Originally Posted by Vexenu
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I agree with your general analysis here, especially in terms of needing to balance a build between DPS/tanking/heals/slow. But the intricacies of the unique EQL systems will probably throw a wrench in leaning too heavily on the classic EQ meta for accurate theorycrafting. For example, the stance system is hugely impactful. WAR, SK and PAL get a defensive stance that reduces incoming damage 50%, with the reduced damage instead drawing down endurance on a 1:1 basis. Rogues, Monks, Rangers, Bards and Beastlords get Evasive stance, which avoids 95% of attacks entirely, with the avoided damage drawing down endurance at a 1:2 basis.
So basically this means that your tanks benefit from extremely high AC paired with defensive stance + heals, while your DPS classes benefit more from slow + burst DPS. Defensive stance gives more sustain, while evasive is shorter lived but allows you to avoid damage almost entirely for its duration. Basically what I'm getting at is that if your burst DPS is high enough, you probably don't even need a traditional tank class in your build. For example, something like CLR/ROG/BRD should be very viable. Cleric AC/HP buffs make the Rogue fairly sturdy as a tank, heals give sustain, Rogue DPS is through the roof with Bard self-haste, Bard is also slowing to make tanking easier. Cleric buffs + bard songs pump your resists to insane levels for raid kills. I've also considered BRD/SHM/WIZ. Slow/Malo the mob, pop evasive stance, and start dropping nukes. Slow+Evasive means you aren't even taking damage, so as long as your mana pool is deep enough you should be able to kill almost anything very quickly.
I think you're also right about Druids being very "meh" in EQL. I would also throw Necros into that camp, as well. Warriors also seem less attractive due to PAL and SK bringing defensive stance in addition to utility. And Monks go down a notch since FD is much less useful in a meta featuring instancing, respawn at zone-in, and no XP loss on death. And while I expect that Enchanters will still be extremely powerful, I think their power will decline substantially relative to other classes. Due to the much faster paced nature of the game compared to classic EQ (and the very high out-of-combat health/mana regen), damage-over-time spells and any sort of "efficiency killing" strategies (i.e. root rotting, fear kiting, quad kiting, reverse charming) will be much less appealing. The EQL meta seems to be about killing very quickly. Your build needs to combine burst DPS and just enough sustain (some combination of tanking/avoidance, heals, and slow) to get through fights. But you really don't gain anything by fighting "efficiently" in the classic EQ since, because you regen so much out of combat. So in this regard, the ideal build is very heavy on DPS and has only "just enough" defense to survive tough fights.
I'm also interested to play around with Beastlords. They seem very strong, and I think will be especially good if paired with an SK/PAL. The BST has dual wield and block, the tanks bring double attack and parry. So combined you have an extremely sturdy quadding tank with a nasty pet. Throw in a Bard or Cleric third wheel and you're off to the races. I'm a bit torn between starting with that build, or doing CLR/MAG/RNG, which I think will be very solid 1-50 and scale well into Kunark with the Ranger and Mage epics (Ranger self-hasting with Cloak, slowing with Epic, flexibility of fighting in melee or using bow, combined with Mage Epic pet + Cleric heals/buffs? Yeah, that's gg).
Another factor to consider is the item upgrade system and the ANY slots. Given that shields are the most stat-heavy items in the game, they are an obvious choice for the ANY slots. Something like the Shield of Stalwart Seas will be absurdly powerful when upgraded and stuffed in the ANY slot. Get that to +7 or above and you're potentially looking at something absurd like 80AC and +50 STR/STA from a single item. I believe they've said that stat caps have been raised to something like 500, so there's definitely a lot of room to run with upgrading items.
Ultimately, while this sort of theorycrafting is fun, from what I've heard it seems like almost any reasonable build will be solo-raid viable on anything but the highest difficulty. So I really think that just playing a combination of classes you find enjoyable/cool-looking is the actual EQL meta.
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