Easiest class for new prog server?

Yeah, that's not what mages do at level 85+. Not even close. Much much more complicated to play a mage at those levels than at level 65 and lower.

Fair enough. Like I said, I haven't played at those levels so it is entirely possible the Enchanter gets more dumbed down while the Mage gets more complex. I just know that I have played nearly every class (Except Bard and Cleric) to the High-fifties mid-sixties now and the Chanter has been by far the most complex.

upper because p2w

Necro is nice and easy - can even solo pretty well.

Root Rot (no merc, no pet):
Cast Pestilent Paralysis (AA) --> Then stack up like 12 dots

Aggro Kite (can use dps merc and pet):
Darkness + like 11 other dots and run around a bit.

Mass Aggro Kite (probably no merc or pet):
Darkness + 11 dots, rinse and repeat until you run OOM and have a train of snared and dotted mobs behind you - the key is to cast just enough dots on the mob to kill it.

It gets old - but it's quite easy.

Yeah but I think what the OP is asking for is which class is easiest overall, meaning solo/molo, group and raid content. The Necromancer always seemed to have a fairly complex tool set that took quite a bit of skill to master.

Honestly, the more I think about it, the less I feel like any class in EQ is really easy. I mean the general mechanics are always easy but the metal gymnastics you have to play to get the best out of each class are anything but easy. Generally speaking you have to be able to really understand your character and its skills/spells/AA abilities, top to bottom, to be effective. I mean anyone can mash buttons but but if that is all you do, your never going to be more than medicore at best and at worst, an active determent to your party. I guess it kind of goes back to what everyone always says. Play what most interests you because that is the class your going to invest into and because you invest into it, that class will be easiest for you to master.

I never raided with a necro, but solo/molo and grouping was a cakewalk. When solo/molo you load up your 12 best dots. When grouping, you load up some DDs, your fast dots, and whatever other fun spells you want to play with - and then watch everyone else out-DPS you like crazy.

The difference between a class at 50 to 60 and 85 is equivalent to playing a different game. There is like 5yrs of changes built into the classes between lvl 60 and 85.

So one thing I noticed (I may have been responsible for this) is is that the thread shifted from "easiest" to "most optimal". So...sorry for that.

Here's the most realistic way to look at it in my opinion; all classes have a lot of abilities. Some have more than others..and if you don't use these abilities you're not going to perform well at all.

Those who play their class well knows all of their abilities, and what abilities stack with what and time their cooldowns.

Those who play their class abysmally don't use their abilities at all and just cast spells and auto attack.

If you hate lots of buttons on lots of hotbars on your screen...I think you could probably get away with mediocrity by making a couple of socials and throwing all your /alt act #'s on these few buttons. Then throw them as well as your spells (if you're going caster) on a couple of multibinds.

Normally I don't advocate a play style that caps a person out at mediocrity - but it sounds to me like you're more concerned with things being easier and less complicated. And I don't mean that in a way that is to sound like a jerk. I'm just trying to give some advice that might make the game more conducive to how you play.

So in a nutshell you can apply that to any class and probably do pretty okay'ish.

Druid is the easiest class to play from Classic-Live. It's basically the class you go if you're really bad at the game.

Truest story ever. I can make raid parses - heal parses - and keep my group alive and barely do anything at all. I don't even have to focus on raids. I can take that extra time that WOULD be focusing illustrating how stupid some people are on ForumQuest and not being sarcastic AT ALL.

You threw a curve with partner being a Mage. It switched people from easiest to play to who pairs best.

I do play a fair amount of Magician. I think people are 100% right in that it takes less hands on just because of the way things designed. Very reduced option set to offset a powerful pet. You can literally go to the kitchen and make yourself a sandwich during most fights.

This is NOT to say there aren't options available from a strategy standpoint. I've never done it except when leveling a lower level Magician with a higher level Magician but there is a lot to be said for multiple Magicians in a group. One of the successful techniques people use is chain casting pets as they die in groups of Magicians. Malachite is cheap and with two Magicians you can always have a pet up. I'd try a two Magician partnership and for education purposes, report back if it works out OK.

I do agree that a lot can and did change but you would think the overall core complexity of a class would stay roughly the same despite changes. This assumption is also supported quite a bit when you look at the spell line ups for both classes. Most of them are just more of the same, only more powerful, i.e. in the case of the mage, instead of doing 2000 damage, they do 3000 damage or in the case of the chanter instead of mez'ing a max 67 level mob, you can now mez a max 77 level mob.

I have to admit the AA's might be where the biggest changes happens and why it is hard to envision the complexity changing for these classes. I mean if the mage suddenly has to juggle 5-10 active AA abilities that require a lot of thought and planning, I could see them change from the boring, repetitive routine they have in their 60s, to a fun and engaging class that is quite complex and maybe those same AAs reduce to complexity of the Enchanter significantly. Is this where you believe the major changes to the class complexity and play style come from?

Note, I don't want to come off as arguing, I genuinely want to know as I am also planning on playing on the new server and currently trying to figure out which class I want to ultimately play.

Nope. You are still missing a lot.

Yes, some of the spells are the same.

Many of the spells are new. More importantly, many aa's are new. How the aa's and spells work together are new.

In the case of Magician, you are going to be using entirely new spell lines like twincast, jolt of many, torrid sands, burning pyroshroud far more than the two nukes you get at level 65. For pet tanking, rather than sending the pet and tossing an occasional pet heal, now you have several defensive pet buffs to keep up, a pet combat innate buff, multiple damage shields, multiple different heal lines, rumbling servant line. And these are just the spells. Just because they still also have a magic nuke and a fire bolt nuke does not mean that those spells are still a major part of the core gameplay like at 65.

id say rogue not a lot you have to click to perform top DPS as most abilities still tie into your backstab ability

Ranger is easiest of course!

Autofire on
Alt+Tab to youtube
watch funny cat video
Alt+Tab back to EQ
Check advanced loot window!

at least that's what most people think we do!
really though by 85 all classes have hot key bars full of things to click...

Monks lose their top dps spot in PoP, unless the rogue doesn't know how to backstab.

Not unless they've changed class balance again since the last time I played through PoP a couple years ago.

But either way, he's asking about level 85, not pop.

No one here included clerics.

Clerics are actually fairly easy to play, you bind a bunch of heal spells to one button and press that button while targeting the tank (you can do this blindly even) While your spamming on the tank you just have to watch your group health.

In normal group content you can often just use divine arb and or epic shield to heal other people. Some nameds you might need actual group heals. At 85 you still have to watch your mana but after you get quiet miracle and then the other one which you can use instead and get some good gear and have two of the .5 cast low mana cost heals (forget the line) it takes a long time of spamming heals before you run out of mana.

If you're doing a normal experience grind you can literally only keep pressing the same button for hours. I mean you can do more, you can melee you can nuke a bit you can run around you have heal burns. Generally the skill cap is fairly low on a cleric compared to dps. Playing a DPS requires a lot of knowledge to not suck go into any mid tier guild and there's going to be a person doing 2x what another person of the same class is doing, rogue zerker or mage what ever it is they need to understand how their abilities interact with eachother and with other's abilities.

Don't let the fact that there is cleric mercs deter you from playing a cleric. Sometimes 2 cleric mercs can't keep someone up where 1 real cleric could of easily kept the same person alive. I might play a cleric again on this new server.

In a lot of ways your probably right but playing a cleric, really any healer, tends to be a bit more stressful than playing a DPS. I mean you do have to be always paying attention to the entire parties health as it is very, very easy for a spike in damage to get away from you with even a moments lapse in your attention.

I think I still say Mage or Wizard for easiest. I am not saying there is no skill in playing them well but you can absolutely get away with just a few button presses per minute in must situations and still be 80% effective. Honestly with both of those classes your probably going to be spending more time sitting and medding than actually casting if you get right down to it.

This is for the level 85 server, at 85+ you don't spend more time sitting and medding than actually casting anymore.