Green Class Distribution

[treefiddey]

Hi all,

I've been keeping track (loosely) of the class distribution on Green. The data is kinda noisy, but I now have a few weeks worth of measurements.

The latest count and trends can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PfYxXUaLl_Mlp8qnswitcbL2VAu25rpbW44cXombACs/edit?usp=sharing
EDIT: I don't have data for May Week 4, so I just copied Wk 3 data to maintain continuity.

Today near noon MST the count was:

Class 1-19 20-39 40-50
DRU 26 41 46
ENC 33 36 27
NEC 27 22 33
CLR 19 14 22
SHM 19 27 28
MAG 18 20 32
BRD 24 14 13
WAR 26 10 15
MNK 11 12 11
WIZ 10 11 22
PAL 10 10 3
SK 16 7 4
ROG 13 9 5
RNG 17 10 10

[Oddbaal]

Saw a guy offering to power level and equip barbarian rogues. Makes sense now

[cd288]

The casters and Druids have begun to twink their warriors. Look at that skyrocketing 1-19 number

[Exard3k]

didn't expect SK to be so low. Even more paladins around.

[Tethler]

I'm a little surprised to see rogue numbers so low. Leveling one is a great investment for kunark/velious.

[Uuruk]

Do people seriously enjoy killing raid content with 200 people???

[sedrie.bellamie]

Do people seriously enjoy killing raid content with 200 people???

this guy is right, Riot ruined blue

[DMN]

Do people seriously enjoy killing raid content with 200 people???

Take it to rats and lames.

[Tethler]

this guy is right, Riot ruined blue

You appear to be lost, friend. This isn't at all about blue server. The beta server forum can be found here (https://www.project1999.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=17).

Have a great day!

[Chinetter]

So there are about as many druids as MNK+PAL+SK+ROG combined...that kind of fits my (distant, hazy) memory of live back in the day.

[Grimstrike]

Druids are easymode and surely they will level up and farm to gear out some melee alts to then dominate as Kunark rolls around.

[fastboy21]

So there are about as many druids as MNK+PAL+SK+ROG combined...that kind of fits my (distant, hazy) memory of live back in the day.

lots of druids and non /anon or /role for to explicitly make port money...I wouldn't take these numbers to mean that folks are actively playing them in raid guilds in same disproportion.

[Baler]

Green needs more CLERIC & ROGUE,

These two classes are in demand entirely through the P99 timeline.

[Drannorius]

I have been tracking totals, not broken down by levels, for about a month now and was going to be compiling the data and summarizing it. I have taken the counts at various times of the day and night as I am medding or in a static spawn time situation or sitting in the EC tunnel. It shows that there are some definite favorites and some that no one seems to play that much (Paladins, Rangers, Togues) for some reason. I assume the 40% penalty plays some factor.

[DMN]

So there are about as many druids as MNK+PAL+SK+ROG combined...that kind of fits my (distant, hazy) memory of live back in the day.

The "pure" hybrids sk/ranger/pal were all actually quite popular for the first year or so. Monks weren't very common until kunark, and rogues were fairly rare.

[BlackBellamy]

The "pure" hybrids sk/ranger/pal were all actually quite popular for the first year or so. Monks weren't very common until kunark, and rogues were fairly rare.

I'm laughing. Yeah I remember all those people who rolled hybrids based on the written class description and then just kept powering through disappointment after disappointment until everyone learned what was really going on.

[Grimstrike]

I'm laughing. Yeah I remember all those people who rolled hybrids based on the written class description and then just kept powering through disappointment after disappointment until everyone learned what was really going on.

"A holy warrior or a dark warrior that heals or steals life? Sign me up!" -bunch of noobs back in 1999. The flaming sword was a nice touch and had that big d energy back in the day as you strut around in your heavy plate armor.

I was a dwarf paladin back in the dial-up days, it was brutal.

[Keebz]

I'm laughing. Yeah I remember all those people who rolled hybrids based on the written class description and then just kept powering through disappointment after disappointment until everyone learned what was really going on.

I mean they did get good eventually... There were a bunch of improvements in Velious and even more in Luclin and beyond. Live didn't stop.

[Zuranthium]

In my experience, class distribution for the majority of 1999 was approximately:

01. Warrior (nearly every race has access to the class, and testosterone-driven dummies naturally like to be whatever looks physically the strongest, so inherently it was everywhere)
02. Ranger (the "cool kid" class, tons of people wanted to roleplay as one because of fantasy novels they read, and the class was actually considered very strong for awhile because of having the same equipment as Warriors and spells on top of it)
03. Cleric (people liked being supreme healers)
04. Wizard (they were touted as the "best damage caster", causing many people picked the class early on)
05. Druid (plenty of nature lovers, very well rounded skillset)
06. Paladin (seemed rather popular early on to me, both because of roleplay and because hybrids seemed to be good)
07. Necromancer (a lot of people were scared of being an "evil" character, but the power level of the class was apparent)
08. Shaman (looked weirder than Cleric/Druid, so the least played healer, but still it's still a healer with SoW)
09. Magician (not as many people understood the power level of pets)
10. Bard (more niche, but I saw a decent amount of them)
11. Rogue (a solid amount of people were into the class concept, but the actual gameplay could be disappointing; even needing to wait until Level 10 to get Backstab made quite a few players give up on it at a low level)
12. Enchanter (basically nobody understood the full power of the class, even utilizing Mesmerize properly was something a lot of groups didn't understand until the later part of 1999. It just seemed like the least sexy caster to most people when the game was new, especially at lower levels, although Whirl Till You Hurl being OP was an early notch in their belt, and Enchanters gradually continued to get more popular)
13. Monk (the weight limit thing was a turn-off, lack of racial selection, FD pulling wasn't well understood, and their combat ability at low/mid levels wasn't special enough to make them attractive over other options)
14. Shadowknight (I remember it being very niche, many people were scared of being evil, and the class lacked a clear identity, so a lot of people already choosing an evil race probably just picked Warrior as more understandable melee character. There was actually a "difficulty level" message in the game when making a character and I think Shadowknight was always listed as "high difficulty")

[kaev]

Green needs more CLERIC & ROGUE,

These two classes are in demand entirely through the P99 timeline.

what? Clerics are dime-a-dozen on green

[Baler]

what? Clerics are dime-a-dozen on green

I'm saving this for when you wipe at a raid because you don't have enough clerics.

Clerics & Rogues, ALWAYS in demand.

[gherron]

In my experience, class distribution for the majority of 1999 was approximately:

14. Shadowknight (I remember it being very niche, many people were scared of being evil, and the class lacked a clear identity, so a lot of people already choosing an evil race probably just picked Warrior as more understandable melee character. There was actually a "difficulty level" message in the game when making a character and I think Shadowknight was always listed as "high difficulty")

I vaguely remember this but I thought this came out around velious/luclin?

[kaev]

I'm saving this for when you wipe at a raid because you don't have enough clerics.

Clerics & Rogues, ALWAYS in demand.

lol won't be me. I'd have to raid to have that happen, got my fill of p99 raiding on blue and in no rush to do it on green. Also, I (mostly) quit playing my green cleric because they're dime-a-dozen, much too annoying to find groups (raid guilds may want more healbots, but xp groups have their pick of a glut of clerics) and I am not even slightly interested in soloing a cleric.

[Jimjam]

I vaguely remember this but I thought this came out around velious/luclin?

Luclin, or preluclin, sounds right. The boundary for the Luclin era is pretty liquid.

At the time I was a massive newb, and didn't really understand how the 'difficulty' was determined. Was it a random out of touch dev's opinion, based on data or what?

[Zuranthium]

Nah, I am very sure the "difficulty rating" on character creation screen for your chosen Race/Class/Deity combination was there in 1999. I remember my Barbarian Shaman being listed as "medium" difficulty, and I remember making a Necromancer in 2000 and laughing at how it was listed as a "high" difficulty character. I found a thread here on the forum talking about it - https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=125236&highlight=creation (someone has a link that shows all the character creation prompts and, yep, Barbarian Shaman is listed as medium difficulty, Shadowknight is always given a high difficulty rating, and Warriors who pick an evil race get a medium difficulty rating)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5exD3WThbg -- Video of classic character creation (look how cool it is, giving you a whole RPG intro page that describes the Race/Class combo you picked)

https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/not-quite-what-i-remembered.251082/
I remember buying that cardboard box for EverQuest: The Ruins of Kunark....I probably should have paid notice to the warning of high difficulty for the Iksar, I just liked lizards.

[cd288]

In my experience, class distribution for the majority of 1999 was approximately:

01. Warrior (nearly every race has access to the class, and testosterone-driven dummies naturally like to be whatever looks physically the strongest, so inherently it was everywhere)
02. Ranger (the "cool kid" class, tons of people wanted to roleplay as one because of fantasy novels they read, and the class was actually considered very strong for awhile because of having the same equipment as Warriors and spells on top of it)
03. Cleric (people liked being supreme healers)
04. Wizard (they were touted as the "best damage caster", causing many people picked the class early on)
05. Druid (plenty of nature lovers, very well rounded skillset)
06. Paladin (seemed rather popular early on to me, both because of roleplay and because hybrids seemed to be good)
07. Necromancer (a lot of people were scared of being an "evil" character, but the power level of the class was apparent)
08. Shaman (looked weirder than Cleric/Druid, so the least played healer, but still it's still a healer with SoW)
09. Magician (not as many people understood the power level of pets)
10. Bard (more niche, but I saw a decent amount of them)
11. Rogue (a solid amount of people were into the class concept, but the actual gameplay could be disappointing; even needing to wait until Level 10 to get Backstab made quite a few players give up on it at a low level)
12. Enchanter (basically nobody understood the full power of the class, even utilizing Mesmerize properly was something a lot of groups didn't understand until the later part of 1999. It just seemed like the least sexy caster to most people when the game was new, especially at lower levels, although Whirl Till You Hurl being OP was an early notch in their belt, and Enchanters gradually continued to get more popular)
13. Monk (the weight limit thing was a turn-off, lack of racial selection, FD pulling wasn't well understood, and their combat ability at low/mid levels wasn't special enough to make them attractive over other options)
14. Shadowknight (I remember it being very niche, many people were scared of being evil, and the class lacked a clear identity, so a lot of people already choosing an evil race probably just picked Warrior as more understandable melee character. There was actually a "difficulty level" message in the game when making a character and I think Shadowknight was always listed as "high difficulty")

Yeah I would say this meets with part of what my experience was like, although I would switch SK and Bard and maybe move Necro a bit lower. For awhile in 1999 I almost never saw anyone play a Bard because people didn't think they sounded exciting and didn't realize all of the benefits and powers of the class.

[Zuranthium]

Hmm, I remember people liking Bards plenty? They got movement speed, group healing, and corpse locating all at low level, and attack speed boost at fairly low level, all things that were greatly appreciated.

Although to be fair about Shadowknights, they were pretty much all concentrated in East Antonica, so people who started the game in that area probably saw more of them than I did (I played Barbarian Shaman and Gnome Magician). Even at higher levels though, I truly remember them being the least played class. I have hardly any memorable experiences of grouping with or playing against a Shadowknight back then. They were just there, the small amount of times I encountered them.

[Cen]

I'm saving this for when you wipe at a raid because you don't have enough clerics.

Clerics & Rogues, ALWAYS in demand.

Its popular to say that in all iterations and servers especially by people who would never play a cleric because they want to make sure they can always get one at any moments notice for a rez etc..

but there's a fuckton of Clerics on green. The saturation is absolutely insanity. The amount of 4-5 cleric groups ive been in is quite large. Though mostly in the undead areas.

[Graahle]

Accepting power leveling and pixel packages to swap from my Aradune Rogue to Green Rogue.

[Rafiell]

I don't understand how im one of the very few SKs on the server, there seems to be lots of us in my guild...although I haven't been on much the last few months

[Tywulf]

Accepting power leveling and pixel packages to swap from my Aradune Rogue to Green Rogue.



^^^

[Loadsamoney]

Need more Paladins.

[cd288]

I don't understand how im one of the very few SKs on the server, there seems to be lots of us in my guild...although I haven't been on much the last few months

Your 40% (or if you’re a Troll or Ogre 60+%) exp penalty probably has something to do with it

[Loadsamoney]

Your 40% (or if you’re a Troll or Ogre 60+%) exp penalty probably has something to do with it

People still haven't adopted the whole "play what you want to play, not just what is statistically the best."

[DMN]

In my experience, class distribution for the majority of 1999 was approximately:

01. Warrior (nearly every race has access to the class, and testosterone-driven dummies naturally like to be whatever looks physically the strongest, so inherently it was everywhere)
02. Ranger (the "cool kid" class, tons of people wanted to roleplay as one because of fantasy novels they read, and the class was actually considered very strong for awhile because of having the same equipment as Warriors and spells on top of it)
03. Cleric (people liked being supreme healers)
04. Wizard (they were touted as the "best damage caster", causing many people picked the class early on)
05. Druid (plenty of nature lovers, very well rounded skillset)
06. Paladin (seemed rather popular early on to me, both because of roleplay and because hybrids seemed to be good)
07. Necromancer (a lot of people were scared of being an "evil" character, but the power level of the class was apparent)
08. Shaman (looked weirder than Cleric/Druid, so the least played healer, but still it's still a healer with SoW)
09. Magician (not as many people understood the power level of pets)
10. Bard (more niche, but I saw a decent amount of them)
11. Rogue (a solid amount of people were into the class concept, but the actual gameplay could be disappointing; even needing to wait until Level 10 to get Backstab made quite a few players give up on it at a low level)
12. Enchanter (basically nobody understood the full power of the class, even utilizing Mesmerize properly was something a lot of groups didn't understand until the later part of 1999. It just seemed like the least sexy caster to most people when the game was new, especially at lower levels, although Whirl Till You Hurl being OP was an early notch in their belt, and Enchanters gradually continued to get more popular)
13. Monk (the weight limit thing was a turn-off, lack of racial selection, FD pulling wasn't well understood, and their combat ability at low/mid levels wasn't special enough to make them attractive over other options)
14. Shadowknight (I remember it being very niche, many people were scared of being evil, and the class lacked a clear identity, so a lot of people already choosing an evil race probably just picked Warrior as more understandable melee character. There was actually a "difficulty level" message in the game when making a character and I think Shadowknight was always listed as "high difficulty")


For the first year it Was more like:

High pop classes: druid, necro
Decent pop classes: warrior, cleric, SK, paladin, ranger. wizard, mage
Low pop classes rogue, shaman, monk
It's a unicorn! pop classes: bard, enchanter

By the end of kunark:

High pop classes: druid, necro
Decent pop classes: warrior, cleric, ranger, monk, shaman, rogue, bard
Low pop classes : SK, paladin, enchanter, wizard, mage
It's a unicorn! pop classes: NA

[cd288]

People still haven't adopted the whole "play what you want to play, not just what is statistically the best."

I mean I’m not obsessed with min/maxing my exp but I also do like to get SOME progress out of my very limited play time lol

[Zuranthium]

For the first year it Was more like:

High pop classes: druid, necro
Decent pop classes: warrior, cleric, SK, paladin, ranger. wizard, mage
Low pop classes rogue, shaman, monk
It's a unicorn! pop classes: bard, enchanter

By the end of kunark:

High pop classes: druid, necro
Decent pop classes: warrior, cleric, ranger, monk, shaman, rogue, bard
Low pop classes : SK, paladin, enchanter, wizard, mage
It's a unicorn! pop classes: NA

Necro was never one of the top population classes in my experience. It should have been in 1999, if everyone understood how OP it was (and if so many people weren't scared of "being evil"), but that wasn't the case. Perhaps on the high-end levels during 1999 there might a high amount of Necros (but not at the end of Kunark...), because of how much easier the class was able to level, but if you look at other levels I don't think they were so widespread.

Enchanter as a low population class by the end of Kunark isn't accurate to me. The term "holy trinity" (referring to having a Warrior, Enchanter, and Cleric in your party) was coined during Kunark. Enchanters were getting more popular by the month in 2000, people were understanding the power of their buffs and crowd control. Clarity was literally called "crack".

I also find it strange you say Bard grew in popularity a lot between 1999 and the end of Kunark. I feel like they got less popular during that period, partially because more people were learning about their exp penalty, and partially because other classes (especially Enchanter) were getting more popular. I would say Bard got a bit more popular again during Velious, because more people were learning to mass AOE kite, but they were always one of the lower population classes.

[DMN]

Necro was never one of the top population classes in my experience. It should have been in 1999, if everyone understood how OP it was (and if so many people weren't scared of "being evil"), but that wasn't the case. Perhaps on the high-end levels during 1999 there might a high amount of Necros (but not at the end of Kunark...), because of how much easier the class was able to level, but if you look at other levels I don't think they were so widespread.


A lot of wizards quit and moved over to mage/necro, and quite a few mages and, heck, even some degree a few disillusioned druids also moved to necros over the first year. Necros probably weren't at the top the first couple months but would rapidly start to climb up in population. it was a simple case of "if you can't beat em, join em."



Enchanter as a low population class by the end of Kunark isn't accurate to me. The term "holy trinity" (referring to having a Warrior, Enchanter, and Cleric in your party) was coined during Kunark. Enchanters were getting more popular by the month in 2000, people were understanding the power of their buffs and crowd control. Clarity was literally called "crack".

Enchanters were getting more powerful and people were wanting them in groups more often, indeed, but almost exclusively for CC and buffs. Most of the people who would want to play this type of passive character would have already rolled up a priest class or a bard. And generally people tend to like to play something a bit different on their "main alt". So they will roll up rogues, monks, warriors, etc, not an enchanter. In EQ the holy trinity for a group might have been a tank/enc/cleric, for raiding it was warrior/rogue/cleric. And by a year in a lot of people started to focus a lot on the hopes/intention of raiding. Since that was about all you had to do once you had maxed level and got some good gear.


I also find it strange you say Bard grew in popularity a lot between 1999 and the end of Kunark. I feel like they got less popular during that period, partially because more people were learning about their exp penalty, and partially because other classes (especially Enchanter) were getting more popular. I would say Bard got a bit more popular again during Velious, because more people were learning to mass AOE kite, but they were always one of the lower population classes.

Reasons why bards became a lot more popular:
1. they got debatably the best epic in the game
2. People had begun to fully debunk the claim that bards were just group-only characters, who would often find themselves asleep at the keyboard playing the manasong.
3. AoE kiting became viable for people due to improve internet connections, making bards the fastest levelers in the game. The massive kunark outdoor zones also helped in this regard.
4. The general "raiding guild theory" back then was you wanted 1 bard for every 5-6 members of their guild. Bards ended up being more sought after in guilds than clerics because there were already a lot of clerics.
5. While You could easily get druid or wizard port to kunark only a bard in the group could move you around kunark at warp speed onc you arrived.
6. Fashionquest.

[Zuranthium]

I don't think your perspective of the whole playerbase back then is all that accurate. Most people were not raid-focused in Kunark. They were just trying to get to level 60 or trying to figure things out. Virtually nobody had a Bard epic in Kunark era and I don't at all remember the playerbase being amazed by that epic specifically and rushing to make a Bard because they heard about it.

I wouldn't call Enchanter "passive" either. Constantly mezzing a bunch of mobs is quite an active role, and I don't think mainly only people who were already playing a healer or Bard were the type who would do Enchanter, nor would those people be actively dissuaded from making an Enchanter as the class grew in renown. I'd say it's the other way around - some people who played Bard actually switched to Enchanter because it was the stronger class. I don't think too many Enchanter players were switching to Bard, heh. Bard was always its own specific thing that appealed to a specific type of player. It had more melee ability than other casters and song twisting was a strenuous thing, so it felt different, and the roleplay aspect of the game in 1999 was quite strong. A significant amount of people who picked the class back then just wanted to roleplay as a musician/performer.

A lot of wizards quit and moved over to mage/necro, and quite a few mages and, heck, even some degree a few disillusioned druids also moved to necros over the first year. Necros probably weren't at the top the first couple months but would rapidly start to climb up in population. It was a simple case of "if you can't beat em, join em."

1 year after the launch of the game is not the "majority of 1999" period that I was talking about. Wizards definitely started declining in population for several reasons (and the introduction of the Play Nice Policy was a big one, because they were no longer allowed to actually use their burst damage in an advantageous way) but they were very popular during that earlier era. They were literally named "masters of magical damage" by Verant, which was reinforced by the Magician and Enchanter class descriptions saying "this class does not have the same offensive ability as the Wizard", so many new players picked Wizard on that basis alone, but the actual in-game play of being able to burst things down back then was also impressive, as were the teleports.

The thing about Necros back then is they were constantly being nerfed by the time more people were realizing just how OP the class was, and a lot of players simply didn't want to switch over to the class even if they understood they were OP. Necros were noticeably most OP at the higher levels and after more people had found out about giving the pets low-delay weapons, but people who were already in their high 30's/40's didn't want to just abandon the character they were already playing. Plus, the whole "evil" thing. A significant amount of the playerbase back then simply refused to group with Necromancers or "evil" characters, and they themselves didn't want to make an evil character because of being scared about being attacked by more NPC's out in the game world.

[DMN]

I don't think your perspective of the whole playerbase back then is all that accurate. Most people were not raid-focused in Kunark. They were just trying to get to level 60 or trying to figure things out. Virtually nobody had a Bard epic in Kunark era and I don't at all remember the playerbase being amazed by that epic specifically and rushing to make a Bard because they heard about it.

By the end of kunark people weren't raid focused? Really? so why the massive exodus of hybrids? They had already played their characters to 50+why were they abandoning them? And with kunark there were tons of new tings to keep the bigger/uber guilds occupied while the 90% of other guilds could move in to the planes left largely vacant. raiding became massively more accessible to everyone.


I wouldn't call Enchanter "passive" either. Constantly mezzing a bunch of mobs is quite an active role.


Well, I would, since the entire game is about killing shit and enchanters were never killing anything. It takes a certain type of person to play those roles.



1 year after the launch of the game is not the "majority of 1999" period that I was talking about.


I covered about 2 years, which is the majority of 99's scope.


The thing about Necros back then is they were constantly being nerfed by the time more people were realizing just how OP the class was

Because tons of people were playing them. The squeaky wheel gets the grease but in verant's world the squeaking mouse got "greased" as well.

Verant primarily used 2 ways to determine class adjustments (AKA nerfs/buffs) 1. how many people are choosing to play the class, and 2. how do the players generally feel about said class. I have no clue why they didn't do like in beta and have highly knowledgeable people give them feedback, but it's the path they chose nonetheless.

So your class could be incredibly overpowered and still get buffs if the pop of your class was small and most people thought you weren't a very good class. This is EXACTLY what happened to shaman/bard/enchanters who ere already overpowered in vanilla.

[kaev]

Necro was never one of the top population classes in my experience. It should have been in 1999, if everyone understood how OP it was (and if so many people weren't scared of "being evil"), but that wasn't the case. Perhaps on the high-end levels during 1999 there might a high amount of Necros (but not at the end of Kunark...), because of how much easier the class was able to level, but if you look at other levels I don't think they were so widespread.

Dunno what server you were playing in the summer of 1999, but some rag came out with a review of EQ that claimed Necro the best class & Gnome the best race for Necro. Within two weeks orc hill in GFay and CB were overrun with Gnome Necros (on Tunare server at least, would be surprised if that was a unique experience). Necros were not rare.

[Zuranthium]

By the end of kunark people weren't raid focused? Really? so why the massive exodus of hybrids? They had already played their characters to 50+why were they abandoning them? And with kunark there were tons of new tings to keep the bigger/uber guilds occupied while the 90% of other guilds could move in to the planes left largely vacant. raiding became massively more accessible to everyone.

There was a mass exodus of hybrids because more and more people learned about their exp penalty and because Warrior/Rogue/Monk were all given much better upgrades in Kunark. The first person to hit level 60 was a Ranger and he was publicly complaining about how bad the class was in Kunark, which caused a huge ripple effect. People in 1999 weren't complaining about a specific class being drastically underpowered in comparison to most others, aside from Rogues to some degree.

Raiding was hardly "massively accessible to everyone". Not even close. The planes were not "left largely vacant" in Kunark era and it still took a significantly populated and relatively skilled guild to do "trash mob" Planes clears, of which there really weren't that many when looking at the whole playerbase. First of all, you had to actually get to that level, and I don't think you understand how much of the EQ playerbase had trouble leveling back then, and how the majority of players were sub level 50 even in Kunark era still.

Well, I would, since the entire game is about killing shit and enchanters were never killing anything. It takes a certain type of person to play those roles.

Plenty of people are happy doing roles that aren't exclusively about "killing shit". Enchanters were capable of killing with Charm or the animation pet anyway. Charm wasn't used to the extent it is today, but it wasn't uncommon to see Enchanters use it for soloing or small groups, or even full groups in safer areas. Enchanters could often be seen in cities using Charm to throw guards into each other and level that way. The continually increasing knowledge of using Charm is part of what contributed to the class continually becoming more popular.

[Necros got nerfed because tons of people were playing them.

There were a solid amount of Necro players, but they didn't dominate the overall class counts at all. They were nerfed because of being clearly OP and the constant complaints of how imba it was. Plenty of abilities got nerfed back in the day that weren't from the most popular classes. Whirl Till You Hurl on Enchanters, for example.

your class could be incredibly overpowered and still get buffs if the pop of your class was small and most people thought you weren't a very good class. This is EXACTLY what happened to shaman/bard/enchanters who ere already overpowered in vanilla.

Those classes didn't get buffs, what are you talking about? Bards actually got their higher level Charm song nerfed. Enchanter did get Clarity after initially not having it very early on, but they got that skill after Whirl Till You Hurl was nerfed.

I wouldn't say Shaman was OP for the most part in Vanilla either, compared to a lot of other classes. They are just an inferior version of Druid until Level 34, really. They come into their own at that point and peak extremely well at Level 49/50, with powerful DoT's and their slow spells having reached maximum efficiency, but slows weren't as needed in that era and other casting classes could do more impressive things.

I covered about 2 years, which is the majority of 99's scope.

WTF? The game only existed for 9.5 months in 1999 (realistically less than that because of early server issues). That period of time + all of 2000 does not make the 1999 timeframe a "majority".

Dunno what server you were playing in the summer of 1999, but some rag came out with a review of EQ that claimed Necro the best class & Gnome the best race for Necro. Within two weeks orc hill in GFay and CB were overrun with Gnome Necros (on Tunare server at least, would be surprised if that was a unique experience). Necros were not rare.

Nobody said Necros were rare. They simply weren't one of the top played classes. Gnome Necros were able to be Agnostic back in the day, but it was changed. I'm sure there were spikes in how much Necro got played because of things like what you just mentioned, but the nerfs and "we don't want a Necro in our group" mentality from some of the playerbase also buffered it.

[DMN]

WTF? The game only existed for 9.5 months in 1999 (realistically less than that because of early server issues). That period of time + all of 2000 does not make the 1999 timeframe a "majority".



Whoa. You were literally talking about the year 1999, and not the general era that project 1999 is seeking to emulate?

Then I and any one else can safely dismiss you as being a loony on this entry alone :


05. Druid (plenty of nature lovers, very well rounded skillset)



Think I'll be cutting my losses on this dialog. You clearly have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Serves me right for giving benefit of the doubt.

[Zuranthium]

Whoa. You were literally talking about the year 1999

Yeah...and you suddenly shifted to talking about a different timeframe and then made a post which seemed to infer that 1999 EQ constitutes "the majority of 2 years". Maybe you're talking about something else entirely, but why? I was talking about what the first 7 months of actual 1999 Everquest looked like, aka the amount of time that has passed on Green 99.

Then I and any one else can safely dismiss you as being a loony on this entry alone: 05. Druid (plenty of nature lovers, very well rounded skillset)

Huh? Heals, Snare, Root, Damage Shield, Teleports, SoW, good Direct Damage spells. That alone made for a versatile and effective character in 1999, and then throw in Animal Charms, Tracking, Harmony (which most players hilariously didn't even know the function of throughout much of 1999), and the fact that for much of 1999 DoT's were doing full damage to moving foes and one of the Druid DoT lines was nearly unresistible, allowing them to solo red con mobs via kiting.

You're the one who doesn't seem to have a proper knowledge base, but anyway, maybe you're just communicating confusingly again here and only trying to say that listing Druid as #5 is too low? I don't think so, because the classes I listed higher had more mass appeal for people newer to the game and it's really what I remember more of back in those early days. Druids started gaining more popularity after tales of them kiting red cons began spreading (although it was nerfed shortly thereafter) and as more people learned about them being a great class for the casual gamer.

[DMN]

Yeah...and you suddenly shifted to talking about a different timeframe and then made a post which seemed to infer that 1999 EQ constitutes "the majority of 2 years". Maybe you're talking about something else entirely, but why? I was talking about what the first 7 months of actual 1999 Everquest looked like, aka the amount of time that has passed on Green 99.

I tried to make sense of the senseless(aka your "list"). I assumed you meant some kind of "average" population over the entire era p99 tries to encapsulate.


You're the one who doesn't seem to have a proper knowledge base, but anyway, maybe you're just communicating confusingly again here and only trying to say that listing Druid as #5 is too low? I don't think so, because the classes I listed higher had more mass appeal for people newer to the game and it's really what I remember more of back in those early days. Druids started gaining more popularity after tales of them kiting red cons began spreading (although it was nerfed shortly thereafter) and as more people learned about them being a great class for the casual gamer.

All it took was for shamans to start hitting 9 and druids 14 for druid's stock to start massively rising. Few people wanted to play blind ass scrubby looking tattooed clown-shoed barbarians, who started in what was believed the in the worst starting zone in the game or be an ugly ass, butt scratching ogre/troll in order to play shaman when they could play "good looking" druids instead to get SoW. it certainly was also helpful that druids were thought to to be the only class who can realistically tackle even red cons thanks to SoW + swarm spells.



There were some servers where druids had twice the population of ANY other class. it makes me wonder if you even played EQ in the first 2 years let alone the first several months.

[Zuranthium]

All it took was for shamans to start hitting 9 and druids 14 for druid's stock to start massively rising. Few people wanted to play blind ass scrubby looking tattooed clown-shoed barbarians, who started in what was believed the in the worst starting zone in the game

That isn't true at all, LOL? First of all, plenty of people found Barbarians to have an appealing look (and as for Ogre/Troll, people had plenty of reason to play those races too, aka their stats, if not the fantasy roleplaying enjoyment of playing an Ogre or Troll caster). Second of all, Everfrost was an amazing starting zone. There was more to hunt there, and across a wider level range, than any other starting zone in the game, and the ambiance of the twisty icy mountains and danger of nighttime was quite enthralling (even if it was more difficult).

Finally, and most importantly, Barbarian Shaman was my first fucking character early in 1999. I was in Blackburrow, and Qeynos Hills, and the Karanas, where ALL of the Human Druids were also starting out. There were more Shaman there than Druids (and more Rangers than Druids as well). Obviously there were a ton of Druids starting over in the Gfay area, but Shaman was not such a scarce class as you say (I saw a decent amount of Ogre/Troll Shaman when I found my way over to that part of the world), and Druids were not found in large quantities everywhere. Warrior was the class that was everywhere, and Ranger was next in line in terms of how many I saw being played during those months (they were basically "Warriors who can also cast snare and use tracking and forage food!" to most people who had progressed a bit, plus the RPG attraction...extremely popular).

I'd really like to know what servers you claim had 2x as many Druids as any other class, because that was not my experience, in any game era. Sure, they were a relatively popular class from the start and got even more popular as they became the class that casual players latched onto (ironically the one class who survived being called bad in Kunark, because despite their weaker power level at the higher levels, people still really liked their travel ability and self-dependability). It's even possible they were the most played class at a certain point, but it wasn't like that during early EQ, and that number you quote sounds overboard to me for later eras, because Druids did still have a stigma attached to them; there was a ton of talk as the Kunark era progressed, about how much worse they were than Cleric or Shaman as the defensive support for a team.

[Guesty07]

You guys realise how daft it is to argue about your distant memories of something right? Every single person has a different tale of "how things were back then".

[Zuranthium]

You guys realise how daft it is to argue about your distant memories of something right? Every single person has a different tale of "how things were back then".

Share the stories then! For me, much of it is not a "distant memory", but rather something very memorable and ingrained in me. There aren't many posters who were actually playing 1999 EQ and I doubt most people were as studious about it as I was. Back then as a kid, I was scouring the internet at school every day (during study hall, lunch period) and reading up on what people were doing in the game, and then going home and playing as much possible. Once the summer hit, my whole life was pretty much Everquest, I was non-stop living it, playing almost all day long and reading up online whenever there was server downtime or when my parents wanted me to take a break (which amounted to me telling them I would go biking/swimming, but I actually went to the library to use the computers there and read EQ info, LOL).

[Guesty07]

Share the stories then! For me, much of it is not a "distant memory", but rather something very memorable and ingrained in me. There aren't many posters who were actually playing 1999 EQ and I doubt most people were as studious about it as I was. Back then as a kid, I was scouring the internet at school every day (during study hall, lunch period) and reading up on what people were doing in the game, and then going home and playing as much possible. Once the summer hit, my whole life was pretty much Everquest, I was non-stop living it, playing almost all day long and reading up online whenever there was server downtime or when my parents wanted me to take a break (which amounted to me telling them I would go biking/swimming, but I actually went to the library to use the computers there and read EQ info, LOL).


Its memorable for everybody who played back then, myself included, yet everybody still has different stories. Memories are funny, fuzzie things.

[DMN]

That isn't true at all, LOL? First of all, plenty of people found Barbarians to have an appealing look (and as for Ogre/Troll, people had plenty of reason to play those races too, aka their stats, if not the fantasy roleplaying enjoyment of playing an Ogre or Troll caster). Second of all, Everfrost was an amazing starting zone. There was more to hunt there, and across a wider level range, than any other starting zone in the game, and the ambiance of the twisty icy mountains and danger of nighttime was quite enthralling (even if it was more difficult).

Everfrost was and still is absolute hairyass. Back then people were much more focused on how their characters looked and it heavily influenced not just race selection but class selection. A lot of people full intended to RP their characters
from day one and derp captain cave maaaan! didn't exactly appeal to them. And night blindness was a big, big thing back then, especially in everfrost and especially for a newb with limited game knowledge. Your corpse rotted a lot faster back then, especially at low levels.


Finally, and most importantly, Barbarian Shaman was my first fucking character early in 1999. I was in Blackburrow, and Qeynos Hills, and the Karanas, where ALL of the Human Druids were also starting out. There were more Shaman there than Druids (and more Rangers than Druids as well). Obviously there were a ton of Druids starting over in the Gfay area, but Shaman was not such a scarce class as you say (I saw a decent amount of Ogre/Troll Shaman when I found my way over to that part of the world), and Druids were not found in large quantities everywhere. Warrior was the class that was everywhere, and Ranger was next in line in terms of how many I saw being played during those months (they were basically "Warriors who can also cast snare and use tracking and forage food!" to most people who had progressed a bit, plus the RPG attraction...extremely popular).


Druids were found fucking everywhere outdoors. People always used to joke about making sure "to get your druid spayed or neutered".



I'd really like to know what servers you claim had 2x as many Druids as any other class, because that was not my experience, in any game era.


Any time a new sever would go up I'd log on to check out what class players the first couple of 50s were shaping up to be. I also usually checked player populations for the hell of it as well and other things i was curious about, like how often would people roll a a non troll/ogre SK or barbarian instead of an ogre/troll. Turns out a fucking shiton. People cared a LOT more about looks than min max back then

[Zuranthium]

Everfrost was and still is absolute hairyass. Back then people were much more focused on how their characters looked and it heavily influenced not just race selection but class selection. A lot of people full intended to RP their characters from day one and derp captain cave maaaan! didn't exactly appeal to them. And night blindness was a big, big thing back then, especially in everfrost and especially for a newb with limited game knowledge.

Barbarians weren't "derp derp cave men", where you are pulling this bullshit from? That was not their lore and they had a very strong, outdoorsy look that appealed to plenty of people; Viking-esque or Game of Thrones-esque. It was quite an alpha male look, and female Barbarian characters were definitely admired (to say the least) for their very Hooters-esque features.

Everfrost was an amazing starting area, one of the best RPG experiences I've ever had, and same for most other people who got hooked on the game starting out there, when the zone was fully alive. Everything felt like a real adventure, it was so damn immersive and filled with suspense, and the Barbarian community banded together tightly and were spread throughout the zone. That right there was pretty much the height of the entire MMORPG genre to date. The difficulty of that starting area was just a good lesson for what was to come in EQ anyway. Other people who played Elves or whatnot missed out on some pretty crucial experiences, about how to survive in the game world, and were often worse players once they did move out of their safer spot.

Yeah, the night blindness was extremely difficult, but it was also galvanizing and added memorable scenarios and depth to the gameplay. Your argument that most people didn't play Barbarian because of night blindness does not hold water. Humans were by far the most popular race in the game and suffered from the same thing. I don't recall corpses decaying faster at lower levels either (and I'm quite sure that after no more than 4-5 months into the game's lifespan, all corpses were lasting for a week)? Most of the time I got my corpse within a day anyway, but I remember one time I lost it for longer than that in some Everfrost passageway I wasn't familiar with, and I was SO overjoyed when I eventually found it after thinking it would just be lost. Learning the lay of the land through these kinds of experiences was a pivotal part of what made Everquest such a powerful game.