New Players and preparing for End Game

[Dreadn0ught]

Hello everyone. I've been doing a ton of research and several potential problems came up and Im hoping that someone could point me in the right direction and also help all the other new players.

When LazyPeon posted the video I laughed and thought what is this. You can't play the game anymore. Then once I learned it was a bad ass private server, it was game on and back to my DAoC/WAR roots. So i'm playing the game, watching youtube vids, and listening to the ever incessant advice chat (that somehow manages to stay on topic for advice for the actual game and not other crap going on outside the game like politics or other stuff). I have ideas on what I want to play and I know that if you are well skilled and decently geared you can make all classes perform well.

However, I have been seeing a disturbing number of posts on forums, in game, and other places that this may not be the case. I have heard more than once that someone said in casual chat, that all these new players are going to be in for a surprise when they hit end game and their class sucks. I'm paraphrasing but this is what I hear and I hear it enough to want to know what to do. Not looking for, "what is the wtfbbqpwn dps class of the month that I can make silly youtube videos with and play music on". What I am looking for are viable classes.

Now you are all going to say but they are all viable, or they "Have their place". I keep hearing that end game RvR is pretty much limited to the primary holy trinity these days. Pure Tanks, Pure DPS and casters at that (sorcs/BW), and of course healers. If you try to do anything else you are just not going to have a good time. I've been trying to go through the forums here but there is sooooo much information it's overwhelming. Can anyone point me in the right direction so I can make a better decision on what I want to do.

Quick example of this problem. Everyone craps on the Magus in advice chat, but i'm seeing a guy posting Magus PVP videos with regen gear and absolutely thriving in solo t4 as a cloth caster and tanking. However if you listen to the flak in advice chat they are telling people not to play it. I have played just about everyone class on both sides up to T1 and im starting to get some ideas on what I want but I just want to make sure that I don't pick something that will be looked down or picked last for a guild RvR session and eventually requested to level another character to be competitive in a 6 man group or medium warband.

Currently I LOVE the Warrior Priest, absolutely powerful and I cannot beat them 1v1 on my black orc, but I do not like the destro version of the class, the DOK. I dont like the way they look or play although it seems quite powerful. I played the Sorc and while it was a very cool class the overcharge killed the character waaaaaay faster than the overcharge on my bright wizard. The Bright Wizard stayed up and laid down the fiery pain. My Sorc could barely do any decent damage without staying in the extra damage state. I did not like it at all. I love my orc characters but I don't want to be stuck not being able to do anything during a caster battle. I have healed in the past and love my Runepriest and to a lesser extent the Zealot but supposedly the dps sucks end game and you are pigeonholed to healing.

From what I was told the end game RvR works like this. Tanks hold the line and soak up the other teams BW or sorc damage while the healers keep the tanks and overcharged castes alive until someone makes a mistake and deletes the other warband. I just dont want to level something and it not be what I wanted. I hear there are a TON of changes and balancing done by this dev team so any guidance would be appreciated. Love my Black Orc but would hate to have to reroll a chosen just because the new meta requires twisting curses, etc. I love the Runepriest and WarriorPriest in t1 but would rather not play the destro opposites as I feel they are not as good when playing them. I do love my black orc though. I love the character and charm of the race and love the art style. I just dont want to be pigeon holed into only using certain abilities and only using SnB.

[Manatikik]

Sounds like you just want to play a BO. So play a BO. They’re top tier in 6 man with 2H and top tier in WB with SnB. Each WB WILL take 4 chosens and 4 Knights - get used to it. They will also take 4 WP and DoK with maybe one AM/Sham for morale pumps and insta Rez.

BW and Sorcs dominate large scale while they suck in real 6v6. All Destro mdps (including msh) are viable in WB (though most WB will only bring one or two of them) and viable in 6v6.

[Dreadn0ught]

Thank you. There is just so much tit for tat info going around I didn't know what to do.

[Manatikik]

Thank you. There is just so much tit for tat info going around I didn't know what to do.

Everyone has their own super biased opinion about every class etc based off when they play, how they play, what side they play, what class they play, and what group of influence they run in. No one can tell you what is best for you except play what you want and be honest about what level of play and what playstyle you will play in. If you like BO it’s great for everything and you’ll enjoy it just fine.

[Xergon]

You must rmb its group based game.

All depends on what aspect of the game you want to focus or spent most time. If you want be part of big scale RvR fights then you should understand how Archetypes works and how synergies works between classes and their specific specs. Organized groups with experience prefer or trying to go for min/max setups to increase their chances to win any encounter in RvR. So that means, Tank should be extremely hard to kill while providing CC tools, DPS should provide proper damage values while not being kamikaze and Healer should know how to not die while still be able to heal group. With current meta most valuable classes for that kind groups are for Order: Knight, Swordmaster, BrightWizard, Slayer, WarriorPriest and Runepriest; for Destro: Chosen, BlackOrc, Marauder, Sorceress, Disciple of Khaine, Zealot. You can probably squeeze 1 or 2 AM/Shamman and Magus/Engi into setups

So that was about big scale, in small scale (and by that i mean any kind of roaming/skirmishes from duo's, 3man or 6man groups) there are much more viable classes and specs you can run and be successful. Basically there is no class that can be useless there, ofc some classes and specs perform better than other.

Now, as last, there is Solo gameplay. There are very few classes/specs that perform here. But it mostly depends on your knowledge and experience, if you gonna make good decision during fight. There are some cheese specs like MeleeDPS with Riposte builds that wreks other Melees, there are some DefensiveSelfheal Magus specs that wins 1v1. If you know your class and even more, if you know enemy class you can try outplay it in this 1v1 scenario.

So, again, i would suggest focusing on yourself, if you roll some niche class aka SW or SH but u like it and you find other players who are willing to teamwork, you can make it viable and enjoyable.

[phononHYPE]

double post, oops

[phononHYPE]

There are a few classes that perform well in all settings, and a few that only have one viable spec. Mostly though, it is how well you work with others. Bad spec (say 2H choppa) but have heal debuffs and can follow a crowd? You're in! Great class that's always in demand (say, bright wizard) but demand that everything be done your way and if everyone just supports you then you will single handedly destroy the enemy? Up-hill battle.

Sometimes I log on and I have 5 healers in my group, most the time I have 3 tank (and no guard...), but I'd say on average the dps/tank/heal is generally balanced in about 40/30/30, so you really can just pick what you like.

Lastly, if you go tank/heal, always keep an off-set available in case your role is filled and they need dps/heal/tank. That is, 2h tank? have shield and sword available. Healer? have dps gear on hand. Greens are fine (gear rank, lowest to highest by color: white<green<blue<purple<gold).

Hope this helps, and check out /advice (/ad) in game for more. Welcome!