Most FUN Class to Play Untwinked?
 

Hey, I've been running through a million different ideas this morning on a new character to play. Would like to do the <Auld Lang Syne> playstyle this time around, going untwinked and earning upgrades along the way.

Anyone with experience in this way/style of play care to chip in with what you enjoyed about it and what class you were? I don't care at all about the "best" character as it's obviously necro/ench, but what you found was fun about the class and why.

I play a bit off-peak (a few hours between 8am-4p is usually my window) so having the ability to somewhat solo would be nice. Currently considering SK/Pally, but would love to hear how others fared.

Monks not too bad untwinked if youre leaning away from the usual solo spellcaster and want to roll a melee.

Bards can do a lot without any gear as long as you stick to kiting outdoors.

Pally/Sk untwinked will not be very 'fun'. Monk is a good suggestion since they were designed in classic to be naked beggers who carry no coin. My first P99 character was a monk and he is now rocking full White Lotus and a Facesmasher. The progression for monks is good for 'self only items' also because it flows pretty naturally. IE Use fists, get armor from Upper Guk, then Dalnir cresent armor, then CoM weapons, ect, ect). The epic quest starts with sash and headband quests which can be started and completed fairly early in a monks career. Then camping Raster in your late 40s is a rite of passage for any monk.

I would think the most fun untwinked is either Monk or Necromancer... even though necro is also one of the most powerful untwinked. Necromancers are totally viable healers for group content during the levels near your Compact spells. I healed on my necro pretty much full time from level 20-30, 44-58. There is a dark period between 30-40 where your heals wont be enough.

If you play necro with the mindset of a healer and send your pet in for extra DPS, dispel your own recourse, and life tap/twitch as needed then you will see just how powerful a well played necromancer really is.

I don't want to toot my own horn but I have had at least probably 20 groups tell me I am the best necromancer they have ever played with. There are also so many undead zones in EQ that necromancers can charm almost as well as enchanter.

Plus lets face it - the grind form 55-60 is damn near unbearable and it can be IMPOSSIBLE to find groups unless you play a min/max class. At least with necromancer you can solo 55-60 (that is if your aim is to max out).

TLDR - Monk or Necro bro

If you want to "solo some" then you definitely need to pick a charm class IMO. Necro/Chanter/Druid - Druid can be a bit tricker to find charm spots but druid charm is just as viable as any other class in outdoor zones and they can quad kite.

I recently leveled a Druid (Wutaang) up to level 39 and I did quite a bit of charming along the way. Most notably in Oasis in the teens where I became a DPS monster.

Now that I think about it I think you should scrap Monk/Necro and go Druid. Its pretty neat having ports and very unique

I've spent a lot of time on this problem since I love melee based classes but don't always have time for a group. I also don't usually twink my characters much, if at all. My Ranger is in Auld actually. So given your criteria of wanting to 1) play untwinked 2) melee and 3) off hours with some soloing:

Paladin
A slow soloer, particularly until you get a decent 2hander and root (level 22). Root jousting is the only real solo strategy this class has to offer. Otherwise you'll be taking full damage hits to the face and healing up afterwards, which is slow. Can work but requires patience. On the plus side very easy to get single pulls with lull and decent heal up capability.

Shadowknight
A very capable soloer with fear kiting. No real way of generating single pulls at first, but easy once you have FD. Soloing is entirely restricted to large open outdoor zones you can fear in but still very viable.

Ranger
A very capable soloer with three different workable strategies: root jousting (level 15), fear kiting animals (level 22), and archery (level 9 to start, gets better with root). Archery is hugely underrated IMO but requires some effort to make it viable. Rangers also have Harmony which makes single pulls a breeze, but only outdoors (note however that most of the popular grouping dungeons ARE outdoors).

Monk
Has a reputation for being a good soloer but I think much of that rep comes from access to cheap good weapons. You can buy overpowered weapons for a Monk in EC for 100pp. People practically give them away. As a member of Auld you will not have access to these so you'll be face tanking mobs and then healing up with bandages and Mend which isn't a recipe for success IMO. Still viable but will be slow I think.

Warrior
Face tanking with no heal up capability besides bandages. Not viable.

Rogue
Face tanking with no mitigation or heal up capability besides bandages. Not viable.

Bard
Technically a melee but I think of them as more of a caster on wheels personally. Very good soloers but everyone knows that.

What do you mean SK has no real way of generating single pulls? They have snare and FD, they're pretty good at single pulls.

Sorry, was thinking of early levels. At level 30 you can feign for all the single pulls you could ever want. Will edit my post.

I've always played melee chars in EQ, "main'd" a war on live (aka i was 11 and got up to level 40) and my main here is a monk.

That being said, Enchanter. They practically require zero gear, and all the gear that IS required will be easily solo'd/group'd with Auld Lang Syne. Lull pulling, super high dps via pets, CC gods, ETC. The most fun I have had outside of raids in this game is being the main puller for my group on the enchanter.

The only downside is they suck til like level 16.

depends on your definition of fun really, both my mage and necro are mostly untwinked (can play either naked) and fun for me in the ways I play them which are quite different from each other.

mage for me is a war/cleric duo, I hate the reclaim/chain summoning strat and much prefer weaponizing, hasting, and healing my elebro. the 50% exp pen is what it is, chewing through low blue cons is probably more efficient than a twinked out monk or a melee hybrid.

necro is an entirely different animal where the fun for me is maximizing efficiency with how much damage the dots and pet are doing and finding that perfect balance.