Yeah, there are going to be a few factors on how to decide which class you wanna play:

1) Do you want to solo, group, mix of both...also, do you want to be useful for raiding?

2) If grouping, what role interests you? Tanking, DPS, Support, Crowd Control, Healing?

3) What playstyle do you enjoy the most? This kind of comes with experience. You just need to play each class.

4) Looks are important. You are going to be looking at your character a lot. Flexing with the fashion motivates you to play a certain class.

5) How important is self-reliance to you? Do you need a class that has invis? Or some sort of survival mechanic like Feign Death? Some people like the option of going AFK safely and some classes have trouble doing that.

6) How expensive is the classes gear? Shaman are notorious for having pricey gear for example.

7) Is this your first character? Sometimes its easier to start a class that farms well so you can bankroll a class you really want to play.

8) Do you want to avoid having bad faction/evil characters?

9) Are you deadset on playing a specific race and need to know how well their racial bonuses help a class? Iksar Necros, for example.

10) Are you into Melee, Hybrids, Pure Casters, or Priest classes usually?

I play healer a lot in MMOs. EQ is easy to heal. The key to playing healer in any game is to just keep learning. Get comfortable with one thing before adding another. Granted EQ is so easy that there's little to add on. Don't be afraid of making mistakes, just learn from them. Also don't immediately assume just because someone is upset it means you made a mistake, some people are just jackasses. If you're struggling to keep up with a group say so, worst they can do is kick you and then well you're a healer groups like healers so you'll find another. It seems scary at first but it's really not.

If you do want to heal I recommend avoiding druid, stick to the cleric. Druids are by far the worst priests. In many cases a paladin heals as well as a druid. Shaman makes up for it with all their buffs and debuffs.

Trust me you'll do fine on cleric.

If you do wind up sticking with the cleric, some tips:

Don't be that lazy cleric that sits there and does nothing but heal.

First and foremost: just because someone asks for a buff doesn't mean you should give it to them. Any enchanter, necro, or druid with a charm pet should get your best HP buff and thats about it. If your tank and/or puller is in rags and asks nicely, go ahead and break 'em off a little cleric buff love. To hell with everyone else.

Help with rooting mobs if your group mates are lacking. Its far more mana efficient than trying to heal multiple people getting beat on.

Use your stuns:

- This will be more important when you start grouping with enchanters (and necros / druids possibly) that have a charmed pet. You can make a macro to /target (their pets name) and then cast stun. As soon as you see that pet break and go rushing towards your mate, hammer that macro hotkey / bind. You'll save them from staining their undies time and time again...nobody likes a poopypant enchanter.

- See an annoying caster in the pull winding up a nuke and no bard / enc / necro to mez? Stun that pesky mfker. Yes you'll get aggro, its ok. Run that thing around a corner, out of LoS of your group, root it, and run back to your med spot. Your group mates will applaud you for your situational awareness.

Always keep DA on your bar. You never know when you need to cast that and high-tail it to a zone out. If the cleric lives, the group is saved (most people these days don't want anything but a 96% epic click but sometimes beggars cannot be choosers).

No real puller? No worries, a cleric can help split tough pulls with lull / calm / paci. Just keep in mind, you can be critical resisted. Try to calm the lowest level mobs in the room first.

Its usually more mana efficient to dispel a mob that has a strong damage shield on it than it is to heal multiple melee through it.

Try to never go below 50% mana when in a busy group just in case shit hits the fan. If you do, tell them you're at 20% (its ok to lie they can't tell how much mana you have) and they'll slow down.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a whole bunch of other useful tips but you'll get there. Just always keep DA (and divine barrier if you can), at least 1 stun, root, dispel (when applicable), and gate on your bar at all times. Happy cleric times are ahead.

Good advice above. Did anyone mention the courage line is a passable heal as well as a buff?

Only really works when the target doesn’t have a higher level version of the buff tho.

Ac buff the tank too imo. Spell ac caps separately to worn. It will help on the higher level mobs. Especially true if tank is a ranger.

Avoid Druid for grouping even if it’s a great class otherwise. My grouping recomendations for an untwinked character:

Cleric is always good. Can typically group with higher level players. Not too gear dependent. Can root-nuke undead and split camps solo if you can’t find a group.

Enchanter is always welcome in groups, solo god and not too gear dependent either. Fairly difficult epic.

Bard can solo level and is usually welcome in groups. Fastest solo leveler in the game. Fairly difficult epic.

I really appreciate the advice. I really just want to try something different. I don't have intentions of raiding (at least not anytime soon). I want to visit group zones and dungeons I skipped as a solo Necro.

I know the Necro style, so as I could also re-roll and visit these places as a Necro, too. I think at the end of it all, I want to do the group thing.
You all have been super informative and helpful.

Necros are amazing group members. They're the grease that keeps everything rolling smoothly. Lazy necros get a bad rap because they sit there like a mage and send their pets in.

The upside is you could solo a bit, far more effectively, while waiting on a group.

Remember: 95% of xp groups can be healed with nothing more than a bard and necro.

This makes me wanna play a Cleric.

Its really not that fun unless you play cleric like this:

https://i.imgur.com/eoc1TNq.jpg

If you’re wanting to focus mostly on grouping, I can’t think of a worse class to play than a Druid. They have their place in some groups, but overall, they’re about the least desired group class in the game. They have some really fun solo potential, and several different ways to level solo, but absolutely wouldn’t want to play one if my goal was to experience group content. A Necro would be a better group mate than a Druid in nearly every possible scenario.