I consider a character shelved when I meet specific goals with them. My rogue was shelved for about a year in Velious, because I didn't find rogue itemization very interesting and wasn't inclined to sacrifice sleep anymore for minuscule upgrades. I was happy with Cecily and my Kunark gear was enough to survive anything in Velious.

My goal with Wyntir was 250 tailoring, make a bunch of money, complete Tunare / Shawl quests. Done, done, done, and done. Shelved forever.

Zalea's goal was a Baton of Flames or a Salindrite. I got the Baton... somehow. Shelved.

Cecily got unshelved because I got a Claw of Lightning... somehow. Ty Jumba! That made playing a rogue fun again for precisely 6 months. I'm top tier DPS and the only upgrades are primal / vyemm's fang or mrylo dagger / Doze quests. Gonna pass on those. Beat EQ, shelved again.

my necro is perma shelved at 46. I have no interest in fear kiting. I like to be in control of the stuff i kill. you know like a necro should be. This is the single most thing that i would say I hate about eq cause I really loved to play necro. So thank god there is no boxing because its better to group with people than a pet i have found.

character can only be shelved when BIS loot is obtained.

Charming from 45-60 is totally a thing for necromancers (no fear kiting required). City of Mist/KC/HowlingStones are all great XP zones (the main ones really) where a necromancer is damn near the most powerful class in the game grouped or solo.

I shelf them when agnarr comes out or i lose my password.

necros are fantastic root rotters, you have 4 high damage dots that don't have a DD component, and paralyzing earth at lvl 49

you can also join a grp in an area with undead (kc basement, CoM, HS) and charm for extremely high dps

When it becomes a drag to play them.

You will be back.

But not before i enjoy things like killing vox sans deleveled chars and participating in an 8 year old economy based on early plat hacks.

I'm okay with that and I'm not abandoning p99 as it were.

45 troll Shaman - My first P99 character Has his JBB/Banded/HP rings. Lost the will to continue once epic shot from 25-30k to 70k++ not to mention 130k+++ for torpor and 43k++ fungi, etc etc. He'd have been my preferred class but it's not going to work with this economy. Also was getting carpal and sick of groups expecting you to slow, root, STR/AC/DEX/STA/Tali/Haste, manage pet, canni dance, AND be the only healer while they chain pulled until you are within inches of low HP aggro with undergeared warriors tanks that needed root on the MT target. I can't do it all alone guys, shit. Also regretted going troll from what I've heard on bashes (I'd have rolled a true farmer and made a fungi ogre).

40 Necro - Intermittent and pretty much naked, I check late at night to see if oasis specs are open, close to prenerf CoS and I'll just go charm level. I'll probably take him to 60.

Rogue 40, SCHW / crystalline spider fang and some okay budget STR gear . I like my rogue, I'll be playing him to 60 for sure I just needed to roll a good farming char (druid) to fund my epic so I don't get discriminated against. He's currently stuck in LGuk and hasn't had his mask drop in over 16-30 hours of camping. 8 dirks in a row.

Druid 46, 200 wis suit/es vambs/almost enough for his Lumi/gobbo ring that will be sold to fund rogue. I'll probably take him to 53 for succor but he will just be for drop muling lore shit, EC, and some port cash (which is quite disappointing and not what I expected, I must say). Love the mobility, no regrets but it's so god damn boring and I have 3 monitors to med during the down time.

Cleric 14 - Stuck in unrest and what seems to be an oversaturation of clerics so groups never open up, everyone's got one and I don't see the money potential on ressing compared to porting.

Monk 7 - Seems fun so far, has a Wu's 2 hander and otherwise naked. Will probably be my last "twink" char. I hate pulling (especially with sneak nerfs) though so will probably be a solo-only project.

Magician 3 - Realized I'd probably hate pet chaining, micro managing them, lacking utility, epic never being obtainable, and never really being relevant outside of CoH/Rods.