Former FFXI Player, and VERY confused!Follow

If you want to play a Mage type the best thing for you to do is look for a race with high intellegence. Though EQ2 is made where any race can be any class, there are classes with high int that would probably make better Mages than others.

Go to this site: http://clanwhitestorm.com/eq2info/index.htm

On the left side of the page click on the link that says races. Look for the race with the larger INT numbers, these are classes that would make excelent mages. Eurdite's have a starting int of 30 and gnomes have a starting int of 27 those are the top 2.

Hope this helps,

Cevrin
Level 70 Froglok Warrior of Terris-Thule
soon to be playing EQ2

A races starting stats only really matter early on. While it may seem Erudites, Gnomes, Dark Elves, and Ratonga may be best suited for mages, it doesn't really matter if you're a Wood Elf or Troll Mage; your stats later on are going to be mostly based on equipment.

My advice: Pick whatever race you like. While it'll be easier initially as a Gnome Mage rather than, for example, a Dwarf Mage, overall you should worry more about what race you want to play, not "whether x race matches y class." They don't want you to feel severely penalized for making an unorthodox character.



You cannot change them like in FFXI. If you want to change classes, you must start a new character. The choices for archetype, class, and sub-class are all completed by level 20, so don't feel too discouraged if you want to try a different class. (they put the choices early on in case someone decides they don't like their choice)

One thing I should clarify: Your class progression is in a 3-step progress - archetype --> class --> subclass. At level 3 upon finishing the tutorial, you choose an archetype: Fighter, Priest, Mage, or Scout. Then at level 10, you choose a class (so if you were a Mage, you choose to be either Sorceror, Summoner, or Enchanter). Then at level 20,you pick your final sub-class (they may be restricted by your alignment, so you can't be a Necromancer in Qeynos or a Templar in Freeport).

It should be noted that the 6 final subclasses of an archetype, while having unique styles and variety of magic spells or combat arts, all can provide the core functions of the base archetype. Because of that, you ultimately have 6 final Priest classes, 6 final Mage classes, etc.

For more information on these classes, read up at Clan Whitestorm linked above, or check other sites.

A final note: This is NOT like FFXI. This isn't even like EQ1. From what I've heard, many beta testers run into problems because they played with a mindset from EQ1. It'll probably be best to play EQ2 with no preconceived expectations at all. :)

ROFLMAO woo I like that I think..........

EQ2 is not like FFXI, where some races were just way better for a particular job. A mithra thief with crappy equipment had more dex/agi then my hume with top-notch equipment at lvl 50.

Any race that has 20+ in the main stats of your archetype will do good, so choose whichever you like best (remember, some races are only good or evil). Even races with low starting stats in the main stats will be ok. I just read a post on the beta forums where a lvl 25 Troll Mage said he had 11 less int and 40 less power then a similar level erudite (the top intelligence race), both with average equipment.

A nice contrast with the "wrong race, you suck!" system of FFXI.

Leave behind most of what you know about FFXI, because EQII will be very different.

I left EQ for FFXI, and the longer I tried to hold on to my EQ experience to help me in FFXI, the harder I found the game to be to get used to.

Bring along your ability to be a skillful player and a contributer to the community, and leave behind everything else.

I'm not really sure what happened in the time since I left EQ (FFXI PC release date), but I could just be an optimistic fool, but I don't remember people in the EQ community being overly indulged in "What gear are you wearing?" If you had "appropriate gear" but played your job well, that is what mattered. Whereas in the FFXI, if you don't have the "best gear for you level" you were seen as gimp, even if you knew how to play your job better than some gil-buying slob who just smashes macros randomly.

I'm looking forward to joining a community where everyone is new to the game and we all have that same sense of "fear of the unknown."