Which race to pick for Shaman?
 

First off, i cant super twink but i could adequately twink with a few thousand plat.

I know about trolls getting a necklace with snare. Is this instant and unlimited charges? That no other race can get. I know iksars cant use JBB. Im leaning towards iksar right now because i like the regen, and barbarians look bad and ogre/troll i dont really wanna be one of them with no shoes either.

Im also thinking of creating this char and not giving it any gear to twink with, or any money. I kind of wanna play a new char and earn every piece of gear or items all on his own, or in a group or with my guild. Ive never had this experience and i think itd be fun. This seems funner than twinking and racing to 60 to raid! I think playing like its my first character on the server could be fun and rewarding.

So could this lovely community inform me with some other reasons to play a certain race for a shaman?

Thanks for the help.

I guess theres alotta threads already covering this >,>

Ogre or fail.

Is this pullyn trains the monk? Who is my boy???

As you said, this has all been covered before, but personally my advice is to play whatever seems the most fun to you. No racial powers matter so much that any race is "unplayable", so if you want to be an iksar be an iksar.

But if you want to ignore that advice my personal ranking would be ...

1. Ogre - immunity from stun is a big deal (and being the second-fastest leveler doesn't hurt)
2. Troll - regen is great, but it becomes less signifant the more you level
3. Barbarian - fastest levelers, and being on the good faction is convenient
4. Iksar - again, regen is cool, but you'll really miss your JBB (and everyone hates you and you have a big exp penalrty)

Personally I went Barbarian, both for nostalgia (my first EQ character ever was a Barbarian Shaman) and because I wanted to save time on leveling/factioning.

According to the Wiki, the Shaman is a base 0% exp adjusted class. Barbarian is +5% exp required, Ogre 15%, Troll 20%, Iksar 20%.

With that considered, the penalty might as well be thrown out the window in consideration of Groups wanting you or not as well as what you personally gain in return as an End Game character in level. Troll and Iksar Regen is Kind Of A Big Deal with Velious Values (when we get it). It's almost a big deal with current Kunark values, excepting (some) Shaman can wear a Fungi. Ogre stun Immunity is a WORLD of difference in solo'ing in general, and solo'ing Summon capable targets in specific.

Ogres and Trolls really are the min-max best. But I love my lizard and wouldn't trade.

Edit - made some useless commentary on starting gear, then re read you were starting from scratch on purpose.

I went with a barb because its really nice being able to bank/sell everywhere. A troll would probably be the best choice because of the regen though, its like a free fungi! Personally I love the look of a barb shaman though :)


I

QFT.

I also rolled a Barb. Though any of the other three are better for min/max purposes, gear (see Epic, Fungi, JBB to a lesser extent) and spells (Torpor) really even the field towards the end.

Last time I checked it was a Barb Shaman that was mastering the Solo Artist Challenge - take from that what you wish.

Trolls who worship innoruuk can get a clickie snare neck (must equip cast time 6.0) and it only stops runners at 10% instead of a druids at 20%.

Trolls who worship cazic can get a clickie undead fear neck (cast time 2.0)

Troll's probably the way to go.

I went barb, and i enjoy it, but if I could do it again I'd go troll.

As mentioned, Trolls have better itemization than iksar or barbarian. They get a choice of clicky necks, and they can wear jaundiced bone (iksar can't) and ivandyr's hopp (barb can't).

The regen bonus over barbs greatly outweighs the faction advantage if you're untwinked. The advantage is literally double hp regen until lvl 24, but even after that it's non-negligible. The faction advantage of barbarians is offset for non-twinks by the incredible cash earning leveling spots that quickly ruin factions, like sister isles and HHK guards. If you want to gear your self up from scratch, you'll probably have limited banking even as a barb. A troll might actually have more accessible banks than my barb does.