Any room for warriors these days?

[Dunes]

Hey guys,

I played a Warrior and MT'ed for several guilds in the very early days of EQ (October 99 through late Kunark/early Velious). Aggro had always been an issue for Warriors, but I refused to go SK even back then. So my question is this:
When my copy of EQ Titanium lands on my doorstep tomorrow, and I get back into EQ again for the first time in 8+ years, is there room for an ogre warrior? Will I be able to find groups? Are warriors passed over for SK's in everything short of full raids? Im fine with being group dependent as long as I hook up with a core group of evening players.

Just need an honest answer because Im in this for the long haul.

Looking forward to joing P99, and thanks in advance for responses and for the folks who work so hard to make this Project happen.

[Lanvaren]

Warriors have their uses, but are in pretty low demand, generally.

They make the best tanks once developed... but developing proves a problem here, as there are a few aggro bugs. (mainly with other classes)

If you do warrior, do it right - OGRE ALL THE WAAAY~!!!!

[Vigilance]

I would say yes you will get groups, because tanks seem to be the hardest class to find, though I see more and more twinked Shadowknight Troll tanks every day. I doubt most of these will last though since they have to deal with a massive xp penalty.

[Dunes]

Thats great - gives me some glimmer of hope that if I stick to my guns Ill find a way to make it. The only other characters that I played extensively were an Erudite Wizzy and a Dwarf Paladin. I enjoyed both of them alot, but my Ogre was a blast.

Thanks again, and maybe Ill bump into some of you this weekend.

[Bubbles]

Just remember that you won't be able to guise and will have to rely on shammies or shrink potions if you go large race. Not the end of the world, of course, just something to keep in mind. :)

[Dunes]

Haha ugh... thats right, no cobalt bracer to fall back on :eek:

As long as I can find a group of players that are on from about 6 or 6:30 CST to 10:00 pm or so, Ill be good to go.

Thanks for the advice

[Troy]

By all recent accounts during the raiding rules flame sessions, you will not be MT'ing or even seeing at all any raid content whatsoever if you cannot play 24/7. That may or may not change in Kunark, but I wouldn't get my hopes up. Other than that you will be able to get groups on your way up to 50 without too many issues.

[thxer]

Everybody loves Ogre Wars, a good war kicks ass but you may want to start out as something else since they're so gear dependent. My friend went mage so he could level quickly and farm plat, which he dumped all into a war which kicks so much ass now.

[jeffd]

a paladin or sk is going to outperform a warrior in an exp group, but a warrior cannot be beat when it comes to raid tanking. same as always.

[Tronjer]

Just need an honest answer because Im in this for the long haul.


A sincere answer?

Well, playing a warrior here for a month now I can tell you, it's a mixed blessing. The severe lack of tanks makes it easy to find groups, but once level 20+, you will inevitable run into twinked melees, giving you a hard stand to perform your role. To paraphrase it, if you don't get hooked up with toys by a friend, expect a tough and sometimes frustrating experience, in contradiction to early EQ, where most people were on a comparable gear level.

Anyway, if you don't mind swallowing dust, here are some hints to start with:

- as soon as possible, and before death penalty strikes in, get a bind Neriak and run over naked to SolB. Camping zone for some hours and nicely asking in /ooc will reward you with a rotting Painbringer. It procs at level 0 and hence is the best aggro tool you can obtain at this time.

- play around EC, as there are always people to buff newbies and sometimes even provide some unsalable equip. Just be nice and don't beg.

- replace banded/crafted armor as soon as possible with crafted one. Blue armor pieces won't give you necessarily advantages over i.e. an adamantite band, but other players rather acknowledge you as a tank.

- build your own groups, preferably with casters. It's easier to hold aggro over a necro/wizard/mage, than over twinked melees with haste items and high end weapons.

- if you forgot about zones and spawns due to long absence from EQ, make a toon at EZ server, where people can achieve level 50 within a few hours, and use him for exploring.

[Serrack]

I too have been struggling with leveling a warrior. Foolishly it was the first toon I created on this server, and like mentioned above I've started leveling a mage instead to farm for gear.

Realistically I'm never going to have the time commitment to MT for a raiding guild, which means if I want to play a tank for exp groups I should probably just suck it up and make a SK or Paladin. A paladin would be easier, due to the gear i've already got.. do they compare to SK for generating hate? I've been watching SK's tank for my groups and I'm amazed how well they keep aggro. Can pallies do the same?


Apologies up front for somewhat of a hijack, but this is related.

[mgellan]

I shelved my 20 tank for some time and played a pally, but with the group xp penalties it's getting hard to get into groups, so the approach I took was roll a caster that can farm gear and fund equipping the tank properly with crafted and proccing weps. Currently getting close to relaunching the tank now so we'll see if he gets groupage. I suspect less frequented zones would be easier to get groups since they're probably caster heavy...

But if a 20 tank is being equipped by a 12 enchanter is that a twink? :)

Regards,
Mg

[Messianic]

I shelved my 20 tank for some time and played a pally, but with the group xp penalties it's getting hard to get into groups, so the approach I took was roll a caster that can farm gear and fund equipping the tank properly with crafted and proccing weps. Currently getting close to relaunching the tank now so we'll see if he gets groupage. I suspect less frequented zones would be easier to get groups since they're probably caster heavy...

But if a 20 tank is being equipped by a 12 enchanter is that a twink? :)

Regards,
Mg

Sadly, casters (particularly pet classes) have far more farming power than melee classes :P More capital investment (spells cost mucho $), but once you got your spells, you wreck face.

[Dunes]

Let me start off by saying thank you guys for the honest answers and suggestions (/nod Tronjer).

Your right, Im getting back in a little late to hop right into a warrior. In fact, the more I think about it, I actually used my mid 40's wizard to gear up my warrior the first time around as well. Unfortunately, I had A LOT more time back then, too :(

Serrack, no sweat on hijack - it is right in line with the thread and something that I was thinking as well (debating on reviving my dorf pally versus ogre warrior).

[Overcast]

I myself have been torn between a Warrior and a SK. I played a Pally in classic - hard-damn-core with no freakin' gear.. Didn't have bronze at all until maybe level 21 back then. So .. no pally. But - they are a great class, don't get me wrong.

Still - the warrior is kind of my preference, but I have a feeling when Kunark rolls out every other mage/necro/druid on the server will be twinking out Melee. I opted to go with SK, as I want to duo a bit with my wife's character - and since she's playing a Bard, this gives me something of a 'heal' while the fight commences.

Of course - in a group with a Bard/SK - who will be willing to group up with that XP penalty? lol - we rolled a combo in which - we wouldn't care. If I was just playing without anyone to solidly duo with... hmm, I might well go warrior. Heck with twinking, bring on that hardcore game play :)

But - for me - that gets me 'personally' involved with the character I'm playing. Then you feel like you have 'been in the trenches' with that character and associate with him. Plus, you might end up with experiences, friends and such - that perhaps you wouldn't have solo-farming gear for a tank twink.

That to me - is why I want to just roll with one character as a main. It's the experience of it + building up friends and such as I go.

I'd have zero issues grouping with a warrior and as a SK, I'd have zero issues assisting the warrior being the MT. The reason I'm playing SK - mostly is because... well... I've already played a Warrior to 80 on Combine - or whatever the max level was when I left. But i'll tell you this much - I did move gear to a DE Warrior for a bit (same stuff my SK has) and the difference in Mitigation was quite notable, with just a bronze BP, ringmail legs, and some leather - he was just rolling right over the newb area.

[Tseng]

Playing my SK, I've never had someone say, "sorry, we aren't gonna take you in our group, even though we need a tank, because of the xp penalty." I have, however, had people add me to their friends and ask me to tank whenever I log on.

[Dantes]

From my perspective, up through level 25 I really haven't had trouble finding groups. People do send me tells and ask me to come join groups. However, I can't really speak for ungeared warriors because I've got nearly a full set of crafted and 2 obsidian shards. But the cool thing is I'm not an alt. People here on P99 are generous. I've had help from friends and strangers alike. Half my gear came from help, the other from busting my ass through tedious guard camping. So there's hope for somebody who plays a warrior was a main character, you don't have to play 12 hours a day and start a caster main to fund your warrior alt.

When it all comes down to it - if you are in it for the long haul, from what I remember we will be in demand when Kunark comes out. My only regret is that I was thinking about playing an SK just for something new, since I played a Warrior to 55 on live.

Tseng - same thing here. I've never had anyone in my group refuse to take on a Paly, SK, or Ranger because of a hybrid exp penalty. Nobody even mentions it.

[VincentVolaju]

Another thing that no one seemed to mention was that it seems like a whole lot of people are twinking melee now, especially warriors. There is about 3-4x the amount of warriors on line between 1-40 now, then there is for SKs and Pallys combined. Seems like now a Pally is the second least played Class, next to Ranger. Last night when I did /who all SK, War, Pally, there was 6 SK, 2 Pally, 23 warriors (had to do /who all war 10-30, then 31-40 cause list was too long).

So if your playing an untwinked Warrior, compared to the dozens of other people who are playing fully decked out Warriors, well... =(

[Dunes]

Vincent,

Thats great information and and gives us a feel for the dynamics. P99 actually makes a pretty good case study for the way EQ trends, but in "fast forward" (because so many of us have played in the past, and have experience with newer MMO's).

Im thinking I may revive my old Pally first and focus on light heals, lull pulls, and roots/stuns for threat. Plus there is some really cool pally-only gear out there for those who /pray for it enough :D

Knowing that EQ Titanium is sitting on my doorstep at home has apparently frozen the flow of time, as I think it has been 12:17 for atleast 2 hours. Ready for this day to be over ;)