Kinda been wanting to play one, but much like Berserkers, I dont remember them being any good until many expansions later. Sure they have MGB Paragon but if thats all they bring then its just a suck class. I dont expect to melee like a Monk, have a pet like a Mage, or nuke like a Wizard but are they at least playable at end game? Really dont wanna spend a month or two leveling up just to have to reroll because Im not wanted. Anyone who has mained a BL since the REAL Luclin era care to fill me in on how Beastlords are moving forward and if its worth playing. They look like a lot of fun but if all they do at max level is sit in PoK or solo greens cause they cant do anything harder then I will look for another class. Looking for something thats decent DPS. I dont care about being #1 but I also dont wanna be below the Tanks. Also want to be able to solo for those times I cant get a group. Looking forward to level 70 I wanna be able to solo grind some AAs in places like PoFire.
Depends. I dont think they top parse on raids ever. They do solo and with the pet changes with pet being able to tank while yo melee that changes everything from when beastlords first were launched. Beastlords I imagine have the most fun raiding past content like soloing naggy etc since you can slow it.
BST are in a good place. When I'm bored I solo in BoT pretty much nonstop, with the changes to pets and them being able to tank it makes soloing even easier then it was in the day (I pull with slow, dot the mob, send pet in, and fight; at some point the pet pulls threat off me and tanks the rest, generally the mob dies before he needs a heal, and OOC regen for pets is crazy so he is full before the next pull and i generally only have to toss myself a heal or two every few mobs) We won't be topping parses for a few years but by RoF at least were solidly Tier1 dps. IF you like utility and don't care about being in the top 10 on every parse you'll love the class. IF being top dps is your main goal pick something else for a few years. Hell I've had more LDON groups then I care to count use me as the group tank too because we hold threat well and tank decently well when geared/AA'd. (Main BST from 2001-live with a wowcation between OOW and VoA; main bst from SoL-?? on phinny)
BL's biggest strength is their versatility. As a raid geared BL on phinny, I can tank any group content (including occasional rare offtanking in raids!), solo content that gives decent XP while I'm waiting on a group (e.g., Infected Paw), and get plenty of groups based on tools alone (slow, beastcrack, CC with offtanking/pet, etc.) (Edit: I've even begrudgingly main-healed for some LDoN groups) . With the right gear and foci you can be middle of the pack on raids, at the back end of all the "real" dps classes right now. We're about to get a lot better too with all the pet AAs and such coming with GoD. The one caveat I'll say for your concerns is you won't feel "powerful" until you're in your 60s and have some AAs under your belt. There's a lot of points in leveling where you pets/spells lag behind your level pretty significantly. End game though that all goes away. Most fun I've had playing a class, and I've played almost everything into the low 70s.
BSTs are ok as long as the one playing quit thinking he is a pure DPS class. A BST going DPS mode is just like a bard playing only the chant DoT songs.
Beastlords are a fun class, but they suffer from not having a clear niche role. They aren't a dps class...they aren't healers...they aren't support...they are all of those things, but not the best for any of them. The paragon line of spells and some other unique abilities makes them have some utility that can't be replaced, but largely I've always seen them as just a fun class to play. The people I've met that actually play beast as their main character are usually just folks who like the class.
We had a BST who cast Ferocity on himself and his pet before (maybe) doing it on the monks and the rogues, because he was more concerned about his own parse... Luckily he left and joined some other poor guild, lol
