Loraen's Class Selection Guide

There seems to be a new thread every other day on the forums about which set of minmaxing classes to play, so I thought I would chip in my two cents. I should mention first of all that I think the most important attributes for 'success' on Project 1999 (using this word in the loosest way possible) are: understand basic game mechanics, play a lot, and be nice. That being said, here are my opinions on each classes' strengths and weaknesses.

Comparison

The first four columns are the relative effectiveness. Money is the effectiveness at earning pp - by any means possible. Pop is the relative popularity, 25/50/60 is the relative strength at each level (for example enchanters are weak at lower levels and strong later while magicians are the opposite), Epic is the ease of getting your epic, Gear is gear dependence, and Actions is the amount of clicking. Good duos are your effectiveness purely as a duo; many other combinations (like Bard/Cleric) are very reasonable duos if you want to play with a friend and have an easy time forming groups. Everything else should be pretty self-explanatory.

Class	Solo	Duo/Trio	Group	Raid	Money	Average	Pop	25	50	60	Epic	Gear	Actions	Skill	Good Duos
Warrior	3	7	7	10	5	6.4	6	8	6	10	4	10	5	5	Shaman, Druid (low levels)
Monk	6	8	8	10	7	7.8	9	8	10	8	8	8	8	8	Shaman, Druid (low levels)
Rogue	1	5	8	10	2	5.2	5	8	8	10	10	7	5	3	Shaman, Bard, Necromancer, Druid (low levels)
Bard	10	7	10	10	5	8.4	4	10	9	8	3	3	10	10	Rogue, All Low HP kiters
Ranger	4	6	6	6	4	5.2	2	10	10	8	4	7	6	6	Shaman, Druid (low levels)
Paladin	4	4	8	4	3	4.6	3	10	10	8	6	8	6	6	Enchanter, Magician (low levels)
Shadowknight	6	7	8	7	6	6.6	4	10	10	8	4	8	6	6	Shaman, Druid (low levels)
Cleric	5	6	8	10	7	7.2	6	6	8	10	10	3	3	5	Enchanter, Magician
Druid	7	5	4	4	6	5.4	10	10	8	6	3	3	3	6	Pretty much anything until 40+, then go quad
Shaman	8	10	8	8	8	8.4	9	6	8	10	10	5	8	8	Pretty much anything really
Wizard	7	3	3	10	2	5.0	4	8	10	8	2	3	1	2	All low hp kiters
Magician	7	8	8	7	7	7.4	5	10	10	7	4	1	3	3	Enchanter, Necromancer, Magician, Shaman, Cleric
Enchanter	8	8	10	8	10	8.8	7	7	10	10	6	5	6	8	Enchanter, Necromancer, Magician, Shaman, Cleric
Necromancer	8	8	8	4	7	7.0	10	10	9	8	2	3	5	8	Enchanter, Necromancer, Magician, Shaman

So in my opinion we have the overpowered classes (Enchanter, Bard, Shaman, Monk), the solid classes (Cleric, Magician, Necromancer, Shadowknight), the raid-specialized classes (Warrior, Rogue, Wizard), and the weak classes (Ranger, Druid, Paladin).

Warrior

Really poor aggro leveling up due to the weapons with good ratios having procs that won't fire . . . Poor aggro at 50+ when you pit your Sarnak Warhammer+Silken Whip of Ensnaring against all the epic monks and rogues . . . Ultimately the best group tank when well geared (Cobalt armor with the epic or VP weapons, so TMO alts basically) since they are both tougher and do more damage than SKs and Paladins . . . Solid in small groups owing to their multitude of useful proccing weapons and reasonable dps . . . really the only viable raid tank with Defensive and Evasive Disciplines . . . fairly straightforward to play most of the time, since it's the enchanter's job to save the group . . . in Kunark the Ogre stun resistance and ridiculous stats make them the best choice if you can stand to look at them; in Velious everyone will be stat capped but Ogres and Iksars will edge out owing to their special abilities

Monk

OP class in Kunark; Hugely OP class in Velious . . . Epic Monks do almost as much damage as Epic Rogues and can tank just as well as well-geared warriors . . . Extremely useful on raids with high dps and for pulls . . . Sneak clearing aggro is not classic and will be nerfed soon . . . Monk/Shaman is one of the classic duos in EverQuest . . . Iksar monks are just better than Human monks when it comes to combat, although you do have an XP penalty and faction problems . . . quite a lot of work to play as with a good group you'll be chain pulling . . . FD splitting is an art form . . . requires a lot of zone knowledge . . . can solo decently well and even do OK at 50+ with a fungi and the Celestial Tranquility haste effect of the epic . . . can 'solo' for pp by powerleveling for 2-3k an hour depending on gear

Rogue

Massive DPS especially with Norrath's easiest epic - Ragebringer even has haste so you don't need one of those pricey haste items . . . top dps on Kunark raids; near the top in Velious . . . Very group dependent as they require a tank to position the mob, and the tank requires a healer, so unless you are kiting outdoors you'll probably mostly XP in full groups . . . Everyone's favorite corpse recovery machine . . . pretty straightforward to play: get behind the mob and hit backstab

Bard

Can swarm kite to 50-55 or so in no time at all . . . can do anything, except it only lasts 18 seconds . . . extremely desired on raids for kiting, mana regen, and resists . . . have on paper the worst epic but most potential bards quit after they get carpal tunnel at around L40 or so . . . Have one of the strongest epics (along with Magicians) . . . A reasonable replacement for an enchanter but ultimately don't have quite the same firepower . . . requires a huge amount of targeting to CC . . . probably the hardest class to play in EQ, but a good bard is both unbelievably versatile and extremely effective

Ranger

Pretty decent dps . . . snare in groups is very useful now that mobs flee at 20% life . . . tracking is frequently useful . . . Have a nice amount of all-around utility which is seldom needed in groups . . . can bow kite for XP once you get the Tolan's bracer, but it's slow and obnoxious. . . not nearly as bad as people think they are

Shadowknight

The ultimate group tank with huge, instant, controllable aggro by spamming low level spells . . . can choose a large race to help your stats in Kunark and get warrior-ish HP although this comes with a 15-20% xp penalty . . . excellent pullers in both XP groups and raids . . . a bit more damage than Paladins owing to higher strength, a summoned pet, and dots . . . Great utility for small groups, but their low dps hurts . . . can't efficiently tank raid targets without defensive discipline, but you'll find plenty to do pulling . . . can solo (slowly) by fearkiting . . . feign death and the circlet of shadows are both fantastic of course

Paladin

Great snap aggro for groups . . . solid HP/AC especially with a shield . . . like Shadowknights, cannot really tank raid targets unless they are massively overgeared or have a lot of clerics . . . surprisingly good CC class with root, stun, and calm . . . dwarves unquestionably the best race with a large stat lead over humans and half elves, and lets not even mention erudites . . . pretty good healers . . . the Deepwater Helm is extremely OP . . . all paladin gear is cheap as no one plays them

Cleric

The game's best HP buffers and healers, but don't really come into their own on that front till 40-50 when complete heal becomes really OP . . . More general than most people give them credit for; clerics can CC, pull, and stun in addition to healing . . . can duo with mages and enchanters for fantastic XP; cleric+melee is generally kind of slow . . . one of the most desired classes for raiding, you can never have too many clerics . . . easy epic which you will be clicking a lot . . . can be a little boring at high levels in full groups, and unlike wizards when you go afk people cry

Druid

Can level easily and mindlessly by quad kiting, or easily and with a great deal of attention by charming animals . . . just better than a cleric in groups up till about 40 with similar healing power, damage shield, regen, snare, nukes, etc . . . get substantially screwed by the increased HP of mobs at higher levels; it's pretty hard for a druid to main heal a 55+ group unless either the tank is hugely overgeared or a shaman or enchanter is slowing everything . . . can port people around for reasonable cash at 35+ . . . great dps in Hate/Fear with charmed rats and gorillas, but otherwise have a relatively small raid role without Lure nukes and superior healing . . . a very hard epic with a lot of people competing for it, and one of the most poopsocked mobs (VS)

Shaman

The ultimate duo machine; with slow and later torpor all you need is some dps . . . great in groups as well to mitigate damage . . . stat buffs are OK at low levels but fantastic at high levels; a shaman can add almost as many hp as a cleric as well as damage with strength and haste . . . nice mana regen with canni/fungi/regrowth . . . most raids you'll buff and then watch the action . . . just a fantastic class all around

Enchanter

The int-caster counterpart to the shaman . . . start off slow and get stronger as they level . . . charm is simply OP, especially at 30+ . . . the best soloers if you are good . . . die more than any other class; when the shit hits the fan the enchanter goes first, then the warrior runs to the zone and lives with his huge hp pool . . . great in groups or duos; you can even duo with fungi melee with a few 'heals' using Bedlam and slow keeping them alive . . . most raids you'll just buff and afk, so you can save on resist gear, although you can kick ass in all three of the planes

Necromancer

Kind of a poor man's enchanter with limited charm and mez . . . great set of nasty dots but groups will kill stuff before they can show their efficiency . . . skeleton pets are substantially weaker than a magicians . . . fantastic xp soloers but at 55+ you'll have to learn to charm to really take advantage . . . much better in groups than people give them credit for when well played . . . most raid bosses will be immune to your spells, so enjoy twitching

Magician

A blunt, brutally straightforward class: send pet, hope it dies . . . great dps in groups or duos . . . arguably one of the most powerful classes at 50 with ridiculously op elementals . . . one of the hardest but also most powerful epics; an epic mage and a donals cleric can duo just about anything . . . pick up the Cinder Bolt clicky from chardok . . . useful utility on raids with Call of the Hero and modulating rods

Wizard

Congrats, everyone knows you suck in XP groups so you get to quad kite to 60 unless you are a lot of fun to hang out with . . . fantastic raid class; not only are they the only class that can port to hate/sky, but they compete with rogues for top dps on Kunark bosses depending on how long the fight takes . . . the ultimate AFK class, no one will notice, at least if you can get a group . . . ultimately not a very bad class, just very specialized and a little boring