MegaThread:Top DPS Per EQ Expansion

What are the DPS rankings are per expansion (assuming max AA/Gear/Group Composition). This information is difficult to find on the web, so I thought I'd make a mega-thread containing this data.

Basically, just copy and paste the expansion that you have knowledge of, and describe how you'd rank the DPS charts class-wise. Ideally, you elaborate a bit about that expansion and the DPS classes you listed, along with why you ranked the classes how you did. If you categorize your rankings by melee/caster/short term/long term/funness, then that is fine also!

Please, only list expansions that you had personal experience playing. Information for latter expansions is very much welcome also!

If we could get a good thread going here, it would be a great resource for noobie/veteran players considering returning to the EverQuest TLP servers.

1. The Ruins of Kunark
2. The Scars of Velious
3. The Shadows of Luclin
4. The Planes of Power
5. The Legacy of Ykesha
6. Lost Dungeons of Norrath
7. Gates of Discord
8. Omens of War
9. Dragons of Norrath
10. Depths of Darkhollow
11. Prophecy of Ro
12. The Serpent's Spine
13. The Buried Sea
14. Secrets of Faydwer
15. Seeds of Destruction
16. Underfoot
17. House of Thule
18. Veil of Alaris
19. Rain of Fear
20. Call of the Forsaken
21. The Darkened Sea
22. The Broken Mirror
23. Empires of Kunark
24. Ring of Scale
25. The Burning Lands

Monk for the first 6, at least.

DPS is about the most subjective thing in the EQ lexicon, ha! Should be fun to see some of the results though.

Having played mostly on TLPs thru Luclin, here's my best guess:

Classic - Group (best to worst)
Enc / Nec (with charm)
Monk / Mage
Rogue / Ranger / Warrior
The rest...

Basically, charm pets are insane DPS. Monks have the best melee because their fists are better than almost all weapons in era. Mages are good because their pets are solid. Other melee DPS are hamstrung by lack of good weapons.

Classic - Raid
Monk
Wizard* / Necro
Rogue / Ranger / Warrior
Sk

It really depends on the raid and the MR of the boss. I believe casters are largely useless in PoSky, but pretty great on Naggy / Vox. Melee's still do decently and about the same. Mages are only useful on Vox.
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Kunark - Group
Enc / Nec (with charm)
Monk
Rogue
Mage
Ranger

Charming is still the best thing out there. The Ilis wizard at disco can easily out-dps an entire group. Other than charms, and assuming epics, monks are by and large the best DPS. Rogues are also good, with mages still being strong.

Kunark - Raid
Monk
Rogue
Necro / Wizard

Monks remain the dominant DPS on all raids except Gore. Rogues are a good 15-20% behind an equally geared and played monk. Necros and wizards really shine on Gore.

Velious - Group
Enc (with charm) (nec too, but not many mobs)
Monk
Rogue / Mage
Ranger
Necro

Charming is still tops - but not by as much. Many of the grinding zones consist of uncharmables. Druids, however, can get some decent charm DPS using the wolves in KD. Monks are still tops DPS, rogues begin to close the gap with ToV weapons. Mages flourish in the largely fire-nuke friendly zones. Necros can do some serious DPS if they have Ancient Master of Death and Ancient Lifebane.

Velious - Raids
Monk
Rogue
Necro / Wizard
Ranger

Monks are the tops, but rogues start to flirt with first place. Necros shine on the really long fights (AoW, ToV dragons) and wizards can make noise on the shorter ones.

Luclin - Group
Ranger / Wizard
Monk / Mage / Rogue
Necro / SK / Shaman

Top group DPS gets murky in Luclin for sure. Rangers and Wizards easily get the biggest boost from AAs. Rangers get insane bow-damage and wizards get some wild critical nukes. Necros can lay down some DPS simply due to their insane mana regen. Monks, rogues, and mages stay solid.

Luclin - Raid
Wizard
Ranger
Monk / Rogue

Wizards are pretty godly in Luclin raids. Rangers will get top DPS when they do their burns, but there's a reason why there's a mass main-change to wizard and ranger in this expac. Monks and rogues will almost never see a top 5 parse here.

...

These are my opinions having played on Ragefire (as a raiding monk thru SoL), Phinny (as a raiding necro thru SoL), and Agnarr (didn't raid). Your experiences may vary of course.

Over the course of my TLP experience, the most fun class was definitely the raiding monk. Beloved in both the group and raiding game, and when bolstered by my shaman alt, there was almost nothing I couldn't do.

The necro was cool too - a much more profitable farmer than the monk - but not quite as fun overall. I paired him up with a druid, and while it was a solid combo, it just didn't have the dominance of the epic raid monk / shaman.

Not to deep dive into this can of worms, but on most Velious fights that matter besides Tunare will likely be topped by Wizards. AoW/Tormax/Vulak/most ToV dragons etc.

You really need to add granular analysis by raid mob where class strengths are considered against each mob.

Given that certain classes will excel and others are marginal, you cannot get any real sense of an overall expansion.

For example, melee DPS can own blob 1 in VT because it has like zero AC and extreme resists. But for a mob like Seru other classes could dominate and again others against Emp.

Taken in aggregate across a broad spectrum of mobs only then could you get an arguable sense as to which classes can parse Top 5 instead of an anecdotal “Rangers are Top 5 in Luclin”. Note I don’t disagree with the Ranger statement in Luclin; it’s generally understood EQ/AM3 was an OP consequence that resulted in Rangers effectively parsing well into PoP as Top 5. It’s also the reason why they saw marginal increases to archery for many subsequent expansions.

Another great example would be Gore vs Sev vs Talendor. Gore makes melee useless speed bumps. Talendor marginalizes Fire focused DPS like Mages. Sev is kinda in the middle. Taken in a vacuum you’d need to consider all 3 to argue best DPS in the expansion; but if you only look at Necros against Gore - you may come up with a different opinion. Then - once you toss in what’s his face in Seb - you could argue enchanters with pets - but if they only use pets on one mob out of 4 - they quickly fall out of the conversation of Top 5.

TLR: There’s such a myriad of situations you need more than anecdotal experience or class knowledge to make a megathread on this topic.

Or you could just make it simple, Monk. Outside of one off encounters, or niche situations, they are the best consistent DPS, always near or at the top regardless of fight. Sure, a ranger can disc, a chanter can charm, or a wizard can burn all their mana, but a monk just presses auto attack and goes off. They can even drop their agro (even though they never do).

Edit: through GoD. Idk about later.

You must be the monk in my raid who parses 30th. Never clicking epic. Abilities. Or Discs.

Not Rogue

Real answer is too subjective. So much comes down to who has what discs available for each fight, do they have 7th, do they have the right aDPS group, is there a pocket beastlord they pay krono under the table to keep them perma fero'ed?

Monk is just the all-around "lol i do dps" class that is about as braindead simple and amazingly effective as you can get. Zerkers get REAL good past omens but their rotation is a lot more of PITA and for 90% of TLP players Omens+ doesn't even matter.

Wizards are amazing for open world dps races and wreck most raid content outside of Sky from Classic->Velious which is where most TLP players will actually see content. Meleequest really takes off PoP+ as weapon ratios start to outpace spells though they remain competitive at irregular periods in EQ history and don't require nearly as much of a perfect aDPS setup to output at near-max potential.

Necros are LOL outside of a few very specific fights prior to much later expansions just because everyone outputs so much more damage these days that their mana efficiency doesn't come into play that often.

But seriously, not rogue.

I’d be lower than that, I’d miss the mob moves and not attack at all for a bit. I appreciate the vote of confidence though!

Group vs Raid is good... but raid you must must must consider burst vs duration fight. Shadowknights can do amazing burst, so can wizards, so can bards, but they can't manage the sustained (and safe) as say a monk or ranger.

In conclusion, you absolutely must consider sustained vs burst damage.

If we only had a reliable parser these days...

I lost you here.....

Dirge. It gets reel gud.

In expansion 15 the top 5 looks same as previous 10: Monk, Monk, Monk, Rogue, Rogue.

Some of you need to see a competent shaman parse Kunark through PoP.

This is a good post. The lure fights in Kunark aren't great for wizards either.

Assuming realistic top end raid gear, here is my opinion for Classic until DoN. First class listed has the best sustained the second has the best burst/burn

Classic- Mage, Wizard
RoK- Rogue, Monk
SoV- Rogue, Wizard
SoL Ranger, Ranger
PoP Ranger, Ranger
LDoN Ranger, Ranger
GoD Rogue, Monk
OoW Rogue, Monk
DoN Rogue, Monk

This is excluding areas with OP charm pets. In certain zones chanter, necro and druids can crank out some highest DPS with the right charm pets.

And just before the endzone, he drops the ball.

I can say we supported monks and rogues over rangers so maybe they should be higher:

Tallon Zek in 240s, 1673k @6973 | Ranger 136k@566 | Monk 133k@556 | Rogue + pets 130k@543 | Wizard + pets 127k@530 | Ranger 118k@491 | Rogue 102k@425 | Rogue 100k@417 | Ranger 98k@407 | Ranger 95k@396 | Mage + pets 79k@331

Tallon Zek in 270s, 1700k @6296 | Monk 145k@536 | Rogue + pets 140k@519 | Ranger 124k@460 | Ranger 112k@414 | Rogue 107k@397 | Necromancer + pets 88k@327 | Wizard + pets 86k@320 | Mage + pets 85k@316 | Monk 84k@311 | Rogue 83k@308 | Necromancer + pets 83k@307 | Ranger 79k@292 | Beastlord + pets 75k@280 | Wizard + pets 73k@271 | Beastlord + pets 68k@251

Tallon Zek in 346s, 1723k @4981 | Monk 180k@520 | Rogue + pets 170k@491 | Ranger 118k@342 | Ranger 118k@340 | Wizard + pets 117k@339 | Rogue 105k@303 | Ranger 101k@292 | Necromancer + pets 97k@281 | Rogue 92k@267 | Wizard + pets 91k@263 | Monk 63k@181 | Warrior 55k@160 | Ranger 54k@157 | Beastlord + pets 50k@144 | Rogue 48k@139

Vallon Zek in 232s, 1454k @6269 | Monk 147k@635 | Rogue + pets 132k@567 | Rogue 107k@461 | Ranger 87k@377 | Monk 86k@370 | Wizard + pets 82k@352 | Rogue 72k@311 | Necromancer + pets 68k@295 | Wizard + pets 62k@269 | Beastlord + pets 61k@263 | Beastlord + pets 58k@252 | Mage + pets 52k@224 | Ranger 51k@218 | Warrior 46k@200 | Warrior 46k@198

Bertoxxulous in 256s, 2063k @8060 | Monk 168k@657 | Ranger 166k@648 | Rogue + pets 154k@600 | Rogue 124k@486 | Rogue 121k@473 | Ranger 105k@412 | Rogue 103k@403 | Ranger 91k@357 | Rogue 91k@357 | Rogue 90k@350

Bertoxxulous in 231s, 2045k @8851 | Ranger 153k@661 | Monk 148k@640 | Rogue + pets 123k@532 | Rogue 97k@420 | Ranger 93k@404 | Mage + pets 91k@393 | Rogue 90k@392 | Monk 90k@389 | Ranger 88k@382 | Wizard + pets 85k@368 | Rogue 82k@357 | Wizard + pets 82k@356 | Beastlord + pets 75k@326 | Ranger 73k@315 | Rogue 68k@295

Bertoxxulous in 321s, 2079k @6477 | Monk 171k@533 | Rogue + pets 160k@498 | Ranger 158k@493 | Ranger 141k@440 | Rogue 129k@401 | Ranger 121k@376 | Mage + pets 111k@347 | Rogue 109k@339 | Wizard + pets 96k@298 | Beastlord + pets 87k@271 | Monk 82k@255 | Ranger 78k@244 | Rogue 76k@236 | Warrior 74k@230 | Warrior 67k@209

Bertoxxulous in 211s, 2046k @9696 | Monk 157k@743 | Ranger 155k@736 | Rogue + pets 130k@618 | Ranger 126k@596 | Ranger 120k@570 | Rogue 109k@515 | Monk 98k@462 | Wizard + pets 96k@455 | Rogue 88k@418 | Ranger 86k@406 | Rogue 74k@350 | Rogue 70k@330 | Mage + pets 69k@327 | Rogue 66k@311 | ShadowKnight 63k@297

Cazic-Thule in 265s, 1995k @7530 | Ranger 170k@643 | Monk 163k@614 | Ranger 162k@611 | Rogue + pets 149k@562 | Rogue 120k@454 | Wizard + pets 115k@436 | Rogue 110k@417 | Rogue 108k@408 | Mage + pets 104k@394 | Ranger 86k@326

Cazic-Thule in 259s, 2012k @7770 | Monk 156k@601 | Ranger 152k@589 | Rogue + pets 140k@542 | Ranger 111k@430 | Rogue 109k@420 | Monk 107k@415 | Wizard + pets 106k@408 | Ranger 98k@378 | Ranger 96k@371 | Rogue 93k@358 | Warrior 71k@274 | Wizard + pets 67k@260 | Beastlord + pets 67k@259 | Warrior 57k@220 | Rogue 57k@220

Cazic-Thule in 301s, 2020k @6710 | Rogue + pets 189k@629 | Ranger 182k@604 | Monk 175k@580 | Rogue 135k@448 | Ranger 121k@403 | Monk 111k@370 | Rogue 102k@339 | Ranger 95k@315 | Ranger 93k@308 | Beastlord + pets 83k@276 | Warrior 79k@263 | Rogue 78k@259 | Mage + pets 72k@240 | Paladin 68k@227 | Beastlord + pets 63k@210

Cazic-Thule in 257s, 1948k @7581 | Monk 181k@705 | Rogue + pets 153k@596 | Ranger 135k@527 | Monk 113k@440 | Rogue 111k@430 | Rogue 105k@407 | Ranger 103k@402 | Wizard + pets 99k@384 | Ranger 93k@363 | Ranger 91k@356 | Mage + pets 70k@272 | Rogue 67k@261 | Warrior 64k@251 | Warrior 63k@246 | Warrior 55k@216

Bertoxxulous in 246s, 2064k @8388 | Ranger 164k@666 | Rogue + pets 161k@656 | Monk 160k@650 | Ranger 150k@608 | Wizard + pets 113k@458 | Ranger 108k@437 | Rogue 102k@415 | Ranger 88k@358 | Rogue 88k@357 | Monk 79k@322 | Rogue 76k@310 | Warrior 73k@297 | Necromancer + pets 71k@291

Ranger top dps kunark to PoP at least. Those that can't top parse, are afk auto attacks noob or people with fast weapons.