Halfling Warrior/Rogue or Human Monk?
 

I want to focus on a pure melee class for a change, since my usual has been to always be a caster (or bard) since I started playing back when Velious came out, and I'm not a fan of hybrids since the time investment to keep spell skills up at level 9 and the slower leveling feel prohibitive to me even if they truly are not.

But I'm not sure which one I want to be, and I've narrowed my choices down to a Halfling Warrior or Rogue, or a Human Monk starting in Qeynos, and I've never played any of those classes, so would anyone have any suggestions or recommendations for someone who has stuck to Shaman / Druid / Bard for most of his EQ career? :3

Qeynos is gay as fuck, start as a monk in freeport.

Rogue will never be able to solo and will be purely dependent on groups for XP your entire career.

Warriors have issues holding aggro without the correct gear, and will also be very dependent on groups.

Monks appear to be #2 in DPS, plus mitigate damage fairly well to the point that they are actually decent tanks. All that, plus mend & feign death.

So monk sounds like the way to go. Which is good, because I "grew up" with Qeynos when I first got the game and I have a sentimental spot for that zone (plus the +5 HP jewelry that drops in the sewers is just nice on top of that for someone like me who can't twink). That, and I <3 Gnolls more than stupid ol' Bixies or Orcs. :3

I did know about Warrior aggro issues because of the Tigole / Furor temper tantrums that crashed zones back in the day when Knights were kings of tanking. I was just curious about what else they were capable of (which I suppose I neglected to include in my original post) but you answered that part as well. So thank you for the actual and polite response. :)

Well, monk is the only option out of those three which is capable of soloing. Keep in mind they tend to be poor at low levels since you can't carry many bags/coins/loot without hitting the 14wt cap and lowering your AC. But you won't need much equipment either.

Warriors/Rogues, especially untwinked, cant really solo. Rogues depend a lot less on items than a warrior, a halfway decent piercer in your main hand and you'll be able to perform adequately as a rogue. Warrior will have the rougher time of it because you'll have to spend more energy getting gear as you level up than a rogue would need to.

All three of them are going to be fairly desired in groups, however monks are the most plentiful by far out of the three. In later levels (50+) rogues become a lot more desirable and in certain camps, required (Crypt, Sebilis) and at end game warriors are going to be the ones doing most of the tanking on raid mobs.

Edit:
If you're looking for the easiest time in-game while avoiding playing any kind of caster, Monk is the way to go.

Warriors and rogues are very gear-dependent (especially warriors), so if you don't have a character to twink with, starting one of those could be tough. Doable, but tough; you need to know how to make money early and what to spend it on. Monks are less gear-dependent and more versatile, with better soloing ability, and more interesting to play, with feign death pulling. I'd go monk.

Yeah the end-game viability for Rogues and Warriors sounds nice and is really tempting, but by the sounds of it, unless I can twink or something I won't be doing much leveling without a group, heh. And it's not as if grouping is bad, I played healers all of classic, but irregular and unpredictable play time makes grouping hard to do every session.

However, they are both classes to keep in mind if I ever get money or gear and still have a char slot available, I suppose... /shrug.

Thanks for the response. :)

I never realized they were so hard up without twinking in the solo department, at least not before this thread. Maybe those GUComics taking jabs at warrior soloing weren't entirely fiction after all. ^^;;

Monks can bind wounds up to 70% at a lower level (40?) then warriors/rogues, have a higher damage output (rogues can't backstab from the front) and can use mend to allow for faster killing. They can also feign death if its obvious that they won't win the fight. A rogue or warrior attempting to do the same will take longer to recover between fights and have nothing to fall back on when things go south.

Halflings are the only race with an EXP bonus.

make a halfling warrior right now and ill hook you up with some stuff...my character's name in game now is Wakky or pm here...i hang out in Rivervale/Misty Thicket a lot.

with a halfling warrior you get hide/sneak and super fast leveling; so fast its like having a 50% bonus compared to other people in the game...i got a level 27 halfling warrior so i know this