So I never made it to PoP, I quit after Velious, so was wondering if someone could give me a breakdown of the classes since with eqmac wiki going down there is very little info on this time period. Like, did any classes undergo big changes in gameplay or function between these times, and what classes are useful for raiding. For example, two of my favorite classes when I played EQ gameplay wise were shaman and necro, but didn't play them as my main because they weren't very useful for raids, how's it like here?
Necros are useful on raids they can play as a mana battery for clerics or are especially useful on long fights for sustained high dps. You can also save your rai after a wipe with fd and then Rez a cleric. I found on eqmac I could usually solo for better exp than I could get in groups this became even more true once in pofire with 4 toons in group out of range I think it was about 40% of an aa per kill or something silly like that I can't remember the exact number. As for shamans thy are one of my favourite classes however on alkabor there were hardly any main shamans as people mainly used them to enhance there main or box team
as far as I know OOR xp bonus wont work here like it did on AK. not sure if they plan on adding that or not...
I'd actually be really interested in hearing from the gods in that point. Does or will OOR exp work as it did on AK ?
Should roll a warrior because if the code is equivalent to peq then evasive will be extremely OP and you can single tank any mob in game with 1 cleric healing
From Velious to AK's PoP... I'll give this a shot off the top of my head: Bard - Fading memories AA gives them an FD. Makes them fantastic pullers. Spell and skill focus group songs increase DPS for raids outrageously. Beastlord - Good utility, strong pet, AA's to make them good raiders, group mana regen. Welcome in most any group. Cleric - Still the best healers. Druid - Additional heals to make them viable group healers. Lots of utility, good outdoor pullers which is helpful in POP experience zones. Group healers in raids. Enchanter - Amazing on raids where charming is possible. Utility provided. The best grouping class with charm. Can illlusion other people. Magician - No longer a mod rod summoner, COH trick pony. COH is still good, but mages do well with best ds + pets + nukes. They are in a good place. Monk - Lost a bit in their tankability from velious, but they still reach top levels of dps, and are most often the main pullers. Necromancer - Dots stack. Suddenly they are raid dps and utility. This is a great time for them. Paladin - Raid off-tanks, ridiculous group tanks, utility, rez, etc. Good group healers on POP raids. Great era for hybrid tanks. Ranger - This era is where Rangers should lose the "Ranger down!" jokes. Top of the line dps with bows and archery AA's, good outdoor pullers, track utility is gigantic in outdoor pop zones, and group ATK buffs. Rogue - Still the best melee dps. Now you can shroud of stealth and be nearly invisible everywhere. Corpse retrievers. Shadowknight - Great pullers, fantastic off-tanks, great group tanks, lifetaps in this era make them fun and fearsome. Hybrid tanks love POP. Shaman - Canni 5 is game changing. As are their top level spells. This class is simply overpowered in a group, and solid on a raid. Main shamans can be bored like enchanters on raids, but they are still needed. Warrior - The best tank just gets better in pop where high DPS mobs with less life mean warriors evasive/defensive are even better. Wizard - Where this class lacks in group sustainable dps (its better than velious, much better!), makes up for in ridiculous burst damage. When 7/10 pop fights are short bursts rather than long sustained fights, this class shines. As you can see, there are no dogs in this race. In my opinion, pop nearly achieved class balance unlike any other expansion. As we make our way to POP, you'll see where hybrids and utility classes finally catch up to the core classes. Writing this made me want to play all of these classes now.
Ransom has a fantastic breakdown. In the raid game, every class is viable and useful. In a group all classes fill in well. PoP was the pinnacle of balance among classes. It was fantastic. I look very much forward to Luclin/PoP on here.
Warning, extreme bias incoming. I'd like to add something about Planes of Power Rangers (pun intended). Not only is their archery dps awesome, but it's ranged, so they can dps on raid targets that monks/rogues cannot due to AEs. Their archery dps also generates almost NO aggro, which allows the ranger to just let loose, as opposed to a wizard who will most certainly be summoned and squished if they were to do the same. Rangers also have the highest base ATK rating of any other class (which stacks with their group attack buffs and some self only attack buffs), which not only translates to their archery abilities, but their melee as well. With the right weapons, a ranger can dish out quite a bit of damage while meleeing, all while casting two short cast formidable nukes (one cold, one fire) that can crit for 1200-1600 (with AAs). The only downside to ranger archery is the whole walling bug. However, this isn't as bad as people make it out to be. 90% of the time I can find a position to stand where I can still hit a walled mob with a bow. You just have to realize that the arrow has to reach the *center* of its hit box before hitting the wall. Usually the center of the hitbox is still exposed from some angle. Also, a raiding guild understands this issue, and will usually attempt to position the mob to allow rangers to hit it more easily (though this isn't possible with all bosses). A well geared ranger (in the PoP era at least) can also make a great off-tank while raiding. My ranger on AK would offtank trash in parts of plane of time, even. Extreme bias ended.
I played two rangers through PoP and DoN era. You might be bias, but you're also spot on about Rangers in this era. I'd say they're the most versatile DPS class. Range when they need to be range, with formidable and sometimes equal melee dps (not counting trueshot) in close encounters and walled content. I think my favorite part about Ranger in this era is innate camo + bow + spirit of eagle. It's just too fun.
This bow was a result of a GM event. We have decided that overpowering items that players can't get by normal means will never be event rewards.
Eh not really the few times he used it. After he got it we played in PoStorms for an hour or two. Even after pet breaks, Giants would still summon my enchanter who only cast a single tash/slow, or my druid who cast a single snare. He never used it on raids so I can't really speak to it in a raid situation. But groups I never saw him get summoned because of firing arrows. All bow hits were basically considered a single point of aggro on Al'Kabor.
