Some noob questions

[unsunghero]

Heya all, just started on p99 last night, had wanted to play for years but the setup process seemed daunting to me. Turns out it wasn’t that bad! I played the original vanilla EQ a lot but had alt-itis, so I think my highest leg char was only like 38, which a bunch of lower level alts

Even though I don’t remember what I’m doing, already at lev 5 on chanter

Some noob questions:

I figured out the best view for me is first person zoomed out to become third person. This way I can use right click mouselook to turn the char. But unfortunately there is no way to use the left mouse button to look around in this view; the left mouse button does nothing. So, when I’m fighting in a dangerous area, I have to mouseturn (right click and hold) my char around the mob in circles to be able to spin the camera around 360 degrees to look around me to make sure something horrible isn’t pathing my way. Is there any way to use left mouse to spin the camera without turning the char? Or is my way the best/only way to keep an eye on surroundings when fighting?

Next question: weapon skills. I know as a chanter I won’t be meleeing for very long, but I wanted to at least try to keep my weapon skills and defense relatively up there. They are all lagging behind, and I still don’t even have 1h blunt at all (just pierce and 2hb). Do I have to be fighting something that gives exp in order to get melee/defense skill ups? If so, should I stall out on leveling and buy a junk 1h blunt in order to raise them as high as I can now before mobs will start completely wrecking me in melee range? I’m worried about keeping my defense skill up. However the idea of stopping leveling to let the lowest possible blue con mob beat on me for hours doesn’t seem all that appealing

Ty for any help with these questions. May ask more as a reply to this