Questions about rolling an iksar.

[LordSterben]

So I've been here about 3 weeks and I abandoned my warrior at level 15 in favor of my Ogre shammy that I love. However...I played classic for years and my chars always had a pretty common childhood. Crushbone, Common lands, Oasis...et. al. I'm thinking about rerolling my shaman as an iksar if only so I can experience growing up in kunark for the first time (finally lol)

Questions: is it easy to find groups in kunark newbie/lowbie zones?
Will the change from ogre to iksar be terribly painful....losing the HP, sta, stun immunity, etc...?

Mostly I want to know.if the kunark experience will be worth losing the perks of being an ogre =)

[Nordenwatch]

leveling in kunark is pretty shitty, ogre frontal immunity is better than the iksar regen.

also if you enjoy the regen, theres no reason not to be a troll. Iksars are just limited in what gear they can use (no JBB for you)

[LordSterben]

I'm also a pretty casual player so the chances of me ever having the plat to buy a JBB are slim...therefore I don't really consider it a factor.

[falkun]

Iksar make really good shaman because of regen (until Torpor > regen at L60). But troll have the same regen and can slam (bash) and use Jaundiced Bone Bracer. If those aren't gamebreaking to you, absolutely play the iksar. Honestly I've been branching out my newbie experiences (did Qeynos for the first time on P99, as well as guk, Mistmoore, even some Befallen), and its been really fun. Always be willing to try new things.

As for the race debate, the best shaman on the server (according to the solo artist challenge) are barbarians, so you don't NEED stun immunity or racial regeneration to be awesome, you just need to be a good player (and farm the gear).

[khanable]

Kunark leveling is dope. Iksars have by far the best newbie zone.

You can stay in Field of Bone until like level 23. Shit is sweet.

Kurns Tower is right there. Warsilks Woods, OT, FM.. lots of room to stretch your legs.

I don't think you'll have much issue getting a group. I mostly solo'd my way up but there were always groups going.

Don't listen to the min/max losers, play what you want.

[falkun]

I mostly solo'd my way up but there were always groups going.

Cucumbers is an untwinked warrior too. Brass balls right there.

[Glasken]

Kunark leveling is dope. Iksars have by far the best newbie zone.

You can stay in Field of Bone until like level 23. Shit is sweet.

Kurns Tower is right there. Warsilks Woods, OT, FM.. lots of room to stretch your legs.

I don't think you'll have much issue getting a group. I mostly solo'd my way up but there were always groups going.

Don't listen to the min/max losers, play what you want.


This man speaks the truth. Every character I make does 1-10 in their respective newbie areas and then ships off to Kunark till 50ish.

Kurns Tower: 10-20(ish), undead everywhere!
Warsliks Woods: 20(ish) - 30, Giants
Frontier Mountains 30-40, Giants
Dreadlands/OT: 40-50+

At this point its usually off to one of the frog towns, Seb or Lguk. But seriously, Kunark leveling is amazing. City of Mist and Lake of Ill Omen are also good leveling spots, and if you are feeling adventurous and have some friends at your back, you can try exping in Dalnir or Nurga.

[Kope]

This man speaks the truth. Every character I make does 1-10 in their respective newbie areas and then ships off to Kunark till 50ish.

Kurns Tower: 10-20(ish), undead everywhere!
Warsliks Woods: 20(ish) - 30, Giants
Frontier Mountains 30-40, Giants
Dreadlands/OT: 40-50+

At this point its usually off to one of the frog towns, Seb or Lguk. But seriously, Kunark leveling is amazing. City of Mist and Lake of Ill Omen are also good leveling spots, and if you are feeling adventurous and have some friends at your back, you can try exping in Dalnir or Nurga.

Kaesora is also an awesome zone if you can get people to go there. Difficult but awesome exp.

[LordSterben]

Am I correct in remembering that all of Kunark has an experience bonus?

[citizen1080]

Come velious iksars are far and away the best shaman imo. innate ac bonus + regen and all that all/all armor is just beautiful.

And honestly, You wont miss that jbb past 56, all it does is break your roots when you have 8 mobs stacked up with epic dot ticking away.

As for frontal stun immune vs regen. Regen is ALWAYS benefiting you, where stun immune only helps if you get it, from the front. Not worth it imo.

As for xp bonus I am not sure

[khanable]

My view of iksars:

if the class you wish to play is available on an iksar, you should probably be an iksar.

'The Scars of Velious' should have been named 'Iksars Fucking Shit Up Finally'.

[Morlaeth]

LOIO is only 80% ZEM.

Cucumbers WAS twinked.

[khanable]

Cucumbers WAS twinked.

I think it was sarcasm :p

Though in defense I did play an untwinked iksar warrior on live and leveled through kunark mostly solo.

Bind wound and lots of running back to cabilis to get more bandages. Lots of downtime. Definitely possible, though. Just know your limitations.

[Nordenwatch]

this has been discussed at great lengths by shamans. I believe the general consensus is that once you hit 60, torpor makes the regen not as valuable while the frontal stun immunity is fantastic.

also, when the OP asks for an opinion and you dismiss it as "min/max loser talk" its fairly disheartening. The OP obviously wants to play an iksar but wants to hear our opinion on why he should / should not so I gave it to him.

[Swish]

frontal stun immunity

A true shaman doesn't need frontal stun immunity to tank teh turtle (and lets face it, all shamans are REALLY looking forward to is tanking Lodi... amirite?

[LordSterben]

All of the input is helpful, thanks. I've done my reading on race vs race and the information is there...I guess what I'm concerned about is a marked increase in getting my butt kicked after losing the stun immunity and the super high stamina of my ogre. I can deal with it being slightly different/harder but will I be ripping my hair out over it? Lol

My other concern was about kunark itself (field of bone) I like the social aspect of the game and I don't like being in empty zones.

Additional question....does ikky newbie zone have a quest similar to the CB belts turn in to Canloe Nusbek? Rapid Exp type deal?

[lecompte]

All of the input is helpful, thanks. I've done my reading on race vs race and the information is there...I guess what I'm concerned about is a marked increase in getting my butt kicked after losing the stun immunity and the super high stamina of my ogre. I can deal with it being slightly different/harder but will I be ripping my hair out over it? Lol

My other concern was about kunark itself (field of bone) I like the social aspect of the game and I don't like being in empty zones.

Additional question....does ikky newbie zone have a quest similar to the CB belts turn in to Canloe Nusbek? Rapid Exp type deal?



You won't be pulling your hair out about the loss of frontal stun immunity. If you roll the shaman, I have a level 1 warrior I'm going to be playing soon. PM me if you do it.

[Malice_Mizer]

dun du it bro

[skorge]

As for the race debate, the best shaman on the server (according to the solo artist challenge) are barbarians, so you don't NEED stun immunity or racial regeneration to be awesome, you just need to be a good player (and farm the gear).

A troll won the challenge, not a barbarian. Trolls make the best shamans in my book (as I have stated on the forums and in-game many times). I have owned or played a shaman to 60 as a barbarian, troll and ogre (ogre on the Red server). The order to me goes: Trolls > Ogres > Barbarians > Iksars

This is why I say trolls are da best shammies:
- rarest played race in-game
-regen bonus which is ALWAYS in effect, even if you use Torpor -- faster regen = faster leveling
-opportunity to get a free snare necklace
-can wear plate

The biggest con is they have the most experience penalty which should actually tell you that when Verant made the races they knew trolls were da best.

Ogre frontal immunity is nice but you will use this less than 5% of your total play time and it won't make or break you. Having a racial ability like regen, that is always in effect, is better. Besides, the average person who rolls a shaman will never take that shaman up to level 60, making the regen more important (faster regen = faster leveling).

On a side note, to people who say the JBB wont matter once you get higher, you have never played a high level shaman. You will realize that since its a mana free nuke, you can farm more things and burn little mana doing it.

[khanable]

this has been discussed at great lengths by shamans. I believe the general consensus is that once you hit 60, torpor makes the regen not as valuable while the frontal stun immunity is fantastic.

also, when the OP asks for an opinion and you dismiss it as "min/max loser talk" its fairly disheartening. The OP obviously wants to play an iksar but wants to hear our opinion on why he should / should not so I gave it to him.

It wasn't really targeted at anyone in specific, it was more of a general statement of 'to hell with min/max'ing, play what you want regardless'

But you're right, sorry for being crass norden!

[SpinFin]

Don't worry about stats or abilities.
I would say to just play to enjoy the main key thing Everquest is about; The Adventure. Don't sweat the what if or should/coulda' regarding races.

Just have fun playing an imaginary character you get to build over time, anywhere in Norrath you choose to venture to.


-Trilok
Iksar/War

[lecompte]

On a side note, to people who say the JBB wont matter once you get higher, you have never played a high level shaman. You will realize that since its a mana free nuke, you can farm more things and burn little mana doing it.



Strange, I don't have a JBB, I don't want a JBB. It may be nice to farm easy things but when I'm farming things that drop value, I want NOTHING to break my root cause I'm toggling 2-6 mobs, some of which may summon (so I have to let root break on those) and I just don't have the time to be clicking a JBB between the epic/canni/reroot. Likewise soloing really beasty things -- I land a slow then I'm canni canni canni, torpor, epic, pox (cost effectiveness and I can go back to canni-ing).

[Kope]

Strange, I don't have a JBB, I don't want a JBB. It may be nice to farm easy things but when I'm farming things that drop value, I want NOTHING to break my root cause I'm toggling 2-6 mobs, some of which may summon (so I have to let root break on those) and I just don't have the time to be clicking a JBB between the epic/canni/reroot. Likewise soloing really beasty things -- I land a slow then I'm canni canni canni, torpor, epic, pox (cost effectiveness and I can go back to canni-ing).

People mainly say JBB is awesome for those huge mobs you try to solo (many times people are referencing soloing WW dragons).

[lecompte]

So things with huge hp but no damage? That makes sense I guess.

[koros]

Pox + Curse of the spirits do 25 dps together. JBB is about 35. It's definitely useful a lot of the time. Is it the end of the world? No, but it's a very very handy item.

[lecompte]

Pox + Curse of the spirits do 25 dps together. JBB is about 35. It's definitely useful a lot of the time. Is it the end of the world? No, but it's a very very handy item.

My confusion isn't that it is not handy, it is that it takes time to cast when I need that time to do other things... I dunno.

Double negative.

[koros]

Also since this thread managed to get on the topic of best shaman race...

A barbarian shaman can put out probably about 80 dps mana free by slowing themselves and meleeing with a spiritist hammer while clicking jbb and epic.

That's including pet.

[lecompte]

... I wanna see the parse on that.

[pasi]

A rule of thumb is if you can roll Ogre as a race, you roll Ogre as a race. If you want - check out Samanna.net if you want more educated opinions for shamans.

There is an argument to be made for Troll shaman being superior to Ogre due to the snare necklace and regen, but that really depends what your goal is. For max level content, frontal stun immunity wins out. The argument is that bashes are every 32 seconds when slowed. The counter argument is that getting the mob slowed is the hardest part of the fight and also that timing around bashes isn't always advisable since it's more likely bash doesn't land. You can decide.

Ability to click Kunark Armor is still relevant in Velious and beyond. JBB is still very strong until PoP, Cobalt Legs and Incarnadine BP are the only unlimited invis items until Vex Thal, JBBP's Bramblecoat mitigates the iksar AC bonus and doesn't get replaced until Tunare Belt (which goes to tanks), Blood Ember legs are very useful, Blood Ember BP is a decent click until Dain Hammer, etc.

It's not worth rerolling unless you care about min-maxing. You're talking about a relatively minor difference in power, but if you want to be confident that you made the best choice, Ogre is that.

[xCry0x]

Pox + Curse of the spirits do 25 dps together. JBB is about 35. It's definitely useful a lot of the time. Is it the end of the world? No, but it's a very very handy item.

doesn't that jbb dps assume you are non stop spamming, ie no time to cast torpor, cani etc?

[koros]

Yup. I definitely wouldn't take a JBB over those 2, but highlighting the sustained dps potential of a JBB. Also don't forget that Pox takes a lot of cannis/torpor ticks to recoup.

[Kender]

he's indicated he's a casual player that wont even be able to afford a jbb, and you're spouting off rubbish abotu torpor is better than regen?

torpor is more expensive than a jbb

[xCry0x]

Well a casual player probably wont get to level 50 let alone 60 unless they are casual for a long time... that said if he ever gets 60 the next step is gearing yourself so sooner than later if you stick with it those items will appear on your char.

I said I was going to be casual when I started, no raiding, just play here and there.

5 months later I am lvl 60 with best in slot everything outside of dragon gear =P

Mother f'ing EQ man..