Potential Returning Player - Picking a Class

I'm sure there's been hundreds of these threads. I've been doing my own research for a while but it seems most class guides I find are just copy/pastes of the same generic class description over and over.

I played this game maybe .. 2 years ago. I played as a bruiser, made it to .. maybe 20, I'm not sure. It was a good game but I had to put it aside for a while.

Now I'm thinking about coming back, but picking a class in ANY game has always been a near impossible task for me. I end up picking one, remaking it, picking a new one.. 10 alts later, I get frustrated and bail on the game. It's a problem I have. But in order to start this inevitable process, I need to pick a class.

I tend to veer more towards hybrid classes, disliking having a single role in a group. I have no interest in being "Top DPS" in a group, however I do want to deal damage. Dedicated tanking and healing were never my thing - combat tends to be too slow and I love to solo.

After reading many guides and watching a few videos, I've narrowed it down to two, the Shadowknight and the Fury. Both seem to be hybrids of melee and spell damage, both having options for survivability.

Shadowknight: *Sounds* like a nice option. Plate wearing, life stealing, some support mechanics, plus wielding sexy weapons. However, I have seen (information may be outdated) that SK's absolutely flood the class population. For that, they are usually not wanted in groups and their paladin counterparts are usually more requested in raids. More than the demand for the class, I don't like the idea of walking into an area and seeing 5 out of the 10 people are the same class. I know uniqueness is hard to look for in an MMO, but if this class floods servers as much as I've been led to believe, I would find it discouraging.

Fury: I like the idea of being able to do some melee, some healing, some ranged damage. My concern comes from two places.
1) Are they spread so thin that they have trouble with any one task?
2) In groups, are they expected to strictly be a healbot or can they participate in taking things out without people complaining?


As I said, I tend to enjoy more of hybrid classes.. usually ends up being more "battlemage" types, light armor, sometimes melee users. If anyone thinks another class would suit me better than the two above, please feel free to suggest it.

Thanks for reading,
Chumble

If you are a Shadowknight, any group will expect you to tank, because Shadowknights are Plate Tanks. If you are a Fury, any group will expect you to heal, because the Fury is a healer. This is dedicated tanking and healing pretty much. ANY class in game can solo all the way to level 95, but these wouldn't be my choices based on yoru description.

You say you want to do DPS and some support, then you want to look at Dirges, Troubadors, Illusionists and Coercers. These classes are highly desired, all four have some decent DPS, but are not the T1 über-DPS types.

The bards (Dirges and Troubs) provide any group they're in with a great set of buffs. Dirges are more aimed at buffing melee groups, while troubs are more aimed at buffing caster groups, but both can bring good things to any group. Plus, when you are soloing, you can be selfish and keep all your juicy buffs for yourself!

The enchanters (Illys and Coercers) have some cool buffs, they have crowd control spells, but their big role is regenerating power for their group. Both can have pets, which are extremely helpful in soloing. Your tank will love the Coercer, your casters will love the Illy, and everyone loves power regen and crowd control.

The most fun class I have played is the Conjuror. The Summoners (Conjy and Necromancers) have a whole set of pets, one is a tank pet, the other useful is the mage pet, and it's really nice soloing with them. I think Necros put out a bit more DPS than Conjys, but both are pretty decent damage-dealers.

Another class to consider are Beastlords. As you'd guess from the name, they get to have animal pets that help them fight. The BL is a scout, and can do enormous damage. I have not yet tried a BL myself, but folks who are playing them seem to be generally awesome.

Wow, I appreciate the response - very thorough. A little disappointed in the answer, but better for me to learn now than after investing time into it. I looked at the dirge briefly, the only thing I could pull out of the descriptions is they debuff people. It sounded boring (based on that tiny bit of info). I suppose I'll have to play one to figure it out though.

As far as pet-heavy classes .. I hate pets. Loathe em. I want the class to be about ME, not watching some summon do the damage and micromanaging them around.

Are there any priests that can deal decent damage? Shamans, maybe? It seems the other 3 tiers all have good damage dealers, I'm surprised the priest wouldn't have their own take on a hybrid damage dealer rather than "healer who can deal enough damage to solo".

So I guess I'll give dirge a shot. My buddy is playing a guardian.. so .. I guess he'll be happy..

Well in groups you will be expected to take on the healer's role BUT.... there's nothing like the Inquisitor for soloing and doing VERY decent melee dps, in or out of group. The inquisitor is totally AA dependent.... and is best with a 2 hander weapon. As an Inquisitor I contribute quite a bit of DPS to my group and they love my melee buffs. Yes, I work hard in a group keeping it healthy and throwing down the DPS. I love wading into the fight right there with the tank and if I take agro, hey I'm able to take a hit and incidentally the mob stays put since i'm not pulling agro from halfway across the room. Nothing like topping both the heal AND dps parse!

Fury doesnt melee. You mixed it up with the Warden. Both solo well and both are healers in groups. I dont know the Fury well, but the Warden does heal while doing damage. I ve been away for a while, but last time i did heroic grouping a warden could not afford to do melee due to the danger of getting grey'd out. But Warden can do melee or ranged with spells.

Beastmaster is an interessting class. DPS or support/heal. He is a monk-scout-bard with a pet It depends if someone likes its gameplay. You will have to play one till 20 to unlock all his abilities and to 30 if you want to try its defensive stance. If i was a new player i probaly would stick to the BM...

Otherwise soloing is no problem with any class. Just hire a merc .

Well, I know that any class will be able to solo (some more easily than others). I'm absolutely being over-picky, but I can't seem to find a class that fits with what I'm looking for. I don't want to be a dedicated tank or healer. I don't mind supporting a little bit, but I don't want that to be my primary goal.

Warriors are a bit too straightforward for me - a little too generic / boring.
I found the bruiser to be fun - good damage and survivability with some utility. But I want to try something else.
Shadownight SOUNDED cool until I found he was more tank than anything else.

Sorcerers feel like warriors - very straightforward. Plus I used to play a warlock in WoW and I've grown pretty tired of the whole DoT thing.
Enchanters seem interesting, although I feel like they're more concerned with CC than anything else.
Summoners .. I dislike pets. A temporary pet once in a while, I can deal with. But to be pet-centric .. no.

Druids sound neat .. until I find they're just healers with a different implementation
Clerics seem like the typical group healbots.
Shamans sound kinda neat, but overall I guess they're still just healers.

I have a tough time with anything in the Scout tree, but I think I need to look more closely. Stealth and positional attacks have never been a favorite of mine. Plus, I'm always wary of melee classes. I feel like so many skills are just .. dull. It's why I thought SK would be neat since they used a combo of spells and melee. Everything I've read about the Dirge says they're not great by themselves but provide quite a bit to a group. I think I'd like to be a little more selfish than that.

Idk, maybe this is a lost cause.

Class diversification has been on the decline for a long time. On paper a "Shadowknight" sounds totally fun to play... really he is just an anti-paladin. You will be defined by your archetype and if you have the "utility" flag; Bard/Chanter. For a mainly solo player though I would recommend a BL, Conjy/Necro, Inquisitor/Mystic, Warden/Fury... you CAN solo an SK or Brawler quite well but they are tanks at core.

If you are strictly solo I advise you stay away from rolling a Guardian they are highly group/raid focused tanks.

I wouldn't say I'm strictly solo. I have a buddy playing a guardian but he's about 10 levels up on me. Until I catch up I'm solo but after that I'll pretty much be grouping with him until doing dungeons.

Ok. So I think I've completely ruled out the Fighters (all tanks) and Priests (all healers)

Scouts.. Bards seem to support focused and the rest rely way to heavily on positioning and stealth mechanics.

So .. mages.

Wizard and Warlock are out. They're too straightforward, root+shoot. Warlock does it in a little more interesting way but, as stated above, I'm tired of dots.

Leaves Coercer, Illusionist, Necromancer, and Conjurer.

I like the coercer's mechanic of charming an enemy. That's really neat. Looking through the skill list though .. it really looks like a PvP oriented class. Lots of interrupts. How does a coercer play in terms of PvE?

Illusionist - the duplicate seems pretty neat. I'll have a tank with me most of the time so I'm not going to need my illusion to tank for me. Looks less interrupt-heavy than the coercer. Kinda sounds good. Some crowd control, some good damage, some utility.

Although I generally avoid pet classes, I'm still looking at the summoners. How do pets function in EQ2? Are you constantly managing their skills, where they move and what they do? Do you generally only have a single pet?

Necromancer sounds like a warlock but with a pet added. Honestly not that interesting..

Conjurer sounds exactly like a necromancer but with a different theme.


Ok, so if I could get some feedback on the remaining four classes, I would appreciate it.

Thanks

Inquisitor with the Shadowknight mercenary, probably the best soloing tag team.

The conjy and necro have one summoned pet up at a time. If it's a tank pet, it tanks and you nuke. Otherwise, my conjy runs around with an inquisitor mercenary and mage pet and nukes. You do have to sic the pet on your target, but you don't have to micromanage beyond that.

Coercers can interrupt casting non-player characters, which can be very good if that NPC is about to cast an Ice Comet at you! Both Coercers and Illusionists have a variety of spells that slow, daze, root or charm an opponent. Like all mage-classes, they're dressed in cloth armor and you don't really want to take hits. I have been told that coercers are slightly more challenging... but that was in Ye Olde Days, when a charmed pet had a chance to break the charm and turn on you. I've got an illusionist so I can say that she's fun to play.

Thanks for the input

You know, I think you may be missing the point here. If you focus on "mechanics" all the classes sound pretty boring. And just about every class has an "expected to...." role in groups where you become one dimensional. Kind of like having a Leatherman tool and then going camping where everyone whips out a knife with.....a tool. The ONE tool YOUR knife has that the others don't becomes your job for the entire camping trip.So.... Start out with the role playing aspect. Use the first 20 levels to learn your basics, then flesh out the Avatar...Get him a GOD, pick an interesting craft that supports your "lifestyle" and role play him/her. Maybe chat up other players with your life choice, Pretend there isn't a wiki. Ask about each zone you go into. Find some books in the game with stories that make some quests more interesting. etc...
Enjoy...

heres my take on the discussion if you only play a class to 20 you dont really get the feeling for how the class is you named two classes a shadowknight and a fury which i think your a tad confused how the fury works,
fury is a casting healer it does dmg with its spells its counterpart the warden is the hybrid melee healer who does dmg with physical dmg you get almost master quality combart arts in the aa lines and are a very awesome healer the fury is awesome too not saying dont choose the class.
the shadowknight is a fighter archetype tank class one of the highest dmg tank classes in the game i have a shadowknight and barely have 40 lvls and 180 or so aa and truely like the gruesome dmg i deal as a solo'r and pvpr the shadowknights survivalbility is truely hi i also have a paladin hes tougher lvl 60 or so and extremely tanky but the dmg is slightly less with him
healing and tank archetypes are the easiest to lvl melee healers are the easiest to cap out followed by the tank
i would know more about melee healers and the dmg we deal as you call it hybrid isnt true a healer in a group is always the healer the tank in the group is always the tank pvp solo or grouped but a few exceptional people in certain circumstances or with friends or otherwise will allow your sk to dmg and your warden can do dmg aswell but this is rare and not often used because the two other archetypes with exception to the beserker will always push the parse higher than you can mages and scouts are tougher to lvl but if you want to do dmg there the more easier to do that.
with that all said and done i wish you luck sir

I guess it comes down to .. I don't know what I want

I know I don't want to tank. I might be able to see my way healing. I could do damage. Idk, might just play around with stuff then stick with something even if it doesn't feel quite right, just so I can play.

Personally I would suggest the Inquisitor for what it sounds like you want. It's a melee priest that does a little spellcasting and while you are healing as your primary role you are also dealing damage cause you can wade right into the fray. Also, a fury and /or warden does have a role to heal to be sure but it's usually in a secondary group and you'll still be able to use your nuke/melee skills while doing so.

If you're looking for a challenge I suggest the coercer which is the toughest class to play.

I looked at mages yesterday. Illusionist didn't look too bad - good damage plus some nifty spells. Coercer as well. Necromancer seemed not bad, but was a little too close to WoW's warlock. I wanna get away from that.

Today, I'm looking back at priests. Maybe healing isn't too bad. I've pretty much ignored inquisitors in the past but maybe I shouldn't.

While I'm on the topic of priests, I'm confused about the differences between fury and warden.
From what I've read, fury is a healer that can dish out some decent spell damage.
Warden is a stronger healer, can do some damage and also has the option to melee instead of deal spell damage (but overall, still does much less than the Fury).

Is this accurate?

Going to do a little research into inquisitors now..

The Inq will tend to be less "squishy" than the others (fury / warden) since it is a plate healer. With those other two classes, in group situations, I've found that they are always considered "primary healer" type roles vs. the Inq being a secondary healer / melee dps dealer. Correct me if I'm wrong, but in terms of overall DPS - the Inq has the potential to deal more damage and take a beating more than the fury or warden. I personally haven't played either of the other two, so I have no real basis for comparision.
I would like to see a Fury or Warden go into Protectors Realm and solo it though - something an Inq can do without breaking much of a sweat.

In battles, the Inq is right there next to the tank dealing melee dps as well as offering buffs, group cures (with enervated mythical weapon), heals... the whole enchilada.

If most of your gaming will consist of solo adventuring, the Inq is pretty awesome. I've started many an alternate character, only to come back to the Inq simply based on what this guy can do.

Inquisitor sounds pretty freaking awesome. Since they are one of the only 2 priests available in the free to play model, are the servers just flooded with inquisitors?

Most people don't last long as an Inquisitor. They are not the fastest class to level. They can stand there and go blow for blow with almost anything you'll come across while leveling but they definitely won't be the fastest to kill it. Don't get me wrong I have seen some very powerful Inquistors but they don't start off feeling that way.

Good, maybe it will deter some of the others :-D
I'm fine with a slow and steady class. Thanks for the advice!