First let me preface this with welcome to P99. My one piece of advice is enjoy the journey and don't view the 'end-game' as the goal. Playing the game is the goal.
That said there are a few things you should know. Regardless of what you have heard, Shamans are fairly poor soloers (especially ungeared) early on. Your one redeeming quality at low levels is that Inner Fire is the most efficient heal any class gets for a while (2 hp per 1 mana). At 24 you become somewhat fun/useful with Regen+Canni. At 34 you now have dogdog and the ability to somewhat solo, although not very quickly/efficiently. Once you hit your 40s/50s you are really coming into your own as slow becomes more and more important. Epic / Fungi / JBB are really class defining items and are what make the class so strong late game.
That said, Shamans are very very fun to level, although they start off slow. They get more powerful ever level and become more complex as well. They are a class for the long haul, not the short. If that sounds like what you want then you picked the right class. If not, maybe one such as a necro or enchanter would suit you better.
Don't fret too much over gear. Once you get dogdog you can reliably solo Treants in SK and sisters in OoT and get several hundred plat per hour. Do that for a few hours and you can now afford a full set of jewelery, banded, a decent weapon, etc. The gear you would get from 'farming' as a low level untwinked Shaman will be negligible. Just focus on making friends and grouping. Once you hit your 30s and 40s you will have the ability to do some pretty good cash camps. You can start gearing up then. Also - start your epic early (~30) as it gives you a sick shield you can solo.
Welcome to the server, and don't be afraid to give Red a shot if you get bored on Blue.
Zaril from Red. Shoot me a tell if you come over.
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