Best class to lead warbands?

[Gimblewald]

Hello, I've played RoR sporadically over the years (and since official beta!) with lots of breadth but little depth. I've never actually hit 40 - I just play for a few weeks here and there until I get busy or interested in other things. However, what I love about RoR is you can always login, run to a lake and do RvR, no matter what stage of the game you are at. This often means I spend a fair bit of time trying to put a group together and convince people to follow me around in whatever lake I need influence in. It's something I've always found a lot of fun, whether I'm any good at it or not.

I'm thinking about jumping back in and wondered whether there are any classes more predisposed to leading groups? I'd ideally like to play as an Engineer but perhaps it's better to be a tank? At least I've found the rule of leading groups as a tank to be the norm in other MMOs (e.g., WoW, nobody wants to join the rogue's group). Also enjoy WP, WH, BM, Slayer and all the tanks. Orcs are fun too but want to play Order.

Thanks!

[rorswar]

You need to be the tip of the spear, so either a tank or mDPS - ideally one with AOE damage / utility since it’s a WB.

[Gimblewald]

Thank you, Roswar. Would you say any tank is fine - Ironbreaker or Knight?

As for MDPS, could this include any of: WP, WH, Slayer, maybe Tinker Engineer?

[M0rw47h]

Don't even think about dps WP in warband. Both mobility and damage are miserable.

[nocturnalguest]

Best classes to lead warbands are heavy melee AoE ones.
Order - slayer, wl, bw (its aoe bomb spec is melee)
Destro - bomb sorc (semi melee too, like bw), msh, mara, choppa
Why? Most important part for killing in blobs is to reach critical mass of damage on 1 spot. Its plain easier to see and call this spot on those classes.
Leading on other classes (healers or rdps are very bad for making calls for others to reliably follow), including tanks is suboptimal by design and game combat mechanics.
Magus/engi as utility melee specs can do, but your utilities force you to move a bit differently then regular aoe dps. Can work and its better then rdps, healers or tanks, but still suboptimal.

[iagdtod]

Best classes to lead warbands are heavy melee AoE ones.
Order - slayer, wl, bw (its aoe bomb spec is melee)
Destro - bomb sorc (semi melee too, like bw), msh, mara, choppa
Why? Most important part for killing in blobs is to reach critical mass of damage on 1 spot. Its plain easier to see and call this spot on those classes.
Leading on other classes (healers or rdps are very bad for making calls for others to reliably follow), including tanks is suboptimal by design and game combat mechanics.
Magus/engi as utility melee specs can do, but your utilities force you to move a bit differently then regular aoe dps. Can work and its better then rdps, healers or tanks, but still suboptimal.

I agree with this. I'd just also emphasise mobility and survivability is important when choosing between melee/aoe classes. On destro a marauder has better mobility and survivability, along with a reason in ae kd to get there first, so it's often seen as as wb leader. MSH can be difficult as it is often useful when it bounces around making focusing harder as the web tries to reach it the leader bounces and its confusing if the MSH bounces in and then out (and leader doesn't have to jump but that reduces some of mshs use). Choppa has decent mobility. Sorc has less mobility (no stagger/root release) and is squishier so leader can die fast, it works but if you are looking for the best it needs a bit better coordination. Once a leader is known they will get pulled often by opposition so the mara's extra survivability can be useful here as well. However, nocturnalguest is right that any of these will work well, the wb just has to work with the leader.

[Jajcek12]

Hello, I've played RoR sporadically over the years (and since official beta!) with lots of breadth but little depth. I've never actually hit 40 - I just play for a few weeks here and there until I get busy or interested in other things. However, what I love about RoR is you can always login, run to a lake and do RvR, no matter what stage of the game you are at. This often means I spend a fair bit of time trying to put a group together and convince people to follow me around in whatever lake I need influence in. It's something I've always found a lot of fun, whether I'm any good at it or not.

I'm thinking about jumping back in and wondered whether there are any classes more predisposed to leading groups? I'd ideally like to play as an Engineer but perhaps it's better to be a tank? At least I've found the rule of leading groups as a tank to be the norm in other MMOs (e.g., WoW, nobody wants to join the rogue's group). Also enjoy WP, WH, BM, Slayer and all the tanks. Orcs are fun too but want to play Order.

Thanks!

I assumeyou will lead pugs.

Kobs- tanky and more avoidence against pull, being focused. Less button to press enable you to coordinate warband with macros or warband helper. You are also another tank, and its always problem with them.
White lion,- players will moste likely position themself towards Your target and based on your position. You will have possibility to keep pace of fight based on dps output/ input better then on tank. It naturaly helps you perform more responsible action then it would be on tank.
Witch hunter- burn armor utility , but duno if its good to after armor pots give more armor now.

[kpihuss]

WP on AOE Spec can lead the WBs too... It is not optimal, but it is very lore friendly .

You only have 2 AOE skills (literally XD ), have a big AOE cone, good armor values, 2 detaunts and even can rezs on places where a healer usually can't do it.

[M0rw47h]

WP on AOE Spec can lead the WBs too... It is not optimal, but it is very lore friendly .

You only have 2 AOE skills (literally XD ), have a big AOE cone, good armor values, 2 detaunts and even can rezs on places where a healer usually can't do it.

Except you have 0 mobility and WP AoE damage isn't bursty at all, requires long build up time: even buffed with ~60% crit it takes at least 6 uninterrupted GCDs to Soulfire into Smite spam to stack 3x Guilty Soul on average and enemies in most cases melt before that to channels/morale drops.
Thus, in most cases will be the lowest DPS in WB by a mile.

The only real pro is having RS to stabilize.

[buerdig]

Best classes to lead warbands are heavy melee AoE ones.
Order - slayer, wl, bw (its aoe bomb spec is melee)
Destro - bomb sorc (semi melee too, like bw), msh, mara, choppa
Why? Most important part for killing in blobs is to reach critical mass of damage on 1 spot. Its plain easier to see and call this spot on those classes.
Leading on other classes (healers or rdps are very bad for making calls for others to reliably follow), including tanks is suboptimal by design and game combat mechanics.
Magus/engi as utility melee specs can do, but your utilities force you to move a bit differently then regular aoe dps. Can work and its better then rdps, healers or tanks, but still suboptimal.

This^ Perfectly explained. I'd also put in shamans into the mix because of sticky feet and being a small target helps a lot.