fun classesFollow

Does anyone have any suggestions for fun and easy class/race combinations to start as? Thanks in advance.

For someone's first character I would suggest a Human Warrior from Freeport. Warriors are basic to play at a lower level and will give you time to get used to the game mechanics and grouping.
I suggest Freeport because it has a great newbie area outside the West Freeport gate, easy access to Plain of knowledge and you will be able to continue hunting/exploring in East Commonlands.
Once you become comfortable with the game, then you can try other classes and races.

And fun classes? Well i can highly recommend the Beastlord as a great soloing/grouping classes and a hell of a lot of fun to play. ( Got to be an Iksar Beastlord of course... )

I think a good first character should not be too complex a character to play. There is enough to learn without making it worse. Enchanters and bards are arguably the most complex 'toons in the game and probably aren't good choices for players just learning EQ.

On the other hand, I think it's nice to be able to sample both pure melee and magic. That's why I chose a paladin as my very first EQ character. Mostly melee, paladins aren't highly complicated. But they do get some magic abilities, so I got a taste of that. Other characters with mixed melee and magic abilities are rangers and shadowknights. Rangers also have some nice other abilities - tracking, for example. All in all, a ranger might be the best starter character, and they are great fun to play, also. As far as race, I'm partial to wood elves, myself, but a half-elf might be a better ranger choice. I learned early to hate human 'toons because of the vision thing.

Necro is a fun class. Once you're comfortable with game mechanics you'll probably want to expand your horizons a bit and try another; but maybe not. One of my friends in game has been playing an enchanter for four years or so and has never played another character.

Necros are good solo and grouping, they also get a pet.
The best thing would be to pick something that sounds fun to you and try it out. Learn the dynamics of the game, solo, and groups. Discover what works and what doesn't.

When I started out I picked a ranger because it sounded fun. I got to learn the game a bit, and decided to restart my ranger. I've played almost every class in the game now and I now prefer casters (mage, wiz, nec) over melee but still like playing my warrior and ranger for variety. My main is now an enchanter, a class I wasn't the least bit interested in at first until I saw in the game how they interacted with the mobs and in a group. I was fascinated by them, and now my enchanter is almost lvl 60.

The most important thing in being a good player with any class, enjoy what you play. If you don't enjoy a particular class don't play it. If you get bored of a class try something else. You'll find your experiences funner as well as the game if you enjoy the class you play. You will also be a better player for it.

Welcome to the addicting world of Norrath
cya in game

Just start a ranger then, there is no difference between a ranger and a warrior for first 9 levels

Necros are cute and cuddly. Most are just poorly misunderstood. Just keep them away from Halflings. Uh, and anything else annoying. Oh, and don't wake them up too early in the morning.

I wouldn't fall into the trap of creating a toon because it can solo, because when you get high level the stuff you want to do you can't do solo.

I think you want to be a group friendly toon. That is, a toon that groups really have to have. That way you'll get invited to groups.

I'd be a healer, a slower, a puller or maybe a tank.

My first toon was a wizard and wizards can solo and they can port people and they are good for dps but groups only look for dps after they already have the tank and healer and slower.

I personally love my bard which is my second toon. Bards are good pullers plus they can track which is a huge advantage for a group plus they get some nice group buffs so groups love to have them.

Shamans and clerics and enchanters are good. Druids can be good. Warriors and Paladins and Shadowknights can be good. Monks and Beastlords can be good. I'd just avoid wizards and magicians and necromancers and rogues and rangers as a first toon because groups just don't invite them as much as the other classes.

Don't listen to people that say playing a bard is hard though. It's not hard. It's fun and the bard is very versatile. I think it's the best class.

I'd suggest starting out as a monk, either human or iksar. But iksars are cooler. =) Simply because monks can use their fists, and ya won't need to purchase any weapons for them. Though the human newbie armor quests are quite nice for what they are. And if ya make a human monk ya can switch between doing quests in Qeynos and Freeport. So that is an added bonus. Or make an iksar shaman, they get spirit of the wolf at lvl 9. Which is a sweet movement increasing spell, and possibly easier to make some plat off of them by buffing for donations. =)

i lub iksars XD

Enchanters can be great pullers as well, so this bards are better then enchanters thing isn't correct. =)
I pull with my enchanter all the time for groups, in LDoNs or planes groups, and I do just fine and never get hurt. Throw up a rune and chain rune yourself til MT gets aggro. Simple as that. I also have a bard too, but if there is a bard lfg and an enchanter lfg both of equal levels, the enchanter will get called upon before the bard, atleast that is so on my server.

my warrior was the best ldon puller I have ever seen.. those other people only brought back four mobs a pull, so inefficient, one pull two pull three pull bang ldon done =)

Alright, you had to go and start trashing on bards, so now I HAVE to get involved... *sigh*



I've locked down 4 before. That's the most I can do, and one is bound to eventually break. In high resist situations (pretty much all of OoW), I tend to have problems holding down 2. The key here though is that with a good bard, you won't need to mez 5, because the bard will only bring back 1 (or a couple, depending on what his pulling strategy is). The benefit of having a bard isn't because they're the "best" puller or "best" anything really, because they're not. Everything they can do IN AND OF ITSELF can usually be done better by another class, but no other class can do as many things as they do, plain and simple. They bring a huge range of versatility to a group. This all hinges on how good the bard is, naturally. A good bard can be your slower, puller, CC, haste, blah blah blah. A bad bard can be a huge mana sponge that continually wipes the group through bad pulls. It's the same with any class.

For pulling, the major advantages bards have over chanters is, again, versatility. Chanters generally have 1 reliable tactic they can use to pull a mob from a group.

1. Lull mobs, pull 1 and chain rune until tank gets aggro (or mez it so tank can taunt).

Bards have many many tools for pulling. It's just a direction that SOE has pointed us in. Fading memories is a pulling tool. Boastful bellow is a pulling tool. We can use lulls, mezzes, highsun (gates the mob), snares, charms (in certain levels), fading memories, bellow, dispells, slows... all as pulling tools, and many as CC tools as well. Add to that the natural low aggro generation of all bard songs (except chants) and it just makes sense.

I'm not suggesting you roll a bard just for pulling though. If you really enjoy pulling, go ahead, as you'll be called upon to do it very often, but that's not THE reason to start a bard. The real reason to start a bard is, again, the versatility. If you want to be good, you have to be able to think on your feet, and adjust to what's going on. Again, because you're not the best at anything, but excel at a lot, you can't think as narrowly as other classes. If you're the type that likes to hit autoattack and sit back tapping a button every 6 seconds or something, the class isn't for you.

And as a preemptive strike: the new /melody command does simplify things a bit, but only the twisting part. It doesn't simplify what you actually have to do. In fact, I tried using /melody and got extremely annoyed with it, so I don't use it. It takes away my freedom. As I've said in threads before regarding double tapping vs. twisting macros: it's like comparing driving an automatic verses a manual... one is easier to control, but the other gives YOU control.

Now, I'm not bashing chanters. In fact, I like having them in my groups. It allows me to concentrate on other things then slowing and hasting, allowing me to spend more time keeping the pull rate up instead of sitting in camp keeping manasong and haste going. Like I said, chanters generally do do a beter job of locking down adds (if you were to pull 5 for some reason), so that's nice too. I just had to come in and defend my baby .

EDIT: it's amazing how leaving out a "not" can nullify your whole argument...

[sm]Edited, Fri Dec 17 09:06:53 2004 by Jiggidyjay

FM in this case meaning Fading Memories, a bard AA which instantly drops you off aggro lists and turns you invisible at the cost of 900 mana. Sort of like feign death, but different in some vital ways.

I don't know what level your enchanter is but I'm guessing you've never gone through the mid-level raid game (i.e. Lower tier PoP, etc) if you're completely unfamiliar with Fade and bard pulling. Bards had their most recent peak in power during PoP (and paid for it with some lackluster advancement in Gates/OoW).

Anyway, most bards don't use FM for common pulling. Maybe for raid splits but for LDoNs, you use Highsun, Mez, etc as pulling tools and save the mana intensive FM for pulls gone bad. Maybe bards with 15+ FT and giant mana pools can use it more casually but after three Fades for my bard, I'm on an empty tank.

Edited, Fri Dec 17 10:32:17 2004 by Jophiel