[Cynosure]

First off, thanks for the great number of responses. =)

Originally Posted by Harmonium [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

As for bards, later on they take on more responsibilities. Pulling and cc are things every bard needs to master. As for soloing.. No class can level faster than a bard solo. Hands down.

That's good to hear!

I checked out some kiting tutorials and gave it a shot after reading a leveling guide and heading to East Karana.. however, I quickly found that kiting in this way is quite difficult. You have to constantly be holding down 3 buttons + twisting songs + running in a decent circle + cutting in at some magical distance where my chords land and I don't get hit (haven't had much success).

Originally Posted by Calibix [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Enchanters bring more to a group than any other class imo. They are an immensely powerful class played well. Great solo as well. I wouldn't call them traditional casters in an MMO sense as there has never really been caster classes similar to EQ Enchanters again.

Clerics will never really be a solo class, but being the supreme healer grouping is never an issue. In a group, often times you might need to root cc, or lull mobs for pull or safe passage. Outside of that its pretty much heal and buff.

I might have to give the Enchanter a shot. I've only ever played one to level 8 which really didn't give me a great overview of what the class is all about.

I'm hoping to avoid the boringness associated with a single-click healer. =/ I guess cleric is out of reach for me, then.

Originally Posted by Sarajo [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

It sounds like a bunch of alt-itis, and there's never an easy answer for this. It's a time-consuming disease you can only beat by trial and error and determination. I played up to level 12 on every class before I decided that the (probability of success)*(potental happiness payoff) of bard was the best for me.
But the point of my comment is actually just to tell you about the /stopsong macro trick. Instead of tapping 1, 12, 23, 34, 41[...] (or 1, 22, 33, 44, 11[...]) you can just make it so you only have to tap a button once to get your song on.

/stopsong
/cast 1


That's it. Then substitute "2" for "1" or whatever. Then drag it to your hotkeys. It takes a little to get used to not hitting things twice as often as you need to, and also not spazzing out and spamming a key (because spamming it is also spamming the /stopsong command so you have to actually watch for missed notes) but over the course of your life as a bard how many millions of keystrokes will this save you?

One more thing, out of curiosity: If you made a cleric, which race would you go and why?

Extremely helpful advice, thanks so much!!

I've always had alt-itis. I was trying to nip-it-in-the-bud, as they say, this go around to avoid creating 1203912309213 alts and feeling like I'm never going to make any progress.

And hmm.. I was debating between a Dwarf and a Halfling. I love Dwarves and they surely seem like a good fit for a Cleric (and an interesting roleplay combination that I've not yet tried).. plus the roll is always funny to watch. However, I read that Halflings get hide (which is extremely helpful) and also gain EXP faster (a HUGE plus to someone with very little game time per week--for instance, my game time tonight is being spent writing these replies!).

Originally Posted by baalzy [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

http://wiki.project1999.com/Swish%27...ric_SOLO_guide

Cleric can solo 1-50 just fine.
Won't be swift, but it's just as do-able as a wizard soloing 1-50 (which is also not swift). I'm doing ~1% (slightly more) every 7ish minutes on my cleric at spectres in feerrott at lvl 40. If I catch a clarity/c2 from an enchanter heading into hate I can do 2 specs in that time if I don't get many resists.

However, you're going to have a lot more luck finding parties then a wizard and so you won't have to worry about soloing as much.

Thanks for the solo guide.

I see that it's possible.. but how deathly boring and tough is it? lol.

Originally Posted by Skittlez [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

If you play any caster it's gonna be slow going man. Even with shamans epic mana regen you will still be stitting 90% of your playing.

That's pretty much the *only* downfall I have with my Shaman. I wouldn't mind not being able to find a group if I didn't only get 3 minutes of play time before having to sit and meditate for 15 minutes.

However, I do know that grouping takes this pressure off as you are expected to be sitting and can still interact with your group while doing so.