Iksar War + no budget = worth it ?

[Tetsuo]

Im a rather new player to eq 1999 so I lack any real funds so my budget is like 100 plat lol.

I know Wars are very dependent on their armor which can be very expensive and Iksar cant even wear plate so they're at a disadvantage when it comes to armor they can even wear. Given both of these problems would rolling an Iksar war even be worth it for me?

[RDawg816]

Yes, if that's what you want to play.

It's fun gearing up. Don't believe the twink hype. You can get groups and just ask the casters to root mobs and make sure people are assisting. You will have fun and so will they!

[elwing]

don't believe people telling you that you can't play with no gear... you obviously can, it's just slower...

[Videri]

Yeah, and you can always have a second character later. Maybe one that can solo and perhaps farm at mid-levels, like a druid or necromancer or perhaps bard or wizard.

[Aaramis]

Doable? Sure. This isn't day 1 of the server. There's weaponry and armour floating around at affordable rates so that you'll be better equipped than people used to be, by far. Some old school warriors would have killed to be running around in full crusty armour with a trident + gjb by level 30.

You'll still feel inadequate next to some of the supertwinks running around, but what can you do.

[Tetsuo]

Thanks for the replys I know I could do it but i'm worried about setting myself up to fail like buying boots to run a foot race

[RDawg816]

You only fail if you quit. I have played non-twinked warriors. They are fun and challenging. Don't compare yourself to others. Just take charge and be the best you you can be. :D

[Jimjam]

You only fail if you quit. I have played non-twinked warriors. They are fun and challenging. Don't compare yourself to others. Just take charge and be the best you you can be. :D

Totally agree, gearing up a non twink warrior is great fun.

If you struggle to find weapons better than tarnished, Forest Giant Hammers often rotting in WW just outside of cab. Early teens you can pick up an iksar berserker club which isn't terribad (plus proc pads your AC, the most important stat of all ;)).

RDawg is spot on about root; when I'm on my ranger and the warrior goes AFK I'm always asked to tank, but I just position the mob on the afk warrior, root it up and have him afk tank. Always gets the lolz, but it does show you don't need to swing at all to keep tanking in many circumstances.


Gearing wise save plat to get a weapon with a ratio close to 1:2 and as fast as possible. This will last you ages. After that get platinum or velium fire emerald wedding rings to pad your hp. Next try source a haste item (once you get to 46 tag along on sky raids and you can loot a rotting belt of contention if you need to). Don't worry too much about armour to begin with. The rhino/raw hide and ruined scale/mail you find will be sufficient initially. My warrior on red was soloing blues in SolB wearing rawhide. If you struggle to fill slots for AC banded is about 90pp a set.

Rotquest: Keep an eye on Kithicor Forest for high levels, you can get a scimitar of ykesha to use mid 30s-40s. Keep an eye on high level druids/rogues in steamfont and you can get a Trochilic's Skean. Use /who all kith and /who all steamfont to do this. A visit to Karnor's Castle could reward you with some rotquested Jar Sarth scale, but I don't think that is worth the effort unless you are high enough to xp there and don't have better.

[Fatslug]

I started with a mage and grinded some low lvl stuff for my iksar warrior. I think my mage maxed at 47 before i had a fully geared iksar warrior twink. Melee are tough main characters because they are dependent on equipment.




1st stop - Kanors castle

Goal = Get a full set of Jarsath scale armor. It will make lvling up as a lvl 1 warrior feel like being the hulk.

How = i gave my warrior sow / invis/ ivu potions and employed carefully planned trips through dangerous zones) camped out somewhere safe. if people are grinding there, its good to stay out of the way,

When = karnors castle is full of raiders or people leveling, This is the time to /ooc nicely for jarsath scale armor. people might even help your lil hercules locate the armor pieces if you are in the zone. Its annoying seeing no drop items rott.

Bonus = if youre really lucky, a Fist of zek will also drop and a high lvl will donate it to a iksar warrior welp. (its a 16/30 +20str, -20 agil , iksar war ONLY 1hb mace.)

Tips = Tell some jokes. Let people know you are around. Don't be a burden. plan to bind urself somewhere close and die often. its okay, youre not hunting experience YET!



Trooper scale armor

-if you have a lvl 45-50 caster, its not hard to get some of the items your hercules will want. Some of the items are a pain in the ass and require many suicide death runs to get the quest item safely. Quest turn in is also delicate operation. Much switching of account and hauling terrified tail. But its worth it. ***Jarsath is much easier IMO.

I mixed and matched my armors based on stats and/or availability. I could solo reds until lvl 18ish no haste or fancy weapons.



Weapons

-You want fast weapons as max damage at low lvls is capped.
Fist of zek is REALLY awesome for lvling up once you gain levels. Rare, but nobody needs them.


Run and Fun!
(this works in zones with enough space and no casters.)

Conventional tanking is not for Iksar warriors. ABUSE your innate regen by working with caster than can sow. pull mobs, get some hits in until you are berserk, then position for the next pull. the distance you put between mobs and casters is time they have to react / cast / med. Once you hit 20% hps, ALL MOBS will attack only you and chase only you. Once you regen enough to lose their aggro, attack a new mob. get to low enough hps. Kite the mob once you hit 20% hps. The group of mobs will chase you once more. bring them around to the casters and then away, giving them a chance to whatever casters do. Attack a new mob once you have lost aggro again. and repeat. whats great is all the berserk crits will give you a ton of aggro, and you can finish off weak runners by giving them a drive by. Pet classes do great with this strategy. Big 2 hand weapons are fun.



The magic Exp bush. (lvling in the overthere)

The overthere affords you a ton of space to kite and zero casters mobs. Traditional groups are slow and have to wait for pulls. Your group is going to find a mob HIGHWAY and let them come to you. This means finding a spot away from dragoons that has multiple intersecting pathing spawns. your strategy will be to pick up adds and only melee when your HPs have risen too much. If your hps get too high, the train will most likely chase the casters. Timed right, there should be plenty of room between the casters and the train for you to pick a fight with another wandering spawn and getting beat up a little. Once the mobs are chasing you again, drag them within range of the casters and away again to retrieve more mobs. Casters will do what ever it is they do.

Without a need for full heals, even the cleric can become dps. Using a bow will reduce run distance and if adds attack your group, will let the mobs know you have low hps and ignore them.





The Rape walk.

Nothing looks more creepy than an Iksar warrior walking to his next victim. It's not to punish your peers, but to let the raid mobs know "they are going to get it; they are going to get it good". (No sow = rapier?)

This is most beneficial to BOOST the moral of raids. The handicap of a walking lizard tank is overcome by the will and planning of his team. Pulls will be like room service.

Who's in that room? One confident lizard.

As you saunter towards combat, your allies will be chanting "battle giggles". Yet, enemies will be rooted, dotted, attacked from appropriate distances, and what ever else casters do; while the love lizard goes in close.


All Iksar put very little effort into their swings. Warriors are particularly lazy lizards.

FEAR NOT- It's not about the combat.
GET READY- It's about the moments in between.
STAY TUNED- After the dukes are lowered, the strut begins.
EARN/COLLECT- You did your job. Let the lizard do it from here.


Now the leisure suit lizard can consummate its relationship with all of Everquests greedy loot hoarding baddies. It doesn't matter if your rare items appear, knowing you're going to put the mobs through this until they do. Maybe more out of spite.




****Don't worry; You see tail wiggle less than a monk, but more than a SK.
**** to speed up efficiency for raids, the Iksar "candy van" may transform into its travel mode by ducking running. Allowing for rapid positioning to surprise enemies with a slow motion gallop.

[Aaramis]

The Rape walk.

Really??


Also, I disagree with most of the advice here. Using your innate regen to get out of <20% hp is great for what... the first 3 levels? Try doing that at level 20 with several mobs on you.

Suggesting a -20 agility weapon at level 1? Maybe if you have a ton of +agi gear, but otherwise you could be putting yourself in the red for agility which is *bad*.

If you have a 45-50 caster to twink this character out, why not just get some Crusty, some +55hp / 5ac rings, a Jarsath Trident + GJB, haste item, and call it a day?

[kgallowaypa]

I found that you don't need to be twinked out to be given second hand picks for groups. If you are tanking well and know your class mechanics and are efficient, people will notice your name a lot more in the zone your LFG in over the course of a week or 2 and will instantly bring you into their pug. Any idiot can twink a character out once they have the stash, but working towards gear and dying numerous times lets you learn from trial and error what you need, what doesn't work, etc...book smarts vs street smarts mind-set

[Fatslug]

All of the items you mentioned require PP! My gear set is based on pure lvl 1 balls and moxy. Lowbies will think you are some sort of GM when you link no drop loots at lvl 1.


Fist of Zek IS great when you reach a certain lvl. Much of the Jarsath gear indeed has +agility! Can balance out that large agil hit.

Ikky regen + caster regen is enough to keep you alive for the purposes of HP aggro kiting. It's rather fun.

Creating a caster allows you to do whatever it is casters do, to collect enough ikky toys for a sweet lvl 1 starting experience.


HP aggro can be beneficial! Caster can spot heal, but they usually over do it, causing a need to kite until the tank regains HP aggro. A skilled tank can manage his HPs while kiting to bounce aggro. Really fun too. DPS will love it even if they do have to kite a little bit.

The fun really starts when all of the DPS also start pulling mobs from other patrol lanes. Tanks job is to tag all the mobs and let the dps unleash.

When the warrior is feeling froggy, he can tell necros / monks to fear, giving the tank just one more task to perform. Catching the adds that aggro casters that fear. The tank has but to shoot an arrow or melee/ taunt the fresh add to become a real hate tornado. This works really well in OT or other wide space zones without casters.

Rape Walk, shall hereby be referred to as the "Gentleman Scurry".
Yes, Its not a nice word, but neither is eviscerate or lethargy.
How else could you really stick it to those pesky named if you dont let them know you're not "trying". A life and death Sunday stroll. Just be glad hes on OUR SIDE.

[Tetsuo]

Thanks for the rplys I decided to indeed roll my ikki.
Decided to try a use my budget to buy a set of banded armor (two days in ec no biters)
and I also tried to walk over to karnors castle but died just behind the castle lol (is all the walking really worth it?).

[Jimjam]

Just get a good weapon, you'll find plenty of scalemail, reinforced rhino hide and burynai hide in kurns. Should keep you good for a while.

If you really want to do the KC thing, try buddy buddy with a cleric in zone as I should image you will need to be rezzed back in often.

[Trollhide]

I got a set of medium banded in Field of Bone you can have dude just send a tell to Pendrell or Bugbear, Im usually on evenings Pacific time.

[Xaanka]

i read a story about a guy on here who rolled a gnome warrior and soloed 1-60 clicking off all buffs including SoW without twinking. you can do it.

[fugazi]

With a set of banded and a fast cheap weapon you'll be able to contribute just fine. The AC cap scales with level so you got plenty of time to get your basic gear up and running. The most pressing matter would be finding some decent weapons, but anything that isn't top of the line usually goes for under 100 or 200 plat and that's not too big of an investment.

Even for an untwinked newbie warrior ;)

[Xaanka]

u made the right choice iksars are cool

[radda]

First char on p99 was iksar war, got 60 a year and some change later playing above average but not neckbearding.

[Auchae]

Fist of Zek is a cool weapon but if the minus agility is a turn off, theres an identical ratio weapon from howling stones i think. Same 16/30 ratio but has no stats. Pretty solid and more than likely its affordable. I rolled female gnome warrior on red untwinked back when the exp bonus wasnt in and soloed for a long time with the weap i mentioned and the shimmering partisan from KC. Dont play her much anymore but shes lvl 58 now with mostly Kunark gear including a Fungi and a Wurmy. Nothing special but its definitely doable and probably less downtime as Iksar than i ever had.

[Dolalin]

Dex is a warrior's primary stat, not AC.

[polishanarchy]

Dex is a warrior's primary stat, not AC.

?

Dex is great to have particularly when there isn't always a shammy handy, but primary stat?

Anyway, Iksar warriors are awesome, I started mine very cheaply a long while back. Sure there's some disadvantages early on vs races that have easy access to classic/kunark plate, but I would never trade personal preference for min-max whatever. Velious has put iksar wars in a very good place. If it feels right, go for it!

[dbouya]

STA/STR/HP/AC are probably a warrior's primary stats in order. imo.

Honestly, just gather up 200 bone chips and then sell them for 100pp and buy a 1:2 weapon with it. Blammo, done, pickup whatever trashy armor you find.

[Freakish]

I agree with that priority up until you hit 60. Once you can get the end game gear it changes to sta/hp/ac/haste. Nothing you have at low levels will last until 60 so just don't what you can and understand you're playing a class that's reliant on others.

[Dolalin]

?

Dex is great to have particularly when there isn't always a shammy handy, but primary stat?

Yes, primary stat. On a server with epic rogues all over the place and everybody twinked out to the max, a warrior is only going to keep aggro with procs. You can have all the AC in the world, but if you're not getting hit its pretty useless.

This changes at 60, but for leveling it holds true without question or exception.

[RDawg816]

Yes, primary stat. On a server with epic rogues all over the place and everybody twinked out to the max, a warrior is only going to keep aggro with procs. You can have all the AC in the world, but if you're not getting hit its pretty useless.

This changes at 60, but for leveling it holds true without question or exception.
Procs aren't reliable. They're great when you get a couple procs early in the fight. In a world full of super-twinks fights don't last long though. In most situations you're better off with the best ratio for white damage aggro. Rogues and monks can control their own aggro, and most people will resort to root-tanking if it's a problem. Procs are fun, but they aren't the best aggro for levelling in a PUG.

[polishanarchy]

I didn't say it last time, but I disagree. For most of the early levels gearing for procs means using weapons with terrible ratios. It's much easier to simply rely on dps aggro and roots. So prioritize getting half decent weapons and a cheap haste item. Once you actually get to the level range where decent proc weapons start popping up (40s at the earliest) you can toss on a few DEX items to help yourself out. But no way is it a warrior's primary stat.

[Dolalin]

WESS procs at level 1. I would recommend any newbie warrior use that, just learn how blind works (is broken) here until it gets fixed. You will keep agg with no issues the entire fight off a single proc.

[polishanarchy]

No tank should ever use that whip, ever