Returning player, need advice please!

[Boarder981]

Hi all,

I'm returning to project1999 after a long break (about 2 years). Logged in to my main, a level 30 Barbarian Shaman, and found myself in LFay at the Mistmoore zone line.

Is this the best place for me to be? Any safer and/or better spots that I could be doing? I often have only an hour or two to play, so I usually can't sit around LFG for too long. Any decent solo spots for a non-evil Shaman?

Also - any general tips I should know about since Velious was released?

Appreciate any and all advice. Thank you!

[Muggens]

Can go to South Karana and kill either gnolls or treeants

[Pyrion]

Mistmoore can be nice if you play off hours. If not i would avoid it at all costs. South karana is nice (or paw) and 30 is actually a nice start for frontier mountains giants which can get you all the way up to 40 with some decent loot as well.

[Neetas1320]

Sol a is really good soloing for a lvl 30. Good money with the ore that drops. Id hang around in the bartenders room. Really good with like a rogue or a monk duo

[Thermite]

Another place of your up to adventuring out into Velious is at the bottom of Crystal Caverns there is spiders that drop some decent loot and silk. Then right near there is some Slags and these funky gem looking dude that drop vendor gems can make some killer plats... just my 10 cents welcome back to the server bud..

[Spyder73]

30-40 is really hard to beat at MM if you can get in the CE or a CY group

[mattitude]

Sol A is where I went from 28-35 about, good exp, plus decent loot. Blocks of ore sell for 50p at the merchants

[cubiczar]

Can go to South Karana and kill either gnolls or treeants

If you are looking for a good solo spot I would recommend the gnolls. Look up the split paw skin quest, between that and the mob exp you'll be doing nicely. Also depending on when you play you can usually put together a paw group or duo.

[loramin]

Any decent solo spots for a non-evil Shaman?

The "Per-Level Hunting Guide" (linked in my signature) has about two hundred different places to solo (or duo, or whatever). While it's meant to be for every class, it was largely compiled by this non-evil Shaman, so I can guarantee it's got a lot of good places you can use.

Personally I'd second what Muggens and cubiczar said and recommend the gnolls outside Splitpaw followed by the gnolls right inside Splitpaw. The Tesch Val Scrolls (http://wiki.project1999.com/Tesch_Val_Scrolls) quest give a nice XP bonus, and then once you get inside Splitpaw (which is usually deserted) you get the dungeon xp bonus on top.

Also I just love South Karana. It has vendors, it has Quillmane, it (often) has Enchanters who can breeze or clarity you, and if you die there's a much higher chance than most low-level zones that a cleric will be around (and even if they aren't, SK is only one zone away from NK, so they can easily port in).

[Lhancelot]

Hi all,

I'm returning to project1999 after a long break (about 2 years). Logged in to my main, a level 30 Barbarian Shaman, and found myself in LFay at the Mistmoore zone line.

Is this the best place for me to be? Any safer and/or better spots that I could be doing? I often have only an hour or two to play, so I usually can't sit around LFG for too long. Any decent solo spots for a non-evil Shaman?

Also - any general tips I should know about since Velious was released?

Appreciate any and all advice. Thank you!

South karana is decent from 20 to 41.

It's good because you can log in and find solo mobs to kill quickly. Aviaks are great far south in the zone in their own little tree city, having a vendor barb shammies can buy/sell with at the very top.

My other piece of advice is roll an ogre shaman.

Frontal stun immunity is awesome, as they rarely get interrupted on their spell casting when facing mobs attacking them.

As you solo on your barb and get slammed/stunned over and over, just remember on every stun if you were an ogre none of these would occur.

If you don't want to be an ogre, consider troll. They also can use jaundiced bone armor clickies, but have the bonus of added natural health regen which stacks with fungi etc. Obviously downtime is reduced in between fights with the added regen boost trolls get.

Do not roll an iksar, unless you simply enjoy their gimpy aesthetics and do not care about using useful clickies like the JBB and other jaundiced armor pieces. Iksar also do not get slam like all the other shaman races.

[Boarder981]

Thanks all for the great responses! I was grouping in Mistmoore for quite a while yesterday, and only managed to get one yellow bubble. I know level 30 is a hell level, but between people ditching groups and all the trains, it's a hassle (died once, too).

I'll probably head over to South Karana and see how I fair. I tend to like wide open spaces anyway (SoW helps).

@Lhancelot: I know that Ogres and Trolls are more optimal, but with my limited playtime I just can't see myself starting from scratch. Plus, Ogres and Trolls come with pretty hefty XP penalties (15% and 20% respectively, right?). Not to mention evil races can have a hard time traveling and banking!

Trust me, the thought has crossed my mind, but it would be a lot of time wasted leveling the Barb. Plus, do higher level Shamans really melee when soloing? I thought it was mostly root/rot, where the frontal stun immunity wouldn't be a factor.

[loramin]

@Lhancelot: I know that Ogres and Trolls are more optimal, but with my limited playtime I just can't see myself starting from scratch. Plus, Ogres and Trolls come with pretty hefty XP penalties (15% and 20% respectively, right?). Not to mention evil races can have a hard time traveling and banking!

Trust me, the thought has crossed my mind, but it would be a lot of time wasted leveling the Barb.

I know that was addressed to Lhancelot, but I just wanted to chime in and say (again) you are totally correct. Trolls take a -20% and Barbarians take a -5%, but Troll regen won't make you level 15% faster. When you're playing a twinked alt this doesn't matter as much, but for your first character it's significant.

Plus, do higher level Shamans really melee when soloing? I thought it was mostly root/rot, where the frontal stun immunity wouldn't be a factor.

Shaman do melee while soloing at 60, but not for the extra melee damage of our spear ;) We do it because certain difficult mobs (eg. Skyfire or Western Wastes dragons) summon, and thus can't be root/rotted. Because we're badasses with slow we can still fight those mobs (with the proper gear of course), and when Ogres do it they have less of a chance of having their spells interrupted.

[Lhancelot]

Thanks all for the great responses! I was grouping in Mistmoore for quite a while yesterday, and only managed to get one yellow bubble. I know level 30 is a hell level, but between people ditching groups and all the trains, it's a hassle (died once, too).

I'll probably head over to South Karana and see how I fair. I tend to like wide open spaces anyway (SoW helps).

@Lhancelot: I know that Ogres and Trolls are more optimal, but with my limited playtime I just can't see myself starting from scratch. Plus, Ogres and Trolls come with pretty hefty XP penalties (15% and 20% respectively, right?). Not to mention evil races can have a hard time traveling and banking!

Trust me, the thought has crossed my mind, but it would be a lot of time wasted leveling the Barb. Plus, do higher level Shamans really melee when soloing? I thought it was mostly root/rot, where the frontal stun immunity wouldn't be a factor.

Yeah, as barb at least you can bank and move around more freely compared to the "evil" races. If you are limited in time to play then barb probably is your best choice.

I have a 55 shaman, and I do melee still on him. Also, I do find it useful to have FSI as I have a much better chance to get my slows/root off on a mob that's eating my face off.

The good thing about the shaman you can use different methods to XP, some do a lot more root-rotting, while others prefer to melee more.

Back to FSI, it's useful in solo situations, and is useful in groups too.

When I was in groups in KC, I can't tell you how many times I was thankful that I had it, because sometimes my slow spells get resisted. When the slow spell gets resisted, the mob is on top of you, eating your face.

In this situation, it's nice to face the mob, and lessen the chance that they are going to stun me, which will interrupt my spell cast.

Sure, I can still get interrupted, but my channeling skill gives me a good chance to let me cast through hits from the mob, while the FSI will eliminate the landing of a stun from the mob which pretty much ensures the spell will be interupted.

Anyway, barbs are fine, really the class is so powerful it doesn't make a big difference, nothing gamebreaking anyway when you choose any of the races.

I just like to pick on iksar particularly because it seems their supporters are fanatical in trying to prove why they are the master race when in reality for shamans, they are not. :D

[Boarder981]

Good stuff... I almost want to re-roll Ogre! Haha

Any suggestions on cheap WIS gear? I think the best I have now is Bloodstained Tunic (got lucky in Unrest!), a couple +2 wis earrings, 45hp/4ac rings, and a spear with some +wis (don't remember the name).

[loramin]

First off, go for stamina gear over wisdom. Both are useful, but stamina keeps you alive AND (through cann) adds to your mana pool, but wisdom only adds mana.

Second, I'd recommend that you worry about leveling, not loot. Even if you add 40 stamina (unlikely) it won't make you recover HP any faster, which means you won't really level faster. You might avoid one death with that extra stamina, so you might level slightly faster, but you'll have to spend a lot more time worrying about gear, earning plat, and shopping than you'll save.

We shaman are awesomely powerful and can kill stuff just fine wearing only ringmail (or whatever mobs of your level are dropping). The only gear that really matters when leveling up IMHO is stuff like the JBB or your epic.

P.S. But that's just my take on what's best for leveling fastest. If you enjoy working on gear then don't let me stop you.

[Lhancelot]

I would suggest trying to get raw hp gears over sta stuff if you can.

Raw hps usually ends up far better because sta stuff won't grant a ton of hps for shaman, not like it does for tank classes. That being said, sure, stamina is nice to have though for added hps.

Once you got regen and canni, the higher your HP pool is the better because you can convert your health to mana. Obviously the faster you regen the more efficient this becomes, but the other part is you need a nice big health pool too.

Some shaman stick all their energy into getting high wisdom and this isn't really necessary once you get good at using canni properly.

The best shaman I grouped with as a lowbie had really low wis but tons of HP gears on, and that's when I seen with my own eyes how I could gear my shaman and be good in groups.

More hps also makes you more tanky and not as easy to kill when you get aggro.

You could have 140-150 wis, and easily do quite well if you get decent hp rings and other HP items for other slots, imo.

[gkmarino]

Hello I'm not sure what ogre starting faction is with Freeport militia but you could easily get your level 1 ogre shaman to level 10 with deathfist slashed belts and use wolf form if the initial faction was necessary to turn in. Just an idea to save you time in the annoying race to level 9 spells.

Then there are the more expensive goblin ears from HPK but I don't know a lot about those. But time could be saved!

[loramin]

Raw hps usually ends up far better because sta stuff won't grant a ton of hps for shaman, not like it does for tank classes. That being said, sure, stamina is nice to have though for added hps.

Excellent point (which I should have mentioned myself when recommending Stamina; glad you did!)

[Boarder981]

I use canni all the time and it's great, but doesn't it only give hp to mana at a 60/20 ratio? I read that for sheer mana, wis has a much bigger impact.

I do see your point about +hp gear vs +sta gear. Any suggestions on +hp gear aside from the rings? The equipment section on the p99 Shaman wiki page lists mostly +wis gear :(

[Lhancelot]

I use canni all the time and it's great, but doesn't it only give hp to mana at a 60/20 ratio? I read that for sheer mana, wis has a much bigger impact.

I do see your point about +hp gear vs +sta gear. Any suggestions on +hp gear aside from the rings? The equipment section on the p99 Shaman wiki page lists mostly +wis gear :(

Scalemail cloak and scalemail arms both cheap and good for shaman. Tattered mantle, or worked dragonwing mantle is cheap, mucilaginous belt, cheap shield is clay guardian shield with hps on it, mask of wurms is cheap mask... Some off the top of my head. Oh, gator scale legs ofc, they nice. Adding more items: Othmir fur cap cheap and has 6 wis and 6 hps on it.

[loramin]

I use canni all the time and it's great, but doesn't it only give hp to mana at a 60/20 ratio? I read that for sheer mana, wis has a much bigger impact.(

Absolutely, point for point Wisdom gives more mana. But here's the thing: more mana/HP only increases your maximums, not your rate of recovery. Maximums don't help much during the normal course of leveling, it's when things go wrong that they matter. So this begs the question, which will matter more when you get in trouble: mana or HP?

For instance, if you're soloing and get an add, it's your HP reserves that will let you survive long enough to run away, or let you Cannabalize to get the mana you need (but if you have mana and run out of HP you're dead). In a group though you have less risk of dying from lack of HP reserves because you have a healer; however if you get a bad pull you may not have time to Cannabalize and need your mana reserves. But that's a simplification: depending on how you solo, who you regularly group with, etc. it might vary.

So ultimately you should decide which matters more for your play style, and focus on that ... while of course it doesn't hurt to improve *both* Wisdom/Stamina when possible.

[Boarder981]

I totally see you point about maximums. Low Wis only tends to be an issue in groups if I'm the sole healer. Luckily Enchanters aren't rare, so there's often clarity to help mitigate that. For soloing I think it would help for those "oh sh**" moments.

Upon further reading, I'm concerned about gearing at higher levels. I hear it's extremely expensive to gear a Shaman (fungi alone is like 45k? Ouch!). And Torpor is just ridiculous. I doubt I'll ever be able to farm enough plat to afford this stuff (well, all of it anyway). I guess my question is, at level 50+, will I be useless and gimped without all this gear/spells?

[loramin]

Upon further reading, I'm concerned about gearing at higher levels. I hear it's extremely expensive to gear a Shaman (fungi alone is like 45k? Ouch!). And Torpor is just ridiculous. I doubt I'll ever be able to farm enough plat to afford this stuff (well, all of it anyway). I guess my question is, at level 50+, will I be useless and gimped without all this gear/spells?

First off, Shaman are overpowered, so even without our four key items (well three and a spell) we can still kick plenty of ass. All those items do is lower your down-time, so you're almost as powerful without them, you just need more med breaks (and can't do camps with more mobs than you have mana to kill).

You basically have two options for getting those items. Even at lower levels Shaman can farm plat reasonably well, so if you level in places that also drop good plat items, save your pennies, and accept that you may not get all your items right when they're first usable, you can totally buy a JBB and Epic before 60, and a fungi then Torpor at 60.

Or, you can be smart. JBB and Fungi (and to a lesser extent Torpor, at Juggs camp) are just camps in Sebilis. Do them enough and you get them "for free". Same goes for Epic: join a guild that raids Fear and you can get it "for free" (that same guild will probably also raid level 60 Kunark mobs, meaning "free" Torpor).

Either way works, it's just that one requires some time/patience as you have to help others get their stuff until you get yours, while the other requires a ton more time/patience, but you don't need other people. Whichever choice you make you will still be a badass Shaman even before you get all your items, and either way you will eventually get all of them (source: a Shaman who just turned 60 a few months ago and has a Fungi, JBB, and Epic, and is on the way to buying Torpor).

[Transylvania]

You will see the crud of the server if you hang out in mistmoore even 6 hours i promise you that, you'll end up in a fight

[Boarder981]

Thanks for all the great info, guys!

I headed over to South Karana and 30-34 went (relatively) quickly. I'm nearly 35 now! Ugh, another hell level.

The Tesch Val Scrolls quest gives pretty amazing XP, but I have to admit, I'm jealous of the evil Shamans that can rack in mucho plat on Treants and bridge guards! I think between 30-34 I made a whole 300 plat in total killing gnolls. :( Sort of wishing I went Troll at this point, LOL.

Where do you think the next best "hot spot" is for a good 35 Shaman? @loramin, I saw the leveling guide links in your sig, but there are so many choices!

I could always stick around SK/Paw for another level or two. Maybe High Keep? Also Sol A looks promising?

[loramin]

I'm nearly 35 now! Ugh, another hell level.
...

Sort of wishing I went Troll at this point, LOL.

Well if it helps you feel better about your decision remember that with the Troll -40% XP penalty you'd be nearly 25 now, not 35 (if my math is correct).

Also in a few more levels you'll be able to do hill giants for better plat, and not too long after that you'll be able to kill Seafuries for gems or all sorts of named mobs for their item drops. Hang in their and you'll be making money more than twice as fast as those treant-killers in no time.


Where do you think the next best "hot spot" is for a good 35 Shaman? @loramin, I saw the leveling guide links in your sig, but there are so many choices!

I could always stick around SK/Paw for another level or two. Maybe High Keep? Also Sol A looks promising?

Yeah that's the blessing/curse of the guide: lots of places, but a bit of exploration is required :) At that level I believe I moved on in to Splitpaw itself and did the first 6 or so gnolls. You have to split some and there's less room to maneuver, but you get the extra dungeon XP bonus and can keep doing the Tesch Val scrolls.

If you're sick of gnolls I also think I did a bit of the mountain giant fort in Frontier Mountains. No dungeon XP bonus but plenty of non-caster/easy to root/rot mobs. Alternatively there's also Nurga, which does have an XP bonus and doesn't have the ... quirks of splitpaw (eg. interesting pathing). However it does have casters, so you'll need to learn to root them and then rot them from around the corner.

[kjs86z]

Thanks for all the great info, guys!

I headed over to South Karana and 30-34 went (relatively) quickly. I'm nearly 35 now! Ugh, another hell level.

The Tesch Val Scrolls quest gives pretty amazing XP, but I have to admit, I'm jealous of the evil Shamans that can rack in mucho plat on Treants and bridge guards! I think between 30-34 I made a whole 300 plat in total killing gnolls. :( Sort of wishing I went Troll at this point, LOL.

Where do you think the next best "hot spot" is for a good 35 Shaman? @loramin, I saw the leveling guide links in your sig, but there are so many choices!

I could always stick around SK/Paw for another level or two. Maybe High Keep? Also Sol A looks promising?

I liked The Overthere at 35. Lots of buffs near SF ramp, easy to port around, can easily zone if overrun, etc.

[Boarder981]

Well if it helps you feel better about your decision remember that with the Troll -40% XP penalty you'd be nearly 25 now, not 35 (if my math is correct).

I thought it was -20%?

[loramin]

I thought it was -20%?

You are absolutely correct (my memory sucks), so he'd be almost 29, not 25 (again, if my math isn't as bad as my memory).

[Squabbles123]

Thanks for all the great info, guys!

I headed over to South Karana and 30-34 went (relatively) quickly. I'm nearly 35 now! Ugh, another hell level.

The Tesch Val Scrolls quest gives pretty amazing XP, but I have to admit, I'm jealous of the evil Shamans that can rack in mucho plat on Treants and bridge guards! I think between 30-34 I made a whole 300 plat in total killing gnolls. :( Sort of wishing I went Troll at this point, LOL.

Where do you think the next best "hot spot" is for a good 35 Shaman? @loramin, I saw the leveling guide links in your sig, but there are so many choices!

I could always stick around SK/Paw for another level or two. Maybe High Keep? Also Sol A looks promising?

I soloed 34 to 39 at Splitpaw with my Shaman. You can solo there until 40, then almost all the doorway mobs stop giving XP.

[Lhancelot]

Thanks for all the great info, guys!

I headed over to South Karana and 30-34 went (relatively) quickly. I'm nearly 35 now! Ugh, another hell level.

The Tesch Val Scrolls quest gives pretty amazing XP, but I have to admit, I'm jealous of the evil Shamans that can rack in mucho plat on Treants and bridge guards! I think between 30-34 I made a whole 300 plat in total killing gnolls. :( Sort of wishing I went Troll at this point, LOL.

Where do you think the next best "hot spot" is for a good 35 Shaman? @loramin, I saw the leveling guide links in your sig, but there are so many choices!

I could always stick around SK/Paw for another level or two. Maybe High Keep? Also Sol A looks promising?

You could do aviak avocets to 41 I did it on a halfling warrior.

You can do NK Qeynos bridge guards (3 spawn) from 35-41 too I believe?

Or, do corrupt Qeynos guards in WK at the towers, they give great XP and you could turn in their quest bracers for XP to the good Qeynos guard thats at the top of the NK bridge tower.

Qeynos guard faction is useless for you, wouldn't matter imo if you killed either corrupt guards or goodies.

[Boarder981]

Or, do corrupt Qeynos guards in WK at the towers, they give great XP and you could turn in their quest bracers for XP to the good Qeynos guard thats at the top of the NK bridge tower.

Wouldn't doing Corrupt Guards get me killed in Qeynos? Some of the guards in the city regard me dubiously, so I assume they're on corrupt faction (the others regard me kindly, probably from killing so many gnolls)

[Lhancelot]

Wouldn't doing Corrupt Guards get me killed in Qeynos? Some of the guards in the city regard me dubiously, so I assume they're on corrupt faction (the others regard me kindly, probably from killing so many gnolls)

Yes if you kill guards inevitably you will be KOS to those guards. I never found myself needing Qeynos faction though so I have no problem using their guards for XP.

[Jimjam]

If you get kos to corrupt guards, the only real trouble maker is the SK one outside the monk guild in qeynos. Most of them are rather wussy and easily outran or ignored.

[kjs86z]

@OP - try Overthere