need help @@

[seriouscat]

So not only am I new to the Shaman class, I'm new to EQ all together.
I've been sifting through post after post, and board after board, but I just can't find info that's very useful. So I'm turning to the elite people of the boards for help.
Here's the laydown, and the info I'm trying to locate:
1. I'm brand new to Everquest. by brand new, I mean started playing late last night new. I've read most of everything I could find about "starting out" or " newbie guides," but really the info isn't of any quality. The general "do your starter armor quests" and "go to <insert letters here> and grind/quest" are out of date and really, confusing to be honest. I'm not by any means a MMO retrard, but I'm not up to speed on the lingo, as there's 10 years of it to learn in zero time.
2. I'm really looking for a starting point to the class, where to go, what to focus on (item wise), and most importantly, how to even get there.
3. I'm going to be soloing/duoing 99% of the time if that helps.
4. I start out in a place called glooming deep, and then get ported to Crecent Reach upon leaving if that helps.
5. I'm only lvl 10

If anyone would mind helping the most basic noob out it would be greatly appreciated. I've sifted through so many forums only to find really, really outdated information on starting out, that not only do none of the guides/info line up anymore, they generally contradict each other now. (ie, go to this zone, but not that zone. then the next guide will say the opposite.)

[Whitman]

The city zone Crescent Reach is the 'base' of expansion...12?...called The Serpent's Spine. Staying in connected zones only, you can level to at least 75 in just that expansion, doing quests that for the most part have the best 'return on investment' you will find in EQ, at least for the trek from 1through 60. The expansion covers 13 huge zones and should keep you busy for a long time.

You can also click on certain books that are on 'display' on a short plinth in certain zones in each expansion. The one in the TSS expansion is in Blightfire Moors, the zone you get to when you run (North-East?) out of Crescent Reach. If you click such a book, you get teleported (ported for short) to the Plane of Knowledge (PoK). Think New York Grand Central times 50. Or better yet; the mother of all airport hubs. In PoK, there are 'stones' you click to get to various zones; in the zone you see a book, in PoK you see a stone. And the stones are often marked with the name of a city zone that is NEAR the point where you end up when you click it. Thus, if you click the Cabilis stone, you end up, not in Cabilis, but in the Field of Bone, from which you can run to Cabilis. In Pok, you will find a HUGE library, where you can get many of your spells up to level 65, and there is a number of tradeskill vendors and tradeskill 'containers' (brew barrel, forge, pottery wheel etc), two banks and access to the Bazaar where players buy and sell stuff to each other, and best of all: accessto the Guild Lobby, where you can post an ad that you are looking for a guild, and look through guilds' postings to maybe find a guild that suits you (see below about guilds).

You'll want to use your in-game atlas to find your way around. I think default is the Backspace key. You probably want to visit http://www.mapfiend.net/ and look for the link 'map packs' in the menu on the left. Choose 'ALL Maps', download to your desktop, and unzip the maps into your EQ/maps folder, then restart EQ. that should give you 99% of all the maps in the game, including nice markers for quest NPCs and other nice info.

Your new best friend (after this site) is http://everquest.allakhazam.com/. Go there to look up hard facts such as which spells you can get and where to get them, where to find mob X and that sort of thing. Nearly all quest walkthroughs are there, so once you have a quest, just check Alla to see how others have done the tasks - if you get stuck that is. The point of EQ is to have fun doing things, and following someone else's footsteps is always less glorious, somehow. So my advice to you is; try on your own, the sense of accomplishment is nothing to laugh at. Plus, if you try, and THEN ask for help, people are much more likely to go out of their way to help you. On Allakhazam main page, you'll find a link to 'Everquest Forum', in that forum are two stickied posts that you will want to read (or at least browse).

Learn to use the 'Reference Desk' tab above this forum. If I had a dollar for every time I referred someone to that tab, I'd be posting from a lodge in the Alps rather than this god-forsaken wet and grey place they say is my home

You write you'll be soloing or duoing most of the time; my advice to you is forget that. The vast majority of the challenges you will encounter have been designed for groups. Of course, some of the 10 year old encounters can now be easily soloed by a low-level character because we have access to gear that was considered Godly just a few years ago, but until you have found your feet, a guild is pretty much the only way to get anywhere. Once you've learened to play, you can solo nearly any class up to at least 60, but at some point you'll once again hit a brick wall in terms of what you can do. Join a guild.

And most of all: Welcome to EQ. If you are on the Antonius Bayle server (aka the Euro server), look up Boneheads of Butcherblock, we have a fairly steady inflow of people returning to EQ after years of absence, so you won't be all alone in your journey.

[seriouscat]

thanks for the quick advice. I went to pok and allakazham, put two and two together, and everything is making a lot more sense. The reason I said soloing/duoing most the time is because I play at odd times of the day, in very short bursts ( in mmo standards, maybe 1-2 hrs at a time, few days a week). Like for example, it's 6am, and I have an hour before work .
Also, it's not that I don't want to blaze my own trail of glory and explore the game, it's that now, 10 years later, there's too much OF the game to go out and explore. Now I can look for zones I can quest in and start from there.

[Kruzar]

Being around level 10.. I assume that you completed most of the tutorial..

I am also going on the assumption that you have all the expansions... and this assumes you are in PoK

With the new expansion, we were introduced to mercenaries... if you do not have one yet... go get one... they are super cheap at low levels, and they are a dream for soloing (or moloing... soloing with a merc)

Next step.. I am assuming you are a shammy...since you are on the shammy board.... summon your pet if you can.. (I am sorry, but it has been awhile.. and I can't remember when exactly we get our first pet.. I think level 9.. but maybe higher...

Third step.. you should now have a pet.. a merc.. and your shammy.. nice little couple of players/pets... go find the Guild Lobby or /ooc in PoK.... Looking for Temp for me, my pet, and my merc.... With a little luck, you should find a nice cleric who will buff this spell on you...and it will add quite a bit of hitpoints... Temp is the main buff lowbies need, but get whatever buffs you can get in the guild lobby, don't really fret if you don't get everything.. but always make sure you have temperance until you are up into your 40s (think 45 or 46) and you can then be given Virtue. If you want to beef up your pet.. look for some pet toys, but I personally would not spend much investment here, since dogdog is basically there to help out a little.

Final step.. find newbie zones and start slaughtering... try to stick to hotzones if you want to level up a little faster, and find groups.. and just keep solidly progressing.. there are a ton of lists out there on newbie zone paths.... and they are all pretty decent...

Group when you can... have your merc up when you can't.. and just have fun.

(Edit: Just for clarification... Temp... is Temperance... )

[Kruzar]

And couple other things that I just thought of....

Find the guy in PoK who sells Deluxe Toolboxes... he is a tinkering vendor, and is right behind the big bank...Fill your bank with these, and carry these on your person for all the good loot you will get out there...

Use Alla.. to find all of your spell vendors, and I would buy your spells for several levels. It is not uncommon to move up several levels in a couple of hours...

For gear.. do the quests that are out there for newbie stuff... look into defiant stuff as you level... I think you can start to equip it in your 20s..Find the bazaar..this is where players sells stuff to other players... also be sure to look at the merchants in the various zones... sometime people sell real good stuff for lower level players to the merchants for quick cash.

Look at possibly finding a guild... there are guild boards in the lobby that can give you an idea of guilds that are looking for players.... there are lots of family style guilds out there that will take anyone. (from the Guild Hall there are ports that are nice to have access to if nothing else)

[Kriyn Nutzforcatnip]

First shaman pet is around 32 I believe.

[Kruzar]

Pet can't be that high... I swear they lowered it when they changed the spell levels... its been a long time since I was a lowbie....

[Bigcat Daddy-o]

I think it is still 32. I might be wrong, but just had a look through shaman spells and the earlist I could find was 32.

Also, when you are buff requesting in Guild lobby, also ask for any shaman willing to cast Harness of Soul. It stacks with the temp and can be cast on you when you are lvl 1. Higher buffs than that become lvl blocked.

If you are looking for speed of leveling, then there should be some basic guides out there on doing that.

Paludal caverns used to be the leveling hot spot till around mid 20s.

There was a great read a couple of years back showing the path that Fuzzy (IIRC) took. I wil ltry to find that post and put a link to it.

[Bigcat Daddy-o]

Read this post

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1616

and the subsequent ones by Fuzzy. I think the information is still reasonably relevant. Definetely add a merc to your adventures. I would suggest a healer at lower levels, then a tank when you can do the healing. \
Unless you plan on root rotting, then you wouldn't want the merc so much, but once you add the pup will probably want a merc tanker.

[seriouscat]

wow, thanks for all the fast, informational responses. I appreciate it. Off of what everyone said I'm going to get a merc tomorrow, and maybe try to find a guild too. I don't think I'll speed level, but more casually just explore around, and try to see as many zones as I can. Alla has been a big help on finding which zones I can go into and actually kill stuff, as well as how to get there. I didn't see a pet spell available yet so I'm assuming it is around 32, or at least higher than 11. I'll also head over to the guild lobby (i'm sure I can find it) and try to get the temperance buff. I found my way to the bazaar and bought myself a whole set of crude defiant gear with the 50 plat I made lvling up. It pushed my stats up pretty good ( at least I think so) to around 450s hp/mp.

Thanks again for all the support/advice.

[harlybear]

Using Debuff spells before you do any melee,spell damage also something you should get used to doing.

Drowse , I think is the shammys first slow spell. This reduced the amount of swings a mob has at you ( or your pet later on) and will be one of your most useful and needed spells during leveling . Expermiment as much as possible.

Not every Shaman plays the same way. You may have an aggresive style as opposed to a more finese, dont let the mob touch me style. Choosing gear is important later on depending what you want to do more. Don't let anyone tell you how to play Shaman, youll figure it out soon enough and advice is only as good as the person giving it.

Most important aspect of playing a shaman is HAVE FUN. If you don't like it early on, chances are you wont like it later. I think most people who play Shaman though will tell you, its the best class to play if you like non stop action and the ability to play so many ways.

Anyways, Good luck and Enjoy your time in EQ.

[seriouscat]

Ya buffing/debuffing is a big part of how I play. I hail from ffxi as a red mage mostly, so debuffing is what I'm all about. I like to cripple the enemy before it even gets to me. Right now I'm trioing with a bard and warrior, and we seem to be leveling really quickly. Game mechanics seem easy enough, similar to alot of other mmo's. Figuring out where to go is just the hard part.
Tried black burrow the other day and it was mind boggling confusing. Everything looked the same. Good times though. Whomever said "grouping is way more fun" hit the nail on the head.

[fendaann]

Newbe section
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/forum ... forum_id=2

Players hand book
http://eqplayers.station.sony.com/playe ... andbook.vm


At low levels all chars are mele
sham get a charm animal spell before they get their 1st dogdog
it helps create the the idea you cant make your pet do want you want it too eailry in the game.

decide where to bind out -find a soul binder and bind their for get about rezes just learn to have fun at the start

Do some quests
talk to your GM - and learn about your skills
learn what sells for coin
Visit the bazaar off of PoK
try a group
learn to use /who all #level #level
/who all 5 15

lean how to /con and understand that any mob can kill you

lean how may diffent ways to die in the game- at higher levels your learn how to kill your self faster.


Cresent -
Weight Reduction: 75% Bag - http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/ques ... quest=3788
charm (long quests) - http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/ques ... quest=3666
aug (long quest) - http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/ques ... quest=3680
Weapon - http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/ques ... quest=3653
ring -http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=3866

[shamy60]

what is the server u are?
i duo shm / mage on same computer (alt tabbing ) and doing it fast hehe and that duo rock hard..
i could help you a bit if you are in rathe server?
shaman is the only class i think i could play and playing him since 1999,mage is fun to play also at high level.