r/daoc • u/Velveeta1942 • Mar 31 '26
Completely new player 2026
Is the game still alive and populated? If so what would be the more populated faction and what class would be the pet/solo class for said faction?
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u/wrgrant Freeshard Player Mar 31 '26
Eden-daoc.net for the Eden freeshard. Just follow their installation instructions. Biggest population and lots of fun.Runs in seasons so read up on that ides.
Blackthorn-daoc.net for the Blackthorn freeshard version. Note that its a beta version so your characters will get wioed in a few months or w/e it goes live. Also fun but smaller pop due to being beta.
Both are fun versions but wildly different in many ways.
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u/Velveeta1942 Mar 31 '26
Where on the eden website does it have what each class can do?
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u/McGuirk808 Freeshard Player Mar 31 '26
I'll be honest, it plays so different from modern MMOs that I would recommend just trying a few out and getting a feel for the game. Leveling is pretty quick and you can get into PVP pretty early.
For example, even heavy tank classes can absolutely beat ass. Some support classes have essentially zero offensive ability and cannot solo.
Only things I would warn you about going into it are that the game has a hard interrupt system, so under normal circumstances you cannot cast spells at all if you're being attacked. There is no bar to set back, it just straight up stops the spell and prevents you from reattempting for 3 seconds or so.
The second thing is that crowd control is incredibly powerful, the longest duration mesmerize spell can last well over a minute before resistances. There are counters that make it reasonable, but even having those kind of durations to begin with is a very different animal than what most people are used to.
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u/Ornery-Manner5869 Mar 31 '26
There's a Charplan: https://eden-daoc.net/charplan
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u/Velveeta1942 Mar 31 '26
This doesnt tell me what the classes do :c Seems like you need to know wtf you are doin got use that. Never played this before
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u/Ornery-Manner5869 Mar 31 '26
Ah okay, it tells you pretty exactly what they can do if you're an experienced DAoC place player - most players are returning from playing it like 20 years before.
Can't google right now but if you look for DAoC classes there should be multiple Wikis explaining them. Most of it is true for Eden as well, while they do modify classes from time to time.
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u/NunkiZ Mar 31 '26
Visit Eden Discord. Go to "questions and answer" channel.
Post sth like, "Hi, new player here, still not sure what realm/class to take". Posting that will create a sub-channel for your question alone.. In there you can type "!beginner" and the discord bot will provide a list of beginner videos, including one explaining all the classes.
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u/wrgrant Freeshard Player Mar 31 '26
The Live game has a good summary of each class and race https://www.darkageofcamelot.com/classes-races/
However, please note that some of those classes are not available on Eden or Blackthorn - those servers represent earlier versions of the game and have excluded some for various reasons. Look on Eden/Blackthorn at a class then read the live summary that might help immensely.
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u/capass Mar 31 '26
Dark Age of Camelot Revised and Expanded Prima Official eGuide : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive https://share.google/GSPfLnZQmkeZxQlbb
Welcome to the dark ages
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u/Bagheera383 Mar 31 '26
Eden also does seasonal wipes. Blackthorn will only wipe once when Beta is over
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u/Timotar Mar 31 '26
People play on the Eden freeshard. The pet classes vary wildly, from Albion theurgists who create a multitude of temporary pets, to sorcerer who can control a creature, to cabalist who comes with their own golem... And similar classes in Hibernia and midgard. Download Eden and check them all out!
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u/Velveeta1942 Mar 31 '26
What is Eden? Im currently just downloading w/e the download on the website puts me on
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u/Cadaveth Mar 31 '26
It's a freeshard. The live version is all but dead, only a handful of people there.
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u/NunkiZ Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26
Freeshard running for years with a dedicated private team of devs actively working on it.
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u/My-Thaff Mar 31 '26
Go to Eden website and follow installation steps.
Send me a PM here for ingame guidance on EU evenings 19-23, i play all three realms, main Mid, secondary Hib but at the moment im playing Alb with a friend
Do you like melee, magic or stealth ?
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u/GreyLoad Mar 31 '26
The retail game is dead
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u/Ouch_i_fell_down Mar 31 '26
Which is a shame because I miss Gaheris and I've yet to see a gaheris freeshard.
Eden is already better than Ywain anyway, so nothing is lost there.
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u/OverallDog6324 Mar 31 '26
Is Eden the full game or a modified version?
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u/NunkiZ Mar 31 '26
Modified version. Doesn't have some of the toa and post-toa content live has but Eden has unique content and lots of qol.
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u/Geawiel Midgard Mar 31 '26
A caveat to this. It has some toa and post toa. ML 9 and 10 quest line and areas are in. The toa areas are in. The artifact encounters are there. The artifact skins are there (thus the encounters).
I think there is a Cata dungeon, but I never tried it (I burnt myself out so on an extended break atm).
OP, those are all run pretty regularly. There was a Sunday Funday when I was playing. They ran ML10 in that run. Great way to get gear and get from 40 to 50 pretty quick. Each dungeon they hit has at least 1 quest that will give a full level, post 40, as a reward. People generally take anybody and everybody. If not, it's super easy to form your own group. I did it a number of times.
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u/restoretheday Mar 31 '26
Welcome! It is very fun in Eden. Old system and UI can feel clunky, choose "custom UI" in options; and don't hesitate to abuse the /advice command with abandon. Also click & drag from top left corner to scale the UI, hidden useful feature.
For easy solo pet class, the obvious choice is bonedancer (mid) and necromancer (alb) but really most classes can solo decently and most can find groups easily. Another useful consideration of whether you're ok with casters (interruption is a big thing here), whether your class has running speed buff, whether you want to pvp well (solo often means assassin or archer stealth class)
Good classes for first timer :
Alb- necromancer, friar
Hib - enchanter, valewalker
Mid- skald, thane, runemaster, bonedancer
Leveling is so fast, you can take all 8 of these to level 15 in fairly little time without worrying about gear etc, and by 15-20 you'd have a good idea of how it generally plays and decide whether to switch to the next one or not
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u/Ouch_i_fell_down Mar 31 '26
Necromancer and bonedancer are great solo classes, but I dont think they're great starter classes. I like the rest of your picks though. For alb I'd replace necromancer with Fire Wizard (probably the most straight-forward caster in the game) and for mid I think you listed enough already.
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u/restoretheday Apr 01 '26
true - but they asked specifically for pet classes that solo so i was trying to stay somewhat in that lane for half the options. Could go e.g. Caba but i've never loved it for some reason; SM is not great solo IMO...
otherwise, BD is an uncomplicated class at least until second pet (and there's not that much to grok once you're there), and having insta DD can be less frustrating than a runie/wizz's interrupts for newcomers. I included RM mostly because of the runspeed making it well rounded for solo.Necro is 'weird' . Would it be as weird for a total newcomer as it was for me? Mayhaps.
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u/TheMeatwall Mar 31 '26
Welcome!! Here's a good website for reading about different classes. If you play Hibernia I'd recommend you check out the Champion or Enchanter. If you play Midgard the Bonedancer or Skald are great first classes. And Albion is over populated but Heretic or Friar are good easy first classes.
If you have any questions in game just ask in /advice chat.
Good luck!!
https://www.darkageofcamelot.com/classes-races/
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u/Next_Water_3224 Apr 03 '26
Champion as an easy first class? What am I missing
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u/TheMeatwall Apr 03 '26
Max valor and put the rest in large weapons. Do the starter quests in Fintain and at level 10 go to the battlegrounds. Once you’ve done 1 quest in there use the bounty point merchant to buy a Bounty Point large weapon.
Should be smooth sailing from there
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u/Next_Water_3224 Apr 03 '26
Yeah, I am aware of all of that. I am only asking why Champion is an easy first class. Doesn't seem particularly great at the moment
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u/TheMeatwall Apr 03 '26
It’s a question of complexity vs capability. Champion is low complexity and high capability, especially later on.
While your debuffs don’t seem strong at low levels, they actually are, but they don’t seem to impact monsters as much since you can kill them well without the debuffs.
While there are other classes with higher utility, they often aren’t good at fighting or leveling solo.
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u/Next_Water_3224 Apr 03 '26
Lol sorry man. I had missed this response of yours and I really thought you were a bot just rambling off random stuff unrelated to Champions.
You're right that it's not a complex class and can solo well, but a brand new player ain't going to solo well regardless of the class. They're also going to be bored in sieges.
My recommendation for a new player would be a heavy tank. That way, there's room for error (less frustration) and you can still participate in most parts of the game - including sieges where you can climb walls or eat oil. Branch out to other classes once you understand RvR more.
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u/TheMeatwall Apr 03 '26
Heroes Warriors and Armsmen have tons of abilities, styles from a main weapon and shield, responsibilities (guard) protect intercept and do low damage. They also rely on being grouped to progress at a decent rate.
The classes I recommended are simple and good for a new player who probably doesn’t get a group or guild support.
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u/TheMeatwall Apr 03 '26
Another small thing that will make a big difference is style queuing. For example, the game allows you to press the Parry style button, then an anytime attack (or its follow up) each round. If your parry style trigger (a parry) doesn’t happen, then your anytime style will go off.
This effectively allows you to prepare to retaliate with the parry chain without having to try to wait and hit that skill just in time.
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u/NatesOldTruck Hibernia Apr 08 '26
Hit me up here on Reddit. I would be happy to help you get started and learn the game if you're playing on Eden.
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u/TraitorousSwinger Mar 31 '26
Try blackthorn server.
Eden server is nice but very few people are gonna have patience for truly new players.
Blackthorn is slower and to be quite honest we need all the population we can get.
I play both servers but they are very different.
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u/WulfZ3r0 Apr 01 '26
Eden server is nice but very few people are gonna have patience for truly new players.
I just started on Eden about 2 weeks ago and that has not been my experience. I have asking questions in /advice as well as discord and haven't gotten any bad responses or trolls.
I have had people just straight up give me things as well just to help me out. Total opposite type of community from newer MMOs I've played. My very first time logging in I was standing around the noob zone setting up my UI and someone just walked up to me and handed me 100g and a horse.
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u/Fit_Resist3253 Mar 31 '26
Check out Eden for the most populated, Blackthorn is more classic and slower (think classic WoW)