Need ideas… good class for a player with slow reaction time

** Edit - Update added on page 2 of this old thread **

My daughter wants to play EQ. Her reaction times are slower than most players, so we need a character class that is the most effective when only clicking one or two buttons.
I figured our two best choices for her are a healer (she can autofollow me and spam me with heals) or a class with good buffs (a bard?). I’ll play any class… I just want her to have fun. Also, she wants us to be good (she doesn’t want us to play the bad guys J).
I appreciate any ideas you guys have for me. Thanks!

Defiler mystic for most of the game do not require excessive reaction time as they are proactive rather then reactive.
They are very very easy healing one person.But they do have long casting time and recast time. Which means in emergencies they require intelligent spell managment.
They can heal groups also but you'll some reaction times to know to cast your heals. For safety sake, the spells can just be cast early and often.
Otherwise wizards, warlocks, necros, and summoners don't really react - they just blow stuff up.
Wizards and druids get portals too which is helpful.... and druids as healers are reactive but do heals over times so if she just keeps those up then that works to keep the group alive.
Like you asked for though is easy classes to play (not necessarily master) include:
Sorcerer
Druids
Shaman
Bards

I would have said Beastlords - they have the added benefit of collective different animals but do take more "reaction" to play. As a matter of fact they have least amount of buttons but the most reaction to things on screen.

Gyee wrote:

This is exactly what I am looking for. Thanks! I will just be the two of us, so I don't need to worry about her healing a group. I also think the long casting times are a plus in our case. I suppose I will roll up a new tank, and I could hire a DPS merc later if we need more DPS.
Any other ideas? If she plays a wizard, will a healer merc heal both of us?

Bards are easy to play in that the constant buffs are always up but keep in mind their DPS is low and they have scout survivability which means you're getting the least of both worlds (defense and offense) for a gain that isn't realized in a duo situation.
I've duo'd a trouby and a dirge with my wife (on druids) and found it frustrating - though we were pushing for end game and now group/raid with those toons mostly.
Anyways, to answer plainly: yes bards are easy to learn and play but are not exciting until they are grouped and could be discouraging to a younger player.

thewarriorpoet wrote:

That helps a lot. Thanks!

Coffee_Hound wrote:

A Monk/Bruiser being healed by a Defiler with two DPS Mercs would pretty much let you march through anything.

Nrgy wrote:

She wants to play a good character, so I assume a mystic would do just as well? And why specifically a monk/bruiser over the other tank classes?

I think a conjuror would work well. The pet will do a good amount fo the DPS and she can just concentrate on doing a couple of nukes. Seems like it would have a less of a chance of crippling your duo because of slow reaction times. Plus it might be fun for her to have a 'pet'

One other thing you could do coffee to make things easier is make macros for her spells. You can reliable put 2 spells into one macro thus needing a lot less buttons.

Neiloch@Butcherblock wrote:

I'd recommend a conj also.
Get her to summon the tank pet in defensive stance and show her 3-4 spells she can cycle through, you could easily set her up with one hotbar and all the spells she needs on them. Summon pet - pet heal - main nuke - and a couple of dots.
She won't be pet tanking heroic ^^^ but she will have fun and stay alive.

I would also say a Conjurer would be the best choice if you use mercs. Play a tank yourself, let her play a Conjurer (with mage pet) and get a healer and maybe a bard merc. If she plays a healer you might get the problem that later on she will need to cure detrimental effects and it can be critical that they are cured fast. If you don't want to use mercs, you playing a crusader (for self heals) paired with a dirge should work fine. Bards have many permanent buffs that really help you out, so she would help you a lot just by running behind you. If she would just use a few CA / Spells (including a emergency heal or rezz, if needed) that would be enough. At the Mystic vs Defiler question. Mystics normally play by pressing more buttons then Defilers. This is mostly also due to Mystics skilling combat arts with their CA. While this is not mandatory over 90% do so. The wards are still slow casting, but the direct heals aren't as slow as a Defilers (but still slow). So you playing a tank plus her playing a Mystic should also work at least until level 60 or so, which will most likely take you some time.

I would also say a conj. Use macroes to group her ST on a couple of buttons same with her AOE and she should only have a handful of buttons to push for quite a while.
If you are tanking get a healer merc and she can use the Fire pet once it is available and go to town.

Mystic/Defiler may not need quick reactions but they are very boring and tedious classes to play, if you want to keep your daughter interested in the game, pick a more fun class. A few have suggested a conjuror, but they are not easy classes to play, its easy to pull agro from the tank (at least my mates 39 conj does alot) and they dont do any burst damage, again its a tedious repetition of stacking DOT's over and over. I would suggest a fury, they are not difficult to play, they have 4 damage spells, Thunderbolt and Starnova hitting a good chunk which is very satisfying when it crits. Plus they can heal very well, they dont have wards like mystic/defiler, but as your playing a tank class, your not gonna be squishy anyway so the furys heals will be sufficient. She can just use regen heals to keep you up for most of the time, and then use the damaging spells against weak mobs as your not going to be going up against super hard mobs all the time, which gets boring for healers when they have nothing to do.

Thanks for all of the great ideas! I really appreciate the help
I had never even considered grouping spells in a macro before, so I really love that idea for her. How many spells can I group in one macro?

You can group 2 spells in a macro and click that to cast them both, as long as there is no other spell currently being cast, otherwise it will only cast 1.
You can put every Spell/CA in a macro and spam click it and it will work from the top down and cast whatever is up at the time.
So depending on what you want that question has multiple answers.

Coffee_Hound wrote:

technically 24 spells. If you do that what will happen is it will quickly go through every one until one is able to be casted, and the last spell you put in will be 'queued' until it casts or the button is hit again.
The abosulte quickest way I can tell you how to order them is to put the one with the longest reuse time in first then continue putting them in a descending order. Longest reuse in the first slot, second longest reuse in the second slot, etc. Otherwise the spells that can be casted very frequently will keep getting casted preventing the others from ever being used.

Thanks again, guys! It's definitely not the optimal way to play, but I think it will really help her.

Coffee_Hound wrote:

Right now in game they have ability to tank as good or better then the other fighter classes and do as much or more dps at the same time.
As any one raiding now, more then likely a monk/bruiser is tanking if they so choose. Plus they have lots of neat martial arts animations

Another idea is for her to play a conj ( great class for her imo) and you play a healer. Then you go at her pace and she is the boss =P =)

Coffee_Hound wrote:

Mercs are kind of finiky, in the sense you cannot control them outside telling them who to Assist, Follow, and Protect.
My suggestion? If she wants to play a Wizard, you should be some sort of Tank class or the Healer class and have the Merc be the other (Tank or Healer).
A Conjurer is a good idea as she can summon pets to assist as well. Or a Necromancer, or even an Illusionist! All depends on what city you start in.
Good luck and have fun!