Early Gear Questions

[Enyil]

I just returned to EQ after a long hiatus, and I chose to box a Paladin/Cleric. I know the dps will be extremely low, but this is the box I want to play.

I am really concerned about my gear though. I tried farming some defiant gear from the mobs in the Caverns, but i couldnt get any to drop. Should I be worried about my gear? I have a few pieces of Shadowscreem Steel left from my old character and Wurmslayer. Is defiant gear what I should be looking for?

Also, I was thinking about going into Guk to get my Ghoulbane, but is it worse than Wurmy? The proc looks nice on it since I will be focusing on undead mobs. Is there a list of gear out there that I could get ( besides defiant)? When calculating the damage ratio on a weapon, is it delay/damage or the reverse. Sorry for all the newb questions, I am just looking for some early gear advice. Thanks in advance everyone.

[shiftie]

I know you made your decision to play a paladin/cleric. But you might want to consider playing a paladin/shaman or a paladin/insert dps class. In all honesty a monk/bard/rogue would open up the game quite considerably. Once a rogue gets SoS they can pretty much drag/merc rez you in all sorts of environments. It really saves farming time like in VT. Advice given on your box combo is because playing a cleric box seems so short sighted in light of the merc system eq has developed. You couuld potentially play a pally/dps class and then have 2 healers keeping you alive. It really opens up the box combos and you may want to at least give it a second thought before you end up with a level 85 cleric. There is nothing that stands in for a real cleric but 2 auto healers are pretty nice that's for sure.
Also since you are just coming back a bit of something to look forward to. Paladins at high end have their healing revamped and though slow can nearly heal ourselves through most group content thus defeating the purpose of a cleric. The only mobs I have ever had trouble soloing were the ones with insane dps negating refresh on heals or those with insane HP showing the weakness of our mana pool as our DPS isn't enough to kill them before they kill us. Either way just know that Paladins really shine at healing in later levels, especially compared to other hybrids. Enjoy whatever you choose. Good luck!

Cheers,
shiftie

[varutia]

I'd second that, replace the cleric box with something else, dps is a good option, wizard is pretty good, nice tranportation and can pump out a lot of dps quickly and easily in box situation.

[Jace]

Regardless of how cliche it sounds you should checkout Paladin/Shaman combo, can't find a better all around class to play with paladin as far as boxing. My advice is make an ogre shaman since ogres are the superior race with their size and pimpness even without a cane.

[Daladran]

Straight weapon ratio is just Damage divided by Delay. I always thought Wurmies were made a little obsolete with later expansions mainly because prices on better ratio weapons were driven down so much. That being said, when you're just boxing (And depending on the setup you decide to go with and what resources you have available), Wurmy might be your best option regardless of whether you're facing living or undead targets. Pop into the bazaar, give a good look around, and have fun with it.

How much money are you working with right now?

[Grungloe]

I am preferring the paladin / mage combo over the paladin / shaman combo right now. Greatly increased dps + merc for heals + better mitigation due to air pet stuns (I pretty much keep the mobs stunlocked with the occassional round getting through) = much faster kills with more utility. Plus I don't get random people bugging me for buffs ^_^

[Kakimor]

Husband and Wife team i know of each boxing with Paladin/Necro and Shaman/Druid they sometimes add a Bard or Enchanter or dps class but have been managing to do all groupable content for years. With the addition of Merc healers its gotten even easier for them. He has seriously considered dropping his Paladin for a Mage or Rogue and using the Warrior Merc for tanking. What it really boils down to is what do you want to accomplish and what do you enjoy playing. No matter what you box it takes some setting up to make life a little easier with in game macro's etc. Slaving hot key slots to either mouse or keystrokes helps a lot too.

[Enyil]

Thanks for all the replies guys, I think I will switch my second character to a wizard or necro. But I am still unsure about gear. Where should I go to get some gear? Im working with no plat, only been able to scrounge together 40pp in the tutorial so far.

[varutia]

I think just zoom up as fast as you can, use whatever defiant stuff it drops on the way. They are superior than just about anything else at same level. When you get to 59 you can wear all the elaborate defiant stuff, 60 to 70 is where I'd stop and take a breather and catch up on some AA plus gears. Lots of good stuff that goes for dirt cheap like a few hundred pp between 60 to 70 due to level requirement. The weapons I used when leveling up are so horrible by today's standard, so no help for current people anymore.

Easiest way of see what you need is goto bazaar and list out the level, slot, class and ac as stat critieria. Then pick up the best ac verse price piece and just go with that until 60 to 70 range.