Best Group-Friendly Single-Box Class for TLP?

What class would you recommend for someone who doesn't want to box and wants to be welcome in most groups?

Searching the forums, the typical recommendation for a single-box class is Necro. My hesitancy is that Necro doesn't seem to be a class that groups are looking for or boxers are looking to drop one of their toons for.

Bard and Shaman fit into most groups, but because of this they are often boxed. Will this limit group opportunities as a TLP matures?

Enchanter is great up through GoD, but then hits a rough patch where they can't charm in the XP zones and as a result aren't providing DPS to the group.

Enchanter will be the top class to play from Classic-PoPower.
CC / Clarity / Charm DPS all day.

Necro is a good second because they can charm from Classic-Kunark and CC while self sustaining mana without the enchanter clarity.

Groups love necros, or they should if they aren't being foolish. Most classic/kunark dungeon grind spots have undead mobs they can charm and between that and lifetaps and undead nukes they can provide consistently high dps while being pretty self-sufficient.

Enchanters are good, but if you're planning on charming in pugs without your own box support your experience is going to vary wildly. Don't expect much from pugs when it comes to malo or charm break assists. A class like mage or necro would be much more self-sufficient both in a group and solo, and both are capable of extremely high group dps in basically all eras.

Play whatever class you enjoy playing, learn to play that class well (the bar is very low in EQ, especially with the abbreviated toolsets available per class in the early expansions), be an active participant in the groups you get invited to from both a social and gameplay standpoint, and try to be fun and make friends in the groups that you do end up joining. Limit your AFKs and contribute to the groups you join. Specific classes only matter in highly optimized groups or when trying to push the limits of what a single group can achieve. Also make friends with other people that fill your group role and ask them to pass along invites for groups that they are leaving. EQ players are also incredibly lazy, if you take some initiative and form the group yourself you will always have a group, especially if the groups you form are successful and fun.

As long as you have a player who isn't mostly playing AFK, there is a big difference between a boxed bard and a main played bard. Even in the early expansions, bards have more in their toolbox than what most boxers put on passive melody. But, sadly, a lot of players don't see that and will consider bards "worthless" for groups when going after content above the max mez level for a bard.

Enchanter is the answer. Groups will take multiple enchanters if you can play it remotely well. Cleric would be second, but groups will only ever take 1 cleric, but you can stack 3 or 4 chanters if you can find enough mobs to kill.

I'm looking at a druid/necro if Classic start. I've got lazy with boxing, so I'm likely to be soloing each at different times instead of playing them both together. If my playtime is stable and I have a couple of hours to play I'll see if I can find a group, but no biggie if I can't

Shaman if Kunark start. Shaman will be doing a lot of Iksar quests, as I've never done them before, so most likely to be doing stuff groups don't want to do.

I've done chanter before and with the constant interupts I'm having at the moment with calls and visitors it would be too much of a risk to be charming.

This may all go out the window if friends decide to join me on the new TLP.

In Classic through POP, it is Enchanter, and it isn't close.

A group can always use an enchanter.

The best group, in classic, you can be in is 5 enchanters and a cleric.

Play an enchanter if you want 100% player interaction. They have much more engagement than a cleric or healer for CC, and you will get tells as soon as you log in asking you to come join them just for the charm pet. If you plan on soloing content on your downtime though, play a necro but learn how to be a good puller. If you advertise as a puller you will also get the group, as people for some reason hate doing it? dont know why. when kunark comes out if your an enchanter or necro you can also take down some nice camps by yourself.

That is "If you have enough mobs to even cater to that groups kill speed".
Having a classic geared cleric healing x5 charm breaks is also going to strain that cleric to the extreme.

I prefer x3 ench / necro / bard / cleric.
Gives you x4 charm pets, or 3 + a ghetto skelly.
Bard mana song / Bard mez / Bard charm / Pulls / initial tank on incoming / mez breaker

Ranger is also good. while you still have to put up with ranger jokes, most people realize now that a ranger can tank all group content up till at least PoP just fine.

It helps being able to full either a dps or tank role. Ive had plenty of random pugs tanking in the hole during classic as a ranger, and once luclin hits you become the easiest high dps class in the game for a while. if the tank leaves you can fill that role until you get a replacement, then fall back to pew pew without the group having to stop. its pretty versatile.

I would agree with the Ranger, I was always welcome in groups so they could make me do the pulling (and die) and they like my SOE plus as said above Rangers can tank. We can easily do some healing also and nothing compares to our track.

And for soloing well you can heal your self, root and snare and run fast Forest! Run fast! We have some good dots and dd spells.

But our headshot does not really make itself worthy until around level 85 ish.

The best thing to do is make some you think you might be interested in and play them on a live free server before the next TLP server opens.

That Kurn's bottleneck, oof. I plan on working on it so might see you there, lol.

Monk and learn to pull. Chanter has been nerfed into the ground to much to be great at solo and like someone said dont expect great support from a pug, lucky to get heals.

Enc Clr Brd

There are things that compare to your track

Oh! Cheating! You mean cheating! You mean how a bunch of people who play on TLPs cheat all the time using third party software, making tracking obsolete and completely ruining the spirit of the game while at the same time financially rewarding those who enable it.

Yeah. Maybe somebody should do something about that.

As to the OP, for the person who truly has no feelings about classes, enchanter is the answer, but I'm not sure how large a segment of the population that really is. I did the enchanter run on Fippy, and I kind of feel like I did my time, so to speak. It was and remains OP for the meaningful life of most TLPs, but it was never my class. For people who actually have history with the game and have complicated feelings about class identity, the only good answer is to just play your main, or if you're burned out on your main class, play whatever sounds exciting. Play something new.

The reason is that everyone's welcome in most groups. The thing that will stop you from being invited in a group is never that you're playing an undesirable class. It's always role fit, and every class has a role. No one's going to leave a DPS spot open while people are LFG because the group is looking for a "better" DPS class. A group without a tank, however, must have a tank. Same goes for a healer and a puller. To that end, the ranger suggestion isn't a bad one (and enchanter is still god because they can do everything but heal, and if the charm pet is tanking, a lot of hybridy-type folks can heal incidental charm-break damage who couldn't main heal a regular group).

In the end, chasing desirability is a losing proposition. If you play a tank because you know tanks are always needed, you'll find yourself on a server where everybody else had the same idea and, wouldn't you know it? it's DPS that's needed here.

So play the thing you want, and make people love you. It helps if you can do multiple roles, but honestly, just be willing to pull. If you do whatever your regular class role is and you pull, you're already more desirable than 90% of people. Every class can do it, and nobody wants to.

I will never understand why people won't give up the whole "monks are pullers" thing. Sure, in raids, monks are pullers. But in groups? What halfway decent group actually needs things to be split? If you are wasting time trying to FD split things the group next to you will be stealing your mobs. Anyone can pull in classic-PoP. Run up to the mobs, aggro them in some fashion, and run back to your group. It isn't rocket science.

I dunno about you, but I want the super high dps, never runs out of mana dude in the camp killing things, not off running around looking for mobs. Make the rogue pull.

your #1 enemy will be boredom and burnout, so my suggestion would be to play what you know you will enjoy for as long as possible.

Just don't play rogue. AMA confirmed it's an abandoned class.