Quinlamin's Comprehensive Guide To Everquest

Intro

Everquest is a social game for grouping up and killing monsters, but there is a whole lot more to it than that, you can tradeskill, do quests, kill raid mobs, build reputation with different factions and so much more. This guide is built in order to go deeper than the Newbie Guide could and explain how to play the game in greater detail.

Classes

Classes are often divided into their roles, Tanks, DPS, Healers and CC. In EQ all of the classes are built to be incomplete and have flaws, this means every class has its niche so don't worry too much if your class isn't the most 'meta' class.

Tanks

Tanks are designed to keep the mob facing away from the dps, often in groups you are better off keeping aggro rather than taking damage, as the quicker your dps can kill a mob the less damage you will take.

Warrior

Warriors are the most gear dependant tank in the game as the only ability they have to gather aggro is their taunt and kick skills as well as the ability to dual wield, they both deal more damage and take less damage in to counteract these flaws. If you play a warrior you will not only need to buy good armor but also good proc weapons in order to keep aggro with the mob, and with the randomness of these procs you will not be able to do very well at tanking in a group, but are usually used for duos or an extra dps in the rare case there isn't many dps classes around. Where you really shine is in raids where you can use your disciplines to greatly reduce the damage taken by the raid boss.

Best Races:

Ogre - Best warrior race by far for most of the game due to their frontal stun immunity.

Barbarian - Best warrior race if you do not want to be evil, has great starting stats and can use the slam ability

Iksar - Best raid min/max raid tank in velious. Iksars can't use plate armor, but during velious the plate armor starts being used by iksars as well, and with the iksar ac bonus you will have the most AC in the game. The main reason it isn't the objective best tank is because it doesn't have frontal stun immunity, while this isn't a huge problem in raids it can affect your grouping.

Shadow Knight

Shadow Knights are a mix between a necromancer and a warrior so they get some necromancer spells, this makes it really easy to gain aggro. A Shadow Knight will often use a 2h weapon as they cannot dual wield and the use of a shield isn't that recommended unless you want a little bit more AC at the cost of your very little damage. Shadow Knights usually use dots and snares to keep their aggro making them much better at holding aggro although sometimes it can take a while to build it up, they are also the only tank that can have a pet (although a very weak one) which can help while soloing to get a little bit more damage. Shadow knights are also pretty good pullers thanks to their Feign death skill which is an aggro wipe and allows you to split mobs and acts as an 'oh shit' button.

Best Races:

Ogre - Best Shadowknight for melee stats and frontal stun immunity.

Erudite - Best Shadownknight for casting stats (watch out for the night blindness).

Paladin

Paladins are a mix between a cleric and a warrior so they get some cleric spells, they are able to use heals and roots and blindness spells in order to gain aggro. They will often use 2h weapons in order to do more damage as they cannot dual wield. They can pull reasonably well with their lull spells and are extremely good against the undead because of their DD vs undead line of spells. Paladins are the best at snap aggro due to their root spell which makes the target stuck in place, this also makes them attack the closest enemy to it making for guaranteed aggro. They are often secondary in as the group tank as they provide less utility as they can only really tank and thats it, but they can also help the shaman with extra heals so they can heal you longer.

Best Races:

Dwarf - Best paladin for melee stats (also has a sick jump animation).

High Elf - Best paladin for casting stats (also has good charisma which is nice to have as a cleric).

DPS

Rogue

The Rogue is the king of sustained dps, they do not need any health or mana so they just stick onto a mob and backstab them until they die. They will always use a piercing weapon in their main hand so they can backstab, and the best ratio weapon in their offhand. A rogue is extremely easy to build, you max out strength, strength will be the a determining factor in how much damage you do and is vital to get as high as possible, this also only really gives you one choice for rogue. They can also sneak, hide and pick locks which can help them get into places without keys.

Best Race:

Barbarian - Best rogue race as they have the highest strength, quite simple.

Monk

The Monk is often more desired in groups than rogues even though they have less DPS, a monk is the king of pulling and is extremely good to have in any dungeon group. Monks often use 2 1h blunt weapons dual wielding because it is simply better dps. Monks also are the kings of avoidance as they get a passive increase to it unless their weight goes over a certain threshold. Monks can also solo reasonably well due to their durability and are often quite cheap to play as they just need leather armor and good weapons.

Best Race: there really isn't a best race just preference.

Human - slightly better stamina and hand to hand damage

Iksar - AC bonus and hp regen but with lower stamina and strength.

Ranger

Rangers are often the butt of many jokes in everquest as they seem to be quite under powered, they are the mix of a druid and a warrior. They are a class that seems to be having an identity crisis and doesn't exactly know what it is although we usually put it as DPS. Rangers have taunt but can't tank, they are part warrior but can't wear most plate and they aren't exactly that spectacular at using a bow until luclin, which doesn't come out on P99. In my experience they are great to duo with in a nice open plain with lots of mobs as they can use a skill called tracking which allows them to find mobs in a radius around them.

Best Race:

Human - Best race for melee, although has terrible night vision and can't really fix it without items.

Wood Elf - Best race for casting as it has the highest wisdom.

Wizard

Wizards are all about huge burst damage, either single or AoE targeted. They have the most powerful nukes in the game but often spend most of their time medding so they can nuke every now and again, this holds them back as being the best DPS in the game although in Raid fights they excel as they usually can just unload all their nukes and the monster will be dead or close to being dead. Often called the glass cannon as they have the lowest amount of health in the game so if your tank loses aggro, you are going to die. Wizards are really good at soloing from their ability to root/nuke and most importantly quad kiting.

Best Race:

Erudite - Highest mana pool, high int

Magician

Similar to the Wizards, Magicians are a burst damage class but they also get the best pet in the game, often better in groups than wizards for their sustained DPS. Magicians get 4 types of pets, Earth, Fire, Air and Water, each pet is good in different situations. The earth pet is the best at tanking and can proc the root spell, Fire pets are the best soloers as they cast a damage shield on themselves that is better than the one you can cast at that level, Air pets go invisible when they are idle (only usefull if you are scared of adds) and Water, the best group pet as they have the highest damage and best DD.

Best Race: it doesn't exactly matter for magicians as most of their damage comes from a pet, just pick the one you like the look of.

Necromancer

Necromancers have the best DoTs, don't need to worry about mana all that much and are the easiest and cheapest class to solo with. Necromancers have really good DoTs and a good pet (which you treat like an extra DoT), this makes them extremely mana efficient as DoTs are much cheaper than DDs. Necromancers gain access to the lich line of spells which allows them to convert their hitpoints to mana, this can be used in junction with their life tap line of spells to easily get that health back. Their main form of soloing is snare/fearing the mobs and loading it up with dots and your pet.

Best Race: You usually want to maximize your HP so STA is very important.

Iksar - HP regeneration is insane with the lich line of spells making you not need to life tap nearly as often.

Any other Race - Necromancers races other than iksar are quite balanced so it doesn't exactly matter.

Healers

Cleric

Clerics are the main healers of EQ as they have the most mana efficient heals and have a spell which allows you to completely heal the target. Clerics are simple and straightforward, you sit in the back and stand up whenever someone needs to be healed, and sometimes buff with HP buffs. All you really need to build for a cleric is as much wisdom as you can so you don't need to ask for a med break nearly as much.

Best Race: High elf is often the best pick as it has the highest wisdom and highest charisma, go dwarf if you are scared of pulling aggro from the tank.

Druid

Druids are a strange class, extremely useful under some circumstances and mediocre in others, you can charm pets but only if they are animals, you can solo extremely well but only in large open fields. Druids are extremely situational but nice to have as they can still heal the same as a shaman.

Best Race:

Wood Elf/Halfling - Not much difference between the two, they have equally high wisdom so pick your favorite

Human - Sits slightly below in wisdom from Wood Elf and Halfling, the main advantage to human is the extra strength which will help you carry more items

Shaman

Shamans are the buff/debuff class, they are always important to have in a group due to their ability to enhance their party, and especially from levels 30+ their slows are very powerful and landing one of these on a high level monster can turn a stressful fight where healers have to chain heal, into an extremely easy fight. Shamans are also known for their Cannibalization line of spells which are extremely useful in keeping their mana in high supply.

Best Race:

Troll/Iksar - best due to the natural regeneration which is turned into mana through cannibalization.

Ogre - Post torpor (300hp per tick regen spell) any other regeneration is basically useless and the frontal stun immunity helps a ton while soloing.

Barbarian - if you want to play good aligned this is your only option

Crowd Control

Enchanter

Enchanters use their charisma based magic to charm, mesmerize and lull foes. Having an enchanter in your group not only gives huge mana regen to your caster but also the best hastes to your dps. Having a good enchanter is the difference between dying to adds and having 5 mobs lined up ready to kill.

High Elf - highest charisma which is required as resisting your spells can be deadly.

Dark Elf - Hide skill which can quickly break charm but isn't very reliable.

Bard

Bards are in many ways like Enchanters as they primarily are for cc. Bards have songs which work quite differently from spells as they can be cast on the move and also cost no mana, they can provide multiple temporary group buffs at a time by playing a couple different songs in sequence.

Half Elf - has the highest dexterity which often is better to have rather than just charisma

Wood Elf - has highest agility which helps with dodging attacks while trying to mez a mob

Races

Races are much more important than most MMOs they affect where you start, who likes you, what classes you can play and some traits that can affect gameplay. For information about races please read through Character Races

Terminology

(feel free to add to this if i have missed things)

BAR, DEF, DWF, ERU, GNM, HEF, HFL, HIE, HUM, IKS, OGR, TRL, ELF - These are the short hand for races in EQ, these will be found on gear BRD, CLR, DRU, ENC, MAG, MNK, NEC, PAL, RNG, ROG, SHD, WAR, WIZ, SHM - These are the short hand for Classes in EQ, these will be found on gear

Mob - This means mobile, this is the general term we use for NPCs

Aggro - all mobs keep a value for each player attacking it and whosever is highest the mob targets, this can be increased by doing more damage or decreased by other players attacking it.

Social - This means if you aggro a mob allies around the enemy will also be aggroed, this is typically only found on mobs with factions i.e. animals mostly won't social aggro.

Mez - Short for mesmerize, this is a spell that Enchanters get which makes the mob unable to do anything unless they are hit.

Proc - This is a spell that a weapon can cast randomly when attacking, often these weapons are quite expensive due to their effectiveness in damage and aggro generation

STR, STA, DEX, AGI, INT, WIS, CHA - These are the stats in the game, Strength increases melee damage, Stamina increases health, Dexterity increases proc rate on weapons, Agility affects your ability to dodge, Intelligence and Wisdom affect the mana pools of casters (Wis = Priests, Int = Casters) Charisma affects the price of items and the successfulness of charisma based spells.

Early Leveling

Early leveling can be quite boring as you haven't quite gotten the interesting parts about your class yet. These Guides will help you get to level 20 quicker and also help you learn more about how your character functions

Before we start you should open up your class page for reference:

Bard | Cleric | Druid | Enchanter | Magician | Monk | Necromancer | Paladin | Ranger | Rogue | Shadow Knight | Warrior | Wizard | Shaman

I will break this down into the different areas you will start in dependent on race.

Qeynos (Human, Half-Elf, Erudite, Barbarian)

To start off you need to level to 5 in your starting area, this is the quickest xp you will get before the real grind begins. Erudites start on a different island but once you are level 5 you will want to take the boat from Erudin to Qeynos, and Barbarians need to walk through the glaciers in everfrost peaks to blackburrow and into qeynos hills. There you will hunt the gnolls standing outside of blackburrow (if these are too tough at level 5 grind an extra level just by the zone line into qeynos. All of the gnolls in and just outside of blackburrow will give you Gnoll Teeth who you can give to Captain Tillin for tons of xp. When you are about level 8 or 9 you can start going inside, once inside you can go down the stairs and fight the gnolls their for better experience (although it is entirely reasonable to just stay outside blackburrow and keep killing the ones there. At level 13 or 14 you can move on to Western Karana which holds the bandits. You can kill them and they drop their sashes which you turn in to Chesgard Sydwen in South Qeynos you can probably stay until around level 18-20.