Heya guys. Very good post about all the Class's. I personally havent played them all enough to comment but the ones i have played i can totally agree.

How about a better ability for all classes to solo and gain experience. My rogue is high enough to do great DPS in a group, but cannot really solo at all if there are no groups available.

Hey guys.... I don't hear many Druids posting on here so I'll take a shot and see what happens. Personally, I am happy with my Druid. During this past summer of 2004 I was level 20 and about 6 weeks later I was level 51 with my epic, and my wisdom was 35 points over the cap. I can sometimes solo/quad-kite,but on the other hand I am usually very useful in groups, sometimes even the main healer. If you were to ask me, I'd say Druids work fine how they are. One thing though, maybe add a charm-animal that you can get after level 30 or so that isn't Dire Charm and also maybe a stronger little bear pet. ;) They are cool, heck, if you don't make a better pet at least make them bigger. :P Thats just me though. Well hope this was useful to someone. Peace I'm out.

Bard: Needs no improvement - hardest class to play well, most versatile, and has a ton of capabilities when in experienced hands. Much to offer to groups and raids, and strong as a soloist. Needs no nerfage either, except perhaps its power leveling capabilities - bards are way too good at PLing - my bard just PL'd a cleric to level 48 in 11 hours /played - I suggest a nerf to PLing abilities. Aside from being conceptually stupid (musicians that have songs that kill things and like wearing plate armor and run really fast - pfft - who thought that up?!), it's a great class.

Beastlord: This is a well balanced hybrid class - has unique stackable mana regen, gimp shammy buffs, good DPS, can slow (a little too well), AE regen (paragon) and even tank for short bursts if necessary. No improvements needed.

Berzerker: This class plain sucks. They function mainly as a nerfed rogue - lower DPS and no SoS. Sure they can snare, but come on - let's see something creative added that makes them desirable.

Cleric: Overpowered healer. Should be nerfed so that groups don't feel as though they require a cleric to function, so that guilds don't require a minimum number of clerics to raid. I would like to see clerics' healing abilities reduced and other abilities enhanced. Make them more engaging and challenging to play, and less required for success as a group.

Druid: OK healer, OK DPS, can snare, and have a few good buffs. Groups and raids often use druids as surrogate clerics when clerics are not available. They are not a highly desirable class though. However, they are better soloists than most, which makes up for it. I think druids are more underrated than underpowered, and they don't need much now that they have a gimp rez (good improvement!). Perhaps give them the ability to occasionally drop aggro (AA with a moderate reuse timer - like an hour or something) so that they can do what necros do - drop aggro when a wipe is in progress and rez the cleric or pally.

Enchanter: Excellent raid class - no help needed here, just in groups. In groups, chanters are amazing in cases where cc is needed (like when a pally is pulling or on dungeon crawls) and where charmed pets are useful (Tipt / Vxed), but mostly useless in cases outside of that. I never look for chanters for groups, since my main is a bard, I pull singles all day, and the chanter just sits around doing 70 DPS and casting the occasional buff. Chanters need to be made more useful in groups. This can be done 2 ways - decrease their buff duration so that they have to be around to recast them and / or increase their spell DPS and their conjured pet DPS.

Magician: CoTH, mod rods, and great DPS make mages really essential at raids and they need no improvement here. They could use something to give them a bit of an advantage in groups though, as they are not a particularly desirable class - perhaps a gimp mez or a group mind buff or haste or something. Also, at high levels with new content, they are really gimp as soloists and this needs to be improved. Make high level pets better tanks.

Monk: They are a good DPS class - dropping aggro at will and self heal via mend make them very low maintenance. As pullers, they are lacking compared to bards and need some improvements. Give them the ability to drop aggro faster (FD takes too long for aggro to reset), to run faster, and to split one mob out of a crowd and they would be back in business. I would suggest an AA like fading memories with a long reuse timer (like 20 mins or something), a self only run speed buff that is +1.3ish (cheetah like) to make them faster than GoD / OOW mobs, and a root, snare, or short mez to help them to split the big groups.

Necromancer: This is the only class that I truly envy. FD, rez, pumping mana, great DPS, and unquestionably the best soloists - need we say more? Their solo abilities need a nerf - they are way too good at this (ever watch one at the tables in PoFire?!). Also, make DoT damage explicit (optionally) so that group members can see what they add if they want to. It looks like they are just sitting there doing nothing in groups and at raids. I love necro recovery abilities - rarely a wipe with a good necro around.

Paladin: Bump up their DPS a tad - it's OK that they suck at this, but they suck a little too badly. Aside from that, they are a well-balanced hybrid class in groups and for raids. Rez, stuns, BSS, and group heals make them a superb defensive tank. They can also solo content that is a little below their level quite effectively, which allows them to farm goodies adequately as soloists. They are also too gear dependent and there is too much variance in capability between raid geared and non-raid geared Pallies.

Ranger: Good at high levels, but need improvement at lower levels to balance with other classes. Low level rangers have no useful skills other than snare, track, and improved camo - their buffs are weak, archery is a joke, melee DPS is nothing special, and tanking abilities are mediocre. They are a have not class at low levels. This can be improved by beefing up low level archery in a big way and making ammo more readily available. Also, adding a solid beneficial buff at lower levels would make them more desirable in groups. High level rangers are fine - they are great on raids and in groups. Melee and ranged DPS are both solid, the attack buffs are sweet, and they can function as crowd control with snare and root if necessary. They also make good temporary tanks - they can grab aggro and hold it and use WS if in a bind.

Rogue: Overpowered DPS class with unique special skills. Rogues consistently outdamage other classes in groups by a large margin. They are really easy to play - just get behind the mob and hit attack. I don't mind seeing them do lots of DPS, but at least make it challenging. How about nerfing their melee DPS but increasing their poison abilities so that they have to twist in poisons skillfully to do sick DPS? Aside from that, they are great - SoS, the ability to drop aggro, and pick the locks in Chardok (lol) make them pretty useful. I always look for rogues first when filling DPS spots in groups (which is good for rogues, bad for other DPS classes).

Shadow Knight: They are pretty cool, but a little imbalanced atm. Their pets are too gimp to be of much use, taps are not that great, and FD is too unreliable. They need some enhancements to their hybrid abilities - there are great ideas here, they just need to be made more powerful to scale up to the current content. They are also too gear dependent and there is too much variance in capability between raid geared and non-raid geared SKs.

Shaman: This class rocks at raids, in groups, and as a soloist. I don't think they need any help. Perhaps make DoT spells show DoT damage (optionally) so that group members can see the solid DPS they add - make their DPS value more explicit. I hate that they can rez - as if they needed that ability added! It's just one more thing for shammies to brag about - hehe.

Wizard: Being a long time DPS parser, I have concluded that wizards suck in groups. For example, in MPG groups, the average sustained wizard DPS (130ish) is half the average rogue DPS (260ish). I have seen a high variance due to player expertise - some do almost 200DPS sustained in groups (which still sux for a DPS class) while others do less than 100DPS. They can do solid raid DPS on important mobs since they shine on long fights where there is time to build aggro and to get off the DD spells, and to med between fights. Wizards definitely need to be enhanced to be able to get off more spells in groups without dying and without running out of mana so that their sustainable DPS is up there with other DPS classes. Perhaps add a set of low cost short cast time low aggro nukes that can balance them better. The aggro / damage ratio should be less than that of melee classes since the cost of drawing aggro is higher (mobs run to them and wizards die faster). Aside from that, wizards are pretty solid - they can snare if needed, evac and transportation rock, and AE capabilities are superb.

Warrior: End game warriors rock, but up and coming ones are the ultimate have-nots of the EQ classes. They can't hold aggro, they are too gear dependent and are often worse tanks than other group members, their DPS sucks, and they have no unique abilities. Also, they can't participate in groups in high level zones unless they are high end raid geared (while other classes can). We need to see some better balance at low levels - bump up their aggro abilities and HPs - make them a little less gear dependent and more skill oriented.

Cheers,
-Az

You want to fix Necros? Give us a new PUMP damnit. The rest we will take care of, we can do alot on a group or raid or solo, just need to know your class, but we Aare LACKING a new PUMP. You can get rid of the fixed duration invis vs undead on others, since sony seems to have forgotten to add content in the high end that our undead spells work on. Well they added a smattering of undead but there are no "all undead" zones anymore are there. Rather than ask you to add new zones, i'll ask you to just give us a new pump please.

Hadesborne Soulsifter
70 Deathspeaker
Saryrn
The War Council

I wonder which class is going to stand next to the PoTraq or Nexus stone in PoK, screaming "Fix Me!!" this time? Any bets? I say the rangers!!! =D

Maxium Duelblade

Hmmm......This may be a good thing....If they actually listen to the feedback from class representatives.

Christ, Sony tries to do something for you and all you can do is complain about it. Grow up and instead of trying to forecast how you're going to get screwed over more, do something useful and provide them with good, solid info about what your class needs, or what can be done to make them more desirable.

Monks have been pretty good at that lately, consulting with our class liason on our class boards, and we got things done. Feign Death got fixed (4 fails in a row vs SK/Necro FD rarely failing.) We got our useless GoD AAs made useful (Stunning Kick, Eye Gouge, Crippling Strike.) And a couple others.

What is complaining going to do but make Sony say "Well what the hell, we try to help and get ******* at more, I give up."

This had better be a huge boost to the game. Personally I will keep playing till it dies because I really enjoy the game and I have alot of time invested, though very little time by most standards I suppose. I think that we need to see a big change to keep people with EQ so that we can see the High End raiding guilds return, instead of going to other games. I am a casual player by all accounts and dont get on much, but I would hope to be able to join a elemental or time guild to try to get some good gear and see new places. I am by no means uber but I do my best and I would like to see EQ become a bit more populated like it used to be so that more of u can get into the higher end zones. Maybe it is time we banded together and worked as a team to get there instead of whining about how bad things suck?

I really think that the classes are fairly well balanced with regard to groups. The problem that I see in the game is that there is a distinct incentive to play a class which is soloable because you are not entirely reliant on a group to play the game.

While I don't really mind not being able to solo with my wizzy in the lower levels it IS frustrating to play this toon because I level so slowly in relation to my peers who I meet and who pass me by very quickly because they can supplement their group activities with solo xp(ditto for my warrior and chanter who are basically impossible to solo). What I MIGHT like to see you experiment with, is an xp bonus at low levels for non soloing classes.

Wow, SOE makes a statement that just about every person in the game wants to hear about something every person wants to have happen, and all they get is a bunch of complaining "eight year-olds" giving them crap about it.

Personally, I'm glad to hear it; especially after the release of other new MMORPGs it's nice to see they still think about it. And in this release they do tell us something. They let us know that they are aware of certain issues (group/raid contribution), have a plan to review them, will ask for feedback from the player base, and will then make whatever changes are necessary to address whatever is found. You have no right to complain when they offer to do something to improve the game, only if/when they fail to follow through. If/when that happens, by all means, bash away.

I for one am getting sick of the standard group setups and the "Holy Trinity" that makes class inclusion in these groups so specific and leaves so many classes out and if it means "making fundamental changes to the game" to correct this, I am extremely hopeful.

..Because we all know you F^cktards turned EQ into a 8yr old friendly, arcade game called EverLoot... "Where raiding, becomes your life"