The topic of Classes in any massively multiplayer online role-playing game, particularly one like EverQuest II, is a rather intimidating topic indeed! You see, EverQuest II (or EQ2) has 25 unique Adventuring classes, 9 Tradeskill classes and another 2 Secondary Tradeskill classes!!

Most overviews for MMOs you see online describing classes that I see tend to be based mostly off of the classes themselves, or the archetypes they belong to. With this guide, I'd like to try something a little different: classes by role. EQ2 employs a traditional "holy trinity" role model where a full group makeup consists of at least one Tank, one Healer and at least one Damage. EQ2 takes it one step further by giving us a Utility role as well.

This guide will be grouped into sections based on the role being discussed; each section will describe the general function of the role, and the classes that fit that role. Please bear in mind that this content is subject to interpretation and your individual playstyle, so your mileage may vary.

Enjoy!

In any MMORPG that follows a "holy trinity" methodology, the Tank is the character class that generally leads his or her party into the fray of battle. They keep the enemies attention by stabbing it, whacking it with a shield, or just cursing profanities at it. They keep the enemies attention on them, so they will be too distracted to wonder why the rest of the group is mercilessly burning it to the ground.

The principal Tank classes in EQ2 are:

• Guardian: Known for having the largest health pools, largest immediate threat generation and lowest DPS
  
• Berserker: Known for being DPS tanks
  
• Paladin: A hybrid class of sorts, with threat-over-time capabilities and threat transfers, along with some limited group healing and respectable DPS
  
• Shadowknight: Possibly the highest DPS of the tanks, SKs are known for their self-healing DPS, threat-over-time and ability to feign death
  
• Monk: Another DPS tank that wears leather armor and relies on their Avoidance and limited self-healing to make up for their lack of plate
  
• Bruiser: Arguably higher DPS than a Monk; still a leather DPS tank that relies heavily on Avoidance

Recommendations
Like any Recommendation in this guide, it is truly only meant for consideration and not as gospel. Any of these classes could be used in any of these situations.

If you want to mostly Solo: Shadowknight
If you want to tank for Groups: Paladin or Berserker
If you want to tank for Raids: Paladin or Guardian
If your favorite movie is Karate Kid: Monk or Bruiser

Ahh....Damage Dealers, or DPS as most refer to them. These are the folks responsible for making large numbers of baddies go suddenly room temperature. Whether it be by magic, arrows, pets or any assorted pointy object...the DPS is going to kill things quickly. This is their job, and they do it very, very well.

This portion of the "holy trinity" makes up the bulk of EQ2's classes, and as you might expect, the bulk of the playerbase.

The principal DPS classes in EQ2 are:

• Assassin: What some call "Tier 1" DPS; generally considered among the top of the food chain, this class accounts for its DPS through stealth, stabs and poisons
  
• Beastlord: A pet class, also widely considered among the highest DPS. This class is very new to the game (introduced as part of the Age of Discovery expansion) and relies on its pet Warder and knuckle/melee and thrown weapons similiar to the Monk and Bruiser tank classes
  
• Brigand: A type of Scout DPS that lends itself to high damage output by way of large debuffs against a mob, leaving it vulnerable to all sorts of pointy things (as well as magic, etc. from groupmates!)
  
• Conjurer: A Mage-based pet class; very high DPS in later levels, the pets of this class are either a Tank (Guardian-based), a Mage (Wizard-based) or a Scout (Ranger-based)
  
• Necromancer: Another Mage-based pet class that is very high DPS in later levels. The pets of this class differ from the Conjurer only in looks (!!) and the fact they are Berserker-based for the Tank, Warlock-based for the Mage, and Assassin-based for the Scout
  
• Ranger: The highest ranged DPS of the scout tree; what the Assassin does with melee weapons to the back, the Ranger does with arrows from...well, anywhere.
  
• Swashbuckler: Interestingly enough, the Swashbuckler is a type of Scout DPS that can actually tank! Swashbucklers have very high DPS and even some threat-generating capabilities. They also have some of the coolest looking class gear if you're into the Musketeers.
  
• Warlock: One of the two highest DPS classes in the Mage tree, the Warlock is primarily suited for massive DPS against groups of enemies (typically encounters and some AOE)
  
• Wizard: The yin to the yang of the highest DPS mages, the Wizard focuses on single-targets, but it's damage-dealing capabilities are just as staggering as the Warlock or Assassin

Recommendations
Like any Recommendation in this guide, it is truly only meant for consideration and not as gospel. Any of these classes could be used in any of these situations.

If you want to mostly Solo: Will have to go with any of the 3 pet classes on this one: Beastlord, Conjurer or Necromancer
If you want to DPS for Groups: Any of them will work, though a pet class often gets a little awkward in groups. If you love the big damage numbers (or dying a lot), go with a Tier 1 like the Assassin, Ranger, Beastlord, Wizard or Warlock
If you want to DPS for Raids: Again, any of them will work, Raids typically like the utility that the Brigand brings to the table, and the huge numbers of the Assassin, Ranger, Wizard and Warlock
If your favorite movie is The Three Musketeers: Swashbuckler

If you have aspirations of making sure you or your groupmates live to see another Exquisite Chest, consider playing as one of EQ2's Healer classes! One of my favorite things about how EQ2 chose to fill this role is that there are 3 distinct ways that the healing classes actually heal: there's Active Healing (if the health bar isn't full, it fixes it), Reactive Healing (healing will kick in when the player takes damage) and Ward Healing (prevents a player from taking damage at all).

Ward Healing
Preventing damage through protective wards; some slow-casting direct heals

• Mystic: ward-based healer with some light direct-damage elemental spells
  
• Defiler: ward-based healer with debuffs and some light direct-damage noxious spells

Direct Healing
Direct healing by means of fast-casting, generally heal-over-time spells

• Fury: fast-casting heal-over-times that are marginally less healing than those of the Warden; however, the Fury possesses a number of impressive direct damage and encounter nukes
  
• Warden: fast-casting heal-over-times that are marginally better healing than those of the Fury; however, instead of large damage spells, the Warden posses a number of limited crowd-control capabilities such as a root

Reactive Healing
Pre-emptive reactive healing that applies as needed when damage occurs; some slow-casting direct heals

• Templar: slow-casting but very large reactive heals; lots of buffs to elemental and physical resistances for group/raid members
  
• Inquisitor: not-quite-as-slow-casting but not as large reactive heals as the Templar; lots of buffs to group damage output and enemy debuffs

Recommendations
Like any Recommendation in this guide, it is truly only meant for consideration and not as gospel. Any of these classes could be used in any of these situations.

Solo play: Fury
Group play: Warden or Inquisitor
Raid play: Templar or Defiler

Utility classes in EQ2 are something of a mixed bag, and truly a "play however you like" role. Most of the utility classes provide an assortment of utility that usually comes in the form of enhanced in-combat regeneration, out-of-combat speed, crowd control, or some other convenience that falls outside the normal realm of the "holy trinity".

• Illusionist: Mage-based crowd-control extraordinare! Along with that comes greatly enhanced in-combat power regeneration and a host of other goodies that fellow mages will love
  
• Coercer: Mage-based crowd-control that generally takes place in the form of completely taking control of an enemy (allowing the Coercer to use them as a combat pet), or stunlocking them into oblivion. Buffs from the Coercer seem to favor the melee classes
  
• Troubador: Scout-based buff bot (half-teasing)! Troubadors have songs/buffs that really benefit mages in the same group; offensively the Troubador brings some limited stuns and charms to enemies, along with limited direct damage spells
  
• Dirge: Scout-based buff bot counterpart to the Troubador. Generally allowing for a more active playstyle than the Troubador, the Dirge also brings songs/buffs that really benefit melee classes in the same group or raid. Offensively, the Dirge hosts a lot of debuffs against enemies as well as a few limited damage over time spells

Recommendations
Like any Recommendation in this guide, it is truly only meant for consideration and not as gospel. Any of these classes could be used in any of these situations.

Solo play: Coercer
Group play: Troubador
Raid: This one is hard--I'd say Dirge or Illusionist, but really all of these classes are HUGE benefits in a raid

When deciding on a title for this section, I was torn between a number of options. What I was wanting to describe were the classes that make things for players...but, obviously they all do that. Then it mostly came down to the fact that "Equippables" offended my inner grammar police so I went with Gear Upgrades.

So there you have it, the first set of Tradeskill classes I'll talk about are the ones that craft items that can be equipped into one of the many slots on your Character Sheet. Armor, weapons, jewelery and even consumables.

It's very important to note that a particular class doesn't necessarily make just ONE thing, but for purposes of this guide, I will be grouping them by their primary product.

Armor Slots
(The left side of the Character Sheet)

• Armorsmith: Deals in the crafting of all Chain and Plate armor
  
• Tailor: Deals in the crafting of all Cloth and Leather armor

Jewelery/Charm
(The right side of the Character Sheet)

• Jeweler: Crafts rings, necklaces, charms, bracelets

Primary/Secondary Weapon
(Items where the pointy end goes into the bad guy)

• Weaponsmith: Creates swords, hammers, axes

Ranged

• Woodworker: Creates (among other things) Bows and Arrows
  
• Jeweler: Charms and other such Jeweler-crafted trinkets can go in the Ranged slot

Recommendations
Truly, every Tradeskill brings something to the table; it really just depends on what you'd like to do.

One of many huge benefits to the Tradeskill classes in EQ2 is that some provide Ability Upgrades such as more powerful Combat Arts or Spells. Norrath's corpses may yield a mountain of upgrades at "Adept", but just keep in mind that Tradeskillers can craft "Expert". Expert spells and combat arts are the highest possible rank short of the rare looted Master, or the training-specific Grandmaster equivalents.

Crafting Combat Arts Ability Upgrades
(Making Expert-grade upgrades for all of your Fighter and Scout friends!)

• Alchemist: Creates upgrades for Fighters (Guardian, Paladin, Zerker, etc.)
  
• Jeweler: Creates upgrades for Scouts (Assassins, Brigands, Rangers, etc.)

Crafting Spell Ability Upgrades
(Making Expert-grade upgrades for all of your Mage and Priest friends!)

• Sage: Creates upgrades for spellcasters (Wizard, Templar, Conjurer, Warden, etc.)

Recommendations
Again, choose what you want and you can't go wrong. Expert-level upgrades almost always sell on the Broker so you can definitely make a living with these! If I had to choose one, I would say choose a Tradeskill that can craft upgrades for your Adventure class.

Some of the Tradeskill classes in EQ2 either provide a benefit ALL classes, or sometimes they don't provide a benefit to Adventuring at all!

Adventuring Utility

• Provisioner: Creates foods with higher durations and stat bonuses than that which you can buy from NPC vendors
  
• Alchemist: Creates Potions that can temporarily (or instantaneously) boost things like health, power, resistances, etc.; this class also creates Poisons useful for Scouts
  
• Woodworker: Creates totems that can temporarily boost things like health and power regeneration, out of combat speed, etc.

Specialty

• Carpenter: Creates furniture that can be sold and/or placed into player Housing; this class can also create Strongboxes for player storage and Repair Kits for light battlefield remediations
  
• Tailor: Creates Bags for player storage, hex dolls for minor stat increases as well as cosmetic clothing

Recommendations
Again, it really is just up to you. If you want to be universally helpful, I'd consider Provisioner. If you want to make a lot of money, go Woodworker (arrows, totems, kits) or Carpenter (player furniture). Otherwise just choose one that provides your Adventuring class the most benefit, or you as the player the most enjoyment.

Secondary Tradeskills in EQ2 were introduced fairly late in the game, and are an optional class ON TOP OF your regular Tradeskill class. For instance, you can be a Provisioner as well as a Tinkererererer.

• Tinkerer(erererer, lol): This class crafts things mild utility items such as hovercrafts*, limited pets and environmental resistances equipment
  
• Adorner: This class creates Adornments. Adornments are fairly new to the game as well and provide stat bonuses on top of regular gear by plugging into the "White/Red/etc." Adornment Slots that you see on some gear you find throughout the land in your travels

Recommendations
If you want to provide limited utility or just have a bag full of fun gadgets to impress your friends with at any time: become a Tinkerer. (*)Be advised, though, that a lot of Tinkerer-created toys are usable only by Tinkerers.

If you want to potentially make a TON of money: go Adorner. Max-level Adorners are highly sought after assets to Raiding guilds.

Knowing what all the different Tradeskill classes can make can be a little rough, so here is a very quick reference to help line it all out at a glance!