Effective class pairing

[Hazeem Spinehacker]

I'm an old EQ 1 and safehouse veteran who is getting extremely interested in EQ 2 despite my best efforts to stay away. I quit my level 55 rogue quite a while ago and thought I had kicked evercrack for good. After reading about the game I have decided to upgrade my computer and take the plunge.

I have managed to convince one of my RL friends who has never played a MMORPG before to try EQ 2 with me. I need feedback as to what two classes would be ideal to work together. Soloing is a consideration in case he decides he does not like the game. The only frame of reference I have is EQ 1 which I'm told is a "different game" than EQ 2. I assume my friend would want a good introductory class that is not too difficult and that a MMORPG noob could jump into.

I was thinking a fighter and a shaman would be ideal but I don't really know because I'm judging from EQ 1. Melee damage, buffs, dots, debuffs, some healing. I would pick a rogue as a fighter but I'm afraid I would have the same old problem of being unable to fight face to face (tank) as in EQ.

What do you guys think about about shammy and SK? Warrior and cleric would probably be the most pragmatic and effective in terms of working together and finding groups solo but that always seemed kind of boring to me. Maybe it is different now though. I would be open to a pure caster combination too if it were effective. By effective I guess I really mean fun. I refuse to get wrapped up into the same power gamer mentality that I used to have and I really don't have the time to pursue it like I once did.

Also, any advice in terms of server selection would be very helpful. I'm told some are already very crowded (MM). Any help and feedback would be appreciated and I look forward to seeing many old and new friends online.

[Sinadial]

Ok, I can't comment on your fighter/shaman idea, but I did want to say that I *really* wanted to play a rogue class (I'm a brigand). My boyfriend chose to play a cleric, and so far we're a decent team. We can't take really hard mobs as a duo, but we can do groups of greens/blues no problem and still make good progress exp wise. He'll usually get aggro and I can do positionals to my heart's content. I wanted to throw that out there in case you, like me, *really* wanted to play a rogue type but were worried about not being able to get exp without a tank.

As far as servers, I started out on Permafrost which was really crowded. We recently movelogged to Faydark, and it's a whole lot better-the Freeport side is almost underpopulated to the point of being kinda tough to find people to group with.

Hope that helps.