How Are Classes Different in Vanilla?

[Vexenu]

In general, INT casters are stronger (pet casters especially), Priests slightly weaker/the same, pure melee are much weaker and hybrids are more useful. In greater detail:

Priests:

Shaman - Weaker. No Fungi, no epic, no Torpor. Slow is still nice but much less needed at < 50 content. Mostly just buffs and heals. Can solo decently with their pet and DoTs, but are a far cry from the solo monster they become in Kunark.

Cleric - About the same. They lose the clickie rez epic, but maintain a monopoly on CH and a 90% XP rez. Always wanted in groups and raids and can solo decently with undead nukes.

Druid - About the same. Definitely worse off than they are in Velious, but probably a little better than they were in Kunark. They are the premier generalist caster and casual-friendly class. There will be plenty of Druids running around.

Casters:

Wizard - Stronger. Wizard DPS is awful when compared to melees using Kunark and Velious twink weapons, but is a lot more attractive when melees are using 6/30 weapons into their 30s. Their snare, root, stuns, big nukes and evac make them decent group members in dungeons. They remain the only ticket to Sky and Hate in an era when those are two of the best games in town. Ice Comet is legitimately awesome at this point in the timeline.

Magician - Much stronger. Mage pets are absolutely insane DPS in this era. No other class comes close. They also require basically zero gear to level and can farm plat early like no one's business. The server will be overrun with Mages for the first few months.

Enchanter - About the same. There's a lot of cheap and easy +CHA gear available for charming in vanilla EQ. Can XP solo, duo/trio or full dungeon group without skipping a beat. Charm at <50 is not as OP as it is from 50-60, but remains very strong. Still a very solid and needed class.

Necromancer - Much stronger. Their pet is not quite at the Mage pet level, but still much better than melee DPS. They also have arguably the best level 49 spells of any caster. A very strong class in this era, especially for soloing and farming plat. We'll being seeing a lot of Necros around.

Hybrids:

Paladin - Stronger. The premier tank for group content in tight dungeons in an era where most of the game is group content in tight dungeons. Probably the best itemization of any melee class in this era. An extremely useful class for leveling 30-50 and tanking in the planes.

Shadow Knight - Stronger. Instant aggro, pulling and Troll/Ogre race choice for nice stats make SKs very solid in vanilla, especially since there will be many fewer Monks and Warriors running around.

Ranger - Weaker. Fewer large outdoor zones (most of Kunark and Velious) and outdoor dungeons (KC, CoM) make Rangers less useful trackers and pullers. The abundance of Druids renders their already weak spellbook mostly superfluous. They can't contribute much besides some mediocre DPS.

Bard - About the same. Fewer locations to swarm kite makes leveling slower. Still an excellent grouping class, and resist songs are always invaluable for raiding. We will see fewer Bards around, but the ones you do see will be much more skilled on average.

Melee:

Warrior - Much weaker. Aggro is terrible. 8/24 Yaks are your endgame weapons. No defensive or evasive disciplines. Paladins and SKs basically do everything you can do tanking wise. You just add a little more DPS. Unquestionably the nadir of the Warrior class in EQ.

Monk - Weaker. Absolutely abysmal itemization for Monks in vanilla EQ. On the flipside, Monks don't really need many items to be decently effective. Fists max out at 14/30 and are the best weapons in the game at that point. Limited to Human racial choice. We'll see much fewer Monks than we're used to on P1999. Only true Monk diehards will bother. The rest will roll Mages and Necros and wait until Kunark to twink an Iksar.

Rogue - Weaker. Poor itemization hurts Rogues badly. Low damage piercers abound. Mages and Necros smoke them for DPS. Require a group as always. They really explode in power in Kunark with Ragebringer, but in vanilla are very "meh". We won't see a ton of Rogues.