Which Class?

Stilaus

Hello, I am new to Achaea and while I don’t plan on doing it any time soon, I would eventually like to pvp. To that end I wanted to get some opinions on classes and how they perform. I am interested in 1v1 and prefer a class that does not require a substantial investment in real money ($100+), at least initially. I am already a Priest (it seemed like a good starting character) and for RP purposes I am not particularly interested in Monk or Magi/Sylvan, and don’t generally like to play “evil” characters, but if need be I will. So pick a class, and if you would like to leave a comment please do, I very much value your opinions.

Garao

Priest = Priest should have tri-trans(Transcendent, which is the full 1736 lessons into a skill) at the least if they want to get into combat with full effectiveness, but Priest combat is extremely dull and linear. I wouldn't suggest it.

Bard = tri trans, and weaponry up to at least envenom. 

Sentinel = Largely ineffective without having one of the best handaxes in the whole game, and you'll still need at least bitrans and a large amount of lessons in weaponry. 

Serpent = Without artefacts, you'll need to be tri-trans.

Jester = Need tri-trans.

Blademaster = I don't think this is a very good choice for someone new to the game. While the hunting and PvP is decent, I don't personally believe it's something that a beginner should do. It's a lot to string together at once, and you have to learn about non-important game mechanics that are specific to your exact class, as it's quite "unique", such as the Fists in Striking. 

Shaman = Shaman is good and doesn't need many lessons (bitrans is perfectly acceptable to fight with), but it's difficult without a strong knowledge on combat and not something I would recommend for a beginner. 

Druid = Really not worth it without being able to invest a whole bunch of credits. 

Alchemist = See Blademaster, but less effective.

Runewarden = It's strong, but I don't see the point if you don't fork out credits for seriously great weapons.

Paladin:

It makes logical sense from you to switch from Priest to Paladin, and it's just a great class. Solid hunting, very good pvp. It's simple enough for a beginner and is a great class to learn with because it offers both venom usage and limb damage. It's a solid defensive class as well, so you'll be able to concentrate on working on your offence (but don't neglect your defence!) because you'll have fitness (which cures asthma and can help you with defending against and curing out of locks), the rite of Healing which passively cures your afflictions one at a time, the rite of revitalisation is a passive health/mana tick and can help you against people that do damage, and you also have 'perform hands' which is an active health(generously) restoring ability You won't need to get amazing weapons, and I think you'll find the recent events regarding the fall of Shallam and Targossas to your liking if you're just coming in. Paladin would be my pick

EDIT: if you have any further questions, just ask!

Daslin

because lolz. And Jesters can be nasty as hell.

Stilaus

@Garao, wow thanks very much! You basically covered everything I wanted to know! I was secretly hoping paladin would be good

I plan on playing Priest up to get a feel for the game (it can be overwhelming at times) and then rerolling, I think transitioning from priest to Paladin is probably a smart move.

@all, I would still love to hear from anyone else that wants to give their input, no such thing as too much information, at least not in the context of this game, so don't be dissuaded!

Mishgul

You will not have as much fun as any other class really. Serpent has the most fun learning curve for a novice in my opinion.

Tanaar

Paladin for all the reasons Garao mentioned, but monk truly is the easiest class to get into combat with, using the smallest investment. What are your RP hangups?

Garao

I just have to say, I feel like the notion that Monk is the easiest class to get into combat with, using the small investment can't really be applied anymore. All in all, Monks take a lot of damage and really do need Kai to at least transmute to be able to withstand that. Many people will fighted mounted against a Monk, and if you're sparring in the arena then you're going to need to Kai Cripple or curare axes. If they ever want to kill anyone without artefacts against people that won't let their torso get severely internally damaged, then they're also going to need enfeeble. This is just about bitrans already, and then factor in that if they don't want to deal with the extremely low accuracy of tekura they need to get to Throwing in weaponry. If they want their complete offence, then they need tri-trans at the very least. It's unfortunate really, but to fight as a Monk at even a medium level you need at least bitrans, at which point he's just better off being a Paladin anyway, and will be able to devastate opponents a lot more effectively. 

Mishgul

Paladin boring.

Garao

What class are you

Garao

Be quiet

Mishgul

I'm class of 2004

Mizik

Paladin: great bashing, great fighting. Monster melee, *Bowmanship*, *Falcon*, and *Piety*. Tanky.

2x Trans, exciting RP with new active Gods (no jinx )

Tesha

For me, Paladin has been a blast for bashing, fighting, everything. Tesha became Paladin for roleplay reasons, and playing in the Votaries has been absolutely incredible. You can get a lot of help with combat if you make it clear you are interested in it (even Mizik came to teach Tesha a few times, and I still use one of his strategies).

Iocun

I actually think that serpent is feasible with only subterfuge until illusion (expert + ~50%) and no lessons at all in hypnosis and venoms. It just will be very tedious, since your hypno for impatience will fail a lot against anyone with some vision skill, so it may take forever to successfully hypnotise someone, and inept venoms means you have the cost of having to buy venoms all the time. But you'll have dstab, illusion, evade, scales, flay, garrote, and impatience in hypnosis, which is technically enough to win you fights. You'd also want survival up to at least clotting though (esp. for tumble and clot).

You also can't hunt very well without trans subterfuge, so gaining money for your venom refills will be difficult. (But you'll have wormholes, which can help quite a bit to do certain quests much faster.) It's not really something I'd recommend to someone completely new at Achaea though, since it will take a while to develop a good enough grasp of combat/curing mechanics to have any sort of success at all. Unless you go the group combat route and go for snipe.

Tanaar

Regardless of class, for your $100 investment, four months of Elite may be your best bet. You'll get 430 bound credits for that, giving you 2580 lessons, plus another ~600 lessons for daily logins. That's on top of the other benefits of Elite membership

In contrast, the $105 credit package gives you 300 credits, which you can convert (at the newbie rate of 8.5 lessons per) for 2550 lessons.

The difference is if you want them -now- or are willing to let them accumulate.

Edit to add: In order to be competitive with Paladin, you'll need trans Chivalry and Devotion, plus a substantial amount in Weaponry. Moderate investment in Survival, Vision, and Riding are also helpful. Prices for superior forged weapons can also be exorbitant

Garao

That ^

The Iron elite membership for three to four months is the best way to use your ~$100 investment.

Iocun

The one thing I dislike about elite memberships is that it encourages class hopping so much

P.S. And alting.

Garao

I feel that

Seftin

Voidfist op'd.

Stilaus

@Tanaar, that is exactly what I will do thank you. And thanks for the feedback people! I am certainly leaning paladin but I will read the lore and combat logs for Blademaster and Serpent as well before making a final decision.

Velyse

The problem with Paladin is that you're interested in 1v1. If you go Paladin, -most- of your learning early on will be done sparring other people with Devotion. Maybe this is less of an issue for Paladins than Priests, but I know that about half of my spars to learn anything were against other Paladins or Priests, and fighting for rites (or not using them at all) when you're so dependent on them took a lot of wind out of my sails. For that reason I'm not sure that I can recommend Paladin.

Iocun

I don't see how having a devotion class means you will practice most of your fighting against other devotionists. You will probably get most practice against other city mates at first, but there are certainly more classes available in every city.

I most certainly didn't spar many serpents.

Averi

@Velyse maybe it's because you live in cyrene. I sparred many devotionists as well. For some reason they seem to congregate near the arena in our city. 

Though, so do knights and monks.

The end

Velyse

If you're a Devotionist you have to be in Cyrene or Targossas, unless that rule has changed. Most of the Cyrenians that would be willing to spar were Paladins from the Spire, mostly due to House and Knighthood reqs I'd imagine. The few people who weren't from the Spire were usually very well established, like Rinzai, Kaden, or yourself Iocun, and while helpful it can be really frustrating to fight people who are 200% your might and have a slew of artes all the time.  

I don't know about Targossas. Maybe they're more diverse, but it seems like -most- of the people interested in combat there are Paladins too. You can always spar with people outside of your city, but I haven't had good experiences with just talking to people outside of the Cyrene/Shallam factions, even over OOC channels, so I'm really reluctant to spar them.

Eld

Velyse said:

If you're a Devotionist you have to be in Cyrene or Targossas, unless that rule has changed. Most of the Cyrenians that would be willing to spar were Paladins from the Spire, mostly due to House and Knighthood reqs I'd imagine. The few people who weren't from the Spire were usually very well established, like Rinzai, Kaden, or yourself Iocun, and while helpful it can be really frustrating to fight people who are 200% your might and have a slew of artes all the time.  

I don't know about Targossas. Maybe they're more diverse, but it seems like -most- of the people interested in combat there are Paladins too. You can always spar with people outside of your city, but I haven't had good experiences with just talking to people outside of the Cyrene/Shallam factions, even over OOC channels, so I'm really reluctant to spar them.

Most of the Wardens I've found to spar against have been runewardens, rather than paladins. Dunno about the rest of the Cyrenian houses.

Caladbolg

I'm not quite sure about now but last time I did cwho on Shallam it was about 11 paladins 1 priest 1 magi 1 blademaster 4-6 dragons and 2 serpents..

When I was a Paladin I mostly fought other Paladins/Priests in Shallamese Rampages I think most people tend to want to be a good class in the good city. but no fighting with out devotion sucks. Paladin's more manageable then priest I assume. but losing devotion as a whole is just suck.

Also I say Blademaster, you don't need all the cool and nifty skills and such to start out with as a Blademaster, Trans Twoarts will get you very far. you won't be able to kill mounted opponents with out feet in striking. but other wise really just need knees. I started off doing real combat as a blademaster and even with out brokenstar Multislashing after a legbreak/btwist setup will get you pretty far.

Of course Knights can just spam curare/prefarar to the max I honestly keep getting killed by people I don't even expect to put up a fight because of Curare/prefarar lunge spam.


Acctually I take back what I had said before. I don't think I read your post correctly Paladin all the way just have to trans two class skills weaponry and pick up rapier prof can get decent rapiers cheap.

Also, just like to note I hate serpent combat with a passion. But I love the class.

Xith

Paladin seems best for you.

But I would say Magi if you can stomach it. Only need bi-trans, or trans elementalism and some crystalism, to manage kills against mid-tier, as it's straightforward damage. The hunting is also good once you're trans.

$$$$

Regardless of which you choose, I would recommend Iron Elite 110%. Just don't break the membership or you start back at 100 credits.

$25/m may seem like a lot at first, but if you manage to stick around for the first 4 months for that initial $100, you'll probably consider it your best money ever spent.

For your first month, 100 bound credits = 600 lessons, plus logging in each day is 5 lessons, so 150 lessons for the month.

If you hunt to level 70, your lessons and credit-lessons can total about 1100, plus 750 will put you at Trans chivlary after 1 month of playing.

With regard to additional spending, I'd advise never buying less than a 200-credit package ($69.99). It's the first big drop in cents-per-credit, and with Iron Elite Membership, it'll be 20 bonus credits.

Iocun

Velyse said:

If you're a Devotionist you have to be in Cyrene or Targossas, unless that rule has changed. Most of the Cyrenians that would be willing to spar were Paladins from the Spire, mostly due to House and Knighthood reqs I'd imagine. The few people who weren't from the Spire were usually very well established, like Rinzai, Kaden, or yourself Iocun, and while helpful it can be really frustrating to fight people who are 200% your might and have a slew of artes all the time.  

Most houses require their students to learn some combat at some point, so I'm sure you'd also find some Mojushai and Kindred novices who are up for a fight, from time to time. The Wardens are a larger house though, and probably have more members interested in participating in combat even past their requirements so that's probably easier, yes. The issue in many houses is that there's a certain gap: you have novices who just are starting with combat and have to fulfill some combat requirements, and you have experienced, established fighters, often also artied. Between those two groups, there are often relatively few people, so it can be quite hard to find opponents around your own ability there.

Yue

the class I would choose in your situation given what I know currently is Shaman even though the only class I have played is serpent

both classes stick afflictions, wear scale mail, have some utility, & can cast illusions

a serpent has more mobility -- fewer passive defenses

a Shaman has greater variation in offensive method -- fewer methods of escaping sticky situations

basically, both classes will require you to begin seriously learning about curing -- which is definitely a good thing! however, Shaman will require a smaller investment to combat effectively in 1v1 pvp (both in lessons and in artefacts)

Mishgul

Serpent has greater variation. Shaman more stoppable. Jester if you want an unstoppable offense or magi if you want to have a good offense

Yue

@Mishgul: Did you read the OP's post? In particular the bit about a focus on 1v1 and small investment?

I don't know maaan. Shaman gets impatience and serpent need dirks.