Iksar shaman - gearing 10-35 (green)

[NegaStoat]

I already walked your path, OP. Rolling an Iksar Shaman and leveling using gear I scrounged. The key to solo leveling in mediocre gear for myself was that I focused on Old World mobs that were barely blue and just being patient. Most shaman players will give advice that melee is your best option for solo leveling, and I agree with this to a point. Full medium banded armor, jewelcrafted fire opal rings for AC / HP, jewelcrafted wisdom earrings and ruby veil? Go for it.

Plunking down substantial cash for a big melee weapon and a haste item is something I did not do. If you are patient and target key weak mobs (mostly in old world) you can solo with a Harpoon of the Depths or a Springwood club, and just push for 29. At 29 you can Charm animals of a proper level in certain zones (Lake of Ill Omen being the big one) and make the push for 34. At 34, you can effectively leave melee behind. I did.

At 34 you can target something barely a blue con to you and open up with Walking Sleep, Root, Evenomed Breath (2 casts over the course of the fight), Shock of the Tainted, and your pet at half health of the target to finish while medding / canni use at a distance. You can keep 2 mobs dead over a 6 minute period while recovering to full mana each time, moving on to mobs like West Karana guards or the like. Those guys took me to 42, and I was killing them about as fast as a necro.

From 42+ you can kill things like the butcherblock dwarf NPCs that druids don't want (the non citizens) to 49 with ease. You can rely on your Root, Slow, DoT(s), Direct Damage, and your Pet without breaking a beat and without having to melee. If you want to kill strictly as fast as you can, yes, a granite facegrinder or the like might help you do it faster. That wasn't my goal. My goal was to conserve cash and simply match the killing speed of a dark elf necromancer as a comparison, and that was something I could accomplish simply by using my spells.

Edit - I did the above by taking a break in my leveling at one point to complete the Canni II quest. I bought the strange Ochre Clay cheap by going invis w/ SoW into City of Mist and /auctioning within the zone line. Crushed Diamonds I got for free on Timorous Deep ground spawn. The Shaman powder I got from making a deal with a dial-a-port druid with them asking their fellow guild mates and selling me one during prime time weekend hours. The Greyish Bone Chips had to be obtained directly from Karnor's. I got an Invis to Undead at the zone line from someone I met in passing and had my own Invis up. With both spells active, I made my way to the usual warlord camp and waited all of 35 minutes during a weekend prime time hour slot.

Canni 2 is damn incredible if you get it right at 39. Don't pay the EC tunnel price - just plan ahead and grab it with some effort.

[loramin]

Originally Posted by NegaStoat [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Canni 2 is damn incredible if you get it right at 39. Don't pay the EC tunnel price - just plan ahead and grab it with some effort.

This. It's not even that much effort if you do it right; it's not like it takes a group or even a trio.

The KC groups will happily give you that item, the diamond dust is just a ground spawn, and the clay isn't "no drop" so you can buy it in EC (or off people killing in CoM) ... really the Yun Shaman is the only hard part, and if you can grab a higher level on their way to Sebilis to help you out, he'll be easy to them.