Class distribution and Velious?
 

New to P99 and am always interested in class distributions. Everyday for my first week I did /who all 40-60 to see what people were playing into the high levels. I did it mainly around prime time but a couple of days I did it during off hours to see if there was any huge difference.

What I came up with was:

1. Monk 439
2. Shaman 223
3. Cleric 213
4. Necro 202
5. Enchanter 191
6. Druid 138
7. Rogue 128
8. Magician 117
9. Bard 107
10. Warrior 106
11. Wizard 84
12. SK 83
13. Ranger 58
14. Paladin 49

Really interesting. One thing I was surprised by was the Druid population, you seem to see a lot, and at lower levels there are quite a few, but the closer you get to 60 the less there are.

I've continued on with certain classes I am interested in at just 60 and different level ranges.

Do you think this distribution will change radically with the release of Velious?
Do you think a lot of people will be rolling new toons when it releases, or will people mainly just play their 60s for awhile?

Always interesting to discuss and no better time than server outage :)

There are actually a lot more paladins, just they are not found by /who all because they use /anon since they are such an in demand class ;).

Expect to see more paladins, SKs, bards and rangers when the patch goes in removing the hybrid XP penalty.

Druids are mainly a "dial a port" class these days. Some graduate and make it to 60, get their epic etc... but many stop as they fall further behind in the battle for healing spaces in groups (39 cleric CH etc) and aren't seen as A+ candidates for caster DPS (wiz/mage/etc) or utility (shaman ahead in a lot of people's eyes).

You will see more hybrids.

Right now it can be hard to find groups with the xp penalty. Be prepared to see a lot more knights and rangers in particular.

I don't expect bard population to change much but I could be wrong.

Also I'd say considering the amount of tanks I'm fighting for spaces in KC/Seb type groups, I'm surprised warriors are so low on that list.

Most the group-dependent melee will congregate in the zones where folks group, and in Kunark that's a fairly small list. Meanwhile most of those Necromancers, Enchanters, Shamans, and what have you are spread out around the world solo'ing. Plus most groups only want one tank, and when you have three tank classes and 6 folks per group, it doesn't take many tanks to satisfy demand.

I suspect that after the initial outpouring, the hybrid population will decline somewhat. Perhaps not quite back to present levels, but they won't maintain any huge degree of popularity. Experience aside, Velious doesn't really fix the reasons they're unpopular (witness Iksar Monks, who have a steeper experience penalty than hybrids, but no lack of popularity in spite of that), so a lot of folks will try out hybrids, level 'em for awhile, then drift back to the default classes.

Danth

So what is the deal with the hybrid penalty and groups? I thought it only applied to the character and didn't impact a group in anyway. But I keep seeing people implying or saying otherwise?

What is the definitive answer please?

Ooops, high jacked my own thread :)

xp is shared in the group so that each member levels at rougly the same rate.

This means if you have a character that needs more xp to level (perhaps a higher level, a hybrid, or worse, a high level hybrid) that character will get a larger share of the xp from each kill than his group mates.

Experience penalties are shared because the game awards experience based on how much experience a character has. That level 54 Troll Shadow Knight has much higher total experience than a level 54 Halfling Cleric, hence the SK receives much more experience per kill (resulting in the other guy feeling like he's leveling slower than usual). Racial penalties multiply it, so that Troll SK has a combined 68% penalty. Some confusion might result because the penalties were originally (incorrectly) self-only when P1999 first opened, and it was changed to the classic system later on. I much prefer the shared penalties, even with the occasional discrimination, but some folks prefer it the other way. Note that a majority of classes in the game have experience penalties--not just hybirds. Monks carry a 20% penalty and intelligence casters have a 10% penalty.

Several months into Velious we'll see a patch which will remove class penalties and make the racial penalties self-only.

Danth

Xp is currently split based on xp totals per character. Since my 56 bard has almost as much xp as a fresh 60 cleric, I take a big portion of the xp per kill. I don't level faster than others in the group, I just slow them down.

The discrimination getting groups didn't really get bad until low 50s.

Come velious xp will be split only based on character level. Class xp penalties go away. Racial penalties stay but are no longer shared with group.

Knights and especially Rangers will have a much easier time getting groups. Bards at least bring crazy mana regen (19-21 a tick average if not being lazy in downtime) and cc to the table.