HELP! Newbie here D:

[HinataAkiama]

Alright. I've just made my transition from WoW, to EQ2, [which I played waaay bay in 2006. . .got an assassin to 11 and then quit =3] anyway.

So me and my boyfriend roll up. After spending about 3-4 days goofing off, trying to find what we liked with the new game, we settle on Templar [me] and Paladin [him]

Now here comes the hard part. I have no idea what to gear for, what my class is desgined to do, or how to help my boyfriend and myself succeed. We both are level 13, and working out in Antonica [the Caves have been completely decimated by this point =3] And we can take on yellow +1 arrow encounters [3 gnolls, and maybe a yellow add or two] if we really work at it. We play it as tank[him]/healer-dps[me, and I do almost all of the damage, and a lot of it] and we have 25% of our XP going for AAs.

From what I've gathered in my time reading the newbie threads, and poking around a bit here on the temp fourms, I go for wis/int yes? I've been doing that since I got my little half-elfie, and we seem to be doing alright, but I'm just looking for some concrete guildlines and some help. D:

Also, if anyone could point me in some good Pally directions, I'm sure my partner in crime would appreciate some stat guildines and things to go for as a tank =3

Okay, to the dogs we go. XD

[Dareena]

Pally advice:

While I'd always suggest you to ask in the Paladin forums, he's some advice from playing my SK alt.  The Str and Int lines of the Paladin are very strong.  Str has the Double Attack and Hate Gain bonuses & the end line ability is very strong.  Int has the Spell Crit and Heal Crit bonuses.  Since you're normally playing together, I'd suggest he max out the Spell Crit from the Int line.  (It's cost vs benefit ratio is amazing.)  Then he should finish out the Str line.  (Of course, he should max out the DA ability in the process.)  While the Heal Crit from the Int line is nice, it isn't as much of a priority since he'll be duoing with a Templar.

Templar advice:

While I only play an Inquisitor, I would agree with your assessment.  From a healing stand point, you'll want to max out the Heal Crit in the Sta line.  But from a soloing (duoing) and dps perspective, the Wis and Int lines are important since your main source of dps will be your spellcasting.  The Wis tree has a skill increase ability which will bump up all of your offensive casting skills (for both debuffs and pure damage spells).  (As your skill increases, your enemies will resist your spells less often.)  Then the Int tree give you Spell Crit (which is good for dps'ing) and the Casting Speed increase (which is very good for healing and dps'ing).  As if this isn't enough, the Int end line ability is amazing in both solo and group play.  Especially group play.  (Other than the casting skill increase, I'm personally not wild about the Wis line.)

Leveling:

The Caves is a poor place to level up.  You're going to want to go to Timorous Deep at your current level.  As Qeynos residents, the simplest explanation is to take any of the bells in Qeynos to Antonica.  This will drop you off on the Antonica docks.  Then wait for the boat to arrive.  (A cycle takes somewhere between 5-10 minutes.)  Board the point and it will zone you into Kylong Plains.  As you exit the boat onto the stone pier, there's a bell on the right hand side about half way down the pier.  Click on the bell to zone into Timorous Deep.

As you zone into the Timorous Deep (TD) island chains, you'll be on a rear dock facing a mountain.  If you exit the docks on the right hand side, move through the bird populated beach, and up the hill, you'll find the camp where the quest givers of that island are located.  (Or you can also enter Gorowyn city through the cave entrace from the docks and take the teleport pad that is next to the vertical elevator.  This will take you to the top of Gorowyn.  From here, you can either exit to the quest givers via the front entrance or you can enter the main hub of Gorowyn.  The hub will have EVERYTHING that you could ever need there.)

There are x3 islands in the TD chain.  The city based island is #2 in the chain at the quests start at 10+.  Then once you clean out that island, take the griffon to Mok Rent island and quest from there.  By the time that you clear out Mok Rent, you'll be 20-22.  Also understand that you'll level quickly on these islands.  Almost too quickly.  If you find that mobs are always resisting your spells and your boyfriend is constantly missing in combat, then you've leveled up faster than your skill increase can keep up.  In such a situation, take your AA xp slider and set it at 100% (AA conversion) for a while until your skills are maxed out again from grinding mobs.  Then restore your combat xp rate back to normal and continue questing.

Tips:

Make sure that you broker all of the Treasured items that you recieved from your kills.  Any of the 1-19 Treasured TD items can be sold on the broker for about 3-4g each.  Transmuters will buy up low level items for skill increases, which lets you charge FAR more than you would ever make from selling to a vendor npc.

Stats:

As a Templar that's going power caster, you can switch in the Sta / Int / Wis armor and jewelry in your 20's.  But your boyfriend's gear set up is far more complicated.  He'll need Str / Sta / Int / Wis.  His mana pool comes from Str and Wis.  His dps comes from Str and Int.  Then he'll need Sta to survive.

Having said that, make sure that he's always using a Phantom Handle (1-hander) or Phantom Shod (2-hander) adornment on his weapon.  At low levels, they sell pretty cheap on the broker.  This adornment procs a mana syphon, which will help him run on a lower Wis score.  His general stat goal should be Str at around 100%, Int at 80%, Sta at 60-70%, and Wis at 50-60%.  (These percentage values are the best way to describe the relation of important.  For example, he'd want his Int around 80 if his Str was around 100.  Etc.)

Also make sure that you're using Handcrafted or Mastercrafted melee weapons.  Your average quest / mob dropped weapon will have a poor delay.  You'll want at least a 5.0 delay weapon.  The goal is to cast or CA in between your auto attacks.  (With a 5.0+ delay, you should be able to get of 2-3 abilities easily.)  If your auto attack swing would trigger when you're casting, the auto attack is delayed.  This costs you potential dps.  (At lower levels, a 2-hander isn't a bad way to go for a Pally.  But once you start to get to the upper levels, he'll need to switch to a 1-hander and shield.)

[HinataAkiama]

The only thing I see here is that we both are using shiled+sword [mace for me] combinations, due to him needing the blockage form the shield to absorb some of those hits, and I am because the stats on the two combined where better than by rock-taped-to-a-stick. Are the lower-leveled collections any good to sell? I've also noticed with my rotation of the mitigation debuff, HO, then my two attack spells, I tend to rip aggro a lot, should I be using my stun spell first instead?

ETA: I also never stop casting, I'm always hitting my HO/debuffs/heals if needed/DPS spells, and we usually go 6-7 fights before we have to wait for my mana

[Dareena]

Umm...  You rip aggro as a Templar from a Paladin...  That's not good.

I'm guessing that since the two of you have been questing in the Qeynos region, his gear is probably junk.  He really needs to hit up the broker from some nice new gear.  I recently adopted a 12th Paladin to trick out.  If you do a Broker search using the filters of Paladin class, Treasured rarity, Plate Armor type, and 8-13 level range, you should hit the jack pot.  There'll be some nice lvl 12 plate pieces from DLW that will sell for about 3-4g each.  (Pay attention to the mitigation on each piece.  The new 12th pieces will be about +30 mitigation higher than the rest.)  Once he has a full set, he should be in much better shape.  Similarly Treasured jewelry can be found for around the same price.  Even a Handcrafted 10th level weapon is going to be far better than some low level Qeynos drop or reward.  Focus on the armor and weapon.  Then the TD quest chains will equip him for the rest of your teens.

I'm guessing that he's using junk armor, junk jewelry, and a junk weapon.  As a result, he has the dps potential of...  Well junk.  (You are what you wear?)  Your caster dps potential isn't as gear dependent as his, which means that you'll out dps him if you're both in nearly nothing.  But if you're both in good gear for your level, aggro shouldn't be a problem.

Also as I mentioned before, a 2-hander is viable at the lower levels.  With decent gear and a healer as back up, there's no reason to sword 'n board it as a Pally up you're high level.  The extra dps rate from a 2-hander is going to be much better.

EDIT

Also if you're timing your auto attacks as a Templar, I'd advise that you also use a 2-hander in the power levels.  If you're truly chain casting non-stop without waiting for your auto attack swing (which I wouldn't advise), then stick with a shield.  Otherwise more dps in a heal heavy duo is never a bad thing.

[HinataAkiama]

Both of our gear is pretty crappy, mine being the better since I'm taking the mitigation hits and using leather/cloth gear on some parts of me[stats ftw] I also tend to dive right in with my -physical right off the bat to start me out. I can normally whack something with my spells to take it out in 2-3 spells max, with my boyfriend hitting crap. And we'd prolly have a very hard time buying stuff from the broker at this point, since we're fresh starting and just now got our first g last night XD

On another note, what tradeskills would be best for a pair like this?

[Dareena]

Tradeskills:

Well Templar spell upgrades are made by Sages.  Paladin upgrades are made by Alchemists.  Both are decent crafting classes to level up.  (Sage will be the easiest, but Alchemist is much easier than other choices.)

Since you both use Plate armor, Armorer wouldn't be a bad choice.  My only issue with that is that your average 10 level spread results in 20-30 ability upgrades.  So while an Armor could potentially make x8 upgrades every 10 lvls (full armor set + shield), you'll get more mileage out of the ability upgrade crafting classes.

If you collect all of the rares, commons, fuels, and imbues, most crafters will help you out and only want very little back in exchange.  Little of course being relative.  Asking in the Crafting chat channel will usually yield the best results.  If they're not biting there, use the 1-9 channel.

On a Side Note:

What server are you two on?  I'm guessing Antonia Bayle, but I could be wrong.  Just trying to figure if you're on my LDL server or not.

[Karrane1]

Hinata, take a break from everything and take your BF and head to Mara... you can access that from a bell on Nek dock. Find Qho Augren in a little pool next to the village across the river from zone in. He gives a harvesting quest for each tier harvesting. You can get the first quest at lvl 5. It asks for you to harvest t1 stuff.. that can be found in the starting newbie areas. Each quest you hand in pays you 17 gold and some change. Its very worth it for new players to run this for each tier. And will give ya some cash to spend on gear Here is a link to the quest and what it wants from you... http://eq2.eqtraders.com/articles/a...tr=060000000000 Welcome to the game!!!!

[HinataAkiama]

I was already panning to go Sage, although he was planning Carpentry. . .so we'll have to talk on that point of it. Also, something came up to my attention. Isn't Timorous Deep an Evil zone? Would a Human and a Half Elf aligned to Quenos even be able to quest there?

Yes, Antonia Bayle is our server, but we just moved there last night off of Najena. When my boyfriend started the game up [I was stuck patching] he rolled on LDL XD We picked AB since it was high population and an RP server[we are both huge Rpers]

Also: I plan to drag him out there and get those gathering quests done, thank you for the advice =3

[Dareena]

HinataAkiama wrote:

Isn't Timorous Deep an Evil zone? Would a Human and a Half Elf aligned to Quenos even be able to quest there?

Yes, Antonia Bayle is our server, but we just moved there last night off of Najena. When my boyfriend started the game up [I was stuck patching] he rolled on LDL XD We picked AB since it was high population and an RP server[we are both huge Rpers]

So you're too good for LDL?    Fine.  I was going to help you get started in the game.  But each to their own.  Enjoy your occassion server load lag.

TD is like an evil Switzerland.  EQ2 forces an alignment on any starting city in the terms of which races / classes can start there.  Having said that, the city's background is all about their focus on the politics of Kunark.  Outside of Kunark, they really couldn't care less.  As a result, their vendors and guards are completely friendly to all races and classes.  This results in almost all new characters going to TD to quest.  (The rest who don't are die hards for the older zones.)

[HinataAkiama]

Bahaah, nawh, we just picked AB since it was big and RP. Plut LdL wouldn't have been good for a couple of holy-rollers like they are =3 We figured bigger server = more people to help if we had to find groups/guilds whatnot.

BTW, going to TD was an awesome suggestion, thank you SO much for that =3 Weve finished up there, and we've headed out to the next area at level 20, and we're still kicking face [taking on 2 oranges and living ftw]

[Democles]

Hinata, as a Templar, as you said, you are casting all time... so if u plan on solo/duo with a pallie, i think a 2H weapon is better choice than 1H and Shield.

As you are casting, and we cast pretty slow, you can not autoattack, so its better to keep the most damaging weapon to notice at least the DMG you done with autoattack than to keep a faster weapon that you cant use so fast. Let the shield to the pallies, and get your 2H weapon... maybe u suffer some more DMG, but... well you can heal yourself ;P.

At lvl80, while soloing... i think i use DMG spells, 1 or 2 times each combat... doing 2500DMG... while i get 6000 DMG on any strike of my hammer. Who need to cast dmg spells... we know how to heal,... and... how to use a good mace or hammer!!!!

Another hint: Get out that robes and leathers!!!! we are PLATE healers, and that's the way to go!!! get ur shining ARMOR and smash them till death ;P.

[dirtymeat80]

Always went 2h weapon myself, though that's speaking from an alt perspective that had other characters to support my bad habbit of twinking.  Just found the biggest baddest 2h I could weild on the broker and went with it.

While the Templars are supposed to be focused more on spells than the Inquis counterpart, you'll find that there's a lot to be had if you get the melee crit & double attack up (check AA lines).  Plus you can fit more spells inbetween auto-attacks so you don't "waste" them so to say.  You'll also use less power and have less downtime.

This is of course just advice for solo/duo'ing and leveling up.  Use a Mirror of Achievements to keep 2 different setups.  1 for group/raid, 1 for questing/solo/duo/whatever.  You'll of course eventually go the sword & board route.

Can't help with Pally though, cept for advising to hit more buttons so you're not the one with aggro    gotta get used to it eventually.

edit: looks like I'm a few weeks late to the party, hope you're still going strong lol