Newbie Starting Fresh

[Kindread]

Hello p99 people,

As many before me have said; I am an old EQ player from the Kunark to PoP days, played EQ recently (for about the past year) and saw what a mess it has become.

I am looking to play on the classic p99 blue server for various reason you don't really need to know, so here is my question:

What Class?

Before everyone jumps on the "play what you like" bandwagon let me explain.

I lothe sitting and waiting for that blue bar, I did it on a Ranger, and a Mage back in the day and I am not interested in dealing with that crutch again.

So that leaves me with 2 options, either play a class that has some sort of mana regen mechanic (Enchanter, Necromancer, Shaman) or play a class that does not possess the blue bar at all.

I also am very fond of melee, I love quad hitting a mob and watching it melt, and I've always had a soft spot for dual wielding.

Naturally that leads me into 3 classes (Warrior, Monk, Rogue).

As I said, I am starting fresh, meaning I have no plat and am unable to twink. The 3 melee classes I mentioned are not the best at soloing either, so farming for gear is going to be a choir if not impossible.

I have very limited time to play each day, but plan on being around for a good long while. I would like to avoid leveling a character just to farm another characters gear that I would prefer to be playing the whole time.

Any thoughts/guidance?

Thanks!

[bulbousaur]

Melees suffer the most from not being twinked.

In my opinion, Necromancer is the easiest to level with absolutely no starting plat (and they have great mana regen).

Welcome to the server!

[Bristlebard]

I think you might have been doing something wrong with your ranger and mage if you were sitting around waiting on mana regen very often. I think mages solo are supposed to be leaning entirely on their pets, soloing low blue cons chaining pets and finishing off mobs for full xp with a small nuke. In groups mages contribute a lot through their pet and somewhat through a big nuke here or there at appropriate times. Rangers are basically melee who should be using their cheap spells for support: pulling with harmony, snaring runners, rooting for CC. I guess solo maybe rangers have mana problems trying to contribute a bunch of damage with spells and then needing to heal up afterwards too?

That said, enchanter and necro are very strong doing basically anything, even if they're naked. Warrior and rogue would be especially rough without twinking since they wouldn't be able to solo much/at all, so if you don't have a group you are just sitting around trying to make one or find one. Monk is the melee best able to solo, and is very strong and versatile with partners/groups also.

Would you be interested in a bard? They don't really have mana concerns since only a couple of their spells use mana. They don't get to quad, but they can melee (not too well, but it could fill an itch to beat on stuff maybe), they can do a lot of different things for a group, and they can solo in a variety of ways even with no/poor gear.

[Kreylyn]

Monk.

Gear is cheap, easy to acquire, not as nessasary.

FD makes it easy for you to get out of the problem situations where low hp would be an issue.

Mend/bind wound can pop you back to 75% health in a matter of seconds.

Very little down time. Being able to easily split/pull singles makes the solo camping actually pretty easy.

Krey

[Gnomercy]

Like others have said, monk if you go melee for various reasons: Can do amazing with very little gear and money, items are cheap and they have a cheap epic, come Velious they not only deal insane DPs but also can tank.

Necro is amazing even if you're in full cloth armor or spend a few hundred plat earned while leveling to upgrade with pre kunark caster items. Not only are they amazing solo machines, but they have some of the best healing, CC, and freedom to go wherever you want out of all the classes.

Both are great choices.

[Enderenter]

Iksar Monk. Start with an assortment of amazing abilities, and get more in the early levels.

Dual Wield (level 1)
Mend (level 1) - like a decent heal (25% of your base hp) you can use every 6 minutes
Feign Death (level 16) - one of the best skills in the game, if not the best.

[Jigawatts]

I would say Monk as well, cheapest to gear and dont need as much as the other two. Also they are actually halfway decent at soloing, due to their ability to fear kite using Intimidation.

[CreamyCowboy]

Definitely monk .. rogues are awesome but don't expect to do any soloing, instead of waiting for that blue bar to go up, you'll be waiting for the purple /tell message saying there is an open slot for you heh.

Monk gear is definitely cheap, you could outfit a monk with decent twink weapons and gear for 1-2k easily. Probably cheaper if you got friends.

You will also be wanted for pulling in groups, splitting mobs and what not. It's a busy job in raiding as well so you'll never be sitting around doing nothing.

[Kindread]

You guys rock, thank you very much for the feedback!

I will likely go Monk, I always linked being a kind of hybrid and being able to off-tank in Velious sounds very appealing.

Having some issues finding a clean copy of the game atm, but I should be able to get it up and running tonight.

[Kindread]

@CreamyCowboy

1-2k seems like a lot, bone chips and HQ pelts still the way to go for newbies?