Returning player looking for advice

[6ilchrist]

Hi all! I'm a returning EQ player with many very fond (possibly masochistic) memories of playing EQ when I was in middle school. I have a couple questions I was hoping someone could help me with.

Background: I always seem to play melee characters, but last time around I played a Warrior into the 50s and I was frustrated by my inability to kill anything alone. (Granted, I don't think I was properly geared at all... or necessarily had any idea what I was doing). This time, I decided to play something with a bit more utility, and, once I heard a lot of casting classes are less gear depended, I made a Magician. Then, I was like "well, I hear Shaman (Shamen? Shameni?) can solo well, plus it would be cool to have buffs like SoW!" and I made a Barbarian Shaman. Super cool. But then I decided to make a Shadow Knight because I thought it would be sweet to have a pet and do hood things with my friends like FD and generally explore Norrath a bit this time around.

Anyway, wall of text aside, I've met some incredibly generous folks that have given my DE SK tons of advice, a non-insignificant amount of plat for a newbie, and a full set of Banded armor to help me.

On to the Questions:

1. Due to the aforementioned incredibly generous suit of banded armor, my DE is encumbered even with an empty inventory. Would it be worth it to reroll as a human or other race with a higher starting strength? (I followed the wiki's recommended stat allocation). I am also slightly apprehensive about playing an evil race, since all of my EQ experience has been in the Freeport area and Kunark basically.

2. Would anyone recommend a 2-hand weapon for around 50pp? Currently using a rusty one I convinced a skeleton to part with [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Thanks in advance for the replies. See you in Norrath!
Ryan

[Pope Hat]

For SK I really like Ogre. They have amazing starting stats and the frontal stun immunity can be very useful when you get FD and need to get that feign off when you have 5 mobs beating on you. DE stats are miserable. Make sure you are at 75 AGi at a minimum and put the rest of your points into INT (if you don't want to do that it's fine, just don't put any into str/sta). That set of banded won't fit you, though =/

[6ilchrist]

Thanks for the reply! I was initially thinking Human, so the armor would still fit, but as I was looking at the stats, it seems like it would be hard to argue with the Ogre. Esp if I find myself tanking in a group at some point, having frontal stun immunity and 50 more sta seem like big plusses! and since I'm already going to be hated everywhere, might as well go for broke [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Pope Hat]

Feign Death and gather shadows will make you not care about being KOS. Before you have those - yeah, it will kind of suck, but you have a great area to level right outside Grobb with uguk. You are also not kos in Neriak so solA is right by there too. No one ever goes there (because they are crazy) so if you can get a group over there you can have any camp you want.

Ogre exp penalty kind of stinks, and so does being huge, but ogre sk is a great race/class to play.

[Ortnit]

In time, your gear will offset many shortcommings you have at the moment.

If you want to min/max, Ogre is probably the best race. But you are also huge and sometimes wil have problems to move around in dungeons. So you should have some ant potions or a shaman with you [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

For fashion questing, many consider Dark Elfs superior. There are alot of cheap +Str items you can buy in EC tunnel.

Ultimately, you should play whatever suits you best.

[DinoTriz]

Originally Posted by 6ilchrist [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Background: I always seem to play melee characters, but last time around I played a Warrior into the 50s and I was frustrated by my inability to kill anything alone. (Granted, I don't think I was properly geared at all... or necessarily had any idea what I was doing). This time, I decided to play something with a bit more utility, and, once I heard a lot of casting classes are less gear depended, I made a Magician. Then, I was like "well, I hear Shaman (Shamen? Shameni?) can solo well, plus it would be cool to have buffs like SoW!" and I made a Barbarian Shaman. Super cool. But then I decided to make a Shadow Knight because I thought it would be sweet to have a pet and do hood things with my friends like FD and generally explore Norrath a bit this time around.

I always seem to play melee as well.

As far as soloing, melee in general ranges from inefficient to impossible.

I'd say Monk and SK are your best bets as far as soloing. Then Ranger and Paladin. Rogue and Warriors (especially Rogues) get the shaft with soloing.

I have a 60 Rogue that is scared of green cons.

SK is a good choice though. They can solo, they get some really nice weapons, and they also have some really nice quality of life abilities (which I recommend when playing this game). Don't worry about being an evil race. Once you have Feign Death and Gather Shadows, it's really not a hassle. Especially when you learn the game a bit more. If you're feeling the nostalgia tug at you, and want to visit more places, make a good race druid or something as an alt.

Originally Posted by 6ilchrist [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

On to the Questions:

1. Due to the aforementioned incredibly generous suit of banded armor, my DE is encumbered even with an empty inventory. Would it be worth it to reroll as a human or other race with a higher starting strength? (I followed the wiki's recommended stat allocation). I am also slightly apprehensive about playing an evil race, since all of my EQ experience has been in the Freeport area and Kunark basically.

My recommendation is play the race you like. I love Ogres, but they're so massive I can never see what I'm fighting unless I zoom into first-person view. I say ignore stats because they are easy to max out near end game (especially STR). Also, some races have racials, like regen, stun immunity, ultravision, etc.

Originally Posted by 6ilchrist [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

2. Would anyone recommend a 2-hand weapon for around 50pp? Currently using a rusty one I convinced a skeleton to part with [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Edge of Cabilis

Jarsath Battle Sword

Nathsar Greatsword

Here's a good one for 300-400p (not too far from 50p): Green Jade Halberd

[6ilchrist]

Thanks everyone for the great responses! Made an Ogre SK and the thing I've noticed the most so far is how much silver these lizardmen carry. I'll have to think about this quite a bit more.

Cheers!

[6ilchrist]

The biggest issue I'm having now is it seems like my DE misses a lot of attacks because of his low strength. (at least I think that's how it works) So that's one more for the ogre camp [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[DinoTriz]

Originally Posted by 6ilchrist [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The biggest issue I'm having now is it seems like my DE misses a lot of attacks because of his low strength. (at least I think that's how it works) So that's one more for the ogre camp [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

If you don't have any issues with playing Ogre, I would go Ogre.

To me personally, they're just so big. Luckily, there aren't too many tight-fitting dungeons but you'll definitely want to know which way the mob is facing if you're tanking. That can be a problem when you're the size of a refrigerator.

But then again, you'd be an SK. You don't lose aggro often.