Serpents in PvP and Raiding? Or should I pursue another class?

Nazihk

Unless what is most fun for you is Priest, in which case you should go with your second favorite. 

Antonius

Lol'd at Priest being similar to Apostate. Angel and Demon abilities are shared, but the playstyles of the two classes are completely different.

Mathilda

Runewarden is all-around fun, and you can never have too many of them

Descretia

I've been doing some more research(more research than playing TBH!) and Druid looks like they get a ton of utility and group play. I'm really torn between that and Serpent right now.

Torinn

Shared angel/demon makes them more similar than most other classes, but as I said apostate is far more offensive than priest is.  Didn't say they shared more than that :P

Farrah

Descretia said:

I've been doing some more research(more research than playing TBH!) and Druid looks like they get a ton of utility and group play. I'm really torn between that and Serpent right now.

If you didn't already know, Druid isn't a Mhaldor class (Eleusis or rogue only). So it depends if you're set on Mhaldor.

Dunn

Druid and sentinel are on my list to come up with RP scenarios for.

Rogue living in the swamp... cave hermit... Babelonian sabbatical in the mists...

Hmmmmmmmmm.

Micaelis

It's all pretty useful information, and @Kythra and crew hit it on the head. Serpent is fun and all, but in this day and age it doesn't really 'max' out any given thing, hence why I said it's not the best at the 'manipulation' role. You would be better served with Monk, Occultist, even Paladin, etc. It's sort of a 'niche' sneaky class with the main advantages being 1) Infiltration, 2) You don't die that much 3) Sniping is easy. All in all, in my opinion at least, as far as 'maxing out' you'd be better served with Apostate.

But all of this are people who've fought in Achaea or played Achaea with a combined total of a century of play time. We all spend a lot of time here, or have spent a lot of time here, so we think of class dynamics differently than you might. For you, you're looking for a viable class that is fun to play. That's how I started out (I was Apostate when I first played), and it's a pretty good place to start as the primary ingredient necessary here is that you have fun, or else why bother? Once you have that love of the game you can expand your thought process into the 'meta' of class mechanics. 

To that end, I think some of your best options as far as the 'fun factor' goes would be (assuming Mhaldor): Serpent, Apostate, Monk, Infernal, and Depthswalker. These are all solid classes, though some are subjectively and objectively better than others, that are fun to play and that are viable in combat situations. If you choose one of those, at the very least, you'll meet your criteria for playing, and they all also give you the chance at a specific 'flavor' of RP.

Farrah

What does manipulation really have to do with class skills? Serpent is as good for it as anything. And how the heck is paladin "manipulative"? Wtf.

Atalkez

Paladin is one with the Force, obv

Micaelis

Farrah said:

What does manipulation really have to do with class skills? Serpent is as good for it as anything. And how the heck is paladin "manipulative"? Wtf.

Serpent: hypnotize the target, hypno needs to pass through the checks/not fail/target can't leave, imprint the suggestion, seal, snap, wait 1-10 seconds.

Paladin: perform force.


EDIT: As far as 'what does manipulation have to do with class skills' I think he's looking for a class that overall has a flavor of manipulation, not outright class skills that warrant the moniker. 

Farrah

Right, but that's my point. Paladin flavor is the opposite of manipulative!

Serpent/Shaman/Occultist best classes for that. Maybe Apostate/Depthswalker.

Descretia

Hypnotizing, illusioning, thieving, sniping, and hiding sounds the most like what I'd be looking for outside of Monk's Telepathy. I could really go for a Psionic type class that had Telepathy and similar skills.

Farrah

Shaman can do some similar things with Vodun. You have to get a doll first though.

Problem with going Monk just for telepathy is telepathy isn't really Monk's main skill.

Depthswalker can hide and command people with Terminus. It's a shadow-themed class that makes weapons out of shadows.

Apostate can shroud and blackwind to move around unseen. Can demon mindread to hear others' tells.

Descretia

Farrah said:

Depthswalker can hide and command people with Terminus.

Im assuming from my research this is under the Dominion tree? I can't seem to find exactly what sort of abilities are in there.

Farrah

They use the Litany of Obedience, ancient Tsol'teth technique, to command groups of people to do things. Historically, it was used by the Tsol'teth to control entire armies and was used more recently by them to freeze us all in place continent-wide.

The Depthswalker version is a room-wide plus adjacent-room force of everyone in those rooms after a delay. You could Litany "sit" and make everyone around you sit, etc.

Depthswalkers have an instant single target force too, as well as the ability to force someone to follow you. It's all mostly group combat utility in practice.

Kerir

Descretia said:

Hypnotizing, illusioning, thieving, sniping, and hiding sounds the most like what I'd be looking for outside of Monk's Telepathy. I could really go for a Psionic type class that had Telepathy and similar skills.