Quote:
Originally Posted by kaev
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So the idea is that melees must be incredibly underpowered and utterly dependant on the kindness of casters who could trivially go off and solo for a far greater rate of XP gain? "Classic" (i.e. pre-Kunark) melee gear sucks balls. It sucked balls in 1999, it sucks balls today. Where's the fun in being the boat anchor slowing everybody else's progress to a crawl?
After the fun of the initial discovery stage I would probably have quit EQ in 1999 if I hadn't discovered my Paladin could upgrade his gear, first by smithing his own banded armor and then selling banded armor to others for the pp to buy better stuff (not that there was a whole lot to buy early on, "trade only" was the mantra until Hate stones became a platinum sink for high level chars.)
There's no doubt that this server is way overfarmed and the player economy suffers from the huge glut of gear. But I see zero attraction in replacing that mildly negative circumstance with the outright horror of trying to tank in a mix of leather and rawhide with a 6/26 weapon.
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Agreed, there is a big jump between classic and kunark gear, but in spite of my agreement you really don't have to get by with a 6/26 weapon though. Paladin, ranger and shadowknight all have tricks to keep aggro. With the number of monk/rogue twinks even when you twink with a decent weapon warriors will struggle to keep aggro unless someone is rooting.
What I'd do is start with my newbie weapon, try and look a rusty two hander and make it tarnished. I'd upgrade to an Axe, Bastard sword or claymore as soon as possible. At 10 if I fancied an adventure I'd pick up a bloodforge hammer before heading to kurns and trying for an iksar berserker club. Dual wield sucks until it hits maybe 70+ skill, however even when you fail to swing you can still proc (possible bug?). This means for off hand I'd grab something with a fun proc, probably a polished granite tomahawk. IIrc there are some fun proc weapons that drop off sarnaks in Loio too.
In my twenties I'd get a group together in SoldungA to try for some obsidian shards. In 30s you can perhaps deviate a little form the mission statement, make friends with a rogue epic farmer to 'help' kill some kith mobs and get a Scimitar of Ykesha. Early 40s pick up a green jade broadsword and Kunzar ku'juch in Com. Maybe a SSoY from gukbottom. Mid 40s help out a rogue epic farmer again for a Trochilic's Skean. If you have a druid friend your level you can pop into Rathe Mountains every 2 hours at level 30+ to get an axe of the slayers/mithril girth. Axe of the Slayers is great fun as a 30 war; even untwinked you'll be able to solo many dark blues.
Armour wise cloth is fine for the first 9 levels, patchwork will carry you to about 13, raw-hide or mesh will carry you to ringmail and bronze okay. Once you are 20 the crafted armour quests begin to start opening up. I completed my set by 30 just through xp groups or soloing. Also explore other zones to find armour upgrades.
Obviously not as 'effective' as farming bone chips in North Ro for the first 4 levels and simply buying the green jade broadsword for 100pp. However, doing it the untwink/no EC way forces you to do some quests, make friends and explore the world. Admittedly not for everyone, but searching for equipment across multiple zones as I levelled improved my game enjoyment compared to paying other people to have fun finding items and just finding them all in one zone at low level (EC).
I've levelled both a twink and an untwink/no ec warrior and monks/rogues can be twinked to generate way more aggro (which would be fine if they all worke Fungis) and regardless of my gear situation I was going to need root or for those melee dps to dump aggro occasionally. Before ykesha, the only thing I could ever find that would semi-reliably hold aggro against an epic rogue was a pair of obsidian shards and a pile of dexterity.