Class balance through the eras

Does anyone know of a decent write-up talking about class balance over the years? I know they have to exist, but finding them may prove difficult.

Outside of some fuzzy memories I am not sure how much can be pieced together now, so much has ceased to be found from so far back. Used to be a lot of EQ specific and general theory-craft floating around from the early MMO days but havent seen any in over a decade.
Most now will be centered on PvP types as EQ balance was almost entirely based on raid issues.

i think that's too hard to answer because honestly there is too many variables and those will greatly affect the outcome of this conversation we talking tlp or live? raiding or group game? pvp?

I may have to just p.m. some who have never left to get an idea. Talking about pve only. Just some examples: clerics and warriors. Never in their history have they not been wanted for raids. For grouping, warriors were never the same once they finally gave knights a mini defensive disc. For clerics, I'm not sure 100% because I wasn't here anymore. Was it just mercs? Or did druids catching up play a part also?

Wizards were good to great for raids for a long time before they... weren't. I remember them being overly dependant on those concussion legs in pop and gates, but with them they were fine. Was it omens? DoN? Or after that they really dropped off? Not saying they were ever terrible mind you, but at some point rogues made them redundant.

Have bards ever struggled in either? Seems maybe the only class that hasn't at all.

But most classes have struggled at times in one of these two departments. Trying to get ideas of when.

Classes I've played:

Warriors - bad until Velious/PoP
Rangers - bad until Velious, ++ afterwards, +++ PoP/Endless Quiver
Magician - ++ until PoP (your epic will carry you to here), falls off afterwards
Beastlord - ++ OOW onwards, middle of the road elsewhere
Berserker - did they ever "shine?"
Rogue - ++ PoP onwards
Knights (Pal/SK) - +++ until Velious/PoP, Warriors take over as MTs, always strong for snap aggro

Well, if you're looking for OLD school info.....get to searching:

http://www.oocities.org/

This is the archive of everquest, not ZAM.....this.

Yeah that may be your best source along with asking around.

And yeah there were trials for Bards that made others seem trivial.
At some point they forgot the second rule of MMOs, thou shall not nerf unless it is to literally save the game, knowing that ahead of time means being very careful how things enter the game.

depends on if your talking the game as it is now or as it was back then, for example as gladiator says SK's and pallies outshine warriors now, but back in 2000 warriors were head and shoulders above hybrid tanks.

remember Kunark was where the Holy Trinity started of Cleric/Enchanter/Warrior, because if you did not have those three in your group you could not even do decent group content.

because there was very limited knight weapons their DPS sucked, and they had zero defensive type skills, so were really a poor man's tank for a long time.

Hmmm

I played on Solusek Ro as a cleric, my tank throughout classic and Kunark was a half-elf paladin named Manadasa, we did ALL the kunark group content.together...Not that I disagree entirely with your point, but felt need to point out knights were decent enough.

I was a SK all through that period, I could tank ok with a cleric too, but if I was relying on a druid or shaman to heal me I would splat all the time.

Before they made the changes to shaman slow pretty much anyone could tank, it was incredibly over powered. It's really impossible to have this conversation based on each class because each change will always effect other classes. Like the mage nerf on Live effects all aspects of the raiding game because stuff will die at a slower rate impacting tanks, healers, and the melee that dies due to more tanks going splat.

Rogues will struggle until they get a ragebringer and then they'll be decent until AAs when they take off. Similar story with rangers and bards.

Mages will slowly degrade.

Necros and enchanters will remain fairly constant at pretty good to great for awhile.

clerics always been #1

Thanks for that. Probably wouldn't have found that source otherwise.

Are you asking so that you can figure out what class to play?

It would be good to know when to expect lulls, but it won't be a deciding factor. Kind of a "I'm playing this class, but at which points do I need to lower my expectations" deal. This is also an aspect of eq history that has always interested me.

Aye I played a shaman from the beginning and before slow mitigation they were the most powerful class in the game group and solo. POP changed that.

Classes varied wildly.

On TLP it's different. We've had rounds of rebalancing, focuses that werent in originally, discs that werent in originally, melee skills re-smoothed, etc etc.

Historically, it's hard to separate (at least early) people just not knowing the game in some instances with class balance. Also, it fluctuated wildly mid-expansion at times. Necro pet nerf in classic, Monk AC nerf in Luclin, Slay Undead, etc etc.

When/how were slows changed? The only difference I know if with slows is that after a certain expansion the effect stares being mitigated. Far as I can tell slows, at least through PoP are still incredibly OP DPS reduction if you can get it to land.

Eq isn't quite the type of game where a class is largely favoured over the others. Yes their are times where certain classes have a lull. But I've raided at different times from kunark to por, and never have I not seen multiple of every class at raids.