What you wish you'd done at level 5

[Magrit]

I'm brand new to EQII -- wait...don't tell me to search the forums just yet. I've played WoW and COH a good deal so I'm very familiar with roguey characters and like them a lot, hence my choice of Brigand. I've read the FAQs and the stickies in this forum, but what I'm wondering is this:If you knew then what you know now, what would you have done differently? Meaning anything from picking a different profession to arranging your hotbars differently. Basically I'm looking for your personal suggestions (not the cookie-cutter "here's how to play a Brigand" stuff, I don't want to waste your time with things I can read in all those guides) about what you wish you'd known or done differently as a baby brigand.Of course this won't be the only class I try...<div></div>

[ag]

on the topic of hotbars, I would have done things a little differently, for sure.Unfortunately, now there's no going back, and I have 3 rows (plain,alt,ctrl) of active combat bars + 2 clicky bars.I would have spread everything out better so I would have learned different habits with respect to what position certain abilities are in on which hotbar.However, this perspective is based on the fact that I almost exclusively use the keyboard 99% of the time, only using the mouse when absolutely necessary.At the moment, I've got all my most commonly used damage arts on the plain bar, with debuffs and control effects on the alt bar, and then the rest on the ctrl bar (like snares).One thing I also did was create the Creature Masteries macro, which is invaluable, along with several /say,/g,/r macros for INC, /assist, Dispatch, etc.Oh, and I put a ranged combat art hotkey/macro in place that after it casts Flashy Throw, it turns on melee auto attack. I wish you could tie certain CA timers to certain custom hotkeys/macros. That'd rock.I organize my hotkeys (generally speaking) to be fastest reuse timers on the left towards slowest reuse timers on the right, within each hotbar. In the beginning I tried to organize them by positional requirement, but that didn't work out for me.<p>Message Edited by agra on <span class=date_text>08-23-2006</span> <span class=time_text>02:25 PM</span>

[Kriki]

Ditto what Agra said.I would have paid much more attention to my hotbars - I tried for so long to have only 1 bar, but just do it - make more than 1.  Start early - no need to have your buffs showing - put them on #6 and hide them or put them off to the side.Your CA's that you don't use very often, but need to keep handy for situational stuff (taunt and de-aggro are great examples of that) put on a secondary or tertiary bar - but your bread and butter CA's - keep 'em handy - 1,2,3 on your keyboard (no idea it is mouse users do to keep everything straight, but do it with your bread and butter CA's!)Also, don't be afraid of empty spaces on your hotbar - it's actually handy.  When you level your new spells will go into the blanks on your hotbars and you'll be able to easily see and sort everything instead of having to open your knowledge window.Hope that helped!<div></div>

[Magrit]

That is helpful, thanks. I suspected there might be some hotbar issues; coming from WoW I have constant debates about how to set them up for each class. One thing that's nice about WoW rogues is they have a whole separate bar that appears when stealthed, so here I'm having to learn what CAs I can only use when stealthed or flanking or whatever. I'll play around with them some more, especially once I learn which ones I end up using the most. (I'm rarely attacking from the back in combat since I tend to solo.)<div></div>

[ReilenBlaeyze]

<P>Learn how to use cheap shot to get off your back attacks. Brigands get only one stealth attack and it will never do that much damage <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <P>If you want to have alot of fun with stealth attacks Assassin is a better choice.</P> <P>For a very long time now I use 3 combat bars, all my front attacks, stuns, debuffs etc are on bar 1, back/flank attacks are on bar 2 (alt), along with some other situational skills such as double up and AE swipe. Bar 3 (ctrl) has my taunt/detaunts, AA skills etc.</P> <P>Buffs are on a separate (non keyboarded bar) along with clicky items, poisons, potions. This currently fills a 2 bars and a half now.</P> <P> </P>

[Andai]

<DIV>I leveled to 13 using a "primary dual wield" weapon. Since all dual wields were called "primary dual-wield" i thought there would be a "secondary dual wield" out there. Needless to say there were more than one occasion where i said to myself "[expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] this game is hard" <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Ahh, the trials and tribulations of being a true noob <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Other general tips:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>- Manage your hotbars (as others have said). Personally i run with 6 open hotbars, only using the number thingies for the first hotbar and manually click the rest. Just find a style you feel comfortable with.</DIV> <DIV>- Manage your chatwindows. I think there are as many combinations here as there are people playing the game. Personally i have quite alot of chatwindows always visible. I have chatwindows for;</DIV> <DIV>-- Groupchat,</DIV> <DIV>-- Tells,</DIV> <DIV>-- Guild/raidchat and trade (in a different tab)</DIV> <DIV>-- General/my combat/others combat/enemy combat (all tab:ed in the same chatwindow)</DIV> <DIV>From random screenshots i've seen, people tend to run with one chatwindow with several tabs in it. I guess i'm different.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>- Use playermade food and drink, they're quite alot better than NPC-bought stuff. The first 10-15 levels you don't have to be that fuzzy since you level so fast, but after that make sure to go with the playermade stuff.</DIV> <DIV>- If possible, find people to group with. If you want to level faster, get better loot and have more fun in general, doing it with other people is the way to go.</DIV> <DIV>- If you are so inclined. Stop and smell the roses every now and then. This game can be quite beautiful and there are so much to explore.</DIV> <DIV>- When you've reached lvl 20 you'll start getting AA experience/points (press L in-game). Any quests or collection quests that are below level 20 won't yield AA xp, but any quest of collection above 20 will.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>That was basically what i could think of at the moment.</DIV>

[skidmark]

http://www.eq2interface.com/downloads/fileinfo.php?id=4277ProfitUI is what I use. I have 6 Hotbars and they aren't even full.I would also suggest keeping your harvesting skills (aside from fishing) maxed. Even if you don't tradeskill, rares sell well, and will decrease cost to you to have mastercrafted items created.Don't worry about adept iii or higher until your 30's. The early levels just fly by, and judging from the xp changes on test now, will go even faster. Even the 30's go pretty quickly.

[ag]

<blockquote><hr>ReilenBlaeyze wrote:<P>Learn how to use cheap shot to get off your back attacks. Brigands get only one stealth attack and it will never do that much damage <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P><hr></blockquote><pre>[Fri Aug 11 19:47:12 2006] YOUR Skewer critically hits The Keeper of the City Keys for 2108 points of piercing damage.[Sat Aug 12 19:59:20 2006] YOUR Skewer critically hits golemic punisher for 2219 points of piercing damage.[Fri Aug 18 20:06:16 2006] YOUR Skewer critically hits a Jin'Tat Battlepriest for 2091 points of piercing damage.[Fri Aug 18 22:21:49 2006] YOUR Skewer critically hits a temple protector for <b>2430</b> points of piercing damage.[Sat Aug 12 23:01:07 2006] YOUR Skewer critically hits Vaz`Gok The Cursed for 1997 points of piercing damage.[Mon Aug 14 19:05:17 2006] YOUR Skewer critically hits a Coin guard for 1958 points of piercing damage.[Fri Aug 18 20:43:58 2006] YOUR Skewer critically hits a Faro' Nuk vindicator for 1939 points of piercing damage.[Sat Aug 12 20:17:59 2006] YOUR Skewer critically hits a lizardman eliminator for 1817 points of piercing damage.[Sat Aug 12 22:30:53 2006] YOUR Skewer critically hits Venekor for 1862 points of piercing damage.[Sun Aug 13 18:08:14 2006] YOUR Skewer hits Euktrzkai Amdaatk for 1853 points of piercing damage.[Tue Aug 15 19:29:08 2006] YOUR Skewer hits Haraghur the Deathless for 1814 points of piercing damage.[Fri Aug 18 22:02:24 2006] YOUR Skewer hits a fountain keeper for 1871 points of piercing damage.[Fri Aug 11 21:13:03 2006] YOUR Skewer hits The Pattern Juggler for 1790 points of piercing damage.[Sat Aug 12 22:27:10 2006] YOUR Skewer hits Varanak the Everlasting for 1706 points of piercing damage.[Sun Aug 13 17:00:59 2006] YOUR Skewer hits a Doomwing Skarize champion for 1784 points of piercing damage.[Fri Aug 18 21:43:08 2006] YOUR Skewer hits a temple protector for 1794 points of piercing damage.[Fri Aug 18 22:15:23 2006] YOUR Skewer hits a temple protector for 1781 points of piercing damage.[Fri Aug 18 22:30:53 2006] YOUR Skewer critically hits a fountain keeper for 1710 points of piercing damage.</pre>Not to put too fine a point on it, but Skewer is good stuff. Even if you're tanking or solo'ing, as long as you have Turgur's and Shrouded Blade on, you can almost always get a stealth attack off, even while the focus of your target.For reference, the max listed damage on Skewer Master 1 is around ~1240-1250. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />I'm not rubbing this in ReilenBlaeyze's face, I'm just pointing out some interesting things about this game aren't always readily apparent. For example, you might think you never want to taunt, but then you find out that Vaunt dispells thorn damage shields. Ok, now I dispell them every chance I get. Also, you might think Secure is useless until it increases Wizard ice-based damage spells by up to 25%. Then Wizards love you. Stuff like that. The difference between a noob and a jaded veteran can simply be the amount of information you've read. hehehe.

[Magrit]

<div></div><blockquote><hr>skidmark wrote: I would also suggest keeping your harvesting skills (aside from fishing) maxed.<blockquote><hr>Once you pick your primary tradeskill, do you still do all other forms of harvesting? It seems like quite a job to keep up with the logs and the dens AND the roots *AND* the bushes **AND** the rocks while also having an interest in, ya know, levelling. (Although I am in no race to get to 70 and I've been known to "waste" enormous amounts of time on skills.) The mini-dings seem to trigger my MMOCD, as in "Great, another point, gotta go root again." (MMOCD also manifests in a strong need to keep bags organized at all times.) This is all very helpful advice. And actually I'm not that interested in all sneak attacks so it looks like Brigand (or maybe Swashbuckler since I think I'd like to see both cities without having to try the betrayal quest yet) is the right class for me.</blockquote></blockquote><p>Message Edited by Magritte on <span class=date_text>08-24-2006</span> <span class=time_text>09:07 AM</span>

[shirpa]

<div></div><blockquote><hr>ReilenBlaeyze wrote:<div></div><p>Learn how to use cheap shot to get off your back attacks.</p><hr></blockquote><font color="#9999cc" face="Verdana" size="2">Yes, do this <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Frontal attacks are limited. If you can do this, your solo dps can be alot better <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> There are also 2 more stuns you get later on, I forget which level tho lol.On hotbars, I have 7 set up. All important CAs on 1 and 2, lesser CAs and master strikes on 3, buffs, tracking, pickpocket, illusion, gate, etc. on 4 and 5; 6 and 7 are items and macros. Actually only 2 macros, one for calling dispatch in raids and the other for gratzing in /gu lol. <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></font><div></div>

[Aral]

<div>Make an assist macro and place it where you'll want it to stay on your hotbar setup.  /assist <character name> it's very simple.  You want to get used to using this and not auto-assisting a player by targetting them.  Place the yell and sprint buttons in a spot out of the way of your other attacks, but able to be found in emergency.  Learn to use mouselook / strafe to move around, don't turn around using the keyboard, it's far too slow.  Play in third person, and learn to use mousewheel to zoom in and out when needed.   Learn how to use left and right mouse buttons to change whether you are turning yourself, or turning the camera.  Using camera to look around you  while in combat is a good skill.  Map nearest NPC to a key near your movement keys.  If you use quake style WASD for forward/back/strafe left/strafe right (assuming right handed mouse), then put nearest NPC on the Q key.  Map another nearby key to target self.  Useful in combination with yell, when it's time to run <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  I use tab. Join groups, even some bad ones <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  If you only solo there are a whole set of skills you won't learn, and your CA useage order won't be realistic for a group setting.  Don't stop soloing though, that helps you keep defense and parry up as you level rapidly.  Don't be afraid to tank for groups.  It's a fun role as Brig and you get to learn the nuances of damage output, aggro behavior of your and other classes.  Just make sure you pull rapidly and don't ask "ready?" when the group is full mana <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Learn how to proximity pull.  The ruins is a great place for this at low level. I disagree with a poster above, upgrade your CA's even as early as the level 13 range.  Adept 1 at min for your main skills. You keep these for many levels and don't want to be a slacker when grouping.  It's more fun when you have decent skills - they don't miss as often, you do the damage you should be doing, and you kill faster.  Some of the best dungeons in the game are sub-30, enjoy them with a solid character, rather than hurrying to the higher levels.  Masters are cheap at these levels for several of your skills, so don't be afraid to look on the qeynos broker as well as FP to see if you can afford any good ones.   Corals are not very rare if you harvest in CL, and jewelers hardly charge anything for low level adept 3 creation nowadays, many will do it for a couple gold. Check any collection bones you get in the low level zones on the broker, and set up some cheap boxes for selling.  Some of these sell for 30-60 gold as they are rare.  </div>

[skidmark]

Yes I would keep all skills up to date. If you only harvest one or two node types, you will eventually be stuck in a harvest field full of the things you haven't been harvesting, and hard pressed to find the things you really want. Nothing worse than being in EL and staring at a ton of beast dens when all you want are feysteel clusters.I also recommend getting into the Cove of Decay for tier 4 harvests. If the mobs are grey, you can cherry pick the nodes you want, zone out and zone back in and have all new harvest nodes, and no competition <span>:smileywink:</span> .To the above poster, I wasn't stating that they should never upgrade to adept iii or above, I just wouldn't go out of my way worrying about it. Adept i upgrades are usually very cheap so definitely get those and app iv when you can't get adept i. I just know that the rough coral sells for so much on my server (40-60 gold <span>:smileysurprised:</span> ) that the cash goes a lot further than the adept iii does.

[Timesquare]

<DIV>jusr random click it lol , i'm sorry</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>just set those hotkeys on the bars in which the styke you like , few front CA on the side and rest back CA on the other , next bar for buff , clicky ..etc , other for masterstrike / aa skill , tracking </DIV>

[Jeffmaster]

<P>make your own spells..don't bother buying since you can make them up to level 10 or even 20 ...choose to be a jeweler or an alchemist..it's very useful when you move up the levels....good gear comes very cheap on the broker..keep it at the best you can and jewelry comes very expensive at higher levels..if you can make them you'll save cash..plus make some as well</P> <P>defensive stance and a shield can get you out of a lot of dangerous situations. have a set of DW and 1hdr + shield ready for different situations. If possible Adept 3 stances are useful. Don't bother buying fabled or legendary items unless they are cheap..Mastercrafted is sufficient until the higher levels...</P> <P>Unless you solo a lot ...I find quests to take <EM>sometimes </EM>to much time compared to the reward..of course HQ and writs, LL quests are good...but nothing compared to a good group of 3-4 people taking on heroics 2-3 levels higher..yesterday I went from 46-47 in about 3hours...I have never leveled this fast..if the mobs you kill are for a quest then its even better...but when you level like this...you won't be going in every single place...i haven't played in a lot of places but still go for discovery xp.</P> <P>That's my 2 cents</P> <P> </P> <P> </P>

[Jay]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Andai wrote:<BR> <DIV>I leveled to 13 using a "primary dual wield" weapon. Since all dual wields were called "primary dual-wield" i thought there would be a "secondary dual wield" out there. Needless to say there were more than one occasion where i said to myself <FONT color=#ffff33>"[expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] this game is hard"</FONT> <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>ROFLMAO!</P> <P>I do remember being pretty confused about DW weapons when I first started my ranger, but fortunately I was in a guild with some RL friends so I could get those questions answered easily. </P> <P>Anyway, re: hotbars and UI - I still change that stuff, after playing for over 1.5 yrs and getting my main to 70. Still tweaking. So you don't need to figure out the best arrangement right away. Heck, at 32, my brigand is still getting whole new spell lines and I keep having to find places to put yet another flanking attack or new stun. (It's a problem I don't mind having, believe me.)</P>