Begining Shaman gear advice.

[dredge]

.

[Motrin]

I would save the money and go into upper guk and kill the entrance mobs for like the woven and mesh gear.

[Estu]

Get a full set of large banded and a cheap shield (I've been using a Bark Shield). Cold Iron Morning Star makes for a nice cheap starter weapon; later on you can get a Gloomwater Harpoon. For jewelry, you can get some silver/electrum stuff from jewelers. I got the basic WIS items (silver jasper rings, electrum jasper earrings; +2 WIS each) but you might wanna go for HP/Mana/AC.

It kind of depends on what your plan is. If you're largely a solo character, which my shaman is, then you wanna focus on AC. The weapon isn't really important since root-dotting is more effective than meleeing; even at 9-13, I was SoW kiting. If you're a grouping character, you're interested in WIS gear. At that point it might be in your best interest to sacrifice the AC of banded for the WIS of cheap gear like split paw hide gloves and the like (I don't have a lot of examples of these since I don't have a druid that high and my shaman's always been a soloer). Regardless, you should have a shield rather than a 2-hander.

Solo shamen are not terribly gear-dependent early on unless you're uber-twinked and can actually melee effectively. You basically get hit when root breaks early and you're not yet far away enough to reroot before the monster gets to you (or your reroot is resisted). This can still happen a nontrivial amount, hence the AC gear.

When it comes to deciding whether you wanna solo or group, it's kind of a question of your playing style. The thing about grouping is that while it will be faster to group in a dungeon with a competent group rather than soloing in an outdoor zone (since you don't have adequate utility to solo in a dungeon generally), the problem is finding that competent group. You might be LFG a long time or you might get a shit group or you might spend forever trying to find a tank. I found soloing to be faster for these reasons. That being said, soloing can be boring and EQ is ultimately a game about teamwork. I have other characters I group on and I keep the shaman as a soloer, but if this is your only character, you'll probably have a better experience grouping. If you do decide to solo, I recommend south ro (though north ro would likely work as well), then the karanas.

[Jon]

Get a full set of large banded

I'd recommend medium instead of large if you plan on doing the Totemic quest later on.

[dredge]

.

[Estu]

I can get a full suit of med banded for 100pp. does that sound right?

hmm not sure if Troll can even wear medium, might need large.

Trolls can't wear medium banded. Don't worry about getting it until you're doing your totemic quests at level 30. Banded (of any size) goes for 1pp/ac; a full set should be something like 80-85pp. More than that and you're getting ripped off.

[dredge]

.

[Ledzepp02]

got the full suit of banded and am level 12.
Now where should I go to find a group? EC exp has really slowed down.

Well the banded was meant to boost your AC so you could solo like he mentioned. Guk or some mobs in nro/oasis/wc would be good to solo. Groups at 12 = oasis imo.

[dredge]

.

[zt004]

Highpass gnolls, maybe? Then you can move to the orcs. Otherwise, I would suggest unrest. Better money for spells; potential bronze weps

[Chanus]

The West Karana bandits are great for loot, but not awesome for XP (most are light blue by 15).