The Spirit Realm

Greetings all,
I have just Dinged 61 on my main. I have been playing off and on since 2000 and I just love my class. I try to keep up on what spells I need and what gear I should strive to obtain... that being said I am unsure how to proceed... you see I have exactly 1 AA spent and 0 banked. Should I obtain some basic AA's before I continue or should I finish my drive to 65-66ish then work on AA's? The only AA I have I spent is in HP Regen. My gear can be seen below. I am only missing the 5 hard to get spells from 1 - 61... should those be priority? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

http://www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=608225

Thank you for your time,
Warsol ~ Prexus

61 is a fine time to stop and smell the flowers, in my opinion, but it depends pretty heavily on how you play; If you mostly solo, or if you have a group of friends that aren't going to zoom to 70 and outlevel you, or if you don't have any problems getting groups at 61, I'd say there there for a bit. Make yourself comfortable. Hone your skills. Catch up on your spells. Get a few AAs. Wrap up regen, get Run 3, maybe Mnemonic Retention, then do Mental Clarity 3 and get the big whammy of Cannibalization.

Gearwise, I'd just say "Lose the jaundinced bone"; If you can get ornate for either of those slots, do it, otherwise, Bazu gear is generally cheap and has very solid stats (Also, if you're a smith, or know one, which I guess you might from all the Tae Ew gear you're wearing, you can make the stuff -really- cheap.), plus there's a new bracer from Arcstone () which may be kinda common on your server, depending on how many people are whacking the arcstone nameds for their cloak quest.

From there, gearwise, it would be to your advantage to start chasing some flowing thought gear (er...mana regen gear.); The or any of the several similar neck items might be a good place to start. The is definitely attainable with a few friends as well. And there's the aforementioned Ornate bracers. And probably some other stuff that escapes me right now. Sadly, the shaman specific OOW item tends to be pricey, and isn't something you're going to be able to get a group for at 61. (Not that the other class specific items are that much easier to camp, in general, but a lot of them are cheaper than the shaman one. Which is, admittedly, really nice, but I digress...)

Of course, if you're having problems getting groups at 61, you may just want to slog on towards 70, but I personally think that's not much fun, because arriving at 70 with poor gear and no AAs is a recipe for lots of death.

Equipment upgrades, AA and levelling are all important but I would suggest you also seriously consider getting hold of some focus items or augs. DoN focus augs are great if you can afford the crystals or get in on some missions.

Focus type to put at the top of your wishlist are:

Extended Enhancement (level V Don aug is level 63 required)
Extended Range (Level V DoN aug is level 63 required, but the Fabled Supple Scale Bracer from KC has that effect and FT2)
Mana Preservation (Level V DoN aug is level 70 required sadly)
Improved healing (not sure of the DoN aug)

You can go for level IV versions of those which might be easier/cheaper to get. They will still trigger after level 65 but you'll just have less benefit from them, so perhaps still worth considering. I used the ceramic player made items for a good while, and many of those are now quite cheap (poor stats on the whole, but I felt that the focus effect outweighed the stats).

Happy hunting

Katt