It doesn't bind or web so you can multi-run it or use potions and/or
scrolls etc. A group of PV would kill quickly.

I went through all the Mandelbrot Mansion pops
and removed the no eq list flag. I'm not sure how the eq list works
exactly, so I don't know when they will start appearing there.

Great.

Not all equipment is on eqlist because there is a
variety of factors, but the biggest one is the item is marked
NO-EQLIST in order to force exploration.

It is one thing to have things that are in the list that have no
location information, i.e. they are quest or secret forge items;
however, things that are not in the eqlist at all might as well not
exist.

Not everything able to be worn by a Valker can be
gotten by a Valker

Indeed and as it should be. A lot of the best equipment for any level
cannot be soloed by that level. The impetus is on the player to
somehow cajole players into their group in order to hit the mob.

Also (at every level), one must be patient, willing to make compromises and try
to not get fixated on a single piece of equipment.

For example. a black leather hauberk (AC 21) is a really nice piece of
body armor but almost unobtainable it is with a really really big mob
off the beaten track.

However, a wolf pelt tunic (AC 20) is with a small mob that gets hits
a lot, and it has built in resist cold.

[Marvel]

Technically, the immortals are doing a massive favor by providing a limited eqlist. For many years, prior to Sloth4, there was no eqlist provided by immortals. It was a player maintained eqlist. That allowed for collaboration between players. I suggest you go down this path if you think all eq should be listed.

I don't understand why you say eq might as well not exist if it's not on the list. It forces exploration. Now it's true that if you don't want to explore, you cut yourself off from a great deal of epic awesomeness, but that's a choice you can make yourself. I find it a lot of fun to find eq, forges, and quests marked as secret. Here's an example of awesome eq not listed on eqlist: thin crystal circlet. You will usually find mages and casters wearing this item, but it isn't listed on list. It is an elite item from an area on BH that almost nobody ever visits.