New to R99 and wondering about effectiveness

[Morcant]

I want to give R99 a chance but I realized my pvp knowledge in this game is rather limited. I only very briefly played on one of the teams server back in the day right when it opened up and I had a group of friends that all copped out after a week or two and went back the their existing characters.

I have read that resists are all wonky here and am trying to figure out what class to give this a go with. I have always loved shadowknights -- my first toon in 1999 was in fact a SK. But are they even remotely worthwhile on a PVP server that seems to have limited grouping chances? Does darkness have the same like 5% chance of landing on a player that root and snare appear to have based on the forums? Any input on SK viability at all would be helpful. I can't seem to find much out about them here which may indicate everything I need to know or may just show people don't like them.

I rolled a shaman just to start playing as something and got him to level 8 without seeing a single person and this was with about 120 people online. Is this going to be the case for a long while unless I am hanging out in major leveling zones like MM and Unrest or is there just no one out near Everfrost / Qeynos for the most part?

Sorry for the lame newbie questions and thanks in advance for any and all input.

[big mouth chew]

im a sk, its pretty cool

[filthyphil]

You will be alone for most of 1-50. I enjoyed my shadowknight, leveled 6-40 inside guk, very effective class for soloing dungeons, or PvPing in them. Especially once you have a CoS.

As far a resists goes, I normally would try to land darkness in the first encounter, if it was resisted twice I wouldn't waste anymore mana on that particular player with it. With MR over 100 I imagine it will not land well.

[HippoNipple]

No one will be in that area. There will be some in the oasis, guk, mm, unrest areas but it will still be really hard to find groups. SKs are good for pvp it is just hard to level them up. Most classes are fine for PvP, some are just very gear dependent. If your focus is PvP then just determine what kind of PvP you want to do, solo, duo, in doors, out doors, porting/sniping, large guild pvp, etc.

I think enchanters are the only class that are tough to play in PvP. If you are going up against someone with good gear and a crim pot it can get ugly quick.

[heartbrand]

enchanters real good until end game because newbs don't carry pumice

[Legend]

lots of druids rogues shadow knights a few monks

hardly any mages necros chanters

need more clerics

play what you like

most newb zones are emptyish

oasis mm solb part of kunark you can get steady pug groups

I did some oasis but mm from 19-38 I had a solid group same time everyday

make friends be patient and stick it out

you will get hand outs but not at lvl 1

[Legend]

my cool story

I got a spine piercer at lvl 10 from a generous player to give me incentive to keep lvling

Full banded by 13

Not much of an economy here. Stuff is cheaper than blue in general. Fbss picked up for 3k, Mace of Shadow Souls for 2k.

I replaced all my banded and have a full suit in bank along with that spine piercer to hand down.

I regularly hand out gear to new players or some plat if I see them in city zones. Sheer Bone masks, Nathar Great Sword, +3 wis earings etc.

It can be a long road here pick and choose your battles. There are some pretty populated noob areas. Be patient. Make Friends. Stay out of occ its a disease.

Good Luck & Play what you like.

[Nirgon]

Truly the RUINS of Kunark

[Morcant]

Thanks all for the responses. I just wanted to make sure that playing what I wanted wasn't going to gimp me over the long term. I just want to have a good time so didn't want to invest in leveling a toon only to realize the class put me at a distinct disadvantage. I have a far more limited play schedule than in my youth so I want to make my time count if I can.

Thanks all for the feedback and I look forward to the Red experience.

One other question, is there any sort of protocol for buying/selling since coin is lootable? I assume trust no one LOL but are there tips for making it a "safer" transaction? I doubt I need to worry about this for a LONG while but might be good to know.

[Colgate]

enchanters real good until end game because newbs don't carry pumice

remember when i slapped ricardo's shit over and over with 0 pumice and 0 crimson potions at like level 30 in unrest?

[Pudge]

no really safe transactions, unless you want to trade using gems instead of plat.

druid is easiest to level here casually and still be able to pvp. SK is a long, long road if you're grinding solo.