Character recommendations for newbies

[Davairus]

These are some ideas for character designed to a specific purpose, if you don't have one in mind, it probably isnt the guide for you.

If you want me to add something here just put the suggestions at the bottom.

Guide contents:
* Exploring characters
* New to pking?
* First cabal

Scroll down or use ctrl+f (find) for what you want.



Exploring Characters

Half-elf ranger

Pros:
* half-elf is among the best tanking (due to relation of int/wis to dodge/parry)
* rangers can make use of nearly all weapons you'll find
* good offence
* good dex to hold quaff potions
* foresthaven camouflage legacy means you can duck a pk easily with just a flee/camo (in the forest)
* pathfinding saves lots of moves in forests, good for walking about
* lore ability (this is the explorer's ID skill since it reveals home area of items)

Cons:
* no detects, means you're going to miss things
* no reliable ID, have to appraise everything

Avian ninja

Pros:
* avians have lots of moves
* best detects, these guys can see just about everything
* can use ID scrolls, cheap
* assassinate/dust skills should convince most people to leave you alone
* hide/invis to duck pk's, not as reliable as a foresthaven camo though
* vanish - area teleports, very good for finding places you may have missed

Cons:
* mild disease vuln
* tanking isn't good enough to whip everything a h-elf ranger can, so you'll miss some id's

Human healer

Pros:
* quick ranking - everyone loves a healer that's never met Jemira
* good tanking (if you can get it to 27th rank or so)
* identify spell
* "locate object" spell, so you can get an idea of where to start looking for interesting items you see people wearing
* should be able to solo almost any mob with divine retribution and a good aff-break, may take a few hours..
* can request/ID lots of items and return them if they're no good
* you can heal yourself

Cons:
* lightwalkers have to be nice to people

Half-elf bard

Pros:
* good defences with dodge parry and counterbalance
* double haggle racial legacy
* decent offence (introduces you to weapon advantage game)
* SONGS - makes bards a unique and desirable ranking partner
* most sociable class

Cons:
* not very pk viable, so some people will love to kill 'em

Human invoker

Out of the mages, this is the most noob-friendly "explorer" one. It'd be my recommendation for a "first" mage.

Pros:
* has shield block instead of another spell to keep up (like blur)
* sanctuary spell eventually, saves you from a lot of accidents, and makes you useful to groups
* identify spell
* has all the basic mage spells so you can get used to those
* word of recall/locate object for quick item grabs
* "enchant weapon" spell makes you popular so you'll get ranked

Cons:
* the "hellstream" spell can destroy items, so if youre trying to solo mobs, your best targetted spell isnt the way to go. fireball is good too though, as long as your local area is safe
* mages can get wasted by mobs, especially in low levels, shouldnt be so bad once you can use the curing pots

Stone giant Warrior

As far as "player vs mob" characters go, this is the monster.

Pros:
* giants get high levels of health naturally
* with giant iron skin, you won't get bashed in by mobs so easily
* can wield all sorts of nice two-handed weapons - one-handed
* devastating with "bash" alone in low levels, so nobody smart will want to mess with you
* a truly awesome tank once level for monster pots has been reached, in high levels, they can tank anywhere in the game and solo most of it, making them popular with any group

Cons:
* in low levels, giants have serious hitroll problems, due to the effect of AC (this diminishes by the mid 30s)
* very slow learning rate for skills
* mental vulnerability is punished severely in high ranks



New to PKing?

Human warrior

Pros:
* good stats, the 21 strength is particularly handy for advantage over most races
* lots of skills available to help get familiar with combat styles
* quick ranking so you dont waste much time jumping into the fray
* 0 exp cost means levels over opponents in many cases, especially mid-rank through 40's where it matters most

Cons:
* nothing really interesting about them

Fire giant berserker

Pros:
* best bodyslam (high strength and large size) and other strength-based skills
* rage guarantees kills (not necessarily your opponents) and groups love raging berserkers
* easy pk reasons - fire giants are dim enough (15 int) to kill just because killings fun
* lots of strength means lots of room to loot
* more depth comes from situational skills like flurry and rake

Cons:
* hard to get hitroll
* very slow training
* forced to be chaotic (i.e. full looting by Justice)

Invoker

Out of the mages, this one's the most noob-friendly for pks.

Human shaman

Pros:
* word/nexus/summon/blindness/cure/harm/fly scrolls/detects/etc
* locate object is good for getting yourself rares so you should get decked better than others pretty easy once you have an idea of what to look for
* easy ranking
* flee/sleep tick-catching game is very effective for staying near 100%

Cons:
* its pretty played out

Human paladin

Pros:
* its got spells, and all the ones you need - curing, sanc, damage spell
* decent melee with charge
* good intro to combat styles with set parry, dual wield and shield block to go between

Cons:
* difficult to deal with dirt kicking and hobbles due to the fleeing lags

Human ninja

Pros:
* invis, hide, vanish and some other interesting defensive skills
* detects
* a good offence with dual wield when called for
* levels over enemy
* weapon-type based skills to intro you to that

Cons:
* getting hobbled is a serious weakness

Avian ninja

Pros:
* unlimited amount of moves for running and exploring is crucial
* hide and sneak to run since a newb will be doing a lot of that
* strangle means you strike when you want (newbs can choose when to be the aggressor) or run if you fail
* you have a vuln but you have many ways to escape (vanish is key)
* a small selection of spells so you aren't overwhelmed, but a pretty good set to learn with (ikuzachi for decent attack spell, upkeep spells such as detect invis)
* can see almost everyone with detect invis and detect hide so no
* assassinate gives you the cool factor that you always want to try - even if you never hit it. also gives you a goal in life - to get 100% assassinate
* has good hard hitting skills that are effective. grapple, although now toned down, and double kick is sometimes fun
* weapon type skills own, while combat style superiority is good for defensive stance since you have a high dex for dodge
* you wont be going to 50 anyway if you're a newb so ideal for trying it out around 35 where all you really need to watch for are berserkers, rangers, necromancers, and dks.

Half-elf ranger

Pros:
* pathfinding helps run from pk's
* camo legacy allows ducking from them completely
* lots of very good pk skills, especially double disarm and bows
* tree-hugging
* also a nice exploring character

Cons:
* constant farming of detect invis potions

First cabal?

1) Knight

Dwarf Warrior/Berserker

A character with a reputation for being "uber" in the mainstream playerbase, and you'll understand why. This has lots of natural hp and well-rounded stats, which allows you to save lots of trains for mv and/or con points. A great character to burst onto the cabal scene with and leave your bodies everywhere.

Human Illusionist

With the amount of vulns present on evil races, anything that speeds the damage up is a boon. Haste is no exception to the rule. There's nothing that kills illithids easier than a group of hasted Footmen. Calamari, anyone?

2) Justice

Warrior (Race: your choice)

For catching criminals, a warrior with movement points trained is difficult to give the slip. Inrange, hobbles and dirts along with special guard hurts.

3) Legion

Human Shaman

The survivability of a cleric combined with his spells make him a dependable cabal ally. Even if everything else you attempt is an utter failure, you'll always be useful for that, it'd be very difficult to get kicked out for any reason. You'll be able to grant a good pk'er everything he needs to decimate the opposition.

4) Keeper

TBA.

[Slade]

For really noobish guys I think clerics and mages are out.. I'd say these:

Human Paladin - good combat, good spells (and the right ones to have for you).. this is a good way to go to get a taste of everything and be pretty decent at it too

Human/Half-Elf Ranger - great combat, camo, pathfinding, the last two perks make this the right fighter route to take

Human Ninja - ok combat, defensive stuff (hide, invis, detect, endure, vanish, etc), dust.. difficult but interesting

[Davor]

On exploring issue I have to go with bards. Strong points in their favor.
cant really decide which race to point at, since all have their strong points
halfling - 25 dex anyone... these sturdy bards are bread and butter of it
human - solid over all stats, 0 exp penalty and no weakness makes them decent choice at just about any class, still we can call it a "boring choice"
half-elf - decent stats, legacies which are simply awsome, and oh half-elf is hawt

pros:
pretty good defences (counterbalance, dodge, parry work well enough, especially halfer and halelf) halfer bards make good tanks, they do really well at lower ranks too.

decent offence (minus few select skills they are able to use most of rogue package which introduces you to weapon advantage game, get brawl)

SONGS - in caps for good reason, these set of skills makes them unique and truly desireable ranking partners, also they add to their offence (sesons, devils dance anyone?)
-everything from shield of words, kings feast, leavianth, rest thy feet, healing songs are what make exploring with a bard an enjoyable experience.

also, usually other people leave you alone (usually...) cause you are a bard, neutral align allows you to group with everyone.

it is a perfect class for immersion as people are more likely to communicate with you, or expect some sort of interaction from you.

half-elf bard legacies... double haggle anyone (people will come begging at your door to do some work for them)

cons:
agression frowned upon

somewhat slow ranking


perhaps i've missed on something. but overall, i believe bard to be excellent choice for exploring newbie.

i think that only thing standing in way of this class is the moment where you need to choose between: A dark knight (whoohoo) Berserker (YARRRR)... and let us say Bard (lol ghey:). don't sound attractive i guess

[Matthais]

neutral human warrior: easy to rank. good pk range, good to learn some basic pk and basic weapon type matchups. I think there the best to explore with because generally you get them pretty high ranks easy and recall potions are easy to get a hold of. They have enough innate defenses coupled with rank adv where other noobs will have issues steam rollin them.

Stone giant warrior: easy to pk with 15-20. getting your first kill is always rather neat.

Invoker might be easy because everyone likes enchanted weapons.

[Rem]

I'd say the best for n00bs is a human shaman. You'll be a useful class that everyone wants to be with (generally) so finding a group won't be too hard plus if you want to try your hand at killing people for fun, you can still do that without being hindered by most roleplaying rules and you won't have any extra exp penalties for learning, so you'll rank up relatively fast and have level advantage over most people.

Seriously though, The best advice I got for n00bs is pick a class/race combo that you will have fun with. Like if your a scrawner irl and you always fantasize about being a monstrous beefcake smashing heads in, definitely play a fire zerker. If you would want to be an all powerful mage conjuring up the elements and raining havoc with fire and ice go for it. If you want to be an annoying guy stealing peoples items and barely escaping your battles with the skin of your teeth, then go for it.

There is nothing worse playing some race or class that you have no interest in just for the sake of exploring because inevitably no matter what race/class combo you are you're gonna die lots so if you're playing something your not having fun/interest with, you're probably going to delete after a couple deaths. But, if you're having fun with your race/class then you'll take the deaths in stride and keep on truckin.

Unless you really wanna be a ninja though, I seriously wouldn't advise going that route because ninjas are seriously gimp. fighting battles with a ninja is like a 50/50 draw. You could totally dominate a guy wearing shit equipment one time, and then another time you could be totally pimped out and fight the same guy and lose. The only reason people advise anyone to play a ninja is because everyone right now think ninjas rule because one guy (voravith) knows which battles to fight, which battles to run, and sticks with what works. (but even then he gets his beats too)

[Louis]

i started out with an avian ninja. it is the best selection for a newb in my opinion. reasons why:

- unlimited amount of moves for running and exploring is crucial
- hide and sneak to run since a newb will be doing a lot of that
- strangle means you strike when you want (newbs can choose when to be the aggressor) or run if you fail
- you have a vuln but you have many ways to escape (vanish is key)
- a small selection of spells so you aren't overwhelmed, but a pretty good set to learn with (ikuzachi for decent attack spell, upkeep spells such as detect invis)
- can see almost everyone with detect invis and detect hide so no
- assassinate gives you the cool factor that you always want to try - even if you never hit it. also gives you a goal in life - to get 100% assassinate
- has good hard hitting skills that are effective. grapple, although now toned down, and double kick is sometimes fun
- weapon type skills own, while combat style superiority is good for defensive stance since you have a high dex for dodge
- you wont be going to 50 anyway if you're a newb so ideal for trying it out around 35 where all you really need to watch for are berserkers, rangers, necromancers, and dks.

[marsd]

Somehow I'd like to second Louis about avian ninjas.

- Besides what he listed, you get to dirt kick AND blind/poison dust (Though it might be dangerous but w/e). That gives ninjas a major advantage over all the other classes at 35-40.
- Sidestep and Clobber, these skills can be considered an introduction to Combat Module B. Dirt/blind dust, then sidestep/clobber when you switch into weapon advantage and style superiority. If you pull this off your enemy's going to be in a whole shitload hell of pain and he'll be like "Wow fuck, he just totally messed me up with one skill".

- Why not drows, since drows have racial legacy? Well for the reason why you don't want 400hp at 35, and have level 42s beating on you. Drows anything are -not- very suitable for first few chars for fun.

[Rem]

You know what..? if any noobs wanna survive don't listen to one fucking letter marsd types. Marsd is an immortal bag licker that will agree with anything that makes immortals seem awesome. If you want my opinion get ninjas all together out of your head, (avian or whatever because if your an avian ninja and get dirt kicked/hobbled the warrior is gonna see where you flee and fucking rape you afterwards at level 40+) If you're serious about ninja, go drow because drow's are autosneak as well as one practice one learn if your intel is 24.

But seriously on a serious note, don't go fucking ninija cause fucking ninjas are fucking gimp and if you don't believe me, then you will feel the puniishment of an experienced ninja punkiing you because he's afraid of the future competition and then eventually you will delete because you are gimp/gay and that will be funny and every one will laugh (p.s. I'm drunk right now but seriously marsd's info is about as useful as a tampon during a woman's period so take it as it is.. bloody gay cause he's a friend and avians/ninjas are gay.... unless you like gettin pwnd.

[Vanisse]

if you have no particular preference, you can pick one of the aforementioned suggestions for the exploring/survival reasons. or else you can play what you think you will enjoy for personal reasons. ex: for practical reasons, my choices for a learning experience are human healer or h-elf ranger. but personally i like music and writing, so i play bards. your choice really depends on what you want to get out of your first experience - extensive learning about the realms, straightaway jumping into the fighting scene, a mix of the two, "being" the character you want to be...

oh, and don't be afraid of people who are asses. there are also nice people here.

[Davairus]

[Erlwith]

[Elaedon]

I think a neutral invoker is pretty good...Avian especially. You can make friends with Knights, buy protection, not attack in town...got all the really experienced players on your side. In addition, if you're running low on gold, go enchanting. I bet you could make a lot of money that way (and if you're feeling particularly sneaky, take the item and run). Sanc is really helpful to have, and the damage spells are absolutely amazing 3-4 levels after you get them, except hellstream, which owns starting right at 38. Only problem is that invokers are not good mob tanks, with no hellstream and whatnot. I can still imagine a couple of other good skills, like teleport for exploring, except with the new un-ghosting effect. Last thing I can think of is being a mage, they aren't as eq-dependent as a fighter class.

I don't know if these statements are bs or not, but at least I tried

[marsd]

I'm posting at the risk of being flamed by Rem again (Go ahead and rim me, Rem i'm sure it'd feel good). Even though I recommended avian ninjas, I think Avians are a bullshit race to start off with. Avian invoker is an especially bullshit combination to be with, especially neutrel. Being owned by ivy sword isn't fun especially being a newbie. Play something that doesn't have a vuln so you don't have to feel so much pain so early in the AR career.

And second invokers suck to be alone below 50, since you can't heal for nuts. Sure you can trash pk with an invoker with hellstream and the other 5 pwnage spells, but trash pking isn't a really respectable way to start off the AR career.. and since trash pking has repercussions of getting gang-raped back it's not a very good path to undertake. That goes along with taking/saccing the items to be enchanted ^^.

[Davairus]

Vulns have been toned down across the board, as well as made variable. This has made a lot of once "crap" combinations viable. Like duergar warriors, gnome rangers...

[Louis]

this is based off my knowledge of an older AR, but..

if you are a newb and you are serious about improving your skills, you need to first learn to run. ninjas are the best for that. if you are a newb and you are the type of player that will plateau off and be stuck in trash phase, you'll start as a level 30 trasher class. berserker is a good example.

i started off as a ninja but then moved to trashing around (which delayed my progress for a while). then i got hooked on mages, and that's what prompted me to learn how to run (you needed to be quick to survive with mages).

but now that AR has changed so that the speed of inputting commands is much less important than the speed of calculating what matches with what or what skill will debilitate the enemy the most, the above may prove to be ultimately false.

[Davairus]

I've seen low level giants scrolling miss miss miss, (including missed bash! that skill dont work for me anymore until really late levels) while a drow warrior AC'd his way out of every attack, and won easily with a dirt kick + typical scrub newb black-tear/teeth/studded/fiery to-advantage-the-club combo. It looked kind of broken to me. By the time a giant begins to look pk competent to me (which is MINIMUM 36 to be able to lift skills over 63% in any reasonable timeframe), he's already gotta deal with effigies big time. So thats why I put down a human warrior instead mostly, realising that newbs are probably not playing above 30 where hobble and combat styles really make a difference, but if they did get there, AC would lift and drows would suddenly really suck.

I guess you could remedy some of the giant problems in low levels by playing to its strengths, i.e. forget dual wield and dual parry (since theyre going to be 63% for the next 15-30 levels anyway) and use a two-handed-only like a big ass polearm to make the most of that natural 100% enhanced damage. I am sure that's the best way to go early levels vs mob. But then there's the problem of where you're going to get a good baseline low-rank polearm. That's probably something for me to fix...



Giants has the makings of a good newb exploring character though with the phys resistance, if just looking at the mob game. I guess I will add it to that part.