New player looking for some tips !

[sachiel]

Hi Everyone !
First of all, im new to the game and to the forum, so if this thread is in the wrong place please accept my apologies.
I wanted to tell you guys that i started playing with a human cleric, im lvl 4 right now and im having a real hard time. Im getting killed very often, and im not sure what am i doing wrong. So if someone could gime a hand with some tips on how to survive being a cleric id be most grateful. Im also looking for someone to be my godparent in this, i guess i can be a good aprentice. Anyhow, just wanted to say hi and to introduce myself. The name of my character is Eramir by the way.
See you in Norrath and thx in advance !

[Lopretni]

Clerics can't solo is my understanding; you do next to no damage and if anything happens to sneeze at you you're fucked.

If you're looking for a class that can solo and support, try a druid or a shaman? If you do end up getting someone to take you under their wing I suppose you could be their healbitch on the cleric. :P

[citizen1080]

Howdy sir!

Save yourself a lot of heartache and roll a necro/mage if u want easy lvling.

Druid if u want ok lvling but porting later on to make money to fund your cleric twinking.


Shaman are great soloers but without gear its still rough...even with gear its rough till 34ish.

[Estu]

You can play a cleric just fine, just don't expect to solo very well (you can get by with root-nuking undead if you are really hell-bent on it). Go to Crushbone (or Orc Hill in GFay first) and find a group, it's what clerics are for~

[sachiel]

=/
I really liked the cleric... do they rely that much on items on money?? And how about a paladin?? Thx again for the help !

[BarackObooma]

Paladin's require you to gain 40% more experience to level which could really have you pulling your hair out.

I'd say stick with the Cleric and try to group/duo. You can solo but it will take longer.

[Estu]

=/
I really liked the cleric... do they rely that much on items on money?? And how about a paladin?? Thx again for the help !

Clerics are not at all gear-reliant. You can do just fine without money.

[xcyberpeenixx]

I am fairly new to p99 and my first character is currently a level 15 Paladin. Some spells are bugged, the melee apparently is totally off and you miss when you shouldn't and yes the XP sucks ass. But I love it, because its what I really like to play.

Play the character you feel is just baddass and you will MAKE that class work. People say Pallys cant solo really well at all. Well I made up for it for selling bonechips for 10 years and then started blacksmith and have been selling gear for a while. This allowed me to buy awesome gear in EC to beef up my character. I can now solo camps by myself.

- Of course im only level 15 though and who knows what the future holds, but you get the idea! Besides I am a tank and should be grouping anyway, just as a cleric should.

Soon I will have a Ghoulbane and make undead shit themselves. But I work 10x harder on the Pally because it's what I really enjoy.

[ripwind]

Hi Everyone !
First of all, im new to the game and to the forum, so if this thread is in the wrong place please accept my apologies.
I wanted to tell you guys that i started playing with a human cleric, im lvl 4 right now and im having a real hard time. Im getting killed very often, and im not sure what am i doing wrong. So if someone could gime a hand with some tips on how to survive being a cleric id be most grateful. Im also looking for someone to be my godparent in this, i guess i can be a good aprentice. Anyhow, just wanted to say hi and to introduce myself. The name of my character is Eramir by the way.
See you in Norrath and thx in advance !

Are you a Freeport cleric or a Qeynos cleric? Pretty sure I have a spare set of medium banded, a shield, and weapon that could help you get started. I just don't get over by Qeynos often.

[Lojik]

This game takes some getting used to. Can always use more clerics so I encourage you to stick it out. You really just need to get in groups... social aspect is a big part of eq anyway.

[Coriolis]

This game takes some getting used to. Can always use more clerics so I encourage you to stick it out. You really just need to get in groups... social aspect is a big part of eq anyway.

This. Clerics are tailored perfectly for being the core of groups, and they excel incredibly well there. And as Lojik said, the social aspect is one of the best parts of EQ, the reliance on other players is a major factor in (Classic) EQ.

That being said clerics can definitely solo all the way to 60 if they'd like, picking specific undead location where they turn into wizards with heals. And down the line cleric/chanter dream-teams can pull off amazing feats of named mob destruction, but truthfully its the group play where clerics shine. So go shout some /ooc and send some tells around CB or Orc Hill or even in EC where the buffs run rampant and get in on some group action, you will certainly be well received.

[sachiel]

Hi all ! Thanks so much for the feedback !!
I wanted to tell u guys that last night i decided to travel to Kelethin, the trip was awesome taking the boat and stuff. Once there some anonymous enchanter bound me and even gave me 20pp as a gift ! That was great ! I havent spended it yet, not sure what to buy, any ideas?. Later on i found a group that was camping at the "orc hill" and needed a healer, so i joined. It was fun and kinda challenging but i liked very much.
I think ill stick with the cleric, its great when u find yourself a group, though im aware i have soooo much more to learn !
This time i wanted to ask you about the macros, is there any useful one for a healer?
Thanks again !!

[sachiel]

Are you a Freeport cleric or a Qeynos cleric? Pretty sure I have a spare set of medium banded, a shield, and weapon that could help you get started. I just don't get over by Qeynos often.

Hi ripwind, Im a Freeport Cleric, though i recently travelled to Kelethin ! I sure could use any items you have for spare !! Anyhow, as told before, yesterday someone gifted me 20pp so perhaps i can pay for those items though i have no idea if its enough !
My Clerics named Eramir !
Thanks ! :D

[sachiel]

I am fairly new to p99 and my first character is currently a level 15 Paladin. Some spells are bugged, the melee apparently is totally off and you miss when you shouldn't and yes the XP sucks ass. But I love it, because its what I really like to play.

Play the character you feel is just baddass and you will MAKE that class work. People say Pallys cant solo really well at all. Well I made up for it for selling bonechips for 10 years and then started blacksmith and have been selling gear for a while. This allowed me to buy awesome gear in EC to beef up my character. I can now solo camps by myself.

- Of course im only level 15 though and who knows what the future holds, but you get the idea! Besides I am a tank and should be grouping anyway, just as a cleric should.

Soon I will have a Ghoulbane and make undead shit themselves. But I work 10x harder on the Pally because it's what I really enjoy.

Wow man ! your story is really moving ! By the way, id love to know more about smithing, sounds cool, i think i wanna give it a try.

[Estu]

1) You should save your 20pp for spells, since they'll get expensive and fast. Only exception is that it's good to have some bags to hold loot.
2) Smithing can be lucrative (if you're doing cultural smithing), but it's not really worth pursuing at low levels. It'll take several thousand platinum to be able to do cultural smithing. On the other hand, you can make banded with a couple hundred platinum investment, and make a little money on it, but it's not really a great way to make money.

[Bundie]

Yay another cleric, really loving playing mine!!

[ripwind]

Sachiel, I haven't seen you on the past few days (at least when I've been on), but I still have a full set of Medium Banded for you, and probably a couple other small things too. I can hitch a ride to GFay and drop them off for you tonight if you'll be around?

[lecompte]

Add my characters to your friends list Sachiel and send me a tell when you see me on.

[Bantam 1]

Hunt bears and orcs in EC or CB.


Sell the HQ pelts, orc scalps, belts and shoulder pads. You won't make a fortune, but you will be able to buy the essentials and spells. I've made about 300 plat going from 1-9; nothing to write home about, but you'll be able to easily afford spells.


Also ---- CHECK MERCHANTS!!!! (found 10 df belts on shady and splitpaw gloves in Neriak). I kinda felt like those guys that rummage through trash at night, but whatever a troll's gotta do what a troll's gotta do.

[lecompte]

Hunt bears and orcs in EC or CB.
I've made about 300 plat going from 1-9; nothing to write home about, but you'll be able to easily afford spells.


Wow, far more impressive than I earned leveling 1-9. Very well done Bantam, off to a rockin start.

[Sirken]

Hi Everyone !
First of all, im new to the game and to the forum, so if this thread is in the wrong place please accept my apologies.
I wanted to tell you guys that i started playing with a human cleric, im lvl 4 right now and im having a real hard time. Im getting killed very often, and im not sure what am i doing wrong. So if someone could gime a hand with some tips on how to survive being a cleric id be most grateful. Im also looking for someone to be my godparent in this, i guess i can be a good aprentice. Anyhow, just wanted to say hi and to introduce myself. The name of my character is Eramir by the way.
See you in Norrath and thx in advance !

get out to butcher. you can solo skels around druid port in. then move to chessboard and kill skels there. then move to Unrest and you'll be well on your way

[Targobaath]

I started a Cleric, and he is currently my highest level at just shy of 18. I really love it, the best part is being in groups so playing a class that can really support groups feels good. You'll find it easy to get a slot in a group. I started a live feed too, follow it and you'll see when I go online. I can help you out with extra gear I come across!

twitch.tv/montreseur

[sachiel]

Hey guys !! thanks again for the help, i havent been able to play this days, im sorry, i had to study and work hard. Ill add right now ur names to my friend list and send u tells. Also, if u need something from me just letme know !

[sachiel]

Oh theres one thing i wanted to ask u guys ! Sometimes when im healing someone in my grp, some mobs will start attacking me (think thats call agro?or something like that). I guess thats just normal, but i dont really know what to do, dont know if i should run like a girl, or grow a backbone and attack the mob back. dunno. whats the best thing to do?

[webrunner5]

Oh theres one thing i wanted to ask u guys ! Sometimes when im healing someone in my grp, some mobs will start attacking me (think thats call agro?or something like that). I guess thats just normal, but i dont really know what to do, dont know if i should run like a girl, or grow a backbone and attack the mob back. dunno. whats the best thing to do?

The best thing to do is not cast any heals till the Tank gets agro and the mob is below 80%. Rooting a mob by you is a damn good way to die if it breaks by you. You need to grow a Backbone and just try to sit back down and Med. Never run away unless everyone is lol. And in a group your job is to heal and med not beat on mobs.

Try to keep the Tank and the puller somewhat healed before pulls. That way you don't have to heal them right away on engage. And Don't heal a SK or Monk puller when they are FD. When they stand up the mob will come to you. Agro hell.

[Estu]

Oh theres one thing i wanted to ask u guys ! Sometimes when im healing someone in my grp, some mobs will start attacking me (think thats call agro?or something like that). I guess thats just normal, but i dont really know what to do, dont know if i should run like a girl, or grow a backbone and attack the mob back. dunno. whats the best thing to do?

Anything you do to help your allies during a fight will anger the monsters. Your job is to help them (mainly with heals) without your allies dying or the monsters coming after you. The way to do this is to heal between fights if possible, and to heal in the middle of fights if not. This is because at the beginning of a fight, the tank hasn't gotten much aggro on the monster (meaning, he hasn't done much damage to it), so a heal will likely get the monster onto you. But later on, the tank has a lot of aggro on the monster, so a heal will not cause it to care enough to go after you.

If a monster does come after you (maybe there are multiple monsters in the camp and the tank is only handling one, and you have bad crowd control, or maybe you were forced to heal early in the fight), stand still and slowly back away. This allows the tank to get aggro back without having to run around a lot. Do not sit until the tank has aggro again, and it's best to give a little buffer time here because your aggro is higher when you're sitting (so if the monster no longer cares while you're standing, it might come back at you when you're sitting). Do not cast any more heals if you can help it while the monster is on you, and do not melee, because this will just make it harder for the tank to get it off you. Rooting the monster can be a good choice if you do not have other classes handling crowd control for you and the monster is a dark blue con (white and higher con monsters will resist root or it will break early more often, and then they'll be very angry at you).

If things are looking very bad, use Divine Aura - it will make you invincible for a short time and the monsters will ignore you (though all bets are off once it wears off, and you can't do anything or get heals while it's active). Or just gate out / run. But these should be last resorts.

[lecompte]

All good advice in the above post -- on that note, at level 5-9, if a mob attacks you and it is an even or blue con and you could solo it anyway, beat the crap out of it. After level nine, see above :)

[xCry0x]

My advice would be to enjoy the grouping aspect of the game the first time around.

Meet new people, don't turn down chances to group in new zones, make friends.

The first leveling experience in any mmo is the best. A lot of people suggest a solo class but you miss out on a lot in doing that. You see a lot of people rolling druids/necros as first characters because they had a reputation of being good at soloing on live, then they realize they miss the interpersonal relationships built through grouping and try to force their solo class into group play.

I started out here as a cleric in Feb, I solo'd to level 5 very painfully then grouped from 5-60. You -can- solo as a cleric but I wouldn't recommend it.

5-10 in crushbone, 10-20 in oasis, 20-30 in unrest or mistmoore then from that point on I had a base of friends to follow around.

[xcyberpeenixx]

Wow man ! your story is really moving ! By the way, id love to know more about smithing, sounds cool, i think i wanna give it a try.

Smithing, as others have said, is kind of expensive. So you will only do it once you get some plat saved up. For me, I wanted to do it because I wanted to make some good armor and eventually extra $$$ on the side.

Everyone starts off with Banded Armor. From my experience this is basically the go-to item for non twinked characters looking for good starter gear. Although I didn't see that many people selling full sets of armor, so I decided to jump on it.

I invested several hundred plat and skilled blacksmithing up by following the wiki guide,:
http://wiki.project1999.org/Skill_Blacksmithing

Once you can make Banded armor you are set for a while. Make yourself a full set and you will easily be ready to adventure around till around 20 or so before starting to look for better gear. Although note as a cleric pure AC really isn't the route to go, but at least you wont get stomped when soloing due to a poor defense.

But as far as blacksmithing goes, banded armor sells great. I frequently sell full sets on the market for no less that 90PP for a set. It seems generally accepted that 1AC = 1PP for banded. Although I could probably easily get 100PP+ for a full set just because I seem to be the only one who sells them.

By making money off of Banded Armor and sitting in EC trade tunnels I have learned the market enough to see what sells and what doesnt, where to go to kill a few easy named mobs and get great loot to sell back for major profit.

Don't ignore the EC tunnels, there is money to be had if you are patient.

Also save those bonechips, they sell for 5PP a stack easy.


TL: DR

- Blacksmithing requires some cash to start it
- Can easily make your money back by selling the Banded Armor
- Make yourself a nice set of gear for cheap


Enjoy EQ and all it has to offer, patience is key in this game and it will pay off :D

[Estu]

The post above basically mirrors my experience with making banded years ago on this server. However, while it's an OK way to make some money in low levels, it's not necessarily worth it; you can just level up and then make much more money much faster. My advice is not to worry too much about gear or money at low levels. If you wanna blacksmith because you find it fun, though, go for it.

[xCry0x]

You also don't really need to worry a ton about gear as a caster.. I hit 50 wearing dwarven work boots, some bronze armor and shin greaves (http://wiki.project1999.org/Shin_Greaves) . Once you get your levels up money and gear comes naturally to an extent.

[sachiel]

I invested several hundred plat and skilled blacksmithing up by following the wiki guide,:
http://wiki.project1999.org/Skill_Blacksmithing

Once you can make Banded armor you are set for a while. Make yourself a full set and you will easily be ready to adventure around till around 20 or so before starting to look for better gear. Although note as a cleric pure AC really isn't the route to go, but at least you wont get stomped when soloing due to a poor defense.

But as far as blacksmithing goes, banded armor sells great. I frequently sell full sets on the market for no less that 90PP for a set. It seems generally accepted that 1AC = 1PP for banded. Although I could probably easily get 100PP+ for a full set just because I seem to be the only one who sells them.

By making money off of Banded Armor and sitting in EC trade tunnels I have learned the market enough to see what sells and what doesnt, where to go to kill a few easy named mobs and get great loot to sell back for major profit.

Don't ignore the EC tunnels, there is money to be had if you are patient.

Also save those bonechips, they sell for 5PP a stack easy.


TL: DR

- Blacksmithing requires some cash to start it
- Can easily make your money back by selling the Banded Armor
- Make yourself a nice set of gear for cheap


Enjoy EQ and all it has to offer, patience is key in this game and it will pay off :D

what do u mean by several hundred plat?? 300pp? 500?
do the stats influence in any way the way you craft? like chance of success and such??

[Estu]

Stats don't influence chance of success; they influence chance of skilling up. For smithing, the highest of your INT, WIS, or STR stats is taken to determine this.

[webrunner5]

I am not a big fan of a Cleric as a first toon on here. You know and I know most Tanks are loot whores. And sitting on you ass medding, like you are suppose too, is not going to get you crap for loot. Cleric's get a TON of spells, and they need Regents to cast spells also. And they Do need some gear not to get the crap beat out of them.

You are not going to roll on crap till you are in your 40's or better. Good luck having all your spells, which you NEED, and regents and gear. I don't think so. And then you need to win the rolls. :eek: If this is your first toon, well good luck. :(

Now true, you don't need a killer weapon or weapons and Haste item, Fungi, etc., if you NEVER want to solo as a Battle Cleric. So that helps a bit. But you will be DAMN lucky to even be able to afford your spells at lower levels grouping.

[Estu]

I am not a big fan of a Cleric as a first toon on here. You know and I know most Tanks are loot whores. And sitting on you ass medding, like you are suppose too, is not going to get you crap for loot. Cleric's get a TON of spells, and they need Regents to cast spells also. And they Do need some gear not to get the crap beat out of them.

You are not going to roll on crap till you are in your 40's or better. Good luck having all your spells, which you NEED, and regents and gear. I don't think so. And then you need to win the rolls. :eek: If this is your first toon, well good luck. :(

Now true, you don't need a killer weapon or weapons and Haste item, Fungi, etc., if you NEVER want to solo as a Battle Cleric. So that helps a bit. But you will be DAMN lucky to even be able to afford your spells at lower levels grouping.

I think this is kind of silly. Clerics coming up don't need gear; if you're in a decent group and you know what you're doing, you can avoid aggro almost all of the time, and you have tools for when you can't. Spells you can afford if you loot your share of corpses - if you're really broke, you can always go farm some bone chips or whatnot to sell in EC. There's no reason to be sitting on your ass every moment - when a monster goes down, get up and loot it (just don't be greedy and loot more than your share). If a melee is looting too much, complain. It's not hard.

[Ezrick]

Hi Everyone !
First of all, im new to the game and to the forum, so if this thread is in the wrong place please accept my apologies.
I wanted to tell you guys that i started playing with a human cleric, im lvl 4 right now and im having a real hard time. Im getting killed very often, and im not sure what am i doing wrong. So if someone could gime a hand with some tips on how to survive being a cleric id be most grateful. Im also looking for someone to be my godparent in this, i guess i can be a good aprentice. Anyhow, just wanted to say hi and to introduce myself. The name of my character is Eramir by the way.
See you in Norrath and thx in advance !

I soloed my cleric almost exclusively from 1-20. After that it does get a bit tougher, but up to 20 its not only possible, it is in many ways preferable.

Clerics are gear dependent if you want to be a good one. Having a high AC and, of course mana pool will get you out of a lot of tight jams that other clerics fail to survive. This is why you should solo as much as possible at lower levels. There is no way to train defense, you have to get hit, you get a chance to raise the skill each time you are attacked. In groups and at higher levels the point is most certainly to never actually get attacked, but sometimes it can't be avoided. You need to build these skills as high as you can while you still can as they will go up slowly once you cannot solo.

I suggest a hybrid approach. Below level 20 your melee skill is adequate if not exactly stellar. Root nuking doesn't accomplish anything defensively, you need to melee. Grab some bronze armor or whatever you can find with the highest AC and just melee away while chain-casting your best nuke. You will get interrupted a LOT, just keep casting it and enough will get through to give you the edge in the fight. You'll get bloodied, but hey, your a cleric, heal thyself, med up and move on to the next one.

Some places to hunt (most of these are in Butcherblock).

Level 5-7 The BB druid ring and undead tower nearby. All single-pull skeletons with no wandering monsters anywhere close. The druid ring has a bonus of having high-levels in and out all the time. Heck they even appreciate not getting annoyed by the stupid skeletons attacking every time they port in. I never asked, but quite often they will buff you up when they see you fighting there. Just say a big thank you and kill that much faster.

7-9 "Newbie Goblin Camp" in BB This camp is located between Pegleg's camp and the Giant Scarab/Little Scarab spawn point. If you are careful you can pull the camp single. Pull the front one straight out first, then the left out a bit to the left and he should come alone. Only goblin warriors spawn here, no casters at all.

10-12 Bandit Camp in BB. This is not Pegleg's bandit camp, this camp is located in an area to the left as you go down the path from the x-roads towards G-fay. These are all rogues, as long as you never turn your back to them, they are easy to kill. Again all five of them can be easily pulled singly to a point away from the camp and dealt with. Just watch their movement and it will become obvious how to do it.

12-14 Put on your walking boots, now its time to make some good xp and some cash. All the way across the world to Erud's crossing. Like all of the places I mention these are rarely camped, and even if they are there are enough to support at least two or maybe three people on the island. Wisps, lots of them. Use your summoned hammer if you don't have a magic weapon. About one in five drop a greater lightstone. Collect all these for now, sell the regular lightstones for over 9 gold each. XP is good, and you're making some good coin. When you hit 14 some will turn light blue and it's time to move on. Take your horde (I had three bags full on the last character I did this with) of Greater Lightstones to the gypsy in North Karana, give her one, she will give you a book that you can immediately sell back to her for 9pp 8gp and some good XP. My halfling warrior made the entire level of 15 on 19 GLS turn-ins. Not bad XP at all for something you were already killing for xp.

15-20 Reaver Hill. Best kept secret in the game for late teens. For a cleric (and, I imagine, a paladin) it's heaven. Mild-mannered gnolls by day, undead gnolls about one level higher at night. Again every pull (assuming you ignore the three at the monument at the top of the hill) is a single pull. If you fight on the far side of the hill closest to the barbarian village absolutely nothing will path there (note if you fight on the other side of the hill you have a griffon to contend with, not recommended). They drop coin up to 7 gold, rawhide armor, and the occasional bronze weapon. Barbarian village is a close place to sell loot, food, water, and other supplies are available at the village near the bridge. Not awesome loot, but you won't have trouble buying your next spells. It really is the best solo spot in the game for the level because its never camped (people will tell you about all kinds of other places, good luck actually getting to fight there), all pulls are easily single, and the loot doesn't suck.

I soloed my cleric at each of these places picking up some gear as I could afford it with no twinked gear at all (it was my first character on 99 a few months back). Reaver Hill, for instance I found easier to solo with my cleric than with my warrior. Mana regens a lot faster than health.

When you hit level 20, I'll admit, I found soloing harder and harder to do, but at least I have all my defensive skills maxed out for my level now that I don't get to use them as much as I used to.

Good Luck!

Ezrick/Krythen/Biggins

[Ezrick]

I think this is kind of silly. Clerics coming up don't need gear; if you're in a decent group and you know what you're doing, you can avoid aggro almost all of the time, and you have tools for when you can't. Spells you can afford if you loot your share of corpses - if you're really broke, you can always go farm some bone chips or whatnot to sell in EC. There's no reason to be sitting on your ass every moment - when a monster goes down, get up and loot it (just don't be greedy and loot more than your share). If a melee is looting too much, complain. It's not hard.

You've obviously never played a cleric, and apparently have never played with a good one. There are times when you not only get aggro, you actively seek it out. When the mez is resisted or some mamby-pamby-pinky-waggling-wizard gets trigger happy its your job to save them from themselves. That's what the platemail is for.

You pound out the heals until you either get the aggro or the situation is under control. Sure, you can pop a divine, if you just want to dump the aggro right back on that caster. You need to survive and high AC and defensive skills are how you do it. Gear helps you take less damage as you channel a root to park a mob or get off a heal at a critical time while getting pounded on. All this time you are NOT sitting on your ass so you need a decent sized mana pool to last through a tough fight. Only tank gear is more important than cleric gear.

Any idiot can play any class in a perfect group in a perfect situation. Hell on live now 50% of the "players" are hired robots scripted by the server.

The difference is what happens when everything isn't perfect and as a cleric you need to step in and work outside the accepted comfort zone. Another 150 AC, 200 hit points, and 400 mana can make the difference between success and failure.

Ezrick

[Estu]

You've obviously never played a cleric, and apparently have never played with a good one. There are times when you not only get aggro, you actively seek it out. When the mez is resisted or some mamby-pamby-pinky-waggling-wizard gets trigger happy its your job to save them from themselves. That's what the platemail is for.

You pound out the heals until you either get the aggro or the situation is under control. Sure, you can pop a divine, if you just want to dump the aggro right back on that caster. You need to survive and high AC and defensive skills are how you do it. Gear helps you take less damage as you channel a root to park a mob or get off a heal at a critical time while getting pounded on. All this time you are NOT sitting on your ass so you need a decent sized mana pool to last through a tough fight. Only tank gear is more important than cleric gear.

Any idiot can play any class in a perfect group in a perfect situation. Hell on live now 50% of the "players" are hired robots scripted by the server.

The difference is what happens when everything isn't perfect and as a cleric you need to step in and work outside the accepted comfort zone. Another 150 AC, 200 hit points, and 400 mana can make the difference between success and failure.

Ezrick

First of all, yes, I've played and continue to play a cleric. Advising a newbie to solo a cleric for his first 20 levels so he can farm gear is just utterly ridiculous, I'm sorry. Yes, gear makes a difference for a cleric just like it makes a difference for any character, but one can do perfectly fine as a cleric in low-level groups without any gear, and build one's cleric-playing ability and grouping ability to boot, instead of being a crappy wizard who just follows the root-nuke-sit-for-five-minutes approach and decides to drop the game because it's too boring and isolating, because they decided to wait and farm money for some reason instead of just getting out there and grouping. People who first started out on this server or any server grouped with no gear and they came up perfectly fine, and anyone else, especially a cleric, can as well. The point of EQ is to group with people and have fun, not to run around at low levels farming plat so you can take a couple more hits in your level 20 group as a cleric if your allies happen to be too inexperienced or absent-minded to do their jobs.

[Meiva]

My main is a Cleric. I first rolled a chanter to about lvl 16 (pretty quick and easy to do even naked). I farmed some bronze around lvl 12 at the bandit sisters in LFAY. Made about 2k, bought some chanter gear, decided I wanted to roll a well-geared cleric, farmed Stein of Moggok on chanter to sell in EC, became efficient at it and made a good amount of plat.

After acquiring some decent gear, I was able to solo very well during early levels. Then grouping kicks in after lvl 6 or so. I suggest playing in GFAY or EC. EC may be best because there are often friendly players buffing and handing out freebies. Also you can frequent orc groups.

[lecompte]

All of these things work, some are preferable. My favorite method is detailed below.

Step #1: Find your local geared out player who wants a cleric for a friend.
Step #2: Group with them.

Almost anyone works. Enchanters prefered.

[webrunner5]

It's not easy to play a Cleric with no gear, and and not really easy to loot stuff. It is a thankless job playing one trust me.

[webrunner5]

Double, sorry.

[Ezrick]

First of all, yes, I've played and continue to play a cleric. Advising a newbie to solo a cleric for his first 20 levels so he can farm gear is just utterly ridiculous, I'm sorry. Yes, gear makes a difference for a cleric just like it makes a difference for any character, but one can do perfectly fine as a cleric in low-level groups without any gear, and build one's cleric-playing ability and grouping ability to boot, instead of being a crappy wizard who just follows the root-nuke-sit-for-five-minutes approach and decides to drop the game because it's too boring and isolating, because they decided to wait and farm money for some reason instead of just getting out there and grouping. People who first started out on this server or any server grouped with no gear and they came up perfectly fine, and anyone else, especially a cleric, can as well. The point of EQ is to group with people and have fun, not to run around at low levels farming plat so you can take a couple more hits in your level 20 group as a cleric if your allies happen to be too inexperienced or absent-minded to do their jobs.

Read it again, I didn't say do it to farm gear. I said do it for the defensive skills you wouldn't otherwise obtain. Again, you can't train defense at your guild, you only get it by being hit. It would be perfectly fine to say solo for only 20% of each level until those skills are maxed and group the other time. I only mention drops because loot is necessary, if you are going to fight, you may as well do it where you can get both xp AND make enough cash for some gear and to pay for your spells.

You seem to believe that inexperienced players don't exist, that they don't come into your groups all the time, and that all groups are perfect. You don't just have to overcome inexperienced players sometimes, you have to do it most of the time. Just yesterday I had a druid leading off on the mobs I just pulled into the camp in Unrest with his best nuke! Then he'd snare it and start meleeing! :eek: My taunt key has permanent scars just from that (I was playing my warrior).

I played a cleric on live from opening day all the way through level 70. I know what its like to play with no gear and I know what its like to be one of the best raid-geared clerics in the game. It's like night and day. Walk into an LDON dungeon with a completely high-end geared cleric with five players who can't even spell raid and you can carry the whole group on your back if you need to. I also know the painful reality of playing a cleric at level 40 with a 35 dodge skill and a 50 defense until I realized I needed to grab a group that would actually let me tank (yes you can tank as a cleric with stuns if you have another healer in the group) until I maxed those skills out. I know the difference doing it makes. I sure wished I had done it sooner so I'm advising to do it now, when you can actually do it solo.

Ezrick

[sachiel]

Hi again guys ! ive a quick question:
Do pets drain xp from mages and/or party members in a grp?

[xcyberpeenixx]

Not in a group. But if you are soloing and your pet does 50% or more of the damage on the mob you are fighting, you take a huge XP loss.

[Tecmos Deception]

Is there a class people can take to learn how to necro threads?

Like, how in the world did you stumble across a 3-week-old thread that must have been on page 40 of these forums and read the last post in the thread and decide to make a constructive (in a "better late than never" way) post?

Lol :p

[Weekapaug]

Read it again, I didn't say do it to farm gear. I said do it for the defensive skills you wouldn't otherwise obtain.

I also know the painful reality of playing a cleric at level 40 with a 35 dodge skill and a 50 defense until I realized I needed to grab a group that would actually let me tank (yes you can tank as a cleric with stuns if you have another healer in the group) until I maxed those skills out. I know the difference doing it makes. I sure wished I had done it sooner so I'm advising to do it now, when you can actually do it solo.

Ezrick

I would ditto that, and for any class, really. You can't train defense at a trainer...the only way to do it is to take hits. At low levels every class can take hits naked or in minimal gear and if you do die, the penalty is minimal at worst. Plus, the skillups are faster the closer to cap for that level. So if you wait, it will only be more painful to do later.

I started a new toon on a new server the day it launched for fun....Wound up getting into it and meeting some fun people to play with....FLEW thru the levels with a rogue and wound up a few weeks later around 50 with like 18 defense....That's literally hundreds of AC....As if you aren't even wearing half your gear.

Same thing happened a few years later when the first progression servers went live. This time I was playing a cleric but didn't sweat it....figured I could just spend some time at some point getting beat on by a mob, root, heal myself, repeat. So I merrily went on my way flying thru levels with my big 12 Defense figuring I would deal with it in the 40s when I could cap it all at once, which I did. It took me 3 days of getting beat on by a mob at a zone in, having to beg passing shammys for dex and agi buffs, and generally not what I cared to be doing for what seemed like forever.

Generally speaking, levels > all in EQ, but not if you let your skills lapse. Every class needs to be able to survive a hit or three when things go bad and having your defense skill capped is the difference between being one-shotted by a mob and not, even if you are a robed caster. Deal with it as you go and you won't regret it.