Hi, I am an old time player, I played from release to 2002 and am looking to journey the game again. I am trying to find a class that can do everything I want and was hoping for a little insight. I am in no rush to level and have no plans at all to box. I plan on starting from level 1 and enjoying the game slowly and playing on the FV server. What I'm looking for is a class that can solo, explore every area of the game, and go deep into dungeons to kill hard named mobs. Killing raid mobs would be a plus if possible. The classes that I'm currently looking at Monk, Shadowknight, or Mage. Thanks
Shadowknight would be good with a healer merc. You'll be able to take some good hits, do ok damage with a 2 hander, and a very crappy pet, that will sometimes hit something instead of just low lvl agro pull adds. In addition you have snare to halt runners, invis and invis to undead to easily skip past trivial stuff in dungeons to get to the higher level stuff deeper down. Which comes in handy. And FD for those "oh " moments. And as you get higher level, they start to get quite a bit more powerful once your AA's fill out. Over all SK is my favorite tank class, they are quite versatile IMO. That being said, you could also probalby molo extremely well with a shaman and a tank merc. Shaman debuffs and dots are very powerful, plus the healing power to keep the merc up. Mage you could for sure solo to max level with out a problem. But I don't know how strong they are for tougher solo/moloing. So someone else would have to weigh in on that. Monk would be similar to what I wrote about the shadowknight, except, it would not have the utility spells, but would do more damage faster. With the trade off of probably taking more damage. Although their evasion gets pretty good against easier mobs. So if you stuck to blues/light blues all the time for leveling they'd probably work out really well.
Without a doubt the SK with a good healer merc is the one you want. The monk starts out strong, but seems to get weaker as you get higher. The SK starts a little slowly, but when you become higher level you'll be pulling entire zones and killing the named in the process!! I started playing the game around the same time as you and was surprised to find SK's so good when I came back to the game. Because back in the day, they were known as a broken class.
SK is currently the most powerful of the ones that you list, with it you will be able to tank 4-10 mobs as you get high into higher levels. It is a "terminator" class, with it you will never need CC, pulling, etc, and DPS is really good. The mage can tank 1 mob really well with the pet, but it will need CC & pulling for you to play through the group content. Choosing a mage will force you to play with classes that bring CC/pulling (or nullify the need for it), if you want to go through all group content. I would advise against playing a monk, solely based on what I read posted by monks. They seem to be very unhappy with the current balancing of their class. Playing a mage is my preferred play style, and I avoid playing with "terminator"-classes, because I like a game play closer to "EQ Classic". By doing that, I make it significantly harder for myself, which is my preference. A lot of good people will advice you to go the other way, with good reason, and I will do the same, although not wholeheartedly .
"Terminator" class is right on! After playing my SK I always find myself saying to myself, "I'll be back", LOL.
It's an amalgamation of Mercenary and solo. Ex: an SK with a cleric merc. Not quite soloing, but close.
How long would it take to molo from 85 to 105 ? (if it's possible) Also does the SK molo better than a BST ? Thank you.
Shadow Knight fits what you said the best. You will need, however, to farm money for your equipment or pay for it with actual money. You can't generally get upgrades after a certain level without a box.
Definitely don't go Monk. You will run into a lot of problems later on without a tank. Shadowknight or Mage are both good choices. Beastlord or Necro also good choices.
