Current player counts by class: some actual data

[Chinetter]

On the Green server, I collected the number of players online by class, sorting them by low levels (1-19), mid levels (20-39), and high levels (40-50). From within the game I ran the following commands for each class:

/who all <classname> count 1 19
/who all <classname> count 20 39
/who all <classname> count 40 50

"/who all count" captures all characters that are in-game including those who have the anon flag on.

There are 14 classes so each run of this process was 42 commands. I did this 7 times across four days (March 18-21), all during prime playing hours when the server population is highest.

Here are the results. For each class the numbers shown here are the average number of players online at that time, plus (in parens) the standard deviation of the 7 counts collected.

DRU 1-19: 44.3 (5.3)
DRU 20-39: 56.6 (8.2)
DRU 40-50: 57.4 (7.8)

ENC 1-19: 39.0 (3.9)
ENC 20-39: 31.6 (2.8)
ENC 40-50: 46.4 (7.5)

NEC 1-19: 29.9 (5.9)
NEC 20-39: 35.7 (4.3)
NEC 40-50: 26.4 (7.0)

CLR 1-19: 30.9 (7.0)
CLR 20-39: 25.3 (5.9)
CLR 40-50: 34.3 (6.9)

SHM 1-19: 28.4 (2.5)
SHM 20-39: 31.1 (5.4)
SHM 40-50: 30.7 (8.4)

MAG 1-19: 25.9 (2.0)
MAG 20-39: 23.7 (3.6)
MAG 40-50: 28.4 (2.4)

BRD 1-19: 30.0 (8.2)
BRD 20 39: 17.6 (3.2)
BRD 40-50: 13.3 (1.5)

WAR 1-19: 24.3 (2.3)
WAR 20-39: 13.7 (3.0)
WAR 40-50: 12.1 (3.1)

MNK 1-19: 16.6 (4.0)
MNK 20-29: 16.4 (2.1)
MNK 40-50: 15.7 (4.3)

WIZ 1-19: 15.1 (3.4)
WIZ 20-39: 14.1 (1.3)
WIZ 40-50: 11.1 (2.9)

PAL 1-19: 18.7 (3.8)
PAL 20-39: 10.1 (4.1)
PAL 40-50: 9.7 (3.5)

SK 1-19: 16.1 (1.9)
SK 20-39: 12.7 (1.5)
SK 40-50: 11.9 (5.3)

ROG 1-19: 15.9 (2.5)
ROG 20-39: 13.1 (2.8)
ROG 40-50: 13.0 (4.7)

RNG 1-19: 12.3 (2.4)
RNG 20-39: 11.0 (2.9)
RNG 40-50: 8.0 (2.2)


The different populations I found in-game among the classes were striking. None of the 7 samples found fewer than 130 druids nor fewer than 106 enchanters, whereas the _highest_ number of rangers I found in-game was 40. At about 9 PM US central time March 20th the Green server had 66 druids level 40 or higher in the game but only 39 paladins of all levels and only 27 rangers of all levels. At about 3 pm US central time March 21st there were 177 druids and 123 enchanters and 103 necromancers in the game, totaling just under 40% of all players in the game at that time; at that same time there only 31 rangers, 34 rogues, and 40 shadowknights.

[damus1]

melees suck until kunark. I'm not the slightest bit surprised except with the fact so many people somehow find druid enjoyable

[ewjax]

Excellent data thanks for gathering this!

[magnetaress]

Neato

[pizzasuit]

It would be interesting to space the data out over a full week to compare weekend and week class populations. Any stat nerds want to start compiling data? :cool:

[Chinetter]

melees suck until kunark.

What about Kunark brings melees up relative to casters?

[Wrekt]

Way too many hybrids and not enough rogues.

[Zeboim]

What about Kunark brings melees up relative to casters?

Gear. Classic's itemization sucks enormous donkey balls. Melee gain far more from weapons than casters (Especially Rogues, and *especially* with the Rogue Epic).

[Bigsham]

suprising numbers

[kaev]

suprising numbers

lol, the only thing surprising to me is that the chanters+druids+necros don't outnumber all the rest combined by at least 50%. Fewer furry necks in the population than I expected.

[Chinetter]

Some of the comments to this seem to be focused just on the higher-level chars so I thought I'd take a look just at that distribution.

One thing I notice is that the proportion of 40+ characters online in the Green server increased a bit during the four days last week that I was taking the samples. I sampled twice Wed evening, twice Thu evening, once Fri evening, and twice on Sat afternoon and evening. The total number of players in-game increased sharply over those samples, from 866 and 865 on Wed evening to 1,113 on Sat evening. (*)

I assume that's normal, more people play P99 on weekends. However the percentage of those live who were playing a 40+ toon also increased a bit: from around 30% in midweek to 35% on Sat evening. That may be a small pandemic-lockdown effect: players being online more and leveling their toons up.

Looking across the 7 samples just at 40+ characters, here are the percentages of those that belonged to each class:

DRU 18%
ENC 15%
CLR 11%
SHM 10%
MAG 9%
NEC 8%
MNK 5%
SK 4%
BRD 4%
WAR 4%
ROG 4%
PAL 3%
WIZ 3%
RNG 3%






(*) The server populations listed on server-list screen do not equate to players actually in-game, those totals include players who are at the character-select screen. I found a fairly consistent difference of around 10 to 12 percent e.g., if the Green server was listed with a population of 1,200 that turned out to mean around 1,060 players actually in the game.

[damus1]

also doesn't account for anon/roleplay, which alot of farmers often are. its safe to assume the % of solo classes is even higher than your figures

[Danth]

also doesn't account for anon/roleplay, which alot of farmers often are. its safe to assume the % of solo classes is even higher than your figures

The "/who all count" command returns anon/roleplay players. Hence it gives an accurate value.

In general the numbers follow traditional trends for this game and era. Druids are virtually always the most popular class in this game, through any server or game era. I can't remember a time on "Blue" during the past decade when it wasn't most popular. Keep in mind however that most of those Druids are regarded as alts--only a minority of Druid players pick the class and play it as a main character.

Danth

[NPC]

What about Kunark brings melees up relative to casters?

So there are many things-
New gear, so all the old elite gear becomes much cheaper an easier to buy an to acquire because all the camping azzhats will move to kunark, many players will finally have a chance to camp for those higher level items themselves, or finally buy that 2H mith that was 20k an now its 100pp, lol.

New gear that's on par with or better than planar gear that can be bought, most planar gear is no drop. So it's now slowly making elite classic sellable gear obsolete and those planar equip toons are depressing the market now trying to desperately get rid of it before kunark when its worthless, when kunark hits the bottom will drop out. This is why 2H Miths went from 20k to 5k now. Buying high level Kunark gear and twinking a new level 1 melee is like a rite of passage. If you haven't done it before, you're in for a treat.

The biggest change though are the melee disciplines, all melee, even hybrids get disciplines that are basically like free spells with short and or long cool downs at 51st to 60th level. This is what makes most melee outclass most of the casters very significantly, if used with the proper gear of course.

[Swish]

Rogues at 4% makes me so sad, give one a try

[radbeard]

Rogues at 4% makes me so sad, give one a try

aren't rogues actually the most boring class to play in the whole game?

[Zeboim]

Rogues are the most vibing class to play in a group. Ymmv.

Rogues are a lot of fun in that they can sneak almost anywhere, however.

[larper99]

Rogues are the most vibing class to play in a group. Ymmv.

Rogues are a lot of fun in that they can sneak almost anywhere, however.

Best group I have been in on Green, bar none, had a KILLER rogue (mid 30s). I think the group was:

Ench, Sham, Rog, Bard(me), Dru, ?? (can't remember the last player). The Rogue was BSing for up to 170. We weren't even breaking a sweat.

I've been thinking about starting a Dwarf Rogue, and that experience only made it more appealing.

[Zal22]

aren't rogues actually the most boring class to play in the whole game?

Shut up! You might summon Cecily!

[kaev]

Shut up! You might summon Cecily!

If I quote you you'll have posted that name twice to this thread and it won't be my fault at all, nope.

[FatooMoon]

Does the pool of "players" include the 'fake' toons mostly sitting around at zone entrances/exits that are utilized by whoever has admin. privleges and is harassing players by training hostile mobs to them, sabotoging their input/output (mouse and keyboard entry) in the form of DoS, DDoS or similar attacks? It's not just happening to me. I see it happening to other low-level players and I don't think they are aware. There is at least one individual using various characters strategically placed around the world's zones - some of which are naked with garbage/b.s. names while others are geared and relatively high level - to stalk at least me and one other player that I know of. There's definitely something weird going on and it definitely violates the rules based on what the rules state, unless of course it's one more entities with administrative priveleges or that run the server.

[Evia]

Rogues at 4% makes me so sad, give one a try

[Cecily]

Shut up! You might summon Cecily!

Soeakmon she who unravels all threads?

[Cecily]

*Ahem* sorry stroked out there. Hi guys. What's going on in this thread?

[Albanwr]

Rogues at 4% makes me so sad, give one a try

Mine is 36, and groups are few and far between because people think you suck as a group member. Compared to most others.

I have a lot of fun on mine and will continue to level it.

My cleric is 50 so im done with it for now.

[Zeboim]

Mine is 36, and groups are few and far between because people think you suck as a group member. Compared to most others.

I have a lot of fun on mine and will continue to level it.

My cleric is 50 so im done with it for now.

My experience is opposite now that my Rogue is in the 40s.

People like having Rogues around, and the damage is still pretty good. This is because all the Necros and Mages are soloing anyways. It's hard to get a group later on as a rogue, however, because there are very few places to group and Rogues can't solo at all, so while there aren't many rogues you still end up with 3 or 4 of them trying to get into a group (I would say half of my Sol A gnome groups had 3 rogues in them).

[radbeard]

*Ahem* sorry stroked out there. Hi guys. What's going on in this thread?

rogue is the most boring class to play in the game. Agreed?

[Cecily]

Rogues are mana-free walking DoTs, yes. This game isn't fun. It's a communal gambling addiction simulator. An AoL chat room with goblin killing features, until you run out of goblins, and then you have to join a virtual labor organization to kill "dragons."

[Veleria]

The reason I don't play green is I like hybrids and I don't want 3 years for XP penalties and still be worse than other classes just because I like a playstyle. Classic had some major flaws.No wonder rangers are nearly extinct.

[DisbeAsos]

I can promise you Wiz numbers are skewed a little by /anon more than other classes, other than maybe Dru, Ench and Clr. Wiz at 40+ usually stay anon so we don't get port tells all the time.

[Picked]

What about Kunark brings melees up relative to casters?

Mostly epics I would assume. Casters wield their epics but they do not contribute to DPS nearly as much as melee who actually swing theirs.

[Picked]

aren't rogues actually the most boring class to play in the whole game?

It's basically button mashing, but that can be said for every class for the most part. About the only non boring class in that sense would be a CC class. Otherwise Cleric mashes heal button, rogue mashes backstab button, wizard mashes nuke button, mage mashes pet attack and nuke, tanks mash taunt, some taunt/stun/darkness depending on tank. The game is rather simple in terms of doing your job.

Pullers have a little bit more going on, but they don't like it. Never met someone pulling for a group that didn't take someone up on the offer to let them pull for awhile.

Raiding is different of course. I enjoyed my Rogue on Blue. He was twinked pretty hard though. I imagine it's frustrating starting out as a rogue and not having good weapons.

[TheRusty]

melees suck until kunark. I'm not the slightest bit surprised except with the fact so many people somehow find druid enjoyable

No one enjoys druids. They're just easier to level than wizards in order to get the same plat from ports.

[Christina.]

Casters wield their epics but they do not contribute to DPS nearly as much as melee who actually swing theirs.

*Clears throat really loud*

:D mine does

[Picked]

*Clears throat really loud*

:D mine does

Yeah I forget about mage pet lol He is beastly. Wish Wizards epic had something that useful

[Izmael]

Not sure how many MAIN rogues there are on P99. I suspect, not too many.

I mained rogue on live and can confirm it's a very straightforward class to play. The only real moments you may actually have decisions to make are during CRs in Hate or something like that. Rest of the time, it's pretty much /assist the tank and press backstab every few seconds.

HOWEVER - due to this precise nature of the class, it's a great class to main if you're an active officer, raid leader or guild leader and/or spend a lot of time in tells and generally dealing with stuff other than killing mobs.

[Swish]

Not sure how many MAIN rogues there are on P99. I suspect, not too many.

I mained rogue on live and can confirm it's a very straightforward class to play. The only real moments you may actually have decisions to make are during CRs in Hate or something like that. Rest of the time, it's pretty much /assist the tank and press backstab every few seconds.

HOWEVER - due to this precise nature of the class, it's a great class to main if you're an active officer, raid leader or guild leader and/or spend a lot of time in tells and generally dealing with stuff other than killing mobs.

My first 60 and the most enjoyable character to raid with. A good team of rogues who have a kill participation of 90%+ can speed a raid up significantly.

wtb avatar eventually :D

[bluntfang]

Does the pool of "players" include the 'fake' toons mostly sitting around at zone entrances/exits that are utilized by whoever has admin. privleges and is harassing players by training hostile mobs to them, sabotoging their input/output (mouse and keyboard entry) in the form of DoS, DDoS or similar attacks? It's not just happening to me. I see it happening to other low-level players and I don't think they are aware. There is at least one individual using various characters strategically placed around the world's zones - some of which are naked with garbage/b.s. names while others are geared and relatively high level - to stalk at least me and one other player that I know of. There's definitely something weird going on and it definitely violates the rules based on what the rules state, unless of course it's one more entities with administrative priveleges or that run the server.

https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/030/710/dd0.jpg

[Vizax_Xaziv]

Mine is 36, and groups are few and far between because people think you suck as a group member. Compared to most others.

I have a lot of fun on mine and will continue to level it.

My cleric is 50 so im done with it for now.

Seriously? I just hit 34 on my Shaman and always look for a Rogue to fill out the final DPS spot in my groups. Mid-30s Rogues BSing in 150 dmg range bufffed out by a Shammny is great IMO

Also duoed with a Rogue last night. Shammy tanking with Slow was pretty efficient!

[oldmanwithers]

Couple a questions, since I'm new to p1999. Back during the original release thru Velious I played a wizard, and back then I didn't have much issues finding a group. Has that now changed, just due to the in depth micro-analyzing of damage, stats, etc? I left the game (back then), and came back during PoP days and played a rogue...which did have issues finding groups; which kinda seems the same now based on this thread.

Right now I'm rolling a warrior because I was playing with a friend, but he seems to have kinda trailed off. I may re-roll into either a wizard or rogue, but now curious if it'll just "ruin" my gaming experience if i'll be an outcast so-to-say.

And not sure how much it matters, but my play time isn't vast due to real world obligations. So hoping when I do pop in, i won't be sitting around LFG for a terribly long time. Opinions/suggestions welcome.

[Enshadowed]

Wizards have a bad reputation in groups. Particularly on Blue, because of the ease of access to so many high end items for melee, the dps of a wizard absolutely pales in comparison to virtually everyone else. Unless you have a few specific items, mainly a nuke clicky via robe, there just isn't much you can do about this.

Green is a different story, with some of your utility spells playing a much bigger role in vanilla, especially since itemization for melees kind of sucks in this era. However, a lot of players still carry the mentality of Blue with them into Green, and will pass on a wizard for virtually anybody else. Until you make some friends, or have proved you're not a "Netflix and Nuke" type Wizard, you're going to spend a great deal of time in the game by yourself.

Rogues, on the other hand, don't have much trouble finding groups at all. You don't carry the hybrid penalty with you that most other melee suffer from, which is a major plus. The problem really lies in when you can't find a group, since your options are pretty limited on things you can kill by yourself.

[oldmanwithers]

Wizards have a bad reputation in groups. Particularly on Blue, because of the ease of access to so many high end items for melee, the dps of a wizard absolutely pales in comparison to virtually everyone else. Unless you have a few specific items, mainly a nuke clicky via robe, there just isn't much you can do about this.

Green is a different story, with some of your utility spells playing a much bigger role in vanilla, especially since itemization for melees kind of sucks in this era. However, a lot of players still carry the mentality of Blue with them into Green, and will pass on a wizard for virtually anybody else. Until you make some friends, or have proved you're not a "Netflix and Nuke" type Wizard, you're going to spend a great deal of time in the game by yourself.

Rogues, on the other hand, don't have much trouble finding groups at all. You don't carry the hybrid penalty with you that most other melee suffer from, which is a major plus. The problem really lies in when you can't find a group, since your options are pretty limited on things you can kill by yourself.

Holy geez, ok... It felt so much different to me way back in the day, when I played my wizard. I mean, back then I did pay attention to my class and would argue that I'm still not a "Netflix and Nuke" style player either. Yet if the bad reputation, and mediocre damage still looms in the air...well, that's just a big bummer to me.

Regardless, I probably will still take up the challenge and see how it goes. I appreciate your input, thank you.

[magnetaress]

*half elf warrioress of Beautoxxulous (1)

[Vizax_Xaziv]

Not sure how many MAIN rogues there are on P99. I suspect, not too many.

I mained rogue on live and can confirm it's a very straightforward class to play. The only real moments you may actually have decisions to make are during CRs in Hate or something like that. Rest of the time, it's pretty much /assist the tank and press backstab every few seconds.

HOWEVER - due to this precise nature of the class, it's a great class to main if you're an active officer, raid leader or guild leader and/or spend a lot of time in tells and generally dealing with stuff other than killing mobs.

Lots of ppl will switch to Rogue mains when Kunark opens for sure.

Warriors as well (and of course there will be a FLOOD of Iksar Monks)

[magnetaress]

It's a lot easier to farm tradeskill and 1-35's quest items or drops on a rogue then a war imo aswell... much more afk friendly. But I guess a lot of turn their rogue into an alt and leave them camped out at a loot spot.

[Lendari]

I'm not the slightest bit surprised except with the fact so many people somehow find druid enjoyable

Druid was always considered to be OP in classic. It's not until tanks start to get really large health pools that Druids mana pool can't keep up. This happens with Kunark/Velious level gear. That said they will always be played for ports and because quad kiting is fun and viable way to achieve max level.

[slowpoke68]

Wow Chinetter, great work. I'm not actively playing now but look at the forums once in awhile. Logged in just to give you kudos on putting those stats together.

[Chinetter]

Thanks.

I may re-do it this weekend because I'm curious how much/little the COVID-19 sheltering has shifted the in-game class population.

[Cobham]

Thanks.

I may re-do it this weekend because I'm curious how much/little the COVID-19 sheltering has shifted the in-game class population.

Was gonna say, I'm a returning player from... a decade? ago, been reading the forums for some time and decided upon a Pally. Gfay and Crushbone is flooded with Pallys. Was shocked as your data is so recent lol! Would be interested to see some updated data. Good job though, very helpful and interesting.

[Lunababy]

melees suck until kunark. I'm not the slightest bit surprised except with the fact so many people somehow find druid enjoyable

it can solo, group, powerlevel, and make lots of money through ports which requires no camping or farming dedication in any interval

[jtaddei]

I'm late to the thread but I just wanted to jump in that i've started tracking this data myself. Do you think this is something folks would be interested in seeing tracked over a longer period of time as a web app?

So far i've just been doing it for a few days for myself to graph out (and coding due to boredom in the evening and wanting to sharpen my programming skills) so I can decide how I want to come back to play on p99.

Attached some screenshots of what i've thrown together over the last few evenings.

(the data is real stuff I pulled from "/ who all class level level count" queries

[Chinetter]

Oh yea that's good stuff, I'm sure folks would be very interested.
Looks like you're collecting richer data than I did.

[treefiddey]

Hi all,

I also decided to keep track of this data. I used Chinetter's breakdown.
Here's a google sheet with the results from this morning. I'm keeping the vertical axis from 0 - 60, so people can have a quick comparison between the level ranges.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PfYxXUaLl_Mlp8qnswitcbL2VAu25rpbW44cXombACs/edit#gid=0

Class 1 - 19 20 - 39 40 - 50
DRU 36 53 59
ENC 36 26 45
NEC 26 35 52
CLR 27 27 26
SHM 30 25 35
MAG 30 29 27
BRD 33 13 15
WAR 27 14 18
MNK 18 20 17
WIZ 14 23 18
PAL 13 7 10
SK 11 10 16
ROG 19 15 13
RNG 12 5 9

I'll keep adding new sets as separate sheets, with the same format. Once I have a few samples, I'll think about how to display the trends.

[radbeard]

more wizards than I would have expected

[Cen]

I can't wait to see the monk count on kunark day 1.

I think I may start collecting some monk items though soon :D

[ldgo86]

I can't wait to see the monk count on kunark day 1.

I think I may start collecting some monk items though soon :D

There’s going to be so many Monks and Necros in FoB. I’ll be rushing there on my Druid to buff them all :D

[Tnair]

I am *not* looking forward to the queue of twinked min-maxer rogues showing up to compete with my for my rogue main's epic upon Kunark's release

[Velerin]

Think people forget how late into kunark epics come out.

[treefiddey]

Green Class Distribution Update - Saturday Night - 4/25/2020
https://i.imgur.com/WhrL2zl.png

[Cen]

I always wanted an epic weapon. On Blue, I played a Bard and Wizard. Two unobtainable epics.

This time at least I have a chance?

[treefiddey]

I always wanted an epic weapon. On Blue, I played a Bard and Wizard. Two unobtainable epics.

This time at least I have a chance?

My main was a wizard and I was a very bad player (took a lot of risks, died a lot, didn't grind when I should have). I got my epic in the luclin era.

It's all about how much time you got and how many friends you have. I think this is still true on p99. Less to do with how many other players of your class there are.

[Cobham]

Green Class Distribution Update - Saturday Night - 4/25/2020
https://i.imgur.com/WhrL2zl.png

Thank you for this. Would love to see this progress over the coming weeks/months as the COVID19 lockdown changes.

[Tywulf]

I am *not* looking forward to the queue of twinked min-maxer rogues showing up to compete with my for my rogue main's epic upon Kunark's release

I actually had that same thought. Played Rogue main on live from release till OoW but have only managed a run up to lvl 5 on P99... have actually been trying out classes I never played Live to see where my head is in 2020 vs back in '99 lol

First love is always the sneaky one though, and after seeing the numbers I may just go back to what I know and love for good.

[boukk]

Think people forget how late into kunark epics come out.

Good thing pally epic starts with ro release :D

[Evia]

I actually had that same thought. Played Rogue main on live from release till OoW but have only managed a run up to lvl 5 on P99... have actually been trying out classes I never played Live to see where my head is in 2020 vs back in '99 lol

First love is always the sneaky one though, and after seeing the numbers I may just go back to what I know and love for good.



Good choice. Rogue is most fun class on eq imho.

[oldmanwithers]

Hi all,

I also decided to keep track of this data. I used Chinetter's breakdown.
Here's a google sheet with the results from this morning. I'm keeping the vertical axis from 0 - 60, so people can have a quick comparison between the level ranges.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PfYxXUaLl_Mlp8qnswitcbL2VAu25rpbW44cXombACs/edit#gid=0

I'll keep adding new sets as separate sheets, with the same format. Once I have a few samples, I'll think about how to display the trends.

Really wanted to thank you for these spreadsheets, and data. I love looking, and following class trends when I'm playing select games. But I'm definitely too lazy to put it together myself... So again, thank you!

[kaev]

melees suck until kunark../.

and minmaxers suck for all time

[treefiddey]

Really wanted to thank you for these spreadsheets, and data. I love looking, and following class trends when I'm playing select games. But I'm definitely too lazy to put it together myself... So again, thank you!

I'm glad someone finds it useful/interesting!

[treefiddey]

Hi all,

In addition to occasional snapshot updates, I started keeping track of the weekly averages of the class distributions, in the level 20 - 39 bin.

I think this is a good place to track how the overall class distribution evolves, because it shows which classes people are actively leveling. The low levels are unreliable because people make alts and quit, and the top end is weird because it can only increase.

I normalize the class counts by the total population in that level bin. This is to attempt and account for the fact that during different times in the day, the populations vary.

I'm sure the data has a lot of scatter, but I don't show it because the plot is busy already. Weeks start on Monday. Most weeks have at least 2 measurements, averaged. Hopefully it gets the point across. I think it will be more interesting when we get a few more weeks in.

All data can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PfYxXUaLl_Mlp8qnswitcbL2VAu25rpbW44cXombACs/edit?usp=sharing

https://i.imgur.com/OxV9Izk.png