New to EQ, questions about grouping/class role in party

Jarrik

Dalayan Beginner
I've never played EQ before, but this looks very fun and I've downloaded/created a character. I've done some reading in these forums and some other sites about the game and have a generic sense of MMORPG terms. My questions are mainly about the way classes work together in the game - is there an optimal setup that people try to go for (e.g. tank, damage dealers, healer, nuker, buffer)? The character I made is a ranger so I am especially curious what role he would play in a full group. If this has already been answered please let me know (didn't see anything in search about it). Are there any class forums that are specific to each class? I poked around but didn't see any. Thanks :)
 
Optimal Group = Tank + Healer + Slower + CC + dpsx2 (give or take a dps)

Rangers are dps/utility.
 
Took me a second to figure out the "CC" accronym, and I've played EQ for a bit ...

CC = crowd control
dps = damage per second

With that being said ...
WHAT WERE YOU THINKING MAKING A STINKIN-LOUSY-NO-POINT IN HAVING THE CLASS-RANJA????!!!!
HAH, J/K :lol: My husband made the same mistake. :D

In any event, I couldn't find any class specific info, but do have this site that may help when buying your Ranger Spells <---click there.

**Thanks to the person that gave me that link for my mage spells.
 
Jarrik said:
Are there any class forums that are specific to each class? I poked around but didn't see any. Thanks :)

Not for all, but some players have taken the initiative and set some specific class sites. Here's Ranger's Haven for rangers. It has links to some other class sites as well (although it isn't a complete list).
 
First of all, Welcome Jarrick I am sure you will have a great experience playing here.

Now on to some helpful (I hope :p ) information:

The info provided by diolas is the absolutely boiled down bottom line - as far as group make-up goes. I thought that I would repeat it a bit and provide some definitions (just in case a couple of the terms didn't make sense, heh). Please keep in mind that you will generally not be able to find an optimal group all the time... :p and some of the descriptions, etc. are open to discussion and are heavily influenced by memories of live (EverQuest)

TANK - this is a warrior, shadow knight or paladin (in order of effectiveness/precedence)
HEALER - cleric, druid, shaman (druids and shamans are generally backup or spot healers since their healing spells are hard-pressed to keep up with the damage output at high levels - not always though, some players have enough practice and skill to keep up)
SLOWER - shaman, enchanter, beastlords (shaman and enchanter are somewhat equal in effectiveness I think - on live the shaman slows were far and away the best but I understand they are somewhat reduced in effectiveness here on SoD.
CC (Crowd Control) - enchanter, bard, necromancer (enchanters are far and away the best, they have single mob and AOE - Area Of Effect mezzes of fairly long duration. I think the bard's mez songs are pulse based - in other words they refresh every so often and there is a chance of the mob breaking mez on every refresh. The necro's mez is single mob short duration (at least I think so haven't tried a necro here yet)
DPS (Damage Per Second or Damage Dealers) - this is a fairly broad swath of classes, in fact all classes can fit into this category (some better than others, heh). Primarily you will find rangers, monks, wizards, mages, bards, beastlords, druids, and necros here. Each of the primary DPS classes has a secondary role as follows:
rangers - tracking and slowing mob movment (not attacking ability)
monk - pulling
wizards - teleporting to various zones
mages - summoning toys and tools as well as a pet for additional DPS
bards - supreme utility, good at everything, great at nothing
beastlords - combination of shaman and monk (minimal of each) with a pet. Perhaps the only class that does not have a 'defined' secondary role
druids - buffs and teleporting to various zones, sort of a pet
necros - mana battery (can feed mana to the other casters in the group in an emergency)

Here is a site that has a pretty good guide...but more than that it has a link to a ranger site that might be helpful to you...
http://sodguide.game-host.org/

Again, welcome!

Sstecik
 
To add to Sstecik's post:

- Monks can tank and are good at CC as well.

- Also, beastlords are the second best slowers in the game. Their role is usually slows/utility, much like a shaman without the heals but more utility.

- Rogues are the best Melee DPS in the game while Wizards are the best caster DPS. The other dps classes that were listed have other utilities that make up for their lesser dps.
 
From my own experience: The best exp groups are:
Tank, healer, 4xRogue.
Just going around killing low blue mobs. This may very well have changed, since last I checked, but that's at least how it used to be. Also, if you want fast exp, don't use a monk to split, since it just takes too long.
 
Rangers are quite versatile in a group, you could have a single role (damage) or many roles. In the low-mid level and then end game you'll be a good/great tank for most groups. You can contribute a handful of buffs if there isnt a druid present (SoW, CoTP, small DS, HP buffs, etc). Also, you may be on cc duty (root/snare/harmony) and may be asked to pull since you have the advantages of track and your bow. Mainly though, your main role is that of damage dealer, as we are great dps with our bows (and with melee in the end game). Hope this helps :)
 
Thanks for breaking down what the acronyms mean, I was a bit confused. This information looks to be really useful, I'm definitely looking forward to playing here :)
 
Sstecik said:
First of all, Welcome Jarrick I am sure you will have a great experience playing here.

Now on to some helpful (I hope :p ) information:

The info provided by diolas is the absolutely boiled down bottom line - as far as group make-up goes. I thought that I would repeat it a bit and provide some definitions (just in case a couple of the terms didn't make sense, heh). Please keep in mind that you will generally not be able to find an optimal group all the time... :p and some of the descriptions, etc. are open to discussion and are heavily influenced by memories of live (Game)

TANK - this is a warrior, shadow knight or paladin (in order of effectiveness/precedence)
HEALER - cleric, druid, shaman (druids and shamans are generally backup or spot healers since their healing spells are hard-pressed to keep up with the damage output at high levels - not always though, some players have enough practice and skill to keep up)
SLOWER - shaman, enchanter, beastlords (shaman and enchanter are somewhat equal in effectiveness I think - on live the shaman slows were far and away the best but I understand they are somewhat reduced in effectiveness here on SoD.
CC (Crowd Control) - enchanter, bard, necromancer (enchanters are far and away the best, they have single mob and AOE - Area Of Effect mezzes of fairly long duration. I think the bard's mez songs are pulse based - in other words they refresh every so often and there is a chance of the mob breaking mez on every refresh. The necro's mez is single mob short duration (at least I think so haven't tried a necro here yet)
DPS (Damage Per Second or Damage Dealers) - this is a fairly broad swath of classes, in fact all classes can fit into this category (some better than others, heh). Primarily you will find rangers, monks, wizards, mages, bards, beastlords, druids, and necros here. Each of the primary DPS classes has a secondary role as follows:
rangers - tracking and slowing mob movment (not attacking ability)
monk - pulling
wizards - teleporting to various zones
mages - summoning toys and tools as well as a pet for additional DPS
bards - supreme utility, good at everything, great at nothing
beastlords - combination of shaman and monk (minimal of each) with a pet. Perhaps the only class that does not have a 'defined' secondary role
druids - buffs and teleporting to various zones, sort of a pet
necros - mana battery (can feed mana to the other casters in the group in an emergency)

Here is a site that has a pretty good guide...but more than that it has a link to a ranger site that might be helpful to you...
http://sodguide.game-host.org/

Again, welcome!

Sstecik

I agree with every thing said here, except for like he said, he forgot rogues, Rogues are the best, hands down, constant damage per second dealers... and wizards normaly do a little less dps in normal situations, with the capabilty to up it 10fold but putting them selfs in risk... Reason being is that if a wizard just stands and nukes the entire fight, that mob is going to want some revenge in the worst way possible, and the wizard is going to need to med every one or two mobs, so a wizard will just throw 1-4 nukes in at a normal mob, and med the rest of the fight. where as rogues, come in for a sneak attack, on alot of fights start off with a 1-3k dmg backstab and then doing dmg small but FAST. on my rogue i was getting about 4-5 hits off for every hit the normal tank was getting. but because they have such great dps, they dont really have a big in fight use otehr then dps, but out of a fight the wizard has some minimal buffs, and ports, and rogues have thier hide and sneak, perfect for recovering bodies for rezzes and sneaking in to scout out how many mobs are where... and lock pick, cant forget that. I hope this helps, but im sure some of the info is off, being as how this all comes from my live eq experience, but the game mechainics are highly similar, so yea.
 
JayelleNephilim said:
Took me a second to figure out the "CC" accronym, and I've played EQ for a bit ...

I didn't know what it meant to all the blue servers before I came to SoD and grouped a bit. On Vallon CC = corpse camp. Never even heard the term crowd control uttered on vallon iirc. So lol @ me, too =P
 
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