Originally posted by Isasis

 

 

So, I'll be subscribing to VG after Christmas and I have time to play. I've played at release and beta, but didn't really play too far (only to level 30). I have done a trial+subbed before SOE got hacked, but I never got my account back. Not a big deal since the highest guy was only level 15.

 

 

 

Anyway, I was wondering what class would fit. I mostly solo (due to my job, that sometimes I can play for long periods, other times I'm afk every 15 minutes)...I do love grouping though, and I make a great healer. Not much into tanking and DPS is always a lot of fun. Weekends are usually the times I can group with people :)

 

 

 

So, classes that sound like a lot of fun....

 

Cleric -despite killing slow, I heard they make AWESOME healers, but also, can solo very well too...saw one post saying that he soloed part of a raid dungeon (POTA?) or something... as a Cleric.  I would probably do really well with this class, since I'm better at healing than tanking. 

 

Paladin - This class looks fun and I've always liked Paladin classes...even though I'm not big into tanking for the most part, Paladins are the exception. I generally really like Paladin classes. Don't know much about VG Paladins, though. I assume tanks are always needed.

 

Druid/Necromancer/Psionicist - All three look like fun, and I know Necromancers can solo pretty well. And Druids look fun because they use nature magic (I am really into nature based classes), not sure how Druids do in groups or solo, though. And if Psionicists are anything like Illusionist/Coercer  in EQ2...I would probably really like it.

 

Ranger - A mix of ranged/melee is always fun...not sure how they do in solo and group

 

 

 

Classes I'm NOT interested in

 

Warrior/Rogue/(Bard)-unless things changed, they are a grouping only classes...unless I want to fight 2/3 dots the whole time  I'll make a Bard just to group with. However, he won't be my main. Bards are tons of fun in groups.

 

Disciple -Not a fan of martial arts based classes to be honest...plus despite being the best soloers, I heard they are very common

 

Dread Knight - Would rather be a Paladin

 

Blood Mage -I tried this, and while unique...I got one to level 16 and found it REALLY hard. Not that it is a bad thing, but I prefer more relaxing classes

 

Sorceror - Would rather be a Druid or Necromancer or Psionicist

 

Shaman - Not really too interested in this one, personally...I did get one to level 16, but maybe it wasn't high enough, but...while nothing wrong with the class...it didn't click with me, don't know why. 

 

 

 

Thanks :)

I don't understand what your trying to say....You like being a healer but you played them all and are not interested in any of them except Paladin....If so I guess you have to be a Paladin, right ?

By what you say.  You are limiting it to :

Paladin, Druid, Necromancer or Psionicist ?

Well anyway, of them I only played a Psionicist.  I must say it's the hardest class I had ever played in any mmo. Nothing like it ever, and you better have a lot of real dexterity and a fast brain, that I don't have, in order to execut your abilities. I think it's safe to say that this class could range from sucking real bad to the best class in the game.....You could stun most everything if you can do it well !

Right now we see a subtantial hit in respect to population. Might be just xmas and the SWTOR release, who knows. I dont know if it will swing back. Either way you need to play on Telon to see any population, Halgar is pretty dead.

If you have only played classes to level 16, you havent seen much of them yet. Many classes change drastically during levelup. For example, Paladin starts with insane dps output but gets really tame at higher levels.

About the classes:

Warrior , Monk - if you want to solo, just stay away from those.

Paladin - VG Paladins are TANKS as tanky as you can get them. Quite low dps on higher levels (dont let early levels fool you) and possibly the most simple to play class in the game, minus the tanking part (tanking is always hard in VG). They also get some nice Virtue point abilities to buff themselves, mostly with damage. Their buffs are otherwise unimportant (except for a melee aggro debuff, that one is very cool in group), they get no area aggro skill, and their heals might sometimes be useful.

Dread Knight - All in all I prefer them over Paladin, because they are far more active and get skills like area lifetap, area aggro, and combined invisibility and runspeed (60 sec, on a 80 sec recast timer). Also a snare (no damage and breaks on damage) and a fear for some nice emergency CC, Dread Counterance as a kind of automatic debuff over time and the strongest single debuff in the whole game, and so on. The Dread Knight is the bottom of the tanks in respect to aggro generation, though. All in all a very exciting and fun solo class.

Rogue, Bard - While their solo performance isnt too great, they still CAN solo as long as they can kite. Their ranged damage is much lower than their melee damage, though.

Ranger - Basically like Rogue and Bard. Except their ranged damage is massive and rivals the one of mages. Melee Rogue and Bard are a tad (but really only a tad) superior, though. Rangers are also awesome stance kickers in raids, which always grants them a spot, and they have some nice buffs for others, especially runspeed.

Cleric - War Clerics have some soloing ability in respect to damage, but even they wont be dps wonders. All Affinities are good, except Purity. I cant comment on soloing Pantheon of the Ancients; I know a Disciple can NAVIGATE it solo, so a Cleric is probably able, too. I dont believe they have the slightest chance of doing the questlines there solo.

Shaman - Bear Shaman is almost as good a Solist as Disciple, though they have less damage, but possibly even more defense. Wolf has much less defense, and Phoenix is definitely the worst of the healers - as fragile as Blood Mage, hardly able to kite, without the Blood Mages extreme HP selfbuffs and without the Blood Mages high damage lifetaps.

Disciple - Yes they are very common. NOW. Not in the past ... ! As far as soloing goes, Disciples are the godmode of Vanguard. I can literally manage things on them solo that I cannot possibly manage on any other class. Also very good dps and fake death to avoid wipes.

Blood Mage - This class is extremely gear dependent in its solo performance, as they have to tank the mobs. Better gear means more damage AND more life regeneration. BM also gets a lot better with higher levels. Either way its not that fun as a solist, because they cant handle adds very well. They have a short timed and not reapplyable charm but thats about all. Possibly the best dps of all healers, but Disciples are great at that too.

Druid / Psionicist / Sorcerer - the solist performance doesnt differ so much here, though Druid and Psio have much more CC. Druid can have extreme spike dps with their special abilties, and they can drop aggro which can work like a fake death if handled right. Psi can handle up to 4 mobs at the same time. Both Psi and Sorcerer get invisibility on self (and others).

Necromancer - They are quite good solist, no question. Thanks to their pet, they are a one man army. And thanks to fake death, they can survive when others die.

Solo ? 

Disciple is the king of soloing for sure. I have one level 32 and it rocks.

Other mentionables are:

Necro / DK / Bloodmage / Ranger ( kiting ) / Psionist

Psionist is not for the faint of heart however, it can be frustrating at times but when you get it working you can solo groups of 3-4 dot mobs easily.

Bascially you have to manage a charm, stun, mezz slow and run stuff around, it can be hard in tight quarters but probably one of the most rewarding gameplay experiences i have ever had.

One thing I forgot to mention about tank: Tanks are highly gear dependent in Vanguard, and best gear is from grouping, crafting, and later raids. Thus playing a solo DK or Pal would be best combined with making an Armorsmith and harvesting metal. Thats a lot of work though.

I've written a lot of things about the Ranger class.

They are the best solo class to play OUTDOORS where you have plenty of room to run and shoot. At higher levels, you can basically pull 20+ mobs and kill em all fairly quick using thier splitting arrow ability. You get a pet for the extra dps boost a wide variety to choose from. Also given the charm spell to charm insects/animals (works on most named bosses as well) you'll have a second pet for more dps. Get to use hide and sneak abilities like th rogues to dungeon crawl pick up some gear with hide/sneak boost and you'll be just as good as the rogues. You get 3 stances, ranged, melee and evasive. The longer the fights prolong the more the damage or defense boost will increase. They get healing abilities as well, although it doesnt heal a whole lot, it can be quite useful in tough situations. Root, run away heal yourself a few times and get back in the fight.

Rangers are generally fragile though. They take serious damage, even when fighting lower level mobs. Their HP isn't really high.

Rangers dont get enough credit for dps. I've out damaged some of the top rogues and monks in my raiding guild before back in my days (Melee over Range). Although shooting from afar you'll be safer, you'll notice more damage when you are meleeing at higher levels for raids. But for soloing you should always go range and melee just for the finish. You just need to cycle your abilities correctly for maximum dps output with the limited amount of time you get when fighting the bosses.

Originally posted by csthao

I've written a lot of things about the Ranger class.

They are the best solo class to play OUTDOORS where you have plenty of room to run and shoot. At higher levels, you can basically pull 20+ mobs and kill em all fairly quick using thier splitting arrow ability. You get a pet for the extra dps boost a wide variety to choose from. Also given the charm spell to charm insects/animals (works on most named bosses as well) you'll have a second pet for more dps. Get to use hide and sneak abilities like th rogues to dungeon crawl pick up some gear with hide/sneak boost and you'll be just as good as the rogues. You get 3 stances, ranged, melee and evasive. The longer the fights prolong the more the damage or defense boost will increase. They get healing abilities as well, although it doesnt heal a whole lot, it can be quite useful in tough situations. Root, run away heal yourself a few times and get back in the fight.

Rangers are generally fragile though. They take serious damage, even when fighting lower level mobs. Their HP isn't really high.

Rangers dont get enough credit for dps. I've out damaged some of the top rogues and monks in my raiding guild before back in my days (Melee over Range). Although shooting from afar you'll be safer, you'll notice more damage when you are meleeing at higher levels for raids. But for soloing you should always go range and melee just for the finish. You just need to cycle your abilities correctly for maximum dps output with the limited amount of time you get when fighting the bosses.

 

Yes !

I have seen this crazy 20+ mob ranger kite routine and just watched in amazement. VG has great classes and Ranger is a great one ( although one i have not tried... yet )

Originally posted by csthao

I've written a lot of things about the Ranger class.

They are the best solo class to play OUTDOORS where you have plenty of room to run and shoot. At higher levels, you can basically pull 20+ mobs and kill em all fairly quick using thier splitting arrow ability. You get a pet for the extra dps boost a wide variety to choose from. Also given the charm spell to charm insects/animals (works on most named bosses as well) you'll have a second pet for more dps. Get to use hide and sneak abilities like th rogues to dungeon crawl pick up some gear with hide/sneak boost and you'll be just as good as the rogues. You get 3 stances, ranged, melee and evasive. The longer the fights prolong the more the damage or defense boost will increase. They get healing abilities as well, although it doesnt heal a whole lot, it can be quite useful in tough situations. Root, run away heal yourself a few times and get back in the fight.

Rangers are generally fragile though. They take serious damage, even when fighting lower level mobs. Their HP isn't really high.

Rangers dont get enough credit for dps. I've out damaged some of the top rogues and monks in my raiding guild before back in my days (Melee over Range). Although shooting from afar you'll be safer, you'll notice more damage when you are meleeing at higher levels for raids. But for soloing you should always go range and melee just for the finish. You just need to cycle your abilities correctly for maximum dps output with the limited amount of time you get when fighting the bosses.

 

One of the best things about Vanguard is the complicated classes.

I've only played a Ranger to about level 12.  I guess I was not serious about the class enough to be good.  People told me arrows are very important and I should make my own, but never did....Also I played in one of the original starting zones instead of the Trial Isle and ended up with poor gear at level 10. Proper abilities combos are extremely important.  They need to be practiced and studied, if not, it could be the difference between good and bad play, this goes for every class...... if I had time to play Vanguard I would love to try the Ranger again.

What makes this mmo great is that EVERY CLASS could excel if played right, half assed yields nothing...This point is just another un-spoken great thing about this game.

As a new player, i had same questions regarding solo class, great answers thank you all.

Another question - should i start on Island or on home continent - lore and story wise?

There is an option to choose that?

Thank you.

Originally posted by najob75

As a new player, i had same questions regarding solo class, great answers thank you all.

Another question - should i start on Island or on home continent - lore and story wise?

There is an option to choose that?

Thank you.

The island will have more people in the area and you get pretty nice starter gear once you finish it. It will also teach you a bit about things like crafting and diplomacy if you are into that.

However, the mainland is much more interesting lore wise and of course you get to experience the huge world first hand. However there will be fewer people in the starter areas on the mainland.

Thanks.

I done Island few times, so i will start on mainland with my next char.

Great game , btw :)

"Fewer" people ? Teh. Most of the time, there will be nobody, while IoD can be quite crowded.

I spend a lot of time on IoD on my new Telon characters, because I wanted to have them all maxed on Adventuring, Crafting and Diplomacy. I havent regretted it. Both Crafting and Diplomacy opens new chains of quests right out of the "box", both of which give you nice secondary items (like additional teleports, a harvest belt that gives +10 to harvest, a set of harvest clothing that for unknown reasons works better than even mature vielthread / aged gear, the only transformation spell that I actually like that makes you look like a small dragon, and so on and so forth).

Also, of course both Crafting and Diplomacy give you many other advantages in this game.

Oh, and about lore: (a) One can always do the starter areas after one did IoD, but NOT the other way around (b) you can always just create characters to explore the lore and delete them afterwards. Either way the racial starter areas do prepare you squad for diplomacy and crafting, and you will miss the awesome IoD charm that gives a great bonus especially to crafting (thats really a huge difference).

Do NOT start on the mainland...

There are things you get from the island that are PERMANENT and scale up with you that you will never be able to get if you start on the mainland.

You might not regret it now -- but when you are level 45 and do not have said items then you will regret it -- and it will be too late.

Now if you want to start an alt and just do the first few levels for the lore and then delete it -- knock yourself out -- there is a lot of lore that most people do not see with the newbie island -- but you will regret if you actually play a world started character.

Ok, i started on Island :)

I will go back to home town latter.

Thanks again for help, see you all , ign Primuss.