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It sucks being indecisive
I'm having major problems picking one class and have tried several builds. I'm indecisive by nature and this game makes it worse.
What I would usually do in another MMO is pick one class level it to about half or a bit further than half of max level and re-roll. I don't know why I keep doing this to myself.
I've been using archeagedatabase calculator and archeage-classes-broken-down-by-tiers-general-class-info
But I still can't seem to pick one damn class to settle on. Right now I'm an Arcanist. I was thinking about switching back to the build I tried that one and only day I played Alpha, Paladin. I like heavy armor, but is that reason enough to pick Paladin?
When given freedom, in a solo environment, I tend to go for stealthy classes (Skyrim). Am very patient and love taking my time when playing.
I know I can keep trying out different builds, but the higher my level is, the tougher it is to have to level up one of the disciplines up to my current level. Not to mention the gearing, so if possible I'd like to focus on one. It's a dream though...
Any of you managed to settle on one class and how did you do it?
Comments
It is pretty tough to settle on a class in this game, as there are just SO MANY options. I'm already quite the alt-aholic, and this game poses a real danger in that aspect. But what I decided to do what this:
1. Decide what role you want to have. DPS/Tank/Support/Heals
2. Narrow down the versions of that role to magic/melee/ranged if necessary.
3. Choose the one with the abilities you think are the most interesting.
It's really hard to "go wrong" with a class, unless you just straight up don't take any attacking abilities from the trees. It's going to be slower to level up a tank solo, as most of the good ones simply don't have that many strong attacks. It's going to be tough to level a pure healer (like a Cleric) well because of the same issue. But you don't have to go "hardcore" in those roles. You can be a Templar as a healer, and make a war cleric essentially.
In the end, choose what's fun. That's why I say pick the abilities that you find most interesting. Want to summon evil crows and wraiths to attacks people? Pick occultism as one skillset. Want to be a tank? Better take defense. Here are a few recommendations for skillsets:
Melee DPS: Battlerage and/or Shadowplay
Ranged DPS: Archery and/or Sorcery
Tank: Defense
Healing: Vitalism
Support: Auramancy and/or Songcraft
Both Witchcraft and Occultism seem to have crowd control and damage, but they aren't the MOST powerful when it comes to spell damage. That distinction seems to belong to the Sorcery tree. So, mix and match those to create what you want to play, and then fool around with the specific abilities of whatever class you chose.
Narrowing it down to either tank or support (debuffs or CC).
Dunno yet. :'( I do like the heavy armor looks in this game so much...
I remember as a Paladin I had fun melee abilities. I kept Tripping mobs and doing combos from there. With a Nodachi and a Shield.
The real danger with this game. From the link I posted there seem to be many useless classes. This should be fun (/sarcasm), for those who don't study a bit what to pick :-
I find that in current MMOs the levelling goes by too fast. Slower? I guess, but I don't mind at all.
Ugh, tell me about it! I tried a pure Cleric build, haha. Suuuuucked so bad I had to re-roll.
There are so many interesting combos and abilities. That's why I'm having trouble. I will take the advice to heart and narrow it down.
An archer-build that summons crows x_x Sounds like fun. Or, or, or a sorcerer that summons crows in your face!
Thanks.
Even though this is dated, it's still a pretty good guide for popular classes. And classes are popular because they do well.
As for the Daggerspell comment, I am a 50 daggerspell and it's hard as hell to play. Probably the hardest class I've ever played in an MMO. But it is effective if you can pull it off (unless you face an archer main, in which case I have no idea what to do since they outrange all my abilities).
http://forums.archeagegame.com/showthread.php?2347-The-11-most-common-class-combinations-in-Archeage
BTW, I haven't heard good things about Paladin so you might want to reconsider. And any class can wear plate if you weren't aware.
What? What did you hear?
I'm aware.
I was going by the info I found online. http://archeage.gamepedia.com/Equipment
Bonuses[edit]
Each armor type offers a bonuses for wearing that armor type. The bonus is gained when 4/7 of your equipment is one type and upgraded to a strong buff at 7/7.
I really enjoyed playing a Shadestriker but it's not a recommended build for anything but PvE since it has no stealth. I ended up playing Trickster to 32 but may go back to Shadestriker.
While there is a lot of merit in reading about and studying the various ways to make a build in AA, I recommend trying things that work for you, regardless of what other people think.
For the same reasons you'd wear them as anybody else- for the extra physical defense and the CC-duration decrease.
It's true the stats are not likely to be great for offense, but offense doesn't matter if you die in one second.
It's also the same reason that some melee switch to cloth armor if they know they're going to fight a caster.
Really I think people will eventually want a few different sets of armor to switch between depending on who they're fighting.
I have to think outside the regular MMO box. All right
Im in the same boat, 3 months in RU and i still not sure what i want.
So i needed to 1st define a objective and i start this way:
- wanna be a class that can tank but with a respect can be other thing (usually suport)
- I thought paladin but i was not thinking in healing.
- CC is cool so lets see what classes meet this criterias
- So after reserch around web i chose to try defiler (defense, ocultism and witchcraft). Only lvl 26 atm, only quest grind but so far so good, the combos are fun, still dont know if im going to like it, but my decision is made, im going with this one to 50.
Its a good decision or not, i dont know, will find out later.
But yeah, AA is the 1st game where i have dificults to chose a class, maybe because there isnt "templates" and low limitations, to freedom and we get lost, we work better with rules
A disruptor tank
That sounds like fun.
I'm pretty sure there's an achievement for leveling all 10 skill trees to 50 on one character. Some alpha players did it or came close - not hard at all since you get XP crafting, farming, etc.
So... what you really want is to find something that is fun while leveling and don't worry too much about what you will eventually settle on. And don't buy any gear while leveling - just grab what you get from quests or can craft if you craft. When you decide what you really want to play at the end, start gearing up at that point.
My main is a Daggerspell and I also play a Paladin and I have to say that even though daggerspell is considered to be one of the better end-game specs and Paladin is considered meh, I'm having more fun leveling my paladin.
It's not like there's going to be a test at the end of this week... you got lots of time to figure things out.
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You're right and I think this is good advice. I'm leveling up alternate skillsets by crafting, using worker's comp potions and vocation tonics and I get a ton of xp while leveling a crafting skill at the same time.
It's defintely not impossible to level alternate skillsets when you get to cap. Plus it makes the xp you get for using labor meaningful.
I decided to play a ranged magic caster who can also take some hits, so I went sorcerer, and second ability tree is defense, and I guess I'll take shadowplay or some other for the third that provides some evasive and escape oriented abilities.
Though my approach is very casual and I'm not sure if I'm going to really play the game, so far it's kinda fun, I dont mind the tab target since there's combos and pretty nice spell effects.
I hear you OP loud and clear. I have the exact same issue.
I have 3 level 20 characters now (yes I bought an extra character slot, the game is free to play, I put in a "new box price" worth of patron/cred, sue me)
But yes I have had a very difficult time deciding which combination to use. I started with (Vitalism, Songcraft, Defense) thinking I wanted to be a healing bard who didn't die much! Well...after getting to 20 I decided I needed something with more attacking capability, but I love songcraft.
So, I made a new guy: Shadow(whatever), Songcraft, and Battlerage. I am enjoying it a lot personally. I know shadowhatever and battlerage are a common thing to have together but I haven't seen too many people with Songcraft as well.
So I don't know, I just kept looking at ALL the abilities, their Cooldowns (important because some spells I thought were awesome and would help a lot had a Long cooldown, making them not that useful to me)
I want to play support but also do big dps. I want to be able to hold my own relatively in PvP in later levels. That is why I chose the skillsets I chose.
---
Granted I will probably revisit my healer too. Maybe take off defense and add something else..or maybe take off songcraft and defense and add something else...
Ugh I hate being indecisive!
I am entitled to my opinions, misspellings, and grammatical errors.
Well, the higher level you get, the more group PVP you're going to encounter. And I noticed that a LOT of people (at least on my server) are doing primarily physical damage builds (lots of primevals, stone arrows, paladins and crusaders). This made plate fairly mandatory for me past level 40. But you have to be adaptive, so I'd recommend crafting up both a plate and cloth set and having them on you. That being said, you probably wont be able to identify a threat long enough before-hand to be able to switch your full set, so good luck to you.
Whatever you do, unless your rolling in a group (3-5) I would definitely include a class that has heavy cc or cc-resist, as you're going to be getting stunned a LOT (Hell, the CC is useful even WITH a large group of people. The CC chaining is real in this game, its kind of ridiculous). If you are squishy and can't get out/dish it out, you're going to get rolled really easily.
As for your offensive classes, archery provides the ability to maintain distance and mobility while dishing out decent damage. People seem to love battlerage, though I haven't tried it, so there's that. And if you have the CC to keep the enemy in place and away from you, sorcery will do some serious damage. Shadowplay is also great: if you and your party have stealth you can do some serious ambushing, which is really really fun.
As for myself, I started out a hex archer, which is archery (obv) with witchcraft and songcraft, making a cc-heavy build. Solid for PVP, but not as much damage as I'd like. Then I switched to a cleric for PVE, heirophant for PVP (vitalism, witchcraft, auramancy) which dishes out solid heals while having the ability to keep enemies off you. My friend went Templar, which seems totally OP, and I recently switched to a Defiler (occultism, witchcraft, defense) which is even MORE op.
GL to you. Find whatever offensive tree suits your playstyle, and build your other two around that. Just keep other types of gear with you for the appropriate enemy!
wait..so everyone was up in arms about cookie cutter builds..
so now having a way to choose what YOU want your char. to be like is somehow bad?
Wa min God! Se æx on min heafod is!
Sweet! This should help my OCD nicely.
Too late, haha. I'm already gearing up! I'm in full plate and working on crafting my shield. I'll post a pic here when I get it finished
Hear, hear. I'm loving paladin and that's all that matters I think. I like to overthink/overcomplicate things.
I need to remember this.
I'm a TERA-combat fan, and I don't mind the tab target either.
Good to know, thanks. I just went for it, after making this thread and I'm a Pala now!
No one's going to blame you
Hear, hear
I really like Defense, so I think I'll pick and choose based around it.
I'm not everyone so I don't speak for everyone.
This thread is about me and people like me: i.e., indecisive, altoholics. Ergo, this is not a complaint about the game but about my own shortcomings.
Having able to mix and match any class together means that this game more than other games will have coookie cutter builds, there will be a build or very few "top" builds considered the best for PvP. Having choise to create what ever the kind of class you want does not make the cookie cutter builds dissapear, quite the opposite.
Everyone individally can decide if that's a bad thing or not. I love having the freedom to build my class, I've been playing some hearthstone lately (Blizzard f2p card game) and while there are community created meta decks, I only play my own crafted decks because creativity is the salt of gaming, however, the meta decks would improve my win rate. I dont mind that in a casual card game, but it could be frustrating in a PvP combat environment if you knew you would "be a better player" just by running the most effective PvP build.
After slaving away at the crafting station
I made myself a shield and can call myself a Paladin now xD (At least I look like one now).
I'm not sure if I'm gearing up the right way but I went with the club. +Healing and +Strength (Also Int and Spirit) seem like stats I should go for, as a Paladin. Thanks, y'all.
I like how the crafting works in stages (I'm at stage 1) and can keep using the same armor but upgraded via crafting. I may hate it later but I won't worry about that now. I'll cross that bridge when I get there.
The Archeum Dusts I need have been a bit of a pain to get. I've been salvaging almost every bit of item I get that's salvageable. Farmed for purses but the drop is so abysmal.
I am the same way and it started with CoH.
In AA I am level 50, but I don't have a single skill tree to 50. I think my highest is 46 maybe. I like jumping to different rolls. I have adopted the role of "Master of Nothing" and I am okay with that. At launch I was playing as a Spellsinger, last week I was playing as a Bloodskald, over the weekend I was a Stone Arrow, and yesterday I was a Poxbane. And to be honest, as long as it isn't 1v1 PVP, it doesn't really matter. Every role I try still helps the group somehow.
I have discovered that I like certain skills for certain situations. For dungeons I like songcraft to help support, the other two trees don't matter to me in this case, or the armor for that matter. For PVE/PVP(small group) I like anything with Defense, so I lean towards a Stone Arrow with leather armor. For WAR/PVP(raid) I like plate armor with abilities that provide some mDef and ranged CC.
I am all over the place, but still having fun.