Return of Reckoning

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.

Speaking only from my experience:

Play what you enjoy.

There are two types of group compositions at the end (at least for pvp) - pug and organized. If you enjoy playing something that isn't in the current meta, you'll most likely find a home in pug warbands or in the pug scenarios. That's not a bad thing -- you get to play the class you want with the build you want, and yeah, sometimes it's sub-optimal. But that's pug life.

Other folks are more competitive and have organized warbands with specific comps (e.g., bombing warbands) or play in non-pug scenarios with pre-made groups. That's where you'll see restrictions on builds/classes. But if what you enjoy more is the organization and against-all-odds face melting of pug groups, then you surrender some of the flexibility of class.

You can get a new class to lvl 10 in 2-3hours of gametime played.
A class to rank 40 can be done in 20-30h of grind, or normal slow "enjoy the game" of 3-5 ingame days played. (70-120hours).
Since the game costs nothing, and people keep coming and going, there will be numerous people who keep rerolling and making new classes and gearing them. You are not limited to playing class A for years, but you can play classes X Y Z at same time, and learn the game from different POVS (say instead of focusing on playing a mdps and developing a mindset where everyone hits you too hard and your team never carries you hard enough etc).

Most classes can do "something" in large fights, but if you want my words of warning, do not bring these classes and hope to shine in large fights; Witch Elf, Witch Hunter, Shadow Warrior. Dps heals have as well limited purpose in larger engagements, but their heal specs function just fine. Every tank can brings various tools to large fights, and tank dmg and spread buffs and debuffs. Rest of the dps classes are between "best picks" for large fights (Sorc + Bright Wizard) or common "i hit aoe and my enemies melt" (Choppa Slayer Mara WhiteLion SquigHerder) or annoy you to hell with every keep defence where the walls are crowded with Magus/Engi sniping/blasting you from ranged cover (less good when in open fields though).

Not all the classes are wanted in competetive end game play, however everything is viable in casual play(i.e what most players do). Magus for example: you will be restricted to a rift spec in competetive warbands, and you will not be wanted in competetive scenario 6man groups, but if you play solo/with random people you can do well with any spec, it all depends on how you gear/build your character and how effectively you play.