Religion matters?

Coming from old school EQ, religion meant absolutely nothing outside of a few trivial quests. But what about now? I've seen religion actually mentioned as if it may matter.

I'm thinking about DE WIZ and a Bard... what religions are "good" or safe for the end game?

Religions matter only in the sense of a few quests here or there and your classic/kunark Pottery Idols (which are almost always BiS for Classic and still pretty dang close to BiS for all of Kunark - most people will use their idols to Velious id suspect - I know my Wizard was still using 1 idol in range slot going into Velious).

The best idol for DE Wizard is Sol Ro, but only by 1 Int point, otherwise its identical (Though as a Wizard you could and SHOULD buy 3 idols and use one in each hand and 1 in range, meaning Sol Ro nets 3 Int over Innoruuk), but truth be told Innoruuk is so dang close it doesn't matter. Sol Ro will be a little less hated and might get ya into some more neutral cities like Akanon/Erudin where Innoruuk will cause a little more faction issues.

Bard, doesn't matter too much on Diety. You could go Agnostic and it might help ya get into a few more cities with masks, but I wouldn't expect it to be a big deal. If you want to know what idol is best for bard you can go to Zam and look up Golden Idol of XXXX (God name) and compare. Truth be told though, I think my bard worshipped Veeshan just cause Veeshan is a fun god to worship and I haven't had any problems (Though note Veeshan does not have a Pottery Idol for Classic).

How good are the idols exactly?

I want to roll a Mage this expansion, and want to be a High Elf, but reading what Deity a HE Mage can chose, the idols for it don't seem very good. Is it actually better for me to pick a race that has a good deity idol for Mage or will it not make much of a difference?

For reference, the only closest idols a HE mage can get that comes close to what they would want is:
Idol of Erollisi Marr: 5 Cha, 5 Wis, 40 Mana, +9 Disease resis
Idol of Karana: 4 Sta, 5 Wis, 40 Mana
Idol of Tunare: 5 Wis, 40 Mana, 6 Disease and Poison resis

As a HE Mage none of the Deity idols with Mana have any Int on them. If I want to push end game should I, again pick another race with a good idol for Mage, or should I go with what idol gives the most usefulness? This being the Tunare idol with split Disease+Poison resist with base 40 Mana and some Wis (Wisdom which I believe doesn't really do anything for Mages?).

IIRC, for classes like bards who can use illusion masks, NPCs will still attack you based on your religion.
So if you worship Tunare and cruise into Neriak with your dark elf illusion on, you'll still probably get attacked by guards.

So should they go agnostic? if its available.

Are you going to do a lot of Classic era quests based out of home cities? Do you use a variety of home cities a lot?

A good deity means less factioning for some and more for others (and kill on sight in evilish places). Evil is the reverse. Agnostic, when an option, reduces this especially if you can illusion as well. You may still need to do faction work (i.e., to get a quest, use a vendor).

Some pottery idols are really good to start on a progression server, but all are replaced well before Agnarr's lock point.

Kunark you are looking at evil outpost in OT, FV outpost and Cabilis as factions you may or may not care about that deity impacts. Goblin and Sarnak is a choice you make.

Velious is the tri-faction work option. Pretty sure Veeshan worshipping can have a benefit there... if one likes dragons.

Luclin the Vah Shir love us all the same which is not much. Deity only matters for DoN era armor after this? (Won't be on Agnarr). Though there was the earlier cultural armor that may be around...

Be careful choosing your deity. This is a list of idol crafting trivials. You may want to consider that the max trade skill is 200 during classic. Idols are already a risk as you will see. #unfiredtrivialsmatter. So the question is, "Are you feeling lucky punk?"


Golden Idol of Rallos Zek

38

Unfired Idol of Rallos Zek

335
Golden Idol of Bristlebane
34

Unfired Idol of Bristlebane

335
Golden Idol of Erollisi Marr

33

Unfired Idol of Erollisi Marr

335
Golden Idol of Innoruuk

34

Unfired Idol of Innoruuk

335
Golden Idol of the Tribunal

40

Unfired Idol of the Tribunal

335
Golden Idol of Tunare

41

Unfired Idol of Tunare

242
Idol of Karana

15 (No-Fail)

Unfired Idol (Karana)

242
Idol of Cazic-Thule

15 (No-Fail)

Unfired Idol (Cazic Thule)

248
Idol of Rallos Zek

15 (No-Fail)

Unfired Idol (Rallos Zek)

248
Golden Idol of Bertoxxulous

31

Unfired Idol of Bertoxxulous

335
Golden Idol of Brell Serilis

31

Unfired Idol of Brell Serilis

335
Golden Idol of Cazic-Thule

32

Unfired Idol of Cazic-Thule

335
Golden Idol of Prexus

37

Unfired Idol of Prexus

335
Golden Idol of Quellious

37

Unfired Idol of Quellious

335
Golden Idol of Rodcet Nife

39

Unfired Idol of Rodcet Nife

335
Golden Idol of Solusek Ro

40

Unfired Idol of Solusek Ro

335
Idol of Bertoxxulous

15 (No-Fail)

Unfired Idol (Bertoxxulous)

282
Idol of Brell Serilis

15 (No-Fail)

Unfired Idol (Brell Serilis)

282
Idol of Erollisi Marr

15 (No-Fail)

Unfired Idol (Erollisi Marr)

255
Idol of Fizzlethorpe Bristlebane

15 (No-Fail)

Unfired Idol (Bristlebane)

248
Idol of Innoruuk

15 (No-Fail)

Unfired Idol (Innoruuk)

282
Idol of Mithaniel Marr

15 (No-Fail)

Unfired Idol (Mithaniel Marr)

288
Idol of Prexus

15 (No-Fail)

Unfired Idol (Prexus)

255
Idol of Quellious

15 (No-Fail)

Unfired Idol (Quellious)

252
Idol of Rodcet Nife

15 (No-Fail)

Unfired Idol (Rodcet Nife)

255
Idol of Solusek Ro

15 (No-Fail)

Unfired Idol (Solusek Ro)

262
Idol of the Tribunal

15 (No-Fail)

Unfired Idol (Tribunal)

252
Idol of Tunare

15 (No-Fail)

Unfired Idol (Tunare)

282
Golden Idol of Karana

35

Unfired Idol of Karana

335
Golden Idol of Mithaniel Marr

36

Unfired Idol of Mithaniel Marr

335

Keeping in mind that it will only kind of matter for about the first six months of the server, and even then it's marginal, I don't think it's a big deal. Just something to consider. In the Luclin era and beyond, most of the NPCs don't give a toss what your diety is.

Religion matters based on what towns you can enter. This is important for Classic/Kunark/Velious, but becomes much less important once SoL (Nexus) and PoP (Plane of Knowledge) enter the game.

For example, Neriak is very welcoming to other races that worship Innoruuk. Humans and Half Elves (Probably Gnomes too?) can enter Neriak freely if they worship the god of hate. But, don't try to go to Halas as an Inny follower, you will be KOS - no matter what race you are.

Other slight benefits to certain deities in addition to things mentioned above.

Enchanter - Choose Agnostic - with illusions, lets you go anywhere, ideal choice for Enchanters.

Tunare - When Velious comes out, there are some decent quest items in the Plane of Growth you can do if you are a Tunare follower, though you may end up raiding there, and it's near impossible to repair that faction without going through some expensive hoops.

Rallos Zek (Ogres) - When Velious comes out, Ogres worshipping Rallos Zek start off as non-KoS to the Giants. useful for tank types since they likely want to go for the Giant quest armor early.

Innoruuk (Troll Shaman) - clicky snare-type necklace for priest classes of Innoruuk worshippers quest is available. Mostly DE Clerics who get this, but it's handy for a Troll Shaman too.

Veeshan (Bard) - I just like it for the flavor... all my Bards worship the Dragon Queen.

Tunare (Rangers) - I believe there is a cultural arrow fletching recipe that shortens the high level difficult stages if you're a Tunare Ranger, so if you plan to tradeskill, that's an option.


There are some cultural armors in addition to the other idols mentioned above in later expansions, so if you're a tradeskiller, it may be beneficial to look up those if you want to make your own.

Sol Ro wizards get a pretty popular ring in kunark - imbued platinum fire ring.

They have that locked to Velious at the earliest though.. I remember arguing with one of the devs to even get it moved to Velious cause they had it linked to like Luclin because of the stats

Yep, and the best manapool idol in classic although I believe their idol has SvFire instead of SvMagic; like the innoruuk idol.

Flavor-based decision for sure.

Do they put in the cazic thule revamp partway through velious, or luclin? IIRC the revamp occured about 3 weeks before luclin launched on live.

Enchanter = agnostic. Though its less important than you think.

If you are considering doing tradeskills, make your healing class toons Tunare and Karana, so you can imbue emeralds and Plains pebbles respectively. Fletching? Tunare or Karana too.

To clarify a previous post above, you get one exception per toon to the 200 cap on tradeskills. In other words, I can go to 300 JC on Buddi, but if i also want to go above 200 pottery, I have to roll a 2nd toon to do my pottery. Other exceptions to this rule are Alchemy, Tinkering, Poison Making and Research, which can be skilled over 200 with no impact on the "one over cap" rule. So, for example my gnome mage can be over 200 in Baking, Tinkering and Research.

When we get to Luclin you can take them all to 300 with AAs.

The advantages to being agnostic are largely overstated. Only Enchanter is it ever important. It tends to be helpful to think of deities divided into Good Neutral and Evil. These are the categories from Sullon Zek when it was live:

Good: Mithaniel Marr, Erollisi Marr, Rodcet Nife, Quellious, and Tunare

Neutral: Brell Serilis, Bristlebane, Karana, Prexus, Solusek Ro, The Tribunal, and Veeshan

Evil: Bertoxxulous, Cazic-Thule, Innoruuk, and Rallos Zek

Most the time if you pick a Neutral deity, your race is going to matter more than your deity. There might be a handful of exceptions like Ogres hating Brell Serilis (not sure if that's true) -- but generally theres not a big difference between Dark Elves of Bristlebane and Dark Elves of Innoruuk.

The big thing is Evil Races don't like Good Deities and visa versa. You can't really pick Good Gods as an evil race. But if you get a Guise and turn into a Dark Elf as Tunare -- you can't walk through Neriak. I would avoid picking an evil deity with a good/neutral race. You will get baggage of the evil deity and almost no pay off. Evil Humans still have trouble going to Ogre cities etc.

A lot of people suggest you go agnostic as a Warrior or a Rogue. Picking a deity is actually a better idea. Bristlebane will just as accepted as agnostic in evil towns. You'll likely experience no drawbacks but also have the benefit of the pottery charm and faction with other Rogue guilds. Good Warriors should avoid Rallos Zek IMO, little to gain from this deity except maybe a bit of Ogre faction that still isn't enough

There are some interesting intricacies to consider with deities as well. Prexus worshipers aren't KoS by sharks and other Ocean creatures. Brell Serilis worshipers aren't KoS to those earth elementals in the hole (or the one outside the OT city). Innoruuk worshiping Clerics and Shamans get a snare neck.

On the TLP server you can make Cultural armor that is very nice up until PoP. it is all deity specific stuff and some of it is almost as good as raid gear all the way up until PoP. I think you can make the first good cultural combines in Velious. The High Cultural armor for the Wizard was some very nice stuff and the Human plate cultural armor for a bard was also very nice. The issue you will have is you need to have a healer class level 29 or high imbue the gems for each piece. Human have so many different deities to choose from its a pain in the butt to get the armor made and some of it inst as good as the high elf or ogre armor.

Whats a good deity recommendation for Human Clerics who dont want to be evil and worship inny?

Been playing this game a long time. Did not know this.

Thank you.