INTRODUCTION: - Just What Exactly Is A BN Anyway? First though, let me explain a little history about myself, and why I decided to write this guide. As I said, my name is Scad, and I have been playing BN for some years now, most of that time as a member of the Black Shadow Clan. I have reached level 45, as well as legend on two other BN's (For a total of one legend Mage, Cleric, and Thief). When I first started bn, I was pretty clueless, however I came accross a very valuable resource called the BN Survival Guide by Vecna (Also availible on this website), as well as many friends (Many thanks to Elizalde, without whom I would never have made it to level 10 even) who helped me along the way. However, I was recently re-reading the Survival Guide (written over 4 years ago I believe) and realized that it was perhaps becomming somewhat out of date, and further could be expanded on in many places. So I have decided to update, and expand it. Because it remains a valuable resource, I will often be quoting from it throughout this guide, and much of the entire guide is based on the original. The text in red is from Vecna, the rest is my own advice. Before we go any further let me say one thing, "Khuzur." Do you know where that is? Yes, or kinda? Then stick around you might learn something useful. What?! You can't find your way to him? Good chances are you don't know where the Troll Warrens are, or New Orc Caves (NOC), or even DT (Dark Tower). Then I suggest playing an easier race and learn some more of Arda. I'd love for you all to play BN's, but believe me you'll have a better time if you know where you are somewhat when traveling in the east and south. Plus it helps to know where your running when *a Noble Elf* is after you. I don't think I could have really put it any better, though I will add that if you are really commited to the race, you can learn to be a successful BN even with very little area knowledge. In fact, I believe its one of the best ways to learn areas of the game, since your going to be landing all over the place when your pray. It is, however, not a race for the faint of heart. If you don't feel like dying ALOT, then go play something else. Further, it wouldn't be right to let you continue without the following fair warning: Black Numenoreans are by far the weakest race in the game. We have the worst stats, we have no warrior guild master, we can't make a focus, our guild masters wander around most of arda and when you finally do find them, they only teach about half the skills and spells pukes can learn, and many of the spells they do teach they give a much lower expertise than pukes can achieve. Furthermore we suffer from depression upon death or backfiring a spell, which lowers your maximum mana, your mana regeneration and your WIL. And if that wasnt enough, we are ineffective against the lightning bolt and call lightning spells, making us take extra damage. We also have no safe town anywhere on arda, the orkish caves and most of the troll warrens is aggressive to us. However, BNs are alot of fun to play. So if you want to give it a try, then read on. Before we talk about base stats let me introduce you to your selected race. You will be hunted, killed, and overkilled constantly. You will suffer from depression, an ailment caused by either dying, (mobkilled, playerkilled, or falling into a death trap) or backfiring your spells. Your willpower and your Max mana will be reduced during depression. You will have no hometown (orcs have New Orc Caves, and Trolls have Warrens - both places are aggressive to you). You will have no shops. Your stats will be worse than the free races. You will not have a focused staff. Your skills will be lower percentages. Your spells will cause less damage or effectiveness. Your spells will be slower than other races. But you must be cunning. You must be evil. You must be cruel. You must have the element of surprise. Your true power will be in your ability to trick your enemies. And most of all you must be ready for anything. Still interested? Good. Lets continue. CLASSES: As I said earlier, BNs have no warrior guild master, which leaves us with 3 viable classes: Mage Cleric and Scout. Mage is the most popular by far, for good reason. It is easily to most powerful (*cough* least underpowered *cough*) BN class. Bn clerics suffer from a very limited array of spells, while scouts suffer greatly from not having access to a warrior guild. In order to help you choose your class, I will provide a brief description of the class, followed by my opinion about how it works out for a BN, and how to make an effective BN of that class, including stats and a suggested list of spells and skills. At the end of each class discussion, I have included verbatim Vecna's opinions on the class, as they sometimes give a different style than my own advice. However, for his stat recomendations I found he sometimes recomended too much "You need alot of everything" without explaining which stats might be better to skimp on a bit. I have tried to provide a bit more reasonable and realistic recomendations when discussing stats. Note: This entire guide is my own opinion, and is my advice for how to make a well rounded character of any class, some people are going to disagree and think there are better ways to go about it - well they can write their own guide if they want. Until they do however, I believe that by following this guide you will end up with a playable and powerful BN. If you have something you want to add, post it on the BSC board and if it seems like reasonable advice I'll add it. Thats www.blackshadowclan.mine.nu for the un-enlightened. Mages: Mages are the most powerful BN class all around, as they make viable solo hunters as well as useful members of a group. They have the highest sustained damage output of the 3 classes, as well as a wide variety of spells and the best tracking. If you do choose mage as your primary class, you will also certainly want to take some cleric spells, and a minimal amount of thief skills in addition to your mage spells. Mage Stats: Your primary attributes will be INT and WIS, though all the rest of the stats are important for a mage as well. I won't tell you what the "best" stats are, since there is no good answer to that question, it depends on how you want to play your mage - however I will tell you what I think works well, and explain why and what each stat does so you can make a good choice. First off, Intelligence. INT increases your maximum mana, and makes your mage and cleric spells more effective. It also helps with certain skills such as tracking and firstaid. As a mage bn, I highly recommend that you max this stat (18), or at the very least 17. Wisdom is similar to intelligence, it increases your maximum mana and makes your cleric and mage spells more effective(Note, wis influences cleric spells more, int influences mage more). Again, I recommend you get this stat max or very close, 17 or 16. Without maximum mentals you will have a very hard time casting some of the more difficult mage spells, and you will run out of mana more quickly. Wilpower determines how resistant you are to spells, your mana regeneration rate, how effective your Mental type spells (Charm, sleep, blind etc) are, your ability in wilderness skill, and your ability to cast portal successfully, and it helps you to not fail flees. I consider this a very important stat, however unfortunately BNs start with a very bad malus to wil, which is further worsened when affected by depression. Because of this, achieving a high wil is difficult and costly in stat points. I recomend no less than 12 in wil, more if you can possibly spare the points for it. Perception increases the amount of damage many mage spells do, as well as increasing your ability to notice sneaking mobs and players, and increasing your tracking ability. As a mage I consider it an important stat, but not as much so as Int and Wis, and slightly less important than wil. Many mages however consider it the more important than wil. When you take wilpower, your getting a boost to your overall spell resistance and mana regeneration, which is VERY important as a BN - and you can flee more effectively. The boost to mental spells and wilderness is just icing on the cake. Compare that to perceptions boost to spelldamage and tracking (your tracking is going to be really good as a mage regardless if you have high per) and frankly I consider wil more important. Basically for survival and/or portaller go for wil, but if you want to be a flat out damage machine take per. Constitution basically affects your maximum hps and moves, though to a fairly small degree for BNs (Your hps and con as bn is more to do with racial and class modifiers, so its never gonna be real good) 10-12 seems to be about average, some take as high as 14 but personally I think the points are better spent on wil or per. Strength should not be totally neglected, as it determines how much weight you can carry without penalty. With 8 strength your going to have a really hard time moving around on foot even with just basic mage gear, and if you are carrying any extra items or wearing heavier armour (ringmail, metal, fine chain) your going to be permanantly exhausted on foot. If you have 13 strength you can wield the engraved broadsword (Arguably the best weapon for a bn), though remember its fairly easy to get +2 strength spell, so 11 is all you need really for that sword. Personally I find 11 strength perfect for mage, however if you dont want to take the strength spell then you should probably either carry a strength ring or get slightly higher base strength. Its POSSIBLE to play a mage with 8 strength, though it ussually means your limited to never dismounting, and mostly portalling around, but admittedly low strength combined with sacrifice to another secondary stat can result in some truly awesome firepower and portalling ability. Dexterity is in my opinion the least important stat for a mage, it basically affects your ability to flee, and your defense, however the boost to defense is negligible as a BN mage, and wil is roughly equally useful in boosting your fleeing abilities. However, for the cost of boosting this stat 2-3 points its probably worth it to get at least 10. Note however, some BNs swear by high dex, and refuse to play with out atleast 14-16, so its up to you but I dont recommend getting it too high. Mage Spells/Skills: The following are listed in rough order of importance/usefulness (in my opinion). I Consider The Following To Be Essential Spells For A Mage: Armour (Max) Lightning Bolt (Max) Store (Max) Earthquake (Max) Breath of Briskness (Max) Cure serious (Max) Fireball (Max) Shield (Max) Remove Poison (3 pracs is enough) Cure Crit (4 pracs) Ride (10 pracs) Climb (3 pracs) Swim (5 pracs) Pick (1 prac MINIMUM, more if you can spare it) Block Door (5 pracs minimum, more if you want a slightly stronger block) I Consider The Following To Be Recomended For Any Mage, Though Not Essential: Track (105% +) Burning Hands OR Shocking Grasp (Not max, but enough it costs the minimum mana) Create Food (3 pracs) Magic Missile (2-3 pracs) Locate Life (6ish pracs) Teleport (5ish pracs if you just want to port around Tharbad, more for porting accross Arda.) Strength (5-8 pracs for +2 ussually) Wilderness(5 pracs) Dodge (1 prac, no more) Create Water (2 pracs) I Consider The Following To Be Good For Any Mage, Though Not Essential: Charm (Max) Command (5-10 pracs, ONLY if you have charm) Create Light (2 pracs, really only useful as lowbie) Portal (Max) Watch Room (Especially good for portaller, 5 pracs) Shroud (2 pracs) Sense Life (1 prac) Detect magic (1 prac for pukemage-radar, more to detect watch room and portal destinations) I Consider The Following To Be Useful Under Certain Circumstances, But Not As Universally Useful As The Above: Darkness (5ish pracs) Sleep (max) Leadership Enchant (10 pracs for max-enchant ussually) Scry Search (1 prac) I Consider The Following To Be Viable Under A Limited Set Of Circumstances, I DO NOT Recomend Them For The Newbie BN, As They Require Higher Levels To Be Effective: Sanctuary (Max) Break Door (Max) Silence (Max) Magic Blast (Max) I Consider The Following To Be Effectively Useless For A BN Mage: Blindness Energy Drain Harm Poison Remove Curse Summon Smother Backstab Escape Hide Missile Sneak Steal Chill Touch Detect Invisibility Dispel Magic Identify Locate Night Vision Ventriloquate Awareness Bandage (EXCEPTION: You NEED this skill 3-5 pracs UNTIL you get cure critical, then decay it) Obviously you cannot practice every single of the useful spells, you are going to have to pick and choose, and to a certain degree it will be based on your stats. If you have abysmal wil, you aren't going to want to use Sleep for instance, and may prefer to take Strength + Darkness etc. Vecna's Take On BN Mage: Your ability to slay your enemies will come from three base stats mainly. Intelligence (INT), Wisdom (WIS), and Perception (PER). INT and WIS are a given, both help with casting your spells with speed and skill. Low INT or WIS will make it tough to not backfire as a BN. Why? Because a LOT of our spells aren't practiced as high our free race enemies. For example look at the spell Enchant. As an Elf caster you could put as many as 22 practice sessions (pracs) in it. As a BN caster you can put a Max of 13 pracs in it resulting in much lower percentages. Now a lot of BN's take one look at this and just Max each stat. My suggestion is don't do that, you'll need the extra points to raise other stats. Put a decent amount in both. 17 is still a good number. But what is this about PER? Perception helps with a few things. First of all, later you will have the skill track. That skill uses INT and PER. A high score in both of those stats can give you a track percentage as high as 130%. A percentage like that will give you an extremely fast track, which helps in chasing down your wounded targets. Next it helps with Line of Sight (LOS). LOS? When in a big fight either in a group of other players or just fighting a large amount of mobiles (mobs), there is a chance you can't get LOS of your target. What does that mean? It means you won't be able to get your spell off on your target thus forfeiting that spellcasting round. You don't want that. Last of all, PER helps with mage spell attack damage. I've spent a ton of time messing with caster stats and I've found that a high PER will give you not only higher spell percents but when the spell connects with the target it will do more damage. At one time I had 16 PER, I could take down a Forester (its a dunland ranger mob) with two fireballs (1 to wounded, 1 to incap or death). Now that's power. And you know what? Your a BN. You need an edge. Now about Constitution (CON), Dexterity (DEX), Strength (STR), and Willpower (WIL). My suggestion with STR and CON is to keep them low, but not too low. 13+ con is very good, you'll end up with 170s in hitpoints. With STR i like to aim for 13 or 12. If you've got a STR of 13 you can wield an engraved broadsword, a really decent weapon for defense. Plus you'll be able to carry a bit more without your dodge bonus percentage (db%) dropping. With the new flee changes, DEX might become your best friend. A mid ranged DEX is almost needed now. We are frail and you need to be able to flee. And last but totally not least, WIL. WIL helps with a few things. A high WIL will help you regen mana faster. Also some spells rely on WIL for casting, such as the spell sleep and charm. As a caster a high WIL is needed. Scouts: Scouts, or thieves, are the masters of stealth and assassination. They can sneak around unseen, do very high damage with backstab, and use bows to finish oponents. They can also hide to help setup a trap, and are fairly easy to level solo. Unfortunately, BN scouts are probably the weakest class in the game. Compared to orc/puke scouts your HPs are awful, moves are pathetic, spell resistance is bad, you backfire your only cure spell most of the time giving depression(BNs don't get cure light), and on top of that you dont get alot of scout skills (Pierce, Attack) nor important warrior skills (Parry, endurance) and some of your scout skills are really low compared to pukes(Pick, Missile). Perhaps worst of all, BN scouts have really low OB since they cannot practice pierce, which gives a low stab damage. 1on1 in a closable with absolutely fair conditions (Equipment, level, etc) a bn scout loses to anything pretty much 99% of the time. However, with the proper setup you can be a deadly assassin in the shadows of tharbad, or lurking around the northlands, but once you've lost the element of surprise your not all that viable in a fight as a scout. You also have to option to be somewhat of a scout/mage or scout/cleric combo to increase your effectiveness, which I HIGHLY recomend for any BN thief(more on this later). Scout Stats: Dex is your primary stat, and frankly for a BN scout this needs to be max. It affects all your scout skills a great deal, and without max dex you will often fail sneaking and backstabing. Per is much the same, except it also helps with noticing other sneakers and boosts your tracking abilities. Per also should be maxed, or at the very least 17. Unless your trying to make a combo that is more toward mage than thief, I really recomend you max both per and dex. Intelligence and wis are your caster stats, and your choice here depends largely on what kind of char you want. For a pure thief, you can basically ignore WIS and get just a little INT to boost your track and several ranger skills, or you can go the combo route. As a combo you are going to want between 12-14 in each INT and WIS, more INT if your a scout/mage, more WIS if your a scout/cleric. Personally I recommend 13 in each, or 14 int 12 wis. This will allow you to have an effective armour, bob, cure, and remove poison spells at legend, though don't expect much until hero at least from your spells. Strength should be at least 13 so you can use an embellished longbow, or 12 if you plan to be a scout with strength spell. Weight carried is VERY important for a thief, as it affects both moves and your sneak/stab effectiveness, and the more strength you take the more equipment and loot you can carry. It also slightly increases stab damage, since ob is partially dependant on your strength. Constitution helps your max mp and hps, and since you cannot heal yourself as well as a cleric, and your armour is not as effective as a mage, this can be a very important stat for a thief (especially "pure" thieves). However, if you choose to go the combo route, your going to have to sacrifice somewhere, and CON is probably going to be it, but youve got armour to help compensate. WIL is important for spellsave, and wilderness, as well as manaregen. Its not nearly as important as dex or per for a scout, but if its too low you may find yourself dying in 2/3 bolts or being blinded constantly. I recomend trying for 12, but like con you may have to sacrifice here for dex/per/int/wis. Since you will not be practicing endurance, parry, pierce or attack, you are going to have some spare practices, and you can work this to your advantage. In my opinion, a "pure" bn scout is really somewhat pointless, the only real advantage a bn scout can give themselves is by going combo, ussually mage - though some bn combo scouts focus more on cleric abilities. At the very least, pretty much any bn scout can benefit greatly from the Armour spell. Its only level 3, so its not that hard to learn - however even with low mentals you are going to get a nice armour bonus which is ESPECIALLY helpful against spells. Your typical BN scout without armour dies in 3 quickbolts, armour can significantly improve your ability to stay alive. The second biggest problem for BN scouts is mobility. Since BNs don't have endurance, and scouts have to be on foot much of the time sneaking, moves can be a real problem. Practicing Breath Of Briskness can help a great deal with this problem. You can also choose several helpful spells such as remove poison, strength, or an offensive spell like lightning bolt to help finish off your enemies. However, you must be careful not to have too many spells or your scout abilities will suffer. Remember, cleric spells hurt your thief skills more than mage spells, and you always want to keep your backstab and sneak at or above 100%. After alot of rerolling and testing with my own scout, and talking to several much more experienced thieves than me (Especial thanks to Lotheila, who helped me tremendously with my scout) I think that the "Perfect" combo has 100% backstab, with the following spells: Armour, Bob, Cure serious, Remove Poison & Block Door. To test if your stab is ok, basically if you always kill a pack horse in 1 stab its ok for BN combo. Your bob should work at least 2/3 of the time (Hopefully more), and armour should hardly ever backfire. Cure should backfire about once out of 6. Scout Skills/Spells: Listed in rough order of usefulness/importance. I Consider The Following To Be Essential For A Scout: Backstab(Max) Sneak (Max) Missile (Max) Hide (Max) Armour (12 - Max, adjust as needed to maintain 100% stab) Ride (10 pracs) Climb (3 pracs) Swim (5 pracs) Pick (Max) Wilderness(Max) Dodge (Max) Bandage (5 pracs) I Consider The Following To Be Recomended For Any BN Scout, Though Not Essential: Breath of Briskness (Max, this actually borders on essential in my opinion) Track (101% +) Cure serious (Max) Steal (1 prac, to see people's inventories) Remove Poison (Enough it doesnt backfire MOST of the time) Block Door (6 pracs minimum, pray it doesn't backfire until higher level) Escape (Somewhat useful, more importantly boosts scout %) I Consider The Following To Be Good For A BN Scout, Though Not Essential: Lightning Bolt (Max) Shroud (2 pracs) Create Food (3-4 pracs) Strength (5-8 pracs for +2 ussually) Search (1 prac) I Consider The Following To Be Useful Under Certain Circumstances For A BN Scout, But Not As Universally Useful As The Above: Burning Hands OR Shocking Grasp (Not max, but enough it costs close to the minimum mana) Cure Crit (5-8 pracs) Create Water (3 pracs) Sense Life (2 prac) Detect magic (2 pracs for pukemage-radar) I Consider The Following To Be Effectively Useless For A BN Scout: Fireball Shield Darkness Sleep Leadership Enchant Scry Store Earthquake Sanctuary Break Door Silence (Max) Magic Blast Magic Missile Locate Life Teleport Charm Create Light Portal Watch Room Blindness Energy Drain Harm Poison Remove Curse Summon Smother Chill Touch Detect Invisibility Dispel Magic Identify Locate Night Vision Ventriloquate Awareness Command Most scouts are going to end up practicing pretty much every single scout skill, simply because they have enough pracs to do so, and can't afford the loss of % from practicing too much outside their guild. Remember as Scout you can't have every spell you probably want, you must keep your scout %'s high or you will fail too many backstabs, and your backstab damage will be really bad. It takes some trial and error to get your spells and scout skills balanced, just remember aim for 100% stab and spells that work MOST of the time, and eliminate spells you dont NEED. For instance, if lightning bolt is hurting your scout % too much maybe try burning hands instead, or if that isn't enough make do with a bow. Also, remember you can reroll until level 26, so stop at level 25 and evaluate if your character is OK! Vecna's Take On BN Scouts: Perhaps the easiest to level, and the ability to take a few more hits than the other classes. But it has its disadvantages too. The BN scout does not get to practice the piercing skill. If you compare a free race scout to a BN scout, you'll notice a big difference in defense and offensive bonus (ob%). Your major stats in this class are DEX and PER. Almost every thief skill uses DEX and PER. Having a low DEX or PER will result in low skill percents and most likely make you fail your skills often. My suggestion is to Max DEX and get PER to one or two less than max. Why? I'll tell you. As a BN I can't stress enough, you need an edge. Heres your edge. Get INT and WIS to mid height. Perhaps 12 or 13. Do this for a few reasons: One reason is to bump your track % up. Fast tracking can make or break a kill. After playing around with scout stats for about a year (that's 12 rerolls on one char alone) I found it to be very helpful to have the armour spell. This spell at a low level won't help you too much (maybe some), but at hero level and higher you'll hit armour bonus percents of 20 or more. Big deal? Not against smiter happy battle dwarves, but against mage casters. The armour spell will eat some damage taken from each spell. And since you don't have the pierce or attack skill to practice your going to have extra pracs anyway. On top of all that, its only a level 3 spell. So it won't mess up your thief stats too much. I saw a 2-3% drop in my thief skills after maxing armour. But against a caster I could take much more hits. Much more spells casted means your enemy will have less mana. A manaless caster is as weak as a little girl. Also later, you may be tempted to pick up other spells and having a decent INT and WIS will make your spellcasting much easier and quicker. Next, we have CON, STR, and WIL You'll want to have a mid ranged CON, higher than 12 is a must. STR is your least concern. 13+ STR is too much. After all, Backstab will be your main attack, and it doesn't use your STR stat to add damage. Last we have WIL. WIL will help with your ability to take spell damage. It will also help in regenerating your extra mana if you took my suggestion above. Despite Vecna's claims I have serious doubt that any BN thief can take enough damage to drain any puke caster's mana completely, even with armour spell. It is however, still quite an essential spell that greatly improves your ability to take damage and stay alive. Also strength DOES affect backstab damage, somewhat, due to the fact that it affects OB, not a whole lot though. Clerics: BN Cleric is a very interesting class, suited almost entirely to group style playing. If you want a caster that can solo (And group too) choose mage instead, but if you want to be the best support class the dark side has to offer, then cleric is for you. Really BN cleric has three things going for it, Sanctuary, Blind and Breath of Briskness. (Ok Break Door is cool too) However, BN Clerics do NOT get many of the popular puke cleric spells, such as Heal, Dispel Evil (Wonder why?), Word of Recall, or Transfer. In addition, BNs have pretty bad willpower that just gets worse with depression, and this affects clerics the most. However, a well setup BN Cleric with a few mage spells can be quite effective, both as a support character and a damage dealer. Sanctuary is the best buff in the game, and strength is great also - not to mention to best darkside BOB and good cure. You also get blind which is great in both PK and smobbing/xp, and break door which can save your whole group or allow you to charge an otherwise too dangerous puke stronghold. Cleric Stats: In stats, the BN cleric is really very similar to the mage, with the exception that WIL is even more important. Again, I recommend max INT and WIS, though if absolutely necessary sacrifice 1 int to get good wil. Wil should be as high as you can possibly get it. 11 STR is good, as you will have +2 strength spell to make 13 for engraved broadsword, though more if you want to wear metals (Not really recomended for cleric). CON, 12 is enough, though more never hurts. PER is more or less useless for a cleric, except for track, however your int should be enough that a relatively low per is not going to hurt too bad. Dex, about the same as mage, 10-12 is OK, though again more doesn't hurt. Personally I find con a better stat than dex, so if it comes down to a choice between the two go for the con. Cleric Skills/Spells: The following are listed in rough order of importance/usefulness (in my opinion). I Consider The Following To Be Essential Spells For A BN Cleric: Armour (Max) Breath of Briskness (Max) Cure serious (Max) Sanctuary (Max) Blindness (Max) Harm (Max) Shield (Max) Remove Poison (3 pracs is enough) Cure Crit (4 pracs) Ride (10 pracs) Climb (3 pracs) Swim (5 pracs) Pick (1 prac MINIMUM, more if you can spare it) Block Door (5 pracs minimum, more if you want a slightly stronger block) Strength (5-8 pracs for +2 ussually) Break Door (Max) Create Food (3 pracs) Create Water (2 pracs) I Consider The Following To Be Recomended For Any BN Cleric, Though Not Essential: Darkness (5ish pracs) Track (105% +) Burning Hands OR Shocking Grasp OR Smother (Not max, but enough it costs the minimum mana) Magic Missile (2-3 pracs) Wilderness(5 pracs) Dodge (1 prac, no more) I Consider The Following To Be Good For Any BN Cleric, Though Not Essential: Charm (Max) Command (5-10 pracs, ONLY if you have charm) Create Light (2 pracs, really only useful as lowbie) Shroud (2 pracs) Sense Life (1 prac) Detect magic (1 prac for pukemage-radar, more to detect watch room and portal destinations) I Consider The Following To Be Useful Under Certain Circumstances, But Not As Universally Useful As The Above: Lightning Bolt (Max) Store (Max) Earthquake (Max) Leadership Remove Curse (2 pracs) Search (1 prac) I Consider The Following To Be Viable Under A Limited Set Of Circumstances, I DO NOT Recomend Them For The Newbie BN, As They Require Higher Levels To Be Effective: Locate Life (6ish pracs) Teleport (5ish pracs if you just want to port around Tharbad, more for porting accross Arda.) Portal (Max) Sleep (max) Fireball (Max) Silence (Max) I Consider The Following To Be Effectively Useless For A BN Cleric: Magic Blast Scry Watch Room Enchant Energy Drain Poison Summon Backstab Escape Hide Missile Sneak Steal Chill Touch Detect Invisibility Dispel Magic Identify Locate Night Vision Ventriloquate Awareness Bandage (EXCEPTION: You NEED this skill 3-5 pracs UNTIL you get cure critical, then decay it) Like the BN Scout, most bn clerics will get almost every single one of their class spells. In addition pretty much every BN Cleric is going to need at least a few mage spells, the absolute essentials being armour and shield, and if you want to PK at all you need block door as well. You'll also need a faster spell than harm as well, which you can pick either smother which is a cleric spell, or you can take one of the fast mage spells (Burning hands or Shocking grasp or lightning bolt). Vecna's Take On BN Cleric: Clerics: This is by far the hardest class to survive with. Your stats will be very low, your skills have the least pracs and on top of all that you will have the lowest amount of attack methods (as a caster). Until hero level you will be beaten down at every turn. And even after legend levels, you'll have trouble solo fighting. So why be a cleric? A few major reasons. SANCTUARY, the greatest defense spell in the game and you get to cast it. Also a cleric is a great help in a group in a tight spot. Either it be someone is hurt badly, poisoned or your group is blocked in a tight spot. You can remedy all of them. Your one true offensive spell will be Harm. Harm is one of the greatest attack spells in the game, but it will be most likely your only one. Harm cuts through metal armour and the armour spell alike to do major damage and in some cases inflict a deadly wound. Most of your spells will require high WIS and INT (notice the switch from INT and WIS). Cleric spells use WIS first then INT. So make sure your WIS is very high (Maxed WIS might be a good idea too). A higher INT will help in casting and your track percentage (speed) later on. Most likely you won't be running around solo. BN clerics have the worst defense and Harm is not a very fast spell (unless casted quickly, but remember that can result in backfiring). But it still doesn't help to have a decent DEX, 12 or higher. Since you'll most likely be taking more damage than a mage, you will want a higher CON than 12. PER will not be your highest concern, but you might want to have it mid range for LOS. A higher PER gives you a faster track (can't say it enough, but you need it). WIL is your 3rd most important stat as a cleric. A good spell you'll most likely learn, Blindness, is based mainly on WIS and WIL. Also the spell sanctuary looks at your WIL to figure out damage done to you. If you have high WIS, INT, and WIL, Sanctuary will absorb more hits. Also WIL is your mana regen stat. Low WIL will make your life hell. Cleric spells are all more to cast than your mage counterpart. The ability to regen your mana quickly will get you out of tight spots. Last we have STR. You don't need much STR, right? Wrong. You'll want 13 STR at least. At higher levels, 13 STR means 15 STR. Having a decent STR will give you one more method of attack when your spells are ineffective or your mana is low. Also 13 STR allows you to wield and engraved broadsword or an embellished longbow with no problem. As a BN cleric, Blind and Shoot will be your best friends. I'm pretty sure (O.k. positive) that Vecna is wrong about harm cutting through armour spell. Like any other type of damage, armour absorbs harm just the same, it is however, still a very nice spell (though sloooooow). And for the record, metal armour(or any kind of physical armour for that matter) doesn't absorb any damage from any spell, only magical armour and sanctuary does that - sorry Vecna. Warrior: No. Don't even try. Really. No. BN Skills And Spells The Updated Black Numenorean Spell/Skill List: A dark-robed man can teach you any of these spells: blindness 0/18 break door 0/ 9 breath of briskness 0/16 create food 0/ 6 create water 0/ 6 cure critic 0/ 8 cure serious 0/ 6 darkness 0/12 energy drain 0/18 harm 0/15 poison 0/10 remove curse 0/ 3 remove poison 0/ 6 sanctuary 0/18 sense life 0/ 8 smother 0/ 9 strength 0/ 8 summon 0/11 A grey-cloaked man can teach you any of these skills: backstab 0/23 dodge 0/18 escape 0/13 hide 0/16 missile 0/ 5 pick 0/ 5 search 0/ 5 sneak 0/23 steal 0/12 A Cowled Sorcerer can teach you any of these spells: armour 0/16 block door 0/ 8 burning hands 0/11 call lightning 0/16 charm 0/ 9 chill touch 0/ 8 create light 0/ 3 detect invisibility 0/11 detect magic 0/ 8 dispel magic 0/19 earthquake 0/16 enchant 0/13 fireball 0/16 identify 0/16 lightning bolt 0/16 locate 0/12 locate life 0/12 magic blast 0/22 magic missile 0/ 8 night vision 0/ 9 portal 0/22 scry 0/12 shield 0/16 shocking grasp 0/11 shroud 0/12 silence 0/11 sleep 0/13 store 0/16 teleport 0/13 ventriloquate 0/ 5 watch room 0/ 8 A gaunt man can teach you any of these skills: awareness 0/27 climb 0/13 command 0/27 Bandage 0/18 leadership 0/27 ride 0/13 swim 0/13 track 0/27 wilderness 0/27 Guild Masters, Where In Arda Are They?! Since this hasn't changed since the original guide was written, much of Vecna's advice is still valid: Finding BN guild masters (GM) are one of the most frustrating things you'll go through as a BN. Imagine being level 9, all alone trying to find a GM that moves within 100 rooms (or more)! Like I said before, your moves are going to be horrible. GM searches can take all your time online if your clueless on their whereabouts. In this section I'm going to do two things for you. Cleric GM - A Dark-Robed Man He is by far the easiest GM to find, from outside DT door directions are as follows: 3 west, south, down, all west, south, west, south, 3 west, south, all west, east, 2 north, all east, west, north, east and then you should be in a room named "Path of Angmar." Along any room named that, the GM himself walks. He tends to be dead alot during primetime, mostly because he is easy to find so pukes xp on him sometimes... If you cant find him, wait a bit and try again. Thief GM - A Grey-Cloaked Man Second easiest GM to find. This one however can pop up in two spots. First spot is all east of Rivendell (high moors). Just follow "Path to the Misty Mountains" all east until it breaks off into a forest. In that forest are several aggressive mobs (some that track too, like black wolves and wargs). Towards the north part of the forest is where the GM mostly roams. The second place he roams is a bit bigger. He moves about anywhere near the ABR tower (musty forest, east of the forest in the mountain rooms, some north of the tower, etc.). Most of the time when he pops here he's really hard to find. Since the ABR changes, GCM still loads down there, but his location is somewhat different. Basically he loads in the plains/swamps south of brolg and north east of that little troll forrest along ABR, he can be a pain to find here. Also as a special note, Eoggha teaches envenom for BNs. His location can be found above. Mage GM - A Cowled Sorcerer The mage GM isn't too hard to find when he pops up south of ABR, its when he pops up near NOC... He can be just about anywhere up there and on top of it, there's tons of aggressive mobs to BNs. Moving around in the mountains is such a pain and that's exactly where he likes to roam. If you are up that way, try checking around NOC slag pit and the ranger cabin. Also he likes to roam around wolfgate and near dragon somewhat. If the sorcerer pops up down south, try looking around the rooms with "hill" in them. Most of the time he does little circles there. More specifically check the trail near wolfgate, and the lower pass, the area s e n n w w w s of slag pit, along the trail west of slag, near that waterfall DT, and along the river near DT if its winter and rivers are frozen. Down south, check around Thorns first, then around the abandoned ghost tower east of thorns, then start checking around illusionist and that little deadend on the west side of the zone, south of ABR. He never goes south of thorns, nor as far north as ABR. Best way to find him is locate + teleport, though this is a bit difficult until you learn those spells from him.... Ranger GM - A Gaunt Man THE WORST GM to look for. This guy can be ANYWHERE around Khuzur. And I mean anywhere around: Redhorn, Khuzur, tall orc, crazed dwarf, "the beaver pond" and waterfall (its south west of Khuzur, really close to Woodhall). Many days I've found him hanging around that nice giant warg pack that moves around there (really nice for little bns *wink*). My advice is to find someone who's not busy to track the gaunt man down for you. I recommend you try to find this GM first, if no one is around to track him down for you, just xp in the area around waterfall - he should turn up sooner or later and its great xp area for level 1-8 or so. Praying And Where You End Up (Help I Need Food! Ahhh My Light Went Out!) Hidden Island (Home!) OK, first lets speak of the Island. Its the place you start your career as a BN. This area is composed of two rooms, one for board writing and praying back to Arda. The other one contains a mailbox and your basic eq. In that room by using the reveal command you can find a great deal of basic eq: Also, a common point of confusion for some newbie BNs is how BN "praying" works. Unlike pukes who pray to a specific town, bns simply type "pray" and are transported to a random spot on Arda. If you try typing "pray warrens, or pray fornost" etc, your just going to send a message to the ainur - who will get a nice laugh at your expense. Calm down you fool. I'm here to right your wrongs. Even though you don't have shops like other races (except trolls, but hey - they have +600hps) there are many spots to get you basic equipment (eq). Keep in mind, any eq you find that loads either on the ground, or in a permanent corpse (skeletons, the orc corpse near Khuzur) will fit you 100% of the time. One funny thing I've noticed while killing mobs for eq, you will almost never find a pair of boots that fit your fit. I guess as a whole race, BN's have damn big feet... a lantern a cup a belt a butcher knife a dagger a shortbow a quiver several arrows (anywhere between 1 and 10) a warm blanket a small wooden shield And on the ground: 1 to 9 loaves of bread a sack with 2 biscuits in it Now that's not your best selection of eq, but if your going to whine now, quit while your still ahead. Its basic junk eq. Now, after praying your going to end up in one of five places most likely. Either near warrens, near NOC, near Khuzur and Old Orc Caves (ooc), or west of Last Bridge (LB) somewhere in the brush. If you end up in the brush, don't freak out. Take it slow, and perhaps wait till night comes about before you travel east to minimize contact with the free races. Traveling west will result in your immediate death to Hardened Rangers. If you land near the other places, your in luck. Select an area below to get started. These days you can also land in along ABR or in the Anduin Vale, I've added the appropriate sections below. Help! I Landed Near Warrens: Your in luck, this area sees a lot of playerkilling and XP so most of the time you'll find eq littered about in Cave (the safest place as our race to be) in the Warrens. From the Old Ruins, exit name is "Hatch" down. Head Down, open cask, east, north, down, and all north to Cave. If you know what you need, try revealing pieces of eq. Some days you'll get lucky and get what you need, other days you might not be so lucky. Good things to search for: "dark, shield, sword, cloak, oil, lantern, pweapon, sweapon" You can also ask some nice troll (Any level works, even level 2 can ussually manage it) to kill prisoner for you to get lantern+belt (Good in case there wasn't a lantern at island, or yours is running low) WARNING: you cannot go help them, as ALOT of very hard hitting trolls are between cave and prisoner. If there are a lot of trolls sitting around, you might try to beg one to help you get a dark shield and a dark broadsword (both decent newbie defense eq) from the wraiths near warrens. Also there's two spots that need to be covered here, they aren't in warrens but close enough. From hatch, if you head 3 south and east, you'll stumble upon a skeleton. The corpse itself loads: a pair of chain gloves a chain hauberk. Easy armour to get as lowbie BN. A little farther away there is another skeleton. Directions from hatch, head 3 south, 5 west to the ant hill, then head south until you can't, go one east. In the skeleton: a pair of smooth black boots a dagger Good Places To Xp Levels 1-10 Near Warrens: Your kind of out of luck, there aren't a whole lot of options. Closest place with decent xp is around Brolg, which is kind of far and ussually has pukes around. Try asking *VERY NICELY* if any trolls are xping in/around warrens and if you could join - though becareful, if the troll isn't a good leader you can get yourself killed in about 2 seconds following them around warrens. Help! I Landed Near NOC: My suggestion here, is to run to crack (front entrance to NOC, DON'T ENTER DOWN) and beg orcs to grab you some basic eq. Most orcs will feel your pain and provide a nicer bow (war arrows too) and hopefully some basic eq like a backpack, waterskin, and meat. After begging your hardest, its time to head west to DT. DT loads a lot of decent eq for a lowbie BN: A scimitar a mace a hardened leather breastplate a pair of ring mail sleeves a butcher knife a metal shield a satchel with up to 5 pieces of smoked meat and sometimes a water skin a few bolts for a crossbow some cram, misc. meat and bread. I recommend you don't run to DT anymore, as the equipment you pick up isn't that great, and theres a good chance you'll get killed on the way. Plus theres no good spots to xp near DT at low level. Instead, if you have swim I recomend you go east from crack a few zones, swim accross the anduin and head north, which is a GREAT place to xp levels 1-10. If you end up on the west end of the misty mountains nearer to rivendell, I recommend you grab the eq from DT, then either head east to Anduin or southwest to Brolg. Also this is a great time to stop by your friendly Cleric GM if you have some pracs spare. If you do find yourself at DT however, its worth noting that if your level 8-12 or so you can find some decent xp actually INSIDE the tower (assuming its popped dark of course!). You can safely kill the Dark-skinned orcs, the female orcs, the orc sentries and the hungry wargs inside. DO NOT attack Karash, the brown-skinned orcs, the demon wolves or Grachalg though, as the tower will become aggro to you (and kill you in about 2 seconds). Near DT there is a mob by the name of Eoggha. If your high level enough (10+) you can kill it for not only XP but for a valuable piece of eq, a forest green cloak (fgc). From out DT door, there's two easy ways to get to him. If you have swim, head 3 south, west, 2 south, east, 2 south, west, 2 south, 9 west, 3 south, 6 west, one south to Eoggha. Alternatively you can go (from outside DT door also) south, 3 west, down, 8 west, south, west, south, 3 west, south, 3 west, 6 south, 6 east, and one south to Eoggha. Keep in mind two things. He is used by both sides of this game as a guild to practice the skill envenom. He also screams bloody mary when you attack him alerting all players near you that your there. He hits pretty hard (for lowbies), but if you blind him, shoot-flee him or nuke him with spells you should be OK. When the bastard finally dies he has on his corpse: a bolt-case (empty) a crossbow a forest green cloak (fits!) a black metal shield (fits!) a thin pair of soft leather boots (almost never fits) a plain pair of pants (fits!) a plain shirt (may fit) a ring The boots never fit by the way, the rest does though. Also he no longer loads crossbow, though he loads shortsword now. Help! I Landed Near/West Of Khuzur: This is another nice area to end up as a lowbie BN as long as you don't run out of moves. What ever you do, don't stay in a room with wargs or snakes too long. Just about every mob out this way is aggressive to you. But while your in Khuzur's cabin you can swipe from the alcove and the chest: a butcher knife a pan a pair of scale sleeves a pair of snow shoes (very handy!) a few misc. food items (meats and elf stew) a rope From the door of Khuzur's place, head 2 north, and 8 west. Make sure you don't stick around in that room long at all. There's a Vulture sitting there eating the corpse you can loot. On the corpse is several nice pieces of eq: 1 - 7 silver piece(s) a water skin a hard leather cap a thin, soft leather jerkin a large metal shield a pair of high boots a quiver (with 1 - 10 arrows) an orkish shortbow a scimitar Seems this corpse has been changed, so it rarely drops equipment now, it can also now pop 1n or 1e of vulture. Its still worth checking if your in the area, but I don't consider it worth running out of your way for anymore. If you have climb you can also pick up a few other items. From one south of the vulture and the corpse head all south (about 16 rooms south), east, south, 5 east, 3 up. Now listen up. One east is a Crazed Dwarf, if it hits you flee like mad. On the ground loads: 1 east with Crazed Dwarf: a longbow a quiver (sometimes has 1 - 8 arrows) 2 east: four large pieces meat A backpack (with one gold coin in it) Also near south Ancient Broken Road (ABR), there is a nice metal wall shield nearby. From the last room of southern ABR head south, 3 east, north, 3 east, north. You should be in a room with one exit, up. Simply reveal wall and you should discover a metal wall shield (if no one else took it of course). Also loads in the same place, 1 - 10 arrows and war arrows, and a spiked helmet. This is the best shield your likely to get for a loooong time, so its worth making the run. MW + Dark Broadsword (Ask trolls at warrens to get it for you) is really great equipment for a lowbie (Its good even for a legend bn that died recently) Help! I Landed Up Near OOC/In Lorien: Chances are, if you've popped up around here, your east of Redhorn Pass. This is a really nice zone to XP without too many elves and dwarves stalking you. Not only is this a nice quiet place to XP there's a bunch of eq laying around. Most directions I'll give are from the hunter some east in lorien (most eq is near him anyway). I understand most people haven't been in lorien so I'll explain how to get to him. First you need to head all east, then all south until you can't anymore. Depending on where you popped up, you may have to run like 20 rooms south. You'll find yourself in a big wide plain area. Now from here he's pretty easy to get to. Head one north, and then east until you find him. One north of him loads in the table: a piece of smoked, cured meat a piece of smoked, cured meat some blueberries a cup If you've got climb, head all west from the hunter, 2 north, east, 3 north, west and open slit, down. Inside loads on the ground: a pair of rigid leather boots a rope a water skin a backpack Also from Hunter, head 3 east, south, 8 east, 2 north, open door, west. Inside the chest loads: a rope a lembas wafer a dark flask About OOC: To get to OOC from the east side of Redhorn, head west, 2 south, west, 2 north, 2 west, south, east, south, 2 west, north, west, open looserocks, north, call, east! To get to OOC from the west side of Redhorn, head east, south, east, north, east, north, east, south, 3 east, south, east, 2 north, east, south, east, south, east, north, open looserocks, north, call, east! In the rack one north of the entrance, a few weapons can load there: a scimitar a longspear a twisted spear a broad spear a broad spear Help I Landed In The Anduin Vale! This is one of the best spots you can end up xp wise. Unfortunately there is pretty much 0 equipment laying around that a puke can get to safely. Best thing to do is head to the very north west corner of the vale, and you'll find TONS of level 1-8 mobs such as snake, butterfly, boar cubs, foxes etc. Also around are some slightly harder bears, and 1 Beorning ranger mob that will track you some, but doesn't hit real hard. Most of these mobs are fairly easy to kill even with just Island dagger, so you can xp here without running somewhere to get a better weapon. Help I Landed Near Brolg (ABR)! Best thing to do first off is run to brolg. If you don't know where it is, well its just off the Ancient Broken Road behind an exit called "Bushes" to the east. Be sure to scout before entering bushes, as pukes trap here alot... Brolg basically south of Ford and north of khuzur. Down from entrance loads: A sturdy leather backpack has been left here. Also alot of meat in chest. At the backdoor loads: A scuffed and worn leather satchel has been left here. There are two rafts here. A thick pair of soft leather boots are on the ground. A thin, soft leather jerkin is on the ground. There is a water skin lying on the ground. Now don't go out the front door, or pukes will find your tracks and kill you soon. From the front door, go down, open crack, 2 west, say open, and 1 north. Grab the water skin and leathers, and a raft. Now go north, west, north, west, down, and then follow the river west and go onto the land to the south. Around here you'll find quite alot of level 1-5 mobs you can kill, and the best part is pukes hardly ever come here so its a nice safe place to xp some. If you need to regen I recommend you DONT go back to brolg, as your alot more likely to die there than just sleeping in the open here. Brolg is a good choice however, if you get a bad wound and don't have firstaid, as pretty often someone is around to help you. XP-ING - I'm Tired Of This Place, Where Else Can I Xp? Where To XP Well theres lots of good places, though at levels 1-10 remember most of the mobs are going to be the same anywhere, so running across arda won't help you much. That being said, good places to xp are the Anduin Vale, Lorien, Isenguard (STAY AWAY from the eyot and Isenguard Tower), Dunland around Broghha, Dunland east of Wyrdda, Waterfall west of Khuzur, South and South east of Tharbad, east of Rivendell and around VT (If not many bears/zorcs around) For levels 10-15 you can start moving around some more, good places to look include most of the above, as well as: Road to Tharbad, Brush (in group), warrens (in group), around Brolg, Shaws (in group). For 15-20 Some good places to xp are: Most of the above, Dunland, Eregion, Abr, NOC (in group). 21-26: Dunland, Tharbad, Eregion, Shaws, Noc, Brush, RTT, Moria (if your a mage, or in group) 26+: Pukes :) Some Basic Info On How To Xp Effectively As Each Class: Mage: Basically its HARD until you get magic missile/burning hands... Just find really easy mobs and pierce them dead, and sleep full... repeat... alot... you'll hit level 5 soon and you can get burning hands and life gets better, and slowly your armour starts to actually work... and finally you get quake + store and xp is a breeze :) Scout: Easiest to xp solo, just get a bow and shoot/flee things until level 16 or so, then start to stab/flee instead. Pretty straight foward. Cleric: Around level 5 you can get working smother, which helps alot. Until then same as mage, pierce stuff dead and sleep full. Around level 10 or so your blind spell will start working, at which point you would do well to find a good bow. Its almost impossible to miss shooting a blinded target, so blind a mob and shoot/flee the crap out of it. Remember, blind lasts exactly 90 seconds, so after that long reblind if necessary, or switch to smother to finish it off. Equipment Basics: To start off, you pretty much just want to find any equipment that fits, a lowbie bn can't afford to be too picky. However, as you get a bit higher your going to be wanting to upgrade the ol' set, so heres my recomendation for what you want to find: A good shield: Metal Wall, Arthedain, Gilded are good. A good sword: If your a mage or cleric, Dark Broadsword is excellent and easy to get. A good piercing weapon: If your a thief, barbed or orkish fang are both excellent and easy to find. (orcs can get you an orkish fang from NOC) A good bow for thief/cleric: Enchanted orkish or longbow, or BHSB/yew/embellished are all good. Armour: Plain clothes set of armour is ok for most bns - quaking mages probably want something a bit sturdier like ringmail or possibly metals. Boots: Smooth black boots from warrens. Cloak: Forest green cloak. One last excellent piece of equipment, is a Red Ruby which will give you a light source that never runs out. Unlike pukes, you can't buy these from a shop - so you'll have to pry one out of the cold dead hands of an enemy. More likely though, you'll find someone else who has a spare. SURVIVAL - Or "Stealth And The Art Of Running Away (Hopefully)" Remember, the most important thing to make xping go fast is... don't die. It sounds kind of obvious, but just don't take risks (If I land that one last burning hands even though I'm bad...). Vecna had some great advice about staying alive, and after I'll give some of my own hints. Listen up scum. We need to work on your stealth. You can't just leave corpses everywhere, that's a good way to end up with a dagger in your back. When I see corpses, the first thing that pops into my mind is TRACK. Leaving corpses of mobs on roads and main paths used is totally unacceptable (unless you want to be found, but we'll cover that later)! Make sure you remove corpses from popular paths. Don't leave tracks around major mob areas either. Running by Khuzur, Tall Orc, OiE, or Cinard will probably get you found in a hurry. If your a BN thief, Hide will come in handy (believe me)! Every time you run out of moves, regen the slow, safe way ... hidden. With luck even a level 5 BN can hide from nasty dwarf smiters. IMHO the best places to XP are any place with rivers or lakes nearby. During months of Arda that don't freeze the water you can swim away 85% of the time. And if your lucky you can get just enough time to camp rent. Also you might want to keep climb on at all times. Every second you can gain while running helps, and a lot of rooms down south are climb only! Last but not least, Max ride as early as possible (only 13 pracs). Until later levels your biggest problem will be moves. Lowbie BNs who run out of moves, usually die. Riding a horse can just about double the amount of area you can cover. The rest I leave up to your imagination. Just remember one thing - Camp Rent. Its a mighty powerful way to lose your foes. I can't stress enough how great ride is. Vecna claims it just about doubles the distance you can travel - In my opinion thats an understatement. Its closer to triple - more if your carrying alot of equipment - and it also has other benefits. Pukes tracking just see "A pack horse" not *a man* and may decide its not worth following, since it could easily be a puke. Second, you can't flee into most closables, nor DT yourself while riding, which will probably end up saving you some deaths running around. Some people recommend burning all the corpses you kill. In my opinion thats a BAD idea. When you burn a corpse practically the whole zone gets a message, and the direction. I would much rather leave a corpse laying around in some out of the way room for a while than broadcast a message "Some bn is xping northwest of you" to everyone in the zone every time I kill something. However, if you kill anything on a Road or Path or near anything that pukes frequently pass, best drag it off into a more obscure room. Remember, until you get create food the "butcher" command is your friend. You'll be killing lots of deer and foxes and the like, which are an excellent source of food. You can eat the meat raw, it just takes more to satisfy your hunger and will decay fast, but thats ok. Just remember - Even if you get a better weapon DON'T throw your hidden island dagger away unless you have a butcher knife or equivalent, as most other weapons you find can't be used to butcher! Water can be found almost anywhere, and although your cup only holds a very small amount, it should be enough to satisfy your thirst until you can make it to a spring or river. Keeping a working light source can be a pain sometimes, just remember you can always get a new/spare lantern from trolls at warrens - and a flask to refil in lorien. Additionally, once you get the create light spell or enough levels to kill humanoid mobs this becomes a bit less of an issue. Until then, if your light runs out - well xp during the day and camp rent for night while you go get a cup of coffee or whatnot. One final tip: Your a BN, you've got Camp Rent - its very handy. If you need to go afk, CAMP RENT. I don't know how many times I mobdied my first BN afkbefore I started camping every time I need to go afk. In the end it'll save you alot of frustration and losing xp. Even if your just going to be afk a second, its worth it. CONCLUSION: If your reading this part of the file *clap*. Heres a small hint on how to learn orkish really quickly (if your a mage or cleric BN). Go into Dark Tower, open exit d, go down, west, open strawmats, down and you should be at an exit named Irondoor. If there isn't a lot of players in here you can get away with spam saying open to the two door orcs there. Eventually after saying open a few times, they start spam saying that the door is open in orkish. Just repeat saying open for 5mins or so to Max the orkish language. If you have any questions/comments about this guide, or for me personally,warl I would be more than happy to hear them. You can either mume-mail my BN (Scad), or leave a message on the Black Shadow Clan message board and I'll be sure to see it. I hope you found it helpful, and wish you good luck in your adventures as a Black Numenorean. Until we meet in Arda, farewell!