Iksar shaman - gearing 10-35 (green)

[Kupoking]

This is my first character. I got no extra plat nor gear.

I am planning to hit Kurn's tower to get burynai hide gear.

Im going for the Scaled mystic armor ultimately after. Since I most likely won't get all armor pieces in kurn's tower, I though I would level blacksmith for banded armor and get the money from hunting giants in WW as soon as I leave Kurn.

I dont plan on leaving kunark until maybe 34.

Is this a sound choice or is there other options?

Also any tips for jewelry/weapon is appreciated.

[Sizar]

Old world best world, F Kurn's

[loramin]

Honestly, if your goal is to get the most powerful character as fast as possible ... ignore gear. I mean, not completely: loot whatever you find that you can wear of course :)

But the simple truth of EQ is you can make plat much, much more quickly at 60 than you can at lower levels, so it makes much more sense (efficiency-wise) to level first, then earn plat, rather than doing the reverse.

But of course, this is a game, so efficiency is never as important as fun.

[greenspectre]

Honestly, if your goal is to get the most powerful character as fast as possible ... ignore gear. I mean, not completely: loot whatever you find that you can wear of course :)

But the simple truth of EQ is you can make plat much, much more quickly at 60 than you can at lower levels, so it makes much more sense (efficiency-wise) to level first, then earn plat, rather than doing the reverse.

But of course, this is a game, so efficiency is never as important as fun.

Loramin's advice is pretty on-point here, but applies especially to Shaman. I started on green at launch, and did just fine in self-made banded with a Combine Spear to 35, when I started camping drops that, again, only minorly upgraded my character's effectiveness.

Unless you have a Poison Wind Censer or Granite Face Grinder, the bulk of your power will come from your spells anyways and gear isn't going to affect that. Make yourself some banded and get to 35 with that ASAP. Then just keep going, really, getting upgrades as you can, but don't bend over backwards for them when you could be getting levels instead.

[Jimjam]

Save your plat for a 1:2 weapon (or make do with an Iksar Berserker Club should you be lucky enough to find one in kurns).

Wear a full set of banded armour (great relatively low weight AC - you'll be taking a lot of hits and is used in your scaled mystic quests).

Add a couple of fire rings (the gold ones are cheap and still add decent AC/HP)

Anything other than this (within the budget of what you will make) will be at best an incremental improvement.

10-30 most stats don't do that much. Str is good (a little more melee dps, but mainly you can carry much more loot without getting encumbered). Try to keep agi at or over 75. Mana pool doesn't tend to get depleted in a single fight, but you can't improve regen without having to spend thousands.

At 29 things become really good as you will have improved regen, a way to turn excess hp in to mana, your own invis and even be able to charm an animal pet (up to level 24).

[Kupoking]

thanks for the input all, very appreciated.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

If you do not have a lot of plat/items, the most important thing to twink on a lowbie Shaman is a good weapon. Shamans are very good at melee from levels 1-40ish. This will save you more time on leveling than anything else if you solo for a decent amount of your playtime.

https://wiki.project1999.com/Special:ClassSlotEquip/Shaman/2H_Blunt/AllItems This is a useful page to find good weapons for a Shaman, order it by damage ratio.

While you say you will probably not leave Kunark until your 30s, it may be a good idea to make a trip to east commonlands at some point to buy a decent weapon. There just aren't a lot of Shaman weapons you can get in Kunark at a low level that are any good. Most good Shaman weapons drop from higher dungeons, like Poison Wind Censor, or are found on a different continent, like https://wiki.project1999.com/Gatorsmash_Maul . There are a number of good and cheap options on the 2h_blunt page I linked for only a few hundred platinum, which is not difficult to get even at low levels.

[Kupoking]

Thanks for the link to weapons. Its one of the things I was exactly looking for

[NegaStoat]

I already walked your path, OP. Rolling an Iksar Shaman and leveling using gear I scrounged. The key to solo leveling in mediocre gear for myself was that I focused on Old World mobs that were barely blue and just being patient. Most shaman players will give advice that melee is your best option for solo leveling, and I agree with this to a point. Full medium banded armor, jewelcrafted fire opal rings for AC / HP, jewelcrafted wisdom earrings and ruby veil? Go for it.

Plunking down substantial cash for a big melee weapon and a haste item is something I did not do. If you are patient and target key weak mobs (mostly in old world) you can solo with a Harpoon of the Depths or a Springwood club, and just push for 29. At 29 you can Charm animals of a proper level in certain zones (Lake of Ill Omen being the big one) and make the push for 34. At 34, you can effectively leave melee behind. I did.

At 34 you can target something barely a blue con to you and open up with Walking Sleep, Root, Evenomed Breath (2 casts over the course of the fight), Shock of the Tainted, and your pet at half health of the target to finish while medding / canni use at a distance. You can keep 2 mobs dead over a 6 minute period while recovering to full mana each time, moving on to mobs like West Karana guards or the like. Those guys took me to 42, and I was killing them about as fast as a necro.

From 42+ you can kill things like the butcherblock dwarf NPCs that druids don't want (the non citizens) to 49 with ease. You can rely on your Root, Slow, DoT(s), Direct Damage, and your Pet without breaking a beat and without having to melee. If you want to kill strictly as fast as you can, yes, a granite facegrinder or the like might help you do it faster. That wasn't my goal. My goal was to conserve cash and simply match the killing speed of a dark elf necromancer as a comparison, and that was something I could accomplish simply by using my spells.

Edit - I did the above by taking a break in my leveling at one point to complete the Canni II quest. I bought the strange Ochre Clay cheap by going invis w/ SoW into City of Mist and /auctioning within the zone line. Crushed Diamonds I got for free on Timorous Deep ground spawn. The Shaman powder I got from making a deal with a dial-a-port druid with them asking their fellow guild mates and selling me one during prime time weekend hours. The Greyish Bone Chips had to be obtained directly from Karnor's. I got an Invis to Undead at the zone line from someone I met in passing and had my own Invis up. With both spells active, I made my way to the usual warlord camp and waited all of 35 minutes during a weekend prime time hour slot.

Canni 2 is damn incredible if you get it right at 39. Don't pay the EC tunnel price - just plan ahead and grab it with some effort.

[loramin]

Canni 2 is damn incredible if you get it right at 39. Don't pay the EC tunnel price - just plan ahead and grab it with some effort.

This. It's not even that much effort if you do it right; it's not like it takes a group or even a trio.

The KC groups will happily give you that item, the diamond dust is just a ground spawn, and the clay isn't "no drop" so you can buy it in EC (or off people killing in CoM) ... really the Yun Shaman is the only hard part, and if you can grab a higher level on their way to Sebilis to help you out, he'll be easy to them.

[NegaStoat]

In regards to the Scaled Mystic Armor quests - go for it. You are going to be leveling in Kurns, Lake of Ill Omen, Warsliks Woods, and possibly off of Exiled Iksar in Swamp of No Hope by the Trak Zone line, so you might as well pick up your quest drops as you go. The obvious first piece of advice is to not kill a single Burynai during your leveling. The second piece of advice is to abuse your pet charm in Lake of Ill Omen on a tiger to assist with getting the Spirit Caller beads - those goblins cast MEAN spells.

I skipped the bracers and the gauntlets because I didn't feel like paying the cost of the gems for the stats and there were cheaper / better options at EC tunnel. Grachnist being perma farmed for the earring = free gloves if you just walk over there during prime time hours. The rest of the quest pieces I got just for fun since I was getting the quest drops anyway. Lvl 39 was when I got the + Wisdom helmet piece from whacking the named Burynai in Kurns, which required some careful placement for getting mana and not pulling a mess in the basement.

You will positively, absolutely want a spell gem refresh item. It IS possible to get a https://wiki.project1999.com/Star_of_Eyes if you do all of the steps during prime time hours and are careful about your scouting, and buying some pots of Undead Awareness. Alternatively, getting a Spyglass from a tinker or from the Velious giant drop. The most ease-of-use options are the Shrunken Goblin Skull Earring followed by the Black Fur Boots you can get much later.

Lastly, if you do take up Blacksmithing for making your own Banded armor, keep in mind that you can give a set of Banded to a charmed pet (less one bracer) and you can recover the armor at the end of your leveling session as long as you kill the pet yourself and loot the corpse. Likewise, you can give armor to your spirit wolf pet for a lengthy leveling session as well if desired. It will increase the durability of your pet in taking hits IMMENSELY as you make your way to 49. For what it's worth - you can perform armor combines in a forge while maintaining Invisibility. This was pretty useful to me as I was an Iksar doing some quick smith work in zones where I was pretty unwelcome.

[Jimjam]

^ If you want to protect your Burynai faction, also don't contribute to kills of the 'Thick Boned Skeleton' in Kurn's Tower.

You know how his skeleton got so thicc? She got dem badger bones, and the Burynai don't appreciate you messing with that.

^ Regarding charmed pets, I don't believe animals can equip items (they certainly don't seem to equip weapons), so making a suit of banded for a charmed large dire wolf in perma, a gator in CT or whatever may end up being a bit of a fool's errand.

That said, it takes about 100pp to raise skill / brute force a set of banded, which is roughly what a player would charge you for a suit anyway. If your character makes itself a suit to wear and ever makes a suit to sell anyone else you are likely in the green.