EQ2: Rough guide to race selection

[Noxxy]

If you are looking to make the 'best' team (min/max'd team) - then totally ignor starting stats - put 100% of your attention to the racials.

Why ignore starting stats?

EQ2 is not like Eve or DnD games where starting stats really are critical. Here, starting stats are totally meaningless at the endgame.

At the start - sure, maybe the extra few points makes a 'small' difference but are you really worried about a level 5 lizard wtfpwning your FG????

As an example, say you want to start a mage and are not sure which is better between an Eurdite or an Ogre.

Now the Eudite has 30INT vs 15INT of the Ogre - but that shouldn't be what decides it as simply 15 extra INT means nothing at the end game. For example, at level 80, after 800INT there is diminishing returns for each additional point till 1200INT after which extra INT is basically worthless. It is very very easy for a mage to get items totally 1200INT - therefore, the piddly 15 INT at the start really is meaningless.

What really drives you decision (if min/maxing) is racials.

So let's compare the racials of these two mighty races:
Ogre:
Battle Rest - Out-of-Combat Health Regen, +Str - useless to a mage if the tank holds aggro
Oggokian Trade - tradeskill
Rallosian Readiness - tradeskill
Brute Strength +5 Str - useless, mages aren't renowned for their melee prowess
Impenetrable Will - Stun Immunity - useless to a mage if the tank holds aggro
Armor of the Feerott +Physical Mit - useless to a mage if the tank holds aggro
Rallos Zek's Blessing +3% Health - useless to a mage if the tank holds aggro
Many Marches -10% initial sprint Power cost, +10% sprint speed - maybe useful but how do you control 6 sprinting characters?
Shoulder Slam DD + short stun Instant - maybe useful IF within melee range
Oggokian Aggression 2% Melee Crit, +5 Aggression - ummm...mage taunting = dead mage
Rock Thrower - gathering
Commanding Presence Enlarges caster by 20% - fluff

Eurdite:
Arc of Lightning Inflicts 785-1178 (scales by level) magic damage on target encounter - nice to have for a mage
Casting Fury Increases Max Power of caster by 2.0 %; Increases Casting Speed of caster by 5.0 % - very nice casting speed increase and more mana
Chemist Increases - tradeskill
Erud's Teachings Increases Damage Spell Crit Chance of caster by 2.0 %; Increases Disruption of caster by 5.0 - spell crits and use less mana
Homeward Bound Reduces the recast time of the primary city call spells by 10 minutes - nice to have but not necessary
Intellect of the Sage Increases INT of caster by 5.0 - sure
Intellectual Feasting Improves the duration of food by 25 percent - /meh - prob won't need to worry about HPs
Magical Protection Improves Mitigation of caster vs. magic damage by 237 - resists are always nice
Scholarly Pursuit- tradeskill
Ward of Glyphs Wards caster against 768 points of all damage 20 sec duration - nice ward for those odd occasions
Clear Mind Increases Out-of-Combat Power Regeneration Per Tick of caster by 47 - this is a very nice mana regen OOC
Falling Grace Reduces maximum falling speed of caster - /meh - nice to have I suppose
Aura Sense Grants Aura Vision (a glow around magical beings) to caster - fluff

Straight away we can see that the racials are what makes our decision easier. Eurdites mages are far superior than ogres when min/maxing.

ALWAYS look at the racials - they are what you should be using to decides between races.

Things to consider if you choose a character for the looks
Model size
Larger models tend to more easily get hung up on geometry - both in and out of dungeons. This is a pretty important consideration for boxers as we'll have up to 5 characters following us around all the time.

A large model for a tank is fine as that's the guy your probably driving but having 5 say barbarians following you around all the time can get annoying as you may have to drive your team like a 'fat @ssed' truck to get around obstacles.

Run speed whilst stealthed
This is probably more of a concern leveling up as you will find that the majority of end game dungeons have mobs who can see invisibilty thereby negating your stealth.

But - if you plan on zipping around invis then it's definately worth considering - Why? Run speed whilst stealthed.

Some races have no bonus to stealth speed meaning they will really slow down - whereas races such as rats and Delfs both have +15% run speed invis bonus. This is a prob if you have a 'mixed' group as when you go stealth some chars will start to lag behind.

Tradeskilling
If your dead keen on maximising your trade skills you could look at racials but the bonus is pretty small.

Personally, I'd default to something with a lot of STR (barb) and run speed (troub) for gathering - won't be the best choice to play as a trouby though.

[Khatovar]

A large model for a tank is fine as that's the guy your probably driving but having 5 say barbarians following you around all the time can get annoying as you may have to drive your team like a 'fat @ssed' truck to get around obstacles.

And damned near impossible in some places. My other half has a Ogre berzerker or something...cannot move in dungeons like Stormhold. Having 2 Sarnaks and a Kerra tagging along behind my Arasai, I spent more time getting my slaves unstuck and caught up in SH than I did killing things.

[Noxxy]

SH is notorious for geometry as is Nek castle...a place I absolutely hate going to with all those 'crooked' corners

Does get better for the higher up dungeons though

You mentioned another point which is probably good too add as well - having a group of large models on follow can get in the way when the tank is trying to click on something or even just do simple tasks like accept a quest - as all the slaves get their big boofheads in the way!

[Frosty]

Great info!

I have a question though.. I would love to have a mixed group of evil and good races to get different classes..

Would making a group like that cause me more trouble than it's worth? Or would I just need to avoid the major cities that are strictly good or evil?
Or is that just a flat out bad idea because I'd miss out on a lot of quests?

[Noxxy]

I run with mixed groups all the time

There are pros and cons though:
Pro's:
- You get a good mix of different classes so can basically select what you feel is the 'best' team
- there's no real deal-breakers stopping you from having a mixed group

Con's:
- They won't all recall to the same home town - but this is really only a problem at the start as honestly, from about 20 onwards I rarely if ever go back to 'home'. This con can be minimised now as, since a few patches ago, there are a lot more travel bells so really - give it 5 mins and your all back together.
- 'Some' zones do have faction quests - from memory Ferrot has two faction camps requiring you to send the appropriate people to each camp to get the same quest (just differently named) - but really, no other zone really sticks out in my memory which has the 2 different quest lines
- really will only be a problem if your say < level 20 as you may be doing your home town quest series - but that can be totally avoided as you can get more ebenfit from going to TD and doing that line of quests

A mixed group can walk into any town - after a certain level - is it mid 40s? totally gone form my brain atm but if your team is 50+ there is no worries - all the guards will be grey. When the game was released you couldn't walk into any opposite faction towns but now most of the guards have been either removed or are low level.

[Khatovar]

Ok guys, I got all OCD again and got us a new referance-thingy. I started creating it here, but it got pretty massive, so it's on my guild site.

Racial Comparison Chart by Archetype

The friggin site editor was being a huuuuuge ass-pain, so forgive typos and stuff. Let me know if there's any horribly glaring errors so I can try and fix it next week. And feel free to link it to the wiki. At least the site will get some use other than the guild roster, hehe.

[kazxex]

I've been reading some of these threads and getting kind of interested in boxing an all rat party, does anyone know how hard it is to do the betrayal quest if say I wanted a rat paladin or something, or know of any good websites with betrayal quest guide?

[HomersDonut]

This is the guide I follow when doing betrayals. http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Betrayal It covers pretty much all aspects of it.

[Frosty]

Racial Comparison Chart by Archetype[/url]

The friggin site editor was being a huuuuuge ass-pain, so forgive typos and stuff. Let me know if there's any horribly glaring errors so I can try and fix it next week. And feel free to link it to the wiki. At least the site will get some use other than the guild roster, hehe.

Awesome!

I added the link in the Wiki.

I know it would be a pain, but it might be useful to list each races starting stats that pertain to the Archetype too.

Fighter
- Human
-- Str = 20, Sta = 47 etc, etc. (I made those #'s up...just in case. :P )