Need some starting HELP!! Suggestions wanted! Please!Follow

As I try to get used to the interface...I would love some suggestions as to how to start, who to choose..where to put the points. Trying to find some info..and I know everyone has their favorite classes and such but I'd love some guidance as I think I need it...thanks anyone for your time!
Drillah

Wow, you are asking a lot! :-)

If you are totally new to EQ, you should read over the class descriptions. Under duscussions/classes here on this site there is a lot of good info, but you may want to start simply with the EQ manual.

Have you played an RPG before? If so then you will have to decide between pure caster, combo or melee. All but pure casters can hold their own at the early levels so just pick something and give it a try. If you like what you pick, then keep going. If not, you can always start a new one.

I know I am being vague, but the question is quite hard to answer directly.

When friends have started up I make two suggestions: If they like casting I suggest a wood elf druid or a dwarf cleric or barbarian shaman. If they like pure melee I suggest barbarian warrior. This is for those who have never really played an RPG though. Evil classes have more restrictions on where they can go, but if you like evil, give it a try...can be fun.

Hope something I suggested helps! :-)

If you're completely new to the game, I would suggest as your first character a halfling druid. Put all your extra points into wisdom.

When you log on, head to misty thicket. The area is divided into an easy(for new players, stay inside the big wall, and close to the guards. They'll help you out if you get in trouble) side, and a hard side(outside the wall where you'll find giant animals and goblin camps), so you will be able to stay in misty for a good bit while you familiarize yourself with the game and your character. Try to do as many of the quests available to you. These will not only give you valuable experience, but can also reward you with some nice equipment for your level.

Take your time, experiment some to see what fighting style is best for you, learn your spells and what they can do. Once you've gained a few levels(I'd wait till you have sow at level 14), head out to other zones and explore the world. As a druid you will have both sow and snares that make getting out of sticky situations a lot easier while you explore. One thing I would suggest is getting in the habit of every now and then typing /loc(it can be tied to a hotkey once you learn how to do that to make it a bit easier and less time consuming than always typing it out) and taking note of your location. This will allow you to more easily find your corpse should you die. Later you should be able judge your location by landmarks, but you'll find that the ability to understand and use the coordinates the /loc command gives you will be a life saver(or corpse saver).

This website is also a very good resource for you during the exploration phase and beyond. You can find information about quests, items, zones, monsters(mobs in everquest lingo), and general gameplay. The posters here are pretty intelligent and very well informed about everquest, and usually willing to help with information or opinions/advice when you ask.

By the time you're in your 20's you should be getting a feel for what parts of the druid you enjoy, don't enjoy, have trouble with, are comfortable with. Try grouping as much as possible. Group hunting is a major part of the game, and it's always good to get experience in a group early. Try to avoid the temptation of hunting in paludal or HHK though on your first character. Those are two zones which give very good experience bonuses and can help you level very fast, however, your first character shouldn't be so much about leveling fast as it should be about learning the game and what you enjoy in the game. Also, there are a lot of things that go on in those zones that elsewhere would be considered VERY bad form and will get you a negative reputation(you'll find as you play the game more that your reputation can hinder or help you greatly), you don't want to pick up any "paludal habits" so early in your career(you actually don't ever want to pick up on those negative habits).

At some point in your high 20's, low 30's(maybe earlier, maybe later, don't worry about sticking to a rigid schedule. It's about how you feel towards the game and your character) you'll probably start to wonder what it's like to be a melee, or a pet class. Go ahead and start one of them, and give your druid a rest for a bit. As long as you don't delete the character at the login screen, he/she will always be there for you to come back to. Just remember the lessons you learned on the druid, and apply them to your new class when needed. If the new class turns out to be something you're not interested in, by all means make a new class and start again. You've probably got 8 character slots to work with, so you can make plenty of characters without ever having to worry about deleting any. Just remember, this game is about having fun, so take some time to decide what it is you enjoy about the game, then have at it.

Good luck, and welcome to Everquest

start a dark elf, ogre or troll. put all points into STA (yer gonna need it) and see if you can beat flippy in a rush into qeynos. its gotta be fun cuz he keeps doing it over and over and over...

Almost anything is doable, but I advise as a new player avoiding enchanters and especially bards. Both classes take a deeper understanding of the game than other classes, and have a lot more going on than most, right from the very start.
In the long run, every class has a lot of skill needed to play, but at the outset, some of the easier classes to play are cleric, warrior, and wizard. None of them have pets, the first two are very easy to get into groups with, and all three basically do one thing, and do it quite well. Warriors just attacks, and has to hit a couple hotkeys, clerics just need to make sure to heal, and wizards just need to shoot damage at things. (note before I get flamed, each of this classes has many things they can do besides the basics, but no-one is going to complain that you arent doing well as long as you do the basics, and are therefore good learning classes)

After playing one of these basic classes to level 10ish-20ish, you should have enough of a feel on the game to make an educated guess on what character you would have the most fun playing in the long haul. No ammount of reading or whatnot will give you as much of an idea of what is fun as playing a character, even teh wrong one for you, for 10 levels.

-Syresia of Nameless

The advice has been good except for starting as an evil race. Not that they arent fun, but until you know the game better, its easy to get suddenly killed. Actually, right now that can happen at night in previously safe areas because of the skeleton invasion in honor of the 5th anniversary.

Try out what you think is fun and don't worry too much about it. Lots of people start one character to learn the systems and then start a new one, two or three once they see how things work and what they acyually like. Don't be afraid to ask questions, but don't be offended if no one is up to typing paragraphs of answers in the game. Reading the guides here and at castersrealm can give you a feel for how the different characters are played, but just playing will give you a pretty good idea soon enough.