Garfo's Solo Shaman Epic Guide

Congratulations Shaman, you have grown wise and powerful. Now it is time to begin obtaining your Spear of Fate. This guide is designed to help you accomplish the majority of your Epic Quest naturally as you level. Please refer to the Shaman Epic Quest pageon the wiki as you read through this guide!

BEFORE YOU START:

- You'll begin your journey at Level 34. Why 34? Two reasons: 1) you're just high enough level to solo these steps with relative safety, and 2) you're the perfect level to group at the Mistmoore Castle Entrance (CE) camp. This becomes important soon.

STEP 1:

- Complete the Spear of Fate questline up to Part 5, The Test of Might. (See Shaman Epic Quest wiki page). This is all very straightforward. As you complete the quest, you'll notice your faction with "Truespirit" increasing. This is good; this is the key to your epic questline.

STEP 2:

- Now we're on the Test of Might. This entails slaying Black Dire, a powerful wolf in Mistmoore. In order to spawn Black Dire, we need to first slay "An Advisor" in Mistmoore Castle. The tricky thing is, the Advisor only spawns every four hours. But no need for poopsocking! You're the perfect level to be grouping at the Mistmoore CE camp. So join up with a group and make sure to ask the puller to keep an eye out for the Advisor. If the Advisor is up, ask the puller not to touch it! If you're unable to find a group, you can also ask about the Advisor's spawn status in /ooc. Don't worry if it takes a long time for the Advisor to spawn; you're here to level up anyway, remember? I guarantee by the time you hit level 39, which is when I recommend leaving Mistmoore, you will see the Advisor at least once.

- Once the Advisor is up, you'll need to recruit some assistance. You can either rally your guildmates (if you have them) or turn to the kindness of strangers. I wasn't in a guild when I was on this step of my epic, so I posted in the forums asking for help. I got several very kind responses but ultimately it was too challenging to coordinate schedules. What ended up working best was doing a /who all search for high level folks (58-60) in EC and Gfay. I then asked VERY POLITELY for aid, explaining that I was an unguilded shaman and that the Advisor was up, and would they mind zipping over for assistance with Black Dire? Within just a few minutes I had help from a level 60 ranger, and I also did a quick /ooc in Mistmoore and got someone to log onto their 60 cleric main character who happened to be camped in the zone. The ranger and cleric handled Black Dire easily! I offered to pay the Ranger back for his Dial-A-Port costs, but he refused. NOTE: make sure to kill the four wolves around the Black Dire spawn area BEFORE you kill the Advisor. This will make the Black Dire encounter much more manageable.

- I cannot stress this enough: ask politely, nobody is obliged to help you! Now that I am higher level, I absolutely love helping out newer players who are genuinely trying to make their way in Norrath... politeness, kindness, enthusiasm, and roleplaying go a long way!

- If you really aren't able to get any help for Black Dire, you can repeat the Envy/Woe/Marr's Promise step of the quest 3-4 more times to bump your faction high enough to proceed to the next step and obtain the empty booklet from the Spirit Sentinel for the City of Mist Reports. But I recommend really trying for Black Dire; the clicky SoW boots you'll receive are worth it!

STEP 3:

- Congratulations on coming this far, Shaman! You have done well. If you haven't hit level 39 yet, continue hunting (in Mistmoore or elsewhere) until you have.

STEP 4:

- This step entails gathering reports from City of Mist and turning them in to a Spirit Sentinel in the nearby Emerald Jungle (Part 6 - City of Mist Reports on the Shaman Epic Quest wiki page). Most people will head straight to CoM at level 39 or 40; I recommend waiting for a few more levels. At 39 or 40 you'll be the lowest level in your CoM group and the experience will be slow. Instead, try duoing Gnomes in Sol A (make friends with a Monk), soloing Tundra Yetis in DL, or doing the Sarnak Berzerker quest in OT. The experience will move much quicker! At level 44, you are of the proper level to start grouping in CoM without truly gimping your experience gains. This is the "grind-y" part of your epic... but not to worry, it'll fly by (and you're here anyway for exp grouping, remember?)

- Head to the Spirit Sentinel in EJ and get the 6-slot booklet container (end of step 5 on Shaman Epic Quest wiki page). Then go to CoM and join a group! The various report pages that you need will drop every few minutes, and before you know it you'll have filled up your first booklet. After you've filled up your first booklet, hit "Combine" and then gather the pages again, storing them in a backpack. Once you have a combined booklet and another set of 6 reports, make a quick run out to the Spirit Sentinel in EJ. Hand in your combined booklet, and then say the prompt line ("I will find out how it all began.") to get a new booklet. Quickly fill up your new booklet, hit combine, and turn it in. Then say the prompt line to get another empty booklet, head back into Com, and repeat!

- NOTE: The "student's log" only drops off A Spectral Courier, which hangs out near the stables camp. If you're not in a stables group, don't be shy about asking in /ooc -- pages rot all the time in CoM!

- It will take you anywhere from 7-8 turn-ins to hit max faction (you'll see a notification along the lines of "Your standing with Truespirit faction could not possibly get any better"). Don't stress about this; I guarantee that by the time you hit level 46, you'll have looted more than enough pages to hit max faction. YOU HAVE NOT COMPLETED THIS STEP UNTIL YOUR FACTION IS MAXED OUT!!!! If you proceed with the final parts of the quest before maxing out your faction, the turn-ins will fail.

STEP 5:

- Now that you've maxed out your Truespirit faction, all that remains is looting a Child's Tear in the Plane of Fear and doing the final turn-in and battle with Lord Rak`Ashiir in CoM. This is much easier said than done. There are two ways to complete this step: 1) save up ~50 to 75k pp to pay for the Child's Tear loot rights, or 2) join a guild, raid the Plane of Fear, and earn your Tear yourself! This last step is up to you, Shaman.