Making a ChoiceFollow

Hello all.. I have started a fighter ogre pally. I have played EQ1 for several years prior and leveled to 70 a toon which didnt seem to be the best choice after all. Was fishing for opinions and facts to back up the opinions of what the most effective/useful high level fighter version would be. I know these kind of questions receive quite a number of opposing opinions. I am fishing for logic based on facts..thanks

That really depends on what you want to do in the game - and "best" fighter is a very subjective matter, in any case. I'm assuming by your statement that you want to be a "fighter" that you don't want to be a pansy finger-wiggler, though, so I'll skip Mage and Cleric.

What do you want to do? Do you want to dish out the DPS? Do you want to be the main tank? Backup tank? Something else?

Note that what I say below is opinion based on hearsay and observation - I haven't played any Fighter classes to any real level.

If you want to be the Main Tank in a party - the guy who gets in a monster's face and keeps his attention locked on him, taking a serious beating with a smile - then you'll probably want one of the heavy plate classes - Guardian, Paladin, or Shadowknight. All three of these classes can use Vanguard Plate, the highest armor type (subtype, really) currently in the game.

If, on the other hand, you want to be the backup tank, support tank (for dealing with adds), or mild DPS (with the understanding that you'll never match a Scout's output no matter how spiffy your weapons are), you may want to be a Berserker, Bruiser, or Monk. While Berserkers use Plate armor (but not Vanguard), they also live up to their names, sacrificing defense for a more powerful offense. Likewise for the Bruisers and Monks, who are limited to Leather armor - although they have lots of abilities that increase their natural mitigation and ability to not get hit, that just plain doesn't matter when you're going up against a major monster that is going to hit you no matter what you do. All of these can be a Main Tank if there isn't any better tank available - but your healers are going to be working overtime to keep you alive.

Edit: The "Pansy Finger-Wiggler" comment is a joke.

Edited, Sat Nov 12 01:53:41 2005 by Nekojin

THANK YOU ZORRK. I was definatly worried when I read that other guy's post. I was going to yell and scream at him until he chaned his mind. =) Well, Berserkers are much stronger than many other Fighter classes on their original attacks. Monks and Bruisers are excellent for DPS. Paladin and ShadowKnight are mostly used for the main tank, but the ShadowKnight does more damage. The Paladin just stays alive MUCH longer. The Guardian SHOULD ALWAYS BE A MAIN TANK no matter what you do. The Guardian has the most defence, but the lowest Strength. The reason for the decrease in attack and increase on defence is the Guardian's buffs. Most Fighters go for Bruisers, Paladins, Berserkers, and Guardians, because they stay alive the longest.

Not exactly extreme situation. There are already quite a few level 10-30 fighters running around with legendary gear and legendary imbued weapons. Master spells for those level range are 20g - 1pp. Still within reach for some rich players. Poorly geared mages(with only app2 spells) or scouts (app2 combat arts, no imbued weapons or not using poisons) especially from bard or enchanter archtype will have a hard time matching the dps of these toons. Granted with equal quality of combat arts/spells, generally mages and scouts will have higher dps than fighters but not to the extend that quality of gear/combat arts makes no difference. Berserker, bruiser and shadowknight dps (if going fully offensive) can exceed at least bard archtype dps in some situation. One such example is on raid.