I'd guess that a level 22 would have an easier time getting into
a guild than a level 25.  ;)  Most of the Test regulars are nice
folks, or at least that was true when I played on Test.  Just do
the usual thing of getting to know people in-game.  It's lower
population than the production servers, but you can still meet
people and make friends.

That LDoN story is really sad.  I don't know what to say to that.

kaev

A thousand monkeys banging on keyboards posted the following under the
name Aruvqan <mtraber251@earthlink.net>:

Hehe I could only help with that once you get past 60. :-(

Thanks=)

SolRo is still my home, but test is so nice and polite...and
quiet [at least in the newbie zones=)]

Paladins may be useful, but hardly necessary in any LDONs.  I've done
that one with a ranger tank and two shaman for slowing/healing.  I've
done BoT courtyard with me healing/slowing, Paladin tanking/healing, and
4 DPS classes.  There are situations where a particular class is pretty
much required, most of the time, you can get by with a variety of
options.

People found ways around the locked door in CoM a long time ago, been
done many times with no rogue.

You don't need the shaman to be there to use the potions...

I frequently xp with a druid as the main healer, and believe me, they are
quite up to the task.  Elemental zones, WoS, lesser PoP zones.  In the
easier zones, I am quite up to the task of slowing and healing as a
shaman, and my heals are even more pitiful than druid heals.

If I am looking for a healer, I first check to see if any of my
guildies/friends is available, druid or cleric, doesn't much matter,
then, if we feel that a shaman is not up to the task, resort to finding
someone outside the guild that is LFG.

We use monks almost exclusively for pulling for raids, and for xp groups,
they can do well as pullers, and they work well as yet another DPS class
as well.

To me at least, the game is much more about the social aspect, I always
much prefer hanging out with friends, even if it makes for a less than
optimal group.

Did you say something, "dontemailme" <dontemailme@dontemailme.com>?

If you wanted to sell services for money as a way of life, you should
have played one of those classes you've expressed buff envy for in
this thread.
But seriously. You have a druid, and whine that you can't make money
by sitting on your a.s in PoK? What's wrong with you?

Variety is the spice of life. If the game were to only contain crucial
classes, it'd be a pretty boring place.

And clearly couldn't think of a better way to duo with a 66 mage.

If you don't know what to do with it, yes. Back when I played, I
almost never found a place where I couldn't function as the only
healer in a group.

Since it's clear that you'd be so much happier playing a cleric and an
enchanter instead of what you're playing, my conclusion is that you
just like whining.

Cel
Retired druids & sundry

Money does not = gear, except at the lower end of the game.  Money can
be turned into gear, but gear can also be looted or gotten from quests
or trade skills.  And gear can, very often (but not always) be turned
into money, so selling buffs is -not- the only way to get money.

Selling buffs isn't even a particularly -good- way to earn money; talk
to people who are doing it and you'll find that their pp per hour isn't
particularly impressive; its just that its safe and allows them to earn
while not paying much attention.

Why is it degrading to trade sex for money?  Some would argue that it
isn't; that its just performing a service no different from changing
your tires or mowing your lawn.  But when its very easy to do, but only
part of the population can do it and fewer are willing to, and you get
paid very good money despite not needing any skill, well, its whoring.
Some people are OK with that.  But that doesn't make it not what it is.
 Sitting around in POK casting buffs for money isn't challenging or risky.

Yes, a cleric rezzing for donations is a whore... or rather, an escort,
since she/he will have to travel to your location, or at least meet you
partway.  My cleric put out the red light a few times, but by and large
would rez for free or not at all, turning down all donations but
insisting on Ale instead.

All of that, however, evades the point, which is that if druids were
suddenly given the magical ability to give purple dandelions out on
demand, and somehow purple dandelions were desirable in POK and you
could get cash for them, this wouldn't have anything to do with
desirablity for druids in groups.

You started out very well in this paragraph, but then made a sharp left
into non sequitor.  No KEI?  No Virtue?  So what?  These make those
classes -less- desirable in a group, not more!  Long duration buffs
available from the whores in POK mean your group can take other classes
instead, but still get partial benefit from the enchanter and cleric.
Throw in long duration haste for the tanks and a cleric willing to come
rez on demand and you've killed half the need for each class!

POTC is not comperable to KEI, which is the longest duration mana boost,
nor to Virtue, which is the POP level cleric HP/AC buff; you need to
compare either POTC vs Aego or Po9 vs Virtue and vs KEI.  Even then, I
think you'll generally get less interest, but at least you'll be on a
level playing field.

I think you are right, if enchanters were removed from the  game there
would be an outcry, but it would be because we'd miss the crowd control,
not the KEI.  I think there would be a larger outcry if clerics were
removed, but it would be because much of the game is built around CHeal
at the moment, and because even without Cheal clerics are hands down the
best healers (if you have a slower), and because cleric rez in the party
is handy (although I'm sure we'd all learn to cope with  a "mere"
paladin rez soon enough, but then they'd become the new darling class)

Very very few zones require a wizard port, and they aren't zones people
commonly want to get to, this might have been a point back in pre
Velious days, but stopped being relevant about then for all but a few
raids.

Paladins in LFaY LDoN's are a bit more useful than elsewhere, but far
far far from required.

Rogues are required for more places than wizards are, but still less
than 1% of the game, and in many places there are ways around even that
minimal requirement.  Rogues are desirable in groups because they are
great DPS and to a lesser extent make decent pullers... but in general
rogues are not desired by groups even when they should be, because early
fears of them pickpocketing all the loot got them frowned upon, even in
the high end where little in the way of useful loot -can- be pickpocketed.

I can't really think of a class you couldn't remove from the game
entirely without completely breaking the game; clerics come close, there
are some mid high end things that would become very much harder without
clerics, perhaps some that would become impossible, but again, we are
talking under 1% of the game.  Even this is largely because of a
mistake; the single spell Complete Heal, if eliminated from a cleric's
book, would have the same effect as removing the entire class.

This is quite true; druids aren't best at anything, they are merely good
at many things.  Second best DS; if your party doesn't include a mage, a
Druid can take care of that for you.  Second tier DD; if you've got
nothing better to do with your mana, you can provide pretty good damage
via nuking; not on a par with wizards perhaps, but not noticably worse
than mages.  Second best healing; yes a cleric can do it better, but a
shaman is even worse than you, and those are the only "real" healer
classes.  Since most situations don't require cleric level healing,
bringing a druid along who can do all thats needed -and- provide more
utility otherwise isn't a bad plan.

As I detail above, there very few classes which couldn't vanish without
any impact, and even those classes could be worked around for almost all
purposes.  Classes generally overlap their abilities with other classes;
if enchanters vanish, we still have bards and necromancers to do most of
their jobs, if paladins vanish we still have warriors and SK (and
clerics), so on and so forth.

If you really want to lament something, try the berserker, a similar
"jack of all trades" type class to the druid, only as a tank/DPS engine
instead of a healer/nuker engine.  At around 55 the key element of a
berserker, the stun, which allows him to tank on demand or add partial
slowing to his relatively low DPS, combined with a DPS which doesn't
keep pace with that of other DPS classes, means that the class which
could do either job relatively well gradually loses the ability to
perform in both categories, without gaining any new job.

I think this puts him in an even worse situation than the monk, which at
least has FD to fall back on (although still admittedly close on second
for worst class at the high end)

Grage, 58 berserker, Luclin
Splendid One, 65 mage, Firiona Vie
Llyric, 57 bard, Morell Thule
Bergh Brelltender, 65 cleric, Morell Thule
Paax, 52 shaman, Morell Thule

and a host of sub 50 alts including a 30 chanter

    Maybe the whole idea of a druid is someone who can play by himself
but can also be useful in groups?  So if they "wiped the druid database"
they'd have a whole bunch of people rolling up little necros I guess...

I think you miss the point of eq here. These different classes are
available to build viable groups around them. So up to a certain degree
some classes are interchangeable. But even then they are that much
distinct that you have to work with different tactics. Sure you could
get rid of everything besides warrior, cleric, enchanter and lets say
wizard. You have everything covered then. But EQ isn't about the single
way to solve situations. Foremost it's a fantasy world where a lot of
different classes bring alot of options to the table.
When SOE invented the berserkers I really wondered what role they should
play. Same with beastlords. And granted I know of a few beastlords that
are aggravated about the GoD expansion. Because they feel GoD only
caters to the specialists. And this clearly isn't a role the beastlords
are.

Just try to think out of the box. I know it's hard to build groups. But
if you stick to it you'll find sometimes people who are willing to go
way beyond the usual exp/loot whatever grind. These are the kind of
people that happily choose a druid or a monk in their group just because
they know you can and will play both.

Oh and one last thing. If you're the type of player to beat the game.
Stick to leveling until you're old enough to apply to a raid guild.
Druids and monks are needed on raids.

Hagen

Uh oh. I'm always encumbered. Maybe restrict it to just pp. I'm sure the
bard will eat a death if someone wants to burn 20,000 pp on it ...
especially because 1k for a rez would still be highly profitable, and 1k
is likely to motivate a cleric.