Shadownight: The early years
| |
STR |
STA |
AGI |
DEX |
WIS |
INT |
CHA |
Bonus |
Total |
|
Approximate Experience penalty/bonus |
| Dark Elf |
70 |
70 |
90 |
75 |
83 |
109 |
65 |
20 |
582 |
|
0% |
| Gnome |
70 |
75 |
85 |
85 |
67 |
108 |
65 |
20 |
575 |
|
0% |
| Erudite |
70 |
75 |
70 |
70 |
83 |
117 |
75 |
20 |
580 |
|
10% |
| Human |
85 |
80 |
75 |
75 |
75 |
85 |
80 |
20 |
575 |
|
10% |
| Iskar |
80 |
75 |
90 |
85 |
80 |
85 |
60 |
20 |
575 |
|
25% |
| Ogre |
140 |
127 |
70 |
70 |
67 |
70 |
42 |
20 |
606 |
|
20% |
| Troll |
118 |
114 |
83 |
75 |
60 |
62 |
45 |
20 |
577 |
|
25% |
Penalties
Yup, all races have either experience penalties or bonuses. Trolls and Iksars have the worst penalties in the game predominantly because of regen. These penalties mean that you'll gain experience XX% slower (or XX% faster for Humans and Shadowknights) than the base classes who don't have penalties. Penalties may seem daunting to you, but when it comes down to it, it's better to be a little stronger, and take a little longer to get there than to take the fast route and not be as strong. In this reviewer's opinion.
Other than experience, certain races have other penalties. The smaller and medium sized races are inherently weaker than their large cousins. Humans and Erudites can't see in the dark on their own (until level 22 when they receive the Deadeye spell.) Ogres are very large and often don't fit through smaller doors and passageways. This can be a problem in dungeons and small cities. You may think this doesn't matter since you won't be visiting the Gnomes, Dwarves or Halflings any time soon, but you won't fit inside Thurgadin on Velious very well either... and this may drive you to start slaying the little buggers and befriend the giants. Trolls suffer from this to a lesser extent.
Changes
- The hybrid experience penalties were removed over a year ago. Individual races still have an experience penalty though. Before the hybrid penalties were removed, Shadowknights had an additional 28% penalty tacked onto them. This gave Trolls and Iksars a 60% experience penalty and even gave Humans and Erudites a total penalty of 15%.
- For Everquest's third anniversary, Gnomes were granted the ability to follow the path of the Shadowknight.
Where to fight?
Dark Elf
Now that Nektulos Forest has been redone, supposedly it's a nice place to start, but I haven't personally tried it. There are quite a few good quests that can be done for nice armor up through level 7 or 8 or so. By then you should be able to venture a little bit farther. If you're bold enough, venture to the swamps of Innothule and take to killing Frogloks. Once you hit your mid teens... it's up to you.
Gnome
The garden near Ak'Anon isn't that great of a place for fighting very long. By level three at the latest you'll want to leave Steamfont and head to Greater Faydark or Butcherblock Mountains. Tread weary though, you're not that popular around the guards. By level 7 or 8 you can go to Crushbone, home of the orcs, at the north end of the Greater Faydark. You can stay there til level 15 or higher, or by level 10 you can go back to Steamfont Mountains and hunt near the Windmills. At the Windmills you'll always have a guard to run to (Forpar Fizfla) although he'll occasionally offer help unsolicited.
Erudite
Since the addition of the Warrens, Paineel has become one of the best places for a low level character to hunt. The Warrens offer armor drops fairly often, and enough other random items to sell for a comfortable earning. However, if you can't find another person or two to join you, you can easily be overwhelmed by the sheer number of Kobolds there. With the release of Luclin, it is now much easier to get elsewhere in the world should you decide that Odus is just too small. Another fun thing to do is to kill the Kerrans on the island across the lake in Toxxulia Forest once you get high enogh.
Human
If you start in Qeynos...
Gain a few levels in the garden near the gates, and soon move into BlackBurrow. It's a long run to get anywhere else that you can fight safely though. (As you can tell, I've never started in Qeynos)
If you start in Freeport...
Freeport has the advantage as being one of the biggest hubs for all of Norrath (or did before Luclin came out, at least) which can often provide you with donations from higher players. After you've outgrown hunting by the city gates, though, the areas nearby aren't as densely populated, and you'll have to search a bit harder for something to kill. I reccommend making your way to Innothule swamp as soon as possible. The frogloks there drop some good armor for new characters.
Iksar
Not much to say here. Fight in the Swamp of No Hope, Lake of Ill Omen, and Field of Bone (avoid Warsliks Woods if you can) until you're at least level 15 or so. Make sure you do the several quests that your Shadowknight guildmaster will give you. The reward may not seem worth it if you've been given all your equipment by a much higher person, but the quests are still fun. In the beginning, get your armor by killing the Young Scaled Wolves and completing a quest given to you in the Haggle Baron's house in East Cabilis. This is conveniently near the bank and the zone into Field of Bone where the Wolves are. Also, save bone chips to turn in to one of the guards at the entrance to Cabilis in Field of Bone.
Troll
Lucky dog. You picked one of the best. Arguably, the Ogres are better due to almost 30 more base stat points, but soloing with an ogre will take twice as long or more because they lack regeneration.
Stay near the entrance to Grobb where you start for levels 1 through 3. Collect the bone chips that drop there to turn in to Hukulk (your guildmaster) for a Rusty Two-Handed sword you can either use, sharpen, or sell. By level 4 you can travel farther out into the swamp and near the entrance to Guk. By level 6 you can be killing 3 or more Frogloks at a time and almost never having to rest much. By level 8 or so, you can either go into Guk, or try to make your way accross the Feerrott into the Rathe Mountains (where the Ankh and Zaza beetles are easy kills) or find a partner or two and head into Southern Ro. You can be well rewarded in these places til around level 12 at which point you'll need to venture further from home. There's some travel involved no matter where you decide to go, but once you reach 16ish, I would reccommend taking the raft from the Oasis through the Timorous Deep and into the Overthere. There you can hunt near a mudpit (and conveniently a merchant) on the east side of the zone, and work your way up from there.
Ogre
See Troll. Only don't bother with the Troll Shadowknight guild cause they don't like you.
