*** If you are starting a Iksar PLZ Read ***
 

DO NOT TRY TO GRIND YOUR FIRST 10-15 LVL'S on Antonica/Faydwer If this is your first character on the server.

Do not listen to any nonsense that you read or hear that says to "get to "X zone"' (So/No Ro's/Oasis/insert non-kunark zone here)

You are (Iksar) KOS everywhere, with a few merchants who will sell to you at horrible prices. There are no GM's to buy skills/spells and your going to just make those first 15'ish lvls that are rough for every class extremely hard.

You can hit FoB+Kurns Tower (ya I know, I hate those zones too) and be lvl 15-17 in -half- the time it takes you to mess around in EC/South-North Ro/Oasis/any elf zone.

/had to post this after seeing another iksar monk trying to make by in EC.
//somebody save a persons afternoon and sticky this

Iksars should never want to leave Kunark before level 20. Best starting area in the game, and more than likely you've got skills you need to train which is difficult outside of Cabilis :p

Money has always been my motivation for leaving Kunark as an iksar. I need to at least visit where the money is.

I might be wrong, but Kunark mobs drop the most coin? Slow/steady versus getting very little and having to sit at the Nybright camp for bronze weapons (that you'd need to sell at the Steamfont druid rings each time) to make up for it.

A lot of non-iksars make the trip to Field of Bone and bind in the Kaesora ruins, its a good spot :)

Kunark is where the money is. Kill giants at the fort in WW as soon as you can for the vendor weaps and the chance at forest loops, and then do it all again once they green out in the FM giant fort.

Yeah Kunark coin really isn't that bad. Spider silk and bone chips in FoB/Kurns, then tasty giant loot and forest loops if you follow the WW > FM path. LOIO also has some great loot.

Having returned to the game just a couple of weeks ago, here is my recent (Warning: long but true) ordeal traveling to the old world as an iksar monk at level 8, attracted by thoughts of money and gear:

1. I farm up a ton of bone chips and spider silks and decide it’s time to get some monk weapons

2. A passing druid offers to port a few of us to WC. I grab all of my stuff. He casts some buffs on us and away we go

3. Everyone just thanks the guy and runs off. I think to myself that this is kind of rude, so I tip the guy, knowing I will soon be selling stuff anyway. Oh, wait, trading with someone breaks invis. Oh, my, the NPCs at the druid ring don’t like me. LOADING, PLEASE WAIT

4. I’m back in Cabilis, only now everything I own is on another continent. Panic time. One of my traveling companions manages to get a kindly cleric from EC. He drags my corpse to a safer spot

5. I get my rez, grab my stuff, and head to the EC tunnel, which I only vaguely remember how to get to. I’m running with no SoW and no invis, which is kind of scary now that I’m aware of the consequences

6. The EC tunnel is great. My bone chips and in particular my massive pile of spider silks go quickly. Ooh, I now own a Wu’s Quivering Staff. This was a great idea!

7. I could really use some 1H Blunts. Those Trance Sticks would go great with my staff. What’s that? People pay up to 35 plat for a drop from level 4 bears? Sign me up!

8. I mow down every bear in the zone in seconds with my new staff. Ooh, a High Quality Bear Skin! My dream of a pair of Trance Sticks seems like it will soon be a reality. What’s that noise? I grab the loot from my fallen lowbie mob. That really sounds like flapping in the background. A vague memory of over a decade past stirs… Bam! Dead by a griffon. LOADING, PLEASE WAIT

9. I’m naked in Kunark and all of my worldly possessions are again on another continent. I find another non-anonymous cleric eventually, who locates my corpse, drags it to the tunnel and gives me a rez. I’m now becoming vaguely uneasy of the world outside the EC tunnel

10. I ask in /ooc how I get back to Kunark. Someone describes what sounds like a complicated combination of dodging mobs, boat trips, swimming, and more dodging mobs. The thought of dying at sea doesn’t sit well with me. I rule boats out of my immediate future

11. I get a brilliant idea! I’ll shove my stuff in the bank, eat another death, and wind up at my bind point, where I can just make a short walk to the local bank. I ask in /ooc where an iksar can sell and bank. This is met with some laughter. Some kindly soul tells me that selling to a vendor is possible, but banking is rather more difficult. It requires a combination of invisibility, dodging guards, and camera angles. Remembering my last ordeal with invis, I decide this will likely not end well for me and that I am now trapped in the old world

12. But hey, I can sell in this zone? Might as well lighten my load, and inch my way closer to those trance sticks. I decide that the safest place to sell must obviously be closest to Freeport. After all, it’s a noob area, right? I go near the Freeport zone line, go into a hut, and try to sell. The merchant tells me to get lost. So I decide to try the opposite hut. Oh my, there’s a guild master in here. She doesn’t like me. LOADING, PLEASE WAIT

13. I’m level 7 again, yay! Separated from all possessions and now on another continent, I have become better at Cleric Locating (3). I get my rez

14. I’m now terrified of going anywhere outside the EC tunnel. I don’t know if I’ll ever leave the tunnel. Those trance sticks will have to wait until I’m a higher level. I see a druid announce that she’s porting people all over. Hey, I got here from a druid, why not just go home with a druid? I tell her that I want to go home, so she tells me the nearest place is Dreadlands. It sounds ominous. I vaguely remember the zone, it’s been over a decade since I was last there. I take the port. She casts levitate and invis on me, and wishes me luck. Only she doesn’t say “Good Luck!” like most people. She says “good luck…” which I take as an ominous portent, but it prompts me to caution. She ports out and I’m now alone, except for an afk druid sitting at the ring.

15. I look up a map of the Dreadlands and plan my route home. I’m looking for Frontier Mountains. At this point, a habit that I’ve developed as an iksar kicks in – I forage for food. It’s a great tool for the cheap. Only I didn’t realize, forage breaks invis. I’m really not good with invis. I ask the afk druid for an invis, but I get no reply.

16. I make my way to the exit tunnel completely exposed and sure that I’m going to die. I remember the comment from the guy who told me how to bank in Freeport, and I’m hugging walls and using camera angles to peek ahead. There’s a yeti there that won’t let me past, but camera work has saved me. I head back out of the tunnel.

17. There’s something that looks like an iksar city on the other side of this clearing. I decide to head there and wait for players. I narrowly miss a skeleton that doesn’t like me. The city isn’t safe

18. I head back to the druid ring. Afk druid is still not responding to my invis requests. Another group ports in. While I explain my situation, the group is already running away, and the druid gates out. I didn’t get the explanation out in time. I decide to make a macro button asking for an invis. I also take the time to level up my Sense Heading skill, since I have nothing better to do

19. Time passes. My sense heading skill is now 120. You could drop me into a dark cave blindfolded and I can tell you which direction I’m facing

20. The original druid comes back with more passengers. I quickly ask for an invis. She seems surprised to see me. I get my invis and I now know to do NOTHING but move. I thank her and tell her I want to tip but it will break my invis. She says she wouldn’t take it anyway. My noobness can apparently be sensed from a mile away. I head out, slip past the yeti in the tunnel, and look for the next zone.

21. My levitate that she had originally cast on me drops, and I realize how useful it was. On the plus side, every broken piece of ground seems to give me a chance to level up my safe fall skill.

22. Wow, zone lines are hard to find in Kunark. I find what looks to lead me into another zone. It’s Burning Woods. Not exactly where I had planned, but I look up the map. Looks like Frontier Mountains should be easy to get to, southeast corner of the zone. I head out, glad for my invis.

23. THAT ZONE CONNECTION IS IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND. I spend the next 30 minutes or so stumbling around through ridiculous thick trees and I can find nothing. My invis drops and I’m on my own

24. I’ve learned to spam the “Target Nearest Enemy” key to make sure that I’m not in agro range of anything. Everything here can kill me horribly. I eventually find the tiny zone exit buried under some trees high on a wall

25. Frontier Mountains is also way too high for me. I dodge lots of mobs that can’t be seen over the jagged landscape. Levitate would be an awesome spell to have here. Oh yeah, I had levitate and squandered it

26. Lake of Ill Omen at last. I’m so happy that I don’t notice the Marauder slaughtering me. LOADING PLEASE WAIT. At least this time I can drag my own corpse.

27. I decide that I’ll stay in Kunark. I never did get my trance sticks, but Master Wu can take his sticks and shove them where the sun don’t shine

TL/DR version – Leaving Kunark as a young iksar pup will teach you valuable skills, but you’re basically choosing the hardest mode for a game that’s already hard. Kunark has everything you need as an iksar. And gear is overrated at low levels.

Kainor, level 8 (again) Iksar Monk

I think had you got someone to bind you up on the wall near fp entrance (clear area for respawning after death) you would have fared better. You would do great and learn to be aware of griffs. Having said this Kunark is great for iksar to level. I would do it till 17ish in kurns. Go to commons to shop. By that point you should be a little more durable and fd should be alot more reliable. I find as a melee or any low level toon traveling anywhere far and not getting a bind ends in tears.

Why no one bound you is beyond crazy, i would of looked at you and told you to get a bind, or bound you myself. The game is only as hard as you want it to be, and you made it super hard.

Sometimes it can take shouting in West Freeport for 10 minutes or more to get a bind but people will do it... but still, Kunark is the place to be ;)