How to Start a New Life in Norrath
Creating Your Character
This is almost completely up to you. My personal recommendations are a) if making a spellcaster, don't try to make a warrior at the same time. Accept that you're going to suck at hand-to-hand and put your points in INT or WIS, and b) Agility is not to be scoffed at. You don't have to have a lot of hit points if you don't get hit in the first place.
Also, some folks say that throwing some points into INT is a good thing for all classes because skill advancement seems to be tied into the INT stat somehow. This is not proven...but deserves consideration and further study.
What Do I Do First?
First...get used to the interface. It's a bit awkward to understand at first, but famliarize yourself with the inventory system, try out some of the /who, /tell and /con commands, and figure out how to use your hotkey buttons. (Your hotkey buttons are your biggest friends in this game...they make all those hidden commands buried in menus easily accessible for use in combat.)
Learn how to sit and stand up. Learn how to run and walk. Learn that "d" makes you duck and makes you walk very slooooowly.
And for cryin' out loud...don't make my classic mistake of selecting a guard and then typing a word without hitting ENTER first. If you happen to hit the letter "a" while typing the word (as you will if you type "hail"), then auto-attack will turn ON and the NPC will kill you dead, dead, dead. (Strong recommendation...REMAP THIS KEY TO SOMETHING ELSE. Otherwise, you have been warned.)
Then, stick your weapon in your hand and look at the two scrolls you have in your inventory. One is a PvP scroll. If you want to go PvP, you MUST keep this scroll. If you destroy it, you can NEVER go PvP later in life. Eventually, you'll find the bank in your town. Stick it in there for now. I do *not* recommend you go PvP right away...it can make for a very frustrating experience.
The other scroll is a mini-quest that sends you to your local guildmaster. Find your guild and give the scroll to that guildmaster for a small bonus in experience and a training robe (giving you 3 or 4 AR). You give the scroll to your guildmaster by left-clicking on it in the inventory and then dropping it onto the guildmaster by left-clicking on him. After you give him the scroll, then right-click on him to see how your "practices" are used. (See the Practices and Skills section below for tips on these.)
Oh yeah...if you're a spell caster, you'll probably have two more scrolls in your inventory. These are your free beginning spells and you should open your spell book, pick up each scroll and drop it into the book so it is inscribed. Then you can memorize the spells by clicking the icon in your book and then clicking one of the eight spell slots to the left of the book.
Then...go forth and kill things. Find the city gates, step outside and find the newbie critters of your choice. This is usally bats, rats, and maybe snakes. Stay away from skeletons, spiders, and gobbos for a bit until you get a level or two.
You'll make first level after you kill 10 or so critters. And then you get to go see your guildmaster again. Enjoy that quick advancement. They get slower hereafter. ; )
Practices and Skills
1) You should probably put ALL of your first five practices into one of your weapon skills (put the practices into whatever weapon you have when you start. This is usually piercing for magic-users and rogues, 1-handed blunt for clerics, and 1-handed slashing for everyone else). This will make your life a LOT easier while you gain those first few levels. However...there are some folks that maintain that your skill level raises VERY quickly at those low levels, and you shouldn't put practices into soemthing so easily increased. This is very true. However, expect to die a couple times getting those first few levels. That's not a big deal at this low of a level...but can be frustrating to some. Decide for yourself.
2) DO NOT put ANY of your precious practices into magic skills. (Magic skills include things like evocation, conjuration, etc.) Why? You will train these things up quickly while fighting and putting your practices into them is a COMPLETE waste. (Don't do it. Really.)
3) So what do you do with practices? Well...that's where your personal preferences come in. You can:
a) For those of you who either want to pursue the trades, or want to become totally self-reliant, put at least two of them into a trade skill of some sort (recommended...tailoring or smithing). If you follow this route, then you should wait until you get about 10 skill levels into your trade skill before attempting to use it. Failures are pretty expensive with these skills and you typically will waste *less* money if you wait until at least 10.
b) For those powergamers out there, don't put any practices into trades at all. This means you will have to BUY all your armor, but this is possible...it just means you'll get your armor slower. And, of course, you won't be able to make a friend for life by making someone *else* some armor. (Believe me...this is an incredible thing to do for someone...)
"But," you say, "this doesn't use up all my practices." So what do you do with them? Well...again that depends on preferences. You can:
a) Use them immediately so that you catapult forward in skill level. This has the limited advantage of allowing you to defeat stronger monsters quicker and can accelerate your lower level advancement.
b) Some skills don't become available until later in life (i.e., Dodge at 15th for Clerics). If you save up your practices (rather than spending them a little at a time), you can dump 20 practices into a brand new skill and suddenly become competent in something like Dodge rather than having to slowly work it up.
4) Don't put practices into fishing or swimming. These are the EASIEST skills in the world to train up. Don't do it.
5) There's still mixed views on Sense Heading. Some folks can't stand being lost and want to put one practice in every level or so (which makes it useful somewhere around 10th level). Others say, just put it on your hotkey pad and use it ALL THE TIME so that it goes up without putting any practices in at all. The latter is probably the smarter way...the former is easier. (But training this skill up takes FOREVER...be prepared to hit that hotkey a LOT.) Tip on raising Sense Heading...hotkey it and put it right next to your Fishing hotkey. Then, everytime you cast your line out to fish, just sit there and hit the Sense Heading key. You will be amazed at how quickly you can raise Sense Heading up.
***A Tip About Skill Caps***
There is definitely a limit on how high you can raise any particular skill. It is based on your level, but there are other factors also. It is approximately five times your current level plus five, but that differs a lot depending on whether you had starting bonuses or not. What this means is that you won't be able to raise your Fishing past about lvl 10 when you first start your character, and if you're a dwarf, you won't be able to raise Sense Heading at all until you're 10th level or so (because you start at around 45-50 in that skill already because of your race).
Tailoring and Smithing
Tailoring is particularly useful after a few levels of putting two practices/level in, because patchwork armor is easily made from ruined hides. And, although you won't be able to afford using Smithing for quite some time (probably until after 10th level), you'll need to be fairly proficient with the skill when you first start trying to use it. Why? Because metal is DAMNED expensive and any failures you have will waste that metal. Ouch.
So...you just finished making your very own patchwork armor and can't think of a darn thing to do with your Tailoring skill. Well...if you're making armor with a good success rate, then...make more armor. And DO NOT sell it to the vendors. Instead, /auction it to the non-Tailoring players out there. Check the price a vendor is selling it for and undercut his price. You *might* be able to make good money this way standing at a gate and hawking your wares. I haven't tried it personally...I'm too busy discovering Norrath to get involved in a "real" business.
Tailoring Note: Some hides make better patchwork armor than others. For instance, ruined wolf pelts make good armor, but ruined cat pelts make armor with the same protection, but it's slightly lighter. Giant (not large) snakes also provide skins now that can be used to make patchwork armor.
Small armor is made from ruined wolf pelts, Medium armor is made from cat pelts (i.e., pumas), and Large armor is made from bear pelts.
Money
Don't, don't, don't spend all your hard-earned cash on incremental improvements in armor and weapons. I know it sucks that you're still using that Rusty Broadsword, but don't spend ANY cash to buy a Rusty Longsword instead. Sheesh...keep killing monsters and you'll probably FIND one, and it's 3 or 4 gold you can use later for something else.
Also, if you manage to sew your own patchwork armor...resist completely the temptation to buy leather armor as an upgrade. Save your cash instead and pool it together for chain pieces instead. You'll wear that a lot longer and leather just doesn't make that much difference. (Note: There are some pieces of armor you can't make, like armbands, and you can buy those, if you so desire.)
Spell users...CAREFULLY SELECT YOUR LOWER LEVEL SPELLS. Don't go out in a buying frenzy getting all the first and second level spells simply because you can do so. Your third and fourth level spells are going to be VERY expensive. Save up for them.
Clerics...despair now. You will never have any money to spare. Get used to it. Read "Tharkor's Guide to Raising a Cleric" to get more tips on how to avoid your financial woes.
Weapon Training Tips
Train up multiple weapon skills. It's easy to advance them early on, but very difficult to "catch up" a skill later on (only difficult because constantly missing tough monsters can get you killed while you train a lame weapon skill up). Spend the time to evenly advance them as you go and you'll be very flexible for when you find that kickass magic weapon later in life.
This applies to Clerics for 1-handed and 2-handed also. Don't specialize in just one. Even it out a bit. Remember, you're investing time into this character for the long haul.
Spellcasters should keep working on that Piercing skill. Someday you'll get cornered with no mana and you want to at least have a meager chance of survival. Good piercing skills can get you out of a lot of trouble. Also...keep an eye out for Giant Snake Fangs. They're a great piercing weapon...very fast and good damage.