And having quite a bit of fun with it so far, but before I commit to a server or character, a few questions: What servers are currently the most populated? I see there is only 1 server tagged as European, since I am very sensitive to latency, would it be recommended to play here and does it have a similar population to whatever the main servers are? I am thinking of starting a necromancer because this is what I played back in the day, there's just something so cool with having a decently strong skeleton that can dual wield weapons, are they a decently strong class towards late game? And I'm assuming they're quite easy to level, what other classes are easy to solo level? Thanks in advance.
Necomancer is arguably the best class to solo if you have nothing. If you do it right you're not getting hit, have FD so don't have to die when things go south and have immense damage and mana capabilities, which equals more stuff dead a week. Necro is quite viable on live servers, TLPs, anywhere. Except where things summon. lol. You might consider playing on more than 1 server and seeing different content / testing other classes. Our family plays and may raid on live (level 115) on Luclin. On Ragefire, (Level 85 level cap currently) and on Vox, a pretty quiet server play our own groups, just us exploring and doing old stuff like PoP raids at level. On most days I'm the only person left in the old Necrotalk ingame channel. Been almost a year since I saw another player in it. (I used to raid necro) Epic is still very relevant also.
First off... WELCOME BACK! Secondly. Most classes you can level up pretty fast these days. they introduced mercenaries you can hire to help you level. they basically remain the same level as you. 4 types: Tank, Healer, Melee DPS, Caster DPS. SO War, Clr, Rog, and Wiz. You can have 1 out at a time, they charge an upkeep fee every 15 minutes (amount charged is based on your character's level). Choosing a war merc, like most do, will make it pretty easy to level up to 60. In some cases you may want to change up during those lower levels. But as a rule of thumb a tank merc is the way to go early on(not the end all). Necros do have strong pets, once high level, geared and buffed, and with the right AA they are formidable. They are definitely decent class end game. Third, as to Euro server, if you are referring to AB, that server has had a long history of glitches / bugs/ lag/ etc. Though I heard it's been fixed(so atm I do not know how it fairs). The Rathe has a decent population, as does CT and I heard BB as well. but You should check out the EQ official discord and place your quirries there, you may actually get more responses. As well as you should look for a population closer to what will be your normla play times. I think atm the highest populated servers would tend to be the TLP servers( you have to have all access account(sub'd) to play on them). They are limited in content vs Live servers. However a decent amount of live servers boast good populations( I say decent as in the general chat comms channel we'll usually see 350 to max and a general1 chat open up).
Agree with Necro and with Pet and Healer Mercs you can even do a lot of summoning things too, so it's very flexible.
On a necro, a rogue or wizard merc = $$, just out aggro them FTW Tank mercs are OP until level 85-ish, more so if you do J5 merc quest.
Thanks for the responses and yes I was referring to AB (Antonius Bayle). I do think I would prefer playing on a standard server, just because I like to be able to experience all the available content and I was gonna get the All Access anyway (probably after the maintenance). Unless of course the locked servers have a lot higher population, then I might consider those instead, I just wanna be able to find groups, people to play and socialize with, etc. And I'm guessing AB is the only server in Europe? Are all other servers based on East or West Coast US? (Because latency difference is quite significant between the 2). Seems like Necromancer will definitely be the class I'll roll with.
Food for thought, if you want to ever see raid content on earlier than level 115 expansions, you can join a TLP at one of several stages of Progression. Ragefire in particular is at level 85 and very easy to get to 85 there. You can also play along with the max level players through all that content and still get to level 115, but not have to buy new expansion for awhile. I came back to live servers a few months back and 114 levels of irrelvance takes a while to catch the current meta. On ragefire it takes 2 days. No reason you can't do both. As far as I know, all EQ servers are in California. AB is a good option also, but check bug reports, AB has outages and lag too. Latency might not be as big a factor as you think.
Anything you like, though I'm partial to Iksar. Regen and base stamina and the cool lizardy sound when it's in melee.
If i had to do it all over again, i would say SK all the way. Tanking, self heal taps, dps, aoe taunt, Dots, everything. Mage is viable as is bard and Beastlord. Really dealers chioce.
I was looking at coming back after 16 years as well and curious about what classes are most desired so it'd be easier to meet people for grouping at later levels? (likely starting on FV for the population). Sorry to piggyback on another post.
Chances are you wont be grouping much until near max level. Be sure to have web pages open to research what you are doing because the game appears to be less disruptive then it used to be and has gone through so many changes that the information out there is inaccurate
FV is awesome, because of population & most loot/items are freely tradable... so you can get geared quick. I'm planning to come back tonight after being gone since the launch of WoW-classic, and now that TBC is around the corner, my guild took a break from raiding. I might not even come back to WoW, since EQ has always been my first love, and I like to play more casually nowadays due to RL. I multibox, so if you need help with items, I might be able to help
The game works off the trinity, or better the tetrahedron. Tank, healer, DPS, support. The best solo/molo classes are the ones that can fill the most roles. Necro fills all 4 roles, especially against the undead. For pure solo, the necro is limited by it's pet tank and the ability to heal it. For molo, the healing is not limited but the pet tank still is. A few classes will out perform the necro in molo situations, but really the necro performance is just down right top notch. If you really want to necro to the fullest potential, find undead areas. Necros are the enchanters of the undead. You can do just about everything I can. Paci, slow, mez and charm. They are the one bane class that really has some true power against their bane type. Necro is a really great and unique class. If you decide you want to change it up, try SK if you want to tank/melee or BST/mage if you want to focus more on the pet. As for race, the benefits on a live server are pretty negligible. The exception is Gnomes because they can tinker. You can level quickly past a point where racial innate benefits matter to any significance. Iksar regen is very insignificant at high levels. High level armor has vision mods so DEF ultravision is not a big deal (although DEF is the only race I really play). You can get a DEF mask from the casino, so if you want to play DEF, it might be worth considering playing a Gnome and getting a DEF mask. Although, it could take you a while to earn enough loyalty to get a mask.
