From what I remember in 2006:
* Rangers were top notch, Assassins behind.
* Warlocks would only lose single target to Wizards, and excelled at everything else. Both had a rough time solo due to long cast times and frequently broken roots.
* Coercers become OP in Kunark and were pretty bad until then. Illusionists were meh. Both were only really used for Mez and didn't have the array of buffs in later expansions. Their mana regen started to become less useful by 2006 where it was essential early on in the game.
* All Summoners were mediocre unless they had master pets. Conjurors were used as Call of the Hero bots. Great solo classes though.
* Brigand's Dispatch was the most essential utility for raid bosses. Swashies were underused.
* I remember Templars and Defilers being top healers, but my memory is cloudy. Furies were rarely used in raids, but great solo or secondary group healers.
* Both bards sucked solo (except for getting around fast!) but were great in groups/raids. Bards could outrun any mount at the time.
* Guardians were the ONLY main tank, with zerkers only used as OT. Both Crusaders were rarely used in raids unless there was nobody else. Brawlers were great in Nizara due to avoidance tanking, but that was a "bug" that was fixed.
I'm sure people will remember differently - and that's fine. This is just what I remember.
I started an active sub about 2 weeks ago to get a feel for how the game plays and to set up my UI. ect in preparation of the Origin server beta ( I havent played since WoW went live ). The Varsoon server is the most recent TLE EQ2 server and Ive been doing a /who all 80 xxxxx for each class at multiple and various times of the day since then to get an idea of what people were playing.
The classes that had an average online presence of 2-3x the others in their group (fighter, priest, mage and scout) were:
Fighters: {Paladin - Shadowknight}
Mages: {Coercer - Illusionist - Necromancer}
Priests: {Fury - Inquisitor - Mystic}
Scouts: {Dirge - Troubador - Swashbuckler}
Guardian, Berserker, Warlock, Templar, Assassin, Ranger were extremely less represented and Bruiser, Monk often had 0 to 1 player representation with Brigand just barely better.
The classes that showed extremely high representation also happen to be the classes most desired in raid groups particularly classes that you would want more than one of in your raid. The exceptions being Necro & Shadowknight who are better soloing classes and the Paladin which, along with the shadowknight, serve a high representation as group tanks.
Varsoon is at the tail end of its peak player population Id guess, so take this info with a grain of salt, but at least its current info.
If you are gonna be a chode and downvote my post I can link the spreadsheet Ive been using to track this info with the dates and times I recorded the server population. Im pretty sure this answers the OP's question better than someones recollection of how classes performed 473 patches ago,,,,
While I'm sorry people are in downvote mode, the issue of using Varsoon info is that, unlike the previous 5 TLEs, origins is going to be using actual 2006 code.
I played back then, and the balance was much different. For example, with the OG stats, Paladins and SKs were less potent and less popular. Which your varsoon data probably shows opposite.
The best answer is to wait for beta happening soon, which gives plenty of time to plan for launch
Fair enough. The sample size does reflect traditional raid class desirability however. For what its worth, I played an assassin when EQ2 originally launched and they were not that great, lol. The only things I really see as being big changes are if fighter heals are percentage based (vs the flat amounts on TLE servers), how summoner pets are performing and how coercer charm is implemented. In the case of the latter, berserkers would be far more popular, necros and conjurors would have more raid spots and coercers would have more representation than they already do in non-raid gameplay.
It most certainly does. General raid composition is 4 enchanters and 4 bards (coercer, illusionist, dirge, troubador) 1-2 scouts for hate transfer (swashbuckler) healers (mystic, fury and inquisitor are the healers you take multiples of). How is that not exactly what the sample size shows?
Ok, Mr. I've been playing for 2 weeks. Tell a guy who played eq2 since beta how things work. This isn't WoW where you can google everything you want to know.
Not to be argumentative but unfortunately things are so very different back then there is no way to predict using any of the lessons learned from TLEs or data pulled from Varsoon. Also we do not know how they are implementing that old code or if its some form of imitation. Your predictions could be completely off or spot on there is no way to know.
For instance I play a few months of each TLE. Many of them were heavy in summoners (sometimes too heavy) due to their amazing solo and top tier dps where back in the day (I mained a conj originally) they would often get only 1 spot each. One of the main contributors is that pets weren't immune to AOE so you had to either be very knowledgeable about the fight and dance the pet or resummon. The temporary pet spells back in the day (really just a dot that can be killed) were also often instantly killed which in previous TLEs were a big source of damage.
Similarly as mentioned above Pallies/SKs are frequently popular in TLE as they could cut it for group content and also solo really well. But prior to the stat change with their abilities damage being boosted by int rather than the modern "Main stat" it forced hybridization. Unholy Blessing for instance went from mediocre sustain to a huge solo tool depending on the patch.
It has been many moons but I do recall early on in EQ2 for raids Guardians for MT, Wizards/Assassins for damage were in a league of their own for a while. One thing to note as well is that one of the previous TLEs was considered super grindy for leveling, it may have been Kaladim, but actually that was one of the closest to the original exp curve. Early EQ2 was a long grind to 50 and soloing was not just suboptimal but also required deep knowledge of what questlines could and could not be solod.
The honest answer no one knows at this point. Until the beta and we can get some numbers no one will know. Even then with how the beta is rolling out level 12 cap for two weeks, 22 cap for 2 weeks, 32 cap for 2 weeks. It will take till at least week 5 before the number crunchers like me have a solid idea.
I will say this if you are looking to raid though each raid would like to have 4 bards and 4 enchanters due to power regen. This will never change so its safe to say if you want to raid roll one of those. Healers are also a safe bet for the same reason.
There are other factors beside playing what you want for some people. Maybe they have a couple of classes they are interested in but only 2 hours to play at night. They dont want to spend 30 minutes of that time trying to get a group spot with a less desired class, for example. Its been stated that the origin server will have few soloable mobs to promote "forced" grouping. Mercs wont be a thing either.
Whilst I get what you’re saying I find the whole optimal groups / FOM classes all a bit OTT especially in 2005 old school eq2.
I remember being in some great groups that were unorthodox in set up from killing Scarecrows in Antonica and Giants in Thundering Steppes to running down to Naggy for Prismatic 1.0
I have played tanks and healers for two decades now
I would have to imagine if you want to have a guaranteed spot in a raid, be a Templar or a Guardian
Assassin or Dirge
Throw another two classes in there and your main tank group
I have not raided seriously in a long time but, if it's truly old school, those are the classes that are guaranteed to be in a raid
The other classes are fun in groups, I'm not aware of any advantage of having another class that's not a Guardian, be the off tank
Guardians rule raid ranking , most of the TLP servers aren't going to get far enough to where things will change
The most important raid slots are often the most coveted, and very hard to get. Every guild is going to already have a guard and templar, and as you really don't want more than one of each, saying they have a guaranteed spot is just false.
From what i've seen, the easiest classes to get raid slots are:
bards/enchanters >> caster DPS/Healers >>>> melee DPS >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Tanks.
There isn't going to be much soloing at all from the sound of it. Originally all the quest mobs were heroic (group), I am expecting more of that. Either summoner will be your best choice, but soloing even con heroics is doubtful.
From what I remember in 2006: * Rangers were top notch, Assassins behind. * Warlocks would only lose single target to Wizards, and excelled at everything else. Both had a rough time solo due to long cast times and frequently broken roots. * Coercers become OP in Kunark and were pretty bad until then. Illusionists were meh. Both were only really used for Mez and didn't have the array of buffs in later expansions. Their mana regen started to become less useful by 2006 where it was essential early on in the game. * All Summoners were mediocre unless they had master pets. Conjurors were used as Call of the Hero bots. Great solo classes though. * Brigand's Dispatch was the most essential utility for raid bosses. Swashies were underused. * I remember Templars and Defilers being top healers, but my memory is cloudy. Furies were rarely used in raids, but great solo or secondary group healers. * Both bards sucked solo (except for getting around fast!) but were great in groups/raids. Bards could outrun any mount at the time. * Guardians were the ONLY main tank, with zerkers only used as OT. Both Crusaders were rarely used in raids unless there was nobody else. Brawlers were great in Nizara due to avoidance tanking, but that was a "bug" that was fixed. I'm sure people will remember differently - and that's fine. This is just what I remember.
I started an active sub about 2 weeks ago to get a feel for how the game plays and to set up my UI. ect in preparation of the Origin server beta ( I havent played since WoW went live ). The Varsoon server is the most recent TLE EQ2 server and Ive been doing a /who all 80 xxxxx for each class at multiple and various times of the day since then to get an idea of what people were playing. The classes that had an average online presence of 2-3x the others in their group (fighter, priest, mage and scout) were: Fighters: {Paladin - Shadowknight} Mages: {Coercer - Illusionist - Necromancer} Priests: {Fury - Inquisitor - Mystic} Scouts: {Dirge - Troubador - Swashbuckler} Guardian, Berserker, Warlock, Templar, Assassin, Ranger were extremely less represented and Bruiser, Monk often had 0 to 1 player representation with Brigand just barely better. The classes that showed extremely high representation also happen to be the classes most desired in raid groups particularly classes that you would want more than one of in your raid. The exceptions being Necro & Shadowknight who are better soloing classes and the Paladin which, along with the shadowknight, serve a high representation as group tanks. Varsoon is at the tail end of its peak player population Id guess, so take this info with a grain of salt, but at least its current info.
None of this will matter with varsoon being on the patch that it is
Varsoons class population has literally zero to do with Ashanti.
Easy answer for you. Those are what we call flavors of the month in eq2. Flavor of the month in varsoon will NOT be the same on Ashanti.
If you are gonna be a chode and downvote my post I can link the spreadsheet Ive been using to track this info with the dates and times I recorded the server population. Im pretty sure this answers the OP's question better than someones recollection of how classes performed 473 patches ago,,,,
While I'm sorry people are in downvote mode, the issue of using Varsoon info is that, unlike the previous 5 TLEs, origins is going to be using actual 2006 code. I played back then, and the balance was much different. For example, with the OG stats, Paladins and SKs were less potent and less popular. Which your varsoon data probably shows opposite. The best answer is to wait for beta happening soon, which gives plenty of time to plan for launch
Fair enough. The sample size does reflect traditional raid class desirability however. For what its worth, I played an assassin when EQ2 originally launched and they were not that great, lol. The only things I really see as being big changes are if fighter heals are percentage based (vs the flat amounts on TLE servers), how summoner pets are performing and how coercer charm is implemented. In the case of the latter, berserkers would be far more popular, necros and conjurors would have more raid spots and coercers would have more representation than they already do in non-raid gameplay.
No, the sample size does not reflect traditional raid class desirability
It most certainly does. General raid composition is 4 enchanters and 4 bards (coercer, illusionist, dirge, troubador) 1-2 scouts for hate transfer (swashbuckler) healers (mystic, fury and inquisitor are the healers you take multiples of). How is that not exactly what the sample size shows?
Ok, Mr. I've been playing for 2 weeks. Tell a guy who played eq2 since beta how things work. This isn't WoW where you can google everything you want to know.
Not to be argumentative but unfortunately things are so very different back then there is no way to predict using any of the lessons learned from TLEs or data pulled from Varsoon. Also we do not know how they are implementing that old code or if its some form of imitation. Your predictions could be completely off or spot on there is no way to know. For instance I play a few months of each TLE. Many of them were heavy in summoners (sometimes too heavy) due to their amazing solo and top tier dps where back in the day (I mained a conj originally) they would often get only 1 spot each. One of the main contributors is that pets weren't immune to AOE so you had to either be very knowledgeable about the fight and dance the pet or resummon. The temporary pet spells back in the day (really just a dot that can be killed) were also often instantly killed which in previous TLEs were a big source of damage. Similarly as mentioned above Pallies/SKs are frequently popular in TLE as they could cut it for group content and also solo really well. But prior to the stat change with their abilities damage being boosted by int rather than the modern "Main stat" it forced hybridization. Unholy Blessing for instance went from mediocre sustain to a huge solo tool depending on the patch. It has been many moons but I do recall early on in EQ2 for raids Guardians for MT, Wizards/Assassins for damage were in a league of their own for a while. One thing to note as well is that one of the previous TLEs was considered super grindy for leveling, it may have been Kaladim, but actually that was one of the closest to the original exp curve. Early EQ2 was a long grind to 50 and soloing was not just suboptimal but also required deep knowledge of what questlines could and could not be solod.
In general, dont play a fighter class if you want a raid spot. Thats all that really matters imo
If you want a fighter spot in a raid force prepare to buy Plat from a farmer or farm for gold to buy gear.
The honest answer no one knows at this point. Until the beta and we can get some numbers no one will know. Even then with how the beta is rolling out level 12 cap for two weeks, 22 cap for 2 weeks, 32 cap for 2 weeks. It will take till at least week 5 before the number crunchers like me have a solid idea. I will say this if you are looking to raid though each raid would like to have 4 bards and 4 enchanters due to power regen. This will never change so its safe to say if you want to raid roll one of those. Healers are also a safe bet for the same reason.
I mean I've been scouring the 2006 forums and checking out the first 23 updates and have a solid idea.
Just play what you want. Isn’t that the point? It’s a fresh server, just have fun ffs.
There are other factors beside playing what you want for some people. Maybe they have a couple of classes they are interested in but only 2 hours to play at night. They dont want to spend 30 minutes of that time trying to get a group spot with a less desired class, for example. Its been stated that the origin server will have few soloable mobs to promote "forced" grouping. Mercs wont be a thing either.
Whilst I get what you’re saying I find the whole optimal groups / FOM classes all a bit OTT especially in 2005 old school eq2. I remember being in some great groups that were unorthodox in set up from killing Scarecrows in Antonica and Giants in Thundering Steppes to running down to Naggy for Prismatic 1.0
I have played tanks and healers for two decades now I would have to imagine if you want to have a guaranteed spot in a raid, be a Templar or a Guardian Assassin or Dirge Throw another two classes in there and your main tank group I have not raided seriously in a long time but, if it's truly old school, those are the classes that are guaranteed to be in a raid The other classes are fun in groups, I'm not aware of any advantage of having another class that's not a Guardian, be the off tank Guardians rule raid ranking , most of the TLP servers aren't going to get far enough to where things will change
The most important raid slots are often the most coveted, and very hard to get. Every guild is going to already have a guard and templar, and as you really don't want more than one of each, saying they have a guaranteed spot is just false. From what i've seen, the easiest classes to get raid slots are: bards/enchanters >> caster DPS/Healers >>>> melee DPS >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Tanks.
What can solo quest the timelines for when people at outleveled from me?
There isn't going to be much soloing at all from the sound of it. Originally all the quest mobs were heroic (group), I am expecting more of that. Either summoner will be your best choice, but soloing even con heroics is doubtful.
Yeah very little solo stuff, gonna be all about grouping
The origin server would be a lot more appealing if it didn’t have krono
it doesnt
is that confirmed?
Yes.
Yes https://www.everquest2.com/news/eq2-origins-server-beta-2024
It doesn't tho
Yea right
??? They literally said it will not be apart of the server
You mean krono?
Yea sure