Monk and Shaman Duo Leveling Guide

Overview

This guide includes a basic overview of leveling/gearing up for a monk/shaman duo. It will include places to level, places to farm, and what gear to obtain. The guide assumes that you are completely new to SoD or do not have the means to twink or PL your character.

A monk is a very good tank in SoD in comparison to their live counterpart. They can take damage fairly well with their avoidance AC bonus, dish out damage very well (duel wield/triple attack), and keep aggro well despite not having the taunt ability in their arsenal. A shaman only compliments these abilities through healing, buffing, haste, and slow, allowing the duo to take down mobs many other duos would have problems with.

Race

Monk are limited to the races of human and iksar. You might see heated discussions in /ooc in SoD at some point about which race is better but ultimately it does not matter. Racial benefits are very minor and don't play a major roll at higher levels. That being said, here is the breakdown of both races.

The Monk class receives 20 starting points to distribute in the various stats. The stats that the game deems important to the class are Strength, Stamina, Agility, and Dexterity.

Race	STR	STA	AGI	DEX	WIS	INT	CHA	Vision	Bonus Skills	Effects/Resist Modifier	Exp Modifier	Skills Modifier	Other
Human	80	80	85	85	75	75	75	Blind as a bat!	none	none	+5.0% Experience Rate	+10% Skill Learning Rate	none
Iksar	75	75	100	95	80	75	55	Infravision	Forage (50)	+20% Fear Resistance	-2.5% Experience Rate	-10% Skill Learning Rate	Natural Armor, Regeneration

As you can see, iksars start with slightly more desirable statistics and other innate benefits compared to a human. Humans, however, will level faster. If you factor in all the experience from levels 1-65 + AA's than that +7.5% experience gain over iksars might be appealing. Overall, your choice. Not a make or break game decision.

If you choose Human, place 10 points in AGI and 10 points in DEX.

If you choose Iksar, place 5 points in STR, 10 points in STA, and 5 points in DEX.

Shaman have more selections in terms of race than monks do. Here is a breakdown of race selection:

The Shaman class receives 30 starting points to distribute in the various stats. The stats that the game deems important to the class are Stamina, Wisdom, and Charisma.

Race	STR	STA	AGI	DEX	WIS	INT	CHA	Vision	Bonus Skills	Effects/Resist Modifier	Exp Modifier	Skills Modifier	Other
Barbarian	103	100	82	70	80	60	60	Blind as a bat!	Slam	-25% Duration to Fear, -25% Duration to Stun	none	none	none
Froglok	70	85	100	100	85	75	55	Ultravision	Swimming (100)	+10 Poison Resistance, +5 Magic Resistance	none	+10% Skill Learning Rate	none
Iksar	70	75	90	85	90	75	60	Infravision	Forage (50)	+20% Fear Resistance	-2.5% Experience Rate	-10% Skill Learning Rate	Natural Armor, Regeneration
Ogre	130	127	70	70	77	60	42	Infravision	Slam	-25% Duration to Fear, -25% Duration to Stun	none	none	Consumes Food Faster
Troll	108	114	83	75	70	52	45	Infravision	Slam	-25% Duration to Fear, -25% Duration to Stun	none	-10% Skill Learning Rate	Regeneration
Vah	90	80	90	70	80	65	70	Infravision	Safe Fall (50), Sneak (50)	none	none	none	Consumes Food Faster, Heals Unaffected by Night Penalty, Small Boost to Attack at Night

The unfortunate part about the shaman race choices is that most of the races have a low starting charisma. However, based on starting statistics and the racial benefit of not being affected by night penalty for heals, Vah is the most logical decision for a shaman character.

No matter your race, place 20-25 points in Charisma and the rest in Wisdom.

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Leveling Guide

Wherever your starting city is I suggest you find your way to Newport as no other newbie area compares to what this city has to offer.

1-4

Kill everything outside the gates of Northern Newport. Loot everything as well. You can sell loot just inside the gates of Newport. Save all your money until you can afford to fill your shaman with backpacks as this will allow you to fill up on more loot before having to sell again.

4-9

Don't forget to get your level 1 and 5 spells from a Shaman guild in Oggok, Grobb, or Sadri Malath. Also don't forget to train your monk skills at the monk guide in Newport or Grobb. Head into the Newport Sewers behind the vine covered wall to the right of the Northern Newport gates. Jump into the pool there and swim down. When you zone keep swimming down and then forward and up. In this zone kill rats, beatles, and ratman and gather 20 Rat Tails, Sewer Ratman Hood, and Giant Beetle Pincers per character. The mobs that drop these might turn green before you collect all of these items but it's worth it for the experience from the turn-ins as well as the cash from loot. Beware of Ratstink, a bloated rat, and Rathide as these named mob might pose trouble for your duo until level 9+.

9-11

Head out into centaur hills and head over to Blackburrow. The top level of this zone is good from levels 9-11. Kill and loot everything. By level 10 you should have saved enough for backpacks and start buying leather armor for your monk. The AC makes a big difference at lower levels.

11-14

Take the Mansion of Portals to Erudin and head out into Mistwoods. Swim over to Shrouded Island and kill the trash at the entrance of the zone. Don't venture past the green bush at the entrance as the mobs get a lot harder around the mansion. The skeletons, zombies, and beatles here drop gems, coin, and carapaces that sell very well to merchants. Loot, loot, loot.

14-21

Head over to the Warrens through the Valley of Erimal off Mistwoods. With level 14 spells you shouldn't have a hard time killing the entrance mobs and the area to the right after zoning in or to the tamed animal in the area to the left. Don't cross the river there until the late teens as mobs get harder on that side. Loot everything to sell. There is a merchant through the doors before the open green area in the Valley of Erimal. Towards your late teens and early twenties you can do the throne room either solo or with a group. If you don't like this area you can also head back to blackburrow and either solo or group. I found the Warrens to be the most 2-box friendly though. If you're really brave (or geared) you can go to Fearstone Keep but that place is very difficult.

21-25

Don't forget to get your shaman spells and monk skills at the appropriate level. Refer to the Monk and Shaman pages for this information. Head back to Shrouded Island and kill mobs around the outside of the mansion and inside if you can handle two mobs at once. A group as always makes things easier and the experience gain is faster. Look for Yatek (PH is Amtek) at the gazebo to the right of the mansion front entrance andThe Yardkeeper which roams the outside of the mansion. These mobs drop items that sell for up to 6 plat at a merchant. You kill these mobs along with the mobs outside the mansion and loot everything.