If you only had two weeks to play what class would you pick and why?

If you only had two weeks to play what class would you pick and why?

Your goals:

1. group 100% and enjoy that fresh wave of noobs leveling up before your time is up.
2. You want a chill experience and have time to chat with people freely. You do not want to be a healer... truthfully you want to be "less active". Chilling in the group not pulling or healing or charming. Nothing too "taxing"
3. You want to also find groups quickly. Dont want to waste a lot of time LFG.
4. Maybe make a few krono on the way so think spell and gear cost.

What class do you pick?

My thoughts.

Have a HUGE desire to play shaman but know thats a waste since they shine later and are just healers at low level. I'd main a shm if i was going to stick around a bit. One thought is if D4 is a bust I could come back to shm.

Im leaning towards monk or bard even tho both will be puller most of the time.

Dont feel like tanking again. SK Pal, War, Rng ruled out.

Did wizard last time so thats rulled out other wis would be the perfect fit.

Necro ive done necro 3 or so times on TLP... my fav class. What I played in classic. I could be a gnome... I LOVE starting as a gnome. It makes my heart sing with nostalgia overload.

Damn, now im thinking gnome necro or troll shaman or just go with Monk and suck it up with the pulling part. Havnt done monk in forever.

Mage, unless sending pet is too taxing, then wizard lol

gnome mage checks most if not all of your boxes.

Make a monk
Always be the leader of your group, no one else wants the job anyway
Invite a rogue to the group
Make them pull because you do more DPS and it is better for the team if you stay in camp. They are basically worthless and should be grateful to even have a group invite them. They will do as they are told.

2 weeks? I wouldn't even bother.

Mage and/or Druid. If it was going to be longer, they are two tough classes to level say 50-80. They got a good beat down from the programmers early and have only recovered in more recent expansions.

It's probably needs to be a little more specific. For instance, if you mean to start on an established tlp with mercs, one there will be no one to group with at the lower level and no need to group with mercs.

Trying to remember, but I think before mages get their good focus items there pets are something like 12 levels behind them i.e. level 59 mage w/o epic will only have a level 47 pet which is near useless.

Druid shines early because everyone wants SoW and ports. Almost all their other abilities like damage shield and healing can be done better by another character type. Their spells lean to be outdoors mostly so they are on a bull in a dungeon which is were you want to be.

Enchanter can be good for some quests, but don't really become strong quickly. Later expansions have Breeze, but if it is a new tlp, you are stuck until level 26ish before you get clarity. In my exerience, they are really handy to have along for pumping experience rate. Their Tash spell line lands and makes everything else from other PCs stick.

I wouldn't count on groups unless you had them lined up before starting. Even if you join a guild, they may not have characters on your level to group with. Of course if it is a brand new server, everyone will be at the same level and predicaments.

ROFL!! Your ruthlessness is like a gentle razor and logic is flawless. I am in awe.

This might be the best post I've seen on any forum in at least a year.

I know.. I love the first months so much tho.

100% does. You are right about that.

I did mage a lot too tho.

To me necro is just like a mage but with better utility thats why I left mage out since necro was being considered.

LOL! This is funny cus its true.

Great replies fellows! Appreciate it. Needed the laugh and at the same time all solid advice. A++++ would post again.

Shaman.

You have near unlimited mana if you can do the canni-dance. Basically you sit while watching your mana bar, the second it 'ticks' you cast Canni, then sit before the global regen tick happens again. You can do the same thing on a mount without having to sit, but mounts are generally unavailable in classic.

Also, slows completely break the game. It's to the extent that many groups wont even start until they have a slower. Once you get a pet, along with the Venom of the Snake DoT at around level 37, you can solo better than almost any class. In a group, if there is already a healer, you can out DPS most classes with a single cast of Venom of the Snake, and with Canni-dancing you can easily get that mana back before the next pull, whereas a necro would have to sit and med, even with lich it would take twice as long to get the mana back, making it impossible to cast their poison DoT on every pull.

If you have a really good threat tank on a raid mob you can actually parse with Envenomed bolt and Plague (which Necro's don't get until Kunark). Massive aggro though, especially if you are nuking/healing between DoT recasts, but luckily for us Knight tanks are preferred in classic, as Warriors do not get their defensive stance until Kunark. This makes burst threat classes like Shamans and Wizards lives a little easier.

The biggest con I would say is the buffing in groups and raids. You can make your life easier with GINA timers. I can send you the basic Shaman buff set for classic (str, dex, haste, etc.) if you want. Its not necessary though, you can get by without it, and many do.

Be an Ogre. They are big and stupid looking and armor looks ugly on them, but the frontal stun immunity is far too good to pass up. You will get aggro, and even in some cases be the groups tank (slows are that good), so on a fresh TLP make sure to ask your groupmates for all their rusty weapons, you can turn them into Tarnished weapons, then turn those into Small Brick of Ore, then that into Sheet Metal. This is the most expensive ingredient to make Banded armor, if you can mass farm Rusty weapons on day one it wont take long to get a full suit of banded.

Rusty > Tarnished > Small Brick of Ore > Sheet Metal > Banded Armor

Take an hour and do Alchemy. Make Potion of Rejuvenation! These stack with our regen buff and heal for 1 for every level we have. So at level 40, it heals us for 40 per tick, which is Significant. They are very cheap to make and no one really seems to know about them. It's really what makes Canni-dancing possible because you rarely need to heal yourself. It does slow your attacks by 25%, but we never really melee, as our time is better spent casting Canni, even while tanking, which is another reason to play an Ogre, no spell interrupts is kinda OP.

So, to recap:

• Shaman get into groups easily
• Slows make all content near trivial.
• They can fill a DPS role once they get Venom of the Snake and pet (make sure to give them weapons, they do not naturally duel wield until very high level)
• They can heal any group content.
• Be an Ogre
• Craft Banded armor
• Craft Potion of Rejuvenation
• They have near limitless mana (as long as you are pro-active with canni-dancing)
• They can solo VERY well once you have the tools at mid-late levels (37+)
• They kinda suck to raid on, but as you are only here for 2 weeks this likely wont be an issue.

Yeah but.
Just a few notes. Ogre was more of an obvious choice before focus effects were removed from 1st stage TLP. One of the lizard camps dropped a Burning Aflicition effect item
https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=1142
off a mob that could be as low as level 3, but that is history now. Well past the level Burning Affliction I would be usable by the time focus effects are usable.

There are a couple of other caveats. You don't get Alchemy until level 30 so... Few other things like late to get an invis, nobody likes you. I'm just adding this because your Shaman advice is great, but the changes that have taken place make a Barbarian a decent choice too. I've run both Ogre and Barbarian and I give a slight edge to Barbarian. There's the matter of style too. I typicall run my non obious melee characters using the Naked Mage Model. That for the most part includes Druids, Enchanters, Shamans, et al. Shamans are so strong naked and valued as a healer/slower in groups, not a lot of times you won't be medding during a fight. One of the "Wish I'd said that" was the guy/gal who came up with "The ABCs of magic users: Always Be Casting!"

BTW: Thanks for the tip on the Rusty Weapons to Banded. I've been playing for decades and never thought that one out. Once again it is play style in that I like pp but wouldn't want to spend my two weeks selling banded in The Tunnel even if it made me the richest PC on the shard. I do get that is a lot of peoples goal and I don't object to it.

Personally for 2 weeks I wouldnt play Shaman unless you are invested in 100% playing Kunark onward.

Classic is 8 weeks, and for those 8 weeks the majority of the groups you get will want you primarily healing. You'll end up regretting not rolling a Cleric, at least for the first few expansions.

I was in a very similar situation a few TLPs back with Shaman, love the class but won't start it again.

I've main'd a shaman through the start of a few TLPs and can confirm, without the use of any focus effects in a group you will be top, or near top DPS (in a group) with a single cast of Venom of the Snake with rare exception (cast on incoming before it even gets to the camp, let your tank taunt it off you, you can take the hits. I do this even before slowing most of the time in order to make sure I get the most out of my 36 second DoT). It is to the point that with a geared and hasted pet in some groups you will be VASTLY out DPSing your DPSers in the group. Its more than a little strong. This obviously fades in strength as you gain levels, and when you get the upgrade to Venom at level 49 (Envenomed Bolt) it costs a LOT more mana, so you need the gear to back it up before you can do the same thing, but its still possible in classic era. Also, exceptional players playing any class can do very well. If you think you can do more DPS than a Shaman on any class, good for you, keep it up homie!

I only mentioned making banded so you can wear it. Having it on day one will make you hella more tanky than your group tank (unless they also went the banded route). I hate sitting in the EC tunnel also.

If you are ever just sitting and medding as a shaman you are doing it wrong. You get 2-3x the mana regen by canni-dancing. Nothing, not even a necro can keep up with your mana regen capabilities.

Frontal stun immunity is still ridiculously strong, but you have to play your shaman to that strength. I mentioned tanking, I often find myself pulling for my groups and will sometimes have 2-5 slowed mobs beating on me as they peel them off one at a time. Not having stun immunity would make that impossible. Also just for normal slowing/healing gameplay you WILL get aggro and being able to heal/slow/DoT while things are hitting you is invaluable.

Play whatever you want through, its your $14.99, if you don't want to be an ugly Ogre, then don't!

So many people wildly misunderstand what a Shaman can do.

More of a case of the majority of the groups I was invited to not having another source of healing. You'll then get pidgeon holed into main healing and tossing slows, constantly buffing and tossing out dps when you can.

There's alot of buffing early for shaman, and whilst the slows are nice just about every group I joined had an enchanter (yes, slightly worse slow but still good enough.)

But if you're going to end up healing, I'd still suggest cleric though early and Shaman later. Saying that, if he does have a static group I'd probably then consider Shaman.

you should roll a bard so you can continue tabbing out and not playing video games.

you should also play with the same type of person as yourself so that none of you get anything done in game ever

I think this might be why we are seeing the classic game differently. I always put my own groups together, which almost always includes a healer. This is even easier during the start of a new TLP, there are clerics everywhere, and when a shaman messages them for a group, they usually respond.