What should I play?

[Sairai]

Yes, *that* dreaded question. I won't complain that this game has so many options I'm not sure what to choose, but that is where I sit. I've looked at the FAQ with the class descriptions, but still would like to hear more opinions. Here is what I think I'd enjoy (or not): <ul><li>I do not want to tank.</li><li>I prefer casting over melee.</li><li>I'd like to be able to solo comfortably.</li><li>I don't mind healing.</li><li>I like providing support.</li><li>I don't want to raid.</li><li>I may play for a while or only for a short time </li></ul> My background? I played a templar to 19 when EQ2 originally came out. Quit playing when I found it hard to do things when no one was around. I've heard they've added some solo elements, and that the game is better overall so I'm giving it another go. Not sure I should stick with my templar, so eager to hear what you think would be good fit for me.

[Didi]

<p>I would suggest, in no particular order:</p><ul><li>necromancer</li><li>conjuror</li><li>illusionist</li><li>fury</li></ul><p>These all solo well, the illusionist and fury provide a bit more on the support side while the necromancer and conjuror are normally higher dps.  The necromancer has the ability to feign death which can be handy to end a fight quickly if you have to suddenly leave.  All are handy in groups.  The fury will get very handy portal spells making transport easier, however, if you do end up in a group with the fury it may be harder for you to leave suddenly as groups tend to struggle if their main healer suddenly departs!  The other classes should be able to leave a group at short notice if necessary without too much harm.</p><p>Templar is not a class that's very fast to solo, although it can be done I wouldn't suggest it's a great option if you want to solo quite a bit and do it efficiently.</p><p>Also, I'll suggest that whatever class you pick, run through some of the <a href="http://www.eq2i.com/articles/Soloing_Timeline" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">solo quest lines</a> if you're not in a group as they are great achievement XP and a good way to level up solo.</p>

[bluegod]

Necromancer may be the best choice for you.  You can solo comfortably, although the necro is more of a single-mob class while the conj is more of a group-mob class -- i made it to 70 on about 80% soloing.  you can do good dps and you can also bring some good utility to the group -- ghetto crowd control, hearts for mana regen and rez for example. you also have the ability to heal.  the heals aren't as effective as a healer's, of course, but you can do in a pinch.  there have been a couple of times when my necro was *the* healer for a group.  fun times that and i'm slowly using my AAs to improve my healing ability (kinda ironic for a necro, i know <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> ) i'm not sure about the other classes.  (i have a few alts but i'm almost always playing my necro.  i just love the class.)  try them and find out which one you really enjoy playing.  that's the best way to do it.  it takes almost no time to hit 20 (which is the minimum level you want to reach in order to get a good feel for the class)

[ZUES]

Conjurer or fury imo

[Thrashercat]

Great suggestions by everyone. I would go with a pet class if you want to be a mage type (conj/necros are awesome soloers), or a Fury if you want wicked dps and to be able to heal quite well in a group.

[Sairai]

Thank you for all the suggestions, I'll give them all a try. On another subject, for a while I was thinking of going with something that was least played. The small bit of research I did seemed to indicate coercer, brigand, defiler, inquisitor weren't played by that many. Then I thought classes that are least played are least played for a reason. Am I off base that players don't flock to those classes? If I'm not, what are the reasons in your opinion?

[Wrapye]

<cite>Sairai wrote:</cite><blockquote>Thank you for all the suggestions, I'll give them all a try. On another subject, for a while I was thinking of going with something that was least played. The small bit of research I did seemed to indicate coercer, brigand, defiler, inquisitor weren't played by that many. Then I thought classes that are least played are least played for a reason. Am I off base that players don't flock to those classes? If I'm not, what are the reasons in your opinion? </blockquote> You'll notice that all those classes are Freeport-only.  The majority of players have characters in Qeynos, which is going to make any class that is evil-only less played. Two of those are healers, which probably doesn't mesh well with the average person who plays a healer. 'healing and supportive' with 'evil' is probably an oxymoron for many. I'm not sure about brigands.  It might be the positional requirement to use a lot of the better damage abilities (they have to be behind or to the side). There aren't a lot of enchanters to begin with, so that is one reason for the low coercer population.  Another is that while it is a pet class, it is one where the quality of the pet depends on the zone, and the pet will, sooner or later, break charm and try to kill the coercer.  Early on, the pet will often be successful.  It takes a lot of player skill to manage pets as a coercer, and even then the coercer ends up having pets break charm at the worst possible moment => death.

[Sairai]

That makes sense. So if I play a Necromancer, I'll have even less people to play with if I had chosen a "good" class? (Showing my newbieness here sorry.) From a role-playing aspect I agree "healing and supportive" don't mesh. But the way I justify it is even the evil need mending. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Wrapye]

Necromancers are a bit different, because there was a separate necromancer class in EQ1, as well as in a number of other games.  They are probably the most popular 'evil only' class along with assassin and bruiser, then shadowknight.  All four of those have a traditional basis in fantasy literature (the bruiser being the street thug and the shadowknight being the fallen paladin or dark knight).  They are concepts people can readily conjure an image of in their heads, and so can relate to.  It is harder to imagine a heroic (i.e. is meant to succeed on a grand scale) wicked priest, waylaying brigand on the road or enchanter who binds others to his will.

[Didi]

<p>As a necromancer (or any evil) you may find fewer people to group with in the newbie zones, but once you get out into the wide world 20+ish there shouldn't be a difference, as good and evil can mix and mingle.  Actually you can mix and mingle before then too, you just might have to travel over to the Qeynos or Kelethin newbie zones which is a bit of a hike, but doable (easy if you find a friendly wizard or warlock to teleport you).  There will still be some evil folks around - although evil tends to be a bit less played, there are still evil classes that are popular (like the necromancer) so exactly how many people are around will probably depend on your server and play times.</p><p>Of course, if you actually want to roleplay evil and PREFER to group with only evils that may limit you a bit more - in that case I'd suggest you choose a roleplay server like Antonia Bayle, and look for some of the guilds that advertise themselves as evil-only, then you'll have a guild to support your evilness and help you out.</p>

[Sairai]

I'm not tied to playing evil, Wrapye and I just went off on a small tangent. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> You brought up something that leads to another question. Is there a list somewhere that shows server times? For example, I'd rather play on a east-coast server.

[Didi]

<p>I don't know of any servers that are specifically one coast or the other in the US.  There are just US servers, and within them, various guilds will tend to be one or the other time zone.</p><p>Here's <a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?start=0&topic_id=346645#3932999" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">everything I know about the server differences </a>(in the FAQ).  For exact time zone details I'd suggest picking a few likely looking servers, checking out their discussion forums, and seeing if they look like there's nice folks around, then asking what guilds might be accepting newbies in your time zone.</p>

[vapporwolf]

<p>hey Sairai, i know you said that you dont want to tank and all, but if you like solo play you may like the shadowknight. A very fast description, You are basically a necro without a pet. A SK can take a hit and dish it out. Lifetaps to deal out dammage and also alot of dot power, you can feign dead if you get into trouble and Harmtouch to really knock mobs out of the fight fast.</p><p>Just a thought =-)</p>

[Sairai]

Everyone was very helpful. I've been playing the necromancer for now. I'll try the shadowknight, but it is melee...still doesn't hurt anything to try it out. How do you know if you've finished all the quests on newbie island? I'm not ready to leave yet, still trying out some crafting. What type of crafting would help a necro out most? I've made myself a bracelet and earrings. The toxins I made aren't of use for my necro, and I made some food which should probably come in handy. Then what would be most useful might not be the most fun. I'm thinking crafting furniture, clothing - something I can actually see. I'd like to make some bags, I tend to be a packrat....

[Finora]

<p>Bags/Clothes/Cloth armor (all useful for you as a necro) would be tailor.</p><p>Sage would be able to make mage type/priest type spells, not terribly exciting.</p><p>Carpenter makes furniture, boxes, and sales crates/racks.</p><p>Jeweler makes jewelry and caster useable ranged items (tablets, orbs, symbol type things) as well as scout combat arts.</p><p>Provisioner would make food and drink. Always useful, but not terribly expensive to buy from the broker. </p><p>Armorer (metal armors) and Weaponsmith (metal weapons) would both be pretty much totally useless to you other than Weaponsmith made daggers. </p><p>Woodworkers make wooden weapons (some of which you could use as a necro) and totems which can be quite useful for some classes. Totems for runspeed, vision enhancements, water breathing, invisibility and such.</p><p>Alchemist would make poisons, fighter combat arts as well as some potions that can be useful to all classes (resist potions, cure potions, stat buffing potions and some others) </p>

[vapporwolf]

<p>Cool beans Sairai, i am glad you found the necro they are a fun class to play! I just wanted to clear one thing up about SK's. while they are a tank per say they are about 80% spellcasters and 20% melee. Most of there damage comes from there lifetaps and dots, there are only a couple of actual melee atacks to them. </p><p>I done want to beat a dead horse on the subject. </p><p>As for the necro if you want any information, this sight is awesome <a href="http://eq2.eqsummoners.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://eq2.eqsummoners.com/</a>   . That sight will have every answer that you could possibly need. Enjoy your necro bud=-)</p>

[Sairai]

You aren't beating a dead horse with me. I had no idea Shadowknights were part casters! I just assumed they were sword and board. And I spent some time on that site. I like that they show how some of the pets look and gave a list of all the spells. Thanks again!

[Didi]

<p>Shadow knights have a lot of interesting abilities, definitely!  I haven't tried one myself (I don't like tanks either) but they certainly look a bit more than just a sword-and-board tank.</p><p>That said though I would never encourage anyone who doesn't want to tank to ever, EVER roll up a tank class.  Because inevitably they WILL get a group and they WILL be expected to tank, and bad things happen if they have neither the interest nor the experience.  I've been in enough pick up groups with tanks like these and suffered the pain that I wouldn't wish it on anybody else!  </p><p>Also you then get up to the high end, and if you are at all interested in raiding (I know the original poster isn't, but speaking in general) shadow knights are really not a desirable class, certainly not nearly as much so as most other classes.  The only role for a shadow knight on a raid would be to tank or offtank, and if you have a shadow knight not interested in tanking, well, what use are they?  They can dps a bit, but they'll never do it as well as a dps class.  This too is a situation I see regularly in my own guild, where we have 6-10 tanks who are all interested in raiding, but when we ask them do they want to tank or offtank, most of them say no, it's too much work!  OK, fair enough, tanking IS really hard work -- that's exactly and 100% the reason why I did NOT roll up a tank class.  So I do get a bit irritated at people who DO roll up a tank class but then do not want to fulfil that class's role in a group or raid, but still want to fill up a group or raid spot getting XP and loot when they're not able (exactly because they're a tank class) to contribute as much to the group or raid as if they had chosen a non-tank.  If you don't want to tank, don't be a tank class, is my opinion.  There's no way in 70 levels that you'll never be expected to tank if you are playing a tank class.  I wish I could give all those non-tanking tank class players an opportunity to betray to something useful, like a bard!  <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>My 2cp anyway, probably not very popular with the people who play tanks but don't want to tank, but there you go ... it's my opinion and I happen to like it.  <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  I'm glad to hear the original poster is enjoying necromancer anyway - it's a very strong class and though I only played one to 30ish myself, seems like a fun one!</p>

[vapporwolf]

DIDI,  you make a very valid point. Sooner or later a "tank" class will be asked to tank. As i have solo'ed most of my time, there have been the few times that i had to tank, and i will say a little practice does not hurt. In my situation i dont consider myself the greatest tank out there but i can hold my own in a pinch ;-D I completely understand what you are saying and i agree with it, I was trying to show him the other side of the class and didnt think on it that way. But then again, who knows someone may grow into the role and like it.

[ThE_GuN]

Some very good points made by Didi here, if you realy realy dont want to tank, then you probly shouldnt make one unless you are prepeared to ONLY solo with him. When I first started playing I made a monk, and I wanted to tank, but not many people had any belif in a monk tanking, so I'v seen the other side of the coin as well, but I'v also been told than "naw, your not dps", and when I'v replied "very well, let me tank then" and I'd get "um, but you cant tank" *smacks forehead* then what the heck use am I? *sulks*