17 Sham Having Trouble Leveling

[Ballaorf]

I'm nearly 18, but I've been stuck at 17 for a while and I'm looking for a little guidance on what I should be doing. Some more background:
- I'm not really twinked out. Someone was kind enough to gift me some gear and a little plat, but it's far from optimal and I haven't been able to find any affordable gear for sale yet (I only have around 650p in the bank): I still have cloth sleeves, a couple of pieces of banded, two raw hide bracers, and the Tribunal Symbol necklace.
- I guess because of this gear, I'm having a lot of trouble soloing. I can only take one blue before I need to heal and med up for 5+ minutes - and the blues take me down to 30-40% HP.
- I've consulted a few leveling guides I've found, but I can't solo most of the spots it recommends (I did make a full level soloing the sisters bandit camp, but then died three times to roaming brownies, so I'm scared away from lfay). I've tried finding groups in Oasis, Unrest, and Highpass; I got an Orc Highway group in Oasis once, but otherwise have come up empty-handed every time I've looked.

I have a group of friends to play with, but my schedule rarely aligns with theirs, so they are starting to outlevel me quite a bit.

Am I doing something wrong? Are there better zones I can find groups in? It doesn't seem like soloing is going to work for me at this point.

[Yetizod]

Make new friends. Join groups. Soloing is lame.

[kjs86z]

Jump on the XP superhighway.

Unrest, Guk, Mistmoore.

Also /who monk 15-19 (+/- 2 levels from your own) and hit these dudes up for duo. Make many monk friends.

[Ballaorf]

I have been trying to group, just haven't had any luck.

Unrest has been a deadzone every time I've gone in there. Or it's being camped by solo players.

I haven't tried Guk or MM, though. I can give those a shot!

[Legidias]

LFay is still good. Just pull sisters up the wall behind them instead of fighting them on the flat. Its the most plat you can gain at that level (and beyond) too.

[Ballaorf]

The sisters themselves weren't the problem - I was actually able to solo them pretty easily. It's the rest of LFay since the brownies that wander are much higher level and can cast.

After starting this thread, I took a look at the guild wiki page and I'm considering joining one of the casual guilds to hopefully have some more luck finding groups.

[Raev]

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

I have been trying to group, just haven't had any luck.

Shaman shine in duos and trios, and you don't have to hold out for Monks either. Enchanter, Necro, SK, Magician, Warrior, and Ranger all work very well with a Shaman. Trios are even better: you + any melee + any int caster other than a wizard = wrecking crew. Don't walk into a zone and /ooc 'shaman X LFG'. Send tells and make your own small groups.

Also, remember that shaman are very weak at low levels. You don't have regen, you don't have haste, you don't have a pet, and your slow is quite poor. In the end, I think shaman just get better and better all the way to 51, and then of course there is another huge power jump at 60 with Torpor, Malo, and Avatar.

[Ballaorf]

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

Also, remember that shaman are very weak at low levels. You don't have regen, you don't have haste, you don't have a pet, and your slow is quite poor. In the end, I think shaman just get better and better all the way to 51, and then of course there is another huge power jump at 60 with Torpor, Malo, and Avatar.

Yeah, I'm just struggling a bit at the moment. I considered rerolling to a melee character, but seems like I'd just be in the same situation if I did (I was thinking of SK). I REALLY want to stick it out and get this guy to 60. I love the class and I want to see some of the content I've never seen before (I only did Vox and PoF once each on live and I had no idea what was going on).

I do think I'm going to roll an Iksar Necro to mess around with as an alt because they seem more self-sufficient all the way up and, in reading about them last night, I didn't realize that they can do just about everything...

Anyway, I want to stick with my Shaman, just a little disheartened right now because the last few play sessions have been so unproductive and it seems like so many players are twinked out the butt, so they aren't interested in grouping.

[Jimjam]

Upload a video of how you play so the Internet can tell you the ways in which you are wrong.


I suggest focusing on mobs the lower end of blue ; a level sixteen mob is going to kick a lot more ass than a level 13.

Get yourself a weapon with around 1:2 ratio and a couple of platinum fire wedding rings from ec will help.

Cap your defence skills each level. Any mob you get XP off will let you earn skill ups.

Also: solo a blue then med up for 5 mins; welcome to soloing on Everquest.

[Legidias]

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

It's the rest of LFay since the brownies that wander are much higher level and can cast.

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

pull sisters up the wall behind them instead of fighting them on the flat

But for real, sisters is the best camp you can get at that point since oyu need money for spells and gear. Until like 40's, sisters is still th ebest cash you can get.