Starting a new group of characters for family

[Stellarnetics]

My kids and I are going to start playing P99. I wanted to get your advice on what four classes a family of four should play. Here's what I am thinking:

Ogre Warrior
- Need a solid tank with great stats
- Experience penalty won't matter much in a good group
- Needs a dedicated healer

Erudite Wizard vs. Mage
- Need solid damage output.
- High mana usage needs to be dealt with

Cleric
- Healer for the group. Efficient mana usage for heals compared to other classes.
- What race?

Bard? Enchanter? Something else?
I'm curious what you would add as the fourth class. I was thinking either enchanter or bard for the haste, mana regen, and other great buffs. Enchanter > Bard?? If so, what race?


Thanks! Excited to come back to this game after 20 years.

[Naethyn]

Warrior, enchanter, cleric, rogue

[enjchanter]

I would go mage over wizard. Wizards dont have sustained damage output until very late game with clickies. Mage basically is the benefit of nukes while having consistant melee dps from the pet.

Any healer would work well for you. Cleric is ofcourse the most straightforward choice but consider ports from druids or buffs/slows from a shaman. Cant go wrong with any of them. Have them pick their favorite

The bard vs Enchanter argument is interesting but i would say that enchanter will outclass the bard for general grouping purposes. Youll get charm dps, the reliable cc and the mind buffs / haste. Bards offer similar benefits albeit less potency over all. There is some credit to being able to cc 20 mobs with aoe snare though. High elf is the technical best race for enchanter and half elf for bard but mostly wont make a difference. Human bards can wear robes :)

Your last slot could be viably filled by any dedicated dps class. Necros have good utility if played to their full extent but a rogue brings that raw melee dps that is perfect for xp groups.

[Philistine]

First, I vote yall play whatever sounds fun, but if I had to vote between mage and wizzy for that group I'd actually choose Wiz. Ports are super nice, especially when trying to tip for 4 people. Tank + enc + cleric will be beastly on its own - some extra dps, ports, extra root CC, and evacs are all just a nice bonus IMHO.

If you like ogres have you considered SK btw? Give opportunity to FD pull in addition calm/Pacific options from cleric and enc.

Just my two cents of course.

Super jelly of having a static 4 person group! Should be a blast regardless of exact make-up.

[sonicjoose]

Paladin Enchanter Cleric Druid. Enchanter & Druid can charm. Sweet baby jesus. 3 people who can heal, u can fear kite with druid and enchanter. O somebody stop em.

[starkind]

"Family "

[Stellarnetics]

"Family "

I get the kids over the summer - ex-wife and I are divorced. So this is really my only opportunity to bond with them. We're ready to prove it to the mods so hopefully they will make it work for us here. Otherwise, NBD, we can always go to the live servers but the tradeoff will be the lack of great environment that P99 has.

[Stellarnetics]

First, I vote yall play whatever sounds fun, but if I had to vote between mage and wizzy for that group I'd actually choose Wiz. Ports are super nice, especially when trying to tip for 4 people. Tank + enc + cleric will be beastly on its own - some extra dps, ports, extra root CC, and evacs are all just a nice bonus IMHO.

If you like ogres have you considered SK btw? Give opportunity to FD pull in addition calm/Pacific options from cleric and enc.

Just my two cents of course.

Super jelly of having a static 4 person group! Should be a blast regardless of exact make-up.

Thanks - this is exactly what I started exploring last night. I played a warrior in the old days and loved it. I'm going to miss giving it up but it is hard to pass up the solid aggro generation capability of a good SK tank.

So now we are thinking: SK / CLE / WIZ. I'm personally in favor of an ENC but am worried about their contribution to the group. Sure, the haste and mana regen is great, but do they otherwise make contributions to DPS? Is the haste and mana regen enough? I've never played an ENC before so forgive my ignorance.

[Toxigen]

Player 1: War / SK / Pal / Monk

Player 2: Enc / Bard / Necro

Player 3: Druid / Cleric / Shaman

Player 4: Mage, rogue, monk, wiz

The best 4 man group is war, enc, cleric, rogue by a country mile...but you could also do a theme like all iksar (War/SK, monk, shaman, necro), charm/pet insanity (enc, necro, bard, mage/druid), etc.

Just make sure you have a slower. Slows are the most efficient "heals" in the game.

[Topgunben]

Player 1: War / SK / Pal / Monk

Player 2: Enc / Bard / Necro

Player 3: Druid / Cleric / Shaman

Player 4: Mage, rogue, monk, wiz

The best 4 man group is war, enc, cleric, rogue by a country mile...but you could also do a theme like all iksar (War/SK, monk, shaman, necro), charm/pet insanity (enc, necro, bard, mage/druid), etc.

Just make sure you have a slower. Slows are the most efficient "heals" in the game.

I agree with everything except for warrior. Warriors have such pitiful snap aggro, and not really that much better at tanking than an SK or Pal. An SK with a rusty long sword and disease cloud can hold aggro (sub level 45) better than a warrior with 2000pp weapons. SK's have FD, which is an invaluable spell for any group pulling in dungeons.

But other than that, everything is right on. Enchanters are just so powerful with mana regen, charm, haste, slow, and Mez. Clerics are the weakest link here until they get complete heal, and then its a no brainer.

[Naethyn]

Warriors have way better dps. Root the mobs, done. Knights are only required if your players are bad and you don’t want to kill mobs faster. Have your best player play enchanter.

[Stellarnetics]

Player 1: War / SK / Pal / Monk

Player 2: Enc / Bard / Necro

Player 3: Druid / Cleric / Shaman

Player 4: Mage, rogue, monk, wiz

The best 4 man group is war, enc, cleric, rogue by a country mile...but you could also do a theme like all iksar (War/SK, monk, shaman, necro), charm/pet insanity (enc, necro, bard, mage/druid), etc.

Just make sure you have a slower. Slows are the most efficient "heals" in the game.

This is awesome. I really like your suggestion. I've been dithering between SK and WAR - I'm thinking Ogre Warrior is the way to go.

What races would you play for the ENC, CLE, and ROG?

[Stellarnetics]

Warriors have way better dps. Root the mobs, done. Knights are only required if your players are bad and you don’t want to kill mobs faster. Have your best player play enchanter.

I agree - a lot of people talk about snap aggro with the SK / PAL, but I know I will miss the DPS of a good old WAR...

[Philistine]

Thanks - this is exactly what I started exploring last night. I played a warrior in the old days and loved it. I'm going to miss giving it up but it is hard to pass up the solid aggro generation capability of a good SK tank.

So now we are thinking: SK / CLE / WIZ. I'm personally in favor of an ENC but am worried about their contribution to the group. Sure, the haste and mana regen is great, but do they otherwise make contributions to DPS? Is the haste and mana regen enough? I've never played an ENC before so forgive my ignorance.

No worries! Encs are total beasts on p99. They can contribute boatloads of DPS by charming mobs (especially as you start getting higher into the levels and mobs start doing a lot more dps). This is normally achieved by the enc focusing on stacking CHA instead of INT until CHA is 200+ I believe. Can also go totally banana sandwich and haste the pet and give it weapons.

There are rumors of changes coming to charm at some point, but none have materialized so far.

[Ozudin20]

"Family "

[Rick Sanchez]

#1 rule of EQ is whatever your happy to play you should play. With that being said, any group that has a cleric and a enchanter or bard in a group as anchors is all set. Some points of contention

- I’d go enchanter over bard for ease of play, bard can be tricky to play well unless they know what they’re doing. Best race for enchanter is high elf but can’t go wrong with dark elf either if your going evil.

- As a warrior tank (assuming your not twinking) your strengths are that you do more dmg then any of the tank classes as well as take hits better than anyone. Your weakness is your pulling ability is limited as well as your ability to maintain aggro for a while so having a magician as your main DPS is a good call, good pet dmg, nuke dmg, and DS. Also won’t mess with your aggro at all, yes it’s not super min max but it’s dam good enough.

So you can’t go wrong at all with Warrior, Cleric, Enchanter, Magician, because down the road you guys can make friends and find nice plug ins like monk, shaman, rogue etc.

[Bardp1999]

I dont believe a modern child can tolerate EQ - these little fuckers have xboxs, VRs, and will compare everything to WoW or any other modern AAA title where P99 just looks like complete garbage... NO chance they can ever get past the shitty UI.

I honestly believe you would have more luck getting them into board Dungeons and Dragons than P99

[Tewaz]

I think getting your kids to play what they enjoy the most is a bigger deal than group comp.

4 players can make a ton of things work as long as you have a type of tank (even a ranger) with a type of healer (Necro kind of works).

It might be a good idea to just roll out with whatever class everyone is interested in and then revaluate when you hit the 20's. They may get buffed by a high level druid or enc and want a change.

[Shac]

troll sk
darkelf mage
halfling druid
halfelf bard

[Gustoo]

I'll paypal you 500 dollars to not play everquest with your kids who are not victims to crack

[Toxigen]

This is awesome. I really like your suggestion. I've been dithering between SK and WAR - I'm thinking Ogre Warrior is the way to go.

What races would you play for the ENC, CLE, and ROG?

Doesn't matter really. Whatever your kids think looks the coolest.

Don't get hung up on starting stats for the Warrior. Sometimes being small is better than any stats you may have. If I could move all my gear from my ogre warrior to a gnome or halfling i'd do it in a heartbeat.

[Braselton]

I'll paypal you 500 dollars to not play everquest with your kids who are not victims to crack

Underrated post here :D