New player questions about gear

[paladin1118]

Hello, I'm sort of new to the server and working on some low level characters. It's been quite a long time since I played live EQ though and I've always had a bad memory... can't really remember what gear I should be looking for or how much it should cost.

So... I was just wondering if any of the more experienced players could give me some advice on some decent starting gear for a few classes that is realistically affordable for a new player who doesn't have hundreds of plat saved up or any rich friends on the server.

For now, I'd like to keep the cost for each piece of gear under 100 plat I guess. I have no idea what the project99 economy is like though so, I'm not even sure if that's realistic for the kind of gear I'm looking for. I would like the gear to grant some useful stats, even if its only a few points. Just something adequate to get me through the first 30-40 levels or so I guess?

The classes I'm playing are Paladin, Druid and Necro. I would appreciate some good weapon recommendations for those classes as well. I've been using a one hander and shield with the paladin but I vaguely remember, from my time on live EQ years ago, that two handers were better for paladins and SK's. Is shield bash/shield stats worth sacrificing for a two hander?

Also, I would like a good (affordable) robe recommendation(s) for the Necro, something that will help him look... less minion-ish, more... fearsome, treacherous summoner of death? After all, it's important to look good while adventuring.

For any gear that's suggested, please also tell me how much I should be paying for it. Definitely don't want to overpay for anything. Please don't use abbreviations for item names, as I've said, I don't remember much about classic EQ gear at all, so abbreviated item names won't mean anything to me.

Thanks for the help! :)

[Chocko]

Where'd you get the money in the first place? I played about 10 hours this week on a number of different characters and have only had maybe 5 gold total!

[Porz]

I'm thinking step one should be to isolate the one class your going to play. And gear him instead of alts.

[Porz]

Where'd you get the money in the first place? I played about 10 hours this week on a number of different characters and have only had maybe 5 gold total!

I'm assuming some one gave it to him. No one would just RMT out themselves

[Wotsirb401]

Yeah I would only play one character, you arent goign to be able to afford gearing 3 classes until you can farm plat , unless you have been account flipping/ ec trading for money. Pick one and we/ I can give you pointers. I might be able to throw you some hand me downs or plat

[Shift]

Hi Paladin well believe it or not , go to Home page look for the link Wiki go to your Class Paladin and then go to Armor sets and what era it will tell you what is the best armor for that character. Deepwater , Ro And so forth if you doing a paladin , it shows for all races and classes for Necromancer or Druid , it is very helpful actually.

[Nikon]

So... I was just wondering if any of the more experienced players could give me some advice on some decent starting gear for a few classes that is realistically affordable for a new player who doesn't have hundreds of plat saved up or any rich friends on the server.

For now, I'd like to keep the cost for each piece of gear under 100 plat I guess.

Little bit of contradictory information here. Doesn't necessarily scream RMT, though. Definitely stick to one character.

[eqgmrdbz]

Hello bud,

I recently went pure start, to see if i could get a character from zero to geared in banded armor. All i used was the p99 wiki and whatever knowledge i had myself.

Starting off you need to kill in the newb zone, and collect whatever drops, sell and buy cloth armor, bags, food, the necessary stuff. Put points in tailoring to make patchwork armor from killing wolves, cats, or bears. When you get enough levels, you will start to make some pp. There are quests that give some great plat at low levels, you will have to check wiki for those. When you get enought pp work on Smithing, put points in the skill and work your skill up. When you get high enough to try banded, get to trivial of the lowest piece, and start making the pieces from lowest skill to highest. You should have a full set of banded after some tries.

All im trying to say is that it is possible to go from nothing to a full set of banded, which is not bad. Depending on what your playing caster, healer, melee, its going to vary. After that its just leveling killing, save your plat and hit EC tunnel, and get some better pieces.

[xnolanx]

1.) Pick one class to level
2.) Use the wiki, and go to that classes class section.. Study the gearing pre-planar, and kunark gear sets.. Also when you see another character that's playing your class out in the field.. Inspect him, and see what the typical characters of that class are wearing..
3.) Once you feel like you know about what gear you want to aim for from the wiki and actual first hand knowledge head to EC and start looking for the items you want.
4.) Once you find the items you want, head back to the wiki or even just a simple google search with that item name looking for a link to P99 wiki. It will have a recorded average auction from EC of the relative value of the item is.. Use this to either haggle or come to a fair agreement..
5.) Repeat step 4 until you're geared.

[Tecmos Deception]

For a paladin, get a baton of faith and a set of banded armor and 2 platinum fire wedding rings. Beyond that keep an eye out for anything that gives you more ac (deepwater pieces, except for legs and chest, are lots of ac and pretty cheap), hp (hard to find much other than the rings I mentioned that don't cost a fair amount of money), strength (hero bracer, jasper gold earrings, stuff like that), or magic resist and upgrade as you can I guess. It's hard to find anything that's even remotely halfway decent for under 100pp per piece other than stuff like banded.

Necro and druid don't need gear unless the druid is quadding, or unless you just want gear for looks. Flowing black robe or advisor robe is about as cheap as you can go for the necro while still having some stats you can use (and that doesn't look dumb on a necro). Other than that, necro should look to get +hit point gear (so you can lich for longer without being dangerously low on hp + get full effect out of your lifetap damage over time spells) and +intelligence gear (or +mana once you're over 200 int, probably). Druid can just focus on +wisdom and +mana really.

But again, hard to find anything at all for only 100pp a slot. I mean, even stuff like batskull earrings or chipped bone bracelets or stein of moggok or hero bracer are all a couple hundred+ plat each, and they're basically bottom-rung gear.


More importantly than what other people suggest you do though, is to learn how to figure things out for yourself. Explore the wiki, use the equipment (sorted by class, each individual slot) page to find upgrades and check prices, etc.

[Sadre Spinegnawer]

I would highly recommend playing level 1-10 seriously. Take your time. Probably 1-13 or so, is what I mean. Those early levels were not BS meant to be rushed through.\

A solid untwinked grp in befallen? that's eq right there.

That's what I do. But I don;t think I'm off track. The early level game in eq is pretty intense, cuz everyone has just the start of their skills, but not all of them.

As I say, a game unto itself.

Don't be in any hurry. Last I heard (from someone who knows) Velious isn't coming until 2017 at the earliest.

[Tecmos Deception]

Wtf does that have to do with this thread, Sadre?

[BarackObooma]

What I would do for a Paladin is concentrate on AC & hitpoints first. You won't even get spells until level 9. Go to the link below, click on the slot and then sort by AC or hitpoints and weight your options. You aren't always going to find what you want in EC so maybe have a list of top 3 wants for each slot.

http://wiki.project1999.org/Category:Paladin_Equipment

The AC5 HP 55 rings are awesome but 250-300pp each so if they don't fit your budget guidelines you could get a couple of Admanatite Bands. They are 75 hp -10 sv magic each and are about 100pp each and not lore. The - sv magic is a big deterrent for some but starting out, you really aren't going to be fighting a lot of caster mobs solo. The boost in hitpoints will probably far outweigh the extra damage you might take until you can afford the other ones.

For the Druid see the link below.
http://wiki.project1999.org/Category:Druid_Equipment

For the Necro see the link below.
http://wiki.project1999.org/Category:Necromancer_Equipment

For Wis and Int casters remember that the mana you get from Wis & Int scales as you level up so when you start out, +1 int = 1 mana. After a few levels it will be 2 mana. So in most cases it's way better to buy +mana items and in many cases they are cheaper than their wis/int counterparts.

A rotbone bracelet is +35 mana and -8 stamina. The -stamina isn't ideal but since casters are usually on a 1 sta = 1 hp ratio, it's not a big deal. You lose 8 hitpoints but gain the same mana as 20-35 intelligence or wisdom! And it's less than 100pp. Another cheap (and easily found) alternative is the Ivory Bracelets from Unrest. You'll find them from 25pp-100pp very easily and have 20 mana each (and +3 agi).

Let's talk bag space.

On new casters it's very easy to become encumbered. Regular backpacks and now sewing kits are 3 lbs each. You have 8 bags, that's 24 pounds which is more than 1/3 of your weight limit before being encumbered. If you can afford 10pp per bag, I'd recommend getting 7-8 Concordance of research. Myrsila, one of the gypsies in North Karana will give you one if you give her a greater lightstone. Most players just vendor them there and if you can't farm the Greater Lightstones yourself, just buy them from the vendors there. They are between 10-11pp each. They are only six slots but fit giant sized items and only weight 0.2lbs each! 8 of those instead of regular bags saves you (24lbs - 1.6lbs =) 22.4lbs! And the price for all of them is the same as one 10 slot backpack which still weights around 3lbs and only shaves off 10% weight.

Bank Space:
If you can afford 10-11pp each slot, I'd recommend buying the spell research books like the Lexicon, Elemental Grimoire, Tome of Endless Enchantments and Book of Dark bindings. They are 10 slot large containers and although they weight 4lbs each, since they're in the bank it doesn't matter. You'll need one for your NECRO anyway. If you can't afford that, go with the 5 gold 8 slot backpacks. I would buy one Large Sewing Kit. If you aren't going to be actively tailoring while you're out hunting, keep it in the bank to save on weight. Use the wiki guide on leveling taioring, it will help a lot both saving you time and money by increasing efficiency.

[lecompte]

Well uhh. #1, just cause he wants to spend 100pp or less per item doesn't mean he has that much money... and I made about 5k (liquid) by level 25 so it isn't that hard if you plan carefuly. and #2, I like questions about gear and loots. I like giving people stuff that I'm too lazy to sell and seeing the interesting suggestions people have.

Now then, recommendations: Do what Tecmos said ;p. +55hp rings for everyone!

[Dragonmist]

Chocko youre definately doing something wrong. Plat is scarce if your new theyre are plenty of ways to make money.

Bone Chips 10pp a stack
Morning Dew foraged 50pp each,
Cinnamon sticks foraged 15pp a stack
HQ Bear pelts 20pp each
Other various pelts 1-8pp each
Spider silk 1-2pp each
Spiderling silk 1-2pp each
CB Belts 2pp each, CB Pads 2-4pp each

You just have to be motivated heh...

[Jimjam]

Leveling up I found the following to be a reasonable plat path:

Diseased wolf quest (kills: qeynos hills, hand in: qeynos), Greater Lightstone quest* (kills: qeynos hills, hand in: north karana), diseased grizzly quest (kills: qeynos hills, hand in: qeynos).

At this point it is good to buy some armour hit up EC mart and get some banded/better or if you are lazy buy some pieces of vendor chain**.

Now get a lift to Faydwer and kill the sister/bandit camps in Lesser faydark till you are 18 or 19 (bronze weapons sell well to NPCs). Many classes now benefit from a visit to Kurn's Tower to get a iksar beserker club (good plat this camp too).

Early 20s you can go to ocean of tears and kill gargoyles for their eyes. Late 20s/early 30s you can kill mammoths in Everfrost for their tusks. Both of these sell for good cash.

*you'll need to pick up a magic weapon. You should have enough for a combine sword from the gypsies saved up by the time you are high enough. Don't worry about the buy price as the sellback is pretty good too

** like the combine weapons the vendor chain has a pretty good sell back too so it isn't wasted plat

These quests/camps will make you pretty solid cash between groups while levelling up.

As to actual gear advice: once you overcome certain thresholds a lot of stats don't really make that much difference.

Don't bother buying equipment for casters; unless you are using charm it doesn't make that big an impact.

For melee spend 100pp on a set of banded and you should be able to tank fine into your 20s. Save your money for a decent weapon. Then save for a haste item. If you come into loads of money buy some regen.

[eqgmrdbz]

Jimjam

Just gave you the Blueprint right there, if you are killing disease wolves and turning in their pelts, (without sharing kills) you should be able to build up enough plat to buy what he said. I stated earlier, that i used that plat to work on smithing and make banded for myself. Killing for GL or HQ bear pelts, is a great way to make money, but he should of mentioned that they are very rare drops. Once your in your 20's with at least a suit of banded and a decent wep, you should make nice plat from kill drops.

[paladin1118]

All those who took some time to respond with helpful advice and suggestions, thank you very much, I appreciate it. I've already learned a lot from this thread.

@eqgmrdbz - I wasn't doing much with crafting yet because, from what I could remember about it, I figured it was way too expensive to get involved with in the early levels. I've been reading through the tradeskill guides on the wiki though and some of the tradeskills don't seem as pricey as I thought they were. So, I'll probably start working on some of them now. I already bought a set of banded armor for my paladin some time ago but I still plan to work on smithing whenever I have the money for it.

@xnolanx - I had no idea the P99 wiki would have recorded market prices for items sold in game recently. I guess, these days, I should've expected as much. Thanks a lot xnolanx for letting me know about that, should make buying and selling much easier for me.

@Tecmos - Thanks for all the tips. From what I saw on the wiki, a flowing black robe seems somewhat affordable for me, so maybe I'll go with that for the Necro, to start with. Whenever I get him out of kunark. As for the druid, I just made him not long ago so he's still below lvl 8 and if there's one thing I do remember from live EQ... it's the pain of trying to solo level a priest class in the first 10 or so levels. So I was mainly just wanting to get the druid a decent weapon and shield that he could use... until he gets some useful offense spells and higher mana levels/meditate. Guess it's not that big of a deal though. Was really hoping prices for starting gear would be a bit lower on P99.

@Sadre - I've actually already been leveling as you suggested exactly. I've never liked rushing through levels or content. If I wanted the early and mid game to be irrelevant, I wouldn't be here, I'd be playing... pretty much any official MMO out there these days. I ended up on a private EQ classic server because I like to experience MMO's this way. I did several untwinked groups in blackburrow, not befallen yet, but yeah, it was loads of fun. :) Lots of trains lol

@BarackObooma - Thank you for this most informative post. You definitely made some points I'd never thought of really, like using spell research containers as bags. My main was a iksar necro on live and I think I use to store stuff in his spell research book when I wasn't using it, just never occurred to me to get more than one, I guess... or maybe I just preferred the extra slots from backpacks. Rotbone bracelets sound ideal for my Necro and druid to start off with and they do sound vaguely familiar to me, I might've used those on live for a while. From what I can see on the wiki, most any armor that's better than banded is well out of my price range right now, so I guess I'll be stuck with banded armor on the paladin for a while. Green Jade Broadsword seems like a pretty nice weapon I might be able to afford though, so maybe I'll look for one of those... and some of those HP rings, whenever I can afford them.

Well uhh. #1, just cause he wants to spend 100pp or less per item doesn't mean he has that much money...

Yes, what Lecompte said. I've managed to save up... almost 100 plat now total, which I've made from selling stuff. I thought it might be enough to start collecting a few better pieces of gear but I guess not really. So yeah, it's pretty funny that people want to accuse me of RMT lol. I actually hate RMT and cash shops, another reason I've ended up on a classic EQ private server.

@dragonmist - I remembered bone chips, pelts and spider silk selling well and that's where I've been making most of my money so far... totally forgot about morning dew and Cinnamon sticks though. Guess I need to start foraging in Gfay.

@Jimjam - Thank you! This should help me out a lot. I left the Qeynos area a while ago but I might make my way back over there eventually. Will check out lesser fay and ocean of tears too, never did much in either of those zones before.

Thanks again, everyone, for the great advice. If anyone else has some good ideas they want to share, please feel free to do so. I'll check back with the thread from time to time.