What makes each class unique?

[mokfarg]

Hi all,

If you were going to describe each classes' selling points in classic EQ (up to Velious), what would they be? Think about it as if you were a salesman and a person knowing nothing of EQ walked in your lobby. I am curious because EQ is so different today, classes are not very unique from each other anymore and most websites go by today's EQ for class descriptions. So why would I play a ________ ? I will go first though my memory is fuzzy on specifics and I may be wrong.

Rogue - Highest Melee DPS (Possible Highest of All?), Corpse Retrieval


Warrior - Best Class at Damage Reduction, Most Desired Raid Tank


Paladin - Tank (I do not much on this one, not very familiar with the class)


Shadowknight - Best Agro Generating Tank


Wizard - Highest Magic DPS, Ports, Evacuation


Magician - Solo Capability, DPS, Best Damage Sheild


Ranger - Puller, Medium DPS


Bard - Jack of All Trades, Mez, Puller, Heals, Solo Kiting


Monk - Best Puller, DPS, Medium Tank



Shaman - Best Slow, Haste, Great Buffs, Heals


Druid - Great Kiting Soloer, Healer, Damage Sheild


Cleric - Best Healer, Best Rez


Enchanter - Best Crowd Control, Best Haste Buff, Great Mana Regen Buff


Necromancer - Great Soloer, DPS through Dots, Summoning of Corpses

[Finawin]

Paladin aggro is comparable to SK. "best" isn't true, it's just that they can use a low level spell and keep aggro with ease. Paladin can do the same, with a little effort.

[Heebee]

Paladin aggro is comparable to SK. "best" isn't true, it's just that they can use a low level spell and keep aggro with ease. Paladin can do the same, with a little effort.

Yep, I was about to say the same thing. :D

[Malrubius]

One of the great things about classic EQ is that the classes ARE so radically different, and yes, unbalanced.

Other games out there have been balanced to death. Fair, sure. Boring, yeah.

I'd add Ports to Druids.
I'd add Rez to Pallys (I think that was in classic?).
I'd add Sneak to Rogues.
I'd add Illusions to Enchanters.
I'd add Uber Tracking to Rangers.

Monk is probably the most soloable pure melee (i.e. no spells).

Oh, and Bard = best trainer ;)

[Rael]

Evac to Druids, very useful when things turn ugly in lguk

[Sippin]

Add snare to druid, it's huge for kiting and in groups for preventing runaways.

Regen to both druids and shamans?

Add "excels at taking mob HTs" to rangers, since you haven't given them very much. ;)

[Ghesta]

My thoughts....

Add ports to druid. change "healer" to "backup healer"
remove tank from monk
Paladins make good tanks at higher levels, I'd say equal to SKs. plus they get a weaker rez (better than none tho!) and downtime heals at the sacrifice of a little dps.
Rangers aren't even "medium" dps in classic IMO, but they are the best trackers and can offer some versatility to a group with low spell casters (weak buffs / snare)

[guineapig]

Picking locks and disarming traps for rogues and to a lesser extent to bards.

In later expansions rogues are vital for getting into certain places.

Also tracking for bards and druids.

Paladins and enchanters: are both masters of the stun-lock which becomes very important with certain encounters.

Lay hand for Pallies, Harm touch for SK's

Pallies: are the only tank class that can split camps without help via pacify spells. If you have a pally, you don't need a monk or bard for pulling (speeds things up considerably).

Bards: fastest runners

Necros, druids, bards, rangers, wizzies: SNARE!!!

I'll add more when I think of stuff.

[Rhalous]

Do not forget about wizard stuns, roots, and snares. Wizards are also the highest burst dps.

[Toboggan]

Having played a druid over many years and servers, I can probably sum up the class with one word.

Utility.

Buffs - AC/HP, DS, SoW, Regen.
CC - Sure its been called "ghetto mez" but a timely snare and root have saved a group more than once
Ports - No better way to make the world that little bit smaller. Also, evacs.
DPS - DDs and stacking DoTs.
Tracking - Find it, kill it, prof it.

Toss in some heals and its hard to find a class with more flexibility.

Although not as good as any other class in any of the above examples, the fact that no other class has nearly as many tools in their kit shows the versatility of a druid.

[Tsuken]

bard - mana regen, highest running speed, charm quad kiting

You wouldn't really need to mention "heals" for bards. It's only hp regen.

[Danth]

"Pallies [sic]: are the only tank class that can split camps without help"

Don't forget that Shadow Knights can split by using feign death. Granted, that takes a little longer but it may be safer in the long run. A general rule with the Lull line is you shouldn't use it if you couldn't survive pulling the entire room, because sooner or later Lull WILL resist and bring the whole room down on top of you.

Shadow Knights also have the best ability to tank multiple monsters at a time. Paladins tank multiples only with difficulty, and Warriors only with difficulty *and* some luck.

Lay Hands is the only instant-cast heal currently available. Paladins could be considered 'unique' by virtue of being the most defense-oriented of the tanks. Consequently Paladins bring the most options to keep their group members alive when things go bad--be it root, stuns, heals, or the group member just having more HP due to the Paladin's buffs. Warriors can....sit there and watch their groups die, and SK's can feign and laugh to themselves as their groups die :D (I know, I know, they can do a little more than that).

Due having an arsenal of zero-damage aggro-generating spells, Paladins also have great ability to generate hate on mezzed targets from across the room, much to the CC'ers relief.

When I think of SK tanking, I think of sheer colossal hate generation on single or multiple targets; when I think of Paladin tanking, I think of *control*. Disease Cloud, superlative aggro as it is, by nature prohibits mezzing of mobs once the SK dots the target. Paladin threat generation doesn't come with that drawback.

Warriors are of course the meatshield par excellence--if you need a big fat target and don't need it to do much of anything except stand there and get hit on the head by some big greasy monster, the Warrior's your go-to man.

Danth

[vageta31]

Shamans are "a melee's best friend". Clerics have the best heal and HP buffs bar none, Druid's have some good buffs, DS and ports, but Shamans can make any melee do more DPS by both buffing the player and debuffing the mob. Shamans have a lot of utility and choices for playstyle. I love being a battleshaman while others like to kite like druids or root rot.

HP/AC buffs for durability
Resist spells(all 5 of them), along with levi, sow, invis, see invis, etc..
STA for even more hps
STR for more damage
DEX for more procs
AGI more ac/dodge if it actually worked on this server :P
Haste for, well you know.

Slow for allowing melee to take less damage
Incapacitate to reduce mob damage, and increase melee hit damage.
Malise for better chance of proc/spells to land
Regen combined with slow keeps melee from needing as many heals.

Add in some seriously nasty DoTs and a decent pet and you have some DPS capabilities.

Shaman/Monk is a beautiful combo as is Shaman/SK.

[guineapig]

"Pallies [sic]: are the only tank class that can split camps without help"

Don't forget that Shadow Knights can split by using feign death. Granted, that takes a little longer but it may be safer in the long run. A general rule with the Lull line is you shouldn't use it if you couldn't survive pulling the entire room, because sooner or later Lull WILL resist and bring the whole room down on top of you.

Shadow Knights also have the best ability to tank multiple monsters at a time. Paladins tank multiples only with difficulty, and Warriors only with difficulty *and* some luck.

Lay Hands is the only instant-cast heal currently available. Paladins could be considered 'unique' by virtue of being the most defense-oriented of the tanks. Consequently Paladins bring the most options to keep their group members alive when things go bad--be it root, stuns, heals, or the group member just having more HP due to the Paladin's buffs. Warriors can....sit there and watch their groups die, and SK's can feign and laugh to themselves as their groups die :D (I know, I know, they can do a little more than that).

Due having an arsenal of zero-damage aggro-generating spells, Paladins also have great ability to generate hate on mezzed targets from across the room, much to the CC'ers relief.

When I think of SK tanking, I think of sheer colossal hate generation on single or multiple targets; when I think of Paladin tanking, I think of *control*. Disease Cloud, superlative aggro as it is, by nature prohibits mezzing of mobs once the SK dots the target. Paladin threat generation doesn't come with that drawback.

Warriors are of course the meatshield par excellence--if you need a big fat target and don't need it to do much of anything except stand there and get hit on the head by some big greasy monster, the Warrior's your go-to man.

Danth

So you like the pallies aye? :D

[Danth]

I ought to, that's what I am.

Edit: Oh, NOW I get it. Curse you!

Danth

[faenyar]

Paladins were always my best friend as an enchanter on Druzzil Ro. I always had a designated paladin on any raid I led whose sole job was to stand right beside me and keep stuff off me. They'd stun, help generate hate, etc. and keep everything off me.

As an enchanter, I was seriously in <3 with my best friend the paladin. I still remember "Heilige Nacht", the paladin in my guild who I just flat out adored because she was phenomenal at her job and I stuck her right beside me on every raid. She saved my skinny fragile hind end on more occasions than I can count.

[axius]

Paladins were always my best friend as an enchanter on Druzzil Ro. I always had a designated paladin on any raid I led whose sole job was to stand right beside me and keep stuff off me. They'd stun, help generate hate, etc. and keep everything off me.

As an enchanter, I was seriously in <3 with my best friend the paladin. I still remember "Heilige Nacht", the paladin in my guild who I just flat out adored because she was phenomenal at her job and I stuck her right beside me on every raid. She saved my skinny fragile hind end on more occasions than I can count.

she had a penis

[faenyar]

Whether "she" did or not I neither know nor do I care. "She" knew how to play "her" paladin extremely well and between her and Varag (my favorite cleric) they pulled my ass outta the fire more than once and for that, I adored both of 'em.

FWIW, I really don't care whether someone crossdresses or not, if they know how to play. I generally just try and take everyone at face value. I don't get into the whole a/s/l drama (besides, my wife would murder me and bury my body under the compost pile).

[GreenRanger]

ranger: tankan, pullan, dpsan, power lvlan, trackan,(WTS QUILLAMAN 1k per cloak)
can solo by bow kitan but it tends to be not very cost effective(WTB Tolans darkwood bracer)

[Aaron]

Rangers can't tank. Their DPS is mediocre in classic. SKs and Pallies are more efficient pullers in dungeons. Tracking is good, but ever since they gave it to druids (which druids did not have in classic afaik), their superior tracking is really not even that big a deal. You can track Quillmane? Me and a druid tracked him repeatedly and got us all cloaks too. And we didn't have to worry about dying once we caught him.

Rangers are a cool novelty and are generally my favorite class, but let's not oversell what their strengths are.

[GreenRanger]

Rangers can't tank. Their DPS is mediocre in classic. SKs and Pallies are more efficient pullers in dungeons. Tracking is good, but ever since they gave it to druids (which druids did not have in classic afaik), their superior tracking is really not even that big a deal. You can track Quillmane? Me and a druid tracked him repeatedly and got us all cloaks too. And we didn't have to worry about dying once we caught him.

Rangers are a cool novelty and are generally my favorite class, but let's not oversell what their strengths are.

thats cool aaron and gratz on ur cloak's but since this is classic, ranger's are pretty much jsut a melee dps class with TAUNT. ive tanked majority of my exp groups even now at lvl 45. to say that rangers cant tank jsut goes to show you dont know that much about our favorite class.

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/3324/skssux.jpg

[Aaron]

Okay, you and Gintu both think rangers are tanks. That's cool. They're not tanks though.

That's not to say they can't tank if there are no other options, but they're not a tank class.

[Roshi]

Pretty sure Druid had Tracking, even back in classic, it's just Ranger's always had that ability to sort their tracking window by con/etc, and could filter out things, while we Druids had to just scroll through the mess.

I could be wrong though.

[GreenRanger]

you are right :) also 200 max tracking

[Tristin]

Okay, you and Gintu both think rangers are tanks. That's cool. They're not tanks though.

That's not to say they can't tank if there are no other options, but they're not a tank class.

Hey Karsten remember the time I tanked Phin on Tristin and we killed it and ported just as half of Heresy entered Kedge Keep? Good times...

[LazyFuj]

Hey Karsten remember the time I tanked Phin on Tristin and we killed it and ported just as half of Heresy entered Kedge Keep? Good times...

iq lost reading this, 50

[Tristin]

wut

[Aaron]

Pretty sure Druid had Tracking, even back in classic, it's just Ranger's always had that ability to sort their tracking window by con/etc, and could filter out things, while we Druids had to just scroll through the mess.

I could be wrong though.

I played a ranger in classic, druids didn't originally have tracking. It may have been given to them before Kunark even came out, but it was unique to rangers originally.

[mokfarg]

If I remember correctly Wizards did more DPS than Rogues in the original game but by Velious the rogue was top DPS and casters started to lag behind. I believe the order of DPS greatest to lowest in Velious was:

1. Rogue
2. Wizard
3. Necromancer
4. Magician
5. Monk

Not sure how the rest would follow