I've never had a favorite class. I prefer light/medium armor fighters, though I usually end up having to play a rogue which I hate. I like to beat face in but I like quickness as well with a draw back of dieing quicker than someone that has heavier armor. I've always wanted to play a pvp game with a class that focused on fighting with a staff or katana, with light armor. The Aion Chanter almost had it but it's not really what I'm talking about.
Sounds like you would like the Friar in Daoc. He uses medium leather armor and wields a staff, hes very quick attacking and at dodging and if he is starting to die he can heal himself. Too bad Daoc is dead though
See that's the thing I don't want it to be a support type of class. If I did I'd just go play the Chanter in Aion. I'd rather it be more of something in the realm of just agile fighter that can use staffs. A martial artist with sweet bo-staff skills bro, if you will. I played the Friar in Daoc's early days and I was of course just like all sub healing classes pigeon holed into doing nothing but healing, or having to heal more than I wanted to. Just like the Chanter in Aion is currently. I want absolutely nothing to do with healing, I just want to fight, in style.
My two favorite classes were the magician and the shaman in EQ1.
I am currently playing a Conjurer and a Mystic in EQ2. (That games versions of Magician and Shaman). The Mystic is a healer that can be specced for some fairly decent melee ability without giving up your heals.
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do. Benjamin Franklin
With DDO, which allows for multiclassing, I went for casters (healer or wizard) with a little splash of some other classes (e.g. healing trapsmith or wizard with a little healing touch). This way I'm loosing some raw power, but gain some utility. I don't like being a one trick pony.
My all time favorite class is nevertheless an AD&D Fighter/Cleric/Mage. A little weak in melee, but usable. Advances slower in power than single class characters. This combination lacks in raw power, but offers quite some versatility, especially in the field of spell research. This kind of class is only valid when playing PnP with friends or CRPGs. In MMOs, with dogmatic paradigms and a big focus on combat, it's a bad choice.
For me the it's the Anti-paladin = Shadow Knight, Death Knight, Blood Knight, Evil Paladin, Black Guard, Warrior Necros. Does matter what you call it, it's my playstyle. Period.
I play it for the Tank aspect. I play it for the dots, drains, and leeching. I play it for the melee/armor competency. I play for the pets accompany it. I play for the lore that usally comes: consumed with hate, revenge, seeking underworld power, rage, anger for strength. I have always gravitated towards these things in the fantasy realms.
This is usually a very hard class for games to get right, so when it isnt present i usually go towards a Necro-type. Something with the dots, drains and pets.
If you look at these MMO Statistics for players from numerous games, it looks like melee tank and melee DPS are the most common. I thought casters would rank higher, but no
Like one other guy mentioned, I like to cram a lot of stuff into my character. No, this does not mean that I want to tank, heal and cast face melting explosions of magic because quite frankly I don't think that's right bur rather that I want to be able to pick locks, have a few useful spells such as buffs, be agile and avoid a lot of punishment rather then absorbing it with my face... that sort of thing.
I think I good jumping off point for my description would have been the Skald from DAoC. That class had songs they sang to augment the group's abilities such as added damage on melee hits, increased regeneration of hitpoints/mana/stamina and later on damage absorb. It also had 2 instant direct damage "shouts" on a fairly long timer, a snare, and a mesmerize that could incapacitate 1 foe for a given length of time that would break on damage. Couple all of this with average proficiency with a melee weapon of your choice and like I said it's a good place to start.
Now if I had it my way to design a "class" of my own or pick and choose the skills I want it would go something like this:
Slightly below average use of ranged weapons
Above average/high proficiency with a melee weapon
Mid range armor, relying more on agility/avoidance to mitigate damage
Some minor magic just for flavor. Nothing overpowering, just a single direct damage on a timer, or some armor buff or something
This might be dependent on the game itself but I wouldn't mind having abilities such as picking a lock or some actual tracking, again something to add flavor.
I personally don't have to be able to do one thing extremely well, I'd actually settle for a "jack of all trades" type of character. I miss the days of the "utility" classes where you weren't there necessarily because you could pump out damage or tank or heal, but rather had other effects of benefit to the group you were with be it aggro management, mesmerizing ability, regeneration boosts... anything.
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
Thanks for your posts, guys! I read all thoroughly and was glad to know that all of you have your own unique way to find and motivation to consider your class favorite.
Originally posted by nate1980
I'm a huge fan of hybrids myself. In fact, I'm not really happy playing a pure class.
Both swords and sorcery is what draws me to the fantasy genre, and playing with only swords or only sorcery makes me feel like I'm missing something. I personally love Battlemage characters: Characters that cast protective spells and enchantments on themselves and their armor first, then they cast some ranged spells at their foes to provoke them to come within melee range, and then I slice them up with my sword. I like them to wear plate armor, due to the looks of it.
Looks like I've found a brother! This is exactly the way I like to play myself.
theAsna mentioned D&D system and maybe its the best way for Battlemage as you can create Fighter/Mage multiclass who can:
- cast Haste, draw his bow and start quickly dispatching enemies from far away
- when they come, cast Shield, Stoneskin, Mirror Images, swap to his dual swords and start to mince.
- when too many enemies are around he can throw few Fireball at his feet (who will just remove 1 copy of images each) and then finish off what's left.
That was the design view of my favorite class like Illius proposed. But it seems that many MMO developers will consider that overpowered and won't include such class in their games or will make only good at one thing drastically lowering other abilities.
Anyway I'll gladly read more about your favorite classes as reading about other people preferences and motivation is quite entertaining by itself.
Take Neverwinter Nights for example. You can have a character that casts spells and swings weapons around but you will never have him wear the heaviest of armors. The heavier the armor in that game the more % chance there is of Arcane Spell failure that shuts down your spell cast. This mechanic prevents everybody from making a Tank Mage and running around protected from harm while bbq'ing people with fireballs.
I don't mind if people want to make a character that can do everything but there need to be limits such as the one I mentioned above that balance things. Same with Assassins that sneak around. If you put heavier equipment on them they are more easily detected. Sure you can get proficient in wearing heavy armor but you won't be able to sneak up on an enemy who is both blind and deaf.
I place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the latest crop of games that have come out and have removed this kind of complexity. Everything had a duality to it, a positive and a negative and it made you think about your choices and how they will impact the play style that you're hoping to achieve. Now all they do is restrict you to specific stuff that is "meant" for your class and most of the time people don't even question why and just go along with the spoon feeding. Every tank is the same, every healer more or less has the same skills. Furthermore quite a few of the players now are obsessed with numbers so much that a lot of the creativity in designing the character you really want to play go out the window in favor of squeezing 2 damage more then the other clone wearing the exact same gear as you standing not too far away.
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
WoW Druid & Paladin. Due to the 'chaotic' nature of those classes; the can tank, heal, & dps. Fill all 3 "modern" roles of MMO's. Paladin lack 'ranged' combat though, but has some, to start pulling with. Lots of different ways to build these classes. Suits my restless soul perfect.
I have to play 3 different classes in LOTRO, to have somewhat even close to same versality as a Paladin or Druid. Currently playing Minstrel, Warden & Hunter, with Warden as prolly the most interesting class, since he got self heals, ranged attacks, a few teleports, and can tank & do decent DPS.
Hi, I am playing fantasy MMORPGs for more than 5 years, tried all classes in many games but still can't choose a class that can satisfy me for a long time. I find fun to start combat from distance with a bow, then put some protection spells and engage in melee, cast some AoE spells when enemies are around and heal myself fast before engaging next fight. Druid and shaman in WoW where close to it, but still far from perfect. I don't understand how people can keep with their hunter, for example, doing nothing more than shooting arrows for two years. Or how you can play a mage never having a possibility to start a melee combat. Or how can you play a warrior or a rogue who can't use magic in a fantasy MMORPG? That's why I wonder, do you have a favorite class and how you decided that it is your favorite?
That exactly describes the ranger class in Alganon, oddly enough, and also really really close to the bard classes in EQ2, with the exception of the healing bit.
My favorite classes are (in order):
1) Bard / Scout / Ranger classes - EQ2 (specifically, for me, the bard / troubador)
2) Ranger - Alganon (not a "major MMO" but class-wise, this is close to the PERFECT play-style for me)
Played all the other mmorpgs but only them two games I found a class I liked. Game slike EQ2 and WAR have too many bland two sides of the same coin classes where they all feel watered down. However a game like WoW has fewer but more fun to play classes with more diversity in what you can do. Also in SWG if you didn't like every skill in a class then you could only take a few and then dabble in other ones which was so kool.
I usually like the the heavy mellee classes the most - like warriors. I've always been big about being able to get in a deal out decent damage and be able to take it as well.
But lately in WoW I have gotten hooked on my Hunter; so in a couple newer games I have been trying to play classes similar to that.
I've also wanted to try and play the caster type classes more often. I have always been mainly bout melle but I wanna occasionly get outa my comfort zone and try something different
I tend to always favor Hunter/Archer classes, and Rogue/Assassin classes. This comes mainly from my origins in FPS games and my playstyle on there as well, a mix of deadly long range shooting, and outsmarting and sneaking up on enemies and being able to shake several of them and come out on top even while surrounded and trapped in an isolated area by being faster and smarter.
While I love healing as a role, I hate priests. I just really don't like the organized religion angle they're steeped in... puts me into a bad mood when I'm reading their class interactions, yes I actually read my quests. If the game had multiple gods and goddesses I could choose from... and find something that made me feel less like some twist on Catholosism I'd probably be able to get into it. Shinto or something, but they don't, it is more often some vague "church of hte light" or a monotheistic thing... or a single god[dess] per faction. For that reason I always wind up picking naturalist healers: shaman or druids, basically.
my fav in fantasy games is the most evil class of all. usually dark magic/necro casters.
Necromancers, warlocks, sorc, dark mage etc... they usually got steal health, fear, pets and stuff like that. the best is still Diablo 2 Necromancer. lots of lots of skelleis to do ur dirtywork.
in more modern games its sniper. im a rifleman in Fallen earth f.eks.
in matrix i was a hacker. and in World of darkness im a malkavian or a ventrue. dont like close combat at all :P its cool to watch, but i like to be the guy pulling the strings or fucking up stuff from a distance.
I like to try all classes, I tend to usually make a range class first healer/archer/mage types. But most of my mmo experience melee are usually exploitable. For me anyways I think WoW was the first mmo i played that I actually liked melee and didn't feel gimped.
Comments
Sounds like you would like the Friar in Daoc. He uses medium leather armor and wields a staff, hes very quick attacking and at dodging and if he is starting to die he can heal himself. Too bad Daoc is dead though
See that's the thing I don't want it to be a support type of class. If I did I'd just go play the Chanter in Aion. I'd rather it be more of something in the realm of just agile fighter that can use staffs. A martial artist with sweet bo-staff skills bro, if you will. I played the Friar in Daoc's early days and I was of course just like all sub healing classes pigeon holed into doing nothing but healing, or having to heal more than I wanted to. Just like the Chanter in Aion is currently. I want absolutely nothing to do with healing, I just want to fight, in style.
My two favorite classes were the magician and the shaman in EQ1.
I am currently playing a Conjurer and a Mystic in EQ2. (That games versions of Magician and Shaman). The Mystic is a healer that can be specced for some fairly decent melee ability without giving up your heals.
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.
Benjamin Franklin
My favourite Class in WoW was the Shaman.
With DDO, which allows for multiclassing, I went for casters (healer or wizard) with a little splash of some other classes (e.g. healing trapsmith or wizard with a little healing touch). This way I'm loosing some raw power, but gain some utility. I don't like being a one trick pony.
My all time favorite class is nevertheless an AD&D Fighter/Cleric/Mage. A little weak in melee, but usable. Advances slower in power than single class characters. This combination lacks in raw power, but offers quite some versatility, especially in the field of spell research. This kind of class is only valid when playing PnP with friends or CRPGs. In MMOs, with dogmatic paradigms and a big focus on combat, it's a bad choice.
Agent in Anarchy Online for sure! God I miss the good ol' days!!!
For me the it's the Anti-paladin = Shadow Knight, Death Knight, Blood Knight, Evil Paladin, Black Guard, Warrior Necros. Does matter what you call it, it's my playstyle. Period.
I play it for the Tank aspect. I play it for the dots, drains, and leeching. I play it for the melee/armor competency. I play for the pets accompany it. I play for the lore that usally comes: consumed with hate, revenge, seeking underworld power, rage, anger for strength. I have always gravitated towards these things in the fantasy realms.
This is usually a very hard class for games to get right, so when it isnt present i usually go towards a Necro-type. Something with the dots, drains and pets.
If you look at these MMO Statistics for players from numerous games, it looks like melee tank and melee DPS are the most common. I thought casters would rank higher, but no
Torrential: DAOC (Pendragon)
Awned: World of Warcraft (Lothar)
Torren: Warhammer Online (Praag)
ANYTHING AS LONG AS ITS MUSCLED, DRINKS ALE, AND LIKES TO FIGHT!
I
DWARF
Like one other guy mentioned, I like to cram a lot of stuff into my character. No, this does not mean that I want to tank, heal and cast face melting explosions of magic because quite frankly I don't think that's right bur rather that I want to be able to pick locks, have a few useful spells such as buffs, be agile and avoid a lot of punishment rather then absorbing it with my face... that sort of thing.
I think I good jumping off point for my description would have been the Skald from DAoC. That class had songs they sang to augment the group's abilities such as added damage on melee hits, increased regeneration of hitpoints/mana/stamina and later on damage absorb. It also had 2 instant direct damage "shouts" on a fairly long timer, a snare, and a mesmerize that could incapacitate 1 foe for a given length of time that would break on damage. Couple all of this with average proficiency with a melee weapon of your choice and like I said it's a good place to start.
Now if I had it my way to design a "class" of my own or pick and choose the skills I want it would go something like this:
I personally don't have to be able to do one thing extremely well, I'd actually settle for a "jack of all trades" type of character. I miss the days of the "utility" classes where you weren't there necessarily because you could pump out damage or tank or heal, but rather had other effects of benefit to the group you were with be it aggro management, mesmerizing ability, regeneration boosts... anything.
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
Thanks for your posts, guys! I read all thoroughly and was glad to know that all of you have your own unique way to find and motivation to consider your class favorite.
Originally posted by nate1980
I'm a huge fan of hybrids myself. In fact, I'm not really happy playing a pure class.
Both swords and sorcery is what draws me to the fantasy genre, and playing with only swords or only sorcery makes me feel like I'm missing something. I personally love Battlemage characters: Characters that cast protective spells and enchantments on themselves and their armor first, then they cast some ranged spells at their foes to provoke them to come within melee range, and then I slice them up with my sword. I like them to wear plate armor, due to the looks of it.
Looks like I've found a brother! This is exactly the way I like to play myself.
theAsna mentioned D&D system and maybe its the best way for Battlemage as you can create Fighter/Mage multiclass who can:
- cast Haste, draw his bow and start quickly dispatching enemies from far away
- when they come, cast Shield, Stoneskin, Mirror Images, swap to his dual swords and start to mince.
- when too many enemies are around he can throw few Fireball at his feet (who will just remove 1 copy of images each) and then finish off what's left.
That was the design view of my favorite class like Illius proposed. But it seems that many MMO developers will consider that overpowered and won't include such class in their games or will make only good at one thing drastically lowering other abilities.
Anyway I'll gladly read more about your favorite classes as reading about other people preferences and motivation is quite entertaining by itself.
Take Neverwinter Nights for example. You can have a character that casts spells and swings weapons around but you will never have him wear the heaviest of armors. The heavier the armor in that game the more % chance there is of Arcane Spell failure that shuts down your spell cast. This mechanic prevents everybody from making a Tank Mage and running around protected from harm while bbq'ing people with fireballs.
I don't mind if people want to make a character that can do everything but there need to be limits such as the one I mentioned above that balance things. Same with Assassins that sneak around. If you put heavier equipment on them they are more easily detected. Sure you can get proficient in wearing heavy armor but you won't be able to sneak up on an enemy who is both blind and deaf.
I place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the latest crop of games that have come out and have removed this kind of complexity. Everything had a duality to it, a positive and a negative and it made you think about your choices and how they will impact the play style that you're hoping to achieve. Now all they do is restrict you to specific stuff that is "meant" for your class and most of the time people don't even question why and just go along with the spoon feeding. Every tank is the same, every healer more or less has the same skills. Furthermore quite a few of the players now are obsessed with numbers so much that a lot of the creativity in designing the character you really want to play go out the window in favor of squeezing 2 damage more then the other clone wearing the exact same gear as you standing not too far away.
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
WoW Druid & Paladin. Due to the 'chaotic' nature of those classes; the can tank, heal, & dps. Fill all 3 "modern" roles of MMO's. Paladin lack 'ranged' combat though, but has some, to start pulling with. Lots of different ways to build these classes. Suits my restless soul perfect.
I have to play 3 different classes in LOTRO, to have somewhat even close to same versality as a Paladin or Druid. Currently playing Minstrel, Warden & Hunter, with Warden as prolly the most interesting class, since he got self heals, ranged attacks, a few teleports, and can tank & do decent DPS.
Make us care MORE about our faction & world pvp!
That exactly describes the ranger class in Alganon, oddly enough, and also really really close to the bard classes in EQ2, with the exception of the healing bit.
My favorite classes are (in order):
1) Bard / Scout / Ranger classes - EQ2 (specifically, for me, the bard / troubador)
2) Ranger - Alganon (not a "major MMO" but class-wise, this is close to the PERFECT play-style for me)
3) Runekeeper - LotRO
4) Druid - WoW
5) Warlock - WoW
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
Druid - WoW
Shadow Priest - WoW
Death Knight - WoW
Creature Handler - SWG
TKM - SWG
Jedi Pre dumbing down - SWG
Played all the other mmorpgs but only them two games I found a class I liked. Game slike EQ2 and WAR have too many bland two sides of the same coin classes where they all feel watered down. However a game like WoW has fewer but more fun to play classes with more diversity in what you can do. Also in SWG if you didn't like every skill in a class then you could only take a few and then dabble in other ones which was so kool.
Ranged DPS
Hunter/Ranger - Fantasy mmos
Blaster - CoX
My Drake - EvE
I usually like the the heavy mellee classes the most - like warriors. I've always been big about being able to get in a deal out decent damage and be able to take it as well.
But lately in WoW I have gotten hooked on my Hunter; so in a couple newer games I have been trying to play classes similar to that.
I've also wanted to try and play the caster type classes more often. I have always been mainly bout melle but I wanna occasionly get outa my comfort zone and try something different
i like pet classes
I tend to always favor Hunter/Archer classes, and Rogue/Assassin classes. This comes mainly from my origins in FPS games and my playstyle on there as well, a mix of deadly long range shooting, and outsmarting and sneaking up on enemies and being able to shake several of them and come out on top even while surrounded and trapped in an isolated area by being faster and smarter.
While I love healing as a role, I hate priests. I just really don't like the organized religion angle they're steeped in... puts me into a bad mood when I'm reading their class interactions, yes I actually read my quests. If the game had multiple gods and goddesses I could choose from... and find something that made me feel less like some twist on Catholosism I'd probably be able to get into it. Shinto or something, but they don't, it is more often some vague "church of hte light" or a monotheistic thing... or a single god[dess] per faction. For that reason I always wind up picking naturalist healers: shaman or druids, basically.
Wizard @ NetHack ,you might get nice items at start
Generation P
This message was edited on 8/16/15 at 5:30:00 AM
my fav in fantasy games is the most evil class of all. usually dark magic/necro casters.
Necromancers, warlocks, sorc, dark mage etc... they usually got steal health, fear, pets and stuff like that. the best is still Diablo 2 Necromancer. lots of lots of skelleis to do ur dirtywork.
in more modern games its sniper. im a rifleman in Fallen earth f.eks.
in matrix i was a hacker. and in World of darkness im a malkavian or a ventrue. dont like close combat at all :P its cool to watch, but i like to be the guy pulling the strings or fucking up stuff from a distance.
warrior/berserker
Big axe suits me perfectly.
I like to try all classes, I tend to usually make a range class first healer/archer/mage types. But most of my mmo experience melee are usually exploitable. For me anyways I think WoW was the first mmo i played that I actually liked melee and didn't feel gimped.