IRL - Couple of questions from a returning player (1 Viewer)

[Risunabe]

I've recently begun playing Everquest after a ~15 year break.. I found RedGuides and Very Vanilla and the experience running a 5-box group has been amazing, thank you for creating such a robust tool and welcoming community behind it. It has me incredibly excited to go back and do all the dumb things I dreamed of doing during my first EQ career (I was never able to tank the full AoW on my PoTime geared bard before, but it will happen this time...)

I had a couple of questions I was hoping to get people's input on, one very niche and technical and one boring

The boring: My current team is level 65 and consists of SK/Shm/Brd/BST/Druid, I'm thinking about getting a level 85 heroic character and was debating between Enc and Monk. Is either better when using the 85 heroic character boost gear wise? I'm wanting to do things like 6-box PoTime, Vex Thal, and all my old haunts so I'm more thinking that extra CC + buffs would be more beneficial than the extra DPS, but can be convinced either way or if another class would be better.

The niche: I was able to scavenge a computer from work. It has a pair of Xeon E5-2699 v4 CPUs, 768gb of ram, a Quadro NV 510 + Tesla K40c, and a dozen random SSDs in RAID something or other I was able to pull out of other machines. I realize that this machine is totally overkill for playing EQ, but is there anything I should worry about regarding the dual CPU setup, stupid amount of ram, or issues with passing the Tesla's output through the Quadro?

Again, thank you for creating such a great tool and good adventures to everyone.

 

[Sic]

welcome back to eq!

your team makeup - you have the fundamentals covered - tank, heal, and cc --- i would take care not to double up on cc, or heals if possible. you're 65 so you have a ways to go and your need/wants will change substantially as you play.

the most important thing is enjoying your team - but know the game is a lot different in "modern" times than back in lvl 65s

computer setup: just make sure you setup framelimiter

 

[Silverspaceman]

I realize that this machine is totally overkill for playing EQ

Actually sounds perfect for EQ solo-raiding. lol

Aside from my main box that I run my driver(s) on, I have an HP Z400 host, threw in a 12c/24t Xeon e5-2650 v4 & 96GB RAM for non-drivers and thought I was doing well with my dedicated EQ box...

 

[Risunabe]

Actually sounds perfect for EQ solo-raiding. lol

Aside from my main box that I run my driver(s) on, I have an HP Z400 host, threw in a 12c/24t Xeon e5-2650 v4 & 96GB RAM for non-drivers and thought I was doing well with my dedicated EQ box...

Hah, one of advantages to working in the life sciences is you can find some interesting things in the discard pile. This was an old image analysis computer that someone overspent on. There's a couple of old 19" CRT monitors that are next on my list when I feel like schlepping a million pounds of monitor home.

 

[Risunabe]

welcome back to eq!

your team makeup - you have the fundamentals covered - tank, heal, and cc --- i would take care not to double up on cc, or heals if possible. you're 65 so you have a ways to go and your need/wants will change substantially as you play.

the most important thing is enjoying your team - but know the game is a lot different in "modern" times than back in lvl 65s

computer setup: just make sure you setup framelimiter

Thank you for the suggestions! I'll hold off on the 85 until I have a better idea of what I need then, things seem easy enough now but I'm sure that will change.

One more team related question. It seems that Shaman are excellent healers in the end game, will the druid be able to earn his keep still with spot healing/DPS or do they fall off in the next 55 levels?

Also, thanks for the info on framelimiter, I'm watching the video now.

 

[One Cool Trick]

I had taken a long break, came back and EQ alone had a lot of changes, the walk throughs are nice, not everything is answered, but it's enough to be dangerous LOL... that said, I definitely found that learning and refining the INI taught me the most; experiment here, ask a question here, apply it there, seemed to teach me the most about it... I really enjoyed the older INI websites that walked me through (though I believe some are out of date or whatnot... they still were a really great place to learn a basic knowledge)

KISSASSIST

Still one of my favorites for learning and quick reference, if there's better, I am unaware... another one I liked for / macro commands was

MQ2MOVEUTILS

Just a couple nuggets that help me sort it out... and then again, asking questions of the community here @ RG has been HUGE!

Good Luck and Welcome Back!

The boring: My current team is level 65 and consists of SK/Shm/Brd/BST/Druid, I'm thinking about getting a level 85 heroic character and was debating between Enc and Monk. Is either better when using the 85 heroic character boost gear wise? I'm wanting to do things like 6-box PoTime, Vex Thal, and all my old haunts so I'm more thinking that extra CC + buffs would be more beneficial than the extra DPS, but can be convinced either way or if another class would be better.

I would suggest the Monk if you're keeping that line up... that said, I would NOT keep both the druid and the shaman in the same group... I would simply park the druid in POK for ports to/from POK>GL>Guild Stones to places Druid can't cover... then add either Zerker and/or Monk... OR you could drop the shaman (if you really wanted to) and heal with the druid because you have the BL (shaman type) buffs... then add zerker and/or monk and/or rogue... Otherwise, I would definitely add the monk over the enchanter because you have double healer and a bard already... Monk would just help THAT setup with some melee dps + aura


Just my two redents.

[HINT: You too can help prevent forum fires by also "redenting" (click the icon to the right ---->)

 

[Risunabe]

I had taken a long break, came back and EQ alone had a lot of changes, the walk throughs are nice, not everything is answered, but it's enough to be dangerous LOL... that said, I definitely found that learning and refining the INI taught me the most; experiment here, ask a question here, apply it there, seemed to teach me the most about it... I really enjoyed the older INI websites that walked me through (though I believe some are out of date or whatnot... they still were a really great place to learn a basic knowledge)

KISSASSIST

Still one of my favorites for learning and quick reference, if there's better, I am unaware... another one I liked for / macro commands was

MQ2MOVEUTILS

Just a couple nuggets that help me sort it out... and then again, asking questions of the community here @ RG has been HUGE!

Good Luck and Welcome Back!


I would suggest the Monk if you're keeping that line up... that said, I would NOT keep both the druid and the shaman in the same group... I would simply park the druid in POK for ports to/from POK>GL>Guild Stones to places Druid can't cover... then add either Zerker and/or Monk... OR you could drop the shaman (if you really wanted to) and heal with the druid because you have the BL (shaman type) buffs... then add zerker and/or monk and/or rogue... Otherwise, I would definitely add the monk over the enchanter because you have double healer and a bard already... Monk would just help THAT setup with some melee dps + aura


Just my two redents.

[HINT: You too can help prevent forum fires by also "redenting" (click the icon to the right ---->)

Thank you so much for the MQ2MoveUtils wiki. /makecamp is life changing. No more slowly inching out of range of the healers and finding out the hard way.

 

[Shadow]

Thank you for the suggestions! I'll hold off on the 85 until I have a better idea of what I need then, things seem easy enough now but I'm sure that will change.

One more team related question. It seems that Shaman are excellent healers in the end game, will the druid be able to earn his keep still with spot healing/DPS or do they fall off in the next 55 levels?

Also, thanks for the info on framelimiter, I'm watching the video now.

Welcome back. Plenty of posts on people's opinions about what is best, what works, etc. Take a gander, ask questions, we are here to help!

 

[Psy]

Welcome back! Many of us took a break and are now returning and this site makes the game fun again.

My first thought was a mage. Great DPS and a pet but a monk would likely be a better fit than more cc

Have fun!

 

[naamloseeen]

It seems that Shaman are excellent healers in the end game, will the druid be able to earn his keep still with spot healing/DPS or do they fall off in the next 55 levels?

There's another thread going around about the viability of druids as healers in modern content. You can check that to see what peoples thoughts are on druids specifically.

However, neither the shaman nor the druid are great healers until much later.

Personally, I like to run both a Shaman and a Cleric at lower levels (pre-100). You do lose some DPS, but mobs have far fewer hit points at the lower levels (relative to PC DPS), so it's really not a big deal. It's also nice to have a true battle rez since you won't have the rez stick for shammy/druid until later. If you are planning to do raid content, you will really want that battle rez.

At higher levels the cleric usually gets relegated to buff bot duty and I swap in another DPS.

Either way, just keep in mind that you will swap classes around a lot, so don't think that what you pick now is what you'll be playing in three months. That's part of the fun of using MQ.

 

[Silverspaceman]

Agreed with not getting too attached to your characters when/if you find something isn't working as well as you would like. The makeup I started with and sank time into (gear, max AAs, etc.) has changed over the years. Swapped out two of my starting DPS out for different classes and also swapped my SHM out for BST, which was more DPS and similar utility. These were all at different times after waffling about the time already sunken into a character and required to bring up a new character to that level - had to remind myself not to get caught up in the sunk cost fallacy when looking at how much better the change would be for my group. If back in 2004 you asked me if I'd stop playing a max-level, max-AA, geared character for another one, I would have told you that I'd have to be crazy to do that.

With the beef you've got in that server, though, I'd just do what sounds fun for you and if you end up with extra characters to swap around for raids or just multiple-groups or utility at a later point, you'll be fine.

 

[Risunabe]

Agreed with not getting too attached to your characters when/if you find something isn't working as well as you would like. The makeup I started with and sank time into (gear, max AAs, etc.) has changed over the years. Swapped my two of my starting DPS out for different classes and also swapped my SHM out for BST, which was more DPS and similar utility. These were all at different times after waffling about the time already sunken into a character and required to bring up a new character to that level. If back in 2004 you asked me if I'd stop playing a max-level, max-AA, geared character for another one, I would have told you that I'd have to be crazy to do that.

With the beef you've got in that server, though, I'd just do what sounds fun for you and if you end up with extra characters to swap around for raids or just multiple-groups or utility at a later point, you'll be fine.

Thank you, this is really good perspective. I think I'm still stuck in the early EQ mindset where leveling a new character is a labor of months which is totally irrational, considering I have 5 level 66s in less than a week. EQ changes a guy I guess...

I have read other posts that suggest a good heuristic for subbed accounts is Tank + Melee DPS need subs but caster DPS and healers are fine as F2P after a single sub for autogranted AAs. Is this a reasonable approach?

 

[Redmonkey]

Yes, I think we all follow the sub the tank route. The rest of the crew rotates the krono each month so they can keep up with auto grant. Or in some cases the second account gets a sub also and then Krono rotate the other ones.

 

[Shadow]

You can also play on Test as well. Lots of bonuses.

 

[Kambic]

You can also play on Test as well. Lots of bonuses.

And easy to /testcopy right over, so you keep all the progress you've made!

 

[Risunabe]

Quick update plus additional question.

Ended up going with the rogue and having a real DPS class makes a real difference. Apparently tank + healers + support characters aren't the best group... Also picked up MQ2Shaman/Rogue/Bst and they've been fantastic. Thank you CWHN and Sic for the fantastic tools.

As far as the new question, I was able to get my dual Xeon server setup and running (I forgot how much heat this thing puts out...). Running 6 EQ tabs, a million chrome tabs, and other stuff I'm using 2% of the CPU, 3% of the RAM, and 100% of the GPU (task manager reports 100% 3D usage and 50% GPU memory usage). As I mentioned before, my computer has a NVS 510 w/ 2gb memory and a Tesla K40c w/ 12gb memory but no video outs. It's supposedly possible to route the Tesla output through the NVS 510, but I haven't had luck getting that working yet.

This box is only used for EQ + various programming/ML tasks and I was wondering if I should scrap using the Tesla and pick up a modern video card like a 3060? Everything runs fine but I'm not sure if things can run better.

Thanks again!

 

[Shadow]

Yes, a modern GPU would be tons better in this regard.

 

[WiseTrapper]

I've recently begun playing Everquest after a ~15 year break.. I found RedGuides and Very Vanilla and the experience running a 5-box group has been amazing, thank you for creating such a robust tool and welcoming community behind it. It has me incredibly excited to go back and do all the dumb things I dreamed of doing during my first EQ career (I was never able to tank the full AoW on my PoTime geared bard before, but it will happen this time...)

I had a couple of questions I was hoping to get people's input on, one very niche and technical and one boring

The boring: My current team is level 65 and consists of SK/Shm/Brd/BST/Druid, I'm thinking about getting a level 85 heroic character and was debating between Enc and Monk. Is either better when using the 85 heroic character boost gear wise? I'm wanting to do things like 6-box PoTime, Vex Thal, and all my old haunts so I'm more thinking that extra CC + buffs would be more beneficial than the extra DPS, but can be convinced either way or if another class would be better.

The niche: I was able to scavenge a computer from work. It has a pair of Xeon E5-2699 v4 CPUs, 768gb of ram, a Quadro NV 510 + Tesla K40c, and a dozen random SSDs in RAID something or other I was able to pull out of other machines. I realize that this machine is totally overkill for playing EQ, but is there anything I should worry about regarding the dual CPU setup, stupid amount of ram, or issues with passing the Tesla's output through the Quadro?

Again, thank you for creating such a great tool and good adventures to everyone.

You've already got redundancy in several roles with shaman and beastlord.
Also some healing overkill with both shaman and druid - but druid can dps too, so that's ok
With sk-shm-bard, you can run just about anything you want in the last 3 spots.
I started with same 3 core classes. I added a mage soon as I could. Then i added another mage.
Then I traded shaman and bard for beastlord, cleric and enchanter.
Now I run SK-Cleric-Enchanter-Mage-Mage-Beastlord, but i sometimes swap out one of the mages for a wizard or a druid.

 

[naamloseeen]

You've already got redundancy in several roles with shaman and beastlord.
Also some healing overkill with both shaman and druid - but druid can dps too, so that's ok
With sk-shm-bard, you can run just about anything you want in the last 3 spots.
I started with same 3 core classes. I added a mage soon as I could. Then i added another mage.
Then I traded shaman and bard for beastlord, cleric and enchanter.
Now I run SK-Cleric-Enchanter-Mage-Mage-Beastlord, but i sometimes swap out one of the mages for a wizard or a druid.

At low levels there's a lot of overlap between SHM and BST in buffs/slow, but by high level that completely goes away.

Not saying you have to use both, but redundancy isn't an issue past 85 or so and they both bring a ton of non-overlapping ADPS for melee (not so much for caster groups like yours).

 

[Shadow]

At low levels there's a lot of overlap between SHM and BST in buffs/slow, but by high level that completely goes away.

Not saying you have to use both, but redundancy isn't an issue past 85 or so and they both bring a ton of non-overlapping ADPS for melee (not so much for caster groups like yours).

^^^ this.

 

[Doc James]

Welcome back! As far as your group layout, it's really going to depend on the content you are going after. Sooner or later, a good group makeup will fall short in differing content. Just play what sounds fun and go from there.

As far as your tech setup, as long as you run in a current OS like Win 10 or 11, you should be find with whatever you do with your accounts. However, please be advised you may still need to execute manual code (it's CPU affinity something...just google it) to tell the game to run on dedicated cores. This is really important because if you do not do this, the game will likely pile up on 1 or two cores which will bog things down. 1 instance per core is ideal from my experience with 1 GB RAM for every instance you have. I, myself, run on an Win 11 environment with no issues on anywhere from 6-10 accounts.

 

[Risunabe]

Wanted to update this real quick and ask a new question. Ended up settling on SK/SHM/BRD/BST/MNK/ROG and we've made it to 120 with ~15k AAs past autogrant. The group's able to do anything I've thrown at it and any failures I've experienced have been either PEBCAK or my bard's suicidal refusal to remain invis. MNK might not be the best DPS wise, but it's nice to have an additional class that can feign/fade when things go pear shaped to drop a campfire.

Computer wise I finally threw a cheap SSD and an RX580 in to replace the NV-510. The Xeon E5-2699 v4 CPUs are fine I guess, but you can definitely tell their age/low clocks with a single threaded process like EQ. That said, it is fun to be able to run 48 threads of assembly polisher in the background with no slowdown of the 6 EQ processes. Until you find out that 768gb of memory isn't enough and everything crashes...

As far as my question, I've finished SK/SHM/BRD Epic 2.0s and OoW BPs. How about the BST/MNK/ROG epic 2.0s? BST/MNK seem pretty marginal and ROG might still be ok but both 1.5 and 2.0 quests look pretty tedious. Would I get better yield from the time investment working on ToL/NoS quests + camping mob loot?

Thanks again, this is a fantastic community and I've really appreciated the huge wealth of knowledge everyone shares so freely.