The point is, you heal--but you dont FEEL like you're a healbot.
In other games, you're either a healer, or you're dps--in this one, you're both.
No, I feel like a healbot that gets bored and can throw off a shitty DoT or two when I'm not actively healing.
Mythic knows how to do hybrid healers well. DAoC had the smite cleric, the friar, and the mentalist.
The Zealot is ever-so-slightly less healbottish than, say, any dedicated healer in WoW, but it's a far cry from being the flexible healer they've touted it as.
Because in other similiar MMO's, you'd occassionally see a melee hunter, or shit of the similiar fashion--people always want the option to play the role of something that class isn't really meant to play. In WAR, they try to flesh out your options, whether they're 100% as effective as the others is unknown.
Yeah, god forbid they design the ranged DPS class to be good at *gasp* ranged DPS. :P
I know, I know, it'll change, it'll improve (hopefully). It just concerns me that a lot of the classes at this point feel utterly cemented in their given role. There is no Shadow Priest; no Enhancement Shaman, no Druid, no Ret Pally... The crossover options are there, but really awful.
Yeah I was really disappointed with the Rune Priest and Zealot. Their supposed advantage over the other healers is that they get more types of heals. The problem is that those heals are divided into three mastery paths, and you can only max one path, have two at 75% or 3 at 50%. At high levels, the heals in the off-spec paths end up quite a bit weaker than your main spec heals and generally a waste of casting time. You are better off sticking to your main spec heals.
The Archmage and Shaman heals are all in one mastery path. They have fewer types of heals, but they end up being more versatile healers because all of their heals are strong if they go heal spec.
A Rune Priest or Zealot has to decide between improving their direct heals, group heal, or HoTs. The Archmage and Shaman can improve all of them at once. If the Rune Priest or Zealot does a hybrid triple spec, they improve all of their heals, but those heals end up being weaker than a full heal spec Archmage/Shaman.
This is why they are Mastery pools... Mastery.
Keyword: Mastery.
Can't master them all, you've gotta pick one, or be a jack-of-all-trades.
Yeah I was really disappointed with the Rune Priest and Zealot. Their supposed advantage over the other healers is that they get more types of heals. The problem is that those heals are divided into three mastery paths, and you can only max one path, have two at 75% or 3 at 50%. At high levels, the heals in the off-spec paths end up quite a bit weaker than your main spec heals and generally a waste of casting time. You are better off sticking to your main spec heals.
The Archmage and Shaman heals are all in one mastery path. They have fewer types of heals, but they end up being more versatile healers because all of their heals are strong if they go heal spec.
A Rune Priest or Zealot has to decide between improving their direct heals, group heal, or HoTs. The Archmage and Shaman can improve all of them at once. If the Rune Priest or Zealot does a hybrid triple spec, they improve all of their heals, but those heals end up being weaker than a full heal spec Archmage/Shaman.
This is why they are Mastery pools... Mastery.
Keyword: Mastery.
Can't master them all, you've gotta pick one, or be a jack-of-all-trades.
Right, but his point is The Archmage and Shaman inprove all of their heals with one mastery, making them more versatile healers than the Rune Priest/Zealot.
Have you tried, as a Shaman, keeping someone alive who is getting focus fired?
It is really hard.
On a Zealot? Not so much.
How so?
The Shaman damage shield is vastly superior to the Zealot's. And Zealots don't have any more burst healing capability than a Shaman. I suppose if you're Alchemy specced, you could just spam the hell out of Flash of Chaos if it wasn't too much focus fire. And if you had a T3 morale, you could use your group damage shield. But that's about it.
There was a really good comparison of Zealot and Shaman healing early in the Zealot 3.3 thread. The gist of it was that a fully specced Zealot's heals were usually equal to or worse than an unspecced Shaman's heals of the same type.
Yeah I was really disappointed with the Rune Priest and Zealot. Their supposed advantage over the other healers is that they get more types of heals. The problem is that those heals are divided into three mastery paths, and you can only max one path, have two at 75% or 3 at 50%. At high levels, the heals in the off-spec paths end up quite a bit weaker than your main spec heals and generally a waste of casting time. You are better off sticking to your main spec heals.
The Archmage and Shaman heals are all in one mastery path. They have fewer types of heals, but they end up being more versatile healers because all of their heals are strong if they go heal spec.
A Rune Priest or Zealot has to decide between improving their direct heals, group heal, or HoTs. The Archmage and Shaman can improve all of them at once. If the Rune Priest or Zealot does a hybrid triple spec, they improve all of their heals, but those heals end up being weaker than a full heal spec Archmage/Shaman.
This is why they are Mastery pools... Mastery.
Keyword: Mastery.
Can't master them all, you've gotta pick one, or be a jack-of-all-trades.
/facepalm
Did you read my post? My whole point was that the archmage and shaman can in effect be a jack-of-all-trades and master them all by picking one.
Sure, the Archmage and Shaman can choose to spec damage. I don't care about that. In pure healbotting terms, a player is better off going with a heal spec archmage or shaman over a rune priest or zealot. That's just considering baseline heal spells. Things go even more heavily in the archmage/shaman's favor when you consider the super HoTs they can learn through mastery.
A few simple questions I haven't seen answered forgive me if they have been.
On respeccing:
Are there any restrictions/penalties?
How often can this be done?
Are there any penalties on dying? Like loss of XP or "durability"?
Now that I think of it, is there a "durability" like "feature" in the game where you have to repair?
Are all items bound when you equip like wow or is it more like ffxi where you can trade items/equip after you wear them?
Since this seemed to be missed, I'll give it a shot.
Respeccing: No one knows right now. It's still in Beta mode so it's free with no restrictions from the Trainers.
Deaht Penatly: There is, thank Sigmar, no durability feature/features in the game. When you die, you stand back up at the nearest camp/hub/town with a 10 minute debuff to your health (10% or so) which you can then pay a nearby Healer NPC to cure. That, along with a run back to wherever you want to be, is it.
Item Binding: I'm not sure on this one, never checked. There are some "Bound To Player" items and gear, but I never noticed how many were like this and how it worked with equip'ed items.
Have you tried, as a Shaman, keeping someone alive who is getting focus fired?
It is really hard.
On a Zealot? Not so much.
It is easier on a shaman or archmage. Midway down the healing mastery, they both get an excellent heal. The shaman one is a huge short duration HoT. The archmage one is a 3 second channel that heals once every second. Both of these are really good for keeping someone up, when combined with the regular HoT, the damage absorb shield, and the 3 second cast direct heal.
Would it be possible for someone to share some more specific info about the Witch Hunter class?
Check out my comments on the Witch Elf. They're pretty similar, even if they feel a little different. Instead of Kisses, they get buffs they put on their Executions which proc snares or DoTs. Basically the same mechanic with a slightly different trigger.
The core gameplay is exactly the same though.
Edit: The zealot conversation belongs in the other thread. It's a valid one, and I have some opinions on it (I both agree with robothero that it's a good thing and with ser1al that the mastery paths needs a little something more). Let's continue it over there.
Does Warhammer have them? I get the feeling it does from reading other posts, but I haven't seen it said explicitly that there is zoning and if so, how big they are. I remember playing DAoC, which had zones that seemed pretty large, but that was a long, long time ago so my memory might be fuzzy.
How are the zones compared to, say, Age of Conan? Conan had some big zones generally, but there were certain areas (that catacomb area under the temple of Mithra in the noob zone) where I was zoning constantly and it was damned annoying.
Edit: Also it seems like you are having a discussion about the different healing classes... isn't that for the other thread?
Zones are basically the Tiers and the capitol cities. You only load new zones when changing between tiers, entering scenarios, instances, or entering a city.
It is easier on a shaman or archmage. Midway down the healing mastery, they both get an excellent heal. The shaman one is a huge short duration HoT. The archmage one is a 3 second channel that heals once every second. Both of these are really good for keeping someone up, when combined with the regular HoT, the damage absorb shield, and the 3 second cast direct heal.
I have to disagree because it's different styles of healing.
How is the text display for items in the world through the UI?
For example the UI text differences between WoW and LoTRO. In WoW character names above their heads are rendered in the 3D engine which allows it to scale nicely with range. With LoTRO the character names are just a dynamic part of the UI and don't really with the distance range of characters.
If you see someone a mile away, you wont even see a name.
As they get closer it gets less fuzzy, so no--you won't see your Nemesis coming from a mile off, you won't know exactly WHO it is until they're pretty close.
A few simple questions I haven't seen answered forgive me if they have been.
On respeccing:
Are there any restrictions/penalties? In current built of beta, no restrictions, costs or penalties.
How often can this be done? Anytime you see a Career Trainer, you can Respecialize your Mastery, but again it's beta, with no cost, cooldowns or restrictions.
Are there any penalties on dying? Like loss of XP or "durability"? In current beta, you get a debuff that shortens your health by 10%, and it stacks with concurrent death. Each one lasts 10 minutes, but if you die again in that 10-minute period it resets with the next 'stacking'. Of course, you can visit a healer and pay to remove it, which is pretty handy.
Now that I think of it, is there a "durability" like "feature" in the game where you have to repair? In the current build of beta, there is no durability whatsoever.
Are all items bound when you equip like wow or is it more like ffxi where you can trade items/equip after you wear them?Some items are bound to you when you collect them (PQ loot, quest items), and a la WoW, greens and higher bind to you after equipping--but it does warn you before you put it on.
Could somebody compare the range of the shadow warrior with the range of a hunter or mage from wow?
Longer. A bit.
RDPS attacks tend to come in two categories of ranges: 100' and 65'. Most single target attacks have a 100' range. The Scout stance that Shadow Warriors get enhance this to 110'. It really is rather long... a bit moreso than, say, a WoW mage. But that's just based on feeling, since doing a direct comparison isn't possible.
Compared to other RDPS classes, the Shadow Warrior's about the same, range-wise. They have a number of shorter-ranged abilities, but they tend to have some extra effect to offset them, like an AoE DoT, or the various Skirmish abilities, which can be fired on the run.
But, you're not going to be able to out-range other ranged attackers with a bow like you could in DAoC.
To whoever has played a Chaos Chosen, how does their damage hold up? I understand that they are primarily a tank class, but some of the information on the official website indicates that they can DPS fairly well with a 2-hander. Is this the case, or is it is pretty poor?
Out of all the tanks, Chosen have the most capacity for killing things. Their tanking path even has only 1 tactic that absolutely requires a shield, meaning that (and I did this for a while) you could theoretically setup a 2-handed tanking Chosen. And yes there's about a 30-40% difference in damage you'll notice going from sword&board to two-hander.
Hopefully they don't back down like WoW did and let hunters fire off arrows when someone is right in your face.
I actually read that there is a specific skill to allow you to do that. So the sniper path can't actually shoot that far?
They'll shoot as far as any other RDPS class. Most of them have the same sort of situation: 100' range, with some means to increase that to 110' for some of their abilities.
To whoever has played a Chaos Chosen, how does their damage hold up? I understand that they are primarily a tank class, but some of the information on the official website indicates that they can DPS fairly well with a 2-hander. Is this the case, or is it is pretty poor?
Out of all the tanks, Chosen have the most capacity for killing things. Their tanking path even has only 1 tactic that absolutely requires a shield, meaning that (and I did this for a while) you could theoretically setup a 2-handed tanking Chosen. And yes there's about a 30-40% difference in damage you'll notice going from sword&board to two-hander.
You can 2h-tank up until maybe 18-19, and then you start gaining a lot of abilities that require a shield... and stuff starts kicking the shit out of you quite a bit more once you hit tier 3.
Don't pay much attention to their tanking Mastery, there are a lot of moves that assist it that you learn as you level.
In a three-man group situation, where it's Warrior Priest, Archmage, and Tank, would it be better for the tank to be an Ironbreaker or a Swordmaster? And I'm more concerned with RvR situations.
In a three-man group situation, where it's Warrior Priest, Archmage, and Tank, would it be better for the tank to be an Ironbreaker or a Swordmaster? And I'm more concerned with RvR situations.
Well, in an RvR situation, if your opponents are smart they'll feint towards your Warrior Priest, slaughter the mage, kill the Priest, and laugh at the Ironbreaker/Swordmaster when they realize he took off when the mage died.
These aren't Arenas, there is no 'perfect group'.
3 people won't get you very far in serious RvR groups, maybe just little gank runs catching solo/duo players, but in RvR you'd better bring more friends.
In a three-man group situation, where it's Warrior Priest, Archmage, and Tank, would it be better for the tank to be an Ironbreaker or a Swordmaster? And I'm more concerned with RvR situations.
Based purely on opinion, best bet would be a Great Sword Specc'd Swordmaster in that situation. They can kick out a surprising amount of damage and are pretty good at surviving even without a shield (thanks to high Parry). Ironbreaker is more of a "You Can't Kill Me" kind of tank.
This opinion may have something to do with me having now played more than 40 levels of Greatsword specc'd SM over multiple beta phases.
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To whoever has played a Chaos Chosen, how does their damage hold up? I understand that they are primarily a tank class, but some of the information on the official website indicates that they can DPS fairly well with a 2-hander. Is this the case, or is it is pretty poor?
Out of all the tanks, Chosen have the most capacity for killing things. Their tanking path even has only 1 tactic that absolutely requires a shield, meaning that (and I did this for a while) you could theoretically setup a 2-handed tanking Chosen. And yes there's about a 30-40% difference in damage you'll notice going from sword&board to two-hander.
You can 2h-tank up until maybe 18-19, and then you start gaining a lot of abilities that require a shield... and stuff starts kicking the shit out of you quite a bit more once you hit tier 3.
Don't pay much attention to their tanking Mastery, there are a lot of moves that assist it that you learn as you level.
Not as a Chosen. Aside from Hold the Line there isn't any ability that requires only a shield up to rank 40, and you don't use Hold the Line to tank anyway.
If a shadow warrior was to catch say, a marauder at full range would he be able to kill him before the marauder ran up and stomped face? Also is there friendly fire? Could a fireball accidentally take out half of your own troops or anything?
If a shadow warrior was to catch say, a marauder at full range would he be able to kill him before the marauder ran up and stomped face? Hahaha... no. It's not that type of game. You'd get a great jump on him, and do substancial damage, but you won't drop anybody from pure range. This is a fairly balanced game RvR-wise, from what I've seen. If you don't start kiting, he would reach you and probably fuck you up.
Also is there friendly fire? No
Could a fireball accidentally take out half of your own troops or anything?Your bright wizard could blow themselves up pretty well, but I don't think it affects your teammates
If a shadow warrior was to catch say, a marauder at full range would he be able to kill him before the marauder ran up and stomped face? Hahaha... no. It's not that type of game. You'd get a great jump on him, and do substancial damage, but you won't drop anybody from pure range. This is a fairly balanced game RvR-wise, from what I've seen. If you don't start kiting, he would reach you and probably fuck you up.
Also is there friendly fire? No
Could a fireball accidentally take out half of your own troops or anything?Your bright wizard could blow themselves up pretty well, but I don't think it affects your teammates
Didn't I read that Bright Wizards get a ball of lightning spell that mows down anything in its path friend or foe?
If a shadow warrior was to catch say, a marauder at full range would he be able to kill him before the marauder ran up and stomped face? Also is there friendly fire? Could a fireball accidentally take out half of your own troops or anything?
Probably not. The Marauder could charge into melee range before the SW could kill him. But it depends on a large number of variables. If the SW's using his Tier 2 morale (+100% damage) and lands a crit on Festering Arrow, he might.
The SW's real strength is going to be dealing as much damage as possible at long range, and then switching to Skirmish and kiting. That, and they're really good at picking on enemy casters. The arrows are pretty subtle. So even though they don't have the raw DPS punch that Sorceresses and Bright Wizards do, if you can get the drop on somebody, it's not entirely obvious to him what direction he's being attacked from. That extra confusion can give you a huge edge, if you look to take advantage of it.
But there's rarely any instance where you get WoW rogue-like damage in WAR. You're not killing people in two seconds flat, except in extraordinary circumstances (e.g. I've seen a Shaman two-shotted by a SW, but the SW was using his +100% damage morale ability and crit on both Festering Arrow - a 3s cast - and Eagle Eye - a 2s cast). Generally, killing anyone is a team effort.
If a shadow warrior was to catch say, a marauder at full range would he be able to kill him before the marauder ran up and stomped face? Also is there friendly fire? Could a fireball accidentally take out half of your own troops or anything?
Unlikely, primarily as the Marauder would have charge to close the distance, and though Shadow Warriors have a ranged snare the Marauder has "mutating release" to free themselves. However, if the Shadow Warrior was perfectly set up and the Marauder had not noticed yet he could blow off a large chunk of the Marauder's life before he noticed, then continue plinking away. Plus the Shadow Warrior has some moves they can use while moving and could possibly kite the Marauder. Finally, the Shadow Warrior could switch to Assault Stance if the Marauder closed the distance and depending how weak the Marauder was could possibly win. Still, the Marauder winning is more likely.
And no. And I'm glad after I've seen some Bright Wizards in action.
If a shadow warrior was to catch say, a marauder at full range would he be able to kill him before the marauder ran up and stomped face? Also is there friendly fire? Could a fireball accidentally take out half of your own troops or anything?
Probably not. The Marauder could charge into melee range before the SW could kill him. But it depends on a large number of variables. If the SW's using his Tier 2 morale (+100% damage) and lands a crit on Festering Arrow, he might.
The SW's real strength is going to be dealing as much damage as possible at long range, and then switching to Skirmish and kiting. That, and they're really good at picking on enemy casters. The arrows are pretty subtle. So even though they don't have the raw DPS punch that Sorceresses and Bright Wizards do, if you can get the drop on somebody, it's not entirely obvious to him what direction he's being attacked from. That extra confusion can give you a huge edge, if you look to take advantage of it.
But there's rarely any instance where you get WoW rogue-like damage in WAR. You're not killing people in two seconds flat, except in extraordinary circumstances (e.g. I've seen a Shaman two-shotted by a SW, but the SW was using his +100% damage morale ability and crit on both Festering Arrow - a 3s cast - and Eagle Eye - a 2s cast). Generally, killing anyone is a team effort.
And no, there's no friendly fire.
I've been kited to death by a few SW's, but I've also killed a fair share of dumb ones. I'll Flee into a forest and hide behind trees while the dumbass follows, and when he closes in I hit him with a slowing combo, then its OVA
Anybody have any idea how the different server types are going to flesh out? Is the open pvp server type going to be a pure gankfest or does the chicken mechanic (wtf weird word pairing) stop the 70s from ganking stv (or whatever).
Anybody have any idea how the different server types are going to flesh out? Is the open pvp server type going to be a pure gankfest or does the chicken mechanic (wtf weird word pairing) stop the 70s from ganking stv (or whatever).
Depending on how the chicken system turns out in the end, will make my decision on Open or Core.
The way it is now, i'm going Core.
All Open is doing will allow you to walk to a non-RvR area in a similiar-level tier and fight others, which honestly is a brief occurance.
And how Thero means it fails, is--if you want to take the big cities, you must take lower keeps and stuff also.
The second you walk into a lower-tiered zone in an Open server, you go chicken.
Kinda makes world RvR accomplishments difficult, and you can't help any of your friends who are lower-level either.
In a three-man group situation, where it's Warrior Priest, Archmage, and Tank, would it be better for the tank to be an Ironbreaker or a Swordmaster? And I'm more concerned with RvR situations.
Well, in an RvR situation, if your opponents are smart they'll feint towards your Warrior Priest, slaughter the mage, kill the Priest, and laugh at the Ironbreaker/Swordmaster when they realize he took off when the mage died.
These aren't Arenas, there is no 'perfect group'.
3 people won't get you very far in serious RvR groups, maybe just little gank runs catching solo/duo players, but in RvR you'd better bring more friends.
I realize there's not some "perfect group combo" here, I'm just trying to think of a group that will have lots of synergy together.
In WAR, is it beneficial to focus more on winning by outlasting, or winning by out-DPSing? And the reason I mentioned the 3-man group thing is because I play in a trio of real-life friends, and we're almost always running around together while we're playing. Naturally we'd like to make a group that complements each other. Oh and we'll be Order.
In a three-man group situation, where it's Warrior Priest, Archmage, and Tank, would it be better for the tank to be an Ironbreaker or a Swordmaster? And I'm more concerned with RvR situations.
Well, in an RvR situation, if your opponents are smart they'll feint towards your Warrior Priest, slaughter the mage, kill the Priest, and laugh at the Ironbreaker/Swordmaster when they realize he took off when the mage died.
These aren't Arenas, there is no 'perfect group'.
3 people won't get you very far in serious RvR groups, maybe just little gank runs catching solo/duo players, but in RvR you'd better bring more friends.
I realize there's not some "perfect group combo" here, I'm just trying to think of a group that will have lots of synergy together.
In WAR, is it beneficial to focus more on winning by outlasting, or winning by out-DPSing? And the reason I mentioned the 3-man group thing is because I play in a trio of real-life friends, and we're almost always running around together while we're playing. Naturally we'd like to make a group that complements each other. Oh and we'll be Order.
My assumption was you had 2 buddies to run around with, which is why I wasn't too harsh
I'd say your group comp will be fine in PvE, any healer/dps/tank combos are going to be total win. Out-lasting is easy with any sort of healer, so get the best DPS in that you can with your damage classes. In RvR, you had better group up with a larger mob of people, else you'll just be a trio of Renown points walking.
So if you want to take the castle the noobs have to be owning too? Weird, you would think that they would just downgrade you similarly to the way you get upgraded in scenarios.
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Mythic knows how to do hybrid healers well. DAoC had the smite cleric, the friar, and the mentalist.
The Zealot is ever-so-slightly less healbottish than, say, any dedicated healer in WoW, but it's a far cry from being the flexible healer they've touted it as.
Yeah, god forbid they design the ranged DPS class to be good at *gasp* ranged DPS. :P
I know, I know, it'll change, it'll improve (hopefully). It just concerns me that a lot of the classes at this point feel utterly cemented in their given role. There is no Shadow Priest; no Enhancement Shaman, no Druid, no Ret Pally... The crossover options are there, but really awful.
This is why they are Mastery pools... Mastery.
Keyword: Mastery.
Can't master them all, you've gotta pick one, or be a jack-of-all-trades.
You keep saying that. How? Why would you take any sort of zealot or rune priest over a heal spec shaman or archmage?
It is really hard.
On a Zealot? Not so much.
Right, but his point is The Archmage and Shaman inprove all of their heals with one mastery, making them more versatile healers than the Rune Priest/Zealot.
How so?
The Shaman damage shield is vastly superior to the Zealot's. And Zealots don't have any more burst healing capability than a Shaman. I suppose if you're Alchemy specced, you could just spam the hell out of Flash of Chaos if it wasn't too much focus fire. And if you had a T3 morale, you could use your group damage shield. But that's about it.
There was a really good comparison of Zealot and Shaman healing early in the Zealot 3.3 thread. The gist of it was that a fully specced Zealot's heals were usually equal to or worse than an unspecced Shaman's heals of the same type.
/facepalm
Did you read my post? My whole point was that the archmage and shaman can in effect be a jack-of-all-trades and master them all by picking one.
Sure, the Archmage and Shaman can choose to spec damage. I don't care about that. In pure healbotting terms, a player is better off going with a heal spec archmage or shaman over a rune priest or zealot. That's just considering baseline heal spells. Things go even more heavily in the archmage/shaman's favor when you consider the super HoTs they can learn through mastery.
Since this seemed to be missed, I'll give it a shot.
Respeccing: No one knows right now. It's still in Beta mode so it's free with no restrictions from the Trainers.
Deaht Penatly: There is, thank Sigmar, no durability feature/features in the game. When you die, you stand back up at the nearest camp/hub/town with a 10 minute debuff to your health (10% or so) which you can then pay a nearby Healer NPC to cure. That, along with a run back to wherever you want to be, is it.
Item Binding: I'm not sure on this one, never checked. There are some "Bound To Player" items and gear, but I never noticed how many were like this and how it worked with equip'ed items.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Daymion
It is easier on a shaman or archmage. Midway down the healing mastery, they both get an excellent heal. The shaman one is a huge short duration HoT. The archmage one is a 3 second channel that heals once every second. Both of these are really good for keeping someone up, when combined with the regular HoT, the damage absorb shield, and the 3 second cast direct heal.
Check out my comments on the Witch Elf. They're pretty similar, even if they feel a little different. Instead of Kisses, they get buffs they put on their Executions which proc snares or DoTs. Basically the same mechanic with a slightly different trigger.
The core gameplay is exactly the same though.
Edit: The zealot conversation belongs in the other thread. It's a valid one, and I have some opinions on it (I both agree with robothero that it's a good thing and with ser1al that the mastery paths needs a little something more). Let's continue it over there.
Does Warhammer have them? I get the feeling it does from reading other posts, but I haven't seen it said explicitly that there is zoning and if so, how big they are. I remember playing DAoC, which had zones that seemed pretty large, but that was a long, long time ago so my memory might be fuzzy.
How are the zones compared to, say, Age of Conan? Conan had some big zones generally, but there were certain areas (that catacomb area under the temple of Mithra in the noob zone) where I was zoning constantly and it was damned annoying.
Edit: Also it seems like you are having a discussion about the different healing classes... isn't that for the other thread?
I have to disagree because it's different styles of healing.
If you see someone a mile away, you wont even see a name.
As they get closer it gets less fuzzy, so no--you won't see your Nemesis coming from a mile off, you won't know exactly WHO it is until they're pretty close.
Bijaz - Ironbreaker
Pretty similiar, minus you have a deadzone when melee closes in on you.
Hopefully they don't back down like WoW did and let hunters fire off arrows when someone is right in your face.
RDPS attacks tend to come in two categories of ranges: 100' and 65'. Most single target attacks have a 100' range. The Scout stance that Shadow Warriors get enhance this to 110'. It really is rather long... a bit moreso than, say, a WoW mage. But that's just based on feeling, since doing a direct comparison isn't possible.
Compared to other RDPS classes, the Shadow Warrior's about the same, range-wise. They have a number of shorter-ranged abilities, but they tend to have some extra effect to offset them, like an AoE DoT, or the various Skirmish abilities, which can be fired on the run.
But, you're not going to be able to out-range other ranged attackers with a bow like you could in DAoC.
I actually read that there is a specific skill to allow you to do that. So the sniper path can't actually shoot that far?
Bijaz - Ironbreaker
Out of all the tanks, Chosen have the most capacity for killing things. Their tanking path even has only 1 tactic that absolutely requires a shield, meaning that (and I did this for a while) you could theoretically setup a 2-handed tanking Chosen. And yes there's about a 30-40% difference in damage you'll notice going from sword&board to two-hander.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
You can 2h-tank up until maybe 18-19, and then you start gaining a lot of abilities that require a shield... and stuff starts kicking the shit out of you quite a bit more once you hit tier 3.
Don't pay much attention to their tanking Mastery, there are a lot of moves that assist it that you learn as you level.
Well, in an RvR situation, if your opponents are smart they'll feint towards your Warrior Priest, slaughter the mage, kill the Priest, and laugh at the Ironbreaker/Swordmaster when they realize he took off when the mage died.
These aren't Arenas, there is no 'perfect group'.
3 people won't get you very far in serious RvR groups, maybe just little gank runs catching solo/duo players, but in RvR you'd better bring more friends.
Based purely on opinion, best bet would be a Great Sword Specc'd Swordmaster in that situation. They can kick out a surprising amount of damage and are pretty good at surviving even without a shield (thanks to high Parry). Ironbreaker is more of a "You Can't Kill Me" kind of tank.
This opinion may have something to do with me having now played more than 40 levels of Greatsword specc'd SM over multiple beta phases.
Not as a Chosen. Aside from Hold the Line there isn't any ability that requires only a shield up to rank 40, and you don't use Hold the Line to tank anyway.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Bijaz - Ironbreaker
Didn't I read that Bright Wizards get a ball of lightning spell that mows down anything in its path friend or foe?
The SW's real strength is going to be dealing as much damage as possible at long range, and then switching to Skirmish and kiting. That, and they're really good at picking on enemy casters. The arrows are pretty subtle. So even though they don't have the raw DPS punch that Sorceresses and Bright Wizards do, if you can get the drop on somebody, it's not entirely obvious to him what direction he's being attacked from. That extra confusion can give you a huge edge, if you look to take advantage of it.
But there's rarely any instance where you get WoW rogue-like damage in WAR. You're not killing people in two seconds flat, except in extraordinary circumstances (e.g. I've seen a Shaman two-shotted by a SW, but the SW was using his +100% damage morale ability and crit on both Festering Arrow - a 3s cast - and Eagle Eye - a 2s cast). Generally, killing anyone is a team effort.
And no, there's no friendly fire.
Unlikely, primarily as the Marauder would have charge to close the distance, and though Shadow Warriors have a ranged snare the Marauder has "mutating release" to free themselves. However, if the Shadow Warrior was perfectly set up and the Marauder had not noticed yet he could blow off a large chunk of the Marauder's life before he noticed, then continue plinking away. Plus the Shadow Warrior has some moves they can use while moving and could possibly kite the Marauder. Finally, the Shadow Warrior could switch to Assault Stance if the Marauder closed the distance and depending how weak the Marauder was could possibly win. Still, the Marauder winning is more likely.
And no. And I'm glad after I've seen some Bright Wizards in action.
I've been kited to death by a few SW's, but I've also killed a fair share of dumb ones. I'll Flee into a forest and hide behind trees while the dumbass follows, and when he closes in I hit him with a slowing combo, then its OVA
Bijaz - Ironbreaker
Bijaz - Ironbreaker
Depending on how the chicken system turns out in the end, will make my decision on Open or Core.
The way it is now, i'm going Core.
All Open is doing will allow you to walk to a non-RvR area in a similiar-level tier and fight others, which honestly is a brief occurance.
And how Thero means it fails, is--if you want to take the big cities, you must take lower keeps and stuff also.
The second you walk into a lower-tiered zone in an Open server, you go chicken.
Kinda makes world RvR accomplishments difficult, and you can't help any of your friends who are lower-level either.
I realize there's not some "perfect group combo" here, I'm just trying to think of a group that will have lots of synergy together.
In WAR, is it beneficial to focus more on winning by outlasting, or winning by out-DPSing? And the reason I mentioned the 3-man group thing is because I play in a trio of real-life friends, and we're almost always running around together while we're playing. Naturally we'd like to make a group that complements each other. Oh and we'll be Order.
My assumption was you had 2 buddies to run around with, which is why I wasn't too harsh
I'd say your group comp will be fine in PvE, any healer/dps/tank combos are going to be total win. Out-lasting is easy with any sort of healer, so get the best DPS in that you can with your damage classes. In RvR, you had better group up with a larger mob of people, else you'll just be a trio of Renown points walking.
Bijaz - Ironbreaker