Well most classes don't get some of their goods until level 9 and don't really settle into it until 20+ or higher. Almost every class is a tank/melee early on, although casters get some ranged spells early on.

Keep in mind most classes won't be wearing anything more than cloth or leather until 10 or 15, at least that's the way it was when I started. I still had mostly leather when I was lvl 20, even though I could wear chain. And bronze? Yer a twink? So whether you're a warrior or a wizard, you'll probably be wearing cloth at lvl 8, negating any benefits the warrior might get.

On p1999, I did make a couple casters. A couple tanks. But the hybrids were always my favorite.

I don't know swish, it just seems if you want to complain about this then you shouldn't be playing p1999 because it's full of stuff like this. The whole game is like this. So I mean if you want to pick on something, find a genuine challenge.

Halfling warriors get hide/sneak and +5% exp gain. Faster and hide is useful when going afk.

That stun immunity only matters in some raids I imagine, but isn't a show stopper.

And halfling warriors are sexy by popular vote. Woman love em.

EDIT: Don't shrug off the +5%. I did some calculations on this a while back. It's substantial because some races have a penalty. 1.05 / .85 = 23% faster, for example, assuming one is +5% and the other is -15%.

And I'd recommend the OP to try a necromancer. Ya you have to learn to juggle all the spells. Ya it can be hard at first to manage all that. Ya it's an evil class and not very appealing like a druid or monk. You're going to sometimes be mauled to death by crowds of guards screaming "You stole my cookies, prepare to die!" BUT necro's have huge potential and are friendly to afking via feign death. Once you know where to go, leveling them is very fast. And assuming the group experience system on red isn't ported to blue, their solo experience is really good and you don't NEED groups.

Oh how much time is spent getting a group and littering the underside of things on your desk with snot balls. Necro's don't need them. Necro's will make the backside and undersides of things clean again. You will not remember /lfg.

Only downside, as I said, is their evil lore and faction problems and the large amount of spells and tactics you must learn. There're places in the game where levelling them is very easy while other places are not.

It's a class that takes time but has the greatest potential, if you're friendly to their solo-nature.

If you like groups, I'd suggest a monk. Maybe not the fastest, but much endurance. What goes unstated is what classes are best at MAX level. At max level, it's typically in this order: enchanter, cleric, monk, rogue, warrior, wizard. But moreso, monks have good armor class with cheap armor or even no armor. You can kill good even without weapons. They have feign death if you want afk. They can do a little bit of tanking/dps/pulling. Experience rate is good. Good lore. Great grouper.

Minus the Necro and Monk, I'd recommend hte Magician, even though their endurance is questionable. The reason is they're comfortable to level. Players like em because they can sit lazily and order their pet to kill. They can even do good in groups. Their pet and their dps spells are good. Unlike the Necro, they're not swamped in spells/abilities and don't rely on dots. The caveat is they don't group well in every situation, given any melee will gain aggroes from the pet, thus requiring heals.

These're the least popular and the hardest to find:
Paladin
Shadowknight
Bard
Ranger

Avoid them unless you have a primal urge like myself. In that case, nobody needs to tell you. You won't ask. I played the ranger before there were forums, or before I was ever aware forums for EQ existed. This was long ago, in March 1999.

You might refer to the class popularity chart and the post I made about it here (circa 2011-12):
http://www.project1999.com/forums/sh...7&postcount=48

I'm leveling a SK in the 50s... that's enough for me!

I remember my poor cleric sat at the undead spawns near EC at level 5-7 crying into his spell book wishing things would go quicker. Sorry if that sounds like a complaint, it isn't really... getting the skill at 8 makes things seem so much better ;)

Sham / Ench / Necro / Magician / Druid

Went necro. Seems like a lot more fun. Nice guy named Brophy gave me a few plat to buy my first spells. Level 3 DE Necro named Kreetin!

Reroll as an iksar and you won't regret it, not only they get regen but also best starting zones in whole game. Unless you have some real reason to play a DE.

Just kill crap in Field of Bone till level 12, then head to Kurn's tower and solo all the skeletons there for huge exp bonus this zone has, plus hoard a ton of bone chips. If you never attack or harm any burynai mob in FoB or Kurn's (very important!) ** you can stay there till level 24 easily! Kurn's has probably the biggest +xp bonus (ZEM) too, I think only Crushbone has it higher.



**The reason for this is that you begin as dubious to burynai, but ONE kill makes them all KoS to you. This way if you don't ever touch them you can hunt higher level skeletons in lower levels of Kurn's tower unmolested (and enjoy mighty XP bonus there), as they will simply ignore you. You must be careful however as helping someone fighting them even with heal or accidentally hitting them with AE spell will make you kos. There's no way to repair their faction either.

Funny you mention this. I'm not planning on re-rolling the necro, but I DO plan on making my warrior (which is a class I REALLY enjoy, but I know I need at least a bit of twinkage to make viable solo) an iksar. So this is still very appreciated advice.

Shaman was my first real character on this server back when it first opened and honestly I thought the grind to 34 was pretty brutal. For some reason, even with Canni and Regen I solo'd not much better than a Druid. I remember my root not lasting long enough, my DoTs being sort of weak and it just overall taking a while.

Back then, the server was empty so groups were hard to come by and I was forced to solo, plus there was absolutely no twink gear at all, I remember wearing banded well into my 40's so this isn't entirely accurate these days; just a thought.