Newbie: Character Creation

The Character Creation screen has a simple interface to make your character choices.

1. Race

There are 16 races you can choose from. If you selected a classic TLP server to play on, some races will not be immediately available. Races that are unlocked by expansions:

• Iksar – unlocks with Ruins of Kunark (1st expansion)
• Vah Shir – unlocks with Luclin (3rd expansion)
• Froglok – unlocks with The Legacy of Ykesha (5th expansion)
• Drakkin – unlock with The Serpent’s Spine (12th expansion)

2. Gender

You can select either a male or female gender (found right below Race options). These cosmetically affect your character and have no impact on other options.

3. Class

There are 16 classes to choose from. Class availability is dependent on race – you’ll notice this as you click through the races. There are two classes that are also unlocked by expansions:

• Beastlord – unlocks with Luclin (3rd expansion)
• Berserker – unlocks with Gates of Discord (7th expansion)

4. Deity

Based on the combination of race AND class you select, the deity options in the dropdown menu will change.

6. City

The City dropdown menu will allow you to select your starting city. Crescent Reach is only available once Gates of Discord (7th expansion) unlocks, and is available to ALL race and class combinations.

7. Appearance

Found below the City dropdown menu, the Appearance button will bring you to a different screen where you can select any cosmetic traits for your character. Note that you can always change these to your liking in-game (with no penalty/cost) afterwards.

8. Advanced

Found below the Appearance option, this will bring up a pop-up menu which allows you to assign up to 30 points into several general stats. This option can be easily missed or misunderstood, and will be further discussed in it’s own section here.

10. Tutorial

By default, this option/button is toggled on. If you leave it on, then after you “Enter World” you will be in the tutorial instance for EverQuest.

11. Cancel

This option will cancel all options and bring you back to the Character Selection screen.

12. Name

In the middle-bottom part of your screen, you will see a place to either enter a name or click a random name generator button. At this point, it will be best to decide on a name. Many “common” names will be taken, and you will probably spend a good amount of time here to sort one out for your character.

13. Enter World

The only way you will be able to see if your name choice takes hold is to click the “Enter World” button option found on the right-hand side of your screen.

14. Heroic Character (Options)

These options are quite frankly counter-intuitive. You will not want to touch any of them until you know for sure that your name is available and your character can enter the world. You should not be bothered selecting or clicking anything here.

After your character is created, you can then go back to the character selection screen and upgrade it to a Heroic Character, if you choose to do so. Heroic Characters require paid tokens.

Selecting a race will primarily impact available classes, starting city and deity selection. Some races additionally gain innate racial bonuses, or perks, that are beneficial to beginning game-play. Most of these racial advantages will only benefit you for a short period of time if starting off on a classic TLP server. Once you get advanced alternative ability points and gear in later expansions, they won’t matter much.

If you are unhappy with a race selection you make, you will need to “pay” to change your race via the DBC store in game – or start over.

Races that See Well at Night

Ultravision – best vision in dark lit areas and innate to the following races:

• Dark Elf
• Froglok

Infravision – medium vision in the dark lit areas and innate to the following races:

Poorest Vision – races with the poorest vision at night

• Erudite
• Human

Short Races

Races that are short will have the advantage of not needing to “shrink” on raids or in tight quarters.

• Gnome
• Halfling

Slam Skill

Large races are granted the innate ability to slam opponents. Unfortunately, it also shares the same timer as the Bash ability. It allows you to stun/interrupt a mob if a shield is not equipped. AAs for tanking classes eventually compensate for this.

• Barbarian
• Ogre
• Troll

Frontal Stun Immunity

Ogres are the only race that have an innate frontal stun immunity.

AC Bonus

Iksars are the only race that get a small AC Bonus.

Extra HP Regeneration

Two races which regenerate hit points at a slightly accelerated rate:

• Iksar
• Troll

Tinkering Tradeskill

Gnomes are the only race in game that get the tinkering tradeskill.

Racial Traits: TLP vs Live

There are a couple of other small bonuses that certain races receive, but they are so insignificant that they were skipped here. As previously mentioned, racial bonuses will appeal more to those on a classic TLP – for a short period of time.

On Live servers, the only appealing factors for race consideration will boil down to “height” (ie: if they want to play a short race for convenience) and/or if they want the Gnome Tinkering Tradeskill. You should not be dissuaded from picking a race you truly want to enjoy, even if may pose a small challenge for you at the beginning.

EverQuest has 16 unique classes to choose from. Class selection is dependent on race. Some categories of importance to new players are:

Priests – classes capable of main healing groups

• Cleric, Druid, Shaman

Teleporters – classes that can teleport themselves and groups to other locations

• Druid, Wizard

Tanks – classes responsible for taking damage for their groups

• Paladin, Shadow Knight, Warrior

Movement Speed – classes that have their own movement speed buffs, making it easier to travel from point A to point B

• Bard (fastest) – note that people need to be in group with the bard to get selos
• Beastlord, Druid, Ranger, Shaman – can cast on others outside of group

Pet Classes – classes that do high amounts of damage with pets and can also pet tank a lot of content

• Beastlords, Magicians (best), Necromancers

Sneak – rogues have advanced sneak abilities, and are able to bypass mobs that otherwise see through invisibility buffs

Tradeskills – some classes gain tradeskill benefits

• Shaman – class-only Alchemy tradeskill
• Rogue – class-only Poison-making tradeskill
• Enchanter – easiest for Jewelcrafting due to class-specific spells used

1. Bard

A melee and utility class that is the jack-of-all trades. Bards sing songs increasing HP and Mana regen to allies, can crowd control, can boost group melee damage and can boost caster spell damage. They also have the fastest movement speed in game via their Selos song.

2. Beastlord

A hybrid melee and pet class. Beastlords are capable of dishing out damage with both melee and pets known as warders. They also have a couple of utility skills that can boost mana and movement speed – among others.

3. Berserker

A pure melee class. Berserkers exclusively wield 2-handed weapons and have axe-throwing abilities. They also have burst damage abilities that benefit both them and their groups.

4. Cleric

A priest class. Clerics are the best, single-target healers in game. They also have the best HP buffs and can provide additional damage-mitigation buffs to players.

5. Druid

A priest, utility and caster damage class. Druids are capable of main healing. They have a wide assortment of utilities including movement speed buffs, damage shields, group teleportation and snare. They are also capable of decent burst damage while using a combination of damage-over-time and direct damage spells.

6. Enchanter

A caster utility class. Enchanters can crowd control, charm pets, and boost caster damage for their groups. Their main buffs increase mana for spell-casting classes and melee speed for melee damage classes. They also provide runes and spell damage guards.

7. Magician

A caster damage and pet class. Magicians rely on a combination of direct spell damage and summoned pets to wreak havoc on mobs. They are capable of pet tanking in groups, have the best damage shield in game, and can summon a variety of useful items for allies and other pet classes.

8. Monk

A melee damage class. Monks use hand-to-hand or blunt weapons to inflict damage up close. They are capable pullers and can feign death to lose aggro on mobs.

9. Necromancer

A caster damage and pet class. Widely considered the best damage class in game, Necros have the strongest damage-over-time spells. They can also feign death to lose aggro on mobs and have utilities, such as snare, at their disposal.

10. Paladin

A hybrid tanking class (aka Knight). Paladins can tank and maintain aggro via a combination of melee abilities and spells. They use stuns, can battle-heal themselves (or others) and they do bonus damage to undead mobs.

11. Ranger

A hybrid melee and ranged damage class. Rangers primarily rely on their archery and spells to do ranged damage, but can also do melee damage. They have utility spells that can increase movement speed, and snare and root mobs.

12. Rogue

A melee damage class. Rogues typically use piercing weapons combined with poison applications to inflict damage on mobs. Some of their special abilities include backstabbing, advanced sneaking, and crowd controlling via traps.

13. Shadow Knight

A hybrid tanking class (aka Knight). Shadow Knights can tank and maintain aggro via a combination of melee abilities and spells. They primarily rely on life-tapping to offset damage received. Some of their utility spells include snares and hate aggro modifiers, and they can feign death to lose aggro from mobs.

14. Shaman

A priest and utility class. Shaman are capable of main healing and have the best AE heals in game. They also boost melee damage for their groups and have a wealth of buffs that melee classes strongly desire. Shaman is also the only class that gets the Alchemy tradeskill.

15. Warrior

A tanking class. Warriors have the highest damage mitigation in game versus hybrid tank classes, and they typically will main tank on raids.

16. Wizard

A caster damage class. Wizards rely on direct damage spells. They have the highest innate crit chance rate to direct damage spells, can snare mobs and teleport groups.

Based on the combination of race and class selected, you have to select a Deity. Certain combinations may only give you one option while others several – including Agnostic.

What is a Deity?

A deity is basically your god of worship. The deity you select will primarily affect your faction and interactions with various NPCs in game – especially, in classic and the Ruins of Kunark expansion. For example, those that select Innoruuk generally won’t have issues walking around Neriak city, but they will get killed on sight (KOS) in Felwithe.

Agnostic

This is usually the best choice for a Bard, Enchanter or Rogue. Such classes can use illusions (from spells or items) and trick NPCs that may otherwise be KOS. NPCs can still detect deity worship through an illusion, which is why the Agnostic option makes sense for these classes.

Several other classes can also select Agnostic as well, and may be able to gain access to places they otherwise cannot with a deity.

Imbue Spells

Priests (cleric, druid and shaman) gain deity-specific imbue spells. Such spells are used to imbue gems used in tradeskills or quests. Your deity will impact which imbue spell you can use.

• Imbue Amber – CLR/SHM – Cazic-Thule
• Imbue Black Pearl – CLR – Prexus
• Imbue Black Sapphire – CLR – Bertoxxulous
• Imbue Emerald – CLR/DRU – Tunare
• Imbue Diamond – CLR/SHM – Mithaniel Marr
• Imbue Ivory – SHM – The Tribunal
• Imbue Jade – SHM – Rallos Zek
• Imbue Opal – CLR – Rodcet Nife
• Imbue Peridot – CLR – Bristlebane
• Imbue Plains Pebble – CLR/DRU – Karana
• Imbue Rose Quartz – CLR – Erollisi Marr
• Imbue Ruby – CLR – Brell Serilis
• Imbue Sapphire – CLR/SHM – Innoruuk
• Imbue Topaz – CLR – Quellious

The above spells are granted in classic at level 29. Mass imbue versions (also level 29) are granted in the Legacy of Ykesha expansion. Greater mass imbue versions are granted in the Claws of Veeshan expansion (and require level 44).

Cultural Armor

Players wishing to craft or wear cultural armor will be affected by their deity choice. To be quite frank, most cultural gear will become quickly outdated on TLP servers. Later on there will be class-specific gear that players can craft, and which do not have racial restrictions.

Quest Items

For TLP players on Classic through Scars of Velious, there are certain items that can make life a little bit easier for you, provided that you worship the right deity.

Regent Symbol of Innoruuk – this is a quested snare necklace item that CLR and SHM worshipping Innoruuk can use. It can be clicked from your inventory.

Warden Symbol of Tunare – this is a quested root necklace item that CLR and DRU worshipping Tunare can use. It also can be clicked from your inventory.

When comparing both these items, the snare necklace fares better since CLR and SHM do not get snare spells (but get root spells instead). However, the root is still nice to avoid using a spell gem slot for it.

Natures Defender – this is a quested 2-handed weapon for paladins (High elf and Half elf only) that worship Tunare. It is about as good as the epic weapon for those that want to skip it.

There are other quests and drops that you can look up online.

Starting cities mean very little to players choosing to play on a Live server. However, on TLP they can make a significant difference in time spent traveling from one area to another – unless you play a Druid or Wizard capable of teleporting around.

Starting Cities by Continent

Antonica

• Halas – Barbarian
• Neriak – Dark Elf
• Crescent Reach – Drakkin, and all other races (unlocks with The Serpent’s Spine)
• Gukta – Froglok (unlocks with Legacy of Ykesha)
• Rivervale – Halfling
• Freeport – Half Elf, Human
• Qeynos – Half Elf, Human
• Surefall Glade – Half Elf, Human
• Oggok – Ogre
• Grobb – Troll

Faydwer

• Kaladim – Dwarf
• Ak’Anon – Gnome
• Felwithe – High Elf
• Kelethin – Half Elf, Wood Elf

Odus

• Erudin – Erudite
• Paneel – Erudite

Kunark

• Cabilis – Iksar (unlocks with Ruins of Kunark)

Luclin

• Shar Vahl – Vah Shir (unlocks with Shadows of Luclin)

Classic TLP – Easiest to Worst Travel

If you’re completely new to EverQuest and starting on a TLP server, some cities are a nightmare to travel to and from. This can also make it exciting for some, perhaps. If you’re not a teleporting Druid or Wizard, here are a few easy choices according to continent.

Antonica – Freeport is hands down the easiest city to start in. It has teleportation docks and is near the Commonlands tunnel. Worst travel is Halas.

Faydwer – Kaladim will be the easiest starting city as it is also the closest to teleportation dock which can take you to other places. Worst travel is Kelethin – aka the tree city.

Odus – Erudin will put you closer to the teleportation docks.

Crescent Reach

Most players with access to The Serpent’s Spine expansion will probably choose Crescent Reach as a starting city. All race and class combinations can select this city.

Benefits:

• Jam-packed with quests
• Access to starting tradeskills (and multiple tradeskill quests)
• Access to all class NPCs and pertinent spells

You basically have everything you need in one giant area. You will be using the Plane of Knowledge book to access all other zones as well, making travel to other zones easy.

The Advanced button will pop up a window to the left side of the Class window.

Once Upon a Time

A long time ago, players were required to assign 30 stat points at their discretion. New players struggled with this concept and did not know where to apply the points. Once the points were assigned, they became permanent and non-refundable.

After an overhaul was made to the Character Creation interface, the points are now automatically (and intelligently) assigned to stats that are important for your class.

Stats in Green: Hint Hint

If stats are colored in green, there are assigned points already into them. This is also a good indication to new players as to what stats are primarily important to the class they select.

Should I Change the Points?

New players that are not sure what to do should probably leave the stats alone. They were automatically assigned to you for a good reason.

By default, the Tutorial option is selected for you. This means that once you select to “Enter World,” you will be zoning straight into the tutorial zone. The tutorial is not a bad idea, and you can actually level all the way up to level 15 in it – even though it’s “intended” up to level 10.

If you choose not to select the Tutorial and Enter World, you will go straight to your starting city. However, you can access the tutorial whenever you wish from the Character Select screen. if you have access to Plane of Knowledge (via Planes of Power expansion), you can also speak to Secalna Galnor there.

Tutorial Perks

The Tutorial is a great way to not only level quick, but to also get a full set of gear and a class-specific weapon. In fact, the gear you get will be much better than any drops you find near your starting city.

Level Restrictions

The tutorial can easily take you to level 10, and even up to level 15. However, if you exit out of the tutorial at level 10 or higher, you will not be able to return. Once reaching level 15, you will automatically be kicked out of the tutorial as well.