>My nominations for "most annoying to rank":
>
>Pre-form shifter. Mitigating factors: you're probably human
>so you have zero xp penalty.
>

Those claws and horns they get mean they can be decent enough now. Especially if they stocked up on wands when not ranking.

>Pre-elemental conjurer. Mitigating factors: at least you can
>spam magic missile. Make mental notes of people who rudely
>refuse to group with you; if non-good, take great joy in
>gaunting them later.
>

I agree lowbie conjies are pretty bad in this respect. Still, they can use axes, and that helps a bit.

>Druid, all ranks. You're like a crappy healer. Mitigating
>factors: you have no xp penalty, although you're probably not
>human so there's likely some race-based penalty.
>

I disagree here. I played a cloud druid (briefly) to about the mid 20s (whereupon I deleted as I never saw Oblain and needed to get into tribs to progress my faith). If anyone remembers he's the one that was going to be a trib. He was able to fill any role in his group well, from tanking (even before defenses) to damage.

>Shaman, all ranks. Even with sanc you're a mediocre tank and
>you don't do much damage unless you expend mana.

Giant shamans are great tanks. Also, they do (or at least did) ok against silver spirits.

> Mitigating>factors: you can summon. That makes ranking easier {and>safer} in some situations. Also no xp penalty, except that
>you're probably not human.
>
>Pre-enhanced-damage thief. You can't really tank and don't do
>much damage even with circle stab. Mitigating: no xp
>penalty, plus you can see hidden which is invaluable to groups
>that can't.
>

well, I know my trapper was pretty crap, but since then, they've had circle stab added. With my trapper, my best skill was to spam disengage so that I got autoassist extra attacks every other round.

>Necromancer, all ranks. You don't do alot of damage except in
>certain scenarios and are only a mediocre tank even w/ wraith
>form and vampiric. Mitigating: people want to be on your
>good side so you don't annihilate them later. Plus you can
>summon, and have no xp penalty (and are probably human). At
>low ranks you can spam chill touch for damage.

Necros are excellent groupmates now that evils can rank on evils, although not wonderful at lower levels (though I still don't mind them). Their disruption spell is comparable to any voker spell vs undead. One round lag and huge damage. Also, they can let their zombies take a share of the tanking. If you are worried you might kill the mobs with your zombies, rank on imm-blunt ones (which you can do for more than half the ranks to 47 for very good exp).

I think lowbie conjie wins my vote for crappy groupmate. Magic missile is ok, but they can't spam it for long.