Classes have all gained massive amounts of new abilities and AA's over the years, and its been really hard for people like me, who just checks in every now and then, to keep up with all the classes different capabilities. Does anyone feel like they have the authority, or knowledge needed, to post a small blurb on each class, with information like pulling/splitting abilities, overall dps potential, tanking potential, and anything else that might be relevant? Even if you only want to post about a few classes that you know about, it would be tremendously helpful.
monk- runs to a monster, grabs its attention and brings several dozen of them back to the group, whereaupon the monk immediately pretends its' dead and hides. ranger- feebily fumbles with his bow. wildly fires off a stream of arrows, screams like a girl and dies. enchanter- tries calming the approaching mobs, curses at the others in her team for waking the monsters as she too is cut down by the horde. warrior - charges the enemy forces , yelling for heals. his tin sword and shield having little effect. is soon overwhelmed and crushed. rogue- slips behind the monster and slips a blade into its back while deftly lifting its purse. beastlord- plays with her pet kitten. paladin - tries to spread sunshine and rainbows throughout the world. grooms his pink unicorn. shadownight - wildly swings his sword as his pet lizard nibbles on their remains. necromancer - does unspeakable things with the corpses. - both friendly and foe. wizard - brings down the wrath of god with a blast of power. and sits to read a book. bard - sings while the city burns. runs away very fast. mage - sends his slave into battle and hides under a rock. cleric - camps and waits till all is safe to return and rez the dead.
I think the best way to describe them is to break them down to types: Tank, DPS, Healer, and Utility Warrior, Paladin, Shadowknight are the tanks. Warrior tanks by sheer brute force, a wall of flesh. Paladin uses stuns + self heals to tank. Shadowknight uses lifetaps and necromancy to make him a formidable foe. Cleric, Druid, and Shaman are your healers. All are competent healers but differing styles. Cleric is pure heals, with very little extra dps. Druid = meager dots and very good nukes + remote heals. Shaman = utility + heals, with slows, buffs, etc. Bard + Enchanter = utility. They make their group stronger. Bard does it through dancing and song, while enchanter does it with mystical spells that make people forget who he is/do his will. Everyone else essentially falls under dps. Rogue = stab them in the back, hide in the shadows, assassin. Bezerker = blood frenzied big axe or hammer that does nothing but dps. Very little utility. Wizard = blow them to smitherins with huge balls of flame/ice. Monk = feign death, pull, mend himself to full, and fight with his fists. Ranger = Watch lord of the rings and pay attention to Strider. Beastlord = hybrid of a monk with a big pet and shaman abilities. Necromancer is the king of disease/damage over time. He rots his foes away and commands the undead to do his bidding.
Request number 1 should be that any changes to AA abilities be updated in their AA description. One example of this would be the monk's punch mastery. It no longer only effects the special attacks related to hands like tiger claw, but also increases your basic H2H melee damage. Updating all of this would go a long way in helping returning players.
Beastlords Pros: Good sustained DPs, good buffs and utility (FD, slow, Pet tank and control, ect.) Very active/engaging character and Can tank and pull in a pinch when well established. Cons: High AA and general gear dependence, takes a lot of attention and “button mashing, Jack of many trades but master of none (Can tank, pull and DPS but not the best at any) DPS: A BL has great sustained DPS, espically with you weave your AAs/Discs into your rotation. A Beast can fight for a 30mins straight and maintain the same dps thanks to excellent mana regen abilities such as a self-cannibalize and paragon AA lines. Only endurance will eventually run out very slowly. To play a BL well requires a lot of attention. A BL will generally cast a rotation of 5 nukes and spam 9+ discs/AAs as they come off cool down. Not including “burst” type abilities you may weave in during fighting. They do not have the raw burst of other “true” DPS classes have but BL DPS is very good over time and utility makes up for whatever they lack. PET: A few years ago BL pets were weak, but recently they have received more love. Though Mage pets are generally better as a rule of thumb, BL pets can do almost comparable damage and tank in many of the same situations. Though Mage pets can take more damage a BL can heal their pets better if healing is in short supply. BL pets can snare, and can be faded to loose agro, making pet splitting much easier. Pets can build strong agro, allowing the BL or a real tank to dip out of a fight easily to deal with adds. UTILITY: Besides Pet tanking, snaring and pulling, BLs can Slow mobs as well as buff allies. They have weaker versions of shaman buffs, as well as a HP/attack buff and a triple attack buff. They can FD every 30 secs with AAs which can help in splitting, losing agro, moving around dangerous places and general survival. TANKING: Despite what many think BLs can tank in a pinch, though for true group content you want to be well geared. My beastlord is in group gear only and tanks all Heroic Adventures and most named in CoTF with one healer merc. It is true that of all the melees BLs have the weakest raw mitigation; however they do have some things going for them. Outside of obvious pet tanking BLs have a 2 min cool down disc with 90% mitigation as well as a new dodge modifier disc. BLs have strong agro generation as they spam multiple abilities and 5 nukes (1 of which has an agro mod) . Even if their personal agro isn’t enough, you can generally rely on the mob not bouncing around beyond the melee of the group. The BL pet generates so much agro the mob is essentially rooted in place by the agro of the pet, meaning the mob will only go after other melee. PULLING: A BL can pull though it is not optimal. As mentioned above BLs can pet pull, snare mobs with the pet and fade the pet. They can also FD split. A combination of FD and pet pulling allows most things to be split when needed. The down side is that there are cool downs on all of these abilities and you may have to try multiple times depending on what you are doing. So yes BL can pull in a pinch but most of the time other classes are a better option. A Beastlord shines in group content but they have high gear and AA requirements to show their true potential. Because beastlords use both melee and spells their DPs is split between the 2, so both have to be paid attention to. I enjoy the challenge of playing them, and to any who try I hope you do too.
Most of the above post is true except this part. Am old friend of mine recently returned to EQ so I took him through a couple of heroic mission. Here's a summary of when I started, and when I had to sit to med using paragon, focus paragon, canni and his focus paragon (no chanties). A mudspirit in 33sec, for 1273933HP and your xxxxxxdps at 3/4/2014 7:55:10 PM A mudspirit in 22sec, for 998889HP and your xxxxxxdps at 3/4/2014 7:55:43 PM A mudspirit in 35sec, for 1169842HP and your xxxxxdps at 3/4/2014 7:56:38 PM A mudsoul in 19sec, for 1332014HP and your xxxxxdps at 3/4/2014 7:57:24 PM A mudspirit in 38sec, for 1298266HP and your xxxxxdps at 3/4/2014 7:57:25 PM A mudspirit in 20sec, for 1180731HP and your xxxxxdps at 3/4/2014 7:58:20 PM A mudspirit in 25sec, for 1175642HP and your xxxxxdps at 3/4/2014 7:58:52 PM A mudsoul in 51sec, for 1246674HP and your xxxxxxdps at 3/4/2014 7:58:53 PM A mudsoul in 30sec, for 1263359HP and your xxxxxdps at 3/4/2014 7:59:59 PM A mudsoul in 30sec, for 1307565HP and your xxxxxdps at 3/4/2014 8:00:40 PM A mudspirit in 30sec, for 1260219HP and your xxxxxdps at 3/4/2014 8:01:27 PM A mudspirit in 28sec, for 1028010HP and your xxxxxxdps at 3/4/2014 8:01:56 PM Just over 5 mins and I had to med. This isn't an attempt to derail the thread, however you should just have all the facts. It is a really a fun class to play, however if you pick it up you'll probably be like the majority of the beastlords and will be begging Elidroth for help in the mana department.
Thanks for the post sinderkad, that was exactly what I was looking for, and it makes me want to play a bst lol =)
I wasn't saying they couldnt run out of mana quickly, if it seemed that way im sorry. Yes a BL Can run out of mana in a burn rotation of nukes, however i find that the DPS return on this vs more sustained rotations isnt worth the med time. (essentially a change in the use of one spell) A BL can in the larger scheme of things maintain a larger % of their "max" dps during Sustained DPS vs many other classes though using this method. (at least that's been my experience) You are correct though that mana has been a long standing issue with BLs.
insert - druid - hugs a tree. shaman- ingests exotic mushroom and dances in a drum circle. berserker- a marine.
Magician - summons a pet that tanks mob and DPSes for the group. Ranger - shoots arrows and tries not to gank aggro from the mage pet with spells Wizard - blasts mob with spells Necromancer - can also summon a pet that does not tank as well as the mage pet Enchanter - is there to make sure the mage pet only has to tank one mob at a time Cleric/Shaman/Druid - heals the mage pet and buffs it Beastlord - sends his pet in to attack the mob while pretending to cast spells Warrior/Rogue/Monk/Berserker/Paladin/SK - obsolete, hope you have a bow or throwing daggers Bard - plays songs to entertain the melee classes
Mage - tank SK - puller Enchanter - debuff/buffs and crowd control Merc - healer Ranger = not mage, SK, Ench Warrior = not mage, SK, Ench Beastlord = not mage, SK, Ench Wizard = not mage, SK, Ench Necro = not mage, SK, Ench Shaman = not mage, SK, Ench Rogue = not mage, SK, Ench Monk = not mage, SK, Ench Bard = not mage, SK, Ench Druid = not mage, SK, Ench Cleric = not merc
Beastlord - chokes target with hairballs since only Vah Shir are true beast lords, the rest are wanna bes .
/glare I'll remember that next time I beat you on parse Iniari or the next time I've got to throw out rods! Hide under a rock, pfffft~
