Classes

[palmer_eldritch]

Edit: Um yeah, what Morfiend said actually.

[Logik]

17th Herald of Xotli here.

If find I've been ignoring Flame Breath and doing nearly all my damage through combos; it just seems ineffective next my 2H-sword.  Was loading up on all these mana items until I realized I hardly use any mana.

They're pretty squishy but I can handle multiple mobs if I unload my biggest combo right away.  Ranged casters supporting a couple melees give me trouble though.

It's nice to use when you've got a huge group of mobs around a single tank.  The downside is that its range is super-short, so if someone (say, your PoM) keeps repulsing (even though you've told him a million times to fucking stop) it's just a big whiff.  When I'm off by myself, I admit that I rarely use it, and I haven't blown the 5 talent points on its upgrade yet.  It looks like I'll have to do some calculations and a little talent planning.  For those that are wondering, my flow is basically an alternation between Molten Steel Slash and Hell Strikes.  I throw in Burn to Death from time to time, but honestly, things die so fast that its DoT effect never really seems worthwhile.

Regarding equipment; I've heard that our class gets boned on itemization.  As far as I know, the current recommendation is to use assassin gear.

[palmer_eldritch]

17th Herald of Xotli here.

If find I've been ignoring Flame Breath and doing nearly all my damage through combos; it just seems ineffective next my 2H-sword.  Was loading up on all these mana items until I realized I hardly use any mana.

They're pretty squishy but I can handle multiple mobs if I unload my biggest combo right away.  Ranged casters supporting a couple melees give me trouble though.

It's nice to use when you've got a huge group of mobs around a single tank.  The downside is that its range is super-short, so if someone (say, your PoM) keeps repulsing (even though you've told him a million times to fucking stop) it's just a big whiff.  When I'm off by myself, I admit that I rarely use it, and I haven't blown the 5 talent points on its upgrade yet.  It looks like I'll have to do some calculations and a little talent planning.  For those that are wondering, my flow is basically an alternation between Molten Steel Slash and Hell Strikes.  I throw in Burn to Death from time to time, but honestly, things die so fast that its DoT effect never really seems worthwhile.

Regarding equipment; I've heard that our class gets boned on itemization.  As far as I know, the current recommendation is to use assassin gear.

Yeah, because we need stamina more than mana. Assassin gear sometimes has +dagger damage bonuses, which is obviously useless for us, but it does also sometimes have a -hate modifier, which is nice.

[Morfiend]

When I'm off by myself, I admit that I rarely use it, and I haven't blown the 5 talent points on its upgrade yet.

With out the feat its not very good, once you put 5 points in to the feat it becomes a staple of your class. It does amazing damage and is damn near insta cast. I recently changed servers, and playing a lowbie HoX (pre level 14) sucks. All I want is to get to level 14 to have my 5 feat points in Imp Flame Breath. It is that good.

I usually open with Molten Slash for the debuff, then FB, combo, FB. Pretty much everything around me dies.

[Miasma]

As an update my Priest of Mitra is feeling much better now.  The healing does get more powerful as you level although some of the eighties are saying Bear Shaman have better HoTs at max level while we have a CC specialty.  Once you get your AoE knockdown spell you also feel a lot more powerful in combat, I can do some pretty nice damage.  I have some feats which proc one of my HoTs on me as soon as I'm hit so I don't usually even have to heal myself.  Lance of Mitra is a pretty good spell too since it damages anything in a line.

And I got some blue PANTS to replace my skirt as a drop last night from Sanctum so I'm happy.

[Brogarn]

With out the feat its not very good, once you put 5 points in to the feat it becomes a staple of your class. It does amazing damage and is damn near insta cast. I recently changed servers, and playing a lowbie HoX (pre level 14) sucks. All I want is to get to level 14 to have my 5 feat points in Imp Flame Breath. It is that good.

I usually open with Molten Slash for the debuff, then FB, combo, FB. Pretty much everything around me dies.

Damn. Now that i know that, I wish I had a feat respec for my HoX who's still sitting at 15. =(

[rattran]

Playing as a lvl 20 Guardian, I feel slow, and ineffectual. Sure, I generate hate, but not enough to pull shit off casters with the slow ass combos.

Proceed to tell me I suck at tank. You may be right.

[Montague]

Playing as a lvl 20 Guardian, I feel slow, and ineffectual. Sure, I generate hate, but not enough to pull shit off casters with the slow ass combos.

Proceed to tell me I suck at tank. You may be right.

No, just your teammates need to lrn2play without threat meters and to adjust to a new paradigm.

[Mrbloodworth]

Playing as a lvl 20 Guardian, I feel slow, and ineffectual. Sure, I generate hate, but not enough to pull shit off casters with the slow ass combos.

Proceed to tell me I suck at tank. You may be right.

No, just your teammates need to lrn2play without threat meters and to adjust to a new paradigm.

Yep, casters get -#% to hate on the equipment. Its not the role of tanks in this game to create hate, its the casters role to lesson their hate. I think. Don't quote me.

[Lantyssa]

I have some of that problem.  I'm a Dark Templar duoing with a Priest of Mitra.  It takes some time for my things to build up while the priest is blasting away and doing more damage.  Whatever though.  If the priest wants to start blasting before I reach the mobs so I have to turn around run back, they can take the hits.

[Abelian75]

And I got some blue PANTS to replace my skirt as a drop last night from Sanctum so I'm happy.

NICE.  I need to go back there for that shit.

[rattran]

Okay, mid 20s the Guardian gets a bit more effective. Still can't pull mobs off a PoM though.

[Kirth]

  shamans are houses.

[Nerf]

My HoX tanks better than my assassin, that does not make me the happy.

[schild]

And they should. Stop making up things to bitch about that make no sense.

[photek]

Okay, having played around with several classes I'll give my verdict on those. This might serve as tip for people who are interested in rolling one of the following. I will also compare a bit to other games where people might feel more familiar with what I'm talking about.

Barbarian - Up to level 46
Barbarians are killing machines. They wear light armor and are not designed to be a tank versus heavy punishment, but a decent HP pool, tons of stuns / CC's / knockdowns with Berserker build (2 Hander build) more than makes up for it. In PvE, if you go Berserker build or Reaver build doesn't matter, Barbarians got very high damage output and can easily solo 2-3 mobs +2 levels above them, probably 4 of same level mobs without issues. Since potions and foods / buffs are so cheap to get, having them run 24/7 and potting up in big fights will allow you to be a very effective solo leveling class and even better in group, teamed with any class. Your high damage output will generate a lot of threat, and the stamina usage is overall high, but some handling and not combo chaining 24/7 will allow far greater efficiency in group play.

PvP-wise Barbarians are currently kings of PvP while leveling. To put it simply in World of Warcraft terms, imagine an MS/Fury Warrior merged with all the best feats of the Rogue class, just AoE.  I'm not sure of my exact stats, but sitting at 3XX kills and 21 deaths currently, solo playing and fighting same or higher level opponents, and often multiple of them. If you are skilled, you will defeat most classes with ease and some feats like No Escape (An ability where you throw your weapon and impale the enemy stunning him and watching his HP bar tick from 100% to 0% mostly), Earth Shatter(Yet another AoE Stun and Finishing Blow(A charge that increases the damage of your next attacks by.. a lot, not sure exactly how much, but you will do massive damage after this charge. Can probably put out 3k-4k damage with crits after a Finishing Blow at lvl 46) are insanely good and not to be passed up. Also picking up Excellent Balance and Unstable Mind is a must for PvP, the former makes you immune to knockbacks for 10-15 seconds (1-5 points spent) and the latter breaks you free out of any root / stun / snare and grants you temporal immunity. I'm personally expecting several nerfs to the Barbarian class, but it is a blast to play anyhow. Also with full points in Hiding, your stealth is very effective and is the best in the game alongside with others who specc fully for it, but has no penalties and with Skulking maximized you will move as fast as everyone else.

Also make good use of your rest ability and put points in Fast Recovery, it will regenerate your stamina very rapidly after fights.

Going to write about Tempest of Set, Assassin and Conqueror once they are in the 40's.

[schild]

Priest of Mitra are completely imba and ridiculous in PVE. Between the second feat tree and the number of AOEs/Cone Fires you can learn, you can effectly take on multiple even to +2 mobs. I don't even know what to say. I expect a massive nerf. At 30 I feel nearly unstoppable. Nearly. I tend to push things and get myself killed. But that's my fault, not the class' fault.

Rattran wants to try out PVP tomorrow.

[photek]

Priest of Mitra are completely imba and ridiculous in PVE. Between the second feat tree and the number of AOEs/Cone Fires you can learn, you can effectly take on multiple even to +2 mobs. I don't even know what to say. I expect a massive nerf. At 30 I feel nearly unstoppable. Nearly. I tend to push things and get myself killed. But that's my fault, not the class' fault.

Rattran wants to try out PVP tomorrow.

Priest of Mitra are very vulnerable in PvP versus rogue / mage archetypes, so do not expect any nerfs. Nerfing one will kill the other. However, Tempest of Set is a God amongst the rest for PvE mob killing, Priest of Mitra is also efficient, but compared to the Tempest AoE abilities its not quite there in damage / AoE output. It is rather squishy at lower levels, but at 30 plus it starts to shine massively. At 35+ you can pull 5-6-7 mobs and kill them with a manabar.

[schild]

Priest of Mitra are completely imba and ridiculous in PVE. Between the second feat tree and the number of AOEs/Cone Fires you can learn, you can effectly take on multiple even to +2 mobs. I don't even know what to say. I expect a massive nerf. At 30 I feel nearly unstoppable. Nearly. I tend to push things and get myself killed. But that's my fault, not the class' fault.

Rattran wants to try out PVP tomorrow.

Priest of Mitra are very vulnerable in PvP versus rogue / mage archetypes, so do not expect any nerfs. Nerfing one will kill the other. However, Tempest of Set is a God amongst the rest for PvE mob killing, Priest of Mitra is also efficient, but compared to the Tempest AoE abilities its not quite there in damage / AoE output. It is rather squishy at lower levels, but at 30 plus it starts to shine massively. At 35+ you can pull 5-6-7 mobs and kill them with a manabar.

The other classes I've played include Ranger, Necromancer, and Assassin. Ranger is getting a bit more powerful (read: a lot) than my assassin.

Necro is a huge fucking mess.

But honestly, PVP is always going to be a minority of players and I'll never play on a straight PVP server. I'm sure guild wise things will be more tactical than FFA, but short of doing the architecture, I don't know how much I'll be involved - though some of it sounds hot. For the most part though, I'll only ever speak to PvE.

[photek]

I see, however there are no decisions Funcom can make to nerf the Priest of Mitra that would gimp it too much in PvP, so you got nothing to worry about. For now at least 

[Tebonas]

Yesterday I leveled my  shaman to 20 and while the increase at 15 was already noticeable, at 20 he really starts getting fun!

[Brogarn]

Started up an Assassin and I  it so far. He's only 12, though, so that opinion obviously deserves salt. Still, though, it is quite fun.

[Xanthippe]

Yesterday I leveled my  shaman to 20 and while the increase at 15 was already noticeable, at 20 he really starts getting fun!

I'm a little confused about what sorts of abilities bear shamans have when they're grownup.  HOTs, rez?, melee damage, is there any shapeshifting?  Where does the bear part come in?

Also -- are the two pet classes pretty much borked at this point?  I haven't heard anything good about demonologists.

[Abelian75]

I see, however there are no decisions Funcom can make to nerf the Priest of Mitra that would gimp it too much in PvP, so you got nothing to worry about. For now at least 

Personally I'm not worried about a nerf, I'm hoping for one.  I just can't play mine anymore at level 41, it feels just absurdly powerful and I have no real motivation to get gear/levels as I already feel like a god.  I dunno, it just feels lame to me.

From my brief alting experiences I have to be honest and say that my impression is that the classes/skills/feats are pretty damn close to first passes with the general "feel" of the abilities in place but the values and damage amounts pretty much pulled out of thin air.  Same goes for items, really.

[photek]

I see, however there are no decisions Funcom can make to nerf the Priest of Mitra that would gimp it too much in PvP, so you got nothing to worry about. For now at least 

Personally I'm not worried about a nerf, I'm hoping for one.  I just can't play mine anymore at level 41, it feels just absurdly powerful and I have no real motivation to get gear/levels as I already feel like a god.  I dunno, it just feels lame to me.

I know what you mean, its like me with my Barbarian. Its almost unfair. Honestly to me it feels like the WoW warrior era with 200% Mortal Strike and Arcanite Reaper which I had where I twoshot everyone and everything. I kinda know the nerfbat is coming my way, so I picked Conqueror as my main now, which is awesome and versatile.

Ow yeah I stopped my Tempest also currently, it is just too strong. I feel like a walking Tesla Coil with a drunk russian engineer who keeps repairing me when I get hit. (Means heals aren't that effective, but I'm full Lightning / General feat for now)

[Miasma]

Yesterday I leveled my  shaman to 20 and while the increase at 15 was already noticeable, at 20 he really starts getting fun!

I'm a little confused about what sorts of abilities bear shamans have when they're grownup.  HOTs, rez?, melee damage, is there any shapeshifting?  Where does the bear part come in?

Also -- are the two pet classes pretty much borked at this point?  I haven't heard anything good about demonologists.

Bear shaman have the best HoTs, they get rezzes (at low levels too) and I think some of their healing is triggered from melee (although that might be tempest).  I don't know about shapeshifting.

Demonologists suck right now, there is really nothing going on there.  I don't know about necros but their forum is all up in arms about their bread and butter spell getting nerfed.  They seem to have a hard time solo but if they can team up with someone else to take the hits they have good dps.

[Draegan]

My assassin at 51 is awesome in PVE but very very squishy.

However the class needs a lot.  A lot. 

Sprint and stamina mechanics are retarded.  The stam requirements for sprinting are % based.  So with nearly 2000 stam at level 51 I use that up just as fast as a caster with 500 stamina.  He regenerates his 500 faster since stam regenerates on a hard number while it takes a rediculous amount of time for my stam to regenerate to 2000.

Hide mechanics are broken.  As an assassin you need stealth.  However I can't hide during the day. or around dead bodies since they are still observing me.  I can't hide if my group mate is in combat on the other side of the zone. 

We have no CC/Stun at all.  We have snap kick on a 2min cooldown with a 90% fail rate in PVP that is in the middle of one feat tree, and we have another CC in the 2nd to last tier in the other feat tree, and I can't tell you how long the cool down is though since I'm not that high level.

If I get bashed, or stunned I'm done for since my paper armor lets me die in 2-3 hits.  Woot.

There are a myriad of other problems like our dagger not having a very big range of attack vs. polearms.  Our combo animations are too slow and all someone has to do is watch for us to wind up and back up slightly and we miss.  If we move at all during a combo animation it cancels.

Many of our buffs don't execute properly if we're in the middle of a combo or we press them in the wrong spot, we don't get the benefit but we get the cooldown!

All in all, we're pretty good in PVE mostly, but in PVP we're awful.

Anyway I've leveled to 50 as lotus and now I'm corruption.  Ask me question if you want.  I would of rerolled to a HoX or a ToS if I knew, but I'm not that much of a catass anymore to get back up to my level without pissing away another few weeks. 

Make sure you download the AOC Combat Parser.  Runs in real time from your desktop and can spit numbers to you in game as well.  It's an awesome tool to help you bugger out different specs, weapon combos etc.  Very easy to use.  So if you like numbers it's the way to go.


/bitching

[Kirth]

Yesterday I leveled my  shaman to 20 and while the increase at 15 was already noticeable, at 20 he really starts getting fun!

I'm a little confused about what sorts of abilities bear shamans have when they're grownup.  HOTs, rez?, melee damage, is there any shapeshifting?  Where does the bear part come in?

Also -- are the two pet classes pretty much borked at this point?  I haven't heard anything good about demonologists.

Bear shaman have the best HoTs, they get rezzes (at low levels too) and I think some of their healing is triggered from melee (although that might be tempest).  I don't know about shapeshifting.

Demonologists suck right now, there is really nothing going on there.  I don't know about necros but their forum is all up in arms about their bread and butter spell getting nerfed.  They seem to have a hard time solo but if they can team up with someone else to take the hits they have good dps.

At 51 I have 2 hots, one it triggered off a melee attack one is just a hot but it gets better with the more attacks I do, a direct heal that can be used every minute, and a combo heal that has a 2 minute cooldown (the last one is a feat). I can res, I have 4 self buffs and a group buff, I have 1 aoe short aoe stun on a minute cd. most of my damage comes from melee combos, the 2 I use are crush armor which is an armor debuff and another one that I can't recall the name of that puts a bleed dot on mobs. Most things die in two combos. No shapeshifting but most of the spell effects have bear themes (the res is really cool looking).

[Krakrok]

What is with calling for just about every class to be nerfed? An MMO where you actually get more powerful (instead of weaker) the more you level is a breath of fresh air. At level 80 I should be able to take out a whole fucking zone in an orgy of pillage by myself.

You're suppose to be a hero not cog #3 in a 25 man raid. That's fucking stupid.

[Murgos]

What is with calling for just about every class to be nerfed? An MMO where you actually get more powerful (instead of weaker) the more you level is a breath of fresh air. At level 80 I should be able to take out a whole fucking zone in an orgy of pillage by myself.

You're suppose to be a hero not cog #3 in a 25 man raid. That's fucking stupid.

Totally agree.

[AcidCat]

I was messing around with my baby  shaman last night and it was all fun and games until I got to the first trip to the volcano on the destiny quest. Die/Respawn/Die/Respawn/Die/Respawn. Kind of discouraging. Then I go back to my Barbarian and I feel much better.

[Der Helm]

I was messing around with my baby 

[Morfiend]

What is with calling for just about every class to be nerfed? An MMO where you actually get more powerful (instead of weaker) the more you level is a breath of fresh air. At level 80 I should be able to take out a whole fucking zone in an orgy of pillage by myself.

You're suppose to be a hero not cog #3 in a 25 man raid. That's fucking stupid.

Balance.

What do you think is going to happen if everyone gets to 80, and 3 classes are totally dominant in PVP?

[rattran]

Buffs, not nerfs.

[Mrbloodworth]

Only the last move of a combo requires you to stand still.