P99 Much Less Skills/Rotations/Combat Depth?

[Whiskiz]

Hey guys, i'm wanting to get into Everquest in some form or another, but i'm not sure where to do with P99 TLP and Live.

I love the look of the oldschool, the challenge, complexity, community, group play, freedom/exploring/adventuring etc and see almost everything i could want in P99, but:

I hear since it's ooold school that it has much less abilities and/or rotations and so much less combat depth to it.

Not just a bit less but much, much less abilities/rotations/combat depth.

That's probably the one thing i couldn't trade for everything else. I know i'd end up getting bored before long spamming the same buttons on the same grind over and over and over. Especially with the grind being alot more hardcore than most other places.

It's hard to even enjoy a favorite class when you're just spamming the same couple of things over and over. None to minimal rotation and/or rotation options, strategy/skill choice etc.

Is it really as bad as it sounds? I know the community and challenge and all the rest would make up for it, somewhat, but at the end of the day the majority of game time would be spent in combat grinding, so it'd be great if there was a little more to it.

Any thoughts?

[aaezil]

depends on your class. Positioning is more important than 3 rows of hotbars if you are the tank for instance. if you are a cleric you will pretty much sit, stand to cast heal, then sit again for 60 levels ( with the occasional root or whatever). Bards are polar opposite can be very active and always pressing buttons

[Pyrocat]

If you want complexity, play an enchanter, bard, necromancer, or shaman. Don't play a melee type character.

[skarlorn]

Originally Posted by Pyrocat [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

If you want complexity, play an enchanter, bard, necromancer, or shaman. Don't play a melee type character.

melees are fucking atrocious on this server. By smoking pounds of marijuana I managed to get a warrior to 60 and raid geared even though his abilities included:

auto attack
kick
disarm (basically useless)
taunt

and that is about it. eventually you get discs, which you can use once in a while.

Some sick people will try to convince you that the positioning, weapon swapping, and other stuff makes melee in depth on this sever. They're delusional.

[Izmael]

Cleric is only straightforward if you play the class like a healing bot.

Clerics can lull, memblur, root, nuke, stun, blind, fear and whatnot. A cleric who knows his class is actually fairly versatile and can be challenging, fun and rewarding to play.

[kined]

Originally Posted by Izmael [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Cleric is only straightforward if you play the class like a healing bot.

Clerics can lull, memblur, root, nuke, stun, blind, fear and whatnot. A cleric who knows his class is actually fairly versatile and can be challenging, fun and rewarding to play.

Agree with this completely. It's also a blatant exa.ple about how things being straightforward is a choice. If you play a clefic in a full group of an xp zone it's bound to be boring. Making a change friend and diving into howling stones together? That's gonna be a challenging adventure where both of you use a wide range of tools. The cleric has to be just as attentive and active as the chanter.

Live doesn't really have that many more tools... It's all the same stuff, it's just a little less flash here... It's still just nukes, dots, slows, hastes, fears, snares, roots, mezzes etc.

[Jimjam]

The problem is a lot of people get mad if you play outside their expectation of a class's role.

I was lucky enough to be in a double shaman group in Seb. We wanted to do disco, but had no cc. I borrowed my static's cleric and used a line up exclusively consisting of roots, stuns, paci and mem blur. Was pretty entertaining seeing the excess adds just Jason Statham home when hit with the paci/atone combo.

I think OP would most enjoy Enc or Bard depending if he wants a melee or range based character.

[gortimer]

I think OP is coming from modern MMO where you stand in one spot mashing the same 12 abilities as they refresh.

In EQ there is none of that. New games have no strategy beyond what order to use your abilities to minimize refreshes.

EQ is all about strategy. Some people play the game as straightforward as they can and don't do anything fun. But you can push the limits of the game and really explore what everquest can be about.

[Whiskiz]

Thanks for the insight guys!

Originally Posted by Pyrocat [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

If you want complexity, play an enchanter, bard, necromancer, or shaman. Don't play a melee type character.

The general consensus seems to be to try one of the above classes for more depth, maybe even Ranger (which is what i usually play and was looking at.) One of the souls i used to play in Rift was Bard and i had to go Bard in FF14 for the Archer class, recently, so maybe i'll give Bard/Ranger a go in P99 first.

It also sounds like if you're good enough you can do awesome things with Ench so maybe i'll make a couple characters and go from there.

Originally Posted by Swish [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

This completely, but theres something I always liked about the rogue class and backstabz and big damage...simple yet a lot of fun. Everyone enjoys something different, topping dps charts is my thing [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Me too, i'm always trying to stay on the top of DPS charts, but not if it means sacrificing all combat depth - because it's only so rewarding while pressing 3 different buttons :P

Originally Posted by gortimer [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I think OP is coming from modern MMO where you stand in one spot mashing the same 12 abilities as they refresh.

In EQ there is none of that. New games have no strategy beyond what order to use your abilities to minimize refreshes.

You should think and make assumptions less, haha.

Have you not heard of raiding and general end-game? Gl trying to just "stand in one spot and mash the same 12 abilities" in any tier of Rift raiding let alone tier 3. (RIP Storm Legion)

Or FF14 - especially "mashing the same 12 abilities" with 30+ skills and needing to do proper rotations to keep up with the required damage/healing/mitigation.

Sorry if i don't also have trouble doing that and enjoy the challenge :P

[fadetree]

OP -
Rotations as such don't exist, unless you want to count debuffs before attacks. You do get strategic timed abilities later called disciplines. EQ is deceptive, don't count the lack of a giant set of abilities as an indicator. Get in and play for a while, there's a lot of subtleties that will become apparent via numerous deaths. As was mentioned, Bard or Enchanter are probably the closest to what you're looking for. Melee char play is mostly around positioning and aggro mechanics, although they (except warrior) have some amount of spells.

Live does have a huge set of 'AA abilities', but the process of acquiring them is a grindfest and they don't really have a 'chain' aspect if I recall correctly. My advice is to go ahead and give P99 a shot on a chanter or bard. If you are a masochist you can play a Ranger, which is a class that has a general utility but usually isn't played up to its full potential. Necro is another such class, although survival is much easier than on a Ranger. Necros are underappreciated and usually not played up to the full potential, with people mostly soloing whereas in a group a well played Necro can do just about anything.