Looking for a class recommendation

Muaxl

Hi guys,

I'm a long time dormant player who has played a ton on the other games since their release, and haven't played for the past 7 or so years at all. I'm completely out of the loop.

I've retired a bunch of characters and expect to have around 8-9000 credits available to put into a new character. I've asked a bunch of people advice and gotten some solid suggestions, but I'd like to float ideas here before I commit. 

I'd like a class that is: 

• Not awful at bashing, preferably great with bashing with the kind of credits I have on hand. I prefer bashing to pvp and would like to have a run at dragon. 
• Has combat that isn't heinously complicated (so probably no Serpent). Something that can be straightforward but also has strategy and options would be ideal (like Knight can, for instance)
• Preferably has some personal utility, and some group/general  utility for others for social reasons

For reference in the other games I have been successful with knights, vampire classes, and wardancer. I was a fairly mediocre hunter,

I've done a bunch of reading and talking and the number 1 suggestion is runewarden for the following reasons:

• Can be a part of every city/council
• Flexible with 4 specs to change between
• Very tanky and solid basher
• Good utility for groups

I just feel though that it is a bit... boring. I've been looking at Sylvan which looks interesting, but it seems to be tied very heavily to Eleusis. I'm not crazy about that because from experiences with forest councils in other realms the RP can get a little... My Little Ponyish, and it's not what I'd like to pursue. I know I don't have to be that way, but yeah. I'll start a character there to explore and see how I like it.

Here are my thoughts class by class:

Alchemist	Don't know much about this class and can't figure out much from the wiki.
Apostate	Played in Imperian, I like it but not interested right now.
Bard	I hear it bashes well. Looks like it plays like M
Blademaster	Completely ignorant here but I hear it bashes like crap.
Druid	Don't know anything - how does it compare to Sylvan?
Infernal	Very interested, probably #2 after runewarden in choice.
Jester	Don't know anything about it, but the RP turns me off a bit.
Magi	Not interested.
Monk	Played extensively in Imperian and Aetolia, hear it was nerfed here bashing wise. Not really interested.
Occultist	Not really interested
Paladin	Probably priority #3 unless I find something more interesting in a non-knight class
Priest	Don't know much, I hear it tanks like a brick and got their bashing nerfed recently
Runewarden	#1 choice if I don't find anything better
Sentinel	Not really interested, played a lot in Imperian
Serpent	I expect that the combat is too complicated for what I'm looking for. I hear the bashing is the best in game.
Shaman	Don't know much about this.
Sylvan	Quite interested, will investigate

At this point I think I'll just level a character to 80 and do some f2p PVP and see what I like the look of. But, if anyone can suggest places and classes that might suit it would help me on my way.

Atalkez

Paladin has the best battle rage, imo. Super tank, solid offense, plus bloodsworn when you find someone.

BM just got another uptick, so it's probably not as crap as some make it out to be. Still inferior to knights though 

Bann

BM isn't totally horrible, but it's not as good as Runie imo. Runie also has pretty good raid utility and stuff with ranged bows and totem prop.

Aylek

Serpent combat is nowhere near as complicated as people make it out to be. Once you know what each venom does (ie Kalmia stops smoking, curare stops active tree etc), then its just a matter of "sticking" your affliction.

Armali

Everybody loves a good Runewarden. Go Runewarden!

Xaden

Paladin or Priest. -shifty-

Sarathai

Ignore @Xaden, he's biased and supports a terrible football team.

Runewarden you'll find to be generally pretty good on all fronts, I think - it has different specialisations with different ways of doing things, and a decent amount of utility, plus yes, it is very tanky for bashing purposes. If you're going for not-complicated combat, 2h Runie is fairly straightforward in building fracture momentum while also pressuring health, and if you're rolling with max-STR and a L3 bastard sword (since you said you'll have 8000-9000 credits to work with) you'll be in a pretty good place to start. Although a L3 hammer will be faster with breaks.

Serpent bashing is very fast, but you're also fragile unless you really artie out. Bard is slightly slower than Serpent, but it's a lot tankier (though, again, you'll need to be super-artied, and its combat is relatively complex with the different balances, harmonics etc.).

Muaxl

Aylek said:

Serpent combat is nowhere near as complicated as people make it out to be. Once you know what each venom does (ie Kalmia stops smoking, curare stops active tree etc), then its just a matter of "sticking" your affliction.C

Can you accurately track what afflictions your enemy has here? Like, if they use a tree tattoo is there any ability that I can get which will tell me what they have cured off? Or do I have to track that from inferences, like if they smoke I know they cured asthma? It's this kind of tracking where I fail as a serpent class. When I'm playing as a knight I just kinda hit them until they die, or are obviously setup for a disembowel etc. 

Sarathai said:

Runewarden you'll find to be generally pretty good on all fronts, I think - it has different specialisations with different ways of doing things, and a decent amount of utility, plus yes, it is very tanky for bashing purposes. If you're going for not-complicated combat, 2h Runie is fairly straightforward in building fracture momentum while also pressuring health, and if you're rolling with max-STR and a L3 bastard sword (since you said you'll have 8000-9000 credits to work with) you'll be in a pretty good place to start. Although a L3 hammer will be faster with breaks.

Serpent bashing is very fast, but you're also fragile unless you really artie out. Bard is slightly slower than Serpent, but it's a lot tankier (though, again, you'll need to be super-artied, and its combat is relatively complex with the different balances, harmonics etc.).

Thanks for the detailed advice. I assume that I wouldn't have enough credits to be anywhere near super artied for bashing, as a Bard...

Korben

Priest bashing with an artie mace should be good, though I'm no expert. Sylvan is a great bashing class, you get armor, class defs, some travel abilities. Used to get a sip bonus too but I have no idea if they still do. I was never a sylvan myself but I partnered up with one or two on the way to Dragon, when monk was the king of bashers, and they were every bit as good (if not better than) my Xoran monk.

Seth

Sylvan is pretty good for bashing. You'll definitely want con arties and a diadem. They definitely work well in group combat. You have your staff for grove lightning, so you can range with a group and you have a lot of options for close combat. Groves have a lot of utility as long as you're in a forest (staff can use some abilities with stored sunlight). Only thing is you're going to have to choose Eleusis. They have a very easy kill route with heartseed which will kill most midbies because people for some reason don't know how to cure it. There are much more complicated kill routes when you include weatherweaving, but it's super fun to learn. So if you're a tree lover (which you should be), it's a fun class.

Szanthax

Aylek said:

Serpent combat is nowhere near as complicated as people make it out to be. Once you know what each venom does (ie Kalmia stops smoking, curare stops active tree etc), then its just a matter of "sticking" your affliction.

This is lovely  

Muaxl

Szanthax said:

Aylek said:

Serpent combat is nowhere near as complicated as people make it out to be. Once you know what each venom does (ie Kalmia stops smoking, curare stops active tree etc), then its just a matter of "sticking" your affliction.

This is lovely  

Why do you say that?

Lyrin

Looks like you're pretty keen on Knight classes but there are a couple of non-knight physical classes worth considering.

Sentinel is quite different here to what you would have found in Imperian, but probably fails the non-heinously-complex combat requirement.    Sentinel strategies aren't particularly complex, but optimizing your pets can be a lot of fiddling with scripts or millions of aliases.

I think Druid would be worth a look though.   It has:
 - simple strategies, mostly limb prep into damage stacking or limb based instant kill
 - lots of personal and group utility with groves (wildgrowth, vigour, remedy, harmony, cure, rain, resurrection, hive, portability) and metamorphosis (track, block, vitality, view, fitness, might)
 - if you want to use it, lots of potential for complexity and tricks centered around things you can do in Hydra form with 3 simultaneous attack balances.
 - Reclamation is a type of functionality unique in Achaea.   Sort of like a demesne from Lusternia.
 - druid scales very well with artifacts and one of its main strategies is based on damage.

Szanthax

Muaxl said:

Szanthax said:

Aylek said:

Serpent combat is nowhere near as complicated as people make it out to be. Once you know what each venom does (ie Kalmia stops smoking, curare stops active tree etc), then its just a matter of "sticking" your affliction.

This is lovely  

Why do you say that?

Because it goes so fast it's hard to keep up with.

Muaxl

Lyrin said:

Looks like you're pretty keen on Knight classes but there are a couple of non-knight physical classes worth considering.

Sentinel is quite different here to what you would have found in Imperian, but probably fails the non-heinously-complex combat requirement.    Sentinel strategies aren't particularly complex, but optimizing your pets can be a lot of fiddling with scripts or millions of aliases.

I think Druid would be worth a look though.   It has:
 - simple strategies, mostly limb prep into damage stacking or limb based instant kill
 - lots of personal and group utility with groves (wildgrowth, vigour, remedy, harmony, cure, rain, resurrection, hive, portability) and metamorphosis (track, block, vitality, view, fitness, might)
 - if you want to use it, lots of potential for complexity and tricks centered around things you can do in Hydra form with 3 simultaneous attack balances.
 - Reclamation is a type of functionality unique in Achaea.   Sort of like a demesne from Lusternia.
 - druid scales very well with artifacts and one of its main strategies is based on damage.

Thanks, this is good info. I don't know anything about demesne from Lusternia, but I will go read the wiki for reclamation. 

Ankhareoutef

Druid 10/10 would recommend. It's a very cozy class!

Ahmet

Ankhareoutef said:

Druid 10/10 would recommend. It's a very cozy class!

:rip: wyvern

Krypton

Sentinels lost wyvern.

Ahmet

Krypton said:

Sentinels lost wyvern.

I was told sents kept wyvern and druids kept icewyrm or hydra or somefink. I feel robbed.

Krypton

Lol, Lisbethae and I have been walking around Cyrene in wyvern morph all this time, and you didn't notice? (Plus our wyvern-etched druidic quarterstaves...)

Druid: Wyvern, hydra
Sentinel: Basilisk, jaguar

Ahmet

Basilisk, that's it. Guess that's what I get for trusting a tree-hugger