Class Power Analysis

[y2sky2003]

(UPDATED 12/5/2018! Removed the "ranking" angle and focused more on a strengths/weaknesses analysis)
I commonly see the following questions in OOC chat:

Does <class archetype> do well here?
Are <class>s good on this server?

Those are perfectly reasonable concerns to have. Everquest, despite the server's ruleset, is still a time-intensive game and you want to make sure you're able to have some quality gaming for your time investment. Therefore, I've taken my 8 months of time on Casual Dreams (5 in 2017, 3 in 2018) leveling seven toons and grouping with several others, and compiled a server-specific class analysis for your viewing pleasure. Before I begin, I do want to set the expectations with the following caveats:

- There are many ways a player can value a particular ability or area of game content. While I try to cover most aspects of character life from leveling to exploring to 2-boxing to endgame raiding, I weight the ability to solo PoP raiding and custom Casual Dreams content more heavily than other aspects since that is the stated primary goal of the server.

- I've had a pretty broad experience of the server, but I don't claim to know everything. If there's a critical detail missing from my analysis, please let me know in replies. This is also meant to spark some fun discussion.

- Just because a weakness is emphasized on a class does not immediately make it "bad" or "unplayable". Poru has stated that all classes can solo to Quarm on this server, and I agree with that. My analysis is from a standpoint of meeting that goal efficiently. If you're playing a particular class and enjoying it, don't let this article dissuade you from continuing to do so! You may be the one to bust my analysis wide open and discover something the rest of us haven't!

Ok, onto the good stuff! Here's a breakdown of each class and how it plays on CD...

- Warrior -

Warriors are a popular "first character" on Casual Dreams, mostly because it was near impossible to solo as one on Live. Now that all their healing and buffing needs are met by server mechanics, it's easy to go forth and conquer. Sporting the best damage mitigation and HP pool in the game, they're the easiest class to tank endgame content with. Their lower damage output can make some endgame fights drag out, though, so it's worth getting the DPS AAs before doing the heavy raiding. Most of their DPS concerns from the past have been squashed due to getting Crippling Blows at 90% health.

Strengths: High HP/AC, tough to bring down. Has the most gear options
Weaknesses: Lower DPS than most melee classes until AAs

- Rogue -

One of our former regulars always greeted the server with "Rogue Powa!", and with good reason. The Bite of the Shissar poison line, backstab damage, and full array of melee AAs vault them to Tier 1 in terms of single target DPS, plus chain armor affords them reasonable mitigation for going toe-to-toe. The fact they can use stealth to explore every inch of the content unabated is icing on the cake. All that's said of their solo ability. Rogues are even more powerful when boxed/grouped with another character. Their lack of area damage is the only real weakness of the class, but they mow down mobs so fast that it only really shows up with mass pulls.

Strengths: Single target DPS; Powerful class from start to finish; Gets a lot of benefits from custom server ruleset
Weaknesses: No area damage capability; Limited itemization, no heavy weapons to boost riposte damage

- Monk -

Monks were one of the classes that could tear through old content solo on Live, and that ability translates to Casual Dreams in spectacular fashion. You no longer need a pocket Shaman to drown your enemies in a sea of fists, staves, and flying kicks. While not as beefy as a Warrior, the Monk's raw damage output, innate mitigation, and solid AA lineup make it a well rounded choice for soloing. It may take a bit longer to plow through some of the mob swarms in PoP content, but you're a walking Jackie Chan movie. Enjoy it!

Strengths: Balanced mitigation and damage capabilities; Fun to play
Weaknesses: Less gear availability than other classes; Area damage limited to disciplines

- Berserker -

While mostly a specialized Warrior, Berserkers can dish some of the best DPS numbers on the server thanks to their overhaste abilities and Frenzy. The throwing axes only seem to serve as marginal utility when leveling. Weapon itemization is also a problem early on, but gets much better once you're able to do raiding content or if you get a gift from a higher level player. They can use a Coral Hilted Tulwar to get through swarms in the endgame or powerlevel as an alt.

Strengths: Best 2H DPS while retaining access to chain mitigation; Crippling Blow DPS
Weaknesses: Poor weapon selection early; Many powerful AA abilities come after the level cap of 65 and therefore are not accessible on Casual Dreams

- Magician -

Mages are the total package of what you want to do on Casual Dreams. They have the second best nuke package in the game, just behind the Wizard, come with the most diverse and powerful pet lines, and also have the best single damage shield in the game. Lower HP and mitigation, pet management, and lack of a true control spell make them tougher to pilot than other casters, but they wreck the vast majority of the server content when played well. Some of the custom server mobs will take your pet completely out of play (e.g. Beholder, Death Reaper), which will make the fight significantly tougher.

Strengths: High DPS for both swarms and single targets; Best damage shield in the game; Resist debuff line
Weaknesses: Much weaker if pet is taken out; No fear/root/snare; Only fire and magic-based nukes

- Wizard -

Having the highest DPS spells of any class, Wizards also benefit a lot from the server ruleset. The game is a lot more fun when you don't have to sit for minutes after every kill. In addition to having rains, PBAEs, and good old-fashioned single target nukes, each of these lines comes in different flavors of damage and resist modifiers, so there's a nuke array for every situation. Kiting gods around with root/snare while blasting their faces is also probably as fun as it sounds. Unfortunately, having no pet as a source of sustained DPS means interrupts and resists REALLY REALLY suck.

Strengths: Highest spell-based DPS and most versatile nukes in the game; Root, snare, and ports are all great utility
Weaknesses: DPS is inconsistent due to lack of pet and resist debuffs; Weak damage shield

- Necromancer -

Necromancers were a fearsome 1v1 opponent for mobs and PCs alike on Live, and the same is true here. Dungeon crawls are slow, however, due to the lack of innate area damage capability. While this can be seen as a good or bad thing, it's worthy to note that Casual Dreams doesn't change much about the experience of playing the Necromancer class. They are played pretty much the same here as on Live or Project 1999. That said, they combine a nasty DoT lineup, their pet, and now some poisons for solid single target damage. Clearing to those bosses will take a while though. Note that pets can be given a Coral Hilted Tulwar if you're trying to clear swarms. Just watch their HP!

Strengths: Powerful DoT and debuff lines; Strong pets;
Weaknesses: No innate area damage capability

- Enchanter -

The game has changed completely for Enchanters since the buff to charmed pets. The damage spell limitations still exist, but this is now a playstyle worth exploring. Being able to slow and haste on demand is great for most fights.

Strengths: Charm is now awesome; Ability to slow
Weaknesses: Subpar damage spell lines

- Shaman -

Priest classes are generally going to be underpowered on Casual Dreams due to their utility functions being redundant with custom server mechanics, but Shamans do a pretty good job of overcoming that. Yes, their buffs have been relegated to a bot, but a Shaman is still a fun class to level solo. Their endgame is similar to a Magician with one poison-based rain line, pet, and a DoT array. The Spirit of the Leopard proc buff also provides a huge boost to their pet or any melee grouping with them. Slow, Incapacitate, and Malo are great debuffs to have in a boss fight when you're trying to cast spells for damage as well, enabling the Shaman to grind it out even against the toughest bosses.

Strengths: Useful debuffs; Access to Alchemy
Weaknesses: Narrow damage spell selection; Most utility is redundant

- Druid -

Druid's damage shields + multiple area damage spell lines are a big help when leveling and facing swarms, but they fall short of a Magician in those roles in the endgame. Druids also have a lot of their AAs geared toward healing and therefore fall behind in the post-level cap game. Still, Druids remain the kings of kiting that they were on Live and that can't be ignored. They've also been the recipient of a lot of the recent balancing changes to buff charmed pets and utilize poison to compensate for the past endgame issues. Definitely worth a try if you like having a wide array of damage dealing options.

Strengths: Best utility class despite redundant buffs; Strong area damage abilities; Strong damage shield
Weaknesses: Weaker nuke and DoT lines than pure casters; Low single target DPS; Fewer relevant AAs

- Cleric -

The prospect of a plate caster combining the Earthquake line, reverse damage shields, stuns, poisons and decent nukes sounds good in theory, but there are definitely limitations. Most bosses are still immune to stuns and you're still only swinging a single weapon once per round. The PBAE spell line and good endgame gear keeps them as a fair class choice.

Strengths: PBAE line; Plate mitigation
Weaknesses: Limited sources of DPS; Stuns lose effectiveness in endgame

- Ranger -

Rangers have no middle ground. Folks either love them or hate them. Fortunately, there's a lot to love about them on Casual Dreams. Archery DPS with all the related AAs against a still mob is among the highest on the server. Rangers really shine for 2-box teams due to being able to shift from tank to ranged DPS at the drop of a hat. Even when soloing, they get stackable damage shields, burst nukes, and a DoT line for respectable DPS when meleeing. On top of all this, they can equip a Coral Hilted Tulwar to plow through trash swarms. Rangers take a while to come into their own though, and they have the weakest mitigation of all the Taunt classes. You'll have to stay on your toes managing heals and nukes if you're tanking with a Ranger.

Strengths: Solid DPS; Good for multiple roles whether soloing or boxing
Weaknesses: Underpowered early on; No riposte disc; Corpse/death jokes

- Beastlord -

Beastlords don't benefit as much from the Casual Dreams ruleset as other classes, but they were already a great soloing class to begin with. They get fewer melee DPS AAs than other classes and only a marginal double attack chance, but pet crit and flurry AAs make up some of the difference. While they'll take some extra time against swarms and struggle to play pet cleric against the tougher bosses, their soloability as designed in the original game still make them an excellent choice, and slow spells make a lot of fights more manageable.

Strengths: Solid single target DPS when combined with pet; Access to slow spells
Weaknesses: No innate area damage capability; Poor against targets that consistently neutralize pets

- Shadow Knight -

Because knights were designed to tank and generate aggro based on sources other than damage, they will feel more narrow on a solo server due to the low damage output given to them to balance. Shadow Knights at least have a DoT array and some offensive spells to help, but fights will be pretty slow going early on until you break damage caps. Also, due to the dropoff in combat effectiveness for anything 5+ levels above, SK pets are useless for anything but looks.

Strengths: Good mitigation; Cool class-specific items
Weaknesses: Poor damage output in the early game; Useless pet

- Bard -

While Bards are one of the best classes at leveling with swarm kiting, their relatively low single target DPS makes boss fights hard to stomach alone. They're a great class for boxing or grouping with a friend or two with damage shield and overhaste songs. A few players on this server have had success utilizing a Bard, so they're definitely playable.

Strengths: Great against swarms; Great for boxing/grouping
Weaknesses: Low single target DPS

- Paladin -

Paladins have a slightly tougher road to hoe on Casual Dreams. Their signature ability (Lay on Hands) is useless in a world of Complete Healing potions, as are their buffs. Several of their endgame swords also have healing procs instead of damage. They can still wield a Coral Hilted Tulwar and tank very well though. I'm definitely rolling one to see what numbers come up with the Fabled Great Spear of Doom and the Slay Undead AA, too.

Strengths: Plate mitigation; Unique Knight and Paladin-only weapons
Weaknesses: Lower DPS than other melee classes; Few relevant spell lines

Any thoughts? Feel free to reply!

[PabstObanCD1]

I think this is a thorough, honest guide that will be useful to anyone new to the server.

What I also think it is is great feedback for the admins.

I'm don't have that WoW mentality that every class should be able to do everything and be perfectly balanced... but I do see some opportunities for making certain classes more desirable.

I'm not versed enough in Everquest to answer these questions but I can surely ask the questions in a Socratic way...

For instance.

Enchanter comes in at the bottom.
-We know that some of the things that made Enchanters traditionally a popular choice on live at this stage of the game are trumped by the tweaks that make this server soloable.

What could we change about enchanters to make people want to play them?

Could there be something changed about their pet abilities?

Shaman/Cleric/Druid
-With The existence of heal pots and buff bots... a lot of what make healer classes shine kinda gets washed out with a little bit of platinum jingling around in your pocket.

Could something be tweaked to make these classes stand out?

I love the buff bots and they are super convenient, but maybe the healer line of heals/buffs be somehow more potent than your friendly neighborhood lonely Shaman? Or maybe the lonely Shamans buffs remain good, but not so good that a shaman asks a lonely shaman for buffs.

Don't know what the right answer is, but I'd love to see more people have the desire to play these classes instead of immediately going to say... warriors Rogues and mages.

Would love to see what people think.

[y2sky2003]

Poru gave me some info that may put the Shaman in the top half, honestly. I had incorrectly assumed their pets could not equip weapons, but they can, giving them lots of damage potential from procs. A Shaman also has buffs that the bots do not, specifically a proc rate buff I missed in my analysis that could put Shaman at Rank 8 above Beastlord and Druid.

As far as the classes that are completely broken, I don't know what you could do that wouldn't overcorrect. There's also enough parity between the good classes that even though a class may look mediocre in the middle position on the list, the difference is small enough to where it's only marginally noticeable. I don't think the server is in a position to where there are too many of one class or everybody is playing 3 classes. In fact, I've seen several 2-box combinations of the lower ranked classes that log on consistently multiple times per week, so somebody has figured out a fun and/or effective playstyle there.

For heals, I think the CH pots are fine as a mechanic. It's meant to simulate a raid's CH rotation, and succeeds if you're paying attention and adequately prepared, and fails if you're not. I don't think anything should be adjusted there.

Assuming it was feasible, I could see finding some class-specific boost for Paladins and Enchanters, but with everything else going on with the server I don't see it being a priority (from the player-base perspective) for a while.

Good comments, keep 'em coming!

[Aniac]

1. Author Bias~...had to say that.

2. Socratic method? /bonk pabst. You know who really hates the socratic reply forcing them to use inductive reasoning to figure out what your asking? Drill sgts~...such a long time ago, yet so very vivid memories!

3. My necro eyes the list with pleasure...

4. Wizards should focus on avoiding interruption while casting..AA's etc (speaking a bit out of turn as I have not leveled one yet.)

5. SK pets are low level, but they do get pet affinity AA allowing shared buffs, e.g. Shammy buffs. This was the first AA I went for on necro, and was well worth the cost (9AA or 12AA something like that).

6. Druids get dire charm at level 59, I remember there being some issue about which mobs were dire charmable, I think Poru may have adjusted this, but its been months since I was playing around with it. Also, at 65, you can dire charm a level 64 mob, throw a haste item and a couple weapons on them, and they are way better than any normal druid pet for sure. This might be the same case for chanters (they might be able to dire a 65 mob, not sure, but they wont have the npc tag to worry about like dr00ds (animal only), and a lot of druid spells are outdoor specific...further limiting their usefulness.

I dont think any class is broken per say, but just like live eq, there were always certain situations where once class was better at something than others.

Aniac

[y2sky2003]

Made some edits and shifted some of the middle tier rankings around. Beastlord and Shaman got the biggest boost in ranking, mostly due to observing that their pets can, in fact, equip weapons, greatly boosting their theoretical endgame DPS. I moved Rangers and Druids down a bit due to more observation of some of their weak spots. In particular, my ranger has been struggling to solo some of the harder-hitting custom bosses, and works best in a boxing role where you can park it and fire arrows (therefore moving it DOWN in a solo ranking analysis).

[Kikyo]

and i started here with a Pally and that sums up my noob char. Rogues are just so OP its not even funny. A few class tweeks would help even the playing field but i Don't see much for the poor ENC and pally. One thing i wouldn't mind seeing is Bard being able to use Poisons (seems to be a general RPG thing for them. Heck maybe even Super AC bonus for the lonely pally.

I have noticed a well twinked Zerker can really wreck havoc though (and best of all with Tulwar), only bad thing is less procs. Now if level cap every hits 70...

But yuppers, i think your list is spot on

[PabstObanCD1]

I'm seeing bards growing rapidly in popularity due to their unbelievable ability to solo and pair with just about any class two boxing.

I don't see a whole lot of Zerkers but I'm seeing more Beastlords.

[inwkxm]

I have to disagree with you on the Bard power. With the DMG Shield that a bard can pump out plus DS pots and AOE DOTs they can be a really great class to quickly level up.

As far as Single target they are not very strong, but they bring so much to a duo. Over-haste, Haste, Slow, Resists, Damage Shield, Attack. and so on.

With Amp and the Clicky from Shissar Temple for singing plus epic I am maxing Resists, and have a DS well over 120 and that is not with a Mage or Druid DS on either. With that It would push it that much further.

Bards are weak single target Solo melee...but for leveling up they rock. AOE Slow/snare, Damage Shield and AOE DOT was what I used mainly leveling up. I leveled so much faster on my bard than on my rogue and I really did some of the same zones. Just bard seemed to take them down so much faster due to DS and AOE dots and I felt like I was able to gather a few more mobs.

Veksar was a good zone to level up in...No one ever there and zone level range was for 40 to 65.. Pretty good re-spawn rate and was able to round up herds to DS and AOE Dot down.

I just think your list is a bit flawed when it comes to a Bard. While not top notch at Single Target and Not the Top for AOE Swarm...They do get better as they level up and do bring so much to a duo team. Knowing the right song is half the battle for playing a bard on Casual Dreams and pumping that song to max with the right tools helps as well.

Thanks,

Toban

[Rayne]

Power rankings are always going to be subjective and contextual (where you are in the game), not to mention as Poru makes additional changes the dynamics are also changing. When I was in Time I would almost exclusively box with a bard, now with newer events the bard is often shelved because some (most/all?) events increase in power when multiple PCs engage (meaning the bard has to increase output to compensate for being there), to the point that I usually solo (with a more specialised class) or box with tank and DPS (which the bard doesn't fit into). Quite easily the bard DS can go over 250 with a buffed/aa'd main, but the DS isn't always my first choice now as some endgame mobs hit infrequently enough to make it useful. Haste and pverhaste are nice but the ultimate cap is closely approached with buffs and endgame clickies that diminish this aspect as well. As for snares, some are immune outright, and DoTs don't make up for a specialised DPS.

While we're on this topic (and I acknowledge I have some more testing to do), there seems to be a noticeable speed cap for bards. While there is a benefit to wielding endgame horns (Blaring Horn or Polished Chitin), there seems to be NO benefit to wielding endgame percussion (Lizardskin, Witheran Hide 270/280 % mod)) vs simply wearing armour with much lower percussion mods (with max "Fleet of Foot" and "Instrument Mastery"). Not sure if this is intended.

This all said, I have used bard support versus Althea (the vampire), and that works pretty decently (/melody 2x DS songs, 2 user choice, usually the proc song (which won't stack with self-proc spells sadly). Fading memories to keep the aggro on the tank, and to immediately break mez on tank.

As I said, it is a subjective topic and VERY dependant on your usage / context. I personally think that "rankings" are a bad idea (especially as the server continues to evolve, it can discourage people unnecessarily from certain classes), but their descriptions of strengths and weaknesses do provide a starting point for new players at least.

[Zeka]

You have Rangers at rank 8.......


Have you played one or seen someone play one? Cause they might be more OP then rogues. I have routinely watched rangers tank and spank Spider Queen no trouble and they shred through her HP so fast. I ranger can kill Spider Queen faster than my 500aa warrior and fathers 100aa monk can do together.