Results

Q1 - What class will your main be at launch?

There were a couple of big changes here, and eyeballing it you can tell the order changed quite a bit.

Following the beta, Mages are now far and away the #1 main.

Mage, Enchanter, Shaman, Wizard saw the most increase from pre-beta

Monk, Cleric, Druid, SK saw the largest decrease from pre-beta. Monk has slid down to the bottom 3 spot. Interesting considering their power level in early expansions.





Q2 - When new classes are released, will you be switching your main to one of the new classes?

Really not much change here. Still around 10% will switch to Beastlord, and 2% Zerker.

Q3 - What race will your main character be?

A few changes here. Most notably a huge uptick in Erudite population, in fact they now sit in the #6 spot.

Dwarves suffered a large decrease and have fallen to the last place spot.

Another sneaky gainer was the Troll, now on par with Barbarians.

The large dip in Human population can be directly linked to the large dip in Monk population.

Also a dip in Dark Elves, but still the #1 race.





Q4 - When new races are released, will you switch your main character to one of the new races?

Not much change here. Iksar still dominates with 13% switching. Frog and Cat about 3% each, and less than 1% Drakkin (thank goodness).

Q5&6 - If you are boxing, what will your second and third class be?

First of all, there has been a flip on total boxers vs non-boxers. The ratio is now 46% boxers vs 54% non-boxers.

Secondly, I do want to point out that there was a bit of a division error in my original boxing data, so the percentages didn't add to 100. This is fixed now in the below chart.

We see a huge uptick in Mage boxes post-beta, also a healthy uptick for Enchanters.

Big decreases came from Shaman and Cleric.

Q7 - Do you plan on raiding?

Big change here, not sure if people became confused on the true meaning of the question. My intent was to ask if players were going to raid in the described capacity at some point on Ragefire, not necessarily in Classic or Trilogy eras specifically.

Regardless, the results are showing that there are now 35% of players that either will not be raiding, or will not be raiding in Classic. This metric was equal to the hardcore number in the pre-beta survey.

Q8 - Which tradeskill will you skill up FIRST during classic

Nearly 30% hate tradeskills and on't plan on skilling any up in Classic. Not surprising considering how few tradeskillers historically are available on servers.

16% undecided. I think if you are undecided at this point, the majority of this group will likely not skill up a tradeskill.

Top 2 in close contention are Blacksmithing and Tailoring. Bags and Armor, the cornerstone of early EQ economy.

The last big 3 (Alch, Research, JC) fall in close order, and the secondary tradeskills lag far behind.

Q9 - What type of mind altering buffs do you plan to use while playing EQ? Select all that apply.

This one was suggested by Behee, and I thought it would be fun.

I think mostly this is fairly predictable with Caffeine out in front, and the order of Alcoholic beverages being: Beer, Spirits, Wine.

Interestingly, Cannabis is more popular than Wine.

More later on this when I compare to class selection!

Q10 - Will you be attempting to log in the moment the server launches on Wednesday May 20th?

49% of us are responsible working adults that won't take the day off.

Since the bulk of the population is on the East coast, this is probably wise, as the server won't go live until the afternoon PST. This will likely be near end of the work day for ESTers.

Nearly all players do plan to play at some point Wednesday, and certainly before or during the weekend. I thought maybe we'd see more players picking it up after the long weekend due to family vacations.

Q11 - Will you take off work Thursday and Friday to play?

Majority of players claim they will go to work Thursday and Friday. Again, probably a good decision due to the length of time we will be in Classic.

Q12 - Will you be punching things to death or wielding weapons?

After much controversy, the vast majority of players will not be punching mobs in Norrath whether or not it provides a DPS boost.

It should be noted that 10% of the punchers are monks, so 15% of punchers are non-monks in the below chart.

Bonus Analysis

Which classes smoke the most weed?

Rangers are all over it. Tree huggin hippies through and through.

Paladins rebelling against authority

Clerics and Rogues are squeaky clean

Which class prefers spirits to beer and wine?

Shadow Knghts are keepin it classy with spirits. They are also most likely to have been fans of Mad Men.





































Don't care, as long as it has Alcohol in it

Then again, it appears that Shadow Knights are just full fledged alcoholics. Followed closely by Druids, Wizards, and Rogues.

Paladins will smoke weed all day, but are the least likely to partake in an adult beverage.









Classes that are logging in on Wednesday ASAP