Few questions

[morgothh]

Hello :) im new to EQ.. just started today. Few questions though, one being you cant change your hairstyle in 1999 EQ? You can in the live version.. but was that added later? I also want to be a mage.. but not sure which race is best and how many stat points to add and into what exactly? Probably INT but what else? Thanks!

[Whirled]

Hello & well met morgothh!
Please read up (( http://wiki.project1999.com/ )) if you haven't already
There's lots of very knowledgeable people & very cool too that'll help you out.
Unless you want to Min/Max stats just pick whatever you really want to play tbh.
Sorry I do not have a mage tho. Hopefully 1 will chime in soon.
~Enjoy& hope to see u around!

[morgothh]

Hello & well met morgothh!
Please read up (( http://wiki.project1999.com/ )) if you haven't already
There's lots of very knowledgeable people & very cool too that'll help you out.
Unless you want to Min/Max stats just pick whatever you really want to play tbh.
Sorry I do not have a mage tho. Hopefully 1 will chime in soon.
~Enjoy& hope to see u around!

Thanks! :) will do.

[lecompte]

Welcome to (back? based on forum start date) to the server.

[Estu]

You can change your hairstyle upon creation by changing your face - different faces sometimes have different hairstyles.

Definitely read up on the newbie guide: http://wiki.project1999.com/Players:Newbie

For mages, it's not super-important what race you go. Erudites are good because they have the highest starting INT. Dark elves are good because they get Hide. I'd put all your stat points into INT and any remaining ones into STA (although the HP gain from STA for a caster is very small).

One thing to keep in mind as you play your mage is that you will only get 50% of the EXP from killing a monster if you are soloing it and your pet does over half the total damage to it. The best way to get around this, other than grouping, is to cast Reclaim Energy to destroy your pet when the monster is almost dead, then use a cheap nuke to finish it off, and then summon a new pet.

[morgothh]

Thanks, and I created this account a year ago but never actually started to play so im new lol.. and how are Wizards? are they better? I might be a wizard instead... hmm

[phacemeltar]

you might want to invest in some dex as a starting stat. wizards are like mages but without utility; porting is nice.

[morgothh]

you might want to invest in some dex as a starting stat. wizards are like mages but without utility; porting is nice.

Why would a caster ever use DEX?

[G13]

You want to carry as much loot as you can

5 sta for a caster is nothing

Invest those extra points into STR

[morgothh]

You want to carry as much loot as you can

5 sta for a caster is nothing

Invest those extra points into STR

So STR also increases your carrying capacity? I suppose i'll do that then.. Do casters dont really use any other stat besides INT?

[Estu]

1) Wizards are a boring class and have a lot of weaknesses; don't roll one IMO unless you're sure you want to play one. For a beginner I'd definitely go magician over wizard.

2) Don't get DEX, that was a joke/troll comment. Really, beyond INT, the other stats won't make much of a difference for a mage.

3) STR increases carrying capacity, yes, but as a mage you can summon bags which have 100% weight reduction, so it's kind of a non-issue.

[morgothh]

1) Wizards are a boring class and have a lot of weaknesses; don't roll one IMO unless you're sure you want to play one. For a beginner I'd definitely go magician over wizard.

2) Don't get DEX, that was a joke/troll comment. Really, beyond INT, the other stats won't make much of a difference for a mage.

3) STR increases carrying capacity, yes, but as a mage you can summon bags which have 100% weight reduction, so it's kind of a non-issue.

Alright ill go Mage, thanks for the info guys. and how do I use general chat?

[morgothh]

Also are there any guilds going on? and end game Raids? just curious.

[Estu]

Alright ill go Mage, thanks for the info guys. and how do I use general chat?

I don't know what you mean by general chat. There is no global chat channel if that's what you mean, but you can /ooc to talk to everyone in the zone you're currently in. There's also a P99 IRC channel (see my signature).

Also are there any guilds going on? and end game Raids? just curious.

Lots of guilds, both for leveling up and for end-game raiding. Lots of raiding too. A bit too much raiding. The server's been up for a long time with a small amount of content (since the volunteer devs here can't work as fast to roll out expansions as the paid devs did back in classic era) so there are a lot of high-level players in different guilds competing for the same small number of mobs. There is a complicated system of rotation-ish stuff to mitigate this issue somewhat. If you're interested in how it all works, here is the run-down: http://www.project1999.com/raid.php. That doesn't actually give you the whole picture, though, since the Class R guilds have established rotations on raid bosses amongst themselves; they are not listed on that page since they are not GM-enforced.

[Tuljin]

Max out STA if you're going to roll mage and put the rest into INT - HP is way more important than mana

[Esheon]

So STR also increases your carrying capacity? I suppose i'll do that then.. Do casters dont really use any other stat besides INT?

Enchanters want CHA, Necromancers sometimes go with STA, but Mage/Wiz just need INT. Erudite wizards may want to toss those 5 points into Agility to get up to 75, though (since they don't have a pet to take aggro).

[Daywolf]

you might want to invest in some dex as a starting stat. wizards are like mages but without utility; porting is nice.
wut?
http://wiki.project1999.com/Statistics#Dexterity_.28DEX.29
"DEX: how quickly you learn weapon skills; how often weapon will proc; how quickly you learn rogue skills; how hard you hit with bows"

k...


http://wiki.project1999.com/Magician#Starting_Statistics
It is very easy to assign yourself the wrong statistics and regret it for the rest of you characters career. Magicians are primarily about mana, and our suggested allocation of bonus points reflects this:

For Dark Elves add 25 Intelligence and 5 Strength.
For Erudites add 25 Intelligence and 5 Strength.
For Gnomes add 25 Intelligence and 5 Strength.
For High Elves add 25 Intelligence and 5 Strength.
For Humans add 25 Intelligence and 5 Strength.


Also to mention, if you plan to craft, int is a good stat to have. You can also factor in gear, often str being more expensive/desirable for many classes, so a good allocation of remaining stats imo.

[Stormlight]

http://wiki.project1999.com/Stats#Primary_Stats

The general recommendation is to get AGI to 75 then focus on your preferred attribute. STR is really nice for carrying more stuff, but you can eventually get some weight reduction bags. Every point you don't feel like is needed elsewhere should be put into INT as a magician or wizard.

If you're thinking of doing STA, know this: http://wiki.project1999.com/Game_Mechanics#Hitpoint_Calculation

[Tuljin]

To point an Erudite caster to 75 agi is a waste of points, there's a ton of agi on caster gear.

Having a large mana pool isn't very important for a Mage, the HP are way more important.

Every single wiz on the server rides incredibly high over the INT softcap and those 25 INT points end up mostly wasted. 25 INT when youre over the softcap is barely 150 mana, which isnt even a full nuke. Sitting to catch med ticks will make up that lost mana easily.

People pay hundreds of thousands of plat for a Boneclasped Girdle to get 75 extra HP. 25 STA becomes 60Hp at lvl 60. People keep saying "oh its not that much" but it really is significant. HP really is the stat at the highest premium, and it keeps you alive. Each piece of +HP gear and a nice STA bonus at roll results in hundreds of extra HP at lvl 60. Those who say its not worth it to wear HP and STA gear lose hundreds of HP only for a couple hundred more mana, which is barely a full nuke, and only two or three Fetters. It really doesn't make much sense.

The int caster point allocation suggestions on the wiki aren't that great.

[morgothh]

Thanks all, very helpful.. now if only I could get this stupid came to run properly. It has soooo many glitches and keeps crashing and Im sick of it. It's literally unplayable.

[Esheon]

To point an Erudite caster to 75 agi is a waste of points, there's a ton of agi on caster gear.

Having a large mana pool isn't very important for a Mage, the HP are way more important.

Every single wiz on the server rides incredibly high over the INT softcap and those 25 INT points end up mostly wasted. 25 INT when youre over the softcap is barely 150 mana, which isnt even a full nuke. Sitting to catch med ticks will make up that lost mana easily.

People pay hundreds of thousands of plat for a Boneclasped Girdle to get 75 extra HP. 25 STA becomes 60Hp at lvl 60. People keep saying "oh its not that much" but it really is significant. HP really is the stat at the highest premium, and it keeps you alive. Each piece of +HP gear and a nice STA bonus at roll results in hundreds of extra HP at lvl 60. Those who say its not worth it to wear HP and STA gear lose hundreds of HP only for a couple hundred more mana, which is barely a full nuke, and only two or three Fetters. It really doesn't make much sense.

The int caster point allocation suggestions on the wiki aren't that great.

Hm, that makes sense... though the 75 AGI thing could be helpful to a non-twink just starting out. So you would say go with 25 STA / 5 STR for all INT casters then?

Note: I'm not one of those that says to ignore HP gear, I just figured the extra INT would be more useful than STA, since STA/HP gear is also fairly common.

Most of my characters are WIS casters (Druid, Paladin, Shaman), and I went with STA/STR on them, but I thought the conversion for INT casters was significantly worse. However, this discussion prompted me to check the wiki entry on Statistics, and the difference is only 0.6 per STA at level 60 (0.3 if the 115 soft cap is in play). I guess that's a lesson on going by half-remembered "facts" from 14 years ago :p

TL;DR version: You've changed my mind, and I'm rerolling the Mage I just started.

[Esheon]

Thanks all, very helpful.. now if only I could get this stupid came to run properly. It has soooo many glitches and keeps crashing and Im sick of it. It's literally unplayable.

Have you tried WinEQ 2? I've crashed out once or twice, but it's very rare for me.

EDIT: It was a bit laggy last night.

[Daywolf]

Thanks all, very helpful.. now if only I could get this stupid came to run properly. It has soooo many glitches and keeps crashing and Im sick of it. It's literally unplayable.
Maybe look up WinEQ 2.0 It's legal here and free for the basic account version which is everything you need here (don't need massive multi-boxing upgrade). A lot of people couldn't play here w/o it, literally.

Have you tried WinEQ 2? I've crashed out once or twice, but it's very rare for me.

EDIT: It was a bit laggy last night.
Yeah went for 100% crash to ~1%.
And yes the server was seriously laggy yesterday, but not for everybody. Prolly those monday night netflix users killing off portions of the interwebs. No crashes here though, just a lot of 700ms' and packet loss.

[Tuljin]

No dude go 25 STA and 5 INT - str isn't horrible to add a few points to but mage summons weight reducing bags so point really