extremely new shammyFollow

I'm sure most everyone has gone through this at some point but I am requesting some help. I have only been playing EQ since Xmas 2003 and have twinked my toon as well as gotten powerleveled to 20 but I am still clueless on what I am really supposed to be doing in this game. My RL BF has several characters and is lvl 65 Beastie but he is no help to me...been playing too long to translate and never been a shammy.
What I am hoping to find out is at what lvl should I start looking for guild,groups,quests,etc? I would love to start getting involved in game (lord, if he knew that he would fallout:-)) But as much as I am enjoying the game I feel lost when playing it...like I'm just wandering around killing mobs with no real purpose.

Any help would be most appreciated.

~Nikohl
20 shaman

Well, this is probably the source of your problems right there. You skipped most of the "learning curve" that the game supplies to help prepare you for the higher levels. Perhaps whoever did this for you (I assume your RL BF) thought he was doing you a favor, but I think that the opposite is true.

The best way, I think, to learn about what you have to do is through observation. Being a shaman yourself, though, you probably won't be observing other shamans in action much because most groups would only have 1 at a time. If I were you, I would start a new character, one that was not a pure caster. You could do a hybrid, a class that can still cast some spells, or a melee, who can't cast any spells. Go ahead and use some of the money you have to equip them reasonably, or don't; you'll survive either way. If you twink this new character too much you'll have no fear of dying and that slows down the learning process.

When your new character gets to around level 7-9, I would go to Crushbone. This is a great zone for experience, and there are almost always groups there. While in a group, you will start to learn about everyone's responsibilities, although at low levels they are not as well-defined. Once you get to level 15, Paludal Caverns becomes the place to go, and again there are always groups there. You can learn still more about what people do, and hopefully they will even tell you in detail if you ask nicely. Once you decide to leave Paludal in your early 20's there are lots of places to go, including doing LDoN adventures. While it's not necessarily a great idea to start doing them until the high 20's, they are a great place to see how a group can really pool its abilities to kick major ***.

When you feel you've learned a bit of what a Shaman is expected to do in a group, and actually seen some real examples of this, then you might want to switch back. Or perhaps you've decided you enjoy the new character more. But in either case you will have learned a lot more about the game than you would have otherwise and will be a much better player for it.

Game on,

The Oneiromancer

After placing this post I realized that not everyone was fond of toons being twinked. I couldn't agree more. The only thing I benefited was that I got to practice spells,kills, etc with no worries as to dying...not to say I wasn't afraid anyway. I have since ventured out on my own to LoIO and ran from some nasty spiders in FV. Big chicken here:-P But can definitely see why some would truly hate the thought of powerleveling a toon. Players in the lower classes were wanting to group and I had no idea how or what my responsibitlies would be. Alas, thanks to you guys, I am learning some valuable info.

Again thank you for any help given here and in the future.
~Nikohl

I agree about keeping those skills levels up! That is the most important thing any character needs to do including swimming and bind wound.

Talk to other shaman higher than you when you are not grouping, like in bazaar or something, too. Most people are willing to talk (not all for sure.) Other higher level shammys have taught me lots. I was sitting down a lot in fights, and another shammy old me I was not using Cannibalize & regen (lvl 24 spells) correctly, that I should never have to sit, and that made a huge difference, and was a lot more fun too.

Since you already are level 20, just solo awhile in zones where you can recover your corpse easily if needed. Fight by by a zone out is good, so you can zone if needed.

Ask mages or necros about pet handling tricks for when you get a pet.

Just ignore all the twits who are complaining about PL'ing because they didn't get any, and listen to the people who prefer helping you to make sure there are people playing the game in the future. I would ignore the advice about Bind Wound. You're a shaman. You have heals. At no time will bind wound ever be more efficient than healing and medding.

Also, there are definitely times to sit as a shaman. I don't know what advice the earlier poster got about Cannibalize and Regen, but it was stupid advice. As a shaman you're going to want to learn a technique called Canni Dancing. You sit to med, as soon as the tick "pulses" stand, cast Canni (Whichever one you have) then sit to get the meditate and regen "pulse", so as you can see there are a number of times when a shaman would want to be sitting.

Check out eqshaman some excellant guides there. Shaman live or die with there slows....learn to love it. If soloing and get an add you will develope the technique of root parking, this comes in handy in groups also. Personally once you hit about 24 or so and get canni and regen it becomes all about hitpoints and AC. We convert hp's to mana using cannibilize line of spells. Oh yeah if you do not know what root parking is you simply draw out the add with slow....move away a little and root it and go back to finish the initial pull. De-buff and dot parked mob if you like but be aware that our early dots tend to break root due to dd affect on landing. Good luck I think you will enjoy the Shaman class.

Seeler

Hmmmm, where to start? Personally, I probably wouldn't bother looking for a guild until later. Guilds that will let a level 20 character in are probably not all that worthwhile to join. If you find yourself grouped with people and notice that players you tend to like all share a guild, might be worth asking about it. But I wouldn't just join a random guild.

Quests. I'd do quests starting at level one personally. They're part of the game and can be fun. Perhaps at your present level, doing the quests for "totemic armor" would be entertaining. Or maybe some of the quests from plane of knowledge for "antique things" (level 2 focus items). Poke around in the quests section of this web site and see if you find something that looks interesting. I'm almost always in the middle of some quest or other. Gives you something a little less random seeming to do than killing wandering mobs.

Groups. I'd try to split my time evenly between soloing and grouping. But be aware that there are a lot of childish and mean spirited people out there and you'll probably run into them, so don't let some jerk make your game playing less fun than it should be. If you find yourself grouped with people who are no fun, just politely leave the group. Warning them that you are still fairly new to the game up front might be a very good idea. You might find yourself in a group with alts of people like your BF who know the game inside and out and assume everyone else does also.

Things a shaman needs to know specifically:

slow - throughout your shaman career, this will be one of your primary tasks in a group. Your "slow" spells make mobs hit you slower, thus doing less damage. Very useful, since then you or the cleric don't have to heal as much damage. Your present "best" slow spell is walking sleep (level 14 spell). It slows the mob's attack rate by about 25%, reducing the damage the mobs does by a similar amount. In a group, you'll want to cast walking sleep on all of the mobs, assuming they're lasting long enough to do a significant amount of damage.

healing - at many levels, shaman will be asked to be the main healers in a group. Use your best healing spell to keep the group healed up. At your present level, your "best" heal is "healing", which heals about 90 points of damage for 60 mana. Your most efficient healing spell is still the level one spell "inner fire" which heals 20 hp for 10 mana. 2 hp healed per point of mana spent, rather than 1.5 hp healed per point of mana spent like you'd get from "healing".

buffs - another primary role you'll find for a shaman is to make sure to keep buffs on your group. Your more popular buff is probably SoW (spirit of the wolf). Your most important buffs are typically the ones that give AC or HP. So at your present level, we're talking about turtle skin, inner fire, and spirit of the ox. You also get "shrink", which while not exactly a buff is something you'll want to cast on yourself and anyone of a large/medium sized race whenever you go into a dungeon.

root - a level 14 spell that stops a mob from moving for a random amount of time up to 48 seconds. Very useful when you have more mobs than you can handle, since if they can't move they can't chase you.

DoT - "damage over time" - you have lots of spells like this. At your present level, the best ones you have are affliction and tainted breath. You'll get better ones as you get higher level. At many points in your shaman career, these will be your best damage. At your present level, you probably still do more damage using melee.

root/rot - using root to keep a mob off you while you cast DOTs on them. This is a way you can solo and use all of your mana to kill the mob, rather than having to defend yourself. I'd try not to use this technique much until you have your defense skill maxed out for your given level. It should be 100 at level 20, then gain 5 point per level after that up to 200 max.

Eventually, you'll get "regeneration". For most of your career, you'll want this spell to be constantly up on yourself and anyone in your groups who regularly takes damage. For yourself, you'll be inflicting damage on yourself using "cannibalize" to regain mana. regeneration is a very mana efficient way for you to heal back those hp faster.

Well, I'm kind of out of steam. If you post specific questions, I'll be happy to take a stab at answering them.

I just rescently started a shammy on the terris thule server, she is lvl 35 and I have found a use for bind wounds, and it is very good for soloing and has its uses in groups. When you get your canibalize spell. If you are soloing, get a couple of good hp buffs or a temp.,ect... as well as clairity, you can cast and cast and cast. But with clairity, regen, and bind wounds, you can canibalize and get a booty full of mana back quick, and not use it to heal back to 50 percent.

If you do this in a group.....hehe, it prompts the cleric to heal you. "what cleric in his right mind would allow someone in his party to BIND WOUNDS... it is unthinkable!!!! And if he is very self minded about his duties of the party, it will nudge him on to provide you mana by giving you something to canibalize.
I realize it is kina cheezy, but WHAT IS WORSE, being a little cheezy...... or being dead because you dont have the mana to defend yourself.