Out of curiosity, what do the big melee classes feel like at endgame?

[Cen]

Because I only recently have had any melee characters, I wonder if the big melee characters actually feel powerful at 60. For example does a warrior feel like a badass at 60 in terms of damage and tanking or do only casters ever feel like they can handle really tough stuff?

I always thought melee classes couldn't handle barely a low blue at 60 and essentially rely on a caster to help them kill anything..

Basically, Warriors, Rangers, Monks, Rogues, Pally, SK.. How high a typical mob can you kill at maximum gear?

[bigjeff100]

As a very casual- Budget 58 Troll Warrior that will never have no drop agro weapons and Thurg gear at best.. I'd say I really don't feel very powerful :(

[Israel Adesanya]

Low starting intelligence. Any more questions?

[zodium]

if you can get a lifetap scimitar from VP it's okay i guess

[Siege]

Classic is caster heaven. I haven't played EverQuest beyond Velious, but the most powerful classes through Velious are casters. No melee class can solo the things that geared Shamans, Enchanters, Necros, and Mages can. And that's not even taking into consideration the kiting capabilities of Bards, Druids, and Wizards. I'm just talking about the ability to stand in one spot and solo a named or a camp. The only melee class that can somewhat compete with the casters is SK, but that's only because they can avoid taking damage by fear kiting.

[Baler]

Melee is far more gear dependent to get that big Epeen

[Vizax_Xaziv]

if you can get a lifetap scimitar from VP it's okay i guess

In order to EFFICIENTLY solo Seafuries, my 60 Warrior required:

Willsapper (to slow them)
Fungi
Scimitar of Lifestealing (VP)
Full SS + Kael Armor
Various NTOV-ratio weapons for DPS

With this setup he can effectively solo Seafuries with zero downtime. This is something a NAKED level 50 Mage can do in his sleep.

[Baler]

Just dual wield Blood Point . tada solo warrior. heh,. uhh

[Nisrak]

I had a warrior with full Plane of Time gear on live that felt super badass. I would solo seb a lot just to feel powerful. In classic, though, warriors are a grouping class. Other melee classes are bit less extreme, but still casters are at another level in terms of soloing.

[Wenai]

On Blue my monk twink felt super powerful. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it a lot. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) twinking a Melee character is not as effective in classic. You really need like kunark/velious era gear to start feeling powerful.

ALTHOUGH. I feel like a Paladin with Ghoulbane in LGuk May feel pretty sweet. (I have never done it myself)

[Tecmos Deception]

Pure melee feel awesome for like 12 seconds per half hour.

Actually really, duelist still disappointed me like 3/4 of the times I used it. But occasionally I'd get a good one where I would hit with most of my auto attacks and get 2 double backstabs that didn't involve minimum damage hits. Then I felt pretty badass for those 12 seconds.


I suppose main tanks feel awesome when they're the sole focus of a giant dragon's or god's, plus a dozen healer's, attention, and everyone else is just scuttling around glad they aren't getting meleed.

[Lordess]

I’d say most people play tanks because they like the special attention they get during raids, but even then only a handful of top tanks will ever get to be MT consistently on raids. Otherwise I don’t think melee ever feel truly powerful until they get AAs, which is never going to be possible on these servers sadly.

[Man0warr]

Monks at endgame (especially if you pull) feel pretty powerful and useful in groups and raids. If you want to be DPS-only you may as well be a Rogue.

Overall, Monk is probably the most busted class in a Velious locked timeline.

[Raclen]

I don't know about feeling personally powerful but any well rounded group should have a tank and will feel more powerful if they have one. Certain melee are great at pulling, splitting camps, sustained dps. They are the best at certain things so they are needed in a lot of situations. The weaker the content, the more unnecessary melee is.

The classes that feel powerful solo aren't really needed as much in end game or big group content. You will only need minimal necros, enchanters and shamans but you want a lot of clerics and rogues. DPS warriors and monks are also never bad to have more of but a lot of the powerful solo classes results in dead weight on a raid.

[Lordess]

The classes that feel powerful solo aren't really needed as much in end game or big group content. You will only need minimal necros, enchanters and shamans but you want a lot of clerics and rogues. DPS warriors and monks are also never bad to have more of but a lot of the powerful solo classes results in dead weight on a raid.

This has always been what I liked about the way classes are balanced in EQ. With the exception of maybe mages, all the other good solo classes aren’t needed as much in raids. End game content is always the great equalizer, so when making a character I always ask myself, do I want an easy early game and a boring end game, or vice versa. Usually I decide on the latter, which is why I tend to go cleric a lot.

[Ligma]

By the end of velious melee are very powerful simply because they aren't even really melee at that point. There's a rediculous amount of clickies that shift the classes.

Thott's summary of it from ages ago

http://www.afterlifeguild.org/Thott/utilityitems.php

And monks are just so OP with the gear they get + their tank ability until its nerfed at the end of luclin

[Raclen]

This has always been what I liked about the way classes are balanced in EQ. With the exception of maybe mages, all the other good solo classes aren’t needed as much in raids. End game content is always the great equalizer, so when making a character I always ask myself, do I want an easy early game and a boring end game, or vice versa. Usually I decide on the latter, which is why I tend to go cleric a lot.

Clerics are actually one of the better well rounded classes for being useful in all aspects of the game. Obvious for raid and group but can also solo pretty well. If you stick to undead they can solo as well as a wizard that isn't quad kiting. A cleric can do unrest and lguk with lull, DD as efficient as wiz nukes, buffs, heals and some melee potential.

[Baler]

SK end game is underrated imho
especially in velious when their bag of tricks comes into full flesh via raiding