Quinlamin's Comprehensive Guide To Everquest

Intro

Everquest is a social game for grouping up and killing monsters, but there is a whole lot more to it than that, you can tradeskill, do quests, kill raid mobs, build reputation with different factions and so much more. This guide is built in order to go deeper than the Newbie Guide could and explain how to play the game in greater detail.

Classes

Classes are often divided into their roles, Tanks, DPS, Healers and CC

Tanks

Tanks are designed to keep the mob facing away from the dps, often in groups you are better off keeping aggro rather than taking damage, as the quicker your dps can kill a mob the less damage you will take.

Warrior

Warriors are the most gear dependant tank in the game as the only ability they have to gather aggro is their taunt and kick skills as well as the ability to dual wield, they both deal more damage and take less damage in to counteract these flaws. If you play a warrior you will not only need to buy good armor but also good proc weapons in order to keep aggro with the mob, and with the randomness of these procs you will not be able to do very well at tanking in a group, but are usually used for duos or an extra dps in the rare case there isn't many dps classes around. Where you really shine is in raids where you can use your disciplines to greatly reduce the damage taken by the raid boss.

Best Races:

Ogre - Best warrior race by far for most of the game due to their frontal stun immunity.

Barbarian - Best warrior race if you do not want to be evil, has great starting stats and can use the slam ability

Iksar - Best raid min/max raid tank in velious. Iksars can't use plate armor, but during velious the plate armor starts being used by iksars as well, and with the iksar ac bonus you will have the most AC in the game. The main reason it isn't the objective best tank is because it doesn't have frontal stun immunity, this will cause you to have to pick either ogre or iksar in velious raiding

Shadow Knight

Shadow Knights are a mix between a necromancer and a warrior so they get some necromancer spells, this makes it really easy to gain aggro. A Shadow Knight will often use a 2h weapon as they cannot dual wield and the use of a shield isn't that recommended unless you want a little bit more AC at the cost of your very little damage. Shadow Knights usually use dots and snares to keep their aggro making them much better at holding aggro although sometimes it can take a while to build it up, they are also the only tank that can have a pet (although a very weak one) which can help while soloing to get a little bit more damage. Shadow knights are also pretty good pullers thanks to their Feign death skill which is an aggro wipe and allows you to split mobs and acts as an 'oh shit' button.

Best Races:

Ogre - Best Shadowknight for melee stats and frontal stun immunity.

Erudite - Best Shadownknight for casting stats (watch out for the night blindness).

Paladin

Paladins are a mix between a cleric and a warrior so they get some cleric spells, they are able to use heals and roots and blindness spells in order to gain aggro. They will often use 2h weapons in order to do more damage as they cannot dual wield. They can pull reasonably well with their lull spells and are extremely good against the undead because of their DD vs undead line of spells. Paladins are the best at snap aggro due to their root spell which makes the target stuck in place, this also makes them attack the closest enemy to it making for guaranteed aggro. They are often secondary in as the group tank as they provide less utility as they can only really tank and thats it, but they can also help the shaman with extra heals so they can heal you longer.

Best Races:

Dwarf - Best paladin for melee stats (also has a sick jump animation).

High Elf - Best paladin for casting stats (also has good charisma which is nice to have as a cleric).

DPS

Rogue

The Rogue is the king of sustained dps, they do not need any health or mana so they just stick onto a mob and backstab them until they die. They will always use a piercing weapon in their main hand so they can backstab, and the best ratio weapon in their offhand. A rogue is extremely easy to build, you max out strength, strength will be the a determining factor in how much damage you do and is vital to get as high as possible, this also only really gives you one choice for rogue. They can also sneak, hide and pick locks which can help them get into places without keys.

Best Race:

Barbarian - Best rogue race as they have the highest strength, quite simple.

Monk

The Monk is often more desired in groups than rogues even though they have less DPS, a monk is the king of pulling and is extremely good to have in any dungeon group. Monks often use 2 1h blunt weapons dual wielding because it is simply better dps. Monks also are the kings of avoidance as they get a passive increase to it unless their weight goes over a certain threshold. Monks can also solo reasonably well due to their durability and are often quite cheap to play as they just need leather armor and good weapons.

Best Race: there really isn't a best race just preference.

Human - Good and slightly better stamina and hand to hand damage

Iksar - AC bonus and hp regen but with lower stamina and strength.

Ranger

Rangers are often the butt of many jokes in everquest as they seem to be quite underpowered, they are the mix of a druid and a warrior. They are a class that seems to be having an identity crisis and doesn't exactly know what it is although we usually put it as DPS. Rangers have taunt but can't tank, they are part warrior but can't wear most plate and they aren't exactly that spectacular at using a bow until luclin, which doesn't come out on P99. In my experience they are great to duo with in a nice open plain with lots of mobs as they can use a skill called tracking which allows them to find mobs in a radius around them.

Best Race:

Human - Best race for melee, although has terrible night vision and can't really fix it without items.

Wood Elf - Best race for casting as it has the highest wisdom.