f13.net

Where can I get some info on the new classes I can choose from at creation? Is this posted anywhere or is it just too early? I'd like to get an idea on what to start with. I always prefer to go caster, but there seems a number of options there. Since I've got some time, I wouldn't mind doing some reading.

I don't think there are any new classes, you just get to pick the final class at the beginning.  So Instead of choosing "Mage" you can go straight to Necromancer.

Two dozen whiny class boards. (http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2?category.id=classes)  I would just pick whichever has the shortest "OMG we r broken SOE fix us now!!1" thread.  Actually that's unfair, the official eq2 boards are okay.

If you want a mage, conjuror and necro are as if every wild fantasy of EQ1 mages and necros was totally fulfilled. Everything works and the package is a load of fun. And no "misery balancing" where you suck in a group because you have to be punished in a group if you solo easily.

Thanks. I wasn't sure if the abilities an end-class were being directly translated down. Someone (Soukyan?) said or cross-posted that under the new system all abilities that "define" a class will be granted by level 20.

It's good to hear Conjurer/Necro is viable. I loved my Warlock in WoW, and would have liked my EQ1 Magician if not for the gawdawful downtime. I like having a pet. I don't like sitting back and watching it do everything. And ATMs are what you find at banks.

I'll check it out!

There is still A LOT of whining on those boards but the vast majority of it seems very trivial which tells me that most classes are fairly well balanced.

I think a good indicator is to look at the board with the most amount of posts in the arch-type you want to play, chances are that's the one that's easiest to play (most attention, most people playing it, most and loudest whining for fixes, most class specific gear available, etc...)

You can do some searches on this site (http://www.eq2census.com), I think you can also use sony's website if you are paying the extra money to access it.

I didn't know conjurors were so popular, last time I left there weren't very many of us:
(http://www.eq2census.com/week.jpg)

The nice thing about the class change, to me, is that the breadth of a class happens sooner. I hate one-trick-pony classes, always preferring hybrid for sheer options alone.

Given the changes, I'm having a tough time between Warlock, Wizard or Conjuror. The forums have some great info in the FAQs for both, and a notably good section in the Necro one about their differences from Conjuror. But they all seem to have good abilities for solo and grouping against one or multiple targets.

This is not the EQ2 I remember.

Oh, and to my earlier question, someone at Summoner's Tower (http://eq2.eqsummoners.com/) posted the new 1-20 spell progression for Conjuror (http://www.eqsummoners.com/eq2/new-spells/conj-changes.html) and Necro (http://www.eqsummoners.com/eq2/new-spells/necro-changes.html). Looks like a lot of the changes are supplementary to the base Mage line in those two cases. Very clear dilineation between those two classes already, helping me lean towards Conjuror.

I hope to see something similar for Warlocks and Wizards before LU19 goes live.

That clenches it, I'm gonna be a class way on the right side of that picture when the revision comes out. I picked Conjurer and knew nothing about the game. That pisses me off a bit. I think like *them.*

That's ok. There are still more Wizards than Conjurors and Warlocks on Steamfont, according to this tool/addon (http://www.eq2census.com/).

That means you have to be evil.

I'll be evil with you.

Neg, I can be a troubador, brigand, or illusionist.

Brigands are evil, moron.

Then I can't be a brigand. See how little I care about the evil classes? It's because Freeport ISN'T INTERESTING.

You said far right. The three furthest right are evil.

He said on the "right side"  :-D That's everything east of Assassin.

Actually he said "way on the right side". That means either Defiler, Brigand, Coercer or Cheney.

No, there can be only one.

You guys argue about ANYTHING.

I rolled a brigand to be on the right side of the chart... and I don't care if I'm evil.  I'm having a ball right now and am surprised about it. 

I've soloed and duoed like 15 toons to 20-30.  This being the case, I'm wondering if evil characters can group with good? I assume that they can, the only real difference between the factions being on RP and PvP servers.  Please correct me if I'm wrong. 

NO WE DON'T!!

Lets test this out tonight.  I will be on around 11pm EST, and Ill log my assassin on and get him in the guild (assuming one of you are on).  This should help avoid heartache.

The only current limitation on good and evil interactions is the ability to trade/mail/share bank slots, and they are patching that away in 19.

Cheddar, if you can actually guild up an evil guy and we can group and everything....I guess I'll start an alt.

I love my swashbuckler too much to play evil.  I will say that starting as a troll and doing the betrayal quest has given me a massive edge over most.  I have superior strength and endurance compared to the wimpy (good) races;  my carrying capacity is like 465+.  This means I can carry 2 boxes that each hold 24 slots, 3 actually but I like having a good 100+ cushion, so will be a few levels before I move up to 3 boxes.  And I have tons of strength which is damage ++. 

One thing about evil; the first 20+ levels are much more fun then in Qeynos.  The barrens is lovely and the quests are pretty fun.  City sucks, so I guess that would be the tradeoff.

Hmmm.... playing an inquisitor is a tempting thing though.  Allow me to ponder this some; we already have guildies rolled up as evil so at least we would have a small group there as well.

NECRO

I'll make an evil alt.

One major factor for me would be wether we (as a guild) are moving to one of the brand new PvP servers. 

I want to. Badly.

I'd go even though I know that the current class imbalances would make pvp a bit of a nightmare early.  Must be my DAoC bloodlust.

Will they be offering character transfers?  There is so much information floating around it is tough to keep track!

Probably on the SO-Ebay server they will. I <3 fresh servers though. I hope one is transfer free. I'd love to have a chance to be the first on a server to actually discover something.

Bah, moving to a pvp server would affect my class choice.

Stealth ftw.

OK count me in.  I will be rolling a defiler tonight around 10pm EST.

FYI, the other evil classes look pretty fucking rad. 

http://eq2players.station.sony.com/en/classes/guide.vm?classId=99&id=20

Necro here.

It's nice that PvP is separate from the expansion, but it's going to be a bitch at first I think. I'd rather they completely redesign all the classes first (which it seems like they're doing in order to let us make iconic choices) and months of testing later, open PvP. Doing both so relatively close together gives me pause.

Of course, the rules of PvP are not stated though. Will they overly emphasize levels like EQ1, make them brackets like WoW, or not incorporate levels into the equations at all like nobody else has yet had the balls to do? I like virgin servers and all, but not unproven rulesets in a genre about Time.

Not that all of this hinges on my opinion of course.

le sigh

Please fucking tell me you aren't all going to bail from Steamfont? I like the idea of fresh server and discoveries and whatnot, but I'm really enjoying playing my Dirge and enjoy having the guild around. So what's the scoop? Is this the fickle turning point already? I expected it to happen sooner or later as it always does, but damn guys... So it looks like we have some folks going to the evil side on Steamfont and then some will be bailing to PvP soon. If you all decide to quit/scatter/reroll/whatever, at least toss me guild leader rights before you all quit.

FYI being on the evil side is not bailing.  We will discuss the PvP server situation once more information comes out addressing how they will handle deployment of those servers. 

I have already begun testing interactions between good/evil, and so far so good.  We have too many people wanting to go evil to just ignore them.  Plus being a defiler sounds rad.   

I don't really care about the good/evil issue as I can still talk to people and eventually group with them anyhow so that's cool. I guess I am more concerned about server switches. The only reason for this is that I play so casually, but I guess it really doesn't matter either. My play schedule isn't impacted by anyone else, nor does it impact others. If we all decide to move to a PvP server, I'll just try the Freeport side of things instead. Forget I said anything... Carry on. :)

Good/Evil is no difference, by the time your 20ish we will all be in the same zones anyway.

A chunk of people changing servers though is going to pretty much kill the guild, again.

I would switch to an rp/pvp server if they offered them but I have to agree with Mugos... it would probably mess up the guild.  Several people have already left their initial server to be in Bat Country, you know.  I suggest we consider carefully before we consider a switch. 

I don't think SOE will be able to do PvP very well, it was terrible in EQ1 and will be again.  It will take them a year or more to balance and fix bugs before it is even playable, especially since the PvP server will be treated like a second class citizen.  And it sounds like they are going with faction based PvP instead of free for all, Freeport will be crushed by numbers because no one wants to play there.  The city, it's suburbs, the commonlands, even your starting house are all dreary to the point of madness.

That's exactly why I want to be Freeportian. I LIKE THE CHALLENGE.

Assassin ftw.

There is no challenge, just a soul sucking brown haze.

All my previous characters (on the RP server, with my "jboots") were Freeportian. Made it nice coming to Steamfont playing in Qeynos, it's all new to me.

I have zero interest in level-based item acquisition pvp, I'll stick to Qeynos/Steamfont and Freeport/Lucan D'Lere.

Ok, I'll admit it. It's not the challenge.

There's nothing in the world I love more than a fresh server.

So which class is the EQ2 version of chanter?  Because something tells me cc spells will not be pvp balanced for some time in pvp.

AoE mez ftw and all that.

Illusionist/Coercer.  The primary complaint, which I assume has led to the low class population, is that combat is both too fast and AOE powers too prevalent for mez to be the deal breaker it was in EQ1, turning EQ2 chanters into Alactiry/Clarity batteries.

I will attest to the unnecessariness of mez in EQ2. It is more efficient to have a second group tank taunt the adds and start whaling on them. There is no need for mez without adds since encounters are balanced assuming no mez.

Actually, I take that back a little bit. I have been in a few groups with an illusionist that allowed us to take a named that we couldn;t have done without mezz. The Illusionist kepts the weaker mobs out of the fight while we killed the nameds. It is infrequent though. Basically, an illusionist/coercer will let you take encounters that are safer with two healers with only one healer. If the illusionist/coercer is one of the higher level members of the group, then nameds of the appropriate level become a joke. But this would be true with a high level tank or healer, too.

That was my experience in early EQ, though this late in the game it's obviously a lot different. Back when, nobody played enchanters and stuff didn't seem tuned to need them. A year later, they were as indispensible as clerics.

I've always favored a mixed group of people who know how to maximize their class and work together as a team over any sort of rigid formula, and my grouping in EQ always reflected that. My favorite early UO group was 5 wizards + pickup slot usually filled by a necro friend of ours. 3..2..1..BLAM. Later I was a monk in an odd group: monk, rogue, 2 paladins, 2 rangers. We used to kick much ass, and it was fun because we had to be real creative to pull it off.

If you roll on a pvp server you better force at least two people to play those classes, and someone needs to play whatever class can drop the best buff against whatever magic type mez/roots are.

Unless someone can silence because that would just be pimp.

I dont know I can't remember EQ combat mechanics very well.

Unfortunately this holds true throughout the game until you get to the tier 6 raids. At the top end the mobs do so much damage the main tank has to have 5-6 dedicated healers and can only really survive one of the mobs at a time. There usually aren't enough healers left over to keep an off tank alive so you have to mez. Of course having spent 60 levels without mez made for a nice learning curve as EVERYONE has to figure out which skills break mez. AE's are easy but certain buffs will break it, certain pets break it, sometimes you'll need to Mez switch so you better know which of your attacks have a DoT component etc...

If you have the opportunity I would at least practice with a coercer/illusionist once in a while. Not only is Mez not necessary but it's actually suprisingly hard to even do on a regular basis unless you have tons of room to work.

For most of the game enchanters are nice but in most cases people would rather aoe than cc. Tanks in eq2 are studly enough to survive the beating of a fair number of mobs at once unlike eq1 were 1 add was a killer.

That being said if you have a group of people you know having an illusionist/coercer works dandy especially if you get people used to working with you.

At the very high levels people found out that enchanters become more and more nice. Still not required but they do make some of the end game raid stuff a lot more doable.

If you want to be ebil and of a class thats seen less brigands and defilers are really nice. Brigands are the evil varient of the swash buckler and they can kick some major booty. The Defilers are the ebil shaman and are very good main healers and have a lot of debuffing capacity as well. One of the more soloable priests as well the templar and inquisitor can be a bit annoying after a while to solo due to utter lack of dps.


kaid

Illusionsists, at least, do I have silence spell.  Their main task in the game, when I played anyway, was sucking the mana out of bosses.  With judicious use of a couple spells, you can keep an enemy stunned for the first part of the fight, and out of mana for the rest of it.  Without their special attacks, most bosses aren't so tough.

Illusionists also bring haste and power regen to the table, just as in EQ1... and a fair amount of DD/DoT DPS.  Not so much as a Wizard or Warlock, but Much better than the EQ1 enchanter.

Caveat: I haven't played my illusionist since early release... My play group switched to evil side, so I started playing an SK, and never really went back to the illusionist.

Alkiera

I'll second the thought on Brigand. They are a good DPS class and very underutilized. We've had 6 or so 50+ Brigand masters sitting in our guild bank that we can't find anyone to take.

My brigand just hit 20 and I've come to the following conclusion:  I do well against single targets (even heroic) and even better in groups where I can maximize the use of positionals.  Solo against 3+ mobs my durability is a real problem.  With all of the tethered mobs and the number of bosses with a couple of adds, it isn't a class I'd recommend for solo.  My berserker, monk, and warden all solo much more effectively against groups.

Perhaps things get better as I get more class abilities.

You just need a pet defiler following you around.  THERE IS NOTHING WE CANNOT CONQUER!!!  You up for a FG run later tonight?

I should on a little this evening.  I've got some work to finish at home so my presence may be spotty.