By Goladus
Sat Apr 2 19:47:45 2011 This guide was last updated in 2003. Feel free to enjoy it for historical purposes, but it will not be maintained. -Gol
This FAQ is meant to be a convenience for the readers and posters of The Newbie Zone forum. It is hoped that users will be able to find quick answers to common questions, or to help them ask the questions they really want answered. This FAQ is not meant to replace discussion on the board, if you are not satisfied with any of the answers given here, do not hesitate to post the question on the boards. That is what they are there for.
There are a variety of classes to choose, and many players try several before settling on one that they will play to high level. Some suggest Druid, because you will have a good variety of helpful abilities available to play around with. Playing a druid will give you a good idea of how the game will work, both with melee and spellcasting. Others suggest Warrior, because they are the simplest to play and least likely to die at low levels. Hybrids(Paladins, Rangers, and Shadowknights) are almost identical to warriors for the first 9 levels, at which point they gain some rudimentary spells. Hybrids give you the best exposure to both major melee and spellcasting, if you are looking to spend more than 9 levels on a test character. The other drawback of playing a Hybrid (or a druid for that matter), is that they have some minor faction concerns. Certian NPCs will likely be hostile to a Hybrid or Priest while a warrior would be accepted.
If you are interested in seeing how pets work, test out a Necromancer, as Magicians can not summon pets until level 4.
Ultimately, however, you will no longer be a beginner. At that point you're going to want to be playing the class you enjoy the most, regardless of whether it was easy to play as a beginner. If you already know what you think you want to play, go ahead and give it a shot. No class is unplayable.
This is a very dangerous question to ask because of the dynamics of the game. The class that is "most wanted" at high levels will change over time and depending on the current attitudes, equipment, and favorite hunting environments of the players. My personal recommendation is to ask this question on the boards, and take all of the responses with a grain of salt. Furthermore, classes aren't necessarily wanted for things that you are going to enjoy doing. There was a point when Magicians were prized for their ability to sit in one place and drop items onto the ground. This wasn't exactly fun for mages, luckily this is no longer the case.
This is usually a fun question for people to answer, so as with most of these questions don't be afraid to ask anyway. This game is all about figuring out which abilities complement each other best, and using them as best you can. In general, any two classes will have enough complementary abilities to be effective. While certian combinations may offer better versatility (the ability to handle a greater variety of situations successfully), others may offer more raw xp-gaining potential. The one exception is that melee classes are highly dependant on healers. If one of you plays a Warrior, Monk, Rogue, Paladin, Shadowknight, or Ranger, then you will most likely want a Cleric, Druid, or Shaman. Hybrids will generally depend less on healers than pure melee, but all of them will need healers more than other casters or bards. Beastlords will generally fit in well anywhere, although they will also tend to work well with a healer. Also, look to get different abilities, that is essentially what I mean by 'complementary.' In other words if you have a druid, a ranger snare won't get much use. Two clerics, you may never die but then your enemies probably won't either.
Two Examples:
The Shaman is a primarily support(buffs/heals) and utility(slow/root) class, while the magician is mostly direct offense(nukes+pet) and defense(pet). A shaman/mage pair is highly versatile and can also unleash a lot of raw power. For a magic-resistant mob, they can both focus healing power on the pet. For a lengthy fight, the mage pet will hold off the enemy while the shaman piles on slow, cripple, and damage over time spells. For short, high powered fights the magician can turn on the heat, while the shaman contributes what nukes he can.
This is an entirely different combination, one that is especially powerful when using the Enchanter's Charm ability. A druid is useful in many ways, but for an Enchanter brings two very important abilities to the pair: Healing and Snaring. Enchanters have no ability to heal themselves or their charmed minions at all. This can make soloing awkward and even ineffecient. You'll find yourself waiting for your pet to regenerate hp, waiting for yourself to regenerate hp-- having charm break while you are waiting.. possibly even costing more hitpoints not to mention mana to recharm. The druid's ability to heal will allow the enchanter to make the most out of each recast of Charm. The druids ability to snare is also huge. While a fast pet is occaisionally useful in combat, when charm breaks you don't want your former pet and your current target beating on you. While an Enchanter alone can deal with this using SoW potions and root, snare(and sow if possible) from a druid is much more elegant, convenient and reliable. While the druid would be useful for those two abilities alone, the druid will also likely be able to find the time and mana to buff and add damage as well. Apart from the charmed pet, an Enchanter will provide mana regeneration and powerful crowd control abilities(mesmerize, fear) that the druid doesn't have.
There are many possibilities.
If you have friends that play, play on their server. Otherwise, I strongly suggest starting on the newbie server, which is currently Stromm. The game of Everquest is now several years old, and many of the older servers have a majority population of players with high level characters. This means that many of the zones you will want to hunt in will be empty, and perhaps more importantly, it will mean there is a smaller market for the kind of equipment you will eventually be looking to buy, and thus players will be less likely to hunt for it. The game was meant to be played alongside other players, and the newbie server is most conducive to doing that.
The Bazaar is a great place to buy equipment from other players and sell the various odds and ends you come across on your adventures. The bazaar zone is part of the Shadows of Luclin expansion. If you don't have that expansion, you will not be able to access the bazaar. There basically three ways to get there. The easiest way is to find a druid or wizard and have them teleport you to the Nexus, however that may not be available to you. The next easiest way is only available if you have the Planes of Power expansion. Most starting cities have a small statue of a book located in the vicinity. Usually, they are located somewhat away from the city. Clicking on that statue will bring you to the Plane of Knowledge. From the plane of knowledge, find the stone labelled "Nexus." If you don't have Planes of Power and can't find a Druid or Wizard, anyone can get to the bazaar by finding the large Combine Spires, located in North Karana, Greater Faydark, Toxxulia Forest, Dreadlands, and The Great Divide. Talk to the Nexus Scion and get a spire stone, then wait for the spires to activate. This can take between 1 and 15 minutes so be patient. Once you get to The Nexus, head south and find the corridor with the half elf in leather armor named "Larren" standing outside. This one will take you to the Bazaar.
But really, the best money to be made is getting ahold of items that other players will pay good money for. This is typically the most difficult and least reliable method, though it is also often the most fun.
"Need money at ANY level?"(Read the ongoing discussion)
By Heartview
Since this kind of topic comes up SOOOOOO much, here is a thread to put your ideas into. My intent with this thread is to share ideas for making money at ALL levels. I intentionally did not include quests. In reading the following, please keep in mind that better "quality" items generally are worth more (ruined are usually not worth much, except if you wish to train up tailoring at the early stages). Also, spiderling silks tend to sell better than spider silks, even though the spider ones drop off of higher level mobs. Your best bet it to go to the bazaar and check the going prices and then go after what makes you good money and is easiest to get.
Also, generally speaking, items that have "This item can be used in tradeskills." will have more value to players than what a NPC vendor will give you. Some items are more popular on some servers than others and some items just are not popular at all. Go find yourself some "skilling up your tradeskill" guides out there and start with the items common on those lists, as they will most likely be worth the most (skilling up is the #1 component consuming activity out there, with actual making and selling to PCs a distant second).
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The value of newbie loot:
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MOB farming for sale in the Bazaar (your server's selling prices may vary):
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Vendor Farming for sale in the bazaar (again, check market prices compared to prices listed on the vendors). Make sure your Charisma is above 100 (you can get two Opal Encrusted Steins in the Bazaar for cheap) and that you have at least indifferent faction with the merchants before you buy. This generally requires you to have a little money to start, so go do MOB farming first to get your bank account up to par.
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The specialization reduces the amount of mana you spend when you cast a spell. Casters have a specialization skill for each general casting school(Abjuration, Divination, etc.). This is in addition to your normal casting skill. Depending on your skill, specialization saves you the exact same amount of mana every spell you cast, no matter what the official description says. This has been repeatedly tested by players. You can get your specialization skill up to 50 in any category, however only one of them can be raised above 50. To train specialization, visit your guildmaster and put at least one training point into each specialization. Specialization skill goes up as you cast spells in that category. For instance, your Specialize:Divination skill will have a chance to go up every time you cast Invisibility. The first specialization skill that goes above 50 using this method becomes your primary specialization, and will be the only specialization skill that can be raised past 50 at all. For this reason, it is important that you pay attention to your specialization skills until the one you want is over 50. You don't want to accidentally pick Divination as your primary specialization.
Sometimes, people report that they are unable to raise the specialization of their choice beyond 50. Usually, this seems to happen because you haven't put at least one point into every specialization. If this happens to you, go back to your trainer and make sure that all of your specialize skills are at least 1.
As far as which specialization you should pick? For some classes it is a clear-cut case (Wizards, specialize evocation or make Gandalf cry). Other classes you will need to ask specifically.
First, if loot matters to you, the most important thing to do is to make sure the terms are set ahead of time. There are several different ways that people typically divide up loot, and different methods work in different situations. I'll list the ones I have heard of or found to be effective.
This is the method most commonly used in pickup groups with strangers, because it is typically most fair across the board. When an item drops, the master looter gives numbers(such as 5 555) and then everyone interested in the item uses /rand. The person with the highets number wins the item. Typically, you're only allowed one item of similar value. For instance if you roll on and win an item worth 1000 platinum, it's bad etiquette to roll again on other items worth about that much. If an item drops that is worth 10,000, though, it's generally acceptable to roll on that as well, although it's generally good to offer the loot you had won earlier in exchange.
This method is typically used among friends and guildmates, who are often more interested in getting good equipment for their friends than making a few pp in the bazaar. In this method, only people who can and will use an item are allowed to random for it. This method can work in random pickup groups, however it is generally not a good idea. People will claim to need items they really don't, just to sell, for example. Or you get people stuck with a double standard over time, a melee who is not allowed to roll on a rare focus item in one group loses the rare haste item to a caster in the next. It's not your responsibility for other players' past poor group choices, however if pickup groups would generally stay away from NBG, this wouldn't happen. However for a group of friends, this is generally the quickest and easiest method, and also generally keeps everyone happy.
This is the style most commonly used in LDoN and other "intense" grouping situations. One person is in charge of collecting all the loot in the dungeon. At the end of the adventure, everyone returns to the camp where the Master Looter (ML) sells the cash items to the vendor. When all the items are sold he then splits the platinum. Any droppable, valuable items are distributed using Random or Need Before Greed. No drop items are dealt with as they fall. The most important thing in a ML-style group, is to make sure you trust the master looter not to run off with the proceeds at the end. I wouldn't worry too much about the ML skimming off the top, most don't but ML'ing can be a tough job and in my experience whatever they may have skimmed was a fair tradeoff.
A variation on this is to have the ML split periodically as you go along. This keeps the ML from becoming too encumbered with cash, for instance if you are hunting Hill Giants.
This method is generally used when there are periodic good item drops(like Gems), and you don't want to waste time randoming every single one or going all the way back to a vendor to sell and split the cash. In turn-based looting, there is a set order of distribution for each loot that drops. For example the first gem drop would go to Abashi, the next would go to Absor, the next to Aradune, and so on.
This method is also good to use for cash looting when you don't want to use an ML. This is frequently used a low levels when mobs drop a decent amount of cash but not much rare loot. Each player takes a turn looting. There are some variations on this as well, for example "loot until you get 2 Fine Steel," was common in my 30s while fighting Gnolls and Frogloks. Turnbased loot is usually the first real method most players will encounter.
This method is generally used when nobody really cares about the loot that is dropping. Whoever loots it first, gets it. This is not really a good method, though many groups will use "FFA on junk loot, Random the rare drops."
Altnerate Advancement abilities(AA) first become available at level 51. This question nearly always generates some disagreement, because there is no fast an accurate answer for everyone, especially since it's not always clear why the person is asking in the first place. Most people mean "which is the quickest route to more power, levels or aa?" which is the question I will try to address here.
As a general rule for most players, it is quicker to level first and then get AA points at 65. Level generally grants you the most power for the amount of experience it takes to achieve, and once you are 65, aa points can be earned more quickly. However there are many exceptions to this. Some are clear exceptions, while most are situational and depend on your style of play. So basically, to answer this question you must look at the AAs available to you and the kind of fighting that is most important to you. For some examples:
On the other hand,