Best newbie friendly class/race?(casual player)

[Ketsa]

I would not recommend Shaman for a beginner. Played one on live and another here i just leveled to 13. Shamans are OK past 24 or even 34.

i would suggest Necro or Mage.

[Vigilance]

If you want to solo effectively and still be valued in groups, go mage or necro. You'll always be wanted in groups when you actually want to group because both classes do plenty of damage. They are also much easier to level than a druid due to their pets.

[Estu]

Wenai, I like your analysis, but you didn't even mention Enc or Mag. How do those two classes stack up, in your opinion, as soloers?

[nalkin]

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

Wenai, I like your analysis, but you didn't even mention Enc or Mag. How do those two classes stack up, in your opinion, as soloers?

Enchanters are the best farmers in game hands down. They can solo camps that are ridiculous. Mages are the best single mob soloers and very good at xping. Mages are best with furies and allizewsaur, anything that is single a mage can kill. Its like mages and enchanters are at different ends of the spectrum with necros somewhere in the middle. Mages want single mobs and enchanters want multiple mobs.

[Morlaeth]

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

If you don't want druid, this is an excellent option. Everfrost is a bit brutal your first 2 levels, but then it opens up. You have access to everything you need to get going. Many of the newbie mobs carry weapons, and the trade district of Halas has sharpening stones (vendor hidden behind the cider building I think) to upgrade to tarnished weapons and start building your smithing. Sell off what you don't need.

Polar bear cubs drop all variety of skins, and the actual white polar bear skins can be traded to Cindl for starting armor. The ruined can be combined in a loom (just north of Cindl) with a pattern to try and create your own, and a high quality skin can be sold to another player for about 10pp. People will pop in OOC with an offer to buy, so just bank them and be patient.

There's a guy right outside the door of the shaman guild who will give you a container to collect wooly snacks from spiderlings and spiders, and in return gives you a random level 5 shaman spell. You can repeat this quest many times over and sell off duplicate spells.

The arena has a female warrior who gives you a bag to collect goblin necklaces for experience and money, /say I will protect the pass. It's a nice free starting container as well. When you're ready to go to Blackburrow, around level 5, keep the no drop gnoll fangs (they stack too) and turn them into this same NPC for some great experience and a light source. Blackburrow is usually well populated and getting groups is not difficult. Great experience, and you can hang out there until level 10 or more.

If you get tired of BB, there are goblin camps scattered around that are great experience until level 7 or so. I'd alternate between the one just north of Bandl, and south of him near the south wall. It's a pretty safe run if you hug the wall. By the time you clear one, the other camp has respawned. Save the necklaces for the quest I mentioned earlier.

After that, you can stay in everfrost and start camping the south wall for snow leopards starting at level 9, and work your way up to orc troopers along the east wall. This can all be easily solo'ed by a shaman assuming you've bought your dots from Starn in the northeast ruins and keep your weapon skills up to par.

If that doesn't appeal to you, at level 9 you get SOW, and can make it through BB very easily. Norrath is your oyster.

Great post!

[luckynclover]

So... just to let everyone know i read things over did some research and decided to roll with a barbarian shaman Totemicrage.. one of the main reasons is my play time with wow is dwindleing down to almost nothing opening more free time to play eq1 and thus opening more chances to group. Thanks all for the input and hope to see yall in game.

[mjrau]

I chose halfling druid, not because there were a gazillion other druids around but because I tried a wizard first and just impossible to get groups at low levels in my play time... Damn Aussies <j/k>

[Wenai]

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

Wenai, I like your analysis, but you didn't even mention Enc or Mag. How do those two classes stack up, in your opinion, as soloers?

Enchanters and Magicians are also good choices. Here is what I have to say with regards to the topic of this thread:

Enchanter is NOT newbie friendly in my opinion. You are incredibly weak at lower levels. However you will have no problem getting groups. At high levels enchanters are probably the most powerful class honestly. Mez, root, charm, gate etc. They somewhat fit my two rules when it comes to choosing a self-sufficient class:

1. They have increased mana regeneration (clarity).
2. They somewhat have mana free damage. Animation pets are terrible unfortunately. Charmed pets are spectacular but dangerous.

The one thing about enchanters is they have no way to heal themselves and thus are a little bit difficult for newbs if you aren't careful.


Magician... oh wow I could write a book on magicians. I kind of laugh at all the people talking about how great magicians are and how they solo single mobs better than any other class. I fucking disagree 100%. Why? How do you define better? Is better defined by speed, efficiency or a combination of the two?

In terms of speed, yes a magician is probably quicker than a necromancer. In terms of mana efficiency? Hell no.

Magicians have the best pet (and thus the best mana-free damage of all the solo classes). This is a huge bonus and I won't diminish this. Their pets are the best; end of discussion.

Here is why I hate magicians so much. They have a severe lack of diversity. You can't snare, you can't root, you can't mez... you literally can't do anything. You have no CC. You have no way to heal yourself (bandaids lol?), you have no way to regen your mana. You are limited to two things:

1. Pets
2. Nukes

If a kill is more complicated than that.. good luck. Yeah you can chain pets and kill something and claim you are a god... How much mana did you spend killing it? Mage pets cost 200 mana each. If you are chaining four, five or god forbid 6 pets to kill something like an Allizewsaur you are talking upwards of 1200 mana just to survive (this doesn't include burnout).

A necromancer would be able to kill the same target with nothing but disease cloud (5 mana spell), Dooming Darkness (120 mana).

So while you chain your pets at 200 mana each, a necromancer would spend that mana on actual DPS while keeping their comparable pet at full health because he never has to tank.

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

Enchanters are the best farmers in game hands down. They can solo camps that are ridiculous. Mages are the best single mob soloers and very good at xping. Mages are best with furies and allizewsaur, anything that is single a mage can kill. Its like mages and enchanters are at different ends of the spectrum with necros somewhere in the middle. Mages want single mobs and enchanters want multiple mobs.

I somewhat agree that necromancers are somewhere in the middle.

Enchanter - Elite CC
Necromancer -Great CC

Mage - Zero CC

Magician would be instantly twice as good if they got root. Honestly. As someone who did primarily ghetto CC and support healer as a shaman on live, root is all you need for CC honestly.

Magician is a spectacular class in a duo or trio situation. It really is. I think in terms of pure soloing, necromancer is a much.. much.. muuuuuuch better option than a mage. I don't know how many times I have had this debate. It always ends up being a bunch of people that only play magicians being like, " I can nuke for big numbers and my pet is awesome!"

Diversity goes a long way in EQ and a lack of diversity is the magician's biggest weakness.

[Seritaph]

Enchanter is a great class and a lot of fun, but I don't know that it's on my list as a good casual choice. I'm on the fence on this one, because there's certainly enough utility to make it work.

As stated they start out very weak and are difficult to get going. Very group dependent for the most part. It's possible to use the pet effectively and aggro swap even though it can't be commanded directly.

They also have a lot, if not the MOST, spells in the game. This is not only expensive but also makes for a steep learning curve. It's definitely not the most simple class to learn and play, though probably wouldn't be too difficult for a veteran MMO player like the OP, who understands basic mechanics.

It's most assuredly worth the investment, if a person can stick it out, but I'm not convinced is the best choice for a person with limited playtime. Assuming you can invest the time, practice, and patience involved with this class, the end result is nothing short of god-like.

I love the class, and there's nothing like it in any other game.

Edit: Unless you're just naturally good or lucky, will probably die a lot learning this class, and unless you can get rezzes, you will eat a lot of exp loss. Just a fair warning.

[mgellan]

Second the Barb Shaman, EF / BB / QH are excellent places to level, between Gnoll teeth in Blackburrow, rabid animals in QH, and the general density of mobs the Western part of Norrath can't be beat. When you hit 14 you can either stick around or make the 24m run to Freeport (seriously, I've done it a number of times and I can do it in one SOW, through the Gorge, Runnyeye route.)

There are too many druids IMHO.

Regards,
Mg