After reading about how much money Druids can make just Porting...
 

...maybe Druid should have been my first class. Maybe rolling a Paladin as my first class wasn't the greatest choice of a first character on the server.

I mean, I'm Level 24 now, so I'm committed, but still, maybe a Druid would have been a much better choice of a first class as far as usefulness and money-making goes.

The best class for any situation is whatever you enjoy playing. This even includes ranger.

When i started here i wanted to play a ranger but knowing how much of a uphill climb that was going to be i decided to make a druid as my main til i got him to porting levels. Made plat porting then sold druid to bankroll my EC tunnel work. Over time played ranger and got more toons to play in the process. Personally i wouldnt have done it any other way. Some classes are just far more easier for someone starting fresh then others.

People exaggerate a lot with how much money druids make. My first char was a druid (still use it quite a bit for transfers/selling stuff in EC etc)

If there was a solid stream of people coming to you one after the other to buy ports, yeah you would make a ton of money. That isn't what happens in practice though. Also, for every person on the forums that says they tip 50-100pp, you'll port 3 people that give you 20-25 and another 3 that tip low enough you'll hit cancel on the trade just for feeling sorry for them.

With the downtime between porting people 99% of the time, selling ports is about as profitable as just leveling a necro in rathe mnts on HGs or something. On a good day.

Druids are a great first character for getting situated, but the main boon to having one is for easily selling stuff in EC, shuffling people around to form groups (that you'll group with on your REAL character =P), and stuff like that. Porting for money is a side bonus.

Porting is good for being lazy and making some coin while being lazy. It isn't the path to riches.

I really don't understand why everyone hates the Ranger. It has some fantastic features (track, endless arrow yada yada). It's a great class, well done. And fun to play.

AND it makes the choice of who takes the DT in Fear an easy one.

It's too bad the EQ devs didn't have a little more foresight. Ranger would have been a highly desired group class if they had just added a bunch of trash that death touches in sebilis and KC.

They could have given rangers a line of spell upgrades that allowed them to take DTs more effectively.

Only bad part about ranger is the 40% xp pen. Which when it comes to trying to level a non twinked, no friends ranger it's kinda tough. Just makes more sense to play something else that has a easier time of getting money and xp then you can level the ranger. No hate for rangers here trust me.

And I love my Paladin dearly. I just hope I don't regret choosing this class later in the game. I hope I can actually get into groups later and not be shunned for being a hybrid.