Loraen's Class Selection Guide

There seems to be a new thread every other day on the forums about which set of minmaxing classes to play, so I thought I would chip in my two cents. I should mention first of all that I think the most important attributes for 'success' on Project 1999 (using this word in the loosest way possible) are: understand basic game mechanics, play a lot, and be nice. That being said, here are my opinions on each classes' strengths and weaknesses:

The first five columns are the relative effectiveness. Pop is the relative popularity, 25/50/60 is the relative strength at each level (for example enchanters are weak at lower levels and strong later while magicians are the opposite), Epic is the ease of getting your epic, Gear is gear dependence, and Actions is the amount of clicking. Good duos are your effectiveness purely as a duo; many other combinations (like Bard/Cleric) are very reasonable duos if you want to play with a friend and have an easy time forming groups. Everything else should be pretty self-explanatory.

Class	SoloXP	SoloPP	Duo/Trio	Group	Raid	Average	Pop	25	50	60	Epic	Gear	Actions	Skill	Good Duos
Warrior	3	1	7	7	10	5.6	6	8	6	10	4	10	5	5	Shaman, Druid (low levels)
Monk	5	6	10	10	10	8.2	9	8	10	8	8	8	8	8	Shaman, Druid (low levels)
Rogue	1	1	7	10	10	5.8	5	8	8	10	10	7	5	3	Shaman, Bard, Necromancer, Druid
Bard	10	3	7	8	10	7.6	4	10	9	8	3	3	10	10	Rogue, All Low HP kiters
Ranger	4	3	5	5	6	4.6	2	10	10	8	4	7	6	6	Shaman, Druid (low levels)
Paladin	4	2	4	8	4	4.8	3	10	10	8	6	8	6	6	None
Shadowknight	5	3	7	8	8	6.2	4	10	10	8	4	8	6	6	Shaman, Druid (low levels)
Cleric	5	4	7	9	10	7	7	6	8	10	10	3	3	5	Enchanter, Magician
Druid	7	6	4	4	4	5	10	10	8	6	3	3	3	6	Pretty much anything until 40+, then go quad
Shaman	8	9	10	8	7	8.4	9	6	8	10	10	5	8	8	Pretty much anything really
Wizard	7	3	3	3	10	5.2	4	8	10	8	2	3	1	2	None
Magician	7	7	8	8	8	7.6	5	10	10	7	4	1	3	3	Enchanter, Necromancer, Magician, Shaman, Cleric
Enchanter	8	10	9	10	6	8.6	7	7	10	10	6	5	6	8	Enchanter, Necromancer, Magician, Shaman, Cleric
Necromancer	8	7	8	8	3	6.8	10	10	9	8	2	3	5	8	Enchanter, Necromancer, Magician, Shaman

Notes: (in progress)

Warrior

Really poor aggro leveling up due to the weapons with good ratios having procs that won't fire . . . Poor aggro at 50+ when you pit your Sarnak Warhammer+Silken Whip of Ensnaring against all the epic monks and rogues . . . Ultimately the best group tank when well geared (Cobalt armor with the epic or VP weapons, so TMO alts basically) with more HP/AC/DPS than others . . . Solid in small groups owing to their multitude of useful proccing weapons and high dps . . . really the only viable raid tank with Defensive and Evasive Disciplines . . . fairly straightforward to play most of the time, since it's the enchanter's job to save the group . . . in Kunark the Ogre stun resistance and ridiculous stats make them the best choice if you can stand to look at them; in Velious everyone will be stat capped but Ogres and Iksars will edge out owing to their special abilities

Monk

OP class in Kunark; Hugely OP class in Velious . . . Epic Monks do almost as much damage as Epic Rogues and can tank just as well as well-geared warriors . . . Extremely useful on raids with high dps and for pulls . . . Sneak clearing aggro is not classic and will be nerfed soon . . . Monk/Shaman is one of the classic duos in EverQuest . . . Iksar monks are just better than Human monks when it comes to combat, although you do have an XP penalty and faction problems . . . quite a lot of work to play as with a good group you'll be chain pulling . . . requires a lot of zone knowledge . . . can solo decently well and even do OK at 50+ with a fungi and the Celestial Tranquility haste effect of the epic . . . can 'solo' for pp by powerleveling for 2-3k an hour depending on gear

Rogue

Massive DPS especially with Norrath's easiest epic - Ragebringer even has haste so you don't need one of those pricey haste items . . . top dps on Kunark raids; near the top in Velious . . . Very group dependent as they require a tank to position the mob, and the tank requires a healer, so unless you are kiting outdoors you'll probably mostly XP in full groups . . . Everyone's favorite corpse recovery machine . . . pretty straightforward to play: get behind the mob and hit backstab

Bard

Can swarm kite to 50-55 or so in no time at all . . . can do anything, except it only lasts 18 seconds . . . extremely desired on raids for kiting, mana regen, and resists . . . have on paper the worst epic but most potential bards quit after they get carpal tunnel at around L40 or so . . . A reasonable replacement for an enchanter but ultimately don't have the same firepower . . . requires a huge amount of targeting to CC . . . probably the hardest class to play in EQ, but a good bard is fantastic

Ranger

Pretty decent dps but their xp penalty makes them unattractive to many powergamers . . . snare in groups is very useful now that mobs flee at 20% life . . . tracking is frequently useful . . . RNG/SHM is an ok duo; I've seen multiple people doing the spore king with it . . . Have a nice amount of all-around utility which is seldom needed in groups . . . can bow kite for XP once you get the Tolan's bracer, but it's slow and obnoxious. . . not nearly as bad as people think they are, but not nearly good enough to be burdened with the 40% hybrid xp penalty

Shadowknight

The ultimate group tank with huge, instant, controllable aggro by spamming low level spells . . . can choose a large race to help your stats in Kunark and get warrior-ish HP although this comes with a truly brutal xp penalty . . . excellent pullers in both XP groups and raids . . . a bit more damage than Paladins owing to higher strength, a summoned pet, and dots . . . Great utility for small groups, but their XP penalty and low dps hurt . . . can't efficiently tank raid targets without defensive discipline, but you'll find plenty to do pulling . . . can solo (slowly) by fearkiting . . . feign death and the circlet of shadows are both fantastic of course

Paladin

Great snap aggro for groups . . . solid HP/AC especially with a shield . . . like Shadowknights, cannot really tank raid targets unless they are massively overgeared or have a lot of clerics . . . surprisingly good CC class with root, stun, and calm . . . dwarves unquestionably the best race with a large stat lead over humans and half elves, and lets not even mention erudites . . . pretty good healers . . . the Deepwater Helm is extremely OP . . . all paladin gear is cheap as no one plays them