Advice for Shaman Epic.

[BahamutDF]

Hey guys. I'm pretty new here, I finally decided to join the server and honestly, it's the best gaming decision I've made in a long time.

I'm a long time vet, having played from 2000-2004 on live then again on Fippy for a year in 2011-2012. Both times around, EQ was the best gaming experience of my life. Easily.

The only epic I've ever completed in the classic era was the Warrior epic, oddly enough. It's only because back then I was a no-lifer and in a 2nd tier raiding guild. As their second most senior tank, as you can imagine the epic was pushed heavily and really all I had to do was show up for raids. I shudder to think what that epic is like doing without the above circumstances.

This time around, my circumstances are very different. I don't have nearly the time to commit to this game as I once did, hence my decision to roll a Shaman. I want a class I can play alone and equally well with other people.

I don't know much about the Shaman epic quest, other than it's supposed to be fairly simple. The questions I have are:

- When is the right time, during the leveling process, to begin working on the initial steps of the epic?
- Is it NECESSARY to do the initial steps? I've heard a lot about skipping, but it seems like doing that requires a faction grind. The question here is, is it worth it to skip parts and just raise faction,or is that really just trading one evil for another? Which would you guys recommend? (I've read the other topics, what I'm really asking is which route is, well, easier/better - faction or just doing it)
- Given this is my main, what is the overall easiest way to go about obtaining it, and what can I expect to be the most difficult parts? Will I need a competent guild to complete it or can I get by with groups of friends?

Thanks a lot for your time guys, really appreciate it.

[Velili]

I can probably help you a little, recently completed mine. What I did, and found to be pretty simple... I followed the quest line up to and including defeating the dire wolf (Black fur boots, nice to have) and then I proceeded faction grind through CoM pages (Gathering 6 pages, combining, handing in, repeat) If you follow the quest line up to the point I did -- you should be abouttt 40ish? from there you can grind out shaman pages in CoM while getting uber XP at the same time which is very nice. Took me 7-8 completions(?) -- Note that you know when you are done when you get the message : "your TrueSpirit faction cannot possibly get any better"

After that the hardest part is obtaining a Child's Tear in Fear -- I camped outside of fear for a bit asking guilds going in to fight if I could tag along and possibly loot a Child's tear (never expecting they would let me, just tagging along in case they would) I was lucky and got the tear that way. THEN the 2nd hardest part I would say is gathering a small force to take on Rak'Ashiir.

This epic is quite easy compared to other classes -- especially on this server (at least its doable)

Any other questions you can PM me here, or /tell me in game.

[Raurackl]

I recently completed mine either. I found somewhere close to level 40 was an excellent time to start for two reasons (I followed the quest outlined here by strosz):

- I have done the woe/envy/marr quest several times to get my faction up to the point where I can do the CoM reports over and over. All the quests leading up to this point (and which should be done as Velili stated) don't require much fighting, in this step however you need to kill a pally and a sk who both are around level 35. While doable at lower levels, I figure by level 39 they are safe enough to kill without any hassle.

- Conveniently around level 40 is also the time where CoM becomes a really good option for xp. So if you are ready for reports by then you can head to CoM and join a stable or a temple group for great xp while the reports pretty much do themselves.

That way, once you hit level 46 you will most likely be done with your faction work and ready to hit pof for the scale. This will help you get your epic early, or at least by the time you hit 50 when it becomes clickable.

[Estu]

It's definitely worthwhile to faction grind instead of going through the quest properly. You can basically start whenever you want to, though you'll need to be level 46 to go to Plane of Fear. The three main ways to faction grind are (1) do the tiny gem hand-in repeatedly (2) do the woe/envy/marr part repeatedly (3) do the CoM pages repeatedly. I would personally recommend (3) since you can EXP in CoM while you're at it.

You will need a guild's help to get the child's tear. The final fight isn't too hard and you could do it with a solid 6-man group, I think. You might want to join a guild at 46 anyway just because there are casual guilds out there that don't expect your playtime to be huge and will be a fun experience for you, but if not, you can always ask guilds to tag along and loot extra tears that drop.

[Conky]

I got mine around level 16-18 around bought the MQ and got ports and ran the pegleg gem to freeport about 80 times till max faction and got epic. As long as your faction is maxed you can hand in for epic.