Couple of questions from absolute newcomer to Everquest

[nyctasha]

First and foremost I'm not sure whether community is more active here or on the project subreddit, so I guess I'll just post it to both and see.

Now to introduce myself, I honestly have no idea why it took me so long to give a try to one of the old-school mmorpgs that I could never eperience during their prime-time. Like many, my mmorpg journey started with world of warcraft back before TBC. Throughout the years I kind of stuck around with various moderrn mmos, but kept missing something there that always led to me losing interest somewhat quickly. Way too little freedom, exploration, way too fast-paced and so on. I grew up on old-school rpgs like Might & Magic, especially VI and VII and love them to bits to this day and none of the mmos brought back the feeling of "wonder" I experienced there. Nowadays I'd rather play EVE for its sandboxiness and open-ended gameplay, all of which I crave for in games. But sometimes I tend to miss a roleplay and fantasy and traditional classes.

So I stumbled upon Project 1999 on reddit and after some reading and researching it hit me "this bears so much resemblance to my old M&M adventures" and so I am here and absolutely loving it so far.
Now onto my questions, I did a fair bit of research and wiki-browsing ahead, knowing Im gonna be utterly lost otherwise. Figured most of the stuff so far, but there are few issues I cant answer myself.
1. question: Chat channels
This I'm completely lost with. Which channels serve to what purpose. I think global channel is disabled on a blue server, right? So how do I talk to people, through /say or ooc? And what is the range at which people see my message, immediate vicinity or local area? Im seeing a fair amount of low level people running around Nektulos Forest, but noone talks so I just tend to /bow before everyone as a greeting which fails if person is a bit further away. It takes a moment to type down and people generally run around like headless chickens :) so sub-question is: is there any way to possibly bind emotes to keys?
2. question: is there anything like a bank/storage separate from inventory bags?
I managed to find some info about banking in Freeport, but I'm not sure if it means what it sounds like to me.
3. question, biggest one: Classes
Now this is my biggest issue. I usually go straight for healers/support hybrids. Those are my absolute favourite roles in general as I enjoy being needed and have responsibility of keeping everyone alive and it also tends to raise a difficulty, which I appreciate.
So my first thought was to roll a cleric, possibly druid or shaman. However after a lot of reading, it seems like I could have a problem playing Cleric as my soloing capabilites would seem to be limited and its been mentioned couple times he is also expensive to gear and with my zero Everquest experience Im not sure how much luck will I have with grouping up with people. Im afraid of getting stuck unable to find a group and neither do things myself at some point.
Druid from what I know would be my another immediate go-to class here, but..he is apparently fantastic for leveling and beginners, but considered useless endgame because of being hybrid and jack of all trades? That would be a shame to be near unusable later on.
Shaman seems interesting as-well, supposedly strong, but didnt find all that much useful information about him as a healer.
Another two classes that appealed to me were Necromancer and Enchanter for various reasons: pets/charm, strong ability to do what they need on their own, not completely reliant on availability of others and their supposed supportish roles.
Therefore, for now I rolled a Necro and even though Im enjoying it (seriously, can let my pet sit down or guard and he laughs maniacally when fighting? How awesome is that!), However Im still pretty much in diapers lvl-wise and considering how slow-paced EQ surely is Im very willing to reroll if someone would just push me in a right direction :) I know I will miss being party-magnet later on when I get through my newbie phase.

Any class advice gratly appreciated, also any other not so obvious begginer advice.
Id also love to find some active guild that would either consist of beginners like me, so we can explore this waste wondrous world together or just group of people that doesnt mind potentionally milion questions in the near future.

[Pyrocat]

1) No global chat channels except for guild chat, but that's only to your guild members (if you are in a guild).
Shout is for general purpose announcements, getting peoples attention, "in character" chat although not many people really RP here. Zone wide.
OOC is for everything else, camp checks (to see if a camp is taken), announcements that people didn't feel like shouting. Zone wide.
Auction is specifically for buying, selling, trading. Zone wide. Go to East Commonlands if you want to see the trade hub of the server.
Guild chat is server wide.
Group chat is zone wide.
Say is for talking to people in your near vicinity. I don't know the exact range but it's roughly the range of how far you can cast most spells.

You can make custom macros by right clicking the pre built ones (that say like AFK, GM List, .etc) in your ability window. That should open up a window with up to 5 blank lines for you to edit. You can even do custom emotes with the /em command, e.g. /em thinks it's about time to head out.

2) There is a bank in every city. The freeport bank is in the zone North Freeport. It's hard to navigate for a newbie, ask in OOC or Shout for help finding the bank, then right click a banker. Keep in mind the banks are global, so if you 'deposit' something in the freeport bank, you'll be able to withdraw it from any other bank in Norrah. However, banks are not shared between characters, so if you want to give items from one of your characters to another, you'll need the assistance of another player to trade it for you.

3) That's a hard question, and one that gets asked quite a bit by new players. I suggest checking out the other threads in this forum for advice. In general people say "pick a spellcaster for your first class" as melee classes are more heavily gear dependent, and as a newbie you won't be rich. Necromancer is a good choice for your first class, but I highly recommend you reroll Iksar. They get innate hp regen that increases as you level and it's invaluable for counteracting the hp drain on your lich line of spells, a key feature of that class.

[Pyrocat]

Check out the wiki, and specifically this article
http://wiki.project1999.com/Dumbledorf%27s_Norrath_in_a_Nutshell:_A_Beginner%2 7s_Guide

[Dabasher]

Necromancers are a great class that is very appreciated on raids at the end game, although for only one painfully monotonous reason: they can feed clerics their own mana. However, you'll struggle to get a group at every iteration of the game even though I personally think necros are great in groups. Necromancers are a very good solo class that is usually selected by players who prefer to solo.

You don't hear much about Shamans healing ability because it's pretty much third tier to clerics and druids. Someone will probably come in here and yell "TORPOR!!!1" but that's an endgame heal spell that many shamans never get. I played a shaman back in the day and I personally couldn't stand being a buff machine, which is the role that will absorb most of your time on raids and in groups. Soloing as a shaman is a lot of fun, but you mentioned a preference for grouping. Groups typically do like having shamans, but the role is replicable by other classes and they aren't necessary.

I think the best class for you, based on what you've shared with us, is a cleric. Clerics are very popular on this server, but still in demand because they are crucial for most groups. If you're ok with not being the guy who takes all the damage in the group, or the guy who delivers all the damage in the group, clerics are a great class. You will keep everyone alive and they will love you for it. You also get some good buffs without feeling like a buffbot, and some underrated nukes. Cleric nukes against the undead in particular are very efficient and powerful, and soloing against undead is a viable option.

One thing I'll add is in regard to race, or rather starting area. If you choose an erudite or human starting in Qeynos, your journey will be a bit more difficult because those areas aren't well populated. Qeynos has gotten a bit better, but race won't really matter if you end up moving your cleric to greater faydark or the commons. Those are much better starting areas because you will have plenty of group opportunities.

[utenan]

You don't hear much about Shamans healing ability because it's pretty much third tier to clerics and druids. Someone will probably come in here and yell "TORPOR!!!1" but that's an endgame heal spell that many shamans never get. I played a shaman back in the day and I personally couldn't stand being a buff machine, which is the role that will absorb most of your time on raids and in groups. Soloing as a shaman is a lot of fun, but you mentioned a preference for grouping. Groups typically do like having shamans, but the role is replicable by other classes and they aren't necessary.


I'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you on that. Shamans get regen spells earlier than druids do. They also have the best slow in the game which not only makes them very desirable, but healing against a slowed mob immediately puts you above a druid. Shamans can also regain mana a lot faster than druids because of cannibalize - meaning they can heal more. Later on you may or may not be able to get torpor which puts you above druids even more so.

If you're mainly just buffing your group then yes, you're not doing a whole lot for them ( even though regen, haste, ac, hp, and stats can be quite helpful ). Shaman are wanted in practically every situation because of slow, BUT they also get good debuffs ( mainly the malo line ), can heal second only to a cleric, and if you really just have to much mana then they can dot / dd / use your pet.

[nyctasha]

Thank you all. I didn't know it will take some time for for this thread to appear (get approved?) on the forums, so in a meantime most of these questions were answered on reddit earlier.

However the custom macros and chat tips were still very useful, Pyrocat. I saw people talking about macros, but had no idea how to do it myself.

Daba, its funny that you recommended rolling a cleric, because I myself made that decision 2 days ago. Noone actually recommended it before you, most pointed to necro and druid, for obvious reasons. But I figured out it will suit me the best, even if its the harder route and I might struggle here and there. I might be new, but I certainly am no pussy, so why not : )
So far Im happy with that decision, enjoying myself, found a nice guild. Met a good guy Sesserdrix who helped me retrieve my corpse at some point and gave me plat out of blue. I take that as a good sign I should carry on with cleric!

[DarkwingDuck]

Read this post at work, and I loved it, being a total newb in EQ is awesome :)
So welcome aboard.
Really.. The whole class things dosnt matter... In this game, play cause you like it.. It gets realllly slow. And you'll burn out.
Clerics are great, can be boring, but everyone wants you in group for heals, buffs, and the only person in game who can resurrect. And eventually for 96% returned exp.. Which in this game is worth A Lot!
Shamans are also awesome, great at healing and buffs, and have decent nukes, dots, and a pet.
Every class in game is fun... If it's your type.
Necro and ench are both really fun. I love my Mage , and my ench, not sure who I'd prefer.
Send me a private message on here, and ill roll a new char with you , or play one of my lowbies, I've been away a few weeks and could use a good grind.

Welcome to Norrath.

[Kowalski]

"There is a bank in every city." Pyrocat

FYI, there is no bank in Surefall Glade

[webrunner5]

Yeah I would change it to read Cleric, Shaman, Druid in that order best heals. I play all three and Cleric just has super, way ahead, mana efficient Healing spells that they get early on.

Shaman HAS to Canni dance because they are gimped on mana regen. But they still come out ahead doing it over a Druid.

Druid, Shaman pretty much get the same heals at the same time. But a Shaman and a Druid can both solo, but the Shaman can go Toe to Toe, where a Druid has to Charm or Quad. Whole different way. A Cleric Past 50 really can't solo at all very well.

A Druid is pretty much done as the only healer in a group around 50, 52 and even then you need C II to do it well.

But all three classes are great and needed in their own way. Cleric Complete Heal, and being able to do a 96% rez is pretty much why they are top dog as a healer. No one even in Velious will Never have more HP's than CH can do in one cast. :cool:

[Lady Julae]

A Cleric Past 50 really can't solo at all very well...

I respectfully disagree. So long as there are undead, you can solo to max level quite easily.

[Sorkail]

1. question: Chat channels
This I'm completely lost with. Which channels serve to what purpose. I think global channel is disabled on a blue server, right? So how do I talk to people, through /say or ooc? And what is the range at which people see my message, immediate vicinity or local area? Im seeing a fair amount of low level people running around Nektulos Forest, but noone talks so I just tend to /bow before everyone as a greeting which fails if person is a bit further away. It takes a moment to type down and people generally run around like headless chickens :) so sub-question is: is there any way to possibly bind emotes to keys?
[/B]


Hail people! Targeting someone and pressing the 'H' key will automatically make your character say, "Hail, [person targeted]." The text is visible up to a short distance away and is a good way to grab people's attention before typing more. Emotes might be more likely to get lost in the shuffle of lots of text, or may be viewed as a fun gesture but not as you wanting their attention.

*note: I changed the bold in the OP's question to emphasize the piece I was answering*

[Grimjaw]

instead of bowing to people you see, press the "H" key - to hail them. Much faster and gets peoples attention better.

edit: hadn't refreshed this page in a while and I see someone beat me to it ^

[Deadmantis]

My best friend played a cleric as his main from live release until sometime after Velious, and he wasn't exactly Mr. Social. He struck me as more of a solo type guy. But go figure he ended up spending 99% of his time in groups to lvl 60, mostly pick up groups. He didn't even have to look for groups, he would get tells soon as he entered a zone.

With the server population doing well I don't think you should have any problems.
I don't think the learning curve for cleric is very steep either. Just pay attention to health bars, especially on the main tank. Once you get an idea how much your heals do / how long they take to cast, you can find your comfort zone.

And if you are looking to solo when you can't find a group? make an alt that isn't gear dependent. Necro has already been recommended. :)