Easiest class to level/sustain

[Deckk]

The class I want to play is warrior, and I have a level 7. He's a lot of fun but very slow. So I think that I am going to level a different class that levels faster for money/twinkage.

I'd like a class that levels fast (for EQ... Not looking for some two day level 60 jaunt, I know that won't happen).

Ultimately I'd like to have some utility just in case I wind up liking the char slightly, but that's not necessary.

I'm thinking Druid, bard, shaman... But looking for some feedback!

[Swish]

Any class you play is going to take time if you aren't getting him powerleveled. Getting anything to 60 here the legit way is going to take you months.

Druid will get you the plat you'd like for items on other characters, maybe a druid would be the way to get your warrior the items you want? If you were planning to solo with him I'd keep away from the tanky classes, maybe a monk but they're not great without a fungi.

Thankfully there's 100s of fungis and 100s of other monks that seem to make them a good choice ;)

[Deckk]

Any class you play is going to take time if you aren't getting him powerleveled. Getting anything to 60 here the legit way is going to take you months.

Druid will get you the plat you'd like for items on other characters, maybe a druid would be the way to get your warrior the items you want? If you were planning to solo with him I'd keep away from the tanky classes, maybe a monk but they're not great without a fungi.

Thankfully there's 100s of fungis and 100s of other monks that seem to make them a good choice ;)

Well aware of the time. Played from release through PoP on a wizard and still never got to 60 (I think he was 58 or 59).

I'll probably be soloing a bit on whatever character I do wind up playing.

I'm a little hesitant on what I want to do, though and here's why:

Wood Elf Druid - Good starter stats, good starting zone, many different leveling strategies, animal charm, ports... 40% xp penalty

Half Elf Bard - Can start him anywhere (either Gfay or Freeport most likely), will level pretty fast with bard kiting... 40% xp penalty (will be negated through the number of mobs I can kill quickly in next to no gear)

Iksar Shaman - Great starting area, weak now but will be awesome come Velious. Probably level a bit slower than the other two classes with the ikky xp penalty x hybrid penalty

[Troubled]

Well aware of the time. Played from release through PoP on a wizard and still never got to 60 (I think he was 58 or 59).

I'll probably be soloing a bit on whatever character I do wind up playing.

I'm a little hesitant on what I want to do, though and here's why:

Wood Elf Druid - Good starter stats, good starting zone, many different leveling strategies, animal charm, ports... 40% xp penalty

Half Elf Bard - Can start him anywhere (either Gfay or Freeport most likely), will level pretty fast with bard kiting... 40% xp penalty (will be negated through the number of mobs I can kill quickly in next to no gear)

Iksar Shaman - Great starting area, weak now but will be awesome come Velious. Probably level a bit slower than the other two classes with the ikky xp penalty x hybrid penalty

No penalty for shaman, just iksar.

[Swish]

I didn't think druids had a penalty attached, if you go halfling you'd level more quickly.

Class leveling penalties:-

SK/Paladin/Ranger/Bard = 40%
Monk = 20%
Wizard/Mage/Necro/Enchanter = 10%

Racial penalties/buffs:-

Troll/Iksar = -20%
Ogre = -15%
Barbarian = -5%

Halfling = +5%

[Deckk]

Really? Interesting. I had read that all of the hybrids had a penalty. Or I read that wrong. Well, that makes things a bit different!

[Swish]

The only crappy thing about the priest classes is waiting to level 8 to get meditate... never understood why the developers would make healers suffer, must be an old D&D thing :p

Good luck whatever you pick :)

[Deckk]

The only crappy thing about the priest classes is waiting to level 8 to get meditate... never understood why the developers would make healers suffer, must be an old D&D thing :p

Good luck whatever you pick :)

Thanks!

I was thinking monk, but to be effective I'd have to keep him pretty light which would slow things down big time.

Anyone have any thoughts on necro/chanter as far as leveling goes?

I'm so unsure of which direction I want to go.

Bard or druid sounds like the best bet, but holy cow do I get class anxiety when it comes to this stuff.

[drktmplr12]

Druid is the way to go.

they are not gear dependent. just get some hp rings or wisdom jewelry if you fancy more mana. more mana will take longer to med back so having a massive mana pool is not going to make or break xp rate, but sometimes its nice to have that one extra nuke/root/dot whatever

[drktmplr12]

Thanks!

I was thinking monk, but to be effective I'd have to keep him pretty light which would slow things down big time.

Anyone have any thoughts on necro/chanter as far as leveling goes?

I'm so unsure of which direction I want to go.

Bard or druid sounds like the best bet, but holy cow do I get class anxiety when it comes to this stuff.

monks dont really need to stay light early on. perhaps if they are tanking 30 or 40+. if you want to play a monk effectively, you need at least 2 hp rings and a decent weapon.

necros and chanters are both good choices for solo work, but unlike druids cannot make bank (early on) without poop socking rares. for the most part, any caster class is not too gear dependent. necros are a very strong solo class, but enchanters can be stronger if you know what to do. enchanters are much more desirable in groups because clarity and CC. necros bring okay damage and some limited utility (heals/cc/snare)

sadly druids are not very popular in groups, especially later on (40+), even though they can bring lots to the table (DS!!, off-heals, cc, sow, snare). Most people don't play druids like i think they should be played.

[Swish]

Druids do get a hard time, I've had some great druid healers in CoM... but I've also had druids that whine/complain/drop group if they have to keep a healing spell loaded.

Don't play a druid/shaman if you're not prepared to at least keep a bit of mana spare for patch healing.

[Deckk]

Druids do get a hard time, I've had some great druid healers in CoM... but I've also had druids that whine/complain/drop group if they have to keep a healing spell loaded.

Don't play a druid/shaman if you're not prepared to at least keep a bit of mana spare for patch healing.

I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I've always thought that when you're solo you can play however you want... But in a group situation you have to adapt to what the group needs.

If you have a cleric and another druid who likes to heal, then yeah, you may not need that healing spell loaded. If you don't have a cleric you're going to have that spell up. There's a ton of different reasons you may need certain spells and skills. You have to know each situation and adjust.

[Ravager]

Druids are great for building groups, terrible for /lfg, so if you want to level faster, you have to be proactive since all of the best exp and loot comes from exping in dungeons. Quadding is good, and will be better once Velious launches, but a well composed group is still faster and more fun.

Monks are a lot of fun, cheap to gear and can solo most of the game but are always sought out for groups. I get tells for groups all the time on my monk without ever having /lfg up or shouting in /ooc.

[Ravager]

Druids do get a hard time, I've had some great druid healers in CoM... but I've also had druids that whine/complain/drop group if they have to keep a healing spell loaded.

Don't play a druid/shaman if you're not prepared to at least keep a bit of mana spare for patch healing.

I can sympathize. There are virtually no druid twinks as everyone takes them as their first char for easy income, which means the druid in CoM is spending his plat on his twink alt that will be his main someday and not his druid. Small mana pool plus chain pulling mobs, plus everyone asking for sow and str and ds and regen and patch healing gets hard, especially when a greater heal takes a 20-25% of your mana pool and it takes two and a half minutes to med that back.

[blondeattk]

Easiest class to level

necro.

dru can solo quite well on bad gear, but they cant sustain the spell output(no mana regen). If you go afk alot then no problem. Personally i dropped my dru at 40, as it was such grind to play.

shm are very flexible solo class, but are more fun with decent gear. otherwise 40-50 will drag on.

any fool can lvl a necro, and sustain it with guard kills.

[Deckk]

Last stupid question, promise...

How about enchanter? Charm killing could be quite advantageous. Probably easier to get group xp than a druid. Will be slower than a bard.

I'm probably overthinking this whole thing, to be honest. But I want to make sure my bases are all covered.

[webrunner5]

Druids get groups until like level 53ish. Without a Enchanter in the group, or one near to get a Clarity 2, you are sort of, well you are oom all the time trying to heal above level 50 groups. :p

Then you pretty much have to be a Pity player in a group probably from the Guild, or you have to start Charm Pet soloing which they do pretty well. Quading at that high of level is VERY dangerous. :eek:

Or just become a Port Whore full time and rake in the plat or PL people. But hard to PL now with all the people playing as of late. :(

[Bboboo]

Go Druid. You can solo to 60 easily and port money is good for starting players. Also you can get 60 with close to no gear.

Enchanters can level fast but require CHA gear, luckily it's cheap. Groups come easy too.

Id take the Druid over enchanter to get you started with some plat though.

[Roguejm11]

If you are a completely new player, as in, no ability to twink the character at all, I would think a necro, shaman or druid would be the easiest to start.

I have a level 26 necro, a 34 druid and a 22 monk, each of them were easy to level up so far. I think it really depends on what you think would be more fun to play.

Never played a shaman so cannot comment on them, but from what I hear, they are amazing at soloing because of the pet and slows.

[sktank]

As mentioned: I'd go druid or necro. Druid can port for plat but Necro can solo better imo and have FD. Necro is the easiest class to level up solo with their crazy dot damage and their pet alone can solo you to lvl 7. Such good dps at low lvls u might not even want to group unless you have a solid group.

[Deckk]

Main concern with necro (and shaman [aside from barb, who is one of my least favorite races in the game) is the KOS factor...

[Monty405]

If you are not used to it (kos factor) it'll get you a few times early on but you'll adjust.

[Deckk]

Actually thinking of going necro and then when I have the money re-starting my warrior. Went ogre originally because of stats, but once I get twink money the race doesn't matter as much. I'll make that race/warrior combo "good".

[Sadre Spinegnawer]

There is nothing wrong with playing a warrior. Tanks are much needed for good balanced groups. It will take you most of the summer to get to lvl 50 is you play fairly often.

This server is not going anywhere. You could hit lvl 50 in 2017, and this place will largely be the same, except Velious will be out and good gear will be even cheaper.

[Swish]

There is nothing wrong with playing a warrior. Tanks are much needed for good balanced groups. It will take you most of the summer to get to lvl 50 is you play fairly often.

This server is not going anywhere. You could hit lvl 50 in 2017, and this place will largely be the same, except Velious will be out and good gear will be even cheaper.

I feel bad for ungeared warriors in a sea of L1 rogue epic MQ buyers who don't know what an evade macro is.

[Deckk]

No, nothing wrong with it. Just slow and group reliant. With a twinked version, I can move through the lower levels a bit easier. It's a long and tedious process to begin with. Even longer untwinked.

My ultimate plan is still a warrior. But playing another class to twink that warrior seems like a good start.

[Deckk]

I guess my other option is to re-roll my warrior in totality and play in a starting area that I like better...

I'm currently an ogre, but it's tough to find stuff to kill. I think ogre/troll start areas are the worst in game.

I'd like to play a gnome, to be honest. But their stats aren't great. Same with an iksar (ac/regen bonus, Velious they can wear good gear, but pre velious they can't do a whole lot).

[Sadre Spinegnawer]

But ogres get......

http://cdn.meme.am/instances/500x/62106570.jpg

[Caridry]

I guess my other option is to re-roll my warrior in totality and play in a starting area that I like better...

I'm currently an ogre, but it's tough to find stuff to kill. I think ogre/troll start areas are the worst in game.

I'd like to play a gnome, to be honest. But their stats aren't great. Same with an iksar (ac/regen bonus, Velious they can wear good gear, but pre velious they can't do a whole lot).

Cucumbers would like to have a word with you.

[Voland]

Really? Interesting. I had read that all of the hybrids had a penalty. Or I read that wrong. Well, that makes things a bit different!

Druid is not a hybrid... ranger is hybrid of dru/war.

[stormlord]

The only crappy thing about the priest classes is waiting to level 8 to get meditate... never understood why the developers would make healers suffer, must be an old D&D thing :p

Good luck whatever you pick :)
Well most classes don't get some of their goods until level 9 and don't really settle into it until 20+ or higher. Almost every class is a tank/melee early on, although casters get some ranged spells early on.

Keep in mind most classes won't be wearing anything more than cloth or leather until 10 or 15, at least that's the way it was when I started. I still had mostly leather when I was lvl 20, even though I could wear chain. And bronze? Yer a twink? So whether you're a warrior or a wizard, you'll probably be wearing cloth at lvl 8, negating any benefits the warrior might get.

On p1999, I did make a couple casters. A couple tanks. But the hybrids were always my favorite.

I don't know swish, it just seems if you want to complain about this then you shouldn't be playing p1999 because it's full of stuff like this. The whole game is like this. So I mean if you want to pick on something, find a genuine challenge.

[stormlord]

But ogres get......

http://cdn.meme.am/instances/500x/62106570.jpg
Halfling warriors get hide/sneak and +5% exp gain. Faster and hide is useful when going afk.

That stun immunity only matters in some raids I imagine, but isn't a show stopper.

And halfling warriors are sexy by popular vote. Woman love em.

EDIT: Don't shrug off the +5%. I did some calculations on this a while back. It's substantial because some races have a penalty. 1.05 / .85 = 23% faster, for example, assuming one is +5% and the other is -15%.

And I'd recommend the OP to try a necromancer. Ya you have to learn to juggle all the spells. Ya it can be hard at first to manage all that. Ya it's an evil class and not very appealing like a druid or monk. You're going to sometimes be mauled to death by crowds of guards screaming "You stole my cookies, prepare to die!" BUT necro's have huge potential and are friendly to afking via feign death. Once you know where to go, leveling them is very fast. And assuming the group experience system on red isn't ported to blue, their solo experience is really good and you don't NEED groups.

[stormlord]

Oh how much time is spent getting a group and littering the underside of things on your desk with snot balls. Necro's don't need them. Necro's will make the backside and undersides of things clean again. You will not remember /lfg.

Only downside, as I said, is their evil lore and faction problems and the large amount of spells and tactics you must learn. There're places in the game where levelling them is very easy while other places are not.

It's a class that takes time but has the greatest potential, if you're friendly to their solo-nature.

If you like groups, I'd suggest a monk. Maybe not the fastest, but much endurance. What goes unstated is what classes are best at MAX level. At max level, it's typically in this order: enchanter, cleric, monk, rogue, warrior, wizard. But moreso, monks have good armor class with cheap armor or even no armor. You can kill good even without weapons. They have feign death if you want afk. They can do a little bit of tanking/dps/pulling. Experience rate is good. Good lore. Great grouper.

Minus the Necro and Monk, I'd recommend hte Magician, even though their endurance is questionable. The reason is they're comfortable to level. Players like em because they can sit lazily and order their pet to kill. They can even do good in groups. Their pet and their dps spells are good. Unlike the Necro, they're not swamped in spells/abilities and don't rely on dots. The caveat is they don't group well in every situation, given any melee will gain aggroes from the pet, thus requiring heals.

These're the least popular and the hardest to find:
Paladin
Shadowknight
Bard
Ranger

Avoid them unless you have a primal urge like myself. In that case, nobody needs to tell you. You won't ask. I played the ranger before there were forums, or before I was ever aware forums for EQ existed. This was long ago, in March 1999.

You might refer to the class popularity chart and the post I made about it here (circa 2011-12):
http://www.project1999.com/forums/showpost.php?p=768007&postcount=48

[Swish]

I don't know swish, it just seems if you want to complain about this then you shouldn't be playing p1999 because it's full of stuff like this. The whole game is like this. So I mean if you want to pick on something, find a genuine challenge.

I'm leveling a SK in the 50s... that's enough for me!

I remember my poor cleric sat at the undead spawns near EC at level 5-7 crying into his spell book wishing things would go quicker. Sorry if that sounds like a complaint, it isn't really... getting the skill at 8 makes things seem so much better ;)

[Clark]

Sham / Ench / Necro / Magician / Druid

[Deckk]

Went necro. Seems like a lot more fun. Nice guy named Brophy gave me a few plat to buy my first spells. Level 3 DE Necro named Kreetin!

[Daena]

Went necro. Seems like a lot more fun. Nice guy named Brophy gave me a few plat to buy my first spells. Level 3 DE Necro named Kreetin!

Reroll as an iksar and you won't regret it, not only they get regen but also best starting zones in whole game. Unless you have some real reason to play a DE.

Just kill crap in Field of Bone till level 12, then head to Kurn's tower and solo all the skeletons there for huge exp bonus this zone has, plus hoard a ton of bone chips. If you never attack or harm any burynai mob in FoB or Kurn's (very important!) ** you can stay there till level 24 easily! Kurn's has probably the biggest +xp bonus (ZEM) too, I think only Crushbone has it higher.



**The reason for this is that you begin as dubious to burynai, but ONE kill makes them all KoS to you. This way if you don't ever touch them you can hunt higher level skeletons in lower levels of Kurn's tower unmolested (and enjoy mighty XP bonus there), as they will simply ignore you. You must be careful however as helping someone fighting them even with heal or accidentally hitting them with AE spell will make you kos. There's no way to repair their faction either.

[Deckk]

Reroll as an iksar and you won't regret it, not only they get regen but also best starting zones in whole game. Unless you have some real reason to play a DE.

Just kill crap in Field of Bone till level 12, then head to Kurn's tower and solo all the skeletons there for huge exp bonus this zone has, plus hoard a ton of bone chips. If you never attack or harm any burynai mob in FoB or Kurn's (very important!) ** you can stay there till level 24 easily! Kurn's has probably the biggest +xp bonus (ZEM) too, I think only Crushbone has it higher.



**The reason for this is that you begin as dubious to burynai, but ONE kill makes them all KoS to you. This way if you don't ever touch them you can hunt higher level skeletons in lower levels of Kurn's tower unmolested (and enjoy mighty XP bonus there), as they will simply ignore you. You must be careful however as helping someone fighting them even with heal or accidentally hitting them with AE spell will make you kos. There's no way to repair their faction either.

Funny you mention this. I'm not planning on re-rolling the necro, but I DO plan on making my warrior (which is a class I REALLY enjoy, but I know I need at least a bit of twinkage to make viable solo) an iksar. So this is still very appreciated advice.

[Trelaboon]

Shaman was my first real character on this server back when it first opened and honestly I thought the grind to 34 was pretty brutal. For some reason, even with Canni and Regen I solo'd not much better than a Druid. I remember my root not lasting long enough, my DoTs being sort of weak and it just overall taking a while.

Back then, the server was empty so groups were hard to come by and I was forced to solo, plus there was absolutely no twink gear at all, I remember wearing banded well into my 40's so this isn't entirely accurate these days; just a thought.

[Clark]

The only crappy thing about the priest classes is waiting to level 8 to get meditate... never understood why the developers would make healers suffer, must be an old D&D thing :p

Good luck whatever you pick :)