Agnarr: New to Server, Undecided on Class

Starting up on Agnarr and can't decide on what to play. Last time I really played was around PoP, and I had a Bard at the time. I wasn't the greatest at pulling or mezzing, mostly just left to do whatever dps I could and provide regen/haste/etc. Usually was fine as group had other pullers or CC. Got to about 63 but never raided or anything like that.

I am leaning towards doing Bard again, but also maybe Rogue. Monk was in the running but since I don't enjoy pulling I decided to leave it out. Probably will be playing casually but eventually would be nice to raid.

From what I have seen Rogues seem to be less liked over other melee dps for grouping? Question is what is wanted less, a rogue or a bard that sucks at pulling and ccing?


Bonus Question: Starting with nothing on the server, but if I had 1 Krono what would be best bang for the buck items for a Bard or Rogue?

warrior,cleric,enchanter or bard.
these are the most wanted for groups/raid even. especially warriors

For a good leveling guild, join The Fam. You can join my army of alts.

You are just going to make people mad if you play a Bard that wont pull. Rogues are tons of fun and they are not hated like you think. A krono is worth about 9K on Agnarr right now. Get a Fungi tunic and a decent poker. Buy haste with the money left over.

This man speaks the truth.

I've noticed that dps classes end up in the lfg black hole more-so than other classes, unless they develop a network of regular in game friends, or offer reliable raid geared dps. Group geared tanks also go wanting, since they are so gear dependent, and so many tanks on EQ raid these days. If you want to consistently group your best hope as a casual is a class that doesn't require good gear, and is actually needed. This really limits you to something like a slower, cc, or healer in my opinion.

Finding reliable in game friends would off set that - but good luck there. The game is mostly boxes and (perhaps friendly) self sufficient clusters of people.

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How often am I really going to be in a group that doesn't have someone who can pull or CC though?

If your a bard in a group and your not pulling, you suck at your class.

Bards and Monks are expected to pull, because they have the tools for it and they have no need to sit and med. Even if you are in a group with a Monk, the Bard will be expected to pull, because the Monk's DPS is better than yours. It's just the nature of the beast.

I don't want to seem blunt, but if your choice is a bard then your class defining skills are Pulling/CC/ADPS and nothing else. If I join a group as a cleric and choose not to heal I will find myself LFG. Maybe this game isn't for you, play a single player adventure game where people expect nothing from you, or... just maybe play your class as its role intends. You won't find many people that will accept the whole I wanna do what I wanna do in any group on any server.

I don't currently have anyone I know playing, but I definitely aim to make friends as much as possible to offset the LFG. I have also heard good things about "The Fam" guild in terms of finding groups.

A bard would probably have an easier time finding groups over a rogue, and is less gear dependent with some solo ability.

Pulling I can sorta do, at least at low levels. I never mastered the whole breaking camps thing. I remember I quit playing around the time that I got Fading Memories as well so never really got to learn with that.

Don't really agree with you there. Yeah a cleric joining a group and saying they wont heal is probably not going to have a good time. Cleric is a pretty single role defined class though. Outside of maybe some gimmick undead killing group that just wants a cleric for that, yeah you are going to be healing.

Yeah I may suck at and not really enjoy pulling or CCing, but in a group I still provide ADPS, and in a group that already has a puller and CC, thats mostly what id be doing anyway. I can always grit my teeth and learn to do CC/Pulling better as well.

Consider what you will enjoy playing both thematically and mechanically. You also need to consider what your focus is -- grouping with friends, pugging, raiding? The answers will vary based on those parameters.

Speaking very generally Bards will always be in higher demand. However, if you're not really playing the class to it's potential you might be easily replaced by a /melody box.

I can see where you're coming from but if you're willing to learn you will pick up on CC and pulling. Very little in this game is difficult to pull it off it's mostly knowledge. Once you have the knowledge the execution becomes easy. Even this version of the game can be unforgiving though and many people playing are veterans that don't have a lot of patience for mistakes or learning curves, so it can be intimidating.

I would also say that more important than class choice is forming friendships and social bonds. You will eventually find a guild or group of people you enjoy playing with and then can generally avoid pugging. At this point I basically never pug nor have any need to. It took a while to get there (many months) but if you stick with it your friends will bring you regardless if you're pleasant and have good awareness. Focus on helping others and asking nothing in return. What goes around will come around. I'm a noob but I've been adopted by a group of exceptional players who help me out and we accomplish a lot together.

You will spend a LOT of time on your character. Be honest with yourself about what you want to be doing for hours upon hours days on end. Play what's actually enjoyable to you personally and the rest will fall into place.

Honestly, I'v always though that a bard pulling isn't the maximum efficiency you can get in a group. But I haven't run the numbers. But my reasoning is the bard mana regen song is lost on all the casters in the group for the time he is out pulling mobs, and if you are chain pulling mobs that is most of the fight and med time. I personally, as a caster would much rather have the tank starting to chain pull once the mob gets to, say 25% or so, since the tank dps is low anyway. The time he is away from the hitting the mob will not reduce the kill time as much as if a dps like a monk is away from attacking the mob. The only downside is you will take more group damage for the % of the mob hp that he is not tanking the mob. But you gain the additional mana regen time from bard song, and if the alternative is the monk pulls, then you also gain the extra dps time on target of the monk hitting the mob.

Yes I know for tricky pull situations you may need a monk or bard to pull given their tools but for a lot of pulling situations anyone can be the puller and I always thought group efficiency would be improved if the bard could stay in camp helping the multiple casters regen mana faster, and the monk stay in group fighting the mob that is being killed while the puller is bringing the next mob.

I suppose I am wrong on this as I would guess min/maxers would have figured this out by now.

Don't play a rogue.

If you don't feel like you can put the effort into bard, and let's face it, rogues are not the best choice. Roll a Ranger, they're great in this era, faceroll stuff.

It sounds like you want to play, what I would call, a "box-bard" - meaning you kinda just want to chill at the camp, play your tunes, and join in on melee when the mob comes in.

I would say about 20% of groups will be open to the idea of a "box-bard". These are usually box groups where someone else is more invested in the group than you are, have a nice thing going already, and are content with you just playing a couple songs.

In most cases, probably 9 times out of 10, at some point you will be asked to pull as a bard...so if that's not your forte, maybe reconsider? You could advertise while LFG that you're not a puller so the group knows what they're getting, but it will probably lower your chances of a group by 75%.

Rogues have a tougher time getting a group only because DPS is everywhere on TLPs and they're not at the top. When you have tons of DPS to choose from, you'll typically choose a monk or mage over a rogue. When a group is looking specifically for DPS, the order preference is usually:

1. Enchanter (charm)
2. Monk
3. Mage
4. Druid / Necro (charm)
5. Rogue
6. Ranger
7. Wizard

Just my 2 cents...

It sounds like you want to play a bad bard. This is the bard that thinks /melody and autoattack is all they need to do to contribute. This is probably 75% of the random bards out there in my experience so your not alone. But you are also what gives bards as a class a bad name.

One possible alternative, and I'm just thinking out loud here, is to focus on crowd control. The point of a good puller is not to bring too much back to camp (or too little for that matter, but I digress). But if you want to let the Rogue pull or whatever, you could stay in camp to feed mana and then actively manage mezzes. This is pretty niche though, it only works when the puller can get small pulls that are greater than 1 but less than say 4. That is also assuming the level caps on bard mez aren't crappy. I don't remember, I know there is a song line that is, but I think it's Charm. With that said, using a combo of Mez and Charm could make you effective as a non-puller. That is assuming a group is ok with that, which I don't know for sure.

It's important that you play what you want to play. It's your money/krono/whatever. That being said, you do need to understand your class's main function, especially in PUGs.
If you are looking for a family casual guild that also raids, you can also check out Good Tidings. It's been the most fun I've had in EQ.