Best full group composition

[Jetlag]

I'd be surprised if half your group makes it to 60 before quitting. As someone said before, nostalgia is a powerful drug. Since none of you have played before, there will be a large learning curve. (Even with the level of information available that did not exist before)

My suggestion: strongly assess the integrity and commitment of your companions before attempting to min/max group composition. Having a strong core (as Raev suggested) with suboptimal additions is far superior than building a theoretically strong group composition that never reaches its potential due to players losing interest.
Someone else also mentioned a group composed of powerful duo/trio combinations that can mix/match when others aren't on. That's another smart composition although it doesn't have the best overall potential, it is practical and very functional.

Your group will not be an island. Therefore, don't stress over-engineering the optimal group comp. EQ favors socializing over "skilled gameplay". The "small group" elite gameplay taking down planar content that you may have read about fails to highlight an important fact: Although they are well-played, they overgear that content using items acquired through 30-60 man raids.

Obligatory TLDR for the ADD generation:
You have a better chance of achieving what you want by allowing your companions to experiment and choose the class/play style they enjoy rather than limiting their options to a min/max selection of non-repeating classes.

[rollin5k]

Human paladin
human cleric
human enchanter
human rogue ( or monk if you like cheating )
Human wizard ( or druid for snares, not needed though )
Barbarian shaman

Start in qeynos

[Rygar]

Ranger
Necro
Enchanter
Druid
Bard
Mage

2 pet class are nice for min max, ranger pulls in outdoor zones and dps, bard for diversity and tank, chanter to crack, druid for travel, necro for twitch. Mage is great for mod rods later, mana is not a problem in this group.

[SoekiWiz]

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

Hi guys! Me and 4-5 other guys are gonna try EQ for the first time together.
So I've a question for you guys out there! What would be your favorite class composition which can last from start to end game (including raids - if it should comes to that).

Only one rule! There can't be 2 or more of the same class.

I haven't read any other posts in the thread, I'll get to those when the boredom of my first day back to work settles in.

That being said, I love this idea!

The fact that you and your buddies are all going to team up is also going to enhance the playing experience for you. I suppose my only question would be, after you've leveled everyone up and commence FarmQuesting, do you think you'll be spending the majority of your time still grouping together or raiding?

You may not even be able to answer that right now.

Assuming you're going to farm things together, I would go with:

ShadowKnight (Tank, FD Puller, Snare, great aggro management)
Cleric (Heals, Res)
Shaman (You'll eventually be able to easily 1 group the +6 neck dragons in WW and you're not getting a better patch heal than Torpor for your tank until that CH hits)
Enchanter OR Bard (Crowd control, mana regen, melee haste -- I'd personally like to see this group with a bard, but if you have someone essentially use their enchanter primarily as a DPS and charm kill, it'll be hard to out-DPS them) -- Also mind that if your whole group isn't together, Enc/Clr and or Enc/Shm are ridiculously powerful duo partners.
Rogue (Deeps)
Monk (Deeps) OR Necromancer (Very versatile. Can deeps, charm kill, twitch cleric, even heal to a minimal degree, summon corpses, etc)

They way I'd pick would be:

Talk to my buddies. See if anyone has a "OOH I WANNA PLAY THAT ONE" urge, and start checking them off the list. For example, if the last guy comes down to the Enchanter/Bard or the Monk/Necro choice, I'd just let that person choose.

Efficiency is great. Playing what you want to play is exponentially more important. I can tell you that I leveled my Wizard because my buddy told me his guild needed Wizards when I started playing again, and I've regretted it since.

I'm looking forward to seeing you guys get started!

Regards,

Soeki

[Morningbreath]

If you're going to do dungeons, a druid is a must. Escorting a melee out of a deep dungeon "Invis just dropped" is more trouble than its worth.

From there ench and cleric are obvious.

I'd rather have a SK for holding aggro/self invis over any other tank.

Rogue for good dps and sneak.

Monk can dps and they have FD if things get scary.

[Rygar]

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

Ranger
Necro
Enchanter
Druid
Bard
Mage

2 pet class are nice for min max, ranger pulls in outdoor zones and dps, bard for diversity and tank, chanter to crack, druid for travel, necro for twitch. Mage is great for mod rods later, mana is not a problem in this group.

Spaced on the cleric... Meaningful rez won't kick in until about 49, so not sure if really needed until end game. But would swap out ranger for cleric if you want to play safe. Possibly mage drop, but I love mages, very underrated.

[fastboy21]

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

If you're going to do dungeons, a druid is a must. Escorting a melee out of a deep dungeon "Invis just dropped" is more trouble than its worth.

From there ench and cleric are obvious.

I'd rather have a SK for holding aggro/self invis over any other tank.

Rogue for good dps and sneak.

Monk can dps and they have FD if things get scary.

Inviting a druid JUST for the utility of ports is a mistake in a min/max group. Getting to a dungeon/camp is a one time-fixed cost. Having a better DPS toon is far better if you are min/maxing.

Druids are a good learning class though. They do bring utility and some dps, so its not like they are useless (sorry wizards on p99 groups). They are also fun.

For the OP, if you all are new EQ is not an easy game to learn to play. Most of the reason p99 is so easy for many folks is that they have been learning the game for 15+ years. The best way to learn is to group with folks who know what they are doing...since you are 6 manning a full team of newbies that won't happen. I'd suggest playing whatever is fun for you all.

Good luck with this project. It will be a lot of fun if your team perseveres through the harsh learning curve of new players in EQ.

[Izmael]

Druid isn't just for ports. It has additional CC, support heals, regen, some DPS, tracking, SoW, snares, harmony and even charm in some situations.

[fastboy21]

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

Druid isn't just for ports. It has additional CC, support heals, regen, some DPS, tracking, SoW, snares, harmony and even charm in some situations.

Yes...but all of those are accomplished better by other classes. except porting.

Don't get me wrong, druid is a great and fun class. In a real situation they fit into almost any pick up group in random exp zones. Very good to have around. I think the OP's group should prob have one since his team is all new to EQ. The added redundancy will help if one of the new players makes a mistake or has to log/can't be on.

But in terms of min/maxing a static six man team that is speed lvl'ing or holding a tough named camp I would go with other classes first.

[immaterial]

my friends and i (4 of us total) roll with:

ENC
PAL
SHM
MAG

we've had good luck so far, but we're only about level 20.