level 16 dark elf fighter (going to be blade dancer)
on teon, i dont have a clan and i currently play solo cause i dont have the time to commit myself to group hunts
currently have a broadsword and doom dagger. small shield, short leather gloves, leather pants, crude leather shoes, squire shirt, cloth cap, 2*appentice earings, 2*magic rings and a necklace of magic.
all those were drops so i have managed to save up around 120k

have heard a few people mention that i should get a wolf. is this worth it and if so how do i go about it?

so who has suggestions on where i should be heading towards on the map for grinding/questing etc. (once i finish off the quests i have atm but never did cause i was too busy grinding away)

i was never a fan of the pets, but if you play a lot solo, a wolf can be a nice extra DD for you to kill faster and easier.

on lvl 16 i would stay in DE starter area. the swamp is a pretty good hunting ground and should bring you to lvl 20 fast.

how do i go about getting a pet?
also what equipment should i be using? i just got bone gaitors. i havnt used any of the adventurers guides etc.

i feel so lost and like a clueless noob just stumbeling around in the dark

your stumbling around in the dark cuz your a dark elf ^^, all jokes aside, i strongly suggest you use the noob guides in the towns, they will provide you with free equipment, buffs,and a cubic.Also bone set is not bad, i belive the full set gives a bonus,but ether way, your gear isent much of a concern untill 20+ when you do your 1st class exchange.As far as getting a pet, theres a quest to get 1,but i forget what its called, the pet manager most likly gives it out in town. I personaly wouldent get a pet, even though they can now evolve at higher lvls, i see them to be more of a distraction, and unless used in the most ideal situations, i feel they actualy slow you down sense they effect your amount of xp per kill, and they require food and equipment.Lastly, dont forget that the map now has an option to list all hunting grounds by there lvl, so you can use that to refference your later searches for hunting spots,and also, check out all available quests in your starting area, and the next town you reach (gludio), as it helps alot when starting out to locate the repeatable money quests (kill,loot,repeat). Good luck and have fun.

I don't have a pet, but I heard that they pay off in the long run. However, because it is your first character, I would advise against it. You have to buy food for the pet, and armor and weapons for the pet can get expensive too. Personally, I would advise you to level with the manor system. Depending what server you play on, it can be extremely profitable. Playing on Bartz, I was able to make over 20mil going from lvl20-40 using the manor system. Good luck with the game.

besides taking up space/weight in my pack, is there any use for the crystals that play music that we get as a quest reward?
also is there a storage system available to us for items so our packs dont get full of uselsss crap and require the creation of a secondary char to store it all?

how do we use the soul shots? they are just building up and sitting in my pack so i might as well use them

The music crystals are just for fun, you can throw them away or store them in your warehouse from the NPCs in town.

As for your second question, I just answered it :P Look on the town map for the Warehouse, run in, talk to the warehouse manager and deposit your un-needed stuff in there. It's free to withdraw stuff, but there's a 100 adena fee per item to deposit them (this is really nothing though).

Soulshots are one of the most useful items in the game, to use them, drag them onto a spare skill bar slot then right click them, the icon will start shining and your chat window will say something along the lines of "the use of Soulshot will now be automated".

Basically they double your attack power for every hit so you'll find yourself killing a hell of a lot faster with them. Just remember when you get a D grade sword, you'll need to move on to D grade soul shots which can only be bought from other players in towns.

Oh and the wolf pet quest is located in Gludin village, the pet manager there gives you the quest. The wolf food isn't too expensive, but make sure you always have a scroll of resurrection on you just in case, you don't want your pet to die and be unable to revive it.

mrcheese:
but there's a 100 adena fee per item to deposit them (this is really nothing though)

Huh? Wasn't it 10?

yeah, 10. IT'S BEEN A WHILE, GIMME A BREAK!

dyes/tattoo's, are they worth the effort/time/adena?

almost lvl 21 palus knight

eldritch dagger/blood saber
small shield
short leather gloves
leather stockings (extra mp)/bone gaiters
leather shoes
squires shirt
cloth cap

320k adena

what exactly is the manor system?

finally got all the questions right and got a pet but which type of food does my wolf eat? (yes i know it a dumb question)

whats the difference betweeen no grade ss and no grade ss for beginners??

i have never used the newbie guides, travel tokens, shadow item coupons etc. all i have is gained through drops or quests.

idea's on where i should be heading? tips/help on making things easier for me?

how do we open treasure chests? i found 2 just a while ago (one white and one yellow) but when i clicked on the white one it just blew up

i'm still not in a clan and playing solo which i dont mind but i have to admit it is starting to get a little boring at times playing alone and not talking with others.

seems that the more i play the more questions i have no matter how many are answered =/

do not take any tatoos before you hit lvl 40, most people prefer to even wait until lvl 52 to get tatoos. one reason is to first experience your character/class how it was designed by NcSoft and to be able to find out how YOU like to play it. second point is that all tattos applied before lvl 40 will be removed from your character once you finish your second class change quests, so its wasted money.

your wolf does need "wolf food" which you can buy from the pet managers.

the effect of beginner and the other no grade ss is the same, only differece is that you get the beginner ss for free and that you can not sell or trade them to other characters. normal no grade ss are bought from npc or other players.

use the newbie guides to get buffs from them, they will make your lvling much easier. shadow items will give you temporary weapons that you can use to hunt, so you dont need to spend your hard earned adena on a weapon that you will only be using for a short time, so its actually a good thing. travel tokens let you teleport between newbie towns which can be quite nice for your first class change quest, but i also never used them myself.

at your lvl i would be going to abandoned camp. there you should be able to lvl to around 26 or so. for abandoned camp there is also a money quest in Gludio Village. You will need to kill 100 mobs to get a small money reward. if you find it to crowded there, the lizzard camp in the south is also a nice place to hunt. after you hit lvl 26 you can move on to orc barracks until around 30-32. after this time the hunting areas around Dion should be your target.

to open treasure chests you need to either get keys that are dropped by mobs or if you have a dagger-character you can buy "key of thiefs" in the grocery shops. those classes do get a skill that lets them open chests as well. to open a chest with a key, you need to target the chest and then right klick the key in your inventory. be aware, that some of the chests are disguised mobs that will attack you when you try to open the chest.

also never be afraid to ask questions. only stupid people dont ask if they are unsure about something ;)

Another great place is the necropolis for levels 20-30. In fact, I think I soloed there from 21-32 on my elven knight. Not only is the exp great, but you get seal stones that you can exchange for ancient adena too, which you can then sell.

is it called great wolf food? (think that what i saw for sale by the pet guy)
how much food will i need to invest in per sitting... say per 2hr sessions?
should i buy equipment for the wolf?
if the wolf is carrying somthing and i log out or unsummon it, will it still have it's equipment/items when i call upon it again?

might have to look into and consider using the newbie guide for the shadow weapons though i dont want to for some reason.

hmm maybe i can handle abandoned camp with my wolf, thought the monsters there were white/yellow for me atm.

are treasure chests worth the time/money opening?
can a palus knight get that key of thieves from grocery stores?

gurag, is jimmy right? (no offense jimmy but i just like second opinions/confirmations)

should i buy some better equipment or just keep saving the adena for later?

i think it should be called only "wolf food", great wolfs are usualy higher lvl pets. about the appetit of your little bugger, i have no idea. but there was a site around l2pets.com (?) where your questions about all pets in L2 are probably answered more knowledgable. but as a general note, yes if you get a wolf you should buy equipment for him. its the same as with your own character. you wouldnt go out hunting without an armor and a weapon now would you. so why should your wolf fight without these benefits.

if your pet is carriying items while being unsommoned, they will be put back into your inventory, but i never experimented what would happens if your pet carrys more items than you have open inventory slots for.

the advantage of shadow weapons is that they do the same damage as a "real" weapon, but you get them for free. so its in general a good idea to start with them and then save up for the weapon you realy want to have for real. think of them as a loan, so that you can start out easier.

white mobs are of your lvl range and should be killable at a decent rate, so thats not bad at all. advantage of abandoned camp is that you will get herb/pot drops there, so you should be able to lvl without stopping.

if you get a key dropped, open the treasure chests. normally you will get a small amount of adena and/or some mats. in higher lvls the chests have the chance to drop some nice enchant scrolls that can be sold for good money. you can BUY the thief keys, but to my knowledge you can NOT use them. only dagger characters get the skill necessary to pick locks with them.

in general jimmy is right about the catas/necros. the reason why i dont suggest it for someone that starts out is that the mobs in there have 4 times the normal hp, so you will need quite some time to kill them or have to use ss all the time. this means you will have to spend money for ss that you should be able to save when you lvl outside of necros/catas. also inside you wont get herbs/pots, so you will have more downtime. advantage might be that you could get into a group a bit more easily in these places. the seal stones you get can be sold to other players for extra money so you might break even again. i personaly never hit necros/catas befor reaching lvl 33, so i wouldnt suggest it to other players as well.

in your position, i would save the adena for later and use the shadow weapons for lvling until all your coupons are used up.

i havnt bought any equipment for my char as yet so i guess using the shadow weapons would be a good idea, i could use the adena on my pets equipment instead along with food etc.

just blew all but about 100k of my adena on mithril canine and ring mail... hope this speeds up the leveling and pays for itself in the long run.

is it just me or is it more expensive to buy the compressed bags of ss compared to buying 1k ss? O_o

why oh why didnt i get a shadow weapon etc before now!?! they much better than what i been using.
wish i knew that "traveller" was just jewelry before i wasted a coupon though :(
are the shadow weapons meant to say d grade etc on them?

guess it time to go out and try this stuff out and make up for the past few days of not being able to play thanks to work........i hate retail managment for large companies some times :(

btw, what is pm ingame? is it whisper?

Ditch your pet. Not worth it if this is your first toon.

Compressed bags are more expensive because they are compressed... they weigh less, allowing you to carry more.

1-20 No grade. 20-40 D grade. 40-52 C grade 52-61 B grade. 61-76 A grade. 76+ S grade. And S-80 is, well, lvl 80.

To whisper, type " and then name.
"guitar Hi!
"mrcheese You smell!

"Guitar I EAT YOUR BABIES