Unrealistic Expectations for a Newcomer? or just a Dirge..

I have a 45 Swashbuckler that is decked out in the non-rare handcrafted gear. I have an 80 Monk that could provide for him but I don't. I see no sense in investing plat into a toon that will wear it for a month max if it's an alt and 2 weeks if it's a main. At level 62 I'll consider getting MC gear but for now I solo find and top the parses of the groups I'm in.

People are just hung up on them selfs. And while EQ2 trying to keep twinking out of the game it's still here and people forget what it was like to roll a new toon.

Wow, you got yelled at for not having DKTM at 25? And no M2 power regen when you had the choice for M2 DPS?

Sounds like you grouped with the worst kind of noobs; the kind that think they know everything because they've played the game for 4 years

Oleary@The Bazaar wrote:

I totally agree we are unique and i love it when the critics that go off on the dirge but yet never played dirge have something to say about us...What they do is they go by what they read or they have tried a dirge to say lvl 20 or perhaps mid 40s and havent figured it out as far as the solo end goes that they are a kiting class or they just havent figured out there persona as a dirge and so i quit. easy mode time.
I play on the pvp servers and all i hear is how much the dirge is crap blah blah blah yet i dunno managed to have a kvd ratio on pvp and pve above 20 and iam one of those soloing dirges lol.

Replying to the title of the thread, I say newcomer. Anyone who really knows how great dirges are will never question your choice. Personaly I never had any issues when I did group or have any really bad experiences because of my AA and master choices. Amazingly enough I have leveled to 72 and had a good time doing it, and also learned alot about the class from these forums, the gamewide dirge channel also
And from what I have seen at least on my server is everyone loves having a dirge along, which is good, also I can easily see why when our buffs alone are a huge bonus for any class, and just buffing myself I have a total of 11 buffs. Gameplay, we are by far an amazing class, in groups if something goes wrong we can pop a res, toss a small heal, throw a stun, fear and root a mob. Our biggest strength tho is how much we can degrade a mob's stats and mitigations, it still amazes me just how good we are, and whats better is how much fun it is.
Some players enjoying spaming their parse and seeing those huge damage numbers, our job is more important to sing our grim songs and walk thru the corpses of the fallen

Geees I'm happy to say I've never suffered that in group, but I wouldn't hang around long enough to hear most of it.
Occasionally a tank may ask for a specific buff to be used but that's about it. When people start telling you how to play YOUR class just tune out unless its given as helpful advice... then it doesn't hurt to listen and maybe adapt some of it to YOUR style of game play.
I think you just were incredibly unlucky with the groups you were in and I hope it doesn't put you off grouping. I'd suggest you join a Guild and most guilds will happily leave you alone to play solo if that's the way you roll and be there also if you feel like a group. Dirges are such a group friendly class it would be a shame if you spent all your days solo.. You can also share your trade with them and visa versa.
/sigh... parse... the last group I was in that constantly spammed parse the culprit was the SOLO healer. (healer used lightly here) Due to the 'healer' being a parseaholic I tended to have to use the uber dirge heal a LOT. After one too many comments of 'oh I beat you on parse AGAIN' I suddenly lost sight of my heal button and just let him die. Sadly sometimes what we don't do is what gets us noticed
Anyways welcome to EQ, please don't be put off by a bad experience or two.

Don't let groups like that discourage you. Make the choices you wish, and play the way you want. I like my dirge a lot.
I solo ok, not a ranger for sure, but doesn't do bad all things considering.
I didn't buy any rare armor until 72. I did just fine in handcrafted and what I got from drops/quests. Pickup groups I think are easier due to being a supporting class. The people who like to top the parse won't like a dirge.
To the poster who said he dropped buffs when the assassin was talking smack. If someone in my group starts gloating during a raid, I tell them in group if they don't thank me in raid chat next time I will stop buffing them (on trash only of course). I only have had to do that 3 times before they started doing it.