Deciding on the right class to enjoy the game

Thesan

Hey everyone! Not sure how "quick" this question can be, so I'll try to make it so by using an ordered list of what I want to be able to do well with my class. Extra points include that transing skills is not going to be a problem, I feel I'm flexible enough to work the RP and character story as needed, and that I will be able to start with an initial investment of around 2500 credits (retirement etc). 

So here is the list, with the higher ones being most important and #1 actually being very, very important!

1. Get to Dragon as painlessly as possible, meaning to have good enough tankiness and kill speed, with as little rest as possible.
2. Be able to hold my own on 1v1, but most importantly considering a class that could do well as assassin/bounty hunter type.
3. Decent raid/group combat capabilities to help in city/house/team efforts and not feel like a 1-ability spambot or punchbag.
4. As much utility as can be squeezed in there - mostly utility that contributes to performing the aforementioned tasks best.
5. Explore this amazing world for once from end to end if possible, with as few deaths to random weird stuff as possible.

Many thanks in advance for taking the time to go through it and come up with answers and apologies for posting yet another generic topic, but I'd really like for once to settle on a good class now that I got my prios straight and really enjoy Achaea!

Solnir

You've specifically asked for Runewarden, it seems. See: http://wiki.achaea.com/Runewarden

Nazihk

Runewarden would be my suggestion.

• It's super tanky on a minimum investment with great bashing speeds.
• Very reliable at 1v1 and it's a group fighting powerhouse with a great combination of raw damage and affliction power. 
• Runelore provides great team utility, from totems to offensive runes to defensive personal runes. Everybody loves Runewardens.
• It's neutral, so you can take it anywhere you like and not worry about having to change class if you change factions later.

The only real problem it has it that it's somewhat lacking in travel skills, but it's an absolute monster for that budget range. 

Depthswalker would be my other suggestion, but I think Runewarden edges it out in this situation due to superior bashing.

Solnir

Just don't go sword and shield runewarden. Their bashing is awful. Every other specialization is good though.

Cooper

There should be a stickied thread that said choose Runewarden if you want to bash and pk decently with no artie investment. Would save us from having to say that the weekly what class should I go thread. 

Thesan

Thanks for the prompt answers! I'd like to get a few more answers before choosing, but also because I do have 2500 credits to use on arties which could be for bashing, so maybe that can make another class on par with Runewarden with across most activites?

For now, regarding Runewardens: spec for STR or CON for doing both, where to spend these credits for arties on for starting out, and does the usefulness diminish a lot for all activities if you go another type of Knight because you want a bit more RP flavor?

Antonius

In the grand scheme of things 2,500 credits really isn't a huge amount. Even if you didn't have to use any of those credits in order to Trans the necessary skills, you're still not going to be able to buy enough artefacts to really make classes like Bard, Serpent or Shaman shine. Runewarden is your best option.

The main issue with non-Dual Cutting specialisations is that apparently none of them scale with your primary damage stat (strength) for bashing, so they're way behind a lot of other classes. Sword and Shield falls even further behind because it has a worse bashing damage modifier than the other three, because it's (a tiny bit) more tanky. I don't see any reason that at least the non-scaling shouldn't be fixed in the next classlead round, which should be sometime soon (they tend to be every quarter, so we're overdue for one). I think a compelling case could, possibly, be made for Sword and Shield having an equal modifier to the other three specialisations, too, because the additional stats from a tower shield/SoA don't contribute that much.

In terms of usefulness in other areas (1v1 and group combat, utility, etc.), they're all pretty much the same in the sense that you'll be able to contribute in a meaningful capacity. The size and nature of your contribution will depend on the group composition, though. As an example, Dual Blunt works really well with classes that have quick and easy ways to capitalise on prone opponents and/or limb damage (e.g. Dragon, Monk, Two Handed Knight, Sentinel, etc.), but considerably less well with classes that are purely affliction based (e.g. Apostate, Serpent).

Solnir

I'm not trying to be rude, but please reference other threads that are asking similar questions. As Cooper stated, this is a weekly question that's been answered many, many times.

In short, go con until level 80+, credits should be spent on +con, +sip, bracelets, crit pendant, and SoA if you need a shield (shouldn't as bashing focused runie, since, as stated above, SnB runie blows for bashing.)

Other knights have great flavor, but slightly worse hunting since they don't have constant access to runes.

Salisa

Might consider depthswalker. Low damage for PvE, but high survivability. Amazing for group, solo, and assassin style combat. They have some amazing mobility abilities as well. Terminus gives you some wiggle room so you can choose a hunting build or a combat build, and it is easily reset. Also low number of credits needed for entry.

Lucianus

They fixed the damage for PvE recently for Depthswalkers. It previously was not scaling with strength. 

Reyson

If you have enough to trans class skills plus avoidance and also pick up a decent critical hit pendant, runewarden will do you just fine for what you're wanting. 

Kiet

That said, runewarden is not the best assassin flavor. I mean, theoretically you can prep rooms to make it hard for them to run but... that's about it.

Sherendiel

Hmm, instead of making a new topic, I'll hijack this one and ask: what if points 1 and 2 were swapped, what class would be great for the enemy assassin or bounty hunter stereotype and bashing prowess was also important, but not THE most important thing?

EDIT: Eh, what I mean is not a good 1v1 class, but a good one at hunting down people and keeping up with runners!

Antonius

Thematically, I'd say Serpent followed by Depthswalker for an "assassin" class, since both quite heavily lean on being hidden and using shadows.

Mechanically, there are a lot of classes that are good at getting quick kills and/or infiltrating and/or killing unaware (AFK) targets.

Serpent is definitely on that list. It has tricks to get quick kills if you can take the target by surprise and/or can pre-hypnotise before they're aware of your intentions. It also has tools to help with infiltration, so you can sometimes reach targets even when they're hiding from you.

Depthswalker can kill quickly on a lot of targets, and has built-in tools to deal with people running (preempt will auto-follow, even off-balance, through forms of movement that only move a single room at a time).

Occultist can kill very quickly, has astralform to help with infiltration.

Apostate has blackwind (mechanically identical to astralform) for infiltration, and can kill quickly.

Monk is fantastic if you just want to pick off easy kills on AFK targets, no matter where they are (provided you can get into the area). Tekura Monk is not a momentum class, though, so its ability to jump other adventurers and deal with people who only want to run away is pretty lacking.

Shirszae

Blademaster could also make for an assassin. Thats basically what Lucaine was until he met Catarin. The hunting sucks, but the class itself seems pretty nice from what I've seen, though I admit I don't have first-hand experience with it.

Lucianus

I have... one BM used shin meditate and evaded into my room serp style. Icewalled and hamstring'd me in a room while I was bashing... And proceeded to damage my limbs with aff hinders until I died to mobs and impale/twist damage.  Pretty sure he was in arash for that fast prep.

Sherendiel

Antonius said:

Monk is fantastic if you just want to pick off easy kills on AFK targets, no matter where they are (provided you can get into the area). Tekura Monk is not a momentum class, though, so its ability to jump other adventurers and deal with people who only want to run away is pretty lacking.

How about the Shikudo monk for combat? Also, is it better than Tekura for hunting - can it make monk hunting viable? Cause everyone is mentioning how bad monk bashing is lately from what I read... :dissapointed:

Antonius

Sindregan said:

Antonius said:

Monk is fantastic if you just want to pick off easy kills on AFK targets, no matter where they are (provided you can get into the area). Tekura Monk is not a momentum class, though, so its ability to jump other adventurers and deal with people who only want to run away is pretty lacking.

How about the Shikudo monk for combat? Also, is it better than Tekura for hunting - can it make monk hunting viable? Cause everyone is mentioning how bad monk bashing is lately from what I read... :dissapointed:

I can't comment on the hunting, as I've not used either Tekura or Shikudo. For an assassin or bounty hunter, the main disadvantage of both Tekura and Shikudo is the lack of viable hinder to keep your opponent in the room, so there's nothing stopping them from just running away if they don't want to fight you (technically Tekura has Bear stance, but there are downsides to using it).

Serpent has pinshot, Blademaster has hamstring,  and Depthswalker has distort and preempt (though they're mutually exclusive), to deal with or prevent targets from running. Monk is much more reliant on non-class and/or artefact abilities, like icewalls and frozen ground, to keep their target in place.