Vanguard Class questions and experience...

[warhammer72]

Figured I might start a thread dedicated more to class specific questions/experience as I was continuing to derail some of the other more general threads


Anyway have more experience with the ranger myself than others and am trying to pick between ranger , DK , and monk -

Caveat being PvP server - I like the ranger but I have a feeling I might be the most overpopulated class - not sure yet though

Was wondering about opinions of survivability of the monk and DK also on a PVP server - not worried about being the "uber" class just want decent survivability is all

(also interested in other folks opinions about classes so far in general )

[Vorph]

Anyone know how to make a macro for dual-wielding that works when you have two weapons with the same name?

/wear "Polished Stone Dagger" primaryhand works fine, as long as you don't try to put another of the same weapon into secondaryhand. Really annoying as a bard because you need to swap in a 2H instrument quite often.

Can't really help with your questions, since ranger is the only one of those I've played much and I didn't care for it. After trying out all the classes and reading their full ability lists from 1-50, bard is the only class that grabbed me.

[Kiely]

Only thing I noticed about monk so far is that no weapon out-dps's using your fist's. (i'v yet to see anyway)

[warhammer72]

The small bit I played a low level monk I didn't even try it without the weapons - a noticeable difference between not using them with damage ?


Also one class I am hearing extremely mixed reviews on is the shaman - from being overpowered (in PVP anyway) to be very weak and not able to heal well

Any shaman out there who have input or anyone grouped with one much ? They seem interesting with the line choices and the buffs seem quite nice

[holymight]

I am a 31 Rakurr shaman and right now yeah, they are very weak. Mostly because our revamp is coming live next week. I will wait till it goes live before I make a decision.

I will say this though, they are very fun to play. Before 15 they are incredibly weak, but when you get your totem is becomes a ton of fun. The totems are reasonably well balanced, but pretty much everybody still goes phoenix. I think I have seen a total of 2 bear shamans.

One of the reasons that we are currently described as not able to heal is because we don't get a group heal until very late in the game. Make some encounters very difficult to heal. Recently they also broke our rez but I think they fixed that again.

[warhammer72]

Ah , yes think I had heard it's the group heal that is lacking -

Do you get all the buffs going the phoenix route or do you have to go another one for that

[holymight]

Each totem gets differents buffs, but there are some overlap. We don't get that many buffs though.

[nyx]

Originally Posted by warhammer72

The small bit I played a low level monk I didn't even try it without the weapons - a noticeable difference between not using them with damage ?


Also one class I am hearing extremely mixed reviews on is the shaman - from being overpowered (in PVP anyway) to be very weak and not able to heal well

Any shaman out there who have input or anyone grouped with one much ? They seem interesting with the line choices and the buffs seem quite nice

There is a remarkable difference when not using weapons, because of the crit percentage modifier. More crit = more chains. I think people who play monks in VG and complain about DPS all use weapons.

In early levels, I think shammy are overpowered, because of their DD nuke, but they are a bit vanilla. Later on when you pick your path and decide on what totem to go with I believe it gets much more interesting. I never got that far. The cleric class has some very nice buffs. Out of all the healers I enjoyed the cleric and disciple most, because of the melee component. Most would tell you that the blood mage is the most powerful of the healers right now.

[Faelor]

40 Shammy buddy of mine in beta told me, that one of the Shaman class leads (May perhaps?) told him, that he was told by Talisker that the Shaman would have 4 new buffs added in the revamp. I trust these folks for the most part, and I hope that is true.

As a tester I do not find the Shaman class fun. "But you're a Ranger you noob!" Yeah, well I have always have a Shaman alt so sit down. Highlights of the Shaman include getting Canni at 14 and then picking your patron at 15. After that hype, you get some neat patron-specific spells here and there, I won't deny that. But the 1-15 abilities are so horrible, not entertaining in the least bit. I've hit level 15 on the Shaman three different times, all at different locations. Easily my least exciting experiences in the game. The only thing worth note is Rakurr's 'Intensity' and 'Tuurgin's Vigor' (I personally find it funny one has the patron's name in it and the other doesn't) that give a huge bonus to Endurance. Currently endurance is 100/100 system, kind of like the WoW Rogue. On my Ranger I can get 210 Endurance, and I have a flippin hay-day. My primal finisher, Windsong, costs 40 endurance. So I'm basically going through my cheap abilities hoping for a critical, and pound Windsong everytime I see it pop up. At level 35, having nearly the best gear available on beta at the time including clickies that increase my DPS, I was able to put over 25,000 damage in about 30 seconds (~833 DPS). While I don't have a parser, I simply took all the damage done within 30 seconds (aka my Belt Of The Ages clicky effect) It can't be that far off though.

Hrm, now I'm just babling. But yeah, I'm not playing my Shammy until the revamp. I really love the classes in Vanguard but after having an alt Shammy in EQ for so many years (and twoboxing them on raids for Shammys who seem to "dissapear" after receiving a TA from PoTime ), I'm not enjoying my VG Shammy experience. But every other class concept-wise is grade A, the best in any MMO I've played. Sigil just needs hammer out those numbers!

... Too bad Sigil has some of their positions on freeze

*Patron = Totem, same thing.

[warhammer72]

That's another common theme I hear from shamans - that pre 15 it is the worst class they have had to level - but past that opinions seems to change about the class a lot

[Dashal]

I played a shaman on the PvP server up to level 7, and it was harder to do than any of the other classes I've played. Hard meaning it took longer to kill stuff and I was resting after each kill pretty much as opposed to mowing down a few at at time before rest with other classes.

[Drednots]

Originally Posted by warhammer72

Ah , yes think I had heard it's the group heal that is lacking -

Do you get all the buffs going the phoenix route or do you have to go another one for that

Have a 22 hayatet (phoenix) shaman and I like it. They are broken atm tho but still manage to limp along for now. Hayatet are supposed to be the fire based / DPS shaman (high dmg - weak pet tanking) but right now its not the case.

*edit - And we dont have some of the better buffs the others do (bear & wolf).

[Hatorade]

highest I made was a 31 or 32 warrior. Typical warrior for MMO taunt very gear dependent etc etc.

[tad10]

Originally Posted by Kiely

Only thing I noticed about monk so far is that no weapon out-dps's using your fist's. (i'v yet to see anyway)

Yes weapon = bad is my experience so far with monk.

[Hatorade]

Maybe I am just tired of MMORPGs but playing vanguard I couldn't help but think I have done this all before.

Maybe because I always play tank healer or rog. I should try a pet class and see how that goes. Is necromancer any good?