Most fun EQ classFollow

Hey, I gotta put in a vote for DRUID here. I've played every class at least a bit, and I keep going back to my dr00d whenever I want to just goof around and explore. Maybe that's part of the reason since they're probably the best pure travellers in the game. But druids are multi-talented in many other ways. Consider:

Decent DPS, both nuke and dot... magic, fire and cold. One of my early guilds I used to be the biggest damage-dealer on raids until the wizards "grew up." ;)

Solid healer, very close to as good as clerics, including having their own version of Promised Restoration; can cure as well. Has 90% rez, as well as "call to corpse" for later cleric 96% rez

Great buffs: HPs, regen, STR, SPEED, LEV, etc.

DAMAGE SHIELDS: super for PLing at all levels, especially the heavy-duty short duration and limited #hits special versions

PORTS: both self and group

EVACS: including instant

INVIS: can instant self- and group-invis and it never drops prematurely

TELEPORT TO BIND: great for moving groups around

Invulnerability AA---triggered, but this can sometimes suck---example just recently I died because this AA triggered and I couldn't cast an evac under its "protection" yet it doesn't prevent you being stunned. So when the AA wore off I was standing there like an idiot with a boss and six of his minions waiting. Even instant evac isn't THAT "instant." On the other hand, this AA has saved my butt many a time, as long as I don't get stunned so overall it's a PLUS!

Excellent Solo class... best class to "quad-kite", altho only useful at lower levels since in its infinite "wisdom" Sony has never seen fit to upgrade our ranged aoe nukes..../glare

Can snare, ensnare (14-min duration with AAs... nobody matches THAT!), root (with and without damage (so as not to break mez)---plus low-resist versions available), charm animals (OK big woot, but has its albeit very situational uses), knockback-root, debuff, cancel magic, etc. Has aoe versions of snare and root in multiple "flavors." About only useful negative spells not available to druids are mez and slow... in terms of beneficial spells, we CAN haste...but only our pets!

CAN SUMMON A PET! OK, Bobo is useless, but he's cute!

CAN HOLD AGGRO LIKE A b*stard! Ok, maybe not very often called-for. But I do recall long ago on a Vex Thal raid I wagered with the guild's main tank (a warrior) that I could tank a named as well as he could. I guess he mentioned it to the RL and he called me on it. So I tanked one of the VT nameds and held aggro 100% of the entire fight, much to the surprise of the raid. The secret? Chain-snaring! Fast-cast and mobs hate to be snared. If holding aggro during a named fight is the need, druids are the answer! If damage mitigation due to high AC and related stats are the need cuz the named hits like a Mack truck... not so much. ;)

There are others which I will add later. Bottom line, very multi-talented toon, fun to play solo, group or raider. Certainly a class to be mentioned in any thread entitled "Most fun EQ class"!

Edited, Jul 26th 2012 10:50am by Sippin

You need to tell that to my groups I guess, since as a Wizard I seem to spend an awful lot of time pulling. Admittedly though that's not normal. I do think the "low stress" comment is a bit off the mark though, since our DPS can be extremely spiky and in a group with either a merc or a bad tank, pulling aggro is always a concern.

I've only ever played a Wizard (since '99), and while I love the class, I can't honestly recommend it. SOE is either unwilling and/or unable to balance our total lack of utility and survivability with an appropriate level of burst DPS. And in the rare cases where they do get close to a reasonable balance - early TSS with insta-cast nukes for example - they nerf us, repeatedly.

I have to agree with Reyla that at least right now, Mages are a tremendous class. Mages have always had a tank (pet) plus DPS; now add a cleric merc and they have a ready-made group, just by themselves. Best solo class in the game, bar none.

You did mention raiding though, and if that's a consideration you can't go wrong with a Bard as they are always in demand. I'd say it's an easy class to play, and a challenging one to play well.

Good luck with whatever you end up choosing.

Endaar

Sure. Most fun class for me is my enchanters (3 of them, so I can hang out with groups at various levels).

Enchanters get to do the most cool things--charmed pets, mez to stop trains, lots of illusions and a permanent illusion AA. I love being able to help people get around because of having both invis (fixed duration) and invis vs undead. Enchanters are nice in groups because of haste, clarity, and slow. My enchanter does the pulling in dungeons with lull, mezzes any adds, and delivers exactly what the group wanted. Rune helps keep me from dying on every pull, though I do once in a while :)

Memory blur--this can't be beat! How often do you get to take a mob that your group already pulled and say "send it back"? Ok, I don't use it all that often, but when I do, it sure is fun. My enchanter has often been the last one standing when things went bad, because of all the cool utility spells, and if I have memory blur loaded, sometimes I can turn a mess into a calm, empty camp, so that resses can start right away.

Enchanter abilities change with level. At some levels, charm doesn't work. At some levels AE stun/mez works well, other times it doesn't. Once I held off over 30 mobs in a dungeon while our group decided what to do with them. As it turned out, we couldn't figure out what to do with them because we couldn't do enough damage quick enough, but we got to walk away instead of starting corpse recovery.

Downside--one problem with the enchanter is that although they can do some things nobody else can, those usually aren't critical functions, and in a well functioning group in a fairly safe area, an enchanter doesn't have a lot of DPS to fall back on if a charmed pet isn't available.

One way to try out other classes is to use one of your high level characters and shroud down--but be aware that shrouding doesn't always give you the real flavor of a class--for example shrouded enchanters don't have memory blur, but they do have spirit of wolf (which real enchanters don't, except as a self only illusion).

Enchanters are great to play, as long as you realize that in a group they can require a lot of "work" and they can be stressful, especially in a high-powered fast-pulling group.

The MOST fun playing an enchanter is when the puller screws up and brings in far too many mobs. You can almost feel the sphincters puckering up in the group, especially the cleric. Nobody wants to be the first to cry "run for your life!" so everyone nervously stands their ground, figuring better to suffer death in a wipeout with your groupmates than be labeled a coward. (Or, even better, hope to be the final survivor so THEN you can run to the zone like a scalded cat and nobody can say much!)

But as an enchanter, you can cast an aoe-mez, and if you get no resists, INSTANTLY a pack of mobs are frozen in place. Then you can use that LAA to label the mobs and then the enchanter takes command of the group, directing which mob to attack and in what sequence. At lower levels, where mana can be scarce, this requires careful management in order to keep the mobs mezzed, slowed and crippled, without running OOM. Once the last mob is engaged, you can feel the collective "whew" of relief from the entire group, particularly if the bad pull took place deep inside a scary dungeon, where a wipeout would mean a long and uncertain (and unproductive) recovery chore.

If the SK is pulling, though, be prepared to deal with mez breaks from the mob he tagged with that annoying snare-dot of theirs!

In Vex Thal the trash mobs always consisted of about half-mezzable and half had to be tanked, and for the raid to crawl its way to a boss, this always involved pulls of between 5-15 mobs at a time. We'd have raids with only 2-3 enchanters and, boy, would they have to be on the ball to keep the mezzable trash under control until the raid could kill off the tankable trash. Even the VT trash has a LOT of HPs so these engagements could take as long as 10 minutes.

Unfortunately, these days, with mana regen so easy to come by, so many high level mobs marked as un-mezzable, the enchanter is much more of an optional support class as opposed to a vital member of a group/raid. The "Holy Trinity" used to be tank-healer-CC (crowd controller), the foundation of any good group. But with so many ways to single-pull, mez, knockback-root parking, tanks able easily to maintain aoe aggro etc., the enchanter is no longer "de rigeur". For many years now Sony has blurred the distinctions which used to give every class its own essential and unique special powers. IMO this culminated in giving both rangers and warriors the ability to single-pull out of a pack of mobs, WHERE WILL IT ALL END?? ;)

Edited, Aug 1st 2012 7:59am by Sippin

My favorite 3 classes are:

Cleric: Why do I love the cleric? I can show off my tanking ability. As a plate class, we're able to tank... but just not good enough as a normal tank. I love being a battle cleric. ;)

Wizard: When Seeds of Destruction came out, I almost quit EQ because of the cleric merc. Instead, I switched mains from the cleric to a wizard. I've been loving her since because of my nuking ability. She's level 85 now with almost 2600 aa's and can crit harder than most classes the same level. =)

Shadowknight: I was bored one day and decided to make a shadowknight to bash some heads in. This one is definitely one of my favorites, but will never replace my Wizard. :P

i think necromancers & thier hybrid are nice too.

Edited, Aug 3rd 2012 6:09am by EQaddict1

You have self invis and self undead invis. Instant AA versions.
You have self evac (and gate).
You have a self levitate (and underwater breathing).
You have self buffs for in combat mana regen (which might not be as important as it used to be.. but not waiting > waiting still?)
So you can poke into most anyplace.. and if all this fails, you have feign death.
Used to be corpse summoning and rez.. but I think this benefit is largely void now?

You can kill things by fear kiting, aggro kiting, root rotting, pet tanking, tap tanking. You are not the best at most of these, but you have more viable soloing options than any class.

As I understand it, Mages are the current kings of soloing. And they have a lot of utility (and arguably even less gear reliance since they can summon basic focus items). But when your pet dies, what is your aggro wipe? Death and run back? Rogues have slightly better freedom of travel.. but isn't it still painful to solo with one? And Bards perhaps.. I don't have any real experience with Bards beyond 10 or 20 seasons.. but melee class means gear dependent.

If I had to pick one class, it would be a Necro for all these reasons.

Not disagreeing with you re the Necro's roles and relative strength (to other dps classes) changing over the years but after lvl 86, once a necro is well AA'd, his dps explodes in the group game (by stacking "swift dots" in the line up which can crit for over 30K damage per tick on a level 90 necro ..Once the mob has higher hitpoints like HOT and VOA mobs(especially the named ) then he will shine dps wise in the group. But if the group is taking down lower HP mobs in under 30 secs the necro will not shine as much, even with the short duration swift dots running as it takes x amount of time to stack the dots...Then more time for them to run their coarse for mana/damage efficiency.

They also get the RB (Reluctant Benevolence) AA line that has a good chance to proc/heal the group when any castor (in the group) casts a damaging spell on a mob..This can be a major source of healing in the right type of group and setting..And at 90 with all relevant aas enabled (spell casting reinforcement-buff extension aas), RB can be virtually available all of the time.

Edit: Refresh time is 6 mins and it's duration is almost six minutes long at max rank (6 at lvl 90) with all buff duration extension AA's including the buff extension focus on gear/items.

Before the swift dots (lvls 86+) the necro will struggle to make an impression-DPS wise- in an otherwise high dps group taking down mobs quickly...but after 86 that changes dramatically in the group game.. In the Raid game, "swift dot" crit damage was significantly nerfed sometime ago.

Despite our bad reputation in groups, the Necro gains some group value when they get RB and their HOT AA's and swiftdots starting from lvl 86...Other than that, part of being a necro is about soloing and kiting is generally the bread and butter xp method if solo, root rotting if indoors and sometimes at the higher levels mainly due to mob density and lack of kiting areas in some 85+ zones.

Edited, Aug 4th 2012 3:03pm by hexeez

True, that many class unique abilities have been sold out to other classes over the years. While I must concede that the Necro is not supposed to compete with a Wiz or Mage in burst dps. Hence, the Necro's devaluation dps wise in a group mowing down mobs in under 30 secs..

But RB on my 90 Necro main (full AA's) averages in the 5500-7000+ hp heals iirc and an exceptional heal around 12-14K ish. In a group with castors it can proc 4-5 times in a 10 second period..sometimes even more when a Mage or Wizard or any castor is doing their dps thing...It's a very effective form of healing coverage especially near the endgame with mob dps spikes and AE damage from some named mobs so high nowadays..The only drawbacks are that to proc the heals it is dependent on a group with castors casting their dd and dots regularly throughout the fight.
I believe RB has a 25% chance to proc from each damaging spell cast on the mob from any group member in spell range of the Necro.

Yeah, corpse summoning days are gone...even our rez (93%) was in demand at times but mercs ( which I am happy for) helped marginalize our 93% rez...So much for the essence emeralds I used to hoard..

Haha, Seems like the complete heal needs a revamp for clerics or a name change if the developers dont upgrade it for the current game lol.

The one ability I am happy that EQ has discontinued is twitching or mana feeding the healer or cleric, as a Necro is about sustained dps and mana feeding is...A most boring utility for the explorationary, attack minded demographic that plays necros as their main....imho.

Edited, Aug 4th 2012 4:08pm by hexeez

Wizards bring a wide variety of dps... instant-nukes, lures (mostly irrresistible nukes), rains, high-powered fast-cast nukes focused on cold, fire and magic, etc. As a boxer I find their TL to bind, zephyr spells and "punting" spells (sends another player to their bind point) often very valuable. These are all benefits to a group, less so to a raid. I'm still not super-convinced that what passes for necro heal ability is all that useful. When I box I rarely have to heal anyone other than the tank. I box a druid and a cleric, (sometimes adding a shaman, depending on the fight) and they all have very rapid group heals that have to be far superior to an intermittent triggered necro heal.

Again, I'm not going out of my way to knock necros. But I haven't read anything here that would make me prefer to have a necro over a wiz (or mage) in a group or raid.

Yes, Wizards have a lot of nukes, but...

Instants were nerfed heavily (a few times) and haven't really kept up with the increase in mob HPs. They're convenient for mixing in during a kite, or possibly getting the kill shot on a runner, but unfortunately are not useful like they were back when they were introduced during TSS.

Lures; is there any reasonably current content where the lower resist check is worth the drop in efficiency? Granted I missed everything between TBS and HoT, but I can't recall using a lure since Velious.

Unless they fixed rains in the past few years (and admittedly I haven't tested them), they have always been completely useless because you never got three 'waves' per mob; there was a finite number of times the spell would land.

No arguments about having a mix of fire, cold, and magic nukes, of various sizes, and the transport spells are of course useful. But a huge portion of our spellbook is meaningless. Maybe it's the difference between boxing a Wizard and playing one as a primary/only character. *shrug*

Not trying to be argumentative, it's just an interesting discusison.

Endaar

i would agree with you.. i love my shaman... Been fun for over 12 years...can do it all.. can even tank a bit.. with lots of AC augs .... but overall a great addition to any group..i het invite to groups looking for DPS../ heals/ and support... so it always fumm.. tho i dont like to heal... i can




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