Starting a shaman - race and diety information

[Henora]

We don't really have information about basic starting stats and abilities in one spot here (maybe I missed it but I looked all around!). So here goes. The race question still comes up frequently enough in twink, 2box type questions and with the new progression server coming out we may see more newb shaman questions in this area. Please contribute any corrections, additions or opinions in this thread!


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In modern EverQuest there are 6 races that can be shamans. Barbarian, Froglok, Iksar, Ogre, Troll and Vah Shir. The original races were Barbarian, Ogre and Troll. The other races were added in expansions, Iksar with Kunark, Vah Shir with Luclin, and Frogloks were with Legacy of Ykesha.

Starting statistics vary between races, but most shamans will want to spend their starting points in Stamina and Wisdom. The starting stats for each race are detailed below. Ogres should put 5 points into agility to avoid the AC penalty for sub 75 agility.

Some races have experience penalties. This means it will take more experience for them to level than other races. The amount per race can be seen below.

Barbarian
<s>Experience Penalty: 5%</s> Note: With TSS, racial xp penalties no longer exist.

Starting Stats
STR: 103
STA: 100
AGI: 82
DEX: 70
WIS: 80
INT: 60
CHA: 60
(30 points to spend)

Diety choices:
The Tribunal - (The Six Hammers)

Racial Abilities
Slam
Minor bonus to cold resist

Discussion
Barbarians are a "good" race, so they don't have widespread faction issues. Most modern content is faction neutral anyway. They are a large race and can wear both medium and large sizes of armor (which is really only relevant in very old crafted armors). Barbarians have very poor night vision and can get lost in the dark places without a light source or vision buff at low levels.

Newbie Quests
Armor of Justice is a great set of armor, outclassing Totemic and much easier to acquire, giving (for a full set) AC +55, HP +59, and Wis +21. Also available is the Initiate Symbol of the Tribunal, a neck item which is a light source and summons hammers with undead bane damage.

Froglok
<s>Experience Penalty: 0%</s> Note: With TSS, racial xp penalties no longer exist.

Starting Stats
STR: 70
STA: 85
AGI: 100
DEX: 100
WIS: 85
INT: 75
CHA: 55
(30 points to spend)

Diety choices:
Mithaniel Marr - (The Lightbearer)

Racial Abilities
Ultravision
Starting skill of 125 in Swimming.

Discussion
Frogloks are a good race, so don't suffer from widespread faction issues. Most modern content is faction neutral anyway. They are small and have the most modern player models with cute animations. People want to eat them.

Iksar
<s>Experience Penalty: 20%</s> Note: With TSS, racial xp penalties no longer exist.

Starting Stats
STR: 70
STA: 75
AGI: 90
DEX: 85
WIS: 90
INT: 75
CHA: 60
(30 points to spend)

Diety choices:
Cazic Thule - (The Faceless)

Racial Abilities
Infravision
Forage, capped at skill 50.
Starting skill of 100 in Swimming.
Innate Armor Class bonus.
Enhanced Innate Regeneration.

Discussion
Iksar are an evil race and have serious faction issues with other races. However, these faction issues are not as important in modern content since most common areas are faction neutral. Iksar cannot wear most "plate armor" from early EQ eras (original, kunark, some velious, etc). This includes the kunark shaman set, Jaundiced Bone. This problem is a non-issue since the introduction of class based armors.

As noted above, Iksar cannot use the shaman kunark armor set, Jaundiced Bone. The Jaundiced Bone Bracer (JBB), with its' clickable nuke is regarded as a useful levelling tool for level 45-mid 50s and Iksar cannot use it. This was a source of much unhappiness for Iksar during early EQ eras.

Iksar do have easy access to a long and involved quest line for the Ceremonial cudgels. This quest can be completed by other races, with sufficient faction work and effort.
http://samanna.net/sham.info/cudgels.shtml

Worshippers of Cazic Thule have access to a unique quest series for a fear animals/fear undead necklace
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=666

Ogre
<s>Experience Penalty: 15%</s> Note: With TSS, racial xp penalties no longer exist.

Starting Stats
STR: 130
STA: 127
AGI: 70
DEX: 70
WIS: 77
INT: 60
CHA: 42
(30 points to spend)

Diety choices:
Rallos Zek - (The Warlord)

Racial Abilities
Infravision
Slam
Frontal Stun Immunity

Discussion
Ogres are an evil race and have serious faction issues with other races. However, these faction issues are not as important in modern content since most common areas are faction neutral. Ogres are very large and may have trouble fitting through doors and small spaces without the ability to shrink. Ogres have Frontal Stun Immunity, which is widely regarded as the most powerful racial ability. Frontal Stun Immunity cannot be gained for shamans of other races through any other means (no AA, gear or other options).

Players starting new Ogre characters should consider putting 5 starting points into Agility to avoid the AC penalty for characters under 75agi.

Rallos Zek worshippers had strong crafted cultural armor from the Planes of Power era, this has been largely replaced by the new DON crafted armor though.

Troll
<s>Experience Penalty: 20%</s> Note: With TSS, racial xp penalties no longer exist.

Starting Stats
STR: 108
STA: 114
AGI: 83
DEX: 75
WIS: 70
INT: 52
CHA: 45
(30 points to spend)

Diety choices:
Cazic Thule - (The Faceless)
Innoruuk - (The Prince of Hate)

Racial Abilities
Infravision
Slam
Enhanced Innate Regeneration
Decreased fire resistance

Discussion
Trolls are an evil race and have serious faction issues with other races. However, these faction issues are not as important in modern content since most common areas are faction neutral. Trolls are large and may have trouble fitting through doors and small spaces without the ability to shrink. Trolls have enchanced health regeneration which can be helpful for reducing downtime at lower levels and aiding in regaining health lost to cannibalizing.

Worshippers of Innoruuk have access to a unique quest item that can be situationally useful to shamans.
The Regent Symbol of Innoruuk has a clickable short duration snare.
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=1254

Worshippers of Cazic Thule have access to a unique quest series for a fear animals/fear undead necklace
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=666

Vah Shir
<s>Experience Penalty: 0%</s> Note: With TSS, racial xp penalties no longer exist.

Starting Stats
STR: 90
STA: 80
AGI: 90
DEX: 70
WIS: 80
INT: 65
CHA: 70
(30 points to spend)

Diety choices:
Agnostic

Racial Abilities
Safe Fall
Sneak

Discussion
Vah Shir are a neutral race, and their only diety selection is Agnostic. They don't have any serious faction issues. Vah Shir have unique racial abilities in Safe Fall and Sneak - no other shaman race has these abilities. Sneak can be very useful in interacting with NPCs that are normally hostile towards you and sneaking past enemies.

Vah Shir characters consume food more rapidly than other races.

Vah Shir have a racial cloak quest
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/ques ... quest=1533

All this crap is from memory, discuss and I will add important points to this thread and keep all discussion for future reference. Yay. Or something.

[ophidion]

Make an iksar and worship inny and get the clicky snare neck

[Henora]

The only diety option I had at character creation for Iksar was Cazic Thule.

I know Cazic Thule worshippers have the ummm fear animal? neck. If someone gives me a link I can include it.

[Aruman]

If you are going to start a Shaman when the server opens, why list anything other than Barbarian, Ogre, or Troll?

If I didn't care about the exp penalty I would start a race that has access to that Snare necklace. Whether regen or stun immunity is more important... who knows. I'd probably lean toward Stun immunity.

[Henora]

I'm sorry for any confusion Aruman. I am not going to be playing on the progression server.

I was just compiling this data because it's apparently not listed anywhere else here. The progression server was just one example of why people might be interested in this information. Mainly I was inspired to post it because people still routinely post here about having a shaman twink or 2box or whatever. Inevitably, the race discussion comes up.

[Jaraman]

I don't recall Ogres getting the ability to SLAM. I consciously chose a Barbarian because of that ability, because I knew I wanted to make a battle priest shaman who would be meleeing a lot.

If I could do it all over, I'd definitely choose Ogre for his frontal stun immunity -- huge not only for melee, but for casting in general. Troll snare is nice, but a snare hammer and snare potions can fill in there... nothing fills in for frontal stun immunity.

[Fandele Longtooth]

Sneak can be useful in interacting with NPCs that are normally hostile towards you.

I can't emphasize enough just how incredibly useful this has been for me. Innumerable bankers (most recently the shiliskin banker in undershore) who wouldn't deal with me otherwise, quest npc's, and even for slipping past annoying see-invis mobs. (If I remember right, it cuts front arc aggro radius to 1/2, and rear arc to almost nothing) Just make sure its "on" first by checking to see that you're moving at half speed. We don't get a success/failure message like rogues do.

I know for a fact it's saved me hundreds of hours of factioning, but I'm a quest freak, so mileage may vary.

[Looka]

Froglok shamans start with Ultravision.

[Jabobtha]

Vah Shir do not have a racial xp penalty.

*we do however eat more food than other races

[Brohg]

I can Slam. So can Trolls. So can Vah Shir, iirc. They're Large, they should be able to.

[Nehtaniel]

I don't remember Vah Shir getting the slam ability. It's worth checking.

[EeyonRN]

all ogres get slam. its also worth noting that if you're starting an ogre as a brand new player, its worth considering putting 5 points into agi. it will be worthless later on, but your starting stats put you in the ac penalty, which is fairly heavy. its probably still not worth the points, but its good to know about.

[Jabobtha]

Vah Shir can not slam

[Tadenea]

Also heard Vah Shir tend to go through food faster but I have not confirmed that

[Younger]

We Trolls also take a hit on our FR at creation and Barbies get a plus to CR. Im sure there are more and ill look more up. Yes, Trolls who worship Cazic get a fear animal type clickie and Inny worshipers like me get a snare. That snare I might add is very useful in groups once I have maloed the mob.. I usually start spamming it at about 50% of the mobs life if we really need stuff snared. The snare will actually stop the mob at 10% cause its a weaker type snare.

I made my first Troll Cazic worshipper and leveled him to 50 then realized my clickie sucked and I really wanted the snare so I deleted and remade a new Shaman.

Vashir do consume food faster.. as do Halfers...

[Huurgh Not bad for an alt.]

Barbarians get -5% XP, is that correct ?

[Samanna]

Yep.

Compensated by bash (capped at 1), no nightvision, and good starting faction. And being too big to bank in that tree city unshrunk (but can bank in dorf city, go figure).

[HuacaWuaca]

You know that saying "If I only knew then what I know now".

Ogre shaman is the only choice.

[dohrian]

And being too big to bank in that tree city unshrunk (but can bank in dorf city, go figure).

Lol I went to kelethin when I was level 9 (crossed all Antonica at that time, no PoK) and I always banked there from outside the bank (go close enough to banker, use F9 to change vision and target banker...)

Doh

[KantorZek]

If I could do it all over, I'd definitely choose Ogre for his frontal stun immunity

INdeed, IMO thats the only thing making a diffrence between the races in the high end and considering i play on Zek.. stun imunity would rule!

[darkpaw Yes I'm retired]

As others have posted corrections on Vah Shir we have no exp penalty and no slam/bash ability. We do eat like crazy though as my Vah Shir will eat a stack of food about twice as fast as my halfling. As others have said sneak is insanely useful and puts Vah Shir as a second to ogre in ability. Most mobs that see though invis do not see through sneak, only special ones flagged that see through everything but sos or see everything. Also our faction is about completely nuetral. I think the only race I started kos to was iksar and maybe trolls though I'd have to check.

That said, I'd still take an ogre if I was starting from scratch.

[Henora]

I've updated the original post with some of the comments here. Thanks guys.

[Binter]

correct.

Most people miss the double food consumption drawback on Vah Shir, which makes stat food rather expensive. That's why the innate metabolism AA is more or less a must-have for any Vah Shir.

Yes, sneak is extremely useful for slipping past KoS mobs that see invis, slicing through faction, and dealing with any merchant or banker ( I STILL use it), but you have no idea how nice it is to run across uneven ground and not take cheese falling damage for stepping over every rock and log. Safe Fall has even saved me from a few falls that would have been fatal for someone without it, but that's more luck than any kind of skill.

If I had it to do over again, I'd still go Vah Shir. Frontal stun immunity and slam are things I'd really love to have, but they're only useful in one aspect of the game. An important aspect to be sure, but still only one aspect. Sneak and safe fall have many uses, and are excellent all-around abilities.

[seventh.Tikoko]

anyone know what kind of neck trolls get? i thought it was snare but i guess i was wrong

[Brohg]

troll innoruuk = snare (lowest level darkness dot)
troll cazic = 2 different ones cast Spook Undead, Fear Animal

[seventh.Tikoko]

i guess i could have actually looked at the first post too, thanks brohg

[Tharkis]

If i were forced to start over again, i'd pick vah shir myself. I'm currently a barbarian, like being a barbarian, but sneak, and safefall and night vision > my ability to wear a kilt.

WRU SoE pay for race change service? =P

[Giac]

WRU SoE pay for race change service? =P

Won't happen, I tried it all.

[Tharkis]

Heh, unfortunately its not as easy as just going in and swapping a few bits, if it were i'm sure it would be offered already =) Would be nifty if it /were/ that simple however.

I know it wont happen, otherwise Vannoth / Saiphos and his continual threats every fan faire when he ran them of having my play char remade as a chiksar would have likely been followed through on. >_<

[seventh.Tikoko]

it is that simple, only problem i can see is races on armor but just kill the person you're changing first and problem solved. i don't see it happening soon.. but wait a few expansions and i'm sure you'll see it for like $200 charge or something

[Mukshaak]

Just a minor point Henora

Iksar do have access to a long and involved quest line for the Ceremonial cudgels.

Although we ikkys have a much easier time to complete this quest (and others like the SK Greenmist), the quest can be completed by other races once they have done some faction work. I don't know the details, as I never had to do... But just know it's possible.

Maybe it should read something like:

Iksar have much easier access to a long and involved....bla bla bla


Apart from that, list looks good....

Errr, unless you want to add that the real reason we get a 20% xp penalty is because we look this good, and not to mention, we have a tail...

(of course the Trolls get the same penalty for just looking that ugly... )

[Samanna]

Verdandi's Cudgel writeup is in the pulldowns.

[darkpaw Yes I'm retired]

Yah, I have good ikky faction (as a vah shir my cap is warmly or kindly instead of indiff like most races) and started the cudgel quest, but never finished it. Might have to just to add to my collection of shaman specific items.

[Henora]

thanks, edited.

[Beafly]

Might want to add that Froglok's get the tounge. Chicks dig the tounge.

[Tharkis]

Frogs are tasty !

*chases Beafly with a skillet and a frying pan*

[Mudcrushy]

Ogre > All

[Samanna]

I added a section for Barbarian Newbie Quests. Does anyone know the names of the other Shaman Newbie gear? Froggers get Yun Initiate's, I think... what are the others?

[xyu101]

How does illusion work? I know if use troll illusion you get the hp regen. How about orge illusion, do you get front stun immunity? Or iksar illusion, do you get forage skill? Cat people illusion for sneak? That's very important since these abilities are not used regularly. If you can use illusion to get them, then there is no point choosing that race for the ability.

For starting stats, I don't think they are important. Resists are more important than stats in later stages. And within the several stats, the most difficult (useful) ones to cap at level 70 are agility (increases avoiding AC) and stamina (increases hp). WIS always gets capped first. STR, DEX and CHA have no use as well as INT.

Rumour has it that Iksar has innate AC bonus, can it be confirmed? This alone can be the deciding factor for choosing an iksar.

Maybe the order to consider should be:
Racial abilities and unique quest items > resists > AGI and STA > WIS > other stats > exp penalty > faction

If I start a new shaman now (can be twinked), I would put 25 points to AGI and 5 to STA. --- Am I crazy not to put a single point to WIS? BTW the race with maximum AGI+STA I believe is troll.

[Samanna]

If I start a new shaman now (can be twinked), I would put 25 points to AGI and 5 to STA. --- Am I crazy not to put a single point to WIS? BTW the race with maximum AGI+STA I believe is troll.

I'd put 25 into STA (since it's very hard to cap with pre-Velious gear) and the rest into Wis. Actually, I just did that with an Ogre alt to play with. Wow, Iksar chestplate and clay guardian shield are overpowering at level 1!