Faction and quests

[toofly]

Hey, guys, I was reading about certain quests I may want to do as a Shaman. One of them was the Testament of Venear and the other was Paw of Opolla(sorry if I spelled either of those wrong). My question is, will I be able to do those quests as a troll? Some of those require me to go to towns like Qeynos and I was wondering if I will be able to do the quests there. or am I pretty much out of luck until I improve my faction? Thanks guys.

[loramin]

Generic advice: for just about any caster you should forget about gear until higher levels and focus on leveling.

For one thing, both of those items, while popular for Wisdom casters in general, aren't so great for Shaman because we want Stamina/HP a lot more than Wisdom/HP. More importantly though, you'll progress your character much faster by XPing then by questing these items.

Imagine that you go quest either item and it takes you 10 hours (which, if you need to do faction work, is probably a big underestimate). You'll get gear that raises your max values a small amount. When you hunt, that will translate in to maybe one extra DoT before you have to med, which will mean ... maybe earning 0.33% extra XP per level? Let's use that number to keep the math simple: if you do one of these quests at level 15 then get a replacement item at level 45 you'll wind up at 45 with 10% (of a level's XP) more that you would have without the item.

Now imagine instead you just go level without questing either item. If you earn 10% XP an hour then those 10 hours will add up to 100% by the time you reach 45 and get a replacement item.

Either way at roughly level 45 you will be much better positioned to get gear, so you can replace whatever you got at level 15 (if anything). This means either approach gets you to the same place by 45, but getting the item resulted in 10% more (of a level's) XP, while skipping the item resulted in 100% more XP.

My numbers are rough, but the overall logic holds with any reasonable numbers you can use. Adding to your maxes (via gear) just doesn't impact your leveling speed much, but leveling up makes a huge difference in the gear you can get, so it's almost always better (as a caster) to wear whatever gear you pick up while leveling ("thanks for the skull cap Gnoll pup") and only worry about gear in the 40's and 50's.

[toofly]

Hey, thanks, loramin. That actually makes a lot of sense. One last gear-related question: I have read over the forums a bit and have seen some posts recommending shamans buy a little bit of banded mail while they level as it is fairly inexpensive and easy to find(EC tunnel). Would you agree with that or should I just not get any gear until 45+?

[loramin]

So banded is great: it's cheap enough that you can use your leveling plat to buy it and it adds AC, which works for you the whole fight (unlike extra max HP/Mana). The problem is finding a banded seller, as most blacksmiths now have too much money to be bothered to sell banded.

So what you're weighing is:

• how much XP you'll lose in the time it takes to run to EC, wait in the tunnel until you find a banded seller, then run back
  vs.
• how much XP you'll gain as a result of wearing your spiffy new armor instead of gnoll scraps

For the sake of argument let's say banded saves you 2% HP vs gnoll scraps, making you rest less and earn 2% more XP per level. Over the course of 30 levels that adds up to (again, with rough math) 60% of a level.

Since it's hard to say how long you'll be waiting in EC it's hard to say whether you could have earned more XP just sticking to you current hunting spot wearing gnoll scraps. I don't think there's a clear right answer here. Since neither way will be obviously better, I'd say run to EC if you're tired of leveling and want a break, or stay where you are if you're happy leveling.

If you do go, try and make sure you have enough plat first so you only have to make one trip. If possible, use the EC tunnel forum here to find a vendor first, so you don't waste hours sitting (in-game) in the EC tunnel. And if you have any extra money consider grabbing a piece of totemic or jaundiced bone armor; sometimes they can be very affordable and offer much better AC than banded.

[loramin]

Oh, and I forgot something very important: fun. Obviously this is a game, so while everything I'm telling you is designed to maximize your leveling, please ignore me if you think you'll have more fun shopping then leveling. Level 60 will always be there for you someday [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[cubiczar]

On the subject of banded, much of the problem is getting the molds for large races. This means a trip to feerrott or maybe grobb. Given that profit on a full suit is maybe 50p or so the trip down there just isn't worth it. Now if you go buy the molds first you might have more luck.

In fact if you buy the molds and bring them to ec I'll do the combines for the cost of the sheet metal. Just send me a pm or if you see cubiczar in game send me a tell.

[SunDrake]

I'll even offer to buy the molds in Oggok and bring em to EC for ya. Then you can take cubicczar up on his offer and invest very little time in gaining a set of basic armor. Message me here on the forums or send me a tell on Chouffe.

[toofly]

Wow thanks everyone for being such a big help. You have a very pragmatic way of looking at things, loramin. I think I will try to get some banded. Cubiczar and SunDrake, I will hit you guys up soon. Been a little busy today and going to be busy tomorrow until the evening, but next time I play I'll go see what the sheets of metal cost. Does anyone remember off hand? I am sure I won't have a big problem coming up with the cash but I checked wiki and it doesn't really say(no big deal I can log in tomorrow and check). That would be a big help and I'd like to get the supplies and arrange a deal some time this week when you all aren't busy. I will let you guys know when I got the stuff!

[cubiczar]

Metal sheets are around 1p each (depending on faction/cha) they aren't available in oggok or grobb as far as I know. They aren't on any of the smithing vendors I've been to at any rate although I'll admit I go to oggok for large banded most of the time cause I know the city better. I've made the metal sheets in oggok so I know they have the materials to do everything, its just a pain because the ore is heavy and isn't right next to the forge.

Anyhow for a full suit you are talking something like 30p worth of metal sheets, probably a bit less than that but I don't sell enough to actually keep track. I'm happy to do the combines and spot the cash for the metal sheets until the combines are done so I wouldn't worry about them (according to the wiki cabilis is the only evil city with metal sheets).

[loramin]

Originally Posted by toofly [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

You have a very pragmatic way of looking at things, loramin.

[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] Welcome to ForumQuest: when we're all not playing we waste our time here trying to figure out the most efficient ways to do things.

You should see the threads about Iksar Necromancers: people write entire pages of calculations just to prove how inefficient it is to play any other race!