Question - Oakwynd/TLPs - which classes besides tanks benefit the most from raid gear?

[Vesayen]

I'm a new to EverQuest player who previously played a Necro to the 40s way back in the PoP era. I'm running a 6 box crew currently that hit 60 in Oakwynd - Warrior, Cleric, Enchanter, Mage, Bard, and Druid. I've never experienced any EQ raids. My goal is to start raiding and learn the fights so eventually I could multibox them in-era with in-era gear as an accomplishment. I'd like to get to a point of 18-36+ boxing my own for the fun of it.

I've previously 5-boxed mythic 5-mans in WoW and used to be a hardcore vanilla -> cataclysm progression raider getting server firsts and occasionally near-world firsts (within one hour of another guild getting world first.) I'm really interested in exploring TLP EverQuest raids now and the like. My main on Vanilla was mage, later transitioning to warlock.

Unfortunately no raiding guilds seem to be looking for a warrior (or druid) for raid invites, but I've got a personal multiboxing friend's guild wanting me badly on the enchanter and pretty much all guilds are welcoming for more clerics and bards. One or two guilds seems open to the mage.

I know by far having a raid geared tank/warrior will give the most impact to my team. Outside of that, who would get the most impact getting Luclin/PoP era raid gear vs group gear? Looking over some profiles it seems like raid geared Clerics get more AC than my warrior currently has, and having a ton of hp/mana regen/etc wouldn't ever hurt. Hell the cleric could turn into a reverse tank getting a lot of heal aggro then + aoe taunt to lock it down hard for my warrior.

After that a raid geared enchanter sounds interesting - charming + aoe stun farming groups will cause a ton of hate on her and every bit of AC and hitpoints will surely help. The enchanter recruitment is also the strongest recommendation as my friend was impressed I could keep 8+ mobs mezzed and pull large groups with my level of gear on my current team.

I'm also torn with getting the bard raid geared. Looking through Luclin/PoP era raid items it seems like he gets instruments imbedded directly in his armor which is outstanding. No swapping instruments, higher modifiers, etc.

The mage also crossed my mind for mage pet focused items, but googling it these focus items only seem to be a 15-30% boost to the pet's dps. Plus casters seem to just get all their spells handed to them. Raid gear for casters just seems to be more mana regen + hitpoints/mana to survive raid mechanics.

Outside of tanks, what sorts of characters do you find having raid geared characters on to be the most useful for your multi-boxing adventures? Who do you recommend I try to raid with? Or should I hold strong in not raiding until a warrior position opens up in one of the raiding guilds?

Do any of you join different guilds with different characters as your "main" on different schedules? That thought has also crossed my mind too - like raid MWF on the enchanter in guild A as my "main", and say the cleric Tues/Thurs/Sat in guild B as my "main" and not tell either guilds about my crew.

 

[BrianGragg]

If you want to self raid, best bet is to jump in feet first and gear your toons your self. You can set your own schedules and pass the gear to the toons you feel need it to the most. Every char will benefit from raid gear but in a group setting you would see the best boost from the tank having nice gear.

 

[Vesayen]

If you want to self raid, best bet is to jump in feet first and gear your toons your self. You can set your own schedules and pass the gear to the toons you feel need it to the most. Every char will benefit from raid gear but in a group setting you would see the best boost from the tank having nice gear.

I've thought about jumping feet first into raids myself, but given it's my first time in any raids I'd like to see how at least one other guild does encounters. Does that make sense?
Are these raids 6-boxable in-era as well? My gut feeling is probably no.

I also think since I've never been on an EQ raid (but have a lot of familiarity with WoW raids) I'd like to see the encounters first hand in game. I'd like to know where each boss is tanked, what they do with adds (kite, dps them down, etc.), how hard they hit, etc. Do you have to interrupt a spell within 1 second? 5 seconds? 30 seconds?

It was a pretty easy sell to 6-box myself as that is a huge time savings. I didn't bother going past 5-box in WoW as multiboxing raids is a lot more problematic of say 5 phases and 15 gimmicks, having to move 10+ people in a raid in different directions at the same time to get them out of the fire/etc, interrupt every single freaking second, etc. While early EQ raids like Avatar of War appears to be a simple tank and spank which is appealing to me.

I'd like to learn the raids first in game before buying 18+ pcs given Oakwynd is currently truebox/etc., and that to me means joining an active guild and actually playing in raids. And in doing so I'm wondering who is 2nd best in to get geared out of the cleric, enchanter, bard, mage, and druid, given my warrior applications have been denied for now.

 

[Szazor]

At lvl 60 there are a host of raids available. my lvl 60 raid crew is doing- Temple of Veeshan, Veeshan's peak, Sleepers Tomb, Kael, Plane of Growth, NTOV, SSRA Temple, SERU, Vex Thal
None of these are one groupable in era - but they are fairly easy to raid box.

If I had to choose one class to get all the raid gear after the tank - it would probably be the Enchanter.

Mages/Necro for Pet earring later on....but at lvl 60 - go Enc.

 

[Vesayen]

At lvl 60 there are a host of raids available. my lvl 60 raid crew is doing- Temple of Veeshan, Veeshan's peak, Sleepers Tomb, Kael, Plane of Growth, NTOV, SSRA Temple, SERU, Vex Thal
None of these are one groupable in era - but they are fairly easy to raid box.

If I had to choose one class to get all the raid gear after the tank - it would probably be the Enchanter.

Mages/Necro for Pet earring later on....but at lvl 60 - go Enc.

That's awesome that they're easy to raid box! How many boxes do you need to do those?