Closest thing to Bst?

[Tardar]

After playing a Beastlord in EQ1, I was sad to see the class not make it into EQ2.  Trying to stay along the same Bst lines though, I went with a Shaman in EQ2.  I have opinions on that decision, and many other Shaman issues in EQ2.  If you would like to join us, come on over and say hi.

http://p066.ezboard.com/beq2shaman

[Oneiromancer]

No Beastlords in EQ2 was one of the main reasons I quit.

Not really meaning to troll...just saying I love this class so much that it wasn't fun playing a MMORPG without one.

Oh, and to answer the question posed in the topic (but nicely redirected in the text), I tried both a Bard (for the variety) and a Summoner (for the pet) as a replacement.  Neither one captured the same magic as the Beastlord for me.  I didn't even really consider the Shaman as close, as I knew they were more intended as main healers than in EQ.

Game on,

[Aneya]

Which class comes closest to a beastlord would depend a lot on your play style. For me, it would be swashbuckler because I like getting up close and personnal with the mob, If you prefered the heals dots slows with some melee then shamans are a better fit and If you prefer pet tanking then Mage would be a closer fit.

I guess that was part of what made beastlords great. The beastlord class was able to accomodate multiple play styles.

[rahjaten]

tardar i demand u come back i miss u and starzz COME BACK TO US  plzors.  the oggah is lonely.

[Tardar]

Lol, /wave Rahj

Man I miss these forums, and have started to troll more and more lately.

Just so you all know, there is lots of clamor for EQ2 to add Bsts.  I continue to post on every one of them, begging for them. 

/salute everyone

[Peteums]

My guess!! EQ2 left Beastlords out for 1 simple reason..........EXPANSION!!! They poroably wanna squeeze the class as a cash cow for a future expansion, like they did with Luclin.

[JillieMT]

They poroably wanna squeeze the class as a cash cow for a future expansion, like they did with Luclin.

So you are implying that the beastlord class was designed from the beginning of EQ... but they held it out all the way until Luclin came out, just for the sake of cash.

That is silly.

[Ikkorus]

They poroably wanna squeeze the class as a cash cow for a future expansion, like they did with Luclin.

So you are implying that the beastlord class was designed from the beginning of EQ... but they held it out all the way until Luclin came out, just for the sake of cash.

That is silly.

I would say that the idea of the Beastlord was probally around at the release of EQ but not really implemented until Luclin.  I wouldn't say thats silly at all.  New classes take a long time to make (coding and the such) plus adding new items into the game to accomodate them, redoing old items to fit the class, ect.

[Hrann]

It IS silly, especially since SOE took over EQ between Velious and Luclin and the new designers made the beastlord class, not Verant.

It was one of their shining moments of course.

[Nusa]

SOE bought out Verant, but most of the people didn't change, other than normal attrition. Smed was still in effective charge of EQ development, before and after. All the Verant employees became SOE employees and in most cases did the same jobs. In fact, the bulk of the original SOE employees were shed (unwilling to move) soon after the merger when SOE moved its headquarters from New York to San Diego.

The EQ2 team started before Luclin came out, and the reason Beastlords aren't in EQ2 is because that team decided not to put in the time to include them. Bad decision, maybe, but it's that simple.

[Hunni]

SOE bought out Verant, but most of the people didn't change, other than normal attrition. Smed was still in effective charge of EQ development, before and after. All the Verant employees became SOE employees and in most cases did the same jobs.

Actually that is not entirely true, when SOE bought out Verant the bulk of the original designers of EQ left the company to pursue other things, namely the development of the soon to be released Vanguard of which they have been working on for almost 4 years.

Brad McQuaid was quoted as saying they wanted to make Vanguard everything EQ was originally visioned to be.

[Nusa]

Your timeline is off. SOE acquired Verant in mid-2000. Brad didn't leave Sony until late 2001. Luclin launched Dec, 2001 for reference, and obviously was designed well before that date.

Anyone who followed Brad to Sigil had to wait for it to be created and in need of people, which didn't happen overnight. A good chunk of those people would have left for somewhere anyway, if you know anything about turnover in the games industry.

[hokarz]

Rumor has it that EQ2 has beastlords now

[Khauruk]

Rumor?  It's probably pretty easy to see if they do, or not.

[hokarz]

you mean, like log onto eq2, or something? nah, I'll pass