Zuda

Hi all, I'll try to keep this short and sweet. I'm another WoW defector. I've been playing EQ2 for about 6 weeks now, my wife and I both have. My wife is playing and loving her warden, already up to level 64. I on the otherhand, don't have a character past level 25.

I've figured out at least that I don't like any of the scout classes, nor do I like the fighter classes, although SK is not half bad, but overdone it seems.

I've researched these forums for a while now. I've convinced myself that I want to play either a priest class, or a coercer. I like the fast casting of the coercer vs. the other mage classes, but haven't leveled one past 12, so not sure how long that will last.

So I'm pretty sure I want to play a Inquisitor, a Mystic, or a Defiler. So my questions are fairly basic, directed for those who have leveled any of those classes. What one will be the quickest for me to level and play catchup with my wife, and yet not present too many problems soloing or playing with her at higher levels. I know that they all seem to be AA dependant, the Inquisitor needing ~37 AAs to notice a big difference, and the Mystic ~44 AAs. I'm curious why the defiler, which EQ2 Wikia lists as an 'offensive shaman' is such a bear to level according to what I've read? What's so bad?

I'm leaning towards a Mystic, however I despise the starting areas of the good side. Neriak is my favorite place to level, so would leveling as a defiler until 20 and betraying be a reasonable option? Or should I convince my wife to mentor me quickly to 20 in Antonica?

Any advice is appreciated :D

Oh, and one last question. While leveling, is there any 'best' amount to slide my AA slider to?

Antoinette

I would reconsider Coercer if I were you as it is a great compliment for a warden, Coercive healing, dps buffage and even hate transfer (if you wanted her to tank something from time to time). Wardens are great for solo healing heroic content so as a healer chanter combination you'd be more desirable then say two healers.

The cast speed does stay and gets even better past lvl 12, see AGI line in the enchanter tree. The 3 healers you listed are the slowest casting classes in game will you mind that? With the huge amount of control effects that a Coercer has it makes soloing easy and as a duo you would be able to take on more challenging content when you wanted.

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Tesar

Defilers are a PITA to level because EQ2 Wiki lies about their being offensive shamans IMO. Defiler damage output, especially vs Mystic, is piss poor at best. Mystics with decent amount of AA's have 100% melee crit, CAs replacing spells to take advantage of their melee crit, a damage proc off their solo bear buff and group/personal buffs to Str that increases their damage output. Defilers can get like 20% spell crit from the Int line for their damage spells, which are mostly DoTs as is. Defilers at max level have more healing capacity and tools than a Mystic, but the difference isn't huge and at the group/instance level a chain healer is a chain healer.

I have leveled a Defiler to 35. Deleted it when I changed servers, made a new Defiler that I leveled to 25 then betrayed to Mystic and have never looked back. The nice bonus of doing the betrayal is that if you do the assassination tasks to betray all the namers you have to kill for each assassination give AA.

Diknak

The only priest that is going to be fast to level is a Fury. They do the best dps of the priests at the lower levels because they don't need AA do put out some good numbers.

But, I would not roll with 2 healers for your long term goal of playing with your wife. Roll a coercer and you will get groups pretty easily. They are pretty easy to solo with and you shouldn't have any problems leveling up.

For the AA slidebar question, it all depends on how quickly you want to level and how you plan on leveling. If you plan on grouping while you level, then I would suggest a 50/50 split. If you plan on questing to level, then change it to 0 converted to AA. If you just want to catch up to her level and not worry about AA until you get there, that is fine too.

Sadari

For good characters, do some initial levels on the island. When you leave the island, immediately go to Gorowyn and pickup the questline there. It'll take you to 20 and I think it's as good as the Darklight/Neriak questline.

Sadari
80 Illusionist
80 Inquisitor

Ariel

I've leveled Warden, Templar (who was an Inquisitor for awhile) and a Defiler (who was a mystic). Of the classes you mentioned, both Inquisitor and Mystic would level kind of fast, but not till you had enough AA's to go down the melee combat lines in the Inquisitor and Mystic 'tabs' of your AA choices.

Templar and Defiler would make you cry IRL if you ever had to solo one, but are both really good healers.

I agree with the advice of not rolling 2 healers if you are duoing with your wife. You didn't say what characters you are coming from in WoW (ie, what you like to play). I'm thinking if you like Inquisitor you might like Shadowknight. That's similar to (but not as powerful as) Deathknight. You have the advantage of providing a tank for your wife, but with some decent dps and self heals in the form of lifetaps.

As a new player that doesn't plan to raid - meaning there's no rush to end game for you - I'd say get your wife to roll another toon and level up together and enjoy the game. There is SO MUCH to see.

Leveling to 64 in 6 weeks is certainly pretty easy, but unlike WoW where your Talents 'just happen' as you level, here you have to earn AA. To be high level with not very much AA is to put yourself at a disadvantage if you ever want to group.

The AA slider is a good way to catch up if you are behind. I have a friend who has power-leveled many toons to 80 who swears by '100 AA by 70' advice. He says if you have 100 AA by then, the quests that are appropriate level to you then will take care of the rest by 80. Not sure how accurate that is, but I've been doing it that way with an old toon I have that started at 50 with no AAs (been sitting on the shelf since before AAs were introduced), and it's been working for me so far.

If you do insist on an Inquisitor/Warden duo, it's not impossible and might even be interesting. You just won't kill stuff super fast (lol). Getting her to mentor you will level you fairly fast too, if that's your goal.

The advice to start in Gorowyn is excellent advice. That starting area is from a later expansion and the gear you get is way better than the Freeport, Qeynos or Neriak starting areas. The quests are interesting, and that's a nice central area to call 'home' too.

faulteroy

Betrayal is about a 4-5 hour process (slower depending on DPS), so you might want to keep that in mind. You do get some pretty decent AA from doing the quests and killing the named mobs along the way, but it's still a fairly tedious process.

If you're dead-set on playing a healer, a fury, mystic, or inquisitor would make a good match for your wife's warden. They're all fairly high DPS (for healers), and pretty fun to solo.

You shouldn't play a class just because it's the "ideal" setup, but here are some slightly "more ideal" setups:
Coercer/Warden - suggested earlier - Coercers offer a 15% healing buff, good dps, and some great group buffs. Nearly every instance/dungeon group will want a healer and an enchanter, so this will make it easier for you to find groups.
Warden/Brigand (or Swash) - Less desirable for groups, but the high DPS combined with your wife's heals will make plowing through solo content a breeze.
Warden/Tank (SK or Zerker are suggested) - SKs and Zerkers put out pretty good DPS and the combination of a tank/healer means that you guys can just grab 4 random people and go do a dungeon.
Warden/Bruiser - Probably the least desirable of all these groups. Bruisers put out fairly good DPS (though not as high as DPS classes), and can tank if needed. Bruisers also get Feign Death, which allows you to recover from a wipe pretty quickly as long as you have a rez stone (summoned by priests) available. The one thing to keep in mind is that Bruisers are just about useless in endgame (they can tank or DPS, but they don't do either exceptionally well). They also bring very little utility to the table.

__________________
Team Gnomeling

Meeble (SK) - Meable (Warlock) - Meible (Defiler) - Fizzlet (Warden)

Zuda

Well, I decided to play my bruiser, he was already level 30 (I played EQ2 about 2 months upon release before switching to WoW), but I'm really leaning towards I don't like any of the tanking classes. The gameplay seems much different than WoW from a tanking aspect (I was a tankadin in WoW).

I was playing my Inquisitor and a Warden solo, and enjoying it, however grouped with my wife, it just didn't 'feel' right.

So now I've decided to give more concentration and time into a Coercer. Only level 12 so far, and initially don't seem to like the idea of charm and possibly charm breaking, but I suppose that'll make things more interesting.

Marbus

I have a level 80 fury, 69 Warden (melee) and a 78 Monk then as a family my sons and I have pretty much every class across 3 accounts. In my opinion the Fury was the easiest to level and with the right AA mix at 80 can keep up with a scout on DPS and heal... we use to surpass scouts from time to time but that got nerfed.

If you already have a 30 bruiser, that would be a good complement to the Warden in my opinion. If you decided you wanted a monk better you could even betray. No the monk can't tank like a plate class but I've had no problems tanking instance zone (60s and 70s) and once you get to 80 the mythical gives additional mitigation. If you guys are looking to play together, just you 2 I would suggest the bruiser / monk. If you guys want to level up and raid... well then the Coercer will definitely give you a much better chance for groups / raids together.

Not sure about the Coercer but my 5 year old (started her a few months before he as 5) has a level 55 Enchanter and rarely plays so hopefully the coercer is somewhat similar. If you play often you can probably catch up quickly.

Marb

Zuda

So I've tinkered with a few different classes. I've played a few priest classes (all melee style for soloing) until 20+ (I think I like the Mystic best). Never got the Fury past level 13, got too impatient.

I have leveled a coerecer to 20, I have a conjuror at level 28. I'm tinkering with a wizard atm (at level 14).

I've decided that I need to concentrate on a class that does not require a large amount of intelligent thinking to operate lol. I still enjoy playing, however I am getting to the point that when I get home after working all day, I just want to have fun, and not do too much thinking.

So what non-fighter class requires the least amount of effort to play? I'm thinking wizard or warlock, but wanted an opinion from someone who has more experience than me.