Thinking about joining the server, help me pick my classes

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Blackout, Aug 18, 2020.

  1. Blackout

    Blackout New Member

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    II am thinking about joining the server, trying to pick what to play. I am going to have to box, because I will have limited play time at first- from when my son goes to bed to when I go to bed, 2 or 3 times a week.

    I will eventually want to raid when play time frees up a bit, would like to main a ranger, rogue, or sk. I did not like AA’ing on live due to the time needed to find a group, so I want to have a party where I can AA efficiently.

    I was considering the following:
    Ranger, cleric, mage
    Rogue, cleric, mage
    sk, cleric, mage
    ranger, cleric, enchanter
    rogue, cleric, enchanter
    sk, cleric, enchanter.

    With the goal of AA’ing efficiently I think I will want to use the enchanter over the mage, and learn how to play the enchanter decently, and use charm effectively?

    Is a ranger or a rogue more desirable to a guild in the luclin / pop era? I enjoyed playing a ranger in classic/kunark/velious on the pop locked progression server, but ran out of play time and my internet connection started acting up (spectrum needed to run a new cable to the house, fixed now) and I gave up playing before we hit luclin. I fear the SK will be harder to maintain good dps with, and a ranger can tank well enough for exping (especially with slow) that I think the SK is out of contention for me.


    Alternatively, I have a nicely geared 60 ranger on the POP locked progression server, should I just go that route? Downside is that I can only 2 box (only one toon per computer) and wouldn’t have the enchanter. I have no idea if the community is still active on the server. I remember for the short time playing EQ Mac that you had a wonderful community.

    Thank you for your input, hopefully that wasn't too long winded :/





    My background playing- too long, don’t bother reading?:

    I played a paladin from 99 to 2004. I enjoyed the paladin (I loved to tank, and group heals were awesome), and HATED the low dps. I got elemental flagged before the guild fell apart backflagging. I was in 3 guilds, always tier 1.5 to 2 guilds. My guild skipped ST (other than a few small scale, get one or two prismatics) to try to catch up in luclin, and skipped VT and raided POP targets instead. I always questioned that decision, but trying to solo farm shards was a nightmare.

    I played a sk / shammy combo on Al’kabbor for a few months before they announced the first shutdown of the server. Made it to level 49 or 50. HK sucks once you hit 40- is it still the preferred exp spot on this server? The SK seemed to be low dps like my paladin was.

    I played a warrior on Fippy to level 50, was awesome being able to group again.

    I played the ranger to 60 on pop locked progression server, guild was all current content- we were breaking into ntov and had got aow <50% when I left. Had epic, clicky haste cloak from posky, most of my suit of skyshrine armor. I loved the ranger, I could tank effectively for groups, and loved the DPS. I feel that I excelled through classic and Kunark, but in vellious I started to lose ground dps wise vs the other rangers (went from #1 or 2 ranger to #3 dps wise). Have a 60 cleric box, was nice to be able to grab a few others and start a group rather than LFG.
     
  2. Palarran

    Palarran Well-Known Member

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    Ranger, cleric, enchanter would be my pick. Particularly while getting up to speed on charming with the enchanter, it can be helpful to have a long duration snare on your charm pet.

    I don't think classes matter much as far as getting into raiding. As far as I know, all raiding guilds here would be happy to add a skilled player regardless of classes played, and will help you out long before you have the levels to be effective in raids. (I was recruited at level 6!) People create alts to fill in any class gaps that might arise; everyone gets 80 character slots across 10 login accounts, and you can move characters at will between login accounts to be able to log in any 3 of your choosing. There are more than a few one-of-almost-every-class people here...

    My primary trio is druid/cleric/enchanter, although I found it helpful to level up a beastlord alongside them to get through the middle levels.
     
  3. Kabouter

    Kabouter Member

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    I think a ranger would be great for some extra utility (sow, snare, tracking) to complement the cleric/enchanter combo. But if you want to charm effectively with an enchanter it will require a lot of your attention so not sure if you can main your ranger then.
    Of course if you only want to do buffing/crowd control/dps with your enchanter it would be a lot easier.
    I started recently with a cleric/mage/enchanter(main), but wish I chose a druid instead of the cleric for ports/snare.
     
  4. Faults

    Faults I Feel Loved

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    Any of the last 3 would be the bread and butter for this server (some sort of tanky class be it rogue ranger or the excellent sk plus cleric/enc)
     
  5. sowislifesowislove

    sowislifesowislove People Like Me

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    I originally played ranger, clr, enc and love the trio. Tanky enough to get by and level up. Plus very fun when you get archery aa. Though limited Due to not being able to use archery against cornered raid bosses
     
  6. Kabouter

    Kabouter Member

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    91
    Just wondering for 3boxing with a melee class and no ports: doesn't this limit you a lot when dungeon crawling (getting out specifically)? Right now I just have all my characters bound in PoK and can gate each one of them out.
    I'm actually thinking of ditching my cleric for a druid just to get around even easier.
     
  7. sowislifesowislove

    sowislifesowislove People Like Me

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    naaaaahhh. Never bugged me much. Sebilis and like one other zone are the farthest runs. With POK it’s never a problem. Paci/wake corpse runs usually not a Problem. Tell you what. I’ve always been envious of pal/Druid/enc trio. Seems very strong
     
  8. Darchon

    Darchon I Feel Loved

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    As others have mentioned, the last 3 trios are the strongest of the trios you listed simply because Enchanter/Cleric is included.

    Among them, SK//Enchanter/Cleric provides the strongest trio to do difficult content. It is arguably the best trio available on this server for all around gameplay. Ranger/Enchanter/Cleric is quite good for EXP grinding, it may struggle for the hardest targets due to less tankability than the SK and it may struggle in areas where there are tough mobs to split that are immune to pacify (very few places is this present but it does exist). The Rogue/Enchanter/Cleric combo will struggle early on, rogues cannot generate aggro beyond their autoattack so you will generally have to wait a little longer to tash/slow mobs while you build autoattack aggro. But once you get into raid gear, the trio can do well.

    The other 3 trios you listed would be fine but in PoP slow becomes even more valuable in my opinion. Magicians are great but for the trios you are outlining, Enchanter is better. Even if you don't charm; slow, CC, Haste and Clarity is probably stronger than just mage DPS. Adding in charm you provide the best DPS in most EXP camps other than a raid geared wizard/rogue/ranger (in some camps).

    Guilds on this server will take basically any class. Speaking from my guild's standpoint our preference is just that you play a class you are interested in playing. Nothing is worse than investing time and gear to an applicant, who applies on a class they feel they should play but aren't extremely excited playing, who then quits after getting bored with the class. That being said *generally speaking* I think the classes people tend to lack on raids is main clerics, rogues and bards. Rogues and Bards fit oddly into trios so they tend to be rarer on this server where many people created 3-boxes to be self sufficient, and most clerics end up being alts (though many get boxed on raids). But having a 5th Paladin or SK in your roster for years will be more valuable than having a Rogue for 3 months before they quit if they're bored of stabbing things in the back over and over.
     
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  9. Walex

    Walex I Feel Loved

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    Once you get level 51, you can get an OT hammer https://www.takproject.net/allaclone/item.php?id=12863 to duel one of your casters and teleport the melee out, then the casters can gate. Until then, you can "ghetto rez" yourself out of dungeons:
    1. Kill the melee class in the dungeon. To get a 3-hour rez timer, either die to a mob (and lose xp), or duel a player and let their pet get the killshot (and don't lose xp).
    2. Once the melee respawns, go grab a copper piece from the bank and go die somewhere else (Overthere golems right by the pok book are a popular choice)
    3. Rez the melee class back to the dungeon and loot the corpse
    4. Gate the casters out and rez the corpse in Overthere
     
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  10. Kabouter

    Kabouter Member

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    Thanks for that info Walex, wasn't aware of that. For now I'll just stick with my current trio, but who knows in the future.
     
  11. Pithy

    Pithy I Feel Loved

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    OT hammers are the main way melees port out of dungeons, yeah. Alchemists can also make port potions; this one puts you close to a PoK book. There's also Leatherfoot Raider Skullcap for 'oh shit' ports, though it lands you in the ass-end of nowhere. Each cleric deity also gets its own faithstone with a hometown port clicky; high-level potters can make these.

    When I do a deep dungeon crawl, I usually bind my casters outside the dungeon (at the Seb portal in EJ, or whatever) to shorten the corpse run if I wipe. To get out of the dungeon, my SK duels my cleric and procs his OT hammer. My chanter does the same. My cleric clicks her Faithstone to port to Ak'Anon. Then I jog each toon over to the nearest PoK book, click up and re-bind in PoK. The whole process takes about five minutes. It's not as good as having a porter, but it's not too bad.
     
    Last edited: Aug 19, 2020
  12. Darchon

    Darchon I Feel Loved

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    Eventually when PoP comes, if you are a raider and you unlock Elemental Planes through raiding, The Binden Concerrentia is an option and IMO a very cool quest from PoP. The item uses a Reagent which costs 100pp to make. So it isn't something you want to use every single port but it is a good option to get back to PoK from an annoying spot.
     
  13. Linkamus

    Linkamus People Like Me

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    If you play a ranger, you can just buy or loot a Tolan's Breastplate, which clicks a self port to lesser faydark, which is extremely close to a PoK book.
     
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  14. John Stark

    John Stark People Like Me

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    I agree with Darchon that the SK/CLR/ENC combo is very strong.

    If SK isn't your bag, and you are looking for something that gives a lot of utility like the ranger, consider a Bard to add to a CLR/ENCH combo. For charming the Bard can add some breathing room for your enchanter with songs like mez or charm in case of a charm break. For times you don't want to charm, the Bard simply has a ton of things it can do that can really add to a trio for a "normal" xp or farm session when charming is not the desired play style, especially for pulling, CC, recovering from a tough fight (heal/mana songs, etc.), snare, slow, DDs and DoTs, as well as "good enough" tanking.
     
  15. rainessa

    rainessa People Like Me

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    No bard love?
     
  16. Blackout

    Blackout New Member

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    Bard sounds interesting- lack of melody and wrists that are starting to hurt from too much typing at work are downsides. The main 'issue' with me and playing a bard is I am afraid I would not master the class when I am boxing all the way to 60. If it was my only character and I could count on finding groups easily, it would be very tempting.

    If i thought groups would be easy to get all the way through I would do just a ranger / boxed cleric.

    I rolled a ranger last night, going to start cleric tonight and try to come up with an enchanter name. Thank you all for your help.

    Now how to tell the wife that I am playing again ...
     
  17. rainessa

    rainessa People Like Me

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    Get the wife to play. It could happen.
     
  18. Nakunaru

    Nakunaru People Like Me

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    Cleric, Bard, Enchanter. You are set. Not only for groups, but your own groups!
     
  19. Kabouter

    Kabouter Member

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    What is the big advantage of a bard over a ranger/sk/pal or a mage?

    Seems like a class that is very hard to play well while 3boxing and their songs don't affect pets right? I do see a big advantage on charm breaks though :D.

    Fwiw I'm in my 20's now with a cleric/mage/enchanter combo. And for now just stopped charming, the mage pet is so strong that I kill faster with the enchanter just adding utility and getting the summoned sword and shield in. But I guess the mage pet will become weaker the higher we get and the charmed pet stronger.

    Either way for charm breaks with a cleric and mage you have quite some utility as well: the earth pet will pretty much keep the non charmed pet rooted, while the cleric can stun the pet once the charm breaks while the enchanter gets things under control again.

    Ranger seems like an excellent choice, requires more effort than a mage but having snare, sow and tracking is great.
     
    Last edited: Aug 20, 2020
  20. Verdent

    Verdent People Like Me

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    Rgr clr chanter best trio I see listed in my opinion. SK cleric chanter is good as well. Personally I'd swap for pally but both are good.
     
    Last edited: Aug 20, 2020
  21. gardnerjens

    gardnerjens People Like Me

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    If you are a crazy good player, then 3 enchanters beat any combo in the game, because you can rune heal yourself and charm 3 mobs
     
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  22. prattrs

    prattrs Active Member

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    I play Mage/Cleric/Druid. I came by it organically (love the mage, clerics are necessary for raiding, and I had never played a druid).

    I think it's fine, but decidedly limited in and of itself.

    However, I say buck the trend of self-sufficient "solo trios." My favorite times in EQ are grouped. Play a class you love and want to play. Practically everyone you meet on this server, who's been around for a while, has access to all the boxes they need to put together any necessary team. At the same time, I see new players get steered towards classes that make sense on the raid scene (how about another Beastlord for PoS huh?) and then they burn out and quit.

    I myself would have certainly burnt out and quit several times, except that I love the Mage.

    For months when I joined this server, I singled boxed. It was great! I highly recommend it. I'm kinda meh about TAKP's nature as a boxing server, but the highlight is that nearly every trio will be happy to grab a fourth for the 4th man bonus. And people know that single boxers are superior to three-boxers as far as that one box is concerned (I'm sure there are exceptions, and we don't need me to identify them).

    Tovok was born Jan 1st 2015. His erstwhile trio-mates are gone and long forgotten (there was an SK in there), but I still love him to death.

    Live your EQ dream. TAKP is a great server for it.
     
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