Vainamoinen

Fundamentally, a class is defined by its spells/CAs (and AA lines, for that matter), but the "superficial" qualities of a class - its name, the look and feel of it, the role the class plays, etc.... - are all important factors in determining whether a class is chosen to be played or not. I mean, if you don't think the look of a toon is important or not to a majority of EQ2 players, explain to me why the Appearance slots were added... Additionally, I've always had my "Hide helm/hood" option chosen, because wearing a fuggin' tin-can with wings has never really appealed to me.

The simple fact is that, when I began playing EQ2, and noticed there was a class called "Paladin" I chose it. I didn't know what the spells/CA's were, I didn't know what the exact role of a Pally might be. At that point, I was choosing based on a pre-conceived notion of the term "Paladin".

Lil' miss Tiggin plays an excellent swashbuckler as far as I'm concerned. She'd likely play an awesome Brigand too, but she wouldn't be nearly as sexy.


P.S. This post was post-masturbation.

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Saving the world, one thumbs-up at a time.

Faeth

This is a tough question in alot of ways - especially as I'm terrible at levelling things and have a habit of giving up on alts around lvl 25.

When I first started EQ2 I ended up as an Assassin due to being a complete noob and only having the little manual that came with the game to go on. I had played EQ1 and always struggled to find a class to stick with - and suffered from druid envy when I saw how uber the higher lvl ones appeared to be. Before I quit EQ1 I had started playing a Ranger and had been enjoying it, but mistakenly made the assumption that they would be like they are in EQ1, and be the kind of "fighter" version of a druid, with alot of the druid spells but gained at a higher level, so in EQ2 I headed down the class tree to get to ranger - but wanted to start in Freeport and so ended up an assassin, and then realised my mistake. Found Assassin a hard class to start on when you don't know much about the game mechanics.

So I swapped to levelling up a Barb Warden, and loved it - while levelling up I could solo stuff (all be it a bit slowly). But once I got to top levels, and got involved in raiding, I started to go off her - mostly with the help of other people's attitudes - I lost count of the times I'd join a group and hear something like "oh shame it's not a fury" - or "no way a druid can solo heal this zone - we need to get another healer in the group" - and then of course of late, there's the whole issue of people not really needing wardens on raids either..... Then there was the talk of AA's and I had high hopes for being able to pimp out my healing abilities to uber proportions once they came in - until I saw the warden/druid AA trees, and my heart sank.

I still burst with pride over her healing abilities occasionally, as she saves the day once more - but usually that's only because of inadequacies of the other healers in the group/raid, rather than anything special the Warden can do - we pick up the slack when other healers aren't concentrating - but if you're in a raid where all the other healers are on top of their game, you may as well put your feet up and grab a coffee.

So recently I started to level a Dirge - and like others have said - I love it. If you're not into all out DPS, but want to be loved by others and in demand for what you can give a group - it's a great class. You get to pick what buffs you use according to situation - there's some really funky AA abilities, and with the mix of spells and CA's you can play like a true scout - or sit further back and zap, and shoot, and even have a few save the day abilities like a heal and a rez so you don't totally miss out on that kinda stuff if you come from being a healer in a previous life.

I've started toons of pretty much all classes, and the Warden and Dirge are the only two I've felt compelled to level much beyond 20-30 (although what compelled me to make an evil Barb Warden I will never know and am still banging my head against the wall for that stupid decision). Some of the others have been fun to toy around with, but I've always ended up abandoning them.

Have to agree on what alot have said about Paladin tho - not my cup of tea as a class to play - but my bf plays one - and it never ceases to impress me what they can turn their hand to when they are played well by someone who really *knows* the class and has a passion for it.

Savanja

Thats more or less what it comes down to for me. I'm all about character progression and feeling like I've created something that is my own. The problem isn't EQ2 specifically, but MMOGs in general. They have become to centralized on keeping things balanced and fair, so rather than the pretty handmade cookies of the past, we are seeing cookie cutter oreos.

Same game, different skin.

But that is what is selling now, so until someone wants to make a game out of pure love and not to make the big $$, I doubt we'll be seeing anything spectacular soon.

Faabio

I have to agree, I want to be a super powerful evil mage like in all the books I read *dream*

But I can't, I can be a necromancer and they suck.

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Savanja

The truth is, I just want my barbarian to be pretty like Faabio, then I'd be happy.

Faabio

Than you'd be a reverse mangina, and that's not sexy by any stretch of the imagination.

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Savanja

Eh? Wait.

You're a guy?

:D I only kid. Lets go do it.

Uyaem

Hah! So owned.

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Flaming Homo

The class name is completely irrelavent. Many whiners chose their class based solely on the moniker attached to it and then proceeded to proclaim 'this sucks' because the class in this game did not match preconceptions carried over from other games or other experiences. If the Swashbukler class were renamed as Rectum Poker, it would be the same class.

This is EQ2, not D&D, or any other pencil-and-paper RPG. Nor is it any other MMO. Learn the differences.

In AD&D, for example, the Cleric class was one of the best melee fighters. In EQ2, we have Clerics, but they're hardly top of the parse. In other games, Fighters are the heavy damage dealers. In EQ2, if your fighters are top of the parse then your scouts and mages suck.

Preconceptions make for truly sucky players.

Tiggin

ohhhh i wanna petition for my class to be renamed rectum poker!!! What a fab idea! Then i can go around QH using my fabled strap on all the afk players!

*evil grin*