Ragefire Server Stats: Post-Beta Results!

Thank you all for participating in the post-beta version of the Ragefire Server Stats. This round we had a grand total of 724 submissions! Statistically, these results are good for a 95% confidence level with a confidence interval of +/- 3.37% (assuming a total population of 5,000).

If you missed the prior survey results, you can find them here.

I hope that the data collected helps you make educated EverQuest decisions on the Ragefire server!

As for me? I'll be running around as Vexiom the Gnome Enchanter. See you all in game tomorrow!


Results

Q1 - What class will your main be at launch?

• There were a couple of big changes here, and eyeballing it you can tell the order changed quite a bit.
• Following the beta, Mages are now far and away the #1 main.
• Mage, Enchanter, Shaman, Wizard saw the most increase from pre-beta
• Monk, Cleric, Druid, SK saw the largest decrease from pre-beta. Monk has slid down to the bottom 3 spot. Interesting considering their power level in early expansions.

Q2 - When new classes are released, will you be switching your main to one of the new classes?

• Really not much change here. Still around 10% will switch to Beastlord, and 2% Zerker.

Q3 - What race will your main character be?

• A few changes here. Most notably a huge uptick in Erudite population, in fact they now sit in the #6 spot.
• Dwarves suffered a large decrease and have fallen to the last place spot.
• Another sneaky gainer was the Troll, now on par with Barbarians.
• The large dip in Human population can be directly linked to the large dip in Monk population.
• Also a dip in Dark Elves, but still the #1 race.

Q4 - When new races are released, will you switch your main character to one of the new races?

• Not much change here. Iksar still dominates with 13% switching. Frog and Cat about 3% each, and less than 1% Drakkin (thank goodness).

Q5&6 - If you are boxing, what will your second and third class be?

• First of all, there has been a flip on total boxers vs non-boxers. The ratio is now 46% boxers vs 54% non-boxers.
• Secondly, I do want to point out that there was a bit of a division error in my original boxing data, so the percentages didn't add to 100. This is fixed now in the below chart.
• We see a huge uptick in Mage boxes post-beta, also a healthy uptick for Enchanters.
• Big decreases came from Shaman and Cleric.

Q7 - Do you plan on raiding?

• Big change here, not sure if people became confused on the true meaning of the question. My intent was to ask if players were going to raid in the described capacity at some point on Ragefire, not necessarily in Classic or Trilogy eras specifically.
• Regardless, the results are showing that there are now 35% of players that either will not be raiding, or will not be raiding in Classic. This metric was equal to the hardcore number in the pre-beta survey.

Q8 - Which tradeskill will you skill up FIRST during classic

• Nearly 30% hate tradeskills and on't plan on skilling any up in Classic. Not surprising considering how few tradeskillers historically are available on servers.
• 16% undecided. I think if you are undecided at this point, the majority of this group will likely not skill up a tradeskill.
• Top 2 in close contention are Blacksmithing and Tailoring. Bags and Armor, the cornerstone of early EQ economy.
• The last big 3 (Alch, Research, JC) fall in close order, and the secondary tradeskills lag far behind.

Q9 - What type of mind altering buffs do you plan to use while playing EQ? Select all that apply.

• This one was suggested by Behee, and I thought it would be fun.
• I think mostly this is fairly predictable with Caffeine out in front, and the order of Alcoholic beverages being: Beer, Spirits, Wine.
• Interestingly, Cannabis is more popular than Wine.
• More later on this when I compare to class selection!

Q10 - Will you be attempting to log in the moment the server launches on Wednesday May 20th?

• 49% of us are responsible working adults that won't take the day off.
• Since the bulk of the population is on the East coast, this is probably wise, as the server won't go live until the afternoon PST. This will likely be near end of the work day for ESTers.
• Nearly all players do plan to play at some point Wednesday, and certainly before or during the weekend. I thought maybe we'd see more players picking it up after the long weekend due to family vacations.

Q11 - Will you take off work Thursday and Friday to play?

• Majority of players claim they will go to work Thursday and Friday. Again, probably a good decision due to the length of time we will be in Classic.

Q12 - Will you be punching things to death or wielding weapons?

• After much controversy, the vast majority of players will not be punching mobs in Norrath whether or not it provides a DPS boost.
• It should be noted that 10% of the punchers are monks, so 15% of punchers are non-monks in the below chart.

Bonus Analysis

Which classes smoke the most weed?

• Rangers are all over it. Tree huggin hippies through and through.
• Paladins rebelling against authority
• Clerics and Rogues are squeaky clean

Which class prefers spirits to beer and wine?

• Shadow Knghts are keepin it classy with spirits. They are also most likely to have been fans of Mad Men.

Don't care, as long as it has Alcohol in it

• Then again, it appears that Shadow Knights are just full fledged alcoholics. Followed closely by Druids, Wizards, and Rogues.
• Paladins will smoke weed all day, but are the least likely to partake in an adult beverage.

Classes that are logging in on Wednesday ASAP

• We already know from the previous survey that Warrior are the most likely to be single, the most likely to hide EQ from their significant other, and most likely to quit before GoD. Let's face it these guys are all volatile ego maniacs. And now they don't work. This all makes so much sense.
• Clerics are dedicated man. Least likely class to quit EQ and Least likely to not show up at work on Wednesday (shout out to Shamans as well).

Sweet! My choice is clear...

Awesome stuff. Thanks for posting! 420 + EQ = Yaaaay!

That monk drop off is shocking - I foresee many bored mages pretty quickly though.

my PAL's name on fippy was Highest sooo... there you have it.

nothing makes sitting in one spot for twelve hours tolerable like the ol' kushasaurus does.

wednesday night i'm going to K-KSSH into a beer, light myself a humdinger b-real wiz khalifa action bronson sized magnifier and get massive. not a likkle but a lot. gaza to gully, uptown to downtown, UK to JA all the way to USA massive wi seh!!! fiyah BURN !!! brap!!

big up every time, for real though.

Agree, most surprising thing of the survey imo!

I'm wondering if most of these main mages are just going to be used to farm items for their future real main. Since we have so long in classic, there's enough time to execute a strategy like that for most people.

And mages are decent for PL too thanks to DS - interesting muse.

I am running a monk main and a Shaman/Mage Duo with my wife...So we are all good!!

I think these were pre and post KS Policy change right? Seems people wanting to be strong are going Mage instead to be the Kings of KS

Also a good, yet unfortunate point.

The mage increase is very telling post dps war announcement...

Your surveys have been great! Thanks for sharing them with us.
I have always played a rogue/cleric duo as my mains, thinking of trying something new this go around!

All those Mages...We don't stand a chance....

The Mage increase doesn't surprise me, given that the server will be akin to the wild wild west. Great dps for racing, and amazing solo ability on top of that.

The Wizard increase also isn't overly surprising given the server rules. Want to dps race for that FBSS? Eat Ice Comet.

Kinda surprised the lack of SKs. HT is great for dps races, but then you need to be able to sustain that which unfortunately SKs might not be able to do. Still, their dps is respectable, and with pet being boosted, as well as their DoTs, they can do pretty well for themselves.

Monk is also surprising. I figured a lot of players would play a Human Monk, get all the faction stuff for the future epic done, and then switch to Iksar when race change potions become available (or simply their headband and sashes with their new lizards).

/highfive to jagarr as I'll be engaging in a similar strategy.

Thanks for this survey. Pretty interesting info.

Great info! Thanks for doing this, it also confirms what my brother and I will be making. No its not mages!!

With those increases in mage, wizard, and enchanter boxes it seems people are planning their blur/nuke KS strats already.

geee... I play mage / enchanter / druid box because I like the characters and the synergy .. now I feel bad

My first main char back in 2000 was a Mage - played up until about 3 years back.

I was looking forward to reliving his early days in EQ. Now I feel dirty!

724 responses, 54% casual raiding. If only you could have run a poll on how many actually believe that they'll see a Classic raid mob before Velious unlocks.

Of course, if literally SEE is the key, I'm sure you can poop sock to SEE one.