Ranger grouping
 

Hello all - I'm an EQ vet that began playing in my late teens at release in 99 on Xegony, in a guild called Imperial Guard. I played a shammy, SK and monk at lvl 60 and raided through velious. I began leveling a lvl 24ish ranger before SoL came out and was really enjoying the class. However, I quite playing altogether, shortly after SoL was released. At that time, I had a large set of friends and he was heavily twinked (RBB, Tolan BP, woodsman, etc), so grouping was never an issue.

Looking back through the threads here (albeit some are older), it appears that finding a group as a ranger may be quite difficult on this server. While soloing is fine, I was really rather hoping to get back to the group dynamic in P99. While I greatly enjoyed cutting edge raiding in the old days, I enjoyed the company of the community even more. My long winded question is to follow. I've always wanted to pick up playing a ranger, but this will be my first toon here, so I have no means to twink and no friend base to build on. Is it likely to still be difficult to find groups?

If the ranger class is frowned upon, I may consider playing a more desired class to cap and gather gear along the way to use with my ranger at a later date. Any thoughts on the matter are welcomed.

Xegony represent!

If you can wait to start your ranger, level him up to about 22 and then wait until the Velious patch when the XP penalty is lifted and you get Panic Animal at 22, in case you need to solo. Unless you're betting that Velious won't be out anytime soon.

Otherwise, your bread and butter as a ranger is in 3-4 man groups where they actually need your versatility to fulfill multiple roles while keeping the group small. Full groups can just get the specialists (rogue for DPS, monk for pulling, enchanter/bard for CC, etc) and can better justify not adding a ranger, especially if there are some min-maxers in the group that loathe the thought of adding a hybrid that will soak up their XP.

Primarily, best advice is to be proactive and start your own groups. You're still a decent tank in classic zones, and rangers can hold aggro like a champ. You build up a solid group of people you level up with in various zones that match your play time, /friend them, and start sending them tells to see if they want to join up when you log in.

That's right, Xegony is in the house!

Thanks for the tips Yendor, I appreciate it. That sounds like solid information and suggestions. I may just wait a bit and work on another toon for the time being. If you wouldn't mind, or if anyone else has any insight on this, are there any classes that are in higher demand at the moment?

Trying to get groups as a ranger is an exercise in frustration 50+

Absolutely be proactive and start your own groups, this is probably your best bet as a ranger. You can definitely tank at early levels, and ranger gear is cheap because rangers are in such low demand.

As for classes that are in higher demand, pretty much any of them. For EXP groups, here is the run-down:

Tanks: Warriors don't have an EXP penalty, but they're awful at aggro generation, so people are more willing to go with SKs and paladins. At any rate, tanks are always in high demand.
Healers: Everyone loves a cleric. Shamans are also well-loved for buffs and slows, though they start out a little weak. Druids, not in as high demand, but snare is incredibly useful.
DPS: Rogues and monks rule the DPS charts hands-down. Rogues have the added bonus of a small EXP bonus versus the monk EXP penalty (especially high for iksar monks). On the other hand, monks are better soloers. You can do good DPS even with medicore gear. Mages also pack solid DPS and are excellent soloers.
Other classes: Bards are incredibly useful despite their EXP penalty. Enchanters are incredibly useful and always in huge demand, and they have no EXP penalty. Both of those classes are excellent soloers as well, and are not terribly gear dependent. Wizards are not so useful. Necros are more useful/desired than wizards in groups, but more so in small groups or duos.

I'd say, if you want to play a ranger, give it a shot. Don't be too worried about not having leet gear. Give it an honest effort and be proactive, and farm up some plat in your free time. But if you're finding it too much of a pain, feel free to roll another class.

You can tank at any level. I tanked Crypt on my 55 ranger and the cleric was having zero problems.

A ranger can tank anything... with slow.

A good ranger, like any other class, is great in a group be honest but the exp penality scares folks away. Grouping will never be an issue once that goes away.

Thank you everyone for the information and feedback. I'm thinking that I will roll another toon to more or less, focus on while I play the ranger on the side. At least until SoV is released. Though, it is entirely possible that I'll get sucked into playing ranger full time. For whatever reason, I really enjoy EQ's take on the class.

I'll just throw my long winded thoughts below as I narrow the selection down. This is just rambling thoughts, so read only if bored. I'll include the names of some of the more prevalent toons from Xeg and Druzzil'Ro, in the event that anyone recognizes them.

Priests - I rolled a barb shaman last night for the sake of nostalgia and had a fun few hours with it. Though, I've actually leveled 2 of them back in the day. One shaman (Pericles) was sold in pre-kunark era (before Verant addressed account selling) and the following shammy (Wiery) was my main toon. Which, I spent more than half a year of my life logged into. While I enjoyed the uber power that came with my properly geared shaman at the top levels, I feel like I want something new. I guess I'm looking for a new way to experience the greatest game. I also played (Voltaires) elf/druid quite a bit as we were roommates. No desire to play a druid. - Cleric, highly possible choice -

Casters - I did play a mage into the mid levels before velious was ever released and wasn't overly fond of nukers. I did enjoy playing my buddy's necro (Viao) and another's enchanter (can't remember the name for the life of me). Though, I don't have a desire to play either class. - So, all casters are out -

Melee - I plvled a rogue on live last year. Even with all of the AA's and such, the class is still boring to me. I played a monk (Bumpn Uggliez) a bit and plvled one with my rogue on live (3box with shaman). Monks are definitely the more interesting of the two, but I'm not overly interested. I never leveled a bard beyond 20, but I did somewhat enjoy the class in classic while I was leveling. - Bard, possible choice -

Tanks - After leveling a warrior to 50 in Vel/sol era, they are a little more exciting than rogues imo, but still not exciting at all. SK, f-ing awesome class. I perhaps had more fun leveling my SK (Peel'n Deadskin) over any other class. That said, it's already been done and off my list (Still a bit tempting, actually). Paladins seem like fun, but definitely more challenging than an SK. Not too sure how they are received in groups now, as compared to the old days though. - Paladin, highly possible choice -

TLDR - Possible classes to play alternately to ranger are - Cleric, Pally and slight possibility of Bard

The wiki is down, so I can't really see the rundown of abilities for each class in the state of P99. So, I'll have to do that later. As always, if anyone has any thoughts or feedback, please share.

You can use this while the wiki is down: http://web.archive.org/web/201308100....org/Main_Page

Awesome! Thank you Estu. BTW, your avatar cracks me up everytime.