Favorite Class (and why)?

Trevize

Verily said:

Occultist. It's rather amusing, as when I first started on Achaea it was the class I had the least interest in and never expected I'd care to play. Varying IC events (and interaction with lovely individuals) slowly changed that, as did the vast amounts of lore and history available - I really love getting into the story of the world, and as I've learned more details of the theme my opinion steadily changed from 'completely disinterested' to 'enthralled'.

The utility of the class is simply icing atop of that!

I want your universe cards.

Lilley

@Drauka

I was totally thinking the same thing about Apostates. I was raised by my great grandmother, who was an extremely devout Catholic. I've grown out of it, as of late, but I did learn good and bad things from the religion. Heh... and my great grandmother had enough books about every Catholic happening, including information on most of the saints, many miracles, so much stuff in our basement... it could fill a library. The only thing that conflicts with this is the idea of the guardian angels that the Priests have. You know, how all followers of Christ have a guardian angel? I've been to a million Catholic churches in my lifetime, and a million Catholic shrines. Father Tom and Father John of the church that I grew up attending regularly really reminded me of Priests. Except, they preached forgiveness and love rather than destroying enemies. Lol.

Anyways, I ultimately agree with you. Not so much the abilities of an Apostate, but rather... just, the whole idea of it. The way they worship, Sartan reminds me of "God" and.. I don't know. I totally see where you are coming from.

Anywho. I chose serpent because I like the moon, and the night, and I like the sneaky, ass kicking, subterfuge-y ways of the serpents on Achaea. One could argue that serpents aren't like that at all. I'll just point to these little definitions that I found:

sub·ter·fuge  

/ˈsəbtərˌfyo͞oj/

Noun Deceit used in order to achieve one's goal. A statement or action resorted to in order to deceive.

EDIT: Hmm... you know. I get it now. What we perceive as angels, could be baalzadeens and what we perceive as baalzadeens could be angels? I guess it's all about perception. I still agree with you.

p.s. I also like Occultists. They're awesome.

Katzchen

Infernal, because they are sexy in so many ways.

Achilles

Blademaster

Evade, Mindnet, Vitiate, Voidfist, Projectiles, etc etc.

The biggest weakness, long distance travel, you can buy artefacts to cover.

The RP seems to be more lacking for BM though.

Mizik

I like the full package classes. Monk, Blademaster, Paladin. I've grown to hate Sentinel after the loss of stun and hand axe throwing speed just because of how drastically useless it has become by comparison.

Blademaster just happened to fit Mizik's persona. High intensity, violent KILL KILL KILL pace.

I love any class you'd hate to be jumped by.

Talonia

Blademaster would have been awesome as a special class only granted to incredible combatants who had proven RP chops. Like if the denizen that is descended from Lucaine said she was only going to train a four people each half-century, and they had to reach the semifinals of a round-robin tournament that you had to get invited to (to control for trolls getting the class and then not playing it as seriously as intended). Then she would teach them all the class, they'd have like a week to train and work on strategies, and then they'd have to fight in the semifinals and finals of the tournament with their new class. Only the champion would get to retain all three skills at trans, the runner-up would drop down to like mythical in each skill and the two semifinalists would be at fabled or something (obviously where the abilities are in each skill could be adjusted). And then they'd be released into the world to wreak havoc. They'd retain all the old class secrecy of the Occultists, but with the infinitely cooler style of the blademasters. There would be sufficiently few of them that people would actually know the names of their swords. And those characters would be allowed to SUPERBLADESUICIDE;AGREE to kill themselves and pass on the sword and the ability to become a blademaster to one protege. 

Having dozens of Lucaines running around kind of kills the intensity a little.

Sancero

Seems like it would have to be game-breakingly overpowered to be worth that kind of exclusivity. But the concept does sound really cool.

Iocun

Based on its skillset: serpent. Subterfuge alone is so full of interesting abilities, which you can use in all sorts of different ways that it can hardly ever get boring.

Based on general flavour: alchemist. It's a class that feels really unique to Achaea and has a lot of awesome flavour. Despite some practical problems, there are some really cool ideas in its whole concept which set it apart from all the other classes.

Based on personal affection: monk. It's really the class I feel most comfortable roleplaying as. The whole division into tekura/kaido/telepathy meshes beautifully with the traditional monk guild concept of body/spirit/mind aspects, and as Mizik said, it's really the "full package", being equally good for hunting, 1v1 combat, and group combat (and in that both ranged and melee). The only thing that I dislike about it is that in 1v1, it's a rather straight prep-break-damage class, which I believe to be an overused concept in Achaea. Other strategies are possible, but in many cases just not viable against a competent opponent.

Dodder

Having tried and played most classes tri-trans, I always found myself returning to Occultist. 

The class itself offers for some really amazing personal roleplay, where I can play my character like a slightly-psychotic loving nut, that holds herself to some ridiculous set of principles and moral codes, that no one besides her agree with. Occultist is pretty much the best compliment to attempting to get that personality set in. 

I enjoy playing a slightly chaotic personality, with a life-style, that can fit into that. And I oftentimes find myself cringing for what Dodder might do, but her choices always just fits her really well all around - having that slight battle with myself, is what makes it actual roleplay and fun for me.

Add that in that Occultist gives the possibility for some of the most fun utility (and here-in fill my bar for having fun things to script) I figure that's why I always ended up returning to it.

If I wasn't Occultist, I'd definitely return to Apostate, absolutely amazing class too, I loved that to bits (And I still got an Apostate alt - that I ought to play more.)

Not sure if I stayed on topic but there - thoughts

Sylvance

@Dodder - "Slightly chaotic?" She's madder than a bag of ferrets, but in a delicious, wonderfully constructed fashion.

Always a (this-side-of-the-keyboard!) pleasure to RP with Dodder

Aepas

Serpent is most likely the most interesting class around imho. It has very interesting abilities that no other class can match, especially when put with a dedicated person (despite what people complain about.)

I personally have found druid to be the most enjoyable class to play, however. I believe and do admit that my "special snowflake status" has made my life very interesting and enjoyable, I do try to make it in a way that I hope other druids will follow someday. (Not in the evil way, just in the normal RP way.)
I feel like Druids have a huge amount of RP that has not properly been exploited, and only used as a more snuggly/kind way. If I had one dream, it would be that Aepas could instill a more vicious nature into druids with their metamorph abilities, as well as their spirits. No matter how you cut it, Druids have amazing RP that has never really been thought about. (I.E. How spirits interact with the body, how they empower/rebel based on choices, what mking a "grove" actually means to your spirit, etc etc.)

Druid for the win, if you're into that part of it. Seriously though... more RP druids?

Dodder

@Aepas I really really miss when Aepas was a mute you executed that so well - please bring that back?

Whoever told you to stop doing that, ought to get flogged - It was my most favourite part of your character.

Aepas

Dodder said:

@Aepas I really really miss when Aepas was a mute you executed that so well - please bring that back?

Whoever told you to stop doing that, ought to get flogged - It was my most favourite part of your character.

I'm sorry! It really was fun.. but people actually -hated- it. It's one of those things that can be done... but many people see it as too much 'special flower' stuff. Maybe someday! I'm already blind and deaf.. might make it mute again someday!

Edit: @Dodder is the coolest gramma ever.

Hyraeth

Not an expert by any means, but I'll weigh in.

Classes I've played (not on Hyraeth who will always be Druid): Occie, Sentinel, Bard, Priest, Sylvan, Serpent.

The ones I have spent the most time on: Druid (she's my main, so yes, that's a decade's worth), Serpent, Occie.

I have to say I'd still pick Druid as my favourite because it's /convenient/ and amongst all the chars I played, the one I personally prefer for bashing, but if I wasn't a Druid, I'd probably be a Serpent (minus the stealing, don't have the personality for that kind of arpee), because of illusions, wormholes and all the other cool stuff like Subterfuge. Roleplay-wise, that alt was one of my most personally rewarding roles because of the complexity.

Seftin

Serpent was my favourite, however jester and shaman hold a special place in my heart. Love them.

Mishgul

After second though druid is my favourite class

Sultani

Tarot-users for me. I really enjoy the mysterious, wickedly-curious, slightly chaotic merry prankster type. Occultist and Jester are both a lot of fun. I love the flavor of Apostate too, so good and the skills seem amazing.

Sena

Favourite class utility/convenience-wise: Druid. Several different choices for travel abilities (track, flow, gate, isolation, return), flying and burrowing, a tradeskill, easy access to refills any time. For novices, foraging and fluidswim are also great.

Favourite class flavour/theme-wise, ignoring mechanics: It's a difficult choice, but I'd say it's a tie between apostate and sentinel (though I really wish there was more focus on the spears/tridents). Bard and occultist aren't far behind either.

Favourite class overall: Serpent. Most of the reasons have been explained pretty well by others; the uniqueness (both within Achaea and from other games), the IC history, the flexibility, etc.

I also like the typical "serpent mindset", the detailed exploring/analysis of the games mechanics to find all sorts of neat tricks and tactics that aren't immediately obvious. For example, when I won my Sceptre of Renewal, my first thoughts were how it could be abused/twisted for other purposes (such as someone forcing me to heal them, me secreting/giving it to an opponent during a fight and forcing them to heal me with it, using it to cure an opponent to confuse their system, etc.); and apparently Iocun had also quickly had those same ideas. I'm not sure why this way of thinking is so strongly associated with serpents, though old theft and the creativeness it inspired probably contributed a lot to it, as well as the tricks required for effective spying.

As for my qualifications, I've played most classes (exceptions are jester, paladin, and sylvan), though most I've only played as novices. I have the most experience with serpent, priest, shaman, blademaster, alchemist, druid, and occultist. I don't have any combat experience as any class, aside from standing safely away from the fighting and thurisazing/meteoring/healing in raid defence, and newbie fighting (the sorts of fights where noose is a devastating, nearly-inescapable ability and you can damage people out by spamming meteors and camus) as a serpent.

Alaric

Shaman, because i like pointing fingers and playing with dolls.

Xith

Delphinus said:

Tch. Sure, we're unqualified, but who needs qualifications to have funsies.

I like druids because of the utility, mobility, and room for earth cultist RP. For me, as an irreligious transhumanist, it's a fun break from the norm.

Delphinus said "funsies"?

This means I'm dreaming about Achaea's forums now. It's worse than I feared...

Xli

When I started Xli, I was torn between choosing Sentinel and Monk as they're both quite combat focused classes. I went with Monk because I couldn't join any other city than Eleusis as a sentinel, and didn't fancy being cityless. If Xli could remain Ashtani, I might even be tempted to change class to Sentinel in the future.

Berenene

Mine is magi.  I've done the alts in different classes, and while I did enjoy tarot, I like magi because of my personal interests. I've always preferred the wizard archetype.

Nim

I have so many almost-favorites.

Jesters are my favorite concept, and I wish Achaea made them cooler already. Magi are sort of the same way, although I love the concept slightly less, but am also less disappointed by Achaea's version. (read: not really at all, but I just can't get excited about them)

Serpents are cool, but I wish there were more rogueish classes for them to compete against. With every single thief, spy, and assassin having snake powers, it gets kind of boring. I've got the same issue with monks, and wish there were more fighting styles than just Tekura. That said, Achaea already has a ton of classes as it is, but it might be cool to have a martial artist-style assassin; it'd singlehandedly solve both issues!

Blademasters are cool in every regard, except that I just cannot envision them in a way that doesn't feel awkward. Two Arts would be awesome in limited amounts, but drawing and slashing quickly is all about initiative, so continuing to do that (and being unable to actually fight with your sword already drawn) would be so visually awkward in anything other than a fighting game. (then again, I often compare Achaea to fighting games...)

And I'd love alchemists if their actual combat style was less in-room hindering, and more about room control or something like that. Preferably in an offensive manner rather than the style associated with rites, runelore, etc. I can't imagine how that'd work, but it'd be cool!

Finally, I'd probably love occultists so much, if not for the fact that I'd want to play one more as comic relief than anything, and any official, important occultists out there would probably be like, NOPE! Then again, all their roleplay seems so dour and macabre that, maybe, just maybe, I might be able to find a niche with such a character?

Synbios

Formerly Paladin, because I like being the knight in shining armor. And rites. And falcons.

Blademaster now my favorite, because 

Brokenstar, baby.

Dunn

I really REALLY miss apostate. Amazing blend of skills, flavor text and general badassery. Infernal too. Great class.

Garao

-

Sylvance

Now I wanna know what @Garao wrote. Anyone get screenies?

Garao

No

Jurixe

All of the classes have a lot of potential, but I have to say, Serpent is my favourite class by far. It offers amazing flexibility in roleplay with evade, secret, and illusions meaning that you can bypass the slight awkwardness of

'emote hands a cookie to you with a smile.' <- emote

'Person gives a cookie to you.' <- actual mechanic

I don't know, small thing really but that makes a difference to me in storytelling. You can also use illusions to make the environment around you seem more alive - sometimes I'll do my own room ambience, or create imaginary denizens and their responses just for fun. The whole Serpent = thief/spy/assassin roleplay is also a tremendous amount of fun for me, and I like that sniping/backstab/phase makes it so that I'm not completely useless in raids/general combat.

If I weren't a Serpent, I'd probably want to go Magi (because traditionally, I love 'magic' type classes) or Apostate, because @Dunn is right and the flavour text for them is super badass.

Wattsee

Magi would be my favorite as I really enjoy that the majority of their skills change the world around them. Having been involved in Phaestus' and Agatheis' order also helped cement in my mind the grand role that many see Magi as having, despite them being a neutral class.

Though I have tried several alts, none really hold my interest beyond level 80 and at least single-trans. But reading some of the commentary here, I really want to start up a blademaster just to see what it's like.