Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Your Favorite Class
EponyxDamor
Member RarePosts: 726
Over the last few days I've really been thinking about character classes in MMOs. Unfortunately, some of my favorite classes are in MMOs that have been closed down (CoH, Vanguard, and WAR), and I can no longer play them. So, I wanted to start a discussion asking what your favorite (or most memorable) classes are, what game they come from, and what made it so special to you?
I'll start with mine ...
Blood Mage from Vanguard was by far my favorite class to play in an MMO. I typically play support, but also enjoy spellcaster DPS; so, Blood Mage was perfect for me. It was a healing class who's healing was based on the amount of damage they could deal and utilized combos, which wasn't special on its own, as several games at the time were featuring similar concepts. However, what truly set Blood Mage apart, for me, was that they also offered several unique buffs/debuffs/CC options through a system called "Symbiotes". These symbiotes were crafted by harvesting various organs from enemies and applied using various spells. The idea of harvesting organs and blood to use for spells was such a neat concept, and really gave Blood Mage its own unique flavor.
I'll start with mine ...
Blood Mage from Vanguard was by far my favorite class to play in an MMO. I typically play support, but also enjoy spellcaster DPS; so, Blood Mage was perfect for me. It was a healing class who's healing was based on the amount of damage they could deal and utilized combos, which wasn't special on its own, as several games at the time were featuring similar concepts. However, what truly set Blood Mage apart, for me, was that they also offered several unique buffs/debuffs/CC options through a system called "Symbiotes". These symbiotes were crafted by harvesting various organs from enemies and applied using various spells. The idea of harvesting organs and blood to use for spells was such a neat concept, and really gave Blood Mage its own unique flavor.
Comments
I seem to gravitate towards magic using classes if they are available. Especially if they can do things like levitate, teleport, breath underwater, run faster, cast illusion spells, heal, and other neat effects. For this reason, I liked the Druid, Bard, and Necromancer a lot in Everquest. In World of Warcraft, I enjoyed the Paladin, Druid, and Shaman.
The thief class is another that seems a lot of fun, but never seems to be. I think it's often because of poor implementation and a desire not to have anything reliant upon one class in games. The idea of being an adventurer who scouts ahead, disarms traps, steals gems, etc. sounds like a fun class to roleplay. The Ranger who wanders the woods alone and helps lost travelers also seems intriguing to me.
Im a melee guy at heart but i tend to prefer a melee/magic user build if i can, more so the magic either buffs people around me or buffs myself.
I also like to play characters that are unpopular so that if you play it well, you become very unique.
In path of exile, i try to make my own hipster builds which usually leads to slow leveling. My latest project was a melee witch class, but i died. I play hc only.
I tried a hybrid build in dark souls on pc but controls were difficult so i went with my fall back which is a tank class.
I havent played a real mmo in ages, but my ideal would be a bard/paladin/cleric class.
You can see my sci-fi/WW2 book recommendations.
- Albert Einstein
In the early days of EQ the ranger didn't excel at anything, but they were extremely versatile, as a ranger should be. That's why it's probably my favorite MMORPG / EQ class.
It's sad that today people complain about a class that can't compete with every other class in the name of balance. Which is why the true spirit of the ranger is dead, and has been reduced to an animal that has an archer as a pet.
Funny enough don't I think any of the other classes there are that great, they are not bad but neither do they feel that good either.
I did like the elf class in Lineage, EQs ranger, EQ2s Swashie as well as GWs ranger & necro among others.
That is just because today most people spend most of their time soloing instead of playing in groups. In group content the important thing is that each class bring something of their own to the group but actual balance isn't important, if your bard does less damage but buff others it is still very useful and if your sorceress is fragile the rest of the group guards her so she does that massive damage.
In sologameplay that doesn't work, if people play 90% of their time soloing no-one will bother to get to the endgame with a weak class even if it is useful in endgame dungeons and raids. Instead they whine about it until the devs gives up and buff the class.
To get rid of balance we need games with way more group content then solocontent. You can see this with many older games that started out as group focused but eventually became solocentric, they have been balancing more and more since when they shifted focus.
A class design isn't any good if the combat and mobs are not designed well enough to match.Some people just like it easy mode as witnessed by many who like ARPG's,just going around one shotting everything.
FFXI Ranger was imo the most dangerous to play,but had a wide array of choices from Bow to Xbow or gun and several options for ammo,many games don't even use ammo.Ammo included sleep,elemental,stun,life leech,def down,accuracy arrows,Slow effect etc etc,so yeah in depth design.Reason Ranger was so powerful and fun was he had low armor/def and even though could sub Ninja for shadows,mobs at higher levels could just wipe those shadows in one swoop or completely ignore them.
Red Mage..insane versatility when combined with a Ninja sub class.Too many options and abilities to list,pretty much had it all.To this day i would say the RDM was the best most versatile class ever seen in a game although arguably the Blue Mage added later was a close equal.
I am of course talking solo,FFXI was a grouping game so in a group many classes were fun and no real best of.
Where ALL games fail is when people take it too serious,they need to see a max dps and max xp per/hr so it limits certain builds and play style,basically removing fun for seriousness,i always prefer fun.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
WAR Warrior Priest
I mostly like versatile classes I can just run around and do whatever with, but can still fill some sort of role if needed. Classes that don't NEED a group, but can be a solid addition to one.
Blood Mage was my favorite in Vanguard too.
My favorite, hands down, was the EQ Bard. For someone who hates constantly pressing keys, getting a 4 song twist going was awesome! I liked EQ anyway because I rarely touched my mouse (WASD Movement, Tab Targeting, with Numpad ability keys). EQ also had Monks, Shamans (Shamen?), and Druids which I liked playing, too. Each class felt unique in that game with varying ways of attacking a problem to me.
I also enjoy "nature based" characters, so Rangers and Druids always get a try. WoW's Druids were a lot of fun with their shape changing and healing abilities. I agree with @Xodic about Rangers being an animal's pet these days. It seems the animals get the "cool stuff" while the ranger "just tags along." I had fun in WoW with the "Ranger pet acquiring" quests, until that became automatic, as did the Druid's form changing quests.
I really enjoyed playing Defenders in City of Heroes. Buffing/De-buffing/Healing is my kind of fun!
About Thieves... They just don't work well in MMOs, I've found. Their strengths are not suited to today's "action, action, action" crowd. Who wants to sit and wait while the Thief scouts ahead for danger? Traps are also pretty much non-existent anymore.
One class that doesn't fit me at all are tanks. It seems tanks are "expected" to know dungeons/raids inside and out before ever going to them. I don't play games by surfing the internet first, then playing as someone else said to.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.
- FARGIN_WAR
(And now Burger King has MEATLESS burgers!)
World of Warcraft - Prot Paladin during The Burning Crusade when 9696 was the rotation and I needed x% mitigation and had a spell power weapon. Vanilla, WotLK, Cata -my Hunter (main), specs vary by expac.
Asheron's Call - OG Archer, spec'd with Life Magic for self buff and Debuff.
Star Wars Galaxies (Pre-NGE) - Carbineer/medium range rifles.
Guild Wars 2 - DW Warrior (Twin-axes)
ESO - Templar, played like a Paladin Tank/Healer hybrid.
I just realized that of all of the MMORPGs I have tried (likely over 25 at this point, possibly more) I have only really liked 4. GW2 wasn't even a 'firm' like, I just ended up maxing out my character and then I was done with the game. ESO was similar, still haven't maxed out actually.
With those in mind, if I had to pick only one favourite class that would be the Bear Shaman of AoC. Close second the Minstrel from LotRO (the original, I don't really like the changes Orion brought to the class) and the Warden also from LotRO.
What made them special? BS is a melee healer. Nuff said
Pre-Orion Minstrel was a "generic" healer class, so the love comes more from the theme than the mechanics. Healing and supporting through songs and music is a nice concept, fitting the lore. And only minis can play on all the instruments by default, in case of you are interested in the music system of LotRO.
Warden, the gambit system. I don't give a crap usually on combat, it is boring and a pointless chore in regards of story and roleplaying. Warden is the exception, the gambit system and its flexibility is really fun. (AoC's combo system is similar, but not as much fun since it's less flexible). Besides that the class is fun as well, a tank (optionally ranged) with self heals and buffs and tons of options.
edit:
Like that scene in Gamers
Nox Archer .UO
Warhammer ...........Engie
Any Vanguard class ............still the best assembled group of classes in any MMO to date
In terms of combat it is fun to have a variety of different abilities that allow different tactics to be used.
I like the idea of the EQ Ranger where they have all the roleplaying skills (sense heading, forage, tracking, etc.) and magic like the Druid to spice them up. I prefer they have the option to be an archer in combat and in Vanilla EQ that was not the case at all. I see them as a leather wearing DPS class as they have to be stealthy. Speaking of the Druid in EQ it was an outstanding exploration class. It had all the tools you needed (movement speed increase, water breathing, levitation, tracking, etc.)
The only Rogue/Thief type I enjoyed at all was in WoW with its energy bar. I still found it to kind of be a one trick pony to the point it wasn't that enjoyable. It was much more fun to play as something like the Druid and be able to access to many different abilities. They were a great exploration class with forms for moving quickly and exploring underwater. The idea of a thief/adventurer like you see in movies is very appealing but is never translated well into video games. The only ones I can think of are games like Uncharted and Prince of Persia.
For those who mentioned EQ Bard it was also a very good exploration class. I recall it being difficult to keep people together at times though. For instance, if you had group speed or group water breathing someone might stray out of the AOE range and not notice it. I also felt the song twisting was too much for me to do manually even though I got a Bard to level 60. It was hard on the hands. I loved how they could run super speed though. They also got access to tracking. Clearly, a few classes were geared towards exploring.
EQ Mage would rank third. Never played Conjuror much in EQ2, so can't speak for it. Wizard and Enchanter was fun, too.
EQ had the best classes, IMO. Very diverse, but not too numerous. Clear differentiation in function. All strong in their own way. I loved their INT Casters, as well as the Druid and Shaman.
This is basically how I feel. I got to level 80 in GW2 and then quit after I finished the story content and Living whatever... I wasn't about to buy anymore of those "chapters." I did buy the first expac, but couldn't get into it. Didn't get Path of Fire. The PvE in that game is awful, with awful balance, and the player base is too obsessed with speed running. Dodge or watch half or more of your HP disappear... a lot.
ESO, I finished the story content on PS4 and quit. My PC char is still level 8, and I have no will or want to play it because personally I think the game is only good for playing through the campaign/main story like any other single player RPG. The campaign was interesting. Playing through two more factions? Thanks, but no thanks. Also has poor PvP balance (what MMORPG doesn't?) and I didn't find Cyrodil to be fun. Also, too much basic QoL things are locked behind a paywall. It was getting too expensive to play with the rate at which they release fairly lackluster DLCs, as well. When they launched Morrowind for $50-60, that was the end of the road for me.
Would never catch up with the DLC on PC, because it's way too expensive to buy at this point for a game that I may not play long-term.
I haven't tried many others lately. I haven't played FFXIV at all, because I don't like the long GCD and the ridiculous cast times the casters there have. If you could cast while moving (or at least backpedaling while facing the target, like in Vanguard), this would not be a problem... But I really hate being a turret with those kinds of cast times - feels very 2001 (I'm aware that OGCD skills exist). Also, the game has a lot of classes that cast different ranks of the same spell... I think summoner was one case that people complained a lot about (Ruin Mage, or something like that). Since that's the class that I'd likely want to play in that game, I've just avoided it altogether.
Server capacity is also an issue in FFXIV, if you have friends on one server, you may not be able to play with them due to capacity issues.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
The Ranger in EQ seemed to get a poor selection of Druid spells early in the game. They actually sound like they should be a great class due to foraging, tracking, Druid spells, and access to all the melee abilities (double attack, dual wield). They were fairly squishy. Even with chain mail. If you stuck it out you could get some decent Druid Spells eventually like stringing swarm, DD nukes, decent Heals, damage shields. Most of those came post level 30 and in Vanilla EQ getting to level 30 took a while (at least for me).
The video was pretty funny; gave me a good laugh. Pretty good outlook on how/why the sneaksy roles tend to fail in most RPGs. Even in my DoS2 playthroughs where I preferred to have a dual-wielding backstabber with high lockpicking/sneaking, I tended to just ignore the traps and heal afterwards if necessary. There have been very few games where I felt the role was done justice.
I'm seeing a pattern though. It seems like some of the more preferred classes tended to be in older games where classes had out-of-combat functions/balance that made them more interesting/flavorful. I'm interested to see if that continues.
A jack of all trades class, it remains the deepest / most complex class I've ever played. It could do so much and had such an impact on a group. Really fun to play in groups where you got to dps, off-tank, heal and buff. Loremaster was another great class in LotRO, less versatile in groups but much more fun in PvP.
Aesthetics wise - Black Orc in WAR
I'm a big fan of orcs, especially of the warhammer variety. The black orc was just a really pleasing class to look at and gear up. I especially loved some of the endgame gear sets for it, you just became a walking wall of spikey metal! Squig herder was a good followup here, mostly just because I love squigs!
There was a nice thread before about how the support classes lost their weight and/or disappeared from newer games, the captain and loremaster @cameltosis mentioned above were used in that thread as examples, both are just shadows of their former states. But at least they are still in the game and still playable - unlike a bunch of games without any real support role.
In an another (similar) thread the topic was class interdependency, an another aspect almost totally gone nowadays. It is the era of massively solo player online
Speaking of massively (and since both camel and myself mentioned LotRO classes) http://massivelyop.com/2018/01/15/lotro-players-pull-off-massive-multi-day-winterstock-concert/ Minstrel class at its best.
A warrior/soldier is likely entirely focused on melee combat and at best might be able to use a mount well to travel quickly.
I don't find that combat is entirely the issue with modern games. It's that travel, exploration, and class roles are so unimportant. They are basically meaningless outside of choosing to attack from range or attack from melee. There is little distinction outside of that.