Easiest class in Everquest?

[dafier]

During this era? Paladins.

Buff + pretend tank/dps.

Pretty easy.

[JurisDictum]

Rogue. To play a rogue well in conventional EQ (i.e. not FTE related stuff), you mostly have to master press backstab on cooldown and your evade maco. You also have to stay on the right spot of the target like any other DPS.

Dragging corpses is a fun way to learn a zone, rather than being the one dying. It's all part of the character of the class.

[paulgiamatti]

Rogue is the easiest. Granted, there are rogues who just wait to be spoon-fed mobs and then push buttons for 30 seconds, and there are rogues who are playmakers and take on much more difficult tasks. But overall, definitely rogue.

Bard: Not as easy as rogue, unless you're playing dishonestly and AFKing the majority of the time. You still have to juggle songs and stuff.

Cleric: Sounds easy on paper, but it's actually one of the more difficult jobs. Clerics have to announce their AFKs with a megaphone, or the raid wipes. Compensating for bad clerics in a CH chain is also pretty damn hard.

Druid: Somewhat similar to bard in that it's easy if you're doing the bare minimum. If you're keeping up on every utility - the half dozen buffs to keep up, the sunders, the snares, the dots, the nukes, the heals - then it's no simple task.

Enchanter: Definitely the hardest. Hardest to play at basic crowd control levels, and the hardest to master. So many different components and playstyles for this class, and a truly talented enchanter can accomplish insane feats that normally take an entire group of 60s.

Magician: Not necessarily hard, but not nearly as easy as rogue. Controlling a pet - while a mind-numbingly simple thing for most people - is still orders of magnitude more difficult than anything a rogue does. Not having a root spell ups the difficulty factor a ton.

Monk: Would be on par with rogue if it wasn't for the expectation of pulling and mastering feign death mechanics.

Necromancer: Similar to magician, but definitely easier due to much better soloability.

Paladin: The most difficult hybrid. Paladins get screwed in so many ways, but mastering Flash of Light snap aggro isn't hugely difficult. Very low DPS amounts to very low soloability.

Ranger: Similar to druids when it comes to keeping on top of utilities. Bad rangers will just attack and throw a snare here and there. Good rangers will keep up Strength of Nature on DPS classes, Call of Earth on tank classes, Chloroplast on tanks and pullers if needed, damage shield on the tank if needed, all while fulfilling a multitude of other jobs like pulling, tanking, and crowd control.

Shadow Knight: Way more soloability than paladins due to snare and fear and lifetaps, snap aggro on par with rangers, and feign death. The easiest hybrid, but still way more difficult than rogues.

Shaman: Shamans are a lot like enchanters but not nearly as difficult. A good shaman can do insane things like solo Lodizal and will fully buff their group before anyone asks while chain-cannibalizing and never run out of mana from slows, a bad shaman will begrudgingly buff people when asked and maybe slow a mob here and there before proclaiming "OOM".

Warrior: Should be a very easy class, but taunt mechanics require warriors to rely on procs for aggro so it can be frustrating. Definitely not as easy as rogue, but probably easier than monk. Bad warriors switch targets constantly and have no idea what proxy aggro means. Difficulty increases a ton for raiding due to having to understand all the different mob positioning and push mechanics, as well as using disciplines efficiently.

Wizard: Second easiest class after rogues. Rogues can evade and drop aggro, and a rogue's hate builds up much more incrementally. Wizards don't have it that easy, and they have to know which spells generate more hate than others, at what point they should start nuking as to not surpass the tank's aggro, and when a nuke is one nuke too many. They also have to know which mobs are bellycasters, and how to compensate for push during a bellycast. That said, their only job in groups and raids other than porting people is to nuke stuff, and they can easily solo up to level 60.

[gummab]

The question really should be which is the busiest,lets face it all classes are easy.

[Izmael]

Ease or difficulty of a class could be quantified as "room for error". Generally speaking, how many close or close-ish decisions you have to take per hour of average play of this class.

The more close decisions, the more room for mistakes, the harder the class is to play as the quality of your decision-making process and the speed thereof will decide the outcome of your endeavor (or the one of your group, or raid).

This is why I said rogue is the easiest. I mained a rogue on live back in classic-Velious and the only close decisions I can think of were of the kind "do I have enough time to sneak behind this see invis mob in Plane of Hate before it turns to roam that way" while CR'ing the guild. Rest of the time, it's so hard to do anything wrong, playing a rogue..

On the other hand, I put magician as hardest. I played a mage to 60 on P99 and I died on it literally all the time, when trying to do funky stuff solo or duo, because it involved close calls and inevitable mistakes (pet chaining, summoning mobs, mana mgmt, CoH timing, you name it). Of course the possibility that I simply was a retarded mage must also not be ruled out completely.

Someone said enchanter is hard. Yeah, it can be hard if you're attempting stuff that is hard - soloing/duoing stuff not meant to be soloed/duoed, PvP someone good.. But regular CC/buff work for an exp group with a puller not bringing more than, say, 5-6 mobs every time, face it, is dead straightforward.

[paulgiamatti]

Totally. Now that I think about it, mages really get the short end. One of the hardest epics and very low desirability in groups. If you want a challenge roll a mage - it will force you to think creatively when it comes to soloing.

[Rattle Squirrell]

I always thought Cleric was pretty easy. Just heal.......

[HeyNomad]

This question's like a rorschach test. It all depends, right? It's as easy to be a shitty chanter as it is to be a shitty rogue.

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

Ease or difficulty of a class could be quantified as "room for error"

I like this measure, but even here it depends on the context. I main a druid. In a raid, assuming I don't accidentally port the tank or spam nukes at 98%, my room for error is huge. That's even true in groups, unless I'm main healer (rare, especially past 40ish) or an evac is needed (even rarer). But charming in Perma or Kedge, my room for error is pretty tiny.

When someone asks me about an easy class, I think of it as how quickly someone could become competent in everything normally required for success in groups and raids (and maybe solo, if they can solo at all). I've seen people do amazing things on just about every class, but that's more than competence; that's mastery. I guess I also discount gearing/spell requirements. If that's part of the ease of a class, druid or necro are about a hundred times easier than shaman or warrior.

By that measure, I'd go with wizard (agro management) and mage (agro management and pet control) as my top two, with maybe druid and shaman (buff, debuff, spot heal occasionally) tied for third. In my experience, any melee type is just more demanding. Rogues need more constant attention to positioning and agro management. Ditto warriors, and also situational awareness. Etc, etc.

[Halfelfbard]

All depends on the player.

Bard hardest, and Rogue is the easiest. But a lazy player is just shitty all around.

[maskedmelon]

Also depends heavily on clickquest. It's a whole different game if you are an habitual recharger.