Considering playing just one character. Thoughts?

[Stone]

I played a druid (Stone <Pandemonium> on Tallon Zek) on live from Original to OOW and a little now and then after.

I'm 99% sure I'm going to make a character here and while I can box with the best of them I don't really want to.

Huge fan of what you've done here and I intend to donate (probably 3 times)

Questions:

1) If I don't box am I going to enjoy this / find people to group with. In the past I've seen servers where someone would rather 6 box than drop a char. I'm not worried about getting to 70 just 70 plus.

2) What class to play? I'm not playing a druid after 10 years of that. I've played every class and I'm fairly open other than druids. I'm looking at Ranger but I haven't heard them mentioned much here. I was thinking donor bow / chest would be killer. That said I want a class that people want around and I'm not sure how Rangers fit in demand wise.

3) Sort of a continuation on the last question but what classes are in most demand for grouping / raiding?


Thanks in advance, loving this community so far and looking to get online when I get back to the US in a week or so.


-Stone

[Warlgor]

You don't have to box, but if you don't, I strongly recommend finding an active guild to join. Most people tend to play with guildies and friends rather than grouping up with people looking in OOC.

You can make your own guild but if you do, recruit people to make sure you don't run out of things to do. You won't make it very far into the tiered content as a solo player unless you have guildies to go with you.

As for what class is the most in demand, that's a bit of a difficult question since a lot of people here box Tanks, DPS and healers. There aren't a lot of main healers though so druid/shaman/cleric main would probably get you places.

[Stone]

I could go shammy played too much druid / cleric.

Easy enough to find a decent guild / guild groups with a 70 and a few donor items but not 2000+ aa's?

Stone

[Noren]

About Lone Rangers
My perception has been that nearly all mobs in 70 group+ zones summon. Kiting is, therefore, not an option and a solo ranger becomes a very undesirable thing. You may opt to use a server bot to assist you - in that case, you may be able to pull off tank bot + ranger bow dps. Maybe.

Rangers really only excel when you have companions here.

To answer your questions by number:
[1] If you play only one character, then don't worry - you will still be able to find people to play with. There are many people here who do not box. That number is on the decline, I'll admit, but you certainly won't be ostracized on account of not boxing . If I were in your shoes, then I would ask around and find myself a progression guild where they don't require boxing (which is virtually all of the guilds here). With 6-12 strong characters, you can conquer 98% of the content here if you're persistent, and it won't be a quick-and-easy thing.

[2,3] The EQ trinity has changed here. What was once tank/healer/slower is now just tank/healer/dps. Slowing is (and some people will disagree with me on this) reserved for the every-now-and-then boss that isn't immune to it. Crowd control and splitting on pulls is the same. If I were to play a solo class (I box), then I would pick one that is very high maintenance to keep you engaged. Tanks are high maintenance (unless you're an un-needed offtank, then you might be bored and become just 'bad dps'). Enchanters are high maintenance (and great raid debuffers). Shaman are high maintenance (heals + lots of buffs). Necros are high maintenance (maintaining dots, debuffs, nukes, and pet).

Healers, in general, will always be desirable. They are; however, awful at soloing .

My main is a necro (Noren) and I <3 playing that class. If you wish to solo lots, I think you might enjoy playing a Beastlord (although I don't think they're as engaging as the high maintenance classes I rattled off). They're semi-rare right now and their pets are the bee's knees. Also 3 donor items can make them pretty 'beastly'.

Hope that helps!

[Mojak]

Definitely find a guild who raids who does not expect you to box. I ended up forming my own guild and leveling up a few toons to box and I play with my son. Showing him the ropes and teaching him the fundamentals of gaming (which is very trying some times). I tried doing this in an active guild, but since a good number of raid instances are guild instances we would log in at night and everything would be dead.

TLDR - If you play single toon, find a good guild that is active and will backflag you up through the end game. You can buy a token of Xegony and start from there.

[Stone]

Thanks, great feedback guys.

Obviously great to be able to solo but if grouping is possible I'm happy.
I played a beast before and enjoyed it. I could go that route again.



I'll probably just pick whatever I want to play in the end and try to find a good crew.



Noren: What are the 3 donor items you mentioned?

Stone

[Noren]

Noren: What are the 3 donor items you mentioned?

Weapon ($65) webtools/items.php?id=18419
Weap Aug ($60) webtools/items.php?id=18988
BP ($155) webtools/items.php?id=18907

If $155 is a tad much, the legs would serve you well ($125) webtools/items.php?id=18851

If that's still too much, the DI shield ($95) would make you tough to kill! webtools/items.php?id=18394

[Sian]

When Noren mentionned 3 donors for a beast, I think he was thinking about leggs (melee dps legs are insane), donor bp (even more insane), and probably weapon too


Edit : Ah, he answered before me

[Stone]

The money isn't much of an issue and the amount of time they put into the server I'm more than happy to donate.

Wouldn't it make sense to get both weapons or is it not that much of a benefit?
I'll probably go ahead and snag all of that.

Stone

[Noren]

Wouldn't it make sense to get both weapons or is it not that much of a benefit?

I'd do it in that order for the biggest gains in utility and dps. Those items are all enhancing primarily your pet, then you. The Donor Weapon 1.0 (the one I didn't link) is a fine weapon, but I just don't value it as much as the others if you had to narrow it down to 3 items.