questions about eq2Follow

I just recently started playing eq2 and want to know a little about the pros and cons of playing a conjurer, a shadownight, and a fury... just wanted a little more advice about what other people think.

I can tell you about Conjurer. There are not really pros and cons, more like class abilities that you must learn to optimize. Obviously, not all classes are equal. Mages can't wear plate armor, Tanks can't do massive nukes, etc. Here's some notes:

Conjurer's mainstay is the pet. There are 3 versions that you get upgrades at different levels:
- Earth (Fighter): low DPS, high defense, high agro generation.
- Air (Scout): medium DPS and defense. Multiple attacks with procs.
- Fire (Mage): high DPS with ranged AE attacks. Low defense.

Conjurers spells are mainly pet buffs, Damage Over Time (DoT) nukes, a few Direct Damge (DD) nukes, and Area Effect (AE) nukes. General tactic is to buff up the pet, send it to attack a mob, then assist the pet with DD or AE spells. Conjurers also get a pet heal spell to keep it alive. Without the pet, you are like a mini-Wizard with weak nukes. Keep the pet alive!

With the AE nukes, Conjurers are generally better at fighting groups of mobs. However that brings in a significant agro-management issue. If you pet has not generated enough agro to have all mobs face it, Once you cast your AE you will have the rest of the group coming at you. That's when you pet-attack the mobs that are attacking you until they face the pet. Eventually all mobs are now facing the pet and you balance pet heals with damage spells to bring them down.

Being Mage's we wear cloth armor so don't count on tanking long if something strong is on you. If the pet dies, all agro it had transfers to the Conjurer. That typically ends up with a dead Conjurer.

One of my favorite things to do is what I call a "surgical pull". That's when I send the pet waaaay across a valley targeted against a single mob within many more. The pet agro's that mob and then I pet-retreat, pulling that mob all the way back to me. Sometimes mobs will have social agro and I'll get some extras, so it's something to practice.

At higher levels Conjurers get even more powerful pet buffs which make them very effective killing machines. We also get several utility spells like Underwater Breathing Shard, Power Shard (regens power for life), Invisibility, and Call of the Hero (summon groupmate to you from across a zone, good for getting newly joined members to your group deep in the dungeon), Sacrifice (sacrifice pet for group health/power heal).

Conjurers are a technically challenging class to play while using the pet. You must manage not only your own agro, but the agro/buff/health of the pet, while watching the party members, tank, and any adds that come along. Very fun and effective soloing or with a group.

Conjurers are very versatile at high levels and we get powerful pet buffs. When added to a party it's like getting an extra party member with the pet.

As far as people liking to group with them, each of those classes you mentioned are different. Conjurer is DPS, Shadowknight is a Tank, Fury is a Healer. A group may need a tank but not a healer. Another group may just need DPS. Even though healers are usually needed the most, most groups will only need 1 of them. SO if a group already has a healer, and you are LFG, they will probably skip you to fill the last spot with a DPS (or Tank if they still need one).

It all depends on what the group dynamics are, where you are going, and what they need. When all else fails, just form your own group and before you know it you'll be having fun!

That's the bottom line, to play what is fun for you. There is no best class to pick that will be a guaranteed group pickup or raid eligible.

Good news is that there is a ton of solo content and quests to do. IF you can't find a group, there will always be something you could accomplish on your own.

Thanks everyone for all the input it makes me happy to see people helping others out I wish the best to you all i'll post another forum if I have any more questions, thanks again.

Sort of...

Conjurers, although considered a DPS class, are not a pure DPS class. That would be Wizard for Mages and Assassin for Scouts. Those two classes have the biggest nuke and melee hits, respectively. I've never been told I've been preferred due to my pet, I'm just considered one of the many DPS'ers.

In fact, I've sometimes been eyed with suspicion when entering a hard dungeon, since the pet sometimes goes off on it's own, draws agro, or I forget to turn off the "pet-protect-me" feature. All things that will drive the tank nuts. When the pet dies and all agro shifts to me, the tank will usually let me die since I was not smart enough to manage my pet agro or keep it healed.

Many times I have used the pet as the group tank, and as long as the healer is paying attention to the pet health, it works out just fine. I have many pet buffs to increase it's defense and agro generation. I just play and think like a tank, watching for adds, lost agro, and other players.

One thing to always remember, your pet must be Adept 3 or better, no exceptions. And when you can get high enough level to afford it, get a Master version of the Earth (Tank) and Air (Scout). Fire (Mage) pet is sufficient to stay at Adept 3.

That's why I love healers that use AE heals, as it heals the pet also! :)

You can select the pet by hitting the F-key that corresponds to the Summoner twice. First press gives the Summoner, second press gives pet, press again it's back in the Summoner, etc.

All those clases are fun and interesting...

Conjurer was pretty well covered but a couple things...love the power shards (can't say it enough), love the Call of Hero, love the mitigation buff, love the plane shifted pets and precision pet pulls, nice DPS.

Shadowknight...great class, and very versatile. Depending on how you want him to be...can be very offensive and a strong soloer, or very defensive and a strong tank. Middle ground can push a bit either way (for offtankin or utility roles). Pretty much the most suited tank currently for multi-mob/multi-encounters, with the strongest snap aggro. Some of the top raiding guilds world-wide have been actively recruting SKs recently due to a few tweaks that gave SKs the edge in certain encounters as well.

Furies are an interesting class...nice heal over times, with relatively short casting times. Little bit squishie, but with some nice nukage potential. Some strong AA lines. Healers are always in demand, but furies seem to be the most common on my server (and several others as well I've heard), possibly making it a bit tougher to break into a raid guild.