Project 1999 - Fresh blood from a newbie

Hey Boot, glad to see you interested in p99 :)

Generally all melee on here tend to play with other people. Which one you want to play depends on which sounds best. Any of them are a good class to play if it sounds fun to you. Here's my attempt to quickly summarize each melee class:

Warriors - they are considered the only real tank for raids because of a single ability they get that lets them take (but also deal) significantly reduced damage for a long period of time. But you will spend 99% of your time in EQ outside of raids. Warriors are tanks who rely on procs from weapons to keep aggro, and they have the best damage potential of any tank. Their world focuses around the wide variety of armor and proccing weapons they can use. They cannot solo without a lot of very expensive gear.

Shadowknights - SKs are tanks also. They deal less damage than warriors generally but can hold aggro easier in most leveling groups because their spells are their source of aggro, not their randomly-proccing weapons. They also get a ton of utility from spells, which include lifedrains, snares, fears, the ability to fake death, and other great spells. SKs are the best of the "tank" classes at soloing, probably, because of better damage dealing than a paladin while having strong utility spells plus the option of fear-kiting. SKs are also one of the best, if not the best, classes at pulling just the monsters they want, and no more monsters, to the group to kill.

Paladins - Yet another tank. Paladins are generally going to deal less damage than SKs, though they keep aggro and take hits just as well. They keep aggro with spells also, and their spells give them utility via buffing, healing, rooting, and attacking undead monsters. Paladins are good pullers and can solo slowly, though solo picks up at higher levels.

Rangers - Rangers are a damage-dealing melee class, but they can tank in a pinch with some high-aggro spells, they just require some more healing than the tougher tanks do. Rangers are the lowest DPS of the damage dealing classes, but they get some snaring, rooting, healing, and damaging spells to add to their utility. Rangers are good pullers.

Monks - Monks are a bit of an oddity in this era of EQ. They deal nearly as much damage as a rogue does, but they take hits nearly as well as a warrior. They don't have spells, but they have other abilities that give them more utility than a warrior would (they can fake death, heal themselves ocassionally, sneak, and use different special attacks). A monk's drawbacks, though, include a very limited armor selection and a penalty to armor class if they carry too much weight. Monks are generally the go-to puller in leveling groups.

Rogues - rogues are the kings of damage-dealing, but they are poor at taking hits and are almost impossible to solo even with amazing gear. They need a group with other melee (or fear-kiters) in order to do their backstabbing, but their amazing damage potential and their hiding, sneaking, lock-picking utility makes them quite desirable in groups.

Bards - I'll mention bards here because, while they aren't REALLY a "melee" class, they do get end up meleeing in leveling groups. They do less damage than a paladin or SK usually, but they make up for poor melee damage with a wide variety of songs that can damage or debuff or control enemies or heal and buff their entire group. A great bard truly is a wonder to behold.

It is probably worth mentioning that rogues and warriors are the only ones of these classes that do not have an experience penalty. SKs, pallies, rangers, bards, and to a lesser extent monks, all need more experience to level up than a rogue or a warrior does.

Warriors and rogues are probably the most desired of these classes for groups, although very very few groups will turn away a paladin or shadowknight tank, or a monk DPS. Rangers have a bit of a stigma attached to them because they don't have a clearly defined role in groups... they do good damage, but not as good as a rogue or monk or magi. They have control spells, but not as good of control spells as an enchanter. They can tank, but healers usually prefer to heal a REAL tank instead of a ranger or a monk. GOOD rangers and bards are appreciated, but it takes more work to get people to recognize that they want you in their group if you're a bard or a ranger than if you're a tank or a rogue.