New Player Questions

[cd288]

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

Some clever ideas in this thread!

However, I'm going to offer a contrarian answer: you don't need plat. If you just loot what you kill and sell that loot, you will have enough for all of your important spells. Also, especially in places like Blackburrow, looting what you kill will give you a free suit of leather armor.

Between that leather armor and any other wearable loot you find, you will do just fine, all the way from 1-45+ (when you'll maybe want to start thinking about picking up some of the cheaper Jaundiced Bone pieces, or possibly even saving up for an epic tear or JBB).

For Shaman (and really for all non-melee classes) the difference between having 100 more AC/HP/mana/whatever ... and not, is almost imperceptible. But if you take all the time you would have spent acquiring better gear, and instead spend it leveling, you will get many levels ... and I promise you will notice those.

TLDR; Get plat and gear if it's fun for you: this is a game after all. But if you want to do things fast/most efficiently, don't even think about making money, and instead just focus on leveling ... and then when you're higher level, you'll be able to earn plat orders of magnitude faster (resulting in gear that actually matters).

From a very basic perspective sure. But the higher the WIS the greater your mana pool, which is pretty important especially for like up to level 35 when Shamans can be effective main healers in addition to being expected to buff/debuff in groups. If you plan to employ canni dancing as a technique down the line your STA will be pretty important as well. You’re right that you technically can level with basic gear and survive, but the difference will be noticeable the higher level you get.

[Byrjun]

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

Also, especially in places like Blackburrow, looting what you kill will give you a free suit of leather armor.

Unfortunately the gnolls in Blackburrow don't drop leather, except for the commander which can drop raw hide sometimes.

You can however do the Cindl's Polar Bear Collection quest for some patchwork armor. It's not as good as leather or even raw-hide, but at least you won't look naked.

The number #1 priority is making sure you have enough money to afford your spells. They're expensive and a lot more important than gear.

But while we're on the topic of armor and tradeskills, it could be worth the effort of crafting your own set of banded armor. Banded is a great baseline set of armor and will last you awhile. It'll be a bit cheaper to buy a set off another player, or you can spend a bit more and craft it yourself and get the Blacksmithing skillups. Up to you how you want to go about it.

Gnoll fangs are really powerful, nothing else really beats them for early leveling so you should farm them for awhile. Eventually you'll have to move on to the Freeport region, but you could also extend Qeynos a bit by grouping at the bandits in West Karana if you can find people. The sashes they drop are also excellent exp + money.

You'll also probably want to pick up some Alligator's Tooth Earrings and Limestone Rings from the Qeynos Aqueducts.

[loramin]

Originally Posted by cd288 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

From a very basic perspective sure. But the higher the WIS the greater your mana pool, which is pretty important especially for like up to level 35 when Shamans can be effective main healers in addition to being expected to buff/debuff in groups. If you plan to employ canni dancing as a technique down the line your STA will be pretty important as well. You’re right that you technically can level with basic gear and survive, but the difference will be noticeable the higher level you get.

Maximums matter, but not very much. How often does the following happen to you: A) you started at max mana, B) you burned through your entire mana pool before having any break, C) you lived or died based the final spell you cast?

I'm not saying it never happens, but player skill/effort matters a million times more than whether you have a few more stat points (emphasis on "few", because non-twink gear won't be giving huge stat boosts).

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

Unfortunately the gnolls in Blackburrow don't drop leather, except for the commander which can drop raw hide sometimes.

My monk was getting rawhide off of non-boss gnolls the other day. I don't remember which, but I specifically remember it happening, because it annoyed me: all of it was size large, which meant he couldn't wear it.

(Or maybe it was off the nearby WK bandits? But I'm pretty sure it was the BB gnolls.)

In either case, technically rawhide is a leather class armor (in the leather/chain/plate sense) [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.].

[fjaenal]

Really interesting points here, thanks a lot. I have started the Gnoll dentist business (lvl 7 and already got 12 teeth. As for the tradeskill, I am going to wait until I have more cash on me. (Yesterday a shamman buffed me and throw a good markup on the Polar hides I was selling) [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.].

Thanks for the discussion and all the information.

Kirgi