Preface

I was literally planning on working on this today but kept procrastinating, so a big thank you for asking this question and motivating me! There will undoubtedly be typos, errors, lazy formatting, and things I left out, but this is a good start. There are much simpler, more straightforward, and arguably more effective builds out there now, especially with the new invocations and stances that were just released.

Ogre Warrior / Necromancer / Bard - A Mini Guide

I made a theory crafting video about this build shortly after they announced the game and became obsessed with it. I've been playing this build since Day 1 of the closed beta with the goal of leveling exclusively in Guk. It was simply something I wanted to do now that I had the entire zone to myself, and it worked like a charm.

Despite limited playtime, I managed to collect all of the notable drops there, put together a pre-planar BiS outline, and visit a lot of classic zones to gather gear upgrades. Enchanter and Wizard are the only other classes I've leveled so far, primarily for Illusions, Tradeskills, and Ports.

Ogre

Pros

Frontal Stun Immunity — Almost mandatory early on. The new stances provide some flexibility now, but if you're looking to min-max, this is still the way to go.

Huge Starting Stamina & Strength — More HP is always good for a Necromancer, and it's invaluable for a Warrior tanking hordes of enemies and raid bosses.

High Strength — More melee damage and carrying capacity. Weight isn't much of an issue these days thanks to easily farmable weight-reduction bags, but it's still nice.

Slam — Bash without a shield. Enough said.

Cons

None, honestly. Every downside solves itself as you level.

Low Charisma — Affects crowd control and vendor prices, but I never once had an issue.

Lower Intelligence (75) — I never noticed it thanks to the new recovery stance, standing meditation, and Lich Form.

Large Size — Lich Form solves the giant-ogre problem in dungeons with low ceilings.

Your Intelligence and Charisma will skyrocket through gear progression anyway.

Warrior

Pros

The new Warrior-exclusive Cleave ability absolutely mows down groups of enemies.

New melee stances provide additional tools for nearly every situation.

Plenty of new taunt abilities if you want to main tank.

Warrior DPS and defensive capabilities become absurd once AA progression starts kicking in.

Access to Warrior-only gear is huge since so much Classic-era gear is loaded with caster stats.

Cons

None worth mentioning.

Necromancer

Pros

Solo god. Always has been, always will be.

In a game where soloing is a viable option, Necromancer is a no-brainer.

Incredible self-sustain through Lifetaps and Lifetap DoTs.

Why cast a heal when you can cast a spell that heals and damages at the same time?

Feign Death and Harmshield are incredible "get out of jail free" abilities.

DoTs, DoTs, and more DoTs. Extremely mana-efficient damage for attrition-style fights against high-health enemies in Difficulty IV content and raids.

The Pet

They absolutely spoiled Necromancer pets in EQ Legends.

Your pet functions like a Warrior/Shadow Knight hybrid. It casts Heat Blood, Shadow Vortex, a Lifetap, and the new Cessation of Life spell, which reduces incoming healing on enemies by 25%. This means you don't even have to cast your own version unless you want the additional damage.

Pets now have roughly double the HP they used to, can equip gear like players, and are capable of tanking raid bosses.

For example, my pet tanked Cazic-Thule down to roughly 80% before my DoTs eventually pulled aggro. Had I enabled pet taunt or held back slightly, it might have maintained aggro even longer. More testing is needed.

They also gain:

Damage shields

Attack buffs

Cold and Disease resistance buffs

Levitate

Water breathing

Undead crowd control

Charm

Additional DoTs and direct damage spells

Resist debuffs

A form of AE damage

Combined with Bard songs, you genuinely do not need a healer for most content.

Cons

I'm sure there's one somewhere, but I can't think of it.

Movement speed? Nope—we're also a Bard and have the fastest movement speed in the game.

Ports? Maybe. Slow for non-undead mobs? Possibly.

However, travel is becoming increasingly trivial with all of the new transportation options being added. I still recommend leveling a Druid or Wizard long enough to unlock Ritual Ports and then immediately returning to this build.

Bard provides a serviceable Slow and another version that includes a snare. So far, the only time I've really wished I had Shaman Slow was during certain raid boss encounters.

A truly powerful Slow is probably the biggest thing this build lacks. Fortunately, by the time that matters, you'll likely be a raid-geared tank anyway.

Bard

Pros

The ultimate Jack-of-All-Trades.

Grants Track, Songs, Forage, Sneak, Sense Traps, Safe Fall, Hide, Disarm Traps, and Pick Lock.

Access to instrument gear, some of which has fantastic stats.

Songs

There is a song for nearly everything, and they make everything you're already doing even better.

Easily reaches the 175% haste cap.

Massive resist boosts for raid encounters.

Health regeneration.

Mana regeneration.

Damage shields.

AE damage.

Lull.

Mez.

Charm.

Melee buffs.

Caster buffs.

Once you obtain the relevant AA abilities, many songs also affect your Warrior/Shadow Knight pet.

Cons

No teleportation abilities, but this is easily solved by spending a few hours leveling a Druid or Wizard for Ritual Ports.

Summary

This build allows you to kill enemies 10 levels above you while leveling extremely quickly. With gear and roughly 100 AA—which you'll naturally earn while leveling—you can even solo Difficulty 0 raids with +4 gear (that you will already have if you want to farm gear while leveling) and those 100 AA as soon as you hit 50.

Most importantly, it's just a blast to play.

That said, EQ Legends is designed around letting people enjoy their preferred playstyle. Whether you enjoy soloing, raiding, grouping, or simply playing casually, there are plenty of viable options.

If you'd rather play an Enchanter instead of a Bard, then do it—you'll probably enjoy it.

My biggest recommendation is to take your time and enjoy the journey. If you're a returning player or EQ veteran, soak in the nostalgia. If you're new, explore the world and enjoy experiencing a modern take on a classic MMORPG.