The Spirit Realm

Well, if you do go with the sk, then gearing one up is not too difficult..... I leveled one up about a year ago, and this is the upgrade path that I followed.

- buy/camp 1hs and 2hs from Acrylia Caverns, 1hb from CoM, and just browse the bazaar for a 2hb and piercing weapons
- you also looking for WoS drops from the bazaar- most are recommended lvl 66, so you can equip and "grow" into the gear
- Armguards of Repentance sell for around 1-4k
- Look for Magnetic gear
- camp yourself a haste belt from fellspine
- camp/buy a sarnak battle shield
- buy /make skinspike potions lvls 1-5
- buy a Blade of Disruption for later

Level until 55- preferably in old / new hotzones for the nifty drops along the way
(Head to griegs and pick up the melee earring, the ph is a human model that paths towards the courtyard near the Scarlet Desert zoneout)
Pick up an ornate bp mold if you can- the clicky on it will do you well until your mid-60's.

Level until 65, knock out run3 along the way- then grind some tanking aa's at 65. (This is the trick, the more aa'ed your tank is at 65 and on, then the harder content you can box.... obviously.)

At level 66, there should be some new bazaar upgrades available that are required lvl 66.

Box the arcstone firetails for BP and Leg marks for your sk, and a BP mark for your shaman (its a great Oh shit! clicky).
Head to relic at 68 for the earring and ring quest.

Do Dain 1/2/3 for the shield / aug, and hit up the icefall bears at 71 for an even better shield.
While in Icefall, wait for a BP mold to rot..... it's going to happen.

The Spirit Hunter Cloak quest will also last you forever, you will be able to box the Tree mob, and many other pieces will probably rot while you are hunting your bp /leg marks....

Outside of this, just collect up plat along the way to fill in any parts through the bazaar. Also, if you can find /organize a PoTime raid- do it. PoTime is still a golden candyland for tanks due to the high ac values of the gear (AC>HPs).

You will also eventually be able to box most of the sk's epic 1.5 except the murkglider school leader and the final fight in WW....

Wow thanks for the well thought out post!!!!

Im sure I'll get the haste belt from Fellspine soon enough while working on Alchemy (241 atm) - I got him to pop twice the other night when I farmed there, and I've gotten his belt before (long time ago). Also, I have tons of skinspikes VI already made up.

I have the MoSS from CoM (actually left several to rot the other night PLing my monk there hehe) and a few other decent weapons that will do for the sake of PLing.

I have some of the pieces needed to make the magnetized armor, but my smithing is only 181 or so - so I'll have to look into what Id need to do with making it myself - or I have a decent amount of pp I can spend to just buy it. Also, luckily, with WoS being a hot zone, most of the good gear is real plentiful and cheap in the bazaar (got the stave of eternal for 500pp for my monk =D) EDIT - come to think of it I think I have a pair of the Armguards of Repentance on my baz mule atm too!

From 68+ I am familiar with most the quests you listed (bear pelt wrists, PoR ring/earring/cloak) as Ive done them on my shammy.

I'll start work on my SK tonight and see how it goes =D

Thanks again,

Good stuff! The shadowknight really is the perfect complement for the shaman, as both classes are really endurance fighters. AoE aggro is godly for keeping your shaman out of harms way, and your shaman will compensate for the sk's lackluster dps with Champion, Panther, and Epic 1.5. Also remember that sk's get the same pet aa's (plus a few others), so that gives the shaman 3 targets for group panther. My sk is only around 10k hitpoints and 2450ac, and I have boxed so far....

Kunark Dragons
Kelorek Dar
Cleric / Druid 1.0
Vhakiz the Shade
PoJ trials
Korucast
Tree Guy in Arcstone
Midnight for TSS arm molds
Aramin the Spider guardian
8th Coldain Shawl run
plus others....

Mobs I am close to taking down....

Derakor the Vindicator
WoS "timed" names
Most Arcstone cloak named
Carprin Cycle / Bert / Grummus
Tormax
Klandicar / Woushi / etc. (just haven't found them up yet)
plus many more....

Everquest is a game of inches, and that is shown very well in these two classes. You will be amazed how one small aa purchase can change the strength of your box. (Better tanking = less mana used for healing = more dps).

Also keep in mind that sk's once keyed for inner Vergalid mines can solo the orb of duskmold quest for a free symbol clicky....

Bards have more tools then monks for pulling though monks also do have good tools.

In an outdoor zone Bards ahve selos which is a big edge over teh run 8 that both monks and bards ahve.

Bards fade, monks feighn (and imitrate death). While this is an advantage for the bard it does use mana, on the monk side unless we want to stay down 2 min (or pop and drop and hope for luck) we need to use imitate death to clear aggro which with AA is currently 6 min use.

Monks have a sinlge target lull lasts 2 ticks castable every 20 seconds (which costs end) bards can lull multiple targets before lull wears off. Differnce is that monk lull never fails if the mob can be lulled. However at least to me the multple lull is an advantge.

Monks have an AE mez if they are not on aggro. This is a very useful pulling tool, and allows us to sometimes make up for our inabilty to lull multiple mobs. It is also an Endurance hog. And no it can not effectively be used in camp since if the monk has aggro on any mob it will not work. Bards also can mez multiple mobs in camp so to me advantage bards.

Bards have a few more tools for pulling their lull/mez/snare/speed/fade outweigh the monks tricks, however if you are not concerned about speed either can pull off some amazing tricks.

For a raid, either can pull, with the raiding force I am with currently, monks usually pull, though bards sometimes do. This is however because monk/bard class leader is a monk and prefers monks to pulling. Eitehr class is quite capable of it.

Bards however IMHO tend to be rarer and can bring more to a raid via resist songs, overhaste etc.

Oh and on one last random note. Bioluminescent Orb usually lands in Frostcrypt raids which can make splitting easier

If you're focus is on helping your raid, I'd go with the bard for several reasons. They're incredibly versatile, bard+shaman is the basis of a dps group, using these two in combination makes getting resistant mobs debuffed alot faster (use Harmony of Sound with a percussion instrument equipped, Ancient: Chaos Chant from GoD if you can get it) than just a shaman and you don't have to ask for help. AE mana for the raid, AE resists, AE snare and slow, cures, group mana pump...

In a group situation, Psalm of Veeshan makes charm mobs like the Pyrilens douable. They're viable tanks as well since they're plate (get the agro axes from DoN and put Enraging Blow augs on, then load up three DoTs), you just have to give him 5% or so to establish agro. On inc, they can slow the mob, mez multiples in a bad situation (and do it forever since it doesn't take mana), Highsun a named when the crap hits the fan, add over 200 points of damage shield for PL groups, 200 AC with maxed song mods, toss on a spell interrupting DoT, group DA to train your group past tough spots. With thier overhaste aura running, I'd say they bring as much to a group as a pure dps class and a well geared bard can disc for over 1k dps. All that and they're absolutely the most unique class in the game. Nothing else is remotely simiilar.

Just to update - Ive gotten my SK to 55 and I think I'll hold him here for a little while to get all his SoL AA. I have him pretty well geared atm in my opinion, but still have a couple slots I want to upgrade, but Im in no real rush.

Right now Im mainly looking to snag a couple items from GoruKar, primarily the:

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=54177 from Ternsmochin (100pt lifesap aug) which I assume I'll put in my BoD

and the http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=54858 from the Blackfeather Raid Leader.

With that 100pt lifetap aug + 90pt lifetap proc buff from the ornate BP in addition to my lifetap spell (210 until I quest for the level 47? one), I think I'll be able to maintain a decent solo pace.

I am wondering if I should swap a couple items I have:

1) Back - Im using http://lucy.allakhazam.com/item.html?id=19714 35AC is nice =) but I just got the AC watch quest back item with more hps (45 net) and fero1 - I know the normal calc is 15hp = 1ac, so that says I should keep the 35ac item on, but what value should I give fero1?

2) Range - Im currently using the http://lucy.allakhazam.com/item.html?id=80118 18ac - should I bother farming a http://lucy.allakhazam.com/item.html?id=62314 (30ac) I spent a day at work camping this in Velks with no luck - but I dont mind spending more time checking in every 20min if you'll think it'd be worth it.


Thanks a ton for the advice so far guys and any more advice will be appreciated!

I am an AC whore don't get me wrong but its not 15hp = 1ac, closer to 4 - 7hp = 1ac range. I mean yes ac is godly, but you don't want to over value you it, if you can get a piece of gear that is similar AC wise, but has decent HP instead of just an item with pure AC (Lets say a 30ac item versus an item with 23ac +50hp, Ill take that 7ac hit for the HP in most cases at the lower levels, at higher levels your already padded with more augs, so you could reasonably just keep the more AC)

Since your shammy will be the main source of dps/tanking/rooting for a while, I would suggest lvl up to 75 and then get a few AA. You might want to check what AA xp is like at lvl 70+ (seems to be a golden lvl for AAxp).

I would suggest doing katta missions when your sk hits lvl 60 to get faction and orum for spells/gear and do the Valdeholm bracer and shield quests. Still wearing those bracers myself, even though praetorian is better tankwise, as they are my main source for FT.

Have a look at http://www.evilgamer.net for some AA advice. There is a sticky in the forum with a suggested best AA path.