Hello everyone! I'm strongly considering subscribing and buying the expansion - but before I do I was hoping for some feedback. Some background - I've recently retired permanently from Asheron's Call after cheating and exploiting has been allowed to run rampant. I'm looking for a new nostalgia fix. I played EQ from vanilla to PoP, and basically stopped there. I never progressed passed level 60(5?) i remember AA but maybe only ever got one point of it. I could be mistaken on my time lines, haha it's been a while. I played WoW from vanilla to wotlk and really enjoyed raiding - although I never raided in EQ. If i only want to play one character, and not run multiple accounts (boxes), what would be the most desireable class to play for grouping / raiding? Are tanks and healers still the "in" class, or does it matter? Can tanks / healers (warrior / cleric in specific) solo (or molo i guess now) reasonably or will it be miserable? I guess the way i remember it necromancers and beast masters (to a lesser extent) were the only viable solo classes. Does this still hold true? My only concern with soloability is that I figure there are fewer players these days and that would leave me to reason that the game is very top heavy (few players still grinding out the low levels). Thanks for any responses, looking forward to possibly playing again!
I think necros are a safe bet to solo but I could be wrong I read somewhere that mages and necros pets now die easily (nerf??) These days exp goes faster than before ...you dont need to box, you can rent a mercenary (character) and they follow you on automatic and heal you , etc etc, I did that with my enchanter since the enchanter is a class I never played ..I rent a cleric ..so far i can take down yellows with no armor or good wepons just the pet and the spells. I'm not a twink ..dont have money ..I think you can make a cleric class or warrior since they are allays on demand and you can rent your own group .while waiting for a group ;p..they tank you heal , you tank they heal ...this weekend is double exp weekend ..go for it you can make lvl 10+ in a couple of hours. Tempted to make a bard since that class I could not master before leaving EQ...dont know how bard are now lol ..
There are various "what has changed" guides around. Poke around in the forums - some people have links to them in their signatures. In general, experience is vastly easier to get these days - especially 1-60 with a tank merc (a couple of days if you know what you're doing.) They also implemented AA auto grant so you can just go regular experience and let the system grant you the AA's each time you level (up to level 95 now I think.) You can also purchase a heroic character that starts out at level 85 with all the AA's up to that level. Probably kind of overwhelming. Before level 90, grouping is dead - you might get lucky and run into someone. Moloing 60-90 is slow if you don't have the DPS to kill stuff fast (cleric or tank.) There are daily tasks that give a large amount of experience for killing a few mobs so that helps a little (though one task is in plane of air and everyone skips that one because of how horrible that zone is.) Moloing with an apprentice merc seems to be ok 1-60 so you can stay free to play to see if you like the new game or not. If you plan to level a toon to 105, the apprentice merc starts to show it's limitations as the mobs get harder. I doubt that any raiding guild would let you in as a free to play character. I've never molo'ed a cleric or tank but with the low DPS, it's got to be pretty boring. My advice is stay free to play and try out some classes. Unfortunately, most classes change drastically from the 60's to level 105. Maybe get a feel for the game/class and then do more research on the class you think you might want to advance.
Monk is a pretty good choice. Don't need to worry about gear as much as you do a tank class, good combination of DPS and mitigation, can molo to 105 if you had to. Would be my melee choice. Chanter is actually a great molo class, at this point, better than necro or mage, as charmed pets are *much* stronger than anything else, both DPS and tank wise. Charm tanking with a cleric merc is totally doable, and pretty fun actually. Haste your pet, slow the mobs, can CC your way out of trouble, easy to pull singles, buffs so the cleric merc never runs out of mana.... If I could pick only one, it would probably be a chanter. There are a few expansions/level ranges where they run into a few snags, but overall, a really solid and fun class.
Hello Forged, I will answer your questions best that I can. This question has so many directions which can reasonably answer. With grouping and raiding, I would say you core group classes: tank, healer, cc/slower, and dps. With tanks taking both raiding and grouping, I would rank warrior, paladin, and then shandowkinghts for desirability. For healers taking both grouping and raiding, I would rank cleric, shaman, and then druid with the order swapping over depending on whether group or raid. With cc/slower, I think both bard and enchanter have equal desirability. For DPS taking in both grouping and raiding, Take your pick because there are too many situations to detail. For raiding, warriors are the "in" tank class and clerics are the healer class. Both can play with a merc reasonably well. Can you take out current named? Probably not. Can you clear trash and get experience? Yes Necromancer's are probably the king soloers. Moloing, playing solo with a mercenary, can be done well with a lot of classes. When they fix the current pet agro issues, a lot of pet classes would fit this area well. Unfortunately, levels outside of 15 below maximum are going to be very slim on players. The game is pretty top heavy as you mentioned but it is expected with its age. There is no rush. In your situation, I would pick a few classes which acquire your interest and try them out under free to play access. This will allow you to see what you may or may not like and narrow it down. As far as raiding, this may take time to get into current raid fields because of gear, AA, and raid experience. I would take your time and figure out your class before taking this leap. Another option would be the TLP servers. These servers are starting from old expansions and progressing to current via time release expansions. I actually think you may benefit here the most via enjoyment and nostalgia. Best regards, Rykard
Progression servers (especially Phinigel) would hit the nostalgia mark, with lots of players and much demand for clerics, at least until TBS/SoF/SoD whenever mercs are unlocked. Enchanters and warriors will also be raid-worthy in the early expansions. None of these (honorable exception: enchanter) are exactly great soloers before mercs. On normal servers, the best soloers are still magicians and necromancers. No need for mercs, but can handle more with them. However, with a merc any class can solo well to 70, a bit of a spread up to 85, and some classes can get tricky after that. With great age comes maturity . So on the normal servers, you can assume that all raid guilds have a good selection of classes already available - what they are interested in is good players, rather than specific classes.
Progression servers are great for SOME nostalgia but cheating if much more common on the newer progression servers as that is where all the Real Life money is to be made.
I have played every class in EQ but tanks , I am sorry, I find them to boring play for myself, I am happy others enjoy them But my favorite class to play at moment is Bst , she can do it all ,solo very good ,loved in groups/raids , can be boxed very easy with other pet class, or any other class for that matter .... Yi Min
