Fulll Group looking for advice

[lecompte]

If ya'll are only playing once a week, even if it is for one twelve hour stretch, a group with ATLEAST a 90% xp penalty is going to be really slow going and dishearten people who are newish to the game. Agro maybe a problem without a hybrid tank or some decent weapons but it should be workable. Sounds like your friend is set on bard, so I'd keep that and splash in an enchanter; can probably max haste on group at level 20 if the bard song stacks at that level (?) and stack mana regen too. In a group like this, wizard would be a pretty powerful class cause of the stacked mana regen -- should be able to deliver some decent dps and you get your ports.

warrior
bard
enc
clr
rogue
wiz

[Droog007]

I like the idea of starting in Qeynos if you've got a ready-made group. It is very under-utilized because there's no critical mass there... Fall in love with the game [again] in a vacuum. It will make some of the buttholes in the Freeport area easier to ignore.

Definitely recommend SHM and ENC. Ports are convenient, but there's a thriving industry on this server for that.

[Samoht]

humans are such a bland race

for a bard, it's not really going to matter (just make sure he picks rallos zek as his diety)

if you go half-elf/high elf for your paladin, you could have access to natures defender after velius is released. dorf has best stats, and small races have very nice cultural, but so do high elfs.

for rogue, barb has best stats, followed by dorf, but dorf can't wear things like tree weave or hero bracers. don't make a human rogue. don't pick race religions because even with mask you'll be KOS in areas like neriak and overthere (are bristlebane rogues KOS in those places even in illusion?). my rogue on this server is a dwarf. i'm seriously considering remaking him as a barb and paying for PL/buying epic MQ.

if you go with mage, make them either evil (dark elf/innorruuk) or good (high elf/tunare) for the cultural pieces. they're good shit.

same goes for cleric, actually. DE/inny or HE/tunare. only other consideration is bertox (gnome/human) because you can use imbued golden black sapphire earring. but compare that to the non-imbued alternative.

the druid/barb things have been talked to death, so i really won't comment on that slot, but if you were considering subs, some advice on wars/enc:

for warrior, ogre has best stats and best aggro potential. halflings have best exp modifier and racial sneak will let you use any merchant/bank in the game assuming you can safely access them (rogue/bard/monk have this baked into class). iksar have huge regen boost and some extra AC, but can't use plate armour or any armour with a plate graphic, so they'll be behind until they obtain velius quested armour. iksar are also hated in every city except cabilis. also, always go rallos zek. human RZ cultural can be worn by all races. dwarven enchanted cultural is very nice for races that can equip (gnome, dwarf, halfling) and has no diety requirement. the warrior i have on this server is a halfling of rallos zek so he can wear both and has best exp modifier. i have no regrets, but even with two snack earrings, he's encumbered by just looting a page of velishoul's tome.

for enchanter, they have the same good/evil armour options as mages and clerics, but there's a third side in that they might want to be less KOS in cities because of quests, so it's common for a chanter go forgo decent cultural armour and pick agno for free movement. either way, dump all of your stats into CHA as enchanter, then put any left over points in INT (or possibly AGI if you pick erudite). i have an agno high elf enchanter, but i think i could easily have gone tunare because you end up trashing your VS rep for the sake of EXP anyway, and neriak has the red wine quest you can use to up rep. the cultural pieces are very nice all the way until you get planar for specific slots like arms, legs, boots, and gloves.

[Frieza_Prexus]

It sounds like your group is going to be in the low levels for quite a while, so I'd recommend convenience over high end utility. For example, if you're going to be in Sebilis doing Juggs, a shaman would be vastly preferable to a druid. If you're going to spend a lot of time as lowbies a druid would be very comparable, and the ports would be incredibly convenient.

It's great that you have a bard, but I have to agree that an enchanter would make things way easier. Your DPS will go up due to haste, clarity + bard song will be huge, and the CC is self-explanatory.

You'll have some trouble holding aggro as a paladin, but it's doable. As others suggested, you can combine multiple roles into one class. If you went SK, you'd be able to FD pull and tank with great aggro. Since you'll likely be at the lower levels for a while even a ranger would be a viable tank choice. With an enchanter and bard to feed the cleric mana, you could actually fare pretty well as one.

[Samoht]

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

With an enchanter and bard to feed the cleric mana, you could actually fare pretty well as one.

actually, bard doesn't even get mana song until 32. 20 after velius, tho. so if you're making recommendations for low end, mana song is moot.

[Ephirith]

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

It sounds like your group is going to be in the low levels for quite a while, so I'd recommend convenience over high end utility. For example, if you're going to be in Sebilis doing Juggs, a shaman would be vastly preferable to a druid. If you're going to spend a lot of time as lowbies a druid would be very comparable, and the ports would be incredibly convenient.

It's great that you have a bard, but I have to agree that an enchanter would make things way easier. Your DPS will go up due to haste, clarity + bard song will be huge, and the CC is self-explanatory.

You'll have some trouble holding aggro as a paladin, but it's doable. As others suggested, you can combine multiple roles into one class. If you went SK, you'd be able to FD pull and tank with great aggro. Since you'll likely be at the lower levels for a while even a ranger would be a viable tank choice. With an enchanter and bard to feed the cleric mana, you could actually fare pretty well as one.

This, +1

Although I don't understand all the people placing paladin agro orders of magnitude below SK's when that hasn't been my experience. Flash of light and disease cloud are in the same ballpark, and that's before stun. I've never seen a capable paladin struggle with agro. If you're going to go with a hybrid, SK or Pal, you've got plenty of things to worry about. Agro isn't one of them.

[Samoht]

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

Flash of light and disease cloud are in the same ballpark, and that's before stun.

some paladins don't know how to use flash of light, probably resulting in mobs streaking across the entire zone and ending in righteous trains, so they're afraid to use it and stop using it all together.

[falkun]

Why would you have anyone other than the bard pull? FD pulling is completely unnecessary until extremely high levels where bard-lull drops off.

PAL(SK)/BRD/CLER/ENC/DRU/ROG(MAG).
PAL tanks. FOL (+Stun L30+) is more than adequate aggro.
BRD pulls, adds mana song 32+.
CLR heals.
ENC for haste + CC + charm pet.
Try to make use of druid charm as much as possible.
DPS in last slot, ROG or MAG are probably the best bets.

[Frieza_Prexus]

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

Why would you have anyone other than the bard pull? FD pulling is completely unnecessary until extremely high levels where bard-lull drops off.

That's a really good point; I had forgotten about it.

And I agree that a paladin can do just fine as a tank, so don't let me or anyone else scare you off if that's what your heart is set on. If you get a mage for your DPS slot, he can debuff the mobs to help the enchanter with charming should you decide to charm.

[Stinkum]

i can personally guarantee you the following group will wreck any pve content with ease and require absolutely 0 twinking whatsoever

1. Mage
2. Mage
3. Mage
4. Mage
5. Mage
6. Mage