How are Shamans without the expensive spells and items?

[Solist]

Make any class. Get to 60. Join vanquish or riot. Farm dkp warm bodying on bots & RTE and AFK in VP FTE, buy BiS tradable for 'alts' (tag a level 5 monk, warrior, etc to buy them AoW legs/helms/KT boots). Sell that shit and fund your twink of choice and join the other guild.

P99 101. Doing anything else is borderline waste of your time. Buying spells on p99 is dumb, they're all 1dkp in vanquish/riot, log on a VP bot each dragon and just buy what you need. For all other spells they're in the bank.

[Danth]

Folks who've been on P99 awhile are inevitably going to talk about things that aren't possible anymore due to the many changes the game has underent over the course of its now-lengthy history. Nothing wrong with that; today's newbie will get there too if he sticks around long enough.

The main problem with the most effective money-making methods for leveling players is that they also tend to be extremely boring. Grinding guards for six months can make a person a decent stack of cash....if he's still in the game at all and hasn't quit due to burnout. Playing the game organically as it was meant for, going around to the different zones, etc, is usually more fun but tends to leave the player relatively broke. The lower- and middle-range items that may drop from such areas seldom have much value these days due to P99's age and relative limited supply of new players entering the game leading to depressed demand for lower-end goods.

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Without the handful of expensive high-end spells and items, a shaman is still at least a mid-range class in terms of its strength and utility. It won't be a "solo god" without them, but it's a valuable smallman group partner and contributes to any of the popular higher-end group areas with the right team. Treat lacking those spells/items as requiring you to add about +1 or +2 people over what the kitted-out shaman would need. If he can solo something, at worst the incomplete shaman can duo or trio the same thing. For the most part, gear at level 60 doesn't so much open up new areas as it tends to reduce the number of people needed to do stuff. Group content becomes smallman, smallman becomes solo, etc. The lesser-geared people can do the same stuff, just maybe need more folks to do it.

Shaman, even at its strongest, tends to be slow-and-steady. It's the tortise compared to the enchanters' hare.

Danth