What is the best class?

[Mattvvx]

#Thread
What is the best class?
I searched the forums for a thread to no avail.
We have all heard the argument, "play what suits you."
"play what works for you." "play what you get the most enjoyment out of." "there is no best class."
nearly all of us are playing either what we have reasoned to be the best class, or to discover what is the best class.
But the question still remains;

What is the best class?

[Mattvvx]

Just as a side note, I played a ranger for 10 years

[Dacien]

paladin unguilded. It's like playing on hard mode.

[Kevynne]

paladin unguilded. It's like playing on hard mode.

[Tann]

Erudite paladin unguilded. It's like playing on hard mode.

[Baler]

@OP What is your playstyle? I will tell you what I think the best class would be for you.

[Lunababy]

tank: warrior/SK
healing: cleric
support: enchanter/bard
soloing: enchanter/shaman/necro
power leveling: bard/druid
dps: rogue/monk

ranger/paladin/mage/wizard are generally bad. any non-caster class requires external source of platinum/gear income to function at all. shamans are the only gear-dependent caster

[Zill]

Shaman is the best class in EQ, easily.

Great in groups, best at soloing, tons of utility, a unique tradeskill. No other class hits all points. Shaman by far has the least drawbacks and the most positives.

[Pyrion]

Nobody checks all points? Well i beg to differ for the enchanter class

Great in groups: check (arguably even better than shaman)
Best at soloing: Just check solo artist challenge. Shaman great, enchanter even better.
Tons of utility: Check
Unique tradeskill: Well, for Jewelcraft you need at least the help of an enchanter. And if you just consider gnome enchanters, you will get tinkering as well which is not available for any shaman.

Btw.: This is the reason why you see so many shamans and enchanters on the server.

Shaman is the best class in EQ, easily.

Great in groups, best at soloing, tons of utility, a unique tradeskill. No other class hits all points. Shaman by far has the least drawbacks and the most positives.

[Baler]

This thread is a breeding grounds for "best" arguments.
It's all about ones opinion and their play style. There is no 1 class beats all. EQ is oldschool it has that holy trinity feeling. Healer + Tank + DPS
Sure some classes do a good job at 2 or even all 3 of these but they will never beat 3 players who play classes designed for these roles.
Group based PVM.

[isoka]

EQ offers a lot of possibilities : soloing, grouping, raiding, tradeskills, utility.
All classes have pros and cons depending on which aspect of the game you want to focus on.
I have been playing 8 different classes so far (shaman, monk, enchanter, magician, wizard, bard, ranger, shadow knight) and I have been pleased by each of them in different ways.

In the end, each class can be best depending on how you want to experience the game.

[Superranger]

Ranger best class

[elwing]

Shadowknight of course!

[Thugnuts]

Beastlord.

[Ravager]

Gym.

[Samoht]

The best class? There are a few default "lol no" answers:

Ranger
Magician
Druid
Necromancer

Then there's the best for what you want to do at any particular moment:

Raid tank: Warrior
Group tank: SK/Paladin
Healer: Cleric
Sustained DPS: Rogue/Monk
Burn DPS: Wizard
Puller: Monk/Bard
Support: Enchanter/Shaman

But, indeed, it goes a little deeper than that. Most lucrative tradeskiller? Shaman/Enchanter

Best PLer? Bard/Druid or Enchanter (Chardok style)

Best old world solo artist? Enchanter

Best Velious solo artist? Shaman (Iksar > Ogre)

Character that's going to cost you the most PP buying spells? Shaman.

You want to make a class that's in demand? Cleric

Want to play a class no one else wants to play? Pick any tank.

In the end, an Iksar Shaman is probably the best possible choice for what to play, but it's going to be a huge platsink. And if you actually do get Torpor and your DoTs, that's PP you will never be able to recover. But it might be worth it when you're soloing Lodizal and WW dragons.

There's only room for so many Shamans or Enchanters in a raid, though. Only room for so many tanks. Cleric comes back up for best raiding class. Pick Rogue/Monk/Wizard for best raid DPS.

It seems that the best class is really situational and subjective.

[eqravenprince]

It depends on what you want to do. For what I want to do, nothing beats a Monk. Now that I am higher level, I really enjoy walking into any mid level dungeon and clearing it out if I want. FD is my pause button. With a wife, 1 yr and 3 yr old, I need that pause button. Necro would be my second choice, but I prefer playing melee, plus a Monk will outdo any Necro with any trivial dungeon, just more dps.

[Jimjam]

Well first you need to decide on what the objective measures for 'best' are.

Although I find them completely uninteresting to play (I don't know why) monks do a lot of things well. Classically they would tank better than a warrior with the same worn AC/at the AC cap (not impossible in classic Velious), they do great sustained melee dps, they have some good tools for social play/contingency measures (sneak/fd/mend/best bind wound) and can 'inventively misuse' the game mechanics (bind wound when fighting, off handing a decent ratio fist while using a 2hander, FD split, use FD to make low hp mobs run when they wouldn't normally... I'm sure there are many more tricks I don't know of too). It's weaknesses can be worked around in group play (it's a great tank, but no taunt so have a friend just root the target mob) or are irrelevant while duo/solo.

That said, as good as a monk is, probably being the best melee type character, I don't think it compares to my first love; the shaman.

Classes I also enjoy are Warrior, they are challenging in quite a few ways and do well as group leaders and ranger, because they have lots of tools, admittedly they can't handle cutting edge content but they are good at exploring more bottom feeder zones.

[eqravenprince]

off handing a decent ratio fist while using a 2hander

You mean to tell me I can use a TStaff and epic fists and get offhand punch damage?

[fadetree]

Ranger best for me.

[Lifebar]

Cleric is the best! I can't do shit solo but man you sure feel appreciated :)

[Erati]

Druid

[Daywolf]

Drow Ranger!

:(

Other than that, there is no "best class". You could surmise a best class against certain camps/dungeons/encounters perhaps. But an all in all best class, no.

[Evia]

If I had to pick a 'best class ' itd be shaman or enchanter. Slow is most op spell in game imho and they both get a pet and massive buffs.

[Nibblewitz]

Wizard is the best obv.

[Baler]

Level 5 EC tunnel Mule Best Class/Race combo in game ever. /thread

[thufir]

If I had to pick a 'best class ' itd be shaman or enchanter. Slow is most op spell in game imho and they both get a pet and massive buffs.

These are my votes too. They can both do things solo that no other class can do. A slower is basically required for high end one group content. And they both have fantastic toolkits. There's a reason you see so many of them on the server.

I will object to the "external source of plat" assertion for melee/tanks - my main is an shadowknight and he has also been my primary source of income. He's equipped all right, too, well enough to tank what needs to be tanked. You can fear kite stuff pretty well if you feel you need to farm.

I love my shadowknight personally, the tank shortage lets me get groups when I want to, and I can solo as well. Good tank, good puller, good toolkit. But in terms of raw power they're no shaman or enchanter.

[iruinedyourday]

The best class? There are a few default "lol no" answers:

Ranger
Magician
Druid
Necromancer

Then there's the best for what you want to do at any particular moment:

Raid tank: Warrior
Group tank: SK/Paladin
Healer: Cleric
Sustained DPS: Rogue/Monk
Burn DPS: Wizard
Puller: Monk/Bard
Support: Enchanter/Shaman

But, indeed, it goes a little deeper than that. Most lucrative tradeskiller? Shaman/Enchanter

Best PLer? Bard/Druid or Enchanter (Chardok style)

Best old world solo artist? Enchanter

Best Velious solo artist? Shaman (Iksar > Ogre)

Character that's going to cost you the most PP buying spells? Shaman.

You want to make a class that's in demand? Cleric

Want to play a class no one else wants to play? Pick any tank.

In the end, an Iksar Shaman is probably the best possible choice for what to play, but it's going to be a huge platsink. And if you actually do get Torpor and your DoTs, that's PP you will never be able to recover. But it might be worth it when you're soloing Lodizal and WW dragons.

There's only room for so many Shamans or Enchanters in a raid, though. Only room for so many tanks. Cleric comes back up for best raiding class. Pick Rogue/Monk/Wizard for best raid DPS.

It seems that the best class is really situational and subjective.

Welp there you have it. Close the thread.

But... what about this concept... is shaman the best over enchanter? I man at first glance, yes... BUT the investment you must make INTO a shaman means that, once you start soloing for profit, you are already 100-200k in the hole.. where as with the enchanter you are likely like 5-10k... so it takes A LOT of effort to get back ahead of the enchanter.

Im just saying there is some to the equation that was left out in this brilliantly accurate post.

BIS, best class? Probably goes to shaman though.

[Samoht]

Welp there you have it. Close the thread.

But... what about this concept... is shaman the best over enchanter? I man at first glance, yes... BUT the investment you must make INTO a shaman means that, once you start soloing for profit, you are already 100-200k in the hole.. where as with the enchanter you are likely like 5-10k... so it takes A LOT of effort to get back ahead of the enchanter.

Im just saying there is some to the equation that was left out in this brilliantly accurate post.

BIS, best class? Probably goes to shaman though.

What? It even says that right here:

In the end, an Iksar Shaman is probably the best possible choice for what to play, but it's going to be a huge platsink. And if you actually do get Torpor and your DoTs, that's PP you will never be able to recover. But it might be worth it when you're soloing Lodizal and WW dragons.

[iruinedyourday]

I was just clarifying the plat sink i guess jee idk its just a post i said you naield it from the get go tho ok ok jee

[iruinedyourday]

also lets not forget that Triangle (a shaman) was the best of the best when it comes to downing mobs solo in Kunark :)

But also dont forget by using puppet strings, basically makes a shaman an OP enchanter hehe

[TripleLegit]

Bard. Because they look the best in armor. Level the fastest. Run the fastest. Can do anything. And carpal tunnel rocks

[astuce999]

Firepot bound Shaman with all spells, puppet strings, staff of forbidden rites, FD sky ring, guise, and all the other toys is best.

Chanter and cleric are close and tied for second place.

Necro comes in third. FD is beautiful, but cannot surpass high percentage slow or unlimited c-heals.

Monk is definitely first in melee, and ahead of all the hybrids as well.

This ranking assumes unlimited funds to acquire all the toys.

Btw my favorite is bard, such a fun unique class, I never tire of it.

Astuce

[Troxx]

There isn't a "best" class.

Most powerful? If you factor in their entire toolkit and what they can do, my list would be (in descending order)

Shaman/ench
Bard/necro
Monk
Cleric (bump this up for raids)
Mage/Rogue (bump this up for raids)
Paladin
Ranger/sk
Druid
Warrior (bump this up for raids)
Wizard

Class most undervalued by the community? Mage. Pet alone will sustain enough dps to effectively be a moderately geared melee. Add in nukes on top and they're just good all around additions to he group.

2nd most undervalued for grouping? Necro. Good pet dps. Better charm dps. Heals, twitches, dots ... Win


Worst class for 99.9% of eq? Wizard. Sustained dps is terrible ... Like half the dps of a bard meleeing bad. Only saving grace(s) raid burn, ports, and very friendly solo leveling for those that want to afk for long periods of time (quad).

Since eq is a game and games are about having fun, the "best" class is the class you have the most fun playing.

[Atmas]

Anyone who says Paladin is a bad class has never played a geared Paladin. :rolleyes:

Especially in Velious.

[bomaroast]

There is no best. Only different reality tunnels you can travel down. In the end all that matters is that you had a good time.

[Expediency]

If you are EQ rich shaman is the best class at 60.

There is no "best" otherwise, depends on the situation.

[Naethyn]

Human because we look awesome.

[Aades]

8th grade history with the young Mrs. Christian was the best class.

[james_bonde]

Human because we look awesome.

http://img.pandawhale.com/post-29481-Ryan-from-The-Office-agrees-gi-1MNe.gif

[Samoht]

Lol @ the guy who ranked rangers above anything else. Hands down worse class. Period.

[Vallanor]

I have a wizard and a paladin. People say they both suck, but I tend to enjoy them.

I do tear up a little watching shamans solo dragons in WW though. They are a ridiculously over-powered class. Shaman is the answer to your question.

[Troxx]

Lol @ the guy who ranked rangers above anything else. Hands down worse class. Period.

If you look at the sum total of what a class brings to the table across all styles of play (solo, group, raid) from level 1-60, I wouldn't place rangers at the bottom. Decent dps, can tank in a pinch, can solo (something warriors and rogues cannot do effectively), can pull outdoor zones with an unresistable harmony. Are they a power class? Absolutely not. Are they the worst? No. They don't fit into an ideal 'power group', but neither do a half-dozen other classes. They've got a pretty versatile toolkit to work with.

-Warriors? Outside the raid environment they are easily replacable. A well played knight makes xp group content a snooze by comparison. If very well geared for holding aggro they tank extremely well, but bring zero utility to the table.

-Druids? Before 60 (and even then) in most groups are pretty inefficient to add to any well balanced group. In a less than ideal group they might round things out nicely ... but not really more nicely than any other specific class. Yes, group regen is nice. Yes, thorns are cool. But when push comes to shove they're inefficient healers compared to clerics/shamans and poor overall dps compared to pretty much every other class in the game.


-Wizards? Don't make me laugh. If you're not burning down a raid mob or afking 15 minutes between quad kites they add nothing. An autoattacking, otherwise afk bard will sustain more damage over time.

All that said, the nice thing about EQ is you can easily have fun playing any class, and can make things work with very atypical group compositions. Some of the most fun I've had in EQ and here on p99 were in those oddball groups of weird composition.

But back to rangers: they're a blast to play, and quite versatile. Therefore I wouldn't put them at the bottom of any 'best class' list. The bottom of a 'power class' list? Nope. At the high end that spot belongs solidly to wizards (followed closely by druids).

[Naethyn]

-Warriors? Outside the raid environment they are easily replacable. A well played knight makes xp group content a snooze by comparison. If very well geared for holding aggro they tank extremely well, but bring zero utility to the table.
Warriors never have downtime. They add a substantial amount of dps and after 50 they proc slow, life taps, incapacitate, dots, snare. It is a bunch of fun having a bag of just utility weapons. A warrior should also carry 10 wooly spider nets for 30 roots at any time to gain aggro when you need. Sure, your group can't be lazy and they need to let you control it, but a good warrior can setup chain pulls for hours and dps.

[Vallanor]

-Wizards? Don't make me laugh. If you're not burning down a raid mob or afking 15 minutes between quad kites they add nothing. An autoattacking, otherwise afk bard will sustain more damage over time.

This is actually a pretty huge part of the game for a lot of people. I absolutely love raiding on my wizard, and I'm regularly near the top of the dps parse (not that you'd ever know it since wizard damage doesn't show up for anyone else). Yes, wizards are pretty bad in a standard exp group until you can get a clicky nuke robe, but you're seriously downplaying their strength on raids. If you want to raid, wizard is a great in-demand class.

[Ivory]

I believe ranger has the potential to be one of the most powerful classes!!!! One day I'm going to duo giant turtles and dragons with archery!!

[Samoht]

I believe ranger has the potential to be one of the most powerful classes!!!! One day I'm going to duo giant turtles and dragons with archery!!

An do less damage than a meleeing wizard.

[Rararboker]

My wizard has a dagger with a 19/20 dmg/delay ratio. Melee wizards are a real threat to Norrath.

[Speedi]

Druid

[Raev]

Posting in a troll thread!

Anyway, ranking Warrior as the 'second least powerful' is pretty crazy IMO. Warriors may not be the most flexible class, but they are great at what they do: standing toe to toe with anyone or anything and kicking ass. Only the Cleric is more important than the Warrior for raiding, and even for small groups Warriors are surprisingly solid. If pulls aren't a problem, then WAR/SHM and WAR/CLR/ENC are arguably even better than than their monk equivalents, and if they are frequently the Warrior can get creative and/or just tank two or three mobs at once.

Warrior aggro problems are somewhat overrated. When you have 5500+ HP and 1300+ AC (= full set of HOT gear) getting some siren or myconid reaver or chetari rat slowed in under 10 seconds isn't a huge issue. Even for areas where Knights shine, like the Halls of Testing, Warriors aren't incompetent scrubs by any means. Team Debuff has to cool their jets, but evasive/defensive will partially compensate for the additional time before slow lands.

In general I think Velious made some big steps towards fixing class balance, with the exception of shamans (ridiculous) and horrible caster itemization which leads to really well geared melee (HOT armor is balanced, NTOV is not) being facerollingly good.

[Spyder73]

not reading through all of this, but Monk is the master class, it is known Jon Snow

[iruinedyourday]

I think shaman or monk are the two best classes.. They are both extremely powerful and very fun to gear.

An enchanter is so fucking OP its like, you get new gear and you think.. why do I care? I was already way overpowered.

[jcr4990]

Shaman is pretty much the obvious choice. Those saying Wizards are bad haven't grouped with a Wizard that has rend robe.

[Pokesan]

not reading through all of this, but Monk is the master class, it is known Jon Snow

same and same. monk #1 velious stunnah

[kaev]

Class of '77 is obviously the best class. Now get off my lawn you smelly brats!

[Xaanka]

monk is lterally the s*hittiest class i've ever played, can't imagine why you would even try one. worthless.

[JurisDictum]

My critera is what class is great at solo, raiding, and grouping. I think it is best to go by era -- because things change with each expansion.

Original EQ: Mage

Mage pets are ridiculously op, and mages can level without gear. Mages basically ruin progression servers.

Kunark: Shaman

Shaman is Solo, Group, and Raid Gods. Hard to compete with a geared out torp shaman in Kunark.

Velious: Monk

Monks were extremely high dps, very tanky, and had great utility in Velious. Basically an OP class when extremely geared. It is debatable whether rogues can even out dps a perfectly geared monk.

Luclin: Ranger

Finally acknowledged as a DPS class, Trueshot allows Rangers to top the charts in raids. It is also possible to tank with a lot of Gear and AAs. On top of all that, Ranger spells provide a lot of utility. It is a very convenient class to solo farm with.

PoP: Druid

It's just too cool to be able to charm, complete heal, nuke as hard as mages, root rot, snare/kite, port and travel really well. This is an era where the hybrids because OP, and Druid has always been my favorite hybrid.

[Evia]

My critera is what class is great at solo, raiding, and grouping. I think it is best to go by era -- because things change with each expansion.

Original EQ: Mage

Mage pets are ridiculously op, and mages can level without gear. Mages basically ruin progression servers.

Kunark: Shaman

Shaman is Solo, Group, and Raid Gods. Hard to compete with a geared out torp shaman in Kunark.

Velious: Monk

Monks were extremely high dps, very tanky, and had great utility in Velious. Basically an OP class when extremely geared. It is debatable whether rogues can even out dps a perfectly geared monk.

Luclin: Ranger

Finally acknowledged as a DPS class, Trueshot allows Rangers to top the charts in raids. It is also possible to tank with a lot of Gear and AAs. On top of all that, Ranger spells provide a lot of utility. It is a very convenient class to solo farm with.

PoP: Druid

It's just too cool to be able to charm, complete heal, nuke as hard as mages, root rot, snare/kite, port and travel really well. This is an era where the hybrids because OP, and Druid has always been my favorite hybrid.


Don't forget AM3/EQ in luclin for rangers. trueshot they get in velious. Also I never considered Druid as hybrid class. I thought they fell under the priest category (clr/dru/shm)

[Mattvvx]

Man, I need to drunk post more often.

[Mattvvx]

But it shows, everyone also has/had this question, hence I asked it.

[Kevynne]

if you want groups constantly, Cleric/ENC
if you want soloability/farming, ENC/SHM, and to a lesser degree NEC/MAG/WIZ
if you want hard mode pick any melee untwinked.
if you want super hard mode pick a High Elf/Erudite/Dark Elf hybrids.

[Morningbreath]

To answer your question, enchanter.

I think bards would be a pretty close second if players did a better job of utilizing their toolkit.

[Kevynne]

To answer your question, enchanter.

I think bards would be a pretty close second if players did a better job of utilizing their toolkit.

and not just afk mana songing

[iruinedyourday]

I just want to say I look forward to this thread hitting 200 pages.

[Kevynne]

if you want groups constantly, Cleric/ENC
if you want soloability/farming, ENC/SHM, and to a lesser degree NEC/MAG/WIZ
if you want hard mode pick any melee untwinked.
if you want super hard mode pick a High Elf/Erudite/Dark Elf hybrids.

[Daywolf]

if you want super hard mode pick a High Elf/Erudite/Dark Elf hybrids.DE SK isn't hard :)
Well apart from faction, but more of a bother. I'd name wood elf ranger as hard mode (or as you say super hard but meh), though not much harder than human and helf ranger, just by a few starting stat points on str/sta. I'd happily roll a DE ranger though :D

[Zill]

if you want groups constantly, Cleric/ENC
if you want soloability/farming, ENC/SHM, and to a lesser degree NEC/MAG/WIZ
if you want hard mode pick any melee untwinked.
if you want super hard mode pick a High Elf/Erudite/Dark Elf hybrids.
I rolled an Erudite Paladin a while back and his life is hilariously hard. Blue con gnoll? Prolly gonna die. Even con? No way

[Jimjam]

I imagine that's with fungi/blade of mourning and cloak of flames? :p

[Remeygi]

want unlimited powers?

apply as a GM