Well, I finally reached elven knight. I bought myself some D-grade armor and a D-grade shield (thanks Shizzie), but I ended up almost totally broke. For now I will use the shadow weapons, but I don't think those will last me to level 40. Thus, what should I do to make enough money to buy a good D-wep by the time those shadow weapons run out? Also, what should I do about soul shots? It seems that whenever I spend money on using them I just break even.

All help is appreciated,

Thanks

Are you actively using the Manor System ?

Well, I really just started to use it. Does seem to help though in terms of cash. Also, I heard I should sign up dusk or dawn and go into some of the tomes and necropolis. Is that a good idea?

Definately. I have no idea how you leveled up without catas. It will be a bit harder now down there because at D grade the mobs there are tougher and you'll need to have top of the line equipment, but its fine to go to lower level ones at 40. Makes great spot for grinding out those seeds from the Manor. If you have any specific questions about the Manor, go ahead and ask and I'll try and help you out, but I am way too lazy to write up a guide :P There are a few good ones on the L2 forums, though, so you should check them out.
A few tips I can give you though, is at your level one of those fruits can be sold for animal bone. Those sell a lot, and you can make awesome profit with them. Just make sure you are at the Manor ready with your seeds/fruits at the moment the cycle changes, because there is always a lot of competition for the Manor. You seriously have to get your watch out, adjust it to be perfectly synchronized with an internet clock, and click on "buy" or "sell" like 1 second before it rolls over, or the bots will beat you to it.

As for the catas, you should definitely go in there. Over a week of farming down there you can make a nice amount of sealstones which you can then convert with the merchant of mammon for enchant scrolls, or blessed scrolls, or a few other items and those can sell for a lot too. To purchase these items you will need ancient adena that you get from handing in the seal stones, as well as "blank scrolls" which you get by doing the quest given by the gatekeeper ziggurat at the entrance to every cata. Just make sure you choose the right seal when you sign up. Seal of Avarice (I think) for the merchant and Seal of Gnosis for the blacksmith.
The blacksmith lets you exchange weapons that have the same crystal count (so for example a mithril dagger for a light crossbow or elven longsword, etc) or you can actually upgrade your own weapon to something better by paying a bunch of ancient adena (which you get from handing in seal stones at the priest of dawn). So you have to decide each week when you sign up if you want to get the scrolls, or to be able to upgrade your weapon with the blacksmith.

And speaking of Dawn, I am not sure how it is on your server, but usually it is Dawn that always wins, because really the only benefit to having Dusk win is that it weakens defenses of castles, so most of the time everyone signs up for Dawn and it always wins.

you cant enter catas/necros before having completed your frist class transfer. so he probably got into d-grade in the fresh air ;)

also about the seven sign competition. i never noticed a difference if you would choose Avarice or Gnosis. It seems to me that the winning side just needs to have enough player supporting one seal to get the effect for all. at least i never had a difficulty with getting something of the blacksmith/merchant, but i never checked if i could have gotten an ancient adena discount if i would have choosen the "correct" seal.

dusk actualy has a hair up there ass on bartz latley , they won past 3 times, usualy a over night sweeping victory ><, its made it hard to chose a side early. O and i havent been on past few days cuz my irl friends in the game are pissing me off, but i might log in and help u get some lvls.

D grade... right... I thought of C grade for some reason, sorry =(

but i never checked if i could have gotten an ancient adena discount if i would have choosen the "correct" seal.

Seal of Gnosis lets you deal with the blacksmith.
Seal of Avarice lets you deal with the merchant.
There are no discounts or anything like that.

Is paying the priestess of dawn ancient adena the only way to get to the necropolises? Also, which one should I enter at level 20?

No, you just run to them normally. Most of them are located next to places where the GK can port you to, too. At 20 NoS is the best place for you (Necropolis of Sacrifice. Located in Gludin, next to the Forgotten Temple and that lizardman place). Even better if you can find somebody there to party with you if your equipment isn't that great.

ill probably be logging in today , ill see if ii cant get u into a necropolis/cata

guitar:

Seal of Gnosis lets you deal with the blacksmith.
Seal of Avarice lets you deal with the merchant.
There are no discounts or anything like that.

yes, but its not so important what seal your character chooses. important is only that the are on the winning side (to get in the necros/catas) and that your side got enough people voting for a seal. technically one side can have all three seals active at the same time. and at least on Teon i have never experienced a period where the blacksmith and merchant where not active at the same time.

Thanks a bunch for the help guys. My play schedule will probably be extremely sporadic as the school year comes to an end. Summer vacation ftw:)

Also, should I be spamming SS right now?

try not to spam SS. sometimes your group will want you to do it, but try to keep the spamming low if you solo or only duo/trio. one reason for not spamming is adena conservation, the other is that you can stay out to hunt longer if you dont need to restock every hour or so.

Well, I'm at lvl 24 now. I have been using the manor system and have a few hundred metallic fibers. I heard they go for 10k each from a random person in giran. Is that true? If so... it just seems way too easy to make money now.

cooljimmy:
If so... it just seems way too easy to make money now.

dont worry, you will be out of money in no time :)

Selling things has become a pain, especially figuring out prices:( Is there any "easy" way to know the average prices of something? Everything seems to fluctuate too much. Animal bones, however, almost always seem to go for around 1k. Thanks again for the tips.

i prefer to check prices on l2wh. or take a peak at what prices the other players around me sell their stuff for.

Here's a simple rule of thumb:
If a dorf has a buy shop for a mat and it is X adena, then you can safely set up a sell shop for the same mat for at least 2X adena.
And make sure you check this in Giran, and thoroughly (several shops).