[bcbrown]

Most of the melee classes can solo decently well at least to 50, so I think it comes down to what you mean by "best" and personal preference/playstyle. Rogue is obviously handicapped solo vs grouping and warrior is limited to single-pull camps by the lack of CC, but the rest of the options have decent toolkits for soloing.

Monk is obviously one of the most powerful classes who will be useful in just about any context, but I've heard a couple people say that they didn't enjoy the leveling process late 50s as much as with other melee. Fear kiting with an SK is pretty powerful but I found it to get quite tiresome after a few levels.

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

Don't forget clerics, I twinked one with a fungi, VCS, and full velious armor and he could melee tank all the way to 50+ (although a lot more of the DPS comes from spells versus melee at the higher end of that range).

I did this recently and it was some of the most fun I've had in EQ. Mine was significantly less twinked (guard captain's mallet/pwc, 21% haste, Sol Ro armor). Unrest was a ton of fun, and I kept /roleplay on and pretended I was a paladin in groups which gave me a lot of amusement. By around 35-37 though the melee damage dropped off significantly and it felt more like a wizard in plate than a melee class. If you go this route I'd heavily recommend not going dwarf so that you have enough charisma to lull your way around lguk.

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

Also if you are doing no twinking or have a very small budget (no fungi, etc) then I would highly recommend bard. Essentially has all the tools of the other classes combined and not really gear dependent at all, can transition away from melee at the higher end (can transition at the low end too I just assume OP wants some hack and slash gameplay).

Bard is fantastic. Just because swarming is so efficient doesn't mean it's the only tool in the belt. It's a lot of fun to hack and slash your way to the mid-late 30s, then charming gives you no-downtime efficient fighting the rest of the way. It's a lot of APM, though, and playsessions of more than a couple hours can be exhausting.

I'd like to make a pitch for Ranger, though. It's a class where you really have to commit to the concept. Along with necros I think it's one of the best roleplaying classes in the game; I absolutely love patrolling W Karana for hill giants and protecting the wildlife. It's not a great dungeon crawler, so you may end up retreading a lot of the same ground from playing the druid, but if you love the Karanas it's a class tailor-made for that area.

It's nice having the option to bow down mobs as a change of pace or while passively regenning health. Fear kiting animals is super easy, if tiresome. Track means you can always find the next mob to kill. Getting access to a cheap 50% slow proc makes a huge difference. And going to Stonebrunt Mountains is really fun.

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

SK's get FD at 30, while Paladins get stun. Fear kiting is better at preventing spellcasting than stun, and FD is easier to use (and less mana intensive) than lulling and rooting, especially if you need to cycle mobs by rooting and camping.

I don't disagree with the overall point but unless you've spent a decent amount of time using your undead lull, FD absolutely sucks when you hit 30. Nothing else uses Abjuration so you're gonna have a low skill. I was getting a dozen fizzles in a row or more which meant I couldn't ever rely on it.