Question to the Vets

nthnaoun

I need help choosing a class that best suits my playstyle. I am asking you all, because you all probably know the ins and outs of most professions and disciplines. I appreciate any advise and help I can get.

First off, I like skill-point based games like UO and Darkfall, so my playstyle mostly fits in those games, but I figured you all can get me close or offer a few profession choices with pros and cons. I like a combonation of a Knight(sword,shield,heavy armor)/Wizard(powerful magic attacks)/Cleric(self heals and melee and defensive buffs). I usually play the character to the 70/20/10  Knight/Wizard/Cleric ratio. Meaning, I may open up with a few good magic blasts, then melee, all the while my melee skills and defensive skills are buffed or the attributes that those skills rely on are buffed through Clerical means. I also use Clerical type healing to heal myself when needed. That is the typical fight where the NPC or player is at range. Now if the NPC or player is within melee range, I just use my sword and shield and heal myself when my health gets low. I only use magic to pull with or to hit enemies at range, instead of rushing forward while getting pounded by wizards and archers. So I basically like to play it smart. I don't rush into fights, I use magic when they are at range and melee while they are within melee range, and I keep my buffs up and I heal myself when I get low on health.

I know what you are thinking, "He wants God mode," but in skill based games there are checks and balances to where I would not be the best in melee, magic, or healing; yet rather a balance of all 3. That is basically what I want.

Any suggestions?

Jerek_

the most recent patch to SB has brought some serious changes to the game, so just as a disclaimer, I may be wrong about some things, and strongly suggest you check the offical shadowbane forums before making a final choice.  Also, your choices on race, startup runes, stats and stat runes, and discipline runes will have huge impacts on your character, so I can help you norrow down some classes, you will have to make some choices from there.

the classes that fit most closely to what you described are crusader, warlock, and templar.  All of these can heal to one degree or another, all can cast, and can use a sword/shield setup.  The big problem I see with what you want is the sword and shield-  while you do see this often, it's almost never used for melee damage, because one handed weapon damage is really to low to rely on.  The 1 handed swords you most often see in SB are class weapons, holy blade, psiblade, and whatever it is the templar bastards swing, all used for extra attack rating on spells, proc damage (5%-10% chance to hit for magic damage based on weapon) extra defense if you character is def based. 

 Basically any of these classes and others can play the style you describe, but with that setup will be more casting oriented than melee.  The crusader is typicially a medium damage dealer, best healing potential of the three, can have excellent defense, high hitpoints.  The warlock is the most like a mage/fighter with a heal tossed in... DPS is actually low, but rarely resisted, and they have alot of utility type spells to fall back on, also capable of great defense.  The templar is an evil bastard class that should never be played by anyone.. but if you insist, It is the most offensive of the three with high dps possible from casting and melee... even their healing abilities are offensive as it is actually a drain, taking an enemies life and giving it to you.  Again with a sword/shield high defense is viable, making it and all around pain in the butt.

jdkskip

Same as Jerek_ as to the new patch. I really loved playing my Defensive Sentinal. While they don't use a sword, the Sentinal Hammer does decent damage for a one handed weapon. But the thing about the Sentinal that I liked was the huge AOE it had/has. With a Sentinal you would run into a group of players, hit the Holy Word of Binding spell to de-buff everyone of any holy resists then hit the Divine Word of Binding ( you're AOE ). Most of the healers and mages drop dead, lots of fun, and the melees are left with a little less then 1/2 of thier health. A word of caution though... this AOE hits everyone including your self, so make sure your healers and other group members are no where around you and have some holy resist jewerly on your self. Apply a Runecaster rune and you can heal your self pretty well. These Defensive Sentinals also are great for farming/leveling. A group consisting of 2 or 3 Sentinals with a Healer/Priest and a Bard can handle any NPC spawn in the game.

Ciredric

I thought all the servers were shut down?