What to twink? Wood Elf Ranger or Dark Elf Necro

[Iksar_with_a_plan]

Looking to start a new character and deck him out with some swag. I have my eye on both these classes.



I'm really looking for the most engaging/dynamic experience. I will be looking at soloing quite a bit, but will enjoy a group from time to time (Especially at higher levels w/ ranger). Also weighing in for my decision is unique quests offered for each race/class that I will be choosing.



Heres a couple more things i'd like to note

- I've never actually played a caster before in EQ because i've always enjoyed melee combat, but it could offer a fresh experience.

- I do appreciate the "lore" of the Ranger/wood elf combo more.

- The Ranger would be equipped with fungi, Swiftblade of Zek, Haste item, The Necro, a Zlandi heart, and a CoS. (obviously not just those items, im just including the major ones)

- I'll be looking at recording my Journey and posting some edited clips of highlights and walkthroughs.. (thats where more unique quests, and engaging gameplay comes in)

- I recognize that Necro is by far a better soloer than the Ranger, and I would like to be soloing a portion of the time. How far in level can a twinked Ranger go when it comes to soloing content?

[Whirled]

You have better equipment than my Ranger. Mostly solo to 52 so far.

[Troxx]

Ranger.

Necro doesn’t need more than naked/Rags to be effective (other than maybe CoS).

[Karthil]

If you're asking about pure return on investment, then a melee will win in twinking over a caster every time. Items just won't make as big of a difference for casters as they do for melee (with a few exceptions, like velious pants for chanters and clerics).

A Zheart will make your necro more efficient, but you're going to always be limited by mana and you can't increase the amount lich does.

Your ranger on the other hand can have haste, op weapons, and fungi, all of which will make the ranger a machine from levels 1-~40, and still very strong until low 50s.

Some caster items can change the game quite a bit, but mostly it just makes them more efficient (which isn't a bad thing at all). Melee items change them game quite a bit.

[Jauna]

way more mileage out of iksar necro and i dont see a hangup about iksar necros in your post.

slap stats into stamina, get raw hp/mana gear and go balls to the wall iksar necro

[Vizax_Xaziv]

way more mileage out of iksar necro and i dont see a hangup about iksar necros in your post.

slap stats into stamina, get raw hp/mana gear and go balls to the wall iksar necro

I think I'll have to agree IF you plan on doing some "high-end" Velious Raiding. The "Soulwell Staff" from VP would be your first big-ticket item, then all the +HPRegen/+Manaregen and +HP/+Mana items you can get in Velious make Necros completely absurd lategame.

[Cen]

Wow these were my two characters on rallos zek. I swore to myself to not repeat my characters for p99
Great choices either way. Id pick the ranger since you goot the items and rangers are one of the most fun twinks if not most.

Dark elf necros are iconic, but in this min max age people poo poo them.

[bomaroast]

You have to be a healer to truly understand how crappy rangers are.

[Lune]

Swiftblade of Zek is a great weapon but it is not a good twink weapon, especially for rangers.

Dual wield doesn't get good until the 40's, in part because DW skill is low and OH never procs.

You will be much better served by running Silver Swiftblade from 1-20 and Woodsman's Staff from 25ish to 45ish.

A very-twinked ranger will actually out-solo your necro until 30ish. If you play your ranger like a warrior and don't use your spells you're gonna have a bad time and be bored and useless. Rangers are the best leveling tank for groups, one of the best pullers in outdoor zones and a great all-around asset until 50 or so when they become mediocre. They are the class I enjoy most in this game but the higher you get the more trouble you have finding groups because people want rogues instead, and most people don't realize Rangers make better group tanks than knights for the vast majority of content. It doesn't take a knight or warrior to tank a bunch of slowed sebilis mobs and rangers bring both agro management and dps, whereas a knight does almost no dps, meanwhile the cleric and shaman are sitting there at FM.

[Evia]

Ranger twinked to the teeth is a ton of fun! So I'd vote that.

[Iksar_with_a_plan]

Swiftblade of Zek is a great weapon but it is not a good twink weapon, especially for rangers.

Dual wield doesn't get good until the 40's, in part because DW skill is low and OH never procs.

You will be much better served by running Silver Swiftblade from 1-20 and Woodsman's Staff from 25ish to 45ish.

A very-twinked ranger will actually out-solo your necro until 30ish. If you play your ranger like a warrior and don't use your spells you're gonna have a bad time and be bored and useless. Rangers are the best leveling tank for groups, one of the best pullers in outdoor zones and a great all-around asset until 50 or so when they become mediocre. They are the class I enjoy most in this game but the higher you get the more trouble you have finding groups because people want rogues instead, and most people don't realize Rangers make better group tanks than knights for the vast majority of content. It doesn't take a knight or warrior to tank a bunch of slowed sebilis mobs and rangers bring both agro management and dps, whereas a knight does almost no dps, meanwhile the cleric and shaman are sitting there at FM.

Can you elaborate more on why SoZ is no good for rangers? Im actually just curious. Rangers dont get DW till 17 so i understand why swiftblade would be more advantageous till then. But from 1-10 wouldnt a lower delay weapon do more dmg till dmg cap? Also does woodsmans staff really out-do all DW combinations till dmg bonus and higher skill cap plays intoit?

Also I agree with you on rangers efficacy during tanking, and if I were to play one its certainly something I would like to do.

[Lune]

Can you elaborate more on why SoZ is no good for rangers? Im actually just curious. Rangers dont get DW till 17 so i understand why swiftblade would be more advantageous till then. But from 1-10 wouldnt a lower delay weapon do more dmg till dmg cap? Also does woodsmans staff really out-do all DW combinations till dmg bonus plays into it?

Also I agree with you on rangers efficacy during tanking, and if I were to play one its certainly something I would like to do.

You're right. Last time I made a ranger the twink weps weren't quite as good as SoZ, although silver swiftblade is still close to being under 1-10 damage cap.. I'd say 1-10 go SoZ, 10-20 Silver Swiftblade, and then Woodsman or SoZ beyond that.

Woodsman performs so well because DW performs so poorly, until higher skill levels in which you actually use your OH. Woodsman's staff parses on par with epics in the 50's from personal experience. Throw in Call of Flame between staff swings every 3rd tick and you do surprisingly good damage.

[Vizax_Xaziv]

Woodsman's on my Ranger was hitting HARD starting around level 30ish. Was really great DPS for soloing!

[Foxplay]

Ranger...

Caster classes don't benefit too much from twinking, aside from maybe shaman with a good 2hander and fungi tunic

[Taiku]

After playing necro to 59, and removing his good Stam gear to give to an alt, I can say that he does not feel any different with and without gear, magic resist is nice so you don't get rooted or blinded somehow, a little hp from velium rings let's you take another smack, other than the big items like a CoS i wouldn't spend much on a necro! You'll feel your Plat much more on anything that swings a weapon or can wear a fungi, so I vote ranger!

[Crede]

Human ranger imo

[wagorf]

if u want to feel the power of twinking, ranger

if u want to solo to 60, necro

thb, the whole purpose of twinking is to feel the advantage, and epeen stroking. necro with zheart will be eyecatching, but your leveling experience will not be as drastically better compared to lesser gears

[Swish2]

Agree with most posts here. Iksar necros in particular don't suffer if you level them naked and stay in Kunark til 60 :p

Rangers NEED gear to really enjoy the journey. Invest in a ranger if you're dropping the big plat.

[Jimjam]

DW skill is low and OH never procs.

This was an excellent post overall, but I just want to add some clarity on off hand procs; they happen at half the rate of the main hand and can happen even when duel wield fails to produce a swing with the off hand (crazy, I know).

I used silver swiftblade for most of my ranger's early life. Wurmslayer and lupine dagger for a while in the 40s, until I got Swiftwind (it's a great off hand). I also got the 50% haste click early 50s from sky. At 59 I finally got Earthcaller.

Can't twink the sky cloak afaik but epics are MQable. Earthcaller seems rarer since Verant made it 'more attainable'.

[Ivory]

Twink a woof elf ranger......BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTT TTTTTTTTT!

Make it an archer!!!

Give yourself a velium bow, haste sword, fleeting quiver...and lots of 10 slot bags filled with basic store arrows (along with a few potions of sow).

Then ....go.... and experience what it is like to be a god amongst mere mortals.

Bows bypass the low level damage cap, so 1-10 you DESTROY everything.

10-20 you can't be touched....no downtime...dealing more damage than any class can. You are a god dancing through the world with arrows flying everywhere....you may even find it a little TOO powerful....and amuse yourself by killing a sand giant or two (One of my archers I killed a sand giant at level 8 or 9).

20-30....damage slows down a little, but you are still far outperforming any other class. You have more options too, you can root rott enemies....or run them around using your damage spells to increase your DPS. You have no downtime, but the gap is closing....

35....the skydarkener. If you can get this fabled weapon, it begins to proc at level 35.....and once again you will know what it is to be a god! Quad kiting? Octo-kiting? It doesn't matter how many you grab, they will all die eventually. Again, you have no downtime, you can kill 4+ at the same time with the bows AE proc.....this will take you to 55+ (quadding otters? Sure. Quadding armors? Sure. Quadding dreadlands stuff? easy.... you aren't limited like a wizard or druid by mana, only by the number of arrows you have left....and once you get the bracer, that isn't a limit anymore either).

The life of a twink archer is power few in Norrath have experienced.....the power of archers are legendary.

[loaf]

I very much enjoyed my twink archer ranger like Ivory just mentioned above.

[Bardp1999]

Necro is the best class on P99 but do not require a ton of twinking to be effective. Even a Z Heeart and CoS are not class defining in the way a Fungi and a Haste are. HOWEVER! Getting a ton of HPs on your necro and the zheart regen is very nice and make the class play much much much smoother and its super noticable in the low levels. The only shit thing about Z Heart if you will need another melee weapon until probably around level 10 or 12 since Z Heart has no damage component. Sony really FKed over Shadow Knights by not adding damage to a Nec/SK only weapon

Rangers are garbage, Necros are kings, the choice seems pretty easy

[Lune]

Rangers are garbage, Necros are kings, the choice seems pretty easy

Necros are garbage compared to enchanters. He seems to be taking playstyle into account otherwise it'd be a choice between iksar monk #13239923, ogre shaman #403299298, and enchanter #50239092898, and rangers are typically 10x more fun to level and twink.

[Bardp1999]

Necros are garbage compared to enchanters.

Fake news

[feniin]

Now I want to Quad/Octo kite on my ranger with a Skydarkener. Thanks, Ivory.

[polishanarchy]

I'd suggest getting the fungi/haste/whatever for your ranger but grab a CoS too if you're really intent on playing a necro at some point.

[Raev]

Having played my necro to 52, I definitely feel like more HP/Mana makes a difference. Sure, you can fear kite 1-60 in rags. Maybe you can even charm solo 1-60 if you are religious about only fighting the lowest dark blues. But when you are trying to push the limits a bit, say Magi/Lord hall in Guk at L50, the extra HP/Mana/resists definitely matter. I've been spending 52 on the second floor of city of mist and even in that easy environment I find that a warbones can wreck me in only a few melee rounds.

[azeth]

Having played my necro to 52, I definitely feel like more HP/Mana makes a difference. Sure, you can fear kite 1-60 in rags. Maybe you can even charm solo 1-60 if you are religious about only fighting the lowest dark blues. But when you are trying to push the limits a bit, say Magi/Lord hall in Guk at L50, the extra HP/Mana/resists definitely matter. I've been spending 52 on the second floor of city of mist and even in that easy environment I find that a warbones can wreck me in only a few melee rounds.

yea also here to iterate that INT casters are equally benefited from twinking. At low levels stack HP and mana everywhere and you'll double your mana pool and health.

[Jimjam]

yea also here to iterate that INT casters are equally benefited from twinking. At low levels stack HP and mana everywhere and you'll double your mana pool and health.

Fair warning: this is in the firing line for nerf.

[Raev]

I'm curious what experiences people have had with ranger tanks. A full set of Golden Leaf armor (160AC) is barely ahead of the Indicolite armor (155 AC) that Warriors were wearing in classic era and compares very poorly with Myrmidon armor (250 AC) although not so badly with Blood Lord's armor (188 AC). Evidently the dragons prefer warriors! The blocking skills aren't that far behind the real tanks, but the 200 cap on raw defense is brutal and rangers are on the 4 HP/STA table so Complete Heal gets much less efficient.

I can see this working well before 50 when defense starts to lag, or with a defensively oriented class setup, say a cleric with clarity and a shaman doing nothing but slow. But in a more balanced setup, say tank + MNK/CLR/ENC, can the ranger really hold up when not every NPC is slowed?

TLDR: it feels to me that the 'best of the worst' title is between Bard and Monk, with Ranger well behind.

[maskedmelon]

I'm curious what experiences people have had with ranger tanks. A full set of Golden Leaf armor (160AC) is barely ahead of the Indicolite armor (155 AC) that Warriors were wearing in classic era and compares very poorly with Myrmidon armor (250 AC) although not so badly with Blood Lord's armor (188 AC). Evidently the dragons prefer warriors! The blocking skills aren't that far behind the real tanks, but the 200 cap on raw defense is brutal and rangers are on the 4 HP/STA table so Complete Heal gets much less efficient.

I can see this working well before 50 when defense starts to lag, or with a defensively oriented class setup, say a cleric with clarity and a shaman doing nothing but slow. But in a more balanced setup, say tank + MNK/CLR/ENC, can the ranger really hold up when not every NPC is slowed?

works fine outside velious.

[Vizax_Xaziv]

works fine outside velious.

Yea for sure. And Rangers play a relatively-critical role on the hardest raid Velious targets using their Weaponshield disc to allow for tankswaps - so they can actually be pretty fun to play on some raids!

[Jimjam]

I'm curious what experiences people have had with ranger tanks. A full set of Golden Leaf armor (160AC) is barely ahead of the Indicolite armor (155 AC) that Warriors were wearing in classic era and compares very poorly with Myrmidon armor (250 AC) although not so badly with Blood Lord's armor (188 AC). Evidently the dragons prefer warriors! The blocking skills aren't that far behind the real tanks, but the 200 cap on raw defense is brutal and rangers are on the 4 HP/STA table so Complete Heal gets much less efficient.

I can see this working well before 50 when defense starts to lag, or with a defensively oriented class setup, say a cleric with clarity and a shaman doing nothing but slow. But in a more balanced setup, say tank + MNK/CLR/ENC, can the ranger really hold up when not every NPC is slowed?

TLDR: it feels to me that the 'best of the worst' title is between Bard and Monk, with Ranger well behind.

There is so much AC gear available that any half geared melee is going to be at max mitigation against almost all XP content in the 50s. Even rangers with their terrible defence skill.

This doesn't completely disqualify Rangers from their 'bad tank' reputation; it's not actually their mitigation which causes them problems; it is their lower avoidance (due to their paltry defence skill) and their lower Max hp.

I.e a ranger isn't likely to be taking any more damage than any other melee on a per hit basis, the truth is they are just taking a larger number of hits and their low hp means each one of those hits represents a larger percentage of their health. This double drawback is what makes cheals so much more frequent compared to warriors/Knights/monks.

A ranger isn't completely adrift without a shaman; indeed they can potentially self haste and have a few sources of slow. On top of this from 55+ they get chloroplast (and skin like nature if you are rocking with a necromancer as healer) for regen.

All this said, at 60 a ranger can tank things like fungi king and Kael Arena so while they have their problems they are on the right side of adequate if no other tank is available.

[Lune]

I'm curious what experiences people have had with ranger tanks. A full set of Golden Leaf armor (160AC) is barely ahead of the Indicolite armor (155 AC) that Warriors were wearing in classic era and compares very poorly with Myrmidon armor (250 AC) although not so badly with Blood Lord's armor (188 AC). Evidently the dragons prefer warriors! The blocking skills aren't that far behind the real tanks, but the 200 cap on raw defense is brutal and rangers are on the 4 HP/STA table so Complete Heal gets much less efficient.

I can see this working well before 50 when defense starts to lag, or with a defensively oriented class setup, say a cleric with clarity and a shaman doing nothing but slow. But in a more balanced setup, say tank + MNK/CLR/ENC, can the ranger really hold up when not every NPC is slowed?

TLDR: it feels to me that the 'best of the worst' title is between Bard and Monk, with Ranger well behind.

It is rough on unslowed mobs, but going ranger + CLR/SHM/ENC vs knight + CLR/ENC/No Shaman, you're going to come out pretty close because knight dps sucks so bad.

My argument being that RNG/MNK/ROG/CLE/SHM/ENC is better than PAL or SK/MNK/ROG/CLE/SHM/ENCH in all situations except unslowable mobs.

[SewingMachine]

What would a necro twink look like ? Filling every spot.

[Jimjam]

7 bags full of bone chips?

[snyder43]

What would a necro twink look like ? Filling every spot.

Probably like this (https://wiki.project1999.com/Magelo_Blue:Necro_(Twink)).

[Mead]

7 bags full of bone chips?

+ shovel of ponz

[SewingMachine]

Probably like this (https://wiki.project1999.com/Magelo_Blue:Necro_(Twink)).

Thanks the response.

[Xaeophi]

<3 Rangers. As someone mentioned earlier. Be sure to utilize your spells. Fear/kite Rhinos,Tigresses,Tigers in OT While the fungi tunic heals you up. Work on your epic. The Main hand epic is a game changer while in the 50s - 60. Anything you wear makes you look like a boss.
Necros are fun too..... :D

[Swish2]

Probably like this (https://wiki.project1999.com/Magelo_Blue:Necro_(Twink)).

Add the Encyclopedia Necrotheurgia (https://wiki.project1999.com/Encyclopedia_Necrotheurgia) and Holgresh Elder Beads and I think that's perfect