When i was playing EQ1 i half wanted to be a healer, and half wanted to be the tank. Thus i played a paladin, warrior and cleric at various times. ( Current main is a 65 SK w/155aa) But, i think im done with the "hybrid" classes. I want to either a pure tank or pure healer. Its not as simple as "play what you like" as im not really sure which of the two i would prefer. Some considerations: 1. Templar (Cleric) or Guardian (Fighter) Thoes are really my only two choices. I want to be either a "all out healer" or "all out tank". Why would you (the reader) pick one over the other, Specificly? 2. I want to be "in demand" for Groups / Raids. Templar is probably going to win this battle. The clerics were always the bottleneck. Tanks were a dime a dozen. 3. I think i slightly prefer the tank role, but it is offset by the "eh.. another tank?" feeling i get when i see all the figther types running about. Any suggestions on what i should be thinking about for the endgame and why i would choose one or the other specificly. Again, im aware of the "pick what you like" but in this case im not sure what to pick, as i dont have the time available to play both classes out to the endgame. I need to make the decision early on.
I'm in the same boat as you, got it narrowed down to the Templar or Guardian. While I would like to try the pure tank Guardian, I think I'm going to go with the Templar. From past experience it sucks to play a character only to find out at higher lvls your never going to be welcomed into any groups and as we all know, no groups at higher lvls means pretty much no experience. Like you I want to be in demand at higher lvls so that's why I'm leaning towards the Templar, that and the fact that I think there just plain cool. To each his own in the end.
You might also want to consider if you are going to be doing any soloing at all. Priests soloing is a hell of a lot easier than fighter soloing, but I enjoyed jumping in the middle swinging a big ole hammer than standing back and launching magic. I'm going Templar because I don't necessarily have to put up with a bunch of 5 year olds if I want to go out and create a little havoc for the local gnoll population. I'd say Templar, unless you have your heart set on Guardian you would probably not enjoy yourself as much.
oh and another consideration is the "Phat Lootz" there is a tendency for the Ooooo factor to be on the damage dealing swords and such , rather than some random caster focus item. But god **bleep** the world sure doesnt need 1 more tank. hehe For every 1 time i see "group seeks tank" i see 20 "group seeks healer"
At least on my server, RunnyEye, it seems tanks are in short supply. Using a high DPS melee type as a tank doesn't work well in the low-end game, even with 2+ priests, and I'm sure it'll be suicide later on. The sad part about playing a Templar is this balancing they did right before launch. As it stands now, all 6 priest types are almost equal healers, and only one healer is needed per party. This is espeically bad for templars because templars cannot increase the DPS of the party. A smart party will pick a high DPS priest every time, such as a Fury, for fast exp grinding up to 50th. Maybe templars will have a place at 50th when extra protection is necessary for epic encounters, but until then it'll be interesting.
That (and other similar "they all can do the job X as well") decidions on SoEs part is a realy crappy decision IMHO. They did it to apease the whiners, but in the processs have destroyed a lot of class distinction , which is the key concept of why people pick a class in the first place they want to perform , at least some mild sort of "unique role" rather than just being a Vanilla Tank, Vanilla Healer etc. WTF they were thinking i dunno.
"and only one healer is needed per party." Obviously you havent seen what having a shaman and a cleric with stacking heals does to allow a party to take on things not dreamt of by one healer party and even if not taking on much higher mobs then it allows for constant fighting as you see the two healers at more than half power then you keep going as they still have enough between the two of them etc Trust me - get into the 20's and see the difference having two healers in the party compared to only one - As a templar you will have no issue getting group invites constantly
One of the biggest complaints I heard all through beta, was the fact that to fight what most people wanted to fight, they needed 2 healers in their group. Most people don't want to fight blues -- they want to do yellow and orange -- and one healer just wasnt handling the job. So it looks like healers shouldnt have much trouble finding groups.
I played a fighter in EQ1 all the way to 55. Played my Halfling cleric to 65. Quit before the last expansion came out and upped the level cap. Personally I fell in love with playing a cleric. Being always needed and always having friends who would send me tells saying "Hey lets go do this, lets go do that, anything you need to do today ? great xp this and that" .. it was like I had chosen the 1 class that I would never thought I could play. The only reason I Ever started playing a cleric was the fact that in HHK in EQ1 .. my warrior wasnt getting groups some times.. and then I put him on the back burner to say and then played a cleric , and then he became my main. Ive never had as much fun playing any other class than a cleric. So when the opportunity to continue that went here I was thrilled. I will be playing a cleric until the end gaurnteed. They are always needed, Very Rarely not needed. Good spells , buff ability , and have semi decent nukes. Sure were not wizards but we can handle our own. Ive soloed from 1 to 12 so far and thats just been doing quests and stuff.. In beta I did more grouping than anything and can easily say with out a doubt that a healer class will always be needed over most classes in the game. Power to the Healers
Hmmm My Templar heals better than any druid or shaman when it comes to straight on direct combat healing. The end of beta had priest spells change to what they are now. All priest classes do not heal the same. The best groups I have been in have me as a primary healer and a Shaman to slow. That combo just plain rocks. If you do not have a Shaman for slows and are going after hard mobs you better have a druid to help heal or a 2nd cleric. At the low end of the game one healer is fine but hit the 20's and that all changes fast.
