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What are the differences in the classes?
Sort of a broad question, but as someone relatively new it has been rather difficult to find any good information on what the roles of the classes actually. I have read through the scrolls and through the abilities of every class but a lot of the mechanics I can't find much explanation on and so it makes it difficult to formulate a good idea on what the classes are really about. Unless someone could point me to a good resource that answers my questions, I'd like to ask a few things about each class as a whole.
1. How does each class operate in a 1v1 setting, whether hunting or PvP.
2. How does each class operate in a group setting.
3. What are the main weaknesses of each class.
4. What are the main strengths of each class.
The roleplay and flavor text of the classes is very well explained but it's the general mechanics of each class that I am having a hard time finding any information about. So I hope to foster responses with this thread that will help both me and future people in deciding a class from a gameplay perspective as well as a roleplay perspective. So please give good answers on the classes you are familiar with.
As an example I'm looking for something like this:
Priest
1. They are really terrible at killing things, but are nearly impossible to kill due to healing
2. They spend time healing allies and resurrecting
3. They're weak to getting burst down in fights and they can feel sometimes tedious or repetitive.
4. They're always in demand so you can always feel useful
(This is just an example as I do not know anything of this class, but just an idea of what I'm looking for)
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Archdragon Mizik Corten, Herald of Ruin says, "Man, that was a big axk."
Hellrazor Cain de Soulis, Sartan's Hammer says, "Your [sic] a beast."
Alchemist
1. Convoluted 1v1 setups with varying degrees of effectiveness - effectively an untouched field with very few active combatants. Has some very effective hinder (homunculus block) and two instant-kills of which only one is generally feasible to aim for.
2. Relegated to supporting/melee damage role with disrupt to force enemies to move from entrenched locations or die, can disrupt area communications briefly.
3. Many, but am not really familiar enough with the class to list them properly. They lack any form of LoS ability and suffer immensely because of it in raid scenarios and have relatively limited utility in this regard therein.
4. Strong bashing capability (2nd highest damage/eq ratio spell as listed by Sena's stats) with innate tankiness from alchemical robes, armor and ability to use a shield plus transmutation sip bonus and an affliction-curing spell. Generally very tanky for a caster class.
Apostate (not certain, only very briefly played it)
1. Extremely strong supporting/main damage dealer role through necromancy and apostasy abilities - possesses the almighty beckon and three extremely potent instant kills
2. Soulspears and beckoning plus burst damage dealer
3. Requires a large lesson sink into Riding for one instant kill (Vivisect) to become immediately viable, weak-ish bashing spell, Soulspears are only inherent LoS capacity and require initial "capital" corpses to acquire any usable stack, long-term engagements restricted by Necromancy life essence limitations
4. Very, very strong supportive/augmentative fighter - pairs well with just about any other class given its capabilities and has access to the almighty beckon AND blackwind, making it fearsome and extremely hard to pin down. Moderately tanky with good armour and shield use plus apostasy armour defenses granting both additional damage mitigation and passive curing (!!)
Bard (very much not certain, only played duo-trans, no combat aspect)
1. Potent melee fighter in both hunting and 1v1 capable of dealing consistent damage and possessing defensive harmonics that dramatically increase survivability, has access to several strong hindering abilities
2. Hindrance and group support/offense via harmonics and tremolo
3. Lacks any inbuilt LoS abilities, very much a melee fighter - can be a liability in ranged fights due to this
4. Extremely difficult to kill, limited vulnerability to ranged due to arrowcatch ability dramatically increasing survivability in many raid settings, tremolo is extremely strong hinderance
Blademaster
1. Straightforward instant-kill setup with only single-trans required, perhaps the most immediately strong 1v1 fighter with little effort/investment, excellent basher and extremely evasive with high mobility
2. Hindrance via impale and target elimination through facilitated brokenstar
3. No LoS abilities on a high mobility class effectively locks the usefulness of Blademasters to melee only, rendering them useless in ranged fights, tanky in one stance only (Mir) and fairly squishy otherwise
4. Very strong 1v1/melee fighter, requires very little credit/lesson investment to be immediately useful and is easy to learn and play but difficult to master
Druid (haven't played, omitting)
Infernal (haven't played and only very briefly fought against)
1. Damage dealer, initiator, support - effectively fills many raid roles due to varied Necromancy/Chivalry skillset and does pretty much all of them well - viable instant kill technique (Vivisect) that is straightforward to perform and very effective
2. Damage via DSL, placing gravehands for group support/initiation
3. Fairly well rounded, but lacks in raw damage capacity compared to other Knight classes
4. Highly mobile (when mounted), possesses the glorious blackwind and gravehands abilities, has an ability that allows for dramatically increased dsl speed for a short period of time (burst damage/preperation), tanky with fullplate + necromancy healing/damage absorption abilities, innate high accuracy LoS via chivalry skillset
Jester
1. Hindrance, hard supporting role focused on inhibiting enemy movement and actions - poor basher and quite difficult to play effectively
2. Hindering, specifically with Tarot and Bananas, limited area attack ability through suicidemice/star tarot plus handling bombs in team fights
3. Poor damage output and survivability, no innate LoS
4. Immense mobility (universe tarot, backflip, balloons) and excellent group support capacity through rapid bomb throwing (blackout, stun, fight cancelling) and tarot abilities (hangedman, aeon).
Magi
1. High multi-target damage attacks plus group-wide affliction via vibrations, potentially gamechanging with use of the retardation vibration and excellent elemental damage output through staffcasting - decent basher and moderately tanky with no gear requried)
2. Hindrance in melee and potentially area-wide with cataclysm up, affliction with vibestacks and high damage output/burst with staffcast/stormhammer
3. Low innate line of sight damage (firelash) initially, momentum-based class with comparatively little 1v1 hindrance to prevent people from evading preperation
4. Can essentially determine the outcome of a fight with a single well-timed ability (retardation), a full vibestack is EXTREMELY powerful against a large group and has absolutely colossal group-wide affliction output because of this + deepfreeze, hellfumes. Easily one of the strongest and most straightforward classes unartefacted, essentially comes as a full package right off the bat with tritrans, permanent passive curing prevents locks from sticking and affords large survivability, valuable low-time cost tradeskill that offers useful consumables and enchantments
Monk
1. High single-target damage, support, protection, tankiness - hands down the best basher at later levels (80+) due to high critical chance and extremely strong sustaining abilities (transmute, regeneration)
2. Hindrance + damage in twofold role via telepathy and kaido abilities, strong in melee engagements due to high dps/burst sustainability and the ability to break limbs very easily
3. Very, very squishy without defences. Can only wear leather armor and relies solely on mana pool for protracted survival in fights (via transmute), low unartied effectiveness
4. When properly played and specialized, Monks are easily the most potent at nearly every single-target role in the game with massive damage output, huge hindrance, high survivability and excellent synergy with many many other classes. They can damage targets area-wide while proned, transfixed and paralysed and possess area damage/affliction capacity that is unrivaled by any class and have more combat utility than most players know what to do with.
I'll finish more later, maybe. This is getting pretty lengthy.
Alchemist: ???
Apostate: Deal two afflictions at a time via Evileye, plus heavy afflictions via summoned daemons. Drain mana, instakill at <50% mana.
Bard: Deal two afflictions at a time afflictions via rapier/Voicecraft combo, plus more afflictions and effects via Tunesmithing and Songbirds, and passive Harmonics effects. Also deal significant damage.
Blademaster: Deal damage + limb damage via sword attacks, building towards limb breaks. Can combo attacks with a single Striking affliction at a time with their slash/strike combo. Can inflict heavy bleeding, instakill at >800 bleeding (or is it >1000? not sure).
Druid: Deal damage + limb damage via morph attacks, building towards limb breaks. Can combo attacks with Hydra morph attacks. Heavy passive damage from bees. Damage and limb-break focused. Can instakill at <50% health.
Knights (Infernal, Paladin, Runewarden): All knights share the primary combat skill of Chivalry, and their attacks revolve around dual-wielding. Deal damage + limb damage + two venom afflictions at a time via Doubleslash (DSL). Can kill via damage, the prep-based heavy burst damage of Disembowel, or Cleave. Infernals have Vivisect in Necromancy which is an instakill if the target has both legs and arms broken. Paladins have some affliction-conditional instakill of their own in Devotion that I forget the conditions of. Runewardens have no such instakill, but runes and runeblades in Runelore strengthen their DSL in various ways.
Jester: Obnoxious trick-based playstyle involves spending time dealing no damage or afflictions while adding fashions to a puppet of the target, then consuming those fashions to deal heavy damage or afflictions. Often kill via the timed jack-in-the-box instakill after disabling the target with heavy afflictions.
Magi: Largely damage-based with damage spells that can be stacked up to deal heavy, delayed burst damage. Strong room-wide passive effects via vibrations (Crystalism). Some affliction capabilities. Have the trump card of Retardation, which delays all commands entered in the room by 1 second, and permits only 1 command be entered at a time (not the most accurate explanation, you have to experience it).
Monk: Deal heavy damage + limb damage with Tekura combos, building towards chains of limb breaks.
Occultist: Deal heavy afflictions via Tarot + Chaos entities, focusing on overloading with afflictions. Can instakill if you have enough afflictions.
Priest: Primarily focus on draining mana via their angel, can instakill at <50% mana. Additional damage and affliction capabilities.
Sentinel: Deal damage + limb damage via morph attacks, building towards limb breaks. Animal entourage deals damage/afflictions/strips defenses. Rapid affliction potential via handaxes. Can prepare a location by trapping exits, causing various powerful effects if a target moves through trapped exits.
Serpent: Deal two afflictions at once via doublestab. Can combo doublestabs with illusioned messages they specify, making it difficult for the target to determine which afflictions are genuine and which are fake. Can use Hypnosis to prepare burst chains of afflictions. The definitive affliction class, with a high skill floor and high skill cap.
Shaman: Use Vodun dolls for similar preparation-and-payoff to jester puppets. Instead of jesters' tricks, shamans can rapidly deliver a wide variety of masked afflictions via Curses.
Sylvan: Deal damage + limb damage + 1 venom affliction via Thornrend, building towards layering enough limb breaks to prevent the target from curing the Heartseed instakill. Also have strong damage capabilities via bees and Elementalism spells.
1. Great melee. Extremely high damage with venoms and optional runeblade effects. Particulary nairat (freezing), and hugalaz(hailstorm proc). Very straight forward and mechanical setup for disembowel, with the option to damage stack with runes. Engage/lunge makes mobile combat for the opponent a risk.
2. Totems, rune sketching, smudging make for great support in stationary groups and raids.
3. I'm struggling to find a real weakness. Not a ton of ranged damage, but between thurisaz and bows, I'm not sure I'd call this a weakness. No instakill, maybe (but disembowel is fairly reliable as one)
4. High utility for both raiding and hunting. Strong solo combat. Raido is a great escape ability.
Viva la Bluef.
Driuds provide possibly the highest damage in the smallest amount of time given their strength and bees. Reflexed Maul and bees is very good and powerful, especially if you bought a lupine bow and feel like adding meteors in as well. Druids are also arguably the best limb prep class in the game. This is because their limb prep comes from a flat amount. (always four to break) rather than having to figure out damage and a persons health. The hydra is an amazing morph that allows for a free head attack to prep limbs, so you can throw axes, prone enemies, paralyse them, and all sorts of fun stuff while continuing to prep them effeciently. They have incinerate, which kills when the target is below 50% health, and freezepound which does a 97% damage hit and is only slightly negated by the algiz rune that I have seen. possibly the bard reduction as well. They are difficult yet powerful in 1v1, but take an advanced understanding of combat mechanics to be good at them. (unless you just but lvl3 strenght and lvl3 knuckles and just lolmaul everyone)
They are amazing support allies as well. They can increase the health regeneration of anyone, barrier anyone, remove harmonics, resurrect, conceal and all sorts of handy things. I don't know how the new staff swing works, but I'd imagine they can prone a whole group of enemies now as well. (possibly just one person). The hydra web is amazing in group combat, as it bypasses buckawns amulet so you can web anyone no matter the setting, and incinerate will kill anyone in a jiffy. Grove lightning is also nice, though not as powerful as a bow it delivers some very specific afflictions like blackout/stupidity/epilepsy that are unique to lightning only. (in terms of LOS combat)
the weakness of a druid is they are amazingly slow. Each attack is around 3 seconds, which is devastating agaisnt a blademaster who can just keep proning and impaling you on every hit. some knights are even fast enough to do it, but a knight impale is not quite as scary. They are slow and cumbersome in general and lack of lot of the 1v1 potency in early games that other classes get. Also, hunting is slow, even if you do have health regen high enough to outlast most npc's
Their main strength is their diversity and tankyness. While they don't have the best armor, Vigour, vitality, and a passive sip bonus make them a force to be reckoned with when it comes to their overall health pool.
Druid is the most damn fun class I've played. Make evil druids plz
Excellent post, friend.
Viva la Bluef.
Occultist (never played, only citing what i've seen/read/heard)
1. Heavy support via high mobility + tarot and ease of affliction gathering, strategic use of entities greatly varies possible playstyles (most prominently used in 1v1/melee settings is hecate and cadmus which hinge around mental afflictions). Has an okay bashing spell, slightly better than what necromancy offers.
2. Support via tarot/doppleganger, plus straightforward kill pattern in melee and large aoe damage/affliction capability via chaosrays, high burst damage when artefacted (warp spam)
3. Lacks reliable line-of-sight outside of doppleganger/tarot star, slightly squishy, requires high intellect for damage/mana pool
4. Potentially free massive stat gain via transmogrify (but also potentially stat loss as well), excellent support and fantastic synergy with many other classes that adequately cover its weaknesses, has astralform which permits easy escape and excellent mobility in large fights with little risk
Priest (played briefly, not 100% sure)
1. Tanky area/melee support with rites and affliction healing. Has excellent offensive capacity in 1v1/melee. Hunting is standard, moderately fast but PvE specced priests (strength) will suffer in combat due to high mana reliance
2. Healing both offensively and defensively, use of devotion hands and angel aura to heal/shield teammates and maintaining rites provides huge passive bonuses and other effects which amplify the effectiveness of other classes
3. Weak damage burst in fights, relegated to supporting roles in melee (shatter is about as offensive as it gets), no innate LoS or even adjacent attacking capacity
4. Very strong instant-kill setup that is fairly straightforward to achieve (see Apostates), extremely strong in 1v1. Can contribute in a support role with very little lesson capacity (aura and hands are both VERY early in their respective skill trees), but requires duo-trans (healing/spirituality) to be the most effective. Can bloodswear with a paladin for increased synergy and large ehp boost (rarely used).
Sentinel (never played or fought, omitting)
Serpent (hooooo boy)
1. 1v1 centered around venom locking via affliction bursts (as high as 4 per second on artied serpents) and extremely high LoS damage output through best possible archery in the game. Hunting is okay with both camus and garrote. Not the best, not the worst.
2. Hindering support via rapid "high" priority affliction delivery in melee, huge damage output/nuking with sniping barrages and large burst damage via backstab (deadly in groups of serpents)
3. 1v1 is arguably the hardest to even become mildly proficient at in the game. Requires extensive rote knowledge of afflictions and their cures and is heavily RNG based at often inopportune times. Requires tri-trans to be effective in every regard - cannot lock normal targets without hypnosis and you will spend a FORTUNE on venoms without transcretions + some strategies are not viable without scytherus which is high in venom. Generally poor bashing in terms of both damage and speed. Hard to learn (1v1, sniping is ez), extremely difficult to master.
4. Possesses capacity for high effective health with scales, massively powerful archery (this is really a huge part of what being a Serpent is - 1 lupine serpent can output a ludicrous amount of damage by himself very, very quickly), deadly versus every class without passive curing once mastered, capable of theft (only class), best mobility in the game in hostile territory and out of it with dash/wormholes/phase/pacing and has the holy grail of all escape mechanisms, evade. Can be substantially effective in group combat with only trans subterfuge and a darkbow. Supports both group and solo play with equal proficiency.
Shaman (played only VERY briefly)
1. Incredibly fast hidden affliction capacity leading into a viable and considerably deadly instant kill. Decent basher with high mitigation and regeneration, but comparatively low damage overall.
2. Room support with runelore, group logistics via vodun - area damage capacity via runelore, affliction support in melee
3. Innately low damage over time (via bleed), strategies contingent on affliction use and curing which requires extensive knowledge and/or practice. Vodun is momentum based (but cannot be set back) meaning a large degree of knowing how to survive general combat is important with the class, moreso than perhaps any other. Many combat strategies contingent on vodun to be effective. Very few active shaman combatants.
4. Able to afflict stealthily, requiring regular diagnosis and potentially disrupting the offense of others. Vodun abilities emulate extremely powerful travel artefacts and only require 400 gold (roughly)'s worth of commodities. Runelore provides massive defensive buffs and strong room control with ground runes, totems, and large damage output via thurisaz, hugalaz.
Sylvan
1. Extremely tanky, straightforward 1v1 class centered on limb breaking and salve buffers to permit the most thematically awesome instant kill possible (heartseed). Strong hunter.
2. Provides in-room support with elementalism, LoS capacity via grove lightning (limited), moderate innate supportive capacity via groves plus high mobility and ability to cure afflictions from others.
3. Slow. Nothing about a Sylvan happens quickly, from prep to damage. Groves skillset has very limited use outside of the forest.
4. Access to barrier via groves (equivalent to a 600cr artefact), extreme defensive advantage via concoctions sip bonus, Viridian defense plus barkskin is acceptable damage reduction to begin with, further augmented with staff spinning. Straightforward instant kill, black-out on demand (very strong combat mechanic, especially in groups) and totem countering plus in-room hinderance matched only by runelore practitioners. Excellent class for beginner players (in my opinion) as it is extremely versatile in combat, very tanky and difficult to kill generally and can harvest own curatives for time investment.
→My Mudlet Scripts
I also wouldn't say any class with access to Algiz on a regular basis is poor, given that Serpent is regularly accoladed for having high defenses because of Scales, and the equivalent/superior functionality that it offers in that regard. Same deal with Berkana granting a large chunk of health regen and Jera giving one strength and one con. Sure, other classes can access this, but not anywhere near as regularly as actively having the abilities to use on themselves. Couple this with enhanced gebu/gebo armor and I wouldn't really class Shaman as defensively poor, not by any stretch.
The damage portion surprises me, though. Have you posted bleed damage anywhere else before? It felt quite lackluster to me, even at trans Curses.
Results of disembowel testing | Knight limb counter | GMCP AB files
Tecton had the full statistics thing in the thievery buff thread, I believe.
→My Mudlet Scripts
I'm not 100% certain of the numbers, but I think it was 300 damage for a 12 int, trans curses bleed. With swiftcurse and raja balance, balance was 0.9 seconds (probably 1 second with nimble now, but I haven't timed it). Assuming optimal swiftcursing, that's around 260 dps before intelligence bonus. Here are some other bashing attacks for comparison.
With artefacts bleed is even better, since it's a magical attack so it can get +20% damage from collars. I don't think that's enough to give it better damage than monk combos (since they also have knuckles for increased damage), but I don't think anything else can match it.
→My Mudlet Scripts
Site: https://github.com/trevize-achaea/scripts/releases
Thread: http://forums.achaea.com/discussion/4064/trevizes-scripts
Latest update: 9/26/2015 better character name handling in GoldTracker, separation of script and settings, addition of gold report and gold distribute aliases.
Site: https://github.com/trevize-achaea/scripts/releases
Thread: http://forums.achaea.com/discussion/4064/trevizes-scripts
Latest update: 9/26/2015 better character name handling in GoldTracker, separation of script and settings, addition of gold report and gold distribute aliases.
Site: https://github.com/trevize-achaea/scripts/releases
Thread: http://forums.achaea.com/discussion/4064/trevizes-scripts
Latest update: 9/26/2015 better character name handling in GoldTracker, separation of script and settings, addition of gold report and gold distribute aliases.
Site: https://github.com/trevize-achaea/scripts/releases
Thread: http://forums.achaea.com/discussion/4064/trevizes-scripts
Latest update: 9/26/2015 better character name handling in GoldTracker, separation of script and settings, addition of gold report and gold distribute aliases.