Class advice - Dungeon Crawler
 

Hi all,

I am pretty unexperienced in EQ but would like to switch over to green as well.
In blue I had the most fun while crawling in Dungeons and would like to put more emphasize in this area on green.

I am looking for a class that is useful in a group down there AND able to visit dungeons alone if needed, camping some named or getting a quest item for example.

Most classes are ruled out for different reasons and I am stuck with mainly:

- Bard & Shadowknight

Which of these would be stronger in the dungeon environment (Group and Solo?) and most importantly: Why?

I am unsure about adding Shaman and Druid to the mix as well, would they be suited?


For this consideration I am not looking at exp penalties or unavailability of spots to camp. Its just about the classes ad the environment in general.

Of the classes you've listed here, I would put the order for easy dungeon play at SK - Shaman - Bard - Druid. The main difference between the SK and shaman is that the SK is going to be able to get around easier, but the shaman will generally have an easier time killing once you're where you want to be and set up. It largely comes down to how heavily you weight group vs. solo play, I think.

SK has a lot of tools for moving around in dungeons safely - both invis and invis vs undead combined with FD and the ability to survive doing things like run through a room with a see invis mob to the hallway on the other side, FD, and re-invis to keep moving. Also has snare to keep runners from being a problem. But the DPS is obviously not going to be great and fear kiting usually isn't an option, so when it comes to soloing it can be slow and painful.

Shaman isn't going to have as easy of a time getting to dungeon spots, only having regular invis, and will have to kill their way past anything that's going to see invis. Once at a camp, though, the shaman is going to be more capable of actually killing the mobs at a good rate when solo. A shaman is especially going to be your best bet (probably only bet, honestly) here for trying to tackle named dungeon camps solo. Plus, the ability to bind yourself outside of a dungeon and gate there when needed for whatever reason shouldn't be overlooked. Huge quality of life perk.

Bard is great in general, and can be really awesome in a dungeon group, but solo it's a lot trickier. You have invis and lull to get around decently well if you're careful (and not unlucky) but the problem is that a bard doing anything solo usually requires one important thing - room to move. Depending on the particular dungeon and camp, you are likely not going to have much room to be mobile and may have to rely on things like meleeing a mob and then using mez while you regen up. At the higher levels charm definitely makes things a little easier, but you're still going to be down in a dungeon without gate, FD, or root. If something goes wrong, most of the time it's going to go "now you're dead" kind of wrong.

Quick edit just to make sure that this point stands out - if going down into a dungeon to solo named camps is something that is important to you, the answer to your question is shaman. Hands down. Great and always valued in any group and by far the best solo ability, likely being the only class you listed capable of soloing named mobs.

Monks are pretty frequently in dungeons all by themselves, and are still wanted by groups. Maybe not as much before Kunark as far as soloing in there but honestly pre-Kunark I don't think anyone is gonna have the gear/ability to solo camps inside dungeons, plus the dungeons will be a bit more crowded so there won't be a need to solo them. Especially Lower Guk and SolB. Perma and Kedge will probably still be empty most of the time.

Bard and SK are good in dungeons... in a group, trio or duo.
Bard gets thing liks lull, mez, charm.
SK gets snap agro spells and feign death.

You may get more milage out of the bard, simply because people go bananas for the mana song and such. However SK is arguably the best tank for trash mobs. Life tap can help keep it topped off and it's feign death can help break the trickier rooms.

Druid,.. in a group? Skip it for a cleric. There is a 10% penalty on heals for non-cleric classes. in classic, with classic gear you'll want a cleric as the healer. shaman are pretty gear dependent, they'll be slow and painful in classic.

SK will have the harshest exp penalty till 2001 January patch

SK is a really, really fun class to play. It's not the best dungeon crawler (TLDR: enchanter is best 99% of the time), but you have a ton of fun spells, you get to look cool in plate, you get to wield badass looking swords. You can use the Circlet of Shadow, an incredibly powerful insta-invis item.

You are also great in groups, as long as defensive discipline isn't required, which almost never is. You can snap gain aggro which is a big advatage over a monk or a warrior, and you can snare.

Lots of options for soloing especially as you get better gear.

The weak point of the SK is: you have low DPS. You'll just have to live with it and work around it (or make some friends).

Shadow Knight, in my opinion, is the most underrated and misunderstood class in the game. I know players that know how to play the hell out of the class and they truly shine!

SK dps isn't *that* bad, is it?

It is bottom of the barrel, yes. Especially on a fresh server with no weapon twinkage going on.

Everything is relative. Post 50, SK's DPS really starts to suck compared to mobs' DPS, and SK has to soak in the damage from the mob in order to deal damage to it (except fear kiting of course).

Solo is still doable, of course, especially with a good 2 hander, fungi and lots of AC, but it quickly becomes painfully slow and boring.