Level 20 Shaman - Hitting a wall

[hamburgler]

Basically what the title says. Started out with EQ during release time and played during Kunark and a bit of Velious.

I've been on the P99 server for the past 2 weeks or so. In general, it's been a blast, but as I've gotten into the 20's it has turned into an interminable grind. I find my character too weak to effectively solo and there isn't always a group available.

Any suggestions from the vets/people who've been through a similar situation?

[ChairmanMauzer]

Try Lake Rathe (Aviaks) or South Karana (KFC or Hermit.)

[skarlorn]

Dude, stick with it til 24. Iirc you get canni and regenerate and that's when the shaman really starts to shine.

[hamburgler]

Chairman,

I gave the hermit camp in Karana a try but he kills me approximately 40% of the time.

[Nagoya]

Hello Hamburgler,

I am levelling a warrior at the moment, mostly solo, and I did level 15 to 36 exclusively in Upper Guk. It is a dungeon you need to learn, and you will most probably die some horrible deaths on your journey, but the ZEM (exp modifier) is absolutely incredible. At level 20 the heart spiders around #18 on the EQAtlas map are very nice. You also have a shaman trainer and spell vendors very nearby in the wonderful city of Grobb.

[hamburgler]

Hi, Nagoya.

I did give the heart spiders a try -- some were green at my current level. The other issue was the "large heart spider" who considered even and came with a friend, making the camp difficult for me to break and camp. But I'll go back to Uguk and look for a group again.

Thanks all for the help/tips.

[Heartsbane]

I soloed until 25 in the Warrens. Good loot, awesome do, though it does slow down and you het higher, relatively safe if you choose the right spots. Mischievous batlord, mighty bear pw and hunt master spawn close to stonebrunt zone line so you can run if you have to. Back by prince bragnar there are about 6-7 higher level kobolds you can single pull. You can also kill roomers in stone brunt at the warrens zone line.

Avoid king room, mischievous batlings, diseased and Kobold outcasts

[Cen]

I just releveled my shaman from 1-35 last week. At level 20 I was at the Lguk zone line in Upper guk forming groups and slaughtering frogs until 24. It took a day from 20-24. At 24, I went to highkeep basement and joined goblin groups until 35. That took about 2 days.

FYI, Shaman's are brutal until 34. At 34 you get a pet :P but I burned myself out and am taking a break.

[Swish2]

I just releveled my shaman from 1-35 last week. At level 20 I was at the Lguk zone line in Upper guk forming groups and slaughtering frogs until 24. It took a day from 20-24. At 24, I went to highkeep basement and joined goblin groups until 35. That took about 2 days.

FYI, Shaman's are brutal until 34. At 34 you get a pet :P but I burned myself out and am taking a break.

This is a good path. Agree the pet at 34 does make it a bit easier.

Alternatives around 20:

Lake of Ill Omen (around windmill / goblin fort)
Kerrans in Erud's Crossing
Wolves/spiders in East Karana
Highpass gnolls/goblins (not too easy solo)
Cordelia Minster (L17), bard near wizard spire in North Karana (6 min respawn), wanders north and back if you don't see her there straight away.

[hamburgler]

I'm much obliged to all of you for the suggestions. I'll keep trying them out one by one until I find one that fights.

Cheers!

[Gozuk]

They are right man, a Shaman early levels is rough. You've made some great progress though so far. Don't forget about the good old Oasis of Marr. At lvl 20 the Deepwater Crocs are still great exp just don't expect much loot wise. It's close to the Commons and Freeport as well which is nice.

Around what time do you usually play? I may have a few items to help get you started.

[hamburgler]

I'm on Pacific Standard Time. Typically play around 6:30pm to 10:30pm my time.

[Kotopes]

Get yourself a http://wiki.project1999.com/Poison_Wind_Censer, and melee low blue mobs after casting walking sleep and your strongest damage over time spell. Commonly sold for 500-800 plat. You can make these money easily enough killing hermit in South Karana zone, or just hit money making guides in p99 wiki section.

Just try and hit lvl 24, after that you get a decent poison DoT, regen and cannibalize. It gets so much easier then.

[lprubin]

If you want consistent groups and great exp, try Estate of Unrest MR til 22 and then FP til 30. Or Mistmoore pond til 28. I usually vendor/bank in Kelethin or Kaladim and then check /who all mistmoore vs /who all unrest to see which zone is more likely to have a group available. Then I head there.

[Whirled]

you could be adventuring Kurns tower. Maybe stay away from the Burynai tho if you're still dubious to them

[lprubin]

you could be adventuring Kurns tower. Maybe stay away from the Burynai tho if you're still dubious to them

When I went to Kurns at 20 most stuff was green except the Burynai and a few greater scalebones

[Whirled]

Did you drop down after the Jester in basement? From drop down to zone out should be mostly blue. Iirc, even if you die you can drag corpse thru floor if you dont make it to the zone out in basement.

[Scrumtick]

If you want consistent groups and great exp, try Estate of Unrest MR til 22 and then FP til 30. Or Mistmoore pond til 28. I usually vendor/bank in Kelethin or Kaladim and then check /who all mistmoore vs /who all unrest to see which zone is more likely to have a group available. Then I head there.

I did this too for most of my toons that weren't great at soloing. Good thing about this strategy is the two zones are not that far apart, so you can run between them. Only issue, which was sort of hinted at, is they are quite popular and may result in your having to wait for a group spot to open.

[lprubin]

Did you drop down after the Jester in basement? From drop down to zone out should be mostly blue. Iirc, even if you die you can drag corpse thru floor if you dont make it to the zone out in basement.

Nope, I thought it was all Burynai down there. Thanks for the heads up.

[scrapiron7]

As a similar level shaman, I did Crocs in Oasis until 22, then stayed at Crag Spiders in East Karana until 26. From there I did Mammoths in Everfrost until 31. Now I'm looking for a new place to hunt.

[hamburgler]

Again, thank you all for your advice. I've found a couple of spots where I am making some slow yet consistent progress. I'll try and slog through to better times.

Cheers.

[Adron]

I've watched the hermit butcher a lot of people in their 20's. I would stay clear of him til 24. Getting clocked by the wandering cyclops that paths right over him every 30 mins is also a bummer when you've just barely survived fighting him.

I second east karana all the way to 27 or so. griffawns and gorge hounds on the east side are pushovers, it's outside for taking advantage of SOW, there's the easy zone to beholder maze if things go bad. highpass hold just to the east is pretty fun hunting at 20-22 too. plenty of ringmail and bronze and gnoll scalp turnins....

West karana has the scarecrows in this level range too, if staying nearer halas is more your thing.

If you haven't invested 100-200 plat in a half-decent melee weapon yet, you should. shaman melee doesn't go irrelevant nearly as fast as any other caster's, and root rotting is just really really boring some days.

[hamburgler]

For the record, I am an Iksar and so I struggle with being KoS in most regions while abroad.

[tjarrard]

Back in the old days, I played my Iksar Shaman to about 52, and pretty much solo'd 98% of the time. Unfortunatly, I don't remember everywhere I hunted. Mainly in Kunark until 50-51 when I went and hunted Gnome guards. I've just started here and am only level 5 at the moment. By the time I get to 20's You'll have passed the issue I'm sure.

It's possible! Sorry I don't remember more.

[Leddy]

Go to upper guk and get in a group. Blast through the levels until you get your good spells.

[Nagoya]

Choosing an Iksar as your first char sure was hitting the "Hard Mode" button bro :p but as everyone has said, ding 24 and Glory is yours! Keep it up :)

[Whirled]

For the record, I am an Iksar and so I struggle with being KoS in most regions while abroad.

It is far easier to stay near home, but if you're up for traveling....
..luckily there's some gypsy camps that will sell to you. The centaurs will sell to you in South Karana. I think there's some poison vendor dude in West Karana that should also. Not sure if you perused these but:
https://wiki.project1999.com/An_Iksar%27s_Guide_To_Love_and_Friendship_Through_ Murder
and
https://wiki.project1999.com/Classic_Merchant_Guide

[hamburgler]

So, owing in large part to the help and advice I've received here, I've finally hit level 24 and made my way to "a hermit" in South Karana. Still pretty inefficient even with the new spells but it's definitely better.

Thank you all again!

[Doublejack]

25-27 can be done at leisure (as shaman) killing evil eyes in Beholders Maze.

[Nagoya]

Grats on 24! way to go! Upper Guk is still awesome. 24 is the perfect spot to join a Lguk ZL group, or a warden group, or a scryer group, or even a moat group if other people in the group are higher levels (30 or so) cause you're a WIS caster even if your group fight yellows and reds for you, doesn't impact your healing/buffing.

The Hermit of South Karana is not exactly a good camp per se bro, just one of the most chill afk spot (just make sure to invis between each kill to lower your chances to get killed by the roaming cyclop), but it's not either good xp nor good loot, it's just chill and easy.

http://wiki.project1999.com/Recommended_Levels_and_ZEM_List#Zone_Experience_Mu ltiplier_.28ZEM.29

look at the ZEM list, zones with a high modifier are where you get good xp: High Keep, Upper Guk, The Warrens, Najena, Sol A, etc...

[NenshouStar]

lol... just keep roughing it out :)
EQ leveling isn't supposed to be a cakewalk, even with the 'easy' solo classes, you will find things that are annoying to cope with for sure ;o
I will say that having leveled a shaman to 57 and gotten my epic.. it is definitely one of the more rewarding classes to play as you climb higher. you will feel like you make or break groups. you will feel OP. you will be constantly learning new tricks along the way.

**edit, had to add in that I didn't even manage to get 60 with torpor etc, etc, etc... but I've seen some in action and it's just ridiculousness***

[Kotopes]

The Hermit of South Karana is not exactly a good camp per se bro, just one of the most chill afk spot (just make sure to invis between each kill to lower your chances to get killed by the roaming cyclop), but it's not either good xp nor good loot, it's just chill and easy.


Sat there from 24 to 28 and only been killed by cyclop once when I was truly AFK for quite some time. He doesn't come nearly as often, once every few hours maybe. You can always just run away with SoW/spirt of cheetah till his aggro drops, then gate back.

What I did is to pull him with walking sleep then cast envenomed breath and melee with poison wind censor. After 26 I did cast envenomed when he was at 30-40%, so it was more convenient not to chase him when he runs under 20% hp. The DoT finishes him while you meditate and regen back.

I guess what made it very efficient semi-afk camp is the weapon, a PWC or something of that sort is a must to melee down mobs in this level range for a shaman. A couple 55/65hp rings are nice to have, the rest pretty much doesn't matter.

[commongood]

First off the shaman doesn't really get into his/her own until a bit later in life (like many classes really). Even at 24 your spells cost a boatload of mana and buffs like regen last a short time.

You just gotta slog through it. It will eventually get a lot better.

A favorite spot of mine has been Goblins in Highpass Keep. You can start to group there at around lvl 24-25 and the exp is crazy good at least all the way to lvl 30. You can stay there until like 33-34 even but by then exp start to peter out somewhat.

A few negatives about that spot is that you aren't really close to anything else. So if the group is full you have to basically just sit and wait - or play an alt which I'm guessing isn't relevant for you currently. It's also a good city so as an iksar you will be struggling to vendor and bank there but the faction can be worked at by killing orcs outside.

[loramin]

A few negatives about that spot is that you aren't really close to anything else. So if the group is full you have to basically just sit and wait

Technically East Karana is "next door" to HH, and I think that it has stuff for a Shaman of that level to solo. The only problem is that long run through the "pass" part of EK ... but if you don't like sitting bored in HH you could always bind there, spend 5-10 minutes running through EK, kill for awhile, then gate back to HH to check on things (or, better yet, just ask the group leader to /tell you when there's an opening).

Personally I was a big fan of all four Karana zones when leveling up my Shaman.

[Nagoya]

you can sell at the erudite enchanter vendor in HHK (#13) with any race/class/religion combo, and ghetto bank by buying gems and selling back. every now and then you can also bank while the banker is bashing on you and then zone her. HHK really shouldn't be a problem for an iksar with access to invis :) plenty of people to buy food/drink from etc, as well. Also, being evil gives you the option to actually kill the guards when goblins are camped (hint: always, i've seen 8 people long list for the group in the past o_o)