Server-Up Guide

This information on this page is fully or partially outdated, and may no longer apply to Shadowbane in its current state because newb isle has been revamped. See Patch History to stay up-to-date on changes.

This page is a user's work in progress page and may be incomplete and/or unreliable.

When a new server opens, it is a race for everyone to farm and raise their tree as soon as possible so that they can have the best choice for spots. With the changes in patch 22, most city grids will now be the same so this is not as much of a priority; however, still very important.

The most important thing is to have time and be prepared. Often, SBG will announce the day and approximate time the old server will go down. The new one can come up anywhere between 20 and 30 minutes after. At this time you will want to know exactly what kind of characters you are creating, your "Server-Up" characters. These are usually inferior in terms of endgame builds, so do not worry if this is the case. The goal is to establish a city or grid of cities as soon as possible.

Dual Boxing

Making a server-up character is a great way to get things going quickly, but you can double this effectiveness with multi-client boxing. If you have guildmates coming with you, that is even better - stick together and you will have a Tree of Life set up in no time. If you have the ability, make as many as you can following these priorities:

1. Bargain Bot/Farmer (see below)
2. Mine Claiming Belgosch Utility Scout
3. Mine Burning/PvP DPS Wizard
4. Dwarf Healing Priest
5. PvP characters

In PvP characters, you may want to avoid those that rely heavily on gear, high-level training, or runes such as Templars, Wizards, or Channelers. Rogues are generally the best choice for their ability to be self-sufficient.

Ultimate Server-Up Toon

I chose Huntress for the fact that one can have a pet early (at level 10) which is granted at 20 free trains, making leveling much easier. Another plus is the fact that you get GM tracking, making farming very safe. Please note that this template was designed to max at level 60 as leveling beyond this is unnecessary for this build. In fact you should begin farming at level 45-55 on Maelstrom.

Since runes this early in the game are scarce, this build was designed to function efficiently without them, which is why I chose Elf for her high natural intelligence. This is what some would consider a "nuketress", which is a Huntress who will focus mainly on her weapon DoTs (bleed and poison) and her damage powers, Fury of Ice and Call the Sky's Fury.

By Rewen 23:11, 17 Jan 2008 (EST).

• Race: Elf (Female)
• Base Class: Rogue (Be sure to choose a bow as your starting weapon)
• Prestige Class: Huntress
• Traits:

(First, take 5 points from all. Apply the following runes, and then add leftovers to Intelligence:)
Brilliant Mind, Shopkeeper's Apprentice, Scion of the Dar Khelegur, Wizard's Apprentice

Stat Runes:
None

Discipline Rune:
None

Gear:

• SDR +8 Int Rings
• SDR Necklace, +5 Int, +2 to all
• SDR light armor set
• SDR Wind Bow

Ability Points:

• Dexterity: 110
• Intelligence: 150
• Constitution: 65
• Strength: No points added
• Spirit: 46

Point Spread

As an Elf Rogue, you will receive a total of 588 training points for use with skills and powers. Use them thusly:
Skill Points (in order of priority):

• Bow: 100
• Light Armor: 100+
• Bargaining: 80
• Way of the Gaana: Gold
• Dodge: 100+
• Archery: 95

Training Points:

• Hide: 18
• Sneak: 40

• Amazon's Endurance: 1
• Cry of Vashteera: 40
• Call to Vashteera: 40
• Call of the Wild: 40
• Fury of Ice: 40
• Call the Sky's Fury: 40
• Phaedra's Fury: 40
• Vashteera's Favor: 20
• Beast Lord's Boon: 40
• Vashteera's Blessing: 1

Leveling

Leveling during the server-up can be difficult. Most people are used to having gear, buffs, money, and power-leveling prepared when they create a new character. On a new server this is obviously impossible. There are also so many people playing that leveling fast may be a problem. Luckily you have this awesome guide to help you get past this part faster than others. The following guide was designed to work with the above template and only on the Vorringia mapset.

1-4

As a general rule, leveling is most efficient when you change microzones as soon as the majority of the mobs have a light blue con, or when their names turn light blue in your selection window. The best experience gains come from mobs with dark blue names.

The Spiders and Ice Walkers that appear right by your starter town will get you from level one to level four extremely quickly using a bow. Stand at the back of the camp (so that you cannot see NPC vendors from the hamlet), go into combat stance, and then spam semicolon (target next mob), and the F-key (interact with selected target; while in combat mode this is attack). The attack speed for your weapon is reset when you attack a new mob, so the only limits on how fast you kill them are how fast you press the hotkeys and how often you miss.

Loot everything. Collect all potions, take and delete all armor/weapons dropped and for All-Father's sake save all stat runes; few people realize these runes are sometimes as hard to find as +40 Godly runes. The more cash you get the easier things will be for you.

Most people go to Hothor's Doom to level, which is exactly why you will want to choose another hamlet. What I have noticed is that even though people are flooding that leveling area, people are so used to leveling there that they will stay their course and go through their newbie island routine no matter what the circumstances. That is good; it keeps them out of your way, but do not be surprised if there are still people in other hamlets. The best thing to do is join their group or offer a group to people there. Experience is only slightly lessened while in a group, and the amount of killing your group can do will far outweigh that.

4-7

Sprint over to the small camp of Huldrings and White Wolves that is close to the Spiders camp; these mobs will also die with one shot of your bow most of the time.

At level 7, most of these are light blue or green and are too easy. Put yourself into traveling stance and head back to your hamlet. Buy a Greater Concoction Potion from the alchemist, get a recall from the sage, and then talk to the rogue or fighter trainer and raise your Bow skill until you're out of cash. There is no need to purchase armor or a better bow just yet.

7-10 (13)

Huldrings Vald is the best place to level up between 7 and 10. Most people find a large camp in the middle of the zone with a bunch of mobs, but if you stray more to the left, you will find the next-best camp, with Wulfkin mobs. This will suffice.

As most people know, when you reach level 10 you can not gain levels until you promote to your prestige class; however, few people know that you may continue to gain experience worth three more levels, accumulating negative experience to around -111500 before being capped and gaining only 1 experience per kill. This is efficient because you will continue to get good experience from mobs that would otherwise degrade if you continued to actually gain levels.

When you stop gaining experience, recall to your safehold and repledge to Aeldereth and promote to Huntress southeast of the bind point (by the Mages). Don't train yet; repledge to Sea Dog's Rest and kill three Turtles to get to level 13 first. Training is cheaper this way. Teleport back to Aeldereth and continue to train up Bow; buy yourself the best bow within your skill range, and if you have enough, get a recall scroll or bundle of recall scrolls.

13-20

Grimstaark Peaks is the next zone to use. Teleport to All-Father's Rest and travel northwest to the Orc village.
Work in Progress