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Which DPS class is most wanted above all for their damage?Follow

#1 Apr 19 2012 at 5:00 AM Rating: Decent
I'm new to EQ and still just downloading it but I know about certain classes and their desirability in groups from when I used to play EQoA (console version of EQ which came out in 2003; I played from then 'til 2006), and from there I learned when my Ranger hit cap level (50) before the expansion (Frontiers), the Wizard was the most wanted DPS class in the game for high-end raid boss mobs because their nuke spells were not gimped due to the boss mobs being red conned and being 5+ levels above 50! Rogues or Monks were highly sought after melee DPS for groups all-throughout the levels pretty much, except Melee classes didn't hit high at all on high level (red conned) boss mobs; only bow path Rangers could hit a bit higher compared to other Melee with our bows; still no where near as good as casters back then!

Anyway...

I just wanted to know if there's a clear, noticeable desirability on DPS classes in EQ today?

I am planning on making a Rogue for the high(est?) DPS I'm reading they can get (among other reasons, like sneaking/steatlh, backstab, etc.), yet then I read some contradicting information that the Berserker might out-DPS the Rogue in some areas, or depending on their weapon?

They said Wizard out-DPSes all, yet they're solely mana-dependent, whereas Melee can still hit regular until their mana regens on its own during the fight(s); so this would even it out between Wizard and highest Melee DPS class(es)? Or no?

This would depend on a few factors I'm assuming but if anyone could give information on their personal experiences when grouping with Wizards and other DPS classes, it would be appreciated. :-)

If Wizard does most damage in-game hands down in short fights (grinding on same level mobs in groups) and long fights (fighting high level boss mobs), then I'll probably make a Wizard first, then a Rogue alt later on. But if Rogues can [consistently] hit roughly as high in the damage department as Wizards, I'll try the Rogue first, then Wizard alt later on.

Just curious what the general opinion is on this. I hated making the 'mistake' (not mine, really) of picking one class which wasn't really needed on raids back in the early days of EQoA! So I'm not making the same 'mistake' again, or trying not to! ;-)
#2 Apr 19 2012 at 5:28 AM Rating: Excellent
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Personally, as far as grouping, and small raids I may lead or organize, it's more about the person behind the toon, as long as you got what's absolutely needed to do it. Any high dps class can be consistently at or near the top. The differences in parsing between the top dps classes, isn't that significant, when comparatively equal gear and AA-wise. Now even two people of the same class not equal gear and/or AA, will have dramatically noticeable differences in dps.

Typically, Ber, Rog, Mnk, Rng, Wiz, and Mag are considered high dps, but in actual fight parses, often the main tank and/or rage tank, usually a War, and sometimes SK or Pal, will come out close to the top due to defensive procs, high DSes and the like, along with disciplines and clickies and such.

Wiz, Mag and Nec don't really require much in the way of gear, other than some spell focus items. The Wiz is best at ranged fights and is soley dependent on their mana for dps. Mag can maintain significant dps just from their pet, and be good at ranged or close proximity combat due to different pets they can use, but of course, personally, it's ranged fighting with mostly nukes for the Mag him or her-self.

Ber, Rog, Mnk, and Rng are much more dependent on gear, as they're often getting hit (with the exception of the Rng when using ranged attacks). Weapons are also the main stay of most of these classes dps. Rng of course get spells which are what keep them up near the top. Disciplines, spell-like mechanisms that use Endurance instead of mana, are how at the higher levels, these classes maintain highest dps rankings. These classes are often dependent on support from others to get the most dps as well, such as shared group AAs and spells, from Rng, Bards, Shamans, and Beastlords. Beastlords are also a high dps class, but I don't recall whether or not they're usually at the top, since most guilds I was in, didn't have many top-end ones. I remember particular ones that were consistently high end dps, but they may have been slightly more geared or AA'd than other players.

Anyway, whatever you pick, it's more about how, and how well, you play the class.

EDIT: Should have mentioned, with any DPS class, aggro is probably more of limiting factor, especially at lower levels (prior to AAs for casters) than anything else, as a Wiz at lower levels will probably be the highest dps if they want to be, but they'll be tanking the mob quickly also with probably the highest aggro generation.

Yther Ore.

Edited, Apr 19th 2012 7:33am by Yther
#3 Apr 19 2012 at 9:42 AM Rating: Excellent
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It is hard to be able to add anything to a Yther post...Smiley: wink

The one advantage I have found ( I am boxing a monk and a rogue, sick DPS by the way ) to the rogue is there ability to evade and lose aggro when they get it. It is a great way for them to work on there hide skill while fighting and it really can get you off the aggro list. Not sure if the others ( wiz, beserk, mage ) have anything along the same lines.

Just my Smiley: twocents
#4 Apr 19 2012 at 10:04 AM Rating: Excellent
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To further back up yther, it's not the class it's the person playing it. Rogue continues to be the better melee class and wizard for burst dps.
#5 Apr 19 2012 at 10:45 AM Rating: Excellent
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Also, when reading various posts (especially at EQ Players), you need to consider the source. When most people talk about DPS classes and who is the best, 9 times out of 10, they are talking about raid geared people going full burn on a raid boss. Rarely does someone talk about how good a class is for the normal, day-to-day grind.

For normal grouping situations (fighting level appropriate mobs) at higher levels (80+), my experience has shown that casters have higher DPS than melee. Many melee are so equipment dependent that the group weapons available far woefully short of the power of Rank II spells. Combine that with the fact that most mobs only live for about 45 seconds once engaged, melee toons don't have the time to build up sustained DPS while a caster can dominate with burst DPS.

Now, this gets complicated based on your group members. The synergy between certain classes means that melee heavy groups or caster heavy groups are better (in terms of DPS) than a blended group.
#6 Apr 19 2012 at 12:57 PM Rating: Excellent
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One big thing to keep in mind for EQ is that unless you plan to focus mostly on raiding, you definitely want to weigh the other factors of the various DPS classes. A good dps class that gives you the utility needed for soloing / moloing might be far more enjoyable over the long run versus a great dps class with less utility.
#7 Apr 19 2012 at 11:52 PM Rating: Decent
Thanks for all of your responses. This helps quite a bit!

I've not even played yet (and when I finish the download, I hope I can log in to begin with, not have the LaunchPad crash glitch...), so I don't know if I'll be forced to solo a lot or not. I much prefer to group with people because I'm more of a social person in that way. Extended periods of soloing is just boring and lonely to me; if i I wanted to solo, I'd buy an offline game Smiley: tongue ... but I'll do it if I have to... ... not enjoy it compared to grouping though. Smiley: tongue

I read that Necromancers are good for soloing.

I'm not an evil-type of person. I prefer good areas with light and sunshine; not dark, dreary places. This is why I never made a Dark Elf character. Only evil character I made was a Necromancer and he was a human who started in Freeport - neutral-leaning city on EQoA. I don't know if I could have the same happen on EQ when/if I make a Necromancer (gnome or human)?

I played WoW for 2+ years - from 2006 to 2008 - 56 Mage and 58 Rogue were my highest chars on a PvP server - and I did quite a bit of soloing back then; still didn't like it but I did it when I had to. Yet there was regular grouping for instances and loved the random world PvP experiences, so these helped counter the solo-boredom for me. Smiley: nod

I'm using satellite ISP now since cable is not available where I live at the moment and this company is a rip-off, so I only get decent (not even good) download speeds at 2AM to 7AM EST. lol!

One specific comment stood out pertaining to my curiosity: Casters being better for high level xp grind groups ? That's interesting. I'm not only into raiding since raiding is simply one aspect of the game! I actually do enjoy grinding (in groups), at least from my experiences in EQoA all those years ago, so I hold this high on my list of priorities!

I'll definitely have to make a lot of low level alts, huh?

I'll be using the Free to Play version at first though, which is limited access!
#8 Apr 20 2012 at 5:27 AM Rating: Excellent
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WoW's mage would be similar to EQs' wizard for your comparison. Doing F2P you will likely find wizard the easiest to solo once you get past the 50s. (mercenaries are overpowered for the lower game, but F2P limitations will start to bite the warrior, rogue and cleric much more post-50).

You can be a human necromancer out of freeport or Qeynos, but you are still evil. Arguably the Drakkin necros aren't pure evil amongst Drakkin society but would be viewed as evil by the true good types. My main is a necro and they solo very well --as long as you enjoy kiting.

Root rotting & group utility a shaman can be good (especially with a stronger merc warrior). Shamans can do alchemy (benefits any lower alts you decide to play) and are strong buffers with the ability to slow mobs (handy in grouping situtations... though slows get mitigated much at higher levels by most mobs).

Mages are fine without mercs, and the playstyle is more "Pet kill, assist with big nukes" for the easy-style (there's other options in the mage tool kit as it were though).

Beastlord is like mage, but you can melee alongside your pet. More damage than a shaman but less buff-awesomeness. More gear dependent than mage, necro or wizard due to the melee aspect.

Try some different things. Recognize that 1-50 is basically newbie time in this game now as many classes "settle" into what they truly are in the 55-65 range. Note that some classes received significant bumps along the 66-95 path that make them much more viable than older threads on the internet will lead you to believe (example: vinelash makes rangers with the right AAs rather ridiculous at bow kiting if that is fun for you).
#9 Apr 20 2012 at 2:02 PM Rating: Good
Thanks Snailish.

Hmm. Now that has me leaning a bit more toward playing a Wizard then, since I don't know when I'd finally choose to bump up to Gold status in the future. The Wizard being a good damage dealer, especially at high level for grind groups, all while not being majorly gear-dependent (so they say on the forums) + not being 'gimped' as much at 50+ on F2P?

Wizard is looking good so far as my first character... I think?

When I played EQOA (on PS2), I remember I made many alt chars, same with WoW, so I never had a capped level char in WoW and took me a couple months to cap level 50 on my Ranger before the expansion in EQOA back near the start of the game.

I know from history that the best test is to do the playing myself but, I've also learned from history that it's best to do my homework on classes before I play at all so I don't run into the snags I did at high level, like what happened in EQOA -> I found out then that Wizards were loved in high-end raiding, while my Ranger (or any Melee DD) wasn't really that needed for boss mobs! That made me feel kind of useless! So I then started leveling a Wizard to cap level (50) back then. I don't want to do that again! So this is why I'm like this now and, it's why I asked the question in the title of this thread.
#10 Apr 20 2012 at 4:54 PM Rating: Excellent
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Necros are not evil, just misunderstood.
#11 Apr 20 2012 at 6:22 PM Rating: Good
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Beastlords are like bards in the sense that a good beastlord does incredible things for a group and a bad bard just kind of stagnates in the corner. It's not an easy class to play correctly, but can do huge damage when it is.
#12 Apr 21 2012 at 12:50 AM Rating: Decent
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Key is to play the toon you have fun with.

I've seen so many folks that shouldn't parse what they do, but they manage it. Knowing your class, having fun, and tryig hard is key.
#13 Aug 15 2013 at 9:30 PM Rating: Decent
rogue bro. u can backstab from anywhere at lvl 59, and poison hits FAR higher than anything compairable for anyclass. ex. 1400 at lvl 40, and 2500 at lvl 50. compaire dto a berserker hitting for maybe 100 WHEN enraged. plus rogues can evade for a free drop agro. (click stop attack, and then hide, mob will lose agro and turn to tank at which point backstab. or even solo it will turnto your merc, backstab. rinse wash repeat.) so whoever says u cant solo rogue doesn't know how and I end up with over 70% dmg done in all 5 man groups ive been in.
Necro Warning: This post occurred more than thirty days after the prior, and may be a necropost.
#14 Aug 16 2013 at 7:26 AM Rating: Good
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Ceridain wrote:
rogue bro. u can backstab from anywhere at lvl 59, and poison hits FAR higher than anything compairable for anyclass. ex. 1400 at lvl 40, and 2500 at lvl 50. compaire dto a berserker hitting for maybe 100 WHEN enraged. plus rogues can evade for a free drop agro. (click stop attack, and then hide, mob will lose agro and turn to tank at which point backstab. or even solo it will turnto your merc, backstab. rinse wash repeat.) so whoever says u cant solo rogue doesn't know how and I end up with over 70% dmg done in all 5 man groups ive been in.


Ceridain: you're new here (2 posts as of this reply) so a couple of things about these boards: "necroposting" (replying to a thread over 30 days old) is frowned upon. Take this example here... the person asking about DPS class to play as there first character asked over an expansion ago. If they played for a few months they should have at least one level 65 character. If they have played all along they probably have a level 100 or at least a bunch of characters into the 70s. The point being, the odds of the original poster needing your advice is unlikely. To avoid the downrating of those who despise necro posting... start a new thread. You can always link the old thread that spurred you to comment.

As for rogue...

My first characters (3 attempts!) were rogues. At the time they were cheap to gear up in baz as they aren't heavily played. This was pre-mercenary, skinspikes, poisons as we now know them, etc... it was silly hard to solo. It the current game, any class is easy to level if you use the available tools. For a newb player to this incredibly complex, established game... rogue is not a class I would recommend starting with. If the newb has experience in other mmo... that changes it a bit (i.e., someone that has played a tank in warcraft since 2005 could probably handle levelling a paladin). If the person is a true newb (rare but possible) then the traditional solo classes are better recommendations:

mage, necro, wizard... least gear dependent at low levels, which means you can afford spells and not have to farm as much. Beastlord for Hybrid. Other classes are "easy" with experience in the game. True newbies appreciate having root.

*recognizing that the Serpent's Spine quest chains starting in Crescent Reach, and defiant gear make being well-geared for level 65 silly easy. 1-65 is the starter levels in this game now.
#15 Mar 23 2017 at 8:52 AM Rating: Decent
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I would point out that as a monk, only about 37 percent of my damage is from weapons, meaning we are less gear dependant than perhaps any other melee class for dps, and possibly for defense as well. You still won't do well without decent stuff tho.
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#16 Mar 23 2017 at 8:52 AM Rating: Decent
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I would point out that as a monk, only about 37 percent of my damage is from weapons, meaning we are less gear dependant than perhaps any other melee class for dps, and possibly for defense as well. You still won't do well without decent stuff tho.
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Necro Warning: This post occurred more than thirty days after the prior, and may be a necropost.
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