Quote:
Originally Posted by Bardp1999
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For a large portion of Blue's life span getting a group as a Hybrid was neigh impossible because no one wants a 40% experience penalty + whatever Racial penalty soaking up huge amounts of experience in their group. If you want to play a Hybrid on Green prepare to be very lonely from 50-60. At least Paladins and SKs can tank so they get a bone thrown to them at times, but Bards and Rangers are going to be shunned so hard it's not even funny.
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Pally's and SK's don't really tank any better than other melee classes in early EQ. Everyone's using the same Rubicite armor and the skill caps are similar. Pally/SK just have a little more hitpoints, which doesn't do anything to stop damage. Rogues actually have slightly higher Dodge/Parry skillcaps and could be a "tank" if needed.
A well played Bard should be wanted in plenty of groups. Pet classes are the real DPS in Classic EQ and they get that with Charm. It's not ideal because of how much it breaks, but they can still generate good DPS and play a couple other songs; often enough that's worth the exp penalty. Not for the best min/max group possible, but every group won't have that option.
The other hybrid classes though, often don't pull their weight in terms of the exp penalty. Ranger needs situations where Harmony/Snare allow the group to manage a camp, or maybe SoW/Tracking for some reason, otherwise it's slowing people down. Paladin needs to have Ghoulbane and be fighting undead or else they are pitiful. You better plan to live in Upper Guk until you get that weapon and then live in Lower Guk dead side after that. Any other scenario of playing the class would fequently feel bad to me. Remember, hybrids don't get meditate in early EQ and they have very small mana pools, so Ranger/Paladin don't contribute much in terms of helping with downtime healing, and can't use Root very often, etc. Clarity from an Enchanter is a huge boost in this regard, but not having meditate still hurts.
Shadowknight has the best skillset and will more frequently be "worth" the exp penalty. They do good DPS when giving their pet a fine steel dagger(s) and Harmtouch becomes relevant for racing to 51% damage on a specific contested NPC. They have snare ability for the areas where that's helpful and they have Feign Death to help with pulling or creating trains (yep).