New refugee from p99 mayhaps

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by NaanBread, Aug 8, 2020.

  1. NaanBread

    NaanBread New Member

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    Hi I've been on p99 since around 2011 and was thinking of jumping ship. I've been solo the whole time due to real life situations, and am a very casual player (no characters above level 45 but a full account of them).

    Considering that I'm forever solo and casual, would a duo Iksar shm/nec combo do well in this time line?

    How spendy are the high level spells like Torpor? Bane/Pox or Malo? These are absurdly priced on p99, for justified reasons I guess.

    Being that it's PoP era are Epics easier or possibly dou-able? Or even that relevant at 65? I've never had a goal for an epic toon (cause solo) but I assume it's a bit easier here?

    I don't really have end game goals like raiding or max AA so a duo would suffice yes? Or would a trio be ideal? Assuming my lil Intel Nuc can even handle 2 clients at once.

    Any answers would be appreciated
    Thx
     
  2. Yarnee

    Yarnee People Like Me

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    spells are pretty cheap here with a few exceptions, im guessing you could find torpor for under 5k, or at most 10k. malo is like 2-3k tops, and pox is rarer but never really goes for that much either. theres a way to make every duo work, and theres plenty of guilds you can join for help finding groups and epics etc that wont require you to raid.
     
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  3. Yarnee

    Yarnee People Like Me

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    also btw all raid content is rotated here so theres no need to poopsock anything, things that people lose sleep over like scout charisa are in general usually just up here waiting for someone to come do the quest, so you may want to rethink raiding because its much easier to make raiding fit your RL schedule here
     
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  4. Yarnee

    Yarnee People Like Me

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    beastlord + dru is a pretty good duo, in luclin druids get a 75% CH, you get slow, dps, snare and healing out of that combo
     
  5. NaanBread

    NaanBread New Member

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    That is much less of a grind than p99, good to know!

    Not a bad idea, was also thinking maybe mage + shaman. Shaman is my jam any duo I pick gotta be that plus something else.
    Chaos is my schedule, afk at the drop of a hat sometimes, so raiding is really out of the question sadly
     
    Last edited: Aug 8, 2020
  6. NaanBread

    NaanBread New Member

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    Ok now I'm confused. A few posts mention "once PoP comes out", is this still Luclin era? The wiki shows spells up to 65
     
  7. Cadsuane

    Cadsuane People Like Me

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    I mostly duoed nec(main)-shm(alt) to 60, very doable. More utility than mage.

    All epics are obtainable here, there's no one poopsocking them to screw over new players.. even full mage epics are literally sold for a reasonable price.

    If you're an ultra-casual player, PoP will probably be out before it matters to you. a third of it is done-ish on our test server.
     
    Last edited: Aug 8, 2020
  8. Yarnee

    Yarnee People Like Me

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    plane of knowledge is live, the other PoP zones arent, it will be released in the unforeseen future. Luclin is current expansion max level is 60. its not a true progression server, the developers just havent finished PoP yet
     
  9. Darchon

    Darchon I Feel Loved

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    The server is a work in development. Like P99, it has gone through each expansions era, with a hard-cap of PoP (this is actually hardcoded into the client we use). The main page here - https://www.takproject.net/ - does mention that we are currently developed only up to Shadows of Luclin but you'd have to scroll down a bit and read the fine print to see that.

    Currently PoP has 9 of the 20ish zones completed and available on the developer test server. But the live TAKP server only has Luclin right now.

    I would suggest playing however many characters you are comfortable with. If you feel like a more relaxed play style for you is 2 characters, one of which is mostly just to bolster your main character, go for it. Adding a 3rd character will increase your potential content of course, but it isn't for everyone. You should be able to duo most groupable content with a solid duo.

    Shaman/Necro combination can do a fair bit. You will find in PoP that the necromancer pet doesn't tank well against Tier 2+ content with a shaman healer. You will probably see that root rotting with that combination or aggro kiting with 2 pets is superior to trying to let the spectre pet tank.

    By PoP no epic is still wielded except for the Bard epic (which can be replaced with the Elemental/Time raid gear) and sometimes the Ranger Swiftwind during bow burns (can be replaced if you hit 250 ATK without the 40 from swiftwind). Some epics have marginal utility in PoP like the Ranger Earthcaller for slow proc if you have no one in your group with slow. Necromancer, Druid and Shaman epic DoTs are mediocre in PoP, usually not really worth the time spent swapping them in and clicking them but having mana free DoTs is nice. The enchanter epic is useful for mana free haste (replaced in Elementals/Time with chanter legs with a better haste click). The cleric epic is forever valuable for free rez on our server.

    For the classes you list, Shaman epic and Necro epic would be useful for you, but as a non-raider, the Necro epic is likely impossible due to the PoSky piece. The shaman epic I am sure you could obtain, people often will leave the iksar child up in PoFear and plenty have extra tears to MQ. You'd just need to find some friends and do the Lord Rak'Ashiir fight. Outside of the PoSky boss drops (Spiroc Lord for Warrior, Keeper of Souls for Necromancer) most other epic targets are doable with 3 Luclin raid gear / AA'd characters. Some like Trakanon are extremely challenging with a single trio, but quite easy with a full group or two trios of characters. In summary, beyond the death touching sky bosses, epics are fairly easy to obtain on this server. Time consuming yes, but not difficult to muster the forces to defeat them assuming you have a guild or friends.
     
  10. NaanBread

    NaanBread New Member

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    Thank you all for the replies! Will see if I can get this up and running on my linux box here soon.

    I imagine if I'm already running p99 fine on Lutris that Takp will work without issie
     
  11. NaanBread

    NaanBread New Member

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    Another thing I just thought of while going over wiki, lotta lotta group buff spells, do those hit pets too?
     
  12. Devour_Souls

    Devour_Souls People Like Me

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    Negative
     
  13. Sketchy

    Sketchy People Like Me

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    Sit back and watch the culture, this isn't P99, FoHguild or 4chan. You of course, are more than welcome to play here.
     
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  14. Radda

    Radda People Like Me

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    considering p99 has that Dynamic Lighting hardcoded now, you should be fine even with out an FPS limiter.
    i too came from p99 years ago.
    from what you mentioned, this server sounds like your forever home.
     
  15. NaanBread

    NaanBread New Member

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    Last couple questions I swear.. is the grind to 60 easier or harder then something like p99? I've found the motivation to keep playing after the mid 40s difficult because of how real the grind starts to feel.

    I know numerically the exp would be slower since a duo or trio divides the exp but does the increased kill speed make up for that? Or the global 20% bonus help ease that?


    And again thank you all for the replies, sleeping last night was rough because I kept debating what combo would work best
     
    Last edited: Aug 9, 2020
  16. Tuluvien

    Tuluvien I Feel Loved

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    Shaman/Ranger is one of my faves, but you will have trouble keeping the Ranger alive until better heals at higher levels. Add a cleric as 3rd and you'd be set.
     
  17. Devour_Souls

    Devour_Souls People Like Me

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    It's considerably easier.

    Vs solo XP? Hell yeah, by a wide margin. There's not really any grindiness until 51ish. Especially if you stay on the xp highway. Also some virtually unpopulated option for easy xp that just don't exist on classic servers. The grind on TAKP should be the least of your worries. Plus once you get to 40 you can group with 60's.
     
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  18. Tuluvien

    Tuluvien I Feel Loved

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    Devour nailed it. The grind here is much less than some other servers. Also, if you do land groups with others, there is a big exp bump at 4 members that makes it worthwhile to make friends.
     
  19. NaanBread

    NaanBread New Member

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    I mean I don't mind a grind but playing a completely non twinked shaman on p99 knowing how steep the climb to 60 is, and the plat farm needed for the key spells is very undesirable.

    Glad to know it's not so terrible here. Hopefully I can get it up and running tomorrow
     
  20. NaanBread

    NaanBread New Member

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    Darn it I keep thinking of other questions. I'm so used to p99 and playing solo I have no idea how to duo/trio.

    Do I still focus on dark blue mobs or should I be doing white/yellow while leveling?

    Is slow an absolute must later on? I was thinking of different trio combos but some didn't have a slower.

    Do I need a tank at later levels? Assuming every npc 51+ summons I imagine keeping threat off a healer is important, along with slow again.

    More to come I'm sure
     
  21. Tuluvien

    Tuluvien I Feel Loved

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    For group exp content you will find that BST and Ranger can act as tank well enough, in addition to the traditional plate classes. You will want a melee class or a pet in order to hold a mob from destroying your softer character for sure.

    I am super dependant on slow. It's a wonderful spell. You may not need it if you are charming with an enchanter, as those pets will have heaps more HP than a PC.
     
  22. solar

    solar Administrator Staff Member

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    Slow is very OP here. Exp gain varies widely based on the zone and how fast you can kill the stuff, but as others have said, it's not really a concern until the 50s - we have huge exp bonuses and it is really easy to level up on TAKP. You can have KEI almost all the time, assuming you don't go dying right away and get 2-3 hours out of it, because people cast it regularly at the dark bank in plane of knowledge and all you have to do is /join alliance to hear the announcements. To fight things that summon you need a tank or some other trick like lots of heals on your squishy. I recommend grouping up, but there are things you can kill that don't summon all the way to level 60, if you look for them. The velious outdoor zones are pretty good for this.

    I would actually say that it's too easy here, because most of the population has been playing a long time, they have tons of characters in end game gear, and so people will gift away really awesome items, kind of robbing you of the journey of toughing it out the normal way. So maybe just see how far you can get on your own before you ask for help.
     
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  23. Darchon

    Darchon I Feel Loved

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    In this era the following things are extremely overpowered:

    Enchanter Charm (Druid/Necro charms are fine if you want to limit yourself to specific camps)
    Cleric Complete Heal (Druid CH is okay but shows ages in PoP, Shaman CH/Torpor is ok when coupled with Slow)
    Slow
    Raid Geared Plate Tank

    If you’re considering a trio you’d like to be mostly self sufficient on, I’d highly encourage incorporating at least one of the above four items. To be honest it’s difficult to come up with a trio that doesn’t include one of the four unless you’re really trying to.

    There is a reason the most common trio found on this server is X/Cleric/Enchanter. The enchanter/cleric duo brings to the table 3 of the 4 most overpowered things in game. That being said they aren’t required to have a solid trio.

    51+ mobs summoning was a very short lived era in EQ. That was basically just a Kunark rule and it was eventually reversed and a lot of regular trash mobs stopped summoning. In Velious and Luclin there are plenty of level 50+ mobs that don’t summon. In PoP there are mobs 50-68 that don’t summon. So for regular EXP purposes you can’t avoid summons when you want to by picking your camps. However there will be quests or named mobs you want to camp that will inevitably summon, so having some means to deal with summoners is wise.
     
    Last edited: Aug 9, 2020
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  24. solar

    solar Administrator Staff Member

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    If you're set on soloing, then the standard cleric/{enchanter,shaman}/{paladin/shadowknight} trio will work great but this is a very common setup and the damage output is low. I think eventually you will find friends to play with regularly, and some group oriented classes might end up being more fun in those settings, though they're harder to do alone. If you're going to solo a single character then shaman, druid, necro can all do well just solo root rotting and with KEI you never have to stop.

    Rogues are the best melee damage if you can backstab and they are simple to play, don't need to cast spells just turn on auto attack and push the backstab button if you have time. Soloing a rogue is awkward though.

    Bards can provide great mana regen and resists to groups/raids and they can pull singles with their pacify ability. Bards here do not have /melody however we also do not have the short duration buff box so it kind of balances out. We only have 15 buff slots and so we don't usually want bards to fill them all up anyway, in a group setting where we're using all the buff slots. Also there aren't really 3 songs worth twisting all the time, not until PoP anyway. For the most part, turning on a song and leaving it on is good enough if you're boxing.

    Monk is not a bad choice either - some people here hate on them to the point it's like a meme, but they do a lot of damage just like a rogue, and they're also simple to play.

    Wizard is good but you will pull aggro if you don't have a spell casting tank (PAL/SHD/RNG/BST). Wizards provide a snare effect - it makes everything a lot easier if you have a snare of some sort, because most NPCs flee at low health. They are pretty simple to play and they contribute a lot of damage in a group where the tank is doing a good job holding aggro.

    Warrior is the tankiest but this is best left to the hardcore raid guys - this is not a fun class to play in a first trio, considering you could just be a knight instead.

    Also consider that if you go with a duo or trio of casters, with no melee, you might be more efficient since you're not having to watch your melee and move him into range constantly. You can sit back and survey the battle field while your long cast time spells are channeling.
     
  25. Loraen

    Loraen Well-Known Member

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    Hi Naan,

    TAKP uses the Planes of Power resist system, which means that most of the time most spells land on XP targets, even when those are 5-10 levels above you. For example, on TAKP at L35 you'll land slow on L40 NPCs maybe 80% of the time and at L55 you can lull L50 NPCs with no failures. So you can do a lot of things that would get you pounded into the dirt rather quickly on P99.

    Casters are much better balanced vs melee and hybrids than P99, but boxing makes high APM classes like Shaman or Bard relatively worse while low APM ones like Wizard or Mage shine. Generally speaking it makes more sense to play three moderate/low APM classes rather than two high APM ones, so most people pick either Cleric (rez) or Druid (ports/snare) as their main healer and either Enchanter (if charming, which is much easier here with a ubiquitous cleric safety blanket) or Beastlord (otherwise) for slow and mana regen. For example, BST/CLR/MAG is very strong and requires about the same number of keystrokes as a single box shaman.

    Monks here are nothing like P99 due to the powerful PoP Lull. There is simply no reason to bother trying to time FD around multiple spellcasters and use geometry to split when you can walk up and click Wake of Tranquility. The final straw for me was realizing that a Cleric could pull Ssra temple here better than a Monk. As a bonus, you have 10% less AC than a Wizard, but it's not really a huge deal because mobs riposte more here so you can't do much DPS from the front anyway. If you don't believe me, go look at the Temerity monks on allakabor: Tarkon rolled Rogue, Ryoku rolled SK, Pithy was smart enough to roll SK on AK and rerolled here, etc.
     
    Last edited: Aug 9, 2020
  26. NaanBread

    NaanBread New Member

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    Same Loraen from p99?

    I was just about to ask about mages, can their pets tank relatively well with slow here? Or with a charmed pet tanking can they DPS well enough?

    I was also just thinking about some melee or hybrid and the only worry there would be not having gate if I didn't pick druid or wizard.

    I tend to afk at the drop of a hat so maybe druid would be mandatory having ports or evac.

    I like balance so I want all the same races, my thoughts so far have been:

    Iksar shm/nec/sk or bst. (no gate for melee)
    Troll shm/sk/bst (no gate for melee)
    Human dru/enc/mag
    Halfling dru/rng/pal (no slow)

    That's a great point about APM, I haven't boxed before so maybe I'm setting my sights too high. And I probably should consider mixing up the races but I know it would annoy me having 1 toon higher level then the other.
     
  27. NaanBread

    NaanBread New Member

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    Geez I reply to one post and see that I missed 3 others, y'all are great. I've posted stuff on p99 forums before and gotten like 1 or 2 answers in a week
     
  28. Yarnee

    Yarnee People Like Me

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    its a much smaller community here, everyone knows everyone like a small town.
     
  29. Darchon

    Darchon I Feel Loved

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    Of the 4 trios listed, all would work fairly well. I think the Halfling combo would be the weakest due to lack of slow and juggling two melee classes.

    The Human combination would be strongest assuming you are charming but it would also be the least forgiving based on your playstyle (random AFKing is rough with charming reliant box crews unless a bard is involved)

    The Troll and Iksar combinations should be fairly sturdy but shaman main healer in PoP starts to show a little age, but if you are landing Turgurs on the mobs and have current heals it should be fine. They will have relatively lower DPS though.

    Minor asides, Ravenwing and Pithy were both main enchanters on AK. RW did swap to a monk for a year or two so that he could pull while raid leading. Tarkon did pretty well on AK with his Monk/Shaman 2-box. He just wanted to do a fully new set of classes here I would guess based on his Rogue/Cleric/Mage combo he rolled from the start.

    The issue with monks on this server I think is more 3-box oriented than anything else. You generally need to fill the Tank, Healer, DPS slots in a group. The monk does fine to fill the DPS slot, but their tanking isn't extremely strong even with their high avoidance and their aggro generation is not reliable like hybrids. This ends up meaning you either need to accept that you spend another slot filling a tank and your last slot with a healer. Alternatively you could skip the tank, relying on your monk to tank but in that case you will end up spending half your time trying to autoattack aggro off your slower.

    Monks/Rogues/Bards all sort of struggle with this issue of finding a space in a 3-box group. It is certainly one of the downsides of a 3-box rule. However I think any 1-box, 2-box, 3-box rule set will have winners and losers among the classes. Once you are into 4+ boxing you are able to find slots for every class in a combination more effectively since you are able to specialize more, but accepting the higher box count means less community interaction so there is a balancing act here. P99 sees a similar issue among their class distributions. The number of Druid/Shaman/Necro/Enchanters versus all other classes shows how people value the ability to do things on their own occasionally which those classes have some of the strongest solo options.
     
    Last edited: Aug 9, 2020
  30. solar

    solar Administrator Staff Member

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    The monk FD ability is useful if you're getting killed because you pulled aggro. The only time this is useful for pulling is if you've got no other choice, but a bard, cleric, enchanter is a better choice for CC, if you've got one available and the NPCs are not immune to those effects. I think you just played the wrong class if you want to do crowd control in this era. Monks did get utility abilities later in the EQ timeline though.