Newb Suggestions.Follow

Monk would be a good choice I think - they need the least amount of equipment, and much of the good starting equipment that a monk can use is on sale in the bazaar pretty cheap. You can get by on a monk for a while with just cloth armor and bare fists.

Straight up warriors aren't a bad idea either, with no spells to worry about, you will need to always be on the look out of better gear.

I feel it might be necessary to add beastlords to this thread.

Beastlords are a cross between shamans and monks. They have spells to slow enemy attack speeds, run speed buffs, nukes, and some DOTs, as well as the capability to melee fairly effectively. Their strength doesn't come from most of this though, it comes from the Warder pets they are able to summon from level 9 on. Possibly the best pet in the game(though that's subject to a lot of debate), it can usually outdamage you by a good bit over the course of a fight.

The warders aren't tanks, however. This duo works by you mixing it up by tanking and backing off when you need to, or healing your pet. It might sound weak and inefficient, but I've never had a character level faster than my beastlord up to 30, and stay very strong after that.

Beastlords are both fighters and a pet class, in my opinion.

They don't sit back and let their pets do all the work, they get right in there swinging and kicking with the monks, rogues and other non tank fighters.

With their mix of abilities (casting, fighting and pet) they could be a good choice for a new player.

Good suggestions above about the different classes strengths - if this is your first character as your post indicates, then you probably should consider starting off as either a Warrior (easiest to play) or a paladin (great character to learn with since you start off with combat and Lay Hands for full heal at first level and then get some basic spells at level 9).

Everquest is an addicting game and don't be surprised that you end up playing more than you expect since there are a lot of people to play with and huge areas to explore even at the beginning levels.

Also, since you don't lose experience for dying until level 11 or have to run back to get items off your corpse when you die until level 10, you can try a lot of different things early on with no real penalties.

The other classes are good ones to play later on after you get a feel for the game - you can have up to 8 characters at one time.

While I wouldn't call Beastlords "fighter" classes necessarily, I know from personal experience that they can fulfill these responsibilities quite well throughout the game, as long as they don't get in over their head. I tanked a LDoN last night and kept aggro very well from two wizards and a mage, merely by casting my slow to pull and then chain-casting my lowest level Poison DoT. I get the usual hybrid AAs and so I get the avoidance and mitigation ones. Eventually I should be able to tank high risk 65 LDoNs as well.

In addition, they are indeed a monk hybrid of a sort...their fists get better in damage/delay ratio as they gain levels (although I am sure this is rarely used by anyone), and since their best combat ability is Hand to Hand, they and Monks share some of the very high-end weapons. It is for these reasons that Beastlords are considered to be more closely related to Monks,compared to the other fighting classes.



I'll disagree with this too. I was in a recent BoT group with myself (Beastlord), a Shaman, two Rangers, a Wizard, and a 6th I can't remember. Since everyone had ranged attacks, we decided to let my pet be the tank, and for myself and the Shaman to heal it. Pets have very good hit points...the level 64 pet has 4200 base hp, which of course can be enhanced by buffs (and certain summoned items) very well. And it mitigates damage in similar ways to warrior classes. If slow got resisted too much, and the pet was close to dying, then I could step in and get aggro instantaneously since monsters will always attack players over pets if they are within melee range. It wasn't the fastest killing I've done in BoT, but it was better than sitting around waiting for a "real" tank.

And this should all be applicable at levels below 65, as long as you choose your fights wisely.

In any case, my apologies for hijacking the thread from the original poster's questions. Personally, I think that a hybrid (both melee and magic) class is the best choice for a new player. They can see both of the main aspects of the game in generic terms, and from there they can decide whether to stay a hybrid, or go pure melee or pure magic.

Game on,

The Oneiromancer

I would like to thank everyone for their suggestions and taking the time to assist a new player. I looked in on the pally, SK, and beasties, but I just can't seem to click with any type of casters.

I did try the monk though. OMG! What fun! Started playing and next thing I knew, six hours had passed by.

Thanks again for all the info. Hope to see you guys around more often.

Dammit...I had a very nice response and it got lost from accidentally hitting some Back button on my keyboard. Let's see what I can recover.

1. My pet does not change my mitigation whatsoever. I have seen parse reports (can't find them now though) which show that Beastlords mitigate at around the Monk level. I think the comparison to Necros in this respect is rather absurd as well.

2. Of all the "non-traditional" but still melee-type classes that can tank (Beastlord, Ranger, Rogue, Monk), I'd say that the Beastlord strikes the best balance between keeping aggro and sustaining non-tanking DPS of all of them. (i.e., when tanking, Rangers lose their massive Archery DPS, Rogues lose their massive Backstab DPS, and Monks might not be able to keep aggro very well, although I have no idea in this respect). Beastlords have spells which get very good aggro, and are reasonably fast-casting, and DPS will often stay the same (or perhaps get better because we can make sure the pet is behind the mob if we are tanking). Rangers would be best at keeping aggro, but I did mention the balance to be struck.

3. Even Caster's Realm (http://eq.crgaming.com/creationguides/Beastlord.asp) describes Beastlords as hybrids between Monks and Shamans. (Outdated article in general, but still a good reference.) I see your points on what classes resemble Beastlords the most, and this is probably an extremely silly argument, so on this point especially I'd just say we have a difference of opinion and leave it at that.

Sorry to keep this going, I realize I'm continuing a pointless argument but I can't really help myself!

Game on,

The Oneiromancer

You couldn't be more wrong.

When Luclin was released with the playable class "Beastlord" it was billed as a Monk/Shaman hybrid.

Later there was some discussion about whether Beastlords were a hybrid or a new class in their own right, SOE came out with a statement confirming that they are indeed a hybrid.

They share many attributes with the Monk class, not least significant being their H2H melee ability (as already pointed out) and having the same base combat table . They share nothing with a Mage (Mage pets are summoned from the elements, a BL pet is a spirit creature, same as the Shaman pet) and the only common factors with a Druid are the Druid/Shaman shared lines of spells.

1. it was not an answer to a new player, my answer to a new player was my first post.

2. The way i see 95% of beastlords play when soloing is exactly the same as the way alot of necro's play standing next to thier pet draining life while the pet beats the mob into oblivion. <or in the case of beasty's melee'ing while pet does all the damage>

Does that make a necro a fighter class? no it doesn't, Nei ther are beastlords they have neither the DPS <without pet.> or mitigation to allow them to be fighters, they rely on thier pet to do the majority of the damage, often taking the shammy role of slower.

Beastlords where never billed as anything by SoE, it was players seeing hand to hand and same armour as monks who placed them as a Monk hybrid.

Beastlords don't have any resembleance to monks in terms of how they are played.

So your answer was not based on the facts of the case but on your perception of how you see some people play. That is not what you said at all.

"Beastlord is no more a fighter than a necro" is stating that they cannot fight effectively any more than a non-combat skilled pure-caster.

You should have said "most beastlords I see don't melee" and we would have known what you meant.

I have seen them melee without a pet and it is pretty fearsome. Their dps is not to be sneered at. To compare it to necro melee is ridiculous. Sure they are not tanks but then neither are monks.

My first character was a Druid. I created it because I liked the lore, the versitility, and the fact that I thought it would be a good cast/melee hybrid. It is not that, but it is a good class to use to learn many skills: how to heal, slow, kite kill, kill using damage over time, kill using nukes, port, debuff, buff, etc etc etc. Played him to level 41.

I wanted to melee more, so I created a warrior. I really enjoy that class and all the toys you get to use. He is currently level 50 and I will definitely keep going with him becuase of the time investment and the fact that I can finally start farming some decent stuff.

Recently a rolled a dark elf Shadowknight. IMO, the best of both. Its an evil race, so I am KoS a lot. That would have sucked on my first character, but now it is fun and challenging. They get a great line of spells and good melee abilities. I really really enjoy this class and intend to level him to 65 as I do with the warrior. I almost wish I had rolled him after the Druid, but if I did I might not appreciate what he can do as much. Plus, I like the dual weild ability of the warrior.

You would be wise to play more than one character, casters and melee, if for no other reason than to understand that when the cleric says OOM (out of mana) you stop pulling. Plus, the more different classes you play the more you will learn what each does.

Mainly, just have fun!

I have NO clue what you're getting at here, but pet procs have exactly squat to do with the druid class.

Beast lords have a mitigation/avoidance table in common with their parent monk class as well as the aforementioned armor and weapon choices, and slows and buffs in common with their parent shaman class.