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Caleban
01-19-2014, 02:50 PM
Hey guys,

A returning EQ player, played live from Kunark until PoP and have been nostalgic ever since. Needless to say, discovering the existence of this server has rocked my world.

I am about to roll my first char and am looking at trying a troll SK. Back in live my two main chars were good race casters (druid and shammy). I had some evil lowbies, never even rolled an SK. This, combined with the fact I haven't played in about 12 years, means I have quite a steep learning curve ahead of me and it's a little intimidating so I would appreciate any starting tips you would have for me.

I have three main questions really, I have looked on the project wiki and on classic EQ websites, and have not really found much to help answer these so I turn to you guys.

First off, as a lowbie newbie with no twinking potential, what are my most efficient money-making options while levelling? As I said I have never really played an evil so previous preferred areas like Crushbone seem to be out of the question.

Secondly, any half-decent quests/items I can camp, solo or grouping from an early stage as an SK?

Thirdly, the aspect of EQ I enjoy the most is grouping. I know that by picking a hybrid with a harsh xp penalty I may have made myself slightly undesirable. I am also likely to be playing off peak most of the time. As such I've probably made it tougher for myself but I am quite stubborn in trying to get into groups so there's always that. When and where can I group on from an early stage as an evil? Any tips on the kind of group-based levelling path I could be taking would be much appreciated. Any help on how to work efficiently in a group would also be ace!

Apologies for the rather long-winded post, just excited to be back in EQ after all that time.

Thanks,

Caleban

DrKvothe
01-19-2014, 04:20 PM
Welcome! Troll SK has a really rough exp penalty. Most people who complain about exp penalty don't really understand how it works in groups (see front page server chat post), but at the end of the day levels 51-60 are going to be really, really rough for you.

Still, that's hardly a concern for a first char, imho. There's so much pre-50 content for you to explore. I recommend doing a "/who all X Y" where x and y are 1-2 levels below and above your level, respectively. This will give you a great idea of where people like you are leveling, and you can always contact them and ask if they'd like to group.

As far as money goes, you need enough cash for a solid weapon, a set of large banded or equivalent, and 2x 5/55 rings. Your first purchases will be your lvl 1 spells and 8 or 10 slot bags (recommend medicine bags and at least one large sewing kit), but you should be able to scrounge up enough cash from your newbie area to get those. For weapons, I'd recommend a Sword of Skyfire for ~200pp and possibly a wraith bone hammer for 50pp in the meantime.

Newbie moneymakers are:
bone chips (5-10pp per stack)
spiderling silk (20pp per stack)
HQ bear pelts (25-30pp each)
greater lightstones 10pp each (roughly the same from reward from quest, plus exp)

nndiro
01-20-2014, 10:47 AM
hi! I two have a SK (mine is an oggy though, love the stun immunity). As a first timmer rolling a SK, this is my point of view (i know there might be at least 100 more qualified players than me to tell you stuff, but it never hurts to have an opinion of someone that has been going and still is going through what you are going through)
if you do not have much gaming time, levelling might get a bit frustrating (i have wife and 3 kids and have little time to play) even at teen levels, but if you have not such a problem, i don't think the xp penalty will be very hard on ya.
Never once i had a problem getting into a group because of the "hybrid penalty". there are lots of cool guys here, so grouping is no problem.
i know very little about quests, although the wiki has some for newbies, you should check them out!.
maybe you can learn from my experience; i left feerrott at lvl 4 to go to EC to duo with a friend (but never ended up doing so) if i could go back, i would have stayed there at least until lvl 7-8. i made very good plat (about 70pp) in only 4 lvls, which is more than i did in any other newbie area. Lizardmen have great loot and you can handle 3 or 4 at a time. then, at 8 i would recommend going to EC and grouping at orc camps 1 and 2. not a lot of plat but great grouping time :)
enjoy and good luck!

Caleban
01-20-2014, 11:46 AM
Many thanks to both of you for the advice, much appreciated.

Morcant
01-20-2014, 01:04 PM
I love SK's they are a fun class to play and are very good group tanks. You are part of the holy trinity which is great but your dps is not awesome serviceable but not awesome. As a troll you will find frogloks are actually wealthy as far as newbie mobs go. Netted and mesh gear sells pretty well to vendors. You will not see much in the way of skellies or bears in your starting area for some of the more well known newbie sale items. As an SK though you are going to want to hold on to your bonechips since you will need them eventually anyhow.

Your targets for gear should be a good magic weapon 5/55 rings and banded. Frankly once you have those items you are in pretty good shape. As recommended above a sword of skyfire is a great weapon to level with. It doesn't proc until 45 (at which point it becomes far less usable...) but the damage delay is great for the cost. There is no real CB belt / Pad equivalent for the evil races. The Deathfist belts are not nearly as good xp and you have to get your faction up with freeport before you can do turn ins anyway. Ogre's have the lizard meat quests which is helpful starting out and gives a rusty 2-hander for each turn in which sells for like 3 gold. Not sure if a troll sk could do the quest though. But the big xp quest is for lightstones at the DE camp in So Ro. Normal lightstones give you a little XP and greater stones are a decent chunk of XP and a container that sells for around 10pp each.

Raavak
01-20-2014, 01:21 PM
Your first purchases will be your lvl 1 spells...SKs get their first spells at level 9.

Not much you can do solo for gear. Eventually you will be able to fear-kite Hill Giants and Seafuries and which can drop good amounts of plat or vendor trash. Best bet is to get into groups and win some loot rolls, hopefully on upgrades, or something you can sell/trade for upgrades.

Dark Forge quests are good but you will probably need to be in your 30s at least to kill in Temple of CT for the drops. At 46 you can probably get full umbral in a trip or two to PoFear.

Finding groups may be difficult at times, but you can solo alright while looking for a real group. Troll & ogre SKs are pretty good tanks, next to warriors, and maybe better than a warrior with bad aggro.